A * ^"i-' V-^' 0° ^'JKlr% i ^\' ->>. v^ ."*^ ^oV Mf. ,v .. <^. rk* . o N o . ♦>-, ^'■^V- '^<^. c^"^ ^^>^~^' V o • » * .G \o r / ^^^y im^%/ my.^ . '^.-^^ /:^i ^^^.•:i^.* '^ o ^^iK^' .^^ ^^^^/ ^^ > ' * O^ O 0~ S • • , ■^■^ V^ -1- • ' ^ A, -3, WORDS OF LINCOLN Incltiding Several Hundred Opinions of his Life and Character by Eminent Persons of this and other Lands COMPILED BY OSBORN H. OLDROYD AUTHOR " LINCOLN MEMORIAL ALBUM," " A SOLDIER'S STORY OF THE SIEGE OF VICKSBURG " WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY MELVILLE W. FULLER Chief Justice of the United States AND TEUNIS S. HAMLIN Pastor Church of the Covenant, Washington, D. C. WASHINGTON, D. C. O. H. OLDROYD }^nia.^cu oMr^ THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, RAHWAY, N. J. THESE WORDS OF LINCOLN ARE DEDICATED TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, FROM WHOSE HUMBLEST RANKS HE ROSE, AND WHOSE INTERESTS HE SO FAITHFULLY GUARDED THROUGH A GREAT CIVIL CONVULSION. " WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE, WITH CHARITY FOR ALL. ILLUSTRATIONS. Portrait of A. Lincoln, Froniispit'ce Facing Page 8 29 Lincoln Homestead, Springfield, III., White House, Washington, D. C, Capitol, Washington, I). C, Portraits : Lincoln, Nicolay, and Hay — Group, Ford's Theater, W^ashington, D. C, Chair in which the President was Shot, House in which Lincoln Died, Washing- ton, D. C, Lincoln MonujMent, Springfield, III., . 46 51 68 68 84 95 136 181 182 The chair in which the President was shot, also the photographs from which the illustrations were made, are contained in the " Oldroyd Lincoln Memorial Collection." PREFACE. The sun which rose on the I2th of February, 1809, lighted up a little log cabin on Nolin Creek, Hardin Co., Ky., in which Abraham Lincoln was that day ushered into the world. Although born under the humblest and most unpromising cir- cumstances, he was of honest parentage. In this backwoods hut, surrounded by virgin forests, Abra- ham's first four years were spent. His parents then moved to a point about six miles from Hodgens- ville, where he lived until he was seven years of age, when the family again moved, this time to Spencer Co., Ind. The father first visited the new settlement alone, taking with him his carpenter tools, a few farming implements, and ten barrels of whisky (the latter being the payment received for his little farm) on a flatboat down Salt Creek to the Ohio River. Cross- ing the river, he left his cargo in care of a friend, and then returned for his family. Packing the bed- ding and cooking utensils on two horses, the family of four started for their new home. They wended their way through the Kentucky forests to those of Indiana, the mother and daughter (Sarah) taking their turn in riding. Fourteen years were spent in the Indiana home. It was from this place that Abraham, in company viii PREFACE. with young- Gentry, made a trip to New Orleans on a flatboat loaded with country produce. During these years Abraham had less -than twelve months of schooling, but acquired a large experience in the rough work of pioneer life. In the autumn of 1818 the mother died, and Abraham experienced the first great sorrow of his life. Mrs. Lincoln had possessed a very limited education, but was noted for intel- lectual force of character. The year following the death of Abraham's mother his father returned to Kentucky, and brought a new guardian to the two motherless children. Mrs. Sally Johnson, as Mrs. Lincoln, brought into the family three children of her own, a goodly amount of household furniture, and, what proved a blessing above all others, a kind heart. It was not intended that this should be a permanent home ; accordingly, in March, 1830, they packed their effects in wagons," drawn by oxen, bade adieu to their old home, and took up a two weeks' march over untraveled roads, across mountains, swamps, and through dense for- ests, until they reached a spot on the Sangamon River, ten miles from Decatur, 111., where they built another primitive home. Abraham had now arrived at manhood, and felt at liberty to go out into the world and battle for himself. He did not leave, however, until he saw his parents comfortably fixed in their new home, which he helped build ; he also split enough rails to surround the house and ten acres of ground. In the fall and winter of 1830, memorable to the early settlers of Illinois as the year of the deep snow, Abraham worked for the farmers who lived PREFACE. IX in the neighborhood. He made the acquaintance of a man of the name of Offut, who hired him, together with his stepbrother, John D. Johnson, and his uncle, John Hanks, to take a flatboat loaded with country produce down the Sangamon River to Beardstown, thence down the Illinois and Missis- sippi Rivers to New Orleans. Abraham and his companions assisted in building the boat, which was finally launched and loaded in the spring of 1831, and their trip successfully made. In going over the dam at Ruttledge Mill, New Salem, 111., the boat struck and remained stationary, and a day passed before it was again started on its voyage. During this delay Lincoln made the acquaintance of New Salem and its people. On his return from New Orleans, after visiting his parents, — who had made another move, to Goose- Nest Prairie, 111., — he settled in the little village of New Salem, then in Sangamon, now Menard, County. While living in this place, Mr. Lincoln served in the Black Hawk War, in 1832, as captain and private. His employment in the village was varied; he was at times a clerk, county surveyor, postmaster, and partner in the grocery business under the firm name of Lincoln & Berry. He was defeated for the Illi- nois Legislature in 1832 by Peter Cartwright, the Methodist pioneer preacher. He was elected to the Legislature in 1834, and for three successive terms thereafter. Mr. Lincoln wielded a great influence among the people of New Salem. They respected him for his uprightness and admired him for his genial and social qualities. He had an earnest sympathy for X PREFACE. the unfortunate and those in sorrow. All confided in him, honored and loved him. He had an unfail- ing fund of anecdote, was a sharp, witty talker, and possessed an accommodating spirit, which led him to exert himself for the entertainment of his friends. During the political canvass of 1834, Mr. Lincoln made the acquaintance of Mr. John T. Stuart of Springfield, 111. Mr. 'Stuart saw in the young man that which, if properly developed, could not fail to confer distinction on him. He therefore loaned Lincoln such law books as he needed, the latter often walking from New Salem to Springfield, a distance of twenty miles, to obtain them. It was very fortunate for Mr. Lincoln that he finally became associated with Mr. Stuart in the practice of law. He moved from New Salem to Springfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. On the 4th of November, 1842, Mr. Lincoln mar- ried Miss Mary Todd of Lexington, Ky., at the residence of Ninian W. Edwards of Springfield, 111. The fruits of this marriage were four sons : Robert T., born August i, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846, died February i, 1850; William Wallace, December 21, 1850, died at the White House, Washington, February 20, 1862; Thomas, ("Tad"), April 4, 1853, died at the Clifton House, Chicago, 111., July 15, 1 87 1. Mrs. Lincoln died at the house of her sister, Springfield, July 16, 1882. In 1846 Mr. Lincoln was elected to Congress, as a Whig, his opponent being Peter Cartwright, who had defeated Mr. Lincoln for the Legislature in 1832. The most remarkable political canvass witnessed in the country took place between Mr. Lincoln PREFACE. xi and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. They were can- didates of their respective parties for the United States Senate. Seven joint debates took place in different parts of the State. The Legislature being of Mr. Douglas' political faith, he was elected. In i860 Mr. Lincoln came before the country as the chosen candidate of the Republican party for the Presidency. The campaign was a memorable one, characterized by a novel organization called " Wide Awakes," which had its origin in Hartford, Conn. There were rail fence songs, rail-splitting on wagons in processions, and the building of fences by the torch-light marching clubs. The triumphant election of Mr. Lincoln took place in November, i860. On the i ith of February, 1 861, he bade farewell to his neighbors, and as the train slowly left the depot his sad face was forever lost to the friends who gathered that morning to bid him God speed. The people along the route flocked at the stations to see him and hear his words. At all points he was greeted as the Presi- dent of the people, and such he proved to be. Mr. Lincoln reached Washington on the morning of the 23d of February, and on the 4th of March was inaugurated President. Through four years of terrible war his guiding star was justice and mercy. He was sometimes censured by ofificers of the army for granting pardons to deserters and others, but he could not resist an appeal for the life of a soldier. He was the friend of the soldiers, and felt and acted toward them like a father. Even workingmen could write him letters of encouragement and receive appreciative words in reply. xii PREFACE. When the immortal Proclamation of Emanci- pation was issued, the Avhole world applauded, and slavery received its death-blow. The terrible strain of anxiety and responsibility borne by Mr. Lincoln during the war had worn him away to a marked degree, but that God who was with him throughout the struggle permitted him to live, and by his mas- terly efforts and unceasing vigilance pilot the ship of state back into the haven of peace. On the 14th of April, 1865, after a day of unusual cheerfulness in those troublous times, and seeking relaxation from his cares, the President, accom- panied by his wife and a few intimate friends, went to Ford's Theater, on Tenth Street, N. W. There the foul assassin, J. Wilkes Booth, awaited his com- ing, and at twenty minutes past ten o'clock, just as the third act of " Our American Cousin " was about to commence, fired the shot that took the life of Abraham Lincoln. The bleeding President was carried to a house across the street, No. 516, where he died at twenty-two minutes past seven the next morning. The body was taken to the White House and, after lying in state in the East Room and at the Capitol, left Washington on the 21st of April, stop- ping at various places en route, and finally arriving at Springfield on the 3d of May. On the following day the funeral ceremonies took place at Oak Ridge Cemetery, and there the remains of the martyr were left at rest. Abraham Lincoln needs no marble shaft to per- petuate his name ; his ivords are the most enduring monument, and will forever live in the hearts of the people. PREFACE. xiil I was but a boy in the political campaign of i860, but had read a campaign life of "Abe" Lincoln, and became charmed with his remarkable, yet simple, life, and the possibilities of an American boy rising from such an humble birth to the candidacy for the Presidency of the United States. I took an active part in that campaign, and collected everything I could pertaining to Lincoln, little dreaming that the small beginning would amount to much. But when the assassin's bullet took the President's life, I deter- mined then to spare no efforts to extend the col- lection. I returned from the army in 1865, having served from 1861, and from that time to the present day have accumulated nearly three thousand Lin- colniaji relics. I lived ten years with the collection in the Lin- coln Homestead, Springfield, 111., until it became necessary to remove it from that historic house in 1893, when the Memorial Association of the Dis- trict of Columbia induced me to place it in the house in which the President died, that the two might be preserved together as a Lincoln Memorial. The building is rented from a private party, and the expense of keeping the house and collection open to the public is too great for one individual, or a small association, to bear. Hence my object in offering the "Words of Lincoln" to the American people is to give them an opportunity of preserving the historic place in which the martyred President's mortal career was closed. OSBORN H. Oldroyd. Washington, D. C, 1895. INTRODUCTION. The Memorial Association of the District of Columbia has been organized for the threefold pur- pose : 1. Of preserving the most noteworthy houses at the Capital that had been made historic by the resi- dence of the nation's greatest men. 2. Of suitably marking, by tablets or otherwise, the houses and places throughout the city of chief interest to our own residents and to the multitudes of Americans and foreigners that annually visit the Capital. 3. Of thus cultivating that historic spirit and that reverence for the memories of the founders and leaders of the Republic upon which an intelligent and abiding patriotism so largely depends. It has first directed its efforts toward preserving the house, 516 Tenth Street, N. W., in which President Lincoln died. It leased the house to save it from demolition, placed in it the unique and valuable collection of relics gathered and owned by Captain O. H. Oldroyd, and has for nearly two years held the property as a museum. It is hoped and expected that Congress will purchase the house and preserve it in perpetuity. Meanwhile the asso- ciation and its friends have contributed largely to xvi INTRODUCTION. pay current expenses. Now Captain Oldroyd very generously puts this volume at the service of this patriotic enterprise. It contains the choicest utter- ances of Mr. Lincoln, so arranged and identified by time and place as to be most convenient for refer- ence. We think it should find a wide welcome among the American people, to whom the memory of this great man is so precious. Melville W. Fuller. President. Teunis S. Hamlin, Vice President. Washington, D. C, April 25, 1895. VALUE OF WORDS. " It is with words as with sunbeams — the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn." — Soiithcy. " Learn the value of a man's words and expres- sions, and you know him. Each man has a measure of his own for everything. This he offers you, inadvertently, in his words." — Lavator. " Cast forth thy act, thy word, into the ever- living, ever-working universe ; it is a reed-grain that cannot die ; unnoticed to-day, it will be found flour- ishing as a banyan grove, perhaps, alas, as a hem- lock forest, after a thousand years." — Carlyle. 2 WORDS OF LINCOLN, " That every man may receive at least a moderate education, and thereby be enabled to read the his- tories of his own and other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our free institu- tions, appears to be an object of vital importance ; even on this account alone, to say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be derived from all being able to read the Scriptures and other works, both of a religious and moral nature, for themselves. *' For my part, I desire to see the time when edu- cation, by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise, and integrity, shall become much more gen- eral than at present, and should be grati- fied to have it in my power to contribute some- thing to the advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate the happy period. " Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly es- teemed of my fellow-men. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown exclu- sively upon the independent voters of the county; and, if elected, they will have conferred a favor On the day when the flag of thy love was to be again raised on Fort Sumter, where it had first been lowered, thou wast slain. Not for a life unfinished do we mourn, though thou wast now girding thyself for the greater victories of peace. God saw the end. We did not. — Henry E. Butler, WORDS OF LINCOLN. 3 upon me, for which I shall be unrcmittinij^ in my labors to compensate. " But, if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointment to be very 1832 ,, ^^ much chagrmed. ANNOUNCES HIMSELF A CANDIDATE FOR THE LEGISLATURE. {^Letter to tJie Sangamon /oiirnal, Springfield, III., June 13' 1836.) " I go for all sharing the privileges of the govern- ment who assist in bearing its burdens, consequently I go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding females). "While acting as their representative I shall be governed by their will on all subjects upon which I have the means of knowing what their will is, and upon all others I shall do what my own judgment teaches me will best advance their interests, whether elected or not. " I go for distributing the proceeds of the sale of public lands to the several States, to enable our State, in common with others, to dig canals and When Abraham Lincohi issued the Proclamation of Freedom the light of morning rose, higher and higher went the sun, more and more the heavens were opened above us, and the Lord lifted up our Fourth of July into higher and yet higher glory, by giving us Gettysburg and Vicksburg at one blast of the trumpet. — IVilliam Je Loss Love. WORDS OF LINCOLN. construct railroads without borrowing money and paying interest on it." PROTEST AGAINST DOMESTIC SLAVERY. {In the IUi)iois Legislature, March j, iSjy, in opposition to a resolution on the subject.) " They believe that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy ; but that „ the promulgation of abolition doctrines 1837 r t> tends rather to increase than abate its evils. " They believe that the Congress of the United States has no power, under the Constitution, to inter- fere with the institution of slavery in the different States. " They believe that the Congress of the United States has the power, under the Constitution, to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exercised, unless at the request of the people of the District. " The difference between their opinions and those contained in the said resolutions is their reasons for entering this protest. [Signed] " Dan Stone, "A. Lincoln. " Representatives from Sangamon Co., 111." He fell as bis thousands had fallen on the field of battle— sud- denly, and in the hour of victory. A man from among the people, a man who would have wept for the poorest drummer-boy of his great army ! — 7'. H. Robinson. WORDS OF LINCOLN. "PERPETUATION OF OUR FREE INSTI- TUTIONS." (An address delivered at the age of twenty-eight, Springfield, III., January^ iSjy.) " In the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American people, find our account running under date of the nineteenth century of the Christian era. " We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of the fairest portion of the earth, as regards extent of territory, fertility of soil, and salubrity of climate. " We find ourselves under the government of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends of civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times tells us. " We, when mounting the stage of our existence, found ourselves the legal inheritors of these funda- mental blessings. " We toiled, not in the acquisition or establish- ment of them : they are a legacy bequeathed us by a once hardy, brave, and patriotic, but now lamented and departed race of ancestors. " Theirs was the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and, through themselves, us, of this goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills and valleys a political edifice of liberty and equal Coming generations will discover that what he called hesitation was wise discretion ; that amid our home and foreign complications any other policy would have led to inevitable ruin. — Adonirani J. Patterson. 6 WORDS OF LINCOLN. rights ; 'tis ours only to transmit these — the former unprofaned by the foot of an invader ; the latter undecoyed by the lapse of time and untorn by usurpation, to the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know. " This task, gratitude to our fathers, justice to our- selves, duty to posterity — all imperatively require us faithfully to perform. " How, then, shall we perform it ? At what point shall we expect the approach of danger? Shall we expect some transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? "Never! All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for a commander, could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio, or make a track on the Blue Ridge, in a trial of a thousand years. "At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be expected? Answer: if it ever reaches us, it must spring up among us. " It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freeman, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." The Easter would have been celebrated as never before, amid spring blossoms of flowers. The air was fanned with jubilant flags, as the winter had passed and the time was nigh for the singing of birds. Commerce flapped her long-folded wings, and the land would laugh with industry, plenty, and prosperity. In the twinkle of an eye we were brought down into the deepest affliction. — William Adams. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 7 "I SWEAR ETERNAL FIDELITY TO THE JUST CAUSE." {Speech at Springfield, III., during the Harrison Presidential canipaigti, 1840) "Many free.countries have lost their hberty, and ours may lose hers; but if she shall, be it my proudest plume, not that I was last to desert, 1840 i:" r ' » but that I never deserted, her. " I know that the great volcano at Washington, aroused and directed by the evil spirit that reigns there, is belching forth the lava of political corrup- tion in a current broad and deep, which is sweeping with frightful velocity over the whole length and breadth of the land, bidding fair to leave -unscathed no green spot or living thing. " I cannot deny that all may be swept away. Broken by it, I, too, may be ; bow to it I never will. The possibility that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause which we believe to be just. It shall not deter me. " If ever I feel the soul within me elevate and expand to those dimensions not wholly unworthy of its Almighty Architect, it is when I contemplate the cause of my country, deserted by all the world beside, and I standing up boldly, alone, and hurling defiance at her victorious oppressors. He surpassed all orators in eloquence, all diplomatists in wisdom, all statesmen in foresight, and the most ambitious in fame. — Johu J. In galls. 8 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " Here, without contemplating consequences, be- fore Heaven, and in the face of 'the world, I szvear eternal fidelity to the just cause, as I deem it, of the land of my life, my liberty, and my love ; and who that thinks with me will not fearlessly adopt the oath that I take ? " Let none falter who thinks he is right, and we may succeed. '' But if, after all, we shall fail, be it so, we still have the proud consolation of saying to our con- sciences, and to the departed shade of our ^^'^^ country's freedom, that the cause approved of our judgment, and adorned of our hearts in disaster, in chains, in death, we never faltered in defending." THE TEMPERANCE CAUSE. {Address before the WasJmigtofiian Temperance Society, Springfield, III., February 22, 1S42.) " The cause itself seems suddenly transformed from a cold abstract theory to a living, breathing, active, and powerful chieftain going forth '^^ ' conquering and to conquer.' The citadels of his great adversary are daily being stormed and dismantled ; his temples and his altars, where the rites of his idolatrous worship have long been per- formed, and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be made, are daily desecrated and deserted. It appears to thoughtful minds that God called Abraham Lincoln to rise from the log cabin in the wilderness to take the helm of the new American nation in its crisis hour. — C. A. Payne. -^'^^ "t^- "-l i£^^,:. A. LINCOLN. From a sketch at the age of thirty-Jive. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 9 " The trump of the conqueror's fame is sounding from hill to hill, from sea to sea, and from land to land, and calling millions to his standard at a blast. " When one who has long been known as a vic- tim of intemperance bursts the fetters that have bound him, and appears before his neigh- bors * clothed and in his right mind,' a redeemed specimen of long-lost humanity, and stands up, with tears of joy trembling in his eyes, to tell of the miseries once endured, now to be endured no more forever ; of his once naked and starving children, now clad and fed comfortably ; of a wife, long weighed down with woe, weeping, and a broken heart, now restored to health, happiness, and a renewed affection ; and how easily it is all done, once it is resolved to be done — how simple his language ! There is a logic and an eloquence in it that few with human feelings can resist. " It is an old and true maxim ' that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.' So with men. If you would win a man to your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his heart ; which, say what he will, is the great highroad to his reason, and when once gained, you will find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of the jus- tice of your cause, if, indeed, that cause really be a just one. " On the contrary, assume to dictate to his judg- ment, or to command his action, or to mark him as Mr. Lincoln's history will be "of all time," and he will be recalled as one of the grandest figures of the world's history. — Win fie Id S. Hancock. lO WORDS OF LINCOLN. one to be shunned and despised, and he will retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head and his heart, and though your cause be naked truth itself, transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than steel and sharper than steel can be made, and though you throw it with more than herculean force and precision, you shall be no more able to pierce him than to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. " Of our political revolution of 'jd we are all justly proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom far exceeding that of any other nation of the earth. But, with all these glorious results, past, present, and to come, it had its evils, too. It breathed forth famine, swam in blood, and rode in fire ; and long, long after, the orphans' cry and the widows' wail continued to break the sad silence that ensued. These were the price, the inevitable price, paid for the bless- ings it brought. " Turn now to the temperance resolution. In it we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed — in it, more of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. By it, no orphans starving, no widows weeping. By it, none wounded in feel- ing, none injured in interest ; even the dram-maker and dram-seller will have glided into other occupa- tions so gradually as never to have felt the change. His career closed at a moment when its dramatic unity was com- plete, and when his departure from life on earth was the apotheosis, the translation by which, defended against all shocks and mishaps of time, he passed on to immortality. — -John A. Andrew. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I I and will stand ready to join all others in the univer- sal song of gladness, " And what a noble ally this, to the cause of po- litical freedom ; with such an aid, its march cannot fail to be on and on, till every son of earth shall drink in rich fruition the sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect liberty ! " Happy day, when, all appetite controlled, all passions subdued, all matter subjugated, mind — all- conquering mind — shall live and move, the monarch of the world ! Glorious consum- mation ! Hail, fall of fury ! Reign of reason, all hail ! " And when the victory shall be complete, — when there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on earth, — how proud the title of that land, which may truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both those resolutions that shall have ended in that victory ! How nobly distinguished that people, who shall have planted, and nurtured to matur- ity, both the political and moral freedom of their species ! " This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birthday of Washington— we are met to cele- brate this day. "Washington is the mightiest name on earth — long since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest in moral reformation. " On that name a eulogy is expected. It cannot He had learned from the holiest authority that God "hath made of one blood all nations of men," and that the immutable rule of right, as between man and man, is to do unto others as we would that they should do unto us. — -Joseph A. Seiss. 12 WORDS OF LINCOLN. be. To add brightness to the sun, or glory to the name of Washington, is ahke impossible. Let none attempt it. " In solemn awe pronounce the name, and in its naked, deathless splendor, leave it shining on." MESSAGE TO HIS DYING FATHER. {Letter to his brother-in-law, John Johnson, January 12, /Sji.) " I sincerely hope father may yet recover his health ; but, at all events, tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our great and and merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads ; and He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in Him. " Say to him, if we could meet now it is doubtful whether it would not be more painful than pleasant; but that, if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a joyous meeting with loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join them." Lincoln's deeds will live in the household words of an elevated race. Lirst in the huts where the children are taught to speak his praise. Hereafter, the children of those children, in mansions built by their own skill, will weave his name in poetry, and, in rich music of their own, sing their praise of their great deliverer. — J. C. Biuirhain. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 1 3 REDEMPTION OF THE AFRICAN RACE. {Eulogy on the life and character of Henry Clay, Springfield, III., July i6, iSs2.) " This suggestion of the possible ultimate re- demption of the African race and African continent was made twenty-five years ago. Every succeeding year has added strength to the hope of its realization. May it indeed be realized ! Pharaoh's country was cursed with plagues, and his hosts drowned in the Red Sea for striving to retain a captive people who had already served them more than four hundred years. May like disaster never befall us ! " If, as the friends of colonization hope, the pres- ent and coming generations of our countrymen shall, by any means, succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery, and at the same time restoring a captive people to their long-lost fatherland, with bright prospects for the future, and this, too, so gradually that neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will, indeed, be a glorious consummation. " And if to such a consummation the efforts of Mr. Clay shall have contributed, it will be what he most ardently wished ; and none of his labors will have been more valuable to his country and his kind." He was not carried away by the excitement by which he was sur- rounded. He possessed in a remarkable degree not only self-control, but sound common sense, which is often worth far more than bril- liant talents and great learning. — N. L. Rice. 14 WORDS OF LINCOLN. THE INJUSTICE OF SLAVERY. {Speech at Peoria, III., October i6, 1SJ4.) " This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert zeal, for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous ^■^ injustice of slavery itself ; I hate it because it deprives our republic of an example of its just influence in the world ; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hyp- ocrites ; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity ; and, especially, because it forces so many really good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticising the Declaration of Inde- pendence and insisting that there is no right prin- ciple of action but self-interest. " The doctrine of self-government is right, — abso- lutely and eternally right, — but it has no just appli- cation, as here attempted. Or, perhaps, I should rather say, that whether it has such just application depends upon whether a negro is not, or is, a man. If he is not a man, in that case he who is a man may, as a matter of self-government, do just what he pleases with him. But if the 'negro is a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of self-govern- ment to say that he, too, shall not govern himself ? "When the white man governs himself that is Having determined upon the profession of law, he fenced in his mind to book study with the same energy and resohUion with which he had split three thousand rails to fence in the field around his father's home. — Joseph P. Thompson. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I 5 self-government ; but when he governs himself, and also governs another man, that is more than self- government — that is despotism. " What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man without that other's consent. "The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but he governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he prescribes for himself. Allow all the gov- erned an equal voice in the government ; that, and that only, is self-government. " Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature — opposition to it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal antagonism ; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and con- vulsions must ceaselessly follow. " Repeal the Missouri Compromise — repeal all compromise — and repeal the Declaration of Inde- pendence — repeal all past history — still you cannot repeal human nature. " I particularly object to the new position which the avowed principles of the Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to it, because it assumes that there can be moral right in the enslaving of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a free people, — a sad evi- dence that feeling prosperity, we forget right, — that liberty as a principle we have ceased to revere. " With malice toward none " was his dying charge. It sounds strangely like the last words of Him who, when dying on the cross, looked down upon his murderers and prayed : " Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." — Daniel C. Eddy. 1 6 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal ; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration that for some men to enslave others is a ' sacred right of self-government.' These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon. " Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us purify it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not in the blood, of the Revo- lution. " Let us turn slavery from its claims of ' moral right ' back upon its existing legal rights, and its arguments of ' necessity.* Let us return it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in peace. " Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Lidependence, and the practices and policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South — let all Americans — let all lovers of liberty everywhere, join in the great and good work. "If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but shall have so saved it, as to make and to keep it forever worthy of saving. We shall have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free, happy people, the world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the latest generations." Fostered and stimulated only by the genius of that government under which he lived, he attained by his own efforts to such a stately height that the nation caught him up as the tallest of her children, and lifted him to her head. — Jolm C. Thompson. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 1 7 "THE ONE RETROGRADE INSTITUTION IN AMERICA." {Reply to Stephen A. Douglas, on the Kansas and Nebraska Bill, Springfield, III, October 4, 1834.) *' Be not deceived. The spirit of the Revolution and the spirit of Nebraska are antipodes ; and the former is being rapidly displaced by the latter. Shall we make no effort to arrest this? Already the liberal party throughout the world express the apprehension ' that the one retrograde institution in America is undermining the principles of progress, and fatally violating the noblest political system the world ever saw.' This is not the taunt of enemies, but the warning of friends. Is it quite safe to disregard it — to dis- parage it ? Is there no danger to liberty itself in discarding the earliest practice, and first precept of our ancient faith ? " In our greedy haste to make profit of the negro, let us beware lest we cancel and rend in pieces even the white man's character of freedom. " My distinguished friend, Douglas, says it is an insult to the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska to suppose they are not able to govern themselves. We must not slur over an argument of this kind because it happens to tickle the ear. It must be met and answered. A poor, plain, simple, honest, laborious, American %fe, with learn- ing drained chiefly from nature, made him healthy, strong, self-reli- ant, calm, true, honest, brave, diligent, and developed all the true manlier qualities. — Charles M. Ellis. WORDS OF LINCOLN. " I admit the emigrant to Kansas and Nebraska is competent to govern himself, but, / deny his right to govern any other person ivitliout that person s consents HOPELESS PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION OF THE SLAVE. {Letter to Hon. Geo. Robertson.^ Lexington, Ky., August IS, iSsj.) " So far as peaceful voluntary emancipation is concerned, the condition of the negro slave in America, scarcely less terrible to the con- 1855 . -^ templation of a free mind, is now as fixed and hopeless of change for the better as that of the lost souls of the finally impenitent. " The Autocrat of all the Russias will resign his crown, and proclaim his subjects free republicans, sooner than will our American masters voluntarily give up their slaves. " Our political problem now is. Can we as a nation continue together permanently — forever — half slave and half free ? The problem is too mighty for me. May God in his mercy superin- tend the solution ! " * " Abraham Lincoln — A History," Nicolay and Ilay, 1890. He grasped the reins for that perilous career on which he had been driven, and, to the admiration of the world, he held them till the assassin's bullet struck them loose, just as he was wheeling the nation through the gates of victory into the morning light of peace. — James A. McCatdey. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I9 "ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL." {Speech at tJic Republican banquet, Chicago, III., December 10, iSj6, after the Presidential campaign.) " Our government rests in public opinion. Who- ever can change pubhc opinion can change the government practically just so much. Public opinion, on any subject, always has a ' cen- tral idea,' from which all its minor thoughts radiate. That ' central idea ' in our political public opinion at the beginning was, and until recently has con- tinued to be, ' the equality of man.' And although it has always submitted patiently to whatever of inequality there seemed to be as matter of actual necessity, its constant working has been a steady progress toward the practical equality of all men. " Let everyone who really believes, and is re- solved, that free society is not and shall not be a failure, and who can conscientiously declare that in the past contest he has done only what he thought best, let every such one have charity to believe that every other one can say as much. " Thus let bygones be bygones; let party differ- ences as nothing be ; and w'xth steady eye on the real issue, let us reinaugurate the good old ' central ideas' of the republic. We can do it. The human heart is with us ; God is with us. The four years of Mr. Lincoln's administrative life have put upon American annals a record of events, wrought out under his super- vision, which are unrivaled in tlie brilliancy of their character and results I)y any that have appeared upon the historic page. — James A/. Ludlow. 20 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " We shall again be able not to declare that ' all States as States are equal,' nor yet that ' all citizens as citizens are equal,' but to renew the ^ broader, better declaration, including both these and much more, that ' all men are created equal.' " SPEECH ON THE DRED SCOTT DECISION. (Delivered at Springfield, III. ^ J line 26, 1837.) " The Chief Justice does not directly assert, but plainly assumes as a fact, that the public estimate of the black man is more favorable now ^^ than it was in the days of the Revolution. " In those days, by common consent, the spread of the black man's bondage to the new countries was prohibited ; but now Congress decides that it will not continue the prohibition, and the Supreme Court decides that it could not if it would. " In those days, our Declaration of Independence was held sacred by all, and thought to include all ; but now, to aid in making the bondage of the negro universal and eternal, it is assailed and sneered at, and constructed and hawked at, and torn, till, if its framers could rise from their graves, they could not at all recognize it. "■ All the powers of earth seem rapidly combining against him ; Mammon is after him, ambition fol- lows, philosophy follows, and the theology of the He showed himself more and more equal to duty as year after year laid on him ever fresh burdens. God-given and God-led and sustained, we must ever believe him. — Wendell Phillips. WORDS OF LINCOLN, 21 day is fast joining the cry. They have him in his prison house, they have searched his person and left no prying instrument with him. One after another they have closed the heavy iron doors upon him; and now they have him, as it were, bolted in with a lock of a hundred keys, which can never be unlocked without the concurrence of every key ; the keys in the hands of a hundred different men, and they scattered to a hundred different and dis- tant places, and they stand musing as to what in- vention, in all the dominions of mind and matter, can be produced to make the impossibility of his escape more complete than it is." "A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF CANNOT STAND." {^The following speech — after^vard seve^'ely criticised by niany of the autho7-'s own friends — 2uas delivered by Mr. Lin- coln at Springfield, III., June ly, /SjS, at the close of the Republican State Convention, uiJiicJi nominated him for the United States Senate.) " If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object, and confident promise, of He had been vigilant, nntiring, zealous only for his country and the rights and liberties of his countrymen, and their children and children's children to the latest generation. — Sidiny Dean. 22 WORDS OF LINCOLN. putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. " In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. '"A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure perma- nently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved ; I do not expect the house to fall ; but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other, j " Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction ; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the States — old as well as new. North as well as South. " Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and con- ducted by, its own undoubted friends — those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work— who do care for the result. " The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if we stand firm, we sJiall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner, or later, the victory is sure to come." That plain, good man, who, with life's parting tone, Breathed charity for all, and malice toward none, So kind, so truthful, modest, and sincere, Prompt to forgive the injury and the sneer. — Isaac McLellan. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 23 THE ELECTRIC CORD IN. THE DECLARA- TION OF INDEPENDENCE. {Reply io Senator Douglas, Chicago, III., July 10, iS^8.) "'We holds these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights ; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.' There is the origin of Popular Sov- ereignty. Who, then, shall come in at this day and claim that he invented it? " I am not master of language; I have not a fine education ; I am not capable of entering into a disquistion upon dialectics, as I believe you call it ; but I do not believe the language I employed bears any such construction as Judge Douglas puts upon it. I have said a hundred times, and I have now no inclination to take it back, that I believe there is no right, and ought to be no inclination, in the peo- ple of the free States to enter into the slave States and interefere with the question of slavery at all. "We find a race of men living in that day whom we claim as our fathers and grandfathers; they were iron men ; they fought for the principle that they were contending for; and we understood that by what they then did it has followed that the His wisdom, his accurate perceptions, his vigor of intellect, his humor and his unselfish patriotism, endeared him to the people. — Cyrus Northrop. 24 WORDS OF LINCOLN. degree of prosperity which we now enjoy has come to us. "We hold this annual celebration (4th of July) to remind ourselves of all the good done in this process of time, of how it was done, and who did it, and how we are historically con- nected with it; and we go from these meetings in better humor with ourselves— we feel more attached the one to the other, and more firmly bound to the country we inhabit. " In every way we are better men in the age, and race, and country in which we live, for these cele- brations. But after we have done all of this we have not yet reached the whole. There is some- thing else connected with it. " We have besides these, men — descended by blood from our ancestors— among us, perhaps half our people, who are not descendants at all of these men ; they are men who have come from Europe — German, Irish, French, and Scandinavian — men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose an- cestors have come hither and settled here, finding themselves our equals in all things. •' If they look back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they find they have none — they cannot carry them- selves back into that glorious epoch and make themselves feel that they are part of us. But when they look through that old Declaration of Never, amid the utmost fury of the storm that was beating around him, did his composure desert him ; he had his work to do, and he meant to do it. His cheerfuhiess relieved the burden of duty and the gloom of his friends. — Edward C. Slater. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 2$ Independence, they find that those old men say that 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,' and then they feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day evidences their relation to those men ; that it is the father of all moral principal in them, and that they have a right to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and flesh of the flesh, of the men who wrote that Declaration; and so they are. " That is the electric cord in the Declaration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together; that will link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the mind of men throughout the world. " My friend has said to me that I am a poor hand to quote Scripture ; I will try it again, however. It is said in one of the admonitions of our Lord, jgr g ' 'As your Father in heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect.' The Saviour, I suppose, did not expect that any human creature could be perfect as the Father in heaven ; but he said, ' As your Father in heaven is perfect, be ye also perfect.' He set that up as a standard, and he who did most toward reaching that standard, attained the highest degree of moral perfection. " So I say in relation to the principle that all men are created equal, let it be as nearly reached as we can. If we cannot give freedom to every creature, No other President of this nation had been subjected to a trial such as his. He was a man lost in a wilderness, where there was no visible road for escape, and we complained of him because he tried honestly to make the best road he could to get out at all. — A\ J. Keeling. 26 WORDS OF LINCOLN. let us do nothing that will impose slavery upon any other creature. " I leave you, hoping that the lamp of liberty will burn in your bosoms until there shall no longer be a doubt that all men are created free and equal." DISADVANTAGES THE REPUBLICANS LABOR UNDER. {Speech at Springfield, III., July 17, iSjS) " Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his party, or who have been of his party for years past, have been looking upon him as certainly, at no distant day, to be the President of the United States. They have seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post offices, land offices, marshalships, and cabinet appointments, chargeships, and foreign missions, bursting and sprouting out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands. " And as they have been gazing upon this attract- ive picture so long, they cannot, in the little dis- traction that has taken place in the party, bring themselves to give up the charming hope ; but with greedier anxiety they rush about him, sustain him, and give him inarches, triumphal entries, and recep- tions beyond what, even in the days of his highest prosperty, they could have brought about in his favor. " On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me May his kindly words ever re-echo in our hearts, and incite us to godliness and truth. — S. Morais. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 27 to be President. In my poor, lean, lank face, no- body has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out. These are disadvantages, all taken together, that the Republicans labor under. IVe have to fight this battle upon principle, and upon principle alone. " I am, in a certain sense, made the standard- bearer in behalf of the Republicans. I was made so merely because there had to be someone so placed, I being no wise preferable to any other one of the twenty-five — perhaps a hundred— we have in the Republican ranks. " Then, I say I wish it to be distinctly understood and borne in mind that we have to fight this battle withouc many — perhaps without any — of the ex- ternal aids which are brought to bear against us. So I hope those with whom I am surrounded have principle enough to nerve themselves for the task, and leave nothing undone that can be fairly done, to brine about the rieht result." "THIS NATION CANNOT LIVE ON INJUSTICE." {Remarks defending his speech, June // .- "A House Divided Against Itself," etc.) " Friends, I have thought about this matter a great deal, have weighed the question well from all corners, and am thoroughly convinced the time has come when it should be uttered ; He was a spotless apostle of human liberty. — Parke Godwin. 28 WORDS OF LINCOLN. and if it must be that I must go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked to truth, — die in the advocacy of what is right a.\\d Just. "This nation cannot hve on injustice. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand,' I say again and aerain." WOULD LEAVE IT TO THE WORLD UNERASED. When Dr. Long said to his friend, " W' ell, Lincoln, that foolish speech will kill you — will defeat you for all offices for all time to come," referring to the " House Divided " speech, Mr. Lincoln replied: "If I had to draw a pen across and erase my whole life from existence, and I had one poor gift or choice left, as to what I should save from jgrg the wreck, I should choose that speech, and leave it to the world unerased." "WTSEST THING I EVER DID." {Reply to frieiids at Blooinnigion, III., in regard to the "House Divided" speec/i.) " You may think that speech was a mistake ; but I never have believed it was, and you will see the day when you will consider it the wisest thing 1 ever did. He was too good a man himself to be very suspicious of others, and he was too much engrossed in his cares for iiis country to have much thought for his personal safety. — Thomas Chase. rhoto^ i860, ly Hesler. A. LINXOLN. WORDS OF LINCOLN, 29 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS JOINT DEBATE. {First joint debate, Ottawa, III., August 21, iS^S.) '' I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to in- terfere with the institution of slavery in the State where it exists. I believe I have no law- , Q r Q ful right to do so, and I have no inclination do so. I agree with Judge Douglas: he [the negro] is not my equal in many respects — certainly not in color ; perhaps not in moral or intellectual en- dowment. But in the right to eat the bread — without the leave of anybody else — which his own hand earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man. " I think, and shall try to show, that it is wrong, wrong in its direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska — and wrong in its prospective prin- ciple, allowing it to spread to every other part of the wide world, where men can be found inclined to take it. " I have no prejudice against the Southern peo- ple. They are just what we would be in their situation. If slavery did not now exist among them, they would not introduce it. If it did now exist among us, we should not instantly give it up. This I believe of the masses North and South. Doubtless there are individuals on both sides who High above his obelisk a new star to which history will point as the symbol of loyalty to God, to moral ideas, and to humanity. — Nexvton Bateman. 30 WORDS OF LINCOLN. would not hold slaves under any circumstances ; and others who would gladly introduce slavery anew, if it were out of existence. "When Southern people tell us they are no more responsible for the origin of slavery than we, I ac- knowledge the fact. When it is said that the institution exists, and that it is very difficult to get rid of it in any satisfactory way, I can understand and appreciate the saying. I surely will not blame them for not doing what I should not know how to do myself. If all earthly power were given me, I should not know what to do, as to the existing institution. " With public sentiment, nothing can fail ; with- out it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed." {Second Jo/iif debate, Freeport, III., August sy, iS^S.) Answers to the seven questions propounded by Mr. Douglas : " I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal of the Fug^itive 1858 ci T Slave Law. " I do not now, nor ever did, stand pledged against the admission of any more slave States into the Union. In Mr. Lincoln's history there is as much profound stimulus to tlie young men of the country who desire to secure it, as in that of any man who has figured in our annals. — A. H. Garland. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 3 I " I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new State into the Union, with such a constitu- tion as the people of that State may see fit to make. " I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia. " I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave trade between the different States. " I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the rigJit and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United States Territories. " I am not generally opposed to honest acquisi- tion of territory ; and, in any given case, I would or would not oppose such acquisition, ac- cordingly, as I might think such acquisition would or would not aggravate the slavery question among ourselves." {Third jo/nt debate, Jonesboro, III., September /j, i8j8.) *' I say, in the way our fathers originally left the slavery question, the institution was in the course of ultimate extinction, and the public mind jgtg ' ^ rested in the belief that it ivas in the course of ultimate extinction. I say, when this Govern- ment was first established, it was the policy of its founders to prohibit the spread of slavery into the new Territories of the United States, where it had not existed. " All I have asked or desired anywhere, is that it should be placed back again upon the basis We seem to have agreed to place him upon a pedestal where no other feet shall ever be suffered to stand — an altitude of worth and greatness where none may approach and rival him. — IVm, Irvin. 0- WORDS OF LINCOLN. that the fathers of our Government originally placed it upon. I have no doubt that it tvoiild become extinct for all time to come, if we but re-adopt the policy of the fathers by restricting it to the limits it has already covered — restricting it from the new Territories." {Foin-th joint debate, Charleston, III., September i8, iSjS.) " I have always wanted to deal with everyone I meet candidly and honestly. If I have made any assertion not warranted by facts, and it is ^ ^ pointed out to me, I will withdraw it cheerfully. " The Nebraska-Kansas bill was introduced four years and a half ago, and if the agitation is ever to come to an end, we may say we are four years and a half nearer the end. So, too, we can say we are four years and a half nearer the end of the world; and we can just as clearly see the end of the world as we can see the end of this agitation. " If Kansas should sink to-day, and leave a great vacant space in the earth's surface, this vexed ques- tion would still be among us. I say, then, there is no way of putting an end to the slavery agitation amongst us but to put it back upon the basis where our fathers placed it, no way but to keep it out of our new Territories — to restrict it forever to the old States where it now exists. Then the public mind All the blood of four hundred thousand lives has not been grieved for so much as that which has trickled from a single wound. — Treadwell VValden. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 33 ivill rest in the belief that it is in the course of ulti- mate extinction." {Fifth joint debate, Galesbiirg, III., October /, /cfjc?.) " And now it only remains for me to say that I think it is a very grave question for the people of this Union to consider whether, in view of y Q (- Q ' the fact that this slavery question has been the only one that has ever endangered our repub- lican institutions — the only one that has ever threat- ened or menaced a dissolution of the Union, that has ever disturbed us in such a way as to make us fear for the perpetuity of our liberty — in view of these facts, I think it is an exceedingly interesting and important question for this people to consider — whether we shall engage in the policy of acquiring additional territory, discarding altogether from our consideration while obtaining new territory, the question how it may affect us in regard to this, the only endangering, element to our liberties and national greatness." {Sz'xth Joint debate, Quincy, III., October ij, iSjS.) " We have in this nation this element of domestic slavery. It is the opinion of all the great men who have expressed an opinion upon it, that it is a dangerous element. We keep up a controversy in regard to it. That controversy Who of us thought, on the morning of April 14, as we grasped the cup of thanksgiving, that it would soon be dashed from us, and the wine of bitterness pressed to our lips ? — Herrick Johnson. 34 WORDS OF LINCOLN. necessarily springs from differences of opinion, and if we can learn exactly — can reduce to the lowest elements — what that difference of opinion is, we perhaps shall be better prepared for discussing the different systems of policy that we would propose in regard to that disturbing element. " I suggest that the difference of opinion, reduced to its lowest terms, is no other than the difference between the men who think slavery a jgrg wrong and those who do not think it wrong. " We think it is a wrong not confining itself merely to the persons or the States where it exists, but that it is a wrong in its tendency, to say the least, that extends itself to the existence of the whole nation. " Because we think it wrong, we propose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wr6ng. We deal with it as with any other wrong, in so far as we can prevent its growing any larger, and so deal with it that, in the run of time, there may be some promise of an end to it." {Seventh and last joint debate, Alton, III., October /j, /c^jc?.) " It may be argued that there are certain condi- tions that make necessities and impose them upon us, and to the extent that a necessity is jgrg imposed upon a man he must submit to it. I think that was the condition in which we found ourselves when we established this government. Abraham Lincoln was the greatest president that ever occupied the executive chair, and the best story teller ever known to a free people. — Hugh J. Hastings. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 35 " We had slaves among us ; we could not get our constitution unless we permitted them to remain in slavery; we could not secure the good we did se- cure if we grasped for more ; and having by neces- sity submitted to that much, it does not destroy the principle that is the charter of our liberties. Let the charter remain as a standard. " I think the authors of that notable instrument intended to include all men, but they did not mean to declare all men equal i7i all respects. " They defined with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider all men created equal : equal in certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. This they said, and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth, that all men were then actually enjoying that quality, or yet that they were about to confer it immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circum- stances should permit. " They meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, which shouki be familiar to all, con- stantly looked to, constantly labored for, and even though never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its influence and aug- menting the happiness and value of life to all people, of all colors, everywhere. He has done his work and will live an almost spotless character, embalmed forever in the nation's heart, as the patron saint of its con- summated liberty. — Henry Siiiitli. 36 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " There, again, are the sentiments I have expressed in regard to the Declaration of Independence upon a former occasion — sentiments which have been put in print and read wherever anybody cared to know what so humble an individual as myself chose to say in regard to it." "THOSE WHO DENY FREEDOM TO OTHERS DESERVE IT NOT ^/a^ ^ FOR THEMSELVES." -7! ' (Letter to the Republicans of Boston, April, iSjg.) r This is a world of compensation, and he who would be no slave, must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve ' ^^ it not for themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain it." I NATURAL RIGHTS OF THE NEGRO. {Speech at Columbus, O., September, iSjp.) " I have no purpose to introduce political and social equality between the white and the black races. There is a physical difference ^^ between the two which, in my judgment, will probably forbid their ever living together upon the footing of perfect equality, and inasmuch as it Great, illustrious, and successful as was his statesmanship, clear, penetrating, and vigorous, his manhood must be acknowledged as that which has most enshrined him in the hearts of his countrymen.— Edward Scar ins;. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 37 becomes a necessity that there must be a differ- ence, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of the race to which I belong having the superior position. " I have never said anything to the contrary, but I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. " In the right to eat the bread— without leave of anybody else — which his own hands earn, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every living man" KINDLY FEELING FOR HIS OPPONENTS. {Speech at Czncmnatt, O., September, i8sg, addressed par- ticularly to Kentuckians.) " I will tell you, so far as I am authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as we pos- ^^^*^ sibly can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere with your institution ; to abide by all and every compromise of the Con- stitution, and, in a word, coming back to the origi- nal proposition, to treat you so far as degenerated The character of Abraham Lincohi was beautifully molded by the efforts of a mother, and the American people saw them in him when they called him to be the chief magistrate of the nation. — Robert H. Williams. 38 WORDS OF LINCOLN. men (if we have degenerated) may, according to the examples of those noble fathers — Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. " We mean to remember that you are as good as we ; tiiat there is no difference between us other than the difference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other peo- ple, or as we claim to have, and treat you accord- ingly. We mean to marry your girls when we have a chance, — the white ones, I mean, — and I have the honor to inform you that I once did have a chance in that way. " The good old maxims of the Bible are applic- able to human affairs, and in this, as in other things, we may say here that he who is not 1859 r • . , tor us IS agamst us ; he who gathereth not with us scattereth. " I should be glad to have some of the many good and able and noble men of the South to place themselves where we can confer upon them the high honor of an election upon one or the other end of our ticket. It would do my soul good to do that thing. "It would enable us to teach them that, inas- much as we elect one of their number to carry out our principles, we are free from the charge that we mean more than we say." Heroic soul, in homely garb half hid. Sincere, sagacious, melancholy, quaint. What he endured, no less than what he did, Has reared his monument, and crowned him saint. — y. T, Trowbridge, WORDS OF LINCOLN. 39 SETTLEMENT WITH AN AGENT OF THE POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT. An agent of the Post Office Department called upon Mr. Lincoln, as late postmaster at New Salem. 111., to obtain a small balance of seventeen dollars, which was found due the department. Going to an old trunk, Mr. Lincoln took therefrom the exact amount, which he had laid away, and handed it to the agent with the remark : " I never use any man's money but my own," ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. The following autobiography was written by Mr. Lincoln's own hand at the request of J. W. Fell of Springfield, 111., December 20, 1859. ^''^ ^^""^ "ote which accompanied it the writer says : " Herewith is a little sketch, as you requested. There is not much of it, for the reason, I suppose, that there is not much of me." "I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin Co., Ky. My parents were both born in Virginia, of undistinguished families — second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams Co., and others in Mason Co., 111. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from More eyes have looked upon his funeral procession for sixteen hundred miles or more hy night and by day, by sunlight, twilight, and torchlight, than ever before watched the progress of a procession. — Richard H. Steele. 40 WORDS OF LINCOLN. Rockingham Co., Va., to Kentucky, about 1781 or 1782, where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His ances- tors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks Co., Pa. An effort to identify them with the New England family of the same name ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like. " My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and grew up literally without any education. He removed from Kentucky to what is now Spencer Co., Ind., in my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools, so-called, but no qualification was ever re- quired of a teacher beyond ' readin', writin', and cipherin',' to the rule of three. If a straggler, sup- posed to understand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education I Mr. I-incoln believed the Union was to stand and be a union for liberty, and he wisely believed the less of wrath the people had to forget the easier it would be in the great day of reconstruction to close up in a fellowship that should endure. — A. D. Mayo. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 4I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of necessity. " I was raised to farm work, at which I continued till I was twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year in Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk War, and I was elected a captain of volunteers — a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went into the campaign, was elected, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832), and was beaten — the only time I have ever been beaten by the people. The next and three succeed- ing biennial elections I was elected to the Legisla- ture. I was not a candidate afterward. During the legislative period I had studied law% and removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was elected to the Lower House of Congress. Was not a candi- date for re-election. From 1849 ^^ 1854, both in- clusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the Whig electoral ticket, making active can- vasses. I was losing interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then is pretty well known. " If any personal description of me is thought de- sirable, it may be said I am in height six feet four If he could have roused for one moment to consciousness and his lips had had power to speak, who can doubt that his language would have been, forgetting all personal wrong, " Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." — Charles Loxve. 42 WORDS OF LINCOLN. inches, nearly ; lean in flesh, weighing, on an aver- age, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark com- plexion, with coarse black hair and gray eyes — no other marks or brands recollected. " Yours very truly, " A. Lincoln." VIEWS REGARDING A PROTECTIVE TARIFF. (Letter to Dr. Echvard Wallace, October ii, iSjg.) " I believe if we could have a moderate, carefully adjusted protective tariff, so far acquiesced in as not to be a perpetual subject of political ^^ strife, squabbles, changes, and uncertainties, it would be better for us." "LET US HAVE FAITH THAT RIGHT MAKES MIGHT." {Speech at Cooper Institute^ February 27, 1S60.) " I defy anyone to show that any living man in the whole world ever did, prior to the beginning of the present century (and I might almost say prior to the beginning of the last half of the present century), declare that, in his understanding, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal He was a great leader, because to his common sense was added the gift of imagination. — Charles Dudley Warner. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 43 Government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories. " To those who now so declare, I give, not only ' our fathers who framed the government under which we live,' but with them all other living men within the century in which it was framed, among whom to search, and they shall not be able to find the evidence of a single man agreeing with them. " I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To do so would be to discard all the lights of current experi- ence, to reject all progress, all improvement. What I do say is, that if we would supplant the opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argu- ment so clear, that even their authority, fairly con- sidered and weighed, cannot stand ; and most surely not in a case whereof we ourselves declare they un- derstood the question better than we. "Let all who believe that 'our fathers, who framed the government under which we live,' under- stood this question just as well, and even better, than we do now, speak as they spoke, and act as they acted upon it. " It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great confederacy shall be at peace, and in har- mony, one with another. Let us Republicans do our part to have it so. Even though much pro- voked, let us do nothing through passion and ill- temper. Abraham Lincoln threw himself into the deadly breach to perpetu- ate the freedom and integrity of the nation. — D. L. Gear. 44 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " Even though the Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their de- mands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. "Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual i860 ■' ° presence in the nation. But can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to overrun us here in these free States ? " If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical con- trivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man ; such as a policy of * don't care ' on a question about which all true men do care ; such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repentance ; such as invocations to Washington imploring men to unsay what Washing- ton said, and undo what Washington did. Scan the world, select the greatest statesmen and scholars of the Old and New World, and tell nie, with the light even of to-day, where is the man who could have better executed the trusts com- mitted to him than Abraham Lincoln. — Rufns P. Tapley. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 45 " Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faitli, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it," "WE SHALL TRY TO DO OUR DUTY." {Speech at Leavenworth, Kans., spring of i860.) " If we shall constitutionally elect a President, it will be our duty to see that you also submit. Old John Brown has been executed for treason i860 . ,-, ... , . agamst a State. VVe cannot object, even though he agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse violence, bloodshed, and treason. It could avail him nothing that he might think himself right. So, if we constitution- ally elect a president, and, therefore, you under- take to destroy the Union, it will be our duty to deal with you as old John Brown has been dealt with. We shall try to do our duty. We hope and believe that in no section will a majority so act as to render such extreme measure necessary." WOULD NOT BUY THE NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. To a party who wished to be empowered to nego- tiate reward for promises of influence in the Chicago Convention, i860, Mr. Lincoln replied : It did not please God to spare him until the people were settled in peace in the redeemed and reunited land. — S. Irenaus Prime. 46 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " No, gentlemen ; I have not asked the nomina- tion, and I will not now buy it with pledges. If I am nominated and elected, I shall not go into the presidency as the tool of this man or that man, or as the property of any factor or clique." FIRST NEWS OF HIS NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. While seated in the Journal office, Springfield, 111., May 8, i860, Mr. Lincoln was handed a i860 , , • , , . 1 r t telegram which gave hmi the first news of his nomination for presidency. His first words were : " There's a little woman down at our house would like to hear this — I'll eo down and tell her." FORMAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF HIS NOMI- NATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. {Reply to the President of the Convention, at the Homestead^ Springfield, May ig, i860?) " I tender to you, and through you to the Repub- lican National Convention, and all the people repre- sented in it, my profoundest thanks for i860 , , . , , , , - , the high honor done me, which you now formally announce. " Deeply, and even painfully, sensible of the great responsibility which is inseparable from this high Through all the disastrous days and years of the long conflict, it was a gift of superlative greatness in Mr. Lincoln to know just how much and how little to say and do. — Charles Hammond. Photo, iSpi, McXulta, Sfringfit-lJ, III. A. LI.NCULN. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 47 honor, — a responsibility which I could almost wish had fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and experienced statesmen whose distinguished names were before the convention, — I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the convention, denominated the platform, and, without any unneccessary or unreasonable delay, respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted." THE PLEDGE WITH COLD WATER. {ReJ/iarks to the ConiDiitfcc that )iotificd h/iii, at Ju's Jioine, May iS6o, of his lYonit/iat/oii.) " Gentlemen, we must pledge our mutual health in this most healthy beverage which God has given man. It is the only beverage I have ever used or allowed in my family, and I cannot conscientiously depart from it on the present occasion. It is pure Adam's ale from the well." LINCOLN'S MODESTY. {Speech at the State Fair, Springfield, III., August S, iS6o.) At the conclusion of the following speech, Mr. Lincoln descended from the platform and with diffi- culty made his way through the vast throng who eagerly pressed around to take him by It now seems that any man, however endowed, like Abraham Lincoln, could not have so well tilled the demand as president. — E. 0. Haven. 48 WORDS OF LINCOLN. the hand. By an adroit movement he escaped on horseback, while the crowd were besieging the car- riage in which it was expected he would return to the city. "It is my purpose since I have been placed in my present position to make no speeches. This assembly having been drawn together at the place of my residence, it appeared to be the wish of those constituting this vast assembly to see me, and it is certainly my wish to see all of you. I appear upon this ground here at this time only for the purpose of offering myself the best opportunity of seeing you and enabling you to see me. " I confess with gratitude, be it understood, that I did not suppose my appearance among you would create the tumult which I now witness. I am gratified because it is a tribute which can be paid to no man as a man. " It is the evidence that four years from this time you will give a like manifestation to the next man who is the representative of the truth on the ques- tions that now agitate the public. And it is because you will then fight for this cause as you do now, or even with greater ardor than now, though I may be dead and gone." It is certainly a wondrous Providence that, when republican institutions were about to be put to a fearful test, and the blaze of this gigantic strife was to attract the eyes of the world, and the vital powers of free government were to be illustrated, such a man as Lincoln should have been elevated to the gaze of mankind. — S. C. Baldridsre. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 49 "I SEE THE STORM COMING — WITH GOD'S HELP I SHALL NOT FAIL." (A quiet talk in the State House ^ Springfield^ I 11.^ during the campaign of 1S60.) " I know there is a God, and that He hates injus- tice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me, — and I think He has, — I believe I am ready. " I am nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. " I have told them that ' a house divided against itself cannot stand,' and Christ and reason say the same ; and they will find it so. Douglas don't care whether slavery is voted up or voted down, but God cares, and humanity cares, and I care; and with God's help I shall not fail. " I may not see the end ; but it will come, and I shall be vindicated ; and these men will find that they have not read their Bibles aright." "ALL AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BROTHERS." {Rejoicing over the November election, Springfield, I 11.^ November 20, 1S60, at a political meeting.) " I rejoice with you in the success which has so far attended the Republican cause, yet in all our rejoicing let us neither express nor cherish any hard The greatest man of his age. — A. E. Burnside, 50 WORDS OF LINCOLN. feelings toward any citizen who by his vote differed with us. Let us at all times remember i860 , 11 A • ■ • 11 r that all American citizens are brothers of a common country, and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal feeling." THE PEOPLE DO WELL IF WELL DONE BY. {Speech at Bhoim'ngton, I//., en route to Chicago, November 21^ i860.) " I ain glad to meet you, after a longer separation than has been common between you and me. I thank you for the good report you made of the election in old McLean. The people of the country have again fixed up their affairs for a constitutional period of time. " By the way, I think very much of the people, as an old friend said he thought of a woman. He said when he lost his wife, who had been a great help to him in his business, he thought he was ruined — that he could never find another to fill her place. At length, however, he married another, who he found did quite as well as the first, and that his opinion now was that any woman would do well who was well done by. " So I think of the whole people of the nation — It is hard to say what more Lincoln, living, might have consecrated to his country, but God ordained tliat, by his death, every doubt in regard to the future of this nation should be swept away. — Ersldne N. White. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 5 I they will ever do well if well done by. We will try to do well by them in all parts of the coun- try, North and South, with entire confidence that all will be well with all of us." HIS "EARLY HISTORY." {Reply to a genilciiia>i loho asked for a sketch of his life.) " My early history is perfectly characterized by a sinfjle line of Gray's ' Elegy ' : 1861 "^ / &^ " ' The short and simple annals of the poor.' " LAST VISIT TO HIS LAW OFFICE. {Conversation xuitk h/s I aza partner, IViii. H. Her ndo)i, before leai'ing for Washington, 1S61 .) " I love the people here, Billy, and owe them all that I am. If God spares my life to the end, I shall come back among you and spend the remnant of my days." FAREWELL ADDRESS TO HIS NEIGHBORS. {When leaving Springfield for WasJiington, February il, is6i.) " My friends, no one not in my position can ap- preciate the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century. I yield to no one in veneration to his memory, or admiration for his grand qualities of head and heart. — Levi P. Morton. 52 WORDS OF LINCOLN. Here my children were born, and here one of them lies buried. " I knoAv not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me which is greater, perhaps, than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of divine Provi- dence, upon which he at all time relied. " I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine aid which sustained him ; and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will pray that I may receive the divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain. Again, I bid you all an affectionate farewell." "BEHIND THE CLOUD THE SUN IS STILL SHINING." {^Speech at Toloiio, III., February ii, iS6/.) " I am leaving you on an errand of national im- portance, attended, as you are aware, with considera- ble difficulties. Let us believe, as some poet has expressed it, ' Behind the cloud the sun is still shining".' " We brought him from westward because he was just ; We made him our chieftain, we gave him our trust ; Serene in the midst of the tumult he stood, And we learn that 'tis greatest of all to be good. — Martha Perry Lowe. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 53 "PRESERVE THE UNION AND LIBERTY." (/;/ response to an address of welcome by Governor O. P. Morton, Indianapolis, February 11, 1S61.) " In all trying positions in which I shall be placed, and, doubtless, I shall be placed in many such, my reliance will be placed upon you and the people of the United States; and I wish you to remember, now and forever, that it is your business, and not mine; that if the union of these States, and the liberties of this people, shall be lost, it is but little to any one man of fifty-two years of age, but a great deal to the thirty millions of people who inhabit these United States, and to their posterity in all coming time. " It is your business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty for yourselves, and not for me," THE PEOPLE'S POWER AS ETERNAL AS THE PRINCIPLE OF LIBERTY. {Speech at Lawrencebiirg, Ind., February 12, 1S61.) "The power intrusted to me shall be exercised as perfectly to protect the rights of your neighbors across the river, as to protect yours on this ^^6^ -J T 1 .-rr • 1 side. 1 know no ditterence m the protection of constitutional rights on either side of the river. An ardent lover of his whole country, hating no one, desiring to punish no one, yearning to see the Union restored, and the old good will and good humor return to bless the land. — Albert Pike. x/ 54 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " If, ill rny brief term of public office, I shall be wicked or foolish, if you remain right and true and honest, you cannot be betrayed. My power is tem- porary and fleeting ; yours is as eternal as the prin- ciple of liberty. " Cultivate and protect that sentiment, and your ambitious leaders will be reduced to the position of servants instead of masters." RESPONSE TO AN ADDRESS OF WELCOME FROM MAYOR BISHOP. {Speech af tJie lUniie/ House, Ciucinnati, Fehynixyy 12, /S6/.) " I have spoken but once before this in Cincinnati. That was a year previous to the late presidential election. On that occasion, in a playful manner, but with sincere words, I addressed much of what I said to the Kentuckians. I then said. We mean to remember that you are as good as we — that there is no difference between us, other than the difference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always that you have as good hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as good as we claim to have, and treat you accord- ingly. " Fellow-citizens of Kentucky, friends, brethren, — may I call you such ? — in my new position I see no more occasion and feel no inclination to retract a The name of Abraham Lincohi will shine with ever-increasing luster, as the result of his public life and services shall be more clearly manifesteil. — Henry S. Frieze. WORDS OF LINCOLN, 55 word of this. If it shall not be made good, be assured that the fault shall not be mine." LOOKS TO GOD AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE FOR SUPPORT. {Add) CSS to the Ohio Legislature, Co/ia/dnts, l-\'bniary ij, 1861.) " It is true, as has been said by the President of the Senate, that very great responsibility rests upon me in the position to \\hich the votes of the American people have called me. I am deeply sensible of that weighty responsibility. I cannot but know, what you all know, that without a name — perhaps without a reason why I should have a name — there has fallen upon me a task such as did not rest upon the Father of his Country. " And, so feeling, I cannot but turn and look back for the support without which it will be im- possible for me to perform that great task. I turn, then, and look to the American people, and to that God who has never forsaken them." "I SHALL VERY SOON PASS AWAY FROM YOU." {Address at Columbus, O., frotn the Capitol steps, February I J, iS6i.\ " I am doubly thankful that you have appeared here to give me this greeting. It is not much to me, for I shall very soon pass away from 1S61 ' , , , you ; but we have a large country and a The typical American, pure and simple. — Asa Gray. WORDS OF LINCOLN. large future before us, and the manifestations of good will toward the government, and affection for the Union, which you may exhibit, are of immense value to you and your posterity forever." THE MAJORITY OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE MUST RULE. {Speech at the depot, Steiibemn'lle, O., February 14, 1S61.) " I fear that great confidence in my abilities is un- y founded. The place I am about to assume is encom- passed by vast difficulties. As I am, nothing shall be wanting on my part. Unless sus- tained by the American people and God, I cannot hope to be successful. I believe the devotion to the Constitution is equally great on both sides of the river; it is only the different understandings of it. The only dispute is, what are their rights? " If the majority should not rule, who should be the judge? When such a judge is found we must be all bound by his decision. That judge is the majority of the American people ; if not, then the minority must control. Would that be right, just, or generous ? Assuredly not. " If a wrong policy is adopted, the opportunity to condemn it would occur in four years ; then I can be turned out, and a better man, with better views, put in my place." Some men at his very side chided him for sloiuness, but it did not quicken his step, and others, equally near to him in influence, rebuked him for hastiness, but it availed nothing to check his onward prog- ress. — Henry Darling. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 57 "A JUST AND EQUITABLE TARIFF." {Address at Pittsburg, Pa., February /j, iS6i.) "According to my political education, I am in- clined to believe that the people in the various por- tions of the country should have their own 1861 . . , ■; , , . views carried out through their representa- tives in Congress ; that consideration of the tariff bill should not be postponed until the next session of the National Legislature. " No subject should engage your representatives more closely than that of the tariff. If I have any recommendation to make, it will be that every man who is called upon to serve the people, in a repre sentative capacity, should study the whole subject thoroughly, as I intend to do myself, looking to all the varied interests of the cbmmon country, so that, when the time for action arrives, adequate protec- tion shall be extended to the coal and iron of Penn- sylvania and the corn of Illinois. " Permit me to express the hope that the impor- tant subject may receive such consideration at the hands of your representatives that the interests of no part of the country may be overlooked, but that all sections may share in the common benefit of a just and equitable tariff." His name, reaching down through the age of time, Will still through the age of eternity shine- Like a star, sailing on through the depths of the blue. On whose brightness we gaze every evening anew. — B. F. Taylor. 58 WORDS OF LINCOLN. RESPONSE TO AN ADDRESS OF WELCOME. {Cleveland O., February /j, 1861 .) " In a community like this, whose appearances — I may say whose very clothes, whose well-built houses, whose numerous schools, and all I86I , . , , r T 1 • other evidences beiore me — testity to their intelligence, I am convinced that the cause of liberty and the Union can never be in danger." A HEART TRUE TO THE WORK. {Speech at Buffalo, N. V., Feluuary 16, jS6i.) " Your worthy mayor has thought fit to express the hope that I may be able to relieve the country from the present, or I should say the threat- ened, dif^culties. I am sure I bring a heart true to the work. " For the ability to perform it, I trust in that Su- preme Being who has never forsaken this favored land, through the instrumentality of this great and intelligent people. Without that assistance I should surely fail ; with it I cannot fail." Possessing the simplicity of a child and the tenderness of a woman, he combined in his make-up all the sterner qualities of a perfect man. A close observer of men, measures, and events, and to a discrimi- nating mind that led to a correct judgment, was added a conscien- tiousness of the right, and a moral courage to do it, that enabled him to execute his honest convictions. — F. E. Spinner. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 59 THE HUMBLEST OF ALL THE PRESIDENTS. {Speech to the Legislature, Albany, N. Y., February iS, iS6i.) " It is true that, while I hold myself, without mock modesty, the humblest of all the individuals who have ever been elected President of the United States, I yet have a more dif^cult task to perform than any one of them has ever encountered, " You have here generously tendered me the sup- port, the united support, of the great Empire State. P"or this, in behalf of the nation ; in behalf of the present and future of the nation ; in behalf of the cause of civil liberty in all time to come, I most gratefully thank you. " I do not propose now to enter upon any expres- sions as to the particular line of policy to be adopted with reference to the dif^culties that stand before us in the opening of the incoming administration. " I deem that it is just to the country, to myself, to you, that I should see everything, hear every- thing, and have ev;ery light that can possibly be brought within my reach to aid me before I shall speak officially, in order that, when I do speak, I may have the best possible means of taking correct and true grounds. " I still have confidence that the Almighty Ruler He Iiad the heart of a child and the intellect of a philosopher. A patriot without guile, a politician without cunning or selfishness, a statesman of practical sense rather than fine-spun theory. — Andrew SIniiiian. 6o WORDS OF LINCOLN. of the Universe, through the instrumentahty of this great and intelligent people, can, and will, bring us through this difficulty, as He has heretofore brought us through all preceding difficulties of the country." WITH HELP, HE WILL CARRY THE SHIP OF STATE THROUGH THE STORM. {Response to an address of welcome by the Mayor of Poiigh- keepsie, N. Y., February ig, i8di.) " I am not sure — I do not pretend to be sure — that in the selection of the individual who has been elected this term, the wisest choice has been made. I fear it has not. In the purposes and in the principles that have been sustained, I have been the instrument selected to carry forward the affairs of this government. I can rely upon you, and upon the people of the country ; and with their sustaining hand, I think that even I shall not fail in carrying the Ship of State through the storm." STAND BY THE UNION. * {Reply to an address of 7velconie by the Mayor of New York City, February 20, 1S61.) " There is nothing that could ever bring me to willingly consent to the destruction of this Union, under which not only the great commercial City of New York, but the whole country, He was the most perfect ruler of man the world has ever seen. — Ed'vin M. Stanton. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 6l acquired its greatness, except it be the purpose for which the Union itself was formed. " I understand the ship to be made for the carry- ing and the preservation of the cargo, and so long as the ship can be saved with the cargo, it should never be abandoned, unless there appears no possibility of its preservation, and it must cease to exist, except at the risk of throwing overboard both freight and passengers." THE EARLY AND COMING STRUGGLE FOR LIBERTY. {Address in the Senate Chamber, Trenton, N.J., February 21, 1S61.) " May I be pardoned, if, upon this occasion, I mention, that away back in my childhood — the earliest days of my being able to read — I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the younger members have ever seen, * Weems' Life of Washington ' ; I remember all the accounts there given of the battlefields and struggles for the liberties of the country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton. The crossing of the river, the contest with the Hessians, the great hardships endured at that time, all fixed themselves on my memory more than any single Revolutionary event ; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how these early impressions last longer than any other. He has gone in the supreme summer of his renown. The index finger pointed to high noon on tlie dial of his i&mQ.—E. S. Atwood. 62 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for. '^^' I am exceedingly anxious that that thing which they struggled for— that something even more than National independence, that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world for all time to come — I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people, shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy, indeed, if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his most chosen people, for perpetuating the object of the great struggle." NO ONE MORE DEVOTED TO PEACE. {Address in the Assembly Chamber, Trenton, N. J., February 21, 1S61.) U " The man does not live who is more devoted to peace than I am — none who would do more to preserve it. But it may be necessary to put ^^^^ the foot down firmly. And if I do my duty, and do right, you will sustain me, will you not? Received, as I am, by the members of the Legis- lature, the majority of whom do not agree with me in political sentiments, I trust that I may have their assistance in piloting the Ship of State through this I believe, in all the annals of our race, Abraham Lincoln is the finest example of an unk nown m an rising from obscurity and^scend- ing to the loftiest heights of human grandeur. ^/(i^w^J WORDS OF LINCOLN. 63 voyage, surrounded by perils as it is ; for if it should suffer shipwreck now, there will be no pilot ever needed for another voyage." LIBERTY FOR ALL FUTURE TIME. {Reply to an Address of Welcome, Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Februafy 22, 1861.) " I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself standing here, in this place, where were collected the wisdom, the patriotism, the devotion to principle, from which sprang the institutions under which we live. You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring peace to the present distracted condition of the country. I can say in return, sir, that all the political senti- ments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated and were given to the world from this hall. " I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that were endured by the ofificers and soldiers of the army who achieved that Independence. Mis strong common sense, undaunted patriotism, and wise states- manship have left an impress on our institutions which will never be effaced so long as this is freedom's throne. — IV. O. Bradley. 64 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but, I hope, to the world for all future time. " It was that which you promise, that in due time the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. " Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon this basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that princi- ple, it will be truly awful. But if this country can- not be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it." "ADD STAR UPON STAR." {Remarks when he raised a new flag over Indepe7idencc Hall, Philadelphia^ February 22, 1S61.) " It is on such an occasion as this that we can reason together — reafifirm our devotion to the coun- try and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. Let us make up our mind that when we do put a new star upon our banner, It is my humble judgment that in all the positions the great crisis forced him into, he was a perfect fit. — J. M. Bailey. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 6$ it shall be a fixed one, never to be dimmed by the horrors of war, but brightened by the contentment and prosperity of peace. " Let us go on to extend the area of our useful- ness, add star upon star ; until their light shall shine upon five hundred millions of a free and happy people." "THE FLAG MAY STILL BE KEPT FLAUNTING GLORIOUSLY." {Address to the Legislature^ Harrisbiirg, February 22, 1S61.) " I have already gone through one exceedingly interesting scene this morning, in the ceremonies at Philadelphia. I was for the first time allowed the privilege of standing in Old Independ- ence Hall, to have a few words addressed to me there, and opening up to me an opportunity of expressing, with much regret, that I had not more time to express something of my own feelings excited by that occasion, somewhat to harmonize and give shape to the feelings that had been really the feelings of my whole life. "Besides this, my friends there had provided a magnificent flag of the country. They had arranged it so that I was given the honor of raising it to the head of its staff. And when it went up I was pleased that it went up to its place by the strength of my own feeble arm. When, according to the His sense of humor was as logical as his mind was clear and his heart generous. — S. S. Cox. 66 WORDS OF LINCOLN. arrangement, the cord was pulled, and it floated gloriously to the wind without an accident, in the light, glowing sunshine of the morning, I could not help hoping that there was in the entire success of that beautiful ceremony at least something of an omen of what is to come. How could I help feel- ing then, as I often have felt, in the whole of that proceeding I was a very humble instrument ? " I had not provided the flag ; I had not made the arrangements for elevating it to its place. I had applied but a very small portion of my feeble strength in raising it. In the whole transaction I was in the hands of the people who had arranged it. And if I can have the same generous co-operation of the people of the nation, I think the flag of our country may still be kept flaunting gloriously." ARRIVAL IN WASHINGTON. Mr. Lincoln arrived in Washington, February 23, 1861. On the 27th he responded to an address of welcome by the mayor, James G. Berrett, in Willard's Hotel, as follows: " I will take this occasion to say that I think very much of the ill-feeling that has existed, and still exists, between the people in the sections from whence I came and the people here, is dependent upon a misunderstanding of one another. I therefore avail myself of this oppor- tunity to assure you, Mr. Mayor, and all the gentle- The purity of his patriotism inspired him with the wisdom of a statesman and the courage of a martyr. — Stanley Matthews. 1861 WORDS OF LINCOLN. 6/ men present, that I have not now, and never have had, any other than as kindly feeHngs toward you as the people of my own section. I have not now, and never have had, any disposition to treat you in any respect otherwise than as my own neighbors. I have not now any purpose to withhold from you any of the benefits of the Constitution, under any circumstances, that I would not feci myself con- strained to withhold from my neighbors; and I hope, in a word, that when we shall become better acquainted, and I say it with great confidence, we shall like each other the more." HIS PECULIAR POSITION AT THE CAPITAL. {An address to the Republican Association at IVillard's Hotel, February 2S, jS6i.) " I have reached the City of Washington under circumstances considerably differing from those under which any other man has ever reached 1861 -^ r 1 • it. I am here for the purpose of takmg an official position among the people, almost all of whom were politically opposed to me, and are yet opposed to me, as I suppose. I hope that, if things shall go along as prosperously as I believe v/e all desire they may, I may have it in my power to remove something of this misunderstanding." President Lincoln's Gettysburg address was the high-water mark of American oratory. — Thos. Weutzoorth Higginson. 68 WORDS OF LINCOLN. FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1861. " Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States, that by the occasion of a RepubHcan administration, their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reason- able cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. " I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I declared that ' I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery, in the States where it exists.' " I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. Those who nominated and elected me did so with the full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. I now reiterate these sentiments, and in doing so, I only press upon the public attention the most con- clusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endangered by the now incoming administration. Of all the rulers of the earth, no other one has ever been borne to the tomb amid such extensive preparations to do him honor. His funeral procession may be said to have been more than one thousand miles Ion?. — IV. R. Gordon, • , // .ishiiigton. U. S. CAPITOL AXD WHITE HOISE. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 69 I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and, while I do not choose now to specify partic- lar acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in offlcial and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find im- punity in having them held to be unconstitutional. " It is seventy-two years since the first inaugu- ration of a president under our national constitu- tion. During that period, fifteen different 1861 , 1- • . , , . . , and very distinguished citizens have in suc- cession administered the executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulties. " I hold, that in the contemplation of universal law and the Constitution, the union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not ex- pressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that no govern- ment proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our national Consti- tution, and the Union will endure forever. The Cooper Institute speech of Mr. Lincohi is one of the purest specimens of composition in Saxon words to be found in the English language. — Leonard Bacon. 70 WORDS OF LINCOLN. "To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak ? Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be well to ascertain why we do it ? Will you hazard so desperate a step while any portion of the ills you fly from have no real existence ? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the real ones you fly from ? Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake ? " All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right plainly written in the Consti- tution has been denied ? I think not. Happily, the human mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. " All the vital rights of minorities and of indi- viduals are so plainly assured to them by affirma- tions and negations, guarantees and prohibitions, in the Constitution, that controversies never arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable length contain, express provision for all possible questions. " Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by The common people, from whom he sprang, and for whom he labored, and with whom he was identified, and who placed him in power, will guard his name with sleepless vigilance, and will point their posterity to his grave as the shrine or American freedom. — B. F. Bradford. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 7 1 National or by State authority? Tlic Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress pro- tect slavery in the Territories? The Consti- tution does not expressly say. " From questions of this class spring all our con- stitutional controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the government but acquiescence on the one side or the other. "If the minority will secede rather than ac- quiesce, they make a precedent which, in turn, will ruin and divide them ; for a minority of their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a minority. For instance, why should not any portion of a new con- federacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede from it ? " All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of interest among the States to compose a new union as to produce har- mony only, and prevent renewed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. " Physically speaking, we cannot separate ; we t While the ship of state was buffeting the fiercest storms, he stood calm as Columbus, disregarding the clamors of the discontented, and, with compass in hand, measured with steady glance wind and sail, and steered toward the peaceful haven of union and freedom. — Hugo Krebs. 'J2 WORDS OF LINCOLN. cannot move our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face ; and in- tercourse, either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. " Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or more satisfactory after sepa- ration than before? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always ; and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on either, you cease fight- ing, the identical questions as to terms of inter- course are again upon you. " Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world ? In our present differences, is either party without faith of being in the right? If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on your side of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal — the Amer- ican people. " My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valu- able can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would never take deliberately, that He was not an orator, and yet where in the English language can be found eloquence of higher tone or more magnetic power than his Gettysburg speech ? — Hugh McCiillough. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 73 object will be frustrated by taking time ; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it ; while the new adminis- tration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change it. "If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there is still no single reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulties. " In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-country- men, and not in mine, is the momentous 1861 . r • •, issue 01 civil war. " The government will not assail you ; you can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. " You can have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government ; while I shall have the most solemn one to ' preserve, protect, and de- fend ' it. " I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though pas- sion 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 living Abraham Lincoln will lie honored by a grateful posterity as the directing and representative mind in the pregnant epoch of history. — James W. Patterson. 74 WORDS OF LINCOLN. heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." "ALL HONOR TO JEFFERSON." {Letter, April 6, 1861, replying to an invitation front the Republicans of Boston to attend a festival in honor of the anniversary of feffer son's birthday.) "All honor to Jefferson; to a man who, in the concrete pressure of a struggle for national inde- pendence by a single people, had the cool- ness, forecast, and capacity to introduce into a merely revolutionary document an abstract truth, applicable to all men and all times, and so to embalm it there, that to-day and in all coming days it shall be a rebuke and a stumbling-block to the harbingers of reappearing tyranny and oppression ! " PRESERVING THE PEACE OF MARYLAND. {Message to the Governor, April 20, 1S61.) " I desire to consult with you and the mayor of Baltimore relative to preserving the peace of Maryland. Please come immediately." A legion of politicians might beset him and urge him to effort, but having heard them all, he would take counsel of his conscience, and perhaps still remain inactive. He would do nothing, unless he could see clearly what it was right to do. — Albert S. Hunt. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 75 "HAD NO MORAL RIGHT TO SHRINK." {First annua! message to the extra session of Congress, July y, iS6i.) "As a private citizen the Executive could not have consented that these institutions shall perish ; much less could he in betrayal of so vast 1861 , , , . , and so sacred a trust as these tree people have confided to him. He felt that he had no moral right to shrink, or even to count the chances of his own life, in what might follow. " In full view of his great responsibility he has so far done what he has deemed his duty. You will now, according to your own judgment, perform yours. He sincerely hopes that your views and your action may so accord with his, as to assure all faithful citizens who have been disturbed in their rights, of a certain and speedy restoration of them under the Constitution and the laws. And having thus chosen our course, without guile and with pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go for- ward without fear and with manly hearts." RECRUITING NORTH CAROLINIANS. {Letter to Lieutenant-Genera/ Winfield Scott, September 16, 1S61.) " Since conversing with you I have concluded to request you to frame an order for recruiting North Carolinians at Fort Hatteras. I suggest it be so framed as for us to accept a smaller Too much cannot be done to preserve the memory and deepen the moral impression of a man like Lincoln. — C. B. Frotliinghain. 76 WORDS OF LINCOLN. force — even a company — if we cannot get a regi- ment or more. What is necessary to now say about ofificers, you will judge. Governor Seward says he has a nephew (Clarence A. Seward, I believe) who would be willing to go and play colonel and assist in raising the force ; still, it is to be considered whether the North Carolinians will not prefer officers of their own. I should expect they would." LETTER TO MAJOR-GENERAL DAVID HUNTER, OCTOBER 24, 1861. " I propose to offer you a few suggestions. Knowing how hazardous it is to bind down a dis- tant commander in the field to specific lines and operations, as so much always depends on a knowledge of locations and passing events, it is intended, therefore, to leave considerable margin for the exercise of your judgment and discretion." LABOR THE SUPERIOR OF CAPITAL. {Message to Congress, December j, 1S61.) "Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and He was sacrificed, but his martyrdom gave emphasis to the living principles embodied in our American Constitution, as the lifting up of Christ elevated the principles it was his mission to establish. — Richard Siftith. WORDS OF LINCOLN. TJ deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any rights, nor is it denied that there is, and prob- ably always will be, a relation between labor and capital, producing mutual benefits. "The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages a while, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. "This is the just, and generous, and prosperous system, which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequent energy, and progress, and improvement of condition to all. No men living are more worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty — non& less inclined to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned. " Let them beware of surrendering a political power which they already possess, and which, if sur- rendered, will surely be used to close the door of advancement against such as they, and to fix new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of liberty shall be lost. " The struggle of to-day is not altogether for to-day ; it is for a vast future also. With a reliance on Providence, all the more firm and earnest, let us proceed in the great task which events have devolved upon us." Born of the people, well he knew to grasp The wants and wishes of the weak and small ; Therefore we hold him with no shadowy clasp. Therefore his name is household to us all. — Alice Cary. 78 WORDS OF LINCOLN. LETTER TO GENERAL DON CARLOS BUELL, JANUARY 6, 1862. " Your dispatch of yesterday has been received, and it disappoints and distresses me. I am not com- petent to criticise your views, and therefore ^ ^ what I offer is merely in justification of myself. Of the two, I would rather h^e a point on the railroad south of Cumberland Gap than Nashville ; first, because it cuts a great artery of the enemy's communication, which Nashville does not ; and secondly, because it is in the midst of loyal people, who would rally around it, while Nash- ville is not. I do not intend this to be an order in any sense, but merely, as intimated before, to show you the grounds of my anxiety." LETTER TO GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN, APRIL 9, 1862. " I beg to assure you that I have never written or spoken to you in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose to sustain 1862 ' ^ . / • • J ^ you so far as m my most anxious judgment I consistently can." Grandly and alone he walked his way through this life, and the world had no honors, no emoluments, no reproaches, no shames, no punishments which he could not have borne without swerving or bias. — Jane Grey Swiss holm. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 79 BILL ABOLISHING SLAVERY IN THE DIS- TRICT OF COLUMBIA. {Message to Congress, April i6, 1S62, approvt/ig the bill.) "I have never doubted the constitutional author- ity of Congress to abolish slavery in this District ; and I have ever desired to see the national 1862 capital freed from the institution in some satisfactory way." GRADUAL EMANCIPATION— COMPEN- SATION FOR THE SLAVES. {Conference with the members of Co/igi'ess from the border slave States, July 12, 1S62.) " If the war continues long, as it must if the object be not sooner attained, the institution in your States will be extinguished by mere 1862 ^ . friction and abrasion — by the mere incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. " How much better for you and for your people to take the step which at once shortens the war, and secures substantial compensation for that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other event ! For my single self, I have for a quarter of a century regarded Mr. Lincoln as the finest lawyer I ever knew, entitling him to be pre- sented to the profession as a model well worthy of the closest imita- tion. — Sidney Breece. 8o WORDS OF LINCOLN. " How much better to thus save the money which else we sink forever in the war ! " How much better to do it while we can, lest the war ere long renders us pecuniarily unable to do it ! " How much better for you, as seller, and the nation, as buyer, to sell out and buy out that with- out which the war could never have been, than to sink both the thing to be sold and the price of it in cutting one another's throats ! I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision at once to emancipate gradually." "DEPENDENCE UPON THE FAVOR OF GOD." {Reply to a committee from the Lutlieran General Synod, May I, 1S62) " You all may recollect that in taking up the sword forced into our hands, this government appealed to the prayers of the pious and the good, and declared that it placed its whole dependence upon the favor of God. I now humbly and reverently, in your presence, reiterate the acknowledgment of that dependence, not doubting that if it shall please the divine Being who deter- mines the destinies of nations, that this shall remain a united people, they will, humbly seeking the divine guidance, make their prolonged national Rough-hewn indeed, and unschooled in diplomatic phrase and usage, yet never losing sympathy with the people from whom he sprung, and so always able to speak and write the mind and heart of the people. — Edzviii A. Buckley. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 8 1 existence a source of new benefits to themselves and their successors, and to all classes and conditions of mankind." "I SHALL ENDEAVOR TO DO MY DUTY." {Reply to a resolution of tJte East Baltimore Methodist Con- ference of 1S62.) "These kind words of approval, coming from so numerous a body of intelligent Christian people, and so free from all suspicion of sinister motives, are indeed encouraging to me. By the help of an all-wise Providence, I shall endeavor to do my duty, and I shall expect the continuance of your prayers for a right solution of our national difificulties, and the restoration of our country to peace and prosperity." "I SHALL DO NOTHING IN MALICE." {Letter to Gutberth Bullett of New Orleans, ficly 28, 1S62.) " I am in no boastful mood. I shall not do more than I can, but shall do all I can to save the govern- ment; which is my sworn duty as well as my personal inclination. I shall do nothing in malice. What I deal with is too vast for malicious dealings." As the ship in heavy seas feels the tremendous strain in every tim- ber, and is strained in all her cordage, so did the President-elect realize, in anticipation, the possible perils g^ his position when leav- ing his peaceful home in the West. — f. L. Jancway. 82 WORDS OF LINCOLN. DEFENDS THE SECRETARY OF WAR. {^Remarks at a war meeting, Washington, August 6, 1862.) " General McClellan has sometimes asked for things that the Secretary of War did not give him. General McClellan is not to blame for asking what he wanted and needed, and the Secre- tary of War is not to blame for not giving when he had none to give. And I say here, as far as I know, the Secretary of War has withheld no one thing at any time in my power to give him. I have no accusation against him. I believe he is a brave and able man, and I stand here, as justice requires me to do, to take upon myself what has been charged on the Secretary of War, as withholding from him." "WILLING TO ACT THOUGH IT COSTS MY LIFE." {Reply to M. D. Coinvay, and a friend, who implored Mr. Lincoln to emancipate the slaves^ " We grow in this direction daily, and I am not without hope that some great thing is to be accom- plished. When the hour comes for deal- ing with slavery, I trust I shall be willing to act though it costs my life ; and, gentlemen, lives will be losty He will stand in the memory of the world among the most for- bearing, kindly, and gentle, whose generosity toward the most bitter foes is without a parallel among successful rulers and conquerors. — Warren Hathaway. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 83 "MY PARAMOUNT OBJECT IS TO SAVE THE UNION." [Reply to an editorial of contplaiiit in the N. V. Tribioie, by Horace Greeley, August /p, 1S62.) " My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it. If I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it ; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save this Union ; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause." '< WHATEVER APPEARS TO BE GOD'S WILL, I WILL DO IT." i^Reply to a deputation front all religions denominations of Chicago, September ij, 1S62.) " I hope it will not be irreverent for me to say that if it is probable that God would reveal His will to others on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed He would reveal His character and service to this countiy will stand as a monument long after the granite monuments erected to his memory have crum- Ijled in tlie dust. — Thomas A. Edison. 84 WORDS OF LINCOLN. it directly to me ; for, unless I am more deceived in myself than I often am, it is my earnest desire to know the will of Providence in this matter. And if I can learn what it is I will do it. "These are not, however, the days of miracles, and I suppose it will be granted that I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physical facts of the case, ascertain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise and right. What- ever appears to be God's will I will do it." READING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAM- ATION TO HIS CABINET. {Remarks at tJie meet/ng, Sepict)ibrr 22, 1S62.) "Gentlemen: I have, as' you are aware, thought a great deal about the relation of this war to slav- ery, and you all remember that several weeks ago I read to you an order that I had prepared upon the subject, which, on account of objections made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since then my mind has been much occupied with this subject, and I have thought all along that the time for acting on it might probably come. " I think the time has come now: I wish it was a better time. I wish that we were in a better condi- tion. The action of the army against the rebels has not been quite what I should have best liked, Not a sovereign in Europe, however trained from the cradle for state pomps, and however prompted by statesmen and courtiers, could have uttered himself more regally than did Lincoln at Gett vsburg . — Goldiviii S»i ith . riioto, iSoi, Sprin-^/uiti, III. AUKAHAM LINCOLN AND HLS riUVATK SKCKKTARIF.S, NICOLA Y AND 11 A V. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 85 but they have been driven out of Maryhmd, and Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion. " When the rebel army was at F'rederick, I deter- mined, as soon as it should be driven out of Mary- land, to issue a proclamation of emancipation, such as I thought most likely to be useful. I said nothing to anyone, but I made a promise to myself and, hesitating a little, to my Maker. " The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going to fulfill that promise. I have got }-ou to- gether to hear what I have written down. I do not wish your advice about the main matter, for that I have determined for myself. This I say without in- tending anything but respect for any one of you. But I already know the views of each on this ques- tion. They have been heretofore expressed, and I have considered them as thoroughly and carefully as I can. What I have written is that which my reflections have determined me to say. If there is anything in the expressions I use, or in any minor matter which any one of you think had best be changed, I shall be glad to receive your suggestions. " One other observation I will make. I know very well that many others might, in this matter as in others, do better than I can ; and if I was satisfied that the public confidence was more fully possessed bj' any one of them than by me, and knew of any constitutional way in which he could be put in my place, he should have it. I would gladly yield to Behold him, standing with hand reached out to feed the South with mercy and the North with charity, and the whole land with peace, when the Lord, who had sent him, called him, and his work was done. — F/iillit>s Brooks. 86 WORDS OF LINCOLN. him. But though I believe I have not so much of the confidence of the people as I had some time since, 1 do not know that, all things considered, any other person has more ; and, however this may be, there is no way in which I can have any other man put where I am. I am here; I must do the best I can, and bear the responsibility of taking the course which I feel I oujjht to take." PRELIMINARY PROCLAMATION OF EMy\NCIPATION. {Iss2(ed September 22, 1862.) " That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty- three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated pc.vt of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever, free ; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. " That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the States and parts of States, if any, in which the He did more to perpetuate the existence of free institutions than any man that has ever lived, and the debt mankind owes his memory can never be repaid. — George Stoneinan. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 8/ people thereof respectively shall then be in rebellion against the United States ; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elec- tions wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervaUing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States." LETTER TO GENERAL GRANT, OCTOBER 8, 1862. " I congratulate you and all concerned in your recent battles and victories. How does it all sum up ? I especially regret the death of Gen- eral Hackleman, and am very anxious to know the condition of General Oglesby, who is an intimate personal friend." LETTER TO THOMAS H. CLAY OF CIN- CINNATI, OCTOBER 8, 1862. " I sincerely wish war was an easier and pleas- anter business than it is, but it does not 1862 , . r 1 1- , admit of holidays. There can be no correct history of this nation, as it has passed through this great struggle for existence, without the life of Abraham L i n c 1 1 n . — IP'w . A . Biukinsrham . 88 WORDS OF LINCOLN. OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH DAY IN THE ARMY AND NAVY. {Genera/ Orders, November /j, 1S62.) " The importance for man and beast of the pre- scribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming" deference to the best sentiments of a Christian peo- ple, and a due regard for the divine will, demand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. " The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperiled by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High. ' At this time of public dis- tress ' — adopting the words of Washington in 1776 — ' men may find enough to do in the service of God and their country without abandoning them- selves to vice and immorality.' " The first general order issued by the Father of his Country after the Declaration of Inde- pendence, indicates the spirit in which our insti- tutions were founded and should ever be de- fended : " ' The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his comitry.' " President Lincoln had a heart capable of the greatest sympathy and the keenest emotions for the carnage and destruction he saw j'oing on in every direction. — David D. Porter. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 89 ''THE WAY IS PLAIN— THE WORLD WILL FOREVER APPLAUD." {Mi'ssage to Congress, December i, 1862.) " The civil war, which has so radically changed, for the moment, the occupation and habits of the American people, has necessarily disturbed the social conditions, and affected very deeply the prosperity of the nations with which we have carried on a commerce that has been stead- ily increasing throughout a period of half a cen- tury. It has, at the same time, excited political ambitions and apprehensions which have produced a profound agitation throughout the civilized world. In this unusual agitation we have fore- borne from taking part in any controversy between foreign states, and between parties or factions in such states. We have attempted no propagandism, and acknowledged no revolution. But we have left to every nation the exclusive conduct and manage- ment of its own affairs. " A return to specie payments, however, at the earliest period compatible with due regard to all interests concerned, should ever be kept in view. Fluctuations in the value of currency are always injurious, and to reduce these fluctuations to the lowest possible point will always be a leading pur- pose in wise legislation. Convertibility, prompt and certain convertibility, into coin is generally His character was based upon truth, ami, having been placed by fortune in the proper sphere of action, he showed he was a truly great man. — Al'rain S. Hewitt. 90 WORDS OF LINCOLN. acknowledged to be the best and surest safeguard against them ; and it is extremely doubtful whether a circulation of United States notes, payable in coin, and sufBciently large for the wants of the people, can be permanently useful and safely maintained. " A nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people, and its laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability: 'one generation passeth away, and another gene- ration Cometh, but the earth abideth forever.' It is of the first importance to duly consider and esti- mate this ever-enduring part. That portion of the earth's surface which is owned and inhabited by the people of the United States is well adapted to be the home of one national family, and it is not well adapted for two or more. Its vast extent and its variety of climate and productions are of advantage in this age for one people, whatever they might have been in former ages. Steam, telegraphs, and in- telligence have brought these to be an advantageous combination for one united people. " There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a national boundary, upon which to divide. Trace through, from east to west, upon the line between the free and slave country, and we shall find a little more than one-third of its length are rivers, easy to be crossed, and populated, or soon to be populated, thickly upon both sides ; while nearly all its remaining length are merely sur- Never before did man raise himself from utter obscurity to a place of such honorable and lasting fame, where he shall stand as long as men keep the record of the great and good. — Henry E. Badger. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 9I veyors' lines, ov^er which people may walk back and forth without any consciousness of their presence. No part of this line can be made any more diflicult to pass by writing it down on paper or parchment as a national boundary. " The fact of separation, if it comes, gives up, on the part of the seceding section, the fugitive slave clause, along with all other constitutional obligations upon the section seceded from, while I should ex- pect no treaty stipulation would ever be made to take its place. " Among the friends of the Union there is a great diversity of sentiment and of policy in regard to slavery and the African race amongst us. bome would perpetuate slavery ; some would abolish it suddenly, and without compensa- tion ; some would abolish it gradually, and with compensation; some would remove the freed people from us, and some would retain them with us ; and there are yet other minor diversities. Because of these diversities, we waste much strength among ourselves. By mutual concession we should harmo- nize and act together. " I do not forget the gravity which should char- acterize a paper addressed to the Congress of the Nation by the Chief Magistrate of the Nation. Nor do 1 forget that some of you are my seniors ; nor that many of you have more experience than I in the conduct of public affairs. Yet I trust that, in view of the great responsibility resting upon me, We feel how grandly secure we were while the star, now hidden in higher splendors, held ufi with its unfailing influences the very struc- ture and frame of the government. — R. S. Sto>-?-s. 92 WORDS OF LINCOLN. you will perceive no want of respect to yourselves in any undue earnestness I may seem to display. *' We cannot escape history. We of this Con- gress and this administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance 1862 ^ . . .r .If or msigmhcance can spare one or another 01 us. The fiery trial through which v.e pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation. " We say that we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — -even we here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. " In giving freedom to the slave, we assure free- dom to the free — honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. " We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not, cannot, fail. " The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just— a way which, if followed, the world will forever ap- plaud, and God must forever bless." LETTER TO HON. FERNANDO WOOD OF NEW YORK, DECEMBER 12, 1862. " If ' the Southern States would send representa- tives to the next Congress ' — to be substantially the same as that ' the people of the Southern States would cease resistance, and would He touched the manacles of four millions of men and women, and in the twinkle of an eye they drop off forever. — //'///. P. F>-yc. WORDS OF LI\C01,N. 93 reinaugurate, submit to, and maintain the national authority within the limits of such States, under the Constitution of the United States,' I say that in such case the war would cease on the part of the United States; and that within a reasonable time, if 'a full and i^eneral amnesty ' w^ere necessary to such end, it would not be withheld." TENDERS THE THANKS OF THE NATION. {Address to the Ar?iiy of the Potomac, December 22, 1S62.) " I have just read your commanding general's preliminary report of the battle of Fredericksburg. Although you were not successful, the at- 1862 tempt was not an error, nor the failure other than an accident. The courage with which you, in an open field, maintained the contest against an intrenched foe, and the consummate skill and success w^ith which you crossed and recrossed the river, in face of the enemy, show that you possess all the qualities of a great army, which will yet give victory to the cause of the country and of popular government. " Condoling with the mourners for the dead, and sympathizing with the severely wounded, I con- gratulate you that the number of both is compara- tively so small. I tender to you, officers and soldiers, the thanks of the nation." When history crystallizes, when the events of a century shall be recorded in a sentence, then will the administration of Lincolr be the epochal marks of his age. — C. E, Pratt. 94 WORDS OF LINCOLN. "THE TIMES ARE DARK— THE MERCY OF GOD ALONE CAN SAVE US." (7(3 Rev. Byron Sunder/and., WasJiingtoii, tvlio called with f fiends during the last days of 1S62.) "I hold myself, in my present position and with the authority vested in me, as an instrument of Providence. I have my own views and pur- ^^^2 -r 1 • ^- ( a\ poses. 1 have my convictions 01 duty, and my notions of what is right to be done. But I am conscious every moment that all I am and all I have is subject to the control of a Higher Power, and that Power can use me or not use me in any manner, and at any time, as in His wisdom and might m.ay be pleasing to Him. These are simply with me the convictions and realities of great and vital truths, the power and demonstration of which I see now in the light of this our national struggle as I have never seen before. "God only knows the issue of this business. He has destroyed nations from the maps of history for their sins. Nevertheless, my hopes prevail generally above my fears for our Republic. The times are dark, the spirits of ruin are abroad in all their power, and the mercy of God alone can save us." Let childhood drop the wreaths of May, Fair woman place choice funeral flowers Above his grandly coffined clay — The palm is his, the cross is ours. — IV. H. C. Hosmer. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 95 EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. {Issiu'd January /, jS6j.) ^' Nozv the7'efore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by virtue of the power vested in me as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, in a time of actual armed rebel- lion against the authority of the Government of the United States, as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of lanuary, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight .undred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the dale of the first above-mentioned order, designate as the States and parts of States therein the people whereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit : " Arkansas, Texas, and Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assump- tion, Terrebonne, La Fourche, St. Mary, St. Martin,, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Caro- lina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty- eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also A nation free shall send thy name Through coming ages down : Thank God, though ours may be the cross, Thine is the victor's crown ! — Mrs. J\. A. Cameron. 96 WORDS OF LINCOLN. the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, EHzabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), which excepted parts are for the present left pre- cisely as if this proclamation were not issued ; and by virtue of the power and for the purpose afore- said, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within designated States, or parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free, and that the Executive Government of the United States, includ- ing the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of the said persons; and I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defense ; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suit- able condition, will be received into the armed ser- vice of the United States, to garrison forts, posi- tions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. " And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judg- ment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." Let the eminence to which he attained, the power he had over men, the almost divine sagacity with which he led them, be an en- couragement to all men who believe in the possibility as well as the necessity of popular government in tiie coming ages of the world. — Joseph R. Hawley. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 9/ "NOT ONE WORD OF IT WILL I EVER RECALL." {Remarks to some friends, concernitig the Emancipation Proc- lamation, N'ew Year's Evening, i86j.) "The signature looks a little tremulous, for my hand was tired, but my resolution was firm. " I told them in September, if they did not return to their allegiance, and cease murdering our soldiers, I would strike at this pillar of their strength. And now the promise shall be kept, and not one word of it will I ever recall." LETTER TO GENERAL SAMUEL R. CUR- TIS, DEPARTMENT OF MISSOURI. {Relative to tJte arrest of a cJiurch-memher wJio sympathized with the Confederate army, January 2, iS6ji) "The United States Government must not, as by this order, undertake to run the churches. When an individual in church, or out of it, be- 1863 , 1 1 1- • 1 comes dangerous to the public interest, he must be checked ; but let the churches, as such, take care of themselves. It will not do for the United States to appoint trustees, supervisors, or other agents for the churches." Whether receiving the plaudits of a country court for a successful defense, or the homage and praise of millions in this and other lands for the liberation of a long-oppressed race and the preservation of the nation's life, he was the same modest, self-forgetting, undated man. — Wilbur F. Paddock. 98 WORDS OF LINCOLN. HIS VOW BEFORE GOD. {Remarks to Secretary S. P. Chase.) " I made a solemn vow before God, that if Gen- eral Lee was driven back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the slaves." PROVIDING FOR THE PAYMENT OF THE ARMY AND NAVY. {Message to Congress, Jaiiuarj ig, i86j, in signing a joint resolution.) " It seems very plain that continued issues of United States notes without any check to the issues of suspended banks, and without adequate ^ provisions for the rai.^ing of money by loans, and for funding the issues so as to keep them within due limits, might soon produce disastrous consequences, and this matter appears to me so im- portant that I feel bound to avail myself of this occasion to ask the special attention of Congress to it. " That Congress has power to regulate the currency of the country can hardly admit of doubt, and that a judicious measure to prevent the deterioration of this currency by a reasonable His native genius, the solidity of his understanding, his common sense, and remarkable sagacity, his patience and courage, his incor- ruptible integrity and steadfast faith in God, made him a noble man. — Hay Palmer. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 99 taxation of bank circulation or otlierwise is needed, seems equally clear. Independent of this general consideration, it would be unjust to the people at large to exempt banks, enjoying the special privilege of circulation, from their just proportion of the public burdens." "BEWARE OF RASHNESS." ( To General Hooker, in giving him command of the Ariny of the Potomac.) " And now, beware of rashness, beware of rash- ness, but, with energy and sleepless vigi- lance, go forward and give us victories." REPLY TO AN ADDRESS FROM THE WORKINGMEN OF MANCHESTER, ENG. {Washington, January ig, iS6j) " I know, and deeply deplore, the sufferings which the workingmen of Manchester, and in all Europe, are called to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously represented that the attempt to overthrow this government, which was built upon the foundation of human rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest exclusively on the basis of human slavery, was likely to obtain the favor of Europe. Through the action of our disloyal citizens, the workingmen of Europe have Abraham Liucoln's cheerfulness and wit were invaUiable to him in the trying years of our civil war ; his unwavering faith tljat good would fioally overcome evil buoyed his spirits throingh the darkest hours. — P. T. Barniim. 100 WORDS OF LINCOLN. been subjected to severe trials, for the purpose of forcing their sanction to that attempt. " Under these circumstances, I cannot but regard your decisive utterances upon the question as an instance of subHme Christian heroism, which has not been surpassed in any age or in any country. It is indeed an energetic and reinspiring assurance of the inherent power of truth, and the ultimate and uni- versal triumph of justice, humanity, and freedom. I do not doubt that the sentiments you have ex- pressed will be sustained by your great nation, and on the other hand I have no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite admiration, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friendship among the American people. I hail this interchange of senti- ment, therefore, as an augury, that, whatever else may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your country or my own, the peace and friendship which now exists between the two nations will be, as it shall be my desire to make them, perpetual." SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. {Given to Mr. F. B. Carpenter by Mr. Lincoln.) " Things had gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing ; that we had about played our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game. His advent and destiny will emblazon history so long as the science of government shall he read and propagated by men„ — H. M. Rector, WORDS OF LINCOLN. lOI " I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation pohcy ; and, without consultation with, or the knowledge of, the cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and, after much anxious thought, called a cabinet meeting upon the subject. This was the last of July, or the first of the month of August, 1862. " I said to the cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject matter of a proclamation before them ; suggestions as to which would be in order after they had heard it read. Various suggestions were offered. " The result was that I put the draft of the proc- lamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory. From time to time I added or changed a line, touching it up here and there, waiting the progress of events. Well, the next news we had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than ever. "Finally came the week of the battle of Antietam. I determined to wait no longer. The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the advantage was on our side. I was then staying at the ' Soldiers' Home.' Here I finished writing the second draft of the pre- liminary proclamation ; came up on Saturday, called the cabinet together to hear it, and it was published the following morning." There is a most unusual simplicity about his life, almost a child's life to the last, yet in the manliest proportions. He had no conceal- ments ; every step which he took in his political education became public property almost as soon as he became aware of it himself.- - /. T. Tucker. I02 WORDS OF LINCOLN. "UNREASONING AND UNCHARITABLE PASSIONS, PREJUDICES, AND JEALOUSIES." {Reply to an invitation to preside over a meeting of the Chris- tian Commission, held in Washington, February 22, iS6j.) " While, for reasons which I deem sufficient, I must dechne to preside, I cannot with- ^ hold my approval of the meeting and its worthy object. " Whatever shall be sincerely and in God's name devised for the good of the soldiers and seamen in their hard spheres of duty, can scarcely fail to be blessed. And whatever shall tend to turn our thoughts from the unreasoning and uncharitable passions, prejudices, and jealousies incident to a great national trouble such as ours, and to fix them on the vast and long-enduring consequences, for weal or for woe, which are to result from the struggle, and especially to strengthen our reliance on the Supreme Being for the final triumph of the right, cannot but be well for us all. " The birthday of Washington and the Christian Sabbath coinciding this year, and suggesting to- gether the highest interests of this life and of that to come, it is the most propitious for the meeting proposed." His eyes had looked upon the stronghold, which had so long defied our armies ; and over it was (he dear old flag ! In one sense, this was a choice hour in which to die ; and in it he died— died with- out pain — sealing with his blood the testimony of his lips and life. — Richard B. Dtiane. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I03 LETTER TO GENERAL HOOKER, MAY 7, 1863, AFTER THE DEFEAT OF HIS ARMY. " Have you already in your mind a plan wholly or partially formed ? If you have, prosecute it without interference from me. If you have 1863 , . r , T • not, please niiorm me, so that i, mcompe- tent as I may be, can try and assist in the formation of some plan for the army." "THE GOVERNMENT MUST BE PERPETUATED." {Reply to a committee of sixty-five members from the General Assembly of Presbyterians, that met in Philadelphia, May, iS6j,and visited the President, presenting him with reso- lutions of endorsement and encouragement.) " In my administration I might have committed some errors. It would be indeed remarkable if I had not. I have acted according to my 1863 , . , . A •, T best judgment in every case. As a pilot i have used my best exertions to keep afloat our Ship of State, and shall be glad to resign my trust at the appointed time to anotlier pilot more skillful and successful than I may prove. In every case, and at all hazards, the Government must be perpetuated. One of the noteworthy features of Lincohi's wonderful life was the manifest deepening of his sense of God's presence and providence dur- ing those later years when he bore the imperiled nation on his heart. — John H. Barrows. I04 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " Relying, as I do, upon the Almighty Power, and encouraged, as I am, by these resolutions which you have just read, with the support which I receive from Christian men, I shall not hesitate to use all the means at my control to secure the termination of this rebellion, and will hope for success." LETTER TO GENERAL JOHN M. SCHOFIELD. {May 24, i86j, in taking coin/nand of t/u Department of the Missouri?^ " Now that you are in the position, I wish you to undo nothing merely because General Curtis or General Gamble did it, but to exercise your own judgment, and do right for the public •interest. Let j^our military measures be strong enough to repel the invader and keep the peace, and not so strong as to unnecessarily harass and persecute the people. " It is a difficult role, and so much greater will be the honor if you perform it well. If both factions, or neither, shall abuse you, you will probably be about right. Beware of being assailed by one and praised by the other." The entire nation felt safer when they heard Abraham Lincoln ask them to pray God to sustain him. He felt his dejiendence on the Most High, and dared not accept so lofty a trust witliout the blessing of the Almighty. — Denis IVortinaii. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I05 REPLY TO ERASTUS CORNING, AND OTHERS, OF NEW YORK. ( If7/(' had protested against the arrest of C. L. J \i//a;/d/gha;//.) ■ " Must I shoot a simple-minded boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agi- tator who induces him to desert? " This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, or brother, or friend into a public meeting, and there working upon his feelings till he is persuaded to write the soldier-boy that he is fighting in a bad cause, for a wicked administration of a contemptible government, too weak to arrest and punish him if he shall desert. " I think that, in such a case, to silence the agi- tator and save the boy is not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy." IN CASE MISSOURI SHOULD ADOPT GRADUAL EMANCIPATION. (Reply to Genera/ ScJiofield, June 22, i86j.) " Desirous as I am that emancipation shall be adopted by Missouri, and believing, as I do, that gradual can be made better than immediate ^ for both black and white, except when God endowed him with a nature as broad as the prairies of his own adopted State, spontaneously blossoming with all kindly graces, even as those prairies bloom with the beauty of countless flowers. — George I06 WORDS OF LINCOLN. military necessity changes the case, my impulse is to say that such protection would be given. I can- not know exactly what shape an act of emancipa- tion may take. If the period from the initiation to the final end should be comparatively short, and the act should prevent persons being sold during that period into more lasting slavery, the whole would be easier. " I do not wish to pledge the General Govern- ment to the affirmative support of even temporary slavery beyond what can be fairly claimed ^ under the Constitution. I suppose, how- ever, this is not desired, but that it is desired for the military force of the United States, while in Missouri, to not be used in subverting the tempo- rarily reserved legal rights in slaves during the prog- ress of emancipation. " This I would desire, also. I have very earnestly urged the slave States to adopt emancipation ; and it ought to be, and is, an object with me not to overthrow or thwart what any of them may, in good faith, do to that end. You are, therefore, authorized to act in the spirit of this letter, in con- junction with what may appear to be the military necessities of your department. " Although this letter will become public some time, it is not intended to be made so now." He was struck down just as the rainbow was spanning the clearing sky, just as he was about to open, in the name of the nation, the bright gates of the Temple of Peace, just when passion was quenching her fires, and the spears and the bow were being broken asunder. — Henry Fox . WORDS OF LINCOLN. IO7 GRATITUDE TO GOD. {^Proclamation, July 4, iSOj.) " The President announces to the country that news from the army of the Potomac, up to 10 P. ^L, of the ^d, is such as to cover that army with 1863 , , . i , . the highest honor ; to promise a great suc- cess to the cause of the Union, and to claim the con- dolence of all for the many gallant fallen ; and that for this he especially desires that on this day. He whose will, not ours, should ever be done, be every- where remembered and ever reverenced with pro- found irratitude." RESPONSE TO A SERENADE AT THE WHITE HOUSE, JULY 7, 1863. {A large crowd 0/ people and a band of music were on hand.) " I am very glad indeed to see you to-night, and yet I will not say I thank you for this call ; but I do most sincerely thank Almighty God for the occasion on which you have called. How long ago is it? — eighty odd years — since, on the Fourth of July, for the first time in the history of the world, a nation by its representatives assembled The next generation will acknowledge that the man who rose from a log cabin to the presidential chair, who led a vast republic through its wilderness of perilous confusions and its red sea of horrible carn- age, was a man who has no superior in the American annals. — Theo- dore L. Curler. I08 WORDS OF LINCOLN. and declared as a self-evident truth, ' that all men are created equal.' That was the birthday of the United States of America. Since then the Fourth of July has had several very peculiar recognitions. " The two men most distinguished in the framing and support of the Declaration were Thomas Jeffer- son and John Adams — the one having penned it and the other sustained it the most forcibly in debate — the only two of the fifty-five who signed it and were elected Presidents of the United States. Precisely fifty years after they put their hands to the paper, it pleased Almighty God to take both from this stage of action. This was indeed an extraordinary and remarkable event in our history. Another President five years after was called from this stage of existence on the same day and month of the year; and now on this last Fourth of July just passed, when we have a gigantic rebellion, at the bottom of which is an effort to overthrow the principle that all men were created equal, we have the surrender of a most powerful position and army on that very day. And not only so, but in a suc- cession of battles in Pennsylvania, near to us, through three days, so rapidly fought that they might be called one great battle, on the ist, 2d, and 3d of the month of July; and on the 4th the cohorts of those who opposed the declaration that all men are created equal, ' turned tail ' and ran. There was a majesty in his character which shone forth on all great occasions ; though oppressed with the weight of responsibilites, he rose above all obstacles and proved himself equal in every emer- gency. — E. D. To7Viisend. WORDS OF LINCOLN. IO9 " Gentlemen, this is a glorious theme and the occasion for a speech, but I am not prepared to make one worthy of the occasion. I would 1863 ... . . r • , like to speak in terms ot praise due to the many brave officers and soldiers who have fought in the cause of the Union and liberties of their country from the beginning of the war. These are trying occasions, not only in success, but for the want of success. I dislike to mention the name of one single officer, lest I might do wrong to those I might forget. Recent events bring up glorious names, and particularly prominent ones; but these I will not mention. Having said this much, I will now take the music." "AS LIKELY TO CAPTURE THE 'MAN IN THE MOON.'" {Dispatch to General T/ionias, at Harrisburg, Pa., July S, iS6j.) " Forces now beyond Carlisle to be joined by regiments still at Harrisburg, and the united force again to join Pierce somewhere, and the whole to move down the Cumberland Valley, will, in my unprofessional opinion, be quite as likely to capture the ' Man in the Moon ' as any part of Lee's Army." The work will be completed after Lincoln, as if finished by him ; but Lincoln will remain the austere and sacred personification of a great epoch, the most faithful expression of democracy. — Henri Martin. no WORDS OF LINCOLN. ACKNOWLEDGMENT TO GENERAL GRANT. {Letter to General Grant, July ij, iS6j.) " I do not remember that you and I ever met per- sonally. I write this now as a grateful ac- ^ knowledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done the country. " I write to say a word further. When you first reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do what you finally did — march the troops across the neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus go below ; and I never had any faith, ex- cept a general hope that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition, and the like, could succeed. When you got below and took Port Gib- son, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go down the river and join General Banks ; and when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. " I now wish to make the personal acknowledg- ment that you were right and I was wrong." A DAY FOR NATIONAL THANKSGIVING, PRAISE, AND PRAYER. {Proc/atnat/on z'ssiied July /J, iS6j.) "It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplication and prayers of an afflicted ^ people, and to vouchsafe to the army and the He became our father, and his tomb is our shrine. — Rufus Blanchard. WORDS OF LINCOLN. Ill navy of the United States, on the land and on the sea, victories so signal and so effective as to furnish reasonable grounds for augmented confidence that the Union of these States will be maintained, their Constitution preserved, and their peace and prosper- ity permanently secured. But these victories have been accorded not without sacrifice of life, limb, and liberty, incurred by brave, patriotic, and loyal citi- zens. Domestic affliction, in every part of the country, follows in the train of these fearful be- reavements. It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty Father; and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs and these sorrows. " Now, therefore, be it known, that I do set apart Thursday, the sixth day of August next, to be ob- served as a day for national thanksgiving, praise, and prayer; and I invite the people of the United States to assemble, on that occasion, in their cus- tomary places of worship, and, in the form approved by their own conscience, render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf, and invoke the influence of His holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has produced, and so long sustained, a needless and cruel rebellion ; to change the hearts of the in- surgents; to guide the counsels of the government with wisdom adequate to so great a national emer- gency ; and to visit with tender care and consolation. His greatness consisted not in the extraordinary development of any one faculty or attribute to the neglect of others, but in a fair and healthy growth of all the elements that make a man in the highest sense of the term — A . B. Bascom. 112 WORDS OF LINCOLN. throughout the length and breadth of our land, all those who, through the. vicissitudes of marches, voy- ages, battles, and sieges, have been brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate ; and finally, to lead the whole nation, through paths of repentance and sub- mission to the Divine will, back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace." IN DISPENSING PATRONAGE THE DIS- ABLED SOLDIER TO HAVE THE PREFERENCE. {Letter to the Postmaster-General, July ^7, iS6j?) "Yesterday little indorsements of mine went to you in two cases of postmasterships, sought for widows, whose husbands have fallen in the battles of this war. These cases, occurring on the same day, brought me to reflect more atten- tively than I had before done as to what is fairly due from us here in the dispensing of patronage to- ward the men who, by fighting our battles, bear the chief burden of saving our country. " My conclusion is that, other claims and qualifica- tions being equal, they have the right, and this is especially applicable to the disabled soldier and the deceased soldier's family." His towering figure, sharp and spare, Was with such nervous tension strung, As if on each strained sinew swung The burden of a people's care. — Charles G. Halpine. WORDS OF LINCOLN. II3 DISPATCH TO GENERAL BURNSIDE AT CINCINNATI, JULY 27, 1863. " General Grant is a copious worker and fighter, but a very meaeer writer or telegrapher." 1863 J' ^ fo F DECLINES AN INVITATION TO ATTEND THE ILLINOIS REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION, SEPTEMBER 3, 1863. (Let/er to J. C. Conkliiig, Springfield, August 26, jS6j.) " The signs look better. The Father of Waters again goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it ; nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey hew- ing their way right and left. The sunny South, too, in more colors than one, also lent a helping hand. On the spot, their part of the history was jotted down in black and white. " The job was a great national one, and let none be slighted who bore an honorable part in it. And while those who cleared the river may well be proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has been more bravely and well done than at Antie- Such love a prince might crave, such homage seek ; The people's love that clothed him like a king, The grateful trust those hands were swift to liring Whose broken fetters of deliverance speak. — Harriet McEwen Kimball. 114 WORDS OF LINCOLN. tarn, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on many fields of less note. " Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet be forgotten. At all the watery margins they have been present. Not only on the deep sea, the broad bay, and the rapid river, but also up the narrow, muddy bayou, and wherever the ground was a little damp, they have been and made their tracks. " Thanks to all. For the great republic— for the piinciple it lives by and keeps alive — for man's vast future — thanks to all. " Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it will come soon, and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all ^^^^ future time. It v/ill then have been proved that, among freemen, there can be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. " And there will be some black men who can remember that, with silent tongue, and clinched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonets, they have helped mankind on to this great consum- mation, while I fear there vv-ill be some white ones unable to forget that, with malignant heart and deceitful speech, they have striven to hinder it. " Still, let us not be over-sanguine of a speedy final triumph. Let us be quite sober. Let us dili- gently apply the means, never doubting that a just The death of M-. Lincohi struck the ear and awoke the sympatliy of European nations, which echoed back, through numerous expres- sions of condolence, the commingled tones of a wide-spread grief. — /. 3f. Fun ;i ion. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I15 God, in His own y^ood time, will give us the rightful result." CONGRATULATING THE PRESIDENT ON ISSUING THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. {Speech to a large body of people 10/10 assembled before tlie White House, September 24, iS6j.) " What I did, I did after a very full determination, and under a very heavy and solemn sense of re- sponsibility. I can only trust in God I have 1863 ^ , \ . ^ made no mistake. " It is now for the country and the world to pass judgment, and, maybe, take action upon it. In my position, I am environed with difficulties. Yet they are scarcely so great as the difficulties of those who, upon the battlefield, are endeavoring to purchase, with their blood and their lives, the future happi- ness and prosperity of their country. Let us never forget them ! " PARDON FOR A DESERTER. {Reviarks to Hon. SeJiuyler CoIfa.\\ who asked for a respite) " Some of our generals complain that I impair discipline and subordination in the army by my pardons and respites, but it makes me rested, after a day's hard work, if I can find He united in his nature the rugged enchirance of the oal-:, with the yielding grace and humility of the willow. — C. F. Burdick. Il6 WORDS OF LINCOLN. some good excuse for saving a man's life ; and I go to bed happy as I think how joyous the signing of my name makes him and his family and his friends." REFUSAL TO PARDON A MAN FOR IMPORTING SLAVES. {Reply to Mr. Alley., ivho read a petition for the viands pardon^ " You know my weakness is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals for mercy ; and, if this man were guilty of the foulest murder that ^^^•^ the arm of man could perpetrate, I might forgive him on such an appeal ; but the man who could go to Africa, and rob her of her children, and sell them into interminable bondage, with no other motive than that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is so much worse than the most depraved murderer that he can never receive pardon at my hands." PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING DAY. {Issued October j, tS6j.) "The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which ^^^^ are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone History furnishes scarcely a parallel to the character of this greatest of reformers. — nVj/<'j' Mrrrill. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 11/ to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful Providence of Almighty God. " In the midst of a civil war of unequaled mag- nitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggression of foreign states, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict. "The needful diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense has not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship. " The ax has enlarged the borders of our settle- ments, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Popula- tion has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made by the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. " No human jcouncil hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out, these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, When all seemed dark — not a ray of sunshine, or even the faintest flicker of a star could he seen penetrating the political firmament — he stood undisturbed. — Lc^vis H. Steiuer. Il8 WORDS OF LINCOLN. while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. " It seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverentially, and gratefully acknowl- edged as with one heart and voice, by the whole American people. "I recommend too, that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliv- erances and blessings, they do also, with 1863 , , , ., c .-1 humble penitence tor our national perverse- ness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union." "THE REBELLION MUST DWINDLE AND DIE." (Letter to Gen'.ral Rosecrans, Chattanooga, Teiin., October 4, iS6j.) " If we can hold Chattanooga and East Tennes- see, I think the rebellion must dwindle and die. I understand the main body of the army is very near you — so near that you could Mr. Lincoln's part in subduing the Rebellion will be better appre- ciated as time clears away the mist of race prejudice and the fogs of political intrigues. — Ben. Perley Pooie. WORDS OF LINCOLN. II9 ' board at home,' so to speak, and menace or attack him any day. Would not the doing of this be your best mode of counteracting" his raids on your com- munications? But this is not an order." A PERPLEXING COMPOUND— AFFAIRS IN MISSOURI. {Letter to Hon. Charles D. Drake, October j, /S6j.) " We are in civil war. In such cases there is a main question ; but in this case that question is a perplexing compound, union and slavery. 1S63 T 1 I • r ^ it thus becomes a question, not ot two sides merely, but at least four sides even among those who are for the Union, saying nothing of those who are against it. " Thus, those who are for the Union with, but not without slavery ; those for it without, but not with ; those for it with or without, but prefer it with ; and those for it with or without, but prefer it without. Among these, again, is a subdivision of those who are for gradual, but not for immediate, and those who are for immediate, but not for gradual, extinction of slavery. " It is easy to conceive that all these shades of opinion, and even more, may be sincerely enter- He fell in the very height of glory. Just re-established in the presidential chair by the overwhelming choice of his countrymen, rising into the profound respect of the civilized world, permitted to see his long watchings and toils crowned with success. — -yo/m E. Todd. 120 WORDS OF LINCOLN. tained by honest and truthful men ; yet all being for the Union, by reason of these differences, each will prefer a different way of sustaining the Union. At once sincerity is questioned and motives are assailed. " Actual war coming, blood grows hot and blood is spilled ; thought is forced from all channels into confusion ; deception breeds and thrives, ■^ confidence dies, and universal suspicion reigns. Each man feels an impulse to kill his neighbor, last he be first killed by him ; revenge and retaliation follow, and all this, as before said, may be among honest men only. But this is not all ; every foul bird comes abroad and every dirty reptile rises up. These add crime to confusion. Strong measures, deemed indispensable, but harsh at best, such men make worse by maladministration. " Murders for old grudges and murders for pelf proceed under any cloak that will best cover for the occasion. These causes amply account for what has occurred in Missouri. " The evils now complained of were quite as prev- alent under Fremont, Hunter, Halleck, and Curtis as under Schofield. "Without disparaging any, I afifirm with confi- dence that no commander of that department has, in proportion to his means, done better than General Schofield." It was his task, as it is every man's, to hew from out a mass of shapeless stuff a name, a character, and influence. But how many find their marble ready and their tools at hand ? It was not so with him. He was ol^liged to quarry his material and to fashion his tools. —John IF. Chaihvick. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 121 HIS MOTHER'S PRAYERS. ( IVorcIs tittered to a friend^ " I remember her prayers, and they have always followed me. They have clung to me all my life." LETTER TO GENERAL HALLECK, OCTOBER i6, 1863. " If General Meade can now attack him on a field no more than equal for us, and will do so with all the skill and courage which he, his officers, and men possess, the honor will be his if he succeeds, and the blame may be mine if he fails." ADDRESS ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG. (At the dedication of the cemetery, November ig, iS6j) " Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, con- ceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. With a trusting, noble, fearless heart he had never hesitated to mingle with the people. He had gone to the front, and made himself accessible to all at home. He had shown himself ready to answer every reasonable summons, and was not afraid of any living man. — A. S. Patton. 122 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing" whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for tiiose who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. *' But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." President Lincoln displayed a character of so much integrity, sin- cerity, and straightforwardness, and, at the same time, of so much kindness, that if anyone could have been able to alleviate the pain and animosity which have prevailed during the Civil War, I be- lieve President Lincoln was the man to have done it. — Lord John Russell. WORDS OF I.TNCOLN, 1 23 ASKED GOD FOR VICTORY AT GETTYSBURG. {To General Sickles, when he asked Mr. Lincoln what lie thought of Gettysburg.) " I had no fears of Gettysburg, and if you really want to know I tell you why. " In the stress and pinch of the campaign there, I went to my room, and got down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for victory at Gettysburg. " I told Him that this was His country, and the war was His war, but that we really couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. "And then and there I made a solemn vow with my Maker that if he would stand by the boys at Gettysburg I would stand by Him. And He did, and I will. "After this, I don't know how it was, and it is not for me to explain, but, somehow or other, a sweet comfort crept into my soul, that God Al- mighty had taken the whole thing into His own hands, and we were bound to win at Gettys- burg. " No ; General Sickles, I had no fears of Gettys- burg, and that is the why." I know that Mr. Lincoln, as President of the United States, war- ranted the hope that in the hour of victory, and in the triumph of victory, he would have shown that wise forbearance and that gener- ous consideration which would have added tenfold luster to the fame that he had already acquired amid the varying fortunes of the war. — Sir George Grey. 124 WORDS OF LINCOLN, CONTINUED DEPENDENCE ON THE ARMY AND NAVY. {^Third annual Message to Congress^ December 8, i86j.) " In the midst of other cares, however important, we must not lose sight of the fact that the war power is still our main reliance. To that power alone can we look, yet for a time, to give confidence to the people in the contested re- gions that the insurgent power will not again over- run them. Until that confidence shall be established, little can be done anywhere for what is called recon- struction. Hence our chiefest care must still be directed to the army and navy, who have thus far borne their harder part so nobly and well. "And it maybe esteemed fortunate that, in giving the greatest efficiency to these indispensable arms, we do also honorably recognize the gallant men, from commander to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom, more than to others, the world must stand indebted for the home of freedom, disen- thralled, regenerated, enlarged, and perpetuated." PLEA FOR THE COLORED PEOPLE. {Letter, Jafiuary if, 1S64, to Michael Halin, governor- elect of Louis/ana.) " I congratulate you on having fixed your naine in history as the first Free State Governor of Loui- siana, Now you are about to have a con- vention, which, among other things, will I am sure, as millions have said, that, take him for all in all, we never shall look upon his like again. — -f. IV, Forney. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 1 25 probably define the elective franchise, I barely sug- gest, for your private consideration, whether some of the colored people may not be let in, as, for instance, the very intelligent, and especially those who have foiigJit gallantly in our ranks. " They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom." U. S. GRANT COMMISSIONED LIEUTEN- ANT GENERAL. {/Remarks at the pyescntation of tJie commission, March g, 1864.) *' The nation's appreciation of what you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to be done in the existing great struggle, 1864 , . , ^ • ir^S > are now presented with this commission, constituting you Lieutenant General in the Army of the United States. With this high honor devolves upon you also a corresponding responsibility. " As the country herein trusts you, so under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely need to add that, with what I here speak for the nation, goes my own hearty personal concurrence." Some of the grandest flights of oratory the world has ever wit- nessed have been manifested on the great occasions which called men together during our great war, but none of them have so taken the popular heart as the homely phrases of Abraham Lincoln. — Richard Eddy. 126 WORDS OF LINCOLN. GENERAL GRANTS REPLY. " I accept this commission, with gratitude for the high honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields 1864 ^ . -^ for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to disappoint your expecta- tions. I feel the full weight of the responsibilities now devolving on me, and I know if they are met, it will be clue to those armies ; and above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations and men." GOD BLESS THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. (^Speech at a Ladies' Fair for the benefit of t lie soldiers, Washington, March 16, 1S64.) " I appear to say but a word This extraordinary war in which we are engaged falls heavily upon all classes of people, but the most heavily upon the soldiers. For it has been said, 'All that a man hath will he give for his life,' and, while all contribute of their substance, the soldier puts his life at stake, and often yields it up in his country's cause. T/te higJicst merit, thoi, is due the soldier. " In this extraordinary war extraordinary devel- By patient culture, step by step he rose From the rude cabin of the liumblest poor ; Wrestling from year to year with Life's stern foes, Till Victory opened wide her crystal door. — -John IVestall. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I27 opments have manifested themselves, such as have not been seen in former wars ; and, among these manifestations, nothing has been more remarkable than these fairs for the relief of suffering soldiers and their families, and the chief agents in these fairs are the women of America ! " I am not accustomed to the use of language of eulogy; I have never studied the art of paying compliments to women ; but I must say that, if ail- that has been said by orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise of women were ap- plied to the women of America, it would not do them justice for their conduct during the war. " I will close by saying, God bless the women of America ! " PARDON FOR A SLEEPING SENTRY. {Remarks made by Mr. Lincoln to a friend as he read the pardon.) [Rev. Newman Hall of England said, in a sermon preached after the President's death, that the dead body of this youth was found amono- the 186 J. slain on the battlefield of Fredericksburg, wearing next to his heart a photograph of his pre- server, beneath which the grateful fellow had writ- ten, " God bless President Lincoln."] Our hearts are sad, our eyes are dim ; We lioped long years of rest for him, To enjoy the peace for which he wrought, The peace with his own life-blood bought. — S. G. IV. Benjamin. 128 WORDS OF LINCOLN. " I could not think of going into eternity with the blood of the poor young man on my skirts. It is not to be wondered at that a boy raised on a farm, probably in the habit of going to bed at dark, should, when required to watch, fall asleep ; and I cannot consent to shoot him for such an act." "ALREADY TOO MANY WEEPING / WIDOWS." {Reply to a grneral who insisted on the President signing the warrants for the execution of twetityfour deserters) " There are already too many weeping widows in the United States. For God's sake, ^ don't ask me to add to the number, for I won't do it." REPLY TO A PLEA FOR THE LIFE OF A SOLDIER. " Well, I think the boy can do us more good above the cfound than under it." "GOD ALONE CAN CLAIM IT." {Letter to A. G. Hodges, April 4, JS64.) " I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainl}' that events have con- trolled me. Pure in life and motive, inflexible in his purpose to do right as he understood it. — John B. Gough. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 1 29 " Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what either party or any man devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. "If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also, that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new causes to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God." INTEREST IN THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. {To Hon. Elisha H. Allen ^ Envoy Ex/raordina7y from the Islands, April 11, 1S64.) " In every light in which the state of the Hawaiian Islands can be contemplated, it is an object of pro- found interest for the United States. Vir- 1864 II • 1 T • tually it was once a colony. It is now a near and intimate neighbor. It is a haven of shelter and refreshment for our merchants, fishermen, sea- men, and other citizens, when, on their lawful occasions, they are navigating the eastern seas and oceans. Its people are free, and its laws, language, and religion are largely the fruit of our own teaching and example. The distinguished part which you, Mr. Minister, have acted in the history of that interesting country is well known here. It gives me pleasure to assure you of my sincere desire to No American president had ever spoken words like these to the American people. America never h.ad a president who found such words in the depths of his heart.— t";?;/ Schiirz. 130 WORDS OF LINCOLN. do what I can to render now your sojourn in the United States agreeable to yourself, satisfactory to your sovereign, and beneficial to the Hawaiian people." PRAISE FOR THE COLORED SOLDIER. {Letter to General James S. IVadswort/i, 1S64.) " How to better the condition of the colored race has long been a study which has attracted my seri- ous and careful attention ; hence I think ^^^"* I am clear and decided as to what course I shall pursue in the premises, regarding it as a religious duty, as the nation's guardian of these people who have so heroically vindicated their man- hood on the battlefield, where, in assisting to save the life of the Republic, they have demonstrated their right to the ballot, which is but the humane protection of the flag they have so fearlessly de- fended." SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF A FAIR. {For the benefit of the U. S. Sanitary Coinin/ssion^ Baltimore, April /S, 1S64.) " Calling to mind that we are in Baltimore, we cannot fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon these many people I see assembled ■* here, to serve as they best may the soldiers He rose, not like a blazing comet that rushes through the sky and is gone, but like a star, gradually rising with increasing luster, until he covered the whole nation with a sheen of glory. — S. L. Yourtce. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I31 of the Union, it at once occurs to nie that, three years ago, the same soldiers could not so much as pass through Baltimore. The change from then till now is both great and gratifying. I would say, Blessings upon the men who have wrought the change, and the fair women who strive to reward them for it. " When the war began, three years ago, neither party nor any man expected it would last till now. Each looked for the end, in some way, long ere to-day. Neither did any anticipate that domestic slavery would be much affected by the war. But here we are : the war has not ended, and slavery has been much affected — how much need not now be recounted. So true it is that man proposes and God disposes. "The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all de- 1864 , r 1-1 Clare tor liberty, but m using the same ivord we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself and the product of his labor; while to others the same w^ord may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. " Here are two not only different, but incom- patible things, called by the same name— liberty. And it follows that each of these things is, bv the He makes his father's home, helps build his house and fence his farm, and immortalizes that humlile form of labor which renders the title of " rail-splitter " a patent of America's nobility.— ^//jj- Ewwa Hardii2ge 132 WORDS OF LINCOLN. respective parties, called by two different and incom- patible names — liberty and tyranny. " The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep's throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator ; while the wolf denounces him for 1864 , , , r 1-1 i the same act, as the destroyer ot liberty, es- pecially as the sheep was a black one. Plainly, the sheep and the wolf are not agreed upon a definition of the word liberty, and precisely the same differ- ence prevails to-day among us human creatures, even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. " At the beginning of the war, and for some time, the use of colored troops was not contemplated ; and how the change of purpose was wrought, I will not now take time to explain. Upon a clear con- struction of duty, I resolved to turn that element of strength to account; and I am responsible for it to the American people, to the Christian world, to history, and on my final account to God." CONSIDERS GRANT VIGILANT AND SELF-RELIANT. {Letter to Lieut c nan t General Grant, April jo, 1S64.) " Not expecting to see you before the spring cam- paign opens, I wish to express in this way my en- tire satisfaction with what you have done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The For the flights of impassioned oratory, his emotional nature was too sluggish, or too carefully repressed ; but in tenderness and pathos, he felt his way to the heart with a success that genius might envy. — William Biiniey. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 1 33 particulars of your plans I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self-reliant ; and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any re- straints or constraints upon you. " While I am very anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men in great numbers shall be avoided, I know that these points are less likely to escape your attention than they would mine. If there be anything wanting, which is within my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. "And now, with a brave army, and a just cause, may God sustain you." RESTORING THE UNION THE SOLE PUR- POSE OF THE WAR. " There have been men base enough to propose to me to return to slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson and Olustee, and thus win the re- spect of the masters they fought. Should I do so, I should deserve to be damned in time and eternity. Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe. " My enemies pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. So long as I am President, it shall be carried on for the sole pur- pose of restoring the Union. " But no human power can subdue this rebellion His constant touch and sympathy with the people inspired the confidence which enabled him to command and wield all the forces of the republic. — Chamiccy M. Depew. 134 WORDS OF LINCOLN. without the use of the emancipation policy and every other policy calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion." ADVICE TO AN OFFICER WHO HAD BEEN COURT-MARTIALED FOR QUARRELING. " No man resolved to make the most of himself can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right ; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog than be bitten by him in con- testing for the right ; even killing the dog would not cure the bite." "GOD BLESS ALL THE CHURCHES." ( To a coDwiittee from the Methodist Conference, held in Philadelphia, May, 1864.) " Nobly sustained as the government has been by all the churches, I would utter nothing which might, in the least, appear invidious against any. Yet without this it may fairly be said that He was a faithfiiLhusband and a kind father. All his virtues were homebred, and a domestic sweetness flavored his public acts. He was too much a father to conduct the pitiless discipline of an armv;. If a tired boy fell asleep on guard, he had not the heart to have him shot. — Geo. L. Chaney. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 135 the Methodist Episcopal Church, not less devoted than the rest, is, by its greater numbers, the most important of all. " It is no fault in others that the Methodist Church sends more soldiers to the field, more nurses to the hospital, and more prayers to heaven than any. " God bless the Methodist Church ! bless all the churches, and blessed be God ! who, in this, our great trial, giveth us the churches." PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. ( To friends of Union and Liberty^ May g. 1S64.) " Enough is known of army operations, within the last five days, to claim our special gratitude to God ; while what remains undone demands 1864 4. 1 r our most sincere prayers to and reliance upon Him, without whom all effort is vain. " I recommend that all patriots at their homes, in their places of public worship, and wherever they may be, unite in common thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God." The Martyr President seals with his blood the emancipation of a race, and grasping four millions of broken coffles, ascends to the bosoi)^ of his God, thus consecrating the land of Washington as the home of tlie emigrant and the asylum of the oppressed of every clime and of ".11 races of men. — Galas /la .7. Gro7o. 136 WORDS OF LINCOLN. RESPONSE TO A SERENADE AT THE WHITE HOUSE. {May I J, 1864, in honor of the victory luon by Grant and his army.) " I am indeed very grateful to the brave men who have been struggHng with the enemy in the field, to their noble commanders, who have ^ directed them, and especially to our Maker. While we are grateful to all the brave men and ofificers for the events of the past few days, we should, above all, be very grateful to Almighty God, who gives us victory. " There is enough yet before us requiring all loyal men and patriots to perform their share of the labor and follow the example of the modest general at the head of our armies, and sink all personal consideration for the sake of the country." A PESENTIMENT. {Remarks to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe) " Whichever way it ends, I have the impres- sion that I shall not last long after it is 1864 over. He was not only the head of an administration which shaped events, the mightiest of the century, but its balance wheel also. The Ameri- can people owe to him that the important steps in tlie war for the preservation of the Union were taken just at the fitting moment.— Eusit'iie Hale. Photo by Coe, VVushtitg^ton. CHAIR IX WHICH PRESIDEXT LINCOLN WAS SP^ATED WHEN ASSASSINATED. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 137 WOULD WILLINGLY EXCHANGE PLACES WITH THE SOLDIER. ( To Hon. Schuyler Colfax, upon receiving bad news from tJie army.) " How willingly would I exchange places to-day with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the Army of the Potornac ! " STORY-TELLING WAS A RELIEF. ( To a Co?igressnian who objected to the President telling a story ivhen he had important business to present .) " You cannot be more anxious than I am con- stantly ; and I say to you now, that if 1864 . ' r , • • , T it were not tor this occasional vent, 1 should die." "FIRM BET.IEF IN AN OVERRULING PROVIDENCE." {Interview with Rev. J. T. Duryea of New York) "If it were not for my firm belief in an over- ruling Providence, it would be difficult for me, in the midst of such complications of affairs, 1864 , . X^ T to keep my reason on its seat. But 1 am I think I never saw a face from which it was so easy to get a like- ness that all would recognize, and yet would so little represent the man in his entireness. One artist only in a thousand could fairly represent it. — .S". C Thrall. 138 WORDS OF LINCOLN. confident that the Ahiiighty has His plans and will work them out ; and, whether we see it or not, they will be the wisest and best for us. I have always taken counsel of Him, and refer to Him my plans, and have never adopted a course of proceeding without being assured, as far as I could be, of His approbation. To be sure. He has not conformed to my desires, or else we should have been out of our trouble long ago. " On the other hand. His will does not seem to agree with the wish of our enemy over there [point- ing across the Potomac]. He stands the judge between us, and we ought to be willing to accept His decisions. We have reason to anticipate that it will be favorable to us, for our cause is right." ANYTHING TO STRENGTHEN AND SUS- TAIN GENERAL GRANT. {Answer to an ini'itaiion /o attend a }iieeting in Nezv York City, June 4, 1S64, to express gratitude to General Grant and the soldiers under his command.) " I approve, nevertheless, of whatever may tend to strengthen and sustain General Grant and 1864 , , , . ,,.,.. the noble armies now under his direction. " My previous high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now con- He seized intuitively upon the vital point of every quebtion, clearly stated the real issue, ranged all subordinate facts round this, and summarily discarded everything which had no relation to it. — Mar- vin A". Vincent . WORDS OK LINCOLN. I 39 ductine^. while the magnitude and difficulty of the task before him do not prov^e less than I expected. " He and his brave soldiers are now in the midst of their great trial, and I trust that at your meeting you will so shape your good words that they may turn to men and guns, moving to his and their support." SECOND NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. {Rt'spOHse to an address by George W. Dcnm'son, Presidetit of the National Republican Convention at Baltimore, noti- fying^ Mr. Lincoln of his nomination. The connnitiee met at the Wliite House on the gth of June, 1864.) " I will neither conceal my gratification, nor restrain the expression of my gratitude, that the Union people throughout this country, in the continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me not unworthy to remain in my present position." TO A DELEGATION OF THE NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE. (At the White House, June g, 1S64.) " I can only say, in response to the kind remarks of your chairman, as I suppose, that I am very grateful for the renewed confidence which has been accorded to me both by the Con- He looked wide, and he looked deep, and he looked all around, and he looked inside and outside, and he looked many times before he came to a conclusion. — C. M. Biitlcr. I40 WORDS OF LINCOLN. vention and by the National League. I am not insensible to all the personal compliment there is in this, and yet I do not allow myself to believe that any but a small portion of it is to be appropriated as a personal compliment ; that really the conven- tion and the Union League assembled with a higher view — that of taking care of the interests of the country for the present and the great future — and that the part I am entitled to appropriate as a compliment is only that part which I may lay hold of as being the opinion of the Convention and of the League, that I am not entirely unworthy to be intrusted with the place which I have occupied for the last three years. " But I do not allow myself to suppose that either the Convention or the League have concluded to decide that I am either the greatest or best man in America, but rather they have concluded that it is not best to swap horses while crossing the river, and have further concluded that I am not so poor a horse that they might not make a botch of it in trying to swap." DISPATCH TO GENERAL GRANT, JUNE 15, 1864. "Have just read your dispatch of (1.30 P. M.) yesterday. I begin to see it; you will suc- ceed. God bless you all ! " He was one of the people. He was in sympathy with them. He would never plant a thorn unnecessarily in any man's breast. He laid his large heart alongside that of the people, and every pulsation of the one found a responsive thrill in the other. — Richard S. Field. WORDS OK LINCOLN. 14I "GOING THROUGH ON THIS LINE, IF IT TAKES THREE YEARS MORE." {Speech at a P/u'ladc/p/tza Fair for the benefit of the soldiers, fune 18, 1S64.) "War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in its magnitude and its duration is one of the most terrible. It has deranged business totally in many localities, and partially in all locali- ties. It has destroyed property and ruined homes; it has produced a national debt and taxation unpre- cedented, at least in this country ; it has carried mourning to almost every home, until it can almost be said that the 'heavens are hung in black.* "Yet the war continues, and several relieving co- incidents have accompanied it from the very begin- ning, which have not been known, as I understand, or have any knowledge of, in any former wars in the history of the world. "The sanitary commission, with all its benevolent labors; the Christian commission, with all its Chris- tian and benevolent labors, and the various places, arrangements, so to speak, and institutions, have contributed to the comfort and relief of the soldiers. " It is a pertinent question, often asked in the mind privately, and from one to the other: ' When is the war to end ?' Surely I feel as deep an inter- est in this question as any other can, but I do not He was murdered at the very hour when he was bending the energies of his clear head and generous heart to the great work of heahng the wounds of the nation and restoring the breaches made by the Rebellion. — Robert R. Booth. 142 WORDS OF LINCOLN. wish to name a day, a month, or a year when it is to end. I do not wish to run any risk of seeing the time come without our being ready for the end, for fear of disappointment because the time has come and not the end. " We accepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that object is attained. Under God, / hope it never will end until that time ! •' Speaking of the present campaign. General Grant is reported to have said, ' I am going through on this line, if it takes all summer.' This ^ war has taken three years; it was begun, or accepted, upon the line of restoring the national authority over the whole national domain ; and for the American people, as far as my knowledge en- ables me to speak, I say we are going through on this line, if it takes three years more." ACCEPTANCE OF THE NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY. {Letter, itaied June i>7, 1864, to Hon. Wni. Denii/son, Presi- dent Rcpubliean Nat/onat Convention.) " The nomination is gratefully accepted, as the resolutions of the Convention, called the platform, are heartily approved. I am especially ^ ^"^ gratified that the soldiers and seamen were His fullness of anecdote, so efTective in quickening the pulse and cheering the heart, served a most valuable ulterior end, in compassing all the elements of a forcible argument, and carrying deep conviction to his auditory. — A. A. Miner. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 1 43 not forgotten by the Convention, as they forever must, and will, be remembered by the <^rateful country for whose salvation they devote their lives." "OUR CAUSE IS JUST, AND GOD IS ON OUR SIDE." {Reply to a company of clergymen.^ " My hope of success in this great and terrible struggle rests on that immutable foundation, the justice and goodness of God. And when events are very threatening and prospects very dark, I still hope in some way, which man can- not see, all will be well in the end, because our cause is just, and God is on our side."' REGARDING PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. The following paper was sent by the President, July 18, 1864, to the Confederate commissioners at Niagara Falls, who were empowered to negotiate peace : "Any propositions which embrace the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which come by and with an authority that can control His noble qualities inspired generous confidence and commanded general respect, and his successful administration will be evidence, in all time to come, of his own worth and the wisdom of his measures, — Lewis Cass. 144 WORDS OF LINCOLN. the armies now at war against the United States, will be received and considered by the Executive Government of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points ; and the bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe conduct both ways." TO A COMMITTEE FROM THE GENERAL SYNOD OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH, AUGUST, 1864. " I welcome here the representatives of the Evan- gelical Lutherans of the United States. I accept, with gratitude, their assurance of the sym- ■^ pathy and support of that enlightened, in- fluential, and loyal class of my fellow-citizens in an important crisis, which involves, in my judgment, not only the civil and religious liberties of our own dear land, but in a large degree the civil and re- ligious liberties of mankind in many countries, and through many ages. " You well know, gentlemen, and the world knows, how reluctantly I accepted this issue of battle forced upon me, on my advent to this place, by the internal enemies of our country. You all may recollect that in taking up the sword thus forced into our hands, this government appealed to the He had found slavery in the Constitution that he had sworn to maintain ; as president, he had not the right, therefore, to touch it. But this same Constitution gave tlie president the right to seize the pioperty of the enemy, and to take all measures necessary for the suppression of the Rebellion. — Edouard Labonlaye. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I45 prayers of the pious and the good, and declared that it placed its whole dependence upon the favor of God. " I now humbly and reverently, in your presence, reiterate the acknowledgment of that dependence, not doubting that if it shall please the Divine Being who determines the destinies of nations, this shall remain a united people. They will, humbly seeking the Divine guidance, make their prolonged national existence a source of new benefits to themselves and their successors, and to all classes and conditions of mankind." ^HOLD ON WITH A BULLDOG GRIP." {^Dispatch to General Grant ^ August ly, 1S64.) " I have seen your dispatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog grip." MR. LINCOLN SEEKS RELAXATION. Seeking relaxation from the engrossing cares which confronted him night and day, Mr. Lincoln remarked to Schuyler Colfax, as he went to 1864 . -^ the theater one evening after receiving in- His words were ^clothed with the force of the law ; his hand was upon the secret spring of a nation's energies ; his opinions were scanned and weighed as the foreshadowing of the settled policy of a re-integrated republic. On his will and purpose largely depended the peace of the world. — A. N. Liitlejohn. 146 WORDS OF LINCOLN. telligence of what he regarded as reverses to the army of General Grant in the Wilderness : " People may think strange of it, but I must have some relief from this terrible anxiety, or it will kill me." ANSWER TO AN APPLICATION FOR PARDON. The following reply was made by Mr. Lincoln to an application for the pardon of a soldier who had shown himself very brave in war, and had been severely wounded, but afterward deserted : "Did you say he was once badly wounded? Then, as the Scriptures say that in the shed- ding of blood is the remission of sins, I guess we'll have to let him off this time." "STAND FAST TO THE UNION AND THE OLD FLAG." {^Speech to the 148th Ohio Iiifantjy Regzinent.) ■' It is vain and foolish to arraign this man or that for the part he has taken or has not taken, and to hold the Government responsible for his acts. In no administration can there be 1864 Inured to hardships, poverty, and toil, He coolly parried each successive foil ; Shirking no duty, shrinking from no pain, So Truth and Mercy might supremely reign. — Airs. Caroline A. Hayden. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I47 perfect equality of action and uniform satisfaction rendered by all. " But this Government must be preserved in spite of the acts of any man or set of men. It is worthy your every effort. Nowhere in the world is presented a government of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest and poorest among us are held out the highest privileges and positions. The present moment finds me at the White House, yet there is as good a chance for your children as there was for my father's. " Again I admonish you not to be turned from your stern purpose of defending our beloved coun- try and its free institutions by any arguments urged by ambitious and designing men, but stand fast to the Union and the old flag." "WE WILL CARRY OUT THE WORK WE HAVE COMMENCED." {Speech to the 164th Ohio Infantry Regiment, September, 1864.) "There is more involved in this contest than is realized by everyone. There is involved in this struggle the question whether your children and my children shall enjoy the privileges we have enjoyed. I say this in order to impress " Forgive them, for they know not what they do ! " He said, and so went shriven to his fate : Unknowing went, that generous heart and true, Even while he spake the slayer lay in wait. — Edmund C. Stt'dman. 148 WORDS OF LINCOLN. upon you, if you are not already so impressed, that no small matter should divert you from your great purpose. There may be some inequalities in the practical application of our system. It is fair that each man shall pay taxes in exact proportion to the value of his property; but if we should wait before collecting a tax to adjust the taxes upon each man in exact proportion with every other man, we should never collect any tax at all. " There may be mistakes made. Sometimes things may be done wrong, while the officers of the Government do all they can to prevent mis- takes ; but I beg of you, as citizens of this great republic, not to let your minds be carried off from the great work we have before us. " The struggle is too large for you to be diverted from it by any small matter. When you return to your homes, rise up to the dignity of a generation of men worthy of a free government, and we will carry out the work we have commenced." INDEBTED TO THE CHRISTIAN PEOPLE. {Letter to Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney, September jo, 1864.) " I have not forgotten, probably never shall, the very impressive occasion when yourself and friends visited me on a Sabbath forenoon two years ago. Nor shall your kind letter, written He was the greatest president in American history, because in a time of revolution he comprehended the spirit of American institu- tions. — Lyman Abbott. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 149 nearly a year later, ev^er be forgotten. In all, it has been your purpose to strengthen my reliance in God. I am much indebted to the good Christian people of the country for their constant prayers and consolations, and to no one of them more than to yourself. " The purposes of the Almighty are perfect and must prevail, though we erring mortals may fail to accurately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy termination of this terrible war long before this, but God knows best, and has ruled otherwise. " We shall yet acknowledge His wisdom and our own errors therein ; meanwhile we must work ear- nestly in the best light He gives us, trusting that so working still conduces to the great ends He ordains. Surely He intends some great good to follow this almighty convulsion, which no mortal could make, and no mortal could stay. " Your people, the Friends, have had, and are having, very great trials. On principles and faith opposed to both war and oppression, they can only practically oppose oppression by war. In this hard dilemma, some have chosen one horn and some the other. For those appealing to me on conscientious grounds I have done and shall do the best I could and can in my own conscience, under my oath to the law. That you believe this I No college claims him as its alumnus. His alma mater was fixed by Providence amid the woods and waters of the then far West. His days were spent in hard and ill-remunerating toil, and few indeed were the hours that could be spared for what is called intellectual improvement. — J. J. Caynithers. I50 WORDS OF LINCOLN. doubt not, and believe I shall still receive for my country and myself your earnest prayers to our Father in heaven." "THE BEST GIFT WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN MAN." {Reply to a committee of loyal colored people of Baltimore, ivho presented the President wit/i a Bible, October, 1S64.) " I can only say now, as I have often said before, that it has always been a sentiment with me that all mankind should be free. So far as I have 1864 . been able, or so far as came within my sphere, I have always acted as I believed was right and just, and have done all I could for the good of mankind. I have in letters and documents sent forth from this office expressed myself better than I can now. " In regard to the Great Book I have only to say that it is the best gift which God has given man. " All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this book. But for this book we could not know right from wrong. All those things desirable to man are contained in it." Our children shall behold his fame. The kindly, earnest, foreseeing man, Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame. New birth of new soil, the first American. — fames I\!tssell Lowell. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 15I REGARDING MARYLAND'S PROPOSED NEW CONSTITUTION. (^Letter to Henry IV. Hoffman, of Maryland, October iS, 1S64.) " A convention of Maryland has formed a new constitution for the State ; a public meeting is called for this evening at Baltimore, to aid 1S64 , , , _ ^ _ ' in securing its ratification, and you ask a word from me for the occasion. " I presume the only feature of the instrument about which there is serious controversy is that which provides for the extinction of slavery. " It needs not to be a secret, and I presume it is no secret, that I wish success to this provision. I desire it on every constitution ; I wish to see all men free, I wish the national prosperity of the already free, which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring. " I wish to see in progress of disappearing that only thing which could bring this nation to a civil war. " I attempt no argument. Argument upon the question is already exhausted by the abler, better informed, and more immediately interested sons of Maryland herself. " I only add that I shall be gratified exceedingly Pure was thy life ; its bloody close Has placed thee with the sons of light, Among the noblest host of those Who perished in the cause of right. — IVilliain C. Bryant. 152 WORDS OF LI^XOLN. if the good people of the State shall by their votes ratify the new constitution." MARYLAND ADOPTS A CONSTITUTION ABOLISHING SLAVERY. {Response to a serenading party of loyal Marylanders, at the White House, October ig, 1S64.) " Most heartily do I congratulate you and Mary- land, and the nation, and the world upon the event, I regret that it did not occur two years sooner ; which, I am sure, would have saved to the nation more money than would have met all the private loss incident to the measure. But it has come at last, and I sincerely hope its friends may fully realize all their anticipations of good from it, and that its opponents may, by its effects, be agree- ably and profitably disappointed. " I am struggling to maintain the Government, not to overthrow it; lam struggling especially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I therefore say that, if I shall live, I shall remain President until the 4th of next March, and that whoever shall be constitutionally elected, therefore, in November, shall be duly installed as President on the 4th of March, and that, in the interval, I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the The flowers which were to decorate the Easter festival were laid upon his cofiin, and we who had hoped to go in faith to the empty sepulcher and sing our carols of the Resurrection, stood by a newly made grave, which received all that was mortal of the Chief Magis- trate of the land. — IVm. A. Snively. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 1 53 next voyage shall start with the best possible chance to save the ship. "This is due the people both on principle and under the Constitution. Their will, constitutionally „, expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If 1864 ^ they should deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at the loss of their country and their liberties, I have not the power or the right to resist them. It is their own business, and they must do as they please with their own. I believe, however, they are still resolved to preserve their country and their liberty, and, in this office or out, I am resolved to stand by them. " I may add that, in this purpose to save the country and its liberties, no class of people seem so nearly unanimous as the soldiers in the field and seamen afloat. Do they not have the hardest of it? Who should quail while they do not? " God bless the soldiers and seamen, with all their brave commanders!" THANKS GENERAL SHERIDAN AND HIS ARMY. {Dispatch to General P. H. Sheridan, October 22, 1S64.) " With great pleasure I tender to you and your brave army the thanks of the nation and my own personal admiration and p-ratitude for the 1864 ^ , , . . , °., , , , month s operations m the Shenandoah val- Abraham Lincoln, tlie ablest of them all ! He lived and died an honest man. — Ritfus Hatch, 154 WORDS OF LINCOLN. ley, and especially for the splendid work of October 19, 1864," "1 THEN AND THERE CONSECRATED MYSELF TO CHRIST." {Reply to an Illinois clergyman, 7oho asked Mr. Lincoln if he was a Christiani) " When I left Springfield, I asked the people to pray for me; I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, ^ I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg, and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers, I then and there consecrated myself to Christ. I do love Jesus." GREATEST CREDIT DUE THE COMMON SOLDIER. {Remarks to the i8gth N. Y. Infa/itry Regiment, October 24, 1864.) " It is said that we have the best government the world ever knew, and I am glad to meet you, the supporters of that government. To you, "^ who rendered the hardest work in its sup- port, should be given the greatest credit. Others Amid the doings of the great of every clime will his deeds l)e recorded. Among the teachings of the wise will his sayings be writ- ten. His is a name that will not be forgotten. The living of to- day will tell it to the unborn, and they in turn will rejieat it to the remotest age. — William H. H. Murray. WORDS OF LINCOLN. 1 55 who are connected with it, and who occupy higher positions — their duties can be dispensed with ; but we cannot get along without your aid. While others differ with the administration, and, perhaps, honestly, the soldiers generally have sustained it ; they have not only fought right, but, so far as could be judged from their actions, they have voted right, and I, for one, thank you for it." RESPONSE TO A SERENADE BY A CLUB OF PENNSYLVANIANS. (Af the White House, late on the night of the election, November g, 1S64.) " I cannot, at this hour, say what has been the result of the election ; but whatever it may have been, I have no desire to modify this opinion, that all who have labored to-day in behalf of the Union organization have wrought for the best interests of their country and the world, not only for the present, but for all future ages. " I am thankful to God for this approval of the people. But, while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, 1864 . , . , ^ . . my gratitude is free from any taint of per- sonal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of His heart was as warm, his nature as simple, his purpose as honest, his judgment as strong and clear, his head as cool amid all the grandeur and glory of the nation's palace and the shaping of the nation's course and policy, as they were beneath the humble roof of his private dwelling. — Samuel K . Lothrop. 156 WORDS OF LINCOLN. anyone opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over anyone, but I give thanks to the Al- mighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity." SPEECH TO CAMPAIGN CLUBS. {Assembled at the WJtite House to serenade t/ie President on the night of November 10, 1864.) " It has long been a grave question whether any government, not too strong for the liberties of its people, can be strong enough to maintain its ■ existence in great emergencies. On this point the present rebellion brought our government to a severe test, and a Presidential election, occur- ring in a regular course during the rebellion, added not a little to the strain. " If the loyal people united were put to the ut- most of their strength by the rebellion, must they not fail when divided and partially paralyzed by a political war among themselves? But the election was a necessity. " We cannot have free governments without elec- tions ; and if the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us. In four hours after Abraham Lincohi died, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was inaugurated President of the United States. Our government rests upon the basis of liberty, justice, and humanity, and our glorious fabric will continue to stand and tower, the admira- tion of the world. — Charles Backman. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I 57 "The strife of the election is but human nature practically applied to the facts of the case. " Human nature will not change. In any future great national trial, compared with the men of this, we will have as weak and as strong, as silly and as wise, as bad and as good. Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this as philosophy to learn wisdom from, and none of them as wrongs to be revenged. " But the election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, has done good, too. It has dem- onstrated that a people's government can 1S64 . . , ^ sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows, also, how sound and how strong we still are. It shows, also, to the extent yet known, that we have more men now than we had when the war began. Gold is good in its place ; but living, brave, and patriotic men are better than gold. " So long as I have been here I have not willingly planted a thorn in anyone's bosom. While I am duly sensible to the high compliment of a re-elec- tion, and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having directed my countrymen to a right con- clusion, as I think, for their good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be dis- appointed by the result. " May I ask those who have not differed with me to join with me in this spirit toward those who have." A thousand years hence, no story, no tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with greater wonder or be read with deeper feeling than that which tells of his life and death. — Henry Watterson. 158 WORDS OF LINCOLN, "ONLY MORTAL, AFTER ALL." {Remarks to a frtoid in a conversation oji the Presidential election.) " Being only mortal, after all, I should have been a little mortified if I had been beaten in this can- vass before the people ; but that sting would have been more than compensated by the thought that the people had notified me that all my of^cial responsibilities were soon to be lifted off my back." A LETTER OF GRATITUDE. {Written to Deacon John Phillips of Stockbridge, Mass., who, though 104 years old, voted for President Lincoln in No^iember, 1S64.) " I have heard of the incident at the polls in your town, in which you acted so honorable a part, and I take the liberty of writing to you to express my personal gratitude for the com- pliment paid me by the suffrage of a citizen so venerable. "The example of such devotion to civic duties in one whose days have already been extended an average lifetime beyond the Psalmist's limits, can- not but be valuable and fruitful. It is not for His words and his deeds were one. The grand unity of truth wrought them into its clear consistency. Few men have lived who held over the people, by simple integrity, such prevailing power, or demonstrated to the world such a scope of uprightness. — Henry Foivler. WORDS OF LINCOLN. I 59 myself only, but for the country which you have in your sphere served so long and so v.'cll, that I thank you." RATIFYING THE ELECTION. {Speech at a meet nig in front of tlie W'hite House, No-/^« C. New. He spoke to all mankind words of patriotism, admonition, and pathos which will continue to sound through the ages as long as the flowers shall bloom or the waters flow. — Alexander H. Rice. He was a good father to his children, and a good president to the people, whom he loved o.s if they had been his children.— C/wr/t-j Godfrey Leland. Abraham Lincoln is one of the most commanding figures in his- tory. The world has confirmed and history has recorded it. When he died, it was as a conqueror. — Samuel Adams Drake. A great, a good man has gone, in the fullness of his fame, in the height of his glory, to join the sages and patriots of the Revolution- ary days. — Beiij. F. Butler. 190 TRIBUTES They all knew Mr. Lincoln's characteristic clemency, and that the terms of the peace he was intent on were exceedingly mild. — Gerrit Smith. No man could have endured so much without some recreation, and that humor was to him what a safety valve is to an engine. — Hannibal Hamlin. He had a sterling common sense, a vein of humor, an unselfish patriotism, which secured for him a lasting place in the catalogue of the world's leaders. — George P. Fisher. Had he lived, the long and bitter struggle over reconstruction would never have been initiated, and peace and prosperity would have followed the laying down of arms. — IVm. F. Smith. He stands before us all, as he has stamped himself ineffaceably on the pure silver of the national heart, all fluent and melted in the fervid heat of the fiery war. — Henry IV. Foote. More distinctly than any other president since Washington, he irradiated the official pathway at all times and in all places with the conspicuous publicity of Christian ethics. — Alex. H. Bullock. His mind was so vigorous, his comprehension exact and clear, and his judgment so sure, that he easily mastered the intricacies of his profession. — Thomas Drummond. His heart knew no guile, but into its richest, deepest soil, tender love for the liberty of every man that breathes struck deep into its roots. — Thomas Armitage. In the supreme crisis of American history, his faith in the ultimate triumph of popular institutions never failed him. By that faith he saved the nation. — William C. Morey. Studying his grammar by the fire-light of a log cabin when a boy, he addressed the Senate and people from the capital of a great nation. — -James Freeman Clark. TRIBUTES 191 Never was the title honest so expressive of character. Honest not only in action and word, but also in thought and feeling and purpose. — Horace Maynard. In every position in life, from his humble beginning to the present well-earned elevation, he has more than fulfilled the best hopes of his friends. — Edivard Bates. Nothing which can be done to perpetuate his fame, to keep him ever before the coming generations of his countrymen, should be omitted. — C. F. Biiniain. He believed that this people were in the especial keeping of Provi- dence, and that it was his duty as President to await the expressed will of God, and then to act. — George H. Hep-worth. The elements of his character was a love of freedom and of law, perceptions of the right thing to do and the right time to do it, all regulated by a sober faith in divine Providence. — A. Cleveland Coxe. He could receive counsel from a child and give counsel to a sage. The simple approached him with ease, and the learned approached him with deference. — Frederick Douglass. His elevation to the highest honor within the gift of the people did not alter his feelings or deportment toward his acquaintances, however humble. — G. S. Hubbard. Mr. Lincoln was one of those singular men whom the great unknown power brings upon the scenes of men's actions when momentous events are about to transpire. — IV. B. Franklin. His earnest desire seemed to be to end the war speedily without more bloodshed or devastation, and to restore all the men of both sections to their homes. — W. T. Sherman. The dove was returning from the redeemed world with a branch of olive when the hand of the assassin struck down the emancipator of the race of slaves. — Win. ]Vilberforce Newton. 192 TRIBUTES An ardent patriot, shrewd, with large common sense, far-reaching foresight, firmness and tenacity of purpose, and possessing the largest sympathies. — W. Strong. His memory will shine in ages to come like a fixed star in a cloud- less night, on which continents may gaze with admiration. — P. B. Day. Mr. Lincoln was the greatest man this country has produced. He was mortal, and yearned, above all things, for the final approval of mankind. — IVrn. D. Kclley. He had a sharp insight that cut through all the rind of sophistries to the core of dithcult questions, leaving such light on the stroke that other minds could follow. — A. L. Stone. It pleased him better to pardon than to punish, and to overcome his and the country's enemies by transforming them into friends. — Satmiel J. Nic/iols. We are indebted to him for the consistent example in private and public life, and for some of the noblest sentiments of humanity ever spoken. — Elias iVason. There is not a man on the continent or globe that will or can say that Abraham Lincoln is his enemy, or that he deserved punishment or death for his individual acts. — A^. P. Banks. No man could talk to him upon public questions without being struck with the singular lucidity of his mind and the rapidity with which he fastened on the essential point. — Titian J. Coffen. His genius, wisdom, and goodness saved the Union. His great heart liberated the slaves. — A. A. E. Taylo)'. He was a man of strong attachments, and his nature overflowed with the milk of human kindness. — Alexander H. Stephens. The longing for unity and the return of brethren to a common center and home, had full possession of him. — Wm. F. Morgan, TRIBUTES 193 There is little fear of our forgetting — there is little fear of the world's forgetting the name of Abraham Lincoln.— /oAii McClintock. His " firmness in the right, as God gave him to see," was to him faith, courage, patience, and boundless endurance.— yoj/z/^a /". Speed. Whatever shall keep green the memory of Abraham Lincoln, let that be done. — Clintoi B. Fisk. Abraham Lincoln was a pure and honest man, and possessor of very superior abilities — Charles Lanman. Along with a gentle, tender, yearning sympathy, he hatl the firm- ness of a rock and the courage of a lion. — Emerson Beitiiett. Few men in the world's history have been privileged to do a work involving so much benefit to mankind. — N'eii'man Hall. He was as true to the right as the needle to the pole, in all storms and on every sea. — E. B. Webb. That death ennobles Lincoln. The South gained nothing by this crime. Long live liberty ! Long live the Keiniblic ! — Vletor Hugo. His name will brighten as it rises out of the conflicts of the war into the serene sky of history.— y. M. Mannhig. The harvest of moral fruitage from his death will be the garnered legacy of the nation through the ages to come.— [fill/am Hague. Coming ages can properly estimate the value of his services to this country and to human freedom in all lands. ^/(i-Wd".)- Marvin. His life was one of true patriotism, and his character one of hon- esty and of the highest type of religious sentiment. — Alex. Ramsey. The ripest and fairest fruit that has fallen from our American tree of civilization is Abraham Lincoln. — R. B. Anderson. I regard him as one of the greatest men of our time. His fame is growing every day. — T/ios. Burk. 194 TRIBUTES His life, even at tlie moment it was taken away, was the most im- portant and precious life in our whole land. — Robert C. Winthrop. He had a heart open to all innocent pleasure and purged from the leaven of malice and uncharitableness. — James E. Murdoch. He repelled no one ; he strove to make friends, not for himself so much as for the preservation of the government. — J. P. Usher. The purity of his reputation ennobles every incident of his career, and gives significance to all the events of the past. — W. D. Hotvells. In my conversations with him, I absorbed the firm conviction that Mr. Lincoln was at heart a Christian. — A^'oah Porter. Abraham Lincoln was one of those few men at the sight of whom we trust and take courage. — John Bascom. Mr. Lincoln was a genuine product of our democratic institutions and had a living faith in their permanency. — Henry Wilson. Look down as deep as you may into his profound nature, you will see that it is clear as a moteless fountain. — Gilbert Ha^'e^t. He was simple in life, clear in his views of right and duty, firm in his will long before the flag of war was unfurled. — David Swing. He combined the integrity of Washington with the humanity of Wilberforce. — George IV. Julian. He brought to the duties of the presidential office the best quali- ties of manhood. — R. B. Ayers. Abraham Lincoln's greatness and worth lay in his simple manhood, he was a whole man, human to the core of his heart. — Robert Collier. Lincoln was the ideal President, when the nation most wanted the right man in the right place. — Henry JV. Bellows. Abraham Lincoln was the kind of a man Carlyle in his better days taught us to worship as a hero. — John Stuart Mill. TRIBUTES 195 The great President affords much that tends to advance all that is good and noble among men. — John Bright. His love of honesty and fair dealings was one of his prominent characteristics ; he never stooped to trickery. — Geo. IV. JMinier. No hand was ever stretched toward liberty that was not grasped and championed and saved by Abraham Lincoln. — F. JT. Giinsaiiliis. There is in the crown of England no diamond whose luster will not pale before the name of Abraham Lincoln. — Robert Ingcrsoll. President Lincoln excelled all his contemporaries in capacity for delay when action was fraught with peril, in the power of immediate and resolute decision when delays were dangerous. — George S. Bout- •well. The pages of the history of his times record the proofs of his courage and wisdom, and of his fidelity to his country and to human liberty. — M. C. Meigs. He was just the man to strike with favor every person who knew toil and privation, for he experienced the severest privations from earliest boyhood to mature manhood. — Leonard IF. Volk. He was tested in every way through the great struggle, and his rare virtues will endear him to the American people the more they study his life.— 5. Wells Williams. He was a patriot and a wise man. His death was a calamity for the country, but it left his fame without a fault or criticism. — Chas. A. Dana. Courts and kingdoms might be searched in vain for a prince who, by tradition and culture, had attained such wisdom in the government of men as had the son of the backwoods. — Frederiek Smyth. Just finishing his great work, just about to reap the harvest of all his toil, just showing how moderate and wise and tender he was going to be, he was cut down by an assassin. — Chas. P. Mellvaine. 196 TRIBUTES The unwavering faith in a divine Providence began at his mother's knee, and ran like a thread of gold through all the inner experiences of his life. — J. G. Holland. The greatness of his figure in our history stands so near and towers so high that it cannot be taken in at a glance in this generation. — Joseph P. Bradley. His thoughts were his own ; they were fresh and original, and were clothed with a quaintness, a distinctness, a simplicity of style pecu- liar to himself. — Charles Henry Hart. No one who knew him ever knew another man like him. He stands out from the whole world of his time, isolated and alone. — Leonard Sivett. If he had not the refinement of education, nor the artificial polish of society, yet he never repelled a child, nor crimsoned the cheek of a woman, nor wounded the self-respect of man. — Charles B. Sedgwick. He knew how to put a great thought or argument in a few plain and simple words. Many of his saymgs are like proverbs, and proverbs, we know, are the practical wisdom of men condensed in a few brief sentences. — Peter Russell. Sprung from no royal line, without one drop of regal blood, un- versed entirely in the sophistries, the intrigues, the hollow, heartless etiquette of courts. Uncouth, some said he was, but better be uncouth and honest than polished and a knave. — William T. Sabine. He was with us during all the war ; the thought of him, his sagacity, his fidelity, his buoyant hope, has cheered us in seasons of despondency. We felt secure while he was at the helm, and were confident so long as he was not afraid. — R. H. N'eale. Humble in his estimate of his own abilities, yet confident of the sincerity and integrity of his aims and principles, he was ready to receive suggestions and advice from every source, and was accessible to the humblest man or woman in the land. — H. Dummig. TRIBUTES 197 Loving his country with his whole lieart, and yet room enough in that heart for kindness to the humblest fellow-creature, and compas- sion for every sufferer ; but with no room for one vindictive feeling toward his own or even his country's foes. — George Putniaii. I have not the ability to portray the character or recount the life of Abraham Lincoln. This will be done, and when it is done, the world will assign to Abraham Lincoln no inferior place among the greatest and the best of men. — W. II. Ilontblower. His large, generous, honest heart ever beat responsive to the inter- ests of all the inhabitants of the land and indicated the deepest con- cern in their welfare. Their good was his aim and heart's desire ; and their happiness his happiness. — D. T. Carnahaii. President Lincoln took up into his long arms, his capacious mind, his great heart, all the jarring elements of factions, all the differences of his friends, all the necessities of his enemies. He was patient with all, forgiving to a fault as a child. — Hiram P. Crazier. He knew his opportunity. He did not take a step till it was time to take it — did not take it to retrace it. He took no backward steps, but from the first moved steadily forward toward the great end, all the while gaining ground and never losing it. — Isaac E. Carey. To integrity of purpose, firmness of will, patience in investigation, unswerving fidelity to trust, and a deep impression of his accounta- bility to the nation and to God, he added a thorough knowledge of the theory and principles of our government, and of men. — D. Dyer. His illustrations, not unfreciuently derived from the most humble and familiar source, were selected, not to adorn, but to give point to his speech, and because of their fitness to make his meaning clear to the great mass of men. — James Cooper. His writings themselves are so full, so clear, so rich, so earnest, so reliant upon the nation and upon God, that now that the strife is over, we cannot read them without a thrill of enthusiasm. — Charles Carroll Everett. 198 TRIBUTES Our leader saw the promised land, but was never to enter it. The sea, desert, the strifes and seditions, were past, and the land of plenty was before the people. But on Pisgah he died. — Alonzo H. Quint, The door to honorable promotion and unlimited success in every walk of life is left wide open to merit, as well in the lower class as in the higher classes ; and the worthy poor have oftener gained honora- ble distinction in our country than the rich. — Thomas Sivaim. He has a monument more durable than brass in the hearts of the American people. He needs no marble, no emblazoned escutcheon. He lives forever in history, and is henceforth enrolled in the records of mankind among the great martyrs of liberty. — Dr. Lord. Some men of courtly manners and courtly expressions criticised his homely ways and style of language ; but the people loved him, trusted him, and his clear, strong, sound utterances carried conviction. — Gordon Hall. The bullet-shot that evening delivered has effectually nailed to the mast of the Ship of State the banner of emancipation, of universal, unconditional, uncompensated, and unrepealable enfranchisement. — Win. R. Williams. He felt himself swept out into the current of a purpose, as majes- tic in grandeur as it was celestial in origin ; the sublime purpose of Him to whom nations belong, to care for this Western Republic in the hour of its manifest peril. — Charles S. Robinson. He was happy, too, in the time of his death. It was the sunrise of peace upon the land ; a momentary pang, he knew not whence or what it was, and he was happy in death. — ]\'m. Ives Biiddingion. Lincoln was a man both of words and deeds ; his latter words are so interwoven with and constitute part of his deeds that both will survive — the latter, the root and stalk ; the former, the flower, of his fame. — Henry C. Whitney. TRIBUTES 199 Abraham Lincoln, in my view, was charged with a divine mission, which he executed wisely and well, and is justly entitled to the rever- ence, gratitude, and love of all loyal citizens of our great republic. — Neal Dow. He arrived at conclusions not by intuition, but by argument. This made him appear slow in difficult questions, but it gave him all the certainty of logic and the abiding convictions of duty. Once at a decision, he could not be moved from it. — C. H. Fowler. There were men of might about his council board, scholars and statesmen, but none arose to his altitude, much less was either his master. His eye swept a wide horizon and descried clearly all within its circumference. — T. M. Eddy. His great business was a single one, and that was to rebind the Union. There was but one method of doing it, and that was to unbind the slave. He did the latter, and thus accomplished the former. — Cornelius H. Edmr. The tree of liberty is firmly planted upon our soil. Its roots strike into half a million of freedmen's graves ; its center-root strikes to the bottom of Lincoln's grave. It is well watered by the blood of America's best. — S. Reed. As the lapse of time shall smooth the asperities of a civil war, and shall throw its mellowing influences over the stories of his early life, his public services as President will stand without a rival or a peer in the day to which he belonged. — Samuel F. Miller. His most striking characteristic was great comtnon sense. That was the sheet anchor of his practical character. He always seemed to know when to speak and when to act, as well as when not to speak and not to act. — J. P. Dailey. The President's last smiles were in thinking that the sad conscripts might be released, and the weary soldier soon discharged, and the wounded patriot soon on his own couch at home, telling his neighbors how he bravely fought his country's battles. — Win, M. Blackburn. 200 TRIBUTES. When, in the very flush and glory of the triumphant progress of his armies, he showed a noble magnanimity of soul toward the van- quished, which stands as solitary among the history of rebellions, as our Republic does among the family of nations. — J. F. Garrison. At City Point he moved down the long line of prostrate men — visiting each cot, taking the sick soldier by the hand, laying his hand on the pale brow, speaking a kind word to this one and that — till he had shed sunshine in every invalid's heart. — Robert Lowry. When Victory hung out her glorious banner, he extended kindness, sympathy, forgiveness, for the suffering. Not one word of reproach, not a single taunt, not a whisper of revenge, not a desire for one degree of unnecessary sorrow. — Mason Nohli. He lived long enoughJ;o vindicate his policy in the conduct of the war, and to see the triumph of constitutional power — but not long enough to make a single mistake in the new field of duty, which was just opening before him. — H. E. Niles. As we review his words and various state papers which came from his hand, they are stamped with a maturity of judgment which the annals of the future will inscribe. Few have equaled, and none excelled. — C. C. Wallace. He was a frequent visitor in our camp, and we were enabled to observe his character in its most familiar aspects. He walked about among the soldiers in the freest manner, and with a kind word for everyone whom he met. — Augustus IVoodburn. Just as the blood and wounds of contending armies were drying up and healing on those silent and deserted battlefields, the chair of state sinks into the bier of death, on which lies that which was once the warm and useful life of Abraham Lincoln. — David C. Coddingion. We have had men who could take a higher intellectual grasp of any abstruse problem of statesmanship, but few have ever equaled, and none excelled, Lincoln in the practical, common-sense, and suc- cessful solution of the gravest problems ever presented in American TRIBUTES. 201 history. He possessed a peculiarly receptive and analytical mind. He sought information from every attainable source. He sought it persistently, weighed it earnestly, and in the end reached his own conclusions. When he had once reached a conclusion as to a public duty, there was no human power equal to the task of changing his purpose. — A. K. McClure. His life has been of great good to this nation, because he " desired to be on the Lord's side," gave his voice for the freedom of the oppressed, and his life for the union of the States. ^/c/^;/ G. Fee. He will go down the dim aisles of the future wiili the torches of rejoicing flaming all around him, carried by four millions of a despised race, from whose limbs he struck the chains \—J. Hazard Hartzell. INDEX. Journey to Washington, Speeches, Remarks, etc. A Heart True to fhe Work, Buffalo, N. Y., February i6, 1861 58 Add Star upon Star, Raising a New Flag over Indepen- dence Hall, February 22, 1861, ..... 64 Arrival in Washington, Response to an Address of Wel- come from the Mayor, February 27, 1861, . . 66 Behind the Cloud the Sun is Still Shining, Tolono, 111., February 11, 1861, ....... 52 Flag May Still Be Kept Flaunting Gloriously, The, State Legislature, Harrisburg, February 22, 1S61, . . 65 Humblest of All the Presidents, State Legislature, Albany, N. Y., February 18, 1861, 59 I Shall very soon Pass away from You, Columbus, O., February 13, 1861, 55 Liberty for All Future Time, Independence Hall, Phila- delphia, P'ebruary 22, 1861, . . . . . . 63 Majority of the American People Must Rule, Steubenville, O., February 14, 1861, ...... 56 No One More Devoted to Peace, Assembly Chamber, Trenton, N. J., February 21, 1861, .... 62 Ohio Legislature, Address to, Columbus, February 13, 1861, 55 Preserve the Union and Liberty, Indianapolis, Ind., Feb- ruary II, i86x, ........ 53 People's Power Eternal, Lawrenceburg, Ijid., February 12, 1861 53 Response to an Address of Welcome, Cincinnati, February 12, 1861, ......... 54 Response to an Address of Welcome, Cleveland, O., February 15, 1861, 58 Stand by the Union, Response to an Address of Welcome, New York, February 20, 1861, . . , . , 60 203 204 INDEX. Struggle for Liberty, Address in the Senate Chamber, Trenton, N. J., P'ebruary 2i, 1861, .... 61 Tariff, A Just and Equitable, Pittsburg, Pa., February 15, 1861 57 Will Carry the Ship of State through the Storm, With Help, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., February 19, 1861, . 60 Dispatches, Letters, etc., to Army Generals. Buell, General Don Carlos, January 6, 1862, ... 78 Burnside, General Ambrose E., Referring to General Grant, July 27, 1863, ...... 113 Curtis, General Samuel R., January 2, 1863, ... 97 Grant, General Ulysses S., Letter to, October 8, 1S62, 87 Grant, General Ulysses S., Acknowledgment to, July 13, 1863, no Grant, General Ulysses S., Commissioned Lieutenant General, March 9, 1864, . . . . . .125 Grant, General Ulysses S., Reply of, . . . . 126 Grant, General Ulysses S., Letter to, April 30, 1864, . 132 Grant, General Ulysses S., Dispatch to, June 15, 1864, 140 Grant, General Ulysses S., Dispatch to, August 17, 1864, 145 Hunter, General David, October 24, 1861, ... 76 Halleck, General Henry W., October 16, 1863, . . 121 Hooker, General Joseph, 1863, ..... 99 Hooker, General Joseph, May 7, 1863, .... 103 McClellan, General George B., April 9, 1862, . . 78 Rosecrans, General W. S., October 4, 1863, . . . 118 Scott, General Winfield, September 16, 1861, . . 75 Schofield, General John M., May 24, 1863, . . .104 Schofield, General John M., June 22, 1863, . . . 105 Sickles, General D. E., 1863, . . . . . .123 Sheridan, General P. H., October 22, 1864, . . 153 Sherman, General'W. T., December 26, 1864, . . 165 Thomas, General Lorenzo, July 8, 1863, . . . 109 Wadsworth, General James S., 1864, , . . . 130 Messages to Congress. Army and Navy, Continued Dependence upon, December 8, 1863, 124 Army and Navy, Providing Pay for, January 19, 1863, . 98 INDEX. 205 PAGE Another and Not I Must Be their Instrument, Fourth Annual Message, December 6, 1864, .... 161 Inaugural Address, First, March 4, 1861, ... 68 Labor the Superior of Capital, December 3, 1861, . . 76 No Moral Right to Shrink, July 4, i86r, ... 75 Slavery in the District of Columbia, April 16, 1862, . . 79 Way is Plain, The, December i, 1862, .... 89 With Malice toward None, with Charity for All, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865 168 Political Speeches, Letters, etc. Abraham Lincoln, I Am Humble, First Political Speech, Pottsville, 111., 1832, ...... I A House Divided against Itself Cannot Stand, Speech at Republican State Convention, Springfield, 111., June 17, 1858, 21 Remarks in Defense of the Above Speech : This Nation Cannot Live on Injustice, Springfield, June 17, 1858, 27 Would Leave It to the World Unerased, Reply to Dr. Long, ......... 28 Wisest Thing I Ever Did, To a Party of Friends, . 28 Candidate for the Illinois Legislature, Letter to the Journal, Springfield, 111., June 13, 1836, ... 3 Disadvantages the Republicans Labor Under, Speech at Springfield, 111., July 17, 1858 26 Education the Most Important Subject to the People, Address, New Salem, 111., March g, 1832, . . i F-ternal P"idelity to the Just Cause, Speech Made in the Harrison Campaign, 1840, ...... 7 Electric Cord in the Declaration of Independence, The, Reply to Douglas, Chicago, 111., July 10, 1858, . 23 Lincoln and Douglas Joitit Debate : Ottawa, 111., August 21, 1858, 29 Freeport, 111., August 27, 1858, .... 30 Jonesboro, 111., September 15, 1858, .... 31 Charleston, 111., September 18, 1858, ... 32 Galesburg, 111., October 7, 1858, .... 33 Quincy, 111., October 13, 1858, .... 33 Alton, 111., October 15, 1858, 34 2o6 • INDEX. Religiohs Bodies, Replies to. Christian Commission, Reply to an Invitation from the, February 22, 1863, ....... 102 Clergymen, Reply to a Company of, 1864, . . .143 Duryea, Rev. J. T., Firm Belief in Providence, 1864, . 137 East Baltimore Methodist Conference, 1862, ... 81 Illinois Clergyman, Reply to an, 1864, . . . 154 Lutheran Ceneral Synod, Committee from, May, 1862, 80 Lutheran General Synod, Committee from, August, 1864, 144 Methodist Conference, Reply to a Committee from the. May, 1864, 134 Presbyterians, General Assembly of. Reply to a Committee of Sixty-five, May, 1863, ...... 103 Religious Denominations of Chicago, Reply to a Deputa- tion from All, September 13, 1862, .... 83 Sunderland, Rev. Byron, and Friends, Remarks to, 1862, 94 Slavery and Freedom, Speeches, etc. All Men are Created Equal, Speech at Chicago, 111., December 10, 1856, ....... 19 Dred Scott Decision, Speech on the, Springfield, 111., June 26, 1857, 20 Faith that Right makes Might, Speech at Cooper Institute, New York, February 27, i860, ..... 42 Hopeless Peaceful Emancipation of the Slave, Letter, 1855 18 Injustice of Slavery, The, Speech at Peoria, III, October 16, 1854, 14 Natural Right of the Negro, Speech at Columbus, O., September, 1859, ....... 36 One Retrograde Institution in America, The, Reply to Douglas, Springfield, 111., October 4, 1854, . . 17 Protest in the Illinois Legislature, 1837, .... 4 Redemption of the African Race, Springfielil, 111., July 16, 1852, 13 Those Who Deny F'reedom to Others, etc., Letter to Republicans of Boston, April, 1859, .... 36 Slaves, Emancipation of, Speeches, etc. Emancipation, Gi"adual, Conference with Congressmen from Border Slave States, July 12, 1862, ... 79 INDEX. 207 PAGE Emancipation Proclamation, Reading the, to his Cabinet, September 22, 1862, ....... 84 Emancipation Proclamation, Preliminary, Issued Septem- ber 22, 1862, 86 Emancipation Proclamation, Issue of, January i, 1863, 95 Emancipation Proclamation, Congratulating the President on Issuing the, . . . . . . .115 Emancipation Proclamation, Sketch of its History, . 100 Emancipation Proclamation, Congratulating the President on Issuing the, . . . . . . . .115 Emancipation, Gradual, in Missouri, Reply to General Schofield, June 22, 1863, ...... 105 His Vow before God, Remarks to Secretary Chase, . . gS Not One Word of It Will I ever Recall, Remarks to some Friends, New Year's Evening, 1863, ... 97 Miscellaneous, Speeches, Letters, etc. Abraham Lincoln, Autobiography of, December, 1859, . 39 Abraham Lincoln, I,ast Public Address of, April 11, 1865, 178 Abraham Lincoln, Last Letters Written, One of the, April 14, 1865, 179 Abraham Lincoln, Last Written Words of , April 14, 1865, 181 Abraham Lincoln, Last Verbal Message, April 14, 1865, 179 American Citizens are Brothers, All, Springfield, 111., November 20, i860, ....... 49 Already too many Weeping Widows, Reply to an Army General, ......... 128 Advice to an Officer who had been Court-martialed, . . 134 A Presentiment, Remarks to Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1864, 136 Anything to Strengthen and Sustain General Grant, June, 1864, 138 All Animated by the same Determination, December 22, 1864, 163 Anxious to Aid the Good Cause, December, 1S64, . . 164 Campaign Clubs before the White House, Speech to, November 10, 1864, . . . . . . . 156 Care and Anxiety of the President, Remarks made in December, 1864, ........ 165 Captured Flag, Presentation of a. Remarks at the Gather ing, March 17, 1865, 172 208 INDEX. PAGE Colored Soldier, Praise for the, 1864, .... 130 Consecrated Himself to Christ, Reply to an Illinois Clergy- man, 1864, ...... . . 154 Defends the Secretary of War, August 6, 1862, . . 82 Dispensing Patronage, Letter to the Postmaster General, July 27, 1863, 112 " Dixie," our Lawful Prize, Speech to a Gathering before the White House, April 10, 1865, .... 177 " Early History," Mr. Lincoln's, Reply to One who Asked for a Sketch of his Life, . . . . . . 51 Father, Message to his Dying, Letter to his Brother-in- law, 1851, ......... 12 Farewell Address to his Neighbors, just before Leaving for Washington, February 11, 1861, .... 51 Fernando Wood, Hon., of New York, Letter to, Decem- ber 12, 1862, 92 Gratitude to God, Proclamation, July 4, 1863, . . 107 Gettysburg, Battlefield of. Address on, November 19, 1863, 121 Gettysburg, Acknowledgment of Flowers from the Battle- field of, January 24, 1865, 167 Gettysburg, Asked God for Victory at, 1863, . . . 123 God Alone Can Claim It, Letter to A. G. Hodges, April 4, 1864, 128 Going Through on this Line if It Takes Three Years More, Speech at a Philadelphia Fair, June 18, 1864, 141 Greatest Credit Due the Common Soldier, Speech to the 189th N. Y. Infantry, October 24, 1864, . . . 154 God will Control the Hearts of the People, Reply to Friends, ......... 164 Gratitude, Letter of, To a Voter 104 Years of Age, November, 1864, . . 158 Grief-stricken Mother, Letter to a, November 21, 1864, 159 Hawaiian Islands, Interest in. Address to Minister Allen, April II, 1864, 129 Illinois Republican State Convention, Declines an Invita- tion to Attend, August 26, 1863, . .• . . . 113 Indebted to the Christian People, Letter to Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney, September 30, 1864 148 Jefferson, All Honor to, Reply to an Invitation, April 6, 1861, 74 INDEX. 209 PAGE Last Visit to his Law Office before Leaving for Washing- ton, 1861 51 Letter to Thomas IL Clay of Cincinnati, October 8, 1862 87 Last Letters Written, One of the, April 14, 1865, . . 179 Last Verbal Message, April 14, 1865, .... 179 Modesty of Mr. Lincoln, Shown in a Speech at the State Fair, Springfield, 111, August 8, i860 47 Malice, Will Do Nothing in. Letter, July 28, 1862, . 81 Missouri, Affairs in, Letter to Hon. Charles D. Drake, October 5, 1863, 119 Mother's Prayers, His, Conversation with a Friend, . 121 Maiyland's Proposed New Constitution, Regarding, Octo- ber 18, 1864, 151 Maryland Abolishes Slavery, Response to a Serenading Party in Honor of, October ig, 1864, . . . 152 Nomination for the Presidency, Would not Buy the, i860, 45 Nomination for the Presidency, First News of his. May 8, i860 46 Nomination for the Presidency, Formal Announcement of his. May 19, i860, ....... 46 Nomination for the Presidency, Second, 1864, . .139 Nomination for the Presidency, Acceptance of the, June 27, 1864, 142 National Thanksgiving, A Day for, Proclamation, July 15, 1863 . . .110 National Union League, Response to Remarks by a Dele- gation of the, June g, 1S64, ..... 139 No Cessation of Hostilities Short of the End of the War, Instructions to William H. Seward, January, 1865, . 171 Negroes Kneel at the President's Feet, Richmond, April 4, 1865, 173 Negroes in the Streets of Richmond, Remarks to, April 4, 1865 174 Not Scared about Himself at all. Reply to Schuyler Colfax, 1865, 176 Opponents, Kindly Feelings for. Speech at Cincinnati, O., September, 1859, ....... 37 Observance of the Sabbath in the Army and Navy, General Orders, November 15, 1862 88 2IO INDEX. PAGE Opening of a Fair, Speech at an, Baltimore, Md., April i8, 1S64, 130 Only Mortal after all, Remarks to a Friend, . . . 158 Our People Can Afford to be Magnanimous, Interview, December, 1864, . . . . . . . 160 Perpetuation of our Free Institutions, Address at Spring- field, 111., January, 1837, ...... 5 Pledge with Cold Water, The, May, i860, ... 47 People Will Do Well if Well Done by, The, Speech at Bloomington, 111., November 21, i860, ... 50 Peculiar Position at the Capital, His, Address to the Re- publican Association, February 28, 1861, ... 67 Paramount Object to Save the Union, Reply to a Com- plaining Editorial by Horace Greeley, August 19, 1862, 83 Protest from Erastus Corning and Others, Reply to a, June 13, 1863, ........ 105 Pardon for a Deserter, Remarks to Schuyler Colfax, 1863, 115 Plea for the Colored People, Letter to Governor-Elect of Louisiana, January 11, 1864, . . . . 124 Pardon for a Sleeping Sentry, Remarks to a Friend, . 127 Plea for the I^ife of a Soldier, Reply to a, . . . 128 Proclamation of Thanksgiving and Prayer, May 9, 1864, 135 Pardon, Answer to an Application for, 1864, . . .146 Peace Negotiations, Regarding, To Confederate Commis- sioners, July 18, 1864, ...... 143 Presentation of a Bible by Colored People, October, 1864, 150 Princeton College Confers a Degree of LL. D., December 27, 1864, 166 Preserving the Peace of Maryland, Message to Governor Hicks, April 20, 1 861, 74 Refusal to Pardon a Man for Importing Slaves, 1863, . 116 Restoring the Union the Sole Purpose of the War, 1864, 133 Ratifying the Election, Speech at a Meeting in Front of the White House, November 20, 1864, . . .159 Remarks to his Wife on the Fatal Day, April 14, 1865, 181 Settlement with an Agent of the Post Office Department, 1859. 39 Sees the Storm Coming, A Quiet Talk at Springfield, 111., Duiing the Campaign of i860, ..... 49 Story-telling was a Relief, Remarks to a Congressman, 1864, 137 INDEX. 211 PACK Seeks Relaxation at the Theater, Remarks to Schuyler Colfax, 1864, ........ 145 Stand Fast to the Union and the F'lag, Speech to the 148th Ohio Infantry, 1864, ...... 146 Serenade at the White House, Response to a, July 7, 1B63, 107 Serenade at the White House, Response to a, May 13, 1864, 136 Serenade on the Night of the Election, Response to a, November g, 1864, . . . . . . .155 Serenaders, Reply to a Party of, April 10, 1865, . . 176 Soldiers of the Nation, Will Favor, 1864, . . . 166 Second Annual Message, Regarding his. Letter to Thur- lovv Weed, March 15, 1865, 171 Shakes Hands with over Si.x Thousand Soldiers, April 8, 1865 175 Temperance Cause, Address at Springfield, 111., February 22, 1842, 8 Tariff, Protective, Letter Regarding, October 11, 1859, 42 Tenders the Thanks of the Nation, Address to the Army of the Potomac, December 22, 1862, .... 93 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, Issued October 3, 1863, 1 16 Times are Dark, The, Remarks to Rev. Byron Sunderland, December, 1862, ....... 94 Visits Grant's Headquarters at City Point, . . -173 Visits Richmond on the Day of the Surrender of that City, 1865 173 We Shall Try to Do Our Duty, Speech at Leavenworth, Kans., i860, ........ 45 Will Carry Out the Work Commenced, Speech to the 164th Ohio Infantry, September, 1864, .... 147 Willing to Act though it Costs his Life, Reply to a Friend, August 6, 1862, ...... 82 Women of America, God Bless the, Speech at a Ladies' Fair, Washington, March 16, 1864, . . . . 126 Workingmen of Manchester, England, Reply to an Address from the, January 19, 1863, ..... 99 Would Willingly Exchange Places with the Soldier, Remarks to Schuyler Colfax, 1864, .... 137 INDEX TO TRIBUTES. A Choice Selfction of Eloquent Snyings Gathered from Distinguished People. Bascom, John, Educator, Black, John C, Brevet Brigadier General, U. S. A., Burk, Thomas, English Politician, Blaine, James Clillespie, Statesman, Bright, John, English Statesman, .... Boutwell, George S., ex-Governor of Massachusetts, Bates, Edward, Lincoln's Attorney General, . Bellows, Henry W., Clergyman, .... Bullock, Alex. H., ex-Governor of Massachusetts, Bradley, Joseph P., American Jurist, . Buckingham, William A., ex-Governor of Connecticut, Bradley, William O., Lawyer Bateman, Newton, Educator, .... Badger, Henry E , Clergyman, .... Brooks, Phillips, Clergyman, .... Barrows, John H., Clergyman, .... Bennett, Emerson, Journalist, .... Blanchard, Rufus, Author, Barnum, Phineas T., Showman, .... PAGE Anderson, Rasmus B., Author, I93 Abbott, Lyman, Author and Divine, 148 Arthur, Timothy S., Author, 162 Ayers, Romeyn B., Major General, II. S. A T94 Atwood, Edward S., Clergyman, 61 Andrew, John A., ex-Governor of Massachusetts, , . 10 Armitage, Thomas, Clergyman 19° Adams, William, Clergyman 6 194 179 193 18S 195 195 191 194 190 196 87 63 29 90 85 103 193 no 99 214 INDEX TO TRIBUTES. Bailey, James M., Journalist, Breece, Sidney, Lawyer, .... Bacon, Leonard, Clergyman, Banks, Nathaniel P., Major General, U. S. A Bryant, William Cullen, Poet, Benjamin, Samuel G. W., Author, Bascom, A. B., Clergyman, . . . Butler, Henry E., Clergyman, Buckley, Edwin A., Clergyman, Blackburn, William M., Clergyman, . Binney, William, Lawyer, Bradford, B. F., Clergyman, Bingham, J. C, Clergyman, Buddington, W^illiam Ives, Clergyman, Butler, Clement M., Clergyman, Burdick, C. F., Clergyman, Baldridge, S. C, Clergyman, Backman, Charles, Clergyman, Booth, Robert R., Clergyman, Burnam, C. P"., Lawyer, Burnside, Ambrose E., Major General, U. S. A Beveridge, J. L. , e.x-Governor of Illinois, Bancroft, George, Historian, Beecher, Henry Ward, Clergyman, Briggs, George W., Clergyman, Butler, Benjamin ¥., Major General, U. S. A Crosby, Howard, Clergyman, Conkling, Roscoe, Statesman, Collier, Robert, Clergyman, Clark, James Freeman, Clergyman, Cooper, Peter, Philanthropist, Coxe, A. Cleveland, Episcopal Bishop, Cox, Samuel S., Author and Statesman, Colfax, Schuyler, Vice President, CoiTen, Titian J., Assistant Attorney General, Cass, Lewis, Statesman, Craig, Wheelock, Clergyman, Chase, Thomas, Educator, Carnahan, D. T., Clergyman, INDEX TO TRIBUTES. 215 Crozier, Hiram P., Clergyman, . Carey, Isaac E., Clergyman, . Cooper, James, Clergyman, Chester, John, Clergyman, Chaney, George L., Clergyman, Cudworth, Warren H., Clergyman, Cuyler, Theo. L., Clergyman, Carpenter, Francis B., Author, Cary, Phoebe, Poet, Gary, Alice, Poet, . Cameron, Mrs. R. A., Poet, Chadwick, John W., Clergyman, Carruthers, J. J., Clergyman, Coddington, David C, . Davis, David, Jurist, Day, P. B., Clergyman, Dening, Henry Champion, Lawyer, Dana, Charles A., Journalist, Depevv, Chauncey M., Lawyer, . Dow, Neal, Temperance Reformer, Drake, Samuel Adams, Author, . Douglass, Frederick, Orator, . Dix, Morgan, Clergyman, Drummond, Thomas, American Jurist, Dunning, H., Clergyman, Darling, Henry, Clergyman, . Dean, Sidney, Clergyman, Dailey, J. P., Clergyman, Duane, Richard B., Clergyman, Dyer, David, Clergyman, Disraeli, Benjamin, British Statesman, D'Aubigne, Merle, Swiss Author, . Edison, Thomas Alva, Inventor, Emerson, Ralph Waldo, Author, Eddy, Richard, Clergyman, Eddy, T. M., Clergyman, Edgar, Cornelius Henry, Clergyman, 2l6 INDEX TO TRIBUTES. Ellis, Charles Mayo, Tavvyer, .... Eddy, Daniel Clark, Clergyman, Everett, Charles Carroll, Theologian, Fulton, Justin Dewey, Clergyman, Fisher, George Park, Theologian, Fisk, Clinton Bowen, Brevet Major G.eneral, U. S. A Franklin, William Buel, Major General, U. S. A., Fee, John G., Educator, ..... Foote, Henry Wilder, Clergyman, Forney, John W. , Journalist, .... Frieze, Henry Simmons, Educator, Frothingham, Octavius B. , Author and Divine, Frye, William P., United States Senator, Frelinghuysen, Frederick T., ex-United States .Senator Fowler, Charles Henry, Clergyman, Fowler, Henry, Clergyman, ... Field, Richard Stockton, ex-United States Senator, Faiquhar, John, Clergyman, .... Fox, Henry, Clergyman, ..... Gough, John B., Temperance Lecturer, Gunsaulus, ¥. W., Clergyman, Godwin, Parke, Journalist, .... Gear, D. L., Clergyman, .... Garland, Augustus H., ex-United States Senator, Grant, Ulysses S., President and General, . Gurley, Phineas Densmore, Clergyman, Gordon, William Robert, Clergyman, Garrison, Joseph Fithian, Clergyman, (jaddis, M. P., Clergyman, Grow, Galusha Aaron, Statesman, . Gray, Asa, Botanist, ..... Grey, Sir George, English Statesman, Haven, Gilbert. Methodist Bishop, Howells, William Dean, Autl^or, Hatch, Ruf us. Banker, Holland, Josiah Gilbert, Author, Hague, William, Clergyman, PAGE 17 15 197 188 190 193 191 201 190 124 54 75 92 188 199 158 140 171 106 128 195 27 43 30 184 187 68 200 163 135 55 123 194 194 153 196 193 INDEX TO TRIBUTES. 217 Hepvvorth, George H., Clergyman, Hubbard, Gurdon S., Trader, Hall, Newman, English Clergyman, Hart, Charles Henry, Author, Hancock, Winfield S., Major General, U. S. A., Hammond, Charles, Clergyman, Hastings, Hugli J., Journalist, Hathaway, Warren, Clergyman, Hewitt, Abram S., Statesman, Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Author, Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, Author, Haven, Erastus Otis, Methodist Bishop, Harrington, C. S., Educator, Hamlin, Hannibal, ex-Vice President U.S., Hugo, Victor, Poet and Novelist, . Hayden, Mrs. Caroline A., Poet, Hall, Gordon, Clergyman, Hornblower, W. H., Clergyman, Hardinge, Miss Emma, Poet, Hunt, Albert S., Clergyman, Hooper, Mrs. I.ucy Hamilton, Poet, Halpine, Charles Graham, Journalist and Poet Hosmer, W. H. C, Poet, Hawley, Joseph R., Brevet Brigadier General, U Hurlbut, Stephen A., Major General, U. S. A Hayes, Rutherford B., ex-President, U. S., Hale, Eugene, United States Senator, Hartzell, J. Hazard, Clergyman, Ingersoll, Robert G. , Orator, Ingalls, John James, Statesman, . Irvin, William, Clergyman, Johnson, Ilerrick, Clergyman, Julian, George W., Congressman, Janeway, J. L., Clergyman, Jeffery, R. Clergyman, . Kirkwood, Samuel J., ex-Governor of Iowa, Kelley, William D., Congre.ssman, S. A. PAGE 191 191 196 9 46 34 82 89 188 67 47 185 190 193 146 198 197 131 74 160 112 94 96 188 186 136 201 195 7 31 33 194 81 180 188 192 2l8 INDEX TO TRIBUTES. Keeling, R. J., Clergyman, Krebs, Hugo, Clergyman, . Kimball, Harriet McEwen, Poet, La Matyr, G. De, Congressman, . Leland, Charles Godfrey, Author, Lanman, Charles, Author, . ... Lord, Rev. Dr., ..... Ludlow, James M., Clergyman, . Lowe, Charles, Clergyman, Love, William De Loss, Clergyman, Lothrop, Samuel Kirkland, Clergyman, Littlejohn, Abram Newkirk, Episcopal Bishop Lowry, Robert, Clergyman, Lowe, Martha Perry, Poet, Lowell, James Russell, Poet, Laboulaye, Edouard, French Jurist and Author, PACE 25 71 "3 U. S. S. A., Maynard, Horace, Statesman, Minier, George W., Merchant, . Manning, J. M., Clergyman, Morton, Levi P., ex-Vice President, Murdoch, James Edwin, Actor, Miller, Samuel F., American Jurist, Meigs, Montgomery C, Major General, U. Mcllvaine, Charles P., Episcopal Bishop, Marvin, James, Educator, Matthews, Stanley, Jurist, . McLellan, Isaac, Poet, Morey, William C, Educator, McCuUough, Hugh, Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, McClintock, John, Educator, McClure, A. K., Journalist, . Morgan, William F., Clergyman, Merritt, Wesley, Major General, U. S. A., Mill, John Stuart, Author, . Mayo, A. D., Clergyman, Morals, S., Clergyman, McCauley, James A., Clergyman, Morehouse, H. L., Clergyman, INDEX TO TRIBUTES. 219 Murray, William H. H., Clergyman, . Miner, A. A., Clergyman, Martin, Henri Louis Bon, French Historian, Nichols, Samuel J., Clergyman, . Nason, Elias, Clergyman, Newton, Wm. Wilberforce, Clergyman, New, John C, Financier, Northrop, Cyrus, Educator, Niles, H. E., Clergyman, Nelson, Henry Addison. Clergyman, . Noble, Mason, Captain, U. S. Navy, Neale, Rollin Heber, Clergyman, Porter, Noah, Clergyman, .... Porter, David D., Admiral, U. S. N., Phillips, Wendell, Orator, .... Pike, Albert, Lawyer, .... Patterson, James W'illis, ex-United States Senator Porter, Robert P., Journalist, Pratt, Calvin E., Brigadier General, U. S. A., Palmer, Ray, Author and Clergyman, Poore, Ben. Perley, Journalist, Paddock, Wilbur F., Clergyman, Purinton, J. M., Clergyman, Putnam, George, Clergyman, Patterson, Adoniram J., Clergyman, Patten, Alfred Spencer, Clergyman, Proctor, Edna Dean, Poet, ... Prime, S. Irenseus, Journalist, Payne, C. A., Educator, .... Quint, Alonzo Hall, Clergyman, Rector, H. M., ex-Governor of Arkansas, Rice, Alexander H., ex-Governor of Massachusetts, Ramsey, Alexander, Hayes' Secretary of War, Rankin, Jeremiah E., Clergyman, Robinson, T. H., Clergyman, Rice, Nathan Lewis, Clergyman, Russell, Peter, Clergyman, PAGE 109 192 191 189 23 200 196 194 88 20 53 73 188 93 98 118 97 114 197 5 121 175 45 198 193 173 4 13 196 220 INDEX TO TRIBUTES. Robinson, Charles Seymour, Clergyman, Reed, S., Clergyman, Russell, Lord John, English Statesman, Stone, Andrew Leete, Clergyman, , Swing, David, Clergyman, Simpson, Matthew, Methodist Bishop, Smyth, Frederick, ex-Governor of New Hampshire, Sherman, William T., Lieutenant General, U. S. A Strong, William, American Jurist, Smith, William F., Major General, U. S. A., Stoneman, George, Major General, U. S A., Spinner, Francis E., Secretary of the Treasury, Swisshelm, Jane Grey, Authoress, Smith, Richard, Journalist, Smith, Goldwin, English Author, Storrs, Richard S., Clergyman, Speed, Joshua F., Merchant, Shuman, Andrew, Journalist, Stephens, Alex. II., Statesman, Swett, Leonard, Lawyer, Smith, Gerrit, Philanthropist, Sweetser, Seth, Clergyman, Stanton, Edwin M., Lincoln's Secretary of War, Stoddard, Richard Henry, Poet, Stedman, Edmund Clarence, Poet, Street, Alfred B., Poet, . Steiner, Lewis H., Physician, Sedgwick, Charles B., Congressman Steele, Richard H., Clergyman, Searing, Edward, Clergyman, Strong, J. D., Clergyman, . Snively, William A., Clergyman, Smith, Henry, Clergyman, Slater, Edward C, Clergyman, Seiss, Joseph A., Theologian, Sabine, Wm. T., Clergyman, Spear, Samuel Thayer, Clergyman, Swaim, Thomas, Clergyman, . Speed, James, Lincoln's Attorney General, PAGE 198 199 122 192 194 183 195 191 192 190 86 58 78 76 84 91 193 59 192 196 190 185 60 185 147 172 117 196 39 36 166 152 35 24 II 196 170 198 62 INDEX TO TRIBUTES. 221 Sumner, Charles, Statesman, Schurz, Carl, Statesman, ..... Silva, Sr. Rebello da, Portuguese Statesman, Townsend, Edward Davis, Major General, U. S. A Tyng, Stephen H., Clergyman, Taylor, Archibald A. E., Educator, Trowbridge, John Townsend, Author, Todd, John E., Clergyman, Tapley, Rufus P., Lawyer, Thrall, S. C, Clergyman, . Thompson, John C, Clergyman, Tucker, Joshua Thomas, Clergyman, Thomas, A. G. , Clergyman, . Thompson, Joseph Parrish, Clergyman, Taylor, Benjamin F., Author, Usher, John Palmer, Lincoln's Secretary of the Interior, Volk, Leonard Wells, Sculptor, .... Vincent, Marvin Richardson, Clergyman, Warner, Willard, ex-United States Senator, Wilson, Henry, ex-Vice President, Williams, S. Wells, Author, . Webb, Edwin B., Clergyman, Walden, Treadwell, Clergyman, Warner, Charles Dudley, Author, Winthrop, Robert Charles, Statesman, Whitney, Henry C, Author, Wilson, William T., Clergyman, Wallace, Charles C, Clergyman, White, Erskine N., Clergyman, Williams, Robert H., Clergyman, Wortman, Denis, Clergyman, Woodburn, Augustus, Clergyman, Westall, John, Poet, Williams, William R., Clergyman, Watterson, Henry, Journalist, PAGF. 187 129 186 108 169 192 38 119 44 137 16 lOI 188 14 57 194 195 138 174 194 195 193 32 42 194 198 164 200 50 37 104 200 126 198 157 Yourtee, S. L., Clergyman, 130 c\ H151 7k "' .<^ _.. <^. ^'-'^ A^^ ... ^^ '°"' .<^ ..„ ^^. ^- ,-^^ . 5-7-, . . « .0 ^ c AC V 3-7- . /i^n^^''^ ^ 'o V o ~-vc^/ ^^"^ *>^s^^^ ?^' <. c 0' '^ ^^ A^^ > V .v-^. ^^ " \^ .. -^ • • A^ ... ^ a\ ^^ ^5^ , . ■^_ ,<^ . o- = ^. \-<*iti. y --^ - = " ° A^ "^ \^ . . -^ "- ^-^ /^.^^^ -v^^.^^ ^^>^^v. %,,-^^ °^;^te'". -^^ o M -S^.V • >,. ^> ■.'^i%^.' '>>-^'\ \^p/ /'% °'fl#" •^•^'% '•-'