: ^ov^ ^-^0^ ^ov^ «-iq. c^ <:>> '•^ ^V '^ ^-> • v.^-'* °^ V ■ ^°-^*. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, OF ILLINOIS, By henry J. EAYMOND; iji:pe or" ANDREW JOHNSON, OF TENNESSEE. By JOHN SAYAGE. #coPrr ' w ib.HZt ^■;. NEW YORK: xdeii=l:b-^ .j^jsttd ivt i u i_i e r\ , No 5 SPRUCE STREET. 18G4. ^ i^ -J. /f&'i Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, by DERBY & MILLER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York. EDWARD O. JENKINS, ?3r{ntcr & .Stcrfotjjper, No. 20 North William St. LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BY HENRY J. RAYMOND. Abraham Lincolist was born on the 12tli of Feb- ruary, 1809, in Hardin county, Kentucky. His early life, like that of most of the great men whom our country has produced, was spent in poverty and in toil. At seven years of age he was sent to school to a Mr. Hazel, carrying with him an old copy of Dil- worth's Spelling Book, one of the three books that formed the family library. His father keenly felt the disadvantages arising from his own lack of education, and determined, in spite of difficulties almost incon- ceivable, to give his son better facilities for study than he had himself enjoyed. His mother was a Christian woman, and desired earnestly that he should learn to read the Bible. Thomas Lincoln, his father, finding a life in a Slave State a most unsatisfactory one for himself, and pre- senting only the prospect of a hopeless struggle in the future for his children, determined upon removal, and when Abraham was in the eighth year of his age, the plan was carried into execution. The old home was sold, their small stock of valuables placed upon a raft, and the little family took its way to a new home in the wilds of Indiana, where free labor would have no competition with slave labor, and the poor white man LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. mignt liope that in time liis cliildren could take an honorable position, won by industry and careful econo- my. The place of their destination was Spencer county, Indiana. For the last few miles they were obliged to cut their road as they went on. " With the resolution of veteran pioneers they toiled, sometimes being able to pick their way for a long distance without chopping, and then coming to a standstill in consequence of dense forests. Sufiice it to say, that they were obliged to cut a road so much of the way that several days were em- ployed in going eighteen miles. It was a difficult, wearisome, trying journey, and Mr. Lincoln often said, that be never passed through a harder experience than he did in going from Thompson's Ferry to Spencer county, Indiana." Thus, before he was eight years old, Abraham Lin coin began the serious business of life. Their cabin was built of logs, and even the aid of such a mere child was of account in the wilderness where they now found themselves, after seven days of weary travel. Their neighbors, none of whom lived nearer than two or three miles, welcomed the strangers, and lent a hand towards building the rude dwelling in which the future President lay down, after fatiguing but healthful toil, to dream the dreams of childhood, undisturbed by thoughts of the future. In this log-house, consisting of a room below and a room above, furnished by Thomas Lincoln and his son's own hands, Abraham passed the next twelve years of his life. So long as his mother lived, she assisted him in learning to read, and before her death, which occurred when he was ten years of age, she had LIFE OF ABnAIIAil LINCOLN. 7 the satisfaction of seeing him read that Book which ho has never since neglected. After a while he learned to write. This was an accomplishment which some of the friendly neighbors thought unnecessary, but his father quietly persisted, and the boy was set down as a prodigy when he wrote to an old friend of his mother's, a travelling preacher, and begged him to come and preach a sermon over his mother's grave. Three months after. Parson Elkins came, and friends assembled, a year after her death, to pay a last tribute of respect to one universally beloved and respected. Her son's share in securing the pres- ence of the clergyman was not unmentioned, and Abra- ham soon found himself called upon to write letters for his neighbors. His father married a second time a Mrs. Sally John- ston, who proved an excellent mother to her step-son, and who now survives to take her share of the credit to which she is entitled for her faithful care. In the course of a year or two a Mr. Crawford, one of the set- tlers; opened a school in his own cabin, and Abraham's father embraced the opportunity to send him, in order that he might add some knowledge of arithmetic to his reading and writing. With buckskin clothes, a raccoon skin cap, and an old arithmetic wdiich had been somewhere found for him, he commenced his studies in the " higher branches." His progress was rapid, and his perseverance and faithfulness w^on the interest and esteem of his teacher. In that thinly settled country a book was a great rarity, but whenever Mr. Lincoln hoard of one he en- deavored to procure it for Abraham's perusal. In this 8 ' LIFE OF ABRAH^I LIXCOLN. way he became acquainted with Banyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Esop's Fables, a Life of Henry Clay, and Weems's Life of Washington. The " hatchet" story of "Washington, which has done more to make boys truth- ful than a hundred solemn exhortations, made a stronsr impression upon Abraham, and was one of those un- seen, gentle influences, which helped to form his charac- ter for integrity and honesty. Its effect may be traced in the following story, which bids fair to become as never-failing an accompaniment to a Life of Lincoln as the hatchet case to that of Washington. Mr. Crawford had lent him a copy of Ramsay's Life of Washington. During a severe storm Abra- ham iui. ioved 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 circumstan- ces ? 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 la- bor in "pulling fodder." His manliness and straight- forwardness won the esteem of the Crawfords, and indeed of all the neighborhood. At nineteen years of age he made a trip to New- Orleans, in company with a son of the owner of a flat- boat, who intrusted a valuable cargo to their care. On the way they were attacked by seven negToes, and their LIFE ^OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 9 lives and property were in great danger, but owing to tlieir good use of the muscular force tbej bad acquired as backwoodsmen, they succeeded in driving olf the in- vaders, and pushing their boat out into the stream in safety. The result of the voyage was satisfactory to the owner, and Abraham Lincoln gained, in addition to his ten dollars a month, a reputation as a youth of promising business talent. In 1830 Thomas Lincoln decided to make another change, and the log cabin which had been so long tlieir home was deserted for a new one near Decatur, Illinois. This time the journey occupied fifteen days. Abraham was now twenty-one, but he did not begin his inde- pendent life until he had aided his father in settling his family, breaking the ground for corn, and making a rail fence around the farm. These rails have passed into song and story. "During the sitting of the Ee- publican State Convention at Decatur, a banner, at- tached to two of these rails, and bearing an appropriate inscription, was brought into the assemblage, and form- ally presented to that body, amid a scene of unparal- leled enthusiasm. After that they were in demand in every State of the Union in which free labor is honored, where they were borne in processions of the people, and hailed by hundreds of thousands of freemen, as a sym- bol of triumph, and as a glorious vindication of free- dom and of the rights and dignity of free labor. These, however, were far from being the first or only rails made by Lincoln. He was a practised hand at the business. Mr. Lincoln has now a cane made from one of the rails split by his own hands in boyhood." After the first winter in Illinois, which was one of un- 10 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLK. common seventy, and required more tlian his father's care to keep the family in food, which was mostly ob- tained by hunting, Abraham Lincoln began life for himself Sometimes he hired himself out as a farm- hand, sometimes his learning procured him a situation as clerk in a store. When the Black Hawk war broke out in 1832, he joined a volunteer company, and was made captain. "He was an efficient, faithful officer, watchful of his men, and prompt in the discharge of duty, and his courage and patriotism shrank from no dangers or hardships." Thus the Commander-in-Chief of our armies has not been without a bit of military experience — much moi^, in fact, than the most of our Brigadier-Generals had had before the commencement of the war. After his military life was over he looked about for something to do. He ran for the Legislature, but was beaten, though his own precinct gave him 277 votes out of 284. This was the only time he was ever beaten before the people. He bought a store and stock of goods on credit, and was appointed Post- master. The store proved unprofitable, and he sold out. All this time he pursued his studies. He had already learned grammar, and he had now opportunities for more extensive reading. He wrote out a synopsis of every book he read, and thus fixed it in his memory. About this time he met John Calhoun, afterwards President of the Lecompton Constitutional Convention. Calhoun proposed to Lincoln to take up surveying, and himself aided in his studies. He had plenty of employment as a surveyor, and won a good reputation in this new line of business. LIFE OF ABKAUAM LINCOLN. ll In 1834 lie was sent to tlie' Legislature, and the po- litical life commenced which his countrymen's votes have since shown thej fully appreciated. When the session of the Legislature was over, he set himself to the study of law in good earnest. In 1836 he obtained a law license, and in A])ril, 1837, he removed to Spring- field and commenced the practice of the law in partner- ship with his friend and former colleague in the Legis- lature, Hon. John T. Stuart. One incident of his law practice we cannot refrain from narrating. When Lincoln first went out into the world to earn a living for himself, he worked for a Mr. Armstrong, of Petersburg, Menard Co., who, with his wife, took a great interest in him, lent him books to read, and, after the season for work was over, en- couraged him to remain with them until he should find something to " turn his hand to." They also hoped much from his influence over their son, an over- indulged and somewhat unruly bo}^ SVe cannot do better than to transcribe the remarks of the Cleveland Leader upon this interesting and touching incident. " Some few years since, the eldest son of Mr. Lincoln's old friend, Armstrong, the chief supporter of his widowed mother — the good old man having some time previously passed from eartli, — was arrested on the charge of murder. A young man had been killed during a riotous me^ee, in the night time at a camp-meeting, and one of his associates stated that the death-wound was inflicted by young ^\jmstrong. A pre- liminary examination was gone into, at which the accuser testified so positively, that there seemed no doubt of the guilt of the prisoner, and therefore he was held for trial. As is too olten the case, the bloody act caused an undue degree of excitement in the public mind. Every improper incident in the life of the prisoner — each act which bore the least semblance of rowdyism — each schoolboy quarrel, — was suddenly remembered and magnified, until they pictured him as a fieud of the 12 LIFE OF ABKAUAM LIXCOLX. most horrible hue. As these rumors spread abroad they were received as gospel truth, and a feverish desire for vengeance seized upon the in- fatuated populace, whilst only prison bars prevented a horrible death at the hands of a mob. The events were heralded in the county papers, painted in highest colors, accompanied by rejoicing over the certainty of punishment beiiig meted out to tne guilty party. The prisoner, overwhelmed by the circumstances under which he found himself placed, fell into a melancholy condition bordering on despair, and the widowed mother, looking through her tears, saw no cause for hope from earthly aid. " At this juncture, the widow received a letter from Mr. Lincoln, vol- unteering his services in an eSbrt to save the youth from the impending stroke. Gladly was his aid accepted, although it seemed impossible for even his sagacity to prevail in such a desperate case ; but the heart of the attorney was in his work, and he set about it with a will that knew no such word as fail. Feeling that the poisoned condition of the public mind was such as to preclude the possibility of impanoUing an impartial jury in the court having jurisdiction, he procured a change of venue and a postponement of the trial. He then went studiously to work unravelhng the history of the case, and satisfied himself that his client was the victim of mahce, and that the statements of the accuser were a tissue of falsehoods. " "When the trial was called on, the prisoner, pale and emaciated, with hopelessness written on every feature, and accompanied by his Jialf- hoping, half-despairing mother — whose only hope was in a mother's behef of her son's innocence, in the justice of the God she worshipped, and in the noble counsel, who, without hope of fee or reward upon earth, had undertaken the cause — took his seat in the prisoners' box, and with a * Btony firmness' hstened to the reading of the indictment Lincoln sat quietly by, whilst the large auditory looked on him as though wondering what he could say in defence of one whose guilt they regarded as certain. The examination of the witnesses for tho State was begun, and a well-arranged mass of evidence, circumstantial and positive, was introduced, which seemed to impale the prisoner be- yond the possibility of extrication. The counsel for the defence pro- pounded but few questions, and those of a character which excited no uneasiness on the part of the prosecutor — merely, in most cases, requi- ring the main witnesses to be definite as to the time and place. "When the evidence of the prosecution was ended, Lincoln introduced a few witnesses to remove some erroneous impressions in regard to the preri* LIFE OF ABRAHAM: LINCOLN. 13 0U3 character of his client, who, though somewhat rowdyish, had never been known to commit a vicious act ; and to show that a greater degree of ill-feeling existed between the accuser and the accused, thai, the accused and the deceased. " The prosecutor felt that the case was a clear one, and his opening speech was brief and formal. Lincoln arose, while a deatldy silence pervaded the vast audience, and in a clear and moderate tone began his argument. Slowly and carefuUy he reviewed the testimony, point- ing out the hitherto unobserved discrepancies in the Btatements of the principal witness. That which had seemed plain and plausible ho made to appear crooked as a serpent's path. The witness had stated that the affair took place at a certain hour in the evening, and that, by the aid of the brightly shining moon, he saw the prisoner inflict the death-blow with a slung-shot. Mr. Lincoln showed that at the hour referred to the moon had not yet appeared above the horizon, and consequently the whole tale was a fabrication. " An almost instantaneous change seemed to have been wrought in the minds of his auditors, and the verdict of ' not guilty' was at the end of every tongue. But the advocate was not content with this intel- lectual achievement. His whole being had for months been bound up in this work of gratitude and mercy, and as the lava of the over- charged crater bursts from its imprisonment, so great thoughts and burning words leaped forth from the soul of the eloquent Lincoln. He drew a picture of the perjurer so horrid and ghastly, that the accuser could sit under it no longer, but reeled and staggered from the court- room, whilst the audience fancied they could see the brand upon his brow. Then in words of thrilling pathos Lincoln appealed to the jurors as fathers of some who might become fatherless, and as husbands of wives who might be widowed, to yield to no previous impressions, no ill-founded prejudice, but to do his client justice ; and as he alluded to the debt of gratitude which ho owed the boy's sire, tears were seen to fall from many eye^ unused to weep. " It was near night when ho concluded, by saying that if justice was done — as he believed it would be — before the sun should set, it would shine upon his client a free man. The jury retired, and the court ad- journed for the day. Half an hour had not elapsed, when, as the offi- cers of the court and the volunteer attorney sat at the tea-table of their hotel, a messenger announced that the jury had returned to their seats. All repaired immediately to the court-house, and whilst the prisoner was being brought from the jail, the court-room was tilled to ovorflow- 14 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLX. ing with citizens from the town. When the prisoner and his mother entered, silence reigned as completely as though the house were empty. The foreman of the jury, in answer to the usual inquiry from the court, dehvered the verdict of ' Not Guilty 1' The widow dropped into the arms of her son, who Ufted her up and told her to look upon him as before, free and innocent. Then, with tne words, ' Where is Mr. Lin- coln ?' he rushed across the room and grasped the hand of his deUverer, whilst his heart was too full for utterance. Lincoln turned his eyes towards the West, where the sun still lingered in view, and then, turn- ing to the youth, said, 'It is not yet sundown and you are free.' I confess that my cheeks were not wholly unwet by tears, and I turned from the affecting scene. As I cast a glance behind, I saw Abraham Lincoln obeying the Divine injunction by comforting the widowed and fatherless." Mr. Lincoln was three times elected to the Legisla- ture ; and here commenced his political acquaintance with Stephen A. Douglas. He then remained six years in private life, devoting himself to the practice of the law, displaying remarkable ability, and gaining an enviable reputation. His interest in politics never sub- sided, and in 1844: he stumped the entire State of Illi- nois during the Presidential campaign. We have before mentioned that one of his earliest books was the "Life of Henry Clay," and his enthusiastic admiration for that Statesman, aroused in his boyhood, continued in full force during his life. In 1847 Mr. Lincoln took his seat in Congress, and was the only "Whig representa- tive from Illinois, which had then seven members in that body. The Congress of which Mr.. Lincoln was a member, had before it questions of great importance and interest to the country. The Mexican War was then in pro- gress, and Congress had to deal with grave questions arising out of it, besides the many which were to be LIFE OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 15 passed upon as to tlie means by wMcli it was to be carried on. The irrepressible Slaver/ Question was there, also, in many of its Protean forms, in questions on the right of petition, in questions as to the District of Columbia, in many questions as to the Territories. Mr. Lincoln was charged by his enemies in later years, when political enmity was hunting sharply for material out of which to make political capital against him, with lack of patriotism, in that he voted against the war. The charge was sharply and clearly made by Judge Douglas, at the first of their joint discussions in the Senatorial contest of 1858. In his speech at Ottawa, he says of Mr. Lincoln, that " while in Congress he distinguished himself by' his opposition to the Mexican war, taking the side (f the common enemy against his oimi Gountr'y^ and when he returned home he found that the indignation of the people followed him every- where." No better answer can be given to this charge than that which Mr. Lincoln himself made in his reply to this speech. He says : " I was an old Whig, and when- ever the Democratic party tried to get me to vote that the war had been righteously begun by the President, I would not do it. But whenever they asked for any money or land- warrants or any thing to pay the soldiers there, during all that time I gave the same vote that Judge Douglas did. You can think as you please as to whether that was consistent. Such is the truth, and the Judge has a right to make all he can out of it. But when he, by a general charge conveys the idea that I withheld supplies from the soldiers who we^-e fighting in the Mexican war, or did any thing else to hinder the 16 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. soldiers, lie is, to say tlie least, grossly and altogether niistqjien, as a consultatk)n of the records will prove to him." We should need no more thorough refutation of this imputation upon his patriotism than is embodied in this clear and distinct denial. It required no little sagacity, at that time, to draw a clear line of demarca- tion between supporting the country while engaged in war, and sustaining the war itself which Mr. Lincoln, in common with the great body of the party with which he was connected, regarded as utterly unjust. The Democratic party made vigorous use of the charge everywhere. The whole foundation of it, doubtless, was the fact which Mr. Lincoln states, that, whenever the Democrats tried to get him ." to vote that the war had been righteously begun," he would not do it. He showed, in fact, on this point, the same clearness and directness, the same keen eye for the important point in a controversy, and the same tenacity in holding it fast and thwarting his opponent's utmost efforts to ob- scure it and cover it up, to draw attention to other points and raise false issues, which were the marked characteristics of his great controversy with Judge Douglas at a subsequent period of their political his- tory. It is always popular, because it always seems patriotic, to stand by the country when engaged in war, — and the jDCople are not always disposed to judge leniently of efforts to prove their country in the wrong as against any foreign power. In this instance, Mr. Lincoln saw that the strength of the position of the Administration before the people in reference to the beginning of the war, was in the point, which they lost LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. l7 no opportunity of reiterating, viz., that Mexico had shed the blood of our citizens on our own soil. This position he believed to be false, and he accordingly attacked it in a resolution requesting the President to give the House information on that point ; which Pres- ident Polk would have found as difficult to dodge as Douglas found it to dodge the questions which Mr. Lincoln proposed to him. On the right of petition Mr. Lincoln, of course, held the right side, voting repeatedly against laying on the table without consideration petitions in favor of the abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia, and against the slave-trade. On the question of abolishing Slavery in the District, he took rather a prominent part. A Mr. Gott had in- troduced a resolution directing the committee for the District to introduce a bill abolishing the slave-trade in the District. To this Mr. Lincoln moved an amend- ment instructing them to introduce a bill for the aboli- tion, not of the slave-trade, but of Slavery within the District. The bill which he proposed prevented any slave from ever being brought into the District, except in the case of officers of the Government of the United States, who might bring the necessary servants for themselves and their families while in the District on public business. It prevented any one then resident within the District, or thereafter born within it, from being held in Slavery without the District. It declared that all children of slave mothers born in the District after January 1, 1850, should be free, but should be reasonably supported and educated by the owners of their mothers, and that any owner of slaves in the Dis- 18 LIFE OF ABRAIIAil LIXCOLX. trict might be paid their value from the Treasury, and the slaves should thereupon be free ; and it provided also for the submission of the act to the people of the District for their acceptance or rejection. A bill was afterwards reported by the committee for- biddincc the introduction of slaves into the District for sale or hire. This bill also Mr. Lincoln supported, but in vain. The time for the success of such measures, involving to an extent attacks upon Slavery, had not yet come. Tiie question of the Territories came up in many ways. TLie Wilmot Proviso had made its first appear- ance in the previous session, in the August before, but it was repeatedly before this Congress also, when efibrts were made to apply it to the territory which we pro- cured from Mexico, and to Oregon. On all occasions when it was before the House it was supported by Mr. Lincoln, and he stated during his contest with Judge Douglas that he had voted for it, "in one way and another, about forty times." He thus showed himself in 1847 the same friend of Freedom for the Territories which he was afterwards during the heats of the Kan- sas struggle. Another instance in which the Slavery Question was before the House was in the flxmous Pacheco case. This was a bill to reimburse the heirs of Antonio Pacheco for the value of a slave who was hired by a United States officer in Florida, but ran away and joined the Seminoles, and being taken in arms with them, was sent out of Florida with them when they were transported to the West. The bill was reported to the House by the Committee on Military Affairs. LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 19 This committee was composed of nine. Five of these were slaveholders, and these made the majority report. The others, not being slaveholders, reported against the bill. The ground taken by the majority was that slaves were regarded as property by the Constitution, and when taken for public service should be paid for as property. The principle involved in the bill, there- fore, was the same one which the slaveholders have sought in so many ways to maintain. As they sought afterwards to have it established by a decision of the Supreme Court, so now they sought to have it recog- nized by Congress, and Mr. Lincoln opposed it in Con- gress as heartily as he afterwards opposed it when it took the more covert, but no less dangerous shape of a judicial dictum. On other great questions which came before Congress Mr. Lincoln, being a AVhig, took the ground which was held by the great body of his party. He believed in the right of Congress to make appropriations for the improvement of rivers and harbors. He was in favor of giving the public lands, not to speculators, but to actual occupants and cultivators, at as low rates as pos- sible ; and he was in favor of a protective tariff, and oi abolishing the franking privilege. In 1848 General Taylor was nominated for the Presi- dency ; Mr. Lincoln was a member of the convention, at Philadelphia, by which he was nominated, and can- vassed his own State in his favor. He was also in New England during the campaign, attended the State Con- vention of Massachusetts, and made a speech at New Bedford, which is still remembered. Illinois, "however, cast her vote for General Cass. In 1849 Mr. Lincoln 20 LIFE OF ABSAHAM LINCOLN-. was tlie Wliig candidate in Illinois for United States Senator, but without success — the Democrats having the control of the State, which they retained until the conflict arising out of the Nebraska Bill, in 1854:. During the intervening peiiod Mr. Lincoln took no prominent part in politics, but remained at home in the practice of his profession. We may be sure, how- ever, that he watched closely the course of public events. He had fought Slavery often enough to know what it was, and what the animus of its supporters was. It is not, therefore, likely that he was taken very much by surprise when the Nebraska Bill was intro- duced, and the proposition was made by Stephen A. Douglas to repeal that very Missouri Compromise which he had declared to be "a sacred thing, which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb." The Nebraska Bill was passed May 22, 1854, and its passage gave new and increased force to the popular feeling in favor of freedom which the proposition to repeal the Missouri Compromise had excited, and everywhere the friends of freedom gathered themselves together and rallied round her banner, to meet the con- flict which was plainly now closely impending, forced upon the people by the grasping ambition of the slave- holders. The political campaign of that year in Illi- nois was one of the severest ever known. It was inten- sified by the fact that a United States Senator was to be chosen by the Legislature then to be elected, to fill the place of Shields, who had voted with Douglas in favor of the Nebraska Bill. Mr. Lincoln took a prominent part in this campaign. LIFE OF ABRAUAM LINCOLN. 21 He met Judge Douglas before the people on two occa- sions, the only ones when the Judge would consent to such a meeting. The first time was at the State Fair at Springfield, on October 4th. This was afterwards considered to have been the gi-eatest event of the whole canvass. Mr. Lincoln opened the discussion, and in his clear and eloquent yet homely way exposed the tergiversations of which his opponent had been guilty, and the fallacy of his pretexts for his present course. Mr. Douglas had always claimed to have voted for the repeal of the Missouri Compromise because he sus- tained the " great principle" of Popular Sovereignty, and desired that the inhabitants of Kansas and Ne- braska should govera themselves, as they were well able to do. The fallacy of drawing from these premi- ses the conclusion that they therefore should have the right to establish Slavery there was most clearly and conclusively exposed by Mr. Lincoln, so that no one cou*ld thereafter be misled by it, unless he was a willing dupe of pro-slavery sophistry.. " My distinguished friend," said he, " says it is an insult to the emigrants of Kansas and Nebraska to sup- pose that they are not able to govern themselves. We must not slur over an argument of this kind because it happens to tickle the ear. It must be met and an- swered. I admit that the emigrant to Kansas and Ne- braska is competent to govern himself, hut I deny his right to govern any other jperson without that per- son''s consent.^'' The two opponents met again at Peoria. We believe it is universally admitted that on both of these occa- sions Mr. Lincoln had decidedly the advantage. The 22 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. result of the election was the defeat of the Democrats and the election of anti-Nebraska men to the Legis- lature to secure the election of a United States Senator who would be true to freedom, if they could be brought to unite upon a candidate. Mr. Lincoln was naturally the candidate of those who were of Wiiig antecedents. Judge Trumbull was as naturally the candidate of some who had really come out from the Democratic party — though they still called themselves Free Demo- crats. There was danger, of course, in such a posture of affairs, and Mr. Lincoln, in that spirit of patriotism which he has always shown, by his own personal exer- tions secured the votes of his friends for Judge Trum- bull, who was accordingly chosen Senator. The charge was afterwards made by the enemies of both that there had been in this matter a breach of faith on the part of Judge Trumbull, and that Mr. Lincoln had the right to feel and did feel aggrieved at the result. Mr. Lincoln himself, however, expressly denied in his speech at Charleston, Sept. 18, 1858, that there had been any such breach of faith. The pressure of the Slavery contest at last fully organized the Republican party, which held its first Convention for the nomination of President and Vice- President at Philadelphia on June 17, 1856. John C. Fremont was nominated for President and William L. Dayton for Vice President. Mr. Lincoln's name was prominent before the Convention for the latter office, and on the informal ballot he stood next to Mr. Dayton, receiving 110 votes. Mr. Lincoln's name headed the Republican Electoral ticket in Illinois, a^d he took an LIFE OF ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 23 active part in the canvass, but the Democrats carried the State, though only by a plurality vote. We now come to thegi-eat Senatorial contest of 1858, which established Mr. Lincoln's reputation before the people of the whole country, not only as a very able debater and an eloquent orator, but also as a wise poli- tician, wise enough to hold firm to sound principles, and to yield nothing of them, even against the judg- ment of earnest friends. On the 4th of March, 1857, Mr. Buchanan had taken his seat in the Presidential chair. The struggle be- tween Freedom and Slavery for the possession of Kan- sas was at its height. A few days after his inaugura- tion, the Supreme Court rendered the Dred Scott decision, which was thought by the friends of Slavery to insure their victory by its holding tlie Missouri Com- promise to be unconstitutional, because the Constitution itself carried Slavery over all the Territories of the United States. In spite of this decision, the friends of Freedom in Kansas maintained their ground. The slaveholders, however, pushed forward their schemes, and in November, 1857, their Constitutional Conven- tion, held at Lecompton, adopted the Lecompton Con- stitution. The trick by which they submitted to the popular vote only a schedule on the Slavery question, instead of the whole Constitution, compelling every voter, however he might vote upon this schedule, to vote for their Constitution, which fixed Slavery upon the State just as surely whether the schedule was adopted or not, will be well remembered, as well as the feeling which so unjust a device excited through- out the North. Judge Douglas had sustained the Dred 24 LIFE OF ABE AH AM LINCOLN. Scott decision, but lie could not sustain tliis attempt to force upon the people of Kansas a Constitution against their will. He took ground, openly and boldly against it — denouncing it in the Senate and elsewhere as an outrage upon the people of Kansas, and a violation of every just Democratic principle. He declared that he did not care whether the people voted the Slavery clause " up or down," but he thought they ought to have the chance to vote for or against the Constitution itself The Administration had made the measure their own, and this opposition of Douglas at once excited against him the active hostility of the slaveholders and their friends, with whom he had hitherto acted in concert. The bill was finally passed through CongTCSs on April 80th, 1858, under what is known as the English bill, whereby the Constitution was to be submitted to the votes of the people of Kansas, with the offer of heavy bribes to them in the way of donations of land, etc., if they would accept it : and the people, in spite of the bribes, voted it down", by an immense majority. Judge Douglas's term was on the eve of expiring, and he came home to Illinois after the adjournment of Congress to attend in person to the political campaign, upon the result of which, was to depend his re-election to tbe Senate. His course on the Lecompton bill had made an open breacli between him and the Administration, and he had rendered such good service to the Republicans in their battle with that monstrous infamy, that there were not wanting many among them who were inclined to think it would be wise not to oppose his re-election. But the Republicans of Hlinois thought otherwise. LIFE OF ABBAHAM LINCOLN. 26 Thej knew tliat lie was not in any sense a Repub- lican. They knew that on the cardinal principle of the Republican party, opposition to the spread of Slavery into the Territories, he was not with them; for he had declared in the most positive way that he " did not care whether Slavery was voted down or up." And they therefore determined, in opposition to the views of some influential Republicans at home as well as in other States, to fight the battle through against him, with all the energy that they could bring to the work. And to this end, on the 17th of June, 1858, at their State Convention at Springfield, they nominated Mr. Lincoln as their candidate for the Senate of the United States. The speech of Mr. Lincoln to the Convention which, had nominated him, was the beginning of the campaign. Its opening sentences contained those celebrated words, which have been often quoted both by friends and ene- mies : "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this Government cannot endure peiTnanently 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." Little idea could he have had then how near the time was when the country should be vmited upon this point. Still less could he have dreamed through what convulsions it was to pass before it reached that position — into what an abyss of madness and crime the advocates of Slavery would plunge in their efforts to " push it forward till it should become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new — North as well as South." But there seemed 26 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. to him to be manifest indications of their design thus to push it forward, and he devoted his speech to show- ing forth the machinery which they had now almost completed, for the attainment of their purpose ; it only needing that the Supreme Court should say that the Constitution carried Slavery over the States, as they had already in the Dred Scott decision declared that it was carried over the Territories. And he closed his speech with a sharp attack upon Douglas, as being a party to this plan to legalize Slavery over the Conti- nent. It was plain from the first that the struggle •would take the shape of a personal contest between the two men. Each recognized the other as the embodi-. ment of principles to which he. was in deadly hostility. Judge Douglas was the champion of all sympathizers with Slavery at the North, of those who openly advo- cated it, and still more of those who took the more plausible and dangerous part of not caring whether it " was voted down or up." Mr, Lincoln's soul was on fire with love for freedom and for humanity, and with reverence for the Farthers of the Country, and for the principles of freedom for all under the light of which they marched. He felt that the contest was no mere local one, that it was not of any great consequence what man succeeded in the fight, but that it w^a^s all-impor- tant that the banner of Freedom should be borne with no faltering step, but " fall high advanced." And thus through the whole campaign he sought with all his power to press home to the hearts of the people the principles, the example and the teachings of the men of the Revolution. The two combatants first met at Chicago, in July. LIFE OP ABEAHA^M LINCOLIS". 27 There was no arrangement tlien about tlieir speaking against eacli other, but Judge Douglas having addressed a meeting on the 9th July, it was inevitable that Mr. Lincoln should answer him on the 10th. One week later both spoke in Springfield on the same day, but before different audiences; and one week later Mr. Lincoln addressed a letter to Douglas, challenging him to a series of debates during the campaign. The challenge was accepted, and arrangements were at once made for the meetings. Whether it was done intentionally or not, or so happened, the terms pro- posed by Mr. Douglas were such as to give him the decided advantage of having four opening and closing speeches to Mr. Lincoln's three ;^ but Mr. Lincoln, while noticing the inequality, did not hesitate to accept them. The seven joint debates were held as follows : — at Ottawa on August 21st; at Freeport on August 27th ; at Jonesboro on September 15th ; at Charleston on Sep- tember 18th ; at Galesburg on October 7th ; at Quincy on October ISth ; at Alton on October 15th. These seven tournaments raised the greatest excitement throughout the State. They were held in all quarters of the State, from Freeport in the north to Jonesboro in the extreme south. Everywhere the different par- ties turned out to do honor to their champions. Pro- cessions and cavalcades, bands of music and cannon- firing, made every day a day of excitement. But far- greater was the excitement of such oratorical contests between two such skilled debaters, before mixed audi- ences of friends and foes, to rejoice over every keen thrust at the adversary ; to be cast down by each fail- 28 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN'. ure to parry the thrust so aimed. We cannot pretend to give more than the barest sketch of these great efforts of Mr. Lincoln's. They are and always will be, to those who are interested in the history of the Slavery contest, most valuable and important documents. In the first speech at Ottawa, besides defending him- self from some points which Douglas had made against him, and among others, explaining and enlarging upon that passage from his Springfield speech, of " A house divided against itself," he took up the charge which he had also made in that speech of the conspiracy to ex- tend Slavery over the northern States, and pressed it home, citing as proof of its existence a speech which Douglas himself had made on the Lecompton bill, in which he had substantially made the same charge upon Buchanan and others. He then showed again that all that was necessary for the accomplishment of the scheme was a decision of the Supreme Court that no State could exclude Slavery, as the Court had already decided that no Territory could exclude it, and the acquiescence of the people in such a decision, ^nd he told the people that Douglas was doing all in his power to bring about such acquiescence in advance, by declaring that the true position was not to care whether Slavery " was voted down or up," and by announcing himself in favor of the Dred Scott decision, not because it was right, but because a decision of the Court is to him a " Thus saith the Lord," and thus committing himself to the next decision just as firmly as to this. He closed his speech with the following eloquent words : " Henry Clay, my beau ideal of a Statesman — the man for wdiom I fought all my humble life — once said of a class of LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOL^T. 29 men wlio would repress all tendencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation, tliat they must, if they would do this, go back to the era of our Independence and muzzle the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return ; they must blow out the moral lights around us ; they must penetrate the human soul and eradicate there the love of liberty ; and then, and not till then, could they perpetuate Slavery in this country. To my thinking. Judge Douglas is, by his example and vast influence, doing that very thing in this community, when he says that the negro has nothing in the Declara- tion of Independence. Henry Clay plainly understood the contrary. Judge Douglas is going back to the era of our Revolution, .and to the extent of his ability muzzling the cannon which thunders its annual joyous return. When he invites any people, willing to have Slavery, to establish it, he is blowing out the moral lights around us. When he says he ' cares not whether Slavery is voted down or up' — that it is a sacred right of self-government, he is, in my judgment, penetrating the human soul and eradicating the light of reason and the love of liberty in this American people. And when, by all these means and appliances, he shall suc- ceed in bringing public sentiment to an exact accord- ance with his own views — when these vast assemblas-es shall echo back all these sentiments, when they shall come to repeat his views and to avow his principles, and to say all that he says on these mighty questions — then it needs only the forinality of the second Dred Scott decision, which he indorses in advance, to make Slavery alike lawful in all the States — old as well as new, North as well as South." 30 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. In the second debate at Freeport, Mr. Lincoln gave categorical answers to seven questions wliicli Donglas had proposed to liim, and in his turn put foar questions to Douglas, to which he got but evasive replies. He also pressed home upon his opponent a charge of quoting resolutions as being adopted at a Republican State Convention, which were never so adopted, and again called Douglas's attention to the conspiracy to national- ize Slavery, and he showed that his pretended desire to leave the people of a Territory free to establish Slavery or exclude it, was really only a desire to allow them to establish it, as was shown by his voting against Mr. Chase's amendment to the Nebraska Bill, which gave them leave to exclude it. In the third debate at Jones- boro, Mr. Lincoln showed that Douglas and his friends were trying to change the position of the country on the Slavery question from what it was when the Consti- tution was adopted, and that the disturbance of the country had arisen from this pernicious effort. He then cited from Democratic Speeches and platforms of former days to show that they occupied then the very opposite ground on the question from that which was taken now, and showed up the evasive character of Douglas's answers to the questions which he had pro- posed, especially the subterfuge of " unfriendly legis- lation" which he had set forth as the means by which the people of a Territory could exclude Slavery from its limits in spite of the Dred Scott decision. When Mr. Lincoln was preparing these questions for Douglas, he was urged by some of his friends not to corner him on that point, because he would surely stand by his doctrine of Squatter Sovereignty in defi- LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 81 ancc of the Dred Scott decision, " and that," said they, " will make him Stniator." " That may be," said Mr. Lincoln, with a twinkle in his eye, " but if he takes that shoot he never can be President.*" Mr. Lincoln's sagacity did not fail him here. This position which Douglas took of " unfriendly legis- lation," was a stumbling-block which he was never able to get over ; and if the contest between them had brought out no other good result, the compelling Douglas to take this ground was an immense success. The fourth speech, at Charleston, was devoted by Mr. Lincoln to enlarging upon the evidence of a charge previously made by Judge Trumbull upon Douglas of being himself responsible for a clause in the Kansas bill which would have deprived the people of Kansas of the right to vote upon their own Constitution — a charge which Douglas could never try to answer without losing his temper. In the fifth debate, Mr. Lincoln answered the charge that the Eepublican party was sectional ; and after again exploding the fraudulent resolutions and giving strong proof that Douglas himself was a party to the fraud, and again showing that Douglas had failed to answer his question about the acceptance of the new Dred Scott decision, which, he said, was "just as sure to be made as to-morrow is to come, if the Democratic party shall be sustained" in the elections, he discussed the acquisition of further territory and the importance of deciding upon any such acquisition, by the efiect which it would have upon the Slavery question among our- selves. In the next debate, at Quincy, besides making some 82 LIFE OF ABE AH Ail LINCOLN. personal points as to the mode in which Douglas had conducted the previous discussions, he stated clearly and briefly what were the principles of the Republican party, what they proposed to do, and what they did not propose to do. He said that they looked upon Slavery as " a moral, a social, and a political wrong," and they *' proposed a course of conduct which should treat it as a wrong ;" did not propose to "disturb it in the States," but did propose to " restrict it to its present limits ;" did not propose to decide that Dred Scott was free, but did not believe that the decision in that case was a po- litical rule binding the voters, the Congress, or the Presi- dent, and proposed "so resisting it as to have it re- versed if possible, and a new judicial rule established on the subject." Mr. Lincoln's last speech, at Alton, was a very fall and conclusive argument of the whole Slavery Ques- tion. He showed that the present Democratic doctrines were not those held at the time of the Revolution in reference to Slavery ; showed how the agitation of the country had come from the attempt to set Slavery upon a different footing, and showed the dangei-s to the country of this attempt. He brought the whole contro- versy down to the vital question whether Slavery is wrong or not, and demonstrated that the present Demo- cratic sentiment was that it was not wrong, and that Douglas and those who sympathized with him did not desire or expect ever to see the country freed from this gigantic evil. It must not be supposed that these seven debates were all of Mr. Lincoln's appearances before the people during the campaign. He made some fifty other LIFE OF ABEAIIAM LINCOLN. 83 speeches all over the State, and everywhere his strong arguments, his forcible language, and his homely way of presenting, the great issues, so as to bring them home to the hearts of the people, had a pewerful effect. The whole State fairly boiled with the excitement of the contest Nor this alone, for all over the country the eyes of the people were turned to Illinois as the great battle-ground, and the earnest wishes of almost all who loved freedom followed Mr. Lincoln throughout all the heated struggle. He had, however, other opposition besides that of his political opponents. The action of Judge Douglas on the Lecompton Constitution, and the bitter hostility of the southern wing of the Democratic party towards him, had led very many Republicans, and some of high consideration and influence in other States, to favor his return to the Senate. They deemed this due to the zeal and efQ.ciency with which he had resisted the attempt to force slavery into Kansas against the will of the people, and as important in encouraging other Democratic leaders to imitate the example of Douglas in throwing off the yoke of the slaveholding aristocracy. This feeling proved to be of a good deal of weight against Mr. Lincoln in the canvas. Then, again, the State had been so unfairly districted, that the odds were very heavily against the Republi- cans, and thus it came about that although on the popular vote Douglas was beaten by more than five thousand votes, he was enabled to carry off .the sub- stantial prize of victory by his majority in the Legisha- ture. We say the " substantial prize of victory," and so it was thought to be at the time. But later events showed that the battle which was then fought was after all but the precursor of the Presidential contest, and 34 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. that it insured to Mr. Lincoln tlie victory in that more important struggle. • Between the close of this Senatorial contest and the opening of the Presidential campaign, Mr. Lincoln made several visits to other States. In the following year he took an active part in the political campaign in Ohio, still following up his old opponent, who had but recently contributed to Harper's Magazine his famous article on Slavery and the Constitution. He also visited Kansas, and was received with unbounded en- thusiasm by the people of that State, whose battle he had fought so well; and in February, 1860, he visited New York, and there made a speech on National Politics before the Young Men's Eepublican Club at Cooper Institute, the effect of which was to make him better known and still more highly esteemed in New York, where his contest with Douglas had already made him many friends. Indeed, we think we hardly state it too strongly when we say, that their joint effect was" to make Mr. Lincoln decidedly the second choice of the great body of the Republicans of New York, as the candidate of the Republicai; party for the campaign of 1860. It was, doubtless, during this visit of Mr. Lincoln to New York that the following incident occurred, which is thus narrated by a teacher at the Five Points House of Industry : " Our Sunday School in the Five Points was assembled, one Sabbath morning, when I noticed a tall, remarkable looking man enter the room and take a seat among us. He listened with fixed attention to our exercises, and his countenance expressed such genuine interest that I approached him and suggested LIFE OF ARE All AM LINCOLN. 35 that lie miglit be willing to say something to tlie chil- dren. He accepted the invitation with evident pleasure ; and coming forward began a simple address, which 'at once fascinated every little hearer and hushed the room into silence. His language was strikingly beautiful, and his tones musical with intensest feeling. The little faces around him would droop into sad conviction as he uttered sentences of warning, and would brighten into sunshine as he spoke cheerful words of promise. Once or twice he attempted to close his remarks, but the imperative shout of ' Go on !' ' Oh, do go on !' would compel him to resume. As I looked upon the gaunt and sinewy frame of the stranger, and marked his powerful head and determined features, now touched into softness by the impressions of the moment, I felt an irrepressible curiosity to learn something more about him, and when he was quietly leaving the room I begged to know his name. He courteously replied, * It is Abraham Lincoln, from Illinois.' " The Republican National Convention of 1860, met on the 16th of May, at Chicago, in an immense building which the people of Chicago had put up for the pur- pose, called the Wigwam. There were 465 Delegates. The city was filled with earnest men, who had come there to press the claims of their favorite candidates, and the halls and corridors of all the hotels swarmed, and buzzed with an eager crowd, in and out of which darted or pushed or wormed tlieir way the various leaders of party politics. Mr. Chase, Mi\ Bates, and Mr. Cameron were spoken of and pressed somewhat as candidates, but from the first it was evident that the contest lay between Mr. Seward and Mr. Lincoln, 36 lAFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN. Judge Wilmot, of Pennsylvania, was chosen tempo- rary Chairman of the Convention, and in the afternoon of the first day a permanent organization was effected by the choice of Geoi'ge Ashmun, of Massachusetts, as President, with 27 Vice-Presidents and 25 Secretaries. On Thursday, the 17th, the Committee on Resolutions reported the platform, which was enthusiastically adopted. A motion was made to proceed to the nomi- nation at once, and if that had been done the result of the Convention might have proved very different, as at that time it was thought that Mr. Seward's chances were the best. But an adjournment was taken till the morning, and during the night the combinations were made which resulted in the nomination of Mr. Lincoln. The excitement of the Convention and of the audience on the morning of Friday was intense. The Illinoisans had turned out in great numbers, zealous for Lincoln, and though the other States, near and far, had sent many men who were equally zealous for Mr. Seward, it was quite clear that Mr. Lincoln's supporters were in the majority in the audience. The first ballot gave Mr. Seward 173^ votes to 102 for Mr. Lincoln, the rest being scattered. On the second ballot the first indica- tion of the result was felt, when the Chairman of the Vermont Delegation, which had been divided on the pre- vious ballot, announced when the name of Vermont was called, that " Vermont casts her ten votes for the young giant of the West, Abraham Lincoln." On the second ballot, Mr. Seward had 184rJ- to 181 for Mr. Lincoln, and on the third ballot Mr. Lincoln received 230 votes, being within IJ of a majority. The vote was not announced, but so many everywhere had kept the count that it was LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN. 37 known tlirougliout the Convention at once. Mr. Car- ter, of Ohio, rose and announced a change in the vote of the Ohio Delegation of four votes in favor of Mr. Lin- coln, and the Convention at once boiled over into a state of the wildest excitement. The cheers of the audience within were answered by those of a yet larger crowd without, to whom the result was announced. Cannon roared, and bands played, and banners waved, and the excited Eepublicans of Chicago cheered them- selves hoarse, while on the wings of electricity sped in every direction the news of Mr. Lincoln's nomination, to be greeted everywhere with similar demonstrations. It was lons^ before the Convention could calm itself enough to proceed to business. When it did, other States changed their votes in favor of the successful nominee until it was announced, as the result of the third ballot, that Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, had re- ceived 354 votes and was nominated by the Republican party, for the office of President of the United States. The nomination was then,, on the motion of Mr. Evarts, of New York, made unanimous, and the Convention adjourned till the afternoon, when they completed their work by nominating Hannibal Hamlin for Vice-Presi- dent. Mr. Lincoln was at Springfield at the time. He had been in the telegraph office during the casting of the first and second ballots, but then left, and went over to the office of the State Joui-nal, where he was sitting conversing with friends while the third ballot was being taken. In a few moments came across the wires the announcement of the result. The Superintendent of the Telegraph Company, who was present, wrote on 88 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN. a scrap of paper, "Mr. Lincoln: You are nominated on the third ballot," and a boy ran with the message to Mr. Lincoln. He looked at it in silence amid the shouts of those around him, then rising and putting it in his pocket he said quietly, "There's a little woman down at our house would like to hear this — I'll go down and tell her." Next day there arrived at Springfield the committee appointed by the Convention to inform Mr. Lincoln officially of his nomination ; Mr. Ashmun, President of the Convention, addressing Mr. Lincoln, said : " I have, sir, the honor, in behalf of the gentlemen who are present — a Committee appointed by the Re- publican Convention recently assembled at Chicago — to discharge a most pleasant duty. We have come, sir, under a vote of instructions to that Committee, to noti- fy you that you have been selected by the Convention of the Republicans at Chicago for President of the United States. They instruct us, sir, to notify you of that selection, and that Committee deem it not only respectful to yourself, but appropriate to the important matter which they have in hand, that they should come in person, and present to you the authentic evidence of the action of that Convention; and, sir, without any phrase which shall either be considered personally plauditory to yourself, or which shall have any refer- ence to the principles involved in the questions which are connected with your nomination, I desire to present to you the letter which has been prepared, and which informs you of your nomination, and with it the plat- form resolutions and sentiments which the Convention adopted. Sir, at your convenience we shall be glad to LIFE OF ABRA.HAM LINCOLN. 39 receive from you such a response as it may be your' pleasure to give us." Mr. Lincoln listened to this address with a degree of grave dignity that almost wore the appearance of sad- ness, and after a brief pause, in which he seemed to be pondering the momentous responsibilities of his posi- tion, he thus replied : "J//'. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee — I tender to you, and through you to the Republican National Convention, and all the people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor done me, which you now formally announce. Deeply, and even painfully sensible of the great responsibility which is inseparable from this high honor — a responsibility which I could almost wish had fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and experienced states- men whose distinguished names were before the Con- vention, I shall, by your leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the Convention, denominated the plat- form, and without any unnecessary or unreasonable de- lay, respond to you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted. "And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of you, by the hand " Tall Judge Kelly, of Pennsylvania, who was one of the Committee, and who is himself a great many feet high, had meanwhile been eyeing Mr. Lincoln's lofty form with a mixture of admiration and very likely jealousy ; this had not escaped Mr. Lincoln, and as he shook hands with the judge he inquired, "What is your height?" 40 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LrN^COLN. ''" Six feet three ; what is yours, Mr. Lincoln?'* "Six feet four." "Then," said the judge, "Pennsylvania bows to Illi- nois. My dear man, for years my heart has been ach- ing for a President that I could Ipoh up to, and I ve found him at last in the land where we thought there were none but little giants." Mr. Lincoln's formal reply to the official announce- ment of his nomination, was as follows : SrEiNGFiELD, Illinois, May 23, 18G0. Sir — I accept the nomination tendered me by the Convention over which you presided, of which I am formally apprised in a letter of yourself and others act- ing as a Committee of the Convention for that purpose. The declaration of principles and sentiments which ac- companies your letter meets my approval, and it shall be my care not to violate it, or disregard it in any part. Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, an'd w^th due regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the Convention, to the rights of all the states and territories and people of the nation, to the inviolability of the Constitution, and the perpetual •union, harmony, and prosperity of all, I am most happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles declared by the Convention. Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, Abraham Lincoln. Son. Geoege Ashmun, President of tlie Republican Contention. Mr. Lincoln's nomination proved universally accept- able to the Republican party. They recognized in him a man of firm principles, of ardent love for freedom, LIFE OF ABt'VnAM LINCOLN. 41 of strict integrity and truth, and they went into tlie political contest with a zeal and enthusiasm which was the guarantee of victory ; while tlie doubt and uncer- tainty, the divided counsels, and wavering purposes of their opponents were the sure precursors of defeat. His nomination was the signal to the leaders of the slaveholders' party for pressing upon the Democratic Convention their most ultra views, that by the division of the Democratic forces the victory of Mr. Lincoln might be assured, and the pretext afforded them for carrjdng into execution the plot against the liberties of the country which they had been for so many years maturing. That they would dare to carry their threat of rebellion into execution, was not believed at the North. If it had been, while it would probably have scared away some votes from Mr. Lincoln, it would have brought to him more votes yet from those who, though following the Democratic banner, had not learned to disregard the good old doctrine that the ma- jority must rule, and would have rushed to its rescue, if they had believed that it was really threatenei^. The vote which he received was that of a solid plialanx of earnest men, who had resolved that Freedom should be Lencefortb national, and Slavery should be and remain as it was meant to be when the Constitution was adopted. They formed a body of nearly 2,000,000 voters, wbo carried for Mr. Lincoln the electoral votes of the States of Maine, New Ilampslure, Vermont, Massachusetts, Ehode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California. That the consequences of that election have been 42 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. very different from wliat was anticipated by the great body of the people is unquestionably true. Few men of any party then understood the secret influences that were conspiring against the peace and integrity of the Union, and fewer still were willing to believe any con- siderable portion of the people capable of so gigantic a crime as the attempted overthrow of the great Eepublic of the world, either to revenge a party defeat or to per- petuate the slavery of the negro race. No man can justly be held responsible even for the consequences of his own action, any farther than, in the exercise of a just and fair judgment, he can foresee them. In elect- ing Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, the American peo- ple intended to erect a permanent bulwark against the territorial extension of slavery, and the perpetuation of its political power. If they had foreseen the madness of its defenders, they might have shrunk from the dreadful ordeal through which that madness has com- pelled the nation to pass, but in this, as in all the af- fairs of human life, ignorance of the future often proves the basis and guarantee of its wise development : and we believe that even now, with their experience, through three of the stormiest and most terrible years this na- tion has ever seen, of the sagacity, integrity, and un- swerving patriotism with which President Lincoln has performed the duties of his high office, and with their clearer perception of the ultimate issue of that great contest between freedom and slavery, which the pro- gress of events had rendered inevitable, the people look back with entire satisfaction upon the vote which, in 1860, made Mr. Lincoln President of the United States. LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLX. 43 During the four months that intervened between tlie election of Mr. Lincoln and his inauguration, the con- spiracy which had been so .long ripening throughout the Southern States rapidly took on a menacing and dan- gerous form. The conspirators used his election to stir up the passions of the people, and where they were not able to carry the people with them, they did not hesitate to overawe them by violent measures. Under such ap- pliances, conventions in si^ States^— South Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas — passed ordinances of secession, and appointed delegates to meet in convention at Montgomery, Alabama. This convention met February 4. It adopted a provisional constitution for the Confederate States, and chose Jeffer- son Davis and Alexander H. Stephens President and Vice-President. The rebel government was at once put in operation, and measures were taken to prepare the moderate amount of force w'hich, in the view of the con- spirators, was all that would be necessary for the entire overthrow of the Government of the United States, and the establishment of their new power upon the ac- knowledged corner-stone of slavery. It cannot be denied that the course which was pur- sued at Washington was not calculated to give them any just idea of the labor which they had undertaken. Mr. Buchanan, with a pusillanimous desire to avoid a col- lision during his official existence, careless of whatever deluge might come after him, proclaimed that the Gov- ernment had no i-ight or power to resist this attack made upon the life of the nation, and lifted not a linger to pre- vent the seizure of the forts and Government posts and property, until, throughout the seceded States, the Hag of the United States floated over Fort Sumter and Fort 44 LIFE OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN. Pickens alone, and around these hostile battery after battery was rising and regiments were gathering, eager to drive out the feeble garrisons which still there main- tained their countrj^'s honor. The feeling at the North was one of great anxiety, although there was very little anticipation that the re- bellion would be pushed to the bloody arbitrament of arms. The people had confidence in the lionesty and patriotism of the leader whom they had chosen, and they trusted that a short experience would be enough to con- vince the people of the Southern States that their rights were in no danger at the hands of the incoming admin- istration, and that the tempest would die away, though muttering, along the distant horizon. It was while this tempest was thus rising that Mr. Lincoln on February 11th, 1861, left his home at Spring- field, 111., to go to Washington. It was an anxious moment for him, and that he felt it as such was clearly shown by the words in which he bade farewell to his neighbors who had accompanied him to the cars. "My friends," said he, "no one not in my position can appreciate the sadness 1 feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. 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. A dnty devolves upon me which is, perhaps, greater than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Wash- ington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine aid which sustained him, and on the same Almighty Being I place my rehance for support, and I LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 45 hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain.. Again, I bid you all an afifectionate farewell." Mr. Lincoln, upon this journey, passed through In- dianapolis, Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, New York, Trenton, Philadelphia and Harrisburg. He met the Legislatures of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, w^hich were then in session at the capitals of those States, and to them and to the crowds of citizens which gathered everywhere along his way he made brief addresses, the main scope of which was to say that if the people only stood firm in maintaining the Constitution and the Gov- ernment, no power could overthrow them. At Philadelphia, information was communicated to him of a plot which was on foot to assassinate him at Baltimore. The existence of such a plot had been sus- pected before. Threats had been freely made by the more fanatical Southern men that he never would reach Washington alive. An attempt w^as made to throw from the track the car in which he was riding, on his journey through Ohio; and, just as he was leaving Cincinnati, a hand-grenade was found to have been secreted on board the cars. Investigations were set on foot which revealed the fact that a small gang of assas- sins, under the leadership of an Italian who assumed the name of Orsini, had undertaken to do the work of the slaveholders, by murdering Mr. Lincoln as he passed through Baltimore. The only precaution which he took against this attack was to leave Harrisburg one train earlier than had been expected. He thus passed through Baltimore in the night, and arrived in Wash- 46 LIFE OF ABKAHAM LIXCOLN. ington on the morning of Saturday, the 23d of Febru- ary, where his safe arrival was greeted wnth joy by his friends, and ill-concealed disappointment by his enemies. The threats against his life were continued, and but for the watchfulness and determination of his friends, and the care and military preparations of General Scott, it is quite probable that his inauguration would never have taken place. That important event took place on the 4:th of March, 1861. Before taking the oath of office, Mr. Lincoln delivered his inaugural address to an immense crowd which had gathered in front of the Capitol to hear it and to witness the ceremony. The address was a plain, straightforward talk from the heart of an honest man to the people. He began by showing, in the clearest way, that there was no ground for the appre- hension which seemed to exist at the South that " their property, their peace and their personal security were to be endangered." He declared that he took the oath to support the Constitution " with no mental reserva- tions." He argued briefly and clearly the question of secession, averring that, in spite of all that had been done at the South, the Union was unbroken, and he should, to the extent of his ability, take care " that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the States ;" that in doing this there would be no bloodshed, '' unless it be forced upon the national authority," but that the power of the Government would be used " to hold, occupy and possess the property and places be- longing to the Government, and to collect the duties and imposts ;" and he closed his address with an earnest ap- peal to all who really loved the Union, to pause and consider *' before entering upon so grave a matter as the LITE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLIS". 47 destruction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, its meriiories and its hopes." " In your hands, my dis- satisfied fellow countrymen," said he, " 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 destroy the Gov- ernment, while I shall have the most solemn one to ' preserve, protect and defend' it. I am loth to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be ene- mies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cord of mem- ory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." Mr. Lincoln set himself at once at work upon the arduous duties of his office, constructing his Cabi- net, appointing officers throughout the country, and preparing, as far as possible, to repel any attack which might be made upon the Government. The treachery of Mr. Buchanan and his Cabinet had scattered the Navy of the United States to the four quarters of the globe, and sent almost all of its small Army to where a similar act of treachery on the part of General Twiggs rendered .it useless. A small expedition was, however, prepared at New York, which was understood to be for the relief of the imperilled garrision of Fort Sumter, whose supplies had been stopped by the authorities at Charleston, so that the day when they must leave the fort, if not re- lieved, was close at hand. The rebel leaders, however, did not choose to await that day. They opened their 48 LIFE OF ABEAHAM LINCOLI^-. guns upon Fort Sumter on the 12th of April, and after a bombardment of thirty-three hours, compelled the gar- rison to surrender. They thus proved the truth of Mr. Lincoln's words, that they would be the aggressors if any conflict ^vas to arise. This attack upon the Government was greeted throughout the North with a universal cry of indig- nation. The fires of patriotism, w^hich the conspirators had supposed to be buried for ever beneath selfishness and greed, burst forth with volcanic flames, which shriveled party ties and selfish interests like stubble. The people rose as one man to the defense of their Gov- ernment and their flag ; and even those whose sympathies had till then been with the South, were compelled either to join openly in the popular movement against the re- bellion, or to keep silence. Nor was the aid and sym- pathy, which Mr. Lincoln received from those who had opposed him, compulsory only. There was a large class who joined as heartily in standing by him, as any of his supporters. They had opposed him in the Presidential election ; they had been prepared to oppose his Admin- istration politically ; but when the Government was thus assailed, they forgot all former opposition, and came enthusiastically to its support. "We cannot give a better idea of the state of feeling among this large part of the Democratic party, than by quoting a speech of Senator Douglas to the citizens of Chicago, on the 1st day of May ; and it must not be thought that this was a solitary and incongruous utter- ance from him. From the -time of the election he had used all his influence to check the current which was hurrying the country into civil war. He had visited LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 49 the South, and spoken in several cities in favor of the Union, and of abiding by the result of the election into which the Southern people had gone and in which they had been fairly defeated. . His words fell on deaf ears, and he was finally insulted by a mob in ISTew Orleans, and came home to stand by the Government. The words of this Chicago speech of his are as applicable now as then. We should never for a moment forget that " there can be no neutrals in this war ; only j^airiots^ or traitor s^ The speech was delivered at the Wigwam, in which Mr. Lincoln was nominated, packed with ten thousand persons, and is as follows*: " Mr. Chairman — I thank you for the kind terms in which you have been pleased to welcome me. I thank the Committee and citizens of Chicago for this grand and imposing reception. I beg you to believe that I will not do you nor myself the injustice to be- lieve this magnificent ovation is personal homage to myself. I rejoice to know that it expresses your de- votion to the Constitution, the Union, and the flag of our country. " I will not conceal my gratification at the incontro- vertible test this vast audience presents — that whatever political differences or party questions may have divided us, yet you all had a conviction, that when the country should be in danger, my loyalty could be relied on. That the present danger is imminent, no man can con- ceal. If war must come,, if the bayonet must be used to maintain the Constitution, I can say before God that my conscience is clear. I have struggled long for a 3 50 LIFE OF ABEAHAjI LINCOLN. peaceful solution of the difficulty. I have not only tendered those States what was theirs of right, but I have gone to the very extreme of magnanimity. " The return we receive is war, armies marched upon our Capitol, obstructions and dangers to our navigation, letters of marque to invite pirates to prey upon our commerce, a concerted movement to blot out the United States of America from the map of the globe. The question is, Are we to maintain the country of our fathers, or allow it to be stricken down by those who, when they can no longer govern, threaten to destroy ? " What cause, what excuse do disunionists give us for breaking up the best government on which the sun of heaven ever shed its rays ? They are dissatisfied with the result of a Presidential election. Did they never get beaten before ? Are we to resort to the sword when we get defeated at the ballot-box? I understand it, that the voice of the people, expressed in the mode appointed by the Constitution, must command the obedience of every citizen. They assume, on the elec- tion of a particular candidate, that their rights are not safe in the Union. AVhat evidence do they present of this? I defy any man to show any act on which it is based ? What act . has been omitted to be done ? I appeal to these assembled thousands that, so far as the constitutional rights of the Southern States — I will say the constitutional rights of slaveholders — are concerned, nothing has been done, and nothing omitted, of which they can complain. " There has never been a* time, from the day that Washington was inaugurated first President of these United States, when the rights of the Southern States LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 51 stood firmer under the laws of the land than they do now ; there never was a time when they had not as good a cause for disunion as they have to day. What good cause have they now that has not existed under every Administration ? " If they say the Territorial question — now, for the first time, there is no Act of Congress prohibiting slavery any where. If it be the non-enforcement of the laws, the only complaints that I have heard have been of the too vigorous and faithful fulfilment of the Fugi- tive Slave Law. Then what reason have they ? " The slavery question -is a mere excuse ; the election of Lincoln is a mere pretext. The present secession movement is the result of an enormous conspiracy formed more than a year since, formed by leaders in the Southern Confederacy more than twelve months ago. " They used the slavery question as a means to aid the accomplishment of their ends. They desired the election of a Northern candidate by a sectional vote, in order to show that the two sections cannot live together. When the history of the two years from the Lecompton charter down to the Presidential election, shall be writ- ten, it will be shown that the scheme was deliberately made to break up this Union. * * *.* ^ But this is no time for a detail of causes. The conspiracy is now known. Armies have been raised; war is levied to accomplish it. There are only two sides to the question. Every man must be for the United States, or against it. There can be no neutrals in this war ; only patriots^ or traitors. " Thank God, Illinois is' not divided on this question. I know they expected to present a united South against a divided North. They hoped that, in the Northern 52 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. States, party questions would bring civil war between Democrats and Kepublicans, when the South would stop in with her cohorts, aid one party to conquer the other, and then make easy prey of the victors. Their scheme was carnage and civil war at the North. * -^ * -^ * ^e cannot close our eyes to the sad and solemn fact that war does exist. The Government must be maintained, its enemies overthrown, and the more stupendous our preparations, the less the bloodshed and the shorter the struggle. But we must remember certain restraints on our actions even in time of war. We are a Christian people, and the war must be prosecuted in a manner recognized by Christian nations. "We must not invade constitu- tional rights. The innocent must not suffer, nor women and children be the victims. Savages must not be let loose. But while I sanction no war upon the rights of others, I will implore my countrymen not to lay down their arms until oar own rights are recognized. The Constitution and its guarantees are our birthright, and I am ready to enforce that inalienable right to the last ex- tent. We cannot recognize secession. Recognize it once, and you have not only dissolved Government, but you have destroyed social order, upturned the founda- tions of society. You have inaugurated anarchy in its worst form, and will shortly experience all the horrors of the French Revolution. " Then we have a solemn duty — to maintain the Gov- ernment. The greater our unanimity, the speedier the day of peace. We have prejudices to overcome from the few short months since of a fierce party contest. Yet these must be allayed. Let us lay aside all criminations and recriminations as ' to the origin of these difficulties. LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 53 When we shall have again a country with the United States flaoj floating over it, and respected on every inch of American soil, it will then be time enough to ask who and what brought all this upon us. "I have said more than I intended to say. It is a sad task to discuss questions so fearful as civil war ; but sad as it is, bloody and disastrous as I expect it will be, I express it as my conviction before God, that it is the duty of every American citizen to rally round the flag of his country. " I thank you again for this magnificent demonstra- tion. By it you show that you have laid aside party strife. Illinois has a proud position — united, firm, de- termined never to permit the Government to be de- stroyed.'' Amid this outburst of patriotism among the people, the President on his part did not hesitate in the course which it behooved the Government to adopt. On the 15th of April he issued a proclamation calling out Y5,000 militia to suppress the insurrection, and summoning Congress to meet in extra session on July 4th. On the 19th of April, by another proclamation, he declared the ports of the seceded States under blockade. Strong efforts were made, chiefly by leaders from Baltimore, to induce him to refrain from bringing troops to Washington; but he resisted them, maintaining always the positions which he had taken in his inaugural address. The Virginia Convention sent three delegates to Washington to ask him to communicate to the Convention the policy which he intended to pursue in regard to the Confederate States ; to which request the President sent a brief an- swer, reiterating the policy which he had ao clearly laid down, and declaring that he should, if he could, repos- 64 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. sess Fort Sumter and all other places which had been seized before the Government devolved upon him, and should, in any event, to the extent of his ability, " repel force by force." Two days after the receipt of this communication by that Convention, it was dragooned into passing an ordi- nance of secession, which, it was voted, should be sub- mitted to the people. The leaders, however, imme- diately began hostilities against the United States, as if the vote had been already taken, and boldly an- nounced that, if any one voted against secession, he must leave the State. The rebel government was transferred to Richmond on the 21st of May, and the rebel army was pushed forward to be within striking distance of Washington. Our Government also gathered together forces, and till the battle of Bull Run, the Northern people were confident that the rebellion w^ould be speedily put down. That defeat, however, opened their eyes, and during the Fall of that year great exertions were made and a large army was collected at Washington, where it was organ- ized by General McClellan, who had been called to the capital, and, on the resignation of Gen. Scott-, had been put in command. During the months of that Fall the President's thoughts were busied with the great interests and responsibilities which were connected with the action of Congress in shaping the course which the Government should take, and in providing means for the raising and maintaining of large armies throughout the country ; with the finding out and putting in places of trust of men who were heartily loyal to the Government ; with the taking of active measures to counteract the schemes which LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 55 were being incessantly concocted by rebel sympathizers at the North to help the rebellion ; with the preservation of our foreign relations from entanglement, or possibly worse, and with a thousand great and intricate questions of public policy at home and abroad. The result of the case of the Trent, which, at one time, threatened to produce very serious results, was so disposed of as to place our Government in a decided vantage ground, and the words of the President, in his message to Congress on December 3d, 1861, were well warranted. Our Government " practised prudence and liberality toward foreign powers, averting causes of irri- tation, and with firmness maintaining our rights and honor." The questions arising out of slavery were naturally very troublesome and important. Efforts were made to induce the President to declare a general policy of eman- cipation, but in vain. The time for such a policy had not, in his opinion, yet come. Congress, at its extra session, had passed a law declaring that any slave used in aiding the rebellion should be free. Gen. Fremont, while in command of the Western Department, issued an order, on August 31, declaring martial law through- out the State of Missouri, confiscating the property of all who took up arms against the Government, and de- claring their slaves to be free men. The President, deem- ing that the time had not come for such action, made an order limiting the effect of Gen. Fremont's order to that fixed by the act of Congress. This action of his pro- voked censure from some, but most of the people were satisfied that he could tell better than they what course was best for the cause. It is certain that the effect of 56 LIFE OF ABE An AM LINCOLN. the course wliicli he pursued was to restrain the border States from throwing their fortunes openly with the other slaveholding States. But all these many interests did not prevent the President from watching over the movements of the Army, to which they were all subsidiary. It would be too long to tell the history of the delays which wasted month after month, while the country grew anxious and impatient. The patience of the President was at last exhausted, and on the 27th of January, 1862, he issued a General Order that a general movement of our armies against the rebels be made on the 22d of February fol- lowing. A special order was made for the movements of the Army of the Potoniac. Gen. McClellan insisted upon moving by the Peninsula, and was finally sustained by a council of war, which, however, made it a sine qua non that sufficient force should be left to protect the capital. The move was made, but the leaving of this sufficient force was a constant pretext for complaint on the part of Gen. McClellan. His Peninsular campaign was a continuation of the system of delays which had wasted the previous Autumn. The main feature of his communications to the Government was a constant call for reinforcements. Those of the President to him dis- played patience and a wisdom which might well have been heeded — a common sense which is an important part of generalship, and a determination to let no obstacle stand in the way of the accomplishment of the great design of saving the nation. Bat procrastination and inefficiency were too powerful for him. The army was driven from before Pichmond, and then, instead of being brought back in time to crush the rebel army in front of "Wash- LIFE OF ABEAHAM LIXCOLX. 57 ington, delays still wrought the same fearful result, and the long series of mishaps was crowned by the escape of Lee across the Potomac at Sharpsbnrg. During this time important events had transpired over the whole country, until the military aspect along the whole line of conflict, in spite of these misfortunes, was much better than it had been the year before. Great progress had been made in the feelings of the people on the slavery question. Slavery had been abol- ished in the District of Columbia, and the Army had been forbidden to return fugitives to their masters. Gen. Hunter in South Carolina had, in May, 1862, declared the slaves in his department to be free, because slavery and martial law were incompatible, but the President revoked this order as he had General Fremont's, be- cause, in his opinion, such action should not be left to commanders in the field, but must be the result of his own decision. He endeavored heartily to induce the border States to take action themselves looking to the ultimate emancipation of the slaves, but without success. Yet the feeling of the people became more and more hostile to slavery as the cause of the war and of its long continuance. More and more decided action was plainly called for, and the reasons against the adoption of an avowed policy of emancipation became every day weaker. On the 22d of September, 1862, the President having become satisfied that the "paramount object" which he had in view, of saving the Union, would be assisted by such a step, issued the preliminary proclamation ol emancipation, declaring that on the 1st of January, 1863, "all persons held as slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then 58 LIFE OF ABRAHAil LINCOLN. be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then thenceforward and forever free." He thus gave to the people of the Southern States again an opportunity to choose between rebellion with emancipation, and obe- dience to the Government with the preservation of their slaves. They chose the former, and on the 1st of January, 1863, he issued the immortal Proclamation of Emanci- pation, in which, " by virtue of the power" in him vested, " as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion," and " as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion," he did, in accordance with his purpose announced a hundred days previous, designate the States and parts of States then in rebellion, and ordered and declared that all persons held as slaves within their limits, '' are and henceforward shall be free, an'd that the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons." This proclamation has been the subject of a great deal of discussion ever since. If it has not accomplished all that some expected it to do, its results have well justi- fied its issue. It defined the position of the Government clearly, and drew a line by which its friends and its ene- mies were thenceforth clearly divided. It drew to our side more unmistakably the sympathies of the friends of freedom everywhere, and shut up the path of the friends of the rebellion. From that day open help from abroad for the rebels has been impossible. It also showed the colored people that the path to the free- dom of their race clearly lay through the success of the Government, and the thousands of them who have since brought their strong arms to uphold the "stars and LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 59 stripes," and who have won a recognition of their courage in spite of hostility and detraction have given a testi- mony, which can never be broken down, in favor of the Proclamation. The prominent military features of the year 1863 were the forward movement of the Army of the Poto- mac under General Hooker, which was stopped by its defeat at Chancellorsville ; the incursion of Lee's army into Maryland and Pennsylvania, which was stopped by his defeat at Gettysburg ; the glorious campaign of Gen- eral Grant on the Mississippi, which culminated on the 4th of July, in the surrender of Vicksburg, and which, with the capture of Port Hudson, accomplished the opening of the Mississippi and the division of the rebel territory; and the march of the Army of the Cumber- land, driving Bragg before it beyond Chattanooga, its defeat at Chickamauga, and its subsequent glorious suc- cess at Missionary Kidge, which secured the hold which our arms had gained of East Tennessee. The victory at Gettysburg was briefly announced to the people by the President, with the request that thanksgiving be every- where offered for the success of our arms, and on the 15th of July, in view of this and the great successes in the Southwest, he appointed the 6th of August as a day of J^ational Thanksgiving. Prominent among the other incidents of the year was the arrest of Mr. Yallandigham by General Burnside, his trial and sentence, by a military tribunal, to impris- onment during the war, and the commutation of the sentence by the President to his removal beyond the lines. This action of the authorities was the occasion of a great outcry from the opposers of the Administration. 60 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLX. A large meeting of them was held in Albany on the sub- ject, to which Governor Seymour sent his famous letter, in which he said that, having thus far supported the Ad- ministration in the conduct of the war, they " now paused to see what kind of a Government it was." A copy of their resolutions was forwarded to the President, who wrote a letter in answer, arguing the question in the most clear and comprehensive way upon constitutional grounds, and grounds of common sense. The following brief summing up of the whole question was every where accepted as conclusive : " Must I shoot a simple-minded soldier-boy who deserts, while I must not touch a hair of a wily agi- tator who induces him to desert ? This is none the less injurious when effected by getting a father or brother or friend into a public meeting, and there workin^'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." The Ohio Democratic Convention made Vallandig- ham their candidate for Governor, and a Committee ap- pointed by it waited on the President to procure the re- call of their candidate. To this request the President sent an equally conclusive answer, and put these cavilers clearly in the wrong by telling them that he would re- lease Vallandigham without asking any pledge from him, if only a majority of the Committee w^ould, in writing, commit themselves to the following propositions : "1. That there is now rebellion in the United States, the object and tendency of which is to destroy the na- LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 61 tional Union ; and that, in your opinion, an Army and ISTavy are constitutional means for suppressing that re- bellion. "2. That no one of you will do anything which, in his own judgment, will tend to hinder the increase, or favor the decrease, or lessen the efficiency of the Army and Navy while engaged in the effort to suppress that rebellion. " 3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do all he can to have the officers, soldiers and seamen of the Army and Navy, while engaged in the effi)rt to suppress the rebel- lion, paid, fed, clad, and otherwise well provided for and supported." Their refusal to pledge themselves to propositions so acceptable to every loyal man, was conclusive as to their purposes, and Ohio rejected them and their candidate by over 100,000 majority. The sympathizers with the rebels at the North did not confine themselves to mere representations to the Presi- dent. Their hostility to the Grovernment culminated in riotous attempts to resist the draft, the most serious of which was in New York city, where they gained the upper hand of the authorities till put down by the Me- tropolitan Police and the troops, with the loss of many lives and the destruction of much property. This riot was made the occasion for strong urging of the President to abandon the idea of enforcing the draft, but he was not in the least shaken by it in his determination that the law should be enforced. Governor Seymour's de- clining to take measures to keep the peace when 'it was to be enforced, rendered it necessary to send troops to New York from the Army of the Potomac, and the sym- 62 LIFE OF ABE AH All LINCOLN. patliizers with the rebels were thus at least able to fur- nish to them valuable assistance, for, by reason of this depletion of that army, Lee was enabled to send Long- street and his corps to Georgia, where their presence was the cause of our defeat at Chickamauga. The enforce- ment of the law in New York city was, however, com- plete, and produced a good efiect all through the country. The President on repeated occasions during the year was called*on to address the people, and never without saying some words of cheer or instruction. One of the best of these short speeches was delivered on the occa- sion of the dedication of the Soldiers' Cemetery at Get- tysburg, on November i9th, 1863, and was as follows : " Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. AVe have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting- place for those who here gave their lives that that na- tion might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. " But in a larger sense we cannot dedicate, we can- not consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who straggled here have consecrated 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 liere. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 03 thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for ns to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us ; that from these honored dead we talvc increased devo- tion to that cause for which they gave the last full meas- ure of devotion ; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." A letter which he wrote in August, in answer to an invitation to attend the State Convention in Illinois, was also very acceptable to all true lovers of their country. Its simple logic applied to the troublesome questions of the day, and making them plain by the clear light which it threw upon them, was very satisfactory to the minds of the people, while their hearts were touched by its homely and genial spirit, its calm determination and its cheerful hope. The political action of the people throughout the Northern States was, this year, far more favorable to the Administration than in 1862. Confidence in the Presi- dent had grown among the people. His entire honesty of purpose, his clear headed sagacity and sound common sense, and his intense love for the principles of freedom, had gained for him their trust and affection, and every State, except New Jersey, cast heavy popular majorities in favor of the Administration. There had begun to be, before Congress met, a good deal of discussion as to the mode iu which the people in the seceded States should be dealt with, as the military power of the rebellion was driven out of them. Our armies had won such successes that the question began 64 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. to be a practical one in Louisiana, Tennessee and Arkan- sas. In the President's message to Congress on Decem- ber 9th, 1863, he took up this question. He treated it as a practical matter which it behooved him to take in hand, and he annexed to his message the famous Am- nesty Proclamation. By this Prochimation he offered a free pardon to all persons who had participated in the rebellion, " with restoration of all rights of property, ex- cept as to slaves and in property cases where rights of third parties should have intervened," on condition of their taking and keeping an oath to support, protect and defend the Constitution and the Union and abide by and support all acts of Congress passed during the rebellion with reference to slaves, unless repealed, or modified, or made void by Congress or the Supreme Court, and all proclamations of the President with reference to slaves, unless modified, or made void by decision of the Su- preme Court. Certain ranks of rebel officers and offi- cials were excepted from the benefits of the Proclama- tion. It also provided that whenever, in any of the se- ceded States, a number of persons not less in number than one-tenth of the votes cast in such State at the Presidential election of 1860, who had taken and kept the oath above mentioned, and who were voters by the election laws of the State before it seceded, should re- establish a State government, which should be republi- can and not contravene that oath, it should be recognized as the true government of the State, and should, as pro- vided by the Constitution, be guaranteed a republican form of government, and be protected against invasion and domestic violence. This scheme was presented as " a mode in and by LIFE OF ABE All AM LINCOLN. 65 wbich. the national autliority and loyal State govern- ments may be reestablished" within the States. It dif- fered widely from the views held by some of our states- men, who had claimed that there could be no such thino: as '' true governments" of the seceded States until re- formed by Congress, by passing through a territorial condition. The President's view, however, was sustained with remarkable unanimity by the Convention of the Union party at Baltimore, which admitted to participiite in its action delegates from the seceded States, even though no such State governments had been formed, and took its candidate for Yice President from Tennessee. Such governments have been formed in Louisiana and in Arkansas. Fears were expressed by some lest these State governments, so formed, should prove themselves not true to freedom, but be still infected with the old poison of slavery. But thus far the reverse has been the effect, and each State has hastened to prohibit slavery within its borders. The Union men of the South, who have seen for themselves the evil effects of slavery, have been most determined that it should no longer stand to hinder the restoration of the Union, and most ready to pluck it up by the roots. Nor has this effect been confined to the seceded States. Both Mis- souri and Maryland have passed ordinances of emanci- pation. Kentucky has still held back, and her attitude in reference to slavery has sometimes given rise to un- pleasant apprehensions. Gov. Bramlette and some other Kentucky gentlemen, having called upon the President in relation to the draft in Kentucky, the fol- lowing letter from the President was called forth by the conversation which then ensued : 6Q LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Executive Mansion, Washington, April 4, 1864. A. Gr. Hodges, Esq., FranJcforty Ky. : My Dear Sir — You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I verbally said the other day, in your presence, to Governor Bram- lette ^nd Senator Dixon. It was about as follows : " I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power, and break the oath in using the power. I understood, too, that in ordinary civil adminis- tration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my primary abstract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judgment and feeling on slavery, I did understand, however, that my oath to preserve the Constitution to the best of my ability, im- posed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indispensable means, that Government — that nation, of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Constitution ? By general law, life and limb must be protected ; yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life ; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb, I felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might become lawful, by becoming indis- pensable to the preservation of the Constitution, through the preser- vation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the Constitution, if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of Government, country and Constitution altogether. When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable necessity. When a little later, General Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arm- ing of the blacks, I objected, because I did not yet think it an indis- LIFE OF AlJKAIIAiE LTXCOLX. G7 pensable necessity. When, still later, General ITuntcr attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. When, in :March, and May, and July, 18G2, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border States to flivor compensated emancipation, I believed the in- dispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alter- native of either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitu- tion, or of laying strong hand upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I was not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our home pop- ular sentiment, none in our white military force, no loss by it any- how, or anywhere. On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite a hun- dred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men, and we could not have had them without the measure. "And now let any Union man who complains of the measure, test hunself by writing down in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion by force of arms, and in the next that he is for taking three hundred and thirty thousand men from the Union side and placing them where they would be best for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his case so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth." I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In tell- ing this tale, 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 com- plicity in that wrong, impartial history will find tiierein new causes to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God. Yours, truly, (Signed,) A. LINCOLN. 68 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. As the time fixed for the meeting of the National Convention to nominate the candidates to be supported by the Unionists drew nigh, the question who was to be nominated came up for discussion. It was very soon seen that no name carried such strength with the people as that of Abraham Lincohi. There were some, of course, who were not satisfied with him, and some wbo feared for the result of his nomination ; and fi-om these quarters came a movement to Liave the meeting of the Convention postponed ; but Gov. Chase, who was the favorite candidate with most of them, having de- clined to allow his name to be used, the movement gained no strength. It was felt everywhere that Mr. Lincoln should be the man ; no man was so hated by the rebels ; no otlier nomination could so plainly tell them that the people of the North were united in their determination, made of their own free will, to maintain the Union and suppress the rebellion. In no othei*way could they be so well taught the lesson that, in a popu- lar Government, the will of the majority must rule, and that the substitution of bullets for ballots is a thing which can never be submitted to. The Convention, consisting of over five hundred dele- gates, met at Baltimore on Tuesday, June 8th, 186-i. It was called to order by Senator Morgan, the Chairman of the National Committee ; Dr. Kobert J. Breckin- ridge of Kentucky was chosen temporary Chairman, and made a speech to the Convention of great power. His position and character, his knowledge of the mat- ters of which he spoke by dread experience, his lofty patriotism and burning earnestness gave his speech great effect. Ex-Gov. Dennison of Ohio was chosen perma- nent Chairman of the Convention, with twenty-three LIFE OF ABEAHAM LINCOLN. 69 Vice Presidents and twenty-three Secretaries. The fol- lowing was the platform adopted on the second day without a whisper of dissent. THE BALTIMORE PLATFORM. Resolved^ That it is the higliest duty of every American citizen to maintain against all their enemies the integrity of the Union and the paramount authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States ; and that, laying aside all differences and political opinions, we pledge ourselves as Union men, animated hy a com- mon sentiment and aiming at a common object, to do every thing in our power to aid the Government in quelling by force of arms the rebellion now raging against its authority, and in bringing to the punishment due to their crimes the rebels and traitors arrayed against it. Resolved^ That we approve the determination of the Govern- ment of the United States not to compromise with rebels, or to offer any terms of peace except such as may be based upon an unconditional surrender of their hostility and a return to their just allegiance to the Constitution and laws of the United States, and that we call upon the Government to maintain this position and to prosecute the war with the utmost possible vigor to the complete suppression of the rebellion, in full reliance upon the self-sacrifices, the patronism, the heroic valor and the undying devotion of the American people to their country and its free institutions. Resolved^ That as slavery was the cause and now constitutes the strength of this rebellion, and as it must be always and every- where hostile to the principles of republican government, justice and the national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of the republic ; and that we uphold and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the Government, in its own defense, has aimed a death-blow at the gigantic evil. We are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution, to be made by the people, in conformity with its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the limits or the jurisdiction of the United States. YO LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Eesolved, That, the thanks of the American people are due to the soldiers and sailors of the Army and the Navy, who have periled their lives in defense of their country and in vindication of the honor of the flag; that the nation owes to them some per- manent recognition of their patriotism and their valor, and ample and permanent provision for those of their survivors who have ■ received disabling and honorable wounds in the service of their country, and that the memories of those who have fallen in its defense shall be held in grateful and everlasting remembrance. Resolved^' That we approve and applaud the practical wisdom, the unselfish patriotism, and the unswerving fidelity to the Con- stitution and the principles of American liberty with which Abraham Lincoln has discharged, under circumstances of unpar- alleled difliculty, the great duties and responsibilities of the Presi- dential office; that we approve and endorse, as demanded by the emergency and essential to the perservation of the nation, and as within the provisions of the Constitution, the measures and acts which he has adopted to defend the nation against its open and secret foes ; that we approve especially the Proclamation of Eman- cipation and the employment as Union soldiers of men heretofore held in slavery ; and that we have full confidence in his deter- mination to carry these and all other constitutional measures, essential to the salvation of the country, into full and complete effect. EesoUed, That we deem it essential to the general welfare that harmony should prevail in our national councils, and we regard as worthy of public confidence and official trust those only who cordially endorse the principles proclaimed in these resolutions, and which should characterize the administration of the Govern- ment. Resolved^ That the Government owes to all men employed in its armies, without regard to distinction of color, the full pro- tection of the laws of war, and that any violation of these laws, or the usages of civilized nations in time of war, by the rebels now in arms, should be made the subject of prompt and full redress. Resolved^ That the foreign immigration which in the past has LIFE OF ABKAIIAM LINCOLN. Vl added so much to the wealth, devehjpment of resources, and in- crease of power to this nation, the asyhnn of the oppressed of all nations, should be fostered and encouraged by a liberal and just policy. Resolved^ That we are in favor of a speedy construction of tho railroad to the Pacific. Hesolved, That the national faith, pledged for the redemption of the public debt, must be kept inviolate, and that for this purpose we recommend economy and rigid responsibility in the public ex- penditures, and a vigorous and just system of taxation. That it is the duty of every loyal state to sustain the credit and promote the use of the national currency. Resolved^ That we approve the position taken by the Govern- ment : that the people of the United States can never regard with indifference the attempt of any Foreign Power to overthrow by force, or to supplant by fraud, the institutions of any lie publican Government on the Western Continent; and that they will view with extreme jealousy, as menacing to the peace and independence of this our country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new footholds for monarchical governments, sustained by foreign mili- tary force, in near proximity to the United States. After the adoption of tlie platform, a motion was made that Abraham Lincohi be nominated for Presi- dent b}^ acclamation. It had been known from the first that no other result could be arrived at. Dr. Breckinridge in his address had said, "It is just as certain, now before jou utter it, whose name you will utter, and which will be responded to from one end to the other of this nation, as it will after it has been uttered and recorded by your Secretary." But it was thought best not to take a vote by accla- mation, but by ballot in the usual way, to prevent the falsehood which would otherwise have declared that the nomination was not the free choice of the Convention, V2 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. but was imposed upon it by clamor. The ballot was held, and the only votes that were not given to Abra- ham Lincoln were the twenty-two votes of Missouri, which, as was explained by the Chairman of the Delega- tion, were given under positive instructions, for Gren. Grant. Mr. Lincoln received four hundred and ninety- seven votes, and, on motion of Mr. Hume of Missouri, the nomination was made unanimous, amid intense en- thusiasm. The Convention having finished its business, ad- journed at the close of the second day. On Thursday, June 9th, the Committee appointed by the Convention to inform Mr. Lincoln of his nomination, waited upon him at the White House. Gov. Dennison, the Presi- dent of the Convention and Chairman of the Commit- tee, addressed him as follows : Mr, President : The National Union Convention, whicli closed its sittings at Baltimore yesterday, appointed a Committee, con- sisting of one from each State, with myself as Chairman, to in- form you of your unanimous nomination by that Convention for election to the office of President of the United States. That Com- mittee, I have the honor of now informing you, is present. On its behalf I have also the honor of presenting you with a copy of the resolutions or platform adopted by that Convention, as expressive of its sense and of th© sense of the loyal people of the country which it represents, of the principles and policy that should char- acterise the administration of the Government in the present con- dition of the country. I need not say to you, sir, that the Con- vention, in thus unanimously nominating you for reelection, but gave utterance to the almost universal voice of the loyal people of the country. To doubt of your triumphant election would be little short of abandoning the hope of a final suppression of the re1)ellion and the restoration of the Government of the insurgent States. Neither the Convention nor those represented by that body entertained any doubt as to the final result, under your ad- LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 73 ministration, sustained bj the loyal people, and by our noble Army and gallant Navy. Neither did the Convention, nor do this Com- mitcee, doubt the speedy suppression of this most wicked and un- provoked rebellion. A copy of the resolutions was here handed to the President. I would add, Mr. President, that it would be the pleasure of the Committee to communicate to you within a few days, through one of its most accomplished members, Mr. Curtis, of New -York, by letter, more at length the circumstances under which you have been placed in nomination for the Presidency. The President said : Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Committee: I will neither conceal my gratification, nor restrain the expression of my gratitude, that the Union people, through their Convention, in the continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me not unworthy to remain in my present position. I know no reason to doubt that I shall accept the nomination tendered ; and yet, perhaps, I should not declare definitely before reading and con- sidering what is called the platform. I will say now, however, that I approve the declaration in favor of so amending the Con- stitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the nation. When the people in revolt, with the hundred days' explicit notice that they could within those days resume their allegiance without the over- throw of their institutions, and that they could not resume it afterward, elected to stand out, such an amendment of the Con- stitution as is now proposed became a fitting and necessary con- clusion to the final success of the Union cause. Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. I now perceive its importance and em- brace it. In the joint names of Liberty and Union let us labor to give it legal form and practical effect. At the conclusion of the President's speech, all of the Committee shook him cordially by the hand and offered their personal congratulations. And so Abraham Lincoln comes a second time before the people of the United States for their suffrages, not by any procurement of his own, however. ITc did not 4 74 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LIXCOLN^. lift a finger to secure his own re- nomination. The Con- vention that nominated him was fresh from the people, and represented the wishes of the people to a remark- able degree. It is the people who have chosen him for their leader, because they have confidence in him, and because they are determined that the man against whom the slave holders rebelled when lawfully chosen to his high office, shall yet be obeyed throughout the whole country, South as well as North, as the President of an undivided nation. The letter of the Committee and the reply of Mr. Lincoln are as follows : ACCEPTANCE OF MR. LINCOLN. ADDRESS OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED AT BALTDIORE. Hox. Abraham Lincoln : New York, June 14, 1864. Sir — The National Union Convention, which assembled in Balti- more on June 7, 1864, has instructed us to inform you that you were nominated with enthusiastic unanimity for the Presidency of the United States for four years from the 4th of March next. The resolutions of the Convention, which we have already had the pleasure of placing in your hands, are a full and clear statement of the principles which inspired its action, and which, as we believe, the great body of Union men in the country heartily approve. Whether those resolutions express the national gratitude to our soldiers and sailors, or the national scorn of compromise with rebels, and consequent dishonor, or the patriotic duty of union and success ; whether they approve the Proclamation of Emancipation, the consti- tutional amendment, the employment of former slaves as Union sol- diers, or the solemn obligation of the Government promptly to redi'ess the wrongs of every soldier of the Union, of whatever color or race ; whether they declare the inviolability of the pledged faith of the nation, or offer the national hospitality to the oppressed of every land, or urge the union by railroad of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans ; whether they recommend public economy and vigorous tax- ation, or assert the fixed popular opposition to the establishment by LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 75 armed force of foreign monarchies in the immediate neighborhood of the United. States, or declare that those only are worthy of official trust who approve unreservedly the views and policy indicated in the resolutions — they were equally hailed with th3 heartiness of profound conviction. Believing with you, sir, that this is the people's war for the main- tenance of a Government which 3^ou have justly described as " of the people, by the people, for the people," we are very sure that you will be glad to know, not only from the resolutions themselves, but from the singular harmony and enthusiasm with which they were adopted, how warm is the popular welcome of every measure in the prosecution of the war, which is as vigorous, unmistakable and un- faltering as the national purpose itself No right, for instance, is so precious and sacred to the American heart as that hi personal lib- erty. Its violation is regarded with just, instant, and universal jeal- ousy. Yet, in this hour of peril, every faithful citizen concedes that, for the sake of national existence and the common welfare, individual liberty may, as the Constitution provides in case of rebellion, be sometimes summarily constrained, asking only with painful anxiety that in every instance, and to the least detail, that absolute necessary power shall not be hastily or unwisely exercised. We believe, sir, that the honest will of the Union men of the coun- try was never more truly represented than in this Convention. Their purpose we believe to be the overthrow of armed rebels in the field, and the security of permanent peace and union, by liberty and justice, under the Constitution. That these results are to be achieved amid cruel perplexities, they are fully aware. That they are to be reached only through cordial unanimity of counsel, is un- deniable. That good men may sometimes differ as to the means and the time, they know. That in the conduct of all human affairs the highest duty is to determine, in the angry conflict of passion, how much good may be practically accomplished, is their sincere persua- sion. They have w'atched your official course, therefore, with un- flagging attention ; and amid the bitter taunts of eager friends and the fierce denunciation of enemies, now moving too fast for some, now too slowly for others, they have seen you throughout this tre- mendous contest patient, sagacious, faithful, just ; leaning upon the heart of the 'great mass of the people, and satisfied to be moved by its mighty pulsations. ^6 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. It is for this reason that, long before the Convention met, the pop- ular instinct indicated you. as its candidate ; and the Convention, therefore, merely recorded the popular will. Your character and career prove your unswerving fidelity to the cardinal principles of American liberty and of the American Constitution. In the name of that liberty and Constitution, sir, we earnestly request your ac- ceptance of this nomination ; reverently commending our beloved country, and you, its Chief Magistrate, with all its brave sons who, on sea and land, are faithfully defending the good old American cause of equal rights, to the blessing of Almighty God. We are, sir, very respectfully, your friends and follow citizens, WM. DENNISON.G., Chairman. JOSIAH DRUMMOXD, Maine. THOS. E. SAWYER, N. H. BRADLEY BARLOW, Vt. A. H. BULLOCK, Mass. A. M. GAMMELL, R. L C. S. BUSHXELL, Conn. G. W. CURTIS, N. Y. W. A. NEWELL, N. J. HEXRY JOHNSON, Penn. N. B. SMITHERS, Del. W. L. W. SEABROOK, Md. JOHN F. HUME, Mo. G. W. HITE, Ky. E. P. TYFFE, Ohio. CYRUS M. ALLEN. Ind. W. BUSHNELL, III. L. P. ALEXANDER, Mich. A. W. RANDALL, Wis. A. OLIVER, Iowa. THOMAS SIMPSON, Minn. JOHN BIDWELL, Cal. THOMAS H. PEARNE, Oregon. LEROY KRAMER, West Va. A. C. WILDER, Kansas. M. M. BRIEN, Tennessee. J. P. GREVES, Nevada. A. A. ATOCHA, La. A. S. PADDOCK, Nebraska. VALENTINE DELL, Arkansas. JOHN A. NYE, Colorado. A. B. SLOANAKER, Utah. KEPLT OF MR. LINCOLN. Executive Mansion, Washington, June 27, 1864. Hon. Wm. Dennison and others^ a Committee of the Union National Committee : Gentlemen — Your letter of the 14th inst., formally notifying me that I have been nominated by the Convention you represent for the Presidency of the United States for four years from the 4th of March next has been received. The nommation is gratefully accepted, as LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ^7 the resolutions of the Convention, called the platform, are heartily- approved. While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican government upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, there might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the Government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed through the State Department and endorsed by the Convention among the measures and acts of the Executive, will be faithfully maintained so long as the state of facts shall leave that position per- tinent and applicable. I am especially gratified that the soldier and the seaman were not forgotten by the Convention, as they forever must and will be re- membered by the grateful country for whose salvation they devote their Hves. Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the Convention, I subscribe myself, Your obedient servant, ABRAHAM LINCOLN". In so brief a sketch of Mr. Lincoln's life, we have been compelled to omit very many matters of interest. A full account of even the last four years of it would fill volumes. But we have endeavored to give a just idea of the man himself. A prominent statesman of the country once said that after having studied the character of Mr. Lincoln carefully, he had come to the conclusion that God had raised him up to carry the nation through the rebellion, just as Washington was raised up to carry it through the Revolution, and certainly no one of his predecessors, not even Washington, encoun- tered difficulties of equal magnitude, or was called to perform duties of equal responsibility. He was elected by a minority of the popular vote, and his election was regarded by a majority of the people as the immediate occasion, if not the cause of civil war; yet upon him devolved the necessity of carrying on that 78 LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. war, and of corabiningr and wieldins: the enercjies of the nation for its successful prosecution. The task, under all the circumstances of the case, was one of the most gigantic that ever felt to the lot of the head of any nation. From the outset, Mr. Lincoln's reliance was upon the spirit and patriotism of the people. He had no overweening esti- mate of his own sagacity ; he was quite sensible of his lack of that practical knowledge of men and aflkirs which experi- ence of both alone can give ; but he had faith in the devotion of the people to the principles of Republican government, in their attachment to the Constitution and the Union, and in that intuitive sagacity of a great community which always transcends the most cunning devices of individual men, and, in a great and perilous crisis, more resembles inspiration than the mere deductions of the human intellect. At the very outset of his administration, President Lincoln cast himself without reserve and without fear, upon this reliance. It has ever been urged against him as a reproach that he has not assumed to lead and control public sentiment, but has been content to be the exponent and the executor of its will. Possibly an. opposite course might have succeeded, but possibly, also, it mii^ht have ended in disastrous and fatal failure. One thing is certain : the policy which he did pursue has not failed. The rebellion has not succeeded ; the authority of the Gov- ernment has not been overthrown ; no new government, rest- ing on slavery as its corner-stone, has yet been established upon this continent, nor has any foreign nation been provoked or permitted to throw its sword into the scale against us. A different policy might have done better, but it might also have done worse. A wise and intelligent people will hesitate long before they condemn an administration which has done well, on the mere hypothesis that another might have done better. In one respect President Lincoln has achieved a wonderful LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 79 snccess. He lias maintained, through the terrible trials of his administration, a reputation, with the great body of the people, for unsullied intcg)-ity, of purpose and of conduct, which even Washington did not surpass, and which no Pres- ident since Washington has equalled. He has had command of an army greater than that of any living monarch ; he has wielded authority less restricted than that conferred by anv other constitutional government ; he has disbursed sums of money equal to the exchequer of any nation in the world ; yet no man, of any party, believes him in any instance to have aimed at his own aggrandizement, to have been actuated by personal ambition, or to have consulted any other interest than the welfare of his country, and the perpetuity of its Republican 'form of government. This of itself is a success which may well challenge universal admiration, for it is one which is the indispensable condition of all other forms of success. No man whose public integrity was open to sus- picion, no matter what might have been his abilities or his experience, could possibly have retained enough of public confidence to carry the country through such a contest as that in which we are now involved. No President suspected of seeking his own aggrandizement at the expense of his country's liberties, could ever have received such enormous grants of power as were essential to the siieces?fal prosecution of this war. They were lavishly and eagerly conferred upon Mr. Lincoln, because it was known and felt everywhere that he would not abuse them. Faction has had in him no mark for its assaults. The weapons of party spirit have recoiled harmlessly from the shield of his unspotte^l character. It was this unanimous confidence in the disinterested purity of his character, and in the perfect integrity of his public pur- poses, far more than any commanding intellectual ability, that- enabled Washington to hold the faith and confidence of the American people steadfast for seven years, while they waged 80 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the unequal Tvar required to achieve their independence. And it certainly is something" more than a casual coincidence that this same element, as rare in experience as it is transcen- dent in importance, should have characterized the President upon whom devolves the duty of carrying the country through this second and far more important and sanguinary struggle. No one can read Mr. Lincoln's state papers without per- ceiving in them a most remarkable faculty of " putting things" 80 as to command the attention and assent of the common people. His style of thought as well as of expression is thor- oughly in harmony with their habitual modes of thinking and of speaking. His intellect is keen, emphatically logical in its action, and capable of the closest and most subtle analysis : and he uses language for the sole purpose of stnting, in the clearest and simplest possible form, the precise idea he wishes to convey. He has no pride of intellect — not the slightest desire for display — no thought or purpose but that of making everybody understand precisely what he believes and means to utter. And while this sacrifices the graces of style, it gains immeasurably in practical force and effect. It gives to his public papers a weight and influence with the mass of the people, which no public man of this country has ever before attained. And this is heightened by the atmosphere of humor which seems to pervade his mind, and which is just as natural to it and as attractive and softening a portion of it, as the smoky hues of Indian summer are of the charming season to which they belong. His nature is eminently genial, and he seems to be incapable of cherishing an envenomed resentment. And although he is easily touched by whatever is painful, the elasticity of his temper and his ready sense of the humorous break the force of anxieties and responsibilities under which a man of harder though perhaps a higher nature would sink and fail. One of the most perplexing questions with which Mr. Lin- coln has had to deal in carrying on the war, has been that of LIFE OF ABrwAIIA^t LINCOLN. 81 slavery. There are two classes of persons who cannot, even now, see that there was any thing perplexing about it, or that he ought to have had a moment's hesitation how to treat it. One, is made up of those who regard the law of slavery as paramount to the Constitution, and the rights of slavery as the most sacred of all the rights which are guaranteed by that instrument : the other, of those who regard the abolition of slavery as the one thing to be secured, whatever else may be lost. The former denounce Mr. Lincoln for having interfered with slavery in any way, for any purpose, or at any time : the latter denounce him, with equal bitterness, for not having swept it out of existence the moment Fort Sumter was at- tacked. In this matter, as in all others, Mr. Lincoln has acted upon a fixed" principle of his own, which he has applied to the practical conduct of affairs just as fast as the necessities of the case required and as the public sentiment would sustain him in doing. His policy has been from the outset a tentative one — as, indeed, all policies of 'government to be successful must always be. On the outbreak of the rebellion the first endeavor of the rebels was to secure the active co-operation of all the slaveholding States. Mr. Lincoln's first action, there- fore, was to withhold as many of these States from joining the rebel confederacy as possible. Every one can see now that this policy, denounced at the time by his more zealous anti-slavery supporters as temporizing and inadequate, pre- vented Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, Missouri, and part of Virginia from throwing their weight into the rebel scale ; and although it is very easy and very common to undervalue ser- vices to a cause after its triumph seems secure, there are few who will not concede that if these States had been driven or permitted to drift into the rebel confederacy, a successful ter- mination of the war would have been much farther otT than it seems at present. Mr. Lincoln did every thing in hU power, consistent with fidelity to the Constitution, to retain the Bor- der Slave States within the Union ; and the degree of succew 82 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. which attended his efforts is the best proof of their wisdom. His treatment of the slavery question has been marked by the same policy. His letters explain the principles on which he was acting, show that he has been more anxious to take action which should be sustained by the country, and thus be permanently valuable, than to put forth any theory of his own or carry into effect the dogmas of any party. The whole case is stated with great clear- ness and force in the letter to Mr. Hodges, of Kentucky. An impression is quite common that great men, who make their mark upon the progress of events and the world's history, do it by impressing their own opinions upon nations and com- munities, in disregard of their sentiments and prejudices. History does not sustain this view of the case. No man ever moulded the destiny of a nation except by making the senti- ment of that nation his ally — by working with it, by shaping his measures and his policy to its successive developments. But little more than a year before the Declaration of Indepen- dence was issued, Washington wrote to a friend in England that the idea of separation from Great Britain was not enter- tained by any considerable number of the inhabitants of the colonies. If independence had then been proclaimed, it would not have been supported by public sentiment ; and its procla- mation would have excited hostilities and promoted divisions which might have proved fatal to the cause. Time, — the de- velopment of events, — the ripening conviction of the necessity of such a measure, were indispensable as preliminary conditions of its success. And one of the greatest elements of Washing- ton's strength was the patient sagacity with which he could watch and wait until these conditions were fulfilled. The position and duty of President Lincoln in regard to Slavery have been very similar. If he had taken counsel only of hia own abstract opinions and sympathies, and had proclaimed emancipation at the outset of the war, or had sanctioned the action of those department commanders who assumed to do it LIFE OP ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 83 themselves, the first effect would have been to throw all the Border Slave States into the bosom of the slaveholding con- federacy, and add their formidable force to the armies of the rebellion : the next result would have been to arouse the political opposition of the loyal States to fresh activity by giving them a rallying cry : and the third would have been to divide the great body of those who agreed in defending the Union, but who did not then agree in regard to the abolition of slavery. Candid men, who pay more regard to facts than to theory, and who can estimate with fairness the results of public action, will have no difficulty in seeing that the proba- ble result of these combined influences would have been such a strengthening of the forces of the Confederacy, and such a weakening of our own, as might have overwhelmed the Ad- ministration, and given the rebellion a final and a fatal triumph By awaiting the development of pubhc sentiment, President Lincoln secured a support absolutely essential to success ; and there are few persons now, whatever may be their private opinions on slavery, who will not concede that his measures *in regard to that subject have been adopted with sagacity and crowned with substantial success. We may safely leave the merits of President Lincoln's adminis- tration to the judgment of the future. The full extent of favor which it is sure to receive from history cannot yet be estimated, for its policy is still in process of development. But if events shall keep on in the course whether they now seem to be tending, — if it is allowed to go on without interruption, — if the measures which President Lincoln has inaugurated for queUing the rebellion and restoring the Union, are permitted to work out their natural results, unchecked by popular impatience and sustained by public confi- dence, no measure will be too great, for they will end in re-estab- hshing the authority of the Constitution, in restoring the integrity of the Union, in abolishing every vestige of slavery, and in per- petuating the principles of democratic government upon this con- tineut and throughout the world. LIFE OF ANDREW JOimSOX, OF TEMESSEE. BY JOHN SAVAGE. Andrew Johnson was born at Ealeigh, North Car- olina, on the 29th December, 1808. His father, a man in humble life, but of noble nature, dying from exhaus- tion, after having saved Col. Thomas Henderson, editor of 'the Raleigh Gazette^ from drowning, left his son an orphan, before he had completed his fifth year. The necessities of his parents prevented him from receiving even the rudiments of an English education ; and the sad event of his father's death did not accelerate any opportunity for educational culture. The energies of the child were needed for his own support, and a trade was the most reliable resource. He was accordingly apprenticed to a tailor, in his native town, and with him worked steadily until the term of his indentures ex- pired. Thus commenced the struggle of the future sen- ator and patriot in the battle of life, the very outset of his manly career indicating the energy and self-reliance which has so distinguished it, and which offer such hopeful examples to the great mass of our youth, who can only be nerved for the life-struggle by stout hearts and honest purposes. We next find young Johnson as a working journeyman — a love story, which his celeb- rity since has brought to light, tracing him to the vicinity of Lawrence Court House, South Carolina. Here, as (85) 86 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. the story goes, lie fell in love with an estimable young lady, but he was a stranger, he was poor, he was young, not yet near out of his teens, and he passionately fled away from what to him seemed cold hearts, and the pitying smiles which his youthful sensitiveness could brook less patiently than open sneers. He returned to Kaleigh in the Spring of 1826 ; and in the Fall of that year, accompanied by his mother and her husband, he bent his steps toward Greenville, Tennessee, where he stopped and counted his eighteenth year. His good star led him thither. In Greenville the youth found a wife who became his Egeria. In a work published in 1860, those days of Johnson, and the good effect produced by his wife on his future, are sketched. *' What material for the ro- mancist might be found in the history of those days of the future senator, when his wife, fondly leaning by the side of the youth who was earning bread for her, taught him to read, and decked with the fair flowers of a healthy education the hitherto neglected garden of his brain ! What a group ! what a study ! — the youth's fingers mechanically plying the needle, his brain alive, following the instructions of his wife-teacher, or with a bright, almost childish, satisfaction meeting her approval of his correct answers 1 After work-hours she taught him to write. What a living, ennobling romance was there being enacted in the wilds of Tennessee thirty years ago ! But we must hurry over this chapter of our hero's history with a mere suggestive sentence. Young Johnson and his wife started ' out West to seek their fortune,' but at the earnest solicitation of a good friend he was induced to return. He worked at his trade LIFE OF ANDREAV JOIINSOX. 87 with great industry and attention, extending, mean- while, the advantages which his capacity for knowledo-e presented. The shop-board was the school where he received tlie rudiments of his education, which he after- wards, in leisure moments and in the deep silence of the midnight hours, applied to the attainment of a more perfect system. ."The disadvantages of his position would have dis- couraged almost any other man, certainly with any other kind of a wife. But, cheered by his excellent companion and prompted by his own desire for self- improvement, young Johnson brought an energy to the difficulties before him which nothing could repress or conquer. It is not a matter of surprise that he was hos- tile to every proposition that would give power to the few at the expense of the many ; that his hard and yet bright experiences made him the exponent of the wants and power of the working class." He felt the force of the truth so eloquently expressed by another working- man, J. de Jean (Ffraser), one of the poets of the Irish movement of 1848 : " When, by th* almighty breath of God Each to its sphere was hurled — The living creature— and the clod — The atom — and the world — As trusted viceroy on the earth, To carry out the j^lan For which He gave that globe its birth, God formed the Working-man." Johnson soon gave voice to the feelings of the working-men in Greenville. He made them conscious of their strength and proud of it, in opposition to the 88 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. aristocratic coterie which had until then ruled the com- munity, so that no man who worked for his livelihood could be elected even an Alderman. With the dawning vision of intellect and self-reliance he saw that all this was wrono^, and he determined, with the aid of his fellow-workers, to right it. Meetings were held in every part of the town, and the result was the election of the 3^oung tailor to the office of Alderman by a triumphant majority. How proud the good wife mast have felt ! His triumph over the aristocracy was ratified by sub- sequent re-elections and his being chosen Mayor of Greenville. Strengthened by success, through their ardent advocate, the working-men felt and assumed their power, and their antagonists, wearying of the con- test so gallantly conducted, admitted the representatives of the mechanics to their legitimate influence in the councils. Thus, in his onward career, Mr. Johnson illustrated the ennobling fact that energy and self- reliance are the surest means by which an aristocratic, idle and overbearing class are made to respect the claims, and fear the united action of the honest and up- right people who live by the sweat of their brows. Journalists, North and South, in the interest of spurious aristocracy, and disloyal speculators, sneeringly refer to Johnson's early life, as though in America it were a disgrace to live honestly, and assert one's independence in the noblest way it can be asserted, b}r contributing to the social and moral character of the community by industry and honest labor. These flippant apologists of idleness and aristocracy sneer at Mr. Johnson because he was born poor, and became not in his j^outh a bur- den on his neighbors ; and at the same time are vocif- LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 89 eroiis in declaring tliey are the followers of Jefferson, who, in the Declaration of Independence, asserted the truth to be self-evident "that all men are created equal." As Madison said, in 1852, "It is remarkable how closely the NuUifiers (Secessionists), who make the name of Jefferson the pedestal for their colossal heresy, shut their eyes and lips whenever his autiiority is ever so clearly and emphatically against them." But we can scarcely expect the enemies of the Eepublic to be the friends of those who made the Republic great — the working-men. It was about this time — and before Johnson had fairly made his entree into the public arena — that the nullification controversy arose between the Federal Gov- ernment and the State of South Carolina, and it became necessary for Andrew Jackson, then President of the United States, to issue his proclamation exhorting the South Carolinians to obey the law, and comply with the requirements of the Constitution. As he has since told us, in the great debate in the Senate, Feb- ruary, 1861 — when he vindicated the action taken by him against the traitors on that floor in the month pre- vious — Johnson then planted himself upon the princi- ples announced by General Jackson. He believed the positions then taken by the soldier of two wars for the independence of the United States were the true doc- trines of the Constitution, and the only doctrines upon which the Government could be preserved. From that period to the present he has been uniformly opposed to the doctrine of secession, or of nullification. He be- lieved it a heresy in 1833 — an element which, if main- UUTK OF JlSDI^EW JOHX^OX. ^KNild restili in ihe de>iracsioa c^" tlie Govwti- ■kbL In ISdlV-^l be niiiinKkined the same doctrine, «Bdlt ia so maaatadniiig. na::^ himself K^ldlr and hero- ieilhr agaiisst the triiror ph;ilAr.x c~ ihe f..x^r of the T!ie res-lri :: Vr. '.-■ s;:; ■^ :: ;-:us ::i G:i:::v-.::e extcii<:Trc> :*;"::-.: :; . ;. :;r : Suid i:;5 :-:^r- a ^.^-T-'i rieeledkim^ - . 7, which oSoe he keld iiBtil be eateKd the St^oe Legislaxare. Mr. Jc^n- ^live in - : ew Con- *iS>4 - _ _ . .-rr-t^of tbe.mjgsesw :. _ -:_;:. k._ : _.-..:-:. _: It h- r a T-ss: in- 10 Intfee: " ' ; TmsBot «7-_>tT r r of LIFE OF A?n>i:>rvr jonxsoy. 91 him to the State Senate by a majority of two thousand, and he signalized his term by the introduction of judi- cious measures for internal improvements in the eastern division of the State. That these met the approval of the people is shown by the fact that, in 1S4.S, they de- sired his services on a broader field, and nominated him for Congress from the Pirst District, which embraced seven counties. His antagonist was a United States Bank Democrat, a man of eloquence and capacity, Col. John A. Asken. Johnson was elected, and taking his seat in the House of Representatives, in Washington, December, 1S43, continued, by subsequent re-elections, to represent his district for ten years, during which pe- riod he distinguished himself in support of the bill re- funding the fine imposed on General Jackson ; the an- nexation of Texas ; the war measures of Polk's admin- istration; and as an untiring, able, and conscientious advocate of the Homestead bill. But this period, his Congressional career in the lower house, cannot be passed over without some slight allusion to the details. Mr. .Johnson made his dehut in Congress as the defender of " Old Hickory," advocating in a brief but forcible ariTument the restoration of the fine imposed upon Gen- eral Jackson, for having placed Xew Orieans under martial law in 1814:. He followed this up by a reply to John Quincy Adams on the right of petition, which was characterized as a highly creditable effort : and by an argument on the Tariff, in which he declared it was a departure from the principles of equity to tax the many f>r the benefit of the few, under the plea of protecting American labor, as was done by the Tariff of 1842. He insisted upon it that, while Congress was consulting the 92 LIFE OP ANDREW JOHNSON. interests of the manufacturer, it had no right to forget or- neglect those of the agriculturalist, as high-protectionists were notoriously too apt to do, and replied to Mr. An- drew Stewart, of Pennsylvania, by a series of circumstan- tial details showing that so far as protection applies to protecting mechanics proper, there is no reality in it ; for if all are protected alike, the protection paralyzes itself, and results in no protection at all. " Protection operates," said he, " beneficially to none, except those who can manufacture in large quantities, and vend their manufactured articles beyond the limits of the immediate manufacturing sphere." At the second session of the Twenty-eighth Congress, Mr. Johnson warmly co-operated with the friends of Texan annexation, and on the 21st of January, 1845, delivered an able speech on the subject. One of the Ohio delegation having alluded to General Jackson in an uncalled-for manner, Mr. Johnson gallantly defended the character of Jackson, then living in retirement in the forests of Tennessee, from the unkind allusions, which seemed to him strange, coming froni the quarter whence they had emanated. In the course of the ex- citing debate upon the annexation of Texas, Mr. Cling- man, of North Carolina, intimated that British gold had been used to carry the election of Polk. Mr. Johnson denounced the suggestion as a vile slander, without the shadow of a foundation, and called on the gentleman from North Carolina for his proof, relying on the fact that if there were no authority for the assertion, it was a slander. In the course of Mr. Clingman's remarks, he said that "had the foreign Catholics been divided in the late election, as other sects and classes generally were, LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 93 Mr. Clay would have carried, by a large majority, the State of New York, as also the States of Pennsylvania, Louisiana, and probably some others in the northwest. There were but few Catholics in Mr. Johnson's district, and he was not called upon to do battle with the prej- udices that might or did exist against them; but he protested against the doctrine advanced by the Repre- sentative from North Carolina. He wished to know if Clingraan desired to arouse a spirit of persecution ; to sweep away or divide all those who dared to differ from the Whig party. In advocating the annexation of Texas, aud looking at the great capabilities of that country, he thought it probable that it would " prove to be the gateway out of which the sable sons of Africa are to pass from bondage to freedom and become merged in a population con- genial with themselves." The annexation would give the Union all the valuable cotton soil, or nearly so, upon the habitable globe. Cotton was destined to clothe more human beings than any other article that had ever been discovered. The factories of England would be compelled to stand still, were it not for cotton. "With- out it, her operatives would starve in the street, and if this Government had the command of the raw material, it was the same as putting Great Britain under bonds to keep the peace for all time to come. He was willing — when he glanced at the historic page giving an account of their rise and progress, the privations they had un- dergone, the money and toil they had expended, the valor and patriotism they had displayed — to extend to the Texans the right hand of fellowship. In 1845 Mr. Johnson was re-elected. The Twenty- 94 LIFE OF AXDEEW jonxso:??. nintli Congress was for several reasons one of tlie most important in the political history of the country up to that time. Between the United States and Great Britain a bitter contention existed regarding the Oregon bound- ary line. Mr. Johnson took a decided stand in support of our right to the line of 54° 40', at the same time in- sisting that the real contest was for the territory between 46° and 49°, as that embraced the Columbia Kiver, which Great Britain was anxious to acquire on account of the invaluable advantages it afforded for both mili- tary and commercial purposes. President Tyler had moreover offered to adjust the difficult}^ on the line of 49°, and the proposition, as a matter of national con- sistency, had been renewed by President Polk. Hence, when the British officials, though at first having declined the offer, concluded to present that line to America for an adjustment, it would have appeared simplj^ as a will- ful desire for war not to have received the proposition. To pursue a different course would, in the opinion of Mr. Johnson, be abandoning the substance, and running after the shadow ; he therefore sustained President Polk in his settlement of the question. In this session Mr. Johnson denounced the proposed contingent tax of ten per cent, on tea and coffee as une- qual in its bearings. He thought it unjust that the poor man should not only shed his blood in defense of the rights and honor of his country, but also be overbur- dened with taxes. Having aided in demolishing the proposed tax, he introduced and carried through a bill providing a tax, to a certain amount of per centage, upon all bank, State and Government stock, and other capital. He also, in the debate on the Kiver and Har- LIFE OF AXDREW JOIIXSOX. 95 bor Improvement bill, took general grounds " against the insane policy of indiscrmiinate expenditure of public money for improvements of an entirely local nature." In the second session he supported with great ability the raising of men and money for the prosecution of the war with Mexico. In 1817 he was re-elected to Congress by an over- whelming majority. Among his efforts of this period is one which, apart from its political bearing, has a pe- culiar interest. It is an argument in favor of the veto power. He gave an historical outline of the veto power, which runs back to the times of the Koman Republic — the tribunes of the people having had tlie right to ap- prove or disapprove any law passed by the Senate, inscribing upon the parchment, in case they resolved to adopt the latter alternative, the word " veto." He traced this power, through the various stages of its progress, from the days of Augustus, and showed that since the establishment of this Government to the time at which he spoke, the veto power had been exercised twenty-five times, thus : by Washington, twice ; by Mad- ison, six times; by Monroe, once; by Jackson, nine times; by Tyler, four times; by Polk, thrice. During this session he continued his advocacy of the Mexican war, in opposition to those who denounced it as uncon- Btitutional and unjust. True to the welfare of the people from whom he sprung, Mr. Johnson was the prime mover in Congress of the Homestead bill, to give everv man who is head of a family and a citizen of the United States, a home- stead of one hundred and sixty acres of land out of the public domain, upon the condition that he should oc- 96 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. cupj and cultivate the same for five years. As early as 1847 he commenced the agitation of this question and has been the forcible and untiring advocate of it, not only in the Capitol, but everywhere and on every occasion. Daring his Congressional career in the lower House, Johnson labored as few men have ever labored to im- prove the condition of the people. It seemed to be his mission to make labor respected, and to make its rewards respectable. It was predicted when Johnson came to Washington that his ultra notions would bury him fathoms deep, and that he would return to Tennessee only to pray upon a broken heart. But, as Forney said, " any one who gazed into his dark eyes, and perused his pale face, would have seen there an unquenchable spirit and an almost fanatical obstinacy that spoke another language." John- son can look back on those years of his Congressional career as given to the service of his country and hu- manity. In 1853 Mr. Johnson was elected Governor of Ten- nessee over Gustavus A. Henry, one of the ablest Whigs in the State ; and, in that position, exhibited such per- sonal and ojficial integrity, such impartiality and devo- tion to the people's interests, that he was re-elected in 1855, after an active canvass, over another and equally able Whig, Meredith P. Gentry. At the close of this gubernatorial term in 1857, Gov- ernor Johnson was chosen United States Senator for the full term, ending March 3, 1863. With the occasion. Governor Johnson's devotion to the rights of the people rose above all sectionalities. In LIFE OP ANDREW JOHNSON. 97 1855 lie made a very able speech at Marfreesboro', Tenn., against "Know-iSTothingism ;" and in his own clear and earnest way, turned the arguments by which the persecution was sought to be upheld against the perse- cutors themselves. In the course of this speech he said : ''The Know-Nothings were opposed to the Catholic religion because it was of foreign origin, and many of its members in this country were foreigners also. • He said that if it was a valid objection to tolerating the Catholic religion in this country because it was of foreign origin and many of its members were foreigners, we would be compelled to expel most of the other religions of the country for the same reason. \^o, he asked, was John Wesley, and where did the Methodist religion have its origin? It was in old England, and John Wesley was an Englishman. But, if John Wesley were alive to-day and here in this country, Know-Nothingism would drive him and his religion back to England whence they came, because they were foreign. Who, he asked, was John Calvin, and where did Calvinism take its rise? Was it not Geneva? And were Calvin ahve, this new order would send him and his doctrines back whence they came. Who, he asked, was Eoger Williams? And would not Roger Williams and the Baptists share the same fate? And so with ^rartin Lu- ther, the great Reformer ; he would have been subjected to the same prescriptive test." In the Thirty-fifth Congress, Senator Johnson was prominent in the advocacy of his favorite project, the Homestead bill, and on other leading domestic and financial questions of the day. He offered a substitute for the Army bill, protesting against standing armies 98 LITE OF ANDEEW JOHNSON. and the increase of the Army as advocated by Jeff. Davis. He did not believe the time warranted any permanent addition to the military establishment, and warned the Democrac}^ of the danger to which their political ascen- dancy would be exposed by a persistence in the path of extravasfance. He did not think Cono^ress had a con- stitutional right to construct a railroad to the Pacific. He thought it should be left to private enterprise. In the same speech, 25th of January, 1859, Senator John- son, reviewing the political aspects of the times, beheld, as he thought, a serious departure from the maxims of the Constitution and wise precepts of the fathers and founders of the Republic. In this degeneracy the Dem- ocratic party had shared, and he could not recognize the right of its Presidential Conventions to expound period- ically, beyond all appeal, the tenets which constitutes a true Democrat. On the slavery question, Senator Johnson held to the dogmas as then received by the party with which he generally acted, but if was noLan institution superior to all others, or on which he would sacrifice the integrity of the Republic. In 1850, during a discussion on a se- ries of resolutions — introduced by himself — substantially similar to the Compromise measures, he gave expres- sion to his faith in the necessity of the supremacy of the Union, trusting " that Whigs and Democrats, the reflect- ing and patriotic of all sides, would, in view of the amount of public prosperity, tranquillity and happiness, as well as the great value of property involved in the adjustment of the pending difficulties, feel that the pres- ervation of the Union was paramount to all other con- siderations." LIFE OF ANDRETV JOnXSOX. 99 To this sentiment, uttered in the equable but earnest tones of advice from one who, even much Later, in the unsuspecting honesty of his own patriotism, beHeved the Union not in danger, Senator Johnson has stood with a boldness and a heroism equal in every respect to the contingencies involved in it. For years after the adop- tion of the Compromise measures, as late as January, 1859, he declared he " was not one of those who sang peans in its praise, because he was not one of those who believed that the Union had ever yet been, and was not likely ever to be, in any danger." lie judged of others by the faith in his own head and heart. Knowing that the compact could not be legally broken by the band of disquiet and ambitious politicians who were in the habit of bewildering their auditors and themselves with metaphysical theories on States' Rights, and periodically threatening to invoke the " God of battles," he could not, would not, allow himself to believe that, by per- sistent audacity and artifice, subdivisions of party could be so effected as to produce thd desired contingency ; and that even the high places of the Government could become so inoculated with infamy as to turn popular trust into parricidal treason. His faith in the Union was too great, his pride in the bounty of its institutions, under which men like himself had risen to eminence, too glorious to comprehend how a hand could be raised against it. This very fixith and pride, however, but made him the stronger to face the crisis when it broke upon him in all its terrible reality. If he sang no peans to it when he believed it safe, he was inspired with a resolute frenzy when he beheld it in danger. His clear, logical and patriotic periods 100 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. struck consternation into the ranks of the traitors, and their boklest advocates and sympathizers sprang forward to grapple with him, striving to attain, by passionate sectional appeals and personal denunciations of him as a traitor to the South, that power over him which they could not achieve by argument. But they miserably failed. The fact that Senator Johnson had acted with the Breckinridge wing of the Democracy in the previous Presidential campaign but made him the more fierce, seeing that the Breckinridge leaders had used the occasion to foment the slaveholders' rebellion. Although he sympathized with Douglas, Senator Johnson had supported Breckinridge in all honesty, believing that his constituents in Tennessee desired such action, and that in it lay the best chances of uniting the Democratic part}^ He was not in the confidence of the conspirators, and could not know that it was their purpose to have the Democratic party defeated, so that a plea, however remote and unjust, might be furnished to the Yanceyites for carrying out their long projected plan of precipitat- ing the cotton States into revolution. Many Union Southern men were whirled into the rebel ranks or cowed into disloyal inaction, by the public and private lacerations they were subjected to by the organized sys- tem of brow-beating pursued by the ultra Southerners. Bat Johnson was of different stuff. He was not to be awed by any innuendoes of physical coercion, or hushed by any display of verbal ferocity. The debates in which he tore asunder all the pleas upon which his late coadjutors sought to dissever the Union are famous, and cannot be too often perused. They are singularly able, and the interest attached to LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 101 their views increases into heroism when we remember the place and time, the occasion upon which he spoke, the grandeur of the subject and the character of the men by whom he was surrounded. It was on the 18th and 19th of December, 1860, that Senator Johnson, convinced of the extremities about to be pursued by the traitors, took open ground against them in a speech of great and defiant power. It flung consternation and dismay into the ranks of secession, and struck a chord in the popular heart throbbing anx- iously in the galleries, that several times proved to be irrepressible. This speech, as the grand opening effort of a Southern patriot against Southern treason, forms a great historical point not only in the career of the orator, but of his country at its most intense epoch. Among the propositions laid before the^ Senate for the adjust- ment of difficulties during the second session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, were three amendments to the Constitution by Senator Johnson. One proposed to change the mode of election of President and Yice- President of the United States from the electoral college to a vote substanti^ally and directly by the people. The second proposed that the Senators of the United States shall be elected by the people once in six years, instead of by the Legislatures of the respective States. The third provided that the Supreme Court shall be divided into three classes: the term of the first class is to expire in four years from the time that the classification is made, of the second class in eight years, and of the third class in twelve years ; and as these vacancies occur they are to be filled by persons chosen — one-half from the slave States, and the other half from the non-slavehold- 102 LIFE OF AI^DREW JOHNSON. ing States, thereby taking the judges of the Supreme Court, so far as their selection goes, from the respective divisions of the country ; also, that either the President or Vice-President at each election shall be from the slaveholding States. By these means the Senator from Tennessee professed to equalize matters so that the South could not possil)ly object if it honestly meant to remain in the Union. K th« -South did not willfully and wantonly mean to disrupt the Union, its representatives could support his propo- sition. To give at length the great speech of this occa- sion is beyond the capacity of this publication, but to pass it over would be unjust. From the Washington States and Union of the following days a resume of the points is mainly taken. Senator Johnson was opposed to secession, and was in favor of maintaining the rights of the South within the Union. Keither he nor his State would be driven out of it. Tennessee denied the doctrine of secession, and as for himself he meant to hold on to the Union and the guarantees of the Constitution. Taking these grounds oa the 18th, Johnson and his speech made the topics of conversation that night in the fermenting and excitable circles then congregated at Washington. Great delight was expressed by the Unionists, unmeasured bitterness by the disunionists, and a widening interest in the next day's debate was betrayed by all. On the 19th, Senator Johnson resumed. His line of argument was to show that a State could not, of its own volition, withdraw from the compact. He read from Mr. Madison's letters to Mr.Triste and Mr. Webster, showing that such was his position. The LIFE OF ANDREW JOTIXSOX. 103 States delegated powers named in the Constitution, and Congress could enforce tlieni ; but in doing so it did not become the oppressor. The State which resisted them became the aggressor. Bat when the Federal Govern- ment failed to carry out these powers, it ceased to be a government. He quoted Jackson, Webster, Justice Marshall, and others, to show that a State had not a con- stitutional right to secede from the Union without the consent of all the States. The Constitution was intended to be perpetual, and to that end provision was made for its own amendment, its improvement and its contin- uance. It was also submitted to the States for ratification, and power given to Congress to admit new States. So we had in the Constitution : first, the means of creating a Government; second, a means of perpetuating it; and third, the power to enlarge it. But were provisions found there for winding up the Government, except by the inherent principle of all the States— not a State- but all the States, which spoke the Government into ex- istence and had a right to dissolve it? He cited the case of the Excise law of 1795 during the rebellion in Pennsylvania, when Gen. Washington was the President, and when he enforced the laws and put down the rebellion with a niilitia force of 15,000 men— the constitutional army. He quoted from Gen. Wash- ington's views on that rebellion, showiig that he had the right to enforce the laws of the United States, and that he regarded the Union as inseparable. What was the difference, then, between the Federal Government enforcing its laws in a part or the whole of a State ? Was it not as competent for Gen. Washington to enforce 104 LIFE OP ANDEEW JOHNSON. the Excise laws against the whole of Pennsylvania as a part ? Senator Johnson proceeded to review the ISTnllification laws of 1832, and cited the opinion of Gen. Jackson at that time, who, as President of the United States,was bound by his oath to see, and did see, that the laws were faithfully executed. He would have used an armed force for that purpose had the time arrived for its necessity. Gen. Jack- son acted just as Gen. Washington did in a similar case. As to the present case, he would inquire if the Federal Government had not the power to enforce its laws in South Carolina as much as it had in Pennsylvania, Ver- mont, or in any other State ? He thought it had ; and notwithstanding the ordinance of secession which South Carolina might pass, it did not relieve her from her obedience to the United States, or from the compact which she entered into. The compact was reciprocal. If South Carolina drove the Courts of the United States out of the State, the Federal Government had the right to reinstate them there. If the State resisted the pas- sage of the mails, the Government could insist on their protection, and so with the collection of the revenue. If that State captured the forts of the United States, the Federal Government had the right to re-take them. If that State did all of these she was clearly in the wrong, and it was the duty of the Federal Government to see that th^ laws were fiiithfully executed. If the States expelling the Federal Courts and the mails did not commit treason, he would ask, in the name of the Constitution of the United States, what was treason ? It was treason, and nothing but treason ; and if one State can do this, there is no government. LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 105 Madison, Jefferson, Webster and Washington had denounced this doctrine : and if South Carohna set up a government for herself, and made an aUiance with European powers, and had interests inimical to our own, she could be conquered by this Government and held as a province. [Hisses and applause.] There is a statute of Congress which declares that the General Government looks with suspicion and disfavor on the acquisition of any territory within' the limits of the United States by any foreign power. Yet if a State secede she becomes a foreign power wathin our borders. He proceeded to cite the cost to the Federal Govern- ment of the new States, some of which desired to secede. Florida, which cost the United States millions of dollars in her purchase and in the driving out of the Indians, now threatens to withdraw from the United States and leave nothing for all this wealth which had been expended on her. Again, before Florida and Louisiana became States they were territories of* the United States, and if they withdrew from the Union, what condition would they assume on such withdrawal ? Would they be States out of the Union, or would they be merely Territories, as before their admission. He continued to argue that all the States had acquired terri- tory, not alone for the benefit of the new States, but for the benefit of all the States. No State so acquired could by secession rob them of the benefits so acquired. Could Louisiana take out of the Union the mouth of the Mississippi ? He regarded the position assumed by South Carolina towards the border States as tending to extinguish slavery. He believed the quickest way to abolish slavery 5- 106 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHXSOIS", was to dissolve the Government. Mr. Lincoln's election as a plea for secession, be met with characteristic truth and manliness. " Why should we retreat? Because Mr. Lincoln has been elected President of the United States ? Is this any cause why we should retreat? Does not every man, Senator or otherwise, know that if Mr. Breckinridge had been elected, we should not be to-day for dissolving the Union ! Then what is the issue ? It is because we have not got our man. If we had got our man we should not have been for breaking up the Union ; but as Mr. Lincoln is elected, we are for breaking up the Union ! I say, No. Let us show ourselves men, and men of courage. " How has Mr. Lincoln been elected, and how have Mr. Breckinridge and Mr. Douglas been defeated? By the votes of the American people, cast according to the Con- stitution and the forms of law, though it has been upon a sectional issue. It is not the first time in our history that two candidates have been elected from the same section of country. G'eneral Jackson and Mr. Calhoun were elected on the same ticket ; but nobody considered that cause of dissolution. They were both from the South. I opposed the sectional spirit that has produced the election of Lincoln and Hamlin, yet it has been done according to the Constitution, and in accordance to the forms of law. I believe we have the power in our own hands, and I am not willing to shrink from the respon- sibility of exercising that power." Senator Johnson proceeded at length to cite extracts from Southern journals, showing that the writers favored a monarchical government. He thought, however, that LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 107 the South, before it left this Government, had better well consider what they were going to enter into. If there were evils, had we not, (addressing the South,) *' better bear the ills we have, than fly to others that we know not of?" He intended to stand by, and act in and under the Constitution. The violators of the ordi- nances of this constitutional house should not drive him out. In conclusion, the Senator thus declared his deter- mination : " In saying what I have said on this occasion, Mr. President, I have done it in view of a duty that I felt I owed to my constituents ; to my children ; to myself. Without regard to consequences, I have taken my position ; and when the tug comes, when Greek shall meet Greek, and our rights are refused after all honor- able means have been exhausted, then it is that I will perish in the last breach ; yes, in the language of the patriot Emmet, ' I will dispute every inch of ground ; I will burn every blade of grass; and the last entrench- ment of freedom shall be my grave.' Then, let us stand by the Constitution ; and, in preserving the Constitution, we shall save the Union ; and, in saving the Union, we save this, the greatest Government on earth." It was 'aptly remarked at the time, that Mr. Johnson's antecedents made him listened to with respect by many classes. He was recommended to the attention of the Republicans on account of his earnest advocacy in favor of opening the public lands to honest settlement ; to the Breckinridge men, because he supported their candidate in the Presidency ; and to Douglas men, because he agreed with the great Senator from Illinois on the doc- trine of non-intervention. In addition to which, said 108 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. Mr. Forney, in a letter to the Press^ '' one of his main claims to public attention is founded on the fact that he was a most courageous and constant defender of the rights of adopted citizens in the perilous times of 1854: and '55." If this Senatorial outburst had come from a Northern Democrat, it would have ftillen with comparatively small effect upon the Southern men; but that a Southern Demo- crat, that Southern Democrat a Senator, who had sus- tained Breckinridge, should hurl such thunderbolts about their heads, was unendurable. ISTo higher tribute could be paid to the effect of Johnson's speech than the rapacity with which he was assailed by the sentinels of treason in the Senate. The debates continued through- out Januar}^, 1S61, and early in February Senator John- son replied to the acrimonious assaults, the sneering in- terruptions, the pointed ridicule, and the unmanly innuen- does which were leveled at him. His reply was elabo- rate and dignified. In it he more completely and effect- ually drove home the historical facts and logical con- clusions of his previous effort. In making that speech his intention — and he thought he succeeded in it — was to place himself upon the principles of the Constitution and the doctrines inculcated by Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and Jackson. Having examined the positions of those distinguished fathers of the Kepublic, and compared them with the Constitution, he came to the conclusion that they were right. Upon them he planted himself. These views inspired him. As he was the first man South of Mason and Dixon's line who, in the Senate, protested against the political heresy of secession, he would continue so to do, not- LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 109 "withstanding the denunciations he had met with. " From what I saw here," he said, " on the evening when I con- cluded mj speech — although some may have thouglit that it intimidated and discouraged me — I was inspired with confidence ; I felt that I had struck treason a blow. I thought then, and I know now, that men who were engaged in treason felt the blows that I dealt out on tliat occasion. As I have been made the peculiar object of attack, not only in the Senate, but out of the Senate, my object on this occasion is to meet some of these attacks, and to say some things in addition to what I then said against this movement." He took up the leading Senators who had directly, or by innuendo, attacked him. We shall see with what ad- mirable nonchalance and pith he disposed of them. After replying to the views of Judah P. Benjamin, a notori- ously able and heartless traitor, who, with his less able but equally remorseless colleague, Slidell, had taken leave of the Senate on the day previous, he compared the theatrically sad tone of Benjamin's valedictory with some quite recent remarks from the same source. '* I thought the scene was pretty well got up, and was acted out admirably. The plot was executed to the very letter. You would have thought that his people in Louisiana were borne down and seriously oppressed by remaining in this Union of States. Now, I have an extract before me, from a speech delivered by that gen- tleman since the election of Abraham Lincoln, while the distinguished Senator was on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains, at the city of San Francisco. la that speech, after the Senator had spoken some time with his accustomed eloquence, he uttered this language : 110 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. " ' Those who prate of, and strive to dissolve this glori- ous confederacy of -States, are like those silly savages who let fly their arrows at the sun in the vain hope of piercing it! And still the sun rolls on, unheeding, in its eternal pathway, shedding light and animation upon all the world.' " Even after Lincoln was elected, the Senator from Louisiana is reported to have said, in the State of Cali- fornia, and in the city of San Francisco, that this great Union could not be destroyed. Those great and in- tolerable oppressions, of which we have since heard from him, did not seem to be flitting across his vision and playing upon his mind with that vividness and clearness which were displayed here yesterday. He said, in California, that this great Union would go on in its course, notwithstanding the puny efforts of the silly savages that were letting fly their arrows with the pros- pect of piercing it. What has changed the Senator's mind on coming from that side of the continent to this? What light has broken in upon him? Has he been struck on his way, like Paul, when he was journeying from Tarsus to Damascus? Has some supernatural power disclosed to him that his State and his people will be ruined if they remain in the Union?" In like manner he nullified Benjamin's picture of the horrors to be expected at President Lincoln's hands ; by quoting from Benjamin's speech of May, 1860, in which he said, " I must say here — for I must be just to all — ■ that I have been surprised in the examination that I made again, within the last few days, of this discussion between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas, to find that on several points Mr. Lincoln is a far more conservative LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. Ill man, unless he has since cliangcd his opinion, than I supposed him to be." '' Since that speech was made," added Johnson, "since the Senator has traversed from California to this point, the grievances, the oppressions of Louisiana, have be- come so great that she is justified in going out of the Union, taking into her possession the custom-house, the mint, the navigation of the Mississippi river, the forts, and arsenals. Where are we ? * O, consistency, thou art a jewel, much to be admired, but rarely to be found.' " As to Senator Joe Lane's attacking him, it was some- thing he could scarcely understand. In his speech of the 19th -of December, he did not mean to say any thing offensive to the Senator from Oregon. He felt that he had just come out of a campaign in which he had labored hard, and expended money and time in vin- dicating Lane and Breckinridge from the charge of favoring secession and disunion. " Through the dust and heat, through the mud and rain, I traversed my State, meeting the charge of the opposition that secession was at the bottom of this move- ment ; that there was a fixed design and plan to break up this Government ; that it started at Charleston, and was consummated at Baltimore ; and the charge was made that my worthy friend — if I may be permitted to call him such ; I thought I was his friend then— was the embodiment of disunion and secession. I met the charge. I denied it. I repudiated it. I tried to con- vince the people — and I think I did succeed in con- vincing some of them— that the charge was untrue; and that he and Mr. Breckinridge were the two best Union men in the country." 112 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. After this bit of satire — which struck home, and only provoked a more personal attack from General Lane, just previous to the expiration of his term in the following month — Senator Johnson came directly to the miscon- struction placed upon his former words. " Why," he asks, "answer positions I did not assume, or attribute to me language I did not use ? Was it in the speech ? No ! Why, then, use language and assign a position to me which, if not intended, was calculated to make a false impression ? What called it forth ? What reason was there for it? I saw the consternation which was created. I looked at some of their faces. I knew that I had stirred up animosity, and it was important that somebody from another quarter should make the attack. If the attack had been upon what I said or upon the position' I had assumed, I should have no cause to complain ; and I do not comj^lain now. Sir, though not very old, I have lived down some men. I have survived many misrepresentations. I feel that I have a conscience and a heart that will lead me to do it again. But when I had said nothing, when I had done nothing, to be struck at by him whom I had vindicated, I might well exclaim, ' That was the unkindcst cut of all.' " The next Senator in order who made an attack upon Johnson was Jefferson Davis, who took occasion to do so in making his valedictory address to the Senate after Mississippi had passed the ordinance of secession. "It has been the case," said Johnson, " not only with that Senator, (Davis,) but with others, thatr an attempt has been made by innuendo, by indirection, by some side remark, to convey the impression that a certain LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 113 man has a tendency or bearing towards Black Kepubli- canism or Abolitionism. Sometimes gentlemen who cannot establish such a charge are yet willing to make it, not directly, but by innuendo ; to create a false im- pression on the public mind — • "Willing to wound, but yet afraid to strike." If the charge can be successfully made, why not make it directly, instead of conveying it by innuendo ? The Senator from Mississippi did not attempt to reply to my speech, did not answer my arguments, did not meet my authorities, did not controvert ray facts." He showed that Davis was one of the forty-three Senators who, in the May previous, voted that it was not necessary to pass a law to protect slavery in the Territories, and he asked what rights had South Carolina or the other seceding States lost since the last session, when that vote was recorded. It was wholly unneces- sary then ; but they will secede if its not granted now. To that same proposition, Senator Brown of Mississippi offered a very stringent amendment for the purpose of protecting slave property, and supported it by argu- ment. What was the vote upon that? "How does it stand?" asks Johnson: " We find," he says, in continuation, "after an argu- ment being made by Mr. Brown, showing that the neces- sity did exist, according to his argument, the vote upon the proposition stood thus: The question being taken by yeas and nays, it was determined in the negative — yeas, 3 ; nays, 42. " Forty-two Senators voted that you did not need pro- tection ; that slavery was not in danger. 114 ■ LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON". '• ' The yeas and nays being desired by one-fiftli of the Senators present, '''Those who voted in the affirmative are: Messrs. Brown, Johnson of Arkansas, Mallory.' "There were only three. Who said it wAs not neces- sary ? Who declared, under the solemn sanction of an oath, that protection was not needed? "'Those who voted in the negative are: Messrs. Benjamin,' — " Ah ! Yes, Benjamin ! — " ' Bigler, Bragg, Bright, Chestnut, Clark, Clay, Cling- man, Crittenden, Davis, Dixon, Doolittle, Fitzpatrick, Foot, Foster, Green, Grimes, Gwin, Hamlin, Harlan, Hemphill, Hunter' — '' Hunter of Virginia, also I" " ' Iverson, Johnson of Tennessee, Lane.' " Ah ! [Laughter.] Yes, Lane of Oregon, voted on the 25th of last May, that slavery did not need protec- tion in the Territories. Now he will get up and tell the American people and the Senate that he is for a State seceding, and for breaking up the Government, because they cannot get what he swore they did not need. [Laughter.] That is what I call putting the nail through. '^ [Laughter in the galleries.] In this debate there occurs two sketches of character, both of which we know from history to be truthful. Besides the striking individuality of each, the powerful contrast between them carries with it a lesson as sugges- tive. In reply to a sneering allusion from Jeff. Davis, Johnson, exhibiting the trusting and trustful confidence mutually existing between himself and the people of Tennessee, gives us a firmly drawn outline of his nature LIFE OF ANDREW JOTINSOX. 116 and career, his past fortune, liis present fortitude, and his faith for the future: ^' Thank God, there is too much good sense and intel- ligence in the country to put down any man by an in- nuendo or 'side remark like that. But, sir, so far as the people whom I have the honor in part to represent are concerned, I stand above the innuendoes of that kind. They have known me from my boyhood up. They understand my doctrines and my principles, in private and in public life. They have tried me in every position in which it was in their power to place a public servant, and they, to-day, will not say that Andrew Johnson ever deceived or betraj^ed them. In a public life of twenty -five years, they have never deserted or betrayed me ; and, God willing, I will never desert or betray them. The great mass of the people of Tennes- see know that I am for them ; they know that I have advocated those great principles and doctrines upon which the perpetuity of this Government depends; they know that I have periled my all, pecuniarily and phys- ically, in vindication of their rights and their interests. Little innuendoes, thrown off in snarling moods, fall harmless at my feet." The other sketch is of Jeff. Davis, the terrible depth of whose treason is made all the more crushing in the free aknowlcdgment of the education conferred by, and the honors won in the service of the United States: " When I consider his early education ; when I ly force of arms, crush out and subdue the last LIFE OF ANDREW JOHXSON. 129 vestige of rebel authority in every State. I felt then af5 now, that the destruction of the Government was dehbcrately determined upon by wicked and designing conspirators, whose lives and for- tunes were pledged to carry it out ; and that no compromise, short of an unconditional recognition of the independence of the South- ern States could have been, or could now be proposed, which they would accept. The clamor for " Southern Rights," as the rebel journals were pleased to designate their rallying cry, was not to secure their assumed rights in the Union and under the Constitu- tion^ but to disrupt the Government and establish an independent organization, based upon Slavery, which they could at all times control. The separation of the Government has for years past been the cherished purpose of the Southern leaders. Baffled in 1832 by the stern, patriotic heroism of Andrew Jackson, they sullenly acquiesced, only to mature their diabolical schemes, and awajt the recurrence of a more favorable opportunity to execute them. Then the pre- text was the tariff, and Jackson, after foiling their schemes of nul- lification and disunion, with prophetic perspicacity, warned the country against the renewal of their efforts to dismember the Gov- ernment. In a letter, dated May 1, 1833, to the Rev. A. J. Crawford, after demonstrating the heartless insincerity of the Southern nullifiers, he said : " Therefore the tariff was only a pretext, and disunion and a Southern Confederacy the real object. The next pretext will be the negro, or Slavery question." Time has fully verified this prediction, and we have now not only " the negro, or Slavery question," as the pretext, but tiic real cause of the rebellion, and both must go down together. It is vain to attempt to reconstruct the Union with the distracting ele- ment of Slavery in it. Experience has demonstrated its incom- patibility with free and republican governments, and it would bo unwise and unjust longer to continue it as one of tlie institutions of the country. While it remained subordinate to the Constitution and laws of the United States, I yielded to it my .uipport, but when it became rebellious and attempted to rise above the Government, and control its action, I threw my humble influence against it. 130 LIFE OF A:NT)REW JOHNSON. The authority of the Government is supreme, and will admit of no rivalry. No institution can rise above it, whether it be Slavery or any other organized power. In our happy form of government all must be subordinate to the will of the people, when reflected through the Constitution and laws made pursuant thereto — State or Federal. This great principle lies at the foundation of every Government, and cannot be disregarded without the destruction of the Government itself. In the support and practice of correct principles we can never reach wrong results ; and by rigorously adhering to this great fundamental truth, the end will be the pre- servation of the Union, and the overthrow of an institution which has made war upon, and attempted the destruction of the Govern- ment itself The mode by which this great change — the emancipation of the slave— *can be effected, is properly found in the power to amend the Constitution of the United States. This plan is effectual and of no doubtful authority ; and while it does not contravene the timely exercise of the war power by the President in his Emancipation Proclamation, it comes stamped with the authority of the people themselves, acting in accordance with the written rule of the supreme law of the land, and must therefore give more general satisfaction and quietude to the distracted public mind. By recurring to the principles contained in the resolutions so unanimously adopted by the Convention, I find that they substan- tially accord with my public acts and opinions heretofore made known and expressed, and are therefore most cordially indorsed and approved, and the nomination, having been conferred without any solicitation on my part, is with the greater pleasure accepted. In accepting the nomination I might here close, but I cannot forego the opportunity of saying to my old friends of the Demo- cratic party proper, with whom I have so long and pleasantly been associated, that the hour has now come when that great party can justly vindicate its devotion to true Democratic policy and measures of expediency. The war is a war of great principles. It involves the supremacy and life of the Government itself If the rebellion triumphs, free government — North and South— fails. If, on the other hand.^ the Government is successful — as I do not doubt — its LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 131 destiny is fixed, its basis permanent and enduring, and its career of honor and glory just begun. In a great contest like this for the existence of free government the path of duty is patriotism and principle. Minor considerations and questions of administrative policy should give way to the higher duty of first preserving the Government ; and then there will l^e time enough to wrangle over the men and measures pertaining to its administration. This is not the hour for strife and division among ourselves. Such differences of opinion only encourage the enemy, prolong the war, and waste the country. Unity of action and concentration of power should be our watchword and rallying cry. This accom- plished, the time will rapidly approach when their armies in the field — that great power of the rebellion — will be broken and crushed by our gallant officers and brave soldiers, and ere long they will return to their homes and firesides to resume again the avocations of peace, with the proud consciousness that they have aided in the noble work of re-establishing upon a surer and more permanent basis the great temple of American Freedom. I am, gentlemen, with sentiments of high regard, Yours truly, ANDREW JOHNSON. A late incident in wliicTi Governor Johnson figured may not be uninteresting as illustrative of the way in which, when forbearance is not a virtue, he "takes the responsibility." The Nashville Oazeltc tells us : " Just before dark, one evening, a drunken officer of an Ohio regiment, after insulting several gentlemen on Cedar street in the neighborhood of the capitol, stopped at the private residence of Governor Johnson, and demanded some whisky from a negro who was standing at the gate. The negro told him that he had nothing of the kind, when the Lieutenant, in an enraged condition, drew a pistol and threatened to shoot him. The negro fled to 132 LIFE OF ANDREW JOllXSOX. the house, closely followed by tlie officer. Governor Johnson, hearmg the disturbance, came out of the house and endeavored to appease the wrath of the Lieutenant, when he cocked his pistol and fired, the ball grazing the Governor's side and passing through his coat. At this stage of the afiixir the GoVernor concluded that pacifica- tion was entirely out of order, and throwing aside his dignatorial robes he advanced upon the Lieutenant, and as he should have done, knocked him down and pun- ished him severely. The Lieutenant was immediately afterwards arrested by Sergeant W. 11. Colreth, Co. E, 18th Michigan, and lodged in jail." In concluding this necessarily incomplete memoir of the distinguished* Tcnnesseeau,. let us, to aid in giving a little color to the sketch, see what a friend, who served with him in the Legislature, messed with him, and knew him intimately, saj^s: "Johnson is bold and indomita- ble. His distinguishing characteristic is energy. He tires at nothing ; and if he cannot succeed one way he tries another, and another, until he accomplishes his purposes. He is rather slow and circumspect in taking his positions; but when taken nothing can drive him from them. . . . He seldom fights his battles through his friends, but relies mainly upon his own fearless energy to carry him through ; and it is never found wanting. As a citizen, he is a quiet, orderly, not to sa}^ diffident, gentleman. He is a warm friend and a bitter enemy. Emphatically of the people himself, he is the people's friend in public and private life. His best efforts, throughout his whole life, have been to ame- liorate their condition ; and every sympathy of his heart, I am certain, is with them." LIFE OF ANDKEW JOHNSON. 133 HORACE GREELEY'S REPLY TO REBEL AND COPPER- HEAD ATTACKS UPON PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S RE-NOMINATION. Abraham Lincoln, born fifty-five years ago of very poor parents, in vSlaveholding Kentucky, reared in a log cabin in the wilderness, which then all but covered Southern Indiana, losing his mother at ten j'ears of age, and receiving very little education in the rude and scanty log schoolhouses of his boyhood's days, joined a volunteer militia company in the Black Hawk w^ar of 1832, and was, at twenty-three years of age, elected its captain. He soon afterward studied surveying, and became proficient and useful therein, and at twenty-five years of age was chosen to the Legislature of Illinois from its metropolitan county, having once already been a candidate and received 277 of the 284 votes cast at the precinct where he re- sided and was thoroughly known. lie now commenced the study of the law, and in 1837, when twenty-eight years old, was admitted to practice, and immediately taken into partnership by the Hon. John T. Stuart, w^ho was very soon chosen to Congress from the district then composing the northern half of the State. (Mr. Stuart was then a Whig, but now represents the central district as a Dem- ocrat.) jMr. Stuart was even then a leading lawyer of Illinois, knew Lincoln thoroughly, having served with him in the Legislature and watched his legal studies, and was not the man to take a penniless dunce and ignoramus into partnership. Mr. Lincoln was twice re-elected to the Legislature, and was twice chosen to canvass the State as a "Whig Elector of President, when the Whig party, though a numerical minority, was certainly nowise inferior to its antagonist in intellect or culture. Among its leading lawyers and active politicians were such men as Orville 11. Browning, Jackson Grimsliaw, Joseph Knox, John T. Stuart, John Y. Scammon, Edward D. Baker (one of the most effective public speakers of our age), John J. Hardin, Stephen T. Logan, etc., etc., when Abraham Lincoln was chosen by it to canvass the entire State as a Senatorial Elector in its desperate struggle to make Henry Clay President in 18-11:. Is it possible that an ignorant boor a!id buffoon DEM. MAJ. 6,05Y Ford, 6,116 941 6,732 Polk, 5,818 .914 6,340 Cartwrig't,4,829 1,511 7,095 Harris, 7,201 106 8,188 Cass, 6,687 1,501 7,008 Harris, 6,254 754 134 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. should have been selected in preference to all these for that arduous and difficult labor? In 1847 Mr. Lincoln was the Whig candidate for Congress in his District, and was elected by the largest majority it ever gave for any candidate or any party. Just look at the figures : WHIG. 1842, Governor, Duncan, 6,05"; 1844, President, Clay, 1846, Congress, Lincoln, 1848, Congress, Logan, 1848, President, Taylor, 1850, Congress, Yates, [The Districts were re-cast before the election of 1852.] Here are six distinct contests in that District — all of which we can find any record — we believe all that ever occurred in it, and the highest majority it ever cast for any one was that given for Abraham Lincoln, though the vote was usually much higher, especially at a Presidential election. All this time Mr. Lincoln was struggling against the popular cur- rent in his State, as generally in the nation. When he first entered upon political life, Illinois was and ever had been strongly Demo- cratic and devoted to Gen. Jackson, yet he proclaimed himself a Whig and an intense admirer of Henry Clay. No one could have taken that side without expecting to be generally in a minority. Is that the course likely to commend itself to a vulgar boor and buf- foon, ambitious (as Mr. Lincoln clearly was) of political success and eminence ? In 1849 the Whig minority of the Legislature of Illinois cast their votes for ]\Ir. Lincoln as United States Senator, while many able and honored champions of their faith would have been proud of the honor. In 1854 there was a breaking up of old parties. Many Democrats were shaken loose from their moorings by the passage of the Ne- braska bill. The Legislature of Illinois then chosen showed for the first time an opposition majority. A United States Senator was then to be elected in place of Gen. Shields, a Nebraska Democrat. Spontaneously and without hesitation, the great mass of the anti- Nebraska members designated Abraham Lincoln as their first choice LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. 135 for the proud position. On balloting, however, it was found that four or five anti-Nebraska Democrats would not vote for one whom they had hitherto opposed as a Whig. Thereupon, by Mr. Lin- coln's urgent advice, the nine-tenths dropped the man of their choice and went over to the one-tenth, electing Mr. Trumbull, an anti-Ne- braska Democrat. This was at once generous and wise. In 1856 the Republican National Convention met at Philadelphia and nominated John C. Fremont, of California, for President. Abraham Lincoln was then unanimously proposed for Vice-Presi- dent by the Republicans of Illinois, and received the votes of that and most other Northwestern States — 110 in all. But it was deemed indispensable that one of the candidates should be selected from the old or Eastern States, and so William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, was approved by a majority of the Convention. jMr. Lincoln gave an earnest and effective support to the ticket thus nominated. In 1858' Mr. Douglas' first term drew to a close. The Legisla- ture then to be chosen must elect his successor. The Republican party had now become consolidated and homogeneous — in good part through the magnanimity of Mr. Lincoln and his friends in 1854-5. A State Convention assembled in the spring, and without one dissenting voice, nominated Mr. Lincoln as their candidate. They did this in full view of the fact that he must expect to meet and grapple with Stephen A. Douglas, one of the very best popular debaters of any age or country. If they had supposed they had a more deserving or better man for the work than Lincoln, they would doubtless have nominated that man. In the contest that followed it is well known that our sympathies were not on the side of Mr. Lincoln. That is to say, regarding men as of no account in comparison with ideas, we thought the Republi- cans of Illinois should have supported Afr. Douglas in acknowledg- ment of the great service he had just rendered to the cause of public liberty in defeating the Lecompton bill. We have never been driven from this position, though we can easily realize that the fierce an- tagonisms engendered by twenty years of fierce and often abusive party warfare could not readily be efilvced. Suffice it that issue was joined, and the canvass between Messrs. Lincoln and Douglas that ensued was one of the ablest, the most lucid, the most instructive ever known. It was an honor to our country and to republican in- stitutions. We think Mr. Lincoln had much the stronger and 136 LIFE OF ANDREW JOHNSON. juster position ; but on this point opinions will dififer, while on that of the talent, felicity, ingenuity and general good temper evinced by either disputant, we see not how there can be two opinions. In the event, Mr. Douglas was re-elected, but Mr. Lincoln received the larger popular vote. And it was the very first instance of such a preponderance on that side in an Illinois canvass. In 18G0 Mr. Lincoln was invited to speak for the Republican cause in the city of New York, and his speech was much the most cogent, felicitous, convincing defense of our main position ever ut- tered in Cooper Institute. Tens of thousands of it were circulated and admiringly read, and it doubtless powerfully conduced to his nomi- nation for President at Chicago some two months afterward — a nomination triumphantly ratified by the electoral vote. \ I r' E3 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, By HEi\R1 J. KA1M(»\D, ANDREW JOHNSON, By JOHN SAVAGE. ^tia fork : DERBY & MILLER, No. 5 SPRUCE STREET, TRIBUNE BUILDINGS. DERBY d' MIL L E R'' S LIST OF BOOKS. THE PORTRAIT GALLERY OF THE WAR. A Biographical Record of the most distinguished Soldiers, Sailors, and Statesmen connected with the war, both Union and Rebel. With Sixt}- fine Portraits on Steel By Frank Moore, Editor of The Rebellion Record. *** This work is a valuable " Biography of the War," and contains accurate Portraits of noted chieftains, Union and Rebel. Handsomely bound in cloth, at $5 ; in extra gilt, $6. THE AMERICAN STATESMAN. A Political History of the United States, exhibiting the Nature, Origin and Practical Operation of Constitu- tional Government in the United States; the Rise and Progress of Parties; and the views of distinguished Statesmen on Questions of Foreign and Domes- tic Policy, By Andrew W. Young. The Work contains 1,234 pages, and is provided with a copious alphabetical index, systematically arranged for convenient reference, bound in leather. Price $5 00. THE LIFE OF GEORGE WASHINGTON. By Washington Irving. The five volumes coEnj)lete in one. With twenty-four fine steel engravings, 827 pages. Cloth, Price $6.00. The same in embossed morocco, Price |T.50. GOODRICH'S (S. G.) HISTORY OF ALL NATIONS, from the earliest period, to the present time, in which the History of every Nation, Ancient and Modern is separately given. 700 Engravings, 2oO Portraits, 70 Maps. 1,235 Double-Column Imperial Octavo Pages, equal to twenty 12mo. Vols, of ordinary size. Two Volumes, Morocco, Gilt Back and ."-ide Dies, Marble Edges. Price, $12.00. The same in full Gilt bides, Back and Gilt Edges, $15.00 The above Sold only by Subscription. Canvassing- Agents Wanted. THE GENERAL ORDERS OF THE WAR DEPARTMENT for the years 1861, 1862 and 1863. Arranijed in two volumes, with a full Index. Two Volumes, 1,250 large octavo pages, bound in Cloth, price $10. GOVERNOR RAYMOND'S HISTORY OF PRES'T LINCOLN'S Administration. Including his Speeches, Addresses, Letters, Messages and Proclamations, with an accurate Portrait on Steel. 12mo., Price $1.50. THE MIRROR OF MODERN DEMOCRACY. Being a History of the Democratic Party, from its ori;anization in 1825, to its last great achievement, The Slaveholders'^' Rebellion of 1861-0-4. By AV. D. Jones, 12mo. Price $1.25. THE CHURCH AND THE REBELLION. A consideration of the Rebellion, and the Agency of the Church, North and South, in relation thereto. By R. L. Stanton, D. I)., Prof, in Theol. Sem'y at Danville, Ky. 12mo., 576 pp.. Cloth. Price, s2.00. GENERAL GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. By J. K. Larkf. Illustrated with an accurate Portrait on steel, and other illustrations. 12mo. Price $1.50. THE CITIZENS' MANUAL OF GOVERNMENT AND LAW. Comprising the Elementary I rinciples of Civil Government; a Practical View of the State Governments, and of the Government of the United States; a Digest of Common and Statutory Law, and of the Law of Nations ; and of Parliamentary Rules, f(v the Practice of Deliberative Assemblies. By Andrew W. Yucxg. 44S pages, 12mo. Price, $1.50. THE DIARY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, from Whig and Tory Newspapers and Original Documents. Svo., pp. 1,100, 12 Steel Engra- vings, with Plans of Battles, zc. Edited by Frank Moore, Cloth. Price, $5.00, NATIONAL ECONOMY. A History of the American Protective System, and its Effects upon the several Branches of Domestic Industry. By Andrew W. Young. 468 pages, 12mo, Price $1.50. THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, By P. C. Headley. With Steel Portrait, 471 pp., 12mo., Cloth. Price $1.50. THE LIFE OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE, By P. C. Headley. "With Steel Portrait, 3S3 pp., 12 mo., Cloth. Price $1.50. THE GOVERNMENT CLASS BOOK. Designed as a School Text-Book for Instruction in the Principles of Government, and the Rights and Duties of Citizens. By Andrew W. Young. 308 pages, 12mo. Price, $1.25. Sold by all Booksellers. Single Copies mailed, j^ost-paid by the Publishers. Address DERBY & MILLER, 5 Spruce Street, New York. THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, By henry J. RAYMOND, ANDREW JOHNSON, By J0H\ savage. DERBY cfe MILLER, No. 5 SPRUCE STREET, TRIBUNE BUILDINGS. MAGNIFICENT IMPERIAL STEEL PLATE ENGRAVINGS. We hare just published the following popular portraits, engraved by the celebrated Artist, A. H. RITCHIE, FROM PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRADY. PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. MAJOR-GEN. WINFIELD SCOTT HANCOCK. . TESTIMONY FROM COMPETENT JUDGES. From the President's Private Secretary. W.'SHiNGTON, Jul}' 25, 1864- Messrs. Derby & Miller, Publishers : The superb engravings of the President, General Grant, and General Hancock, have been received. They will be most highly prized not only for the absolute fidelity of the likene>ises, but for their spirit and grace, and exquisite finish. The President wishes me to congratulate you upon the success of the engraving^ and to add his testimony to the entire faithfulness of the likenesses I am very Truly Yours, JOHN HAY, Private Secretary, dc. From Major- General JJa n cock. HEADQ0ARTEES 2d Armt Corps, July 31, 1864. Messrs. Derby & Miller: I have received your fine steel portraits. Those of the Presid ent and Lieutenant- General could not he excelled. * * * Mine is considered good by others. Receive my thanks, &c.. Truly your obd't servant, WINF'D S. HANCOCK, Major-General U. S. Army. From the Neic York Evening Post. Derby & Miller, of No. 5 Spruce Street, have published probably the best portraits which have yet appeared of President Lincoln, General Grant and General Hancock. While admirable as works of art, they are singularly faithful and correct portraits of the eminent individuals ftiey represent. From the New York Tribune. Both for the rarity as well as the supreme excellence of the work, do we welcome the appear- ance of three line engravings by the artist, A. H. Ritchie, after the original photographs by Brady. The subjects are three — heads of the President, General Grant, and General Hancock. The likenesses are literally perfect, and the finesse of the engraver certainly not excelled. Considering the magnificence of the work, they are sold very low. From the New York Times. The civil and military heroes of the war are at last in a fair way to have their faces handed down to posterity, in a manner worthy of their fame. Messrs. Derby & Miller, of No. 5 Spruce Street, sends us as an earnest of a work which they have undertaken, magnificent steel plate en- gravings of President Lincoln, and of Gens. Grant and Hancock, As regards the fidelity of the likenesses, it is enough to say that they are after photographs by Brady, and that they are en- graved by Mr. A. H. Ritc'.ue. It is safe to predict that neither as pictures or portraits will this series be surpassed. The size for framing is uniform, 14x13 inches. The price of each is $1. *** Copies sent by Mail or Express, safely packed, free of charge, on receipt of price. DERBY & MILLER, 5 Spruce St., Tribune Buildings, New York. NEARLY READY, UXIFOBM WITH ABOVE. W. TECUMSEH SHERMAN, Maj.-Gen. U. S. Army. HORACE GREELEY, Editor N. Y. Tribune. lIoRACK Greeley in the ^-ew York Tribune recomrnfuds the book as follows: arranged, readable, interesting book, which every one interested in our country s we fare may read with pleasure and profit. We besoeak for it & prompt and general circulation." ^pcan. ^ur n MR. RAYMOND'S HISTORY OF THE ADMINISTRATIOISr OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN, INCLUDING HIS Speeches, Addresses, Letters, Messages, and Proclama- tions, with a preliminary Sketch of his Life. CONTENTS OF THE WORK. Pmlimtnary -Sketch of the Life of Abraham Lincoln-His Political Career-De- oate with Douglas— Election to the Presidency v^arcer uo CiiiPTEP L— Condi tiop of the Country at the time of the Election— Closing of Bu- chanan s Adraimstration-Peace C<.ngress-Incipient Steps of the Kebellion. Chapter II.-From Springfield to Washington-Mr. Lincoln-s Speeches on the wav -Conspiracy to Assassinate him— Arrival at Washinirton. Chapter I II.-Froni the Inauguration to the""Meeting"of^Congress, July 4, 1861- Action of the Border States. c i j , v-i CHAPT^R^IV.-Estra Session of Congress, and the Military Events of the Summer rutllll vT^'rP'fr-?-?''*'"»f Congress, December, 1861-Messages and DebatetL CHAPTER VI.— 1 he Mihtaiy Admimstration of 1SC2— The President and Gen. Mc- <^1^'|?"< ^ith a critical history of McCIellan^s Campaigns. CHAPTER VIL— Military Movements in other sections of the Country— Our Foreien Kelations— Lettei-s- The Emancipation Proclamations. CHAPTER VIII.— 'I he Congressional Session of lSt)2-'63— Message of the President, and General Action of the Session. Chaptbr IX_— Military Arrests and the Suspension of Habeas Corpus— The Draft- New York Riots, &c. Chapter X.— The Session of 18C3— Message and Debates— The Elections. Chaptep. XL— Movements of Reconstruclion-Tho Missouri Question- Colonization — bmployment of Negro Troops— General Review of the Policy and ChiWacter of the Administration. Appendix.— Containing interesting Letters and Documents never before published. It is confidently believed by the Publishers that this volume, prepared from m» thorised&n\ with the usual care and .ability of its wei: ''•.own author. ULNRY J. RAYMOND, Esq., Editor of the New York T»ie3. win not only prove very acceptable to the American public, but will also take its place at once as au i- ^ i- » IMPARTIAL, TRUTHFCL, A^D STAXDARD HISTORY 01< PEESIDENT LINCOLN'S ADMINISTEATION. In this work every Message, Proolamntion. Speech, Lcttor, &c., of President Lin- coln IS given, from offlcitd copy, each und.-r its appn-priiUe head. It is bilit-ved tlv.xi every thing he haseuid or written during his Administration, which has been given to the public, is included in this collection, in a f )rin at once oonvknibnt and autujuj- Tio. A copious Inde.x adds to its value as a book of reference. One Volume, 12mo, with a Fine Steel Portrait. DERBY & MILLER, No. 5 Sprucb St., New York. Frort^ the Eoxbury {Mass.) Journal. Mr. Lincoln is peculiarly fortunate in having Mr. Raymond for a biogra- pher. We know of no man in America better competent to the task. Thoroughly conversant with contemporaneous political history, and with the means of verifying every fact close at hand, he could not fail of accu- racy for want of knowledge. Added to this, Mr. Raymond is one of the cleverest, clearest and best practical writers for the popular taste in the nation. He has made a book which gives, in a brief sjiace, the most in- telligent and concise view of the events of the last three years at Wash- ington, which has yet been written. It will be eagerly sought "by men of all classes. Fro7n the Chicago Journal. Mr. Raymond has had ample opportunities for acquainting himself with the motives which prompted the several public acts of the President, and his estimate of the President, therefore is intelligent and appreciative. In- deed Mr. Raymond's book is an inside view of the Administration, and is consequently what it would naturally be inferred to be, racy and relishable reading. It has already produced a wide-spread sensation, and met with extraordinary sales. From the Boston Gazette. We admire the truthfulness of the record with a no less admiration for the manner in which it has been prepared. The book is a welcome one, and should receive a wide sale. From the Anti-Slavery Standard. Mr. Raymond deals neither in eulogy or criticism, but places the acts and words of Mr. Lincoln in such a form as to enable the reader to judge for himself of the merits and defects of his policy. The work therefore will be as valuable for those who condemn, as for those who approve the President's measures. From the Boston Transcript. In this work a much-needed want of the public is supplied, a seasonable and patriotic service fultilled with good taste and good sense, and, we be- lieve, it will do much to enlighten, to cheer and make trustful the loyal American citizens of the battle-field in the Council, and amid the bereaved households of the land. From the New York Evangelist. President Lincoln is, at this moment, the most conspicuous man in this country, and, perhaps, in the world. Events have given him a prominence ■which he nor others foresaw. How he has discharged his high duties, this volume attempts to show. Prepared by the distinguished editor of the Times of this city, it is, of course, well written. It narrates an extra- ordinary career, and cannot fail to be read with universal interest. Frojn the Cleveland Leader, For the careful manner in which this work has been done, Mr. Raymond deserves great praise. As a whole, the work is by far the most important and reliable campaign document of this, and, as far as we know, of any other campaign. Mr. Raymond has derived extraordinary advantages for his work from his peculiar journalistic and political position, and has used them in the best manner. From the CJiicago Christian Times. The object of the book is plainly to put the reader in a way to compre- hend and appreciate the policy and aims of the present Chief Magistrate of this nation. We do not see how a candid man can rise from the pe- rusal without feeling constrained to admit that, in that whirlpool of diffi- culties and danger where the President found himself the moment he left the capital of the Prairie State for the capital of the nation, he has, from the first, manifested most astonishing presence of mind, steadiness of judgment and sagacity, the whole consecrated by a patriotism whose sim- plicity, purity, and singleness of purpose would seem to be equaled in only one other instance recorded in our annals. We are more than ever satisfied that Mr. Lincoln is the instrument of a special ^ro^'td-^ce — itt God's hand, the saviour of his country. ^^ -^ \ \ W EVERYBODY WANTS TO READ ABOUT LIEUT-GEN. GRANT AND HIS GREAT CAMPAIGNS. AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. With a Sketch of his Life and Military Career, By JULIAN K. LARKE. Elustrated with an accurate Portrait on Steel, with views of the Surrender of FORT DONELSON, VICKSBURG, and the BATTLES AT PITTSBURG LANDING and CHATTANOOGA. SYNOPSIS OF THE CONTENTS. Grant's Early Days — At "West Point — Enters the Army — Mexican War — Subsequent Services and Civil Life — The Rebellion — Volunteers, and becomes a Brigadier-General — Post and District Commander — Bat tie of Belmont — District of Cairo — Surrender of Fort Henry and Cap- ture of Fort Donelson — Department of Tennessee — Battles of luka and Corinth — Change of Base — WiUiams's Canal — Lake Providence Canal — Steele's Bayou Expedition — Health of the Army — Overland Movemen^ and Running the Batteries — Grierson's Expedition — Attack on Gran. Gulf — Landing at Bruinsburg — Battle of Port Gibson — Capture of Jack- son — Battle of Champion's Hill — Battle of Big Black — Investment, Siege, and Surrender of Vicksburg — General Grant at Memphis and New Orleans — Commander of the Military Division at Mississippi — Defeat of Bragg, and Victory of Chattanooga — Splendid Strategy in Tennessee — Thanked by Congress, Commissioned as Lieutenant- General — Together with an Appendix containing his official Reports, the Debates in Congress, etc., etc. " What Gen. Grant has done Mr. Larke tells us minutely and eloquently. Every- body will read it." — Boston Traveler. " A valuablo contribution to current History. One Is led through the Yolumo with more interest than fiction." — 2^, W. ChrUstian Advocate. "Quite interesting m^&e^''''—CongregationaU8t. "It cannot fail to have a great run." — Worthern Independent. "Will be eagerly read by thousands." — K. Y. Oommercial Advertiser. One large Duoclcciino Volume, DERBY & MILLER, PuWisliers, No. 5 Spruce St., New I'ork. From President Lincoln. I think it may be safely said, that the " American Statesman," is a volume invaluable to those desirous of accurate and full references to the. political history of our country. Abraium Lincoln. The only complete Political History of the United States published. THE AMERICAN STATESMAN A Political History of the United States, exhibiting the Nature, Origin and Practical Operation of Constitutional Government in the United States ; the PJse and Progress of Parties ; and the Views of Distinguished Statesmen on Questions of Foreign and Domestic Policy; with an Appendix, containing Explanatory Notes, Sta- tistical Information, and other Useful Matter. By AIVDREIV W. YOIJIVG, Author of " Science of Government," " First Lessons in Civil Government," " Citizen's Manual of Government and Law," etc. This work embraces the whole period of our Governmental History, commencing with the brief "compact" drawn up by the "Pilgrim Fathers" before their landing, down to the present time. It contains a description of the Governments of the several Colonies while subject to Great Britain, of the Government of the Old Confederation adopted during the War, and the Debates and Proceedings of the Convention •which formed the Constitution of the United States. It presents the views of our ablest Statesmen, and the action of the Government on all the prominent questions of public policy which have arisen under the Constitution, and which have divided the people into parties; as The Public Debt, National Banks, Tariffs, Internal Improvements, The Public Lands, Public Defence, Controversies with Foreign Nations The Alien and Sedition Laws, The Virginia and Kentucky Reso lutions of 1798-99, Acquisition of Louisiana, Florida, and other Foreign Territory, The Missouri and other Slavery Compromises, War Questions, Indian Policy, Controversies with Georgia and South Carolina, Nullification, Tlie Great Bank Controversy, The Removal of the Deposits, The Executive Power of Removal, and the Bank Vetoes, The Sub-Treasury, The Texas, Mexican, Oregon and Kansas Questions, Secession of the Southern States, etc., etc. An important feature of the work 13, that on controverted questions, whether involving- constitutional principles or mure considerations of policy, the main arguments on both sides are impartially given, and submitted without comment to the judgment of the reader. Subjoined to the work is an Appendix, containing The Constitution of the United States, a copy of the original draft of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, showing what parts were struck out, and what were substituted and added by Congress; THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION, and a statement of the Electoral Votes that have been given for tho different candidates for President and Vice-President, from the first election of Washington down to that of James Buchanan, including the Names of all the Cabinet- Officers of each Administration, etc., etc. The work contains 1234 pages, and is provided with a copious alphabetical index, minutely and systematically arranged for con- venient reference. It is well printed, on good paper, and very sub- stantially bound in leather. In order to effect its widest circulation, and, consequently, its most extensive usefulness, it is sold only by travelling agents, who will visit every town and neighborhood for this purpose as soon as practicable. Recommendation from Horace Greeley. The author has performed his difficult task with that laborious care and conscientious fidelity, which those acquainted with his previous works must confidently anticipate in any production of his pen. « * * There are tens of thousands — nay, hundreds of thousands — of youth in our land, wliose daily duties do not afford them leisure to wade through shelves of Niles' Registers, Annual Registers, Washington's, Jefferson's, Madison's, Calhoun's, Benton's and otlior letters and papers, in order to gain a clear and comprehensive view of the main questions which have successively divided our statesmen and our countrymen generally. But the farmer's son by the winter fireside, the apprentice at his hours of leisure, the clerk in the duller season for business, may make him- self thoroughly familiar with Mr. Young's book, and thus become better informed respecting tho past political history of our country than so many asone-third of those now exercising the right of sulVrage. And as the same questions, substantially, reappeared from age to age, though under difiVrent auspices and often with a change of siiles among those contending for the mastery, this unassuming " Statesman'* will prove to most of tliem emphatically useful and instructive. We heartily commend it to general attention and perusal. DERBY & MILLER, Publishers, 5 Spruce St., New York. *'Mr. Moore lias happily executed a happy thonght." THE ^\m of tlj: l^mtritau Jlcbolitiian; From Whi^ and Tory Newspapers and Original Documents. In one Volume. 8vo, pp. 1100, Illustrated with Twelve Superb Steel Engramngs, hy Ritchie ; with Plans of Cities^ Battles^ &c. JE3ci.±toci. Toy- IFr^TiTi: IVXoox>e. The materials of this work are taken from "Whig and Tout News- papers, published during the American Revolution, Private Diaries, and other contemporaneous writings. They present to the student of this day the same view the readers of the Revolutionary period enjoyed — the manners and customs of the people, and the moral and religious, as well as political features of the time. The work contains not only the current accounts by both Whig and Tort "Writers of the different skirmishes and battles by sea and land, but, at the same time, gives a clear idea of the effect of these occur- rences upon the people and their homes. It also embraces accounts of the balls, parties, marriages and deaths, criticisms upon men and books, wedding parties, sleigh-rides, the Whigs tarred and feathered by the Tories, and vice versa; fox-hunts by the offi- cers of the British army ; surprises, birth-day celebrations, practical jokes by men who we have been taught to believe were of the most serious natural disposition; patriotic songs and ballads; horse-races, games, masquerades, reviews; anecdotes of the most celebrated men and women, popular merriments and usages, and the celebrations of national festivities. The work carries the reader back into the homes, upon the very hearthstones, the highways and battle-fields of the Revolution, and lets him hear the Whigs and Tories lampoon and abuse each other, and see the armies fight in their own way. From the New York Evening Post, " Mr. Moore has happily executed a happy thought : he has written a history of the most important events of the last century in the very words of its contemporaries. " Washington presents himself, not merely as the noble and success- •ful leader of a great people strugghng for their rights, but as the rebel and tht partisan, having many and bitter enemies, who were capable of covering his name with the filth of theh" abuse."' DERBY & MILLER, Publishers, New York. From the New York Herald. " It 13 refreshincr to moot with a book in which the exact color of events is preserved, and the individuality of the author lost. P^-cry page of the work teems with facts gathered from the daily Hfo of the Revolution, and thus, without the intervention of modern speculation, we have brou.giit before us not merely the actors in the groat drama of the Revolution, but their actual thoughts, feehngs, and emotions." From the K Y. Independent. "There is not — we speak advisedly and deUberately — in the whole range of volumes and libraries upon American history, there is not to be found any single contribution toward that history of such value as that contained in these two volumes. The author has reproduced, as by the photographic art, the very times and scenes of the american Revolution as they were to the men who moved in the midst op THEM. The labor of such a work is immense ; its value is incalculable : the reader will land in it much to amuse and instruct him, and a perfect mirror of the Revolutionary era." From the London Saturday Review. " The feeling with which most Englishmen will rise from the perusal of this work will be one of sorrowful but profound contempt for the gov- ernment under which their ancestors flourished in the good old days. Nobody, except perhaps Washington, appears in very noble colors ; but the only actors who make a thoroughly despicable figure are the English ministers and their favorite generals. It was not that they committed here and there an isolated mistake — the demon of blundering possessed them from the very first measure to the very last of the twenty years' struggle." F'om the Philadelphia Bulletin. " A really original work on our revolution is, of course, a surprise. The facts are all so well known that it would seem impossible to impart to them an air of novelty. But Mr. Frank Afoore has presented a most fiesh and vivid picture of the whole course of events, from the begin- ning of 1775 till the close of the war. The plan adopted has been to take the accounts of newspapers of the time. The skilful execution of this design has given us one of the most readable and impartial narra- tives of our struggle for independence that has ever been produced. The events seem to pass before the reader's immediate vision, and to be reported by him while the impression they produce on his mind i3 en- tirely fresh." This iDorh is sold Ijy SuhscrijJtion ojibj, at Fire Dollars per Copy^ in Cloth. DERBY & MILLER, Publishers, NEW YORK. 9 Sold Exclusively by Subscrlptloni THE f 0rlrail iallerg rf !|e ffilar, CIVIL, MTLITABY, and NAVAL. A Biographical Record of the most distinguished SOLDIERS, SAIL- ORS, and STATESMEN connected with the war, both Union and Rebel. WITH SIXTY FINE PORTRAITS ON STEEL, Embracing, among others, those of Lincoln, Scott, Seward, Lyon, Foote, Stonewall Jackson, Thomas, EwELL, Meade, Johnston, Gillmore, Butler, Grant, Bragg, MoClellan, Farragut, Longstreet, Porter, Lee, Hal- LECK, Chase, Davis, Beauregard, Banks, Bubn- side, Stuart, Rogers, and Dupont. Bt FKANK MOORE, Editor of "The Rebellion Record." *5^* This valuable work is the only '* Biographical History of the War," and containing, as it does, accurate portraits of all the noted chieftains in both the Union and Rebel service, its desirableness will be at once appreciated. DERBY & MIJLLER, New York. THE BEST BIOGRAPHY OF THE BEST A.>IERICAIV. SOLD EXGHJSIVELT BY SUBSCRIPTION. ■•Irving's Biography of "Washington is a marvel." — George Banoroit. The New and Beautiful Royal Octavo Edition of THE LIFE OP iE©ii£ WASI^JJ^iTON, BY WASHINGTON IRVING. The five volumes complete in one. steel engravings, as follows : — With twenty-four fine Splendid Portrait, by Stuart. Birthplace of "Washington. "Washington as a Surveyor. "Washington's Field Sports. Portrait of Martha "Washington. View of Mount Vernon. "Wasliington going to 1st Congress. Declaration of Independence. "W^ashington subduing a Brawl. Knox coming with Artillery. Battle of Trenton. Battle of Monmouth. Battle of Germantown. "^''ashington at Yalley Forge. Portrait of Lafayette. Portrait of Kosciusko. Portrait of Sullivan. Portrait of Wayne. Head-Quarters at Newburgh. Resigning his Commission. Inauguration of Wasliington. Scene near Lake George. Monument at Richmond. View of "V\^all Street, 1776. One Volume of 827 pages, cloth, The same in embossed morocco. DERBY & MILLER, Publishers, New York. THE MIRROR OF MODERN DEMOCRACY: BEING A History of the Democratic Party, From its Organization in 1825, to its last Great Achievement, THE SLAVEHOLDERS' REBELLION or 1861-1864. TO WHICH IS PREFIXED A Sketch of the Old Federal and Republican Parties. By WILLIAM D. JONES. This part3% styled by its projectors and leaders the "Democratic Tart}-," was formed nearly forty years ago. Whatever difference of opinion may exiPt respecting its early measures, candid, intelligent men generally admit that it has for many years been the agent of the Slaveholding Oligarchy in controlling the National Government. Its inimense power has consisted, mainh^ in its deceptive title. In tho popular but the abused name of Democracy, it has committed numerous acts of the most anti-democratic character, and inflicted upon the countrj' evils of incalculable magnitude, the last and greatest of which is the present Rebellion, To expose and dispel this mischievous delusion — to strip fi-qra this party the guise under which it has perpetrated its evil deeds — is the design of this work. There is a class of old partisans who will never abate their devotion to their political idol. Sham Democracy. Their prejudices are unconquerable. But there is also a large class of men, mostly younger men, grown up under the influences of this spurious Democracy, who have begun to doubt its infallibility, and are disposed to investigate its claims. But apart from this consideration, it will be found highly useful to the mass of our citizens as a compendium of political history, compris- ing, as it does, the leading measures of every administration and every party, and the views of our eminent statesmen, since the organization of the Government. The work contains 2*70 pages large duodecimo, solid, or closely printed matter, being equal tonearly 350 pages of ordinaiy duodecimo volumes, and is neatly bound in cloth, DEBET & MILLE^Pabli^ers, 5_ S^co Street, New York. i u-i:? tu C 15 80 ^^ , » ■» -^o %''•■ '-> ^ .^^ 4^' ^ ^!W^' i^- "bv^^ ^ ^%^/ '?y .♦ >^ ^*, -y^^'^. 5^ • - - ♦ O^ ' ♦- c « o s\ ^^■ V-^. #. %.^* ^- V N. MANCHESTER, INDIANA 46962