liiiilii I SPRUNG FROM THE WEST The strength of virgin forests braced his mind, The hush of spacious prairies filled his soul. Up from the log cabin to the capitol, One fire was on his spirit, one resolve — To send the keen axe to the root of wrong, Clearing a free way for the feet of God. And ever more he burned to do his deed With the fine stroke and gesture of a king; He built the rail-piles as he built the State, Pouring his splendid strength through every blow, The conscience of him testing every stroke To make his deed the measure of a man. Edwin Markham. Copyrighted 1921 by Julia Mygatt Powell Flashlights of Abraham Lincoln By Julia Mygatt Powell THE ANGELUS PUBLISHING COMPANY 613 South Grand Avenue Los Angeles, California ' '■ , .N E457 OCT -3 '21 \<^ ©r,'„A654354 I Flashlights of Abraham Lincoln /^NE day in the year 1855, there stood at the ^^ entrance to the Burnett House in Cincinnati, that old hostelry which was lately burned (1920), a long, lean, gaunt, sad-eyed man of about forty-five. His clothes w^ere ill fitting and he wore heavy boots. He was in that city as one of the counsel for the defendants in a case of patent infringements upon reaping machines. As this rather inelegant looking man, with all his native picturesqueness stood there, other counsel also employed in the defense came near; they looked the Hoosier over, passed him by without speaking, as unworthy of notice, and walked into the hotel. It would never do to have a man like that associ- ated with them on this important case. What man was this, who, unresentful of his treat- ment, stayed through the trial of this case, and si- lently watched its progress? It was said afterward that the judge was as much influenced by his un- spoken, but expressive sympathy and the play of his features, while he paced back and forth during the progress of the case, as by the argument of the other counsel, who ignored him. And who was this man ? It was the same man who the following year, standing on the edge of the platform at Bloomington, 111., held his audience spell-bound, as, leaning forward on his toes, hands on his hips, his eyes flashing, his whole face illum- ined with the divine fire of truth, proclaimed the fact that SLAVERY WAS WRONG, and to his audience, pressing forward, pale and breathless, to catch his every word, he seemed like a giant in- spired as he shouted, "WE WON'T GO OUT OF THE UNION AND YOU SHAN'T!" And then, as though to pour oil upon the troubled waters, he suggested ballots instead of bullets. **At that moment," said Judge Scott, one of his hearers, "he was the handsomest man I ever saw." And still five A^ars later, in 1860, when the committee from the great Chicago Convention, among whom were William M. Evarts and Carl Schurz, called at his unpretentious home in Spring- field, 111., to notify him of his nomination to the Presidency of the United States, they eyed their candidate with many misgivings — "his great height, his huge hands and feet, his lankness, his shoulders drooping as though he were irresolute. His smooth- shaven face seemed like bronze; cheeks sunken, cheek bones high, nose large, the underlip protrud- ing a little, eyes cast down. But when he lifted his head to reply, the men were thrilled by the change. He became erect, the eyes beamed with fire and intelligence. Strong, dignified, he seemed transformed. 'Why, sir, they told me he was a rough diamond,' said one. 'Nothing could have been in better taste than his speech.' 'We might have done a more daring thing, but we could not have done a better thing,' they said afterward." T ET us throw a flashlight backward over this man's pathway. We see him twenty-nine years before this, enter- ing New Salem, 111., just twenty-one, and penniless, begging for work, which he readily found. He had not even good clothes, but he had great strength and he w^as a good fellow. He was six feet, four inches tall. He could outrun any young man in the coun- try 'round, and lift as much as three ordinary men. Then his wit, his stories, his good and kindly nature, which had always won him friends, made friends at once for him now. This was in 1831. The next year, he was a candidate for the State Legislature. He was defeated, but won 227 out of 300 votes in his own district. In two years he was again a candidate, and this time, elected. The people looked upon him as a prodigy. Why ? Was it his strength, his great height, his wit, his stories? These all helped, but there was something back of all these. There was the power of CHAR- ACTER and of KNOWLEDGE. And whence came at this early age this power? During these twenty-one years, what had he read — what had he learned? Many a college bred man might well look with envy upon this ragged youth as he walked into New Salem to make his own way. The books he had conned were The Life of Washington, Aesop's Fables, Pilgrim's Progress, the lives of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Clay, the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, which he knew by heart. And last, but bv no means least, the Bible. J. G. Holland has well said, "ABRAHAM LIN- COLN'S POVERTY OF BOOKS WAS THE WEALTH OF HIS LIFE. The few he had, did much to perfect the teach- ing which his mother had begun, and to form a character, which for quaint simplicity, earnestness, truthfulness and purity has never been surpassed among the historic personages of the world. Lincoln's lack of books threw him upon his own resources." "By books may Learning sometimes befall. But Wisdom never by books at all." A testimonial to this early influence was given by Lincoln himself, when in a speech at Trenton, N. J., on his way to assume his duties as President, he said, "Away back in my childhood, I got hold of a small book called Weem's Life of Washington. I remember all the accounts there given of the battle- fields and struggles for the liberties of this country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton. The cross- ing of the river, the contest with the Hessians, the great hardships endured at that time, all fixed them- selves in my memory more than any Revolutionary event. I recall thinking then, boy though I was, that there must have been somethiiig more than com- mon that these men struggled for. I am exceed- ingly anxious that that thing which they struggled for, that something even more than National inde- pendence, that something that held out a great pro?7iise 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 tht original idea for which that struggle was made/' npURN for a moment to this central thought, this principle, which is the life and strength of our nation. This was the great "motif" of Abraham Lincoln's life. It is what he lived for; worked for, died for. "A chain is as strong as its w^eakest link," and Abraham Lincoln cemented this "weakest link," and made a chain so strong that the "Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it." Let us review in a very simple and superficial way, this chain of government. So imbued, at the start, was each link with its own importance, that it took years, yes, one hun- dred, to strengthen the hold each link had upon the other, and make a strong, enduring whole. The year 1789, when Washington became Presi- dent, was the year that the terrible French Revolu- tion broke loose. The French thought we ought to help them, but the French Revolution was too awful, and we were too weak. We were not yet standing firmly on our own feet, and we were still having trouble with England over boundary lines and over our rights on the sea. There were two parties — those supporting the Constitution, called Federalists, and those opposed to it, called Anti-Federalists. The Federalists, under Alexander Hamilton, were for a strong Federal Government. The Anti-Fed- eralists, led by Jefferson, wanted the States to have the strongest power. This party w^as called at first Republicans, then Democrats, after the French Democrats and because they favored helping the French Revolution. Then they were known as Democratic Republicans. Finally, in Andrew Jack- son's administration, they were called Democrats, and the name has remained with them until now, although one of the questions for which they stood — States Rights — has been forever settled. But at this early time, while we had a very weak central government, we were having trouble with France as well as England. The French seized a thousand of our vessels. The French demanded of us a large sum of money. Then went up the rallying cry, "Millions for de- fence, but not one cent for tribute!" These troubles strengthened the Federal Gov- ernment. Then came the Alien and Sedition laws, which gave the President power to send out of the country any foreigner he thought dangerous to its welfare. This aroused the Anti-Federalists, and Kentucky even declared the right of any State to nullify or put at defiance any law which, in its judgment, was unconstitutional. Then, as ever, there was a man for the occasion. John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States, exerted the greatest influence toward making the General Government superior to the States. Sen- ator Beverage truly said of him, "He found the con- stitution paper, and made it a power; he found it a skeleton and clothed it with flesh and blood." Shortly after this, in 1803, while Jefferson was President, we bought from France that great and at the time little known territory, called Louisiana. Napoleon was in dire need of money, and sold it to us for $15,000,000. By doing this, JefFerson, who believed in States Rights, was taking the greatest liberty with the Constitution, and went exactly opposite to the belief of his own party. It was nevertheless the greatest act of his life, and of untold benefit to the United States. Then in 1804-1806, came the Lewis and Clarke expeditions, exploring the country to the Pacific Coast. In 1807, Robert Fulton sailed his steam- boat up the Hudson River, and things began to move faster. In 1812 came the second war of Independ- ence. At this time, James Madison, a strong Feder- alist, was in the Presidential chair. TN the midst of these doings, in the year 1809, on * February 12th, in a log cabin in Kentucky, the hero of our sketch came into this world. It was the year in which Gladstone was born, and which gave Darwin and Tennyson to the world. When this second war for independence started, Lincoln was three years old, and when it closed he was six. And thus he grew 'midst these stirring events. The United States had as much reason to go to war with France at this time as with England, but we could not declare war against both. Then there was Canada at the north of us, and we might be able to lay hold of that! So it ivas war with Eng- land we had. 10 The New England Federalists were opposed to this war as it progressed. This party comprised the wealthy commercial men, and it tied up their trade. New England at first sent more than her quota of men and money, but as business distress grew and the management of the war was bad, their opposi- tion became so bitter, that they — even they — who stood strong for a central government — were the very ones to meet in private conclave, at Hartford, Conn., and recommend that taxes collected for the National Government, be reserved for their own de- fense. The cry of "Treason!" rang out from the nation, and the Federalist party was killed. This war ended the day before Christmas, 1814, and placed our country in a position where it com- manded the respect of all Europe. But it did more. During and after this war, manufactories sprang up throughout the New England and Middle States, thereby rendering us, to a great extent, independent of foreign markets. This necessitated a strong pro- tective tariff. These facts are briefly recalled to show how and why the Union was being gradually cemented into one strong governing power, and small state inter- ests were being merged into the greatest good for the greatest number. Yet the idea of States rights as being stronger than Federal union was by no means dead. The north was now a great manufacturing center, while the south exported her raw materials, and wished to receive in return the manufactured articles at lowest cost. The high tariff which was a protec- tion to the north, therefore, worked, as it seemed, a detriment to the south. Thus we see that aside from the slavery question, there were other interests which held the south to the belief in ''States Rights." The north reasoned that the whole country would be 11 benefitted by a high protective tariff. It would be a revenue for the government. It would benefit the worker by raising wages. It would give the producer a home market, and it w^ould make the country independent of foreign countries. Daniel Webster at this time came out strongly for the Federal Government, with these ringing words : "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and Inseparable." Finally, when Andrew Jackson was elected (1829), the South Carolina people, knowing that he was opposed to a high protective tariff, invited him to a banquet, and asked him to propose his own toast. To their chagrin, he proposed : "Our Federal Union! It must be preserved!" He afterward reiterated this in a way to make South Carolina tremble, when he shouted, "Our Federal Union must and shall be preserved!" and sent General Scott to collect the tariff in South Carolina ports. "OUT before this, there had grown to be a natural dividing line between freedom and slavery. The Ohio River was that line, and running eastward it was called the Mason and Dixon's Line. To pass north of that line meant freedom to the slave, if he could keep from being caught. In 1820, Missouri, a part of the Louisiana Pur- chase, applied for admission as a slave state. Mis- souri lay partly north and partly south of this divid- ing line. The North contended that as the Federal Government had owned Missouri when a territory, it alone had the right to say whether it should come in free or slave. The South argued that each state had the right to decide that for itself. Then Henry Clay, "The Great Peace-Maker," put through the Missouri Compromise, which ad- 12 mitted it as a slave state, but declared all other ter- ritory that remained, which was north of the south- ern boundary of Missouri, should forever be free. This the South accepted. Maine at this time was admitted as a free state, making twelve slave and twelve free states, and it was thought the slavery question was finally settled. About this time, Abraham Lincoln came into his majority. He was then and always, a Henrv Clay man. Clay was interested in the colonization of the free negroes and of gradual emancipation, and this appealed to Lincoln. He had in several trips to New Orleans, carrving produce and managing a flat-boat down the Mississippi River, from the time he was seventeen until he was twenty-two, seen the horrors of slavery, as it v^^as exhibited in the slave market there, and it aroused his whole soul. From that time, he had a sort of mystic feeling that he should plav some important p-^.rt in the deliver- ance of the slaves. Lincoln said his education was defective, but here and now he was learning the most valuable lessons of his life. How true it is that ''Your own will come to you," Was it iust a "ha-^pen so" that in his young boyhood the Constitution of the United States fell into his hands and that he learned it bv heart? Between his first attempt and defeat for the legislature, and his second attempt and success, he was a store-keeper and post-master. It was at this time that he earned the title of Honest Abe. Twice he walked five miles and back, after hours, to correct an error; once to return three cents, and once to m.ake good a pound of tea. Was it iust ''mere luck" that at this particular period in his life, he bought an old barrel of an overladen emif?rant. traveling westward, who wanted to lighten his load, nnd that one day, turning the barrel out, he found in it Blackstone's Commen- 13 taries? He said, "I never was so absorbed in any- thing in my life." He lay upon the counter of his store, when cus- tomers were far between, oblivious of the world about him, reading these books, while his partner, a man by the name of Berry, was drinking himself into perdition and the store into bankruptcy. Lincoln learned now, along with the law which so strongly appealed to him, and the grammar by which he corrected his speech, the great object les- son of the brutalizing power of strong drink, and he took his stand then, singly and alone, against the worse than useless, the positively harmful stuff that he saw dragging these early settlers into blighted lives. Afterward, in 1860, when the delegation from Chicago came to notify him of his nomination to the Presidency, his friends told him he should have some wine and treat them right. His replv was: "I have never had it in my house, and I shall not change my habit," and he returned the flasks of wine they sent to him. Lincoln, like Washington, whom he adored, never swerved from his purpose, once it was fixed. While he was still young, he always did things differently from other boys, and better — more thor- oughly — and he had a wonderful memory. His mother taught him and his sister all the Bible stories, and his ston^ telling habit dates from these earlv days. The people loved Lincoln always from the time he was a boy. In Gentrvville, from which plac" his father's family moved just when he was twenty-one. his comrades planted a cedar tree in his memory. This tree is still standing, as "the first monument to him whose monuments will never cease to be erected." Once in Gentrvville, he picked up a drunken man who was in danger of freezing, and carried him to warmth and safety. 14 Lincoln's ready wit always made him equal to any emergency. The Black Hawk war broke out the year he was the first time a candidate for the legislature. He enlisted and was elected captain of a company of volunteers. He was marching across a field with a front of over twenty men, when he had to pass through a gateway to the next enclo- sure. He said, "I could not, for the life of me, think of the proper word to get my company endwise, so I shouted, 'This company is dismissed for two min- utes, and it will fall in again on the other side of the gate.' " He made a great many speeches at this time, and his knowledge of affairs, his logic, his interest, was true and straight. On one occasion a fight started between some opposing parties and some of his friends. He saw that his friends were being worsted, and he jumped down from the platform, promptly whipped the other men, then came back and finished his speech. He learned surveying at this time, and was so correct in his surveys that he"was in constant demand at three dollars per day, and became, like Wash- ington, the authorized (deputy) county surveyor. In his journeyings as surveyor, there was not a home where he was not more than welcome. His honest, kindly, helpful nature and his ready wit and stories appealed to all. LIFE was before him. His mind was well trained — trained by himself and necessity, and assimi- lated knowledge easily. He was ambitious, and — in love. Engaged to Ann Rutledge, a beautiful girl. Her sad death in August, 1835, threw Lincoln into the deepest gloom. She had malarial fever, which developed into hasty consumption, Lincoln also at this time, and for 15 months, was affected with the same fever. It was quite prevalent, and many people died from it. This condition of his own health, no doubt, gave an added gloom to his sorrow over the death of his sweetheart, so that his friends feared his reason would forsake him. A friend, Bowling Green, by name, took him into his home and there he was nursed back to health. But to the grave of Ann Rutledge he often went, and said that his heart was buried there. With his iron grip, however, he outwardly mastered himself. This new sorrow brought in the end that poise and power, which only deep grief can bring. Lin- coln's life had been full of sadness, for his affections were deep. The loss of his mother he felt very keenly, and then his sister a few years later was taken. He seems to have been fond of his step-mother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln. She was sensible, kind and much interested in her step-son. tho she brought three children of her own into the Lincoln household. But Lincoln, while he was a part of, was always apart from other people. He felt more keenly. He was deeper, bigger, broader, more in touch with the unseen, more alive and in sympathy with unseen influences. He could not explain this. He could not say "I am different," but he felt it. "We are mortals clad in veils Man by man was never seen All our deep communings fail To remove the shadowy screen." GREATNESS does not come by chance — there's a reason. There is a mental and spiritual law as well as a physical. We do not understand it, but it exists just the same. 16 Lincoln never knew exactly who he was, and he had various surmises, which are supposed to have tinged his life with a melancholy strain. But it has been ascertained definitely that he came of honorable lineage, on both sides of his parentage. There is not time in this short sketch to go into it, but William E. Barton, after great painstaking research, has written a 400-page volume upon the subject, and contemporary writers have also traced his ancestry straight and legitimately back to the early days of 1635 and back of that to England, so that were Lincoln living today he might be a Son of the Revolution and his sister a Colonial Dame. But of ivhat use are any of these societies, if not to work and fight for the great principles which glorify and uplift the honor, integ- rity, dignity and pozver of the nation — just as Lin- coln did'' Lincoln was big, broad, bountiful in his mind. It was never of himself that he thought. Small politics never interested him, but when a great prin- ciple was at stake, when a great wrong was, or about to be, perpetrated upon his fellow beings, then it was that his titanic powers were roused, and the force of his eloquence was supreme. Lincoln always acknowledged his lack of classical training. His studies in the school room were less than a year. Once when a party of distinguished ministers visited him in Washington, one turned to the other and repeated something in Latin. Lincoln leaned forward in his chair and said, "All of which, I presume you know, I do not understand." A few days after this, however, in riding out to his summer home, on the outskirts of the city, he described and discoursed upon all the varied trees by the way, showing, as he said, the knowledge he had gained as a frontiersman. 17 And now in 1836 he is admitted to the practice of law. While in the Illinois legislature for four j^ears, he was largely instrumental in having the capitol of the state removed to Springfield, and in Springfield he now opens his law office. Stephen A. Douglas, whom Lincoln met in the legislature, and had met before that in New Salem, is also a resi- dent of Springfield. It is in this city that he is to live for the next twenty-five years, here he is to show his power of logic and reason, his knowledge of men and affairs. Mr. Herndon, who was his junior partner, says of him: "The truth about the whole matter is that Lin- coln read less and thought more than any man in his sphere in America. When young he read the Bible, and when of age, he read Shakespeare. The latter book was scarcely ever out of his mind. He possessed originality and power of thought in an eminent degree. He was cautious, cool, patient and enduring. He must know his subject inside and out- side, upside and downside. He was a merciless analyzer of facts, things and principles. All opponents dreaded him, and woe be to the man who hugged to himself a secret error if Mr. Lincoln got on the chase of it. His pursuit of truth was indefatigable, terrible. It seemed at times that Mr. Lincoln was fresh from the hand of the Creator. He was an odd and orig- inal man. He lived by himself and out of himself. He was a very sensitive man, unobstrusive and gentlemanly. He had no avarice in his nature, nor any other vice. It puzzled him at Washington to know and to get at the root of this dread desire, this contagious disease of national robbery in the Nation's death struggle. 18 / This man, this long, bony, wiry, sad-eyed man, floated into our country in 1831, in a frail canoe, down the north fork of the Sangamon River, friend- less, penniless, powerless and alone — begging tor work. Ragged, struggling for the common necessi- ties of life. This man J, this peculiar man, left us in 1861 , as President of the United States, backed by friends, power, fame and all human force." T N 1837, the year after Lincoln moved himself and his small belongings to Springfield, and had begun the practice of law in that city, he went one day with some lawyers and doctors to a camp meet- ing at Salem, his old "camping-ground." He cracked jokes and was the life of the crowd. When they reached the camp meeting, Peter Akers, a famous preacher, was holding forth. His sermon was three hours long, and he said a great war would put an end to slavery in the sixties. The crowd surged around the preacher, and he cried out, ''Who can tell but that the man who shall lead us thru this strife may be standing here?" A solemn still- ness fell over the assembly. As they were returning to Springfield, Lincoln remained silent a long time. At last, one asked him what he thought of the sermon. His answer was: "Peter Akers has convinced me that American slavery will go down in the crash of civil war; and, gentlemen, you may be surprised, but when the preacher was describing the civil war, I distinctly saw myself, as in second sight, bearing an important part in that strife." The next day, Mr. Lincoln came very late to the office, looking pale and haggard. Mr. Herndon exclaimed, "Why, Lincoln, what's the matter?" 19 Lincoln replied, "I am utterly unable to shake myself free from the conviction that I shall be in- volved in that war." T INCOLN'S life was undoubtedly inspired from early childhood, and was a life of growth from inspiration to inspiration. WE have seen how the death of Ann Rutledgc affected him, but life with her was not to be. It had exerted its influence; it helped to give him strength and power, but he was now to come into the aura of one who had faith in him, had ambition for him, who saw his greatness, and who alwavs helped and urged him toward the goal which she clearly saw was his. I say this, because in my opinion (after careful investigation) Mary Todd, the wife of Abraham Lincoln, has been much maligned. She Vv^as high-strung, temperamental, of good family, a brilliant conversationalist, well educated and a fine French scholar. Her relatives did not favor her marriage with Lincoln, who tho brilliant, was thought to be of too obscure and ordinary pedi- gree for their fastidious tastes. Mary Todd, how- ever, preferred Lincoln to any of her suitors, and she had many. They became engaged, but Lincoln tho polite and gentlemanly was lacking in the nice little attentions which women like, and was often delinquent in these respects. The engagement was finally broken and so remained for nearly a year. He had said not long before this that his **heart was in the grave with Ann Rutledge," but the old adage is pretty true that, "Men have died and worms have eaten them; but not for lovey 20 Tho Lincoln was deeply in love with this beauti- ful girl, he never would have become the man he did, had he married her. Mary Todd was in love with Lincoln. She dis- cerned through the unprepossessing setting, the fire of the great soul within. An old lady in Spring- field said: "We girls all liked Lincoln, tho he was not a ladies' man. The only thing we had against him was that he attracted all the men away by them- selves at our parties." The engagement with Miss Todd was renewed in about a year, and on November 4th, 1842, they were very quietly married. In tw^o years after this he purchased a very unpretentious home, in which he lived until he left it for the White House in 1861. His four boys were born here, and here they lived among their friends and the gossips for seventeen years. Mrs. Lincoln undoubtedly had some temper, but she was kind and always interested in her hus- band's welfare. She was quick to see what was for his advantage and to throw her influence that way. He did some things which shocked her sense of con- ventionality and roused her ire. One day the door bell rang, and Mr. Lincoln in his friendly homespun way (it is said, in his shirt-sleeves) opened the door and ushered in two stylish Springfield dames. "Come right in," he said, "and I'll go and run the women-folks in." Mr. Lincoln himself "ran out" very shortly after this, and was not seen around the premises again for several hours. Mrs. Lincoln employed at this time a very ca- pable Swedish maid, a part of whose duties it was to wait upon the door. 21 Many American dames who never even thought of aspiring to be "First Lady of the Land," would not have been meek under such provocation. A lady said to Mrs. Lincoln one day, "If I had a husband with the brains yours has, I wouldn't mind if he smashed every conventionality." "I suppose I am foolish," replied Mrs. Lincoln, well pleased with the compliment. Stephen Fiske in "When Lincoln was First In- augurated," says: "When they were on their way to Washington in 1861, upon reaching New York City, as the train was stopping they saw the immense crowds that had gathered. Then Mrs. Lincoln opened her handbag and said "Abraham, I must fix you up a little for these city folks." Mr. Lincoln lifted her gently to the seat in front of him. She parted and brushed his hair and arranged his black necktie. "Do I look nice now. Mother?" he affectionately asked. "Well, you'll do, Abraham," she replied. So he kissed her and lifted her down from the seat. And it was this motherly care that Mrs. Lin- coln always had over him. They were a happy family, on the whole, possibly with an occasional break, living in their quiet home in Springfield, and Mr. Lincoln was devoted to his boys, who were full of their pranks. They never annoyed him, but seemed to afford him endless amusement. TV/fR. RANKIN in his Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, says: "Mr. Lincoln was ten years her senior. He had passed the 'susceptible age' when marriages are con- tracted on impulse. I saw Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln in many situations — at their home, leaving home, sepa- rating for absence on business or pleasure, when call- 22 ing at the law office during busy hours, driving out together, at parties, attending church, in both pleas- ant and trying situations with their children, with their friends, their political foes, and later with huzzahing crowds, and in none of these situations did I ever detect in Mrs. Lincoln aught but the most wifely and matronly propriety and respect toward her husband, her family and her friends." There were moods of inner solitude into which Lincoln sometimes lapsed. They were characteristic of him long before she met him. Her sprightly spirit and keen wit lit up this gloom. She, of all who were near him, was the only one who had the skill and tact to shorten their duration. He was careless and indifferent about his eating, and she in her anxiety for his health was insistent that he should eat regularly well prepared food. Once in the White House he was in consultation over an important matter when the butler announced dinner. He paid no attention. Then little "Tad" came and begged and pulled his father to ''come to dinner." He dismissed the little fellow, saying, "Yes, yes, directly." But in a few minutes Mrs. Lincoln appeared and emphatically informed him of the repeated calls to dinner, and that they were wait- ing for him. At this Mr. Lincoln laid aside the documents, and without the least displeasure, crossed the room, took Mrs. Lincoln by both arms, and slowly and gently moved toward the doorway, until she was through it, then closing the door and locking it, he quietly, without a word, went on with the business. Thus he showed that when more important things than himself were at stake he was master. Mrs. Lincoln's motive behind all this was right. She was solicitous for her husband's welfare, and it was this care of hers that, no doubt, helped greatly 23 to keep him in strength and health during his most strenuous years, for he was always very indifferent to the importance of regular food, as well as regular hours of rest. lyi R. ALCOTT, of Elgin, Illinois, tells of seeing Mr. Lincoln coming home from church un- usually early one Sunday. *'Tad" was slung across his arm like a pair of saddle bags, and Mr. Lincoln was striding with long, deliberate steps toward his home. On a corner he met a group of friends. "Gentle- men," he said, "I entered this colt, but he kicked so, I had to withdraw him." Mr. Lincoln's kindness was proverbial in Spring- field. One day he saw a little girl standing by her gate and crying. He stopped and asked her what the matter was. "Oh. Mr. Lincoln," she said, "I was going to take the train for a visit, but the man doesn't come for my trunk, and I shall miss it." "Is that all?" said Mr. Lincoln. "Well, dry your eyes and let me look at the trunk." He followed the little girl upstairs, shouldered the not overlarge trunk, carried it to the depot, and saw the happy little girl and her trunk safely on their journey. Such homely, every-day acts of kindness endeared Mr. Lincoln to Springfield people, and no one could be more beloved than he by his fellow townsfolk. He was a gentleman at heart. A gentleman born, and he would fain have forgotten the rough, hard, rail splitting, ragged, bare-foot, uncouth days of his childhood, but, if he individually could have for- gotten them, his relatives and "friends" took care that he should not. And thus passed the seventeen following years at Springfield. He was saddled with a $1200 debt, 24 which his drunken partner in Salem had left for him to carry, and he had his father's indigent family to aid — these matters, combined with the fact that Mr. Lincoln's acquisitiveness amounted to making an honest living, and that a frugal one, with always a fear of overcharging his clients, brought him at the end of these seventeen years to where he owned just the house he lived in. He never drank liquor, nor used tobacco. In this way he put the laugh over on Stephen A. Douglas once in their debates. At one of their meetings, Douglas told the crowd that when he first knew Lincoln he was a "grocery- keeper, and sold whiskey, cigars, etc." "Mr. Lincoln," he said, "was a very good bar- tender." This put the laugh on Lincoln. But Mr. Lincoln's reply came soon. "What Mr. Douglas has said, gentlemen, is true enough. I did keep a grocery, and I did sell cotton, candles, cigars and sometimes whiskey, but I remem- ber in those days Mr. Douglas was one of my best customers. I can also say this : that I have since left my side of the counter, while Mr. Douglas sticks to his!" This brought such a storm of cheers and laughter that Douglas was silenced. Lincoln went on living, cracking his jokes, telling his stories, winning his cases, making friends and ex- tending his reputation throughout Illinois. A LAWYER one day said to one of the judges that he thought Lincoln's stories were a waste of time. "Lay not that flattering unction to your soul," replied the judge. "Lincoln is like Tansey's horse, he breaks to win." 25 And win he did. In 1846 he was elected to Congress. During this time Judge Hammond and Thomas H. Nelson, (the latter appointed by Lincoln, when President, minister to Chili) were going from Terre Haute to Indianapolis by stage coach. "As we stepped in," said Nelson later, "we saw that the entire back seat was occupied by a long, lank individual whose head seemed to protrude from one side of the coach and his feet from the other. Ham- mond slapped him familiarly on the shoulder and asked him if he had chartered the whole coach that day." " 'Certainly not,' and he at once took the front seat, giving us the place of honor and comfort. An odd looking fellow he was, without vest or cravat. Regarding him as a subject for merriment, we per- petrated several jokes. He took them with the ut- most good nature and joined in the laugh, though at his own expense. "After an astounding display of wordy pyro- technics, the stranger asked, 'What will became of this Comet business?' "Reaching Indianapolis, we went to our hotel, losing sight of the stranger. After washing up, I descended to the portico, and there descried our long, gloomy fellow-traveler in the center of an admiring group of lawyers, among whom were Judges Mc- Lean and Huntington, Albert S. White and Richard W. Thompson, who seemed amused at the story he was telling. I enquired of the landlord who he was. " 'Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, a member of Congress,' was the reply. I was thunderstruck and hurried upstairs to tell Hammond. Together we emerged from the hotel by a back door and down an alley to another house, thus avoiding further con- tact with our fellow-traveler. 26 "Years after, when the President-elect was on his way to Washington, I was in the same hotel looking the distinguished party over, when a long arm reached to my shoulder and a shrill voice exclaimed, 'Hello, Nelson! Do you think the whole world is going to follow the darned thing ofiV These were my own words in answer to his question regarding the Comet in the stage coach. The speaker w^as Abraham Lincoln." Yes, Lincoln would tell his stories, be chatty, cheerful and laugh, and yet, as Herndon says, "You could see, if you had any perception, that Lincoln's soul was not present ; it was in another sphere. He was with you, yet not with you ; familiar with you, yet kept you at a distance. Lincoln was a reticent, secretive, uncommunicable man. He lived a pure and lofty life. This I know, and in his practical life he was spiritual. Lincoln's conscience was his Court of Courts, from which there was no appeal." T)UT now he is in Congress. Let us see what he is doing there. The Mexican war is on. The Whigs detested this war, but all the slave owners were pushing it along. Southern people had migrated to Texas because they could hold slaves there, and in 1835 Texas revolted against Mexico, and declared its independence, defeated the Mexicans and asked ad- mission to the United States. The North objected, but the South voted it in, in 1845. Texas was fifty times as large as Connecticut, and would make several Southern states. The objection the North had to annexation was that it w^ould make trouble with Mexico, which it did. But this was an argument in its favor with the South. A war with Mexico might bring them still more slave states. There arose at once a dispute over the boundary line. The American troops invaded what the Mexi- cans called their territory, and the Mexicans came over and killed some Americans. Then President Polk declared: "War exists, notwithstanding all my efforts to avoid it." Lincoln was greatly disappointed when, two years before, Henry Clay was defeated and James K. Polk was elected President. Slavery was now the great political question, and Lincoln, who was so perfectly acquainted with pub- lic documents, and awake to the principle that no liberties must be taken with the Constitution, was watching events with the eye of a jealous God. He made a speech arraigning the President for not acting in good faith, and intimated that Polk was deeply conscious of being in the wrong — "that he feels this war crying to Heaven against him, and trusting to evade scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of Military Glory, that attractive rainbow, that rises in showers of blood, that serpent's eye, that charms but to destroy/' He also introduced a bill, as Clay had done before him, to purchase and free all slaves in the District of Columbia, but it did not pass. When Taylor was elected in 1848, Lincoln's term as Congressman expired, and he refused re- nomination, saying, "Turn about is fair play." But his good work while in Congress brought him many invitations to speak throughout the East. The Balti- more press styled him a "very keen, original fellow, and a tremendous wag withal." On this Eastern trip he saw how impossible it would be to ever hope to reconcile Northern Abo- litionists with Southern slavery. 28 Lincoln held to theMdea that the Constitution of the United States was sacred, and as long as it per- mitted slavery, slavery must be endured, and he realized that the reason slavery w^as considered right in the South and wrong in the North was because it paid in the South and did not pay in the North. He was too clear visioned not to see through all the righteous sentiment against slavery the political schemes which lay beneath. Both Washington and Lincoln were guided by their hearts, and not alone by their heads. "Go to your bosom, knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know," said the Bard of Avon. And in his heart Lincoln knew that had William Lloyd Garrison lived in the South, under the direct influence of slavery, breathing the same air with the owners of slaves, depending upon slave labor for his prosperity, he would not have been so pro- noimced about Abolition. And Lincoln knew that the North was iust as much to blame as the South for the introduction of this same slavery into the Union, and that because it didn't pay was the only reason the North gave it up. "Vice is a monster of such hideous mein That to be hated, needs but to be seen ; But seen too oft — familiar to the face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." The North was removed from this evil and the distance made it look hideous. I/incoln knew this, and brought it out clearlv in his Second Inaugural. But in the meantime, after his trip East, he settles himself down to business at the old stand, and quietly practices law. He knew what was coming, but he bided his time. 29 TV/fR. SPEED says: "After his first years as a lawyer, he was acknowledged to be among the best in the state. His analytical powers were mar- velous. He always resolved every question into its primary elements, and gave rp every point on his own side that did not seem to be invulnerable. One would think he was giving his case away. But he always reserved a point upon which he claimed a decision in his favor, and his concessions magnified the strength of his claim. He rarely failed in gain- ing his cases in court." Honorable David Davis said: '*He hated wrong and oppression evervwhere, p.nd many a man whose fraudulent conduct was undergoing review in a court of justice, has withered under his terrific indig- nation and rebuke." Mr. Lincoln was once associated with Mr. Leonard Swett in defending a man accused of mur- der. He listened to the testimony which witness after v/itness gave against his client, till his honest heart could stand it no longer, then turning to his associate, he said, ''Swett, the man is guilty. You defend him. I can't." Swett did defend him, and the man was acquitted. Lincoln declined his share of the fee, saying Swett had by his eloquence saved a guilty man from jus- tice, and it all belonged to him. At another time, he left the court and the bailifif found him in the office of a nearby hotel, his feet on the stove, in a brown study. "Mr. Lincoln, the judge wants vou," said the bailiff. "Oh, does he? Well, you go back and tell the judge I have to vjash my hands/' He would not go back to the case. Lincoln was indifferent about his dress, and care- less to a fault about his personal appearance. How- 30 ever, on one occasion, at least, he is described as hav- ing on a well fitting broadcloth suit, black silk cravat, tied well up around the neck, a pair of highly polished boots, and carrying a silk hat. This was in the trial of a case in Danville, Illinois, and it is presumable that he wore the same suit upon other occasions. On these court circuit trips from town to town, there was always a brilliant bunch of lawyers and judges, and they would sit up late and crack their jokes. On one of these trips. Judge Linder's daugh- ter, with a young lady friend, accompanied him. In the morning, Mr. Lincoln said to one of them, ''Did we disturb your sleep last night?" "No, I had no sleep," was the reply, which seemed to amuse him. But the ladies demurred that the gentlemen had the most fun after the ladies had retired. "But, Madame," said Lincoln, "you would not have enjoyed the things we laugh at." Then he deplored the fact that men seemed to enjoy and remember his "broad" stories better than any others. Judge Linder replied that he did not remember the "broad" part so much as the moral that was in them, and to this they all agreed. HTHE "poor whites" of Kentucky spoke, in Lin- coin's time, and afterward, the old Shakespearean English, and, uncultured as they were in up-to-date standards, yet the writings of Swift, Smollett, John- son, Decameron, etc., had sifted through and tinged their thoughts and speech. Abraham Lincoln had, no doubt, received an early bias by this influence, and besides this, anyone who reads a straight, unexpurgated edition of the Bible and Shakespeare continually, must, if naturally 31 spiritually minded, as Lincoln was, unconsciously form the habit of drawing practical moral and spiritual lessons from what seems to many people with less penetration and more material minds, as, at least, bordering upon the obscene. (This is put- ting it mildly.) Lincoln never told a story without a purpose, and that purpose a moral and uplifting one. Mr. F. B. Carpenter, the artist, who, while paint- ing the portraits of Lincoln and his cabinet, lived for six months at the White House, speaking of the re- ports that Lincoln habitually indulged in objection- able stories, says: "Mr. Lincoln, I am convinced, has been greatly wronged in this respect. Every foul-mouthed man in the country gave currency to the slime and filth of his own imagination by attributing it to the President. "It is but simple justice to his memory that I should state that during the entire period of my stay in Washington, after witnessing his intercourse with nearly all classes of men, embracing Governors, Senators, men of Congress, officers of the Navy, and intimate friends, I cannot recollect to have heard him relate a circumstance to anv one of them which would have been out of place for a ladies' drawing room. And this testimony is not unsupported by others, well entitled to consideration. Dr. Stone, his familv physician, came in one day to see my studies. Sitting in front of the President, with whom he did not sympathize politically, he remarked, with much feeling, 'It is the province of the physician to probe deeplv into the interior lives of men, and I affirm that Mr. Lincoln is the purest hearted man with whom I have ever come in con- tact.' " 32 Secretary Seward said, "Mr. Lincoln is the best man I ever knew.* " Henry B. Rankin, in his "Recollections of Abra- ham Lincoln," says: "There is certainly a great reward awaiting the artist who can so study Lincoln as to reproduce, and permanently preserve for all future time, his com- manding presence in the dignity and composure manifested by him on public occasions. "Every part of Lincoln's body betokened readi- ness. A man of action — an alert, living, watchful, sensitive, seeing personality, ready for service. In speaking, his shoulders were thrown slightly back- ward, and those far-visioned eyes lit up with an ani- mation that freed his countenance from any severity of outline." A ND it was this man, this man who in his severest trials, gave utterance, both in words and life, to the most sublime truths of faith and trust, who has been called an infidel ! Mr. Lincoln was a Christian mystic. Francis Grierson, in his little book called "The Practical Mystic," approaches the truth most nearly. Mr. Lincoln said himself to Mrs. Rankin : "I cannot, without mental reservations, assent to long and complicated creeds and catechisms. If the church would ask simply for the Saviour's statement of the Substance of the Law: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church I would gladly unite with." The Rev. J. F. Jacquess was with him when he said this. He, Jacquess, was afterward Colonel of the 73rd regiment of Illinois Volunteers, in the Civil War, and did Lincoln an inestimable service in go- ing on a secret mission to Jefferson Davis. This 33 visit to the Confederacy, in time of the darkest days of the Rebellion, was mystical, and if Lincoln had not believed in the guidance of the Invisible Spirit of Truth, he never would have yielded to Mr. Jacquess' plea to be sent as a messenger of the Almighty. Lincoln believed himself to be in the hands of an invisible, irresistible, inevitable power. He believed in law — eternal, universal law. He never believed that the value of a God de- pended upon his ignoring great cosmic laws, on a moment's notice and attending to the individual, but he believed that every individual was a part of the great cosmic whole, and came under the same mate- rial and spiritual law. This he brought out clearly in his second inaugural address. Lincoln, in his religious belief, in his grand nobility of character and of purpose, in his Christ- like forgiveness, and meek, submissive, yet ever pur- poseful spirit ; always sinking himself in the great object before him ; and in his closeness to the Great Invisible, was so much above and beyond his "ortho- dox" critics that it is a wonder they do not hear the voice from Heaven saying, "The place whereon thou standest is Holy Ground." Lincoln could never have anything, religious or other\\'ise, "crammed down his throat." He had to think things out his own way, and with his own light. And that light at times shone very clearly. He thought as he was led to think by the light of experience, affliction and reflection ; and this reflec- tion was often the reflex of his inner consciousness, for he had a soul that had traveled far on its journey toward God. (Good.) His opinions, his decisions, his dreams were often prophetic. They were like the Voice of Truth lead- 34 ing him, and often allowing him to catch a glimpse beyond the Veil. After he was elected to the Presidency, he tells of lying down in Mrs. Lincoln's sitting room one day, and seeing a double reflection of himself in the mirror — one face more indistinct than the other and a little beyond it. He could not account for this and thought it might be some refraction of the light. The next day, he arranged himself in the same posi- tion and the same phenomena was repeated. Mrs. Lincoln told him she thought it meant a renomina- tion for the second term, but that he would not live through it. Then, the night before his assassination, he dreamed that he was sailing in a mysterious vessel with the swiftness of the wind toward a dark and vanishing shore. He had dreamed this same dream many times before, usually before some great battle. He repeated this dream to Secretary Stanton, and it is said that Stanton urged him not to go to the theatre that night. But dreams, if they are anything, are visions, not warnings. They foretell things that are to be, not things that can be avoided. Lincoln said that he was in the hands of an Over- Ruling Providence, whose ways were inscrutable. That conditions and events controlled men. And yet Lincoln believed that man was accountable for his acts, and for the thought behind the act. J^ERNDON said: "Lincoln is a man of heart, aye, gentle as a woman's and as tender, but he has a will strong as iron. If any question comes up which is doubtful, questionable, and which no man can demonstrate, his friends can rule him. But when on Right, 35 Liberty, Justice, the Constitution and the Union, then all stand aside! No man, no set of men, can move him. There is no failure here. You and I must keep the people right. God will keep Lincoln right f' After his return from Congress, Lincoln devoted much more time to study than before. His desire was to bring himself up to the culture of the East. He became the leading lawyer of Illinois. The years passed on between 1849 and 1854. The railroads had brought eastern people v/est to the ?reat prairie lands and to the mining camps. About 3.000.000 immip-rants from Europe had settled throughout the West. The North and West was a great hive of industry. Everybodv worked. All labor was honorable, while in the South there were the three classes — the slave owners who did no work, the slaves who did all the work (three slaves would do as much as one good northern white man), and the DOor whites, who did ju