1973. 7L63 
 B3MM62 I 
 
 INCOLN 
 
 ESTEEMED WASHINGTON 
 
 By EDMOND S. MEANY 
 
LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 

Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/lincolnesteemedwOOmean 
 
LINCOLN 
 
 ESTEEMED WASHINGTON 
 
Rescued Portrait of Lincoln 
 
 ^?\Joseph Hill of Galesburg, Illinois, took his camera to 
 Springfield to make photographs of Abraham Lincoln on his 
 nomination as Republican candidate for President. Mr. Hill's 
 gallery and negatives were destroyed by fire, but he saved 
 some of his prints. Years later he moved to his daughter's 
 home in Yakima, Washington, where he celebrated his nine- 
 tieth birthday on September 25, 191 3. He there rounded out 
 his career by blocking in the faded background of his last 
 Lincoln print of i860, leaving every line and shadow of the 
 original portrait untouched. He gave me a copy and publica- 
 tion was obtained in Harper's Weekly of February 14, 19 14. 
 Norman Hapgood, the editor, submitted the portrait to Ida 
 M. Tarbell and published her comment as follows: 
 
 "I think it is a beautiful thing myself, quite a different look 
 in the eye from what I remember in any Lincoln photograph. 
 The gentleness of the mouth is marked, too. It is quite re- 
 markable what a variety of expressions there are in the Lincoln 
 photographs. I know of none with a gentler humor in eyes and 
 mouth than this. I congratulate you on getting hold of it." 
 
 The portrait is here given its first publication in a book and 
 purposely shows the brush marks placed on the background by 
 the hands of the nonogenarian, who was the original photog- 
 rapher, Joseph Hill. e. s. m. 
 
INCOLN 
 
 ESTEEMED WASHINGTON 
 
 By EDMOND S. MEANY 
 
 printed & published by 
 frank McCaffrey 
 
 SEATTLE, U.S. A., ipjj 
 
Copyright 1933 by Frank McCaffrey 
 

 To My Wife 
 
Preface 
 
 ^\ The American People love to honor Lincoln and Washing- 
 ton above all their National Heroes. 
 
 This fact is made evident by the flood of books and essays 
 devoted to each of them, as well as by the annual ceremonies of 
 commemoration in our second month's precious fortnight, con- 
 taining the pair of birthday anniversaries. 
 
 Many authors have pointed out the contrasts and the paral- 
 lels in the two careers, but they unite in praise of the sincere 
 devotion of each to his country's welfare. 
 
 As nearly a century lies between their activities, it is of 
 peculiar value to observe how the life of Washington influ- 
 enced that of Lincoln. Fortunately, Lincoln has revealed in 
 his own words how, throughout his whole career, he sought to 
 follow the example of the Father of His Country. 
 
 From numerous sources there are here assembled from 
 letters, speeches and proclamations the words of Lincoln 
 showing his constant and continued esteem of Washington. 
 
Contents 
 
 CHAPTER 
 
 i. Lincoln's Boyhood Love of Washington 9 
 
 ii. Early Debate in Springfield J 4 
 
 in. Friendship with George E. Pickett 16 
 
 iv. Whig Speech in Congress 20 
 
 v. The Lincoln-Douglas Debates . 22 
 
 vi. Political Speeches in Ohio 27 
 
 vii. Political Speeches in Kansas 3 1 
 
 viii. The Cooper Institute and New Haven Speeches 23 
 
 ix. Farewell Address at Springfield 39 
 
 x. On the Way to Washington 41 
 
 xi. Inauguration and First Message to Congress 48 
 
 xii. References to His Hero in 1862 and 1863 53 
 
Lincoln's Boyhood Love of Washington 
 
 incoln's boyhood was lived on the 
 frontier where schools and books were 
 scarce. Nearly every one of his nu- 
 merous biographers has mentioned 
 the few books which fed his hungry 
 mind and stamped their influence in- 
 delibly upon his character. These 
 u^'W/j <**> ' included the Bible, Aesop's Fables, 
 Robinson Crusoe, Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress and Weems's 
 Life of Washington. The last-named book has been confused 
 in the Lincoln biographies with a Life of Washington by David 
 Ramsay. One of the early publications of a fine tradition of 
 Lincoln's boyhood shows this confusion. In the year of the 
 President's death, his friend, Henry J. Raymond, editor of the 
 New York Times, published a bulky volume entitled, The 
 Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, 1 in which the 
 tradition is embodied as follows: 
 
 "In connection with his attendance upon Mr. Crawford's 
 school, an incident is told which is sure to find a place in every 
 biography of our late President. Books were, of course, very 
 
 *New York, Derby and Miller, 1865. 
 
hard to find in the sparsely settled district of Indiana where 
 the Lincoln family had their home, and every printed volume 
 upon which Abraham could lay his hands was carefully 
 guarded and eagerly devoured. Among the volumes in Mr. 
 Crawford's scanty library was a copy of Ramsay's Life of 
 Washington, which Abraham secured permission, upon one 
 occasion, to take home with him. During a severe storm he 
 improved his leisure by reading his book. One night he laid it 
 down carefully, as he thought, and the next morning he found 
 it soaked through! The wind had changed, the storm had 
 beaten in through a crack in the logs, and the appearance of 
 the book was ruined. How could he face the owner under such 
 circumstances? He had no money to offer as a return, but he 
 took the book, went directly to Mr. Crawford, showed him the 
 irreparable injury, and frankly and honestly offered to work 
 for him until he should be satisfied. Mr. Crawford accepted 
 the offer, and gave Abraham the book for his own, in return 
 for three days' steady labor in 'pulling fodder.' This, and 
 Weems's Life of Washington, were among the boy's favorite 
 books, and the story that we have just told is so nearly paral- 
 leled to the famous 'hatchet' incident in the early days of the 
 Father of His Country, that it is easy to believe that the fre- 
 quent perusal of it impressed upon his mind, more effectually 
 than any solemn exhortation could have done, the precept that 
 'honesty is the best policy,' and thus assisted to develop that 
 
 IO 
 
character of which integrity was so prominent a trait in after 
 years." 
 
 Subsequent biographers have stated that it was a copy of 
 Weems's Life of Washington that was thus acquired and that 
 it was not the teacher, Andrew Crawford, who loaned it but a 
 neighbor named Josiah Crawford. However, there is no doubt 
 that a book was damaged and that the boy pulled fodder for 
 three days to pay for it. Nor is there any doubt that the quaint 
 book by the clergyman, Mason Locke Weems, profoundly 
 influenced the boy. On this we have Lincoln's own testimony. 
 On his journey from Springfield to Washington to be inaugu- 
 rated as President he made a number of brief addresses. One 
 of these, before the Senate of New Jersey, on February 21, 
 1 861, included the following: 
 
 "May I be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I mention that 
 away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able 
 to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the 
 younger members have ever seen — We ems 9 s Life of Wash- 
 ington. I remember all the accounts there given of the battle- 
 fields and struggles for the liberties of the country, and none 
 fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the strug- 
 gle 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 
 
 I I 
 
boys, how these early impressions last longer than any others. 
 I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there 
 must have been something more than common that these men 
 struggled for. I am exceedingly anxious that that thing — that 
 something even more than national independence ; that some- 
 thing 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 Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall 
 be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which 
 that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I 
 shall be a humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty and 
 of this, His almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object 
 of that great struggle." 2 
 
 Lincoln thus placed the beginning of Washington's influence 
 on his own life back in the days of childhood when he first 
 began to read. There is substantial evidence that the same 
 benign influence continued to be felt throughout the eventful 
 years of his life. After the disastrous experiences of young 
 manhood when the failure of his mercantile adventure made 
 him shoulder what he jokingly called "the national debt," he 
 taught himself surveying, a calling followed also by Washing- 
 ton. While earning a livelihood in that new line, Lincoln 
 studied law and made a beginning in politics through member- 
 ship in the Illinois Legislature. He was admitted to the bar on 
 
 2 For the entire speech see, Henry J. Raymond, Life and Public Services of Abraham 
 Lincoln, pp. 1 51-152. 
 
 12 
 
September 9, 1 836. During the next session of the Legislature 
 he helped to move the capital from Vandalia to Springfield 
 and soon thereafter moved his own residence to the new capital 
 city. 
 
 l 3 
 
II 
 
 Early Debate in Springfield 
 
 During the winter of 1 839, Springfield was greatly interested 
 in national questions almost to the exclusion of local ones. 
 A series of debates in public meetings included as speakers 
 Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, young lawyers and 
 rivals. Lincoln upheld the Whig doctrine in favor of internal 
 improvements and the national bank. His speech was the last 
 in the series. It was deemed so important that it was printed in 
 pamphlet form. One of the pamphlets was secured from T. J. 
 Henderson, of Illinois, for reproduction in the Nicolay and 
 Hay, Works of Abraham Lincoln, Volume I, pages iooto 139. 
 That fortunate occurrence makes it possible to show that in that 
 time of change in the evolution of Lincoln's career he made 
 reference to his great hero in one passage of his speech on the 
 subtreasury issue : 
 
 "As a sweeping objection to a national bank, and conse- 
 quently an argument In favor of the subtreasury as a substi- 
 tute for It, It often has been urged, and doubtless will be again, 
 that such a bank is unconstitutional. We have often heretofore 
 shown, and therefore need not in detail do so again, that a 
 majority of the Revolutionary patriarchs, who even acted 
 
 14 
 
officially ufon the question, commencing with General Wash- 
 ington, and embracing General Jackson, the larger number of 
 the signers of the Declaration, and of the framers of the Con- 
 stitution, who were in the Congress of ijgi, have decided 
 wpon their oaths that such a bank is constitutional" 
 
 *5 
 
Ill 
 
 Friendship with George E. Pickett 
 
 George E. Pickett, of Virginia, entered the United States 
 Military Academy at West Point as a cadet from Illinois. He 
 was appointed by John G. Stuart, Representative from the 
 Third Illinois District through the influence of Abraham 
 Lincoln. Andrew Johnston, lawyer and scholar of note, with 
 whom Lincoln had been associated in the practice of law, was 
 an uncle of young Pickett. Through that channel Lincoln be- 
 came acquainted with the boy and undertook to help him 
 satisfy his craving for a military career. On February 22, 1 842, 
 Lincoln wrote the boy of seventeen, then preparing to enter 
 West Point, a letter including this fine paragraph : 
 
 "I have just told the folks here in Springfield on this 110th 
 anniversary of the birth of him whose name y mightiest in the 
 cause of civil liberty y still mightiest in the cause of m<oral refor- 
 mation y we mention in solemn awe y in naked y deathless splen- 
 dor y that the one victory we can ever call complete will be that 
 one which proclaims that there is not one slave or drunkard on 
 the face of God's green earth. Recruit for this victory" 8 
 
 There was a splendid sincerity in Lincoln's friendship for 
 boys. This one with George E. Pickett was no exception and it 
 
 3 Nicolay and Hay, Works of Lincoln, Vol. I, pp. 1 91-192. 
 
 16 
 
was thoroughly reciprocated. Young Pickett graduated from 
 West Point in time to serve through the Mexican War. After 
 that he served on the frontier in Texas, and was stationed on 
 San Juan Island, Puget Sound, when his loved State, Virginia, 
 seceded. He resigned from the Union Army, made his way to 
 the South, joined the Confederate Army, and it was he who 
 led the famous Gettysburg charge on July 3, 1 863. His widow 
 has given this account of the mutual regard of the two men: 
 
 "Short as was Mr. Lincoln's time when he passed through 
 Richmond after its surrender, he came to the old Pickett home 
 to hunt up his friend and former partner, the General's uncle. 
 I had seen the carriage and the guard and retinue, but I did not 
 know who the visitors were. The city was full of northern 
 troops and my environment had not taught me to love them. 
 The fate of other cities had awakened my fears for Richmond. 
 With my baby on my arm I answered the knock, opened the 
 door, and looked up at a tall, gaunt, sad-faced man in ill-fitting 
 clothes who, with the accent of the North, asked: 
 
 u i Is this George Pickett's flace?' 
 
 " 'Yes, sir,' I answered, 'but he is not here.' 
 
 " ( I know that, ma'am? he replied, 'but I just wanted to see 
 the flace. I am Abraham Lincoln' 
 
 " 'The President!' I gasped. 
 
 "The stranger shook his head and said: 
 
 " Wo ma'am; no ma'am; just Abraham Lincoln, George's 
 old friend' 
 
 1 7 
 
" 'I am George Pickett's wife and this is his baby/ was all I 
 could say. I had never seen Mr. Lincoln, but remembered the 
 intense love and reverence with which my Soldier always spoke 
 of him. 
 
 "My baby pushed away from me and reached out his hands 
 to Mr. Lincoln, who took him in his arms. As he did so an 
 expression of rapt, almost divine, tenderness and love lighted 
 up the sad face. It was a look that I have never seen on any 
 other face. My baby opened his mouth wide and insisted upon 
 giving his father's friend a dewy baby kiss. As Mr. Lincoln 
 gave the little one back to me he said: 
 
 " 'Tell your father , the rascal , that I forgive him for the sake 
 of that kiss and those bright eyes? 
 
 "He turned and went down the steps, talking to himself, and 
 passed out of my sight forever, but in my memory there is a 
 perpetual abiding place for that wonderful voice, those in- 
 tensely human eyes and that strong, sad face, — a face which 
 puzzled all artists but revealed itself to the intuitions of a 
 little child, causing it to hold out its arms to be taken and its 
 lips to be kissed. 
 
 "I had sometimes wondered at the General's reverential way 
 of speaking of President Lincoln, but as I looked up at his 
 honest, earnest face, and felt the warm clasp of his great, strong 
 hand, I marvelled no more that all who knew him should love 
 him. When, but a few days later, the wires flashed over the 
 
 18 
 
world the tragic message which enveloped our whole nation in 
 mourning, General Pickett said: 
 
 " 'My God! My God! The South has lost her best friend 
 and protector, the surest, safest hand to guide and steer her 
 through the breakers ahead. Again must she feel the smart of 
 fanaticism.' " 4 
 
 4 La Salle Corbell Pickett, Vickett and His Men, 191 3 edition, pp. 38-40. 
 
 19 
 
IV 
 
 Whig Speech in Congress 
 
 While Lincoln was serving his one term as a member of 
 Congress, General Zachary Taylor was campaigning for the 
 presidency as candidate of the Whig party. Occasion was taken 
 to inject the campaign into discussions by Congress. Being a 
 stalwart Whig, Lincoln took up the cudgels and on July 27, 
 1 848, he delivered in Congress what was really a stump-speech 
 for the Whig party's candidate. A Democratic member from 
 Kentucky had criticized General Taylor's announcement that 
 he would be slow to veto a bill passed by Congress even if he 
 was not himself sure of the proposed new law's constitution- 
 ality. In answering the critic, Lincoln again drew on his knowl- 
 edge and respect for the record of the first President : 
 
 "When the bill chartering the first Bank of the United States 
 passed Congress, Its constitutionality was questioned. Mr. 
 Madison, then In the House of Representatives, as well as 
 others, had opposed It on that ground. General Washington, 
 as President, was called on to approve or reject It. He sought 
 and obtained on the constitutionality question the separate 
 written opinions of Jefferson, Hamilton, and Edmund Ran- 
 
 20 
 
dolph, — they then being respectively Secretary of State, Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, and Attorney General"* 
 
 He then threw confusion into the Democratic ranks by 
 showing that Jefferson, their own illustrious patron, had given 
 to Washington in writing his opinion that the President in such 
 doubtful cases should show "a just respect for the wisdom of 
 the legislature." He then added: "And if we compare the 
 opinion of Jefferson and Taylor, as expressed in these para- 
 graphs, we shall find them more exactly alike than we can often 
 find any two expressions having any literal difference. None 
 but interested fault fnders, I think, can discover any substantial 
 variation." 
 
 Nicolay and Hay, Works of Lincoln, Vol. II, pp. 60-61. 
 
 2 I 
 
The Lincoln-Douglas Debates 
 
 The great Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1 858 embraced seven 
 encounters at the following places : Ottawa, August 2 1 ; Free- 
 port, August 27 j Jonesboro, September 1 5 ; Charleston, Sep- 
 tember 1 8 j Galesburg, October 7 ; Quincy, October 1 3 ; and 
 Alton, October 15. General John A. Logan has described the 
 contests as follows: 
 
 "To those absorbingly interesting discussions, vast assem- 
 blages listened with breathless attention and, to the credit of 
 all parties be it said, with unparalleled decorum. The People 
 evidently felt that the greatest of all political principles — that 
 of Human Liberty — was hanging on the issue of this great 
 political contest between intellectual giants, thus openly waged 
 before the World — and they accordingly rose to the dignity 
 and solemnity of the occasion, vindicating by their very exam- 
 ple the sacredness with which the Right of Free Speech should 
 be regarded at all times and everywhere." 6 
 
 John T. Morse, Jr., gives a similar description: 
 "The setting of the spectacle had the picturesqueness of the 
 times and the region. The people gathered in vast multitudes, 
 to the number of ten thousand, even of twenty thousand, at 
 
 The Great Conspiracy, p. 82. 
 
 22 
 
the places named for the speech-making ; they came in their 
 wagons from all the country round, bringing provisions, and 
 making camps in the groves and fields. There were bonfires 
 and music, parading and drinking. He was a singular man in 
 Illinois who was not present at some one of these encounters." T 
 
 As indicated, the issue in the contests was human liberty, and 
 the speakers dealt vigorously with the slavery question in all 
 its bearings. Douglas was, of course, aware of Lincoln's great 
 love for Washington. In the Jonesboro debate on September 
 15, he brought Washington into the discussion as follows: 
 
 "Is this sectional warfare to be waged between the Northern 
 States and Southern States until they all shall become uniform 
 in their local and domestic institutions merely because Mr. 
 Lincoln says that a house divided against itself cannot stand, 
 and pretends that this scriptural quotation, this language of 
 our Lord and Master, is applicable to the American Union 
 and the American Constitution? Washington and his com- 
 peers, in the convention that framed the Constitution, made 
 this government divided into free and slave States, each having 
 sovereign authority over its local and domestic institutions, and 
 all bound together by the Federal Constitution. Mr. Lincoln 
 likens that bond of the Federal Constitution, joining free and 
 slave States together, to a house divided against itself, and says 
 that it is contrary to the law of God and cannot stand. When 
 did he learn, and by what authority does he proclaim that this 
 
 1 Lincoln, Vol. I, p. 122. 
 
 2 3 
 
government is contrary to the law of God and cannot stand? 
 It has stood thus divided into free and slave States from its 
 organization up to this day." 
 
 To this bold statement Lincoln made careful and convincing 
 reply: 
 
 "While I am upon the subject, I will make some answers 
 briefly to certain propositions that Judge Douglas has put. 
 He says/ Why can't this Union endure permanently , half slave 
 and half free?' I have said that I supposed it could not y and I 
 will try, before this new audience, to give briefly some of the 
 reasons for entertaining that opinion. Another form of his 
 question is, € Why can't we let it stand as our fathers placed it?' 
 That is the exact difficulty between us. I say that Judge Douglas 
 and his friends have changed it from the position in which our 
 fathers originally left it. I say, in the way our fathers origin- 
 ally left the slavery question, the institution was in the course 
 of ultimate extinction, and the public mind rested in the belief 
 that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. I say when this 
 government was first established, it was the policy of its found- 
 ers to prohibit the spread of slavery into the new T erritories of 
 the United States, where it had not existed. But Judge Douglas 
 and his friends have broken up that policy, and placed it upon 
 a new basis by which it is to become national and perpetual. 
 All I have asked or desired anywhere is that it should, be 
 placed back again upon the basis that the fathers of our govern- 
 
 24 
 
ment originally placed it upon. I have no doubt that it would 
 become extinct, for all time to come, if we but readopted the 
 policy of the fathers by restricting it to the limits it has already 
 covered — restricting it from the new Territories" 8 
 
 In the debate at Galesburg, on October 7, Lincoln showed 
 once more how intimately he associated the memory of Wash- 
 ington with the Declaration of Independence and the general 
 cause of human liberty. He also again taunted the Democrats 
 by drawing Jefferson's words and works to the side he was 
 himself advocating: 
 
 "The Judge [Douglas] has alluded to the Declaration of 
 Independence, and insisted that negroes are not included in 
 that Declaration; and that it is a slander upon the framers of 
 that instrument to suppose that negroes were meant therein; 
 and he asks you: 'Is it possible to believe that Mr. Jefferson, 
 who penned the immortal paper, could have supposed him- 
 self applying the language of that instrument to the negro 
 race, and yet held a portion of that race in slavery? Would he 
 not at once have freed them?' 
 
 "I only have to remark upon this part of the Judge's speech 
 (and that, too, very briefly, for I shall not detain myself, or 
 you, upon that point for any great length of time), that I 
 believe the entire records of the world, from the date of the 
 Declaration of Independence up to within three years ago, 
 
 Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library, "Lincoln Series," Vol. I, pp. 223- 
 2245 230. 
 
 25 
 
may be searched in vain for one single affirmation, from one 
 single man, that the negro was not included in the Declaration 
 of Independence ; I think I may defy Judge Douglas to show 
 that he ever said so, that Washington ever said so, that any 
 President ever said so, that any member of Congress ever said 
 so, or that any living man upon the earth ever said so, until 
 the necessities of the present policy of the Democratic party, 
 in regard to slavery, had to invent that affirmation. And I 
 will remind Judge Douglas and this audience that while Mr. 
 Jefferson was the owner of slaves, as undoubtedly he was, in 
 speaking upon this very subject he used the strong language 
 that 'he trembled for his country when he remembered that 
 God was just y ; and I will offer the highest premium in my 
 power to Judge Douglas if he will show that he, in all his life, 
 ever uttered a sentiment at all akin to that of Jefferson." 9 
 
 9 Collections of the Illinois State Historical Library /'Lincoln Series," Vol. I,pp. 346-347. 
 
 26 
 
VI 
 
 Political Speeches in Ohio 
 
 One of the most direct and significant results of the great 
 debates was an invitation to participate in the gubernatorial 
 contest in Ohio in 1859. The Democrats invited Douglas to 
 enter the campaign on behalf of their candidate and the Re- 
 publicans at once invited Lincoln to oppose him. Henry J. 
 Raymond, who published most of the addresses, says: "He 
 promptly responded to the invitation to meet his old antago- 
 nist, and more than sustained his great reputation by two 
 speeches, one delivered at Columbus and the other at Cin- 
 cinnati." 10 
 
 Douglas had prepared an article for Harper's Magazine giv- 
 ing his views on the slavery question. Lincoln alluded to that 
 article and, in fact, made it the basis of his speech at Columbus, 
 on September 16. He did not refer to Washington by name in 
 that speech but he did refer to the founders of the Union in 
 such earnest and convincing terms as to radiate his love and 
 esteem of Washington and his compatriots. After discussing 
 thoroughly the attitude of the "fathers" on the restriction of 
 slavery by the Ordinance of 1787 he continued: 
 
 "7 omitted to mention in the right place that the Constitution 
 
 Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, p. 78. 
 
 27 
 
of the United States was in process of being framed when that 
 ordinance was made by the Congress of the Confederation; 
 and one of the first acts of Congress itself \ under the new 
 Constitution itself, was to give force to that ordinance by "put- 
 ting power to carry it out into the hands of new officers under 
 the Constitution, in the place of the old ones, who had been 
 legislated out of existence by the change in the government 
 from the Confederation to the Constitution. Not only so, but 
 I believe Indiana once or twice, if not Ohio, petitioned the 
 General Government for the privilege of suspending that pro- 
 vision and allowing them to have slaves. A report made by Mr. 
 Randolph, of Virginia, himself a slaveholder, was directly 
 against it, and the action was to refuse them the privilege of 
 violating the ordinance of y 8j. 
 
 "This period of history, which I have run over briefly, is, I 
 presume, as familiar to most of this assembly as any other part 
 of the history of our country. I suppose that few of my hearers 
 are not as familiar with that part of history as I am, and I only 
 mention it to recall your attention to it at this time. And hence 
 I ask how extraordinary a thing it is that a man who has occu- 
 pied a position upon the floor of the Senate of the United 
 States, who is now in his third term, and who looks to see the 
 government of this whole country fall into his own hands, 
 pretending to give a truthful and accurate history of the 
 slavery question in this country, should so entirely ignore the 
 
 28 
 
whole of that fortiori of our history — the most important of 
 all. Is it not a most extraordinary spectacle, that a man should 
 stand up and ask for any confidence in his statements, who sets 
 out as he does with portions of history , calling upon the people 
 to believe that it is a true and fair representation, when the 
 leading part and controlling feature of the whole history is 
 carefully suppressed? 
 
 "But the mere leaving out is not the most remarkable feature 
 of this most remarkable essay. His proposition is to establish 
 that the leading men of the Revolution were for his great prin- 
 ciple of non-intervention by the government in the question of 
 slavery in the Territories; while history shows that they de- 
 cided in the cases actually brought before them in exactly the 
 contrary way, and he knows it. Not only did they so decide at 
 that time, but they stuck to it during the sixty years, through 
 thick and thin, as long as there was one of the Revolutionary 
 heroes upon the stage of political action. Through their whole 
 course, from first to last, they clung to freedom. And now he 
 asks the community to believe that the men of the Revolution 
 were in favor of his great principle, when we have the naked 
 history that they themselves dealt with this very subject- 
 matter of his principle, and utterly repudiated his principle, 
 acting upon a precisely contrary ground." 11 
 
 In the same campaign, at Cincinnati on September 17, he 
 advised the Kentuckians whom he supposed were in his audi- 
 
 Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, Centennary Edition, Douglas Debates, Vol. II, 
 pp. 224-226. 
 
 29 
 
ence to accept Douglas as their next candidate for the presi- 
 dency. He then told them that the Republicans hoped in time 
 to beat them. They would be patient and calm as they could. 
 "When" said he, "we do as we say, beat you, you perhaps want 
 to know what we will do with you" He then proceeded, men- 
 tioning once more the "noble fathers": 
 
 "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 institution; 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 example 
 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 circum- 
 stances. 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 7 mean, 
 and J have the honor to inform you that I once did have a 
 chance in that way." 12 
 
 "Henry J. Raymond, Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, p. 82. 
 
 30 
 
VII 
 
 Political Speeches in Kansas 
 
 In December, 1859, Lincoln visited Kansas, then a Territory, 
 and made a number of addresses to people who had had occa- 
 sions for excitement on the slavery question. Dr. Josiah Gilbert 
 Holland sensed the importance of that visit. In his biography 
 of Lincoln, published in 1 866, he says: "On entering Leaven- 
 worth, although the weather was most inclement, he was met 
 by a large procession of people, and escorted to his hotel, 
 while a dense crowd gathered upon the sidewalks that lined 
 the passage. All the doors, windows, balconies and porticos 
 were filled with men, women and children, anxious to catch a 
 glimpse of the man whose speeches they had read, and of 
 whom they had heard so much. The Leavenworth Register, 
 in its notice of the occasion, said: 'Never did man receive such 
 honors at the hands of our people, and never did our people 
 pay honors to a better man, or one who has been a truer friend 
 of Kansas.' Here he made a speech, and the following para- 
 graph, selected from it, will show the state of political feeling 
 at the time, and Mr. Lincoln's relation to it: 
 
 "But you Democrats are for the Union; and you greatly fear 
 the success of the Republicans would destroy the Union. Why? 
 
 31 
 
Do the Republicans declare against the Union? Nothing like it. 
 Your own statement of it is that if the Black Republicans elect 
 a president y 'you wont stand it? You will break up the Union. 
 That will be your act y not ours. To justify it, you must show 
 that our policy gives you just cause for such desperate action. 
 Can you do that? When you attempt it y you will find that 
 our policy is exactly the policy of the men who made the Union 
 — nothing more y nothing less. Do you really think you are 
 justified to break up the government rather than have it ad- 
 ministered as it was by Washington? If you do y you are very 
 unreasonable, and more reasonable men cannot and will not 
 submit to you. While you elect presidents y we submit y neither 
 breaking nor attempting to break up the Union. If we shall 
 constitutionally elect a president, it will be our duty to see 
 that you also submit. Old John Brown has been executed for 
 treason against a state. We cannot object y even though he 
 agreed with us in thinking slavery wrong. That cannot excuse 
 violence, bloodshed and treason. It could avail him nothing 
 that he might think himself right. So y if we constitutionally 
 elect a president y and y therefore y you undertake to destroy the 
 Union y it will be our duty to deal with you as old John Brown 
 has been dealt with. We shall try to do our duty. We hope and 
 believe that in no section y will a majority so act as to render 
 such extreme measures necessary." 13 
 
 "J. G. Holland, Life of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 199-200. 
 
 3 2 
 
VIII 
 
 The Cooper Institute and New Haven Speeches 
 
 At the same time that he was invited to speak in Ohio and 
 Kansas he was greatly pleased when an invitation came to 
 address an audience in Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. He hesi- 
 tated, for he feared he was not equal to an Eastern audience ; 
 but he finally consented to deliver the desired speech on Feb- 
 ruary 27, i860. When he arrived in New York he was aston- 
 ished to learn that the speech was not to be given in Plymouth 
 Church, Brooklyn, but in Cooper Institute, New York. He 
 had two days to spare and most of the time he gave to further 
 preparation for the speech. Mason Brayman had accompanied 
 him to New York and Lincoln made arrangements for him 
 to occupy a back seat and to raise his hat on a cane if the speech 
 could not be heard and then he would speak louder. The main 
 theme of the address was similar to that in the Columbus, 
 Ohio, address and was based on the doctrine propounded by 
 Douglas in his Harper's Magazine article that the fathers who 
 framed the government held that the Constitution forbade the 
 Federal government controlling slavery in the Territories. 
 Lincoln had carefully studied the records of the thirty-nine 
 who signed the completed Constitution and he studied also 
 
 33 
 
the seventy-six members of the Congress which framed the 
 amendments to the Constitution. His great hero, Washington, 
 was, of course, among those whose records he used in convinc- 
 ing argument against the position upheld by Senator Douglas : 
 
 "In 17 8g, by the first Congress which sat under the Con- 
 stitution, an act was passed to enforce the ordinance of y 8y, 
 including the prohibition of slavery in the Northwestern 
 Territory. The bill for this act was reported by one of the 
 ( thirty -nine y [framers of the Constitution] — Thomas Fitz- 
 simmons, then a member of the House of Representatives 
 from Pennsylvania. It went through all its stages without a 
 word of opposition, and finally passed both branches without 
 ayes and nays y which is equivalent to a unanimous passage. In 
 this Congress there were sixteen of the thirty-nine fathers who 
 framed the original Constitution. They were John Langdon, 
 Nicholas Gilman y Wm. S. Johns on y Roger Sherman y Robert 
 Morris y Thos. Fitzsimmons y William Few y A braham Baldwin, 
 Rufus King, William Pater son, George Clymer y Richard Bas- 
 sett y George Read y Pierce Butler y David Carroll y and James 
 Madison. 
 
 "This shows that y in their understanding y no line dividing 
 local from Federal authority y nor anything in the Constitution, 
 properly forbade Congress to prohibit slavery in Federal ter- 
 ritory; else both their fidelity to correct principle, and their 
 oath to support the Constitution, would have constrained them 
 to oppose the prohibition. 
 
 34 
 
"A gain y George Washington , another of the 'thirty -nine J 
 was then President of the United States and as such approved 
 and signed the bill, thus completing its validity as law, and 
 thus showing that, in his understanding, no line dividing local 
 from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, for- 
 bade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in 
 Federal territory." 
 
 The logic of the speaker seemed faultless. He drove home 
 again and again the argument that the Republican doctrine 
 to restrict the spread of slavery was in perfect accord with 
 the plans and purposes of those who established the Union. 
 Another portion of the address has an intimate appeal to 
 Washington: 
 
 "Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning 
 against sectional parties given by Washington in his Farewell 
 Address. Less than eight years before Washington gave that 
 warning, he had, as President of the United States, approved 
 and signed an act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of 
 slavery in the Northwestern Territory, which act embodied the 
 policy of the government upon that subject up to and at the 
 very moment he penned that warning ; and about one year 
 after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he considered that 
 prohibition a wise measure, expressing in the same connection 
 his hope that we should at some time have a confederacy of 
 free States. 
 
 35 
 
"Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since 
 arisen upon this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your 
 hands against us, or in our hands against you? Could Wash- 
 ington himself speak, would he cast the blame of that section- 
 alism upon us, who sustain his policy, or upon you, who 
 repudiate it? We respect that warning of Washington, and we 
 commend it to you, together with his example pointing to the 
 right application of it" 1 * 
 
 It was a great speech before a great audience. William 
 Cullen Bryant presided and introduced Lincoln. There were 
 many important characters present, including such men as 
 Horace Greeley and David Dudley Field. Lincoln and his 
 friends were unnecessarily timid before the meeting assem- 
 bled. His dignity and seriousness were fully equal to the 
 ordeal. The comment of one of the auditors has been saved: 
 "His manner was, to a New York audience, a very strange one, 
 but it was captivating. He held the vast meeting spellbound, 
 and as one by one his oddly expressed but trenchant and con- 
 vincing arguments confirmed the soundness of his political 
 conclusions, the house broke out in wild and prolonged enthu- 
 siasm. I think I never saw an audience more thoroughly car- 
 ried away by an orator." 15 
 
 While in New York, Lincoln was escorted by the entertain- 
 ment committee to Brady's photograph gallery. He frequently 
 
 "Henry J. Raymond, Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 86-87; 92-93. 
 16 Ida M. Tarbell, The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. II, p. 1 2 1 . 
 
 36 
 
remarked afterwards that the Brady photograph and the 
 Cooper Institute speech made him President. No doubt they 
 helped, but the world has long since learned that the years of 
 study and work under the handicaps of the frontier produced 
 the statesman and President. 
 
 After the Cooper Institute speech, Lincoln made a visit to 
 New England, primarily to visit his son Robert, who was a 
 student at Phillips Exeter Academy. On that visit he was per- 
 suaded to address hastily assembled audiences at Concord, 
 Manchester, Exeter and Dover, in New Hampshire, and at 
 Hartford, New Haven, Wo onsocket and Norwich, in Con- 
 necticut. An extract from the New Haven address, of March 6, 
 shows that he continued to evince his esteem for Washington 
 and the fathers of the Republic: 
 
 "There is Hhe irrepressible conflict? How they rail at Seward 
 for that saying! They repeat it constantly ; and although the 
 proof has been thrust under their noses again and again that 
 almost every good man since the foundation of our govern- 
 ment has uttered that same sentiment, from General Wash- 
 ington , who < trusted that we should yet have a confederacy of 
 free States? with Jefferson, Jay, Monroe, down to the latest 
 days, yet they refuse to notice that at all, and persist in railing 
 at Seward for saying it. Even Roger A. Pry or, editor of the 
 Richmond inquirer, uttered the same sentiment in almost the 
 same language, and yet so little offense did it give the Demo- 
 
 37 
 
crats that he was sent for to Washington to edit the States — 
 the Douglas organ there y while Douglas goes into hydrophobia 
 and spasms of rage because Seward dared to refeat it. That is 
 what I call bushwhacking — a sort of argument that they must 
 know any child can see through." 16 
 
 Nicolay and Hay, Works of Lincoln, Vol. V, p. 358. 
 
 38 
 
IX 
 
 Farewell Address at Springfield 
 
 The victory was won. Lincoln was chosen President. There 
 followed three months of strain upon the man which not all 
 biographers have fully sensed. What could he do or say during 
 the terrifying last months of the Buchanan administration? He 
 decided to wait patiently for the time of inauguration. States 
 were seceding and war seemed imminent and yet Lincoln 
 remained silent. His friends asked why he did not try to stem 
 the tide by some statement of proposed policy. He replied that 
 any words he might utter would surely be distorted by one side 
 or the other. Though there were hours of agony, he waited in 
 silence. When the time came to begin the journey toward 
 Washington he broke the silence by his farewell address to his 
 neighbors in Springfield. Rain was falling on February 1 1 , 
 and yet a crowd of men and boys followed him to the railway 
 station. From the platform of the car he spoke briefly. His 
 face was drawn and on his cheeks were unusual tears. 
 
 "My friends: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my 
 feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kind- 
 ness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a 
 quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old 
 
 39 
 
man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I 
 now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, 
 with a task before me greater than that which rested ufon 
 Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who 
 ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I 
 cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, and remain 
 with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope 
 that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I 
 hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an 
 affectionate farewell." 17 
 
 That brief farewell address has been counted one of the 
 choicest utterances by Lincoln. It is strange to realize that it 
 was not so well received at the time it was spoken. A biography 
 in 1866 says: "This parting address was telegraphed to every 
 part of the country, and was strangely misinterpreted. So little 
 was the man's character understood that his simple and earnest 
 request that his neighbors should pray for him was received by 
 many as an evidence both of his weakness and his hypocrisy. 
 No President had ever before asked the people, in a public 
 address, to pray for him. It sounded like the cant of the con- 
 venticle to ears unaccustomed to the language of piety from 
 the lips of politicians. The request was tossed about as a joke — 
 'old Abe's last' — but it came from a heart surcharged with a 
 sense of need, and strong in its belief that the Almighty 
 listens to the prayers of men." 18 
 
 Henry J. Raymond, Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, p. 131. 
 Dr. J. G. Holland, Life of Abraham Lincoln, p. 254. 
 
 40 
 
X 
 
 On the Way to Washington 
 
 All the communities through which the President-elect must 
 pass on his way to Washington were alert to the importance 
 of this new character in the political leadership of the Nation. 
 Meetings and receptions were arranged and Lincoln made 
 brief replies to the many greetings. Newspapers published 
 these addresses with apparent eagerness. After the long con- 
 tinued silence it was hoped he would disclose his proposed 
 policies. That hope was not satisfied except for the repetition 
 of his former statements relative to the preservation of the 
 Union. However, he did reveal the foundations of his political 
 faith. An extract has already been given of his address before 
 the Senate of New Jersey, on February 2 1 , when he acknowl- 
 edged the inspiration received from Weems's Life of Wash- 
 ington. In Philadelphia it was natural that his thoughts would 
 turn to the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 
 There overflowed from his impromptu addresses abundant 
 evidence of his love for those documents and the patriotic men 
 of old who framed them. 
 
 After the Nation's great tragedy, the people took time to 
 reflect on the meaning of Lincoln's love for the founders of the 
 
 4 1 
 
Republic. It is fortunate that the newspapers published those 
 brief speeches. Mr. Raymond, being a newspaper editor, and 
 sensing the people's appreciation, gathered most of the ad- 
 dresses in 1865 and put them into his biography of Lincoln. 
 Nicolay and Hay, in the Works of Lincoln, arranged them all 
 in chronological order as did Marion Mills Miller in the 
 "Centenary Edition" of the Life and Works of Abraham 
 Lincoln. From those sources are here reproduced such extracts 
 from the Pennsylvania addresses as show Lincoln's esteem of 
 Washington and his compatriots. On the evening of February 
 21, 1 861, Lincoln's reply to a greeting from the Mayor of 
 Philadelphia showed why he was withholding announcements 
 of Presidential plans and then he expressed his respect for the 
 precious heritage in Philadelphia's keeping. 
 
 "The hope that has been expressed by your Mayor, that I 
 may be able to restore peace, harmony, and prosperity to the 
 country, is most worthy of him; and happy, indeed, will I 
 be if I shall be able to verify and fulfill that hope. 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 determine. It were useless for me to speak of 
 details of plans now; I shall speak officially next Monday 
 week, if ever. If I should not speak then, it were 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 pros- 
 
 42 
 
ferity 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, as it were, 
 to listen to those 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 inconsistent with the teachings of these holy 
 and most sacred walls. I never asked anything that does not 
 breathe from those walls. All my political warfare has been 
 in favor of the teachings that came forth from those sacred 
 walls. May my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue 
 cleave to the roof of my mouth, if ever I prove false to those 
 teachings. yy 
 
 The desire of the mayor and the people of Philadelphia was 
 respected and Lincoln remained over for a ceremony to be held 
 within, and in front of Independence Hall. Within the Hall 
 he was received in a cordial speech by Mr. Theodore Cuyler, 
 to which he replied: 
 
 u l am filed with deep emotion at finding myself standing 
 here in this place, where were collected together the wisdom, 
 the patriotism, the devotion to principle from which sprang 
 
 43 
 
the institutions under which we live. You have kindly sug- 
 gested to me that in my hands is the task of restoring "peace 
 to the present distracted condition of the country. I can say in 
 return, sir, that all the political sentiments I entertain have 
 been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the 
 sentiments which originated in and were given to the world 
 from this hall. I have never had a feeling, politically , that did 
 not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration 
 of Independence. I have often pondered over the dangers 
 which were incurred by the men who assembled here, and 
 framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have 
 pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and 
 soldiers of the army who achieved that independence. I have 
 often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was 
 that kept this Confederacy so long together. It was not the 
 mere matter of the separation of the Colonies from the 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 gave 
 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 coun- 
 try be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will consider myself 
 one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. 
 If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. 
 
 44 
 
But if this country cannot be saved without giving up that 
 principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on 
 this spot than surrender it. Now, in my view of the present 
 aspect of affairs, there need be no bloodshed or war. There is 
 no necessity for it. I am not in favor of such a course; and I 
 may say in advance that there will be no bloodshed unless it be 
 forced upon the Government, and then it will be compelled to 
 act in self-defence. 
 
 "My friends this is wholly an unprepared speech, and I did 
 not expect to be called upon to say a word when I came here. 
 I supposed it was merely to do something towards raising the 
 flag — I may, therefore, have said something indiscreet. [Cries 
 of "No, No."] I have said nothing but what I am willing to 
 live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by." 
 
 Stepping outside to the platform arranged for the ceremony 
 of raising a flag, he made a brief patriotic address alluding to 
 the stars added to the flag since the original thirteen. One 
 new one had been added within the month, for Kansas, January 
 29, 1 861. Later in the same day, before the Legislature of 
 Pennsylvania, Lincoln made reference to the flag-raising: 
 
 "Allusion has been made to the fact — the interesting fact 
 perhaps we should say — that I for the first time appear at the 
 capital of the great commonwealth of Pennsylvania upon the 
 birthday of the Father of his country. In connection with that 
 beloved anniversary connected with the history of this country, 
 
 45 
 
I have already gone through one exceedingly interesting scene 
 this morning In the ceremonies at Philadelphia. Under the 
 kind conduct of gentlemen there y I was for the first time 
 allowed the "privilege of standing In old Independence Hall 
 to have a few words addressed to me there y and opening up 
 to me an opportunity of manifesting my deep regret that I had 
 not more time to express something of my own feelings excited 
 by the occasion y that had been really the feelings of my whole 
 life. 
 
 "Besides thls y our friends there had provided a magnificent 
 flag of the country. They had arranged It so that I was given 
 the honor of raising It to the head of Its staff y and when It went 
 up I was pleased that It went to Its place by the strength of my 
 own feeble arm. When y according to the arrangement y the 
 cord was pulled y and It floated gloriously to the wind, without 
 an accident y In the bright y glowing sunshine of the mornlng y I 
 could not help hoping that there was In the entire success of 
 that beautiful ceremony at least something of an omen of what 
 Is to come. Nor could I help feeling then y as I have often felt y 
 that In the whole of that proceeding I was a very humble In- 
 strument. I had not provided the fag; I had not made the 
 arrangements for elevating It to Its place; I had applied but a 
 very small portion of even my feeble strength In raising It. 
 In the whole transaction I was In the hands of the people who 
 had arranged lt y and If I can have the same generous cooper a- 
 
 4 6 
 
tion of the people of this nation, I think the flag of our country 
 may yet be kept flaunting gloriously." 
 
 He referred also to the Pennsylvania troops he had seen on 
 the streets and earnestly thanked the former speakers who had 
 promised the use of that military force "upon a proper emer- 
 gency." He sincerely hoped there would be no use for them, 
 adding: "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." 
 
 47 
 
XI 
 
 Inauguration and First Message to Congress 
 
 Lincoln reached Washington and arrangements were com- 
 pleted for his inauguration. After he was introduced by his 
 friend Edward Dickinson Baker, Senator from Oregon, there 
 suddenly came a most singular echo from the Lincoln-Douglas 
 Debates. It is beautifully told by Miss Tarbell : 
 
 "There was a moment's pause after the introduction, as he 
 vainly looked for a spot where he might place his high silk hat. 
 Stephen A. Douglas, the political antagonist of his whole 
 public life, the man who had pressed him hardest in the cam- 
 paign of i860, was seated just behind him. Douglas stepped 
 forward quickly and took the hat which Mr. Lincoln held 
 helplessly in his hand. c If I can't be President,' he whispered 
 smilingly to Mrs. Brown, a cousin of Mrs. Lincoln and a mem- 
 ber of the President's party, 'I at least can hold his hat.' 
 
 "This simple act of courtesy was really the most significant 
 incident of the day, and after the inaugural the most dis- 
 cussed." 19 
 
 After the inauguration, the President and his Cabinet began 
 to organize the Departments of Government to meet the crisis 
 which was becoming more and more threatening day by day. 
 
 19 Ida M. Tarbell, Life of Abraham Lincoln, Vol. Ill, p. 5. 
 
 48 
 
Lincoln was able to adjust the early jangling in his Cabinet, 
 but not soon enough to prevent a failure of the relief of Fort 
 Sumter, evacuated on April 14, 1861. This was the gage of 
 battle accepted by Lincoln. On the next day he issued the 
 famous proclamation calling out 75,000 of State Militia and 
 calling Congress to assemble on July 4th in extraordinary 
 session. Then he prepared his first message to Congress. In the 
 weeks that had followed his inauguration, Lincoln had made 
 two important discoveries — that the South was in earnest about 
 State sovereignty much more than about slavery and that the 
 North was far from a unit upon nationalism. After the fall of 
 Sumter, it became clear that he would have to meet the South 
 on the issue of State sovereignty and he would have to organize 
 the North for nationalism. 
 
 In his remarkable psychological study of the inner and the 
 outer Lincoln, blended finally into the historic character, 
 Professor Stephenson gives the historic bearings of that first 
 message to Congress : "His vehicle for publishing his case was 
 the first message to Congress. It forms an amazing contrast 
 with the first inaugural. The argument over slavery that un- 
 derlies the whole of the inaugural has vanished. The message 
 does not mention slavery. From the first word to the last, it is 
 an argument for the right of the central government to exer- 
 cise sovereign power, and for the duty of the American people 
 to give their lives for the Union. No hint of compromise j 
 
 49 
 
naught of the cautious and conciliatory tone of the inaugural. 
 It is the blast of a trumpet — a war trumpet. It is the voice of a 
 stern mind confronting an adversary that arouses in him no 
 sympathy, no tolerance even, much less any thought of con- 
 cession. Needless to insist that this adversary is an idea. To- 
 ward every human adversary, Lincoln was always unbeliev- 
 ably tender. Though little of a theologian, he appreciated 
 intuitively some metaphysical ideas j he projected into politics 
 the philosopher's distinction between sin and the sinner. For 
 all his hatred of the ideas which he held to be treason, he never 
 had a vindictive impulse directed toward the men who accepted 
 those ideas. Destruction for the idea, infinite clemency for the 
 person — such was his attitude." 20 
 
 This first message was given to Congress on July 5th. A 
 portion of it reveals Lincoln's complete trust of the people, 
 his respect for the foundations of the Government, and his love 
 of Washington: 
 
 "Whoever, in any section, "proposes to abandon such a Gov- 
 ernment, would do well to consider in deference to what prin- 
 ciple it is that he does it; what better is he likely to get in its 
 stead; whether the substitute will give, or be intended to give, 
 so much of good to the people? There are some foreshadow- 
 ings on this subject. Our adversaries have adopted some decla- 
 rations of independence in which, unlike the good old one, 
 penned by Jefferson, they omit the words, ( all men are created 
 
 Nathaniel Wright Stephenson, Lincoln (1922), p. 178. 
 
 50 
 
equal? Why? They have adopted a temporary national con- 
 stitution y in the preamble of which y unlike our good old one y 
 signed by Washington y they omit ^ We y the People y and sub- 
 stitute y ( We y the deputies of the sovereign and independent 
 States? Why? Why this deliberate pressing out of view the 
 rights of men and the authority of the people? 
 
 "This is essentially a people y s contest. On the side of the 
 Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the world that form 
 and substance of Government whose leading object is to ele- 
 vate the condition of men; to lift artificial weights from all 
 shoulders; to clear the paths of laudable pursuits for all; to 
 afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance in the race of 
 life. Yielding to partial and temporary departures y from neces- 
 sity y this is the leading object of the Government for whose 
 existence we contend. 
 
 "I am most happy to believe that the plain people under- 
 stand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note y that while in this 
 the Government's hour of trial y large numbers of those in the 
 army and navy who have been favored with the offices have 
 resigned and proved false to the hand which had pampered 
 them y not one common soldier or common sailor is known to 
 have deserted his flag. 
 
 "Great honor is due to those officers who remained true y 
 despite the example of their treacherous associates; but the 
 greatest honor y and most important fact of all y is the unani- 
 
 51 
 
mous firmness of the common soldiers and 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 fatriotic instinct of 
 flain feofle. They understand, without an argument, that the 
 destroying the Government which was made by Washington 
 means no good to them." 21 
 
 Henry J. Raymond, Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 196-197. 
 
 5 2 
 
XII 
 
 References to His Hero in 1 862 and 1 863 
 
 Evidence is not lacking that Lincoln cherished his love of 
 Washington through the tragic stress and strain of his entire 
 administration. One instance is found in his proclamation ask- 
 ing that the Farewell Address be read at public meetings on 
 February 22, 1862: 
 
 "By the President of the United States of America. 
 
 "A Proclamation. 
 
 "It Is recommended to the people of the United States that 
 they assemble In their customary places of meeting for public 
 solemnities on the 22 d day of February instant and celebrate 
 the anniversary of the birth of the Father of his Country by 
 causing to be read to them his Immortal Farewell Address. 
 
 "Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at 
 Washington, the igth day of February, A.D. 1 862, and of the 
 Independence of the United States of America the eighty - 
 sixth. " Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 "By the President: 
 
 "William H. Seward, 
 
 "Secretary of State." 22 
 
 Prior to his conclusion to issue the Emancipation Proclama- 
 
 2 James D. Richardson, Messages and Papers of the Presidents, Vol. VI, pp. 88-89. 
 
 53 
 
tion, Lincoln believed in the efficacy of colonizing freed black 
 men in some other country. On August 14, 1862, he received 
 in the White House a delegation of colored men. He frankly 
 told them why he favored colonization and pointed out the 
 advantage of Central America for such a plan. Even in that 
 painful ordeal, Lincoln found a way to refer to Washington: 
 "There is an unwillingness on the part of our people, harsh 
 as it may be, for you free colored people to remain with us. 
 NoWy if you could give a start to the white people, you would 
 open a wide door for many to be made free. If we deal with 
 those who are not free at the beginning, and whose intellects 
 are clouded by slavery, we have very poor material to start 
 with. If intelligent colored men, such as are before me, would 
 move in this matter, much might be accomplished. It is exceed- 
 ingly important that we have men at the beginning capable of 
 thinking as white men, and not those who have been systemat- 
 ically oppressed. There is much to encourage you. For the sake 
 of your race you should sacrifice something of your present 
 comfort for the purpose of being as grand in that respect as the 
 white people. It is a cheering thought throughout life, that 
 something can be done to ameliorate the condition of those 
 who have been subject to the hard usages of the world. It is 
 difficult to make a man miserable while he feels he is worthy 
 of himself and claims kindred to the great God who made him. 
 In the American Revolutionary war sacrifices were made by 
 
 54 
 
men engaged in it, but they were cheered by the future. 
 General Washington himself endured greater physical hard- 
 ships than if he had remained a British subject, yet he was a 
 happy man because he was engaged in benefiting his race, in 
 doing something for the children of his neighbors, having none 
 of his own?'*' 22 ' 
 
 At Frederick, Maryland, on October 4, 1862, the soldiers 
 and people expected the President to make them a speech. He 
 excused himself by saying: "In my present position it is hardly 
 proper for me to make speeches. Every word is so closely noted 
 that it will not do to make foolish ones, and I cannot be ex- 
 pected to be prepared to make sensible ones. If I were as I have 
 been for most of my life, I might, perhaps, talk nonsense to 
 you for half an hour, and it wouldn't hurt anybody." How- 
 ever, he thanked them all and then continued briefly: 
 
 "I return thanks to our gallant soldiers for the good service 
 they have rendered, the energies they have shown, the hard- 
 ships they have endured, and the blood they have so nobly 
 shed for this dear Union of ours, and I also return thanks, not 
 only to the soldiers, but to the good citizens of Frederick and 
 to all the good men, women and children throughout the land 
 for their devotion to our glorious cause, and I say this without 
 malice in my heart towards those who have done otherwise. 
 May our children and our children's children for a thousand 
 generations continue to enjoy the benefits conferred upon us 
 
 ^Nlcolay and Hay, "Works of Lincoln, Vol. VIII, pp. 4-5. 
 
 55 
 
by a united country, and have cause to rejoice under those 
 glorious Institutions bequeathed us by Washington and his 
 compeers! Now, my friends — soldiers and citizens — / can 
 only say once more, Farewell" 24 
 
 On November 15, 1 862, President Lincoln issued from the 
 Executive Mansion a general order respecting the observance 
 of the Sabbath Day in the army and navy, which he closed with 
 a transcript from General Washington's first general order: 
 
 "The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Army and 
 Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sab- 
 bath by the officers and men In the military and naval service. 
 The Importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly 
 rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a be- 
 coming deference to the best sentiment of a 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 Imperilled by the 
 profanation of the day or name of the Most High. c At this 
 time of public distress? adopting the words of Washington in 
 ijj6, ( men may find enough to do In the service of God and 
 their country without abandoning themselves to vice and Im- 
 morality? The first general order issued by the Father of his 
 Country after the Declaration of Independence Indicates the 
 
 ^Nicolay and Hay, Works of Lincoln,Vol. XI, pp. 125-126. 
 
 56 
 
spirit in which our institutions were founded and should ever 
 be defended: 
 
 " 'The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man 
 will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier 
 defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country. y " 2 * 
 
 Every American knows and loves Lincoln's beautiful mas- 
 terpiece delivered at the dedication of the Gettysburg National 
 Cemetery on November 19, 1863. The first sentence is here 
 reproduced as it breathes once again Lincoln's love of those 
 who founded the Republic: 
 
 (( Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 
 on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedi- 
 cated to the proposition that all men are created equal." 
 
 "Henry J. Raymond, Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, pp. 342-343. 
 
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