-1^ •1' 
 
 
 
 
 
ni^ o » » . •*%, 
 
 
THE 
 
 LINCOLN MEMORIAL: 
 
 ALBUM-IMMORTELLES. 
 
 ORIGINAL LIFE PICTURES, WITH AUTOGRAPHS, 
 
 FROM THE HANDS AND HEARTS OF EMINENT 
 
 AMERICANS AND EUROPEANS, 
 
 CONTEMPORARIES OF THE GREAT MARTYR TO LIBERTY, 
 
 ^bral)am £incolu. 
 
 TOGETHER WITH EXTRACTS FROM HIS SPEECHES, 
 LETTERS AND SAYINGS. 
 
 COLLECTED AND EDITED 
 
 BY 
 
 OSBORN H. OLDROYD. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY 
 
 MATTHEW SIMPSON, D.D., LL.D., 
 
 AND A SKETCH OF THE PATRIOTS LIFE BY 
 
 HON. ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 G. W, Carleton & Co., Publishers. 
 
 LONDON : S. LOW, SON & CO. 
 MDCCCLXXXII. 
 
 UjW 
 
 1^ 
 
Z 
 
 (lo?i 
 
 LINGOLNIANA 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 
 
 OSBORN H. OLDROYD. 
 1882. 
 
 stereotyped by Tbow 
 
 Samuel Stoddeh, Printing \nd Book-Bindino Co.. 
 
 00 Ann Stbeet, N. Y. N. Y. 
 
TO 
 
 THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, 
 
 THESE 
 
 LITERARY IMMORTELLES TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 THE PRESIDENT 
 
 ■WHO ROSE FROM THE RANKS OP THE PLAIN PEOPLE; 
 
 THE PATRIOT 
 
 WHO GAVE HIS LIFE FOR HIS COIHSITRY; 
 
 AND 
 
 THE LIBERATOR 
 
 WHO BOUND UP THE UNION, AND UNBOUND THE SLAVES, 
 
 ARE 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN offering this volume to the public a few words 
 from the editor may not seem out of place. 
 On the fifteenth day of April, 1880, I was standing 
 near the monument of Abraham Lincoln, waiting for the 
 Lincoln Guard of Honor to begin their first memorial 
 service on the fifteenth anniversary of the death of 
 Abraham Lincoln. The gathering was a small one, it 
 being only about twenty-two minutes after seven o'clock 
 in the morning. As I gazed on the pinnacle of the 
 towering shaft, that marks the resting-place of him 
 whom i had learned to love in my boyhood's years, 
 when, in the spirited campaign of i860, "Old Abe" was 
 the watchword of every Republican, I fell to wondenng 
 whether it might not be possible for me to contribute 
 my mite toward adding luster to the fame of this 
 great product of American institutions. I had begun 
 as early as i860 to collect trophies from his campaign, 
 and had ever since then carefully preserved every article 
 I could secure that related in any way to his memory. 
 The first thought that came into my mind, as I stood 
 looking at that noble monument, was that of building a 
 Memorial Hall in which to preserve the memorials I then 
 possessed and those which I might subsequently secure, 
 and I then and there adopted this plan. I have con- 
 tinued up to this time to gather Lincoln mementos, 
 and have now in my possession nearly two thousand 
 books, sermons, eulogies, poems, songs, portraits, badges, 
 autograph letters, pins, medals, envelopes, statuettes, 
 
 [vl 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 etc., etc. The fact Is, I have collected everything I could 
 find sacred to Lincoln's memory, from a newspaper scrap 
 to his large cook-stove and other household articles. I 
 desire here to thank the many friends to whom I am 
 under obligations for valuable contributions. I have the 
 promise of several more, that will be sent me in due 
 time, and I shall always be thankful for any Lincoln 
 rehc sent me, no matter how trifling it may seem to the 
 owner. The accumulation of Lincoln relics induced me 
 to collect the opinions of the great men of the world 
 in regard to the noble martyr, in order to demonstrate 
 how universally Mr. Lincoln was beloved and respected 
 Letters were sent to distinguished persons East and West' 
 North and South in our country, as well as to persons in 
 Lngland, requesting them to express their estimate of 
 Lincoln s public and private character and of his ser- 
 vices ; and the more than two hundred responses to be 
 found in this volume, over xh^ facsimiles of the writer's 
 names, shows the unexpected success I met with In this 
 effort. Their publication in book form, together with 
 the other reminiscences of Lincoln found in this volume 
 will, I have no doubt, be approved by the public. It has 
 been my purpose to produce a work the contents of 
 which might in some degree shed luster on the name of 
 the immortal emancipator, and the external appearance 
 ot which might be an ornament In any house or library 
 How far I have succeeded in attaining the goal of my 
 ambition, of this a generous public will have to judo-e 
 Surely the gathering of the material for this volume has 
 been the greatest pleasure of my life. It has been a 
 source of profound gratification to me, not only to 
 receive the many tributes of great men's thoughts upon 
 the life and character of Lincoln, but also to visit the 
 old Iriends of his boyhood and listen to their simple and 
 unvarnished stories Illustrating the goodness of his heart 
 What a noble example was his whole life ! I have often 
 thought what a beautiful book for boys might be made 
 out of the boyhood of Lincoln if the past were collected 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 and properly presented. All the friends of his youth 
 whom I have seen give testimony of the purity and 
 nobleness of his character ; they say he always wanted 
 to see fair play and that he was honest and upright in 
 all things. He found great delight in helping any one 
 in need. An old friend of Mr. Lincoln's, now livinsf in 
 Petersburg, III, told me how he at one time was build- 
 ing a house and was unable to make a brace fit. Mr. 
 Lincoln happened to come that way, and the former 
 said to him that if he would cut him a brace he would 
 vote for him the first time he ran for President. Lincoln 
 took a slate and pencil, and after getting the distance 
 between the joists, he estimated its dimensions, made a 
 pattern and the brace slipped in, a perfect fit, *' I did 
 not vote for Lincoln," added the man who related the 
 story, " as I promised to do, but I have regretted it 
 ever since." Few better examples of industry could be 
 furnished to young men than the life of Lincoln. He 
 was always as busy as a bee. He always carried some 
 good book in his pocket, and when not otherwise engaged 
 he would read, and was usually seen reading when going 
 to and from his work. It is hoped that the sketch of 
 Lincoln given in this work, the many extracts from his 
 speeches, and the numerous thoughts and utterances in 
 reference to his life and character by the foremost men 
 of our time may be made accessible to the youth of our 
 land, in order that thus many a young heart may be 
 stimulated to industry, honesty, goodness and patriotism, 
 and may find encouragement for higher aspirations and 
 good deeds. The names of some persons will be missed 
 in this work by many of the readers. In reference to this 
 I have only to say that the fault is not mine. For some 
 reason or other they did not respond to my 2irgxnt 
 solicitations. It now remains to me to express my most 
 hearty thanks to all those persons who have so kindly 
 aided me in the preparation of this volume. I am 
 particularly indebted for their special interest to Rev. 
 Matthew Simpson, Hon. I. N. Arnold, Prof. Rasmus B. 
 
vni 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Anderson, Benson J. Lossing. LL.D., Rev. Theo. L. 
 Cuyler, T. W. S. Kidd, Joshua F. Speed, Joseph Gilles- 
 pie and Jesse W. Fell. Their generous assistance has 
 been a great comfort and help to me. 
 
 All I ask is that with the sale of this book I may 
 realize some funds with which to build a Memorial Hall, 
 where I may display to the public, free of charge, my life 
 work in the collection of memorials and souvenirs of 
 Abraham Lincoln, which will in due time be bequeathed 
 to the public. 
 
 I am aware that there are many Imperfections in all 
 human enterprises, and am not blind to the faults of 
 this work, but I can truly say that It has not been under- 
 taken for the purpose of making money, but solely as an 
 outcome of my enthusiasm and reverence for its great 
 hero. I have spared neither pains nor expense, and, In 
 view of this fact, it may not seem immodest if I bespeak 
 for my effort the generosity of the critic and the liberality 
 of the public. 
 
 ^'PZf^t ^^2^^/^^^^ iL^Zc^^y^P^. 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, July, 1882. 
 
GENERAL CONTENTS, 
 
 PAGB 
 
 5 
 
 Author's Preface, 
 
 INDEX TO THE WRITINGS AND SPEECHES OF 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, " 
 
 .... 15 
 List of Contributors, 
 
 Introduction by Bishop Simpson, 23 
 
 LIFE of Abraham Lincoln, by Isaac N. Arnold, . 29 
 
 70 
 
 Miscellaneous, 
 
INDEX 
 
 TO THE 
 
 WRITINGS, SPEECHES AND SAYINGS 
 
 BY 
 
 ^bra()am fincoln. 
 
 First Political Speech when a Candidate for the Illinois 
 Legislature in 1832 ....... 
 
 Extract from a speech delivered December, 1839 . 
 Resolutions upon slavery in the Illinois Legislature 
 An address before the Springfield Washingtonian Temper 
 ance Society, February 22, 1842 .... 
 
 Speech at Peoria, Illinois, October 16, 1854 . 
 
 Extract from a speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 26, 1857 
 
 Letter to Plon. Stephen A. Douglas .... 
 
 Extract from a speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 17, 1858 
 Extract from a speech at Chicago, Illinois, July 10, 1858 
 Extract from a speech delivered at Springfield, Illinois 
 
 July 17, 1858 
 
 Extract from a speech at Ottawa, Illinois, August 21, 1858 
 Extract from a speech at Frecport, Illinois, August 27, 1858 
 Extract from a speech at Galesburg, Illinois, October 7, 1858 120 
 Extract from a speech at Quincy, Illinois, October 13, 1858 
 Speech at Alton, Illinois, October 15, 1858 
 Extract from a speech at Columbus, Ohio, September, 1859 132 
 Extract from a speech at Cincinnati, Ohio, September, 1859 134 
 
 [xi] 
 
 76 
 
 78 
 80 
 
 98 
 100 
 102 
 106 
 108 
 
 114 
 116 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Extract from a speech at Jonesboro, Illinois, September 15, 
 
 1858 
 
 Extract from an address at Cooper Institute, February 27 
 
 i860 
 
 Address to the citizens of Springfield, on his departure for 
 
 Washington, February 11, 1861 
 Letter of Acceptance 
 Speech at Toledo, Ohio 
 Speech at Indianapolis, Indiana 
 Speech to the members of the Legislature of Indiana, who 
 
 waited upon him at his hotel 
 Speech at Cincinnati, Ohio 
 Speech to the Ohio State Senate. 
 Speech at Steubenville, Ohio 
 Speech at Pittsburgh, Pa. 
 Speech at Cleveland, Ohio 
 Speech at Buffalo, N. Y. 
 Speech at Syracuse, N. Y. 
 Speech at Utica, N. Y. 
 
 Speech from the steps of the Capitol, Albany, N. Y. 
 Speech in the Assembly Hall at Albany, N. Y. 
 
 Speech at Pouglikeepsie, N. Y 
 
 Speech at Peekskill, N. Y 
 
 Reply to the Mayor of New York 
 
 Speech to various Republican Associations, New York 
 
 Speech at Newark, New Jersey. 
 
 Speech in the Senate Chamber, Trenton, New Jersey 
 
 Speech at Trenton, New Jersey, delivered in the House of 
 
 Assembly. ••...... 
 
 Address to the Mayor and Citizens of Philadelphia. 
 Speech in Independence Hall, at Philadelphia. 
 Speech before Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Feb., 1861 
 Speech at Lancaster, Pennsylvania .... 
 
 Speech before the Legislature of Pennsylvania, at Harris 
 
 burg, February 22, 1861 
 
 Speech to the Mayor and Common Council of Washington 
 Proclamation, April 15, i86i 
 
INDEX. 
 
 xm 
 
 Reply to Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown. 
 Message to Congress, in extra session, July 4, 1861 
 Personal Conference with the Representatives from the Bor 
 
 der States ...... 
 
 Reply to Horace Greeley .... 
 
 Reply to a Religious Delegation 
 
 First Inaugural Address .... 
 
 Abolishing Slavery in the District of Columbia 
 First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1S61 
 Proclamation, relative to General Hunter's order declaring 
 
 slaves within his department free .... 
 Reading the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet 
 
 September 22, 1862 ....... 
 
 Reply to the Resolutions of the East Baltimore Methodist 
 
 Conference of 1862 ...... 
 
 To the Synod of Old School Presbyterians, Baltimore. 
 Reply to the Committee of the Lutheran Synod of 1862 
 Second Annual Message to Congress, December i, 1862 
 Emancipation Proclamation, January i, 1863. 
 Reply to an invitation to preside over a meeting of the 
 
 Christian Commission 
 Reply to address from workingmen, Manchester, England 
 Remarks made to some friends New Year's evening, 1863 
 From the letter to Erastus Corning and others 
 Response to a serenade . 
 The President's Dispatch 
 Proclamation .... 
 
 Reply to a Committee of the Presbyterian Church 
 Letter to General Grant 
 A Proclamation, July 15, 1863 
 Presentation of a Commission as 
 
 U. S. Grant 
 Letter to James C. Conkling . 
 
 Reply to the letter of Governor Seymour, of New York 
 Address on the Battle-Field of Gettysburg 
 Third Annual Message to Congress .... 
 Speech at a Ladies' Fair in Washington 
 
 Lieutenant-General to 
 
XIV 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Letter to A. G. Hodges 
 
 Speech at the opening of a Fair in Baltimore, April, 1864 
 Reply to a Committee from the Methodist Conference . 
 Response to a delegation of the National Union League 
 Speech at the Philadelphia Fair ..... 
 From his Letter of Acceptance ..... 
 
 Saving a Life 
 
 To whom it may concern ...... 
 
 Speech to a serenading club of Pennsylvanians 
 Address to the Political Clubs ..... 
 
 Interview with a gentleman ....... 
 
 Letter to Mrs. Eliza P. Gurney. ..... 
 
 Reply to a committee of loyal colored people of Baltimore 
 
 Remarks to the 189th New York Regiment . 
 
 Speech to the 164th Ohio ...... 
 
 Reply to a company of clerg3'men .... 
 
 Speech to the 148th Ohio regiment .... 
 
 Remarks to a serenading party at the White House 
 Observance of the Sabbath ...... 
 
 Letter to Mrs. Bixby, of Boston 
 
 Remarks to a delegation from Ohio .... 
 Fourth Annual Message to Congress, December 6th, 1864 
 Reply to an Illinois clergyman ..... 
 Instructions to Wm. H. Seward, at the Meeting of Messrs 
 
 Stevens, Hunter and Campbell, at Fortress Monroe, Va 
 Second Inaugural Address, delivered March 3, 1865 
 Remarks upon the fall of Richmond .... 
 A Verbal Message given to Hon. Schuyler Colfax 
 Remark previous to attending the theater on the niglit of 
 
 his assassination ....... 
 
 Fac-simile of the play-bill at Ford's Theater on the night 
 
 of April 14, 1865 ....... 
 
 Fac-simile Letter to J. W, Fell, 1859 . . . . 
 
 Autobiography of Abraham Lincoln, in Fac-Simile 
 
ALPHABETICAL 
 
 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS, 
 
 Arnold, Isaac N., Author . 
 
 Anderson, Rasmus B., Author , 
 
 Ayres, R. B., Major-General 
 
 Abbott, Lyman, Author and Divine 
 
 Adams, Charles Francis, ex-Min. to England 
 
 Arthur, T. S., Author .... 
 
 Affleck, W. B., Lecturer 
 
 Allyn, Robert, Professor 
 
 Andrews, Israel Ward, College President 
 
 Avery, John, Professor 
 
 Anthony, Henry B., Statesman . 
 Botta, Anna C, Authoress 
 
 Bennett, H. S., Chaplain Fisk University 
 
 Blanchard, Rufus, Author . 
 
 Bellows, Henry W., Divine 
 
 Burnam, C. F., Lawyer 
 
 Bradley, Joseph P., Justice Sup. Court 
 
 Burnside, Ambrose E., Major-General 
 
 Bright, John, Member of Parliament 
 
 Bascom, John, College President 
 
 Bennett, Emerson, Editor . 
 
 Boutwell, George S., Statesman 
 
 Barnum, P. T., Showman . 
 
 Barnes, S. G., Professor 
 
 Bailey, J. M., Journalist 
 
 Bancroft, Cecil F. P., Professor 
 
 Bedell, Gregory T., Divine 
 
 Bradley, W. O., Lawyer 
 
 FAOE 
 
 29 
 
 77 
 79 
 81 
 
 ^3 
 
 99 
 
 123 
 
 139 
 
 388 
 
 525 
 515 
 71 
 105 
 153 
 169 
 171 
 173 
 
 175 
 179 
 
 185 
 249 
 267 
 319 
 331 
 331 
 339 
 341 
 361 
 
 [XV] 
 
XVI 
 
 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 
 
 Barrett, Lawrence, Tragedian . 
 
 Black, J. C, General .... 
 
 Bigney, M. F., Author and Journalist 
 
 Bishop, R. M., ex-Gov. Ohio 
 
 Barrows, John H., Divine . 
 
 Burk, Thomas, House of Commons . 
 
 Bowman, Fred. H. . . . . . 
 
 Bennett, John, 
 
 Boyd, Andrew, 
 Cuyler, Theodore L., 
 
 Clay, Cassius M., 
 
 Colfax, Schuyler, 
 
 Collj^er, Robert, 
 
 Conkling, Roscoe, 
 
 Coxe, Arthur Cleveland, 
 
 Clarke, James Freeman, 
 
 Merchant 
 Publisher . 
 Author and Divine 
 Statesman 
 ex- Vice-President 
 Author and Divine . 
 Statesman 
 
 Divine 
 Author 
 
 / 
 
 Cooper, Peter, Philanthropist 
 Chadbourne, P. A., Professor 
 Chase, Thomas, College President 
 Cox, S. S., Author and Statesman 
 Crosby, Howard, Author and Divine 
 Cooke, Rose Terry, Authoress . 
 Carpenter, Cyrus Clay, ex-Gov. of Iowa 
 Corlis, Corydon T., Physician . 
 Carman, Caleb, Shoemaker 
 
 De La Matyr, G., Member of Congress 
 Douglass, Frederick, Orator 
 Dow, Neal, Lecturer 
 D'Ooge, Martin L., Author and Professor 
 Dana, Charles A., Journalist 
 Dawes, Henry L., Statesman 
 Dilke, Charles W., House of Commons 
 Drake, Samuel Adams, Author . 
 Davis, David, Statesman 
 Dale, R. W., Divine .... 
 
 Edison, Thomas A., Inventor 
 
 Eastman, Sophie E., Authoress 
 
LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 
 
 Eastman, Zebina, ex-Consul 
 
 Frothingham, O. B., Author and Divine . 
 Forney, John W., Journalist 
 Franklin, William B., Major-General 
 Frye, William P., Statesman 
 
 Foster, Charles, 
 Fish, Hamilton, 
 Frieze, Henry S., 
 Field, Cyrus W., 
 
 Governor of Ohio . 
 ex-Secretary of State 
 Author and Professor 
 Inventor . 
 Frazer, Virginia A., Authoress . 
 Fisk, Clinton B., Major-General 
 Fisher, George P., Author and Divine 
 Fell, Jesse W., Lawyer 
 Fee, John G., Professor 
 Gough, John B., Orator 
 
 Garland, Augustus H., U. S. Senator 
 Grant, Ulysses S., ex-President 
 Gray, Asa, Writer and Scientist 
 Goodwin, W. W., Professor 
 Grow, Galusha A., Member of Congress 
 Godwin, Parke, Author 
 Garfield, James A., ex-President 
 Griffith, George Bancroft, Author 
 Gayarre, Charles, Author . 
 Gillespie, Joseph, Lawyer . 
 Gibbon, John, Major-General 
 Gibson, W. H., Adjutant-General Ohio 
 Greene, William G., Farmer 
 Haven, E. O., Author and Divine 
 Hastings, Hugh J., Journalist 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Poet 
 Hall, Eugene J., Poet 
 Hewitt, Abram S. Statesman 
 Hale, Eugene, Statesman 
 Hart, Charles Henry, Author 
 Hubbard, Gurdon S., Merchant 
 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, Author 
 3 
 
XVlll 
 
 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 
 
 Hazen, William B., Major-General . 
 
 Hancock, Winfield S., Major-General 
 
 Hall, Newman, Divine 
 
 Harrington, C. S., Professor 
 
 Hayes, Rutherford B., ex-President . 
 
 Howells, William D., Author . 
 
 Holland, J, G, Author 
 
 Howard, U. O., Major-General . 
 
 Hopkins, Louisa Parsons, Authoress 
 
 Houk, Leonidas C, Member of Congress 
 
 Hatch, Rufus, Banker 
 
 Herndon, Wm. H., Lawyer 
 Julian, George W., Member of Congress 
 
 Judd, Mrs. Norman B 
 
 Kirkwood, Samuel J., ex-Secretary of Interior 
 
 Kautz, August V., Major-General 
 
 Kidd, T. W. S., Editor 
 Lossing, Benson J., Historian . 
 
 Lanman, Charles, Author . 
 
 Lippincott, Charles E., General 
 
 Larcom, Lucy, Authoress . 
 
 Longfellow, Henry W., Poet 
 *^Meigs, M. C, Quartermaster-General 
 
 M'Culloch, Hugh, ex-Sec'y of Treasury 
 
 Merritt, Wesley, Brevet Major-General 
 
 Morrill, Lot M., Statesman 
 
 Minier, George W., Merchant , 
 
 Maynard, Horace, 
 
 Meyer, Albert J., 
 Martindale, E. B., 
 Morton, Levi P., 
 McLellan, Isaac, 
 Murdoch, James E., 
 Morey, William C, 
 Marvin, James, 
 
 ex-Postmaster-General 
 U. S. Signal Officer 
 General 
 
 Minister to France 
 Poet 
 
 Elocutionist 
 Professor 
 Professor . 
 
 Mead, C. M., Professor 
 
 Merrick, Frederick, ex-College President 
 
LIS2' OF CONTRIBUTORS. 
 
 XIX 
 
 McCook, Anson G., Member of Congress 
 Matthews, Stanley, U. S. Senator 
 Miller, Samuel F., Justice Supreme Court 
 McNeely, William, Farmer 
 
 Northrop, Cyrus, Professor 
 
 New, John C, ex-U. S. Treasurer 
 Newton, William Wilberforce, Divine 
 Nance, George Washington, Farmer 
 
 Oglesby, Richard J., ex-Governor of Illinois 
 
 Phelps, Elizabeth Stuart, Authoress 
 
 V Pagliardirri, Tito, .... 
 
 Pike, Albert, Author 
 Phillips, Wendell, Author and Orator 
 Porter, Noah, Author and Professor 
 Prime, Samuel Irenaeus, Author, Editor 
 Pratt, C. E., Brigadier-General 
 Palmer, Ray, Poet and Divine 
 Payne, C. A., College President 
 Porter, Robert P., Journalist 
 Pomeroy, E. C, Teacher 
 Porter, David D., Admiral . 
 
 Rice, Alexander H., ex-Governor of Mass. 
 Ramsey, Alexander, ex-Secretary of War 
 Rector, Henry M,, ex-Governor of Arkansas 
 Ross, Alexander Milton, Physician 
 Rollins, James S., Member of Congress . 
 
 Simpson, M., Author and Divine 
 
 /Speed, Joshua F., Lawyer .... 
 Stoneman, George, Major-General . 
 Stephens, Alexander H., Statesman . 
 Shuman, Andrew, ex-Lieut. Gov. of Illinois 
 Schaff, Philip, Author and Divine 
 Sturtevant, J. M., College President . 
 Shrigley, James, Divine 
 Spinner, F. E., ex-U. S. Treasurer . 
 Sherman, William T., General . 
 Schofield, Glenni W., Member of Congress 
 
XX 
 
 LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 
 
 Smith, Richard, Journalist . . . . . .417 
 
 Scott, L., Divine ....... 405 
 
 Strong, William, Justice Supreme Court . . . 406 
 Smyth, Frederick, ex-Governor of N. H. . .412 
 
 Sherman, John, ex-Sec'y U. S. Treasury . . . 42S 
 Swisshelm, Jane Gray, Authoress .... 413 
 
 Stoddard, W. O., Author 434 
 
 Smith, William F., Major-General .... 555 
 
 \) Trowbridge, John Tovvnsend, Author .... 157 
 
 Taylor, A. A. E., College President .... 3S6 
 
 Tovvnsend, E. D., Adjutant-General . . . 504 
 
 Tovvnsend, George Alfred, Poet and Novelist . • 5T3 
 
 Volk, Leonard W., Sculptor ...... 217 
 
 Whittier, John G., Poet ....... loi 
 
 Warner, Charles Dudley, Author . . . .129 
 
 Winthrop, Robert C, Statesman . . . .165 
 
 Warren, William F., Professor . . . . .167 
 
 Williams, S. Wells, Author ..... 177 
 
 Walker, William, Lawyer . . . . . .213 
 
 Wood, Fernando, Member of Congress . , . 398 
 Woodford, Stewart L., General .... 445 
 
 Warner, Willard, U. S. Senator .... 439 
 
 Waite, Morrison R., Chief Justice .... 467 
 
 Wheildon, William Willdcr, Author .... 440 
 
THE angels of your thoughts are climbing still 
 The shining ladder of his fame, 
 And have not reached the top, nor ever v^-'ll, 
 
 While this low life pronounces his high name. 
 
 But yonder, where they dream, or dare, or do, 
 
 The "good " or "great " beyond our reach, 
 
 To talk of him must make old language new 
 In heavenly, as it did in human, speech. 
 
 ■o.U^Ji^T'MiM^, 
 
 Andover, Mass., November, i88i. 
 
 [xxij 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE name of Abraham Lincoln is Imperishable. 
 His fame is world-wide. Born in comparative 
 poverty, trained in obscurity, mingling with the sons of 
 toil in early manhood, he yet rose to one of earth's 
 proudest positions, and at his death the world was in 
 tears. He was not born great, as the heir of a great 
 name, or of an estate ; yet he was born great in having 
 a strong intellect and a noble heart. Without the sur- 
 rounding of friends, without the influence of wealth, he 
 rose slowly but surely. Step by step he ascended the 
 great pyramid until he stood upon its lofty summit. As 
 we read history, how few names survive. Multiplied 
 millions pass away in every generation ; a few hundreds 
 only are honored by coming ages. In early history^the 
 names which live are chiefly those of warriors or founders 
 of nations ; but Lincoln was no warrior ; he drew no 
 sword ; he fought no bloody battles ; he had no stars 
 upon his breast. Others, as the founders of schools of 
 
 philosophy, have left a name ; as Plato, and Socrates, and 
 
 [xxiii] 
 
xxiv . IN TROD UCTJON. 
 
 Aristotle. You hear of Croesus through his untold 
 wealth ; but Lincoln was neither teacher nor millionaire. 
 First, his name lives through his honesty and unselfish- 
 ness, in his business, in his profession of the law, and in 
 all his transactions among men, he gained the grand title 
 of honest. His word was not doubted. No man believed 
 that he ever betrayed any trust. 
 
 When in after life he had millions under his control, 
 not even an enemy whispered a suspicion of his illegally 
 or selfishly controlling a dollar of public money. If an 
 honest man is the noblest work of God, then Mr. Lin- 
 coln's title to high nobility is clear and unquestioned. 
 
 In his busiest moment, in his most anxious hours 
 during the war, he was ever ready to listen to the story 
 of distress ; many a widow's heart was cheered by his 
 words and acts of kindness. 
 
 Secondly, he adhered firmly to what he believed to be 
 right. Endowed with strong intellectual powers, which 
 he had carefully exercised, he loved to study great prin- 
 ciples. Deeply interested in the welfare of the 
 nation, he inquired how it might become strong and be 
 perpetuated. He followed not the crowd ; he sought 
 not personal popularity ; he had faith in the ultimate 
 triumph of truth and right. Perceiving the antagonism 
 between slave labor and free labor, espousing the cause 
 of equal rights and of human freedom, he early became 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxv 
 
 the opponent of the encroachments of the slave power. 
 He stood firmly with a small minority while others 
 quailed before an imperious and threatening majority. 
 He risked his position as a leader, his reputation as a 
 statesman, as he disputed the right of slavery to the 
 territories, and championed the cause of freedom. In his 
 speeches which he made through his State are embodied 
 most noble sentiments and trenchant thoughts ; and 
 though unpopular for a time, his sentiments became the 
 sentiments of the great West. 
 
 Thirdly, when, in a season of great national excite- 
 ment, he was unexpectedly called to the Presidency of the 
 nation, he left his Western home with a presentiment 
 that he would probably never return. The dangers of 
 rebellion and civil war were before him. Threats of 
 treachery and assassination were heard. But he deter- 
 mined, if needful, to lay down his life for the nation. 
 He was not a warrior, but he was a hero. Through the 
 weary years of that fearful war he bore anxieties and 
 labors, and passed through perils that were exhausting 
 and fearful. He lived to see the cause of the nation 
 triumph, to behold the nation victorious, and coming 
 peace smiled upon the land. Just at that moment the 
 hand of the assassin sped the fatal ball. He died a 
 martyr for his country. 
 
 FourtJily, in that terrible contest he had the dis- 
 
xxvi INTRODUCTION, 
 
 tinguished honor and power of showing that "the pen is 
 mightier than the sword." Fearful had been the contest. 
 Disaster had sometimes attended our armies ; despond- 
 ency brooded over the minds of the people until he 
 issued the famous Proclamation of Emancipation. That 
 act became the turning-point of the war. Five millions 
 of men were changed by it from slaves to citizens. 
 Manacles were melted by its electric thrill. Success 
 began to crown the movements of the army, and soon 
 triumph rested on our banners. 
 
 Nor was it only from the millions of slaves that chains 
 had been removed ; the whole nation had been in bond- 
 age ; free speech had been suppressed. Men dared not 
 utter their convictions. An inquisition had been made 
 in the postal service ; the pulpit had frequently been 
 over-awed by excited assemblies and utterances. Our 
 great nation was reproached by the nations of the earth 
 as violating the principles of freedom by holding men in 
 slavery. The Proclamation of Emancipation not only 
 freed the slave, but freed the nation. Free speech was 
 restored. The pulpit and the press were unshackled. 
 The dark blot that had rested upon our national honor 
 w^as removed, and the nation stood proudly a united and 
 free people among the nations of the earth. This act 
 linked the name of Lincoln with the rights and progress 
 of humanity, and while human freedom and true progress 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxvii 
 
 continue shall that name be held in reverence. We look 
 not only to the past, but his life is a living power for the 
 present and the future. It is a glowing commentary on 
 the principles of the American Government and on the 
 possibilities of human elevation. In older nations the 
 rulers are found in hereditary families, among names 
 that have been noble for generations ; where wealth has 
 been accumulated, and centuries of honored memories 
 have clustered around the name. Mr. Lincoln's eleva- 
 tion shows that in America every station in life may be 
 honorable ; that there is no barrier against the humblest ; 
 but that merit, wherever it exists, has the opportunity to 
 be known. His life also is an inspiration for the young. 
 There are few, indeed, more humble in their birth, more 
 obscure in their early associations, more pressed with 
 life's surroundings and cares, with fewer apparent pros- 
 pects of success ; to all these his example and his eleva- 
 tion becomes a living power. What he became they 
 may aspire to be ; and the humblest youth looking 
 through the coming years beholds the possibility of 
 occupying any position to which his talents and his 
 efforts may fit him. 
 
 Nor is it uninstructive to see how a name unknown 
 but a few years before may become world-wide. As a 
 President of the United States his position was equal, 
 at least, to that of the monarchs of Europe; and yet 
 
xxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 those monarchs had been unwillins: to recogriize as an 
 equal the President of a youthful nation, whose term of 
 office was limited to a few years. But when suddenly 
 smitten, the national sympathy of the masses and of the 
 monarchs was strongly touched ; words of sympathy and 
 condolence were sent from nearly every throne, and the 
 masses of the people in all their associations joined in the 
 general mourning, recognizing that a friend of humanity 
 had fallen. It is very fitting that proper mementos 
 should be prepared and widely diffused. The volume 
 now offered to the public embraces some of these me- 
 mentos, and is a collection of some of the best thoughts 
 and utterances in reference to his distincruished career. 
 It is hoped that it may have a wide circulation, and may 
 stimulate many a youthful heart to noble aspirations and 
 to noble deeds. 
 
 Philadelphia, 1882. 
 
ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 BY HON. ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 
 
 THE noblest inheritance we, Americans, derive from 
 our British ancestors is the memory and example 
 of the great and good men who adorn your history. 
 They are as much appreciated and honored on our side 
 of the Atlantic as on this. In giving to the English- 
 speaking world Washington and Lincoln we think we 
 repay, in large part, our obligation. Their pre-eminence 
 in American history is recognized, and the republic, which 
 the one founded and the other preserved, has, already, 
 crowned them as models for her children. 
 
 In the annals of almost every great nation some 
 names appear standing out clear and prominent, names 
 of those who have influenced or controlled the ereat 
 events which make up history. Such were Wallace and 
 Bruce in Scotland, Alfred and the Edwards, William 
 the Conqueror, Cromwell, Pitt, Nelson and Wellington, 
 in England, and such, in a still greater degree, were 
 Washington and Lincoln. 
 
 I am here, from near his home, with the hope that 
 
 [29] 
 
30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 I may, to some extent, aid you in forming a just and 
 true estimate of Abraham Lincoln. I knew him, some- 
 what intimately, in private and public life for more 
 than twenty years. We practiced law at the same bar, 
 and during his administration, I was a member of Con- 
 gress, seeing him and conferring with him often, and 
 therefore, I may hope without vanity, I trust, that I 
 shall be able to contribute something of value in 
 enabling you to judge of him. We in America, as well 
 as you in the old world, believe that "blood will tell;" 
 that it is a great blessing to have had an honorable 
 and worthy ancestry. We believe that moral principle, 
 physical and intellectual vigor, in the forefathers are 
 qualities likely to be manifested in the descendants. 
 Fools are not the fathers or mothers of great men. I 
 claim for Lincoln, humble as was the station to which 
 he was born and rude and rough as were his early 
 surroundings, that he had such ancestors. I mean that 
 his father and mother, his grandfather and grand- 
 mother, and still further back, however humble and 
 rugged their condition, were physically and mentally 
 strong, vigorous men and women ; hardy and successful 
 pioneers on the frontier of American civilization. 
 They were among the early settlers in Virginia, Ken- 
 tucky, and Illinois, and knew how to take care of them- 
 selves in the midst of difficulties and perils ; how to 
 live and succeed when the weak would perish. These 
 ancestors of Lincoln, for several generations, kept on 
 the very crest of the wave of Western settlements — 
 on the frontier, where the struggle for life was hard 
 and the strong alone survived. 
 
BY ISAAC JV. ARNOLD. 31 
 
 His grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, and his father, 
 Thomas, were born in Rockingham County, Vlr- 
 
 About 1 78 1, while his father was still a lad, his grand- 
 father's family emigrated to Kentucky, and was a contem- 
 porary with Daniel Boone, the celebrated Indian fighter 
 and early hero of that State. This, a then wild and 
 wooded territory, was the scene of those fierce and 
 desperate conflicts between the settlers and the Indians 
 which gave it the name of " The dark and bloody 
 ground." 
 
 When Thomas Lincoln, the father of the President, 
 was six years old, his father (Abraham, the grandfather 
 of the President) was shot and instantly killed by an 
 Indian. The boy and his father were at work in the corn- 
 field, near their log-cabin home. Mordecai, the elder 
 brother of the lad, at work not far away, witnessed the 
 attack. He saw his father fall, and ran to the cabin, seized 
 his ready-loaded rifle and springing to the loop-hole cut 
 through the logs, he saw the Indian, who had seized the 
 boy, carrying him away. Raising his rifle and aiming at 
 a silver medal, conspicuous on the breast of the Indian, 
 he instantly fired. The Indian fell, and the lad, springing 
 to his feet, ran to the open arms of his mother, at the 
 cabin door. Amidst such scenes, the Lincoln family nat- 
 urally produced rude, rough, hardy, and fearless men, 
 familiar with wood-craft ; men who could meet the 
 extremes of exposure and fatigue, who knew how to find 
 food and shelter in the forest ; men of great powers of 
 endurance — brave and self-reliant, true and faithful to 
 their friends and dangerous to their enemies. Men with 
 
32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 minds to conceive and hands to execute bold enter- 
 prises. 
 
 It is a curious fact that the grandfather, Abraham 
 Lincoln, is noted on the surveys of Daniel Boone as hav- 
 ing purchased of the Government five hundred acres of 
 land. Thomas Lincoln, the father, was also the purchaser 
 of government land, and President Lincoln left, as a part 
 of his estate, a quarter-section (one hundred and sixty 
 acres), which he had received from the United States for 
 services rendered in early life as a volunteer soldier, in the 
 Black-Hawk Indian war. Thus for three generations the 
 Lincoln family were land-owners directly from the Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Such was the lineage and family from which President 
 Lincoln sprung. Such was the environment in which his 
 character was developed. 
 
 He was born in a log-cabin, in Kentucky, on the 12th 
 of February, 1809. 
 
 It will aid you in picturing to yourself this young man 
 and his surroundings, to know that, from boyhood to the 
 age of twenty-one, in winter his head was protected from 
 the cold by a cap made of the skin of the coon, fox, or 
 prairie-wolf, and that he often wore the buckskin breeches 
 and hunting-shirt of the pioneer. 
 
 He grew up to be a man of majestic stature and Her- 
 culean strength. Had he appeared in England or Nor- 
 mandy, some centuries ago, he would have been the 
 founder of some great baronial family, possibly of a 
 royal dynasty. He could have wielded, with ease, the 
 two-handed sword of Guy, the great Earl of Warwick, or 
 the battle-axe of Richard of the Lion-heart. 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 33 
 
 HIS EDUCATION AND TRAINING. 
 
 The world is naturally interested in knowing what 
 was the education and traininof which fitted Lincoln for 
 the great work which he accomplished. On the extreme 
 frontier, the means of book-learning was very limited. 
 The common free schools, which now closely follow the 
 heels of the pioneer and organized civil government, and 
 prevail all over the United States, had not then reached 
 the Far West. An itinerant school-teacher wandered 
 occasionally into a settlement, opened a private school 
 for a few months, and, at such, Lincoln attended at differ- 
 ent times, in all about twelve months. His mother, who 
 was a woman of practical good sense, of strong physical 
 organization, of deep religious feeling, gentle and self- 
 reliant, taught him to read and write. 
 
 Although she died when he was only nine years old, 
 she had already laid deep the foundations of his excel- 
 lence. Perfect truthfulness and integrity, love of justice, 
 self-control, reverence for God, these constituted the solid 
 basis of his character. These were all implanted and 
 carefully cultivated by his mother, and he always spoke 
 of her with the deepest respect and the most tender affec- 
 tion. " All that I am, or hope to be," said he, when 
 President, "I owe to my sainted mother." 
 
 He early manifested the most eager desire to learn, 
 but there were no libraries, and few books in the back 
 settlements in which he lived. Among the stray volumes 
 which he found in the possession of the illiterate families 
 by which he was surrounded, were -^sop's Fables, Bun- 
 yan's Pilgrim's Progress, a life of Washington, the poems 
 3 
 
34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of Burns, and the Bible. To these his reading was con- 
 fined, and he read them over and over again, until they 
 became as familiar almost as the alphabet. His memory 
 was marvelous, and I never yet met' the man more 
 familiar with the Bible than Abraham Lincoln. This 
 was apparent in after life, both from his conversation and 
 writings, scarcely a speech or state paper of his in which 
 illustrations and illusions from the Bible cannot be 
 found. 
 
 While a young man, he made for himself, of coarse 
 paper, a scrap-book, into which he copied everything 
 which particularly pleased him. He found an old English 
 grammar, which he studied by himself ; and he formed, 
 from his constant study of the Bible, that simple, plain, 
 clear Anglo-Saxon style, so effective with the people. He 
 illustrated the maxim that it is better to know thoroughly 
 a few good books than to skim over many. When fifteen 
 years old, he began (with a view of improving himself) to 
 write on various subjects and to practice in making politi- 
 cal and other speeches. These he made so amusing and 
 attractive that his father had to forbid his making them 
 in working-hours, for, said he, " when Abe begins to speak, 
 all the hands flock to hear him." His memory was so 
 retentive that he could repeat, verbatim, the sermons and 
 political speeches which he heard. 
 
 While his days were spent in hard manual labor, and 
 his evenings in study, he grew up strong in body, health- 
 ful in mind, with no bad habits ; no stain of intemperance, 
 profanity or vice of any kind. He used neither tobacco 
 nor intoxicating drinks, and, thus living, he grew to be 
 six feet four inches high, and a giant in strength. In all 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 35 
 
 athletic sports he had no equal. I have heard an old 
 comrade say, "he could strike the hardest blow with the 
 woodman's axe, and the maul of the rail-splitter, jump 
 higher, run faster than any of his fellows, and there were 
 none, far or near, who could lay him on his back," Kind 
 and cordial, he early developed so much wit and humor, 
 such a capacity for narrative and story-telling, that he was 
 everywhere a most welcome guest. 
 
 A LAND SURVEYOR. 
 
 Like Washington, he became, in early life, a good prac- 
 tical surveyor, and I have in my library the identical 
 book from which, at eighteen years of age, he studied the 
 art of surveying. By his skill and accuracy, and by the 
 neatness of his work, he was sought after by the settlers, 
 to survey and fix the boundaries of their farms, and in 
 this way, in part, he earned a support while he studied 
 law. In 1837, self-taught, he was admitted and licensed, 
 by the Supreme Court of Illinois, to practice law. 
 
 A LAWYER. 
 
 It is difficult for me to describe, and, perhaps, more 
 difficult for you to conceive the contrast when Lincoln 
 began to practice law, between the forms of the adminis- 
 tration of justice in Westminster Hall, and in the rude 
 log court-houses of Illinois. I recall to-day what was said 
 a few years ago by an Illinois friend, when we visited, for 
 the first time, Westminster Abbey, and as we passed into 
 Westminster Hall. "This," he exclaimed, "this is the 
 
7,6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 grandest forum in the world. Here Fox, Burke, and 
 Sheridan hurled their denunciations against Warren Hast- 
 ings. Here Brougham defended Queen Caroline. And 
 this," he went on to repeat, in the words of Macaulay, 
 (words as familiar in America as here), " This is the great 
 hall of William Rufus, the hall which has resounded with 
 acclamations at the inauguration of thirty kings, and 
 which has witnessed the trials of Bacon and Somers and 
 Strafford and Charles the First." "And yet," I replied, 
 " I have seen justice administered on the prairies of Illi- 
 nois without pomp or ceremony, everything simple to 
 rudeness, and yet when Lincoln and Douglass led at that 
 bar, I have seen justice administered by judges as pure, 
 aided by advocates as eloquent, if not as learned, as any 
 who ever presided, or plead, in Westminster Hall." 
 
 The common law of England (said to be the perfection 
 of human wisdom) was administered in both forums, and 
 the decisions of each tribunal were cited as authority in 
 the other ; both illustrating that reverence for, and obedi- 
 ence to, law, which is the glory of the English-speaking 
 race. 
 
 Lincoln was a great lawyer. He sought to convince 
 rather by the application of principle than by the citation 
 of authorities. On the whole, he was stronger with the 
 jury than with the court. I do not know that there has 
 ever been, in America, a greater or more successful advo- 
 cate before a jury, on the right side, than Abraham 
 Lincoln. He had a marvelous power of conciliating and 
 impressing every one in his favor. A stranger entering the 
 court, ignorant of the case, and listening a few moments 
 to Lincoln, would fmd himself involuntarily on his side 
 
BY ISAAC JV. ARNOLD. 37 
 
 and wishing him success. He was a quick and accurate 
 reader of character, and seemed to comprehend, almost 
 intuitively, the peculiarities of those with wliom he came 
 in contact. His manner was so candid, his methods so 
 direct, so fair, he seemed so anxious that truth and 
 justice should prevail, that every one wished him success. 
 He excelled in the statement of his case. However com- 
 plicated, he would disentangle it, and present the impor- 
 tant and turning-point in a way so clear that all could 
 understand. Indeed, his statement often alone won his 
 cause, rendering argument unnecessary. The judges 
 would often stop him by saying, " If that is the case, 
 brother Lincoln, we will hear the other side." 
 
 His ability in examining a witness, in bringing out 
 clearly the important facts, was only surpassed by his 
 skillful cross-examinations, He could often compel a wit- 
 ness to tell the truth, where he meant to lie. He could 
 make a jury laugh, and generally weep, at his pleasure. 
 On the right side, and when fraud or injustice were to be 
 exposed, or innocence vindicated, he rose to the highest 
 range of eloquence, and was irresistible. But he must 
 have faith in his cause to bring out his full strength. His 
 wit and humor, his quaint and homely illustrations, his 
 inexhaustible stores of anecdote, always to the point, 
 added greatly to his power as a jury-advocate. 
 
 He never misstated evidence or misrepresented his 
 opponent's case, but met it fairly and squarely. 
 
 He remained in active practice until his nomination, 
 in May, i860, for the presidency. He was employed in 
 the leading cases in both the federal and state courts, 
 and had a large clientelage not only in Illinois, but 
 
38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 was frequently called, on special retainers, to other 
 States. 
 
 AN ILLINOIS POLITICIAN. 
 
 By his eloquence and popularity he became, early in 
 life, the leader of the old Whig party, in Illinois. He 
 served as member of the State Legislature, was the 
 candidate of his party for speaker, presidential elector, 
 and United States senator, and was a member of the 
 lower house of Congress. 
 
 SLAVERY. 
 
 When the independence of the American republic 
 was established, African slavery was tolerated as a local 
 and temporary institution. It was in conflict with the 
 moral sense, the religious convictions of the people, and 
 the political principles on which the government was 
 founded. 
 
 But having been tolerated, it soon became an organ- 
 ized aggressive power, and, later, it became the master 
 of the government. Conscious of its inherent weakness, 
 it demanded and obtained additional territory for its 
 expansion. First, the great Louisiana territory was 
 purchased, then Florida, and then Texas, 
 
 By the repeal, in 1854, of the prohibition of slavery 
 north of the line of 36^ 30' of latitude (known in Amer- 
 ica as the " Missouri Compromise"), the slavery question 
 became the leading one in American politics, and the 
 absorbing and exciting topic of discussion. It shattered 
 into fragments the old conservative Whig party, with 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 
 
 39 
 
 which Mr. Lincoln had, theretofore, acted. It divided 
 the Democratic party, and new parties were organized 
 upon issues growing directly out of the question of 
 slavery. 
 
 The leader of that portion of the Democratic party 
 which continued, for a time, to act with the slavery party, 
 was Stephen Arnold Douglas, then representing Illinois 
 in the United States Senate. He was a bold, ambitious, 
 able man, and had, thus far, been uniformly successful. 
 He had introduced and carried throuoh Coneress, 
 against the most vehement opposition, the repeal of the 
 law prohibiting slavery, called the Missouri Compromise. 
 
 THE CONTEST BETWEEN FREEDOM AND SLAVERY IN THE 
 
 TERRITORIES. 
 
 The issue having been now distinctly made between 
 freedom and the extension of slavery into the territories, 
 Lincoln and Douglas, the leaders of the Free-soil and 
 Democratic parties, became more than ever antagonized. 
 The conflict between freedom and slavery now became 
 earnest, fierce, and violent, beyond all previous political 
 controversies, and from this time on, Lincoln plead the 
 cause of liberty with an energy, ability, and eloquence, 
 which rapidly gained for him a national reputation. 
 From this time on, throug-h the tremendous struorale, it 
 was he who grasped the helm- and led his party to victory. 
 Conscious of a great cause, inspired by a generous love of 
 liberty, and animated by the moral sublimity of his great 
 theme, he proclaimed his determination, ever thereafter, 
 "to speak for freedom, and against slavery, until every- 
 
40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 where the sun shall shine, the rain shall fall, and the wind 
 blow upon no man who goes forth to unrequited toil." 
 
 THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 
 
 The great debate between Lincoln and Douglas, in 
 1858, was, unquestionably, both with reference to the 
 ability of the speakers and its influence upon opinion and 
 events, the most important in American history. I do 
 not think I do injustice to others, nor over-estimate their 
 importance, when I say that the speeches of Lincoln pub- 
 lished, circulated, and read throughout the Free States, 
 did more than any other agency in creating the public 
 opinion, which prepared the way for the overthrow of 
 slavery. The speeches of John Quincy Adams, and those 
 of Senator Sumner, were more learned and scholarly, 
 and those of Lovejoy and Wendell Phillips were more 
 vehement and impassioned ; Senators Seward, Chase, and 
 Hale spoke from a more conspicuous forum, but Lincoln's 
 speeches were as philosophic, as able, as earnest as any, 
 and his manner had a simplicity and directness, a clear- 
 ness of illustration, and his language a plainness, a vigor, 
 an Anglo-Saxon strength, better adapted than any other, 
 to reach and influence the understanding and sentiment 
 of the common people. 
 
 At the time of this memorable discussion, both Lincoln 
 and Douglas were in the full maturity of their powers, 
 Douglas being forty-five and Lincoln forty-nine years old. 
 Douglas had had a long training and experience as a 
 popular speaker. On the hustings (stump, as we say in 
 America) and in Congress, and, especially in the United 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 41 
 
 States Senate, he had been accustomed to meet the ablest 
 debaters of his State and of the Nation. 
 
 His friends insisted that never, either in conflict with 
 a single opponent, or when repelling the assaults of a 
 whole party, had he been discomfited. His manner was 
 bold, vigorous, and aggressive. He was ready, fertile in 
 resources, familiar with political history, strong and severe 
 in denunciation, and he handled, with skill, all the 
 weapons of the dialectician His iron will, tireless energy, 
 united with physical and moral courage, and great per- 
 sonal magnetism, made him a natural leader, and gave 
 him personal popularity. 
 
 Lincoln was also now a thoroughly trained speaker. 
 He had contended successfully at the bar, in the legisla- 
 ture, and before the people, with the ablest men of the 
 West, including Douglas, with whom he always rather 
 souQfht than avoided a discussion. But he was a courte- 
 eus and generous opponent, as is illustrated by the follow- 
 iiig beautiful allusion to his rival, made in 1856, in one 
 of their joint debates. "Twenty years ago, Judge Doug- 
 las and I first became acquainted ; we were both young 
 then ; he a trifle younger than I. Even then, we were 
 both ambitious, I, perhaps, quite as much as he. With 
 me, the race of ambition has been a flat failure. With 
 him, it has been a splendid success. His name fills the 
 nation, and it is not unknown in foreign lands, I affect 
 no contempt for the high eminence he has reached ; so 
 reached, that the oppressed of my species might have 
 shared with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on 
 that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever 
 pressed a monarch's brow." 
 
42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 We know, and the world knows, that Lincohi did 
 reach that high, nay, far higher eminence, and that he 
 did reach it in such away that the "oppressed" did share 
 with him in the elevation. 
 
 Such were the champions who, in 1858, w^ere to dis- 
 cuss, before the voters of Illinois, and with the whole 
 nation as spectators, the political questions then pending, 
 and especially the vital questions relating to slavery. It 
 was not a single combat, but extended through a whole 
 campaign. 
 
 On the return of Dougrlas from Washington, to 
 Illinois, in July, 1858, Lincoln and Douglas being candi- 
 dates for the Senate, the former challenged his rival to a 
 series of joint debates, to be held at the principal towns 
 in the State. The challenge was accepted, and it was 
 agreed that each discussion should occupy three hours, 
 that the speakers should alternate in the opening and the 
 close — the opening speech to occupy one hour, the reply 
 one hour and a-half, and the close half an hour. The 
 meetings were held in the open air, for no hall could hold 
 the vast crowds which attended. 
 
 In addition to the immense mass of hearers, reporters, 
 from all the principal newspapers in the country, attended, 
 so that the morning after each debate, the speeches were 
 published, and eagerly read by a large part, perhaps a 
 majority, of all the voters of the United States. 
 
 The attention of the American people was thus 
 arrested, and they watched with intense interest, and 
 devoured every argument of the champions. 
 
 Each of these great men, I doubt not, at that time, 
 sincerely believed he was right. Douglas's ardor, while 
 
BY ISAAC JV. ARNOLD. 43 
 
 in such a conflict, would make him think, for the time 
 being, he was right, and I /aioiu that Lincoln argued for 
 freedom against the extension of slavery with the most 
 profound conviction that on the result hung the fate of 
 his country. Lincoln had two advantages over Douglas; 
 he had the best side of the question, and the best temper. 
 He was always good-humored, always had an apt story 
 for illustration, while Douglas sometimes, when hard 
 pressed, was irritable. 
 
 Douglas carried away the most popular applause, but 
 Lincoln made the deeper and more lasting impression. 
 Douglas did not disdain an immediate ad captandwn 
 triumph, while Lincoln aimed at permanent conviction. 
 Sometimes, when Lincoln's friends urged him to raise a 
 storm of applause (which he could always do by his 
 happy illustrations and amusing stories), he refused, say- 
 ing the occasion was too serious, the issue too grave. 
 " I do not seek applause," said he, " nor to amuse the 
 people ; I want to convince them." 
 
 It was often observed, during this canvass, that while 
 Douglas was sometimes greeted with the loudest cheers, 
 when Lincoln closed, the people seemed solemn and 
 serious, and could be heard, all through the crowd, 
 gravely and anxiously discussing the topics on which he 
 had been speaking. 
 
 Douglas secured the immediate object of the strug- 
 gle, but the manly bearing, the vigorous logic, the hon- 
 esty and sincerity, the great intellectual powers, exhibited 
 by Mr. Lincoln, prepared the way, and, two years later, 
 secured his nomination and election to the presidency. 
 It is a touching incident, illustrating the patriotism of 
 
44 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 both these statesmen, that, widely as they differed, and 
 keen as had been their rivalry, just as soon as the life of 
 the republic was menaced by treason, they joined 
 hands, to shield and save the country they loved. 
 
 The echo and the prophecy of this great debate was 
 heard, and inspired hope in the far-off cotton and rice- 
 fields of the South. The toiling blacks, to use the words 
 of Whittier, began hopefully to pray : 
 
 " We pray de Lord He £^ib us signs 
 Dat some day we be free. 
 De Norf wind tell it to de pines, 
 De wild duck to de sea. 
 
 "We tink it when de church-bell ring, 
 We dream it in de dream, 
 De rice-bird mean it when he sing, 
 De eaa:le when he scream." 
 
 THE COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. 
 
 In February, i860, Mr. Lincoln was called to address 
 the people of New York, and, speaking to a vast audi- 
 ence, at the Cooper Institute (the Exeter Hall of the 
 United States), the poet Bryant presiding, he made, 
 perhaps, the most learned, logical, and exhaustive 
 speech to be found in American anti-slavery litera- 
 ture. The question was, the power of the National 
 Government to exclude slavery from the territories. 
 The orator from the prairies, the morning after this 
 speech, awoke to find himself famous. 
 
 He closed with these words, '' Let us have faith that 
 right makes might, and in that faith let us, to the end, 
 do our duty as we understand it." 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 
 
 45 
 
 This address was the carefully finished product of, 
 not an orator and statesman only, but also of an accurate 
 student of American history. It confirmed and elevated 
 the reputation he had already acquired in the Douglas 
 debates, and caused his nomination and election to the 
 presidency. 
 
 If time permitted, I would like to follow Mr. Lincoln, 
 step by step, to enumerate his measures one after another, 
 until, by prudence and courage, and matchless states- 
 manship, he led the loyal people of the republic to the 
 final and complete overthrow of slavery and the resto- 
 ration of the Union. 
 
 From the time he left his humble home, in Illinois, 
 to assume the responsibilities of power, the political 
 horizon black with treason and rebellion, the terrific 
 thunder-clouds, — the tempest which had been gathering 
 and growing more black and threatening for years, now 
 ready to explode, — on and on, through long years of 
 bloody war, down to his final triumph and death — what 
 a drama! His eventful life terminated by his tragic 
 death, has it not the dramatic unities and the awful 
 ending of the Old Greek tragedy? 
 
 HIS FAREWELL TO HIS NEIGHBORS. 
 
 I know of nothing, in history, more pathetic than the 
 scene when he bade good-bye to his old friends and 
 neighbors. Conscious of the difficulties and dangers 
 before him, difficulties which seemed almost insurmount- 
 able, with a sadness as though a presentiment that he 
 should return no more was pressing upon him, but with 
 
46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 a deep religious trust which was characteristic, on the 
 platform of the rail-carriage, which was to bear him away 
 to the capital, he paused and said, " No one can realize 
 the sadness I feel at this parting. Here I have lived more 
 than a quarter of a century. Here my children were 
 born, and here one of them lies buried. I know not how 
 soon I shall see you again. I go to assume a task more 
 difficult than that which has devolved upon any other 
 man since the days of Washington. He never would 
 have succeeded but for the aid of Divine Providence, 
 upon which, at all times, he relied. % % % \ 
 hope you, my dear friends, will all pray that I may receive 
 that Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, 
 but with which, success is certain." 
 
 And as he waved his hand in farewell to the old 
 home, to which he was never to return, he heard the 
 response from many old friends, " God bless and keep 
 you." " God protect you from all traitors." His neigh- 
 bors "sorrowing most of all," for the fear "that they 
 should see his face no more." 
 
 HIS INAUGURAL AND APPEAL FOR PEACE. 
 
 In his inaugural address, spoken in the open air, and 
 from the eastern portico of the Capitol, and heard by 
 thrice ten thousand people, on the very verge of civil 
 war, he made a most earnest appeal for peace. He gave 
 the most solemn assurance, that " the property, peace, 
 and security of no portion of the republic should be 
 endangered by his administration." But he declared, 
 with firmness, that the union of the States must be " per- 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 47 
 
 petual," and that he should "execute the laws faithfully 
 in every State." " In doing this," said he, "there need be 
 no bloodshed nor violence, nor shall there be, unless 
 forced upon the national authority." In regard to the 
 difficulties which thus divided the people, he appealed to 
 all to abstain from precipitate action, assuring them that 
 intelligence, patriotism, and a firm reliance on Him, who 
 has never yet forsaken the republic, " were competent 
 to adjust, in the best way, all existing troubles." 
 
 His closing appeal, against civil war, was most touch- 
 ing, " In your hands," said he, and his voice for the first 
 time faltered, "In your hands, and not in mine, are the 
 momentous issues of civil war." '^ * "You can 
 have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors." 
 * * "I am," continued he, "loath to close; we are 
 not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. 
 Though passion may strain, it must not break, the bonds 
 of affection." 
 
 The answer to these appeals was the attack upon 
 Fort Sumter, and immediately broke loose all the mad- 
 dening passions which riot in blood and carnage and 
 civil war. 
 
 I know not how I can better picture and illustrate 
 the condition of affairs, and of public feeling, at that 
 time, than by narrating two or three incidents. 
 
 Douglas's prophecy, January i, 1861. 
 
 In January, 1861, Senator Douglas, then lately a can- 
 didate for the presidency, with Mrs. Douglas, one of the 
 beautiful and fascinating women in America, a relative 
 
48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of Mrs. Madison, occupied, at Washington, one of the 
 most magnificent blocks of dwelUngs, called the " Minne- 
 sota Block." On New Year's day, 1861, General Charles 
 Stewart, of New York, from whose lips I write an 
 account of the incident, says, 
 
 " I was making a New Year's call on Senator Doug- 
 las ; after some conversation, I asked him, 
 
 "'What will be the result, Senator, of the efforts of 
 Jefferson Davis, and his associates, to divide the Union ?' 
 We were," said Stewart, " sitting on the sofa together, 
 when I asked the question. Douglas rose, walked 
 rapidly up and down the room for a moment, and then 
 pausing, he exclaimed, with deep feeling and excitement: 
 
 " ' The Cotton States are making an effort to draw in 
 the Border States, to their schemes of secession, and I 
 am but too fearful they will succeed. If they do, there 
 will be the most fearful civil war the world has ever seen, 
 lasting for years.' 
 
 " Pausing a moment, he looked like one inspired, 
 while he proceeded : ' Virginia, over yonder, across the 
 Potomac,' pointing toward Arlington, 'will become a char- 
 nel-house — but in the end the Union will triumph. They 
 will try,' he continued, ' to get possession of this capital, 
 to give them prestige abroad, but in that effort they will 
 never succeed ; the North will rise cii masse to defend it. 
 But Washington will become a city of hospitals, the 
 churches will be used for the sick and wounded. This 
 house,' he continued, ' th^ Minnesota Block, will be 
 devoted to that purpose before the end of the wan' 
 
 " Every word he said was literally fulfilled — all the 
 churches nearly were used for the wounded, and the 
 
£y ISAAC iV. ARNOLD. 49 
 
 Minnesota Block, and the very room in which this decla- 
 ration was made, became the ' Douglas Hospital.' 
 
 " What justification for all this ? ' said Stewart. 
 
 " 'There is no justification,' replied Douglas. 
 
 " ' I will go as far as the Constitution will permit to 
 maintain their just rights. But,' said he, rising upon his 
 feet and raising his arm, ' if the Southern States attempt 
 to secede, I am in favor of their having just so many 
 slaves, and just so much slave territory, as they can hold 
 at the point of the bayonet, and no more.' " 
 
 WILL THE NORTH FIGHT? 
 
 Many Southern leaders believed there would be no 
 serious war, and labored industriously to impress this 
 idea on the Southern people. 
 
 Benjamin F. Butler, v/ho, as a delegate from Massa- 
 chusetts, to the Charlestown Convention, had voted 
 many times for Breckenridge, the extreme Southern 
 candidate for president, came to Washington, in the win- 
 ter of 1 860- 1, to inquire of his old associates what they 
 meant by their threats. 
 
 "We mean," replied they, "we mean separation — a 
 Southern Confederacy. We will have our independence, 
 a Southern government — with no discordant elements." 
 
 "Are you prepared for war?" said Butler, coolly. 
 
 "Oh, there will be no war ; the North won't fight." 
 
 " The North will fight," said Butler; " the North v/ill 
 send the last man and expend the last dollar to maintain 
 the Government." 
 
 " But," replied Butler's Southern friends, " the North 
 can't fight, we have too many allies there." 
 4 
 
50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 "You have friends," responded Butler, "in the North, 
 who will stand by you so long as you fight your battles 
 in the Union, but the moment you fire on the flag, the 
 North will be a unit against you. And," Butler con- 
 'tinued, "you may be assured that if war comes, slav- 
 ery endsT 
 
 THE SPECIAL SESSION OF CONGRESS, JULY, 1 86 1 
 
 On the brink of this civil war, the President sum- 
 moned Congress to meet on the 4th of July, 1861, the 
 anniversary of our independence. Seven States had 
 already seceded, were in open revolt, and the chairs of 
 their representatives, in both houses of Congress, were 
 vacant. It needed but a glance at these so numerous 
 vacant seats to realize the extent of the defection, the 
 gravity of the situation, and the magnitude of the impend- 
 ing struggle. The old pro-slavery leaders were absent, 
 some in the rebel government, set up at Richmond, 
 and others marshalling troops in the field. Hostile 
 armies were oratherinQ-, and from the dome of the Cap- 
 itol, across the Potomac and on toward Fairfax, in 
 Virginia, could be seen the Confederate ilag. 
 
 Breckenridge, late the Southern candidate for Presi- 
 dent, now Senator from Kentucky, and soon to lead a 
 rebel army, still lingered in the Senate. Like Catiline 
 among the Roman Senators, he was regarded with 
 aversion and distrust. Gloomy and, perhaps, sorrowful, 
 he said, " I can only look with sadness on the melancholy 
 drama that is being enacted." 
 
 Pardon the digression, while I relate an incident 
 which occurred in the Senate, at this special session. 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 
 
 51 
 
 Senator Baker, of Oregon, was making a brilliant and 
 impassioned reply to a speech of Breckenridge, in which 
 he denounced the Kentucky Senator, for giving aid and 
 encouragement to the enemy, by his speeches. At 
 length he paused, and, turning toward Breckenridge, and 
 fixing his eye upon him, asked, " What would have been 
 thought if, after the battle of Cannae, a Roman Senator 
 had risen, amidst the Conscript Fathers, and denounced 
 the war, and opposed all measures for its success." 
 
 Baker paused, and every eye in the Senate, and in 
 the crowded galleries, was fixed upon the almost solitary 
 senator from Kentucky. Fessenden broke the painful 
 silence, by exclaiming, in low deep tones, which gave 
 expression to the thrill of indignation which ran through 
 the hall, " He would have been hurled from the Tarpeian 
 Rock." 
 
 Congress manifested its sense of the gravity of the 
 situation by authorizing a loan of two hundred and fifty 
 millions of dollars, and enpowering the President to call 
 into the field five hundred thousand men, and as many 
 more as he might deem necessary. 
 
 SURRENDER OF MASON AND SEIDELL. 
 
 No act of the British Government, since the " stamp 
 act" of the Revolution, has ever excited such intense 
 feeling of hostility toward Great Britain, as her haughty 
 demand for the surrender of Mason and Slidell. It 
 required 7ierve, in the President, to stem the storm of 
 popular feeling, and yield to that demand, and it was, 
 for a time, the most unpopular act of his administra- 
 
52 ABRAHAJM LINCOLN. 
 
 tion. But when the excitement of the day had passed, 
 it was approved by the sober judgment of the nation. 
 
 Prince Albert is kindly and gratefully remembered in 
 America, where it is believed that his action, in modify- 
 ing the terms of that demand, probably saved the United 
 States and Great Britain from the horrors of war. 
 
 LINCOLN AND THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 
 
 When in June, 1858, at his home in Springfield, 
 Mr. Lincoln startled the people with the declaration, 
 " This government cannot endure, permanently, half slave 
 and half free," and when, at the close of his speech, to those 
 who were laboring for the ultimate extinction of slavery, 
 he exclaimed, with the voice of a prophet, ** We shall 
 not fail, if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise 
 councils may accelerate, or mistakes delay, but sooner 
 or later, the victory is sure to come ;" he anticipated 
 success, through years of discussion, and final triumph 
 through peaceful and constitutional means by the ballot. 
 He did not foresee, nor even dream (unless in those 
 dim mysterious shadows, which sometimes startle by 
 half revealing the future), his own elevation to the 
 presidency. He did not then suspect that he had been 
 appointed by God, and should be chosen by the people, 
 to proclaim the emancipation of a race, and to save his 
 country. He did not foresee that slavery was so soon 
 to be destroyed, amidst the flames of war which itself 
 kindled. 
 
 HIS MODERATION. 
 
 He entered upon his administration with the single 
 
BV JSAAC N. ARNOLD. 53 
 
 purpose of maintaining national unity, and many 
 reproached and denounced him for the slowness of his 
 anti-slavery measures. The fu'st of the series was the abo- 
 lition of slavery at the National Capitol. This act gave 
 freedom to three thousand slaves, with compensation to 
 their loyal masters. Contemporaneous with this was 
 an act conferring freedom upon all colored soldiers who 
 should serve in the Union armies and upon their 
 families. The next was an act which I had the honor 
 10 introduce, prohibiting slavery in all the territories, 
 and wherever the National Government had jurisdiction. 
 But the great, the decisive act of his administration, 
 was the " Emancipation Proclamation." 
 
 EMANCIPATION 'PROCLAMATION. 
 
 The President had urged, with the utmost earnest- 
 ness, on the loyal slave-holders of the Border States, 
 gradual and compensated emancipation, but in vain. He 
 clearly saw, all saw, that the slaves, as used by the Con- 
 federates, were a vast power, contributing immensely 
 to their ability to carry on the war, and that, by declar- 
 ing their freedom, he w^ould convert millions of freedmen 
 into active friends and allies of the Union. The people 
 knew that he was deliberating upon the question of Issu- 
 Union men of the Border States made an appeal to him 
 to withhold the edict, and suffer slavery to survive. 
 
 They selected John J. Crittenden, a venerable and 
 eloquent man, and their ablest statesman, to make, on the 
 floor of Congress, a public appeal to the President, to 
 withhold the proclamation. Mr. Crittenden had been 
 
54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 governor of Kentucky, her senator in Congress, attor- 
 ney-general of the United States, and now, in his old 
 age, covered with honors, he accepted, like John Quincy 
 Adams, a seat in Congress, that in this crisis he might 
 help to save his country. 
 
 He was a sincere Union man, but believed it unwise 
 to disturb slavery. In his speech he made a most 
 eloquent and touching appeal, from a Kentuckian to a 
 Kentuckian. He said, among other things, " There is a 
 niche, near to that of Washington, to him who shall save 
 his country. If Mr. Lincoln will step into that niche, 
 xh-Q founder and th.Q presci^ver of the Republic shall stand 
 side by side." '^ * Owen Lovejoy, the brother 
 of Elijah P. Lovejoy, who had been mobbed and mur- 
 dered because he would not surrender the liberty of the 
 press, replied to Crittenden. After his brother's murder, 
 kneeling upon the green sod which covered that brother's 
 grave, he had taken a solemn vow, of eternal war upon 
 slavery. Ever after, like Peter the Hermit, with a heart 
 of fire and a tongue of lightning, he had gone forth. 
 preaching his crusade against slavery. At length, in his 
 reply, turning to Crittenden, he said, " The gentleman 
 from Kentucky says he has a niche for Abraham Lin- 
 coln, where is it ? " 
 
 Crittenden pointed toward heaven. 
 
 Lovejoy continuing said, " He points upward, but, sir ! 
 if the President follows the counsel of that gentleman, 
 and becomes the perpetuator of slavery, he should point 
 downward, to some dungeon in the temple of Moloch, 
 who feeds on human blood, and where are forged chains 
 for human limbs ; in the recesses of whose temple woman 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 
 
 55 
 
 is scourged and mo.ii tortured, and outside the walls are 
 lying- dogs, gorged with human flesh, as Byron describes 
 them, lying around the walls of Stamboul." "That," 
 said Lovejoy, " is a suitable place for the statue of him 
 who would perpetuate slavery." 
 
 " I, too," said he, "have a temple for Abraham Lin- 
 coln, but it is in Freedom's holy fane, "' * * 
 not surrounded by slave fetters and chains, but with the 
 symbols of freedom — not dark with bondage, but radiant 
 with the light of Liberty. In that niche he shall stand 
 proudly, nobly, gloriously, with broken chains and slave's 
 whips beneath his feet. * '^ That is a fame 
 worth living for, aye, more, it is a fame worth dying for, 
 though that death led through Gethsemane and the 
 agony of the accursed tree," " ''^ '"' 
 
 " It is said," continued he, " that Wilberforce went up 
 to the judgment-seat with the broken chains of eight 
 hundred thousand slaves ! Let Lincoln make himself 
 t'le Liberator, and his name shall be enrolled, not only 
 in this earthly temple, but it shall be traced on the living 
 stones of that temple which is reared amid the thrones 
 of Heaven." 
 
 Lovejoy's prophecy has been fulfilled — in this world — 
 you see the statues to Lincoln, with broken chains at his 
 feet, rising all over the world, and — in that other world — 
 few will doubt that the prophecy has been realized. 
 
 In September, I862, after the Confederates, by their 
 defeat at the great battle of Antietam, had been driven 
 back from Maryland and Pennsylvania, Lincoln issued 
 the Proclamation. It is a fact, illustrating his character, 
 and showing that there was in him what many would call 
 
56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 a tinge of superstition, that he declared, to Secretary 
 Chase, that he had made a solemn vow to God, saying, 
 " if General Lee is driven back from Pennsylvania, I 
 will crown the result with the declaration of ' Freedom 
 TO THE Slave." The final Proclamation was issued on 
 the first of January, 1863. In obedience to American 
 custom, he had been receiving calls on that New Year's 
 day, and, for hours, shaking hands. As the paper was 
 brought to him by the Secretary of State, to be signed, he 
 said, " Mr. Seward, I have been shaking hands all day, 
 and my right hand is almost paralyzed. If my name 
 ever gets into history, it will be for this act, and my whole 
 soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the proc- 
 lamation, those who examine the document hereafter, 
 will say, ' he hesitated.' " 
 
 Then, resting his arm a moment, he turned to the 
 table, took up the pen, and slowly and firmly wrote 
 Abraham LiJicoln. He smiled as, handing the paper to 
 Mr. Seward, he said, "that will do." 
 
 From this day, to its final triumph, the tide of victory 
 seemed to set more and more in favor of the Union 
 cause. The capture of Vicksburg, the victory of Gettys- 
 burg, Chattanooga, Chickamauga, Lookout-Mountain, 
 Missionary Ridge, Sheridan's brilliant campaign in the Val- 
 ley of the Shenandoah; Thomas's decisive victory at 
 Nashville ; Sherman's march, through the Confederacy, to 
 the sea ; the capture of Fort McAllister; the sinking of 
 the Alabama; the taking of Mobile by P^arragut ; the 
 occupation of Columbus, Charlestown, Savannah; the 
 evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond ; the surrender 
 of Lee to Grant; the taking of Jefferson Davis a 
 
BY ISAAC JV. ARNOLD. 57 
 
 prisoner ; the triumph everywhere of the national arms ; 
 such were the events which followed (though with delays 
 and bloodshed) the ''Proclamation of Emancipation." 
 
 THE AMENDMENT TO THE CONSTITUTION. 
 
 Meanwhile Lincoln had been triumphantly re-elected ; 
 Congress had, as before stated, abolished slavery at the 
 Capital, prohibited it in all the territories, declared all 
 negro soldiers in the Union armies, and their families, 
 free, and had repealed all laAvs which sanctioned or recog- 
 nized slavery, and the President had crowned and con- 
 summated all, by the Proclamation of Emancipation. 
 One thing alone remained to perfect, confirm, and make 
 everlastingly permanent these measures, and this was to 
 embody in the Constitution itself, the prohibition of slav- 
 ery everywhere within the republic. 
 
 To change the organic law required the adoption by 
 a two-thirds vote of a joint resolution, by Congress, and 
 that this should be submitted to, and ratified by, two- 
 thirds of the States. 
 
 The President, in his annual message and in personal 
 interviews with members of Congress, urged the passage 
 of such resolution. To test the strength of the measure, 
 in the House of Representatives, I had the honor, in 
 February, 1864, to introduce the following resolution : 
 
 " Resolved, That the Constitution should be so 
 amended as to abolish slavery in the United States 
 wherever it now exists, and to prohibit its existence in 
 every part thereof forever " (Cong. Globe, vol. 50, p. 659). 
 This was adopted by a decided vote, and was the first 
 
5 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 resolution ever passed by Congress in favor of the entire 
 abolition of slavery. But, although it received a majority, 
 it did not receive a majority of two-thirds. 
 
 The debates on the Constitutional Amendment 
 (perhaps the greatest in our congressional history, cer- 
 tainly the most important since the adoption of the Con- 
 stitution) ran through two sessions of Congress. Charles 
 Sumner, the learned Senator from Massachusetts, brought 
 to the discussion, in the Senate, his ample stores of his- 
 torical illustration, quoting largely in its favor from the 
 historians, poets, and statesmen of the past. 
 
 The resolution was adopted in the Senate by the 
 large vote of ayes, 38, noes, 6. 
 
 In the lower house, at the first session, it failed to 
 obtain a two-thirds' vote, and, on a motion to reconsider, 
 went over to the next session. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln again earnestly urged its adoption, and, 
 in a letter to Illinois friends, he said, " The signs look 
 better. * * Peace does not look so distant as 
 it did, I hope it will come soon, and come to stay, and 
 so come as to be worth keeping in all future time." 
 
 I recall, very vividly, my New Year's call upon the 
 President, January, 1864. I said: 
 
 " I hope, Mr. President, one year from to-day I may 
 have the pleasure of congratulating you on the occurrence 
 of three events which now seem probable." 
 
 " What are they ? " inquired he. 
 
 " I. That the rebellion may be entirely crushed. 
 
 "2. That the Constitutional Amendment, abolishintr 
 and prohibiting slavery, may have been adopted. 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 59 
 
 "3. And that Abraham Lincoln may have been 
 re-elected President." 
 
 " I think," replied he, with a smile, " I would be glad 
 to accept the first two as a compromise." 
 
 General Grant, in a letter, remarkable for that clear 
 good-sense and practical judgment for which he is distin- 
 guished, condensed into a single sentence the political 
 argument in favor of the Constitutional Amendment. 
 "The North and South," said he, "can never live at 
 peace with each other except as one nation and that with- 
 out slavery." 
 
 Garfield's speech. 
 
 I would be glad to quote from this great debate, but 
 must confine myself to a brief extract from the speech of 
 the present President, then a member of the House. 
 He began by saying, " Mr. Speaker, we shall never know 
 why slavery dies so hard in this republic, and in this 
 hall, until we know why sin outlives disaster and Satan 
 is immortal." * '"* " How well do I remember," 
 he continued, "the history of that distinguished pre- 
 decessor of mine, Joshua R. Giddings, lately gone to his 
 rest, who, with his forlorn hope of faithful men, took his 
 life in his hands, and, in the name of justice, protested 
 against the great crime, and who stood bravely in his 
 place until his white locks, like the plume of Henry of 
 Navarre, marked where the battle of freedom raged 
 fiercest." "* * " In its mad arrogance, slavery 
 lifted its hand against the Union, and since that fatal day 
 it has been a fugitive and a vagabond upon the earth." 
 
 Up to the last roll-call, on the question of the passage 
 
6o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of the resolution, we were uncertain and anxious about 
 the result. We needed Democratic votes. We knew 
 we should get some, but whether enough to carry the 
 measure none could surely tell. 
 
 As the Clerk called the names of members so perfect 
 was the silence, that the sound of a hundred pencils keep- 
 ing tally could be heard through the Hall. 
 
 Finally, when the call was completed, an I the Speaker 
 announced that the resolution was adopted, the result 
 was received by an uncontrollable burst of enthusiasm. 
 Members and spectators (especially the galleries, which 
 were crowded with convalescent soldiers) shouted and 
 cheered, and, before the Speaker could obtain quiet, the 
 roar of artillery on Capitol Hill proclaimed to the city of 
 Washington, the passage of the resolution. Congress 
 adjourned, and we hastened to the White House to con- 
 gratulate the President on the event. 
 
 He made one of his happiest speeches. In his own 
 peculiar words, he said, " The great job is finished'' " I 
 can not but congratulate," said he, ''all present, myself, 
 the country, and the whole world, on this great moral 
 victory." 
 
 PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
 
 And now, with an attempt to sketch very briefly some 
 of his peculiar personal characteristics, I must close. 
 
 This great Hercules of a man had a heart as kind 
 and tender as a woman. Sterner men thought it a 
 weakness. It saddened him to see others suffer, and he 
 shrunk from inflicting pain. Let me illustrate his kind- 
 ness and tenderness by one or two incidents. One sum- 
 
 I 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. Oi 
 
 mer's day, walking along the shaded path leading from 
 the Executive mansion to the War-office, I saw the tall, 
 awkward form of the President seated on the o;i''iss under 
 a tree. A wounded soldier, seeking back-pay and a pen- 
 sion, had met the President, and, having recognized him, 
 asked his counsel. Lincoln ,sat down, examined the 
 papers of the soldier, and told him what to do, sent him 
 to the proper bureau with a note, which secured prompt 
 attention. 
 
 After the terribly destructive battles between Grant 
 and Lee, in the Wilderness of Virginia, after days of 
 dreadful slaughter, the lines of ambulances, conveying 
 the wounded from the steamers on the Potomac to the 
 great field hospitals on the heights around Washington, 
 would be continuous,^one unbroken line from the wharf 
 to the hospital. At such a time, I have seen the Pres- 
 ident in his carriage, driving slowly along the line, and he 
 looked like one who had lost the dearest members of his 
 own family. On one such occasion, meeting me, he 
 stopped and said, " I cannot bear this ; this suffering, 
 this loss of life — is dreadful." * 
 
 I recalled to him a line from a letter he had years 
 before written to a friend, whose great sorrow he had 
 sought to console. Reminding him of the incident, I 
 asked him, " So you remember writing to your suffering 
 friend these words : 
 
 " And this too shall pass away. 
 Never fear. Vzctojy will coiJte." 
 
 In all his State papers and speeches during these 
 years of strife and passion, there can be found no words 
 
62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN'. 
 
 of bitterness, no denunciation. When others railed, he 
 railed not again. He was always dignified, magnanimous, 
 patient, considerate, manly, and true. His duty was 
 ever performed " with malice toward none, with charity 
 for all," and with " firmness in the right as God gives us 
 to see the right." 
 
 NEVER A DEMAGOGUE. 
 
 Lincoln was never a demagogue. He respected and 
 loved the people, but never flattered them. No man 
 ever heard him allude to his humble life and manual 
 labor, in a way to obtain votes. None knew better than 
 he, that splitting rails did not qualify a man for public 
 duties. He realized painfully the defects of his educa- 
 tion, and labored diligently and successfully to supply 
 his deficiencies. 
 
 HIS CONVERSATION. 
 
 He had no equal as a talker in social life. His con- 
 versation was fascinating and attractive. He was full of 
 wit, humor, and anecdote, and at the same time, original, 
 suggestive, and instructive. There was in his character 
 a singular mingling of mirthfulness and melancholy. 
 While his sense of the ludicrous was keen, and his fun 
 and mirth were exuberant, and sometimes almost irre- 
 pressible, his conversation sparkling with jest, story, and 
 anecdote, and in droll description, he would pass sud- 
 denly to another mood, and become sad and pathetic ; 
 a melancholy expression of his homely face would show 
 that he was "a man of sorrows and acquainted with 
 grief." 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 63 
 
 HIS STORIES. 
 
 The newspapers in America have always been full 
 of Lincoln's stories and anecdotes, some true and many 
 fabulous. 
 
 He always had a story ready, and, if not, he could 
 improvise one, just fitted for the occasion. The follow- 
 ing may, I think, be said to have been adapted: 
 
 An Atlantic port, in one of the British provinces, 
 was, during the war, a great resort and refuge for 
 blockade-runners, and a large contraband trade was said 
 to have been carried on from that port with the Con- 
 federates. Late in the summer of 1864, while the 
 election of President was pending, Lincoln being a can- 
 didate, the Governor-General of that province, with some 
 of the principal officers, visited Washington, and called 
 to pay their respects to the Executive. Mr. Lincoln had 
 been very much annoyed by l^he failure of these officials 
 to enforce very strictly the rules of neutrality, but he 
 treated his guests with great courtesy. After a pleasant 
 interview, the Governor, alluding to the approaching 
 presidential election, said, jokingly, but with a grain of 
 sarcasm, " I understand, Mr. President, everybody votes 
 in this country. If we remain until November, can we 
 vote ?" 
 
 " You remind me," replied the President, "of a coun- 
 tryman of yours, a green emigrant from Ireland. Pat 
 arrived in New York on election day, and was, perhaps, 
 as eager as Your Excellency, to vote, and to vote early 
 and late and often. So, upon his landing at Castle Gar- 
 den, he hastened to the nearest voting place, and, as he 
 
64 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 approached, the judge who received the ballots inquired, 
 ' Who do you want to vote for ? on which side are you ?' 
 Poor Pat was embarrassed ; he did not know who were 
 the candidates. He stopped, scratched his head, then, 
 with the readiness of his countrymen, he said : 
 
 " * I am foment the Government, anyhow. Tell me, 
 if your honor plases, which is the rebellion side, and 
 ril tell you how I want to vote. In Ould Ireland, I was 
 always on the rebellion side, and, by Saint Patrick, I'll 
 stick to that same in America.' 
 
 "Your Excellency," said Mr. Lincoln, "would, I 
 should think, not beat all at a loss on which side to vote." 
 
 THE BOOKS HE READ. 
 
 The two books he read most were the Bible and 
 Shakespeare. With them he was familiar, reading and 
 quoting from them constantly. Next to Shakespeare, 
 among the poets, was Burns, with whom he had a hearty 
 sympathy, and upon whose poetry he wrote a lecture. 
 He was extremely fond of ballads, and of simple, sad and 
 plaintive music. 
 
 I called one day at the White House, to introduce 
 two officers of the Union army, both Swedes. Immedi- 
 ately he began and repeated from memory, to the delight 
 of his visitors, a long ballad, descriptive of Norwegian 
 scenery, a Norse legend, and the adventures of an old 
 Vikinof amonor the fiords of the North. 
 
 He said he had read the poem in a newspaper, and 
 the visit of these Swedes recalled it to his memory. 
 
 On the last Sunday of his life, as he was sailing up 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD 65 
 
 the Potomac, returning to Washington from his visit to 
 Richmond, he read aloud many extracts from Mac- 
 beth, and, among others, the following, and with a tone 
 and accent so impressive that, after his death, it was 
 vividly recalled by those who heard him : 
 
 " Duncan is in his grave ; 
 After life's fitful fever, lie sleeps well ; 
 Treason has done his worst : nor steel, nor poison. 
 Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing, 
 Can touch him furtiier !" 
 
 After his assassination, those friends could not fail to. 
 recall this passage from the same play : 
 
 " This Duncan 
 Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been 
 So clear in his great office, that his virtues 
 Will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, against 
 The deep damnation of his taking-off." 
 
 HIS RELIGION- 
 
 It is strange that any reader of Lincoln's speeches 
 and writings should have had the hardihood to charge 
 him with infidelity, but the charge, having been repeat- 
 edly made, I reply, in the light of facts accessible to all, 
 that no more reverent Christian (not excepting Washing- 
 ton) ever filled the chair of President. Declarations of 
 his trust in God, his faith in the efficacy of prayer, per- 
 vade his speeches and writings. From the time he left 
 Springfield, to his death, he not only himself continuedly 
 prayedfor Divine assistance, but never failed to ask the 
 prayers of others for himself and his country. 
 
 His reply to the negroes of Baltimore, who, in 1864, 
 5 
 
66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 presented him with a beautiful Bible, as an expression of 
 their love and gratitude, ought to have silenced all who 
 have made such charges. After thanking them, he said, 
 " This great book is the best gift God has given to man. 
 All the good from the Saviour of the world is communi- 
 cated through this book." 
 
 When a member of Congress, knowing his religious 
 character, asked him " Why he did not join some church ?" 
 Mr. Lincoln replied, " Because I found difficulty, with- 
 out mental reservation, in giving my assent to their long 
 and complicated confessions of faith. When any church 
 will inscribe over its altar the Saviour's condensed state- 
 ment of law and gospel, ' Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join 
 with all my heart." 
 
 WHAT HE ACCOMPLISHED. 
 
 Let us try to sum up in part what he accomplished. 
 
 When he assumed the duties of the Executive, he 
 found an empty treasury, the National credit gone, the 
 little nucleus of an army and navy scattered and dis- 
 armed, the officers, who had not deserted to the rebels, 
 strangers ; the party which elected him in a minority (he 
 having been elected only because his opponents were 
 divided between Douglas, Breckenridge, and Everett), 
 the old Democratic party, which had ruled most of the 
 time for half a century, hostile, and even that part of it in 
 the North, from long association, in sympathy with the 
 insurgents ; his own party made up of discordant ele- 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 67 
 
 ments, and neither he nor his party had acquired prestige 
 and the confidence of the people. 
 
 It is the exact truth to say that when he entered the 
 White House he was the object of personal prejudice to a 
 majority of the American people, and of contempt to a 
 powerful minority. He entered upon his task of restor- 
 ing the integrity of a broken Union, without sympathy 
 from any of the great powers of Western Europe. Those 
 which were not hostile manifested a cold neutrality, exhib- 
 iting toward him and his government no cordial good-will, 
 nor extending any moral aid. Yet, in spite of all, he 
 crushed the most stupendous rebellion, supported by 
 armies more vast, by resources greater, and an organiza- 
 tion more perfect, than ever before undertook the dis- 
 memberment of a nation. He united and held together, 
 against contending factions, his own party, and strength- 
 ened it by securing the confidence and v/inning the sup- 
 port of the best part of all parties. He composed the 
 quarrels of rival generals ; and, at length, won the respect 
 and confidence and sympathy of all nations and peoples. 
 He was re-elected, almost by acclamation, and, after a 
 series of brilliant victories, he annihilated all armed 
 opposition. He led the people, step by step, to Emanci- 
 pation, and saw his work crowned by an amendment of 
 the Constitution, eradicating and prohibiting slavery for- 
 ever, throughout the republic. 
 
 Such is a brief and imperfect summary of his achieve- 
 ments during the last five years of his life. And this 
 good man, when the hour of victory came, made it not the 
 hour of vengeance, but of forgiveness and reconciliation. 
 These five years of incessant labor and fearful responsi- 
 
68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 bility told even upon his strength and vigor. He left 
 Illinois, for the Capital, with a frame of iron and nerves 
 of steel. His old friends, who had known him as a man 
 who did not know what illness was ; who had seen him 
 on the prairies before the Illinois courts, full of life, ge- 
 nial, and sparkling with fun ; now saw the wrinkles on his 
 forehead deepened into furrows — the laugh of the old days 
 lost its heartiness ; anxiety, responsibility, care, and hard 
 work wore upon him, and his nerves of steel at times 
 became irritable. He had had no respite, had taken no 
 holidays. When others fled away from the dust and heat 
 of the Capital, he stayed. He would not leave the helm 
 until all danger was past, and the good ship of state had 
 made her port. 
 
 I will not dwell upon the unutterable sorrow of the 
 American people, at his shocking death. But I desire to 
 express here, in this great city of this grand empire, the 
 sensibility with which the people of the United States 
 received, at his death, the sympathy of the English-speak- 
 ing race. 
 
 That sympathy was most eloquently expressed by all. 
 It came from Windsor Castle to the White House ; from 
 England's widowed queen to the stricken and distracted 
 widow at Washington. From Parliament to Congress, 
 from the people of all this magnificent empire, as it 
 stretches round the world, from England to India, from 
 Canada to Australia, came words of deep feeling, and 
 they were received by the American people, in their sore 
 bereavement, as the expression of a kindred race. 
 
 I cannot forbear referring in particular to the words 
 spoken in Parliament on that occasion, by Lords Russell 
 
BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD. 69 
 
 and Derby, and, especially, by that great and picturesque 
 leader, so lately passed away, Lord Beaconsfield. After 
 a discriminating eulogy upon the late President, and the 
 expression of profound sympathy, he said : 
 
 " Nor is it possible for the people of England, at such 
 a moment, to forget that he sprang from the same father- 
 land and spake the same mother-tongue." 
 
 God grant that, in all the unknown future, nothing 
 may ever disturb the friendly feeling and respect which 
 each nation entertains for the other. May there never be 
 another quarrel in the family. 
 
 c^<:^c^c^ JP/rrVrc^cAJ 
 
 Chicago, 1882. 
 
70 NOTE FROM RIGHT HON. JOHN BRIGHT. 
 
 NOTE FROM THE RIGHT HON. JOHN 
 
 BRIGHT. 
 
 No. 132 Piccadilly, London, 
 June 2%th, '81. 
 
 Dear Sir : 
 
 I have read with much pleasure your interesting paper 
 on President Lincoln. I wish all men could read it, for 
 the life of your great President affords much that tends 
 to advance all that is good and noble among men. I 
 thank you for sending me the report of your paper. 
 
 I am, very sincerely yours, 
 
 John Bright. 
 Hon. Isaac N. Arnold. 
 
LETTER FEOM MRS. A. C. BOTTA. ii 
 
 LETTER FROM MRS. ANNE C. BOTTA. 
 
 Buckingham Palace Hotel, 
 June 22d, 1 88 1. 
 My Dear Mr. Arnold : 
 
 An hour ago I opened the pamphlet you gave me 
 yesterday, intending to glance at the contents and lay it 
 aside to read when I reached home, but I found myself 
 unable to lay it down until I had carefully read every 
 word from first to last. It is certainly the most clear, 
 exhaustive, and eloquent tribute to Mr. Lincoln that I 
 have ever seen. But the pleasure it has given me is quite 
 equaled by the pride I feel in knowing that it was 
 listened to by the London Historical Society, to whom it 
 must have been as novel as interesting. As a good 
 American, I thank you cordially for thus giving to the 
 English people so noble a picture of our great President, 
 while, at the same time, you presented to them in person 
 his able friend and coadjutor. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Anne C. Botta. 
 
72 TJJ'O FAGLIARDIRRI'S ADDRESS. 
 
 ADDRESS OF TITO PAGLIARDIRRI, ESQ., 
 
 Council of the Royal Hlstorical Society, London, 
 
 England. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen : — Seldom 
 have I listened to a paper that has so deeply interested 
 me. It has given us a living portrait of one of the most 
 remarkable individualities of recent times — a portrait, too, 
 traced by the hand of one who, having himself taken a 
 prominent part in the great national struggle which put 
 an end to slavery, had constant opportunities of seeing 
 and studying in every phase of his life the eminent man 
 he has so graphically portrayed. And though it has been 
 said that familiarity breeds contempt, and that there is 
 no hero for his valet, yet men of the Garibaldi and Lin- 
 coln type, whose influence on their country and mankind 
 at large is chiefly due to moral force, can only gain by a 
 closer view of them in their prosaic every-day life. 
 When we see the gentler feelings of the human heart 
 combined in a prominent man with a rigid sense of duty 
 and the intellectual power and perseverance necessary to 
 fulfill that duty, we not only admire that man but revere 
 and love him. Hence Abraham Lincoln, the preserver, 
 as Washington was the founder of the great Union, 
 always, I must confess, stood higher in my estimation 
 and love than all the Alexanders, Caesars, and Napoleons 
 
TITO PAGLIARDIRRI^S AnDKESS. 73 
 
 who have reddened the pages of history with their bril- 
 Hant exploits. 
 
 Before his time, I was often taunted b}^ my French 
 repLibHcan friends for showing but scant enthusiasm for 
 " La grande Republique Americaine." In answer, I 
 pointed to the huge black spot which, though it only 
 covered half, yet extended its moral taint to the whole of 
 the otherwise glorious Union. That could not be the 
 model land of Liberty where millions of our fellow-creat- 
 ures were born to slavery, to be bought and sold like 
 swine. 
 
 But when the great deliverer arose, humble though 
 his origin, as is that of most deliverers, my sentiments 
 towards America changed. I hailed him with enthusiasm 
 and stood almost alone in my circle, composed chiefly of 
 readers of the conservative and semi-conservative press ; 
 for, to their shame and ultimate discomfiture, the leading 
 papers almost all took the wrong side, prophesying con- 
 tinuous disasters to the anti-slavery party and a consequent 
 disruption of the Union. Their grand but specious ar- 
 gument, which misled many honest minds, ignorant of 
 the history of the several States, was that the South had 
 as much right to fight for their liberty as the United 
 States themselves had to fight for their independence 
 against England. Liberty, indeed ! The liberty to per- 
 petuate the curse of slavery ! 
 
 But Americans must not judge of British sentiments 
 by the conservative press, which only represents a portion 
 of the public, but which, unfortunately, was that which 
 most easily found its way across the Atlantic. The real 
 heart of Great Britain was from the beginning with the 
 
74 TITO TAGLIARDIRRI'S ADDRESS. 
 
 North. Indeed, Lincoln's warmest sympathizers were 
 those who suffered most from the direful American civil 
 contest — the cotton-spinners and the whole body of the 
 worklne classes. And as nothinp; succeeds like success, I 
 am bound to add that in the process of time the undaunted 
 determination of the Northern States, under a series of 
 alarming defeats, with their best-trained generals and offi- 
 cers, and their chief arsenals, on the side of the slave- 
 holders, gradually gained for them and for their great 
 inspirer, Abraham Lincoln, the respect and admiration of 
 all parties — and this admiration and this respect were 
 vastly increased when, in the hour of victory, all cries for 
 vengeance were hushed, and the hand of brotherhood 
 was held out to the defeated party by the noble-hearted 
 President, with the full consent of his victorious country- 
 men. 
 
 And now that what was deemed impossible is an ac- 
 complished fact, viz. : the abomination of slavery erad- 
 icated forever from the great American Republic, and 
 peace and prosperity restored throughout the land, I 
 ■ trust that, in Mr. Arnold's own words, "nothing may 
 ever disturb the friendly feeling and respect which each 
 of the great Anglo-Saxon nations entertains for the 
 other." 
 
 Already have they given a striking proof of their 
 advanced civilization and friendly feelings, and a noble 
 example to all other civilized nations, in the peaceful set- 
 tlement of the burning Alabama question, which, but one 
 generation ago would most certainly have led to an obsti- 
 nate war, ruinous to both countries. That the decision 
 of the neutral body of arbitrators was impartial and toler- 
 
TITO PAGLIARDIRRrS ADDRESS. 75 
 
 ably just was proved by its giving at the time entire satis- 
 faction to neither party, the whole question being, how- 
 ever, soon after completely dropped, leaving no angry feel- 
 ings behind, as would have done a war, however success- 
 ful in the end. May God grant that any future differ- 
 ences between these two great nations having a common 
 origin, a common language, a common literature, and so 
 many institutions in common, be settled in the same just 
 friendly, and rational manner. No fratricidal war must 
 or can ever arise between them. All their future battles 
 must be fought on the peaceful fields of science, literature, 
 and the industrial arts. Victories on these fields will 
 benefit both, and the whole human race into the bargain. 
 
 I will now conclude these hasty remarks by proposing 
 a hearty vote of thanks to the Hon. Isaac N. Arnold for 
 his very valuable and interesting paper. 
 
 Which was unanimously adopted. 
 
76 FIRST POLITICAL ADDRESS. 
 
 LINCOLN'S FIRST POLITICAL SPEECH 
 
 When a Candidate for the Illinois Legislature 
 
 IN 1832. 
 
 " Gentlemen, Fellow-Citizens : I presume you know 
 who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been 
 solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the 
 Legislature. My politics can be briefly stated. I am in 
 favor of the internal improvement system, and a high 
 protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political 
 principles. If elected, I shall be thankful ; if not, it will 
 Oe all the same." 
 
O "^ 
 
 ^ V 
 H o 
 
 
 .9 5" 
 
 .t: c 
 ►J* 
 
 So (O 
 4) a 
 
 S o « 
 
 1 It 
 
 2 . a.a 
 
 i-Tco o S 
 
 
R. B. ANDERSON. 
 
 77 
 
 THE ripest and fairest fruit that has yet fallen from 
 our American tree of civilization is Abraham Lin- 
 coln. His private character was stainless, his public life 
 pure, wise, courageous, statesmanlike. In both, he will 
 shine the brighter as years and centuries roll on. Among 
 the many orbs that illuminate the pages of our history, 
 he is the sun himself, whose light was not darkened by 
 the most cloudy and stormy days of our civil war. When 
 he had saved our country, and wiped out the black stain 
 that marred the beauty of so many of our fair states, 
 envy could find no more shining mark for its poisoned 
 shafts, and like the good Balder in our ancient mythology, 
 and like Christ and Socrates of old, he was made to 
 die, that truth and righteousness might live. I can name 
 no name of any age or country that in private and public 
 life outshines that of the great Abraham Lincoln. His 
 memory will be cherished by the latest generations of 
 this earth. 
 
 Madison, 1880. 
 
EXTRACT FROM SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A SPEECH DELIVERED 
 DECEMBER, 1839. 
 
 Of the slave power he said, Broken by it ? I, too, may 
 be asked to bow to it, I never will ! The probability that 
 we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from 
 the support of a cause which I deem to be just. It shall 
 not deter me. If I ever feel the soul within me elevate 
 and expand to 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 stand- 
 ing up boldly and alone, and hurling defiance at her vic- 
 torious oppressors. Here, without contemplating conse- 
 quences, before high Heaven, and in the face of the world, 
 I swear 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 adopt the oath 
 that I take ? Let none falter who thinks he is right, and 
 we may succeed. But if, after all, we shall fall, be it so. 
 We shall have the proud consolation of saying to our 
 conscience, and to the departed shade of our country's 
 freedom, that the course approved by our judgments and 
 adored by our hearts, in disaster, in chains, in torture, and 
 in death. We never faltered in defending. 
 
R. B. A YRES. 
 
 19 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was a man of noble charac- 
 ter, — of lofty aims. He brought to the duties of 
 the presidential office the highest qualities of manhood, 
 a wide knowledge of humanity, and a superb courage to 
 carry out his convictions. It was a most fortunate cir- 
 cumstance that he was our President during those mo- 
 mentous years in our country's history. 
 
 U. S. Army, 
 1882. 
 
8o RESOLUTIONS UPON SLAVERY. 
 
 RESOLUTIONS UPON DOMESTIC SLAVERY 
 IN THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. 
 
 March 3, 1837. 
 The following protest was presented to the House, 
 which was read and ordered to be spread on the journals, 
 
 to wit : 
 
 - Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery 
 having passed both branches of the General Assembly, 
 at its^ present session, the undersigned hereby protest 
 against the passage of the same. 
 
 "They believe that the institution of slavery is 
 founded on both injustice and bad policy ; but that the 
 promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather to in- 
 crease 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 said District. The difference between these 
 opinions and those contained in the said resolutions, is 
 their reason for entering this protest. 
 (Signed) 
 
 " Dan. Stone, 
 " A. Lincoln, 
 -Representatives from the County of Sangamon." 
 
LYMAN ABBOTT. 
 
 TO comprehend the current of history sympatheticall)'', 
 to appreciate the spirit of the age, prophetically, to 
 know what God, by his providence, is working out in the 
 epoch and the community, and so to work with him as to 
 guide the current and embody in noble deeds the spirit of 
 the age in working out the divine problem, — this is true 
 greatness. The man who sets his powers, however 
 cfisfantic, to stemminof the current and thwartinof the di- 
 vine purposes, is not truly great. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was made the Chief Executive of a 
 nation whose Constitution was unlike that of any other 
 nation on the face of the globe. We assume that, ordi- 
 narily, public sentiment will change so gradually that the 
 nation can always secure a true representative of its pur- 
 jDOse in the presidential chair by an election every four 
 years. Mr. Lincoln held the presidential office at a time 
 when public sentiment was revolutionized in less than 
 four years. When he was called to the presidency, only 
 a very insignificant minority in the nation was willing 
 that slavery should be interfered with, and only a bare 
 majority of the loyal North were prepared even to en- 
 force the laws in rebellious States. Before his term of 
 office had expired, a great body of the North were ready, 
 not only to put down .rebellion by force of arms, but in 
 doing this to enfranchise the negro and to put arms into 
 his hands. It was the peculiar genius of Abraham Lin- 
 coln, that he was able, by his sympathetic insight, to per- 
 ceive the change in public sentiment without waiting for 
 
 6 
 
82 LYMAN ABBOTT. 
 
 it to be formulated in any legislative action; to keep 
 pace with it, to lead and direct it, to quicken laggard 
 spirits, to hold in the too ardent, too impetuous, and too 
 hasty ones, and thus, when he signed the emancipation 
 proclamation, to make his signature, not the act of an 
 individual man, the edict of a military imperator, but 
 the representative act of a great nation. He was the 
 greatest President in American History, because in a 
 time of revolution he comprehended the spirit of Ameri- 
 can institutions, grasped the purposes of the American 
 people, and embodied them in an act of justice and hu- 
 manity which was in the highest sense the act of the 
 American Republic. 
 
 CORNWALL-ON-HUDSON, 
 1881. 
 
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS. 83 
 
 PERSONALLY I never saw President Lincoln more 
 than twice in my life, and then for a very few min- 
 utes. He then frankly told me that my mission to Great 
 Britain had not been altogether his selection, but I believe 
 he became well satisfied afterwards. So, on the other 
 hand, I became from a very lukewarm admirer of his, one 
 of the most appreciative of his high qualities, and mourn- 
 ers of his great loss. I shall never forget the moment 
 when, in London, the tidings of this loss were brought to 
 me. It seemed as if we were all afloat in the midst of a 
 boundless ocean. 
 
 Boston, 1880. 
 
g^ AN ADDRESS. 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED BEFORE THE SPRINGFIELD WASHINGTONIAN 
 TEMPERANCE SOCIETY, AT THE SECOND PRESBYTER- 
 IAN CHURCH, ON THE 22D DAY OF FEBRUARY, 
 1842, BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ESQ. 
 
 Although the Temperance Cause has been in progress 
 for nearly Twenty years, it is apparent to all that it is just 
 now being crowned with a degree of success, hitherto 
 
 unparalleled. 
 
 The list of its friends is daily swelled by the additions 
 of fifties, of hundreds, and of thousands. The cause 
 itself seems suddenly transformed from a cold abstract 
 theory, to a living, breathing, active and powerful chief- 
 tain, 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 performed, 
 and where human sacrifices have long been wont to be 
 made, are daily desecrated and deserted. 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. 
 
 For this new and splendid success we heartily rejoice. 
 That that success is so much greater now, than hereto- 
 fore, is doubtless owing to rational causes ; and if we 
 would have it continue, we shall do well to inquire what 
 those causes are. 
 
A^^ ADDRESS. 85 
 
 The warfare heretofore washed agfalnst the demon 
 intemperance, has, somehow or other, been erroneous. 
 Either the champions engaged, or the tactics they 
 adopted, have not been the most proper. These cham- 
 pions, for the most part, have been preachers, lawyers and 
 hired agents ; between these and the mass of mankind, 
 there is a want of approachability, if the term be admis- 
 sible, partial at least, fatal to their success. They are 
 supposed to have no sympathy of feeling or interest 
 with those very persons whom it is their object to con- 
 vince and persuade. 
 
 And again, it is so easy and so common to ascribe 
 motives to men of these classes, other than those they 
 profess to act upon. The preacher, it is said, advocates 
 temperance because he is a fanatic, and desires a union 
 of the church and state ; the lawyer from his pride, and 
 vanity of hearing himself speak; and the hired agent 
 for his salary. 
 
 But when one who has long been known as a victim 
 of intemperance bursts the fetters that have bound him, 
 and appears before his neighbors "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. They can- 
 
86 AN ADDRESS. 
 
 not say that he desires a union of church and state, for 
 he is not a church-member ; they cannot say he is vain of 
 hearing himself speak, for his whole demeanor shows he 
 would gladly avoid speaking at all ; they cannot say he 
 speaks for pay, for he receives none, and asks for none. 
 Nor can his sincerity in any wa}^ be doubted, or his sym- 
 pathy for those he would persuade to imitate his example 
 be denied. 
 
 In my judgment it is to the battles of this new class 
 of champions that our late success is greatly, perhaps 
 chiefly, owing. But had the old-school champions them- 
 selves been of the most wise selecting? Was their 
 system of tactics the most judicious ? It seems to me it 
 was not. Too much denunciation against dram-sellers 
 and dram-drinkers was indulged in. This, I think, was 
 both impolitic and unjust. It was impolitic, because it is 
 not much in the nature of man to be driven to anything ; 
 still less to be driven about that which is exclusively 
 his own business ; and least of all, where such driving is to 
 be submitted to at the expense of pecuniary interest, or 
 burning appetite. When the dram-seller and drinker 
 were incessantly told, not in the accents of entreaty and 
 persuasion, diffidently addressed by erring man to an 
 erring brother, but in the thundering tones of anathema 
 and denunciation, with which the lordly judge often 
 groups together all the crimes of the felon's life, and 
 thrusts them in his face just ere he passes sentence of 
 death upon him, that they were the authors of all the 
 vice and misery and crime in the land ; that they were the 
 manufacturers and material of all the thieves and robbers 
 and murderers that infest the earth ; that their houses 
 
AN ADDRESS. 87 
 
 were the work-shops of the devil, and that their persons 
 should be shunned by all the good and virtuous, as moral 
 pestilences, — I say, when they were told all this, and in 
 this way, it is not wonderful that they were slow, very 
 slow, .to acknowledge the truth of such denunciations, 
 and to join the ranks of their denouncers, in a hue and 
 cry against themselves. 
 
 To have expected them to do otherwise than they did 
 — to have expected them not to meet denunciation with 
 denunciation, crimination with crimination, and anathema 
 with anathema, — was to expect a reversal of human 
 nature, which is God's decree, and can never be reversed. 
 
 When the conduct of men is designed to be influ- 
 enced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, should 
 ever be adopted. It is an old and a 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 high road to his reason, and which, 
 when once gained, you will find but little trouble in con- 
 vincing his judgment of the justice of your cause, if, 
 indeed, that cause really be a just one. On the contrary,, 
 assume to dictate to his judgment, or to command his 
 action, or to mark him as 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 
 tliough you throw it with more than herculean force and 
 precision, you shall be no more able to pierce him, than 
 
88 AN ADDRESS. 
 
 to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye-straw. 
 Such is man, and so must he be understood by those who 
 would lead him, even to his own best interests. 
 
 On this point, the Washingtonians greatly excel the 
 temperance advocates of former times. Those whom 
 they desire to convince and persuade are their old friends 
 and companions. They know they are not demons, nor 
 even the worst of men ; they know that generally they 
 are kind, generous and charitable, even beyond the 
 example of their more staid and sober neighbors. They 
 are practical philanthropists ; and they glow with a gen- 
 erous and brotherly zeal, that mere theorizers are incap- 
 able of feeling. Benevolence and charity possess their 
 hearts entirely ; and out of the abundance of their hearts 
 their tongues give utterance, " Love through all their 
 actions run, and all their words are mild :" in this spirit 
 they speak and act, and in the same they are heard and 
 regarded. And when such is the temper of the advocate, 
 and such of the audience, no good cause can be unsuc- 
 cessful. But I have said that denunciations against dram- 
 sellers and dram-drinkers are unjust, as well as impolitic. 
 Let us see. 
 
 I have not inquired at what period of time the use of 
 intoxicating liquors commenced ; nor is it important to 
 know. It is sufficient that to all of us who now inhabit 
 the world, the practice of drinking them is just as old as 
 the world itself — that is, we have seen the one, just as long 
 as we have seen the other. When all such of us as have 
 now reached the years of maturity, first opened our eyes 
 upon the stage of existence, we found intoxicating liquors 
 recognized by everybody, used by everybody, repudiated 
 
AN ADDRESS. 89 
 
 by nobody. It commonly entered into the first draught 
 of the infant, and the last draught of the dying man. 
 From the sideboard of the parson, down to the ragged 
 pocket of the houseless loafer, it was constantly found. 
 Physicians prescribed it, in this, that and the other 
 disease ; Government provided it for soldiers and sailors ; 
 and to have a rolling or raising, a husking or " hoe-down " 
 anywhere about without it, was positively unsufferable. 
 So too, it was everywhere a respectable article of manu- 
 facture and of merchandise. The making of it was 
 regarded as an honorable livelihood, and he could make 
 most, was the most enterprising and respectable. Large 
 and small manufactories of it were everywhere erected, 
 in which all the earthly goods of their owners were in- 
 vested. Wagons drew it from town to town ; boats bore 
 it from clime to clime, and the winds wafted it from 
 nation to nation ; and merchants bought and sold it, by 
 wholesale and retail, with precisely the same feelings on 
 the part of the seller, buyer and by-stander as are felt at 
 the selling and buying of plows, beef, bacon, or any other 
 of the real necessaries of life. Universal public opinion 
 not only tolerated, but recognized and adopted its use. 
 
 It is true, that even then it was known and acknowl- 
 edged that many were greatly injured by it ; but none 
 seemed to think the injury arose from the use of a bad 
 thing, but from the abuse of a very good thing. The 
 victims of it were to be pitied and compassionated, just 
 as are the heirs of consumption, and other hereditary 
 diseases. Their failing was treated as a misfortune, and 
 not as a crime, or even as a disgrace. 
 
 If then, what I ha\'e been saying is true, is it wonder- 
 
90 AN ADDRESS. 
 
 ful, that some should think and act now, as all thougfht 
 and acted twenty years ago, and is it just to assail, con- 
 demn, or despise them for doing so ? The universal 
 sense of mankind, on any subject, is an argument, or at 
 least an influence, not easily overcome. The success of 
 the argument in favor of the existence of an over-ruling 
 Providence, mainly depends upon that sense ; and men 
 ought not, in justice, to be denounced for yielding to it 
 in any case, or giving it up slowly, especially when they 
 are backed by interest, fixed habits, or burning appetites. 
 Another error, as it seems to me, into which the old 
 reformers fell, was the position that all habitual drunk- 
 ards were utterly incorrigible, and therefore, must be 
 turned adrift, and damned without remedy, in order that 
 the grace of temperance might abound, to the temperate 
 then, and to all mankind some hundreds of years there- 
 after. There is in this something so repugnant to 
 humanity, so uncharitable, so cold-blooded and feeling- 
 less, that it never did, nor never can enlist the enthusiasm 
 of a popular cause. We could not love the man who 
 taught it — we could not hear him with patience. The 
 heart could not throw open its portals to it, the generous 
 man could not adopt it, it could not mix with his blood. 
 It looked so fiendishly selfish, so like throwing fathers 
 and brothers overboard, to lighten the boat for our se- 
 curity — that the noble-minded shrank from the manifest 
 meanness of the thinof. And besides this, the benefits of 
 a reformation to be effected by such a system, were too 
 remote in point of time, to warmly engage many in its 
 behalf. Few can be induced to labor exclusively for pos- 
 terity ; and none will do it enthusiastically. Posterity 
 
AN ADDRESS. 91 
 
 has done nothing for us ; and theorize on it as we may, 
 practically we shall do very little for it unless we are made 
 to think, we are, at the same time, doing something for 
 ourselves. 
 
 What an ignorance of human nature does it exhibit, 
 to ask or expect a whole community to rise up and labor 
 for the temporal happiness of others, after themselves 
 shall be consigned to the dust, a majority of which com- 
 munity take no pains whatever to secure their own 
 eternal welfare at no greater distant day. Great distance 
 in either time or space has wonderful power to lull and 
 render quiescent the human mind. Pleasures to be en- 
 joyed, or pains to be endured, after we shall be dead and 
 gone, are but little regarded, even in our own cases, and 
 much less in the cases of others. 
 
 Still, in addition to this, there is something so ludicrous, 
 in promises of good, or threats of evil, a great way off, 
 as to render the whole subject with which they are con- 
 nected, easily turned into ridicule. " Better lay down 
 that spade you're stealing, Paddy — if you don't, you'll 
 pay for it at the day of judgment." " Be the powers, if 
 ye'll credit me so long I'll take another jist." 
 
 By the Washingtonians this system of consigning the 
 habitual drunkard to hopeless ruin is repudiated. They 
 adopt a mote enlarged philanthropy, they go for present 
 as well as future good. They labor for all now living, 
 as well as hereafter to live. They teach hope to all — de- 
 spair to none. As applying to their cause, they deny 
 the doctrine of unpardonable sin ; as in Christianity it is 
 taught, so in this they teach — 
 
92 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 "While the lamp holds out to burn, 
 The vilest sinner may return." 
 
 And, what is a matter of the most profound congratula- 
 tion, they, by experiment upon experiment, and example 
 upon example, prove the maxim to be no less true in the 
 one case than in the other. On every hand we behold 
 those, who but yesterday were the chief of sinners, now 
 the chief apostles of the cause. Drunken devils are cast 
 out by ones, by sevens, by legions ; and their unfortunate 
 victims, like the poor possessed, who was redeemed from 
 his long and lonely wanderings In the tombs, are publish- 
 ing to the ends of the earth how great things have been 
 done for them. 
 
 To these new champions, and this new system of tac- 
 tics, our late success is mainly owing ; and to them we 
 must mainly look for the final consummation. The ball 
 is now rolling gloriously on, and none are so able as they 
 to increase its speed, and its bulk — to add to its mo- 
 mentum and its magnitude — even thouo^h unlearned in 
 letters, for this task none are so well educated. To fit 
 them for this work they have been taught In the true 
 school. They have been in that gulf, from which they 
 would teach others the means of escape. They have 
 passed that prison wall, which others have long declared 
 impassable ; and who that has not, shall dare to weigh 
 opinions with them as to the mode of passing? 
 
 But if it be true, as I have Insisted, that those who 
 have suffered by intemperance personally, and have re- 
 formed, are the most powerful and efificient instruments 
 to push the reformation to ultimate success, it does not 
 follow that those who have not suffered have no part left 
 
AN ADDRESS. 
 
 93 
 
 them to perform. Whether or not the world would be 
 vastly benefitted by a total and final banishment from it 
 of all intoxicating drinks, seems to me not now an open 
 question. Three-fourths of mankind confess the affirm- 
 ative with their tongues ; and, I believe, all the rest 
 acknowledge it in their hearts. 
 
 Ought any, then, to refuse their aid in doing what 
 the good of the whole demands ? Shall he who cannot 
 do much, be, for that reason, excused if he do nothing ? 
 "But," says one, "what good can I do by signing the 
 pledge? I never drink, even without signing." This 
 question has already been asked and answered more than 
 a mxillion of times. Let It be answered once more. For 
 the man to suddenly, or in any other way, to break off 
 from the use of drams, who has indulged in them for a 
 long course of years, and until his appetite for them has 
 grown ten or a hundred fold stronger and more craving 
 than any natural appetite can be, requires a most power- 
 ful moral effort. In such an undertaking he needs every 
 moral support and influence that can possibly be brought 
 to his aid, and thrown around him. And not only so, 
 but every moral prop should be taken from whatever 
 argument might rise in his mind, to lure him to his back- 
 sliding. When he casts his eyes around him, he should be 
 able to see all that he respects, all that he admires, all 
 that he loves, kindly and anxiously pointing him onward, 
 and none beckoning him back to his former misesable 
 "wallowing in the mire." 
 
 But it is said b}^ some, that men will think and act 
 for themselves ; that none will disuse spirits or anything 
 else because his neighbors do ; and that moral influence 
 
94 AN ADDRESS. 
 
 is not that powerful engine contended for. Let us ex- 
 amine this. Let me ask the man who could maintain 
 this position most stififly, what compensation he will 
 accept to go to church some Sunday and sit during the 
 sermon with his wife's bonnet upon his head? Not a 
 trifle, I'll venture. And why not ? There would be 
 nothing irreligious in it, nothing immoral, nothing un- 
 comfortable — then why not? Is It not because there 
 would be something egregiously unfashionable in it? 
 Then it is the influence of fashion ; and v/hat is the 
 influence of fashion but the influence that other people's 
 actions have on our own actions — the strong Inclination 
 each of us feels to do as we see all our neighbors do ? 
 Nor is the Influence of fashion confined to any particu- 
 lar thing or class of things. It Is just as strong on one 
 subject as another. Let us make it as unfashionable to 
 withhold our names from the temperance pledge, as for 
 husbands to wear their wives' bonnets to church, and 
 instances will be just as rare in the one case as the other. 
 
 ''But," say some, "we are no drunkards, and we shall 
 not acknowledge ourselves such, by joining a reformed 
 drunkards' society, whatever our influence might be." 
 Surely, no Christian will adhere to this objection. 
 
 If they believe as they profess, that Omnipotence 
 condescended to take on himself the form of sinful man, 
 and, as such, to die an ignominious death for their sakes, 
 surely, they will not refuse submission to the infinitely 
 lesser condescension, for the temporal, and perhaps 
 eternal salvation, of a large, erring, and unfortunate class 
 of their fellow-creatures. Nor is the condescension very 
 great. In my judgment such of us as have never fallen 
 
AN ADDRESS. 95 
 
 victims, have been spared more from the absence of appe- 
 tite, than from any mental or moral superiority over those 
 who have. Indeed, I believe, if we take habitual drunk- 
 ards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an 
 advantageous comparison with those of any other class. 
 There seems ever to have been a proneness in the bril- 
 liant and warm-blooded to fall into this vice — the demon 
 of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking 
 the blood of genius and generosity. What one of us 
 but can call to mind some relative, more promising in 
 youth than all his fellows, who has fallen a sacrifice to 
 his rapacity ? He ever seems to have gone forth like 
 the Egyptian angel of death, commissioned to slay, if not 
 the first, the fairest born of every family. Shall he now 
 be arrested in his desolating career? In that arrest, all 
 can give aid that will ; and who shall be excused that can, 
 and will not ? Far around as human breath has ever 
 blown, he keeps our fathers, our brothers, our sons, and our 
 friends prostrate in the chains of moral death To all 
 the living, everywhere, we cry, " Come, sound the moral 
 trump, that these may rise and stand up an exceeding- 
 great army." — '' Come from the four winds, O breath ! and 
 breathe upon these slain, that they may live." If the 
 relative grandeur of revolutions shall be estimated by the 
 great amount of human misery they alleviate, and the 
 small amount they inflict, then, indeed, will this be the 
 grandest the world shall ever have seen. 
 
 Of our political revolution of '76 we are all justly 
 proud. It has given us a degree of political freedom far 
 exceeding that of any other nations of the earth. In it the 
 world has found a solution of the long mooted problem, 
 
96 AN ADDRESS. 
 
 as to the capability of man to govern himself. In it was 
 the germ which has vegetated, and still is to grow and 
 expand into the universal liberty of mankind, 
 
 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 inev- 
 itable price, paid for the blessings it bought. 
 
 Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it we 
 shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery man- 
 umitted, a greater tyrant deposed — in it, more of vv^ant 
 supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow assuaged. 
 By it, no orphans starving, no widows weeping. By it, 
 none wounded in feeling, none injured in interest ; even 
 the dram-maker and dram-seller will have glided into 
 other occupations so gradually as never to have felt the 
 change, and will stand ready to join all others in the uni- 
 versal song of gladness. And what a noble ally this, to 
 the cause of political 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 appetites con- 
 trolled, all poisons subdued, all matter subjected, mind, 
 all-conquering mind, shall live and move, the monarch of 
 the w^orld ! Glorious consummation ! Hail, fall of fury ! 
 Reign of reason, all hail ! 
 
 And when the victory shall be complete — when there 
 ..hall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the earth — 
 how proud the title of that Land, which may truly claim 
 to be the birth-place and the cradle of both those revo- 
 
AN ADDRESS. 97 
 
 lutions that shall have ended In that victory. How 
 nobly distinguished that people, who shall have planted, 
 and nurtured to maturity, 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 celebrate this 
 day. Washington is the mightiest name of earth — long 
 since mightiest in the cause of civil liberty, still mightiest 
 in moral reformation. On that name a eulogy is ex- 
 pected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun, or 
 glory to the name of Washington is alike impossible. 
 Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the 
 name, and in its naked, deathless splendor leave it 
 shininof on. 
 
98 SPEECH DELIVERED AT PEORIA. 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED AT PEORIA, ILLINOIS, 
 OCT. i6, 1854. 
 
 Finally I insist that if there is any thing which it is 
 the duty of the whole people to never intrust to any hands 
 but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpe- 
 tuity of their own liberties and institutions. And if they 
 shall think, as I do, that the extension of slavery endan- 
 gers them, more than any or all other causes, how recreant 
 to themselves if they submit the question, and with it the] 
 fate of their country, to a mere handful of men, bent only] 
 on temporary self-interest. If this question of slavery 
 extension were an insignificant one — one having no power 
 to do harm — it might be shuffled aside in this way ; but 
 being as it is, the great Behemoth of danger, shall the 
 strong gripe of the nation be loosened upon him, to 
 intrust him to the hands of such feeble keepers ? I have 
 done with this mighty argument of self-government. Go 
 sacred thing ; Go in peace ! Much as I hate slavery, I 
 would consent to the extension of it rather than see the 
 Union dissolved, just as I would consent to -dSiy great evil 
 to avoid a o-reater one. But when I (70 to Union-savin or 
 I must believe, at least, that the means I employ have 
 some adaptation to the end. 
 
T. S. ARTHUR. 99 
 
 u 
 
 As the years pass, and we look back upon the life and 
 work of Abraham Lincoln, during the time he was 
 President of the United States, our admiration and rever- 
 ence for the man increases. For unselfish devotion to the 
 public welfare, purity of character, freedom from partisan- 
 ship and personal ambition, and ability to comprehend and 
 deal with the momentous questions at issue in our great 
 struggle for national existence, he was first among the 
 ablest statesmen and most loyal men of his time. 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
ICO EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH, 
 
 Delivered in Representative's Hall, Springfield, 
 Illinois, June 26, 1857. 
 
 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 construed, and 
 hawked at, and torn, till, if its framer? 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 follows, philosophy fol- 
 lows, and the theology of the 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 un- 
 locked without the concurrence of every key ; the keys 
 in the hands of a hundred different men, and they scat- 
 tered to a hundred different and distant places; and they 
 stand musing as to what invention, in all the dominions 
 of mind and matter, can be produced to make the impos- 
 sibility of his escape more complete than it is. 
 
JOHN G. WHITTIER. 
 
 lOI 
 
 THE weary form, that rested not, 
 Save in a martyr's grave ; 
 The care-worn face that none forgot, 
 Turned to the kneeling slave. 
 
 We rest in peace, where his sad eyes 
 Saw peril, strife and pain ; 
 
 His was the awful sacrifice, 
 And ours, the priceless gain. 
 
 Danvers, 1 88a 
 
I02 A. LINCOLN. 
 
 Chicago, July 24, 1858. 
 Hon. S. a. Douglas. 
 
 My Dear Sir : Will it be agreeable to you 
 to make an arrangement to divide time, and address 
 the same audience, during the present canvass, etc.? 
 Mr. Judd is authorized to receive your answer ; and 
 if agreeable to you, to enter into the terms of such 
 agreement, etc. 
 
 A. Lincoln. 
 
THEO. L. CUYLER. 103 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MY SERMON. 
 
 » 
 
 HE lived to see the rebellion in its last agonies ; he 
 lived to enter Richmond amid the acclamations 
 of the liberated slave ; he lived until Sumter's flag rose 
 again, like a star of Bethlehem, in the southern sky ; and 
 then, with the martyr's crown upon his brow, and with four 
 million broken fetters in his hand, he went up to meet 
 his God. In a moment his life crystallizes into the pure, 
 white fame that belongs only to the martyr for truth and 
 liberty ! Terrible as seems the method of his death to 
 us, it was, after all, the most fitting and glorious. In 
 God's sight, Lincoln was no more precious than the hum- 
 blest drummer-boy, who has bled away his young life on 
 the sod of Gettysburgh or Chattanooga. He had called 
 on two hundred thousand heroes to lay down their lives 
 for their country ; and now he, too, has gone to make 
 his grave beside them. 
 
 "So sleep tlie brave, who sink to rest, 
 By all their country's wishes blest." 
 
 When that grave, on yonder western prairie, shall 
 finally yield up its dead, glorious will be his resurrection ! 
 Methinks that I behold the spirit of the great Liberator, 
 in that judgment scene, before the assembled hosts of 
 heaven. Around him are the tens of thousands from 
 whom he struck the oppressor's chain. Methinks I hear 
 their grateful voices exclaim, " We were an hungered, and 
 
I04 
 
 THEO. L. CUYLER. 
 
 thou gavest us the bread of truth ; we were thirsty for 
 liberty, and thou gavest us drink ; we were strangers, and 
 thou didst take us in ; we were sick with two centuries of 
 sorrow, and thou didst visit us ; we were in the prison- 
 house of bondage, and thou earnest unto us." And the 
 King shall say unto him: "In as much as thou done it 
 unto one of the least of these my brethren, thou hast 
 done it unto me. Well done, good and faithful serv^ant ; 
 enter into the joy of the Lord." 
 
 Brooklyn, 1S82. 
 
H. S. BENNETT. 
 
 I HAVE been working for thirteen years in Fisk Uni- 
 versity, an institution which is devoted to the eleva- 
 tion of the colored race in the United States. And I am 
 more and more convinced, from year to year, that no one 
 can fully comprehend the magnitude and grandeur of the 
 work achieved by Abraham Lincoln, until he has learned 
 to look upon him as the colored people regard him. To 
 the white Northerner he is preserver of the Union and 
 the martyred President, to the colored people he is their 
 deliverer, their savior. The name of Abraham Lincoln 
 is enshrined forever as sacred in the hearts of a grateful 
 people, whom he has redeemed. 
 
 Fisk University, 
 I880. 
 
io6 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH, 
 
 AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, JUNE I 7, 1 858. 
 
 "A house divided against itself cannot stand." I 
 believe this government cannot endure permanently, 
 half slave, and half free. I do not expect the Union to 
 be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do 
 expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one 
 thing, or all the other. 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. 
 
 I have always hated slavery, I think, as much as any 
 abolitionist. 
 
 Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted 
 by, its own doubted friends — those whose hands are free, 
 whose hearts are in the work, — who do care for the result. 
 Two years ago, the Republicans of the nation mustered 
 over thirteen hundred thousand stronor. We did this 
 under the single impulse of resistance to a common 
 danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of 
 strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gath- 
 ':red from the four winds, and formed and fouofht the bat- 
 tie through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, 
 proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all, then, to 
 
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 107 
 
 falter now, — now, when that same enemy is wavering, 
 dissevered, and belligerent ? The result is not doubtful. 
 We shall not fail, — if we stand firm, we shall nol fail 
 Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but 
 sooner or later, the victory is sure to come. 
 
io8 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH 
 
 A.T CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, JULY ID, 1 858. 
 
 Now, it happens that we meet together once every year, 
 sometimes about the 4th of July, for some reasons or other. 
 
 These 4th of July gatherings I suppose have their 
 uses. If you will indulge me, I will state what I suppose 
 to be some of them. We are now a mighty nation ; we 
 are thirty, or about one-fifteenth part of the dry land of 
 the whole earth. We run our memory back over the 
 pages of history for about eighty-two years, and we con- 
 sider that we were then a very small people in point of 
 numbers, vastly inferior to what we are now, with a 
 vastly less extent of country, with vastly less of every- 
 thing we deem desirable among men. We look upon the 
 change as exceedingly advantageous to us and to our 
 posterity, and we fix upon something that happened 
 away back, as in some way or other being connected with 
 this rise of prosperity. 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 degree of prosperity 
 which we now enjoy has come to us. We hold this 
 annual celebration to remind ourselves of all the good 
 done in this process of time, of how it was done and who 
 
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 109 
 
 did it, and how we are historically connected 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 celebrations. But after we have 
 done all this we have not yet reached the world. There 
 is somethinof 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 them- 
 selves, or whose ancestors 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 themselves back into that glorious epoch 
 and make themselves feel that they are part of us ; and 
 when they look through that old Declaration of Independ- 
 ence, they find that those 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 principle in them, and 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 declara- 
 tion, and so they are. That is the electric cord in that decla- 
 ration that links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving 
 men together, that will link those patriotic hearts as long 
 
no EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 as the love of freedom exists in the minds of men through- 
 out the world. 
 
 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, " As your Father in Heaven is perfect, be ye 
 also perfect." The Savior, 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 stand- 
 ard, 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 can- 
 not give freedom to every creature, let us do nothing 
 that will impose slavery upon any other creature. Let 
 us then turn this government back into the channel in 
 which the framers of the Constitution originally placed it. 
 Let us stand firmly by each other. Let us discard all 
 this quibbling about this man and the other man, this 
 race and that race and the other race, being inferior, 
 and therefore they must be placed in an inferior position — 
 discarding our standing that we have left us. Let us 
 discard all these things, and unite as one people through- 
 out this land, until we shall once more stand up declaring 
 that all men are created equal. 
 
M. C. MEIGS. Ill 
 
 MR. LINCOLN, to those who knew him most inti- 
 mately, was greatest. 
 They saw and noted the gentleness, charity, love, and 
 tenderness of his daily life in all his harassing occupa- 
 tions, while 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. He was as eminent 
 for his patience, as for his patriotism and wisdom. 
 
 /^^ O^VLccy^ 
 
112 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH 
 
 DELIVERED AT SPRINGFIELD, ILLINOIS, JULY I 7, 1858. 
 
 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 cer- 
 tainly, 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 appoint- 
 ments, chargeships, foreign missions, and sprouting out in 
 wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by their 
 greedy hands. And as they have been gazing upon this 
 attractive picture so long, they cannot, in the little dis- 
 traction that has taken place in the part3% bring them- 
 selves to give up the charming hope, but with greedier 
 anxiety they rush about him, sustain him, and give him 
 marches, triumphal entries, and receptions beyond what, 
 even in the days of his highest prosperity, they could have 
 brought about in his favor. 
 
 On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be 
 President. In my poor, lean, lank face, nobody has ever 
 seen that any cabbages were sprouting out. These are 
 disadvantages, all taken together, that the republicans 
 labor under: We have to fight this battle upon principle 
 alone. I am, in a certain sense, made the standard-bearer 
 in behalf of the republicans. So I hope those with whom 
 I am surrounded have principle enough to nerve them- 
 
setres for tifiie task, anici l«23.¥^ laomimg; iira£<JCBr x^r ■:r^^ ^ 
 
 tia-^re said "^^^t. I (iiii> mjcc usudisiistairBJ. uSne D^eoiir^isjii. tKj> 
 zi'z2-i. 'jisL all "i-si "anare csr^^vT.tredL ©^jciaJll ioi all irespedis. 
 T&ieT are ntcc <;Krr - : r ; We: 1 5Ei5?p:>se : res 
 
 kt tbe ric-- -- ■ '- true bsrsaiti x^iir. is. v3*wt& 
 
 '- Btj^imtt Aim I ssk - ^ - ; e£ 
 
 ye-a do EM>t like ItioE^. let Msn ^smi^ If God gtiTe r-r-rnr 
 be: Iliile that Ettk k£ hEna c^:_ . 
 
 it 
 
114 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SFLIECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH 
 
 AT OTTAWA, ILLINOIS, AUGUST 21, 1858. 
 
 I hold that there is no reason in the world why the 
 necrro is not entitled to all the natural rio-hts enumerated 
 in the Declaration of Independence, the right to life, lib- 
 erty, and the pursuit of happiness. I hold, that he is as 
 much entitled to these, as the white man. I agree with 
 Judge Douglas, that he is not my equal in many respects, 
 — certainly not in color — perhaps not in moral or intel- 
 lectual endowment. But in the right to eat the bre?.d, 
 without the leave of any body else, which his own hand 
 earns, he is my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, 
 and the equal of every living man. 
 
THOMAS A. EDISON. 
 
 THE life and character of Abraham Lincoln, and his 
 great services to this country during the war of 
 the rebellion, will stand as a monument long after the 
 granite monuments erected to his memory have crum- 
 bled in the dust. 
 
 Menlo Park, 1880. 
 
ii6 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH 
 
 AT FREEPORT, ILLINOIS, AUGUST 2/, 1 858. 
 
 I have supposed myself, since the organization of the 
 Republican party at Bloomington, in May, 1856, bound 
 as a party man, by the platforms of the party, then, and 
 since. If, in any interrogatories which I shall answer, I 
 go beyond the scope of what is within these platforms, 
 it will be perceived that no one is responsible but myself. 
 
 1st. I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the 
 unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law. 
 
 2d. I do not now, or ever did, stand pledged 
 against the admission of any more slave States into the 
 Union. 
 
 3d. I do not stand pledged against the admission of 
 a new State into the Union, with such a Constitution as 
 the people of that State may see fit to make. 
 
 4th. I do not stand to-day, pledged to the abolition 
 of slavery in the District of Columbia. 
 
 5th. I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of 
 the slave-trade between the different States. 
 
 6th. I am implied, if not expressly, pledged to a 
 belief in the 7nght and duty of Congress to prohibit slav- 
 ery in all the United States Territories., 
 
 7th. I am not generally opposed to honest acquisi- 
 tion of territory; and, in any given case, I would or 
 would not oppose such acquisition, accordingly as I might 
 think such acquisition would, or would not, aggravate the 
 slavery question among ourselves 
 
HUGH MCCULLOCH. 117 
 
 JUST at the moment when the people were rejoicing 
 over the fall of Richmond and the surrender of the 
 Confederate armies, the Chief Magistrate of the Na- 
 tion, the most beloved and most trusted of men, fell by the 
 hand of an assassin. For a moment the nation was struck 
 dumb by the atrocity of the act, and the magnitude of the 
 loss that had been sustained. As the report flashed over 
 the wires that the beloved Chief Magistrate of the Nation, 
 in the midst of rejoicing over our victories and the pros- 
 pect of .returning peace, had been slain, what heart was 
 there throughout this broad land which was not filled 
 with anguish and apprehension ? — what thinking man did 
 not put to himself the questions, Can the Republic 
 stand this unexpected calamity? Can our popular insti- 
 tutions bear this new trial ? The anguish remained and 
 still remains, but the apprehension existed but for a 
 moment. Starcely had the announcement been made that 
 Lincoln had fallen, before it was followed by the report 
 that the Vice-President had taken the oath of President, 
 and that the functions of government were being per- 
 formed as regularly and quietly as though nothing had 
 happened. And what followed ? The body of the beloved 
 President was taken from Washino-ton to Illinois throuj^fh 
 crowded cities, among a grief-stricken and deeply excited 
 people, mourning as no people ever mourned, and moved 
 as no people were ever moved ; and yet there was no 
 popular violence, no outbreak of popular passion ; borne 
 a thousand miles to Its last resting-place, hundreds of 
 thousands doing such honor to the remains as were never 
 
iiS HUGH MCCULLOCH. 
 
 paid to those of king or conqueror, and the public peace 
 notwithstandino- intense indignation was mixed with 
 intense sorrow, was in no instance disturbed. Hereafter 
 there will be no skepticism among us in regard to the 
 wisdom, the excellence and the power of republican insti- 
 tutions. There is no countr}- upon earth that could have 
 passed through the trials to which the United States have 
 been subjected during the four years of civil war with 
 out beine broken into frao-ments. 
 
 The more I saw of Mr. Lincoln the higher became my 
 admiration of his ability and his character. Before I went 
 to Washington, and for a short period after, I doubted both 
 his nerve and his statesmanship ; but a closer obser\'ation 
 relieved me of these doubts, and before his death I had 
 come to the conclusion that he was a man of will, of 
 energ)', of well-balanced mind, and wonderful sagacity. 
 His practice of stor}--telling when the government seemed 
 to be in imminent peril, and the sublimest events were 
 transpiring, surprised, if it did not sometimes disgust, those 
 who did not know him well ; but it indicated on his part 
 no want of a proper appreciation of the terrible responsi- 
 bility which rested upon him as the Chief Magistrate of a 
 great nation engaged in the suppression of a desperate 
 rebellion which threatened its overthrow. Stor}'-telling 
 with him was something more than a habit. He was so 
 accustomed to it in social life and in the practice of his 
 profession, that it became a part of his nature, and so 
 accurate was his recollection, and so great a fund had he 
 at command, that he had always anecdotes and stories to 
 illustrate his arsfuments and deligrht those whose tastes 
 were similar to his own ; but those who judged from this 
 
HUGH M'CULLOCH. 119 
 
 trait that he lacked deep feeling or sound judgment, or a 
 proper sense of the responsibility of his position, had no 
 just appreciation of his character. He possessed all 
 these qualities in an eminent degree. It was true of him, 
 as is true of all really noble and good men, that those who 
 knew him best had the highest admiration of him. He 
 was not a man of genius, but he possessed, in a large 
 degree, what is far more valuable in a public man, 
 excellent common sense. He did net undertake to direct 
 public opinion, but no man understood better the leadings 
 of the popular will or the beatings of the popular heart. 
 He did not seem to Fain this knowledg^e from readino- or 
 from observation, for he read very few of our public jour- 
 nals, and was little inclined to call out the opinions of 
 others. He was a representative of the people, and he un- 
 derstood what the people desired rather by a study of him- 
 self than of them. Granting that, although constitution- 
 ally honest himself, he did not put a very high valuation 
 upon honesty in others, and that he sometimes permitted his 
 partiality for his friends to influence his action in a manner 
 that was hardly consistent with an upright administration 
 of his great office, few men have held high position whose 
 conduct would so well bear the severest criticism as 
 Mr. Lincoln's. The people have already passed judg- 
 ment in favor of the nobleness and uprightness of his 
 character and the wisdom of his administration, and the 
 pen of impartial history will confirm the judgment. 
 
 New York, 1882. 
 
 '=^tM.j^ 9?i '^^^/^cA^ 
 
I20 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH 
 
 AT GALESBURG, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 7, 1 858. 
 
 I have all the while maintained, that in so far as it 
 should be insisted that there was an equality between the 
 white and black races that should produce a perfect so- 
 cial and political equality, it was an impossibility. This, 
 you have seen in my printed speeches ; and with it, I 
 have said, that in their right to "life, liberty and the pur- 
 suit of happiness," as proclaimed in that old Declaration, 
 the inferior races are our equals. And these declarations 
 I have constantly made in reference to the abstract 
 moral question, to contemplate and consider when we 
 are legislating about any new countr}^ which is not 
 already cursed with the actual presence of the evil — 
 slavery. I have never manifested any impatience with 
 the necessities that spring from the actual presence of 
 black people among us, and the actual existence of slav- 
 ery among us, where it does already exist ; but I have 
 isisted that, in legislating for new countries, where it does 
 not exist, there is no just rule, other than that of 
 moral and abstract right ! With reference to those 
 new countries, those maxims as to the right of a 
 people to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
 ness," were the just rules to be constantly referred to. 
 There is no misunderstanding this, except by men inter- 
 ested to misunderstand it. I take it that I have to 
 address an intelligent and reading community, who will 
 pursue what I say, weigh it, and then judge whether I 
 
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 121 
 
 advance improper or unsound views, or whether I 
 advance hypocritical, and deceptive, and contrary views 
 in different portions of the country. I beHeve myself to 
 be guilty of no such thing as the latter, though, of course, 
 I cannot claim that I am entirely free from all error in 
 the opinions I advance. 
 
 I have said once before, and I will repeat it now, that 
 Mr. Clay, when he was once answering an objection to 
 the Colonization Society, that it had a tendency to the 
 ultimate emancipation of the slaves, said that " those who 
 would repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate 
 emancipation, must do more than put down the benevo- 
 lent efforts of the Colonization Society — they must go 
 back to the era of our liberty and independence, and 
 muzzle the cannon that thunders" its annual joyous return 
 — they must blot out the moral lights around us — they 
 must penetrate the human soul, and eradicate the light of 
 reason, and the love of liberty," and I do think — I repeat, 
 though I said it on a former occasion, — that Judge 
 Douglas, and whoever, like him, teaches that the negro 
 has no share, humble though it may be, in the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, is going back to the era of our 
 liberty and independence, and so far as in him lies, 
 muzzling the cannon that thunders its annual joyous 
 return ; that he is blowing out the moral lights around us, 
 when he contends that whoever wants slaves has a rieht 
 to hold them : that he is penetrating, so far as lies in his 
 power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason 
 and the love of liberty, when he is in every possible way 
 preparing the public mind, by his vast influence, for 
 making the institution of slavery perpetual and national. 
 
122 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 And now, it only remains for me to say that it is a i| 
 very grave question for the people of this Union to 
 consider — whether, in view of the fact that this slavery 
 question has been the only one that has ever endangered j 
 our Republican institutions — the only one that has ever * 
 threatened 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. The Judge's view has 
 been expressed. I, in my answers to his question, 
 have expressed mine. I think it will become an impor- 
 tant and practical question. Our views are before the 
 public, I am willing and anxious that they should con- 
 sider them fully — that they should turn it about, 
 and consider the importance of the question, and arrive 
 at a just conclusion as to whether it is, or is not, wise 
 in the people of this Union, in the acquisition of new 
 territory, to consider whether it will add to the disturb- 
 ance that is existing amonof us — whether it will add to 
 the one only danger that has ever threatened the perpe- 
 tuity of the Union, or of our own liberties. 
 
 I think it is extremely Important that they shall , 
 decide, and rightly decide, that question before entering \ 
 upon that policy. 
 
JV. B. AFFLECK. 123 
 
 I LOVE Abraham Lincoln so ardently, that I scarcely 
 dare write my opinion of him. His obscure parent- 
 age, his humble birth, his lack of childhood's joys, his 
 exalted attainments, his peculiar talents, his natural gifts, 
 his sympathy for the oppressed, his patriotism for his 
 country, his loyalty to truth, his pure life, and his having 
 had all these excellencies crowned with a martyr's death, 
 renders him beyond doubt, one of the most illustrious 
 men that ever labored to make goodness triumphant, and 
 brotherly charity universal. 
 
 ./i ^-M^^ 
 
 7 
 
 Springfield, 1881. 
 
124 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH, 
 
 AT QUINCY, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 1 3, 1 858. 
 
 I was aware, when it was first agreed that Judge 
 Douglas and I were to have these seven joint discussions, 
 that they were the successive acts of a drama — perhaps I 
 should say, to be enacted not mearly in the face of audi- 
 ences like this, but in the face of the nation, and to some 
 extent, by my relation to him, and not from anything in 
 myself, in the face of the world — and I am anxious that 
 they should be conducted with dignity and in good 
 temper, which would be befitting the vast audiences 
 before which it was conducted. 
 
 I was not entirely sure that I should be able to 
 hold my own with him, but I at least had the purpose 
 made to do as well as I could upon him ; and now I say 
 that I will not be the first to cry " hold." I think it orig- 
 inated with the Judge, and when he quits, I probably 
 will. But I shall not ask any favors at all. He asks me, 
 or he asks the audiences, if I wish to push this matter to 
 the point of personal difficulty? I tell him. No. He 
 did not make a mistake, in one of his early speeches, 
 when he called me an amiable man, though perhaps he did 
 when he called me an "intelligent" man. It really hurts 
 me very much to suppose that I have wronged anybody 
 on earth. I again tell him No ! I very much prefer, when 
 this canvass shall be over, however it may result, that we 
 at least part without any bitter recollections of personal 
 difficulties. 
 
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 125 
 
 We have in this nation this element of domestic 
 slavery. It is a matter of absolute certainty that it is a 
 disturbing element. 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 necessarily springs from 
 difference 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 discuss- 
 ing the different system 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 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 ex- 
 istence of the whole nation. Because we think It wrong 
 we propose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a 
 wrong. 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 maybe some promise 
 of an end to It. We have a due regard to the actual 
 presence of it among us and the difficulties of getting rid 
 of It in any satisfactory way, and all the constitutional 
 obligations thrown about it. I suppose that in reference 
 both to its actual existence in the nation, and to our con- 
 stitutional obligations, we have no right at all to disturb 
 it in the States where It exists, and we profess that we 
 have no more inclination to disturb it than we have the 
 right to do it. We go farther than that ; we don't pro- 
 
126 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 pose to disturb it where, in one instance, we think the 
 Constitution would permit us. We think the constitution 
 would permit us to disturb it in the District of Columbia. 
 Still, we do not propose to do that, unless it should be in 
 terms which I don't suppose the nations is very likely soon 
 to agree to — the terms of making the emancipation gradual 
 and compensating the unwilling owners. Where we 
 suppose we have the constitutional right, we restrain our- 
 selves in reference to the actual existence of the institu- 
 tion and the difficulties thrown about it. We also oppose 
 it as an evil so far as it seeks to spread itself. We in- 
 sist on the policy that shall restrict it to its present limits. 
 We don't suppose that in doing this we violate anything 
 due to the actual presence of the institution, or anything 
 due to the constitutional guaranties thrown around it. 
 
IF. MERRITT. xzi 
 
 THERE is not, to my mind, outside of Divine Writ, 
 so convincing an evidence of the immortality of the 
 soul, as is furnished by the growth and development of 
 the mind and character of this greatest of American Pres- 
 idents to meet the exirencies of the direction and control 
 of a great revolution, on the successful issue of which 
 depended the happiness of one-fifth of the world. From 
 a poor country boy, uneducated and untrained, we find 
 him advancing through the grades of a commonplace 
 law practice, to the government of a great nation in one 
 of the most perplexing political epochs that history 
 records, controlling and directing events to a successful 
 issue — to the most successful issue possible, as retrospec- 
 tion after a lapse of years proves. History furnishes 
 scarcely a parallel to the character of this greatest of 
 reformers. The love of power has produced wise 
 despots, who have endured a life of earnest labor, full of 
 privations, for the sake of innovation and improvement ; 
 Icabots have lived miserable lives, or suffered infamous 
 deaths for an idea involving improvement, but the 
 motive in both cases is rather personal than general. 
 The rule with mankind as practical in politics or religion, 
 is conservation. In the face of opposition and struggle, 
 we shrink from responsibilities, and content ourselves 
 with contracting the sphere of intended reforms, to our 
 immediate surroundings. 
 
128 IV. MERRITT. 
 
 As his career differed from that of the other heroes of 
 history, in that he Hved and strove for reforms that 
 would benefit mankind, though his own life should be 
 the price, in so far is Abraham Lincoln the greatest of 
 Reformers — the noblest of Patriots — the ablest of men. 
 
 U. S. Army, 1882. 
 
CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. 129 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was the genius of common 
 L sense. In his daily Hfe he was a representative of 
 the American people, and probably the best leader we 
 could have had in the crisis of our national life. He 
 was a great leader, because to his common sense was 
 added the ^ift of imamnation. 
 
 Hartford, 1880. 
 
I30 SPEECH AT ALTON. 
 
 SPEECH AT ALTON, ILLINOIS, OCTOBER 
 
 i5> 1858. 
 
 On this subject of treating slavery as a wrong, and 
 limiting its spread, let me say a word. Has anything 
 ever threatened the existence of this Union save and ex- 
 cept this very institution of slavery ? What is it that we 
 hold most dear among us ? Our own liberty and pros- 
 perity. What has ever threatened our liberty and 
 prosperity, save and except this institution of slavery ? 
 If this is true, how do you propose to improve the con- 
 dition of things by enlarging slavery? — by spreading it 
 out. and making it bigger? You may have a wen or 
 cancer upon your person, and not be able to cut it out 
 lest you bleed to death : but surely, it is no way to cure 
 it, to ingraft it and spread it over your whole body — that 
 is no proper way of treating what you regard a wrong. 
 You see, this peaceful way of dealing with it as a wrong 
 — restricting the spread of it, and not allowing it to go 
 into new countries where it has not already existed — 
 that is the peaceful way, the old-fashioned way, the 
 way in which the fathers themselves set us the example. 
 
 " Is slavery wrong?" 
 
 That is the real issue. That is the issue that will 
 continue in this country, when these poor tongues of 
 Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the 
 eternal struggle between these two principles — right and 
 wrong — throughout the world. They are two principles 
 
SPEECH AT ALTON. 131 
 
 that have stood face to face from the beginning of time ; 
 and will ever continue to struorcrle. The one is the com- 
 mon right of humanity, and the other, the divine right of 
 kings. It is the same principle in whatever shape it 
 develops itself. It is the same spirit that says, "You 
 work, and toil, and earn bread, and I'll eat it." No 
 matter in what shapes it comes, whether from the mouth 
 of a king, who seeks to bestride the people of his own 
 nation, and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one 
 race of men as an apology for enslaving another race, 
 it is the same tyrannical principle. 
 
 I do not claim, gentlemen, to be unselfish ; I do not 
 pretend that I would not like to go to the United States 
 Senate ; I make no such hypocritical pretense ; but I do 
 say to you, that in this mighty issue it is nothing to the 
 mass of the people of the nation, whether or not Judge 
 Douglas or myself shall ever be heard of after this night; 
 it may be a trifle to either of us, but in connection with 
 this mighty question, upon which hangs the destinies of 
 the nation, perhaps, it is absolutely nothing. 
 
i-,2 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH 
 
 AT COLUMBUS, OHIO, SEPTExMBER, 1 859. 
 
 Public opinion in this country is everything. In a 
 nation like ours this popular sovereignty and squatter 
 Sovereignty have already wrought a change in the public 
 mind to the extent I have stated. There is no man in 
 this crowd who can contradict it. Now, if you are op- 
 posed to slavery honestly, as much as anybody, I ask you 
 to note that fact, and the like of which is to follow, to be 
 plastered on, layer after layer, until very soon you are 
 prepared to deal with the negro everywhere as with the 
 brute. If public sentiment has not been debauched al- 
 ready to this point, a new turn of the screw in that direc- 
 tion is all that is wanting ; and this is constantly being 
 done by the teachers of this insidious popular sovereignty. 
 You need but one or two turns further until your minds, 
 now ripening under these teachings, will be ready for all 
 these things, and you will receive and support or submit 
 to, the slave trade, revived with all its horrors, a slave 
 code enforced in our territories, and a new Fred Scott 
 decision to bring slavery up into the very heart of the 
 free North. This, I must say, is but carrying out those 
 words prophetically spoken by Mr. Clay, many, many 
 years ago — I believe more than thirty years — when he 
 told his audience that if they would repress all tenden- 
 cies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, they must go 
 
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 133 
 
 back to the era of our independence and muzzle the cannon 
 which thundered its annual joyous return on the Fourth 
 of July ; they must blow out the moral lights around us ; 
 they must penetrate the human soul and eradicate the 
 love of liberty ; but until they did these things, and others 
 eloquently enumerated by him, they could not repress all 
 tendencies to ultimate emancipation. I ask attention to 
 the fact that in a pre-eminent degree these popular sov- 
 ereigns are at this work ; blowing out the moral lights 
 around us ; teaching that the negro is no longer a man, 
 but a brute ; that the Declaration has nothing to do with 
 him ; that he ranks with the crocodile and the reptile ; 
 that man with body and soul, is a matter of dollars and 
 cents. 
 
134 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH 
 
 AT CINCINNATI, OHIO, SEPTEMBER, 1 859. 
 
 It has occurred to me here, to-night, that if I ever 
 do shoot over the Hne, at the people on the other side of 
 the line, into a slave State, and purpose to do so, keeping 
 my skin safe, that I have now about the best chance I 
 shall ever have. I should not wonder that there are 
 some Kentuckians about this audience ; we are close to 
 Kentucky ; and whether that be so or not, we are on ele- 
 vated ground, and by speaking distinctly, I should not 
 wonder if some of the Kentuckians would hear me on the 
 other side of the river. For that reason, I propose to 
 address a portion of what I have to say, to the Kentuck- 
 ians. 
 
 I say, then, in the first place, to the Kentuckians, 
 that I am what they call, as I understand it, a " Black 
 Republican." I think slavery is wrong, morally and 
 politically. I desire that it should be no further spread 
 in these United States, and I should not object, if it 
 should gradually terminate in the whole Union. While 
 I say this for myself, I say to you, Kentuckians, that I 
 understand you differ radically with me upon this propo- 
 sition ; that you believe slavery is a good thing ; that 
 slavery is right ; that it ought to be extended and perpet- 
 uated in this Union. Now, there being this broad differ- 
 
EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 135 
 
 ence between us, I do not pretend, in addressing myself 
 to you, Kentuckians, to attempt proselyting you ; that 
 would be a vain effort. I do not enter upon it. 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 possibly can, as Washington, 
 Jefferson, and Madison treated you. We mean to leave 
 you alone, and in no way to interfere with your institu- 
 tion ; to abide by all and every compromise of the 
 Constitution, and, in a word, coming back to the original 
 proposition, to treat you, so far as degenerated men (if 
 we have degenerated) may, according to the examples of 
 those noble fathers — Washington, Jefferson, and Madi- 
 son. 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 we claim to have, 
 and treat you accordingly. 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. 
 
 I have told you what we mean to do. I want to 
 know, now, when that thing takes place, what you mean 
 to do. I often hear it intimated that you mean to divide 
 the Union whenever a Republican, or anything like it, 
 is elected President of the United States. If that is so, 
 I want to know what you are going to do with your half 
 of it ? Are you going to split the Ohio down through, 
 and push your half off a piece ? Or are you going to 
 keep it right alongside of us outrageous fellows ? Or 
 
isO EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 are you going to build up a wall some way, betweeri your 
 country and ours, by which that movable property of 
 yours can't come over here any more, to the danger of 
 your losing it? Do you think you can better yourselves 
 on that subject, by leaving us here, under no obligation 
 whatever to return those specimens of your movable 
 property that come hither? You have divided the 
 Union, because we would not do right with you, as you 
 think, upon that subject ; when we cease to be under 
 obligations to do anything for you, how much better off 
 do you think you will be ? Will you make war upon us, 
 and kill us all ? Why, gentlemen, I think you are as gal- 
 lant and as brave men as live ; that you can fight as 
 bravely in a good cause, man for man, as any other peo- 
 ple living ; that you have shown yourselves capable of 
 this, upon various occasions ; but, man for man, you are 
 not better than we are, and there are not so many of 
 you as there are of us. You will never make much of a 
 hand at whipping us. If we were fewer in numbers than 
 you, I think that you could whip us ; if we were equal, 
 it would likely be a drawn battle ; but being inferior in 
 numbers, you will make nothing by attempting to master 
 us. 
 
LOT M. MORRILL. 137 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, with George Washington, 
 L\. will stand out in the pages of American history in 
 exalted pre-eminence. Mr. Lincoln was suited to the 
 epoch which rightly anticipated his advent to the Presi- 
 dency ; the quality of the man was the equivalent of the 
 perils of the Chief Magistrate. Throughout his career, 
 he displayed a character of perfect integrity, sincerity, 
 undeviating rectitude and courage, while he exhibited, 
 in rare combination, wisdom, gentleness and conciliation. 
 His " firmness in the right, as God gave him to see," 
 was, to him, faith, courage, patience and boundless endur- 
 ance in the cause of the right — to the American people, 
 nationality restored, liberty and union vindicated, the 
 dark stain of slavery erased, and free institutions pre- 
 served. 
 
 Augusta, 1880. 
 
138 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S SPEECH 
 
 AT JONESBORO, ILL., SEPTEMBER 1 5, 1 858. 
 
 In SO far as Judge Douglas has insisted that all the 
 States have the right to do exactly as they please about 
 all their domestic relations, including that of slavery, I 
 agree entirely with him. I hold myself under constitu- 
 tional obligations to allow the people in all the states, 
 without interference, direct or indirect, to do exactly as 
 they please ; and I deny that I have any inclination to 
 interfere with them, even if there were no such constitu- 
 tional obligation. 
 
 I say, in the way our fathers originally left the Slav- 
 ery question, the institution was in the course of ulti- 
 mate extinction, and the public mind rested in the 
 belief that it zuas in the course of ultimate extinction. 
 I say, when this Government 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, any- 
 where, is that it should be placed back again upon 
 the basis that the fathers of our govern-ment origin- 
 ally placed it upon. I have no doubt that it would 
 become extinct, for all time to come, if we but re- 
 adopted the policy of the fathers by restricting it to the 
 limits it has already covered — restricting it from the new 
 Territories. 
 
ROBERT ALLYN. 139 
 
 IN the Autumn of 1859, ^ "^^^ residing in Cincin- 
 nati, and heard the late Stephen A. Douglas speak 
 twice in that city or vicinity, and Mr, Lincoln speak 
 once, from the steps of the Burnet House, I believe. I 
 was impressed greatly with the contrast between them. 
 Mr. Douoflas was agfq-ressive. confident in himself, and 
 evidently bent on crushing his opponents. Mr. Lincoln 
 seemed at first too modest and undemonstrative. But 
 as he went on and forgot himself, and apparently his 
 party, in his interest in grand principles, he rose in dig- 
 nity, till he seemed more the embodiment of Justice, 
 Freedom and Love of Humanity, than a mere man. He 
 was lost in the grandeur of the cause, and stood un- 
 selfishly for the rights of all men, in all ages. And I 
 have often thought that this idea of him then, gathered 
 by me, best expresses the essence of his character, and 
 inspired disregard of personal interests, and a complete 
 self-surrender of everything to the welfare of all men, 
 especially the humblest. 
 
 Carbondale, 1880. 
 
I40 ADDRESS A 2^ COOPER INSTITUTE. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM MR. LINCOLN'S ADDRESS 
 
 DELIVERED AT COOPER INSTITUTE, FEBRUARY 2/, 1860. 
 
 Let all who believe that "Our fathers, who framed 
 the Government under which we live, understood this 
 question just as well, and even better, than we do now," 
 speak as they spoke, and act as they acted upon it. This 
 is all Republicans ask — all Republicans desire — in relation 
 to slavery. As those fathers marked it, so let it be again 
 marked, as an evil not to be extended, but to be tolerated 
 and protected only because of and so far as its actual 
 presence among us makes that toleration and protection 
 a necessity. Let all the guaranties those fathers gave it 
 be, not grudgingly, but fully and fairly maintained. 
 
 It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great 
 Confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony, one w'th 
 another. Even though much provoked, let us do noth- 
 ing through passion and ill temper. Even though the 
 Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let us 
 calmly consider their demands, and yield to them if, in 
 our deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can. 
 
 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 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 
 
ADDRESS AT COOPER INSTITUTE. 141 
 
 this, then let us stand by our duty, fearlessly and effectively. 
 Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contriv- 
 ances wherewith we are so industriously plied and bela- 
 bored — contrivances such as groping for some middle 
 ground between the right and the 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 ques- 
 tion about which all true men do care — such as Union 
 appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunion- 
 ists reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, 
 but the righteous to repentance — such as invocations to 
 Washington, imploring men to unsay w^hat Washington 
 said, and undo what W^ashington did. Neither let us be 
 slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, 
 nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the 
 Government nor duncreons to ourselves. Let 71s have 
 faith, that right makes might, and in that faith let us, to 
 the end, dai^e to do our ditty as we understand it. 
 
142 ADDRESS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN: 
 
 ADDRESS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 TO THE CITIZENS OF SPRINGFIELD, ON HIS DEPARTURE 
 FOR WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY IITH, l86r. 
 
 My Friends: 
 
 No one, not in my position, can appreciate the sad- 
 ness I feel at this parting: To this people I owe all that 
 I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury ; here my children were born, and here one of them 
 lies buried.. I know not how soon I shall see you again. 
 A duty devolves upon me which is, perhaps, greater 
 than that which has devolved upon any other man since 
 the days of Washington.. He never would have suc- 
 ceeded except by the aid of Divine Providence, upon 
 which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot suc- 
 ceed 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 all pray that I 
 may receive that Divine assistance, without which I can- 
 not succeed, but with which success is certain. Again I 
 bid you an affectionate farewelL 
 
JOSHUA F. SPEED. 143 
 
 IN 1834, I was a citizen of Springfield, Sangamon Co., 
 Illinois. Mr. Lincoln lived in the country, fourteen 
 miles from the town. He was a laborer, and a deputy 
 surveyor, and at the same time a member of the legislature, 
 elected the year previous. In 1835, he was a candidate 
 for re-election.. I had not seen him for the first six 
 months of my residence there, but had heard him spoken 
 of as a man of wonderful ability on the stump. He was 
 a long, gawky, ugly, shapeless man. He had never spok- 
 en, as far as I know of, at the county seat, during his 
 first candidacy. The second time he was a candidate, he 
 had already made,, in the legislature, considerable repu- 
 tation; and on his renomination to the legislature, adver- 
 tised to meet his opponents, and speak in Springfield, on 
 a given day. I believe that that was the first public 
 speech he ever made at the court-house. He was never 
 ashamed, so far as I know, to admit his ignorance uqon 
 any subject,, or of the meaning of any word, no matter 
 how ridiculous it might make him appear. As he was 
 riding into town the evening before the speech, he 
 passed the handsomest house in the village, which had 
 just been built by Geo. Farquer; upon it he had placed 
 a lightning-rod, the only one in the town or county. 
 Some ten or twelve young men were riding with 
 Lincoln. He asked them what that rod was for. They 
 told him it was to keep off the lightning. " How does it 
 do it ?" he asked ; none of them could telL He rode into 
 
144 JOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 town, bought a book on the properties of lightning, and 
 before morning knew all about it. When he was igno- 
 rant on any subject, he addressed himself to the task of 
 being ignorant no longer. On this occasion, a large 
 number of citizens came from a distance to hear him 
 speak. He had very able opponents. I stood near him 
 and heard the speech. I was fresh from Kentucky 
 then, and had hc^ard most of her great orators. It struck 
 me then, as it seems to me now, that I never heard a 
 more effective speaker. All the party weapons of 
 offense and defense seemed to be entirely under his 
 control. The large crowd seemed to be swayed by him 
 as he pleased. He was a Whig, and quite a number of 
 candidates were associated with him on the Whig ticket ; 
 seven, I think, in number; there were seven Democrats 
 opposed to them. The debate was a joint one, and Lin- 
 coln was appointed to close it, which he did as I have 
 heretofore described, in a most masterly style. The 
 people commenced leaving the court-house, when Geo. 
 Farquer, a man of mucli celebrity in the State, rose, and 
 asked the people to hear him. He was not a candidate, 
 but was a man of talents, and of great State notoriety. 
 as a speaker. He commenced his speech by turning 
 to Lincoln and saying, " This young man will have 
 to be taken down ; and I am truly sorry that the 
 task devolves upon me." He then proceeded in a vein 
 of irony, sarcasm, and wit, to ridicule Lincoln in everyway 
 that he could. Lincoln stood, not more than ten feet 
 from him, with folded arms, and an eye flashing fire, and 
 listened attentively to him, without ever interrupting him 
 Lincoln then took the stand for reply. He was pale and 
 
JOSHUA F. SPEED. ,43 
 
 his spirits seemed deeply moved His opponent was 
 one worthy of his steel Pie answered him fully and 
 completely. The conclusion of his speech I remember 
 even now, so deep an impression did it make on me then. 
 He said, " The gentleman commenced his speech by 
 saying that this young man would have to be taken down, 
 alluding to me ; I am not so young in years as I am in 
 the tricks and trades of a politician ; but live long, or die 
 young, I would rather die now, than, like the gentleman, 
 change my politics, and simultaneous with the change re- 
 ceive an office worth three thousand dollars per year, 
 and then have to erect a lightning-rod over my house, to 
 protect a guilty conscience from an offended God" He 
 used the lightning-rod against Farquer as he did every- 
 thing in after life. 
 
 In 1837, after his return from the legislature, Mr. Lin- 
 coln obtained a license to practice law. He lived four- 
 teen miles in the country-, and had ridden into town on a 
 borrowed horse, with no earthly goods but a pair of saddle- 
 bags, two or three law books, and some clothincr which he 
 had in the saddle-bags. He took an office, and engaged 
 from the only cabinet-maker then in the village, a single 
 bedstead He came into my store (\ was a merchant 
 then), set his saddle-bags on the counter and asked me 
 " what the furniture for a single bedstead would cost" I 
 took slate and pencil and made calculation, and found the 
 sum for furniture complete would amount to seventeen 
 dollars in all Said he, " It is probably cheap enough : but 
 I want to say that, cheap as it is, I have not the money 
 to pay. But if you will credit me until Christmas, and my 
 experiment here as a la^^yer is a success, I will pav vou then 
 
146 JOSHUA F. SPEED, 
 
 If I fail in that I will probably never be able to pay you at 
 all." The tone of his voice was so melancholy that I felt 
 for him. I looked up at him, and I thought then, as I 
 think now, that I never saw so gloomy and melancholy a 
 face. I said to him, " The contraction of so small a 
 debt seems to affect you so deeply, I think I can suggest 
 a plan by which you will be able to attain your end, 
 without incurring any debt. I have a very large room, 
 and a very large double-bed in it ; which you are per- 
 fectly welcome to share with me if you choose." 
 "Where is your room?" asked he. " Up stairs," said I, 
 pointing to the stairs leading from the store to my room. 
 Without saying a word, he took his saddle-bags on his 
 arm, went up stairs, set them down on the floor, came 
 down again, and with a face beaming with pleasure and 
 smiles, exclaimed: "Well, Speed, I'm moved." Mr. 
 Lincoln was then twenty-seven years old, almost without 
 friends, and with no property except the saddle-bags 
 with the clothes mentioned, within. Now, for me to 
 have lived to see such a man rise from point to point, and 
 from place to place, filling all the places to which he was 
 called with honor and distinction, until he reached the 
 presidency, filling the presidential chair in the most trying 
 time that any ruler ever had, seems to me more like 
 fiction than fact. None but a genius like his could have 
 accomplished so much ; and none but a government like 
 ours could produce such a man. It gave the young 
 eagle scope for his wings ; he tried it, and soared to the 
 top ! 
 
 In 1839 Mr. Lincoln, being then alawyer in full prac- 
 tice, attended all the courts adjacent to Springfield. He 
 
yOSHUA F. SPEED. 
 
 was then attending court at Christiansburg, about thirty 
 miles distant. I was there when the court broke up • quite 
 a number of lawyers were coming from court to Spring- 
 field. We were riding along a country road, two and 
 two together, some distance apart, Lincoln and Jno J 
 Hardin being behind (Hardin ^vas afterward made 
 colonel and was killed at Buena Vista). We were pass 
 ing through a thicket of wild plum and crab-apple trees 
 where we stopped to water our horses. After waiting 
 some time Hardin came up and we asked him where Lin- 
 coin was. " Oh," said he, " when I saw him last " (there had 
 been a severe wind storm) <'he had caught two little birds 
 in his hand, which the wind had blown from their nest 
 and he was hunting for the nest." Hardin left him be- 
 fore he found it. He finally found the nest, and placed 
 the birds, to use his own words, " in the home provided 
 for them by their mother." When he came up with the 
 party they laughed at him ; said he, earnestly • " I could 
 not have slept to-night if I had not given those two little 
 birds to their mother." 
 
 This was the flower that bloomed so beautifully in 
 his nature, on his native prairies. He never lost the 
 nobihty of his nature, nor the kindness of his heart, by 
 being removed to a higher sphere of action. On the 
 contrary, both were increased. The enlarged sphere of 
 his action developed the natural promptings of his heart 
 
 A 
 
 ^ (r^-A^<-^ JU^Oxj-^l^ 
 
 Louisville, 1882. 
 
148 LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE, 
 
 LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 Springfield, III., May 23, i860. 
 
 "Hon. Geo. Ashmun, 
 
 - President of the Republican National Convention. 
 u Sir— I accept the nomination tendered me by the 
 Convention over which you presided, and of which I am 
 formally apprised in the letter of yourself and others, 
 acting as a committee of the Convention foi that pur- 
 pose. . ... 
 
 "The declaration of principles and sentiments which 
 
 accompanies your letter meets my approval; and it 
 shall be my care not to violate nor disregard it in any 
 
 " Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and 
 with due regard to the views and feelings of all who \ 
 were represented in the Convention ; to the rights of all 
 States and Territories, and the people of the nation ; to 
 the inviolability of the Constitution, and to the per- 
 petual union, harmony and prosperity of all, I am most 
 happy to co-operate for the practical success of the prin- 
 ciples declared by the Convention. 
 
 " Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, 
 
 ^^/f^^TT^C^-^ C^CyHCiTU^ 
 
E. O. HAVEN. 149 
 
 IN times of great trouble, men and nations, unless 
 doomed to perish, recognize and call upon God. So 
 did this nation in the terrible struggle produced by slav- 
 ery. It now seems that any man, however highly 
 endowed, much unlike Abraham Lincoln, could not have 
 so well filled the demand as President. Certainly, he did 
 meet the demand, and well. To God be all the glory ! 
 
 Syracuse, 1880. 
 
I50 SPEECH AT TOLEDO, OHIO, 
 
 SPEECH AT TOLEDO, OHIO. 
 
 I am leaving you on an errand of national importance, 
 attended, as you are aware, with considerable difficulties. 
 Let us believe, as some poet has expressed it, " Behind 
 the cloud the sun is shining still." I bid you an affec- 
 tionate farewell. 
 
CHARLES LAN MAN, 151 
 
 I FULLY concur with all that has ever been uttered — 
 calculated to show that Abraham Lincoln was a pure 
 and honest man, and possessor of very superior abilities. 
 Among those to whom I applied for biographical 
 facts, while preparing the first edition of my Dictionary 
 of Congress, was Mr. Lincoln ; and his reply was so 
 characteristic of the man, that I send the following : 
 "Born in Hardin County, Kentucky, February 12, 1809 I 
 received a limited education ; adopted the profession of 
 law ; was captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk war ; 
 was post-master of a small village ; four times elected to 
 the Illinois Legislature, and a Representative in Con- 
 gress from 1847 to 1849." The several letters which he 
 wrote to me, and two or three very pleasant interviews 
 that I had with him, can never be forgotten ; but what I 
 cherish with peculiar pleasure, is the fact that he once 
 suggested my appointment as Librarian of Congress ; 
 and when, through a distinguished friend, I suggested 
 that Mr. A. R. Spofford was an applicant for the place, 
 and better fitted for it than myself, the manner in which 
 he commented on my suggestion was exceedingly 
 gratifying. 
 
 Washington, 1882. 
 
152 SPEECH DELIVERED AT INDIANAPOLIS. 
 
 SPEECH DELIVERED AT INDIANAPOLIS, 
 
 INDIANA. 
 
 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. I 
 desire they should be constitutionally performed. I, as 
 already intimated, am but an accidental instrument, tem- 
 porary, and to serve but for a limited time, and I appeal 
 to you again to constantly bear in mind that with you, 
 and not with politicians, not with Presidents, not with 
 office-seekers, but with you, is the question, Shall the 
 Union and shall the liberties of this country be pre- 
 served to the latest generations ? 
 
HUFUS BLANCHARD. 153 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN AND THE CONVEN- 
 TION OF i860. 
 
 NATIONS, like individuals, have turning-points in 
 their lives. The United States has passed 
 through one of them — her first crisis since she be- 
 
 o 
 
 came a nation by the adoption of a constitution in 
 1789. No small amount of eloquent advocacy, as well 
 as charitable compromise, were required to unite -he 
 different States together in one common bond in that 
 early day, even though the glories of her Revolution were 
 fresh in the minds of all. The only cause of this re- 
 luctance on the part of some of the States to enter into 
 this compact grew out of a fear, that slavery might not 
 be sustained after the national Union of the States had 
 been consummated. And it is not improbable that some 
 mental reservation existed as to the binding force of the 
 constitution, on the part of some of the States at the 
 time of signing it. When this union of all the States 
 under one bond was accomplished we became, in the eyes 
 of the world, a nation ; and our patriotic pride and 
 fidelity to a common interest seemed to give an assurance 
 of perpetual harmony. This kindred feeling was not 
 disturbed till slavery had assumed rights, which were con- 
 
154 RUFUS BLANCHARD. 
 
 sidered hostile to the honor of the North, and dangerous 
 to the best interests of the nation. At this eventful 
 epoch, when everybody was intent on his calling, loath 
 to turn aside from his daily routine, the great issue was 
 forced upon the nation in no equivocal form at the con- 
 vention of i860. For the first time in the history of 
 presidential conventions, this issue completely trans- 
 cended all others ; that of 1856 having been somewhat 
 vacillating. A suspense now hung over the whole 
 country. Prophets harangued and everybody partook 
 of the creneral excitement. When the convention met it 
 was observable through a conviction that seemed to fill 
 the very air, that a new order of things was at hand ; that 
 new men and new measures would soon be brought to 
 the front by an irresistible influence that was gathering 
 force like the whirlwind. And while (as is always the 
 case at such popular councils), noisy and thoughtless 
 demonstrations, like the froth that floats on deep waters, 
 were uppermost at times, yet the profound convictions of 
 political economists transcended them, whenever the 
 true issue came up for debate. It was the substance, 
 not the shadow, that this element of candor demanded ; 
 it asked no favors through a reciprocity of interest, but 
 challenged men to support principles according to their 
 merits. Political prestige weighed nothing. In vain, it 
 had oft been tried to bridge over the chasm ; heroic 
 treatment was demanded, and who should be the hero to 
 administer it, who could buffet the storm of indignation 
 ready to burst upon the head of him who accepted the 
 nomination of the anti-slavery party ? Who could step 
 into this arena impervious to the corruption of partisans ? 
 
RUFUS BLANCHARD. 
 
 ^SS 
 
 Who could become the political gladiator, in hand-to- 
 hand conflict with the disciples of Calhoun, and the 
 neophytes of the oligarchy of which he was father ? 
 Who could become the animated target at whose feet the 
 shafts of malice should fall harmless ? Who could be 
 compromising without a letting down of principles? 
 Who had iirnmess without arrogance, eloquence without 
 pretension, charity without cupidity ? Who had the virtues 
 of the statesman without the vices of the partisan ? He 
 who had seen every phase of American life, and shared 
 its wants, and felt its anxieties, and been taught in its 
 school ; and whose spotless record now beckoned to the 
 lovers of justice to follow whither he might lead. 
 
 Ah'ahani Lincoln. He was nominated, elected once, 
 and again. His services wrung from the reluctant lips of 
 his adversaries praise that they dared not refuse. The 
 stickler for " blue blood " stood aghast, before the charm 
 of his words — simple and potent, and fortified by the 
 force of events ; and last of all, the autocrats of the 
 world obsequiously bowed before the bier which held the 
 genius of America — a corpse, around which a halo of 
 glory shone to the uttermost parts of the earth. Other 
 rulers of nations had been assassinated, but none before 
 had won such acknowledgments of that kind of grandeur 
 which died in him to live again. Our country, in her 
 youthful fecundity, stimulated into activity by the vast- 
 ness of her wild domain, through which genius became 
 the handmaiden of creative power, produced a Lincoln. 
 It is not essential that heraldry or even conventionalism 
 should accompany merit, it is a positive principle. All 
 the more lustrous if unshackled with forms. Lincoln 
 
156 RUFUS BLANCHARD. 
 
 was its simple model — the child of our training and 
 own maturity. He became our father, and his tomb is 
 our shrine. 
 
 c^a/^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
 
 Wheaton, 1882. 
 
/. T. TRO WB RIDGE. 
 
 157 
 
 LINCOLN. 
 
 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. 
 
 Arlington, 1880. 
 
iSS SPEECH. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 TO THE MEMBERS OF THE LEGISLATURE OF INDIANA WHO 
 WAITED UPON HIM AT HIS HOTEL. 
 
 " Solomon says there is ' a time to keep silence,' and 
 when men wrangle by the mouth with no certainty that 
 they mea7i the same thing, while using the same word, 
 it perhaps were as well if they would keep silence." 
 
 " The words ' coercion ' and ' invasion' are much used 
 in these days, and often with some temper and hot blood. 
 Let us make sure, if we can, that we do not misunder- 
 stand the meanino; of those who .use them. Let us sfet 
 the exact definitions of these words, not from dictiona- 
 ries, but from the men themselves, who certainly depre- 
 cate the things they would represent by the use of the 
 word. What then, is ' coercion '? What is ' invasion '? 
 Would the marching of an army into South Carolina, 
 without the consent of her people, and with hostile intent 
 towards them, be invasion ? I certainly think it would, 
 and it would be 'coercion' also if South Carolinians 
 were forced to submit. But if the United States should 
 merely hold and retake its own forts and other property, 
 and collect the duties on foreign importations, or even 
 withhold the mails from places where they were habitu- 
 ally violated, would any or all these things be * invasion ' 
 or 'coercion'? Do our professed lovers of the Union, 
 but who spitefully resolve that they will resist coercion 
 
SPEECH. 159 
 
 and invasion, understand that such things as these on the 
 part of the United States would be coercion or invasion 
 of a State ? If so, their idea of means to preserve the 
 object of their affection would seem exceedingly thin and 
 airy. If sick, the little pills of the homoeopathists would 
 be much too large for it to swallow. In their view, the 
 Union, as a family relation, would seem to be no regu- 
 lar marriage, but a sort of ' free love ' arrangement, to be 
 maintained only on ' passional attraction.' By the way, in 
 what consists the special sacredness of a State ? I 
 speak not of the position assigned to a State in the 
 Union by the Constitution ; for that, by the bond, we all 
 recognize. That position, however, a State cannot carry 
 out of the Union with it. I speak of that assumed 
 primary right of a State to rule all which is less than it- 
 self, and ruin all which is larger than itsdf. If a State 
 and a county, in a given case, should be equal in extent 
 of territory, and equal in number of inhabitants — in what, 
 as a matter of principle, is the State better than a 
 county ? Would an exchange of names be an exchange 
 of rights upon principle? On what rightful principle 
 may a State, being not more than one-fiftieth part of the 
 nation in soil and population, break up the nation, and 
 then coerce a proportionally larger subdivision of itself, 
 in the most arbitrary way ? What mysterious right to 
 play tyrant is conferred on a district of country, with its 
 people, by merely calling it a State ? I am not asserting 
 anything ; I am merely asking questions for you to con- 
 sider." 
 
t6o speech at CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
 
 SPEECH AT CINCINNATI, OHIO. 
 
 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 Ken- 
 tucklans. We mean to treat you as near as we possibly 
 can, as Washington, Jefferson, and Madison treated you. 
 We mean to leave you alone, and in no way to interfere 
 with your institution, and, in a word, coming back to the 
 original proposition, to treat you, so far as degenerated 
 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 ; that there is no difference between us other 
 than the difference of circumstances. We mean to rec- 
 ognize and bear in mind always that you have as good 
 hearts in your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to 
 have, and treat you accordingly. 
 
 Fellow-citizens of Kentucky ! friends ! brethren, may 
 I call you in my new position ? I see no occasion, and feel 
 no inclination to retract a word of this. If it shall not 
 be made good, be assured the fault shall not be mine. 
 
a B. FROTHINGHAM. 
 
 i6z 
 
 TOO much cannot be done to preserve the memory 
 and deepen the moral impression of a man like 
 Mr. Lincoln. So humble, simple, disinterested, imper- 
 sonal, the peer of Washington. Even as idealized, the 
 superior of any other statesman the country has pro- 
 duced. 
 
 Boston, 1882. 
 11 
 
1 62 TO THE OHIO SENATE, 
 
 TO THE OHIO STATE. 
 
 It is true, as has been said by the President of the 
 Senate, that very great responsibility rests upon me in 
 the position to which 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, then, and look to the 
 American people, and to that God who has never forsaken 
 them. 
 
/. ^. FORNEY, 
 
 i6 
 
 T AM sure, as millions have said, that take him for all 
 ■i- in all, we never shall look upon his like ao-ain. 
 
 Philadelphia. 1880. 
 
1 64 SPEECH AT STEUBENVILLE, OHIO, 
 
 SPEECH AT STEUBENVILLE, OHIO. 
 
 I fear that the great confidence placed in my ability 
 is unfounded. Indeed, I am sure it is. Encompassed 
 by vast difficulties as I am, nothing shall be wanting on 
 my part, if sustained by the American people and God. 
 I believe the devotion to the Constitution is equally great 
 on both sides of the river. It is only the different under- 
 standing of that instrument that causes difficulty. The 
 only dispute on both sides is " What are their rights ?" 
 If the majority should not rule, who should be the 
 judge ? Where is such a judge to be found ? We should 
 all be bound by the majority of the American people. If 
 not, then the minority must control. Would that be 
 right ? Would it be just or generous ? Assuredly not. I 
 reiterate that the majority should rule. If I adopt a 
 wrong policy, the opportunity for condemnation will 
 occur in four years' time. Then I can be turned out and 
 a better man with better views put in my place. 
 
ROBERT C. WINTHROP, 165 
 
 HIS early term in Congress was while I was Speaker 
 of the House of Representatives. Thirty-four 
 years have elapsed since that Congress assembled, but I 
 recall vividly the impressions I then formed, both as to 
 his ability and his amiability. We were old Whigs to- 
 gether, and agreed entirely on all questions of public 
 interest. I could not always concur in the policy of the 
 party which made him President, but I never lost my 
 personal regard for him. For shrewdness, sagacity and 
 keen, practical sense, he has had no superior in our day 
 and generation. His patience, perseverance, imper- 
 turbable good-nature and devoted patriotism, during the 
 trying times of the civil war, were of inestimable value 
 to the Union cause. Meantime, the forbearing and con- 
 ciliatory spirit, which he manifested so signally in the last 
 months of his presidency, rendered his death — quite 
 apart from the abhorrent and atrocious manner in which 
 it occurred — an inexpressible shock, even to those who 
 had differed from his earlier views. His life, even at the 
 moment it was taken away, as I said publicly at the time, 
 was the most important and precious life in our whole 
 land. I heartily wish success to the memorials of a ca- 
 reer associated so prominently with the greatest event of 
 our age, and which must ever have so exalted a place in 
 American history. 
 
 Boston, 1881. 
 
i65 SPEECH AT PITTSBURGH. 
 
 SPEECH AT PITTSBURGH. 
 
 The condition of the country, fellow-citizens, is an 
 extraordinary one and fills the mind of every patriot with 
 anxiety and solicitude. My attention is to give this sub- 
 ject all the consideration which I possibly can before I 
 speak fully and definitely in regard to it, so that, when I 
 do speak, I may be as nearly right as possible, and when 
 I do speak, fellow-citizens, I hope to say nothing in oppo- 
 sition to the spirit of the constitution, contrary to the 
 integrity of the Union, or which Vv^ill in any way prove 
 inimical to the liberties of the people or to the peace of 
 the whole country. And, furthermore, when the time 
 arrives for me to speak on this great subject, I hope to 
 say nothing which will disappoint the reasonable expecta- 
 tions of any man, or disappoint the people generally 
 throughout the country, especially if their expectations 
 have been based upon anything which I may have here- 
 tofore said. 
 
WILLIAM F. WARREN. 167 
 
 " '' I ^HEY who believe and clothe not their faith with injustice, 
 -A- they shall enjoy security, and they are rightly directed. 
 And this is our argument wherewith we furnished Abraham that he 
 might make use of it against his people." — The Koran, Stira VI. 
 
 Boston University, 1880. 
 
i68 SPEECH AT CLEVELAND, OHIO. 
 
 SPEECH AT CLEVELAND, OHIO. 
 
 It is with you, the people, to advance the great 
 cause of the Union and the Constituti6n, and not with 
 any one man. It rests with you, alone. This fact is 
 strongly impressed on my mind at present. In a com- 
 munity like this, whose appearance testifies to their intel- 
 ligence, I am convinced that the cause of liberty and the 
 Union can never be in danger. 
 
H. W. BELLOWS. 169 
 
 FOR singleness and simplicity of purpose, vigor of 
 intellect, and sweetness of nature ; for a humor 
 matched with a pathos, that won the popular sympathy 
 and was most rare and wise ; for a homely, hearty 
 Ameruamsm, that represented our new world and young 
 nation ; for a profound and passionate love of his 
 country ; for undeviating rectitude and an unworldliness 
 which was not want of ability to lead other men, or 
 any lack of skill to make his own way — Lincoln was 
 the ideal of a President, when the nation most wanted 
 the right man in the right place. 
 
 Jfu^0:/d£/^a 
 
 Brooklyn, 1880. 
 
SPEECH AT BUFFALO, N. Y. 
 
 SPEECH AT BUFFALO, N. Y. 
 
 I AM sure I bring a heart true to the work. For the 
 ability to perform it, I must trust in that Supreme Being 
 who has never forsaken this favored land, through the 
 instrumentality of this great and intelligent people. 
 Without that assistance, I shall surely fail ; with it, I 
 cannot fail. When we speak of threatened difficulties 
 to the country, it is natural that it should be expected 
 that something should be said by myself, with regard to 
 particular measures. Upon more mature reflections, 
 however — and others will agree with me — that when it is 
 considered that these difficulties are without precedent, 
 and never have been acted upon by any individual, sit- 
 uated as I am, it is most proper I should wait and see the 
 developments, and get all the light possible, so that when 
 I do speak authoritatively, I may be as near right as pos- 
 sible. 
 
a F. BURN AM. 171 
 
 PRIOR to his elevation to the Presidency of' the 
 United States I had never met Mr. Lincoln, 
 ahhough I was acquainted with the splendid reputation 
 he had achieved in Illinois as a lawyer and statesman. 
 His venerable father-in-law, Robert S. Todd, of Lex- 
 ington, was one of my earliest friends, and his more 
 distinguished relative, Hon. Daniel Brady, of this town, 
 was my first lav/ preceptor. From these gentlemen I 
 had learned to admire his great character, and was not 
 surprised, when, in i860, the nomination for the chief 
 magistracy of the republic was given him by the conven- 
 tion at Chicago over rivals so illustrious as Chase and 
 Seward. 
 
 After his election, I met Mr. Lincoln often in Wash- 
 ington, and it will be always one of the pleasant memo- 
 ries of my life that I had this privilege and shared 
 somewhat his resfard and confidence. Great as were 
 the men who constituted his cabinet — and in no admin- 
 istration were ever found three greater men than Chase, 
 Seward and Stanton — I always thought, and still think, 
 he was greater than any of them. Calm, courageous, 
 generous, just ; he was the impersonation of patriotism, 
 and his labors to restore the Union by suppressing the 
 rebel Confederacy, and by striking off the fetters from 
 four million slaves, followed by his untimely death by the 
 hand of an assassin, gave to him of all the men of this 
 century the first place in the eyes of all mankind. 
 
172 
 
 C. F. BURN AM. 
 
 Nothing which can be done to perpetuate his fame, to 
 keep him ever before the coming generations of his 
 countrymen, should be omitted. 
 
 Richmond, 1882. 
 
JOSEPH P. BRADLEY. 173 
 
 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. 
 
 Washington, 1880. 
 
174 SPEECH AT SYRACUSE, N. Y. 
 
 SPEECH AT SYRACUSE, N. Y. 
 
 I see you have erected a very fine and handsome 
 platform here, for me, and I presume you expect me to 
 speak from it. If I should go upon it, you would imag- 
 ine that I was about to deliver you a much longer speech 
 than I am. I wish you to understand that I mean no 
 discourtesy to you by thus dealing. I intend discourtesy 
 to no one. But I wish you to understand that, though 
 I am unwilling to go upon this platform, you are not at 
 liberty to draw any inference concerning any other plat- 
 form with which my name has been, or is, connected. I 
 wish you long life and prosperity, individually, and pray 
 that with the perpetuity of those institutions under 
 which we have all so long lived and prospered, our hap- 
 piness may be secured, our future made brilliant, and the 
 glorious destiny of our country established forever. 
 
A. E. BURN SIDE. 175 
 
 '' 1 "HE greatest man of this age. 
 
 Providence, 1881. 
 
176 SPEECH AT UTICA, N. Y. 
 
 SPEECH AT UTICA, N. Y. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen — I have no speech to make 
 to you, and no time to speak it I appear before you 
 that I may see you, and that you may see me ; and I am 
 wilHng to admit, that so far as the ladies are concerned, I 
 have the best of the bargain; though I wish it to be 
 understood that I do not make the same acknowledg- 
 ment concerning the men. 
 
S. WELLS WILLIAMS. 177 
 
 VIT'HEN President Lincoln was killed, I was the 
 V V acting United States Minister at Peking, and re- 
 ported the assassination to His Imperial Highne'^ss, Prince 
 Kung, then at the head of the government, from whom 
 a suitable reply was received on the 8th of July, 1^65. 
 I sent the correspondence to the Secretary of State, with 
 the following remarks : - The limits of a dispatch will 
 hardly allow me more than to add my tribute of admira- 
 tion to the character of Mr. Lincoln. His firm and 
 consistent maintenance of the national cause, his clear 
 understanding of the great questions at issue, and his 
 unwearied efforts, while enforcing the laws, to deprive 
 the conflict of all bitterness, were all so happily blended 
 with a reliance on Divine guidance, as to elevate him 
 to a high rank among successful statesmen. His name 
 IS hereafter identified with the cause of Emancipation, 
 while his patriotism, integrity, and other virtues, and his 
 untimely death, render him not unworthy of mention 
 with William of Orange and Washington." 
 _ This was written seventeen years ago, since which 
 time I have learned more of the inimitable blendino- in 
 his character of mercy and firmness, and estimate liim 
 higher. He was tested in every way throughout the 
 long struggle, and his rare virtues will endure him to 
 the American people the more they study his life. 
 
 Yale College, 1882. 
 
 13 
 
jyS SPEECH. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 FROM THE STEPS OF THE CAPITOL, ALBANY, N. Y. 
 
 I AM notified by your Governor that this reception is 
 given without distinction of party. I accept it the more 
 gladly, because it is so. Almost all men in this country, 
 and in any country where freedom of thought is toler- 
 ated, attach themselves to political parties. It is but 
 ordinary charity to attribute this to the fact that in so 
 attaching himself to the party which his judgment 
 prefers, the citizen believes he thereby promotes the best 
 interests of the whole country ; but when an election is 
 past, it is altogether befitting a free people that, until the 
 next election, they should be as one people. The recep- 
 tion you have extended to me to-day, is not given to me 
 personally. It should not be so, but as the representa- 
 tive, for the time being, of the majority of the nation. 
 If the election had resulted in the selection of either of 
 the other candidates, the same cordiality should have 
 been extended to him, as is extended to me this day, in 
 testimony of the devotion of the whole people to the 
 Constitution and the whole Union, and of their desire to 
 perpetuate our institutions, and to hand them down m 
 their perfection, to succeeding generations. 
 
JOHN BRIGHT. ^^^ 
 
 'T^HE life of President Lincoln is written in im- 
 X perishable characters in the history of the great 
 American Republic. 
 
 London, 1880. 
 
i8o SPEECH IN THE ASSEMBLY HALL. 
 
 SPEECH IN THE ASSEMBLY HALL AT AL- 
 BANY, N. Y. 
 
 I DO not propose to enter into an explanation of any 
 particular line of policy as to our present difficulties, to 
 be adopted by the incoming Administration. I deem it 
 just to you, to myself, and to all, that I should see every- 
 thing, that I should hear everything, that I should have 
 every light that can be brought within my reach, in order 
 that when I do so speak, I shall have enjoyed every 
 opportunity to take correct and true grounds ; and for 
 this reason I don't propose to speak, at this time, of the 
 policy of the Government. But when the time comes, I 
 shall speak, as well as I am able, for the good of the 
 present and future of this country — for the good both of 
 the North and the South of this country — for the 
 good of the one and the other ; and of all sections of 
 the country. In the meantime, if we have patience, if 
 we restrain ourselves, if we allow ourselves not to run off 
 in a passion, I still have confidence that the Almighty, 
 the Maker of the Universe, will, through the instrumen- 
 tality of this great and intelligent people, bring us 
 through this, as he has through all the other difficulties 
 of our country. 
 
G. DE LA MATYR. 
 
 MORE fully than any other man, not excepting 
 Washington, Abraham Lincoln embodied and 
 exhibited our distinctive civilization. " From the people, 
 of the people, and for the people," he inspired and di- 
 rected them through the most trying ordeal that this 
 government has passed, or ever can pass. 
 
 Geologists tell us, the lower stratum of the earth's 
 crust is granite, and that the highest mountains are the 
 upheaval of this granite, so granite is both base and 
 crown. Mr. Lincoln was lifted by the force of his un- 
 rivaled genius from the mass of the people, the im- 
 mutable basis, the granite of our civilization, to an ele- 
 vation of solitary grandeur. Embracing all phases, 
 from the humblest to the highest, his life bears all to a 
 higher altitude where its influence falls in perpetual bene- 
 diction. 
 
 Indianapolis, 1882. 
 
1 82 SPEECH AT POUGHKEEPSIE. 
 
 SPEECH AT POUGHKEEPSIE, N. Y. 
 
 I CANNOT refrain from saying that I am highly grati- 
 fied, as much here indeed, under the circumstances, as I 
 have been anywhere on my route, to witness this noble 
 demonstration — made, not in honor of an individual, but 
 of the man who at this time humbly, but earnestly, repre- 
 sents the majesty of the Nation. This reception, like all 
 others that have been tendered to me, doubtless ema- 
 nates from all the political parties, and not from one 
 alone. As such, I accept it the more gratefully, since it 
 indicates an earnest desire on the part of the whole 
 people, without regard to political differences, to save 
 — not the country, because the country will save itself — 
 but to save the institutions of the country — those insti- 
 tutions under which, in the last three quarters of a cen- 
 tury, we have grown to be a great, an intelligent, and a 
 happy people — the greatest, the most intelligent, and the 
 happiest people in the world. These noble manifesta- 
 tions indicate, with unerring certainty, that the whole 
 people are willing to make common cause for this object ; 
 that if, as it ever must be, some have been successful in 
 the recent election, and some have been beaten — if some 
 are satisfied, and some are dissatisfied — the defeated party 
 are not in favor of sinking the ship, but are desirous of 
 running it through the tempest in safety, and willing, if 
 they think the people have committed an error in their 
 verdict now, to wait in the hope of reversing it, and set- 
 
SPEECH AT POUGHKEEPSIE. 183 
 
 ting it right next time. I do not say that in the recent 
 election the people did the wisest thing that could have 
 been done ; indeed, I do not think they did ; but I do 
 say, that in accepting the great trust committed to me, 
 which I do with a determination to endeavor to prove 
 worthy of it, I must rely upon you, upon the people of 
 the whole country, for support ; and with their sustaining 
 aid, even I, humble as I am, cannot fail to carry the ship 
 of state safely through the storm. 
 
1 84 SPEECH AT FEEKSKILL, A\ V. 
 
 SPEECH AT PEEKSKILL, N. Y. 
 
 I WILL say in a single sentence, in regard to the diffi- 
 culties that lie before me and our beloved country, that if 
 I can only be as generously and unanimously sustained, 
 as the demonstrations I have witnessed indicate I shall 
 be, I shall not fail ; but without your sustaining hands I 
 am sure that neither I, nor any other man, can hope to 
 surmount these difficulties. I trust that in the course I 
 shall pursue, I shall be sustained not only by the party 
 that elected me, but by the patriotic people of the whole 
 country. 
 
JOHN BASCOM. 185 
 
 I LOOK upon A. Lincoln as a remarkable illustra- 
 tion of the important part which a sound social and 
 moral character may play in a political career. While, in 
 a lower sense, he opened up his own way to fortune by 
 his own industry, in a higher sense, it was opened up for 
 him by the moral forces at play about him. The ice-floe 
 parts before the skillful sea-captain. Not by his own force 
 chiefly, Lincoln threaded his narrow strip of open way, 
 till at length he reached, and a great nation with him, 
 the high-seas, by a shrewd intellect, and far more, by an 
 honestly sympathetic heart. He was not a great man 
 in intellect only, he was not a moral hero ; but he pos- 
 sessed in an unusual degree, in an active, mobile form, 
 humane sympathies ; and these saved him and us. Abra- 
 ham Lincoln was one of those few men, at the sight of 
 whom, we trust God and take courage. 
 
 Madison, 1880. 
 
1 86 REPLY TO THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK. 
 
 REPLY TO THE MAYOR OF NEW YORK. 
 
 In my devotion to the Union I hope I am behind no 
 man in the nation. As to my wisdom in conducting 
 affairs so as to tend to the preservation of the Union, I 
 fear too great confidence may have been placed in me. 
 I am sure I brinof a heart devoted to the work. There is 
 nothing that could ever bring me to consent — willingly 
 to consent — to the destruction of this Union, unless it 
 would be that thinof for which the Union itself was made. 
 I understand that the ship is made for carrying and pres- 
 ervation of the cargo ; and so long as the ship is safe 
 with the cargo it shall not be abandoned. This Union 
 shall never be abandoned, unless the possibility of its 
 existence shall cease to exist, without the necessity of 
 throwing passengers and cargo overboard. So long, 
 then, as it is possible that the prosperity and liberties of 
 the people can be preserved within the Union, it shall be 
 my purpose at all times to preserve it. 
 
GEO. W. M INTER. i8- 
 
 MR. LINCOLN was great in goodness, as well as 
 good in greatness. Like the silent potent forces 
 in nature, he was most powerful in the calm. He never 
 shunned storms and tempests, but never courted them. 
 His love of honesty and fair dealing was one of his most 
 prominent characteristics ; he never stooped to trickery. 
 Let the following incident illustrate this trait in his 
 character : 
 
 In the spring term of the Tazewell County Court, in 
 1847, which, at that time, was held in the village of Tre- 
 mont, I was detained as witness an entire week. Lin- 
 coln was employed in several suits, and among them was 
 one of Case vs. Snow Bros. The Snow Bros., as 
 appeared in evidence (who were both minors), had pur- 
 chased from an old Mr. Chase what was then called a 
 "prairie team," consisting of two or three yoke of oxen 
 and prairie plow, giving therefor their joint note for some 
 two hundred dollars, but when pay-day came, refused 
 to pay, pleading the minor act. The note was placed in 
 Lincoln's hands for collection. The suit was called, a 
 jury impaneled. The Snow Bros, did not deny the 
 note, but pleaded, through their counsel, that they were 
 minors, and that Mr. Case knew they were, at the time 
 of the contract and conveyance. All this was admitted 
 by IVIr. Lincoln, with his peculiar phrase, " Yes, gentle- 
 men, I guess that's so." The minor act was read, and its 
 validity admitted, in the same manner. The counsel of 
 the Snow Bros, were permitted, without question, to 
 
1 88 GEO. W. MINIER. 
 
 state all these things to the jury, and to show by the stat- 
 ute that these minors could not be held responsible for 
 their contract. By this time, you may well suppose that 
 I began to be uneasy. " What ! " thought I, " this good 
 old man, who confided in these boys, to be wronged in 
 this way, and even his counsel, Mr. Lincoln, to submit in 
 silence ! " I looked at the court, Judge Treat, but could 
 read nothing in his calm and dignified demeanor. Just 
 then, Mr. Lincoln slowly got up, and in his strange, half 
 erect attitude, and clear, quiet accent began, " Gentlemen 
 of the jury, are you willing to allow these boys to begin 
 life with this shame and disgrace attached to their charac- 
 ter? If you are, / am not. The best judge of human 
 character that ever wrote, has left these immortal words 
 for all of us to ponder : 
 
 " ' Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, 
 Is the immediate jewel of their souls. 
 
 Who steals my purse, steals trash ; 'tis something, nothing : 
 'Twas mine, 'tis his ; and has been slave to thousands. 
 But he that filches from me my good name, 
 Robs me of that which not enriches him, 
 And leaves me poor, indeed.' " 
 
 Then rising to his full height, and looking upon the Snow 
 Bros, with the compassion of a brother, his long right arm 
 extended toward the opposing counsel, he continued : 
 " Gentle^nen of the Jury, these poor, innocent boys would 
 never have attempted this low villainy, had it not been for 
 the advice of these lawyers." Then, for a few minutes, 
 he showed how even the noble science of law may be 
 prostituted ; with a scathing rebuke to those who thus 
 
CEO. W. MINIER. 189 
 
 belittle their profession, and concluded: "And now, 
 gentlemen, you have it in your power to set these boys 
 right before the world." He plead for the young men 
 only ; I think he did not mention his client's name. The 
 jury, without leaving their seats, decided that Snow Bros. 
 must pay that debt ; and they, after hearing Lincoln, 
 were as willing to pay it as the jury were determined 
 they should. I think the entire argument lasted not 
 above five minutes. 
 
 I once heard Mr. Lincoln speak on the Tariff, and 
 he illustrated it in this way ; " I confess that I have not 
 any very decided views on the question. A revenue we 
 must have. In order to keep house, we must have 
 breakfast, dinner and supper ; and this tariff business 
 seems to be necessary to bring them. But yet, there is 
 something obscure about it It reminds me of the fel- 
 low that came into a grocery down here in Menard 
 County, at Salem, where I once lived, and called for a 
 picayune's worth of crackers ; so the clerk laid them out 
 on the counter. After sitting awhile, he said to the clerk, 
 ' I don't want these crackers, take them, and give me a 
 glass of cider.' So the clerk put the crackers back into 
 the box, and handed the fellow the cider. After drinking, 
 he started for the door. * Here, Bill,' called out the 
 clerk, 'pay me for your cider.' 'Why,' said Bill, 'I 
 gave you the crackers for it.' 'Well, then, pay me for 
 the crackers.' ' But I haint had any ; ' responded Bill. 
 ' That's so,' said the clerk. ' Well, clear out ! It seems 
 to me that I've lost a picayune somehow, but I can't 
 make it out exactly.' " So," said Lincoln, after the 
 
19° GEO. W. MINIER. 
 
 laugh had subsided, '' it is with the tariff ; somebody gets 
 the picayune, but I don't exactly understand how." 
 
 I am glad to assist in embalming in the minds of his 
 countrymen, the true history and eminent character of 
 the greatest American President, before they are over- 
 run with the weeds of fable. 
 
 MiNiER, 1882. 
 
JOHJSl B. GOUGII.i 
 
 igi 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, one of the grandest men 
 IjL this country or the world has ever produced, 
 pure in hfe and motive, inflexible in his purpose to do 
 right as he understood it, of undaunted courage in car- 
 rying out the principles he believed to be true, large- 
 hearted, and tender in his sympathy with human suffer- 
 ing- 
 Bold as a lion and gentle as a child — 
 He lived to bless the world. 
 
 He broke no promise, served no private end, 
 He gained no title, and he lost no friend. 
 
 ^,.^^:^^^^ 
 
 Worcester, 1880. 
 
192 SPEECH TO VARIOUS ASSOCIATIONS. 
 
 SPEECH TO VARIOUS REPUBLICAN ASSO- 
 CIATIONS, NEW YORK. 
 
 It was not Intimated to me that I was brought into 
 the room v^here Daniel Webster and Henry Clay had 
 made speeches, and where, in my position, I might be 
 expected to do something like those men, or do some- 
 thing worthy of myself or my audience. I have been 
 occupying a position since the Presidential election, of 
 silence, of avoiding public speaking, of avoiding public 
 writing ; I have been doing so, because I thought upon 
 ful] consideration that was the proper course for me to 
 take. I have not kept silence since the Presidential 
 election from any party wantonness, or from any indiffer- 
 ence to the anxiety that pervades the minds of men about 
 the aspect of the political affairs of this country. I have 
 kept silence for the reason that I supposed it was pecu- 
 liarly proper that I should do so until the time came 
 when, according to the custom of the country, I could 
 speak officially. I alluded to the custom of the Presi- 
 dential-elect, at the time of taking the oath of office ; 
 that is what I meant by the custom of the country. I do 
 suppose that, while the political drama being enacted in 
 this country, at this time, is rapidly shifting its scenes — 
 forbidding an anticipation, with any degree of certainty, 
 to-day, what we shall see to-morrow — it was peculiarly 
 fitting that I should see it all, up to the last minute. 
 
SPEECH TO VARIOUS ASSOCIATIONS 193 
 
 before I should take ground that I might be disposed 
 (by the shifting of the scenes afterwards) also to shift. I 
 have said several times, upon this journey, and I now 
 repeat it to you, that when the time does come I shall 
 then take the ground that I think is right, right for the 
 North, for the South, for the East, for the West, for the 
 whole country. And in doing so, I hope to feel no 
 necessity pressing upon me to say anything in conflict 
 with the Constitution; in conflict with the continued 
 Union of these States, in conflict with the perpetuation 
 of the liberties of this people, or anything in conflict with 
 anything whatever that I have ever given you reason to 
 expect from me. 
 
 13 
 
194 SPEECH AT NEWARK, N. J. 
 
 SPEECH AT NEWARK, NEW JERSEY. 
 
 I AM sure, however, that I have not the ability to 
 do anything unaided of God, and that without his sup- 
 port, and that of this free, happy, prosperous, and intelli- 
 gent people, no man can succeed in doing that the im- 
 portance of which we all comprehend. 
 
C. M. CLAY. 19s 
 
 LINCOLN was the truest friend I ever had and 
 -/ therefore my estimate of his character must be 
 taken "cum o'rano saHs." He was the most conscien- 
 tious man I ever knew, and ranks with Washington in 
 genius, pubhc service, and patriotism. They will go 
 down to posterity in equal love, admiration, and grati- 
 tude. After this I need not say that he was the man of 
 his times : and such is the verdict of his contemporaries. 
 
 White Hall, 1880. 
 
196 SPEECH IN THE SENATE CHAMBER. 
 
 SPEECH IN THE SENATE CHAMBER. 
 
 TRENTON, NEW JERSEY. 
 
 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 seen, 
 " Weem's Life of Washington." I remember all the 
 accounts there given of the battle-fields and struggles 
 for liberties of the country, and none fixed themselves 
 upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at 
 Trenton, New Jersey. 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 others. I recollect thinking then, boy 
 even though I was, that there must have been some- 
 thing more than common that these men struggled for. 
 I am exceedingly anxious that that thing which they 
 struo-ded for ; that somethi^np; even more than National 
 Independence ; that something that held out a great 
 promise to all the people of the world to all time to come 
 — I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Consti- 
 tution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetu- 
 ated in accordance with the original idea for which that 
 struggle was made, and I shall be most 'happy indeed if 
 
spee':h in the senate chamber. 197 
 
 I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the 
 Almighty and of this, his most chosen people, as the 
 chosen instrument — also in the hands of the Almighty — 
 for perpetuating the object of that great struggle. 
 
igS SPEECH AT TRENTON, N. /. 
 
 SPEECH AT TRENTON, NEW JERSEY. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. 
 
 I SHALL endeavor to take the ground I deem most 
 just to the North, the East, the West, the South, and 
 the whole country. I take it, I hope, in good temper, 
 certainly with no malice towards any section. I shall do 
 all that may be in my power to promote a peaceful settle- 
 ment of all our difficulties. 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 a Legislature, 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 voyage, surrounded by perils 
 as it is, for if it should suffer wreck now, there will be 
 no pilot ever needed for another voyage. 
 
SCHUYLER COLFAX. 199 
 
 HIS freedom from passion and bitterness — in his 
 acute sense of justice — in his courageous faith in 
 the right, and his inextinguishable hatred of wrong — in 
 warm and heartfelt sympathy and mercy, in his coolness 
 of judgment, in his unquestioned rectitude of intention — 
 — in a word, in his ability to lift himself for his country's 
 sake above all mere partizanship, in all the marked traits 
 of his character combined, he has had no parallel since 
 Washington, and, while our republic endures he will 
 live with him in the grateful hearts of his grateful 
 countr}'men. 
 
 South Bend, 1880. 
 
200 ADDRESS TO THE MAYOR AND CITIZENS 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE MAYOR AND CITIZENS 
 OF PHILADELPHIA' 
 
 I DEEM it a happy circumstance that this dissatisfied 
 position of our fellow-citizens does not point us to any- 
 thing in which they are being injured, or about to be 
 injured ; for which reason I have felt all the while jus- 
 tified in concluding that the crisis, the panic, the anxiety 
 of the .country at this time, is artificial. If there be 
 those who differ with me upon this subject, they have 
 not pointed out the substantial dif^culty that exists. I 
 do not mean to say that an artificial panic may not do 
 considerable harm ; that it has done such I do not 
 deny. I promise you, in all sincerity, that I bring to 
 the work a sincere heart. Whether I will bring a head 
 equal to that heart will be for future times to deter- 
 mine. It were useless for me to speak of details of 
 plans now ; I shall speak ofificially next Monday week, if 
 ever. If I should not speak then, it were useless for me 
 to do so now. If I do speak then it is useless for me to 
 do so now. When I do speak, I shall take such ground 
 as I deem best calculated to restore peace, harmony, 
 and prosperity to the country, and tend to the 
 perpetuity of the nation and the liberty of these 
 States and these people. Your worthy Mayor has ex- 
 pressed the wish, in which I join with him, that it 
 were convenient for me to remain in your city long 
 enough to consult your merchants and manufacturers ; or, 
 
ADDRESS TO THE MAYOR AND CITIZENS. 201 
 
 as it were, to listen to tliose breathings rising within the 
 consecrated walls wherein the Constitution of the United 
 States, and I will add, the Declaration of Independence, 
 were originally framed and adopted. I assure you and 
 your Mayor that I had hoped, on this occasion, and upon 
 all occasions during my life, that I shall do nothing in- 
 consistent with the teachings of these holy and most 
 sacred walls. I never asked anything that does not 
 breathe from these sacred walls. All my political warfare 
 has been in favor of the teachings that came forth from 
 these sacred walls. May my right hand forget its cun- 
 ning, and my tongue cleave to the roof my mouth, if ever 
 I prove false to those teachings. 
 
202 SPEECH IN INDEPENDENCE HALL. 
 
 SPEECH IN INDEPENDENCE HALL 
 
 AT PHILADELPHIA. 
 
 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. I have 
 pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers 
 and soldiers of the army who achieved that independ- 
 ence. I have often inquired of myself what great prin- 
 ciple or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long 
 together. It was net the mere matter of the separation 
 of the colonies from the mother-land, 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 eave 
 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 on that basis ? If it 
 can, I shall consider myself one of the happiest men in 
 the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved 
 upon that principle it will be truly awful. But if this 
 country cannot be saved without giving up that principle, 
 I was about to say / would rather be assassinated on this 
 spot than surrender it. 
 
ROBERT COLLYER. 203 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S greatness and worth lay 
 L in his simple manhood. So that the excuse we 
 offer for the faults and failings of some great men, 
 " They were only human," was the very crown of his ex- 
 cellence. He was a whole man, human to the core of 
 his heart. 
 
 ^oJiP^ t-cMfJLn 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
:o4 SPEECH BEFORE INDEPENDENCE HALL. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 BEFORE INDEPENDENCE HALL, PHILADELPHIA, FEB., 1 86 1, 
 WHILE HOISTING A NEW FLAG. 
 
 Each additional star added to that flag has given 
 additional prosperity and happiness to this country, until 
 it has advanced to its present condition ; and its welfare 
 in the future, as well as in the past, is in your hands. 
 Cultivating the spirit that animated our fathers, who 
 gave renown and celebrity to this hall ; cherishing that 
 fraternal feeling which has so long characterized us as a 
 nation ; excluding passion, ill-temper, and precipitate 
 action on all occasions, I think we may promise our- 
 selves that additional stars shall from time to time be 
 placed upon that flag, until we shall number, as was 
 anticipated by the great historian, five hundred millions 
 of happy and prosperous people. 
 
ROSCOE CONK LING. 20^ 
 
 IT would be difficult, In many words, and perhaps not 
 more difficult In a few, to state my estimate of the 
 " Life and Services of Abraham Lincoln." It was a hard 
 life, a bus}' life, an American life, and a great life ; and it 
 rendered services to the country which can hardly be 
 over-estimated, and which it has been the fortune of, 
 perhaps, only two other men to equal. 
 
 Utica, 1880. 
 
2o6 SPEECH AT LANCASTER. 
 
 SPEECH AT LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 I APPEAR not to make a speech. I have not time to 
 make a speech at length, and not strength to make them 
 on every occasion ; and worse than all, I have none to 
 make. There is plenty of matter to speak about in these 
 times, but it is well known that the more a man speaks 
 the less he is understood — the more he says one thing, 
 the more his adversaries contend he meant something 
 else. I shall soon have occasion to speak officially, and 
 then I will endeavor to put my thoughts just as plain as 
 I can express myself — true to the Constitution and 
 Union of all the States, and to the perpetual liberty of 
 all the people. 
 
S. J. KIRK WOOD. 
 
 207 
 
 IT is not probable that the memory of Abraham Lin- 
 coln will perish from the earth, so long as "a gov- 
 ernment of the people, by the people, and for the people " 
 shall stand. Nevertheless, I believe that anything which 
 tends to bring the honest, true life of so grand a man 
 nearer to the thoughts and hearts of each generation, is a 
 worthy work. 
 
 Iowa City, 1882. 
 
2oS SPEECH BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE OF PENNSYLVANIA AT HARRIS- 
 BURG, FEBRUARY 2 2, 1 86 1. 
 
 I HAVE already gone through one exceedingly inter- 
 esting scene this morning, in the ceremonies at Philadel- 
 phia. Under the high conduct of gentlemen there, I 
 was for the first time allowed the privilege of standing 
 in old Independence Hall, to have a few words addressed 
 to me there, and opening up to me an opportunity of ex- 
 pressing, with much regret, that I had not more time to 
 express something of my own feelings, excited by the 
 occasion, somewhat to harmonize and give shape to the 
 feelings that had been really the feelings of my whole 
 life. Besides this, our friends there had provided a mag- 
 nificent flag of our country ; they had arranged so that 
 I was criven the honor of arisino; it to the head of its 
 staff. And, when it went up, I v/as pleased that it went 
 to its place by the strength of my own feeble arm, when, 
 according to the 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 beau- 
 tiful ceremony, at least something of an omen of what is 
 to come. How could I help feeling, 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 
 
SPEECH BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE. 209 
 
 not made the arrangements for elevating it to its 
 place ; I had applied but a very small portion of my 
 feeble strength in ralsinor it. In the whole transac- 
 tion, 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 yet be kept flaunting gloriously. It is 
 not with any pleasure that I contemplate the possibility 
 that a necessity may arise in this country for the use of 
 the military arm. While I am exceedingly gratified to 
 see the manifestation, upon your streets, of your mili- 
 tary force here, and exceedingly gratified at your promise 
 here, to use that force upon a proper emergency — while 
 I make these acknowledgments, I desire to repeat, in 
 order to preclude any possible misconstruction, that I do 
 most sincerely hope that we shall have no use for them ; 
 that it will never become their duty to shed blood, and 
 most especially, never to shed fraternal blood. I promise 
 that, so far as I may have wisdom to direct, if so painful 
 a result shall in any wise be brought about, it shall be 
 through no fault of mine. 
 
 14 
 
210 SPEECH TO THE MAYOR. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 to the mayor and common council of washington. 
 
 Mr. Mayor: 
 
 I thank you, and through you the municipal authori- 
 ties of this city who accompany you, for this welcome. 
 And as it is the first time in my life, since the present 
 phase in politics has presented itself in this country, that 
 I have said anything publicly within a region of country 
 where the institution of slavery exists, 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 which I came and the people here, is 
 dependent upon a misunderstanding of one another. I 
 therefore avail myself of this opportunity to assure you, 
 Mr. Mayor, and all the gentlemen present, that I have 
 not now, and never have had, any other than as kindly- 
 feelings towards 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 feel myself con- 
 strained to withhold from my own 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. 
 
 I have reached this city of Washington under cir- 
 
SPEECH TO THE MAYOR. 211 
 
 cumstances considerably differing from those under 
 which any other man has ever reached it. I hope that, 
 if things shall go along as prosperously as I believe we 
 all desire they may, I may have it in my power to remove 
 something of this misunderstanding ; that I may be 
 enabled to convince you, and the people of your section 
 of the country, that we regard you as in all things our 
 equals, and in all things entitled to the same respect and 
 the same treatment that we claim for ourselves ; that we 
 are in no wise disposed, if it were in our power, to 
 oppress you, to deprive you of any of your rights under 
 the Constitution of the United States, or even narrowly 
 to split hairs with you in regard to these rights, but are 
 determined to give you, as far as lies in our hands, all 
 your rights under the Constitution — not grudgingly, but 
 fully and fairly. I hope that, by thus dealing with you, 
 we will become better acquainted, and be better friends. 
 
FROCLAMA TION. 
 
 PROCLAMATION, 
 
 APRIL 15, 1 86 1. 
 
 Now, Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of 
 the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested 
 by the Constitution and the laws, have thought fit to call 
 forth, and hereby do call forth, the militia of the several 
 States of the Union to the aggregate number of 75,000, 
 in order to suppress said combination and to cause the 
 laws to be duly executed. The details for this object 
 will be immediately communicated to the State authori- 
 ties through the War Department. 
 
 I appeal to the loyal citizens to favor, facilitate and 
 aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and 
 the existence of our National Union, and the perpetuity 
 of popular government, and to redress wrongs already 
 long; enough endured. 
 
 I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned 
 to the force hereby called forth, will probably be to re- 
 possess the forts, places and property which have been 
 seized from the Union, and in every event the utmost 
 care will be observed, consistent with the objects afore- 
 said, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or in- 
 terference with property, or any disturbance of peaceful 
 citizens in any part of the country ; and I hereby com- 
 mand the persons composing the combination aforesaid, 
 to disperse and retire peaceably to their respective 
 abodes within twenty days from this date. 
 
WILLIAM WALKER. 213 
 
 MY personal recollection of Mr. Lincoln, and what 
 I have seen of him, in and about Springfield, dates 
 from about the year 1842, and was almost continuous 
 until he left for Washington, in February, 1861 ; and, of 
 course, I can say of, or concerning him, nothing but what 
 might be said by hundreds of others who knew him as 
 well, and much better, than I did. There was one trait 
 In Mr. Lincoln's character that I can never forget ; that 
 was his great kindness and generous sympathy for the 
 young men, who were struggling night and day, to reach a 
 place at the bar, as lawyers. I well remember his coming 
 in the office of Col. Baker, where I studied and read law, 
 almost every afternoon ; and with his cheerful face, and 
 hearty greeting, to myself and other students, " How are 
 you this afternoon, boys ?" seat himself, and take up some 
 text-book, that some of us were reading, and give us a 
 close and rigid examination, laughing heartily at our an- 
 swers, at times ; and always made the hour he spent with 
 us interesting and instructive ; occasionally relating, to 
 the great amusement of all present, an anecdote ; and, 
 after the hour so spent, he could go to a back yard, used 
 by the students, and join them in a game of ball, with as 
 much zest as any of us. But, when his watch told him 
 the hour was out, he would at once quit the game, and 
 bid us good-evening. Many years after, years that the 
 writer had spent in the active practice of law, I met Mr. 
 Lincoln, and was associated with him in about the last 
 case he had any connection with. This, I think, was in 
 
214 WILLIAM WALKER. 
 
 the year 1859, ^^'^^ after his name had become a house- 
 hold word in all the land — after he had won imperishable 
 renown as a political debater, with Senator Douglas ; and 
 while his great mind was full of the momentous ques- 
 tions then agitating the public mind — he could not, and 
 did not, forget an old widow lady who had been, long 
 years before, kind to him, while he was struggling, alone 
 and unaided, in a new country, for the means to enable 
 him to qualify himself for the high position afterward 
 called upon, by his countrymen, to fill. This old widow 
 lady, named Armstrong, known by almost every one in 
 Menard Co. as Aunt Hannah, had a son — a wild boy of 
 about twenty years of age — who, with others, became in- 
 volved in a difficulty at a camp meeting, held in Mason 
 Co., near Salt Creek, resulting in the killing of a man 
 named Metzker. Young Armstrong, and another young 
 man, were indicted for murder in the first decjree. Aunt 
 Hannah, young Armstrong's mother, employed the 
 writer, and a lawyer named Dillworth, to defend her son. 
 We obtained an order of court, allowing separate trials, 
 and took a change of venue, on the part of Armstrong, 
 to Cass Co., Illinois, in the spring of '59. Upon the 
 writer reaching Beardstown, and while in consultation 
 with my associate, at the hotel, Mr. Lincoln was an- 
 nounced. Upon entering, he gave us the gratifying 
 information that he would, at the request of Aunt Han- 
 nah, assist us in the case of her son. This was aeree- 
 able news to us. We furnished Mr. Lincoln such facts 
 as had come to our knowledge ; he walked across the 
 room two or three times, was again seated, and asked us 
 for our line of defense, and the kind of jury we thought 
 
WILLIAM WALKER. 215 
 
 of taking. We were In favor of young men. He asked 
 our reasons. We replied, the defendant being a young 
 man, we thought the sympathies of young men could be 
 more easily aroused In his behalf. Mr. Lincoln differed 
 with us, and requested the privilege of making the chal- 
 lenges, which we accorded to him, and to me. The most 
 remarkable-looking twelve men were sworn, that I had 
 ever seen in a jury-box. All were past middle life, and 
 the more strict the men were In enforcing obedience to 
 the law, and the good order of society, the better pleased 
 Mr. Lincoln was with them. The trial progressed, evi- 
 dence heard and Instructions given, and the State was 
 heard from through its attorney. Mr. Lincoln made the 
 closing argument for the defense. A grander, or a more 
 powerful and eloquent speech, never, in my opinion, fell 
 from the lips of man ; and when he closed, there was not 
 a dry eye in the court-room. The young man was 
 acquitted, for which Mr. Lincoln would not receive a 
 cent. I have made this mention of some of my recol- 
 lections of Mr. Lincoln, longer, perhaps, than I ought — 
 but I could not well avoid it — for, taking him all in all, I 
 think him one of the greatest men America has ever 
 produced. 
 
 '^^"//r^/^ 
 
 Lexington, 1882. 
 
2i6 REPLY TO GOVERNOR HICKS. 
 
 REPLY 
 
 TO GOVERNOR HICKS AND MAYOR BROWN. 
 
 For the future, troops, troops must be brought here, 
 but I make no point of bringing them through Baltimore. 
 Without any military knowledge myself, of course I 
 must leave details to General Scott. He hastily said 
 this morning, in the presence of these gentlemen, 
 ** March them around Baltimore and not through it." 
 I sincerely hope the General, on fuller reflection, will 
 consider this practical and proper, and that you will not 
 object to it. By this, a collision of the people of Balti- 
 more with the troops will be avoided, unless they go out 
 of their way to seek it. I hope you will exert your in- 
 fluence to prevent this. Now and ever I shall do all in 
 my power for peace, consistently with the maintenance of 
 the government. 
 
 April 20, 1861. 
 
LEONARD W. VOLK. 217 
 
 THE public services of Mr. Lincoln are well known 
 to the world. But there is much of the man, 
 the inner man and his real characteristics — familiar 
 only to his neighbors and intimate friends, as they knew 
 him, before he was so suddenly called to the Presidency 
 of the United States, from a country village, where, 
 and near which most of his life had been spent, to assume 
 the " cares of state," and carry, Atlas-like, the destinies 
 of the Western Continent upon his brawny and hercu- 
 lean shoulders. The world at large will never know as 
 do those living neighbors and friends the real greatness 
 of the man. Personally, I had but little intimate 
 acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln, compared to what many 
 others had, and what I observed of his character was 
 mainly while sitting to me, prior to his nomination in 
 i860, for the clay model of his bust. But he impressed 
 me, before I ever spoke with him, with a feeling akin to 
 reverence — a feeling of affection. He was just the man 
 to strike with favor every person who knew toil and pri- 
 vation — and what could be more natural ? for he himself 
 had been a toiler at every drudgery, and experienced the 
 severest privations from earliest boyhood to mature man- 
 hood. Its effect was plainly visible in his figure, in the 
 form of the bones, muscle and sinew, in his motion and 
 in his speech. He was 2. plebeian in the truest sense, and 
 his prototype cannot be found among the great men of 
 ancient or modern times. He has been compared with 
 King Servius Tullius, but might with more propriety be 
 
2i8 LEONARD IV. VOLK. 
 
 compared with the Czar Alexander II. of Russia, who by 
 his own personal will freed so many millions of serfs, in 
 opposition to the wishes of his nobles ; while the former 
 freed no slaves, but granted some elective privileges to 
 the plebeian claims, subject always to the approval of the 
 patrician senators, and built a five-mile wall around 
 Rome. But neither of these despots (one a King and 
 the other an Emperor) possessed the characteristics of 
 Abraham Lincoln. The fact that all three were assas- 
 sinated does not signify much in making them resem- 
 blances of each other. In studying the marble and 
 bronze portraits of the rulers and great men of ancient 
 medieval and modern times, the writer has found none 
 possessing any decided resemblance to Mr. Lincoln, 
 whose features are distinctly in contrast with European 
 types and may properly be designated as purely Amer- 
 ican. Our own brief history gives us the names of five 
 distinctly remarkable men who were Presidents of the 
 United States, greater than all others, more remarkable 
 because they carved out and achieved their own immor- 
 tality, and none but one of these five referred to was a 
 college graduate, and he, by his own indomitable will, 
 perseverance and industry, through extreme poverty, 
 alone obtained a collegiate education. None of these 
 five men were sons of presidents, nor did they possess 
 wealthy and distinguished relatives (except, perhaps, the 
 first) to advance and place them in high stations. No ! 
 they all earned their honors and promotion from stage to 
 stage, from young boyhood, in the rough, rugged school 
 of experience, toil and hardship, which ripened and fitted 
 them for every station to which they were successively 
 
LEONARD W. VOLK. 219 
 
 advanced up to the highest and proudest positions in the 
 land. Nature had endowed these favorite sons with a 
 wealth of ideas, a wealth of self-reliance, industry, hon- 
 esty, patience and patriotism, far greater and more valu- 
 able than inherited riches, titles, or class privileges. 
 Imagine Abraham Lincoln, as a sturdy youth in the 
 depths of the primeval forests of the west, alone with his 
 axe, felling the giant trees, lopping off the limbs, dividing 
 the trunks in regular lengths, then, with beetle and 
 wedges splitting them into rails, nov/ and then wearily 
 sitting on a stump or log, or lying on the ground to rest 
 himself, and snatching a few moments to study a book, 
 or perhaps contemplating the solitude of the forest, while 
 watchincr the birds and listeningr to their wild sonors. 
 Then, in the grand moon-lit night, while floating silently 
 down the mighty Mississippi on his flat-boat, he doubt- 
 less thought, planned and dreamed of his ambitious 
 desire to rise in the world and get above his present 
 lowly condition. Noble and ambitious resolves were 
 weaving in his young brain. He, like the others of the 
 immortal five, believed in himself to be able to grapple 
 with the difficulties of life and take the responsibilities 
 thrust upon him by tJie people. It was fortunate for the 
 fame of these men that events of sufficient magnitude 
 occurred, affording the opportunities to prove to the 
 world their real fitness, talent and greatness, to be 
 imperishably engraved upon history's tablets among the 
 immortal men of all ages. If the ambitious young men 
 of the present and future generations will earnestly study 
 and imitate these sublime characters, relying as they did 
 upon their own honest, patient toil and privation of lux- 
 
;:o LEONARD JV. VOLK. 
 
 uries. instead of leaning upon others or watching cJiances 
 to be placed high by those temporarily in power — to sud- 
 denly tumble from unearned stations — some of them 
 may reap the reward and honors of Washington, Jack- 
 son, Lincoln, Grant and Garfield. 
 
 ^^^<-^J ?2f^^ 
 
 t 
 
 Chicago, 1SS2. 
 
GEORGE STONEMAN, 
 
 THERE is and can be but one opinion regarding 
 the life and work performed by that great maii 
 Lincoln. He did more to perpetuate the existence of 
 free institutions and a republican form of government 
 than any man that has ever lived, and the debt mankind 
 owes his memory can never be repaid. 
 
 He had but one fault. He was too sympathetic and 
 tender-hearted. I well recollect one nisht about two 
 o'clock A. M. in the early days of the war, that I was with 
 him in the telegraph office at General McClellan's head- 
 quarters. He arose from his chair to leave, straightened 
 himself up and remarked, '' To-morrow night I shall have 
 a terrible headache." When asked the cause he replied, 
 " To-morrow is hangman's day and I shall have to act 
 upon death sentences," and I shall never forget the sad 
 and sorrowful expression that came over his face. It is 
 well known that Congress relieved him from the consid- 
 eration of death sentences for desertion and other capital 
 offenses, and conferred it upon army commanders. 
 
 San Gabriel, iS8i. 
 
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 
 
 MESSAGE TO CONGRESS 
 
 ASSEMBLED IN EXTRA SESSION, JULY 4, 1 86 1. 
 
 I AM most happy to believe that the plain people un- 
 derstand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note that 
 while in this, the Government's hour of trial, large num- 
 bers of those in the army and navy who have been 
 favored with the offices, have resigned and proved false 
 to the hand which pampered them, not one common 
 soldier or common sailor is krrown to have deserted his 
 fiag. Great honor is due to those officers who have re- 
 mained true despite the example of their treacherous 
 associates, but the greatest honor and most important 
 fact of all, is the unanimous firmness of the common 
 soldiers and common sailors. To the last man, so far as 
 known, they have successfully resisted the traitorous 
 efforts of those whose commands but an hour before they 
 obeyed as absolute law. This is the patriotic instinct of 
 plain people. They understand without an argument 
 that the destroying the Government which was made 
 by Washington means no good to them. Our popular 
 Government has often been called an experiment. Two 
 points in it our people have settled : the successful estab- 
 lishing and the successful administering of it. One still 
 remains : its successful maintenance against a formidable 
 internal attempt to overthrow it. It is now for them to 
 demonstrate to the world that those who can fairly 
 carry an election, can also suppress a rebellion ; that 
 
MESSAGE TO CONGRESS. 223 
 
 ballots are the rightful and peaceful successors 
 of bullets, and that when ballots have fairly and 
 constitutionally decided, there can be no successful 
 appeal back to bullets ; that there can be no successful 
 appeal except to ballots themselves at succeeding elec- 
 tions. Such will be a great lesson of peace, teaching 
 men that what they cannot take by an election, neither 
 can they take by a war, teaching all the folly of being 
 the beginners of a war. 
 
 As a private citizen the Executive could not have 
 consented that these institutions shall perish, much less 
 could he, in betrayal of so vast and so sacred a trust as 
 these free people had confided to him. He felt that he 
 had no moral right to shrink, nor even to count the 
 chances of his own life in what mieht follow. 
 
 In full viev/ of his great responsibility, he has so far 
 done what he has deemed his duty. You will now, ac- 
 cording to your own judgment, perform yours. He sin- 
 cerely hopes that your views and your actions may so 
 accord with his as to assure all faithful citizens who have 
 been disturbed in their rights, of a certain and speedy 
 restoration to them, under the Constitution and laws, 
 and having thus chosen our cause without guile, and with 
 pure purpose, let us renew our trust in God, and go for- 
 ward without fear and with manly hearts. 
 
224 PERSONAL CONFERENCE. 
 
 PERSONAL CONFERENCE 
 
 WITH THE REPRESENTATIVES FROM THE BORDER STATES, 
 
 JULY 12, 1861. 
 
 After the adjournment of Congress, now near, I 
 shall have no opportunity of seeing you for several 
 months. Believing that you of the Border States hold 
 more power for good than any other equal number of 
 members, I feel it a duty which I cannot justifiably 
 waive to make this appeal to you. I intend no reproach 
 or complaint when I assure you that, in my opinion, if 
 you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual 
 emancipation message of last March, the war would now 
 be substantially ended. And the plan therein proposed 
 is yet one of the most potent and swift means of ending 
 it. Let the states which are in rebellion see definitely 
 and certainly that in no event will the states you repre- 
 sent ever join their proposed Confederacy, and they can- 
 not much longer maintain the contest. But you cannot 
 divest them of their hope to ultimately have you with 
 them so long as you show a determination to perpetuate 
 the institution within your own states. 
 
 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 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 
 
PERSONAL CONFERENCE. 225 
 
 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 ! 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, render us pecuniarily unable to do it ! 
 How much better for you as sellers, and the nation as 
 buyer, to sell out and buy out that without 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. 
 
 Upon these considerations, I have again begged your 
 attention to the message of March last. Before leaving 
 the Capitol, consider and discuss it among yourselves. 
 You are patriots and statesmen, and as such, I pray you 
 to consider this proposition, and, at the least, commend 
 it to the consideration of your states and people. As 
 you would perpetuate popular government for the best 
 people in the world, I beseech you that you do in no 
 wise omit this. Our common country is in great peril, 
 demandinor the loftiest views and boldest action to brinof 
 a speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is 
 saved to the world ; its beloved history and cherished 
 memories are vindicated, and its happy future fully as- 
 sured and rendered inconceivably grand. To you, more 
 than to any others, the privilege is given to assure that 
 happiness, and swell that grandeur, and to link your own 
 names therewith forever. 
 
 15 
 
226 REPLY TO HORACE GREELY, 
 
 REPLY TO HORACE GREELEY. 
 
 My paramount object is to save the Unions and neither 
 to save or destroy slavery. 
 
 If there be those who would not save the Union un- 
 less they could at the same time save slavery, I do not 
 agree with them. If there be those who would not save 
 the Union unless they could at the sam^ time destroy 
 slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramoiuit object 
 is to save the U7iion, and not either to save or 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 be- 
 lieve it helps to save the Union, and what I forbear, I 
 forbear because I do not believe it helps to save the 
 Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe that 
 what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more 
 whenever I believe doing more will help the cause. 
 
E. J. OGLESB Y. 
 
 !27 
 
 THERE is but one opinion of the character of 
 Abraham Lincoln, throughout the world. No 
 living man can add anything to his fame. It will be 
 polished by the wear of time, to a luster which will 
 eclipse the glory of all men, not born as he was, to the 
 boon of immortality. 
 
 Decatur, 1880. 
 
2 28 REPLY TO A RELIGIOUS DELEGATION. 
 
 REPLY TO A RELIGIOUS DELEGATION 
 
 WHO PRESENTED A MEMORIAL REQUESTING MR. LINCOLN 
 TO ISSUE A PROCLAMATION OF UNIVERSAL 
 
 EMANCIPATION. 
 
 I AM approached with the most opposite opinions 
 and advice, and that by reHgious men, who are equally 
 certain that they represent the divine will. I am sure 
 that either the one or the other class is mistaken in that 
 belief, and perhaps in some respects, both. 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 con- 
 nected with my duty, it might be supposed he would re- 
 veal 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. 
 
 The subject is difficult, and good men do not agree. 
 Eor instance, the other day four gentlemen of standing 
 and intelligence from New York, called as a delegation on 
 business connected with the war ; but before leaving two 
 of them earnestly besought me to proclaim general 
 emancipation, upon which the other two at once attacked 
 them. I can assure you that the subject i'^ on my mind, 
 by day and night, more than any other. Whatever shall 
 appear to be God's will I will do. 
 
emus NORTHRQF. 
 
 229 
 
 HIS wisdom, his accurate perceptions, his vigor of 
 intellect, his humor and his unselfish patriotism 
 are known to all. But what impressed me even more 
 than these was the sweetness of his whole nature — his 
 great loving heart. It was this, glorifying his other great 
 qualities, that so endeared him to the people and caused 
 his death to be mourned with such an unequaled depth 
 of sorrow and abundance of tears. No man can take his 
 place in the hearts of the American people. 
 
 Yale College, 1882. 
 
2SO IN A UG URAL ADDRESS. 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED OX THE FOURTH DAY OF MARCH, 1 86 1. 
 
 Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the 
 Southern States that by the accession of a Republican 
 administration their property and their peace and per- 
 sonal security are to be endangered. There has never 
 been any reasonable 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 declare, 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 
 full knowledge that I had made this and many similar 
 declarations, and had never recanted them. 
 
 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 wise to ascertain 
 precisely why we do it ? Will you hazard so desperate a 
 step while there is any possibility that 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 ? 
 
IXAUGCJ^AZ ADDILESS. 251 
 
 Physically speaking, we can no: sec-ar-are. V.* — : 
 remove our respective sections from each other, 
 an impassable wall between then'. A hv.sban.^ ; .e 
 
 may be divorced, and go out : .1 b«e\x>Qd 
 
 : he reach of each other, but : erent v 
 
 countn.' cannot do this. They c- 
 
 fece : and intercourse, either am >: 
 
 continue between them. Is it in.^ .— . e 
 
 that intercourse more ad\-antage<His or more sa: 
 after separation than before ? Can aliens make treaties 
 easier than friends can make laws ? Can treatie-- 
 '".lithfully enforced between aliens than la\\ - ^ 
 
 hends ? Suppose you go to war. \x»u cannot :_,... .. - .. . s : 
 .nd when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on 
 
 ither. )t>u cease fighting, the identical old questions, as 
 :o terms of intercourse, are again upon xxm, 
 
 The Chief Magistrate derives all his authoriij- from 
 :he people, and they have oonferrevl none upon him to 
 Ix terms for the separation of the States^ Tr — 'e 
 
 '.hemseh-es can do this also if they choose : but : .- 
 
 itive. v\s such, has nothing to do with it His dut>* is 
 u^ administer the present gON^emment as it came to his 
 
 .ands. and to transmit it. unimpaired by him. to ^ > 
 wesson 
 
 Why should there no: be a patient confidence in the 
 -Itimate justice of the people ? Is there any better or 
 
 qual hope in the world ? In our present differences* is 
 
 •iher parry without faith of being in the right ? If the 
 Almighty Ruler of nations, with his eternal truth and 
 justice. Ix^ on \\^ur side of the North, or \\>urs of the 
 
232 INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail, by the 
 judgment of this great tribunal of the American people. 
 
 By the form of the government under which we live, 
 the same people have wisely given their public servants 
 but little power for mischief ; and have, with equal wisdom, 
 provided for the return of that little to their own hands 
 at very short intervals. While the people retain their 
 virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme 
 of wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the gov- 
 ernment in the short space of four years. 
 
 My countr}'men, one and all, think calmly and well 
 upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable 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 deliber- 
 ately, that object will be frustrated by taking time ; but 
 no good 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 administration will have 
 no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were 
 admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side 
 in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for pre- 
 cipitate 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 difficulty. 
 
 In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and 
 not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The 
 Government will not assail you. 
 
 You can have no conflict without being yourselves the 
 aggressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to 
 
IXAUGCRAZ ADDRESS. 233 
 
 destroy the GoverrL-ie-: -^'^ ' : ' -- " v :" - —;;: 
 solemn one to " preserve ::.. .:. 
 
 I am loth to close. We are j-nfes but : - 
 
 We must no: niesw Thcuc- have 
 
 strained, it must not break c > of anecuon. 
 
 The m\-5t:: '< of me::;icr\\ ? ■ eYer>- 
 
 bartleneld -- - :-:i\-e to ev^.. ..._/.^ - --- 
 
 hearthstor. - ^ broad land, will \-e: r . . . .. 
 
 chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely thev 
 will be, by the better angels : re. 
 
234 ABOLISHING SLA VER Y. 
 
 ABOLISHING SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT 
 OF COLUMBIA. 
 
 1 HAVE never doubted the constitutional authority of 
 Congress to abolish slavery in this District, and I have 
 ever desired to see the national capital freed from the 
 institution in some satisfactory way. Hence there has 
 never been, in my mind, any question upon the subject ex- 
 cept the one of expediency, arising in view of all the cir- 
 cumstances. If there be matters within and about this 
 act which might have taken a course or shape more sat- 
 isfactory to my judgment, I do not attempt to specify 
 them. I am gratified that the two principles of com- 
 pensation and colonization are both recognized and 
 practically applied in the act. 
 
 April i6, 1862. 
 
A. H. GARLAND. 235 
 
 I NEVER had personally an opportunity to know 
 or study Mr. Lincoln, and my ideas of him are made 
 up altogether from reading, and from conversations with 
 prominent gentlemen who knew him well. From these 
 sources, I have the impression firmly fixed, that Mr. Lin- 
 coln possessed great native good sense and a well- 
 balanced head, what is generally called "common sense." 
 He had an intuitive judgment of men, and he studied men 
 closely ; with these he combined a liberal and charita- 
 ble judgment, and viewed the shortcomings of his fellows 
 with leniency, mercy and goodness of heart. His inten- 
 tions were good, and, as I think, on the side of his coun- 
 try at large, and I am of the opinion but few, very few, 
 men would have passed through the ordeal of war, and 
 such a war, as successfully as he did. The blow that 
 struck him down inflicted a wound upon the whole coun- 
 try. His loss to the country was severe indeed, for I 
 believe, had he lived, the work of pacification, or quieting 
 the Southern States to practical relations with the Union 
 — to use his own language — would have progressed more 
 smoothly, and been consummated in less time, and with 
 less expense, less bitterness and less loss to all parties. 
 
 In Mr. Lincoln's history there is as much profound 
 stimulus to the young men of the country who desire to 
 secure it, as in that of any man who has figured in our 
 annals. 
 
 Little Rock, 1882. 
 
236 FIJiST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE 
 
 TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 3, 1 86 1. 
 
 The war continues. In considering the policy to be 
 adopted for suppressing the insurrection, I have been 
 anxious and careful that the inevitable conflict for this 
 purpose shall not degenerate into a violent and remorse- 
 less revolutionary struggle. I have, therefore, in every 
 case thought it proper to keep the integrity of the Union 
 prominent as the primary object of the contest on our 
 part, leaving all questions which are not of vital military 
 importance to the more deliberate action of the legis- 
 lature. 
 
 In my present position, I could scarcely be justified 
 were I to omit raising a warning voice against this 
 approach of returning despotism. 
 
 It is not needed nor fitting here, that a general argu- 
 ment should be made in favor of popular institutions ; but 
 there is one point, with its connections, not so hackneyed 
 as most others, to which I ask a brief attention. It is 
 the effort to place capital on an equal footing with, if not 
 above labor y in the structure of government. It is 
 assumed that labor is available only in connection with 
 capital ; that nobody labors unless somebody else, owning 
 capital, somehow, by the use of it, induces him to labor. 
 This assumed, it is next considered whether it is best 
 that capital shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to 
 work by their own consent, or buy them, and drive them 
 
FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. tyj 
 
 to it without their consent. Having proceeded so far, it 
 is naturally concluded that all laborers are either hired 
 laborers or what we call slaves. And further, it is 
 assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is fixed in 
 that condition for life. 
 
 Now, there is no such relation between capital and 
 labor as assumed ; nor is there any such thing as a free 
 man being fixed for life in the condition of a hired 
 laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and all infer- 
 ences from them are groundless. 
 
 Labor is prior to, and independent of capital. Capi- 
 tal is only the fruit of labor, and- could never have existed 
 if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of 
 capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. 
 Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as 
 any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and 
 probably always will be, a relation between labor and 
 capital, producing mutual benefits. The error is in assum- 
 ing that the whole labor of a community exists within 
 that relation. A few men own capital, and that few avoid 
 labor themselves, and, with their capital, hire or buy 
 another few to labor for them. A large majority belong 
 to neither class — neither work for others, nor have others 
 working for them. In most of the Southern States a 
 majority of the whole people, of all colors, are neither 
 slaves nor masters ; while in the Northern a large major- 
 ity are neither hirers nor hired. Men with their families 
 — wives, sons, and daughters — work for themselves 
 on their farms, in their houses, and in their shops, 
 taking the whole product to themselves, and ask- 
 ing no favors of capital on the one hand, nor of hired 
 
238 FIRST ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 laborers or slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that 
 a considerable number of persons mingle their own labor 
 with capital — that is, they labor with their own hands, 
 and also buy or hire others to labor for them ; but this is 
 only a mixed, not a distinct, class. No principle stated is 
 disturbed by the existence of this mixed class. 
 
 Again, as has already been said, there is not, of 
 necessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer being 
 fixed to that condition for life. Many independent men 
 everywhere in these States, a few years back in their 
 lives, were hired laborers. The prudent, penniless be- 
 ginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a sur- 
 plus 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 — none less inclined to take, or touch, 
 aught which they have not honestly earned. Let them 
 beware of surrendering a politicial power which they already 
 possess, and which, if surrendered, 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 ^to-day is not altogether/^r 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. 
 
IV. B. FRANKLIN. 239 
 
 I WAS on duty in Washington in 1861, when Mr. 
 Lincoln was inaugurated, and knew him quite well. 
 But I never saw him after about the first part of Febru- 
 ary, 1862. In the short term of my acquaintance with 
 him, I was always impressed with the great ability which 
 he displayed in his view of the situation of the country at 
 that time, with the patience which he showed in listening 
 to the views of people of all shades of opinion in the dis- 
 cussion of various subjects, and with the good judgment 
 which in my opinion he displayed in coming to a decision 
 after hearing both sides of a question. 
 
 No one could have known him well at that time with- 
 out coming to the conclusion that all of his energy and 
 ability were devoted to bringing the country through the 
 war successfully. All side issues were avoided, nothing 
 but the one end of the preservation of the Union was 
 kept in view. Beset by fanatics of all sides of the ques- 
 tion, he steered clear of all extremes, and his patriotism 
 and good sense enabled him to do the right things at the 
 right times. In his appointment of leading general 
 officers at this time, the fitness of the men guided him, 
 and I know a case in which he appointed a man against 
 the advice of his Cabinet, because he had given the man 
 a promise that if he raised a brigade he should be made 
 a Brigadier-General, believing that this man represented 
 a class which it was important to conciliate. The condition 
 having been fulfilled, he appointed the man notwithstand- 
 
240 JV. B. FRANKLIN. 
 
 ing the earnest remonstrance of the Cabinet. Such actions 
 gave him the reputation of keeping promises after he had 
 made them, a very different one from that of the ordinary 
 pohtician. His untimely death was a misfortune to the 
 country from which it has not yet recovered. 
 
 Hartford, 1882. 
 
ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 241 
 
 I KNEW Mr. Lincoln well and Intimately. We 
 were both members of the Thirtieth Congress, that 
 is, from 1847 ^o 4^^ March, 1849. ^^ both belonged to 
 the Whig organization of that day, and were both ardent 
 supporters of General Taylor to the Presidency in 1848, 
 Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Wm. Ballard Preston, and Mr. Thos. 
 S. Flournoy of Va., Mr. Toombs of Georgia, Mr. E. C. 
 Cambell of Florida, and one or two oth^^rs, and myself 
 formed the first Congressional Taylor Club ; we were 
 known as the Young Indians, who by our extensive corre- 
 spondence organized the Taylor movement throughout 
 the country, which resulted in his nomination at Phila- 
 delphia. Mr. Lincoln was careful as to his manners, 
 awkward in his speech, but was possessed of a very 
 strong, clear and vigorous mind. He ahvays attracted 
 the riveted attention of the House when he spoke ; his 
 manner of speech as well as thought was original. He 
 had no m.odel. He was a man of strong convictions, and 
 was what Carlyle would have called an earnest man. 
 He abounded in anecdotes ; he illustrated everything that 
 he was talking or speaking about by an anecdote ; his an- 
 ecdotes were always exceedingly apt and pointed, and 
 socially he always kept his company in a roar of laughter. 
 In my last interview with him at the celebrated Hampton 
 Roads Conference in 1865, this trait of his character 
 seemed to be as prominent and striking as ever. He was 
 a man of strong attachments, and his nature overflowed 
 
 16 
 
242 
 
 ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 
 
 with the milk of human kindness. Widely as we were 
 separated in politics in the latter days of his life, yet I 
 ever- cherish for him a high degree of personal regard. 
 I cheerfully give this tribute to his memory. 
 
 Washington, 1882. 
 
HUGH J. HASTINGS.— O. W. HOLMES. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was the greatest Presi- 
 L dent that ever occupied the Executive chair, and 
 the best story-teller ever known to a free people. 
 
 New York, i88i. 
 
 I COULD wish that fitting words would offer them- 
 selves to me to add to the multitude of tributes 
 to the memory of Abraham Lincoln, but I fear that I 
 should hardly find a phrase that eulogy has not applied or 
 a sentiment to which patriotism has not given expression. 
 
 ^'^^ 
 
 Boston, 1882. 
 
244 PROCLAMATION. 
 
 PROCLAMATION 
 
 RELATIVE TO GENERAL HUNTER's ORDER DECLARING SLAVES 
 WITHIN HIS DEPARTMENT FREE. 
 
 I FURTHER make known, that whether it be competent 
 for me, as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, 
 to declare the slaves of any State or States free ; and 
 whether, at any time or in any case, it shall have become 
 a necessity indispensable to the maintenance of the gov- 
 ernment to exercise such supposed powers, are questions 
 which, under my responsibility, I reserve to myself, and 
 which I cannot feel jur.tified in leaving to the decision of 
 commanders in the field. 
 
 The United States ought to co-operate with any State 
 v/hich may adopt a gradual abolishment of slavery, giving 
 to such State earnest expression to compensate for its 
 inconveniences, public and private, produced by such 
 change of system. 
 
 I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of 
 them, ranging, if it may be, far above partisan and per- 
 sonal politics. This proposal makes common object, 
 casting no reproaches upon any. It acts not the Pharisee. 
 The change it contemplates would come gently as the 
 dews of Heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. 
 Will you not embrace it ? So much good has not been 
 done, by one effort, in all past time, as, in the providence 
 of God, it is now your high privilege to do. May the 
 vast future not have a lament that you have neglected it ! 
 
 May 19th, 1862. 
 
ANDREW SHU MAN. 
 
 '43 
 
 I KNEW him as a citizen, a lawyer and a politician, 
 and I knew him afterwards as the President of 
 the United States. His most strikinsf characteristic was 
 his simplicity, next to that was his independence of 
 thought and self-reliance of reason. He had 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 finespun 
 theory. The more I contemplate the history of his pub- 
 lic life and services, the more I study his words, his 
 works and the peculiaritie3 of his character, the more I am 
 inclined to believe that Abraham Lincoln was specially 
 inspired, called and led by Providence to be the savior of 
 our nation. 
 
 Chicago, 1880. 
 
246 LINCOLN READING THE PROCLAMATION. 
 
 LINCOLN READING THE EMANCIPATION 
 PROCLAMATION TO HIS CABINET, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 2 2. 
 
 Gentlemen : — I have, as you are aware, thought a 
 great deal about the relation of this war to slavery, and 
 you all remember that several weeks ago I read to you 
 an order I had prepared upon the subject, which, on ac- 
 count 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 abetter condition. The action of the army against the 
 rebels has not been quite what I should have best liked, 
 but they have been driven out of Maryland, and Penn- 
 sylvania is no longer in danger of invasion. 
 
 When the rebel army was at Frederick, I determined, 
 as soon as it should be driven out of Maryland, to 
 issue a proclamation of emancipation, such as I thought 
 most likely to be useful. I said nothing to any one, 
 but I made a promise to myself and (hesitating a 
 little), to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven 
 out, and am going to fulfill that promise. I have got you 
 together to hear what I have written down. I do not 
 wish your advice about the main matter, for that I have 
 determined for myself. This I say without intending 
 anything but respect for any one of you. But I already 
 
LINCOLN READING THE PROCLAMATION. 247 
 
 know the views of each on this question. 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 by any one of them 
 than by me, and knew of any constitutional way in which 
 he could be put in my place, he should have it. 1 would 
 gladly yield to him. But though I believe I have not so 
 much of the confidence of the people as I had some time 
 since, I do not know that, all things considered, any other 
 person has more ; and, however this may be, there is 
 no way in which I can have any other man put where 
 I am. I am here ; I must do the best I can and bear the 
 responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought 
 to take. 
 
248 REPLY TO THE RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 REPLY TO THE RESOLUTIONS OF THE 
 
 EAST BALTIMORE METHODIST 
 
 CONFERENCE 
 
 OF 1862. 
 
 These kind words of approval, coming from so numer- 
 ous 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 continu- 
 ance of your prayers for a right solution of our national 
 difficulties, and the restoration of our country to peace 
 and prosperity. 
 
EMERSON BENNETT. 249 
 
 N several occasions, during our unfortunate interne- 
 cine troubles, it fell to my lot to visit Washington 
 and have personal interviews with Abraham Lincoln, and 
 my impression of him then was, and still is, that 
 he possessed a heart, v/hich, in its great humane 
 reach, would take in all mankind ; that he was 
 a man of earnest, honest, single purpose ; entirely 
 unostentatious, free from petty jealousy and ignoble 
 ambition ; willins: to live and labor for the orood 
 of mankind ; full of genuine sympathy ; thinking of 
 everybody except himself ; and who felt as if he were 
 sent to perform a mission on earth, that must hasten to 
 a completion in order that he might be removed to an- 
 other scene of action. He was intellectual beyond most 
 men, with a grand reach of thought, which could grasp a 
 great subject and comprehend it in its entirety, and then, 
 with a few well-chosen words he could so simplify as to 
 make it plain and clear to the most ordinary understand- 
 ing. Along with a gentle, tender, yearning sympathy, he 
 had the firmness of a rock and the courage of a lion. 
 No one in the right ever feared to meet him, and no one 
 in the wrong could stand unmoved before his deep, 
 searching gaze. He was evidently a man of destiny — 
 here for a purpose — to be removed with the end of his 
 inission. Simple, sincere, honest, earnest, upright, just, 
 
2qo 
 
 EMERSON BENNETT. 
 
 pure, noble and good, he was one of the best men who 
 ever lived to bless mankind, or died a martyr in a holy 
 cause. 
 
 Philadelphia,.. 1882. 
 
EUGENE J. HALL. 251 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 O HONORED name, revered and undecaying, 
 Engraven on each heart, O soul sublime ! 
 That, like a planet through the heavens straying, 
 Outlives the wreck of time ! 
 
 O rough strong soul, your noble self-possession 
 
 Is unfot-gotten. Still your work remains. 
 You freed from bondage and from vile oppression 
 A race in clanking chains. 
 
 O furrowed face, beloved by all the nation ! 
 O tall gaunt form, to memory fondly dear ! 
 O firm bold hand, our strength and our salvation ! 
 O heart that knew no fear ! 
 
 Lincoln, your manhood shall survive forever, 
 Shedding a fadeless halo round your name. 
 Urging men on, with wise and strong endeavor, 
 To bright and honest fame ! 
 
 Through years of care, to rest and joy a stranger, 
 
 You saw complete the work you had begun, 
 Thoughtless of threats, nor heeding death or danger, 
 You toiled till all was done. 
 
 You freed the bondman from his iron master, 
 
 You broke the strong and cruel chains he wore, 
 You saved the Ship of State from foul disaster 
 And brought her safe to shore. 
 
 You fell ! An anxious nation's hopes seemed blighted. 
 
 While millions shuddered at your dreadful fall ; 
 But God is good ! His wondrous hand has righted 
 And reunited all. 
 
]2 EUGENE J. HALL. 
 
 Vou fell, but in your death you were victorious ; 
 
 To moulder in the tomb your form has gone, 
 While through the world your great soul grows more glorious 
 As years go gliding on ! 
 
 All hail, great Chieftain ! Long will sweetly cluster 
 
 A thousand memories round your sacred name, 
 Nor time, nor death shall dim the spotless luster 
 That shine$ upon your fame. 
 
 Chicago, 1882. 
 
GEO. W. JULIAN— PHILIP SHAFF. 253 
 
 E combined the integrity of Washington with the 
 humanity of Wilberforce. 
 
 Irvington, 1880. 
 
 N 
 
 EXT to Washington, the Father of our Independ- 
 ence, stands Abraham Lincoln, the martyr of our 
 Union, in the hne of our Presidents, 
 
 New York, 1882. 
 
254 TO THE OLD SCHOOL PRESBYTERLANS. 
 
 TO THE SYNOD OF THE OLD SCHOOL 
 PRESBYTERIANS OF BALTIMORE, 
 
 WHO WAITED UPON HIM IN A BODY. 
 
 I SAW, upon taking my position here, I was going to 
 have an administration, If an administration at all, of 
 extraordinary difficulty. It was without exception a 
 time of the greatest difficulty this country ever saw. I 
 was early brought to a lively reflection, that nothing in 
 my power whatever, or others, to rely upon, would suc- 
 ceed, without direct assistance of the Almighty. I have 
 often wished that I was a more devout man than I 
 am; nevertheless, amid the greatest difflculties of my 
 administration, when I could not see any other resort, I 
 would place my whole reliance in God, knowing all 
 would go well, and that he would decide for the right. 
 
ALBERT PIKE. 2;? 
 
 TO say that he was pre-eminently an honest man, 
 a frank, sincere, outspoken man, who deceived 
 no one, wronged no one, cajoled no one ; that he 
 was a great, strong, fearless man ; that he was unsel- 
 fishly patriotic, a worshiper of the constitution ac- 
 cording to the old Whig interpretation of it, a de- 
 votee of the Union, 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 eood humor return to bless the land — to 
 say all this is only to say weat is testified to by a 
 cloud of witnesses, what no one anywhere will now not 
 gladly admit. He occupied, I think, a larger place in the 
 affections of the people than any of the great men who 
 preceded him, and he will have it, I think, in the affec- 
 tion of the generations that are to come. He would 
 have said, if questioned, that he greatly preferred to be 
 so remembered. He endeared himself to the people by 
 ways and practices and observances all worthy and 
 honorable, generous and fair ; and kindly memories of 
 him are as general among those who, struggling to be- 
 lieve political independence owed chiefly to him their 
 defeat, as they are among the men of the States whose 
 armies obeyed orders and maintained the Union. 
 
 Washington, 1882. 
 
256 REPLY TO THE LUTHERANS. 
 
 REPLY TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE 
 LUTHERAN SYNOD OF 1862. 
 
 I WELCOME here the representatives of the EvangeH- 
 cal Lutherans of the United States. I accept with grati- 
 tude their assurances of the sympathy and support of 
 that enhghtened, influential, 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 religious 
 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 up- 
 on me, on my advent to this place, by the internal ene- 
 mies of our country. You all know, the world knows 
 the forces and the resources the public agents have 
 brought into employment to sustain a government against 
 which there has been brought not one complaint of 
 real injury committed against society at home or 
 abroad. You all may recollect that in taking up the 
 sword thus forced into our hands, this government ap- 
 pealed 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 wlxo determines the destinies of nations, 
 that this shall remain a united people, they will, 
 humbly seeking the divine guidance, make their prolonged 
 national existence a source of new benefit and conditions 
 of mankind. 
 
ABRAM S. HEWITT. 257 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was essentially a thinker 
 /jL who had the courasfe of his convictions. He was 
 a patriot who was ever willing to make personal sacrifices 
 for his patriotism. He was, therefore, a man of action as 
 well as of reflection. His character was based upon 
 truth, and having been placed by fortune in the proper 
 sphere of action, he showed he was a truly great man. 
 
 xy^f,^>u^S. /^^^vi^' 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
 17 
 
258 SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE 
 
 TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER I, 1 862. 
 
 Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We can- 
 not remove 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 be- 
 yond the reach of each other ; but the different parts of 
 our country cannot do this. They cannot but remain 
 face to face ; and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, 
 must continue between them. Is it possible, then, to 
 make that intercourse more advantasfeous or more satis- 
 factory after separation than before ? Can aliens make 
 treaties easier than friends can make laws ? Can treaties 
 be more faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can 
 among friends ? Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight 
 always ; and when, after much loss on both sides and no 
 gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old ques- 
 tions, as to terms of intercourse, are again upon you. 
 
 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 
 surveyors' lines, over which people may walk back and 
 forth without any consciousness of their presence. No 
 
SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 259 
 
 part of this line can be made any more difficult 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 expect no 
 treaty stipulation would ever be made to take its place. 
 
 Is It doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, 
 would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of 
 money and of blood ? Is it doubted that it would restore 
 the national authority and national prosperity, and per- 
 petuate both indefinitely ? Is It doubted that we here 
 — Congress and Executive — can secure its adoption ? 
 Will not the good people respond to a united and earnest 
 appeal from us ? Can we, can they, by any other means, 
 so certainly or so speedily, assure these vital objects ? 
 We can succeed only by concert. It is not, "can any of 
 us imagine better ?" but " can we all do better ?" Object 
 whatsoever Is possible, still the question recurs, " can we 
 do better ?" The dogmas of the quiet past are Inade- 
 quate to the stormy present. The occasion Is piled high 
 with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As 
 our case Is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. 
 We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our 
 country. 
 
 Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this 
 Congress and this administration, will be remembered in 
 spite of ourselves. No personal significance or Insignifi- 
 cance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial 
 through which we pass will light us down. In honor or 
 dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the 
 
26o SECOND ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 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 freedom to the free — honorable alike 
 in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly 
 save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. Other 
 means may succeed ; this could not fail. The way is 
 plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, 
 the world will forever applaud, and God must forever 
 bless. 
 
 A return to specie payments, however, at the earliest 
 period compatible with due regard to all interests con- 
 cerned, 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 purpose in wise legislation. Convertibility 
 — prompt and certain convertibility — into coin is generally 
 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 sufficiently 
 large for the wants of the people, can be permanently, 
 usefully and safely maintained. 
 
A. CLEVELAND COXE. 261 
 
 1INCOLN was as evidently raised up of God for 
 -^ 1 86 1, as Washington was for 1776. Two more 
 unlike each other could hardly be produced in the his- 
 tory of a common country, among those who have identi- 
 fied themselves with its progress ; but their common 
 elements of character were those of the AnMo-Saxon 
 race (so-called), a love of freedom and of law ; percep- 
 tions of the right thing to do and of the right time to do 
 it ; all regulated by a sober faith in divine Providence, 
 and a willingness to be His instrument for good to man- 
 kind. 
 
 Buffalo, 1882. 
 
262 EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 
 
 EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, 
 
 JANUARY FIRST, 1 863. 
 
 Whereas, on the 22d day of September, in the year 
 of our Lord, 1862, a proclamation was issued by the Pres- 
 ident of the United States, containing, among other things, 
 the following, to wit : That on the first day of January, 
 in the year of our Lord, 1863, all persons held as slaves, 
 within any State or designated part of a State, the people 
 whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United 
 States, shall be thenceforth 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 
 effort they may make for their actual freedom ; that the 
 Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, 
 issue a proclamation, designating the States and parts 
 of States, if any, in which the people therein, respect- 
 ively, 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 rep- 
 resented in the Congress of the United States by mem- 
 bers chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority 
 of the qualified voters of such States shall have partici- 
 pated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testi- 
 mony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such State and 
 the people thereof are not in rebellion against the United 
 States. 
 
EMANCIPATION PROCLAIM A TION 263 
 
 ISFow therefore, 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 rebellion against the authority of the Gov- 
 ernment of the United States, as a fit and necessary war 
 measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this 
 first day of January, in the year of our Lord, 1863, and in 
 accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed 
 for the full period of one hundred days from the date of 
 the first above-mentioned order, desionate as the States 
 and parts of States therein, the people whereof, respec- 
 tively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, 
 the following, to wit : Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana 
 (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemine, Jeffer- 
 son, 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 Carolina, North Caro- 
 lina and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties desig- 
 nated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, 
 Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess 
 Anne and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and 
 Portsmouth), which excepted parts are for the present left 
 precisely as if this proclamation were not issued ; and by 
 virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do 
 order and declare that aM persons held as slaves within 
 designated States, or parts of States, are, and hencefor- 
 ward shall be free, and that the Executive Government 
 of the United States, including the military and naval au- 
 thorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom 
 of the said persons ; and I hereby enjoin upon the peo- 
 
264 EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 
 
 pie so declared to be free, to abstain from all violence, 
 unless in necessary self-defense, and I recommend to \ 
 them that, in all cases where allowed, they labor faith- 
 fully for reasonable wages ; and I further declare and 
 make known that such persons of suitable condition will 
 be received into the armed service of the United States, 
 to garrison forts, positions, stations and other places, and 
 to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this, 
 sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the 
 Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the con- 
 siderate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of 
 Almighty God. 
 
 hi witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and 
 caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
 
 Done at the City of Washington, this first day of Jan- 
 uary, in the year of our Lord, 1863, and of the Indepen- 
 dence of the United States of America, the eighty- 
 seventh. 
 
FREHK DOUGLASS. 265 
 
 A GREAT man, tender of heart, strong of 
 nerve, of boundless patience and broadest sym- 
 pathy, with no motive apart from his country, 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. Take him for 
 all in all, Abraham Lincoln was one of the noblest, wisest 
 and best men I ever knew. 
 
 Washington, 1880. 
 
266 REPLY TO AN INVITATION. 
 
 REPLY 
 
 TO AN INVITATION TO PRESIDE OVER A MEETING OF THE 
 CHRISTIAN COMMISSION, HELD IN WASH- 
 INGTON, FEBRUARY 2 2, 1 863. 
 
 While, for reasons which I deem sufficient, I must 
 decHne to preside, I cannot withhold my approval of the 
 meeting and its worthy objects. Whatever shall be sin- 
 cerely, 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 birthdav of Washington and the Christian Sab- 
 bath coinciding this year, and suggesting together the 
 highest interests of this life and of that to come, it is the 
 most propitious for the meeting proposed. 
 
GEO. S. BOUT WELL. 267 
 
 PRESIDENT LINCOLN excelled all his contem- 
 poraries, as he also excelled most of the eminent 
 rulers of every time, in the humanity of his nature, in the 
 constant assertion of reason over passion and feeling, in 
 the art of dealing with men ; in fortitude, never disturbed 
 by adversity, in capacity for delay when action was 
 fraught with peril, in the power of immediate and reso- 
 lute decision when delays were dangerous ; in comprehen- 
 sive judgment, which forecasts the final and best opinion of 
 nations and of posterity, and in the union of enlarged 
 patriotism, wise philanthropy and the highest political 
 justice, by which he was enabled to save a nation and to 
 emancipate a race. 
 
 ^fc^ 
 
 Chestnut Hills Farm, 1880. 
 
268 REPLY TO AN ADDRESS. 
 
 REPLY 
 
 TO AN ADDRESS FROM THE WORKINGMEN OF MANCHESTER, 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 I KNOW, and deeply deplore, the sufferings which the 
 workina-men at Manchebter, and in all EuroDe, are called 
 to endure in this crisis. It has been often and studiously 
 represented that the attempt to overthrow this Govern- 
 ment, which was built upon the foundation of human 
 rights, and to substitute for it one which should rest ex- 
 clusively on the basis of human slavery, was likely to 
 obtain the favor of Europe. Through the action of our 
 disloyal citizens, the workingm.en of Europe have 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 ques- 
 tion as an instance of sublime 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 of the ultimate and universal 
 triumph of justice, humanity and freedom. I do not 
 doubt that the sentiments you have expressed will be sus- 
 tained by your great nation, and on the other hand I have 
 no hesitation in assuring you that they will excite admira- 
 tion, esteem, and the most reciprocal feelings of friend- 
 ship among the American people. I hail this interchange 
 of sentiment, therefore, as an augury, that, whatever else 
 
REPLY TO 4y AJDDJ^ESS. 269 
 
 may happen, whatever misfortune may befall your coun- 
 try 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. 
 
 January 19, 1863. 
 
2 70 REMARKS. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 MADE TO SOME FRIENDS NEW YEARS EVENING, 1 863, CON- 
 CERNING THE PROCLAMATION. 
 
 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 wpuld strike at this pillar 
 of their strength. And now the promise shall be kept, 
 and not one word of it will I ever recall. 
 
HORACE MAYNARD. 271 
 
 I AM glad there is to be laid another block, perhaps 
 I should say another course, upon the monument 
 which the American people, year by year, are erecting to 
 the memory of Abraham Lincoln. Every effort to per- 
 petuate his name and make known his character engages 
 my sympathy. 
 
 My personal acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln began 
 shortly after his first inauguration as President of the 
 United States. The perturbed condition of public affairs 
 soon brought me much into his presence, and I saw more 
 of him, by far, than is usual in the case of persons occu- 
 pying places so widely apart. I have seen most of the 
 great men of our country, my contemporaries, and have 
 known them, more or less, it has so happened. It was 
 easy to say Mr. Lincoln was the greatest of them all, 
 but this would imperfectly express my conception of the 
 truth. He was great in a different way from any other. 
 He impressed me as no other man ever did. Never was 
 the title Honest so expressive of character — honest not 
 only in action and word, but also in thought and feeling 
 and purpose. When he gave a reason for what he did, 
 you felt instinctively that it was the real reason and not a 
 mere attempt at justification. It was this profound truth- 
 fulness which gained for his words and actions the un- 
 questioning confidence and support of the country. 
 
 Knoxville, 1881. 
 
272 THE LETTER TO ERASTUS CORNING. 
 
 FROM THE LETTER TO ERASTUS CORN- 
 ING AND OTHERS, 
 
 JUNE 12, 1863. 
 
 Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier boy who de- 
 serts while I must not touch a hair of a wily agitator 
 who induces him to desert ? This is none the less injuri- 
 ous when effected by getting a father, or brother, 
 or friend, into a public meeting, and there work- 
 ing 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 agitator and save the boy is 
 not only constitutional, but withal a great mercy. 
 
/. M. STURTEVANT. 273 
 
 I KNEW Mr. Lincoln very well, I may say somewhat 
 intimately, before he was ever thought of iij con- 
 nection with the exalted station to which he was after- 
 wards elected. In those years of his comparative ob- 
 scurity, I knew him as preeminently a truthful man. 
 His love of truth was conspicious in all his thinking. The 
 object of his pursuit was truth, and not victory in argu- 
 ment or the triumph of his party, or the success of his 
 own cause. This was always conspicuous in his conver- 
 sation. It constituted the charm of his conversation. 
 In his society one plainly saw, that his aim was so to use 
 words to express and not conceal his real thoughts. This 
 characteristic had formed his style, both of conversation 
 and of writing. His habitual love of truth had led him 
 successfully to cultivate such a use of language as would 
 most clearly and accurately express his thoughts. His 
 words were a perfectly transparent medium through which 
 his thought always shone out with unclouded distinct- 
 ness. No matter on what subject he was speaking, any- 
 person could understand him. This characteristic of his 
 mind and heart gave a peculiar complexion to his 
 speeches, wdiether at the bar, or in discussing the great 
 political issues of the time. He always preferred to do 
 more than justice rather than less to an opponent. It was 
 often noticed, that he stated his opponent's argument with 
 more force than his opponent himself had done. In the 
 opening of his argument, his friends would often feci for 
 the moment that he was surrendering the whole ground 
 
 18 
 
274 /. -^^- STURTEVANT. 
 
 in debate. They had no need to concern themselves on 
 that subject, it would always turn out that he had only 
 surrendered fallacious grounds, on which it was unsafe to 
 rely, while the solid foundation on which his own faith 
 rested was left intact, as the enduring basis on which he 
 would build his argument. He was a very conscientious 
 man ; his anti-slavery opinions had their seat in no mere 
 political expediency, but in the very depths of his moral 
 nature. In the summer of 1856 he delivered a speech to 
 a very large audience assembled on the public square in 
 this city ; the population of this county were at that time 
 very largely of Southern origin, and had those views of 
 slavery which prevailed in the States from which they 
 came. His audience on that occasion were very largely 
 of that character. Yet Mr. Lincoln made a very frank 
 and explicit avowal of his opposition to slavery on moral 
 grounds, and drew his argument against it from the 
 deepest roots of natural justice ; yet he presented the case 
 with such irresistible eloquence that his speech was re- 
 ceived with the greatest favor, and often with outbursts of 
 very hearty applause. That speech went far in all this 
 region to establish his reputation as a popular orator. 
 
 In a conversation I once had with him, at what was 
 then his dingy office in Springfield, where I had gone for 
 no other purpose than to enjoy the luxury of an hour's 
 conversation with him, I spoke of the then recent anti- 
 slavery excitement in St. Louis as proceeding entirely 
 upon the ground of expediency for the white man. "I," 
 said Mr. Lincoln, "must take into account the rights of 
 the poor negro." That conscientious element is appar- 
 ent in the whole course of his public policy. Conscience 
 
/. M. STURTEVAN2\ 275 
 
 constrained him to regard his oath to respect the consti- 
 tution of the United States; and yet always to remember 
 the rights of the negro, and to do all for him which his con- 
 stitutional powers permitted him to do. Had he not been 
 conscientious in both these directions, he would, in all 
 probability, have plunged his country in last anarchy. 
 Most admirably did his statesmanship combine in itself the 
 true conservative and the true radical. He was just such 
 a statesman as every nation needs in the great crisis of its 
 history. It is eminently an American phenomenon, that 
 a man was born in a loQ^-cabin in the backwoods of Ken- 
 tucky, who had precisely the intellectual endowments and 
 moral characteristics which his country would need in its 
 chief magistrate, in its hour of supreme necessity. Verily 
 there is a God in history ! Mr. Lincoln's emotional char- 
 acter was one of the most kindly I have ever known. 
 The tenderness of his affections was almost womanly. I 
 confess I sometimes thouQ^ht this trait in his character 
 was rather in excess, certainly, for the ruler of a great na- 
 tion. He was not only incapable of malice, but I some- 
 times thought he was too much afraid of hurting any- 
 body's feelings. If it was a fault, it was a fault of a great 
 and magnanimous soul, of which few men are capable. If 
 he had any vices they always leaned to virtue's side. 
 The wail of sorrow with which his foul taking-off was re- 
 ceived throughout the civilized world was a spontaneous 
 tribute to the exalted and unique virtues of his character, 
 pointing him out as the man who, of all the great historic 
 names, had least deserved so sad a fate. There are re- 
 markable analogies and equally remarkable contrasts be- 
 tween the careers of Mr. Lincoln and Gen. Garfield. 
 
276 /. M. STURTEVANT. 
 
 Both originated in obscurity and in the midst of the pri- 
 vations of frontier Hfe ; both were great in the natural en- 
 dowments of the intellect, and greater still in the exalted 
 moral characteristics in which they shone above most 
 others of our statesmen. Both were cut off in the midst 
 of their high career and in the very prime of life, by the 
 hand of the merciless assassin. At the untimely and 
 violent death of both, the civilized world put on mourning 
 to an extent never before seen in history. 
 
 The contrast appears chiefly in this. Mr. Lincoln was 
 born and reared in a community in which the advantages 
 of education had been little enjoyed, and consequently the 
 spirit of liberal learning had been little diffused. He had 
 none to encourage and help him. He must find his way 
 out into the light of knowledge by his own unassisted 
 efforts. As a consequence, he did not acquire the first 
 rudiments of an education till he had reached mature 
 manhood. Mr. Garfield was born in a community in which 
 education had been universal from its very origin, and 
 where men built the school-house in every neighborhood 
 simultaneously with their own log cabins. The whole 
 people was, as the consequence, imbued with the spirit of 
 liberal learning, and as soon as young Garfield began to 
 show the superiority of his talents in the common school, 
 the suggestion came from every quarter, you should have 
 a collegiate education. An educated community bore him 
 onward towards his great destiny from his very boyhood. 
 This made the task a comparatively easy one. At the 
 timc^ of life when Mr. Lincoln was just beginning to 
 acquire the first rudiments, Mr. Garfield was already a 
 graduate of one of our most renowned colleges. Such is 
 
/. M. STURTEVANT. 277 
 
 the advantage of being born in a community in which the 
 first rudiments of knowledge are universally diffused by 
 the ubiquitous common school. 
 
 That Mr. Lincoln succeeded in surmounting the ob- 
 stacles which hemmed him in on every side, is wonderful 
 indeed. Few men, certainly, have ever risen to greatness, 
 purely by the force of intellectual and moral excellence, 
 by a road so hard as that by which he traveled ; yet he 
 accomplished the mighty task without one of the arts of 
 the demagogue, or one of the vices of the corrupt poli- 
 tician ; and transferred his residence from the obscure log- 
 cabin in the wilderness, to the executive mansion of a 
 mighty nation, in his fifty-third year. Dying by violence in 
 his fifty-seventh year, he left a name behind to be forever 
 spoken with honor and reverence in the halls of the great 
 and in the palaces of kings, and to be cherished with im- 
 perishable affection in the humble dwellings of the poor 
 and lowly. 
 
 Jacksonville, 1882. 
 
2 78 RESPONSE TO A SERENADE. 
 
 RESPONSE TO A SERENADE, 
 
 July, 1863. 
 
 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 sin- 
 cerely 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 his- 
 tory of the world, a nation, by its representatives, assem- 
 bled 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 Jefferson 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 
 
RESPONSE TO A SERENADE. 279 
 
 that very day. And not only so, but in a succession of 
 battles in Pennsylvania, near to us, through three days, 
 so rapidly fought that they might be called one great 
 battle, on the first, second and third of the month of 
 July; and on the fourth the cohorts of those who 
 opposed the declaration that all men are created equal, 
 " turned tail " and run. Gentlemen, this is a glorious 
 theme and the occasion for a speech, but I am not pre- 
 pared to make one worthy of the occasion. I would like 
 to speak in terms of 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 begin- 
 ning 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. 
 
THE FRESIDENTS DISPATCH. 
 
 THE PRESIDENTS DISPATCH, 
 
 July 4. 1863. 
 
 The President announces to the country, that news 
 from the Army of the Potomac, to ten p. ii. of the third, 
 is such as to cover that army with the highest honor ; to 
 promise a great success to the cause of the Union, and to 
 claim the condolence 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 everv'- 
 where remembered, and reverenced with profoundest 
 gratitude. 
 
WEKDLLL PHILLIPS— XO AM PORTER. zZi 
 
 HE was one whom res;. ^ : . . jited, and he 
 
 showed himself more and more nearly equal to 
 duty as year after year laid on hfm ever fresh burdens. 
 tn and God-led and sustained, we must ever be- 
 
 Boston, i:?o. 
 
 THUS saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have 
 I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I 
 helped thee .... That thou mayest say to the pris- 
 oners, go forth ; to them chat are in darkness, show your- 
 selves. — Isaiah xlix. 8, 9. 
 
 c 
 Yale Cou-ege, iSSo. 
 
 
PROCLAMA TION, 
 
 PROCLAMATION. 
 
 The year that Is drawing towards its close has been 
 filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful 
 skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly en- 
 joyed that we are prone to forget the source from which 
 they come, others have been added which are of so extra- 
 ordinary 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 magnitude and severity, 
 which has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the 
 aggressions of foreign states, peace has been preserved 
 with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws 
 have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has pre- 
 vailed everywhere except in the theater of military conflict, 
 while that theater has been greatly contracted by the ad- 
 vancing armies and navies of the Union. The needful 
 diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of peace- 
 ful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the 
 plow, the shuttle, or the ship. The axe has enlarged the 
 borders of our settlements, and the mines as well of iron 
 and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more 
 abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily in- 
 creased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in 
 the camp, the siege and the battle-field ; and the country, 
 rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and 
 vigor, is permitted to expect a continuance of years with 
 
PROCLAMA TION. 283 
 
 large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath de- 
 vised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great 
 things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most Hio-h 
 God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, 
 hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to 
 me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverent- 
 ly, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and 
 voice, by the whole American people. I do, therefore, 
 invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United 
 States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are 
 sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the 
 last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiv- 
 ing and prayer to our beneficent Father, who dwelleth in 
 the heavens. And I recommend to them that, while 
 offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such 
 singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with 
 humble penitence for our national perverseness and diso- 
 bedience, 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 en- 
 gaged, and fervently Implore the Interposition of the Al- 
 mighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to 
 restore It, as soon as may be consistent with the divine 
 purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tran- 
 quillity, and union. 
 
 October 3, 1863. 
 
284 REPLY TO A COMMITTEE. 
 
 REPLY TO COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBY- 
 TERIAN CHURCH (NEW SCHOOL),- 
 
 PHILADELPHIA, 1 863. 
 
 In my administration I might have committed some 
 errors. It would be indeed remarkable if I had not. I 
 have acted according to my 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 another pilot more skillful and suc- 
 cessful than I may prove. In every case, and at all 
 hazards, the Government must be perpetuated. 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. 
 
S. IRENAEUS PRIME. 285 
 
 MY FIRST SIGHT OF MR. LINCOLN. 
 
 HE was riding into the city of New York with 
 military and civic escort, on his way to Wash- 
 ington to be inaugurated for the first time to the Presi- 
 dency of the United States. The country was at that 
 moment in the first throes of the great rebelHon. Mil- 
 hons of hearts were beating anxiously in view of the ad- 
 vent to power of this untried man. Had he been called 
 of God to the throne of power at such a time as this to 
 be the leader and deliverer of the people ? 
 
 As the carriage in which he sat passed slowly by me 
 on the Fifth avenue, he was looking weary, sad, feeble 
 and faint. My disappointment was excessive, so great, 
 indeed, as to be almost overwhelming. He did not look 
 to me to be the man for the hour. The next day I was 
 with him and others in the Governor's room in the City 
 Hall, when the Mayor of the city made to Mr. Lincoln an 
 official address. Of this speech I will say nothing ; but 
 the reply by Mr. Lincoln was so modest, firm, patriotic 
 and pertinent, that my fears of the day before began to 
 subside, and I saw in this new man a promise of great 
 things to come. It was not boldness nor dash, nor high- 
 sounding pledges ; nor did he, in office, with the mighty 
 armies of a roused nation at his command, ever assume 
 to be more than he promised in that little upper chamber 
 in New York, on his journey to the seat of government, 
 
286 S. IRENAEUS PRIME. 
 
 to take the helm of the ship of state then tossing in the 
 storm. During the war, I was dining with a party of 
 which Gen. Burnside was one. A gentleman expressed 
 surprise and regret that the war had not brought to the 
 front in civil service some man of such commanding force 
 of character, will-power and genius as to compel his coun- 
 trymen to accept him as the born statesman for the hour. 
 Gen. Burnside said : "We are drifting, and it is better 
 so. I think Mr. Lincoln is just the man to keep the ship 
 on its course. One more headstrong, willful and resolute 
 might divide and weaken the counsels of the nation. We 
 shall go through and come out all right." It did not 
 please God to spare him until the people were settled in 
 peace in the redeemed and reunited land. But he saw 
 from the mount of vision the goodly sight afar, and died 
 in faith. 
 
 New York, 1882. 
 
ALEX. RAMSEY— C. E. PRATT. 287 
 
 MR. LINCOLN'S life was one of true patriotism, 
 and his character one of honesty and of the 
 highest type of religious sentiment. 
 
 St. Paul, 1882. 
 
 WHEN history crystallizes that the events of a 
 century shall be recorded in a sentence, then will 
 the administrations of Washington and Lincoln be the 
 epochal marks of this age. The former founded a re- 
 public, the latter was the great emancipator of the nine- 
 teenth century. 
 
 < ^r^/tc^ 
 
 Brooklyn, 1880. 
 
288 
 
 LETTER TO GENERAL GRANT 
 
 LETTER TO GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Major-General Grant.— My Dear General : I do 
 not remember that you and I ever met personally. I 
 write this now as a grateful acknowldgement for the al- 
 most 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, except 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 Gibson, 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 acknowledgment that you were right and I was 
 wrong. 
 
JiAV PALMER. 289 
 
 THERE can be, I think, but one opinion among 
 those competent to form a judgment of the gen- 
 eral character and services of Abraham Lincoln. His 
 native genius, the solidity of his understanding, his com- 
 mon sense and remarkable sagacity, his patience and 
 courage, and above all, his incorruptible integrity and 
 steadfast faith in God, gave him eminent administrative 
 ability, made him a noble man, a great statesman and the 
 second Father of his Country. This will, I doubt not, be 
 the judgment of history. 
 
 Newark, 1882. 
 
 19 
 
290 A PROCLAMATION. 
 
 A PROCLAMATION. 
 
 JULY 15, 1863. 
 
 It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the suppli- 
 cation and prayers of an afflicted people, and to vouchsafe 
 to the army and the 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 prosperity 
 permanently secured. But these victories have been ac- 
 corded not without sacrifice of life, limb, and liberty, in- 
 curred by brave, patriotic and loyal citizens. Domestic 
 affliction, in every part of the country, follows in the 
 train of these fearful bereavements. It is meet and right 
 to recognize and confess the presence of th" Almighty 
 Father ; and the power of his hand equally in these tri- 
 umphs and these sorrows. 
 
 Now, therefore, be it known, that I do set apart 
 Thursday, the sixth day of August next, to be observed 
 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 customary places of worship, 
 and, in the form approved by their own conscience, ren- 
 der the homage due to the Divine Majesty, for the won- 
 derful 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 
 
A PROCLAMATION. 291 
 
 needless and cruel rebellion ; to change the hearts of 
 the insurgents ; to guide the counsels of the govern- 
 ment with wisdom adequate to so great a naiional 
 emergency ; and to visit with tender care and consolation, 
 throughout the length and breadth of our land, all those 
 who, through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, 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 submission to the Divine will, back to 
 the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal peace. 
 
 ■rCtyl/tPiA^ ouyhc^Tt'^ 
 
292 PRESENTATION TO U. S. GRANT. 
 
 PRESENTATION OF A COMMISSION AS 
 
 LIEUTENANT-GENERAL TO U. S. 
 
 GRANT. 
 
 General Grant : — 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, are now 
 presented with this commission, constituting you Lieu- 
 tenant-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. 
 
NATIONAL LINCOLN MONUMENT AT SPRINGFIELD. ILLINOIS. 
 
 Unveiled and dedicated, October 15, 1874. Dimensions T2)^ by llO'/z feet square, and 100 feet high. De- 
 signed and modeled by Larkin G. Mead. Cost, $2]:i.0O0. 
 
 Emblematiciil of the Cunstitution of the United States. President Lincoln standing above the coat of 
 arms, with the Infantry, Navy, Artillery, and Cavalry marf^halled aroniid him, wields all for holding the States 
 together in a perpetual bond of Union, without which he could never hope to effect the gnat enemy of human 
 freedom. The grand climax is indicated by President Lincoln with his left hand holding out as a golden 
 sceptre, the Emancipation Proclamation, while in his right he holds the pen with which he had lust 
 written it. The right band is resting on another badge of authority, the American Flag, thrown over the 
 fasces. Atthefootof the/rtsc«s lies a %vreath of laurel with which to crown the President as the victor over 
 Bluvcry and icbclliou. 
 
WM. P. PR YE. 293 
 
 I HAVE no capacity to do justice to the greatness, 
 purity and honesty of Abraham Lincoln, nor to 
 the immense value of his service to our country. The 
 great heart of the nation alone is equal to a work of 
 such macfnitude. He touched the manacles of four mil- 
 lions of men and women, and in the twinkling of an eye 
 they dropped off forever. He wrote a word, and slavery, 
 which had hung like a mill-stone around the neck of the 
 nation, compelling it to bow its head in shame and dis- 
 grace, sunk into oblivion. The possibilities of his life 
 were grand ; how grandly were they realized ! The glory 
 and luster of his name will stand in the history of the 
 nation "more lasting than a monument of brass." 
 
 Lewiston, 1882. 
 
;94 LETTER TO JAMES C. CONK LING. 
 
 LETTER TO JAMES C. CONKLING, 
 
 AUGUST, 1863. 
 
 The signs look better. The Father of Waters again 
 goes unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest 
 for it ; not yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles 
 up they met New England, Empire, Keystone and Jersey, 
 hewing 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 have cleared the great 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 
 Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and on many fields 
 of less note. Nor must Uncle Sam's wet feet be for- 
 gotten. At all the watery margins they have been pres- 
 ent. 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 principle it lives by and keeps alive — 
 for man's vast future — thanks to all. Peace does not ap- 
 pear 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 will then have been proved that 
 among freemen there can be no successful appeal from 
 
LETTER TO JAMES C. CONKLING. 295 
 
 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 
 Avell-poised bayonets, they have helped mankind on to this 
 great consummation, while I fear there will 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 diligently apply the means, 
 never doubting that a just God, in his own good time, 
 will give us the rightful result. 
 
 '7, 
 
296 REPLY TO GOVERNOR SEYMOUR. 
 
 REPLY TO THE LETTER OF GOVERNOR 
 SEYMOUR, OF NEW YORK, 
 
 AUGUST, 1863. 
 
 No time is wasted, no argument is used. This pro- 
 duces an army which will soon turn upon our now vic- 
 torious soldiers in the field, if they shall not be sustained 
 by recruits as they should be. It produces an army with 
 a rapidity not to be matched on our side, if we first waste 
 time to re-experiment with the volunteer system, already 
 deemed by Congress, and palpably, in fact, so far 
 exhausted as to be inadequate, and then more time to 
 obtain a court decision as to whether a law is constitu- 
 tional which requires a part of those not now in the serv- 
 ice to go to the aid of those who are already in it ; and 
 still more time to determine with absolute certainty that 
 we get those who are to go in the precisely legal pro- 
 portion to those who are not to go. My purpose is to 
 be in my action just and constitutional, and yet practical 
 in performing the important duty with which I am 
 charged, of maintaining the unity and free principles of 
 our common country. 
 
EUGENE HALE— ALBERT J. MEYER. 297 
 
 HE was not only the head of an administration 
 which shaped events the mightiest of the century, 
 but its balance-wheel also. The American people 
 owe it to him that the important steps in the war for the 
 preservation of the Union were taken just at the fitting 
 
 moment. 
 
 ^e*:2«,,,/^^t^ 
 
 Ellsworth, 1880. 
 
 4 4 
 
 B 
 
 E just and fear not." 
 
 Gjuu.^^sk\. y^ 
 
 a 
 
 U. S. Signal Service, 1880. 
 
298 ADDRESS 
 
 ADDRESS DN THE BATTLE-FIELD OF 
 GETTYSBURG, 
 
 NOVEMBER 1 9, 1 863. 
 
 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought 
 forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in Lib- 
 erty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are 
 created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, 
 testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived 
 and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a 
 great battle-field of that war. We are met to dedicate a 
 portion of it as the final resting-place of those who here 
 ofave their lives that that nation mio^ht live. It is alto- 
 gether 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 conse- 
 crated it far above our 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 un- 
 finished work that they have thus far so nobly carried on. 
 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 the cause for which they 
 here gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here 
 highly resolve that the dead shall not have died in vain — 
 that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of free- 
 dom, and that the government of the people, by the peo- 
 ple, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
ARTILLERY GROUP OF STATUARY. NATIONAL LINCOLN MONUMENT. 
 
 Representini; three artillerymen, one, an officer standing on a dismounted cannon in an atti- 
 Inde or defiance, wliilo below him is a prostrate soldier, wounded by the same shot that disabled 
 his gun, and a boy in an attitude of sympathy and horror, epringing forward as if to succor his 
 wounded comrade. 
 
C. A. PAYNE. 
 
 299 
 
 GREAT men are divinely called to great missions. 
 As certainly as God called Abraham to be the 
 human founder of his church, or Moses to lead his people 
 out of bondage into liberty, or "girded" Cyrus for his bene- 
 ficent work, though unknown by that famous commander, 
 or commissioned Paul to be the leader of an evanorelistic 
 host, to open the gates of gospel day to heathen nations, 
 or inspired Luther and Wesley to rekindle the fires of 
 religion on the altars of a faithless church, so certainly 
 does it appear to thoughtful minds that he called Abra- 
 ham Lincoln to rise from the log-cabin in the wilderness, 
 through difficulties and obstacles that would have ap- 
 palled a weaker man, to take the helm of the new 
 American nation in its crisis hour, to strike the shackles 
 from an enslaved race, and thence to ascend to a victor's 
 throne and a martyr's crown. 
 
 ^^'o^-y^^^^ 
 
 Delaware, 1880. 
 
300 THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 THIRD ANNUAL MESSAGE TO CONGRESS, 
 
 DECEMBER 8, 1 863. 
 
 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 con- 
 tested regions that the insurgent power will not again 
 overrun them. Until that confidence shall be established, 
 little can be done anywhere for what is called reconstruc- 
 tion. Hence our chlefest care must still be directed to 
 the army and navy, who have thus far borne their harder 
 part so nobly and well. And it may be esteemed fortu- 
 nate, that in giving the greatest efficiency to these indis- 
 pensable 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, disenthralled, regen- 
 erated, enlarged and perpetuated. 
 
CHARLES HENRY HART. 301 
 
 MR. LINCOLN was certainly a most remarkable 
 man. He was undoubtedly well fitted for the 
 times in which he lived, and the emergency that con- 
 fronted him. He began with a very moderate degree of 
 public confidence and sympathy. A large proportion of 
 the community had, at the time of his first election, and 
 for a considerable period afterwards, a painful sense of 
 distrust as to his qualifications for the position to which 
 he had been called. This distrust was slow to yield. 
 Good things were done, but they were all attributed, on 
 account of this preconceived opinion of his ability, to the 
 excellence of his advisers, while the evils and the mistakes 
 were all laid to him. His physical organization must not 
 be overlooked as one of the sources of his success. The 
 great practical men of the world have been, not neces- 
 sarily of large, but of strong bodily frames. To the 
 heathen philosopher, a sound mind in a sound body 
 seemed the greatest good : " Mens sana in cor pore sano'' 
 The discipline of his early life prepared his frame for 
 the laborious duties which were to devolve upon him. 
 It is true that this discipline did not develop his form into 
 a beautiful and graceful one — his warmest friends could 
 not claim that for him — but they could declare that " his 
 large eyes in their softness and beauty expressed nothing 
 but benevolence and gentleness," and that a pleasant 
 smile frequently brought out more vividly the earnest 
 cast of his features, which were serious even to sadness. 
 He has been called by one of his best friends "a wiry, 
 
302 CHARLES HENRY HART. 
 
 awkward giant." He was six feet four inches high ; his 
 arms were long, almost disproportionately so ; his mouth 
 and nose were both exceedingly large ; his features were 
 coarse, and his large hands exhibited the traces of toil. 
 He was not specially attentive to dress, though by no 
 means slovenly. The formal politeness of fashionable 
 life he had not, though the gentleness of the unspoiled 
 child of nature he had. He said once that he had never 
 studied the art of paying compliments to women. Yet 
 they never received a grander one than he paid when he 
 declared : " If all that has been said by orators and 
 poets since the creation of the world, in praise of 
 women, were applied to American women, it would not 
 do them justice for their conduct doing the war." It has 
 been stated that he had none of the grossness of life. 
 He was not a licentious man. He was not addicted to 
 the use of profane language. He did not gamble. He 
 was temperate, and he did not use tobacco in any form. 
 Only those who have known the fearful extent to which 
 these habits prevail among our public men can appre- 
 ciate the honor which the absence of them confers upon 
 the late President. His honesty passed into a proverb, 
 and his integrity was beyond reproach. It was not called 
 in question, even in the height of political excitement and 
 vituperation. His qualities of heart were such as com- 
 mended him to all men. He was naturally disposed to 
 think well of his race. His prepossessions were generally 
 in favor of a man. He would rather love than hate him ; 
 in fact, he seemed as if he could not hate him if he would. 
 The entire absence of vindictiveness, either personal or 
 political, was one of the ripe fruits of his native tender- 
 
CHARLES HENRY HART. 303 
 
 ness. Was he ever heard to have said a hard \\\\w^ of 
 his opponents, or known to have uttered a single word 
 showing personal hate or even personal feeling ? Between 
 him and his predecessors no parallel can be drawn, for no 
 other President ever held the reins of power through 
 four years of virulent rebellion. It is therefore impossi- 
 ble to say how much better or how much worse others 
 would have done. Not graceful nor refined, not always 
 using the English language correctly, he proved to be a 
 meet and proper man for the times. He had the greatness 
 of goodness ; not a powerful nor a brilliant intellect, but 
 plain, practical good sense ; a sincere purpose to do right ; 
 an eminent Catholic spirit that was ready to listen to all 
 sides, and a firm, unshaken belief in the expediency of 
 justice. When others with higher and more profound 
 faculties might have failed, he succeeded, guided by his 
 matchless sagacity and prudence and common sense and 
 native shrewdness. His thoughts were his own; they 
 were fresh and original, and were clothed with a quaint- 
 ness, a directness, a simplicity of style, peculiar to him- 
 self. He had a vein of humor which marked him from 
 all other men in his position, and lost him, perhaps, the 
 reputation of official dignity ; and yet this very humor, 
 which in most important emergencies could not refrain 
 from making the witty repartee or telling the pointe'd 
 anecdote, undoubtedly helped him to endure those 
 fatiofues and cares under which he would otherwise have 
 sunken. 
 
 In the words of Daniel Webster on the death of 
 President Taylor : " He has left on the minds of the 
 country a strong impression ; first, of his absolute honesty 
 
3°4 
 
 CHARLES HENRY HART. 
 
 and integrity of character ; next, of his sound, practical 
 good sense ; and lastly, of the mildness, kindness and 
 friendliness of his temper towards his countrymen. 
 
 Philadelphia, 1882. 
 
G. S. HUBBARD. 
 
 MY acquaintance with the lamented President Lin- 
 coln began in the winter of 1832-3, during the 
 session of the Legislature of this State, of which I was a 
 member, and warmly interested in procuring an act for 
 the construction of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, for 
 which I had introduced a bill, which was defeated. I then 
 introduced a bill for a railroad, instead of a canal, which 
 passed the House, lost in the Senate by the casting vote 
 of the Speaker, Zadoc Casey. At the next session Mr. 
 Lincoln was a member. I, as a lobbyist, attended that and 
 the successive sessions until the passage of the act to 
 construct the canal. Mr. Lincoln, in and out of the Leo-- 
 islature, favored its construction at the earliest possible 
 moment, by his advice, and rendered efhcient aid. Indeed, 
 I very much doubt if the bill could have passed as early 
 as it did without his valuable help. We were thrown 
 much together, our intimacy increasing. I never had a 
 friend to whom I was more warmly attached. His char- 
 acter was nearly faultless. Possessing a warm, generous 
 heart, genial, affable, honest, courteous to his opponents, 
 persevering, industrious in research, never losing sight of 
 the principal point under discussion, aptly illustrating by 
 his stories, always brought into good effect ; he was free 
 from political trickery or denunciation of the private 
 character of his opponents ; in debate firm and collected ; 
 with "charity towards all, malice towards none," he won 
 the confidence of the public, even of his political oppo- 
 nents, 
 
 20 
 
3o6 G. S. HUBBARD. 
 
 His elevation to the highest honor within the gift of 
 the people did not alter his feelings or deportment towards 
 his acquaintances, however humble. The poor and igno- 
 rant, the wealthy and educated, were met with the same 
 cordiality and frankness. This manly and noble course 
 pre-eminently distinguished him ; he had a heart full of 
 tenderness for his fellow-man, wholly void of selfish pride, 
 vanity or cringing adulation. If he, by industry and per- 
 severance, gifted by a superior mind, advanced himself 
 in social position, he did not lose sight of the great prin- 
 ciple ever guiding him, that " all men were created 
 equal." 
 
 I called on him in Washington the year of his inaugura- 
 tion ; was alone with him for an hour or more ; found him 
 greatly changed, his countenance bearing an expression 
 of great mental anxiety, and the whole topic of our con- 
 versation was the then exist'ng civil war, which affected 
 him deeply, though he spoke with confidence of the sup- 
 pression of the rebellion, rejoicing that so large a portion 
 of the people were for using the resources of our country 
 to brine back the rebellious States into the Union. Ex- 
 amining the map hanging on the wall, pointing out the 
 points most strong in the rebel district, he said : " Doug- 
 las and myself have studied this map very closely. I 
 am indebted to him for wise counsel. I have no better 
 adviser, and feel under great obligations to him." I left 
 Washington with a feeling our nation had not misplaced 
 its confidence in choosing him as its President. Two 
 years after I again visited Washington and went to the 
 White House to pay my respects to him ; in the ante- 
 
G. S. HUBBARD. 307 
 
 room was my friend Thos. L. Forrest ; sending in our 
 cards, and waiting nearly two hours without seeing him, 
 conversing by the window opening upon the fine grounds 
 and garden at the rear of the White House. About six 
 o'clock the band from the navy yard appeared and began 
 to play, when Mr. Forrest said: "This is Saturday, 
 when the grounds are open to the public ; the President 
 will present himself on the balcony below ; let us join the 
 crowd." So we adjourned and filed in with the crowd. 
 The President, with Adjutant-Gen. Thomas, were seated 
 on the balcony. The crowd was great, marching com- 
 pactly past the President, the men raising their hats in 
 salutation. As my friend and myself passed he said to me : 
 " The President seems to notice you — turn toward him." 
 "No," I said, "I don't care to be recognized." At that 
 instant Mr. Lincoln started from his seat, advancing 
 quickly to the iron .railing, and leaning over, beckoning 
 with his long arm, called : " Hubbard! Hubbard ! come 
 here." I left the ranks and ascended the stone steps to 
 the gate of the balcony, which was locked. Gen. Thomas 
 saying : " Wait a moment, I will get the key." " Never 
 mind, General," said Mr. Lincoln, " Hubbard is used to 
 jumping — he can scale that fence." I climbed over and 
 for about an hour we conversed and watched the large 
 crowd, the rebel flag being in sight on Arlington 
 Heisfhts. This was the last time I ever saw his face in 
 life, little thinkinor at the time I should be one of the 
 escorts of his honored remains from this city to his last 
 resting-place amid the tears of a sorrowing nation. I 
 simply mention the circumstance of his calling me to sit 
 
3o8 G. S. HUBBARD. 
 
 with him, "as an evidence of his being unchanged by the 
 dignity of his office. I was but an humble citizen, entitled 
 to no such notice. It was the Lincoln of olden times un- 
 expectedly seeing the familiar face of a friend of former 
 years. 
 
 Chicago, 1882. 
 
E. B. MARTINDALE. 309 
 
 IF "by his works he be known," he was the greatest 
 statesman America ever produced. In less than a 
 hundred years his name will be honored and revered above 
 that of any other American name. He was a great man 
 of the people, and the greatest advocate of universal lib- 
 erty — the first President who believed in the letter and 
 spirit of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 Washington, 1880. 
 
310 SPEECH AT A LADIES' FAIR. 
 
 SPEECH AT A LADIES' FAIR IN WASH- 
 INGTON, 
 
 March 21, 1864. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen : — 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. The 
 highest merit, theri, is due to the soldier. 
 
 In this extraordinary war, extraordinary developments 
 have manifested themselves, such as have not been seen 
 in former wars ; and, among these manifestations, noth- 
 ing has been more remarkable than these fairs for the re- 
 lief 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 all that has been said by 
 orators and poets since the creation of the world in praise 
 of women were applied 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. 
 
LEVI P. MORTON— W. S. HANCOCK. 
 
 311 
 
 I HAD only a slight personal acquaintance with Mr. 
 Lincoln, but yield to no one in veneration for his 
 memory, or admiration for his grand qualities of head 
 and heart. 
 
 Legation des Etats-Unis d'Amerique, 
 Paris, 1881. 
 
 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. 
 
 Governor's Island, 1881. 
 
312 LETTER WRITTEN TO A. G. HODGES. 
 
 LETTER WRITTEN TO A. G. HODGES, 
 
 April 4, 1864. 
 
 I ATTEMPT no compliment to my own sagacity. I 
 claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly 
 that events have controlled me. 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 his- 
 tory will find therein new causes to attest and revere the 
 justice and goodness of God. 
 
 ^yr^/^X^-^ cdoHCO^y 
 
ISAAC M'LELLAN. 313 
 
 When clos'd years since the fratricidal strife, 
 
 One latest victim offer'd up his life, 
 
 That plain, good man, who, with life's parting tone, 
 
 Breath'd charity for all, and malice toward none ; 
 
 So kind, so truthful, modest and sincere. 
 
 Prompt to forgive the injury and the sneer ; 
 
 Brimming with gracious love, for all a smile, 
 
 In whose big heart there was no taint of guile. 
 
 Lamented Lincoln, sacred be his rest ! 
 
 With all his mourning country's honors blest! 
 
 Long will the land his tragic end deplore, 
 
 The noblest martyr when the war was o'er. 
 
 He freed the slave ! No chains now bind his hand. 
 All disenthrall'd he proudly walks the land ; 
 'Twas Lincoln's voice emancipation gave, 
 That snapt the gyves and fetters of the slave. 
 Bade him that was a slave be slave no more, 
 Free as God's blessed beams from heaven that pour. 
 
 Shelter Island, 1880. 
 
314 SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF A FAIR. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 AT THE OPENING OF A FAIR IN BALTIMORE, FOR THE BENE- 
 FIT OF THE UNITED STATES SANITARY COMMIS- 
 SION, APRIL, 1864. 
 
 Calling it to mind that we are in Baltimore, we can- 
 not fail to note that the world moves. Looking upon 
 these many people I see assembled here to serve, as they 
 best may, the soldiers of the Union, it at once occurs to 
 me 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, bless- 
 ings 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 declare for liberty, but in 
 using the same wo7^d 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 ; 
 
SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF A FAIR. 315 
 
 while to others the same word 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 
 incompatible things, called by the same name, liberty. 
 And it follows that each of these things is, by the respect- 
 ive parties, called by two different and incompatible 
 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 the same act, as the de- 
 stroyer of liberty, especially 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 
 difference prevails to-day among us human creatures, 
 even in the North, and all professing to love liberty. 
 
3i6 REPLY TO A COMMITTEE. 
 
 REPLY TO A COMMITTEE FROM THE 
 METHODIST CONFERENCE, 
 
 May 14, 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 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 hospitals, 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. 
 
WILLIAM C. MOREY. 317 
 
 HE was the true American, at one with the people 
 in his origin, his simpHcity of character, his 
 rugged manliness, and his stern devotion to the cause of 
 civil liberty. While he lived, he was the friend of his 
 country, and when he died the sense of personal bereave- 
 ment darkened every American home. 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, he widened the bounds of 
 human freedom, and he rendered forever sacred those 
 principles of government which rest upon justice and the 
 equal rights of man. His real epitaph cannot be written. 
 It has received its truest expression in the silent memory 
 of those great historic deeds with which his name is asso- 
 ciated, and which can never, as long as liberty is cherished 
 by man, be effaced from the records of time. 
 
 University of Rochester, 1880. 
 
3i8 EESPONSF.. 
 
 RESPONSE TO A DELEGATION OF THE 
 NATIONAL UNION LEAGUE. 
 
 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 Convention and by the National League. I 
 am not insensible at all to 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 Convention 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 Leaoue 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 horc^ that 
 they might not make a botch of it in trying to swap. 
 
p. T. BARNUM. 319 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S cheerfulness and wit were 
 invaluable to him in the trying years of our civil 
 war. Cheerfulness to a good man or woman is always a 
 mighty sustaining power. Mr. Lincoln's unwavering 
 faith that good would finally overcome evil buoyed his 
 spirits through the darkest hours. Of Mr. Lincoln's in- 
 flexible honesty of purpose, there is but one opinion 
 throuorhout the world. He was a noble, whole-souled, 
 tender-hearted man. He was a model President of this 
 model Republic. His fame is justly immortal. 
 
 Bridgeport, 1880. 
 
320 SPEECH AT THE PHILADELPHIA FAIR. 
 
 SPEECH AT THE PHILADELPHIA FAIR, 
 
 June i6, 1864. 
 
 War, at the best, is terrible, and this war of ours, in 
 its magnitude and in its duration, is one of the most terri- 
 ble. It has deranged business totally in many localities, 
 and partially in all localities. It has destroyed property 
 and ruined homes ; it has produced a national debt and 
 taxation unprecedented, at least in this country ; it has 
 carried mourning to almost every home, until it can 
 almost be said that the "heavens are hune in black." 
 Yet the war continues, and several relieving coincidents 
 have accompanied it from the very beginning, which have 
 not been known, as I understand, or have any knowledge 
 of, in any former wars in the history of the world. The San- 
 itary Commission, with all its benevolent labors ; the Chris- 
 tian Commission, with all its Christian 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 interest in this ques- 
 tion as any other can, but I do not 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 
 
SPEECH AT THE PHILADELPHIA FAIR. 321 
 
 object, a worthy object, and the war will end when that 
 object is attained. Under God, I hope it never will end 
 until that time. Speaking of the present campaign, 
 General Grant is reported to have said, "■ I am goinor 
 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 enables me to speak, I say we are going 
 through on this line, if it takes three years more. 
 
 I have never been in the habit of making predictions 
 in regard to the war, but I am almost tempted to make 
 one. If I were to hazard it, it is this : That Grant is 
 this evening, with General Meade and General Hancock, 
 and the brave officers and soldiers with him, in a position 
 from whence he will never be dislodged until Richmond 
 is taken. And I have but one single proposition to put 
 now, and, perhaps, I can best put it in the form of an in- 
 terrogative — If I shall discover that General Grant and 
 the noble officers and men under him can be greater 
 facilitated In their work by a sudden pouring forward of 
 men and assistance, will you give them to me ? Are you 
 ready to march? [Cries of "yes."] Then, I say, stand 
 ready, for I am watching for the chance. 
 21 
 
322 FROM HIS LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE. 
 
 FROM HIS LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE, 
 
 June 27, 1864. 
 
 I AM especially gratified that the soldier and the sea- 
 man were not forgotten by the convention, as they for- 
 ever must and will be remembered by the grateful coun- 
 try for whose salvation they devote their lives. 
 
U. S. GRANT. 323 
 
 A MAN of great ability, pure patriotism, unselfish 
 nature, full of forgiveness to his enemies, bearing 
 malice toward none, he proved to be the man above all 
 others for the great struggle through which the nation 
 had to pass to place itself among the greatest in the 
 family of nations. His fame will grow brighter as time 
 passes and his great work is better understood. 
 
 Galena, 1880. 
 
324 SAVING A LIFE. 
 
 SAVING A LIFE. 
 
 Some of our generals complain that I impair discipline 
 and subordination in the army by my pardons and res- 
 pites, but it makes me rested, after a day's hard work, 
 if I can find 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 will make him and his family and his friends. 
 
 To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 
 
 Any propositions which embrace the restoration of 
 peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandon- 
 ment of slavery, and which come by and with an author- 
 ity that can control 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. 
 
 July i8, 1864. 
 
THOS. WENT WORTH HIGGINSON. 325 
 
 PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S "Gettysburg address" 
 has always seemed to me the high-water mark of 
 American oratory. It proves, what so many have not dis- 
 covered, that the highest eloquence is simple. 
 
 Cambridge, 1880. 
 
12 6 SPEECH TO A SERENADING CLUB. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 TO A SERENADING CLUB OF PENNSYLVANIANS ON THE 
 NIGHT OF HIS SECOND ELECTION, 1 864. 
 
 Even before I had been informed by you that this 
 compliment was paid me by loyal citizens of Pennsylvania 
 friendly to me, I had inferred that you were of that 
 portion of my countrymen who think that the best 
 interests of the nation are to be subserved by the support 
 of the present administration. I do not pretend to say 
 that you, who think so, embrace all the patriotism and 
 loyalty of the country ; but I do believe, and I trust 
 without personal interest, that the welfare of the country 
 does require that such support and indorsement be given. 
 I earnestly believe that the consequences of this day's 
 work, if it be as you assume and as now seems probable, 
 will be to the lasting advantage, if not to the very salva- 
 tion, of the country. I cannot, at this hour, say what 
 has been the result of the election ; but whatever it may 
 be, 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 interest of their country and 
 the world, not only for the present, but for all future ages. 
 / am thankfid to God for this approval of the people ; but 
 while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in 
 me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free frofn a7iy 
 taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives 
 of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to 
 triumph over any one, but I give thanks to the Almighty 
 for this evidence of the peoples resolution to stand by free 
 government and the rights of humanity. 
 
BENSON J. LOSSING. 327 
 
 MR. LINCOLN A STATESMAN. 
 
 THERE Is a popular impression that the wise states- 
 manship displayed by our national government 
 during the late civil war, in its foreign relations, was al- 
 most wholly due to the direction of the intellect and judo-, 
 ment of Secretary Seward. It is attested, on the contrary, 
 by persons supposed to have knowledge of some of the 
 secrets of the Cabinet of President Lincoln, that some of 
 the wisest acts of statesmanship that marked the career of 
 Mr. Seward in his intercourse with foreign governments, 
 during the administration of Mr. Lincoln, were inspired by 
 the suggestions of the President. In support of the latter 
 position, a single Incident may suffice, which came under 
 the observation of the writer. It had relation to perhaps 
 the most delicate question of right which arose between 
 the United States and Great Britain during that war. 
 The Incident was the surrender of Mason and Slidell, 
 Confederate ambassadors to European courts. 
 
 The writer was In Washington when the news reached 
 there of the capture of those two arch-conspirators against 
 the life of the republic, by Captain Wilkes, commander of 
 the national steam sloop-of-war San Jacinto, whom he had 
 forcibly taken from the British mail steamer Trent. The 
 act of Captain Wilkes was universally applauded by all 
 loyal Americans, and the land was filled with rejoicings 
 because two of the most mischievous men among the 
 enemies of the Government were In custody. For the 
 
328 BENSON J. LOOSING. 
 
 moment, men did not stop to consider the law or the ex- 
 pediency involved in the act. Public honors were 
 tendered to Captain Wilkes, and resolutions of thanks 
 were passed by public bodies. The Secretary of the 
 Navy wrote him a congratulatory letter on the "great 
 public services " he had rendered in " capturing the rebel 
 emissaries, Mason and Slidell," and assured him that his 
 conduct had " the emphatic approval of the department." 
 The House of Representatives tendered him their thanks 
 for the service he had done. But there was one thought- 
 ful man in the nation, in whom was vested the tremen- 
 dous executive power of the republic at that time, and 
 whose vision was constantly endeavoring to explore the 
 mysteries of the near future, who had indulged calmer 
 and wiser thoughts than most men at that critical mo- 
 ment, because his feelings v^rere kept in subjection to his 
 judgment by a sense of heavy responsibility. That man 
 was Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The writer was in the office of the Secretary of War 
 when the telegraphic dispatch announcing the capture of 
 Mason and Slidell was brought in and read. He can 
 never forget the scene that ensued. Led by Secretary 
 Stanton, who was followed by Governor Andrew of 
 Massachusetts, and others who were present, cheer 
 after cheer was heartily given by the company. A little 
 later, the writer, accompanied by the late Elisha 
 Whittlesey, then the venerable First Comptroller of the 
 Treasury, was favored with a brief interview with the 
 President, when the clear judgment of that far-seeing and 
 sagacious statesman uttered through his lips the words 
 
BENSON J. LOSSING. 329 
 
 which formed the suggestion of and the key-note to the 
 judicious action of the Secretary of State afterwards. 
 
 " I fear the traitors will prove to be white elephants," 
 said Mr. Lincoln. " We must stick to American princi- 
 ples concerning the rights of neutrals," he continued. " We 
 fought Great Britain for insisting, by theory and practice, 
 on the right to do just what Captain Wilkes has just 
 done. If Great Britain shall now protest against the act 
 and demand their release, we must give them up, apolo- 
 gize for the act as a violation of our doctrines, and thus 
 forever bind her over to keep the peace in relation to 
 neutrals, and so acknowledge that she has been wrong 
 for sixty years." 
 
 Great Britain did protest and make the demand, also 
 made preparations for war against the United States at 
 the same moment. On the same day when Lord John 
 Russell sent the protest and demand to Lord Lyons, the 
 British minister at Washington, Secretary Seward for- 
 warded a dispatch to Minister Adams In London, inform- 
 ing him that this Government disclaimed the act of 
 Captain Wilkes, and giving assurance that it was ready to 
 make a satisfactory arrangement of all difficulties arising 
 out of the unauthorized act. These dispatches passed 
 each other in mid-ocean. 
 
 The Government, in opposition to popular sentiment, 
 decided at once to restore Mason and Slidell to the pro- 
 tection of the British flag. It was soon afterwards done, 
 war between the two nations was averted, and, In the 
 language of President Lincoln, the British Government 
 was "forever bound to keep the peace In relation to 
 neutrals." 
 
330 BENSON /. LOS SING, 
 
 The wise statesmanship exhibited at that critical time 
 was originated by Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Dover Plains, 1882. 
 
S. G. BARNES— J. M. BAILEY. 
 
 331 
 
 THE right man in the right place was never more 
 clearly seen than in the story of President Lin- 
 coln. His simplicity and humor, his patient wisdom and 
 hopeful courage, his conspicuous integrity and universal 
 charity made him by all odds the most impressive figure 
 of our dark days. And coming years can only make more 
 tender the affection and more profound the reverence 
 which his own age has been proud to give to the savior 
 of his country. 
 
 A^^- 
 
 1880. 
 
 IT must be confessed that Mr. Lincoln's early life gave 
 no promise of the power he showed at the head of 
 the nation ; but I believe he was born for the emergency, 
 and when it came I am confident that of the three in- 
 terested — the emergency, Mr. Lincoln, and the American 
 public — the emergency was the most completely aston- 
 ished. It is my humble judgment that in all the positions 
 the great crisis forced him into he was a perfect fit. 
 
 ,^ ^ ^aytAAV' 
 
 Danbury, 1882. 
 
332 ADDRESS TO THE POLITICAL CLUBS. 
 
 ADDRESS TO THE POLITICAL CLUBS. 
 
 It has long been a grave question whether any 
 government not too strong for the Hberties of Its people 
 can be strong enough to maintain its existence in great 
 emergencies. 
 
 On this point the present rebellion has brought our 
 republic to a severe test, and a presidential election 
 occurring in regular course during the rebellion, has 
 added not a little to the strain. If the loyal people, 
 united, were put to the utmost 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 a 
 free government without elections ; 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. 
 
 The strife of the election is but human nature prac- 
 tically applied to the facts in the case. What has oc- 
 curred in this case must ever recur in similar cases. 
 Human nature will not change. In an}^ future great 
 national trial, compared with the men who have passed 
 through this, we shall 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. 
 
 While I am deeply sensible to the high compliment 
 
ADDRESS TO THE POLITICAL CLUBS. 333 
 
 of a re-election, and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty 
 God for having directed my countrymen to a right con- 
 clusion, as I think, for their own good, it adds nothing 
 to my satisfaction that any other man may be dis- 
 appointed or pained by the result. May I ask those 
 who have not differed with me to join with me in this 
 same spirit towards those who have ? 
 
334 INTERVIEW WITH A GENTLEMAN, 
 
 INTERVIEW WITH A GENTLEMAN. 
 
 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 respect 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 aboli- 
 tion. So long as I am President, it shall be carried on 
 for the sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no 
 human power can subdue this rebellion without the use 
 of the emancipation policy, and every other policy cal- 
 culated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the 
 rebellion. 
 
 August, 1864. 
 
JAMES SHRIGLEY. 335 
 
 MY first visit with Mr. Lincoln was a few days before 
 he issued his Emancipation Proclamation, when I 
 was introduced by the Hon. John Covode. The President 
 was walking his room, apparently under great excitement, 
 and spoke to Mr. Covode in nearly the following words, 
 which made a deep impression on my mind : " I have 
 studied that matter well ; my mind Is made up — it must 
 be done. I am driven to it. There is to me no other 
 way out of our troubles. But although my duty is plain, 
 it is in some respects pamful, and I trust the people will 
 understand that I act not in anger, but in expectation of 
 a greater good." These few words revealed to me some 
 of the noble attributes of his nature. " I do it not in 
 anger, but in expectation of a greater good." Nothing 
 but the honest sense of duty could have induced him to 
 issue that proclamation, and this he desired the people to 
 know, that his motives might not be misunderstood. No 
 man was ever more free from the spirit of revenge or 
 more conscientious in the discharge of his duties. Pres- 
 ident Lincoln was also remarkably tolerant. He was 
 the friend of all, and never, to my knowledge, gave the 
 influence of his great name to encourage sectarianism in 
 any of its names or forms ; he had " charity for all and 
 malice toward none." 
 
 The following is in proof. Immediately after the 
 earliest battles of the war most of the sick and wounded 
 were brought to the Philadelphia hospitals for treatment, 
 and I was in daily receipt of letters from my denomina- 
 
33^ JAMES SHRIGLEY. 
 
 tional friends soliciting me to visit husbands and brothers 
 who were among the sick and wounded. As much of 
 my time was thus occupied, and at considerable expense, 
 it was suggested by the Hon. Henry D. Moore that 
 application be made for the position of hospital chaplain, 
 and it was on the recommendation of Mr. Moore and 
 Governor Curtin that the President made the nomination. 
 Soon as it was announced in the papers that my name 
 had been sent to the Senate for confirmation a self-con- 
 stituted committee of "Young Christians "(?) consulted 
 with a few others, as bigoted as themselves, and volun- 
 teered their services to visit Washington and try to induce 
 the President to withdraw the name. It so happened 
 that when these gentlemen called on the President Mr. 
 Covode was present and made known the interview to a 
 reporter, and it thus became public. It was in substance 
 as follows : 
 
 THE INTERVIEW. 
 
 "We have called, Mr. President, to confer with you 
 in regard to the appointment of Mr. Shrigley, of Phila- 
 delphia, as hospital chaplain." 
 
 The President responded : " Oh, yes, gentlemen ; I 
 have sent his name to the Senate, and he will no doubt 
 be confirmed at an early day." 
 
 One of the young men replied : " We have not come 
 to ask for the appointment, but to solicit you to with- 
 draw the nomination." 
 
 " Ah," said Lincoln, " that alters the case ; but on 
 what ground do you wish the nomination withdrawn ?" 
 
 The answer was, " Mr. Shrigley is not sound in his 
 theological opinions." 
 
JAMES SH RIG LEY. 337 
 
 The President inquired : " On what question is the 
 gentleman unsound ?" 
 
 Response. — " He does not believe in endless punish, 
 ment ; not only so, sir, but he believes that even the 
 rebels themselves will finally be saved." 
 
 " Is that so ?" inquired the President. 
 
 The members of the committee both responded, 
 "Yes," "Yes." 
 
 "Well, gentlemen, if that be so, and there is any way 
 under heaven whereby the rebels can be saved, then, for 
 God's sake and their sakes, let the man be appointed." 
 
 And he was appointed^ and served until the war 
 closed. In relation to this matter the Hon. John Covode 
 wrote Hon. Henry D. Moore as follows : 
 
 "Washington, 29th January, 1863. 
 " Dear Sir : Your friend Mr. Shrigley's appointment 
 was sent to the Senate on the 22d inst. It gives me 
 pleasure to think that I have been able to aid you in 
 this matter. 
 
 " Truly yours, John Covode. 
 
 " P. S. — Believing that both you and I, after our long 
 public services, will be benefited by our friend's prayers, 
 I hope we shall have them. 
 
 "J. C." 
 
 ^__^<;^^:<_-<-<— -«— --^^^ 
 
 ^ — 3 
 
 Philadelphia, 1882. 
 22 
 
338 LETTER TO MRS. GURNEY. 
 
 LETTER TO MRS. ELIZA R GURNEY. 
 
 I HAVE not forgotten, probably never shall forget, the 
 very impressive occasion when yourself and friends 
 visited me on a Sabbath forenoon two years ago. Nor 
 shall your kind letter, written nearly a year later, ever 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 ac- 
 curately 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 earnestly 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 mighty 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 oppres- 
 sion, 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 doubt not, and believe 
 I shall still receive for my country and myself your 
 earnest prayers to our Father in heaven. 
 
 September, 1864. 
 
CECIL F. P. BANCROFT— ASA GRAY. 
 
 339 
 
 THE greatness of the man appears not so much in 
 his courage, his patience, his vigilance, his 
 loyalty, his equanimity, his faith in God and man, as in 
 that instmd of timelines s^\i\Q\\ led him unerringly to seize 
 upon the great opportunity at its very full. In this re- 
 spect he stands without a peer. 
 
 d^ 
 
 Phillips Academy, 1880. 
 
 T 
 
 HE typical American, pure and simple. 
 
 1880. 
 
340 " REPLY TO A COMMITTEE. 
 
 REPLY 
 
 TO A COMMITTEE OF LOYAL COLORED PEOPLE OF BALTI- 
 MORE, PRESENTING THE PRESIDENT WITH A BIBLE 
 COSTING $580. 
 
 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 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. 
 
 October, 1864. 
 
G. T. BEDELL. 341 
 
 AS the best contribution which I can make, is the fol- 
 lowing extract from a letter by the late Rt Rev. 
 Charles P. Mcllvaine, D.D., D.C.L., who knew Mr. Lin- 
 coln well, and was brought into official relations with him. 
 He mourned for him, not only as I do for a great presi- 
 dent, but for a personal friend. 
 
 " The inan^ so wise, so pure, of such simplicity, such 
 inflexible determination to the right, who had done so 
 well in duties and times beyond precedent difficult ; who 
 had gone on winning the confidence, admiration and love 
 of all classes, till there seemed no more to gain ; just fin- 
 ishing his great work, just about to reap the harvest of 
 all his toil, just showing how moderate and wise and ten- 
 der he was going to be, cut down by an assassin ! Oh, 
 how it has smitten the nation's heart !" 
 
 Responding with all my heart to such an estimate of 
 the character of President Lincoln. 
 
 Cleveland, 1882. 
 
34^ REMARKS TO A NEW YORK REGIMENT. 
 
 REMARKS TO THE 189TH NEW YORK REGI- 
 MENT. 
 
 It is said that we have the best Government the 
 world ever knew, and I am glad to meet you, the sup- 
 porters of that Government. To you, who rendered the 
 hardest work in its support, should be given the greatest 
 credit. Others 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. 
 
 October 24, 1864. 
 
IV. B. HAZEN, 
 
 343 
 
 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. Lincoln, more than any man ex- 
 cept Washington, came forward to lead successfully the 
 grand advance of human rights and progress, growing out 
 of the development of the new continent, America. 
 That he was all that his best admirers can claim, is abun- 
 dantly shown by what he did, and the judgment of the 
 world upon it. 
 
 Washington/ 1882. 
 
344 SPEECH TO THE i6^TH OHIO. 
 
 SPEECH TO THE 164TH OHIO. 
 
 There is more involved in this contest than is realized 
 by every one. 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 upon you, if you are not already so im- 
 pressed, that no small matter should divert you from our 
 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 mistakes ; 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. 
 
JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE. 345 
 
 I ONCE had a long day's talk about Abraham Lin- 
 coln with a friend in Kentucky, Joshua F. Speed, 
 who had lived in intimate relation with Lincoln when he 
 was a young lawyer in Springfield, just beginning busi- 
 ness. He said that every case he had took his whole in- 
 terest and attention. Once he had to areue a case in 
 which all depended on finding the right boundary for a 
 piece of land on the prairie. There are no stones there 
 for boundaries, and few trees, so the surveyors were in 
 the habit of fixing the corners of the lots by shoveling 
 up a little heap of earth. But it happened that a prairie 
 squirrel, or gopher, does the same thing. Hence it be- 
 comes important to distinguish between the mounds made 
 by the surveyor and those made by the gopher. Lincoln 
 sent to New York to get books to tell him of the habits of 
 the gopher, brought them into court, showed the judge 
 and jury how the gopher built his mound, how it differed 
 from that of the surveyor, and after he had won his case, 
 sat up late in the night still studying about the gopher, 
 so as to be sure he knew all about him. 
 
 Boston, 1882. 
 
346 REPLY TO A COMPANY OF CLERGYMEN. 
 
 REPLY TO A COMPANY OF CLERGYMEN. 
 
 Gentlemen: — 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 cannot see, all will be well in the end, 
 because our cause is just and God is on our side. 
 
JAMES E. MURDOCH. 347 
 
 I FIRST made Mr. Lincoln's acquaintance in i860, 
 while in Springfield, III, on professional business. 
 We met in the studio of my friend Mr. Thomas Jones, 
 the sculptor, who was at that time modeling Mr, Lincoln's 
 bust. The circumstances were favorable to a conversa- 
 tion on literary subjects, and I was charmed with the 
 earnestness and originality exhibited in Mr. Lincoln's 
 remarks and criticisms. His clear insight into character- 
 ization was apparent in the expression of his conception 
 of the personalities of Falstaff and old Weller, who 
 seemed to be especial favorites with him. He regarded 
 old Weller as a sort of stage-coach embodiment or type 
 of the Fat Knight, the latter being a tavern reflection, as 
 it were, of the velvet-and-brocade or court side of wit and 
 humor, and the other the familiar or road-side phase or 
 expression of it; but both suggestive of ''ike cap-and- 
 belisj' and furnishing the materials for wholesome merri- 
 ment. Speaking of Dickens, he said that his works of 
 fiction were so near the reality that the author seemed to 
 him to have picked up his materials from actual life as he 
 elbowed his way through its crowded thoroughfares, after 
 the manner, in a certain sense, of Shakespeare himself. 
 As there was but little of the metaphysical or speculative 
 element in Mr. Lincoln's mind, though strong in practical 
 philosophy, common sense, and clear moral intuitions, it 
 was not difficult to understand and appreciate the pref- 
 erence he expressed, on this occasion, for the speech of 
 King Claudius : " Oh ! my ofTense is rank and smells to 
 
348 JAMES E. MURDOCH. 
 
 heaven," over Hamlet's philosophical " To be or not to 
 be." He expressed a wonder that actors should have 
 laid so much stress on the thought contained in the latter 
 solilocuiy, and passed with such comparative indifference 
 over the soul-searching expressions of the king, uttered 
 under the stings of self-accusation. " The former," said 
 Mr. Lincoln, " is merely a philosophical reflection on the 
 question of life and death, without actual reference to a 
 future judgment ; while the latter is a solemn acknowl- 
 edgment of inevitable punishment hereafter, for the in- 
 fraction of divine law. Let any one reflect on the moral 
 tone of the two soliloquies, and there can be no mistak- 
 ing the force and grandeur of the lesson taught by one, 
 and the merely speculative consideration in the other, of 
 an alternative for the ills that flesh is heir to." It was 
 very plain how such a mind as his could not fail to be 
 forcibly struck with the truth and grandeur of the follow- 
 ing lines : 
 
 " In the corrupted currents of this world, 
 Offense's gilded hand may shove by justice ; 
 And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself 
 Buys out the law. But 'tis not so above ; 
 There is no shuffling ; there the action lies 
 In his true nature ; and we ourselves compelled, 
 Even to the teeth and forehead of our faults, 
 To give in evidence." 
 
 The conversation turned upon the political condition 
 of the country (it was at the troubled period just previous 
 to Mr. Lincoln's inauguration) and he spoke upon the sub- 
 ject plainly and without hesitation. So deeply was I im- 
 pressed with his hope and faith for the future of the 
 
JAMES E. MURDOCH. 
 
 349 
 
 country and the ultimate triumph of right and justice in 
 its affairs, that glowed in the fervor of his simple and un- 
 affected language, and beamed from his benevolent 
 features, that I lost sight of all the previous impressions 
 that his reputed story-telling proclivities and his broad 
 witticisms had made upon me ; I saw only the man — as the 
 whole world learned to know him — in whom the sacred 
 principles of eternal justice and hum.an rights were to find 
 an honest and unflinching champion in the bitter hours 
 of trial and affliction. 
 
 I will simply add a few words in this connection 
 with regard to the mirthful element of Mr. Lincoln's 
 character. It has too frequently been misunderstood and 
 unjustly censured. The following anecdote furnishes us 
 an instance of the slight ground upon which rested many 
 of the charges made against Mr. Lincoln, of undignified 
 conduct and heartless expressions upon serious and 
 even solemn occasions. The incident was related to me 
 by one who stood at the President's side at the time of 
 its occurrence. One day, a detachment of troops was 
 marching along the avenue singing the soul-stirring 
 strain of "John Brown." They were walled in on either 
 side by throngs of citizens and strangers, whose voices 
 mingled in the roll of the mighty war-song. In the midst 
 of this excitinof scene, a man had clambered into a small 
 tree, on the side-walk, where he clung, unmindful of the 
 jeers of the passing crowd, called forth by the strange 
 antics he was unconsciously exhibiting in his efforts to 
 overcome the swaying motion of the slight stem which 
 bent beneath his weight. Mr. Lincoln's attention was 
 attracted for a moment, and he paused in the serious 
 
35° JAMES E. MURDOCH. 
 
 conversation In which he was deeply interested and in an 
 abstracted manner, yet with a droll cast of the eye, and a 
 nod of the head in the direction of the man, he repeated, 
 in his dry and peculiar utterance, the following old- 
 fashioned couplet : 
 
 " And Zaccheous he, did climb a tree. 
 His Lord and Master, for to see — " 
 
 Amid the laughter of those who had observed the in- 
 congruity of the scene, Mr. Lincoln resumed the serious 
 tone of his remarks, as if nothing unusual had happened. 
 And yet, said my informant, I have heard him charged, in 
 connection with this incident, with a want of proper feel- 
 ing, and even with turning sacred subjects into ridicule. 
 It was evident, said he, that Mr. Lincoln did not employ 
 the quotation in a spirit of levity. It was but an uncon- 
 scious exhibition of the mirthful tendency — or, perhaps, 
 more correctly speaking — necessity of the man's nature. 
 He seemed, as it were, to instinctively select the old-time, 
 ballad-like couplet, from among the mass of quaint and 
 home-spun verse with which his memory was stored, 
 more from the sing-song tone of its jingHng rhyme, 
 which perhaps suggested a likeness to the swinging mo- 
 tion of the man before him, than from any intent to ridi- 
 cule the verses or its allusion to sacred history. It may 
 be that such freaks of fancy were the unpremeditated 
 make-weights by which an over-strained mental activity 
 was prevented from taxing the brain too constantly. 
 
 He who can, for a moment, believe that Mr. Lincoln 
 gave utterance to such an expression in a spirit of levity, 
 or could utter a heartless jest, in the midst of a scene 
 
JAMES E. MURDOCH. 351 
 
 calculated to arouse all the interest and enthusiasm of the 
 mind, and stir every deep and impassioned feeling of the 
 heart, by its grandly solemn surroundings, and inevitably 
 terrible consequences, does not understand the character 
 of Abraham Lincoln. Those soldiers and their imper- 
 iled lives ; the destinies of the cause they were throng- 
 ino- to the front to defend ; the fortunes of the families 
 they left behind ; the bloodshed, misery and suffering in 
 store for the nation ; all this was crowding upon his brain 
 and throbbing in his heart, with as much intensified 
 sympathy and soul-harrowing foreboding as ever wrung 
 the heart of wife or mother, when called upon to sur- 
 render a loved son or a husband to the cause of free- 
 dom. 
 
 The following incident is but one of many instances 
 of his personal sufferings in the general cause. Having 
 called upon Mr. Lincoln on one occasion during the war, 
 by special appointment, at 9 o'clock in the morning, I was 
 shown into a private room. When the President appeared 
 I was surprised to find him in a state of intensified grief 
 and nervous excitement, the very embodiment of woe, the 
 alternate fever and cold of his hand, and his whole physi- 
 cal beino-, indicatinc: an overstrained condition, attendant 
 upon mental and physical agitation and suffering. After 
 a few passing remarks the cause of his condition was ex- 
 plained, when I learned from his lips, for the first time, 
 the news of our defeat at Chancellorville. I shall never 
 forget the kindly and grateful expression of his face when 
 I stated the fact that,- not being aware of the disaster 
 when I came, I felt the propriety of deferring the occa- 
 
352 JAMES E. MURDOCH, 
 
 slon of our Interview to some more fitting time. Receiv- 
 ing an earnest pressure of the hand, and a fervent " God 
 bless you," I left the presence of one whom I felt to be 
 indeed bowed down under the burden of a nation's 
 affliction. And yet, strange as it may appear to those of 
 a different temperament, Mr. Lincoln could, as he cer- 
 tainly did on many an occasion, by force of will, subdue 
 the heart-throb, crush back the rising tear, and turn his 
 thoughts in other channels, molding his features to ex- 
 pression of indifference or mirth. This same " levity," 
 as some white-haired sinners of his day called it, was 
 often the " nice fence," with which he foiled the more 
 serious thrusts made by his opponents, and as such served 
 his purpose, perhaps better than other means might have 
 done. 
 
 Those who knew Mr. Lincoln and loved the man had 
 cause to look through and over such peculiarities, content 
 with an appreciation of the more sterling qualities which 
 generously and thoroughly pervaded his nature. What 
 was said of Thomas Fuller, the facetious, though devout 
 old preacher, who lived in the troublous times of Charles 
 the First, may be as truly said of Mr. Lincoln : '"' He 
 was endowed with that happy buoyancy of spirit which, 
 next to religion itself, is the most precious possession of 
 man." Untiring humor seemed the ruling passion of his 
 soul ; quaintly and facetiously he thought, wrote and 
 spoke, preferring ever a jocose expression even in his 
 gravest moments. 
 
 With a heart open to all innocent pleasure and 
 purged from the leaven of malice and uncharitableness, 
 
JAMES E. MURDOCH. 353 
 
 It was as natural that he should be as full of mirth as 
 it is for the grasshopper to chirp, or bees to hum, or 
 birds to warble in the spring breeze and the bright sun- 
 shine. 
 
 Cincinnati, 1882. 
 
 23 
 
3.';4 SPEECH TO AN OHIO REGIMENT. 
 
 SPEECH TO THE 148TH OHIO REGIMENT. 
 
 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 administra- 
 tion can there be 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 Govern- 
 ment of so much liberty and equality. To the humblest 
 and poorest amongst us are held out the highest privi- 
 leges 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 defend- 
 ing our beloved country and its free institutions by any 
 arguments urged by ambitious and designing men, but 
 stand fast to the Union and the old flag. 
 
CHARLES FOSTER.— HAMILTON FISH. 355 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S name ranks with the pur- 
 /jL est of men, the wisest of statesmen, the most 
 sincere and devoted patriot, the loveliest character of 
 American statesmen. 
 
 Columbus, 1880. 
 
 J 
 
 USTUM ac tenacem propositi virum 
 Non civium ardor prava jubentium 
 Non VLiltus instantis tyranni, 
 Mente quatit solida." 
 
 Horace. 
 
 " With malice toward none, with charity to all, with 
 
 firmness in the right." 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
356 REMARKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 
 
 REMARKS TO A SERENADING PARTY AT 
 THE WHITE HOUSE. 
 
 I AM notified that this is a compliment paid to me by 
 the loyal Marylanders resident in this District. I infer 
 that the adoption of the new Constitution for the State 
 furnishes the occasion, and that, in your view, the extir- 
 pation of slavery constitutes the chief merit of the new 
 Constitution. 
 
 Most heartily do I congratulate you and Maryland, 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 agreeably 
 and profitably disappointed. A word upon another sub- 
 ject. Something said by the Secretary of State, in his 
 recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into 
 a threat that, if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, 
 between then and the end of my constitutional term, do 
 what I may be able to ruin the Government. Others 
 regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned 
 not sine die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a 
 particular individual, as the intimation of a purpose that 
 if their nominee shall be elected he will at once seize the 
 control of the Government. I hope the good people will 
 permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on this point. 
 
REMARKS AT THE WHITE HOUSE. 357 
 
 I am struggling to maintain the Government, not to 
 overthrow it ; I am strugghng especially to prevent others 
 from overthrowing it. I therefore say that, if I shall 
 live, I shall remain President until the fourth of next 
 March, and that whoever shall be constitutionally elected 
 therefor, in November, shall be duly installed as Presi- 
 dent on the fourth of March, and that, in the interval, I 
 shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for 
 the 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, con- 
 stitutionally expressed, is the ultimate law for all. If 
 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 ! 
 
 October 19, 1864. 
 
358 OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 OBSERVANCE OF THE SABBATH. 
 
 The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army 
 and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of 
 the Sabbath by the officers and men in the miHtary and 
 naval service. The importance to man and beast of the 
 prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian 
 soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best 
 sentiment of Christian people, 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 
 the time of public distress," adopting the words of 
 Washington in 1776, "men may find enough to do in the 
 service of their God and their country without abandon- 
 ing themselves to vice and immorality." The first 
 general order issued by the Father of his Country after 
 the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in 
 which our institutions were founded and should ever be 
 defended : " The General hopes and trusts that eveiy 
 officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a 
 Christian soldier defending the dearest rights aJid liberties 
 of his country.'' 
 
 November 16, 1864. 
 
HENRY S. FRIEZE.— CYRUS IV. FIELD. 359 
 
 THE name of Abraham Lincoln will not grow dim 
 with age, like many names brilliant in their own 
 day, yet fading with the lapse of time. But that name 
 will shine with ever-increasing luster, as the results of 
 his public life and services shall be more clearly mani- 
 fested in the increasing greatness of his country, which, 
 without his wise leadership, aided by faithful counselors, 
 would have been dissolved into clusters of insignificant 
 states, forever at war and forever weak. 
 
 1880. 
 
 /te^u^j ^. jy-u^^y^ 
 
 LINCOLN — the statesman, the emancipator, the 
 martyr, whose services to his country will be re- 
 membered with those of Washington. 
 
 <=>• 
 
 ^^^U ^ircjtdj 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
36o LETTER TO MRS. BIX BY. 
 
 LETTER TO MRS. BIXBY OF BOSTON: 
 
 I HAVE been shown on the file of the War Depart- 
 ment a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massa- 
 chusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have 
 died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak 
 and fruitless must be any word of mine which should 
 attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so over- 
 whelming ; but I cannot refrain from tendering to you 
 the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the 
 republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly 
 Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavements, 
 and leave only the cherished memory of the loved and 
 lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have 
 laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
 
 November 21, 1864. 
 
JV. O. BRADLEY. 361 
 
 N' O man has so happily blended in his character child- 
 like simplicity with true greatness and nobility, 
 and combined so great a degree of tenderness with lofty 
 and unflinching courage, as the lamented Lincoln. The 
 energy and perseverance that enabled him to overcome 
 the poverty and obscurity which enshrouded his youth 
 eminently qualified him to encounter and surmount the 
 colossal difficulties that environed his administration. 
 His strong common sense, undaunted patriotism, and 
 wise statesmanship have left an impress on our institu- 
 tions which will never be effaced so long as this is free- 
 dom's home ; and their influence shall not be felt here 
 alone, but throughout the civilized world, for centuries 
 to come. 
 
 He has taken and will hold rank in history with the 
 purest and most illustrious of mankind. Admiring coun- 
 trymen have erected a noble shaft to mark his last rest- 
 ing-place, while in their heart of hearts they have builded 
 a mausoleum that will successfully defy the devouring 
 tooth of time ; but surpassing these is the monument 
 erected by his philanthropic statesmanship, of manacles 
 torn from the limbs of four million slaves. 
 
 Lancaster, 1882. 
 
:62 REMARKS FROM TO A DELEGATION. 
 
 REMARKS TO A DELEGATION FROM OHIO. 
 
 I AM very much obliged to you for this comphment. 
 I have just been saying, and as I have just said it, I will 
 repeat it : The hardest of all speeches which I have to 
 answer is a serenade. I never knew what to say on such 
 occasions. I suppose that you have done me this kind- 
 ness in connection with the action of the Baltimore Con- 
 vention, which has recently taken place, and with which, 
 of course, I am very well satisfied. What we want still 
 more than Baltimore Conventions or Presidential Elec- 
 tions is success under General Grant. I propose that you 
 constantly bear in mind that the support you owe to the 
 brave officers and soldiers in the field is of the very first 
 importance, and we should, therefore, bend all our energies 
 to that point. Now, without detaining you any longer, 
 I propose that you help me to close up what I am now 
 saying with three rousing cheers for General Grant and 
 the officers and soldiers under his command. 
 
F. E. SPINNER. 2^(,.^ 
 
 FROM our official and social relations, for over four 
 years, I had abundant opportunity to know Mr. 
 Lincoln well. I have been a student of human nature 
 and character all my life, and of all the men that have 
 ever challenged my attention, I have never found Mr. 
 Lincoln's equal ; 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 with a dis- 
 criminating mind that led to a correct judgment, was 
 added a conscientiousness of the ri2:ht and a moral 
 couraofe to do it, that enabled him to execute his honest 
 convictions of all the political and social duties that were 
 required of him as a man and a magistrate. 
 
 Jacksonville, i88i. 
 
564 FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. 
 
 FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE 
 
 TO CONGRESS, DECEMBER 6tH, 1 864. 
 
 The most remarkable feature in the military opera- 
 tions of the year is General Sherman's attempted march 
 of three hundred miles directly through the insurgent 
 reofion. It tends to show a orreat increase of our relative 
 strength that our General-in-Chief should feel able to 
 confront and hold in check every active force of the enemy, 
 and yet to detach a well-appointed large army to move 
 on such an expedition. The result not yet being known, 
 conjecture in regard to it is not here indulged. 
 
 Important movements have also occurred during the 
 year to the effect of molding society for durability in 
 the Union. Although short of complete success, it is 
 much in the right direction that twelve thousand citizens 
 in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana have 
 organized loyal State governments, with free constitu- 
 tions, and are earnestly struggling to maintain and ad- 
 minister them. The movements in the same direction — 
 more extensive, though less definite — in Missouri, 
 Kentucky, and Tennessee should not be overlooked. 
 But Maryland presents the example of complete success. 
 Maryland is secure to Liberty and Union for all the 
 future. The genius of rebellion will no more claim 
 Maryland. Like another foul spirit, being driven out, it 
 may seek to tear her, but it will woo her no more. 
 
 In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to 
 
FOURTH ANNUAL MESSAGE. t6: 
 
 O J 
 
 the national authority, on the part of the insurgents, as 
 the only indispensable condition to ending the war on the 
 part of the Government, I retract nothing heretofore said 
 as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, 
 that " while I remain in my present position I shall not 
 attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proc- 
 lamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who 
 is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of 
 the acts of Congress." If the people should, by what- 
 ever mode or means, make it an executive duty to re- 
 enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their 
 instrument to perform it. 
 
 In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply 
 to say that the war will cease on the part of the Govern- 
 ment whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those 
 who began it. 
 
REPLY TO AN ILLINOIS CLERGYMAN. 
 
 REPLY TO AN ILLINOIS CLERGYMAN. 
 
 " 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. Yes, I do love Jesus." 
 
INFANTRY GROUP OF STATUARY. 
 MONUMENT. 
 
 NATIONAL LINCOLN 
 
 Representing a body of infantry soldiers on the march. They are fired 
 upon from i<oine covert place, and the color-bearer killed. The captain 
 raises the colois with one hand, and with the other points to the enemy 
 and orders a b lyonet charge, whieli the i)rivate on his right is in iho act of 
 i^xecutini;. The drunnuer-boy becomes excited, loses his cap, throws 
 away his haversack, puts one drumstick in his belt, draws a revolver and 
 engages in the conflict, The exploded shell indicates that they are on 
 ground that has been fought over before. 
 
W. T. SHERMAN. 
 
 367 
 
 MEMOIRS OF GENERAL W. T. SHERMAN. 
 
 [Extract.] 
 
 I KNOW, when I left him, that I was more than ever 
 impressed by his kindly nature, his deep and earnest 
 sympathy with the afflictions of the whole people, result- 
 ing from the war, and by the march of hostile armies 
 through the South ; and that 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. In the language of his second inaugural 
 address he seemed to have " charity for all, malice toward 
 none," and, above all, an absolute faith in the courage, 
 manliness, and integrity of the armies in the field. When 
 at rest or listening, his legs and arms seemed to hang 
 almost lifeless, and his face was care-worn and haes'ard : 
 but the moment he began to talk his face lightened up, his 
 tall form, as it were, unfolded, and he was the very im- 
 personation of good-humor and fellowship. The last 
 words I recall as addressed to me were that he would 
 feel better when I was back at Goldsboro'. We parted 
 at the gang-way of the River Queen about noon of 
 March 28th, and I never saw him again. Of all the men 
 I ever met, he seemed to possess more of the elements of 
 greatness, combined with goodness, than any other. 
 
 Washington, 1880. 
 
368 INSTRUCTIONS. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS 
 
 GIVEN BY MR. LINCOLN TO WM. H. SEWARD, AT THE MEET- 
 ING OF MESSRS. STEVENS, HUNTER AND CAMP- 
 BELL, AT FORTRESS MONROE, VA. 
 
 First, the restoration of the national authority 
 throughout all the States ; second, no receding by the 
 Executive of the United States, on the slavery question, 
 from the position assumed thereon in the late annual 
 message to Congress and in the preceding documents ; 
 no cessation of hostilities short of the end of the war, 
 and the disbanding of all the forces hostile to the Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 January 31, 1865. 
 
GLENN I IF. SCO FIELD. 369 
 
 A PRIVATE soldier from my congressional district 
 having been convicted of knocking down his cap- 
 tain, was sentenced to two years' labor on the Dry Tortu- 
 gas. With some of his neighbors I called upon President 
 Lincoln to solicit a pardon. He appeared completely 
 worn out, and complained of weariness ; said he was un- 
 able to look after details, and we must go to Stanton. 1 
 told him we had been there, but he declined to interfere. 
 "Then, said the President, "attend to it yourselves at 
 the Capitol." I inquired what Congress could do in the 
 matter, and quick as thought he said : " Pass a law that 
 a private shall have a right to knock down his captain." 
 But after the wit came the pardon. 
 
 Warren, 1 880. 
 
 24 
 
SECO.Vn INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, 
 
 DELIVERED xMARCII 3, 1 865. 
 
 " Fellow Countrymen : At this second appearing 
 to take the oath of the presidential office, there is less 
 occasion for an extended address than there was at the 
 first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a course 
 to be pursued seemed fitting and proper. Now, at the 
 expiration of four years, during which public declarations 
 have been constantly called forth on every point and 
 phase of the great contest which still absorbs the atten- 
 tion and engrosses the enerjjies of the nation, little that is 
 new could be presented. The progress of our arms, 
 upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to 
 the public as to myself, and it is, I trust, reasonably 
 satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for 
 the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 
 
 " On the occasion corresponding to this, four years 
 ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending 
 civil war. All dreaded it ; all souorht to avert it. While 
 the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, 
 devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, 
 insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it 
 without war — seekins: to dissolve the Union and divide 
 its effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war ; 
 but one of them would make war rather than let the 
 nation survive, and the other would accept war rather 
 than let it perish. And the war came. 
 
SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 3-1 
 
 " Both could not be answered — those of neither have 
 been answered fully. The Almi^^hty has his own pur- 
 poses. Woe unto the world because of offenses ! for it 
 must needs be that offenses come ; but woe to that man 
 by whom the offense cometh. 
 
 "If we shall suppose that American slavery is one 
 of those offenses which, in the providence of God, must 
 needs come, but which, having continued through his 
 appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he 
 crives to North and South this terrible war, as the woe 
 due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern 
 therein any departure from those Divine attributes which 
 the believers in a living God always ascribe to him ? 
 Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty 
 scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills 
 that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bonds- 
 man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall 
 be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash 
 shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was 
 said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said : 
 'The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous 
 altogether.' 
 
 " With malice toward none, with charity for all, witli 
 firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let 
 us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up the 
 nation's wounds ; to care for him who shall have borne 
 the battle, and for his widow and for his orphan ; to do 
 all which may achieve and cherish a just ^and lastmg 
 peace among ourselves, and with all nations. 
 
REMARKS ON THE FALL OF RICHMOND. 
 
 REMARKS UPON THE FALL OF 
 RICHMOND. 
 
 We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness 
 of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, 
 and the surrender of the principal insurgent army, give 
 hope of a righteous and speedy peace, whose joyous 
 expression cannot be restrained. In the midst of this, 
 however. He from whom all blessings flow must not be 
 forgotten. Nor must those whose harder part give us 
 the cause of rejoicing be overlooked ; their honors must 
 not be parceled out with others. I myself was near the 
 front, and had the high pleasure of transmitt^ng much 
 of the good news to you ; but no part of the honor, for 
 plan or execution, is mine. To General Grant, his skill- 
 ful officers and brave men, all belongs. 
 
LAWRENCE BARRETT— NEAL DOW 
 
 373 
 
 'Tr)ESIDES .... lie hath borne liis faculties so meek, 
 \~J Hath been so clean in his great office 
 That his virtues will plead like angels, trumpet-tongued, 
 Against the deep damnation of his taking off. 
 And Pity, like a naked, new-born babe, striding the blast, 
 Or Heaven's cherubim, horsed on the sightless couriers of 
 
 the air. 
 Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye, 
 That tears shall drown the wind." 
 
 CoHASSET, 1880. 
 
 I BE LI EVE in Divine inspiration for good, and that 
 God sometimes intervenes in the affairs of man. 
 Abraham Lincoln, in my view, was charged with a Divine 
 mission, which he executed wisely and well, and is justly 
 entitled to the reverence, gratitude and love of all loyal 
 citizens of our great republic. 
 
 A 
 
 j^^i^^^J^- 
 
 '^^>-t^^ 
 
 Portland, 1882. 
 
374 A VERBAL MESSAGE. 
 
 A VERBAL MESSAGE GIVEN BY MR. LIN- 
 COLN TO HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX, 
 FOR THE MINERS OF THE 
 FAR WEST, 
 
 April 14, 1865. 
 
 Mr. Colfax : — I want you to take a message from 
 me to the miners whom you visit. I have very large 
 ideas of the mineral wealth of our nation. I believe it 
 practically inexhaustible. It abounds all over the 
 western country, from the Rocky Mountains to the Pa- 
 cific, and its development has scarcely commenced. 
 During the war, when we were adding a couple of millions 
 of dollars every day to our national debt, I did not care 
 about encourao^ins^ the increase in the volume of our 
 precious metals. We had the country to save first. 
 But, now that the rebellion is overthrown, and we know 
 pretty nearly the amount of our national debt, the more 
 gold and silver we mine makes the payment of that debt 
 so much the easier. Now, I am going to encourage that 
 in every possible way. We shall have hundreds of 
 thousands of disbanded soldiers, and many have feared 
 that their return home in such great numbers might 
 paralyze industry by furnishing suddenly a greater supply 
 of labor than there will be a demand for. I am going to 
 try and attract them to the hidden wealth of our mountain 
 ranges, where there is room enough for all. Immigration, 
 which even the war has not stopped, will land upon our 
 
A VERBAL MESSAGE. 375 
 
 shores hundreds of thousands more per year from over- 
 crowded Europe. I intend to point them to the gold 
 and silver that waits for them in the West. Tell the 
 miners from me that I shall promote their interests to the 
 utmost of my ability, because their prosperity is the pros- 
 perity of the nation ; and we shall prove, in a very few 
 years, that we are, indeed, the treasury of the luorld. 
 
 Mr. Lincohi went to the opera, saying: — " People may 
 think strange of it, but I 7mist have some relief from this 
 terrible anxiety, or it will kill me." 
 
 April 14TH, 1865. 
 
[Fac-simile of Theatrical Programme of the night of President Lincolri's Assassination.'] 
 
 FORD'S THEATRE, 
 
 TENTH STREET, WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 14ih, 1865. 
 
 Tins EVENING 
 
 the performance will be honored by the presence of 
 
 PRESIDENT LINCOLN. 
 
 Benefit and last night of MISS 
 
 The distinguished Manageress, Authoress and Actress, supported by- 
 Mr. JOHN DYOTT and Mr. HARRY HAWK. 
 
 Tom Taylor's celebrated Eccentric Comedy as originally produced in 
 
 America by Miss Keenc, and performed by her upwards of 
 
 ONE THOUSAND NIGHTS 
 
 ENTITLED 
 
 OUR AMERICAN COUSIN. 
 
 FLORENCE TRENCHAllD Miss LAURA KEENE, 
 
 Abel Murcott John Dyott. 
 
 Asa Trenchard Harry Hawk. 
 
 Sir Edward Trenchard T. C. Gourlaj\ 
 
 Lord Dundreary E. A. Emerson. 
 
 Mr. Coyle, Attorney J.Mathews. 
 
 Lieut. Vernon, R, N W. J. Ferguson. 
 
 Captain De Boots C. Byrnes. 
 
 Binney G. G. Spear. 
 
 Buddicomb. a valet J. H. Evans. 
 
 John Whicker, a gardner J. L. De Bonay 
 
 Rasper, a groom 
 
 Baililfs G. A. Parkhurst and L Johnson. 
 
 Mary Trenchard Miss J. Gourla}-. 
 
 Mrs. Mountchessington Mrs. H. Muzzcy. 
 
 Augusta Miss H. Truman. 
 
 Georgiana. Miss M. Hart. 
 
 Sharpe Mrs. J. U. Evans. 
 
 Skillet. MissM. Gourlay. 
 
 THE PRICES OF ADMISSION : 
 
 Orchestra, $1 00 I Dress Circle and Parquetto. $ 75 
 
 Family Circle 25 | Private Boxes, ... $0 00 and $10 00 
 
 J. R. FORD, Business Manager. 
 
 11. PoLKinHORN & Son, Printers, Washington, D. C. 
 
MARTIN L. nOOGE— CHARLES A. DANA 377 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN is the purest man of the 
 i\ people known to history. In his public career he 
 was as incorruptible as Aristides the Just, as sagacious as 
 William the Silent, as brave as Cromwell, and as unselfish 
 as Codrus the Athenian, who fell in the forefront of the 
 battle, that by the sacrifice of his life he might be the 
 preserver of his country. 
 
 University of Michigan, 1880. 
 
 HE was a patriot and a wise man. The fundamental 
 ideas of the American republican system con- 
 trolled his mind and dictated his action. His wisdom 
 carried the United States safely through the war of 
 secession and abolished slavery. His death was a 
 calamity for the country, but it left his fame without a 
 fault or criticism. 
 
 New York, 1881. 
 
378 ALEXANDER H. RICE. 
 
 PERHAPS no quality in the character of the late 
 President Lincoln was more conspicuous or more 
 engaging than his broad and deep humanity — the interest 
 he felt in every human being — and the unostentatious 
 and beautiful manifestations of it which were visible to all 
 who had intercourse with him. 
 
 No person of much sentiment or sensibility ever 
 looked into his wonderful eyes without feeling the spell 
 which they exerted, or without knowing that they 
 were the windows throucjh which a grreat soul was 
 looking upon the problems of life and the actors in them, 
 with a calm, philosophic and loving sympathy. This was 
 one of the secrets of the magical power of Lincoln's 
 presence. 
 
 He was mirthful, talkative and sad by turns ; fond of 
 superficial anecdotes, and invented and used them at con- 
 venience or pleasure, to furnish amusement, to parry a 
 bore, or to point an argument. He was familiar and 
 companionable in ordinary intercourse, always neglectful 
 of assuming any unreal dignity, and apparently uncon- 
 scious of the greatness of his office, except only the great- 
 ness of its responsibilities. To a casual observer, he 
 was homely in person and awkward in manners ; and yet 
 he was a man with whom no one could presume to trifle. 
 and before whom, even in his playful moods, every one 
 was impressed by his greatness of spirit. 
 
 We have had no man in our history like Lincoln in his 
 leading characteristics, and they cannot be imitated. He 
 
ALEXANDER H. RICE. 379 
 
 had not much of the serene and contemplative gravity 
 which belongs to our traditional Washington ; none of 
 the imperious personality of Jackson ; none of the win- 
 some and chivalric dash of Henry Clay ; none of the 
 ponderous eloquence of Webster, and but little of that 
 polite learning which gives high ornament to literature 
 and statesmanship ; but he had a subtle and comprehen- 
 sive intellect, wonderful power of intuition, and a trans- 
 parency of soul through which the truth shone into affairs 
 and gave them an interpretation almost divine. 
 
 Nobody ever feared that Lincoln would do a mean or 
 wrong thing ; no one dreaded a foolish thing from him ; 
 and the country came, finally, to expect from him the 
 wisest and best that could be done in every case and on 
 every subject. 
 
 It is doubtful if any man born and reared under the 
 civilization of the older States could ever have become a 
 characteristic Lincoln. To produce him the rough sim- 
 plicity of frontier life was necessary ; its needs, its priva- 
 tions, its efforts, its self-reliance — that whole sphere of 
 experience in which the daily life, though simple, is yet 
 full of problems such as can be, and must be, solved ; and 
 which are but the epitome of those larger problems 
 which, later on, demand the strongest and most versatile 
 powers in their solution. In that simple life the facts 
 and uses of knowledge, rather than its verbiage, are ac- 
 quired and appreciated ; all the faculties are quickened 
 and toughened a more quiet contact with nature is en- 
 joyed ; and out of that contact often comes the con- 
 sciousness of a mysterious Power greater than nature, 
 between which and men a communion more or less 
 
38o ALEXANDER H. RICE. 
 
 palpable is possible, a communion which gives to human 
 actions the elements of dignity and power that extend far 
 above and beyond the realm and the period of earthly 
 existence. Lincoln was a man of profound spirituality. 
 All this, and much that might be added, was essential to 
 the development of a man like Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 But I intended to speak especially and almost wholly 
 of the humanity of Lincoln — of his love for the whole 
 race of men, and of his sympathy with individuals In their 
 trials and distresses. Passing by those great public acts, 
 his Proclamation of Emancipation and the like, which have 
 become historic, and which have modified the laws and 
 institutions and even the civilization of the country, let 
 me give a few personal incidents which have never been 
 published. 
 
 While officially resident in Washington, during the 
 late war, I once had occasion to call upon President 
 Lincoln with the late Senator Henry Wilson, upon an er- 
 rand of a public nature In which we were mutually inter- 
 ested. In the recognized order of precedence a member 
 of the House of Representatives, as I then was, could not 
 times of pressure for audience with the President gain 
 admittance so lono" as there were Cabinet Ministers, 
 members of the Diplomatic Corps, Senators or Justices 
 of the Supreme Court desiring audience with him, and 
 all civilians must wait their opportunity until after 
 members of Congress and officers of the Army and Navy, 
 and of the Civil Service and others, had had their turns 
 respectively. Having a joint errand with Senator Wilson, 
 I could avail of his privilege of earlier admission ; but we 
 were obliged to wait some time in the anteroom before 
 
ALEXANDER H. RICE. 38, 
 
 we could be received, and when at length the door was 
 opened to us, a small lad, perhaps ten or twelve years old, 
 who had been waiting for admission several days without 
 success, slipped in between us, and approached the Pres- 
 ident in advance. The latter gave the Senator and 
 myself a cordial but brief salutation, and turning im- 
 mediately to the lad. said: "And who is the little boy?" 
 During their conference the Senator and myself were ap- 
 parently forgotten. The boy soon told his story, which 
 was in substance that he had come to Washington seek- 
 ing emplo)mcnt as a page in the House of Representa- 
 tives, and he wished the President to give him such an 
 appointment. To this the President replied that such 
 appointments were not at his disposal, and that applica- 
 tion must be made to the door-keeper of the House at 
 the Capitol. " But, sir," said the lad, still undaunted, 
 "I am a good boy, and have a letter from my mother, 
 and one from the supervisors of my town, and one from 
 my Sunday-school teacher, and they all told me that I 
 could earn enough in one session of Congress to keep my 
 mother and the rest of us comfortable all the remainder 
 of the year." The President took the lad's papers, and 
 ran his eye over them with that penetrating and absorb- 
 ing look so familiar to all who knew him, and then took 
 his pen and wrote upon the back of one of them: "If 
 Captain Goodnow can give a place to this good little 
 boy, I shall be gratified," and signed it "A. Lincoln." 
 
 The boy's face became radiant with hope, and he 
 walked out of the room with a step as light as though 
 all the angels were whispering their congratulations. 
 
 Only after the lad had gone did the President seem 
 
382 ALEXANDER H. RICE. 
 
 to realize that a Senator and another person had been 
 some time waiting to see him. 
 
 Think for a moment of the President of a great 
 nation, and that nation engaged in one of the most 
 terrible wars ever waged among men, himself worn down 
 with anxiety and labor, subjected to the alternations of 
 success and defeat, racked by complaints of the envious, 
 the disloyal and the unreasonable, pressed to the decision 
 ofgrave questions of public policy, and encumbered by the 
 numberless and nameless incidents of civil and martial 
 responsibility, yet able so far to forget them all as to 
 give himself up for the time being to the errand of a little 
 boy who had braved an interview uninvited, and of whom 
 he knew nothing, but that he had a story to tell of his 
 widowed mother, and of his ambition to serve her. 
 
 On another occasion I had an interview with Presi- 
 dent Lincoln on behalf of a captain in one of our 
 Massachusetts regiments, a brave man, who, after most 
 valiant service, had been captured by the rebels, and was 
 then held a prisoner at Richmond. I asked that he 
 might be exchanged. The President replied with much 
 kindness that such cases were so numerous that he could 
 not deal with them individually, but must classify and 
 decide them in considerable numbers. This was obvi- 
 ously so true as scarcely to admit of reply ; yet I ventured 
 to say that if he could but hear this case, I thought it so 
 remarkable that he would be glad to make it an excep- 
 tion. " Well, state it," he said, and I did so ; and im- 
 mediately on my closing, the President said, " I wish you 
 would go over to the War Department and tell Gen. 
 that story, just as you have told it to me, and say 
 
ALEXANDER II. RICE. 583 
 
 from me that if it be possible for him to effect the ex- 
 change of Captain without compromising the cases 
 
 of other prisoners of his rank, I wish him to do so," 
 " But," I said, " for a technical misdemeanor Captain 
 has, since his capture, been deprived of his com- 
 mission and reduced to the ranks, and probably the 
 rebels will not exchange him for a private soldier." 
 
 "Well," said the President, "if Gen. raises that 
 
 point, say to him that if he can arrange the exchange 
 part, I can take care of the rank part, and I will do so." 
 The captain was in Washington in about ten days after- 
 wards. 
 
 Again, a boy from one of the country towns of Mas- 
 sachusetts, who had entered a store in Boston, and be- 
 come dazzled by the apparent universal distribution of 
 wealth, without any definite idea of how it was acquired, 
 fell into the fault of robbing his employer's letters as he 
 took them to and from the post-office, and, having been 
 convicted of the offense, was serving out his sentence in 
 jail. The father of this boy came to Washington to ob- 
 tain a pardon for his son, and I accompanied him to the 
 White House and introduced him. A petition signed 
 by a large number of respectable citizens was presented. 
 The President put on his spectacles and stretched himself 
 at length upon his arm-chair while he deliberately read the 
 document, and then he turned to me and asked if I met 
 a man going down the stairs as I came up. I said that I 
 did. "Yes," said the President; "he was the last person 
 in this room before you came, and his errand was to get 
 a man pardoned out of the penitentiary ; and now you 
 have come to get a boy out of jail !" Then, with one of 
 
384 ALEXANDER H. RICE. 
 
 those bursts of humor which were both contagious and 
 irresistible, he said : " I'll tell you what it is, we must 
 abolish those courts, or they will be the death of us. I 
 thought it bad enough that they put so many men in the 
 penitentiaries for me to get out ; but if they have now 
 begun on the boys and the jails, and have roped you into 
 the delivery, let's after them ! And they deserve the 
 worst fate," he soon continued, ''because, according to 
 the evidence that comes to me, they pick out the very 
 best men and send them to the penitentiary ; and this 
 present petition shows they are playing the same game 
 on the good boys, and sending them all to jail. The 
 man you met on the stairs affirmed that his friend in the 
 penitentiary is a most exemplary citizen, and Massa- 
 chusetts must be a happy State if her boys out of jail 
 are as virtuous as this one appears to be who is in. 
 Yes ; down with the courts and deliverance to their 
 victims, and then we can have some peace !" 
 
 During all this time the President was in a most 
 merry mood. Then his face assumed a sad and thought- 
 ful expression, and he proceeded to say that he could 
 quite understand how a boy from simple country life 
 might be overcome by the sight of universal abundance 
 in a large city, and by a full supply of money in the 
 pockets of almost everybody, and be led to commit even 
 such an offense as this one had done, and yet not be 
 justly put into the class of hopeless criminals ; and if he 
 could be satisfied that this was a case of that kind, and 
 that the boy would be placed under proper influences, 
 and probably saved from a bad career, he would be glad 
 10 extend the clemency asked for. The father explained 
 
ALEXANDER H. RICE. 385 
 
 his purpose in that respect, the Congressmen from the 
 State in which he belonged united in the petition, and the 
 boy was pardoned. 
 
 Such examples as these, varying in character, but 
 all springing from the same tender and noble qualities 
 of heart, might be multiplied almost indefmitely ; but 
 they all found culmination in that grandest utterance of 
 modern eloquence, at the consecration of the battle-field 
 of Gettysburg, when, the promptings of his soul having 
 summoned his intellect to the point of supreme exalta- 
 tion, he spoke to all mankind those 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. 
 
 Boston, 1882. 
 
 25 
 
386 A. A. E. TAYLOR— H. L. DAWES. 
 
 THE name of Abraham Lincoln will ever stand in 
 history and in the hearts of his own countrymen 
 beside the name of Washington. His genius, wisdom 
 and goodness saved the Union ; his great heart liberated 
 the slaves. Christian people believe he was raised up 
 by the divine Hand for the deliverance of the nation, and 
 guided in its accomplishment. In my humble judgment 
 his name is the greatest in American history. 
 
 University of Wooster, 1880. 
 
 w 
 
 ASHINGTON was the Father, and Lincoln the 
 Savior, of his Country. 
 
 PiTTSFIELD. 1880. 
 
PETER COOPER. 
 
 387 
 
 I HAVE always had the greatest admiration for the 
 amiable, simple and honest traits of Mr. Lincoln's 
 character. I believe that, under the providence of God, 
 he was, next to Washington, the greatest instrument for 
 the preservation of the Union and the integrity of the 
 country ; and this was brought about chiefly through his 
 strict and faithful adherence to the Constitution of his 
 country. 
 
 New York, i88o. 
 
388 /. IV. ANDREWS— P. A. CHADBOURNE. 
 
 IN the revolutionary struggle George Washington was 
 raised up to be our great leader in the achievement 
 of national independence ; and in the rebellion Abraham 
 Lincoln was placed in the Presidential chair to preserve 
 the Union from dissolution and destruction. Each of 
 these great men seems to have been chosen of God for 
 his special work, and the names of Washington and 
 Lincoln will forever be united in the memory and love 
 of the American people. 
 
 Marietta College, 1880. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was the man for the times ; 
 and In the great work he accomplished for his 
 country, and in the cause of human rights, he has not 
 been surpassed by any of the greatest and best men of 
 our land. 
 
 Williams College. 
 
M. F. BIGNEY. 389 
 
 IN the broadest and best sense of the term, Abraham 
 Lincoln was America's great " Commoner." Pos- 
 sibly he builded wiser than he knew, for while 
 
 "He carved his name on time as on a rock, 
 And stood thereon as on a monument," 
 
 he was apparently unconscious as an infant-giant of his 
 own high possibilities. A patriot without pretense, and 
 a statesman by intuition, he could still descend to the 
 level of the humblest, ever ready with a jest to point a 
 moral, and with a story to confound a sophist. 
 
 At the time when bloody treason flourished and he 
 fell, the Southern people, unjustly accused of sympathy 
 with his assassin, were just beginning to appreciate his 
 sterling qualities and the wisdom of his acts. His death 
 was to the North a bereavement and a grief ; to the 
 South it was a dire calamity which hindered the consum- 
 mation of that "more perfect union" for which all good 
 people prayed ; and to-day the men and women of the 
 South, without distinction of race or color, cherish the 
 memory of the Martyr-President as that of a Deliverer. 
 
 He, whom the people honored; he, the wise, 
 
 Who fought for honor's prize; 
 He, whom the armies reverenced— the good, 
 
 Who every lure withstood; 
 He, whom the ransomed worshiped; he, the blest, 
 
 Has gone to his great rest! 
 
390 
 
 J/. F. BIGNEY. 
 
 When through war's storm-cloud the fair silver light 
 
 Of peace appeared most bright, 
 Red-handed murder raised against his life 
 
 The pistol and the knife, 
 And HE, the great, the good, the nation's Chief 
 
 Fell, leaving all in grief. 
 
 New Orleans. i88i. 
 
JAMES MARVIN-C. M. MEAD. 351 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. AN AMERICAN, I 
 find all the characteristics of the ideal American 
 embodied in this great, good max. Coming ages alone 
 can properly estimate the value of his services to this 
 country and to human freedom in all lands. 
 
 dXA.'<>^-z>i'£^ 
 
 Lawrenxe, 1880. 
 
 No other statesman in the world's history has ever 
 won from so many men their personal affection, 
 thorough confidence and enthusiastic admiration, as 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Andover Theological Seminary, 1880. 
 
39^ 
 
 O. O. HO WARD. 
 
 I MET Mr. Lincoln several times during the war, and 
 always entertained for him feelings of confidence 
 and esteem, and finally of great personal affection. The 
 last time I saw him was in the fall after Gettysburg, at 
 the White House. It was just prior to my leaving the 
 Army of the Potomac for the West with a part of the 
 nth Corps. He gave me his map, which, being 
 " mounted," was in his judgment better than mine for 
 field service. This was after we had conversed for some 
 time upon the military situation in the vicinity of Knox- 
 ville and of Chattanooga, and just as I was about leaving 
 his room. I used the map thereafter, and have it still. 
 
 ^^>^^\>^UWrr^ 
 
 West Point, 1882. 
 
WILLIAM M'NEELY. 393 
 
 MY first acquaintance with Abraham Lincoln com- 
 menced on his arrival at New Salem, Saneamon 
 County, Illinois, on a flat-boat, about the year 1830, in 
 company with one Denton Offeit, who had a store. 
 Lincoln clerked for him some time, after which he went 
 to work at anything that could be found to do, such as 
 cutting and splitting rails, etc. He had worked but a 
 short time when he was appointed deputy-sheriff, and 
 after a time became county-surveyor under one Calhoun, 
 of Springfield, which business he followed for some time. 
 Lincoln was poor ; but it was soon discovered that he 
 possessed a very high order of intellect, and therefore 
 he was helped and encouraged, and soon had a host of 
 friends in New Salem. About this time he went into the 
 family grocery business, but left the business principally 
 in charge of his partner, while he devoted his time to 
 other business and at the same time studying to make 
 somethinor of himself. When at work he was in the 
 habit of carrying a book about with him, and when 
 stopping to rest would devote the time tc reading, and 
 what he read he remembered. I recollect of his saying 
 that "A fool could learn about as well as a wise man, 
 but after he had learned, it did not do him any good." 
 
 Lincoln said he did not believe in total depravity, 
 and, although it was not popular to believe it, it was 
 easier to do right than wrong; that the first thought 
 was : what was rieht ? and the second —what was wrong ? 
 Therefore it was easier to do right than wrong, and 
 
394 ■ WILLIAM 3PNEELY 
 
 easier to take care of, as it would talce care of itself. It 
 took an effort to do wrong, and a still greater effort to 
 take care of it ; but do right, and it would take care of 
 itself. Then you had nothing to do but to go ahead and 
 do right and nothing to trouble you. 
 
 He was a very close observer. Speaking of a prayer 
 he once heard a very pious man make, in which he 
 prayed very earnestly for the " widowers," he said he 
 "did not know but what it might be an improvement on 
 prayer ; that he did not know but the widows had about 
 as hard a time as the widowers, but believed that God 
 did all things riorht." 
 
 Lincoln, during his residence in New Salem, was a 
 candidate for the Legislature. There were nine who 
 wanted to be elected, and he said : " They let him off 
 with 700 votes — a little behind the ninth man." After 
 this some of the talented, big men induced him to move 
 to Springfield. The next time he was a candidate he 
 was elected to the Leo^islature, where he distinofuished 
 himself by taking a prominent part in favor of internal 
 improvements and other important measures. In politics 
 he was a Whig, and so was I ; and when the Whig party 
 had worn itself out in honorable age he and I joined the 
 Republican party. After leaving New Salem for Spring- 
 field, Mr. Lincoln and myself petitioned for a new county. 
 He looked out the lines of the proposed new county, 
 and the result was the county of Menard was set off. 
 At this time he was an able lawyer, and stood very high 
 in the profession. He was always kind to his friends, 
 and attended to some law business for me, frequently 
 gave me advice ; and I do not recollect of his ever charg- 
 
WILLIAM M'NEELY. 395 
 
 ing me anything for it. He was not only kind to his 
 friends, but possessed a large share of humanity and was 
 kind to all. 
 
 I was acquainted with him a long time, and I never 
 knew him to do a wronof act. While he had a host of 
 friends, I would not say that he had no enemies. In this 
 connection I will quote in substance what he said at the 
 funeral of one Doling Green, of Menard county, an old 
 citizen and friend of Mr. Lincoln. The arrangements 
 for the funeral were that Dr. McNeal, of Springfield, 
 was to preach the funeral sermon and Mr. Lincoln was 
 to speak of the character of the deceased. Dr. McNeal, 
 in his introductory remarks, said that in relation to the 
 character of the deceased he would say nothing, as that 
 was left to better and abler hands. At the conclusion 
 of the sermon Mr. Lincoln arose and said that Mr. Green, 
 the deceased, had a great many friends, and had always 
 been a true friend to him, but he would not say that he, 
 Green, had no enemies. There was, however, one con- 
 solation in that, for he read in Sacred Writ, a woe was 
 pronounced on that man that all men spoke well of, and 
 in that his deceased friend got rid of that "woe;" and 
 so I would say of Mr. Lincoln, he will get rid of that 
 woe. As is well known, Mr. Lincoln volunteered and 
 went into the Black Hawk War, as captain of a company 
 of Illinois troops, and, as I recollect, did well and was 
 liked by all. The "boys" would get discouraged, but 
 Lincoln would cheer them up by cracking his jokes, tell- 
 ing amusing stories and appearing always cheerful. 
 
 It may not be generally known, but Mr. Lincoln 
 surveyed and laid out the town of Petersburg, which is 
 
396 WILLIAM APNEELY. 
 
 now a city. He was also elected to Congress, the well- 
 known Peter Cartwright, a Methodist preacher, being his 
 opponent in the canvass. The records of the country 
 show what he did in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska 
 bill, when he took issue with Stephen A. Douglas, agreed 
 upon a joint discussion, and made a canvass of the State. 
 At one of their public discussions — I believe it was 
 at Havana — after the discussion had been somewhat 
 prolonged and it was thought that Mr. Douglas had 
 exhausted his argument, Mr. Lincoln came forward and 
 told a story. He said : There were large poplar trees 
 in Kentucky, and he knew a man who had a very large 
 one, and nothing near to pile upon it, so as to burn it, 
 and it was so large that it could not be hauled away ; 
 and he then asked if any one could tell what they did 
 about it? No one answering, he told them: "They 
 went around it." "Just so," said Mr. Lincoln, "Mr. 
 Douglas will have to do with his Kansas-Nebraska bill, 
 
 o 
 
 just go around it." The well-known remark of Mr. Lin- 
 coln, that the Government could not exist half free and 
 half slave, and that a house divided against itself could 
 not stand. My opinion is, there never was a better man 
 than Abraham Lincoln, and I came to this conclusion 
 from a long acquaintance with him. 
 
 1% 
 
 c^T^e^eyCty 
 
 Petersburg, 1882. 
 
LOUISA PARSONS HOPKINS. 397 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 OUR country's Titan! on her mighty rivers, 
 Her trackless plains, in virgin forests growing, 
 That strength was nurtured which a land delivers, 
 And reaps the harvest of a century's sowing. 
 
 Harvest of blood and death: Oh! hapless nation, 
 Into that gulf her best and bravest throwing ! 
 
 Rome gave her Curtius for an expiation — 
 
 Our sealed abyss was thy great heart's outflowing. 
 
 New Bedford, 1882. 
 
398 SAM'L ADAMS DRAKE— FERNANDO WOOD. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN is one of the most com- 
 manding figures in history. That his elevation to 
 the Presidency was at first viewed with aversion by a 
 large and influential body of his countrymen there can be 
 no question. But events vindicated the wisdom of the 
 choice. The world has confirmed and history has re- 
 corded it. When he died it was as a conqueror. Like 
 Wolfe, at Quebec, Abraham Lincoln expired in the arms 
 of victory. 
 
 Melrose, 1882. 
 
 FOR the fame of Lincoln it is only necessary to say 
 that he was contemporary with the permanent 
 establishment of human freedom in the United States, 
 and identified with its final accomplishment. 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
DAVID D. PORTER. 399 
 
 IT would be a difficult matter for any one to give 
 a proper idea of Abraham Lincoln and his services 
 during the years he was engaged in the most stupendous 
 labor that has perhaps fallen to the lot of a statesman. 
 He can be better judged by his works than by anythino- 
 I could say. I was intimately associated with Mr. 
 Lincoln during a period of two or three weeks when the 
 war of the rebellion was drawing to a close, and my re- 
 membrance of him is of a man whose mind was oppressed 
 with care and whose body was almost broken down with 
 the magnitude of his labors ; whose days and nights were 
 passed in sleepless anxiety for the preservation and wel- 
 fare of the Union. I knew nothing, personally, of Mr. 
 Lincoln's trials in the Cabinet, where I am sure he had 
 much to contend with, or of the dissensions with poli- 
 ticians who, amid the ruins of their country, were work- 
 ing for their own aggrandizement. I only knew the Pres- 
 ident as an honest, faithful worker in his country's 
 cause, who did the best he could to bring the war to a 
 speedy close, while at the same time he showed a deter- 
 mined spirit to yield nothing that would militate against 
 the Republic of which he was the head. Although 
 painted by his enemies in the blackest colors, President 
 Lincoln had a heart capable of the greatest sympathy 
 and the keenest emotions for the carnage and destruction 
 he saw going on in every direction, and if necessary he 
 would have sacrificed his life to avert these horrors. If 
 Mr. Lincoln had never done more than the one act of 
 abolishing slavery and wiping out that blot on our civil- 
 ization, it would have been enough to immortalize him ; 
 
400 DAVID D. PORTER. 
 
 but If his biography is pubHcly written when prejudices 
 are laid aside, so that the man can be seen in his great- 
 ness and integrity, no nobler character will adorn the 
 pages of American histor}^ The last days of President 
 Lincoln's life, except the two final ones, were passed in 
 my company and mostly on board my flag-ship, and I 
 take great satisfaction in the knowledge that he con- 
 sidered them the happiest days of his administration. 
 He came to City Point, unaccompanied by any of his 
 Cabinet, to witness what he knew was about to take place 
 in the downfall of the Confederate stronghold. He was 
 anxious for peace and was willing to extend the most 
 liberal terms to those who had made war upon us. I 
 kept from the President all those who would have 
 annoyed him or disturbed the tranquillity he enjoyed on 
 ship-board, and I think he was grateful for my considera- 
 tion. It would take a large volume to contain a true 
 story of Lincoln's administration. He was the central 
 figure in the Cabinet, and without him it would have been 
 nothing. He was the opposing power against political 
 schemers who wished to put this or that general at the 
 head of our armies, and when left to his own judgment 
 he always selected the right man. Take him altogether, 
 Abraham Lincoln was one of the most remarkable men 
 this country has produced, and will be revered in the 
 future more than any other President except Washing- 
 ton. The two names will go down together to posterity. 
 
 Washington. 
 
NAVY GROUP OP STATUARY. NATIONAL LINCOLN MONUMENT. 
 
 Reprcsentinsr a scene on the dock of a ship of war. The mortar is properly poised, the giimier 
 IS rolled nj) n slioll ready to be elevated into tlie mortar, the boy, whose duty it is to carry cartridges 
 the piece, and who in nautical phrase is called the powder monkey, lias elevatid himself to the 
 ghest position. The two latter believing they are about to enter upon au eni;a,i,'einenl, are peering 
 to t lie distance with manifest indications of excitement. The Commander, however, haviiij,' taken 
 1 observation through his telescope, finds there is no cause to apprehend danger, and is calmly 
 editnting. 
 
AUGUST V. KAUTZ. 401 
 
 THE VISIT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN TO 
 RICHMOND, 
 
 THE ABANDONED CONFEDERATE CAPITAL, ON THE 4TH OF 
 
 APRIL, 1865. 
 
 THE abandoned and burning city was occupied, the 
 day previous, by General Weitzel's command, con- 
 sisting of a division of white troops under General Devins 
 and a colored division which I commanded. The Pres- 
 ident, accompanied by Admiral Porter, had landed early 
 in the afternoon from the gun-boat Malvern, which came 
 up from City Point, and leading his little son Tad, the 
 three walked up from the landing to General Weitzel's 
 quarters, in the house occupied two days before by the 
 Confederate President. By the time he reached it, the 
 streets were almost impassable, being obstructed mostly 
 by negroes struggling to get sight of the man whom they 
 regarded as their savior. A reception was held immedi- 
 ately, that lasted some hours, and then a ride was proposed, 
 and, accompanied by a number of general officers, the 
 party, filling two ambulances, drove through the city and 
 Capitol grounds until sundown. The same evening, Mr. 
 Campbell, of the Confederate Cabinet, and some other 
 prominent Confederates, interviewed Mr. Lincoln with 
 propositions for the restoration of Virginia to the Union. 
 The President remained until the 7th without agreeing 
 upon any plan that was accepted. This was the last time 
 
 26 
 
402 
 
 AUGUST V. KAUTZ. 
 
 that I saw Mr. Lincoln ; one week after he was assassinated ; 
 and, a few weeks later, I was summoned to Washington 
 and detailed a member of the Commission that tried the 
 assassins. By this visit to the captured Confederate 
 capital, Mr. Lincoln realized, before General Lee had 
 surrendered, more completely than he otherwise could 
 have done, that the Confederacy had fallen, and that the 
 cause, of which he was the distinguished representative, 
 had triumphed, to accomplish which, he would have laid 
 down his life at any time during the war. 
 
 U. S. Army. 
 
SOPHIE E. EASTMAN. 403 
 
 ABRAHAM LIN'COLN. 
 
 February 12, 1809, 
 
 NO minster bells' loud paean 
 Proclaimed the moment when 
 He came to earth to be an 
 
 Uncrowned king of men; 
 No purple to enfold him, 
 
 Our country's royal guest ; 
 But loving arms to hold him. 
 Silence ! God knoweth best ! 
 
 April 15, 1865. 
 
 The way was long and cheerless, 
 
 But dawn succeeded night; 
 That soul, so brave and fearless, 
 
 Dwells evermore in light ! 
 No shadows dim his glory, 
 
 Our hearts his praise resound, 
 And history tells his story, — 
 
 Our nation's king is crowned ! 
 
 ^yC^tAyic^ ^- 0^CcJ^t^>7n,ayyu. 
 
 South Hadley, 1882. 
 
404 ^VM. WILBERFORCE NEWTON. 
 
 THE most conspicuous victim of our nation's rise and 
 progress has been Abraham Lincoln. The long 
 and cruel war of the rebellion was over. The first glad 
 days of p eace had come. The waters of the flood of 
 wrath were disappearing, and the long-tossed ark of the 
 national life had just rested upon solid ground. 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. To those of us who 
 remember vividly the war days, who cannot recall the 
 awful shock of that event? The brave patriot's life, 
 covered, as it had been, with contumely and abuse, de- 
 rided, scorned, criticised, condemned, stood at the last 
 far above all his compeers, and we understood at the last 
 why it was that the leadership of this elect nation had 
 been committed to his patient, suffering keeping through 
 the storm of the civil war, and not to his companions, a 
 Seward, a Chase or a Stanton, since in the light of his 
 death we beheld the divine meaning of his choice, and 
 felt that, like Saul among the elder brethren of his 
 father's house, the horn of the prophetic people, like 
 that of Samuel of old, had anointed with holy oil that 
 man of the people whom God had unmistakably called 
 and chosen to be the leader through the crisis of the 
 rebellion. 
 
 ^'^htu^Jt^jL:: 
 
 Boston, 1882. 
 
Z. SCOTT. 405 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN I regard as belonging to 
 /~\ the same class with the judges in Israel. He was 
 raised up by Divine Providence to be the deliverer of 
 this nation in a time of great peril. His work done, God 
 permitted him to be removed without conscious suffer- 
 ing, by the bullet of a most cowardly and wicked assassin. 
 His name will stand on the roll of fame next to that of 
 Washington as a benefactor of his race. 
 
 1880. 
 
4C© W. STaCJiTG. 
 
 THE life snd services of President Lincoln musi ever 
 "ze regarded as one of the most benedcent gifts 
 •wilich an ever-willing Providence has ever conferred upon 
 rh-"-:; mU'chrfavcred coiiniry. He seems to have been 
 raised np for the times in which he lived — times as 
 critical as it is possihle to conceive — and for those times 
 be was exactly ntted. Perhaps it is too much to say no 
 odier man oculd have done the noble work which he did 
 in saving the Union, but I know of no other that in my 
 -_i::ment could have done so welL An ardent patriot. 
 shrewd, with larc^e common sense, far-reaching fore- 
 ~'rr-t, fcnnness and tenacitv^ of purpose, possessing the 
 -^rgest 5\Tapathies, "with malice for none and charit\" for 
 alL" I cannot hope ever to see his like again. 
 
 Washington, i88a 
 
 j 
 
■^ ^ ^Z VI 
 
 \ - 
 
 jmrETT II OLE r?^" ^"^'^^^ 
 
 
 
4o« /. A. GARFIELD. 
 
 \\TYTW profound reverence for the life and character 
 
 of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 r, 
 
 Mentor, Ohio, July -2, 1880. 
 
GAL UZHA A. GR ;> — . . 
 
 GOOIJ WIN. ^09 
 
 THE Mart}T President seals mtn his blc-: ' - - : 
 emancipatioa of a rarce, ajid grasp^ing fo-ur - 
 of broken coffies, ascends to the bosom of his God, th.ns 
 consecrating- the land of Washington as the ho'me of the 
 emigrant and the as^iuin of the opprei : : : ' rvery diioe. 
 and of all ra-: :- ~rn. 
 
 ^^~^^ 
 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ^sras the - 
 
 x~\ right place, at the right time. T .- 
 owes him a debt of endless gratitude. 
 
 :ne 
 
 'h}x^J^ 
 
 Cambkidge; iSSa 
 
410 C. £L LIFFINCOTT. 
 
 LINCOLN came so aptly to the need of his times, and 
 -rf u-as so exactly fitted for the burden of his great- 
 ness, that probably he impressed few of his casual ac- 
 quaintances with his transcendent qualities. Now that 
 he has gone from the world, which he did so much to 
 make better, those who have a definite knowledge of the 
 crisis in which he was the greatest actor can see and 
 wonder at his greatness. Others were divided upon 
 abstract questions, which, by unkindly discussion, seemed 
 to have erown into causes of sectional hate. Even many 
 of the leaders of the party which made Lincoln President 
 foro-ot their love of country- in their hatred of slavery, 
 and would have accepted disunion even, that they might 
 ficrht slaver}^ more earnestly. They made the mistake 
 which histor}^ shows has been made so often. They 
 fancied that excessive philanthropy might take the place 
 of patriotism. Lincoln first and above all loved his 
 country-. Ever)' other love, opinion, principle was in 
 utter subordination to his patriotism. That was his 
 strencrth. That made him the representative and the 
 worthy leader of all patriots of ever)- sort of opinion. 
 He was the leader of all the patriotic people ; he was 
 the leader of the war. He was the incarnation of a 
 nation's love of country*. In his grave he remains the 
 exemplar and the idol of patriotism. 
 
 Chandlerville, iSSi. 
 
0//J /',A;/rf,o/^r <.fr/rrnij JOJi:. :,B. ^tt 
 
 J 
 
 ^ ' a 
 
 ^ ^^ '-'■ ^^ that rv^bie martyr, Ah-aham 
 
 Ea.%t Lek' 
 
 A 
 
 BRAHAM LINCOLN at all times irrror*^.*^ m*: 
 as a man. of native g^ood senae. 
 motive and integrity' of purpose. : iias u* 
 
 great ;:^ood tr, ' -je ri^i 
 
 the Lr ' ' '- - -'- 
 
 oppre-. 
 
 better legacy can be left to the youth of oar land than 
 the example of great men and women — great in go* . 
 of heart and character. 
 
 Berea College, 
 
•II' 
 
 FREDERICK SMYTH. 
 
 THE possibility of such a man as Abraham Lincoln 
 is a standing argument in favor of a Government 
 which unites freedom with strength, and has strength 
 without tyranny. Courts and kingdoms might be 
 searched in vain for a prince who, by tradition or culture, 
 had attained such wisdom in the government of men as 
 had the son of the backwoods. What gentleness, wis- 
 dom^ patience ! What wit ! What skill in argument ! 
 What power of persuasion ! What sublime faith ! These 
 were qualities which bound him to the hearts of his 
 countrymen and made him worthy to be a martyr to 
 liberty. 
 
 Manchester, 1880. 
 
JANE GREY SWISSHELM. 4,3 
 
 IN February, %i, I went to Washington, so much 
 prejudiced against President Lincoln that I was 
 with difficulty persuaded to attend a reception, and would 
 only go on condition that I should not be presented. I 
 went into his presence with a feeling of scorn for the 
 man who had tried to save the Union and slavery — the 
 man who had rescinded the orders of Gen. Fremont and 
 Gen. Flunter, emancipating the slaves of rebels in arms 
 against the Government. I had no respect for the man 
 who had emancipated a nation of slaves, not as an act 
 of justice, but as a means to an end ; and, was no little 
 startled to find a chill of awe pass over me as my eyes 
 rested upon him. It was as if I had suddenly passed a 
 turn in a road and come into full view of the Matterhorn ; 
 as if I had stepped from a close room into a mountain 
 breeze. 
 
 I have always been sensitive to the atmosphere of 
 those I met, but have never found that of any one 
 impress me as did that of Mr. Lincoln, and I know no 
 word save "grandeur" which expresses the quality of 
 that atmosphere. I think that to me no familiarity, no 
 circumstance, could have made him other than grand. 
 The jests, the sallies, with which he amused small people 
 and covered his own greatness, were the shrubs on the 
 mountain side, the flowers which shot up in the crevices 
 of the rocks ! They -were no part of the mountain. 
 Grandly and alone he walked his way through this life ; 
 and the world had no honors, no emoluments, no 
 
414 JANE GREY SWISSHELM. 
 
 reproaches, no shames, no punishments which he could 
 not have borne without swerving or bias. 
 
 Washington was to Lincoln what St. Peter's Is to 
 the Matterhorn. He was a fine combination of good 
 material, worked Into form by high art ; but art had 
 nothing to do In making Lincoln; only God, and His 
 elements, could effect the equipoise or outline of this 
 rugged, thoroughly balanced nature. 
 
 I stood for some time watching him receive his 
 guests and getting back my own breath and circulation ; 
 not realizing the full measure of the effect his presence 
 had on me, but fully impressed by a conviction of his 
 honesty. Whatever he had done, or left undone, was 
 the result of conviction. He had done what he believed 
 to be right, and stood ready to bear every responsibility 
 of his acts. 
 
 He could never dodge or prevaricate, and his policy 
 was that of the teacher who seeks to lead his pupils to 
 the highest plane, and by the best means known to him- 
 self. His simplicity and self-forgetfulness, his total lack 
 of that weakness which finds strength in rank, were 
 evident at a glance. To himself he was no greater as 
 Commander-in-chief than he would have been as corporal 
 or private. His aims were all his country's, his ambition 
 to render her the best service In his power ; and this he 
 would have done In any position, with as much pride as 
 he commanded his armies. 
 
 His evident weariness, and the patience with which 
 he stood shaking hands, as one might pump on a sinking 
 ship, made me angry with the senseless custom. Were 
 there not enough demands on his time and strength, 
 
JANE GREY SWISSHELM. 4:5 
 
 without this unreasonable drain ? I hesitated about being 
 presented, because it would be another hand for him to 
 shake, but felt I could not go away without yielding what 
 was counted a token of respect and protesting against the 
 custom. So when he took my hand I said : " May the 
 Lord have mercy on you, poor man ; for the people have 
 none ! 
 
 He threw up his head and laughed pleasantly, and 
 those around him joined the laugh ; but I went off angry, 
 indignant, that he should be sacrificed to a false social 
 custom — an insolent demand of thoughtless people, and 
 vain people, who added this burden to that of an already 
 cruelly overtaxed public servant. 
 
 D^OM. foj^ ^lUiMu^ 
 
 Chicago, 1882. 
 
4i6 JNO. C. NEW. 
 
 THE name and fame of Mr. Lincoln will live as long 
 as the history of the republic endures, as that of 
 a true lover of his country and of humanity — as that of 
 a man equal to all the conditions of life, from that of 
 the humble and lowly to that of the proud and exalted 
 position as President of the grand republic and peer of 
 the proudest monarch, and in every position the same 
 plain, honest, prudent man — safe in council, wise in action 
 and pure in purpose. 
 
 Indianapolis, 1880. 
 
RICHARD SMITH. 417 
 
 THE life and services of a public man can only be 
 impartially estimated when he has passed from 
 active duty. Washington was largely reviled while living ; 
 his memory is now universally revered. In public life 
 Lincoln was a second Washington, and his memory 
 occupies a corresponding position in the hearts of his 
 loyal countrymen. Side by side their names will go down 
 in history to the end of time, the one as the instrument 
 that secured independence, and the other as the instru- 
 ment that preserved our Union and gave freedom to four 
 million slaves. He was sacrificed, but his martyrdom 
 gave emphasis to the living principles embodied in our 
 amended Constitution ; as the lifting up of Christ elevated 
 the principles it was his mission to establish. These are 
 now almost universally acknowledged. These are the 
 beacon lights which moderate despotisms and are the 
 hope of people who seek liberty for the sake of the 
 human race. 
 
 Cincinnati, 1880. 
 
 27 
 
41 8 ALEXANDER MILTON ROSS. 
 
 A FEW months after the inauguration of President 
 Lincoln I received a letter from the Hon. 
 Charles Sumner, requesting me to come to Washington 
 at my earliest convenience. The day after my arrival in 
 Washington I was introduced to the President. Mr. 
 Lincoln received me very cordially, and invited me to 
 dine with him. Assembled at the President's table were 
 several prominent gentlemen, to whom Mr. Lincoln 
 introduced me as "a red- hot abolitionist from Canada." 
 One of the guests, a prominent member of Congress, 
 from Indiana, said, in a slurring manner : " I wish the 
 negroes of the United States would emigrate to Canada, 
 as the Canadians are so fond of their company." Mr. 
 Lincoln said : " It would be better for the negroes, that's 
 certain." " Yes," I replied a little warmly, " it would be 
 better for the negroes ; for, under our flag, the blackest 
 negro is entitled to and freely accorded every right and 
 privilege enjoyed by native Canadians. We make no 
 distinction in respect to the color of a man's skin. It is 
 true, we live under a monarchical form of government, 
 but every man and woman, white, black, or brown, have 
 equal rights under our laws." Mr. Lincoln, in a jocular 
 way, said to the member of Congress : " If you are not 
 careful, you will bring on a war with Canada ; I think we 
 have got a big enough job on hand now." The con- 
 versation then turned on the attitude of England toward 
 the free States in their contest with the slave-holders. 
 One gentleman remarked that he was surprised to see so 
 
ALEXANDER MILTON ROSS. 419 
 
 many manifestations of unfriendliness on the part of the 
 English and Canadian people, and asked me how I ac- 
 counted for it. I replied: '* How can you expect it other- 
 wise, when there exists in your Northern States so much 
 diversity of opinion as to the justness of your cause? The 
 unfriendly expressions of an English statesman, or the 
 avowed hostility of a few English and Canadian papers, 
 are noted by you with painful surprise ; while the 
 treasonable utterances and acts of some of your own 
 political leaders and people are quite overlooked. 
 Besides, you cannot expect the sympathy of the Christian 
 world in your behalf, while you display such an utter dis- 
 regard for the rights and liberties of your own citizens, 
 as I witnessed in this city yesterday." Mr. Lincoln asked 
 to what I alluded. I replied : " A United States marshal 
 passed through Washington yesterday, having in his 
 charge a colored man, whom he was taking back to 
 Virginia under your Fugitive Slave Law. The man had 
 escaped from his master, who is an open rebel, and fled 
 to Wilmington, Delaware, where he was arrested and 
 taken back into slavery." 
 
 After dinner Mr. Lincoln led me to a window, distant 
 from the rest of the party, and said : " Mr. Sumner sent 
 for you at my request ; we need a confidential person in 
 Canada to look after our interests, and keep us posted as 
 to the schemes of the Confederates in Canada. You have 
 been strongly recommended to me for the position. 
 Your mission shall be as confidential as you please ; no 
 one here but your friend Mr. Sumner and myself shall 
 have any knowledge of your position. Your communica- 
 tions may be sent direct tomeundercover to Major . 
 
420 ALEXANDER MILTON EOSS. 
 
 Think it over to-night, and if you can accept the mission, 
 come up and see me at nine o'clock to-morrow morning." 
 When I took my leave of him, he said : " I hope you will 
 decide to serve us." The position thus offered was one 
 not suited to my tastes, but, as Mr. Lincoln appeared very 
 desirous that I should accept it, I concluded to lay aside 
 my prejudices and accept the responsibilities of the 
 mission. I was also persuaded to this conclusion by the 
 wishes of my friend, Mr. Sumner. 
 
 At nine o'clock next morning, I waited upon the 
 President, and announced my decision. He grasped my 
 hand in a hearty manner, and said, " Thank you, thank 
 you ; I am glad of it." I said, " Mr. Lincoln, if the object 
 of your Government is the liberation from bondage of 
 the poor slaves of the South, I should feel justified in 
 accepting any position where I could best serve you ; but 
 when I see so much tenderness for that vile institution 
 and for the interests of slave-holders, I question whether 
 your efforts to crush the rebellion will meet with the 
 favor of Heaven." He replied : '' I sincerely wish that 
 all men were free, and I especially wish for the complete 
 abolition of slavery in this country ; but my private wishes 
 and feelings must yield to the duties of my position. My 
 first duty is to maintain the integrity of the Union. 
 With that object in view, I shall endeavor to save it, 
 either with or without slavery. I have always been an 
 anti-slavery man. Away back in 1839, when I was a 
 member of the Legislature of Illinois, I presented a 
 resolution asking for the emancipation of slavery in the 
 District of Columbia, when, with but few exceptions, the 
 popular mind of my State was opposed to it. If the 
 
ALEXANDER MILTON ROSS. 421 
 
 Institution of slavery is destroyed, and the slaves set free, 
 as a result of this conflict which the slave-holders have 
 forced upon us, I shall rejoice as heartily as you. In 
 the meantime, help us to circumvent the machinations of 
 the rebel agents in Canada. There is no doubt they will 
 use your country as a communicating link with Europe, 
 and also with their friends in New York. It is quite 
 possible, also, that they may make Canada a base to harass 
 and annoy our people along the frontier." 
 
 After a lengthy conversation relative to private 
 matters connected with my mission, I rose. to leave, when 
 he said: "I w^ill walk down to Willard's with you; the 
 hotel is on my way to the Capitol, where I have an 
 engagement at noon." 
 
 Before we reached the hotel, a man came up to the 
 President and thrust a letter into his hand, at the same 
 time applying for some office in Wisconsin. I saw that the 
 President was offended at the rudeness, for he passed the 
 letter back without looking at it, saying : " No, sir ! I am 
 not going to open shop here." This was said in a most 
 emphatic manner, but accompanied by a comical gesture 
 which caused the rejected applicant to smile. As we 
 continued our walk, the President spoke of the annoy- 
 ances incident to his position, saying: "These office- 
 seekers are a curse to this country ; no sooner was my 
 election certain, than I became the prey of hundreds of 
 hungry, persistent applicants for office, whose highest 
 ambition is to feed at the government crib." When he 
 bid me good-by, he said : " Let me hear from you once a 
 week at least." As he turned to leave me a young army 
 officer stopped him and made some request, to which the 
 
422 ALEXANDER MILTON KOSS. 
 
 President replied with a good deal of humor : " No, I 
 can't do that ; I must not interfere ; they would scratch my 
 eyes out, if I did. You must go to the proper department." 
 As I watched the President wending his way towards 
 the Capitol, I was deeply impressed with the dreadful re- 
 sponsibility that rested upon him. The hopes of millions 
 of Republicans throughout the world were fixed upon 
 him ; while twenty millions of his own people looked to 
 him for the salvation of the Republic, and four millions 
 of poor, down-trodden slaves in the South looked to him 
 for freedom. Mr. Lincoln was no ordinary man. He had 
 a quick and ready perception of facts, a retentive mem- 
 ory, and a logical turn of mind, which patiently and un- 
 waveringly followed every link in the chain of thought on 
 every subject which he investigated. He was honest, 
 temperate and forgiving. He was a good man, a man of 
 noble and kindly heart. I never heard him speak un- 
 kindly of any man ; even the rebels received no word 
 of anger from him. 
 
 MY SECOND VISIT TO WASHINGTON. 
 
 On my arrival there (about midnight) I went direct 
 to the Executive Mansion, and sent my card to the Pres- 
 ident, who had retired to bed. In a few minutes the 
 porter returned and requested me to accompany him to 
 the President's office, where, in a short time, Mr. Lincoln 
 would join me. The room into which I was ushered was 
 the same in which I had spent several hours with the 
 President on the occasion of my first interview with him. 
 Scattered about the floor, and lying open on the table. 
 
ALEXANDER MILTON ROSS. 423 
 
 were several military maps and documents, indicating 
 recent use. On the wall hung a picture of that noble 
 friend of freedom, John Bright, of England. 
 
 In a few minutes the President came in and welcomed 
 me in the most friendly manner ; I expressed my recrret 
 at disturbing him at such an hour. He replied in a good- 
 humored manner, saying : " No, no ; you did right ; you 
 may waken me up whenever you please. I have slept with 
 one eye open ever since I came to Washington ; I never 
 close both, except when an of^ce-seeker is looking for me. 
 I am glad," referring to a letter I had sent him, "you 
 are pleased with the Emancipation Proclamation, but 
 there is work before us yet. We must make that proc- 
 lamation effective by victories over our enemies ; it is a 
 paper bullet, after all, and of no account, except we can 
 sustain it." I expressed my belief that God would aid 
 the cause of the Union now that justice had been done 
 to the poor negro. He replied : " I hope so ; the suffering 
 and misery that attends this conflict is killing me by 
 inches ; I wish it was over." 
 
 I then laid before the President the " rebel mail." He 
 carefully examined the address of each letter, making 
 occasional remarks. At lencrth he found one addressed 
 to Franklin Pierce, ex-President of the United States, 
 then residing in New Hampshire, and another to ex- 
 Attorney-General Gushing, a resident of Massachusetts. 
 He appeared much surprised, and remarked, with a sigh, 
 but without the slightest tone of asperity : " I will have 
 these letters inclosed in official envelopes, and sent to 
 these parties." When he had finished examining the ad- 
 
424 ALEXANDER MILTON ROSS. 
 
 dresses, he tied up all those addressed to private individ- 
 uals, saying : " I won't bother with them, but these look 
 like official letters ; I guess I'll go through them now." 
 He then opened them, and read their contents, slowly 
 and carefully. While he was thus occupied, I had an 
 excellent opportunity of studying this extraordinary 
 man. A marked change had taken place in his counte- 
 nance since my first interview with him. He looked 
 much older, and bore traces of having passed through 
 months of painful anxiety and trouble. There was a sad, 
 serious look in his eyes that spoke louder than words of 
 the disappointments, trials and discouragements he had 
 encountered since the war began. The wrinkles about 
 the eyes and forehead were deeper ; the lips were firmer, 
 but indicative of kindness and forbearance. The great 
 strugp;le had brouMit out the hidden riches of his noble 
 nature, and developed virtues and capacities which sur- 
 prised his oldest and most intimate friends. He was 
 simple, but astute ; he possessed the rare faculty of seeing 
 things just as they are ; he was a just, charitable and 
 honest man. 
 
 Having finished reading the letters, I rose to go, 
 saying that I would go to " Willard's." and have a rest. 
 *' No, no," said the President, " it is now three o'clock ; 
 you shall stay with me while you are in town ; I'll find you 
 a bed," and leading the way, he took me into a bedroom, 
 saying : " Take a good sleep ; you shall not be disturbed." 
 Bidding me "good-night " he left the room to go back 
 and pore over the rebel letters until daylight, as he 
 afterwards told me. 
 
ALEXANDER MILTON ROSS. 425 
 
 If ever an individual was raised up by the Almighty 
 to perform a special service, that person was Abraham 
 Lincoln. No parent could evince a greater interest in 
 the welfare of his family than he did for the safety and 
 welfare of his country. Every faculty he possessed was 
 devoted to the salvation of the Union. I did not awake 
 from my sleep until eleven o'clock in the forenoon, soon 
 after which Mr. Lincoln came into my room and laugh- 
 ingly said : " When you are ready, I'll pilot you down to 
 breakfast," which he did, and seating himself at the table 
 near me, expressed his fears that trouble was brewing on 
 the New Brunswick border ; that he had gathered further 
 information on that point from the correspondence, which 
 convinced him that such was the case. He was here in- 
 terrupted by a servant who handed him a card, upon 
 reading which he arose, saying: " The Secretary of War 
 has received important tidings ; I must leave you for the 
 present ; come to my room after breakfast, and we'll talk 
 over this New Brunswick affair." 
 
 On entering his room, I found him busily engaged in 
 writing ; at the same time repeating in a low voice the 
 words of a poem, which I remembered reading many 
 years before. When he stopped writing I asked him 
 who was the author of that poem. He replied : " I do 
 not know. I have written the verses down from memory, 
 at the request of a lady who is much pleased with them." 
 He passed the sheet, on which he had written the verses, 
 to me, saying: " Have you ever read them?" I replied 
 that I had, many years previously, and that I should be 
 ple:ised to have a copy of them in his handwriting, when 
 
426 ALEXANDER MILTON ROSS. 
 
 he had time and inclination for such work. He said : 
 " Well, you may keep that copy, if you wish." The 
 following is the poem, as written down by Mr. Lincoln. 
 
 ^.ji.yQ.^ 
 
 Montreal, 1882. 
 
 The saint, who enjoyed the communion of heaven, 
 Tiie sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven, 
 The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, 
 Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. 
 
 So the multitude goes — like the flower or the weed, 
 That withers away to let others succeed ; 
 So the multitude comes — even those we behold, 
 To repeat every tale that has often been told. 
 
 For we are the same our fathers have been ; 
 We see the same sights our fathers have seen ; 
 We drink the same stream, we view the same sun, 
 And run the same course our fathers have run. 
 
 The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think ; 
 From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink ; 
 To the life we are clinging, they also would cling — 
 But it speeds from us all, like a bird on the wing. 
 
 Tliey loved — but the story we cannot unfold ; 
 They scorned — but the heart of the haughty is cold ; 
 They grieved — but no wail from their slumber will come ; 
 They joyed — but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. 
 
 They died — ay, they died — we things that are now. 
 That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 
 And make in their dwellings a transient abode, 
 Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. 
 
ALEXANDER MILTON ROSS. 427 
 
 Yea ! hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, 
 Are mingled together in sunshine and rain ; 
 And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge. 
 Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 
 
 'Tis the wink of an eye — 'tis the draught of a breath. 
 From the blossom of health to the paleness of death ; 
 From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud : — 
 Oh ! why should the spirit of mortal be proud ? 
 
 Oh ! why should the spirit of mortal be proud? — 
 Like a swift-fieeing meteor, a fast-flying cloud, 
 A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 
 He passeth from life to his rest in the grave. 
 
 The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 
 Be scattered around and together be laid ; 
 And the young and the old, and the low and the high, 
 Shall molder to dust and together shall lie. 
 
 The infant, a mother attended and loved ; 
 The mother, that infant's affection who proved ; 
 The husband, that motlier and infant who blest, — 
 Each, all, are away to their dwellings of rest. 
 
 The maid, on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye, 
 Shone beauty and pleasure — her triumphs are by. 
 And the memory of those who loved her and praised. 
 Are alike from the minds of the living erased. 
 
 The hand of the king, that the scepter hath borne, 
 The brow of the priest, that the miter hath worn. 
 The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave, 
 Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. 
 
 The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap, 
 The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep. 
 The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread. 
 Have faded away like the grass that we tread. 
 
42S JOHN SHER AN— FREDERICK MERRICK. 
 
 MR. LINCOLN possessed all the qualities requisite 
 to inspire confidence and to unite all the loyal 
 elements of our much-divided people in the great conflict 
 of our civil war, when the possibility of Republican institu- 
 tions, in a wide extended country, was on trial. At times 
 I thought him slow, but he was fast enough to be abreast 
 with the body of his countrymen, and his heart beat 
 steadily and hopefully with them. 
 
 Mansfield, i88i. 
 
 WISE in council, prudent in action, firm upon 
 necessity, humane always, patriotic, honest be- 
 yond a shadow of suspicion, he sought his country's good 
 in self-sacrificing devotion. Noble as were many of his 
 acts, he will be chiefly known in history as the great 
 Emancipator. 
 
 ///i£y>^cJi^ 
 
 Delaware, 1880. 
 
ROSE TERRY COOKE. 429 
 
 ABRAHAM LINXOLX. 
 
 " STRANGULATUS PRO REPUDLICA." 
 
 Hundreds there have been, loftier ihan their kind, 
 
 Heroes and vectors in the world's great wars : 
 
 Hundreds, exalted as the eternal stars, 
 
 By the great heart, or keen and mighty mind ; 
 
 There have been sufferers, maimed and halt and blind. 
 
 Who bore their woes in such triumphant calm 
 
 That God hath crowned them with the martyr's palm ; 
 
 And there were those who fought through fire to find 
 
 Their Master's face, and were by fire refined. 
 
 But who like thee, oh Sire ! hath ever stood 
 
 Steadfast for truth and right, when lies and wrong 
 
 Rolled their dark waters, turbulent and strong; 
 
 Who bore reviling, baseness, tears and blood 
 
 Poured out like water, till thine own was spent, 
 
 Then reaped Earth's sole reward — a grave and monument ! 
 
 ^Z^^-^i^^^ ^^.^ 
 
 WiNSTED, 1882. 
 
430 NEWMAN HALL. 
 
 MY admiration of the character of Abraham Lincoln 
 has been put into permanent form in the erection 
 of the " Lincoln Tower," adjoining my church. This 
 structure cost ^7,000. Half of it was given, with great 
 readiness, by Britishers ; the other half was contributed 
 in America. A stone over the principal entrance bears 
 the honored name of Lincoln. Two class-rooms in it 
 bear the names of Washington and Wilberforce. The 
 spire is built in alternate stripes with stars between. A 
 marble tablet explains the origin of the structure, and 
 records the fact of the abolition of slavery by Lincoln. 
 He nobly lived for freedom, and in its cause died a 
 martyr's death. Few men in the world's history have 
 been privileged to do a work involving so much benefit 
 to mankind. 
 
 London, 1881. 
 
 /l£cJUcAzi (^Ui^ 
 
CHARLES GAYARRE. 431 
 
 I THINK Mr. Lincoln possessed much originality of 
 character ; that he was humane and pure, kindly 
 disposed toward the South, and that, whatever may have 
 been his errors or deficiencies, he always meant to act 
 according to what he considered patriotic motives and 
 the dictates of an honest conscience. Hence I have no 
 hesitation to declare that I have never ceased to be 
 convinced that his tramc death, at the time it occurred, 
 was a most fatal event for the Southern States, which I 
 sincerely believe would have been treated with much 
 more liberality by him than they had the good fortune 
 to be after his assassination. 
 
 New Orleans, 1882. 
 
A\ IK DALE— PARKE GODWIN. 
 
 P 
 
 ATRIOT, who made the pageantries of kings 
 Like shadows seem, and unsubstantial things. 
 
 Birmingham, England, i88i. 
 
 THE name of Abraham Lincoln will stand forever, 
 as the second in our history, following immediately 
 that of George Washington. This one was the principal 
 agent in emancipating the western continent from foreign 
 domination, that one the principal agent in rescuing it 
 from a domestic domination even more hurtful. Both 
 were spotless apostles of human liberty. 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
STANLEY MATTHEWS-CHAS. W. DILKE 433 
 
 n^HE memory of Abraham Lincoln Is entombed in 
 X the hearts of the American people. Their love 
 and gratitude are the columns which support the monu- 
 ment of his fame, more enduring than bronze or marble. 
 His will live forever, not only in the story of his country, 
 but in the reverence and affection of his countrymen. 
 The purity of his patriotism inspired him with the 
 wisdom of a statesman and the courage of a martyr. 
 
 Cincinnati, 1880. 
 
 w 
 
 ITH profound admiration of Abraham Lin- 
 coln. 
 
 House of Commons, 1881. 
 
 28 
 
434 
 
 W. O. STODDARD. 
 
 MY personal acquaintance with Mr. Lincoln began 
 in 1858. Afterwards, as one of his secretaries 
 at Washington, I had many opportunities for personal 
 observations. There were many strong men grouped 
 around him, from time to time ; statesmen, jurists, 
 scholars, journalists, generals, diplomatists ; yet under no 
 circumstances did he fail to make upon me the indelible 
 impression that he was the greatest, the strongest, the 
 noblest of them. I have never seen him speaking with 
 any man who seemed to me his equal. 
 
 MORRISANIA, 1 88 1. 
 
C. S. HARRINGTON. 435 
 
 A SAGE in wisdom, worthy of the best of the 
 ancients ; a man such as Diogenes would have 
 been delighted to find ; a statesman of the school of 
 sound common sense, and a philanthropist of the most 
 practical type ; a patriot without a superior — his mon- 
 ument is a country preserved. His name will always 
 be enrolled among the heroes and saviors of mankind. 
 
 1880. 
 
436 
 
 /. C. BLACK. 
 
 PLAIN in body and mind; simple and direct in 
 speech ; great, rugged, sincere ; a passionate lover 
 of liberty ; trained in the people's school to be their own 
 unyielding instrument ; in his high career regarding 
 their rights and prosperity ; lawyer enough to hold to the 
 form until it antagonized the spirit of American law ; 
 statesman enough not to kill the spirit for the form's 
 sake — his reward is apotheosis ; his fame will widen to 
 the utmost horizon of human growth. 
 
 1880. 
 
E. B. HAYES— GEORGE P. FISHER. 
 
 437 
 
 NOW all men begin to see that the plain people, 
 who at last came to love him and to lean upon 
 his wisdom, and trust him absolutely, were altogether 
 right, and that in deed and purpose he was earnestly 
 devoted to the welfare of the whole country and of all 
 its inhabitants. To him more than to any other man 
 the cause of Union and Liberty is indebted for its final 
 triumph. Lincoln was the very embodiment of the 
 principles by which our country and its inhabitants were 
 saved. 
 
 Washington, 1880. 
 
 r 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN had a sterling common 
 1\. sense, a vein of humor, a deep well of gentle, 
 kindly feeling, a long-suffering patience, an unselfish 
 patriotism, which, when viewed in connection with his 
 death as a martyr for his country, are sufficient to secure 
 for him a lasting place in the catalogue of the world's 
 leaders. 
 
 New Haven, 18S2. 
 
438 FRED. H. BOWMAN. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Great Champion of Freedom I When the blow 
 Came from the traitor's hand — with one wild start 
 A nation's love awoke, and every heart 
 Stood still with sorrow. It Avas thine to sow 
 The seeds of liberty, from whence shall grow 
 New bonds to knit mankind. Tho' far apart — 
 Sunder'd by oceans — with the lightning's dart 
 The world was roused to share Columbia's woe. 
 At thy command the manacles were burst, 
 And the sad slaves came forth, forever free. 
 His life was bought, but the price paid was first 
 Thine own. 'Twas thine in Freedom's shrine to be 
 The proto-martyr ; now throughout all time 
 Thy name shall stand heroic and sublime. 
 
 Halifax, 1882. 
 
WILLARD WARNER. 435 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN stands out on the pages of 
 l\. American history, unique, grand and peculiar. As 
 honest, unselfish and patriotic as Washington, he was his 
 superior as an orator and logician, and dealt successfully 
 with larger and graver matters. In tact he has never had 
 an equal in this country. Mr. Salmon P. Chase once said 
 to me that '* his cunning amounted to genius." 
 
 Like the mighty oak which towers far above its 
 fellows, he was a growth of the forces of nature, which is 
 to say, of God ; and one cannot resist the conclusion that 
 he was prepared, in a special sense, by God, for the work 
 he had to do. 
 
 Tecumseh, 1882. 
 
440 WILLIAM WILLDER WHEILDON. 
 
 THE world will readily admit that Abraham Lincoln 
 was a very remarkable man in his character and 
 career, as in the achievement which crowned his life with 
 honor ; not, as is sometimes said, one of a thousand, but 
 one of many thousands of much higher promise than 
 attached to him in their early days ; and yet his fame 
 and the immortal character of his memory depends 
 chiefly upon two acts, neither of which was, properly 
 speaking, his own : one, the proclamation abolishing 
 slavery, which was in a manner forced upon him and the 
 country ; and the other his assassination, which was 
 brought upon him, in whole or in part, by that act : the 
 penalty, as it were, of one of the noblest deeds on record 
 among mankind. 
 
 It is common in this country, where no law of primo- 
 geniture prevails, to find men born in the middling 
 classes, or even lower classes, so-called, who reach sta- 
 tions and positions of eminence. In this respect Mr. 
 Lincoln sustained himself in every position he reached, 
 or, we might almost say, that reached him. 
 
 One might easily imagine that a common rail-splitter 
 and woodman might become a boatman, or even, under 
 circumstances, a soldier ; but who would ever dream of 
 his becoming a lawyer, a politician, a legislator, a states- 
 man, and, much less, the President of the nation and the 
 head man of thirty or forty millions of people : one of 
 the highest positions, few as they are in number, in the 
 civilized world ? 
 
WILLIAM WILLDER WIIEILDON. 441 
 
 If any one had seen him splitting rails it would be 
 natural enough to suppose he might some day become a 
 river boatman ; and again, when acting as a river boat- 
 man, it might occur to an observer, seeing his energy and 
 readiness, that he would ultimately become captain of a 
 raft, but few persons would have thought of anythino- 
 beyond that. 
 
 So, again, when he reached the bar — if there was any 
 such thing as a bar at that time in the place where he 
 practiced — it might possibly be thought, from his tact 
 and efficiency as a counselor, that he might ultimately 
 become a judge ; and yet again, who that ever knew him 
 as a rail-splitter on his father's farm, or a boat-hand on 
 the Mississippi river, or even as a lawyer, ever dreamed 
 that he would reach the highest position in the nation — 
 perform the highest act for human freedom ever dis- 
 charged by man ? It is not to be denied that Abraham 
 Lincoln had tact, which is often the equivalent of talent, 
 and was able to qualify and adjust himself to every 
 position to which he was elected or reached by his own 
 efforts or the favor of his friends. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln had acute sense of the absurd and 
 ridiculous, of obstacles and objections, real or imaginary, 
 and a quick wit, which held them to account and 
 " brought down the house" on all occasions. He was 
 fond of relating a good practical story, illustrative of 
 human life, which were often original with him, always 
 apt to the occasion, and told with a guGto which was 
 characteristic, and may be said to be a quality and a 
 passion of his distinct personality. 
 
 Strange to say, the life, career and death of President 
 
442 WILLIAM WILLDER WHEILDON. 
 
 Garfield were, in many respects, parallel with those of 
 Abraham Lincoln. Both were remarkable men and both 
 are lamented by a nation of people and the wonder of 
 the civilized world. 
 
 The life of Abraham Lincoln was, as it were, a destiny 
 unforeseen, uncontemplated, unrevealed, while it was 
 progressive, almost without effort or expectation. 
 
 Success, and that apparently unsought, seems to have 
 ruled, guided and governed him, and gained for him a 
 reputation and a fame not excelled by any American 
 statesman. 
 
 Concord, 1882. 
 
THOS. BURK-SAMUEL F. MILLER. 443 
 
 I HAVE great admiration for Lincoln. I regard him 
 as one of the greatest men of our time. His fame 
 is growing every day. 
 
 House of Commons, 1882. 
 
 MR. LINCOLN, next to Washington, is the great 
 central figure of our history in another genera- 
 tion. 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, his character as a statesman and leader, will 
 rise higher and shine more brightly, until it shall stand 
 without a rival or a peer in the day to which he be- 
 longed. 
 
 Washington, 1880. 
 
444 ^^. H. GIBSON— L. C. HO UK. 
 
 THE child of nature, Abraham Lincoln illustrated 
 in his life the grand possibilities of the American 
 citizen, and in his position of national Executive, he led a 
 great people through the perils of civil war, preserving 
 the integrity of the Union and breaking the fetters of four 
 millions of God's poor. Patriot, statesman, emancipator, 
 his name is immortal, and his memory will be cherished 
 through all the advancing ages. 
 
 Columbus, i88i. 
 
 I 
 
 I REGARD Mr. Lincoln as being peculiarly great in 
 many respects, and certainly possessed of more genius 
 than any public man of the generation in which he lived. 
 I have always, since studying his character, considered him 
 as much a child of Providence as Moses or any one of the 
 Prophets, excepting alone in the matter of inspiration, 
 which, of course, was not human genius. 
 
 Washington, i88i. 
 
STEWART L. WOODFORD. 
 
 445 
 
 BULL RUN found an administration zealous of inter- 
 est, but irresolute as to method. It found a Pres- 
 ident seeking the right, but modestly relying upon others 
 and showing little faith in self. It left a sad-eyed, quaint- 
 featured man, who from that hour, with one hand resting 
 on the heart of the people and feeling constantly how and 
 why that heart was throbbing, from thereafter accepted 
 all the responsibility of his place. He moved and spoke 
 thereafter as the people would have moved and spoken, 
 had that people sat incarnate in his seat. Forever there- 
 after, with humanity, but iron resolution, he directed the 
 issue and bore himself the terrible burden of the strife. 
 
 Extract from address before the army 
 Potomac at Cleveland, 1872. 
 
 OF 
 
446 CLINTON B. FISK, 
 
 I MOST heartily indorse the enterprise for revealing 
 succeeding generations how large a place Abraham 
 Lincoln had in the hearts of his countrymen. I knew 
 and loved him well ; a letter from him, now before me, 
 shows how, in the midst of the war for the Union, his 
 thoughts were running on the best methods of restoring 
 fraternity and good fellowship when the strife should be 
 over. I was in command in Missouri, and in response to 
 his inquiries touching the administration of the semi-civil- 
 military state of affairs then existing, I had the honor to 
 suggest what he highly approved and adopted. With his 
 own hand he wrote me as follows : 
 
 " Executive Mansion, Washington, 
 "October 13, 1863. 
 * Gen'l Clinton B. Fisk, 
 
 " Pilot Knob, Mo. 
 " My Dear Gen'l : — I have received and read, with 
 great satisfaction, your letter of the 8th inst. It is so full 
 of charity and good will, I wish I had time to more than 
 thank you for it. 
 
 " Very truly yours, 
 
 " A. Lincoln." 
 
 I regarded Mr. Lincoln as the greatest man of his 
 times, as the most unselfish and most honest ruler of the 
 century. 
 
CLINTON B. FISK. 
 
 447 
 
 " Our hearts lie buried in the dust, 
 With him so true and tender, 
 The patriot's stay, the people's trust, 
 The shield of the offender. 
 
 " Let every murmuring heart be still. 
 As, bowing to God's sovereign will 
 Our best-loved we surrender." 
 
 Whatever shall keep green the memory of Abraham 
 Lincoln, let that be done. 
 
 Seabright, 1882. 
 
448 T. W. S. KIDD. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 
 LAWYER AND CITIZEN. 
 By the " Crier of the Court." 
 
 TO remember the sayings and acts of those with 
 whom we come in every-day contact is a task 
 made easier when the memory of events are of a pleasant 
 character, sweetened by high personal regard. My 
 recollections of Mr. Lincoln are all pleasant to memory. 
 The bitterness of political campaigns could not poison the 
 ordinary antagonist of Abraham Lincoln into the slight- 
 est show of personal disrespect, while the influence of the 
 genial grandeur of his nature, on one who esteem.ed him 
 personally, as I did, would wipe away the gauzy webs of 
 aspersion woven by political spiders during the heat and 
 excitement of a canvass. Politically I shall utter not an- 
 other line nor syllable in reference to Mr. Lincoln — only 
 this — I was not of Mr. Lincoln's party, hence what I may 
 say of him will be outside of prejudice politically. My 
 introduction to Mr. Lincoln personally, whom I had known 
 by reputation as a leading Whig politician of Illinois, 
 since the campaign of 1848, was in the spring of 1854. 
 I was engaged in conversation with Dr. Harrison and 
 Rev. Peter Cartwright, explaining to them the "Atkins 
 Self-Raking Reaper," when Mr. Lincoln came up and the 
 doctor gave me an introduction. He told me to proceed 
 with the explanation, which I did, and he seemed to take 
 quite a lively interest. At the close of the explanation 
 
T. IV. S. KIDD. 445 
 
 Mr. Lincoln surprised me not a little Idv remarkino- In his 
 peculiar emphatic manner, " Young; man, I think you are 
 just the one I am looking for," and without giving me an 
 opportunity to ask for what purpose he wanted me, he 
 said, '' If you are through with the doctor and Uncle Peter, 
 will yoii walk over to the state-house with me, I want to 
 use you." I consented to go, remarking to Dr. Harrison, as 
 I did so : " Doctor, I only know Mr. Lincoln as a Whig, but 
 as the Whig party is dead, L suppose he will not be danger- 
 ous." He laughed and we started, but after going about 
 twenty feet turned and said, " Ho, Doc ! I hope our reaper 
 friend will have better luck than some in this county who 
 thought the Whig party was dead !" This was evidently 
 intended as a "twit " at some old Whig politician, as both 
 the doctor and the pioneer of Methodism had a hearty 
 laugh over it. 
 
 His use of me I soon learned; he showed me a 
 number of pieces taken from two reaping-machines — the 
 Manny and McCormIck — which had been taken to his 
 room for the purpose of studying the various movements, 
 to ascertain wherein one of the machines was an infringe- 
 ment of the patent granted to the other. Mr. Lincoln 
 possessed but little practical knowledge of machinery, 
 but his fondness for the study of mechanics very much 
 interested him, and he could very readily, with but little 
 explanation, comprehend the uses of different parts and 
 their relation to other parts. It was a pleasurable task 
 for me to explain these two machines ; to aid him in 
 ascertaining their movements ; in noting the difference 
 or pointing out the mechanical equivalents of the one 
 for the other, or where I thought the same principle was 
 
 29 
 
45 o T. W. S. KIDD. 
 
 applied in the construction or operation of the various 
 parts to accomplish a specific purpose, or where the 
 mechanism of the one differed from the other, although 
 the end reached was the same. 
 
 That little introduction knit two very opposite na- 
 tures, in many respects, very closely together. Neither 
 could, or at least did not, talk long upon a subject with- 
 out a story was suggested, when it would flow out as 
 natural as life, and frequently to the merriment of both. 
 My business had naturally led me in contact with a great 
 many stories, which it was the least of all my troubles to 
 retain. I found one with an inexhaustible fund of them, 
 and a taste for telling them unsurpassed. 
 
 This was my introduction to Mr. Lincoln, and each 
 day I came in contact with him in our closer relation of 
 lawyer and "Crier of the Court" only strengthened our 
 " fellow feeling," until, without appearing egotistic, I 
 really loved Lincoln, and I had many evidences of his 
 personal regard for myself. As a "story-teller" Mr. 
 Lincoln has been misunderstood, and in this short article, 
 if I can place him before the country robbed of what some 
 natures — who never knew the man — would make appear 
 as a "trifling" attribute in his genial "make-up." The 
 impression has been sought to be left on the minds 
 of those who have read some of the criticisms on his 
 character that "story-telling" with Lincoln was an in- 
 dication of a "great waste of time," and "a contribution 
 to the indolent and shiftless of social life." This view 
 of Mr. Lincoln as a story-teller is a great wrong to his 
 memory, and they who have measured him thus knew 
 him not. Mr. Lincoln's stories were a recreation to him, 
 
 J 
 
T. W. S. KIDD. 451 
 
 and he only used them to reUeve an over-taxed mind or 
 to "make a point " by telling a story which would require 
 hours of argument. As Linder once said to an Eastern 
 lawyer, who expressed the opinion that Mr. Lincoln lost 
 time in telling stories to a jury : " Ah, my friend ! Don't 
 lay the flattering unction to your soul that he is losing 
 time. Lincoln is like Tansey's horse, he 'breaks to 
 win.' " Mr. Lincoln could tell a story as no other man I 
 ever heard make the attempt. He had a purpose in 
 telling them before juries and on the stump. He could 
 annihilate an opponent with a story, and the other would 
 scarcely know what hurt him. 
 
 It will scarcely be presumed that he was always tell- 
 ing stones. It was the force of one of his well-told 
 stories that gave him the reputation of a story-teller. 
 Modesty would suggest to the "Crier of the Court" to 
 close with this simple explanation. He would not have 
 ventured thus much only to correct an error in regard to 
 one whom those failing to understand the man would 
 conclude that — 
 
 " Every word he spoke. 
 And even when he wrote, 
 Out would pop a little joke. 
 Or end with anecdote." 
 
 He told Stories, very good ones, too, which we hope 
 long to remember; but the mind which could grapple 
 with questions requiring an army of a million men and 
 great executive ability was made equal to the task by 
 just such innocent recreation to self and amusement of 
 his friends. 
 
 As I have said in my lecture, so I repeat here, " Mr. 
 
452 T. W. S. KIDD. 
 
 Lincoln has puzzled wiser heads than those supposed to 
 be carried through life on the shoulders of a Court Crier. 
 Attempts to define and portray him are numerous. They 
 are found floating on the sea of literature in every con- 
 ceivable shape from contact with the waves of tribulation 
 or success from the frequent jars and bumps on the rocks, 
 as well as the shoals of criticism. I have not ventured 
 on this sea with my flimsy bark to attempt a reputation at 
 the expense of a lawyer I honored, a citizen whom I knew 
 well and loved, but rather to Qfive those not favored with 
 the same relation a court officer bears to the attorney, a 
 homely sketch of an honest man's private life, as a law- 
 yer, his going in and coming out before a court, his daily 
 walk and conversation, the little things of a great man's 
 life which make up the great characteristics of which 
 only the world at large sees and hears so little. 
 
 "One of the finest fields for the study of characters 
 that more frequently rise in splendid proportions than 
 any other in this nation, is the court-room. Certainly no 
 field or profession has proved so prolific in the produc- 
 tion and development of ruling spirits, as that of the 
 law. 
 
 "As a lawyer Mr. Lincoln was not classed with the 
 first of the profession in all the branches of the science. 
 Others who still delight in having had a professional asso- 
 ciation with him — an intimate acquaintance with him — 
 while he lived and practiced law at the same bar, could 
 justly lay claim to and would in equity be allowed credit for 
 a greater amount of legal attainments, a more comprehen- 
 sive knowledge of the premises in particular branches 
 than he. But he possessed a general knowledge of all 
 
T. IV. S. KIDD. ,., 
 
 the branches. He had taken a draught from nearly all 
 the various streams that flow from the one great well- 
 spring of a 'Rule of action,' and was, in a word, a 
 good lawyer. Mr. Lincoln could boast that in some 
 branches of the law he had greater knowledge than some 
 of his brothers ; had more freely than many others ana- 
 lyzed the medicinal properties of these waters, with a 
 view solely to ascertain their healing virtues for the ills 
 of litigation. Mr. Lincoln was impressed with the idea, 
 which should govern every honorable member of the pro- 
 fession, that a lawyer's duty was to settle, not create 
 litigation. 
 
 "Judge Davis — who loved Mr. Lincoln as a brother 
 — said of him: 'He was a great lawyer, both at Nisi 
 Prizes and before an appellate tribunal.' It was gen- 
 erally thought among the members of the bar that his 
 strength was most apparent when standing before a jury. 
 How often have I heard his shrill and not unfrequently 
 musical voice rino; out the convincino;; notes from an in- 
 tellect as vigorous, although not so quick to perceive, 
 yet so comprehensive, exact and clear that they stamped 
 him in the estimation of every listener as an able, im- 
 pressive master of the intricacies of his case. He was an 
 honest man and a lawyer, seldom, if ever, allowing him- 
 self to be found on the wrong side of a case. It was to 
 this fact more than to any other that he owed his success 
 at the bar. In canvassing his success as a lawyer and 
 statesman it has been my privilege to hear almost every 
 shade of opinion expressed of him by members of the 
 Springfield bar. But, Crier only as I claim to have 
 been, I think the great secret has been overlooked, and 
 
454 T. W. S. KIDD. 
 
 with all due deference to opinions that I have seldom 
 found erroneous, I beg to suggest his extraordinary 
 moral courage to do the right, regardless of the conse- 
 quences, as the secret lever that lifted him slowly but 
 steadily above his fellows when contending with brothers 
 at the bar, or afterward, as the Chief of a great nation, 
 under the most complicated and trying circumstances." 
 
/. GILLESPIE. 455 
 
 I HAVE been requested to give my recollections 
 touching the life of Abraham Lincoln, late President 
 of the United States. I understand that it is not expected 
 that I should prepare a life or biography of him, but 
 simply give such incidents as would illustrate his charac- 
 ter and minor life. So much has been said and written 
 respecting the public history of the great commoner of 
 America, that I feel that it would be a work of supereroga- 
 tion in me to attempt a review of his public career. I shall 
 confine myself in what I shall say to what I know of 
 Abraham Lincoln as a man, and his political life, at home 
 or in Illinois. In order to give assurance that I had the 
 acquaintance, and to some degree the confidence, of the 
 illustrious man, I will give a copy of a letter from him to 
 me, novvr in my possession ; but I will first premise the 
 circumstances under which it was written. In 1857 and 
 1858, William Bissell, a Republican, was Governor of 
 Illinois. The Democrats at the session of the Legisla- 
 ture of those years obtained a majority in the Legisla- 
 ture, and passed two acts, an appropriation bill, and an 
 apportionment bill, the latter of which the Governor in- 
 tended to veto, and the former to approve. The bills re- 
 sembled each other in external appearance and were both 
 laid upon the Governor's table at the same time, and by 
 mistake he approved of the bill he intended to veto, which 
 was reported to the House as having been sanctioned 
 by the Executive. In a short time the Governor was 
 made aware of his mistake, and he instantly convened a 
 
456 /. GILLESPIE. 
 
 meeting of such of his friends as could be summoned, to 
 consult as to the best means to extricate himself from the 
 dilemma. N. B. Judd, of Chicago, Mr. Lincoln, I believe, 
 Gov. Koerner, of St. Clair, and I, were of the number. 
 We advised Governor Bissell to instantly send his messen- 
 ger to the House, and request the return of the bill. The 
 majority, not suspecting anything, complied with the re- 
 quest, and the Governor erased'\\\'~> name. The Democrats 
 employed General McClernand to apply for a writ of 
 mandamus to compel the Secretary of State, Hatch, to 
 report the apportionment bill as having received the 
 Executive approval and become a law. Here is the 
 letter : 
 
 "Springfield, January 19, 1851. 
 " Hon. Joseph Gillespie. 
 " My Dear Sir : 
 
 " This morning Colonel McClernand 
 showed me a petition for a mandamus against the 
 Secretary of State to compel him to certify the ap- 
 portionment act of last session, and he says it will be 
 presented to the court to-morrow morning. We shall be 
 allowed three or four days to get up a return, and I for 
 one want the benefit of consultation with you. Please 
 come right up. 
 
 " Yours, as ever, 
 
 "A. Lincoln." 
 
 I visited him as desired, and agreed with him as to the 
 line of defense he should pursue, and after a few days re- 
 ceived the followine letter : 
 
/. GILLESPIE. 457 
 
 "Springfield, February 7th, 1858. 
 " Hon. J. Gillespie. 
 
 " My Dear Sir: 
 
 " Yesterday morning the court over- 
 ruled the demurrer to Hatch's return in the mandamus 
 case. McClernand was present, said nothing about plead- 
 ing over, and so I suppose the matter is ended. The 
 court gave no opinion for the discussion, but Peck tells 
 me confidentially that they were unanimous in the 
 opinion that even if the Governor had signed the bill 
 purposely, he had the right to strike his name off so long 
 as the bill remained in his custody to control. 
 
 " Yours as ever, 
 
 " A. Lincoln." 
 
 So much has been said about Mr. Lincoln that I 
 hardly know how I shall go about giving my views 
 touching or delineating his life and character without 
 traveling in old grooves. Mr. Lincoln seldom said any- 
 thing on the subject of religion. He said once to me that 
 he never could reconcile the " prescience of Deity with 
 the uncertainty of events." I inferred from that remark 
 that his antecedents were of the Baptist persuasion. He 
 said at the same time that he thought it was unprofitable 
 to discuss the dogmas of predestination and free will. 
 After he became President he told me that circumstances 
 had happened during the war to induce him to a belief 
 in " special providences." I think his mind was unsettled 
 on religious matters until his election, and he surveyed 
 the vast responsibilities cast upon him. After that, it 
 seemed to me that he became religiously inclined. It was 
 
45 8 /. GILLESPIE. 
 
 difficult for him to believe without demonstration. He 
 was np \\\ Bible reading- and quoted from and illustrated 
 by Bible incidents. To give an instance, I called upon 
 him, to get his opinion as to the probabilities of the 
 conclusion of the war. He said it would very soon be 
 ended by the overthrow of the rebellion. " Now," said 
 I, " Mr. Lincoln, what is to be done with the rebels ?'' 
 " Well," said he, ''some people think their heads ought 
 to come off, but there are too many of them for that, and 
 if it was left to me, I could not draw the line between 
 those whose heads ought to come off or stay on." He 
 said he was favorably impressed with the policy of King 
 David. Said I : •' What was that?" " Well," said he, " you 
 remember that during the rebellion of Absalom, while 
 David was fleeing from Jerusalem, Shimei cursed him. 
 After the rebellion was put down, Shimei craved a 
 pardon. Abishai, David's nephew, the son of Zeruiah, 
 David's sister, said : * This man ought not to be pardoned ; 
 he cursed the Lord's anointed.' David said luito him : 
 ' what have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye 
 should this day be adversaries unto me ? Know ye that 
 not a man shall be put to death in Israel,' " This reference 
 not only indicated Mr. Lincoln's policy, but also his 
 humanity, which is evidenced by an incident I will relate. 
 One evening Mr. Joshua F. Speed, of Louisville, and I ac- 
 companied Mr. Lincoln to the Soldiers' Home, to spend the 
 nielit with him. While we were at tea, it was announced 
 that a delegation were in the anteroom. Mr. Lincoln im- 
 mediately went to see them ; Speed and I remained at the 
 table. We soon heard that the delegation were from New 
 Jersey, and that they were importuning the President to 
 
/. r;/rj,F,r:p/F,. 
 
 459 
 
 pardon som^: yoww^ m<:n from that State, who ha^l dr> 
 scrtcd, were recaptured and sentencerl by a court-martial 
 to he shot, in a few days. One of the delegation was a 
 t^rother to one who wari under sentence, and he ;r 
 to Mr. Lincoln with terrible earnestness. The Vf. .]'■.< -m 
 combated his views with invincible arguments. He 
 pointed out that it would be disastrous to the cause if 
 he should pardon men who had deserted their colors, 
 while the armies were confronting each other ; he had no 
 right under such circumstances to expect the men who 
 had remained in the ranks to do their duty. My hf:art 
 almost sank within me when Mr. Lincoln dismissed them, 
 saying that he would give them a definite answer at the 
 White House at nine o'clock the next morning. Speed 
 and I, after tea, had come into the room and listened to 
 the discussion, after the delegation left. I was much 
 afraid that Mr. Lincoln had ma<^le up his mind not to 
 I^ardon the young men. Speed, v/ho 1 know had more 
 influence with the President than any living being, sug- 
 gested that we should tackle him and Ix-g for the boys, 
 which we did in good earnest. We plied him with all the 
 reasons we could muster, and still I was afraid we were 
 not crainintr crround When it came to be time to retire, I 
 said to Mr. Lincoln that I did not think I could sleep 
 unless I knew that he was going to pardon the boys. He 
 said : " Gillespie, I can't tell you." "Well," said I, "you 
 can give me an inkling." Said he, " All I can say is that I 
 have always found that mercy bears richer fruits ilmn strict 
 justice." In the morning the delegation were ahead of 
 time and they were rejoiced beyond measure to receive 
 the pardon for their friends. Mr. Lincoln was a very 
 
46o /. GILLESPIE. 
 
 humane man, but at the same time he was wonderfully 
 just and firm. If it was possible for him to exercise 
 clemency without doing wrong, he would do so. He told 
 me, one evening, that since he saw me in the morning, 
 he had received some distressing intelligence. He had 
 been notified by Ottld, Commissioner (I think he called 
 him) for Exchange in the rebel army, that a large number 
 of prisoners captured and paroled at Vicksburg had been 
 put into the field. I said I did not perceive why that 
 should distress him ; that it only amounted to our having 
 a few more to fight. " Ah," said he, " look at it in this 
 light ; these men are liable to be shot when captured 
 unless I prohibit it, and the responsibility rests on me to 
 say whether the laws of war shall be carried out, in the 
 case of those men, or suspended. What would you do if in 
 my place ? " said he. I said : "It is too big a question for 
 me," " Well," said he, " it is a momentous question, and 
 must be decided at once, and I have about made up my 
 mind that those men have been forced into the field, and 
 that it would be unmerciful to have them shot." As a boon 
 companion, Mr. Lincoln, although he never drank a drop 
 of liquor, or used tobacco in any form, in his life, was 
 without a rival. No one would ever think of putting in 
 while he was talking. He could illustrate any incident, 
 it seemed to me, with an appropriate and amusing anec- 
 dote. He did not tell stories just for the sake of telling 
 them, but invariably by way of illustration of something 
 that had happened or been said. There seemed to be no 
 end to his fund. I could relate hundreds of his stories, 
 but time and space forbid it. I will give a circumstance 
 showing his power to amuse. In 1842 (I think), after 
 
/. GILLESPIE. 461 
 
 Mr. Van Buren's defeat, he and Mr. Paulding took an 
 excursion through the West ; they informed their friends 
 that they would reach vSpringfield, 111., by a certain 
 evening. The Springfield people knew that the bad state 
 of the roads would prevent them getting further than 
 Rochester, about seven miles from Springfield, that day; 
 and as accommodations at the place were horrible, Mr. 
 Van Buren's friends concluded to meet him there with re- 
 freshments and make the night pass off as pleasantly as 
 circumstances would permit. Mr. Lincoln, although a 
 Whig, was pressed into the service, and was told to use 
 his best endeavors to entertain the distinguished guests, 
 in which he succeeded admirably. Ebenezer Peck, a great 
 admirer of Mr. Van Buren, told me he had never passed 
 a more joyous night. '' Lincobi told his queerest stories; 
 Van Buren's laugh was ready chorus." Mr. Van Buren 
 said that for days after his sides were sore from laughing 
 at Lincoln's humor. Physically, Mr. Lincoln was a 
 Hercules. I first saw him in 1832, while he was engaged 
 in a wrestling-match with one Dan Thompson, who was 
 the champion, in that line, of the southern portion of 
 Illinois, while Lincoln occupied that position as to what 
 was then the northern portion. It was a terrible tussle, 
 but Lincoln was too much for him. Mr. Lincoln was a 
 very indulgent husband and father ; while at Springfield, 
 his children were constantly with him, romping and play- 
 ing. The truth is, his affection was so strong that he 
 had but little government over them, and it was pamful 
 to see him when allusion was made to the death of his 
 son Willie. As a lawyer he was peculiar, and never 
 gave an opinion until he had reflected upon the case. He 
 
462 /. GILLESPIE. 
 
 went into court with his subject thoroughly analyzed, and 
 would discard every^ doubtful point and concentrate all of 
 his powers upon the tap-root of his case. Analysis and 
 concentration were the characteristics of his mind. He 
 had no ceremony in his temper, and treated ever}- one 
 with the utmost consideration and respect. ^Ir. Lincoln 
 cared nothing about money-making, and had no concep- 
 tion of a speculation. He said he had no money sense. 
 He had a realizing sense that he was generally set down 
 by city snobs as a country' Jake, and would accept, in a 
 public-house, any place assigned to him, whether in the 
 basement or the attic, and he seldom called at the table 
 for anything, but helped himself to what was within 
 reach. Indeed, he never knew what he did eat. He said 
 to me once that he never felt his own utter unworthi- 
 ness so much as when in the presence of a hotel clerk or 
 waiter. Mr. Lincoln was v^ry tender-hearted. I called 
 at the White House and was detained a considerable time 
 in the anteroom, which was filled with persons waiting 
 their turn to be admitted to the. President. While there, 
 I met with an old lady who said she had been several 
 davs waitinof to see Mr. Lincoln ; that she wanted to cret 
 permission to see her son, who was a soldier lying at the 
 point of death ; that she was unable to obtain permission 
 from the Secretar}* of War. I told her that if I gained 
 admittance before she did, I would speak to the Pres- 
 ident about her case. She said she had been told that he 
 was a ver)^ kind-hearted man. Just about this time, Mr. 
 Lincoln's barber, whom I had known in Springfield, 
 Illinois, came out of Mr. Lincoln's room and, seeing me, 
 offered to take me in by a private door, which I accepted. 
 
■ym (A the ' , and he f : that hi«, 
 
 ibiiktlofi ^ : in the fact that it was irr f,, 
 
 ;m to gjvfj pr^> >ntO?^ir huthf: 
 
 e old lady to r>o ' ,, anci ' 
 
 -anted her r^^: ;^ ^^ r, . , ' 
 
 '/nest I K 
 
 te an incident illtistrative of Mr, Lincoln's character, 
 hich redounde^l to the advantage of the country. It 
 ;i5 at a time ^' ' of m*'; 
 
 Ivance f^inds to meet the pressing ne 
 
 <* those men were conferring with the Pres- 
 ent on the momentous question, an old gentleman anrl 
 
 X, in h 
 anner, his old {nenrh. The effect upon Messrs, 
 ^ewart, Astor and others was electrical They declared 
 at they would have no hesitation to aid a Gov 
 
 at the head / ' ■■: a man so true to 
 
 friends. 
 
 ii i > • ff * 
 
 Edwakdsville, 18S2, 
 
4^4 'S'. S. COX— THOMAS CHASE. 
 
 IS sense of humor was as logical as his mind was 
 clear and his heart generous. I knew him well 
 before he was Chief Executive, and he was the best 
 companion ; bigger by far in the noblest sense of courtesy 
 and heartiness than any man I ever knew, except his great 
 rival. Judge Douglas. 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
 A MAN of a style of greatness which is the best 
 product of free institutions, and of them alone ; a 
 man whose glory it was that his chief desire was to do 
 the right, and to promote the right ; whose watchword 
 was Duty ; and whose warmest aspiration the removal of 
 all weights and hindrances which hold men back from 
 their highest social, intellectual and religious develop- 
 ment. 
 
 <yA^^^i-yi ayi> ^-^a^dzy. 
 
 1880. 
 
CAVALRY GROUP OF STATUARY. NATIONAL LINCOLN MONUMENT. 
 
 RcpregeiitiiiK the rcsrinsfipfure of ahorse, from -wlioseljack his ruler hat^ just been thrown 
 and Ihe -wounded truiuj>ctiT, who ia gupportud by a companion. 
 
/. G. HOLLAND-ANSON G. MCCOOK. 465 
 
 WHEN I began, a few weeks after his death, to 
 write the life of Abraham Lincoln, I entertained 
 a profound respect for his strong mind, his tender heart, 
 and the memory of his beneficent life. When I wrote 
 the last page of the book, I had become his affectionate 
 admirer and enthusiastic partisan. 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
 HIS services were of such inestimable value to the 
 republic, and his life so identified with the 
 struggle to maintain it, that no ordinary volume would 
 be sufficient to more than touch upon them. 
 
 &oz^: 
 
 Washington, 1880. 
 
 30 
 
466 
 
 H. IF. LONGFELLOW. 
 
 U 
 
 NABLE to do more than wish the undertaking 
 great success. 
 
 U 
 
 Cambridge, March 13, 1882. 
 
 u> 
 
M. R. WAITE. 
 
 467 
 
 I HAVE always thought Mr. Lincoln was a man born 
 for his time. He was a leader without seeming to 
 be. He, more than any other man during his presidency, 
 stood at the helm of State. Through his skill, which 
 was only the best of common sense, we were taken by 
 the only channel that led from secession to the true 
 dictum of "an indestructible Union, composed of in- 
 destructible States." He died as he lived, a great states- 
 man, who knew enough of the ways of politics to make 
 his statesmanship practically useful. 
 
 Washington, 1882. 
 
468 JESSE W. FELL. 
 
 IF there was any one trait in the make-up of that illus- 
 trious man that stood out more conspicuously than 
 any other, it was, to use a favorite word of his, his fairness 
 — his habitual, ever-recurring sense of justice. As an illus- 
 tration of this, I offerforthe Lincoln Memorial Album 
 a few recollections of his bearing towards his great politi- 
 cal rival, Stephen A. Douglas : for great he, too, truly was, 
 as a popular and sensational debater and political man- 
 ager, to say nothing of his acknowledged ability in other 
 directions. 
 
 The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill — of which he 
 was the admitted champion — in the spring of 1854, in open 
 violation of both letter and spirit of the Missouri Com- 
 promise Act of 1820, throwing out that immense district of 
 country covered by these Territories — now States — to 
 the baneful institution of human slavery, was claimed to 
 be a manifest breach of national good faith ; and so re- 
 pugnant was it to the sentiment of the Northern people, 
 that it roused up a storm of popular indignation all over 
 the North, unequaled in the previous history of the coun- 
 try. In no part of that country, Kansas alone excepted, 
 did that excitement run higher than here in Illinois ; as an 
 evidence of which, about that time, or soon after, scores 
 of law-abiding men armed themselves with Sharpe's 
 rifles, and fled from our midst to the plains of " Bleeding 
 Kansas " — then so-called — whilst many others contributed 
 freely of their means to accomplish a common object. 
 
JESSE IV. FELL. 469 
 
 to wit, make Kansas a free State ; the battle-o-round 
 being almost wholly confined to that State. 
 
 Senator Douglas, havyig not only introduced and 
 voted for that Bill, but making the leading speech in its 
 support, was the object of special hostility and criticism 
 here and everywhere. He labored to justify the act on 
 the ground of what he denominated "popular sovereign- 
 ty" — plausibly contending it was equally fair to both 
 sections of the Union ; and that, as the free State men 
 were not only more numerous, but more active in their 
 movements than the Southern people, they would take 
 possession of and organize into free States both of these 
 Territories ; a view, the correctness of which — in the lat- 
 ter regard — was vindicated by subsequent history, though 
 not till a series of outrages had been perpetrated, unp;ir- 
 alleled in the history of popular governments. The oppo- 
 sition contended that, as that Territory had in the most 
 solemn manner, and as a peace-offering for the preserva- 
 tion of the Union, been dedicated to freedom, when Mis- 
 souri was admitted into the Union, the passage of the Bill 
 exhibited an unmanly, servile pandering to the slave 
 power of the South, that up to that time, and for many 
 years preceding, had dominated all legislation on the 
 slavery question, and in various ways been very aggres- 
 sive on the rights of Northern people. The result was 
 an intensely bitter political excitement ; so bitter as to 
 not only mar, but almost to destroy social enjoyment be- 
 tween ordinary politicians holding adverse opinions on 
 this subject. 
 
 These two men were the Magnus Apollos of their re- 
 spective parties ; for although the Republican party had 
 
470 JESSE TV. FELL. 
 
 not then been fully crystallized into a political organiza- 
 tion, it was in a process of formation, and Lincoln was 
 everywhere in Illinois our admitted standard-bearer. 
 
 Notwithstanding the high party-excitement referred 
 to, his love of fair play shone out most conspicuously. 
 Judge Douglas, fully apprised of the state of public feel- 
 ing, had given out that on his return from Washington 
 he would address the people on the exciting topic of the 
 times, and in pursuance thereof a Democratic meeting 
 was called at Bloomington on the 19th day of September, 
 1854. After conferring with our Anti-Nebraska friends — 
 as we were then commonly called — I opened a correspon- 
 dence with Mr. Lincoln, resultino; in his comingr to 
 Bloomington on that day, in order to take notes and 
 reply to Mr. Douglas, if the way opened, on the same 
 day, and if not, in the evening. This fact became pretty 
 widely known, and a very large meeting, composed of 
 quite as many Anti-Nebraska men as Democrats, met in 
 the grove near town — no hall we then had being sufficient 
 to hold the crowd. In order that the country people 
 should have the benefit of the discussion, there was a 
 universal desire, on the part of our friends, that Lincoln 
 as well as Douglas should be heard in the day-time, and 
 1 had been requested to see Lincoln on his arrival and 
 get his approval that we propose to, and urge ujDon the 
 Judge to divide time, so as to have a joint discussion. 
 
 With what little ability I could command, I did so, 
 emphasizing the fact that a large majority of those we 
 most desired to reach could not be heard unless this 
 arrangement was made ; and that in the absence of such 
 an agreement it would be quite difficult to restrain within 
 
JESSE W. FELL. 47, 
 
 bounds the clamor of the people to hear him. I shall 
 never forget his very prompt and decisive reply, which 
 was substantially this; "Fell, this is not our meeting; 
 it is Judge Douglas's meeting ; he called it, and he and 
 his friends have a right to control it. Notwithstanding 
 all you say about our country people, and the great desire 
 I have to talk to them, we must do nothing to defeat his 
 object in calling it. He has heard of the great racket the 
 passage of his Bill has kicked up, and he wants to set 
 himself right with his people, a job not very easily done, 
 you and I being the judges. Partly on this ground and 
 partly to keep me from speaking, he will no doubt con- 
 sume so much of the time that I'll have no chance till 
 in the evening. I fully appreciate all you say about our 
 country friends, and would like mighty well to talk to 
 them on this subject. If Judge Douglas will give me a 
 chance I will follow him out in the grove, but as he won't 
 do this, I guess you may give it out, after he is done, 
 that I wall reply to him after candle lighting in the court- 
 house." 
 
 This speech settled the matter. I will only add, in 
 conclusion, our Anti-Nebraska friends were greatly dis- 
 appointed at not getting his approval cf some pretty 
 active (perhaps I should say aggressive) demonstrations, 
 to secure a division of time in the discussion ; that, as we 
 anticipated, the afternoon was consumed by the Judge ; 
 that so intense was the desire to hear Lincoln in the day- 
 time, it was found quite difficult to repress a perfect 
 avalanche of popular calls for our hero to be heard ; and 
 that, in the evening, he held forth at the old court-house 
 to all that could get in it, or within hearing distance, m a 
 
472 JESSE IV. FELL. 
 
 most logical, eloquent and inspiring speech on the dis- 
 turbed and perturbed condition of the country, and the 
 consequent duties we owed to that country, and to a 
 common humanity, in resisting, to the bitter end, this last 
 aggression on Northern rights. In power and pathos, 
 mingled w^ith the playful and humorous, he seldom, if 
 ever, acquitted himself more grandly. 
 
 It may not be amiss to say that before speaking com- 
 menced I called on Judge Douglas, who, as we had antici- 
 pated, politely declined the proffered debate; in do'ng 
 which he made some amusing, though good-natured, 
 remarks about the uncertain character of our party, 
 which in truth was, at that time, far from being of a very 
 compact or coherent order, either in name or creed. 
 
 I repeat, it was Lincoln's love of justice, his habitual, 
 ever-active sense of right, and the practice of it, that 
 made him so strong with the people ; and such I know is 
 the opinion of him whose name, more than any other, is 
 linked with his; I mean Judge David Davis, with whom 
 he spent so much of his life, here in Illinois, as a practic- 
 ing attorney around our old judicial circuit. 
 
 In the fall of 1858, during the discussion between 
 Senator Douglas and Mr. Liacoln, I had occasion to 
 visit the Middle and Eastern States ; and as the whole 
 country was then agitated by the slavery question and 
 that discussion cut a prominent figure in the agitation, 
 I was frequently applied to for information in reference 
 to Mr. Lincoln. I felt my State pride flattered by these 
 inquiries, and still more to find the New York Tribitne, 
 and other papers, publishing copious extracts from these 
 discussions, taken from the Chicago press. I did what 
 
/ESSE IV. FELL. 473 
 
 little I could to satisfy so laudable a curiosity, not think- 
 ing, at first, that anything further would come of this 
 discussion, in reference to Mr. Lincoln, than his election 
 to the Senate. At length, from the frequency of these 
 inquiries and public notices of the Illinois contest, an 
 impression began to form, that by judicious efforts he 
 could be made the Republican candidate for presidency 
 in 1S60. Very soon after my return home, and after the 
 senatorial contest had closed, one evening, as I passed 
 on the south side of the public square of this city, 1 
 espied the tall form of Mr. Lincoln emerging from the 
 court-house door, Judge Davis's court then being in 
 session. I stopped until he came across the street, when, 
 after the usual salutations, I asked him to go with me 
 into my brother's (K. N. Fell) law-office, then kept over 
 what is now the Home Bank. There we sat down, and 
 in the calm twilight of the evening, had substantially the 
 following conversation : — F^ll. — " Lincoln, I have been 
 East, as far as Boston, and up Into New Hampshire, 
 traveling In all the New England States, save Maine: 
 in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan 
 and Indiana; and everywhere I hear you talked about. 
 Very frequently I have been asked : ' Who is this man 
 Lincoln, of your State, now canvassing in opposition to 
 Senator Douglas?' Being, as you know, an ardent 
 Republican and your friend, I usually told them we liad 
 In Illinois two giants instead of one ; that Douglas was 
 the little one, as they all knew, but that you were the big 
 one, which they didn't all know. 
 
 " But, seriously, Lincoln, Judge Douglas being so wide- 
 ly known, you are getting a national reputation through 
 
474 JESSE W. FELL. 
 
 him, as the result of the late discussion ; your speeches, 
 in whole or in part, on both sides, have been pretty 
 extensively published in the East ; you are there regarded 
 by discriminating minds as quite a match for him in 
 debate, and the truth is, I have a decided impression 
 that if your popular history and efforts on the slavery 
 question can be sufficiently brought before the people, 
 you can be made a formidable, if not a successful, 
 candidate for the presidency." 
 
 Lincoln. — " Oh, Fell, what's the use of talking of me 
 for the presidency, whilst we have such men as Seward, 
 Chase and others, who are so much better known to the 
 people, and whose names are so intimately associated 
 with the principles of the Republican party. Everybody 
 knows them ; nobody, scarcely, outside of Illinois, knows 
 me. Besides, is it not, as a matter of justice, due to 
 such men, who have carried this movement forward to its 
 present status, in spite of fearful opposition, personal 
 abuse, and hard names ? I really think so." 
 
 Fell. — " There is much truth in what you say. The 
 men you allude to, occupying more prominent positions, 
 have undoubtedly rendered a larger service in the Re- 
 publican cause than you have ; but the truth is, they have 
 rendered too viuch service to be available candidates. 
 Placing it on the grounds of personal services, or merit, 
 if you please, I concede at once the superiority of their 
 claims. Personal services and merit, however, when in- 
 compatible with the public good, must be laid aside. 
 Seward and Chase have both made long records on the 
 slavery question, and have said some very radical things, 
 which, however just and true in themselves, and however 
 
/ESSE IV. FELL. .,, 
 
 4/5 
 
 much these men may challenge our admiration for their 
 courage and devotion to unpopular truths, would seriously 
 damage them in the contest, if nominated. We must 
 bear in mind, Lincoln, that we are yet in a minority ; we 
 are struggling against fearful odds for supremacy. We 
 were defeated on this same issue in 1856, and will be 
 again in i860, unless we get a great many new votes from 
 what may be called the old conservative parties. These 
 will be repelled by the radical utterances and votes of 
 such men as Seward and Chase. What the Republican 
 party wants, to insure success, in i860, is a man of 
 popular origin, of acknowledged ability, committed 
 against slavery aggressions, who has no record to defend 
 and no radicalism of an offensive character to repel votes 
 from parties hitherto adverse. Your discussion with 
 Judge Douglas has demonstrated your ability and your 
 devotion to freedom ; you have no embarrassing record ; 
 you have sprung from the humble walks of life, sharing 
 in its toils and trials ; and if we can only get these facts 
 sufficiently before the people, depend upon it, there is 
 some chance for you. And now, Mr. Lincoln, I come to 
 the biisiness part of this interview. My native State, 
 Pennsylvania, will have a large number of votes to cast 
 for somebody on the question we have been discussing. 
 Pennsylvania don't like, over much, New York and her 
 politicians. She has a candidate, Cameron, of her own : 
 but he will not be acceptable to a larger part of her own 
 people, much less abroad, and will be dropped. Thnjugh 
 an eminent jurist and essayist of my native county \\\ 
 Pennsylvania, fa^'orably known throughout the Stale, 1 
 want to get up a well-considered, well-written newspaper 
 
476 JESSE IV. FELL. 
 
 articles, telling the people who you are and what you 
 have done, that it may be circulated, not only in that 
 State, but elsewhere, and thus help in manufacturing 
 sentiment in your favor. I know your public life, and 
 can furnish items that your modesty would forbid, but I 
 don't know much about your private history : when you 
 were born, and where, the names and origin of your 
 parents, what you did in early life, what your oppor- 
 tunities for education, etc., and I want you to give me 
 these. Won't you do it ?" 
 
 Lincoln. — " Fell, I admit the force of much that you 
 say, and admit that I am ambitious, and would like to be 
 President. I am not insensible to the compliment you 
 pay me, and the interest you manifest in the matter ; but 
 there is no siLch good luck in store for me as the presidency 
 of these United States ; besides, there is nothing in my 
 early history that would interest you or anybody else ; and, 
 as Judge Davis says, '// zuont pay.' Good night." 
 
 And thus ended, for the time being, my pet scheme 
 of helping to make Lincoln President. I notified him, 
 however, as his giant form, wrapped in a dilapidated 
 shawl, disappeared in the darkness, that this was not the 
 last of it ; that \h.Q. facts must come. The next year, 1859, 
 I was engaged much of the time as the corresponding 
 secretary of the Republican State Central Committee, in 
 traveling over the State and in carrying out plans for a 
 more thorough organization of the Republican party, 
 preparatory to the great contest of i860. I visited per- 
 sonally a large majority of the counties in the State, and 
 nearly everywhere had the satisfaction of learning that, 
 though many doubted the possibility of nominating 
 
/ESSE IV. FELL. 477 
 
 Lincoln, most generally it was approved of. This fact 
 , became in time very apparent to Lincoln himself, whom 
 I not infrequently met in my travels ; and in the month 
 of December of that year, feeling that perhaps it would 
 " pay," I induced him to place in my hands this emi- 
 nently characteristic paper. Such is the history of a 
 paper that has already become historic, and which, to me 
 at least, has a value I little dreamed of at the time. 
 
 " Sp*ringfield, Dec. 20, 1859. 
 "J. W. Fell, Esq. 
 
 "My Dear Sir: 
 
 " Herewith is a little sketch, as you re- 
 quested. There is not much of it, for the reason, I 
 suppose, that there is not much of me. If anything be 
 made out of it, I wish it to be modest, and not to go 
 beyond the materials. If it was thought necessary to 
 incorporate anything from any of my speeches, I suppose 
 there would be no objections. Of course, it must not 
 appear to have been written by myself. 
 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 "A. Llncoln." 
 
 "Normal, Illinols, March 9, 1882. 
 " OsBORN H. Oldroyd, Springfield, 111. 
 " My Dear Sir : 
 
 " It is with much pleasure that I have 
 learned of your purpose to erect at Springfield, Illinois, 
 a " Memorial Hall," in which is to be stored whatever is 
 interesting as connected with, or illustrating the life and 
 character of that most remarkable man and patriot, 
 
478 
 
 JESSE W. FELL. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln. In answer to your polite request for 
 the original manuscript of what is known as the " Auto-^ 
 biography of Abraham Lincoln," I herewith present you 
 that paper, to be placed in your large and valuable 
 collection of memorials of Mr. Lincoln. Not doubtinof 
 your great success in so patriotic an undertaking, I am, 
 with sincere respect, 
 
 " Yours truly. 
 
 Normal, 1882. 
 
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VIRGINIA A. FRAZER. 4S3 
 
 1861— 1865. 
 
 THE cry for " Freedom " or for " Death " resounds, 
 From frozen lake to Mississippi's mouth 
 The rugged mind of Lincoln guides the North, 
 The gray-eyed eagle Davis leads the South. 
 
 On ! on ! they come ! the while the scythe of gray 
 Sweeps low the lines of blue, like autumn leaves ; 
 
 The eager movitlis of earth quaff deep of gore ; 
 The granaries of Death heap high with sheaves. 
 
 Steel clashes steel ! and now the twofold cry 
 Bursts from the stern lips of the nation's head. 
 
 The patriot's cry for " Union," " Freedom " rings 
 Through all the land, and eclioes mid the dead. 
 
 And patriotism swells the surging tide, 
 
 With mighty hosts unnumbered as the stars — 
 
 " Otie cotmtry" stirs the patriot of the North, 
 And nerves his sinews for the " War of Wars !" 
 
 On ! on ! and now the banners of the South 
 Bend low to meet the kiss the dying give ; 
 
 The South yields to the hosts— her cause is lost— 
 Yet, though subdued, her Truth and Honor lives! 
 
 Now Lincoln's hand has caught the Union flag, 
 And firmly nailed it to the ship of State ; 
 
 He stands to pilot her into the port — 
 To sternly meet the stern decree of fate. 
 
 And now — a horror falls upon the land, 
 The pulses of the North beat wild and high; 
 
 The weary Southland sees her last hope fade. 
 And, with the dream of Lincoln, droop and die. 
 
1.84 VIRGINIA A. FRAZER. 
 
 'Tis finisbed . -i.. . -_. _^r.ng mission's filled ! 
 
 The grasp of Death rests on tie iron hand 
 That laid the SoTithem banner in its shroud. 
 
 And flang the " Stars and Stripes " o'er all the land. 
 
 
 Memphis, 1882. 
 

 I HAVE beijn more deeply ictterested ia rfie life and 
 character o£ Abralidni Uacola. and have 
 
 ^' *' moreunre>. 
 
 .lay knovvlcvige. ar, 
 
 civen me the high estimate o£ his character which was 
 
 cated m the uareservevl conSdence and generous 
 with which he was regarvlevl by all his cer 
 ; 'fy by those who came in persoi:.. ..;.... ^% > . 
 , ', knew him best 
 
 ' V. 
 
486 Z. EASTMAN. 
 
 ENGLISH SYMPATHY FOR MR. LINCOLN. 
 
 THE hatred of aristocratic England of the American 
 Union in the time of the rebeUion almost made 
 anti-slavery England pro-slavery. The anti-slavery 
 society of Clarkson and Wilberforce were alarmed at the 
 revulsion of principle, and issued an address to the 
 people. They sent a copy of that address to President 
 Lincoln, with the following letter : 
 
 " To His Excellency Abraham Lincoln, President of 
 THE United States of America. 
 
 " Sir: — 1 1 has seemed desirable to the Committee of the 
 British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, to issue, at 
 the present crisis, an Address to the friends of the Anti- 
 Slavery cause, of which a copy is annexed. 
 
 '• In directing your attention to it, the Committee 
 would take advantage of the opportunity, to assure you 
 of their personal respect and sympathy, and of their ap- 
 preciation of the exceeding great difficulties of your 
 position. Since your accession to office, they have 
 watched, with deep interest, the progress of events, and 
 especially the gradual development of a policy tending 
 to promote Negro Emancipation. If certain measures in 
 furtherance of that policy, and some apparently incon- 
 sistent with it, have not recommended themselves to the 
 approval of the Committee, they have, nevertheless, 
 recognized the majority of them with satisfaction, as con- 
 
Z. EASTMAN. ^S; 
 
 ducive, in the main, to the interests of the enslaved portion 
 of the African race. 
 
 The Committee earnestly desire, that the sanguinary 
 conflict between the two sections of the Union may 
 speedily cease, and that with the removal of the sole 
 cause of this strife, a way may open for a reconciliation, 
 upon the enduring basis of a community of interests, and 
 a mutual forgiveness of injuries. 
 
 " On behalf of the Committee, 
 "(Signed) Thomas Binns, Chairman. 
 
 " L. A. Chamerovzow, Secretary, 
 27 New Broad Street, E.C. 
 London, 17th November, 1862." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in Eng- 
 land. 
 
 When it had been learned that Mr. Lincoln had been 
 elected for a second term for the presidency, a large 
 public meeting was called in Bristol, England, to con- 
 gratulate him on his re-election, and the meeting was 
 broken up by a mob. Afterwards the following address 
 was prepared and signed by a number of prominent 
 persons, representing the friends of the American Union. 
 A few weeks later another public meeting was held in 
 the same hall, and presided over officially by the Mayor 
 of the city, to express their abhorrence of the assassina 
 tion of our President and condolence to the nation for 
 the loss of so great and good a man. 
 
488 Z. EASTMAN. 
 
 Address to his Excellency Abraham Lincoln on his 
 
 \ Re-election to the Presidency of the 
 
 United States. 
 
 We, the officers and members of the Committee of 
 the Bristol Emancipation Society, in the name of a 
 large number of our fellow-citizens, who, in meeting 
 assembled, on several occasions, and invariably by a large 
 majority of votes, have adopted resolutions in agreement 
 with the tenor of this address, desire most cordially to 
 express to your Excellency our congratulations on your 
 re-election to the presidency of the United States, by the 
 popular vote of your freedom-loving countrymen. 
 
 We rejoice in this result, regarding it as evincing the 
 will and design of the American people to sustain you in 
 the Anti-Slavery policy inaugurated under your adminis- 
 tration by the Federal Government, a policy which, 
 while rapidly making your country as free in fact as 
 it has been heretofore by profession, will for the future 
 identify your administration with the Liberation of the 
 Enslaved. 
 
 We believe that in issuing your Emancipation Pro- 
 clamation, freeing all persons held as slaves by citizens 
 who were in arms against the United States Government 
 after 1863, and your corresponding recommendation to 
 purchase for emancipation the slaves of loyal persons in 
 States not in rebellion ; and your signing the law exclud- 
 ing slavery from all the lands of the United States at 
 present under a territorial form of government, together 
 with the anti-slavery policy marking many of your acts, 
 
Z. EASTMAN. ^^ 
 
 you have commended your course to the approval of all 
 
 TRUE PHILANTHROPISTS. 
 
 Disclaiming any desire to mingle with the mere civil 
 and political questions of the day, in which, amono- 
 Americans, there exists a diversity of opinion, we feel 
 that the policy of your administration, to which we have 
 referred, affects the great interests of humanity ; by it we 
 are reminded afresh of the acts of our own Government 
 in abolishing the slave trade, and slavery ; and in 
 venturing to send to you our congratulations, we would 
 express it as our conviction that such deeds, while in 
 harmony with the highest laws of morality, tend, of their 
 own nature, to draw nearer to each other the two great 
 Protestant nations, leading to their alliance and co-opera- 
 tion, and placing them in a position to influence, by their 
 united example, the civilized world. 
 
 In the long struggle w^hich has passed, and in the con- 
 flict which may yet be continued, we see the chastisement 
 of a great and erring people, for the crime of slave-hold- 
 ing, and for the glaring departure from high principles 
 and professions ; and we believe that whenever the 
 nation shall have purged away the crime of slavery, 
 Peace and Prosperity will speedily be restored. 
 
 The address was beautifully engraved and illuminated 
 on a sheet of parchment four by five feet, and formally 
 presented through me, as United States Consul, to the 
 President, who received it but a short time before his 
 assassination. 
 
 Maywood, 1882. 
 
49° JAMES S. ROLLINS. 
 
 MR. LINCOLN was a man, in my view, of unswerv- 
 ing integrity in all his private and public rela- 
 tions ; his convictions upon all subjects that he discussed 
 were honest and decided, and he followed them out ; he 
 was a man of great benevolence of character ; there was 
 no malice in his composition, but the widest charity for 
 all ; he was devoted to the best interests of the State of 
 his adoption, but at the same time he was a devoted 
 patriot, loving his whole country, and an earnest defender 
 of human liberty, and the perpetuation of the American 
 Union, which, if broken up, might destroy the existence of 
 free institutions upon the American continent ; he had 
 no prejudices against the Southern people ; he was one 
 of the best friends they ever had. This is the place that 
 vvill be awarded to him in history in after times. The 
 war gave him deep distress ; there was nothing he would 
 not have done, no sacrifice he would not have made con- 
 sistent with his high sense of duty to his country and to 
 humanity, if that would have stopped the war, and saved 
 the Union from dissolution. In the deep sincerity of his 
 heart, I have often heard him express these sentiments, 
 and all his Messages to Congress and other similar 
 papers, when carefully analyzed, will prove the correctness 
 of this estimate of him. These are my impressions 
 formed of Mr. Lincoln in a pleasant and frequent associa- 
 tion with him during the 37th and 38th Congresses, in 
 both of which I was a member, and which extended through 
 the period of the civil war. 
 
JAMES S. ROLLINS. 4.^, 
 
 Mr. Lincoln often spoke to me about the Emancipa- 
 tion Proclamation. He had no great faith in its efficacy. 
 I heard him say a number of times it only affected those 
 who were free, i. e., those behind the Federal lines, and of 
 course it would not reach the vast number of slaves who 
 remained within the lines of the Southern army. This 
 made him exceedingly anxious in reference to the passage 
 of the 13th amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 States, abolishing African Slavery in our country. This 
 amendment had failed to pass during the session of Con- 
 gress of 1863-64, but it was again introduced into the 
 Senate by its author, the Hon. John 13. Henderson, of 
 Missouri, and having passed that body, was sent to the 
 House of Representatives to be acted upon there. The 
 President had several times in my presence expressed his 
 deep anxiety in favor of the passage of this great 
 measure. He and others had repeatedly counted votes in 
 order to ascertain as far as they could the strength of the 
 measure upon a second trial in the House. He was 
 doubtful about its passage, and some ten days or two 
 weeks before it came up for consideration in the House, 
 I received a note from him, written in pencil on a card, 
 while sitting at my desk in the House, stating he wished 
 to see me, and asking that I call on him at the White 
 House. I responded that I would be there the next 
 morning at nine o'clock I was prompt in calling upon him, 
 and found him alone in his ofifice. He received me in the 
 most cordial manner : and said in his usual familiar way : 
 " Rollins, I have been wanting to talk to you for some 
 time about the 13th amendment proposed to the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, which will have to be voted 
 
492 JAMES S. ROLLINS. 
 
 on now before a great while." I said : " Well, I am here, 
 and ready to talk upon that subject." He said : ' ' You and 
 I were old Whigs, both of us followers of that great states- 
 man, Henry Clay, and I tell you I never had an opinion 
 upon the subject of slavery in my life that I did not get 
 from him. I am very anxious that the war should be 
 brought to a close, at the earliest possible date, and I 
 don't believe this can be accomplished as long as those 
 fellows down South can rely upon the Border States to 
 help them ; but if the members from the Border States 
 would unite, at least enough of them to pass the 13th 
 amendment to the Constitution, they would soon see 
 they could not expect much help from that quarter, and 
 be willing to give up their opposition, and quit their war 
 upon the Government ; this is my chief hope and main 
 reliance, to bring the war to a speedy close, and I have 
 sent for you, as an old Whig friend, to come and see me, 
 that I might make an appeal to you to vote for this 
 amendment. It Is going to be very close ; a few votes 
 one way or the other will decide it." To this I re- 
 sponded, " Mr. President, so far as I am concerned you 
 need not have sent for me to ascertain my views on this 
 subject, for although I represent perhaps the strongest 
 slave district in Missouri, and have the misfortune to be 
 one of the largest slave-owners In the county where I reside, 
 I had already determined to vote for the 13th amend- 
 ment." When he arose from his chair, and grasping me 
 by the hand, gave It a hearty shake, and said, " I am most 
 delighted to hear that." He asked me how many more of 
 the Missouri Delecrates in the House would vote for it." 
 I said I could not tell ; the Republicans of course would, 
 
JAM/'.;; :;. /^o/.r/Nr,. ^,^^ 
 
 Cjcncr.i] Loan, Mr. lilow, Mr. lioyd, and Col. McClurr. 
 \\<:w.i\(\: "Won't C>:n^:ral lYia: votr- for it ? Hm'sa'^ood 
 Union man." J said I could not ans\vf;r. " Well, what 
 about Governor Kin^ ?" I told him I did not know. I le 
 then asked about Jud^^es Hall and \orton. I said they 
 would both vote against it, I thought. " Well," he said, 
 " are you on good terms with Price and King >" I respond- 
 ed in the affirmative, and that I was on easy terms with the 
 entire delegation. } f e then asked me if I would nrjt talk 
 with those who might be persuaderl to vote for the amend- 
 ment, and report to him as soon as I could find out what 
 the prospect was. I answered I would do so with j^leas- 
 ure, and remarked, at the same time, that when a young 
 man, in 1848, I was the Whig competitor of King, for 
 Governor of Missouri, and as he beat me very badly, I 
 think now he should pay me back by voting as I desire 
 him to on this important question : I promised the Presi- 
 dent I would talk to these gentlemen upon the subje,'ct. 
 He said : "I would like you to talk to all the Bordw State 
 men whom you can approach properly, and tell them of 
 my anxiety to have the measure pass ; and let me know 
 the prospect of the Border .State vote," which I prom- 
 ised to do. He again said: " The passage of this amend- 
 ment will clinch the whole subject ; it will bring the war, 
 I have no doubt, rapidly to a close." I have never seen 
 any one evince deeper interest and anxiety upon any 
 subject than did Mr. Lincoln upon the passage of this 
 amendment. The next day I saw both General Price 
 and Governor King, and had a long private interview 
 with each of them. When I mentioned the matter to 
 General Price, he became at once quite excited, and 
 
494 JAMES S. ROLLINS. 
 
 expressed himself, in strong language, against the amend- 
 ment ; and said : " Lincoln don't know that I am the 
 owner of seventy negroes, does he ?" I said, " I don't 
 know ; but suppose you owned a thousand negroes, 
 what would they amount to, compared with the stop- 
 ping of this infernal war, and saving the American 
 Union ?" I left General Price, and seeking Governor 
 King, took him into one of the cloak-rooms of the 
 House, and had a more quiet conversation with him 
 upon the subject. I asked him if he had decided in 
 his own mind how he should vote upon the 13th 
 amendment. He said he had been thinking upon the 
 subject a good deal, but said : " You know my people aye 
 opposed to itr I responded: "Governor, at least two- 
 thirds of the people in my district are opposed to the 
 passage of this amendment ; but there are questions 
 sometimes bigger than constituencies, and I intend to 
 vote, and speak in favor of this amendment, and make 
 our country free in fact, as well as in name, and get 
 clear of this infamous rebellion." Before I left him he 
 said he thought he would vote for it, which he did. 
 I conversed with most of the Border State men who 
 could be approached, upon the question ; told them of 
 the President's deep anxiety in regard to it, and I have 
 ever believed that the Interviews had some influence 
 in strengthening the final vote for the 13th amendment. 
 It will be remembered that when the vote in 
 the House was taken, the amendment was carried 
 by a small majority; and, being approved, on 
 the ist day of February, 1865, became substantially a 
 part of the Constitution of the United States, being 
 
JAMES S. ROLLINS. ^p^ 
 
 subsequently ratified by all the States. Several days 
 after the passage of this amendment through Congress, 
 I called upon President Lincoln, and I never saw him 
 evince greater joy at the news of any victory won 
 upon the field of battle, than he did over the passage of 
 this amendment. He said : " I read your speech, one 
 night, after I had gone to bed, and it is the best 
 speech delivered in Congress during this session." I 
 suppose that the good President felt he owed me this 
 much on account of my earnest co-operation with him 
 in endeavoring to put through this important amend- 
 ment. It is the most important, as it is to me the most 
 satisfactory vote I ever cast in a legislative assembly. 
 
 It was well understood, and especially in Missouri, that 
 General Sterling Price, of Confederate military fame, 
 immediately prior to and about the commencement of 
 the rebellion, claimed to be a Union man, and, as such, 
 was elected president of the convention which assembled 
 in February and March, 1861, in Jefferson City and St. 
 Louis, to take into consideration the then existing con- 
 dition of thinQ:s in the State of Missouri. He had been 
 a warm supporter of Colonel Benton during his contest 
 with the nullifiers of the State. It was thought by many 
 that he went very reluctantly into the rebellion, and as 
 late as 1863 it was frequently said, and by persons pre- 
 sumed to know, he was getting very tired of the Con- 
 federate cause, and that he would be gratified if he could 
 get out of it honorably. I had a conversation with a 
 gentleman bearing a very near relation to him, and this 
 subject was mentioned ; he was of the same impression 
 with others, that General Price would like to abandon the 
 
49 6 JAMES S. ROLLINS. 
 
 rebellion. As he was a very popular officer, command- 
 ing a large body of men, and most of them from Mis- 
 souri, I thought it might be well to sound him upon the 
 subject, and to this end it was agreed that a reliable mes- 
 senger be sent to him, that his real sentiments might be 
 ascertained. A pass was obtained by me for him through 
 the Federal lines. General Price at that time being in the 
 State of Texas ; but upon the arrival of the messenger 
 at the Confederate lines, some distance below Cairo, he 
 was not allowed to go through into the Confederacy ;' de- 
 termined, however, not to give up so valuable an enter- 
 prise, I wrote to a member of the Confederate Congress 
 then in session at Richmond, Va., from Missouri, to obtain 
 a pass through their lines for the person above referred 
 to. It was not long before I received an answer to my 
 letter, in which the gentleman stated he had submitted 
 the proposition to President Davis, and he promptly re- 
 fused to grant the request, and in this my correspondent 
 said he entirely agreed with him. So the project failed, 
 simply because General Price could not be reached, 
 and his opinion on the subject could not be as- 
 certained. At that time it would have been a grand 
 thing if General Price could have been induced 
 to abandon the Confederacy and return to his loyalty 
 to the United States, as he wielded an immense influence, 
 and could have reclaimed a large number of young men 
 who had been persuaded against their better judgment 
 to make war upon their country. About the time 1 con- 
 ceived this thought, in August, 1863, I happened to be in 
 the office of President Lincoln, when I ventured to men- 
 tion the subject to him. He was very much amused at 
 
 I 
 
JAMES S. ROLLINS. 497 
 
 my proposition, regarding it as not at all feasible, and at 
 the same time perpetrating quite a number of jokes at 
 my expense. I insisted, however, that it be tried, as no 
 harm could come of it, and we would at least find how 
 General Price's pulse beat upon the subject, and all I 
 asked of him was that he give the messenger a pass 
 through the Federal lines, to see General Price. " Well, 
 he said, "we will see what General Hitchcock says about 
 it," and ringing his bell, lie sent for General Hitchcock, 
 who then had charge of the transmission of messages 
 between the Governments at Washington and Richmond. 
 In a few moments General Hitchcock made his appear- 
 ance, when the President said to him : " General, here is 
 Rollins from Missouri, who has had an intimation that 
 General Price, now in Texas, might be induced to give 
 up his opposition, and quit his war upon the United 
 States, and return to his home in Missouri." They both 
 laughed very heartily at the idea, but finally issued the 
 pass, and also sent some papers which I had prepared 
 through the lines to Richmond. After receiving the 
 papers Mr. Lincoln said to me, pleasantly: " Now, Rollins, 
 this is a very delicate business, and I don't want you to 
 get me into any scrape about it ; this is your project, and 
 not mine ; if Sterling Price will come back, all I have to 
 say, I will do the fair thing by him ; and if you can get 
 him to come back and disband his men, it will be equal to 
 a half-dozen victories to the Union side; but this thing 
 must not go into the papers, or be spoken of outside of 
 you, Hitchcock and myself." I then said to him : " Mr. 
 President, I wish you would give me a memoranduni 
 showing your good disposition towards General Price/ 
 
 33 
 
498 JAMES S. ROLLINS. 
 
 which he said he would do, and at once took up his pen 
 and wrote a short note and handed it to me, the original 
 of which, in Mr. Lincoln's handwriting, I have now in 
 my possession, and is here copied, and this anecdote again 
 illustrates his kindly feeling to those in arms against the 
 Government of the United States. 
 
 "Executive Mansion, 
 
 "Washington, August, 1863." 
 " Hon. Jas. S. Rollins : 
 
 "Yours in reference to General Sterling Price is re- 
 ceived. If he voluntarily returns and takes the oath of 
 allegiance to the United States, before the next meeting 
 of Congress, I will pardon him, if you shall then wish me 
 to do so. 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln." 
 
 During the winter of 1864-65, as I now remember the 
 time, a gentleman came to Washington, named Colonel 
 Lane, who was one of my constituents, and resided in 
 Montgomery Co., Missouri. I had known him in Missouri. 
 He was a number of times at my rooms in Washington, 
 and told me he had been operating with the United 
 States detective force on the Mississippi river, he having 
 an official connection therewith. I knew nothing to the 
 prejudice of Colonel Lane. He had been recommended to 
 the Government by such respectable and patriotic gentle- 
 men as James O. Broadhead, Samuel S. Glover and Judge 
 S. M. Breckenridge, as I now recall. On an occasion, 
 when at my room, in giving me an account of his war ex- 
 periences in running up and down the Mississippi river 
 
JAMES S. ROLLINS. 409 
 
 on steamboats, he told me at one time he had left the 
 boat and gone out into the State of Mississippi, where he 
 had remained some time ; that whilst there he had heard 
 a plan discussed by a number of young and warlike 
 gentlemen f as to how the President of the United States 
 might be disposed of. He got in, so to speak, with these 
 young fellows ; he was anxious to find out more about it, 
 and was one of them for a number of days. The plan 
 agreed upon was to obtain a box about six or seven inches 
 square, containing an explosive material, and which on 
 being opened w^ould explode, and most probably destroy 
 the person who held it in his hand. He told me he had 
 seen this box, and held it in his own hands ; that the pur- 
 pose and design was to send it to Washington directed to 
 Mr. Lincoln, and place it in the Presidential Mansion, 
 where he would most likely get and open it. To me this 
 was a most extraordinary and infamous disclosure ; it 
 arrested my serious thought and attention. I could 
 hardly credit it, and yet could see no motive for such a fab- 
 rication. I asked Colonel Lane if he was serious in what 
 he said. He said he v;as, and had only related to me 
 what he had witnessed with his own eyes. I said to him at 
 once : " Colonel Lane, if the facts you relate to me are true^ 
 you should not lose a moment in communicating the facts 
 to the President. Will you go up with me, call upon the 
 President, and make the same statement to him ?" Cer- 
 tainly, he said, he would go up, as he wished to tell Pres- 
 ident Lincoln precisely what he had told me. I then 
 said to him: " Come to my room in the morning, in Twelfth 
 street, when I will have a hack ready, when we will drive 
 up to the White House." He was a little late putting in 
 
500 JAMES S. ROLLINS. 
 
 an appearance next morning, but I waited for him, and 
 as soon as he arrived we mounted into the hack, and 
 drove off to the President's office. It so happened there 
 were great numbers of visitors who had preceded us, and 
 were occupying the reception-room. I sent in my card, 
 but so many others were in advance of me, I failed to ob- 
 tain an audience that mornino-. We remained until one 
 o'clock, when the messenger announced that the Presi- 
 dent would see no more visitors that day, and those 
 present were dismissed. Colonel Lane and myself drove 
 back to my room, intending to ask an audience at 
 another time. This, I think, was on Saturday, and, as 
 near as I can now remember, in the month of December 
 or January in the year 1864-65. When I parted with 
 Colonel Lane it was not his intention to leave Washing- 
 ton for several days ; but he received a telegram that 
 evening, as he informed me in a letter, callinof him to 
 Wheeling, West Va., and which compelled him to leave 
 in the eveninof train. I did not see him a2;ain during; 
 that session of Congress, which terminated on the 4th of 
 March, 1865, the day of the second inauguration of Mr. 
 Lincoln as President. A few days thereafter, having 
 business at the White House, I called upon Mr. Lincoln 
 again, when I happened to find him alone, and seemingly 
 in a very cheerful humor. He received me very cordially, 
 as was his habit, and after dispatching the business which 
 called me to see him, I ventured to tell him precisely 
 what I had learned from Lane, and as I have stated it 
 above. I observed he listened to what I had to say very 
 attentively, and when I had finished my story, I said in 
 an apologetic tone: " Mr. President, nothing but a sense of 
 
JAMES S. ROLLINS. 501 
 
 duty and the interest I feel in you and the country would 
 have prompted me to have mentioned a matter of this 
 kind to you. I have simply told you the tale as it was 
 told to me." He thanked me kindly for what I had told 
 him, and said he appreciated the good feeling and friend- 
 ship which prompted it ; but, treating the whole matter 
 jocularly, he said : " I don't pay much attention to such 
 things. I have received quite a number of threatening 
 letters since I have been President, and nobody has 
 killed me yet, and the truth is, I give very little consider- 
 ation to such thinofs." I told him the little I knew of 
 Lane, and said to him : " Now, I hardly see why a man 
 should get up a story of this sort unless there was some 
 foundation for it. I believe he has witnessed what he re- 
 lates." Upon rising to take leave I said, pleasantly : 
 " Mr. President, I feel relieved in having unburdened my- 
 self in telling you what I have. I have acted from a 
 sense of duty ; and now, let me add, if you should come 
 into your office one of those mornings and find sitting 
 upon your table a wooden box about six inches square, I 
 beg of you not to open it ; let some one else attend to 
 that ; but if you attempt to open it, and the nation lose 
 its President, I want it understood I have cleared my 
 skirts." He again thanked me and laughed very heartily. 
 and said, " Now, I will tell you— I promise you if I find 
 any boxes on my table directed to me, I won't open 
 them." Pausing a moment just as I was taking my leave 
 of him, the smile which had just lighted up his face de- 
 parted, and a certain melancholy expression, which I had 
 often seen him wear, took its place, and he said seriously, 
 and in language he evidently felt, -Rollins, I dont sec 
 
502 JAMES S. ROLLINS. 
 
 wJiat oil God's earth any man wonld wish to kill me 
 for, for there is not a hnman being living to whom I 
 would not extend a favor, and make them Jiappy if it 
 was in my power to do soT It occurred to me, on leav- 
 ing him, the conversation I had had with him had left 
 quite an impression on his mind. This occurred, accord- 
 ing to my best recollection, in January, 1865. 
 
 Before the close of the session of Congress, I was sev- 
 eral times in the office of the President, to see him on 
 business, and on one occasion, when I was about leaving 
 the room, he said to me, in a jocular manner: "Well, 
 Rollins, I have not received my box yet." I responded, 
 " I am gratified to hear it," but again warned him not to 
 open any box of the kind left upon his table, and I left 
 the room. 
 
 At the close of the Thirty-eighth Congress, I was 
 present at the second inauguration of President Lincoln, 
 and remained in Washington several days thereafter. 
 My second term in Congress having ended with the ex- 
 piration of the Thirty-eighth Congress, before leaving for 
 Missouri I called at the White House, to pay my re- 
 spects to the President and take my leave of him. I 
 found him in his office in a very genial humor, and I had 
 a pleasant conversation with him. He seemed to be 
 hopeful that the war troubles would soon be over, which 
 greatly rejoiced him. When I rose to bid him good-bye, 
 he gave me a cordial shake of the hand, and said : " Rol- 
 lins, the box has not come to hand yet." I responded : 
 " That is well, Mr. President, I am glad to hear 
 it. I hope it may never come ; but if it does, I charge 
 
JAMES S. ROLLINS, 503 
 
 you not to open it." This is the last time I ever saw, 
 and this was my last interview with, Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 About six weeks afterwards, when I was in the city of 
 Chillicothe, Livingston county, Missouri, away up on 
 Grand River, on the 15th day of April, 1865, 1 was most 
 deeply shocked and grieved to hear that President Lin- 
 coln and several members of his Cabinet had been assas- 
 sinated. 
 
 Columbia, 1882. 
 
504 E. D. TOWNSEND. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. There was a majesty in 
 his character which shone forth on all great occa- 
 sions. Though oppressed with the weight of novel respon- 
 sibilities, he rose above all obstacles, and proved himself 
 equal to every emergency. As a ruler he was just and 
 efficient, not prone to yield unduly to the judgment of 
 others ; of a kind heart and genial nature, he was a stead- 
 fast friend, a magnanimous enemy. The reverence in 
 which he was held by the entire populace was strikingly 
 exhibited in the demeanor of the hundreds of thousands 
 who witnessed the progress of the martyred President's 
 funeral cortege from the city of Washington to Spring- 
 field, 111. — none were seen to smile, many wept. The 
 world never before looked upon such a spectacle of a na- 
 tion's profound grief. 
 
 Washington, 1880. 
 
H. M. RECTOR. 505 
 
 MY sentiments of the life and services of Abraham 
 Lincoln are, that he was a big-headed, big- 
 hearted man — a man of destiny, sent, like Washington, 
 to perform a great moral and political mission. Born in 
 a tent, reared in poverty, in the Slave State of Kentucky, 
 from infancy he imbibed early and lasting prejudices 
 ao-ainst slave-holders and slavery. Hence, his efforts in 
 after life were directed by a scrupulous regard for what 
 he esteemed a public duty. His administration evinced 
 wisdom, forbearance, persistence, and was a success. His 
 mission is performed. His advent and destiny will cm- 
 blazon history so long as the science of government 
 shall be read and propagated by men. A humane be- 
 nevolence was amongst his most estimable traits. 
 
 ^^hh.i€^ 
 
 
5o6 JOHN H. BARROWS. 
 
 RELIGIOUS ASPECTS. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN S CAREER. 
 
 ONE of the noteworthy features of Lincoln's 
 wonderful life was the manifest deepening of his 
 sense of God's Presence and Providence durino- those 
 later years when he bore the imperiled nation on his 
 heart. He who is accustomed to discern a divine Hand 
 in history must look upon Mr. Lincoln as a man raised 
 up for a great purpose by him who lifted Joseph out of 
 the pit to be ruler over Egypt, and exalted David from 
 the Bethlehem sheep-fold to be Israel's king. How far 
 Mr. Lincoln himself discerned God in Revelation or in 
 the orderings of human life, previous to his exaltation to 
 the Presidency, may not be fully known. He had early in 
 his youth read the Bible and Pilgrim's Progress, and 
 although the atmosphere of his legal and political life in 
 Illinois was not helpful to faith, still he was known to 
 several Christian ministers as a man of serious thougfht- 
 fulness, if of little knowledge, in the domain of Christian 
 truth. 
 
 But the great anti-slavery debates and the nation's 
 terrific struggle for existence were the rain and the solar 
 heat that awakened and called forth the diviner nature, 
 the heavenward side of this gracious and humane spirit. 
 The contest against American slavery was essentially 
 religious — a defense of fundamental Christian truth, the 
 
JOHN H. BARROWS. 507 
 
 sacredness and worth of that humanity for which Christ 
 died. The heroes of West India emancipation, Zachary 
 Macaulay, Thomas Clarkson and WiUiam Wilberforce, 
 were disciples of Him who came to break every yoke 
 and let the oppressed go free. Green, the great EngHsh 
 historian, finds the primal moral impulse which led 
 England to free the negro in the great revivals under 
 Whitefield and the Wesleys. Wendell Phillips says of 
 the early American abolitionists that they "bound the 
 Bible to their brows." This orreat orator of Boston has 
 written severe things of the churches. He has scathed 
 hypocrisy as no other man in our generation has done. 
 But, having bowed my head in prayer with this old 
 apostle of freedom, and having heard him seek the 
 blessincr of God throucrh the merits of Christ, the great 
 Emancipator, I have never had the least suspicion that 
 the movement which destroyed American slavery was an 
 infidel crusade ! Looking Into the coffin which held the 
 form of William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips ex- 
 claimed : " Farewell for a little while, noblest of Christian 
 men." In reviewing the anti-slavery contest, the younger 
 generation should not forget, and are not likely to forget, 
 that the most stirring lyrics ever sung to freedom came 
 from the Christian lips of Whittier ; that for years the 
 most potent voice denouncing slavery sounded from Ply- 
 mouth pulpit, and that the volume which converted the 
 heart of the North, " Uncle Tom's Cabin," was written 
 by a Christian woman, and is itself perhaps the most 
 religious work of fiction since Bunyan wrote his immortal 
 allegory. Charles Sumner was continually hurhng the 
 Sermon on the Mount at our great national sin, and 
 
5o8 JOHN H. BARROWS. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln derived his deeper anti-slavery con- 
 victions, as he confessed, from a sermon by the lion- 
 hearted Leonard Bacon, of New Haven. 
 
 All the world knows that when the newly-elected 
 President was about to assume the government of the 
 nation, he asked the prayers of his neighbors in Spring- 
 field. Lincoln's was a nature far from shallow. There 
 was a moral sensitiveness about him, that made him weak, 
 as an attorney, in defending a cause of uncertain right- 
 eousness. He was wont to seek after laws underlying 
 special facts. It has been said of him that " he saw 
 through his lawyer's brief the general principles of the 
 Divine administration." His deeper nature developed 
 and ripened as Providence brought him to bear the 
 weio-ht of majestic and solemn responsibilities. In the 
 anxious uncertainties of the great war, he gradually rose 
 to the heights where Jehovah became to him the sublimest 
 of realities, the Ruler of nations. When he wrote his 
 immortal Proclamation, he invoked upon it not only 
 " the considerate judgment of mankind," but " the gracious 
 favor of Almighty God " When darkness gathered over 
 the brave armies fighting for the nation's life, this 
 strong man, in the early morning, knelt and wrestled in 
 prayer with him who holds in his hand the fate of 
 empires. When the clouds lifted above the carnage of 
 Gettysburg, he gave his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 When he pronounced his matchless oration on the chief 
 battle-field of the war, he gave expression to the resolve 
 that " this nation, under God, should have a new birth 
 of freedom." And when he wrote his last Inaugural 
 
JOHN H. BARROWS. 509 
 
 Address, he gave to it the lofty religious tone of an old 
 Hebrew Psalm. 
 
 In 1873, I stood on the broad granite platform of that 
 noble monument which has been built in Oak Ridfre 
 Cemetery above all that was mortal of Abraham 
 Lincoln. A great crowd stood reverently in the May 
 sunshine, while the Jubilee Singers, men and women whom 
 the good President had liberated, sang, with the hot tears 
 rolling down their dusky cheeks, as they rolled down our 
 paler faces, the great " Battle-Hymn of the Republic," 
 with its tuneful suggestions of that other Christian 
 martyr who died at Harper's Ferry, attacking the wrong 
 which at last had been trampled out in blood to the music 
 of the old man's name : 
 
 " Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, 
 He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath were 
 
 stored, 
 He hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. 
 His truth is marching on. 
 
 " In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea. 
 With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me ; 
 As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, 
 While God is marching on." 
 
 The whole scene was a chapter in the modern evidences 
 of Christianity, witnessing to the world that the lightning 
 which melted the shackles off from four millions of slaves 
 is the same with that which gleamed among the clouds 
 of Mount Sinai of old, and played above the summit of 
 the Cross of Calvary. 
 
 All the great epochs of American history have been 
 
5IO JOHN H. BARROWS. 
 
 profoundly religious. John Winthrop felt that " the civil 
 state must be reared out of the churches." Mulford, in 
 his great work on this nation, gathers together the words 
 of Franklin before the Convention which formed the 
 Constitution : " Except the Lord build the house, they 
 labor in vain that build it. I firmly believe this ;" and 
 the words of Washington in his first inaugural : " No 
 people can be bound to adore the hand which conducts 
 the affairs of men, more than the people of the United 
 States ;" and the words of Jefferson : " I shall need, too, 
 the favor of that Being in whose hands we all are, who 
 led our fathers, as Israel of old, from their native land ;" 
 and he says of the last inaugural of President Lincoln 
 that " it was the unbroken expression of the spirit of these 
 Scriptures, and its whole thought was gathered up in their 
 words in the recognition of One who will establish 
 righteousness on the earth." 
 
 Chicago, 1882. 
 
R. M. BISHOP. 
 
 I KNEW Mr. Lincoln personally, being Mayor of the 
 city of Cincinnati in February, 1861. It was my 
 privilege to extend to him the hospitalities of the city on 
 his way to Washington to take his seat as President of 
 the United States. I respect him as a man of great 
 nobleness of heart, purity of mind and intentions. I 
 consider him a patriot, whose every endeavor it was to 
 promote the interests of his country. While I differed 
 with him essentially in politics, I have ever considered 
 Lincoln a true man, actuated only by noble purposes. 
 He was a great man, a good man, and his name will ever 
 be venerated and honored as one of the brightest among 
 that gallery of illustrious names which make our country 
 so famous. 
 
 "^.XkvL^ 
 
 Cincinnati, 1880. 
 
512 ROBERT P. PORTER. 
 
 I STORY has not left it for me or for any other 
 man to magnify or detract from the glory of 
 Abraham Lincoln. His record, inscribed in deeds and 
 sealed with his blood, is known and read of all men. 
 
 A man of strong native mental and moral powers, he 
 rose, by his own exertions, superior to all the depriva- 
 tions of poverty and pioneer hardships, from the obscurity 
 of a backwoods cabin, to command the admiration of all 
 lands for all time. 
 
 At the most critical period of his country's history, 
 when even its greatest statesmen stood perplexed and 
 confounded in the midst of the political questions of the 
 day, his penetrating logic picked every fallacy, cleft every 
 knob of political casuistry, and discovered the only path 
 to the preservation of the Union ; and through the 
 fiercest, bloodiest civil war that a free people ever en- 
 dured, with unswerving courage he led four millions of 
 slaves to liberty, and re-established the Federal Govern- 
 ment in its rightful supremacy. As true to humanity 
 as he had always been faithful to his country, his last 
 words were a prayer and benediction for his enemies. 
 
 Before such a character I stand, with all men, in 
 lovinpf reverence. 
 
 Chicago, 1880. 
 
GEO. A, TOWN SEND. 513 
 
 WESTERN and Northern-bred men ought not to 
 forget that Lincoln was of the South. In its 
 more instinctive, less methodical school of parentage his 
 idiosyncrasies were grown. The natural man, gazing out 
 on the better development of the North, poetized and 
 reasoned in admiration of it, yet with melancholy, for 
 he was of the poorer and more shiftless race. Let us, 
 therefore, learn from Lincoln that honest Southernhood 
 taken into Northernhood produces the most memorable 
 Americanhood ; and that, though the North prevailed, 
 Lincoln, Johnson, General Thomas, and many such re- 
 fined and endeared the victory, and made it national. 
 
 ^. J^u 
 
 / 
 
 33 
 
 U^ /<r^«^^2^^2^2a-tJ<^ 
 
SM 
 
 EUFUS HATCH. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, the ablest of them all ! 
 He lived and died an honest man. 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
H. B. ANTHONY. j,- 
 
 AS the character of Abraham Lincoln steadily devel- 
 oped with the developing demands and necessities 
 of the position to which he was elevated, so his fame 
 steadily grows with the increasing light which is thrown 
 upon what he achieved in his great office ; the emer- 
 gencies that he met, the difficulties that he overcame and 
 the results that he accomplished. He will always stand 
 out, one of the grand figures in our history, one of the 
 heroes and martyrs in the history of freedom, of cultiva- 
 tion of humanity. 
 
 Providence, 1882. 
 
5i6 JV, G, GREENE. 
 
 I RECALL an Incident of Mr. Lincoln's early life, 
 which came under my own personal observation, 
 and which illustrated his desire to be just and do right 
 while yet a mere boy, and which showed his magnetic 
 influence over men among whom he moved. It was in 
 1832 ; we were doing service in the Black Hawk War, 
 and while lying at Rock Island the boys got up a wrest- 
 ling match and pitted Mr. Lincoln, who was our captain, 
 against a famous athlete and wrestler by the name of 
 Thompson, from Union county, Illinois. We Sangamon 
 county boys believed Mr. Lincoln could throw any one, 
 and the Union county boys knew no one could throw 
 Thompson ; so we staked all our slick and well-worn 
 quarters and empty bottles on the wrestle. The first 
 fall was clearly in Thompson's favor ; the second fall 
 was rather in Thompson's favor, but Lincoln's backers 
 claimed that it was what, in those days, was called a 
 " dog-fall." Thompson's backers claimed the stakes, 
 while we demurred, and it really looked, for some time, 
 as though there would be at least a hundred fights as 
 the result. Mr. Lincoln, after getting up and brushing 
 the dust and dirt off of his jean pants, said : " Boys, 
 give up your bet; if he has not thrown me fairly, he 
 could." Every bet was at once surrendered, and peace 
 and order were restored in a minute. During the re- 
 bellion in 1864 I had occasion to see Mr. Lincoln in his 
 office at Washington, and, after having recalled many of 
 our early recollections, he said : " Bill, what ever became 
 
W. G. GREENE. ^i^ 
 
 of our old antagonist, Thompson, that big curly-headed 
 fellow who threw me at Rock Island ?" I replied I did 
 not know, and wondered why he asked. He playfully 
 remarked that if he knew where he was living he would 
 give him a post-office, by way of showing him that he 
 bore him no ill-will. 
 
 Tallula, 1882. 
 
5i8 CALEB CARMAN. 
 
 I BECAME acquainted with Abraham Lincoln in the 
 year 1831, when he came from Decatur, Illinois, 
 with a Mr. Hanks, on the hull of a flat-boat,, for a man 
 by the name of Denton Offutt. The building of this 
 boat was commenced at Decatur, but, for want of lumber, 
 was brought by water to Sangamon town and finished, 
 as there was a little saw-mill which furnished sufficient 
 material to complete it. It was the design of Mr. Offutt 
 to load it with fifteen hundred bushels of corn and take 
 it to New Orleans. The corn was bought at ten cents 
 per bushel, and the boat was partially filled at Sanga- 
 mon town ; then brought to New Salem and finished. I 
 was standine on the bank of the river when the boat was 
 tied up, and I don't think I ever looked at as awkward a 
 man as Mr. Lincoln was at that time. He was dressed 
 in blue jean pants and coat, and a wool shirt and slouch 
 hat. I viewed him from head to foot, and thought to 
 myself. What a fool ! but I had not been in his company 
 long until I found out that I was the bigger fool of the 
 two. We became very warm friends and strongly at- 
 tached to each other. After Mr. Lincoln sold the corn 
 in New Orleans, at fifty cents per bushel, he walked back 
 and took up his residence at New Salem. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was a candidate for the Legislature, but 
 was defeated by Peter Cartvvright ; but was successful in 
 being elected in 1834. He was boarding with me when 
 he was appointed post-master at New Salem by Andrew 
 Jackson ; this was previous to his election. And while 
 
CALEB CARMAN. 519 
 
 in the Legislature he appointed me his deputy, as the 
 post-office was then in my house. I don't think I ever 
 saw Lincoln idling any time away. He had but few 
 books, but those few were always near him, and in going 
 to and from his work, would read. He had a wonderful 
 retentive memory, and was a great story-teller. He was 
 liked by every person who knew him. While he boarded 
 with me he made himself useful in every way that he 
 could. If the water-bucket was empty he filled it; if 
 wood was needed he chopped it ; and was always cheer- 
 ful and in a good humor. He started out one morning 
 with the axe on his shoulder, and I asked him what he 
 was going to do. His answer was : " I am going to try 
 a project." When he returned he had two hickory poles 
 on his shoulders, and in a very short time two of my 
 chairs had new bottoms. 
 
 Petersburg, 1882. 
 
MRS. NORMAN B. JUDD. 
 
 AN EVENING WITH MR. LINCOLN. 
 
 THERE are some evenings, the events of which are 
 so impressed upon our memories, that scarcely a 
 word said, or an act done, can ever be forgotten ; at one 
 time, perhaps, because of the beauty of our surround- 
 ings ; at another, because the events were a surprise and 
 worthy of remembrance. The evening to which I refer 
 was noteworthy for both of these reasons. 
 
 It was, I think, in the year 1856. My husband, the 
 late Norman B. Judd, was attorney for the Rock Island 
 Railroad. The bridge over the Mississippi at Rock 
 Island had been destroyed by a river steamer running 
 into it and setting it on fire. The steamboat owners 
 along the Mississippi had brought a suit against the rail- 
 road company, and it was to be tried in the U. S. District 
 Court at Chicao-o. Mr. Lincoln had come to Chicasfo as 
 assistant counsel in the suit. Mr. Judd had invited Mr. 
 Lincoln to spend the evening at our pleasant home on 
 the shore of Lake Michigan. After tea, and until quite 
 late, we sat on the broad piazza, looking out upon as 
 lovely a scene as that which has made the Bay of Naples 
 so celebrated. A number of vessels were availing them- 
 selves of a fine breeze to leave the harbor, and the lake 
 was studded with many a white sail. I remember that a 
 flock of sea-gulls were flying along the beach, and dipping 
 their beaks and white-lined wings in the foam that capped 
 the short waves as they fell upon the shore. 
 
MliS. NORMAN B. JUDD. 521 
 
 Whilst we sat there, the great white moon appeared 
 on the rim of the Eastern horizon, and slowly crept 
 above the water, throwing a perfect flood of silver light 
 upon the dancing waves. The stars shone with the soft 
 light of a midsummer night, and the breaking of the low- 
 waves upon the shore, repeating the old rhythm of the 
 song which they have sung for ages, added the charm of 
 pleasant sound to the beauty of the night. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, whose home was far inland from the 
 great lakes, seemed greatly impressed with the wondrous 
 beauty of the scene, and carried by its impressiveness away 
 from all thought of the jars and turmoil of earth. In 
 that mild, pleasant voice, attuned to harmony with his 
 surroundings, and which was his wont when his soul was 
 stirred by aught that was lovely or beautiful, Mr. Lincoln 
 began to speak of the mystery which for ages enshrouded 
 and shut out those distant worlds above us from our own, 
 of the poetry and beauty which was seen and felt by seers 
 of old when they contemplated Orion and Arcturus as 
 they wheeled, seemingly around the earth, in their nightly 
 course ; of the discoveries since the invention of the 
 telescope, which had thrown a flood of light and knowl- 
 edge on what before was incomprehensible and mysteri- 
 ous; of the wonderful computations of scientists who had 
 measured the miles of seemingly endless space which 
 separated the planets in our solar system from our central 
 sun, and our sun from other suns, which were now gemming 
 the heavens above us with their resplendent beauty. 
 
 He speculated on the possibilities of knowledge which 
 an increased power of the lens would give in the years 
 to come ; and then the wonderful discoveries of late 
 
522 MRS. NORMAN B. JUDD. 
 
 centuries as proving that beings endowed with such capa- 
 bilities as man must be immortal, and created for some 
 high and noble end by him who had spoken those num- 
 berless worlds into existence ; and made man a little 
 lower than the angels that he might comprehend the 
 glories and wonders of his creation. 
 
 When the night air became too chilling to remain 
 longer on the piazza, we went into the parlor, and, seated 
 on the sofa, his long limbs stretching across the carpet, and 
 his arms folded behind him, Mr. Lincoln went on to speak 
 of other discoveries, and also of the inventions which had 
 been made during the long cycles of time lying between 
 the present and those early days when the sons of Adam 
 began to make use of the material things about them, 
 and invent instruments of various kinds in brass and gold 
 and silver. He gave us a short but succinct account of 
 all the inventions referred to in the Old Testament from 
 the time when Adam walked in the Garden of Eden until 
 the Bible record ended, 600 b. c. 
 
 I said, " Mr. Lincoln, I did not know you were such a 
 Bible student." He replied: "I must be honest, Mrs. 
 Judd, and tell you just how I came to know so much 
 about these early inventions." He then went on to say 
 that, discussing with some friend the relative age of the 
 discovery and use of the precious metals, he went to the 
 Bible to satisfy himself, and became so interested in his 
 researches that he made a memoranda of the different dis- 
 coveries and inventions ; that soon after he was invited to 
 lecture before some literary society, I think in Blooming- 
 ton ; that the interest he had felt in the study convinced 
 him that the subject would interest others, and he therefore 
 
MRS. NORMAN B. JUDD. 523 
 
 prepared and delivered his lecture on the " Age of Differ- 
 ent Inventions :" and " of course," he added, " I could not 
 after that forget the order or time of such discoveries 
 and inventions." 
 
 After Mr. Lincoln left, Mr. Judd remarked : " I am 
 constantly more and more surprised at Mr. Lincoln's at- 
 tainments and the varied knowledge he has acquired dur- 
 ing years of constant labor at the Bar, in every depart- 
 ment of science and learning. A professor at Yale could 
 not have been more interesting or more enthusiastic." 
 
 Another incident in connection with the railroad suit 
 above referred to may be of interest. 
 
 Mr. Joseph Knox, one of the ablest lawyers in 
 Illinois, was also engaged as counsel in the defense. Mr. 
 Lincoln began his speech in the forenoon and spoke un- 
 til the court adjourned at noon. Mr. Knox dined with 
 us that day. He sat down at the dinner table in great 
 excitement, saying : " Lincoln has lost the case for us. 
 The admissions he made in regard to the currents in the 
 Mississippi at Rock Island and Moline will convince the 
 court that a bridge at that point will always be a serious 
 and constant detriment to navio^ation on the river." 
 
 Mr. Judd's reply was in substance that Mr. Lincoln's 
 admissions in regard to the currents were facts that could 
 not be denied, but that they only proved that the bridge 
 should have been built at a different angle to the stream, 
 and that a bridge so built could not injure the river as a 
 navigable stream. This reply was noteworthy as fore- 
 shadowing Mr. Lincoln's argument made in the afternoon. 
 The case was decided in their favor, and although carried 
 later to the Supreme Court at Washington, where it was 
 
524 MRS. NORM AN B. JUDD. 
 
 argued against by the Hon. Caleb Gushing, one of the 
 ablest lawyers in the United States, the lawyers on the 
 side of the bridge company won their case, and forever de- 
 cided the question that bridges could be built under 
 proper restrictions on all navigable streams in the United 
 States. 
 
 Seneca Falls, 1882. 
 
JOHN AVERY. 525 
 
 THE more the smoke of party strife clears away, as 
 we recede from the times of Abraham Lincoln and 
 the civil war, the grander does the form of the Martyr 
 President stand forth as the representative of sagacious 
 statesmanship and unsullied patriotism. It has not fallen 
 to the lot of any American since Washington to be so 
 loved and lamented by the whole nation, without distinc- 
 tion of race, section, or party. He was suddenly 
 snatched away in the midst of his usefulness, but he has 
 left a name behind which is a precious legacy to future 
 generations of his countrymen, teaching ambitious youth 
 that immortality may be most surely won, not by employing 
 the tricks of the politician, but by unselfish devotion to 
 the welfare of their country. 
 
 BowDOiN College, 1880. 
 
526 JJ'Jf. If. HERly£^0^^. 
 
 THE ANALYSIS OF INIR. LINCOLN'S CHAR- 
 ACTER. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was born In Hardin county, 
 Kentucky, February 12th. 1S09. He moved to 
 Indiana in 1S16; came to Illinois in IMarch, 1S30; to 
 old Sangamon county, in 1S31, settling in New Salem, 
 and from this last place to this city in April, 1S37 ; 
 coming as a rude, uncultivated boy, without polish or 
 education, and having no friend.^. He was about six feet 
 four inches high; and when he left this city was fifty-one 
 years old, having good health and no gray hairs, or but 
 few, on his head. He was thin, wiry, sinew}-, raw-boned ; 
 thin through the breast to the back, and narrow across 
 the shoulders ; standing, he leaned forward — was what 
 may be called stoop-shouldered, inclining to the consump- 
 tive by build. His usual weight was one hundred and 
 sixty pounds. His organization — rather his structure 
 and functions — worked slowly. His blood had to run a 
 long distance from his heart to the extremities of 
 his frame, and his nerve-force had to travel through 
 dry ground a long distance before his muscles were 
 obedient to his will. His structure was loose and 
 leathery ; his body was shrunk and shriveled, having 
 dark skin, dark hair — looking woe-struck. The whole 
 man, body and mind, worked slowly, creakingly, as if it 
 needed oiling. Physically, he was a very powerful man, 
 lifting with ease four hundred or six hundred pounds. 
 
IVM. //. JIERNDON. 527 
 
 Ills inlii'l was like lils hoHy, and vvorkf:fl slowly hiil 
 strongly. WIhmi \v. walkcfj, he iiiove'l caiilioiisly hiil. 
 firmly, his lon^ arms and hands u\\ them, hani'in;^ like 
 ^danl's hands, svvuni^^ down by his sid(,-. lie walked with 
 even tread, the innc-r sides of his feet bein;^ [parallel. He 
 l)Lit the whole foot flat down on tho ground at once, not 
 landin;_^ on tlu! heel ; he likewise lifted his foot all ;it once, 
 not risin;(from the toe, and henee he had no sprin^^ to his 
 walk. 1 \ii had economy of fall and lift of foot, thfju^^h he 
 had no spring or apparent ease of motion in his tread. 
 lie walked undulatory, up and down, catchin;^ and prjcket- 
 in;^ tire, weariness and pain, all \\\) and clown his person, 
 preventin;^ the-m from locatin;^, 'J Ik: hrst opinion of a 
 , tranter, or a man who did not observe closely, was that 
 his walk implied shrewdness, cunning — a tricky man ; but 
 his was the walk of caution and firmness. In sitting 
 down on a common chair he was no taller than ordinary 
 men. I lis legs and arms were abnormally, unnaturally long, 
 ;tnd in undue pro[jortion to the balance of his body. It 
 was only when he stood up that he loomed above other men. 
 Mr. Lincoln's head was long and tall from the base 
 of the brain and from the eyebrows. I lis head ran back- 
 wards, his forehead rising as it ran back at a low 
 angle, like Clay's, and, unlike Webster's, almost per- 
 pendicular. The size of his hat, measured at the hat- 
 ter's block, was 7^/, his head being, from ear to ear, 61^ 
 inches, and from the front to the back of the brain 8 
 inches. Thus measured, it was not below the medium 
 size. His forehead was narrow but high ; his hair was 
 dark, almost black, and lay floating where his fingers or 
 the winds left it, piled \i\) at random. His cheek-bones 
 
528 ivjf. If. HERN DON. 
 
 were high, sharp, and prominent; his eyebrows heavy 
 and prominent ; his jaws were long, upcurved and heavy ; 
 his nose was large, long and blunt, a little awry towards 
 the right eye ; his chin was long, sharp and upcurved ; 
 his eyebrows cropped out like a huge rock on the brow 
 of a hill ; his face was long, sallow and cadaverous, 
 shrunk, shriveled, wrinkled and dry, having here and 
 there a hair on the surface ; his cheeks were leathery ; 
 his ears were large, and ran out almost at ri^ht anales 
 from his head, caused partly by heavy hats and partly by 
 nature; his lower lip was thick, hanging, and under- 
 curved, while his chin reached for the lip upcurved ; his 
 neck was neat and trim, his head being well balanced on 
 it; there was the lone mole on the right cheek, and 
 Adam's apple on his throat. 
 
 Thus stood, walked, acted and looked Abraham 
 Lincoln. He was not a pretty man by any means, nor 
 was he an ugly one ; he was a homely man, careless of 
 his looks, plain-looking and plain-acting. He had no 
 pomp, display or dignity, so-called. He appeared simple 
 in his carriage and bearing. He was a sad-looking man ; 
 his melancholy dripped from him as he walked. His ap- ' 
 parent gloom impressed his friends, and created a 
 sympathy for him— one means of his great success. He 
 was gloomy, abstracted, and joyous— rather, humorous— 
 by turns. I do not think he knew what real joy was for 
 many years. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln sometimes walked our streets cheerily, 
 — good-humoredly, perhaps joyously— and then it was,' 
 on meeting a friend, he cried : " How d'y ?" clasping one 
 of his friend's hand in both of his, giving a good hearty 
 
IVM. H. HERXDON. 529 
 
 soul-welcome. Of a winter's morninof, he miorht be seen 
 stalking and stilting it towards the market-house, basket 
 on arm, his old gray shawl wrapped around his neck, his 
 little Willie or Tad running along at his heels, asking a 
 thousand little quick questions, which his father heard 
 not, not even then knowing that little Willie or Tad was 
 there, so abstracted was he. When he thus met a friend, 
 he said that something put him in mind of a story which 
 he heard in Indiana or elsewhere, and tell it he would, 
 and there was no alternative but to listen. 
 
 Thus, I say, stood and walked and looked this 
 singular man. He was odd, but when that gray eye 
 and face and every feature were lit up by the inward soul 
 in fires of emotion, then it was that all these apparently 
 ugly features sprang into organs of beauty, or sunk 
 themselves into a sea of inspiration that sometimes 
 flooded his face. Sometimes it appeared to me that 
 Lincoln's soul was just fresh from the presence of its 
 Creator. 
 
 I have asked the friends and foes of Mr. Lincoln 
 alike, what they thought of his perceptions. One 
 gentleman of undoubted ability, and free from all partial- 
 ity or prejudice, said : " Mr. Lincoln's perceptions are 
 slow, a little perverted, if not somewhat distorted and 
 diseased." If the meanlnor of this is that Mr. Lincoln 
 saws things from a peculiar angle of his being, and from 
 this was susceptible to Nature's impulses, and that he so 
 expressed himself, then I have no objection to what is 
 said. Otherwise, I dissent. Mr. Lincoln's perceptions 
 
 34 
 
53° 
 
 JVM. H. HERNDON. 
 
 were slow, cold, precise, and exact. Everything came to 
 him in its precise shape and color. To some men the 
 world of matter and of man comes ornamented with 
 beauty, life, and action, and hence more or less false and 
 inexact. No lurking illusion or other error, false in 
 itself, and clad for the moment in robes of splendor, 
 ever passed undetected or unchallenged over the 
 threshold of his mind — that point that divides vision 
 from the realm and home of thought. Names to him 
 were nothing, and titles naught — assumption always 
 standing back abashed at his cold, inte lectual glare. 
 Neither his perceptions nor intellectual vision were pc- 
 verted, distorted, or diseased. He saw all things through 
 a perfect mental lens. There was no diffraction or re- 
 fraction there. He was not impulsive, fanciful or im- 
 aginative, but cold, calm, precise and exact. He threw 
 his whole mental light around the object, and in time, 
 substance, and quality stood apart ; form and color took 
 their appropriate places, and all was clear and exact 
 in his mind. His fault, if any, was that he saw things 
 less than they really were ; less beautiful and more 
 frigid. In his mental view he crushed the unreal, the 
 inexact, the hollow and the sham. He saw things in 
 rigidity rather than in vital action. Here was his 
 fault. He saw what no man could dispute; but he 
 failed to see what might have been seen. To some 
 minds the world is all life, a soul beneath the material ; 
 but to Mr. Lincoln no life was individual or universal that 
 did not manifest itself to him. His mind was hisstandard. 
 His perceptions were cool, persistent, pitiless in pursuit of 
 the truth. No error went undetected, and no falsehood 
 
IVJV. II. HERN DON. 
 
 531 
 
 unexposed, if he once was aroused in search of truth. 
 If his perceptions were perverted, distorted, and dis- 
 eased, would to Heaven that more minds were so. 
 
 ***** •X' * -A- * 
 
 The true peculiarity of Mr. Lincoln has not been seen 
 by his various biographers ; or, if seen, they have failed 
 wofully to give it that prominence which it deserves. It 
 is said that Newton saw an apple fall to the ground from 
 a tree, and beheld the law of the universe in that fall ; 
 Shakespeare saw human nature in the laugh of a man ; 
 Professor Owen saw the animal in its claw ; and Spencer 
 saw the evolution of the universe in the growth of a seed. 
 Nature was suo-orestive to all these men. Mr. Lincoln no 
 less saw philosophy in a story, and a schoolmaster in a 
 joke. No man, no men, saw nature, fact, thing, or man 
 from his stand-point. His was a new and original posi- 
 tion, which was always suggesting, hinting something to 
 him. Nature, insinuations, hints and suggestions were 
 new, fresh, original and odd to him. The world, fact, 
 man, principle, all had their powers of suggestion to his 
 susceptible soul. They continually put him in mind of 
 something. He was odd, fresh, new, original, and pecu- 
 liar, for this reason, that he was a new, odd, and original 
 creation and fact. He had keen susceptibilities to the 
 hints and suggestions of nature, which always put him in 
 mind of something known or unknown. Hence his 
 power and tenacity of what is called association of ideas 
 must have been great. His memory was tenacious and 
 strong. His susceptibility to all suggestions and hints 
 enabled him at will to call up readily the associated and 
 classified fact and idea. 
 
532 
 
 IVM. H. HERNDON. 
 
 As an evidence of this, especially peculiar to Mr. 
 Lincoln, let me ask one question. Were Mr. Lincoln's 
 expression and language odd and original, standing out 
 peculiar from those of all other men ? What does this 
 imply ? Oddity and originality of vision as well as ex- 
 pression; and what is expression In words and human 
 laneuao-e, but a tellinof of what we see, defining- the idea 
 arising from and created by vision and view in us ? 
 Words and language are but the counterparts of the idea 
 — the other half of the idea ; they are but the stinging, 
 hot, heavy, leaden bullets that drop from the mold ; and 
 what are they in a rifle with powder stuffed behind them 
 and fire applied, but an embodied force pursuing their 
 object ? So are words an embodied power feeling for 
 comprehension In other minds. Mr. Lincoln was often 
 perplexed to give expression to his ideas : first, because 
 he was not master of the English language : and, 
 secondly, because there were no words In it containing 
 the coloring, shape, exactness, power, and gravity of his 
 ideas. He was frequently at a loss for a word, and hence 
 was compelled to resort to stories, maxims, and jokes to 
 embody his idea, that it might be comprehended. So 
 true was this peculiar mental vision of his, that though 
 mankind has been gathering, arranging, and classifying 
 facts for thousands of years, Lincoln's peculiar stand- 
 point could give him no advantage of other men's labor. 
 Hence he tore up to the deep foundations all arrange- 
 ments of facts, and coined and arranged new plans to 
 govern himself. He was compelled, from his peculiar 
 mental organization, to do this. His labor was great, 
 continuous, patient and all-enduring. 
 
IVM. H. HERNDON, 533 
 
 The truth about this whole matter is that Mr. 
 Lincoln read less and thought more than any man in his 
 sphere in America. No man can put his finger on any 
 great book written in the last or present century that he 
 read. When young he read the Bible, and when of age 
 he read Shakespeare. This latter book was scarcely ever 
 out of his mind. Mr. Lincoln is acknowledged to have 
 been a great man, but the question is, what made him 
 great ? I repeat, that he read less and thought more 
 than any man of his standing in America, if not in the 
 world. He possessed originality and power of thought 
 in an eminent degree. He was cautious, cool, concen- 
 trated, with continuity of reflection ; was patient and 
 enduring. These are some of the grounds of his wonder- 
 ful success. 
 
 Not only was nature, man, fact and principle sug- 
 gestive to Mr. Lincoln, not only had he accurate and 
 exact perceptions, but he was causative, i.e., his mind 
 ran back behind all facts, things and principles to their 
 origin, history and first cause, to that point where forces 
 act at once as effect and cause. He would stop and 
 stand in the street and analyze a machine. He would 
 whittle things to a point, and then count the numberless 
 inclined planes, and their pitch, making the point. Mas- 
 tering and defining this, he would then cut that point 
 back, and get a broad transverse section of his pine 
 stick, and peel and define that. Clocks, omnibuses and 
 language, paddle-wheels and idioms, never escaped his 
 observation and analysis. Before he could form any idea 
 of anything, before he would express his opinion on any 
 subject, he must know it in origin and history, in sub- 
 
534 ^^^- H. HERNDON. 
 
 stance and quality, in magnitude and gravity. He must 
 know his subject inside and outside, upside and down- 
 side. He searched his own mind and nature thoroughly, 
 as I have often heard him say. He must analyze a sen- 
 sation, an idea, and words, and run them back to their 
 origin, history, purpose and destiny. He was most em- 
 phatically a remorseless analyzer of facts, things and 
 principles. When all these processes had been well and 
 thoroughly gone through, he could form an opinion and 
 express it, but no sooner. He had no faith. " Say so's " 
 he had no respect for, coming though they might from 
 tradition, power or authority. 
 
 All things, facts and principles had to run through 
 his crucible and be tested by the fires of his analytic 
 mind ; and hence, when he did speak, his utterances rang 
 out gold-like, quick, keen and current upon the counters 
 of the understanding. He reasoned logically, through 
 analogy and comparison. All opponents dreaded him m 
 his originality of idea, condensation, definition and force 
 of expression, and woe be to the man who hugged to his 
 bosom a secret error if Mr. Lincoln grot on the chase of 
 it. I say, woe to him ! Time could hide the error in 
 no nook or corner of space in which he would not detect 
 and expose it. 
 
 % % ^- * * * 
 
 Though Mr. Lincoln had accurate perceptions, 
 though nature was extremely suggestive to him, though 
 he was a profound thinker as well as an analyzer, still 
 his judgments and opinions formed upon minor matters 
 were often childish. I have sometimes asked prominent, 
 talented and honest men in this and other States for 
 
IVM. H. HERN DON. 535 
 
 their manly opinion of Mr. Lincoln's judgments. I did 
 this to confirm or overthrow my own opinions on this 
 point. Their answers were that his judgments were 
 poor. But now, what do we understand by the word 
 "judgments"? It is not reason, it is not will, nor 
 is it understanding ; but it is the judging faculty — that 
 capacity or power that forms opinions and decides on 
 the fitness, beauty, harmony and appropriateness of 
 things under all circumstances and surroundings, quickly, 
 wisely, accurately. Had Mr. Lincoln this quality of 
 mind? I think not. His mind was like his body, and 
 worked slowly. 
 
 * 4fr * * * * 
 
 One portion of mankind maintained that Mr. Lin- 
 coln was weak-minded, and they look at him only from 
 the stand-point of his judgments. Another class main- 
 tain that he was a great, deep, profound man in his judg- 
 ments. Do these two classes understand themselves ? 
 Both views cannot be correct. Mr. Lincoln's mind was 
 slow, angular, and ponderous, rather than quick and 
 finely discriminating, and i)i time his great powers of 
 reason on cause and effect, on creation and relation, on 
 substance and on truth, would form a proposition, an 
 opinion, wisely and well — tJiat no human being can deny. 
 When his mind could not grasp premises from which to 
 argue he was weaker than a child, because he had none 
 of the child's intuitions — the soul's quick, bright Hash 
 over scattered and unarranged facts. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was a peculiar man, having a peculiar 
 mind ; he was gifted with a peculiarity, namely, a new 
 look-out on nature. Everything had to be newly created 
 
536 IVM. H. HERN DON. 
 
 for him — facts newly gathered, newly arranged, and newly 
 classed. He had no faith, as already expressed. In 
 order to believe he must see and feel, and thrust his 
 hand into the place. He must taste, smell and handle 
 before he had faith, i.e., belief. Such a mind as this must 
 act slowly, must have its time. His forte and power lay 
 in his love of digging out for himself and hunting up for 
 his own mind its own food, to be assimilated unto itself ; 
 and then in time he could and would form opinions and 
 conclusions that no human power could overthrow. 
 They were as irresistible as iron thunder, as powerful as 
 locric embodied in mathematics. 
 
 I have watched men closely in reference to their 
 approaches to Mr. Lincoln. Those who approached him 
 on his judgment side treated him tenderly — sometimes 
 respectfully, but always as a weak-minded man. This 
 class of men take the judgment as the standard of the 
 mind. I have seen another class approach him on his 
 reason side, and they always crouched low down and 
 truckled, as much as to say, "great," "grand," "omnipo- 
 tent." Both these classes were correct. One took judgment 
 as the standard of the man, and the other took reason. 
 Yet both classes were wrong in this — they sunk out of 
 view one side of Mr. Lincoln. A third class knew hi^n 
 well, and always treated him with human respect : not 
 that awe and reverence with which we regard the Supreme 
 Being ; not that supercilious haughtiness which greatness 
 shows to littleness. Each will please to examine itself, 
 and then judge of what I say. I have approached Mr. 
 Lincoln on all sides, and treated him according to the 
 angle approached. 
 
PVM. If. HERNDON. 537 
 
 An additional question naturally suggests itself here, 
 and it is this : Had Mr. Lincoln great, good common 
 sense ? Different persons, of equal capacity and honesty, 
 hold different views on this question — one class answer- 
 ing in the affirmative, and the other in the negative. 
 
 These various opinions necessarily spring out of the 
 question just discussed. If the true test is that a man 
 shall quickly, wisely, and well judge the rapid rush and 
 whirl of human transactions, as accurately as though 
 indefinite time and proper conditions w^ere at his disposal, 
 then I am compelled to follow the logic of things, and say 
 that Mr. Lincoln had no more than ordinary common 
 sense. The world, men and their actions must be judged 
 as they rush and pass along. They will not wait on us ; 
 will not stay for our logic and analysis ; they must be 
 seized as they run. We all our life act on the moment. 
 Mr. Lincoln knew himself, and never trusted his dollar 
 or his fame on his casual opinions ; he never acted hastily 
 on great matters. 
 
 W w TT 7P TT 
 
 Mr. Lincoln very well knew that the great leading 
 law of human nature was motive. He reasoned all ideas 
 of a disinterested action from my mind. I used to hold 
 that an action could be pure, disinterested, and holy, free 
 from all selfishness, but he divested me of that delusion. 
 His idea was that all human actions were caused by 
 motives, and that at the bottom of those motives was self. 
 He defied me to act without a motive and unselfishly ; 
 and when I did the act and told him of it, he analyzed 
 and sifted it, and demonstrated beyond the possibility of 
 controversy that it was altogether selfish. Though he 
 
538 IVM. H. HERN DON. 
 
 was a profound analyzer of the laws of human nature, still 
 he had no idea of the peculiar motives of the particular 
 individual. He could not well discriminate in human 
 nature. He knew but little of the play of the features as 
 seen in "the human face divine." He could not distin- 
 guish between the paleness of anger and the crimson 
 tint of modesty. He could not determine what each play 
 of the features indicated. 
 
 ^f -K- •»• * * 
 
 The great predominating elements of Mr. Lincoln's 
 peculiar character, were : First, his great capacity and 
 power of J^casoji ; secondly, his excellent under s t cniding ; 
 thirdly, an exalted idea of the sense of right and equity ; 
 and, fourthly, his intense veneration of what was true a^id 
 good. His reason ruled despotically all other faculties and 
 qualities of his mind. His conscience and heart were 
 ruled by It. His conscience was ruled by one faculty — 
 reason. His heart was ruled by two faculties — reason 
 and conscience. I know It is generally believed that Mr. 
 Lincoln's heart, his love and kindness, his tenderness and 
 benevolence, were his ruling qualities ; but this opinion Is 
 erroneous in every particular. First, as to his reason. 
 He dwelt in the mind, not in the conscience, and not In 
 the heart. He lived and breathed and acted from his 
 reason — the throne of logic and the home of principle, 
 the realm of Deity In man. It Is from this point that 
 Mr. Lincoln must be viewed. His views were correct 
 and original. He was cautious not to be deceived ; he 
 was patient and enduring. He had concentration and 
 great continuity of thought ; he had a profound analytic 
 power ; his visions were clear, and he was emphatically 
 
WM. H. HERN DON. 539 
 
 the master of statement. His pursuit of the truth was 
 indefatigable, terrible. He reasoned from his well-chosen 
 principles with such clearness, force, and compactness, 
 that the tallest intellects in the land bowed to him with 
 respect. He was the strongest man I ever saw, looking 
 at him from the stand-point of his reason — the throne of 
 his log^ic. He came down from that height with an irre- 
 sistible and crushing force. His printed speeches will 
 prove this ; but his speeches before courts, especially be- 
 fore the Supreme Courts of the State and Nation, would 
 demonstrate it : unfortunately, none of them have been 
 preserved. Here he demanded time to think and pre- 
 pare. The office of reason is to determine the truth. 
 Truth is the power of reason — the child of reason. He 
 loved and idolized truth for its own sake. It was 
 reason's food. 
 
 Conscience, the second great quality and forte of 
 Mr, Lincoln's character, is that faculty which loves the 
 just : its office is justice ; right and equity are its correla- 
 tives. It decides upon all acts of all people at all times. 
 Mr. Lincoln had a deep, broad, living conscience. His 
 great reason told him what was true, good and bad, right, 
 wrong, just or unjust, and his conscience echoed back its 
 decision ; and it was from this point that he acted and 
 spoke and wove his character and fame among us. His 
 conscience ruled his heart ; he was always just before he 
 was gracious. This was his motto, his glory : and this is 
 as it should be. It cannot be truthfully said of any 
 mortal man that he was always just. Mr. Lincoln was 
 not always just ; but his great general life was. It follows 
 that if Mr. Lincoln had great reason and great con- 
 
540 JVM. H. HERN DON. 
 
 science, he was an honest man. His great and general 
 life was honest, and he was justly and rightfully entitled 
 to the appellation, " Honest Abe." Honesty was his 
 great polar star. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln had also a good understanding ; that 
 is, the faculty that understands and comprehends the 
 exact state of things, their near and remote relation. 
 The understanding does not necessarily inquire for the 
 reason of things. I must here repeat that Mr. Lincoln 
 was an odd and original man ; he lived by himself and 
 out of himself. He could not absorb. He was a very 
 sensitive man, unobtrusive and gentlemanly, and often hid 
 himself in the common mass of men, in order to prevent 
 the discovery of his individuality. He had no insulting 
 egotism, and n@ pompous pride ; no haughtiness, and no 
 aristocracy. He was not indifferent, however, to appro- 
 bation and public opinion. He was not an upstart, and 
 had no insolence. He was a meek, quiet, unobtrusive 
 gentleman. These qualities of his nature merged some- 
 what his identities. Read Mr. Lincoln's speeches, 
 letters, messages and proclamations, read his whole record 
 in his actual life, and you cannot fail to perceive that he 
 had good understanding. He understood and fully com- 
 prehended himself, and what he did and why he did it, 
 better than most living men. 
 
 ******* 
 
 There are contradictory opinions in reference to 
 Mr. Lincoln's heart and humanity. One opinion is that 
 he was cold and obdurate, and the other opinion is that 
 he was warm and affectionate. I have shown you that 
 
JVM. II. HERNDON. 54i 
 
 Mr. Lincoln first lived and breathed upon the world from 
 his head and conscience. 1 have attempted to show you 
 that he lived and breathed upon the world through the 
 tender side of his heart, subject at all times and places to 
 the logic of his reason, and to his exalted sense of right 
 and equity ; namely, his conscience. He always held his 
 conscience subject to his head; he held his heart 
 always subject to his head and conscience. His heart 
 was the lowest organ, the weakest of the three. Some 
 men would reverse this order, and declare that his heart 
 was his ruling organ : that always manifested itself with 
 love, regardless of truth and justice, right and equity. 
 The' question still is, was Mr. Lincoln a cold, heartless 
 man, or a warm, affectionate man ? Can a man be a 
 warm-hearted man who is all head and conscience, or 
 nearly so ? What, in the first place, do we mean by a 
 warm-hearted man ? Is it one who goes out of himself 
 and reaches for others spontaneously because of a deep 
 love of humanity, apart from equity and truth, and does 
 what it Joes for love's sake? If so, Mr. Lincoln was a 
 cold man. Or, do we mean that when a human bemg. 
 man or child, approached him in behalf of a matter of 
 ricdit, and that the prayer of such an one was granted, 
 thlt this is an evidence of his love? The African was 
 enslaved, his rights were violated, and a prmciple was 
 violated in them. Rights imply obligations as well as 
 duties Mr. Lincoln was President ; he was m a position 
 that made it his duty, through his sense of right, his love 
 of principle, his constitutional obligations imposed upon 
 him by oath of offtce, to strike the blow against slavery. 
 But did he do it for love ? He himself has answered the 
 
542 
 
 U'M. H. HERN DON. 
 
 question : " I would not free the slaves if I could preserve 
 the Union without it." I use this arcjument a^jainst his 
 too enthusiastic friends. If you mean that this is love 
 for love's sake, then Mr. Lincoln was a warm-hearted man 
 — not otherwise. To use a general expression, his 
 general life was cold. He had,' however, a strong latent 
 capacity to love ; but the object must first come as prin- 
 ciple, second as right, and third as lovely. He loved 
 abstract humanity when it was oppressed. This was an 
 abstract love, not concrete in the individual, as said by 
 some. He rarely used the term love, yet was he tender 
 and gentle. He gave the key-note to his own character, 
 when he said, "with malice toward none, and with charity 
 for all," he did what he did. He had no intense loves, 
 and hence no hates and no malice. He had a broad 
 charity for imperfect man, and let us imitate his great liTe 
 in this. 
 
 "But was not Mr. Lincoln a man of great humanity?" 
 asks a friend at my elbow, a little angrily ; to which I 
 reply, "Has not that question been answered already?" 
 Let us suppose that it has not. We must understand 
 each other. What do you mean by humanity ? Do you 
 mean that he had much of human nature in him ? If so, 
 I will grant that he was a man of humanity. Do you 
 mean, if the above definition is unsatisfactory, that Mr. 
 Lincoln was tender and kind ? Then I agree with you. 
 But if you mean to say that he so loved a man that he 
 would sacrifice truth and right for him, for love's sake, 
 then he was not a man of humanity. Do you mean to 
 say that he so loved man, for love's sake, that his heart 
 led him out of himself, and compelled him to go in search 
 
WM. H. HERNDON. 543 
 
 of the objects of his love, for their sake? He never, to 
 my knowledge, manifested this side of his character. Such 
 is the law of human nature, that it cannot be all head, all 
 conscience, and all heart at one and the same time in 
 one and the same person. Our Maker made it so, and 
 where God through reason blazed the path, walk therein 
 boldly. Mr. Lincoln's glory and power lay in the just 
 combination of head, conscience, and heart, and it is here 
 that his fame must rest, or not at all. 
 
 Not only were Mr. Lincoln's perceptions good ; not 
 only was nature suggestive to him ; not only was he orig- 
 inal and strong; not only had he great reason, good 
 understanding; not only did he love the true and good — 
 the eternal right; not only was he tender and kind — but 
 in due proportion and in legitimate subordination, had he 
 a glorious combination of them all. Through his percep- 
 tions — the suggestiveness of nature, his originality and 
 strength ; through his magnificent reason, his understand- 
 ing, his conscience, his tenderness and kindness, his heart, 
 rather than love — he approximated as nearly as most 
 human beings in this imperfect state to an embodiment 
 of the great moral principle, " Do unto others as ye would 
 
 they should do unto you." 
 
 •3f * * * * 
 
 There are two opinions — radically different opinions 
 — expressed about Mr. Lincoln's will, by men of equal 
 and much capacity. One opinion is, that he had no will ; 
 and the other is, that he was all will — omnipotently so. 
 These two opinions are loudly and honestly affirmed. 
 Mr. Lincoln's mind loved the true, the right and good, 
 all the great truths and principles in the mind of man. 
 
544 ^■^^^' ^^- HERN DON. 
 
 He loved the true, first ; the right, second ; and the 
 good, the least. His mind struggled for truths and his 
 soul for substances. Neither in his head nor in his soul 
 did he care for forms, methods, ways — the ;z(?;^-sub- 
 stantial facts or things. He could not, by his very 
 structure and formation In mind and body, care anything 
 about them. He did not intensely or much care for 
 particular individual man — the dollar, property, rank, 
 order, manners, or such like things. He had no avarice 
 in his nature, or other like vice. He despised, somewhat, 
 all technical rules in law and theology and other sciences 
 — mere forms everywhere — because they were, as a 
 general rule, founded on arbitrary thoughts and ideas, 
 and not on reason, truth, right, and the good. These 
 things were without substance, and he disregarded them 
 because they cramped Iris original nature. What suited 
 a little, narrow, critical mind did not suit Mr. Lincoln's 
 any more than a child's clothes did his body. Generally, 
 Mr. Lincoln could not take any interest in little local elec- 
 tions — town meetings. He attended no gatherings that 
 pertained to local or other such interests, saving general 
 political ones. He did not care (because he could not, in 
 his nature) who succeeded to the presidency of this or 
 that Christian association or railroad convention ; who 
 made the most money ; who was going to Philadelphia, 
 when and for what, and what were the costs of such a 
 trip. He could not care who, among friends, got this 
 office or that — who got to be street inspector or alley 
 commissioner. No principle of goodness, of truth, or 
 right was here. How could he be moved by such things 
 as these? He could not understand why men struggled 
 
IVM. H. HERN DON. 54=c 
 
 for such things. He made this remark to me one day, I 
 think at Washington, '* If ever this free people — if this 
 Government itself is ever utterly demoralized, it will come 
 from this human wriggle and struggle for office —a way 
 to live without work ; from which nature I am not free 
 myself." It puzzled him a good deal, 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-strusfSfle. 
 
 Because Mr. Lincoln could not feel any interest in 
 such little things as I have spoken of, nor feel any par- 
 ticular interest in the success of those who were thus 
 struggling and wriggling, he was called indifferent — nay, 
 ungrateful — to his friends. Especially is this the case 
 with men who have aided Mr. Lincoln all their life, 
 Mr. Lincoln always and everywhere wished his friends 
 well ; he loved his friends and clung to them tenaciously, 
 like iron to iron welded ; yet he could not be actively and 
 energetically aroused to the true sense of his friends' 
 particularly strong feelings of anxiety for office. From 
 this fact Mr. Lincoln has been called ungrateful. He 
 was not an ungrateful man by any means. He may have 
 been a cool man — a passive man in his general life ; yet 
 he was not ungrateful. Ingratitude is too positive a 
 word — it does not convey the truth. Mr. Lincoln may 
 not have measured his friendly duties by the applicant's 
 hot desire ; I admit this. He was not a selfish man — 
 if by selfishness is meant that Mr. Lincoln would do any 
 act, even to promote himself to the presidency, if by 
 that act any human being was wronged. If it is said 
 that Abraham Lincoln preferred Abraham Lincoln to 
 
 35 
 
546 IVM. H. HERNDON. 
 
 any one else, in the pursuit of his ambitions, and that, 
 because of this, he was a selfish man, then I can see no ob- 
 jections to such an idea, for this is universal human nature. 
 
 It must be remembered that Mr. Lincoln's mind 
 acted logically, cautiously, and slowly. Now, having 
 stated the above facts, the question of his will and its 
 power is easily solved. Be it remembered that Mr. Lin- 
 coln cared nothing for simple facts, manners, modes, 
 ways, and such like things. Be it remembered that he 
 did care for truth, right, for principle, for all that pertains 
 to the good. In relation to simple facts, unrelated to 
 substance, forms, rules, methods, ways, manners, he cared 
 nothing ; and if he could be aroused, he would do any- 
 thing for anybody at any time, as well foe as friend. 
 As a politician he would courteously grant all facts and 
 forms — all non-essential things — to his opponent. He 
 did so because he did not care for them ; they were 
 rubbish, husks, trash. On the question of substance, he 
 hung and clung with all his might. On questions of 
 truth, justice, right, the good, on principle, his will was 
 as firm as steel and as tenacious as iron. It was as firm, 
 solid, real, vital, and tenacious as an idea on which the 
 world hinees or hanes. Ask Mr. Lincoln to do a wronof 
 thing, and he would scorn the request ; ask him to do an 
 unjust thing, and he would cry : " Begone !" ask him to 
 sacrifice his convictions of the truth, and his soul would 
 indignantly exclaim : *' The world perish first !" 
 
 Such was Mr. Lincoln's will. On manners and such 
 like things, he was pliable. On questions of right and 
 substance, he was as firm as a rock. One of these classes 
 
IVAf. H. HERN DON. 547 
 
 of men look at Mr. Lincoln from the stand-point of thin<rs 
 non-essential, and the other looks at him from the stand- 
 point of substance, rejecting forms. Hence the difference. 
 Mr. Lincoln was a man of firm, unyielding will, when, in 
 human transactions. It was necessary to be so, and not 
 otherwise. At one moment Mr. Lincoln was as pliable and 
 expansive as gentle air, and at the next moment he was as 
 biting, firm, tenacious, and unyielding as gravity itself. 
 
 Thus I have traced Mr. Lincoln through his percep- 
 tions, his suggestiveness, his judgments, and his four 
 great predominant qualities, namely — his powers of 
 reason, his great understanding, his conscience, and his 
 heart. I assert that Mr. Lincoln lived in the head. He 
 loved the truth ; he loved the eternal right and the good 
 — never yielding the fundamental conceptions of these to 
 any man for any end. 
 
 All the follies and wrong Mr. Lincoln ever fell into, 
 or committed, sprang or came out of his weak points, 
 namely, his want of quick, sagacious, intuitive judgment 
 — his want of quick, sagacious, intuitive knowledge of the 
 play and meaning of the features of men as written on 
 the face — his tenderness and mercy, and, lastly, his 
 utterly unsuspecting nature. He was deeply and seriously 
 honest himself, and assumed that others were so organ- 
 ized. He never suspected men. These, with other de- 
 fects of his nature, caused all his follies and wrongs, if he 
 ever had any of either. 
 
 All the wise and good things Mr. Lincoln ever did, 
 sprang or came out of his great reason, his conscience, 
 his understanding, and his heart ; his love of truth, right, 
 
548 JVM. H. HERN DON. 
 
 and the good. I am speaking now of his particular and 
 individual faculties and qualities, not their cotnbination, 
 nor the result of wise or unwise combinations. Each 
 man and woman must form his or her own estimate of the 
 man in the mind. Run out these facts, qualities, and 
 faculties, and see what they must produce. For instance, 
 a tender heart ; a wise, strong reason ; a good understand- 
 ing, an exalted conscience, a love of the good, must, in 
 such combination, practically applied, produce a man of 
 great humanity. 
 
 Take another illustration in the combination of his 
 faculties and qualities. Mr. Lincoln's eloquence lay, ist, 
 in the strength of his logical faculty, his supreme power of 
 reasoning, his great understanding, and his love of 
 principle ; 2d, in his clear, exact, and very accurate vision ; 
 3d, in his cool and masterly statement of his principles, 
 around which the issues gather ; in the statement of those 
 issues, and the grouping of the facts that are to carry con- 
 viction, aidfed by his logic, to the minds of men of every 
 
 Sfrade of intelliofence. He was so clear that he could not 
 fc> o 
 
 be misunderstood nor misrepresented. He stood square 
 and bolt upright to his convictions, and formed by them 
 his thoughts and utterances. Mr. Lincoln'smind was not 
 a wide, deep, broad, generalizing, and comprehensive mind, 
 nor versatile, quick, bounding here and there, as emer- 
 gencies demanded it. His mind was deep, enduring, and 
 strong, running in deep iron grooves, with flanges on its 
 wheels. His mind was not keen, sharp, and subtile ; it 
 was deep, exact, and strong. 
 
 Whatever of life, vigor, force, and power of eloquence 
 
WAf. H. HERN DON. 549 
 
 the whole of the above qualities, or a wise combination, 
 will give ; whatever there is in a fair, manly, honest and 
 impartial administration of justice, under law, to all men 
 at all times^^— through these qualities and capabilities 
 given, never deviating ; whatever there is in a strong will 
 in the right, governed by tenderness and mercy ; what- 
 ever there is in toil and a sublime patience ; whatever 
 there is in particular faculties, or a wise combination of 
 them — not forgetting his weak points — working wisely, 
 sagaciously, and honestly, openly and fairly ; I say, 
 whatever there is in these, or a combination of them, 
 that Mr., Lincoln is justly entitled to in all the walks of 
 life. These limit, bound and define him as statesman, 
 orator, as an Executive of the nation, as a man of human- 
 ity, a good man, and a gentleman. These limit, bound 
 and define him every way, in all the ways and walks of 
 life. He is under his law and his nature, and he never 
 can get out of it. 
 
 This man, this long, bony, wiry, sad man, floated into 
 our county in 1831, in a frail canoe, down the north fork 
 of the Sangamon River, friendless, penniless, powerless 
 and alone — begging for work in this city — ragged, 
 struo-alingr for the common necessaries of life. This 
 man, this peculiar man, left us in 1861, the President of 
 the United States, backed by friends and power, by 
 fame, and all human force ; and it is well to inquire 
 how. 
 
 To sum up, let us say, here is a sensitive, diffident, 
 unobtrusive, natural-made gentleman. His mind was' 
 strong and deep, sincere and honest, patient and endur- 
 
55° ^^. H. HERNDON. 
 
 ing ; having no vices, and having only negative defects, 
 with many positive virtues. His is a strong, honest, 
 sagacious, manly, noble life. He stands in the foremost 
 rank of men in all ages — their equal — one of the best 
 types of this Christian civilization. 
 
 Springfield, 1882. 
 
C. T. CORLISS. 551 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE PILGRIMS 
 
 VISITING Lincoln's Tomb on the nineteenth anniver- 
 sary OF THE emancipation PROCLAMATION, 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, September 22, 
 1881. 
 
 WE have come, fellow-men, of a dark-hued race, 
 On a pilgrimage to the last resting-place 
 Of him, who, in life, was a friend to the slave, 
 But whose mortal remains fill a martyr's grave. 
 
 We have come from the East, the North, South and West, 
 A disenthralled people, no longer oppressed. 
 But free as the air — as a bird on the wing — 
 To this hallowed shrine our oblations we bring. 
 
 Four millions of Freedmen to-day swell the song; 
 The blue vault of Heaven its echoes prolong. 
 From the gulf to the lakes, from the lakes to the sea. 
 The shackles have fallen — the Brother is free. 
 
 The crack of the slave-whip no longer is heard. 
 And hearts no more sicken, while hope is deferred ; 
 The slave-pen and auction block never shall be 
 Erected again in tliis land of the Free. 
 
 Lincoln, the God-like, the friend of our race, 
 With a stroke of his pen did forever efface 
 That foul blot, so long our derision and shame. 
 And carved for himself an immortal name — 
 
 A name that shall live throughout all coming time, 
 Unbounded by country, by language, or clime. 
 Great-grandchildren's children, as years roll around. 
 Shall pilgrimage make to this hallowed ground; 
 
552 C. T. CORLISS. 
 
 \ 
 
 And he whom we honored, what tho' he be dead, 
 
 What tho' the spirit forever has fled, 
 
 Our fond recollection time cannot efface 
 
 Of Lincoln, the saviour and friend of our race. 
 
 He blushed when he thought of the deep-burning shame 
 
 That slavery brought on Columbia's fair name, 
 
 And the proudest day of his life was when 
 
 He struck off the chains from four millions of men. 
 
 From the depths of our hearts, for this priceless boon, 
 Let songs of thanksgiving our voices attune ; 
 Let gratitude from these dark temples arise 
 Like incense from altars, whose flame never dies. 
 
 If ever beatified spirits descend 
 
 And with those of mortals in harmony blend, 
 
 The spirit of Lincoln is with us to-day, 
 
 To charm all our fears and our sorrows away. 
 
 So long as the Freedman inhabits this zone, 
 Philanthropist, Statesman, and Sage, all in one 
 We'll hail him, the greatest, the wisest and best. 
 Who sleeps in yon " windowless palace of Rest." 
 
 Indianapolis, i88i. 
 
DAVID DAVIS. 553 
 
 BORN in the humblest walks of life, and unaided by 
 education or by fortune, Abraham Lincoln, by his 
 own endeavors and native resources, attained to the 
 highest honor of the republic. He administered that 
 great office so as to win the confidence and affection of 
 the American people. His name will ^o down throut^h 
 
 1 1 • • 
 
 all time miperishably associated with the freedom of a 
 race, and as one of the noblest champions of liberty, 
 humanity and charity for all, in war and in peace. 
 
 ) 
 
 Washington, i88o. 
 
554 HOWARD CROSBY. 
 
 I LOOK upon Abraham Lincoln as a special instru- 
 ment of God (as was Washington) to meet a fear- 
 ful crisis in our country's history. He was a thorough 
 American, carrying a calm mind and tender heart, with a 
 firm sense of right, through the stormy period of civil 
 strife. 
 
 ^^<{l^^Ch^^-V^^^ 
 
 New York, 1880. 
 
WM. F. SMITH. 555 
 
 MR. LINCOLN'S place in the hearts of the nation 
 and on the pages of history is so well fixed, that 
 it seems like presumption in one like myself to write of 
 his merits. I do it, however, because of my great ad- 
 miration for his character and services. At the begin- 
 ning of his administration I was very much prejudiced 
 against him, but I was intensely interested in the success- 
 ful termination of the war, and that interest was far above 
 all prejudices or friendship ; and so at last I came to 
 recoo-nize in President Lincoln a man of extreme con- 
 scientiousness and patriotism ; to which was added an 
 ability for the grave duties devolved upon him far beyond 
 that of the most able men known for years in the councils 
 of the nation. I have long held to the opinion that at 
 the close of the war Mr. Lincoln was the superior of his 
 crenerals in his comprehension of the effect of strategic 
 movements and the proper method of following up vic- 
 tories to their legitimate conclusions. Had he lived, I 
 have always believed that the long and bitter struggle 
 over reconstruction would never have been initiated, and 
 that substantial peace and prosperity would have followed 
 the laying down of arms. It would seem as though the 
 two sections of the country had not been sufficiently 
 punished by the war, and that he was removed from his 
 high place and that we lost the power which his character 
 had won with the people, so that a new set of plagues 
 mif^ht be turned loose over the land. 
 
 New York, 1882. 
 
556 GEORGE WASHINGTON NANCE. 
 
 I BECAME acquainted with Mr. Lincoln in the year 
 1833. I moved from Kentucky to Illinois about that 
 time, and Mr. Lincoln was then engaged in the grocery 
 business in New Salem, Illinois. I had previously re- 
 ceived the impression that the inhabitants of New Salem 
 were perfect " ogres and hobgoblins," and that no one 
 ever attempted to pass through the town without being 
 either killed or robbed. I had some business with a 
 friend livincr near there, and on callinof at his house, I 
 learned that he had gone to Salem. I scarcely knew 
 whether it would be safe to venture there alone or not. 
 I at length made up my mind to try it, anyhow. I 
 reached the town without meeting with an accident ; but 
 as I neared the center my ear caught the sound of a loud 
 voice. I began to tremble in my boots^ for I felt sure the 
 devouring angel was close at hand. I kept up my cour- 
 age as well as I could, and proceeded in the direction 
 of the voice, and a few steps brought me to the house 
 from whence the voice issued. There sat the dreaded 
 monster with a note-book open before him, practicing 
 music. He at once recognized me, having been ac- 
 quainted with two of my brothers, to whom I bore a 
 close resemblance ; he then introduced himself as Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. We spent a very pleasant evening to- 
 gether, and some time after this meeting, I had an op- 
 portunity to become better acquainted with him. The 
 family with whom he was then boarding went away on a 
 visit, and he engaged board with a gentleman for whom I 
 
GEORGE WASHINGTON NANCE. 557 
 
 was making a frame for a house, and we soon became in- 
 timate friends and room-mates. After he became a law- 
 yer I engaged his services in a law-suit, and on asking 
 his charge, to my surprise he only asked me two dollars 
 and fifty cents. I had no idea of paying less than ten 
 dollars. When Mr. Lincoln first became a lawyer he 
 was a general favorite with all the wild young men who 
 knew him, and in one of his speeches, delivered after he 
 was elected to the Illinois Legislature, he displeased 
 some of these young bloods, and it reached his ears. He 
 called a meeting and addressed them, saying that they 
 had made him what he was, and if he had said anything 
 that displeased them he was willing for them to take him 
 to pieces limb by limb. 
 
 Petersburg, 1882. 
 
558 JOHN BENNETT. 
 
 I CAME to Illinois in the fall of 1835, and in January, 
 1836, located in Petersburg, a little village recently 
 laid out on the Sangamon river, two miles north of Salem, 
 Mr. Lincoln's home. My earliest acquaintance with Mr. 
 Lincoln commenced in February of that year, on his 
 return home from Vandalia, where he had spent the 
 winter as a member of the legislature from Sangamon 
 county. Mr. Lincoln spent the most of the month of 
 March in Petersburg, finishing up the survey and planning 
 of the town he had commenced the year before, and I was 
 a great deal in his company and formed a high estimate 
 of his worth and social qualities, which was strengthened 
 by many years of subsequent social intercourse and busi- 
 ness transactions, finding him always strictly honest ; in 
 fact, he was universally spoken of in this region as 
 " Honest Abe." After Menard county was formed out of 
 a portion of Sangamon county, and the county seat 
 established at Petersburg, Mr. Lincoln was a regular 
 attendant at the courts, and as I was then keeping a 
 hotel, he was one of my regular customers, where he met 
 many of his old cronies of his early days at Salem, and 
 they uniformly spent the most of the nights in telling 
 stories, or spinning long yarns, of which Mr. Lincoln was 
 very fond. In the early settlement of this community, 
 when a stranger came to settle amongst them, it was their 
 custom to try him on. This trying on was to ascertain 
 what he was made of, and all sorts of sports were resorted 
 to, such as running, jumping, wrestling and occasionally 
 a knock-down, if necessary. In all these sports, Mr. 
 Lincoln not only proved himself a match, but an over 
 
JOHN BENNETT. 5-9 
 
 match for the most of them, and they at once became his 
 fast friends. On one occasion, Mr. Lincoln, with a 
 number of other persons, was descending the Sangamon 
 river in a flat-boat. The boat leaked badly and took in a 
 good deal of water, and when they reached the Salem 
 mill-dam, the water was not high enough to take the boat 
 over with so much weight, and the bow ran up high and 
 dry on the dam. The question was, What was to be done ? 
 Mr. Lincoln suggested that they should bore a hole in 
 the bottom of the boat and lighten it by letting the water 
 out. This was a novel idea, but the hole was bored in 
 the bow, and all hands went to that end, which raised the 
 stern ; the v/ater flowed to the bow and passed off through 
 the hole, and the boat went over the dam in safety. 
 
 On another occasion, when Mr. Lincoln and some of 
 his friends were visiting a neighbor, a very large, fleshy, 
 rouo^h and uncouth old woman came in and seated her- 
 self on one of those old-fashioned, straight-backed, split- 
 bottomed chairs, leaned back, balancing herself on the 
 hind legs and rocking to and fro, and telling of every- 
 thing going on in the neighborhood (for she knew every- 
 body's business), Mr. Lincoln was sitting near, and being 
 always fond of a joke, he couldn't withstand the tempta- 
 tion, and slyly put his foot under the front round of the 
 chair and upset her. She fell in such a position that she 
 could not extricate herself without his assistance ; what 
 followed can better be imaeined than described. 
 
 Petersburg, 1882. 
 
56o E. C. POAfEROY. 
 
 THAT Mr. Lincoln was an eminently good man — 
 that he was really great in all the moral aspects of 
 human character, is very widely if not universally conced- 
 ed. That he was equally great from the purely intellec- 
 tual point of view, has been spoken of with more reserve. 
 It was not unnatural, therefore, that his extraordinary suc- 
 cess in political life, obtained as it was without resort to 
 the crafty methods of the mere politician, and without 
 the usual personal solicitation by himself in his own be- 
 half, should have been regarded by many as something 
 of a mystery — especially when considered in connection 
 with the fact that he was not supposed to be an educated 
 man. His success was largely due, no doubt, to his re- 
 markable sagacity in determining the condition of the 
 public mind, and in reading the signs of the times. He 
 seemed to have a special gift in this direction. Perhaps 
 it was intuition, but so largely developed in his case as 
 to be almost equivalent to a separate mental endowment, 
 giving him, as it were, one faculty more than other men 
 have, and bestowing upon him a corresponding advan- 
 tage over his contemporaries. But that he was intellec- 
 tually great, aside from this, is one of the most conspicu- 
 ous facts of his life. And it is clearly evident from the 
 circumstances in which he was placed, during the most 
 important period of his political career — being a le;:der 
 alike of a new party and a new thought — that he could 
 not have succeeded nor laid a foundation for success, if 
 this had not been a fact in his favor. Whatever he mav 
 
E. C. POMEROY. 561 
 
 have lacked in the way of education or scholarship, he 
 certainly did not lack knowledge, or the ability to acquire 
 knowledge to any extent needed at any time when want- 
 ed, nor the intelligence and skill necessary to use it to the 
 best possible advantage. There are thousands of educa- 
 ted men who would rejoice to have this same power, but 
 have it not. Such talent as this, in the field of duty to 
 which he was called, was an ample substitute for the 
 scholarship he did not' have, and out of this talent came 
 the giant forces which wrought his success. With these 
 at his command, no difficulties embarrassed him, no emer- 
 gencies found him unprepared, he made no mistakes, and 
 met with no failures. 
 
 In the stirring Illinois campaign which brought him to 
 the front as champion of freedom, and which resulted 
 two years later in making him the nominee of his party 
 for the Presidential office, he manifested capabilities equal 
 to the highest and the best. The country was filled with 
 able men at that time, men noted for great learning, elo- 
 quence, skill in debate, and wisdom of management, but 
 it is not likely that any one could have been selected from ' 
 among them all, who would have gone through that cam- 
 paign, in his place, with a success and brilliancy equal to 
 his. And yet the performance did not seem to be in any 
 way difficult or extraordinary for him. It was only in 
 keeping — except as to its greater importance, and the 
 greater excitement attending it — with all his former ef- 
 forts in the political field. Without pretending to be an 
 orator, he swayed the multitudes by his eloquence as the 
 tempest stirs the sea ; and vanquished his opponents in 
 debate with the same easy grace and irresistible force of 
 
 86 
 
562 E. C. POMEROY. 
 
 locric with which lesser fields had been w*on, and which 
 lesser foes had been taught to respect in the less trying 
 situations of the past, and which all parties, friends and 
 foes alike, were destined to admire. He wrought with- 
 out malice ; without personal animosity towards anybody ; 
 simply for his love of the right, and his hatred of the 
 wrong, as matters of principle ; and won the respect of 
 all by the fairness and candor and good temper with 
 which his work was done. With pleasant smiles, and 
 keen wit, and unanswerable argument, he cleared the path 
 before him, for himself and his party, and pointed the 
 way to a higher and better life for the nation ; and then, 
 stepping quickly to the front, led the nation on to 
 take possession of and permanently occupy that higher 
 ground. And this was essentially his own work from be- 
 ginning to end. He started it, and kept with it all the 
 way through, as the most capable and efficient worker of 
 all, and finally finished it at the end. A nobler exhibition 
 of mental supremacy and magnificent success, in the politi- 
 cal field, has not been seen on this earth. This is a strong 
 statement, but it is no doubt a perfectly truthful one. 
 If there are men now living who would withhold from him 
 this large credit for intellectual greatness, let them explain 
 how, from the condition of helpless poverty in which he was 
 born, and in which he continued through all the years of 
 childhood and youth, he could come to be the master-spirit 
 of the nation, and to hold its highest position of official 
 trust and power with such transcendent ability and faultless 
 wisdom, through the most trying ordeal any nation or any 
 ruler of a nation has ever experienced ; and do all this 
 without aid from any outside source except such as he 
 
E. C. POMEROY. 563 
 
 created for himself and drew unto himself by his own ef- 
 forts alone, as he advanced. His known integrity and 
 goodness of heart were, of course, strong elements of pop- 
 ularity, but such success as this cannot be rationally ac- 
 counted for without including among its causes that most 
 indispensable one of all — great intellectual ability. If we 
 call it wisdom, it means the same thing. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was a profound admirer of our great men 
 of the past. He studied their lives and made himself 
 minutely acquainted with their characters, and became 
 one of the noblest defenders of their work. Particularly 
 is this true with regard to the men of the Revolution. 
 He had imbibed their very spirit. The Declaration of 
 Independence was the light which lighted him on his po- 
 litical way. He believed in it as sincerely and devoutly 
 as he believed in his Bible. Its principles to him were as 
 sacred as any earthly thing could be. He regarded them 
 as of divine origin. And now, when he found that noble 
 instrument assailed by gifted northern orators, and 
 sneered at and ridiculed as containing nothing but "glit- 
 tering generalities," and determined efforts being made to 
 destroy its influence over the public mind, in order to 
 make more room for slavery, he was naturally roused 
 with indignation and inspired with eloquence in its de- 
 fense. He came to its defense with a magnanimity and 
 power no other man has shown. It would not be diffi- 
 cult to prove, if there were time and space, that he really 
 possessed many of the leading characteristics of our great 
 men of the past, more, perhaps, than has been manifested 
 by any other single American. At the same time, he was 
 wholly unlike them all in his intellectual methods — as 
 
564 E. C. POMEROY. 
 
 well as In his personal appearance — and was not equal to 
 any one of them, probably, in those educational advanta- 
 ges that come from the schools. But his great soul, man- 
 ifesting itself by great deeds, has won for him a reputa- 
 tion and fame superior to all other Americans, with the 
 single exception, perhaps, of Washington — and he stands 
 before the world an illustrious example of human great- 
 ness, creditable alike to the men who created the govern- 
 ment and to the government which they created. They 
 made it possible for such a man to be produced ; and he 
 is without any exception the grandest fruit of their deep 
 political foresight. He was wholly American, and 
 wholly a United States American, of the purest and best 
 type : a broad-minded, big-hearted, genial-tempered prod- 
 uct of the prairies : with a love of country and of free- 
 dom and of man a thousand times more boundless than 
 the prairies, — as boundless as humanity. With such en- 
 dowments of mind and such attributes of character, it is 
 not to be wondered at that he could move men as they 
 had never been moved before ; nor is it a matter of won- 
 der to those who believe in an overrulinor Providence that 
 fits the man for the hour and the hour for the man, in the 
 great concerns of earth, that at his chief advent into pub- 
 lic life, the time had come for them to be so moved. 
 
 A country that has produced two such men as Wash- 
 ington and Lincoln during the first century of its exist- 
 ence — besides the larg-e number of other orreat men neces- 
 sarily implied in the production of these two — can afford to 
 be well satisfied with its laurels. Washington, the Father 
 of Liberty and the Founder of the Republic ; Lincoln, 
 the Father of Freedom and the Preserver of the Re- 
 
E. C. POMEROY. 565 
 
 public : — these might not improperly be distinguishing 
 titles of these distinQ;;uished men. No briofhter names 
 than theirs shine out from the pages of history, in ancient 
 or modern times. Tlie united voice of the country, and 
 of all countries, has given to Washington his proper 
 place, where he will stand, bathed in glory, forever. Lin- 
 coln's time has not yet come. It is too early for him to 
 take his right place in the undivided opinion of the world. 
 Another generation must pass — perhaps many genera- 
 tions — ^before he can be seen by all alike and in his true 
 light. When the asperities of the war are all gone, and 
 the memory of its bitterness has faded from the minds of 
 men, and the prejudices excited by its passions are at an 
 end — when the animosities engendered by party strife are 
 forgotten, and when the losses caused by the war to the 
 present generation are found to be an immense gain in 
 the future, as they certainly v/ill be — when all of these 
 ameliorated conditions, in so far as they relate to him, 
 shall have been reached — then the memory of his great 
 deeds and pure life and noble character will take posses- 
 sion of men's minds to the exclusion of their former false 
 views and errors, and thus being able to look upon him 
 with unclouded sight, they will behold him exactly as he 
 was, and as he will continue to be in reputation, one of 
 the greatest of earth's great men. 
 
 The divine oversight and guidance of earthly affairs is 
 nowhere more manifest than in that portion of our 
 national history which relates to slavery. The nation 
 has been punished, as it deserved to be, for tolerating 
 the hideous wrong. The oppressed race has been bene- 
 fited, as was right that it should be, by the continuance 
 
566 E. C. POMEROY. 
 
 of that wrong. The emancipated slave comes from his 
 bondage better fitted for the duties of civilization and bet- 
 ter capable of self-support and self-improvement than any 
 other equal number of his race. Shall he not share these 
 advantages with the less-favored portion of his people ? 
 Shall he not be a missionary to his fellows of the " dark 
 continent," still suffering under a bondage more crushing 
 and cruel than that from which he himself has been 
 freed ? The bondage of ignorance and superstition by 
 which they are enslaved is a bondage from which they 
 cannot be emancipated by proclamation, but only by slow 
 growth In knowledge through generations of instruction. 
 Their period of instruction will come and growth in 
 knowledge follow as one of the fruits, in part at least, of 
 the Emancipation Proclamation issued by Mr. Lincoln ; 
 and in so far as they shall then be liberated from the 
 gross barbarism in which they are sunk, the credit of their 
 improved condition must proportionally be attributed to 
 the same cause, and will in like proportion enhance the 
 glory of that great act. 
 
 The far-reaching beneficence of that great man's life- 
 character and services cannot now be realized. Believers 
 in the world's ultimate redemption from evil may picture 
 to themselves the golden glories of that millennial era and 
 rejoice in the contemplation of its purity and peace, but 
 this is the work of the imagination. Not till the era 
 comes shall its real brightness be seen, and not till then 
 shall there be men wise enough to trace the blessed in- 
 fluences by which it was brought about, — not till then 
 shall the full measure of his greatness be known to the 
 children of earth. 
 
E. C. POMEROY. 567 
 
 When the freedman shall have come to his own and 
 can speak for himself and his race with an applauding 
 world to listen, men will look back over the landmarks of 
 human progress, recalling the mighty agencies by which 
 the grand result was achieved, and nowhere shall they find, 
 in the long, bright vista of their vision, a glory more brilliant 
 and beautiful and pure than that which rests upon the 
 name and hallows the fame of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Buffalo, 1882. 
 
;68 ANDREW BOYD. 
 
 I AM glad to be recorded with the many as one who 
 had great love for Mr. Lincoln ; who reveres his 
 name and memory, and who believes that God gave him 
 to us for the crisis we were to pass through ; to lead us 
 successfully through that four years of terrible civil war 
 into the bright sunlight of a blessed peace, the early 
 dawn only of which he was permitted to see, when he 
 was cruelly and brutally murdered during an evening of 
 recreation. We question if there was ever a man holding 
 public office in our country who received more blame 
 and more praise than Abraham Lincoln while President ; 
 but when he died the nation staggered under the sad in- 
 telligence ; a cry of unfeigned sorrow went up from every 
 loyal breast ; even enemies had pity in their hearts ; and 
 from almost every hamlet throughout the world came ex- 
 pressions of sympathy for the loss of our good President. 
 Mr. Lincoln's kind and forgiving nature should never be 
 called in question. It was like unto the following: 
 " Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how oft shall 
 my brother sin against me and I forgive him ? Till seven 
 times ? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee until 
 seven times, but until seventy times seven." I believe the' 
 answer which Jesus made to have been the ruling spirit 
 of Mr. Lincoln towards his fellow-beinors — friends or 
 enemies : for he said, with 7nalice towards none, with 
 charity for all. 
 
 He was pure-hearted and pure-minded. There were 
 times, perhaps, in our impatience we thought him wrong, 
 
ANDREW BOYD. , 569 
 
 and wished him to do different ; but the result showed 
 that he was about right, and did things at the proper 
 time for the benefit of all concerned. It is not likely 
 that any man could have filled his place during the try- 
 ing time he was President, perhaps, without erring — with- 
 out displeasing many ; and it is certainly beyond doubt 
 that but few would have been as conscientiously just as he. 
 Who would have been more faithful ? He stood like the 
 noble pine, that can bend before the storm but will not 
 break. ''He stood when others fell!" No matter who 
 was discouraged, it was not for kim to be disheartened ; 
 or, at least, to show.it. How well did he tryto conceal 
 the burden he had to bear ; \^^earing a smile, and telling a 
 story to forget his own sorrow, and to cheer up the timid 
 and desponding. Mr. Lincoln has spoken and written 
 some of the finest sentences to be found in our language. 
 His speech at Gettysburg, and portions of his inaugurals, 
 are very superior. A few words of his last inaugural, 
 although written in prose, are really in rhyme. 
 
 " Fondly do we hope, 
 
 Fervently do we pray, 
 That this miglity scourge of war 
 May speedily pass away, &c., &c." 
 
 Many of his speeches abound with fine, tender, poetic 
 expression. His little off-hand good-bye address to his 
 old friends when leaving Springfield in 1861 is full of 
 deep pathos, and will never be forgotten. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, with his pen — and that was law — gave 
 freedom to 4,000,000 of colored slaves. Mr. Lincoln was 
 not looked up to with any degree of awe or reverence as 
 
570 ANDREW BOYD. 
 
 some great men have been ; but he was respected and 
 truly beloved by the masses of the people for his hon- 
 esty and justness to all ; for his amiable temper and dis- 
 position ; for his great kindness of heart ; and for his un- 
 swerving integrity to the principles of free government, 
 and the honor of his country. He was really one of the 
 people, was for the people, and stood by the people. Mr. 
 Lincoln was half-brother to mercy and justice. Without 
 the rank, which is but the "guinea's stamp," he was pure 
 gold ; and from an apparently poor and humble sphere, 
 be bounded at one leap in history to the side of Wash- 
 ington. Both these great men showed their virtue and 
 wisdom throuorh a thundering life — or death — stru2:s:le of 
 our country. The rising generation will outdo us in ap- 
 preciation of his character. The charm that lingers 
 about the name of the immortal Washington as the Father 
 of our Country, will also surround that of honest Abra- 
 ham Lincoln as its Saviour. 
 
 Syracuse, 1882. 
 
LUCY LARCOM, ^yi 
 
 TOLLING. 
 
 (April 15, 1865.) 
 
 TOLLING, tolling, tolling! 
 All the bells of the land ! 
 Lo, the patriot martyr 
 
 Taketh his journey grand ! 
 Travels into the ages, 
 
 Bearing a hope how dear ! 
 Into life's unknown vistas, 
 Liberty's great pioneer. 
 
 Tolling, tolling, tolling ! 
 
 See, they come as a cloud, 
 Hearts of a mighty people, 
 
 Bearing his pall and shroud ; 
 Lifting up, like a banner, 
 
 Signals of loss and woe ; 
 Wonder of breathless nations, 
 
 ^lovetli the solemn show. 
 
 Tolling, tolling, tolling ! 
 
 Was it, O man beloved, 
 Was it thy funeral only 
 
 Over the land that moved ? 
 Veiled by that hour of anguish, 
 
 Borne with the rebel rout 
 Forth into utter darkness, 
 
 Slavery's corse went out. 
 
 Boston, 1882. 
 
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