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 An address before the lUmois Society of Oakland, California by 
 JOHN T. BELL 
 
 ^lon- a c.untrv road in Kentucky, a woman and a 
 little s^irT riding Imrsehaok, tl,e liorses also carrying 
 :,„„: articles of household effects trudging '--;;-- 
 afoot, a man and a little boy. The husband an<l fa he of 
 is household never learned to read -.-•<--;;:: 
 the lad reached the age of twenty-one h,s own o luc t n 
 .vas Innited to the ability to wr.te. read »-"' ";| ' 
 sums in arithmetic. Thus this famdy-unkn.nvn. , lltat 
 poor among the po<n-jo,u-neyed toward a -- ' ' ^^ "^ 
 Indiana, the bulk of their small worldly possessu.ns havm„ 
 previously gone forward by Hat h<iat. 
 
 There was nothing of note about tl"^^^■•;"^■ *'"";",; 
 i, was common enough in that locabty n, 1S16. but th 
 
 ttle boy, dressed in a Jeans su,t that Ins ,no. e h d 
 „,,.,ae a h.ckorv shirt, and baret,.oted, ca.ne to be the best 
 
 own and bes't loved man in all the world, to wnte Mat 
 papers which now c.mnnand the adnnrat.ou ol the m t 
 elolarlv and cultured; to make, -y the oe-cas,on o tic 
 dedication of the Getty.sburg Natnun.l Ceme ery. an 
 
 : 1 ;; s of t nunu.es' lengtl, which has been character 
 
 iVed as settmg the h,gh-water mark of Amer.can orao.ry. 
 :, serve th,s great Xatiou as its Chief Executne and c.- 
 ;;salelv through four years of the bloocbest war the 
 
world has ever known; to strike the chains from four 
 million 1:)on{lsmen : to die a martyr to human liberty; to 
 be honored by a funeral procession sixteen hundred miles 
 long and to be mourned by millions with the sincere grief 
 which marks a personal bereavement. 
 
 Two surprising things occurred in the month of June, 
 1860 — the holding of a national political convention at 
 Chicago, then a town of only 109,200 population on the 
 western border of the well-settled Stales, and the nomina- 
 tion by that convention of Abraham Lincoln, a country 
 lawyer of Illinois, whose only title to fame, outside a very 
 limited circle, rested upon a series of eight joint debates 
 held with Stephen A. Douglas two years previously. 
 
 This nomination was received with dismay by the 
 people of the North and with derision and sneers by those 
 of the South. Thoughtful men who loved their country 
 realized that so grave was the crisis then impending that 
 the highest order of intellect, the clearest vision and the 
 most profound judgment combined with courage and forti- 
 tude of the most exalted character, would be required by 
 the Nation of the one who was to become its Executive 
 on the Fourth of March following. 
 
 What an appalling task it was which confronted this 
 modest, unassuming, sad-eyed man from the prairies of 
 the West when he reached Washington February 23, 1861! 
 So thoroughly permeated with disloyalty was ot^cial life 
 at the Nation's capital at that date that he could not place 
 his hand upon a single individual, high or low in station, 
 and say: "Upon you 1 can rely." Inexperienced in state- 
 craft; with but slight acquaintance with the leaders of his 
 
 own party; surrounded by those who received him coldly 
 or with open expressions of contempt; seven States 
 already seceded, with the certainty that others would 
 
follow the entire military force of the country cons,stni:4 
 of only 20,CC0 men; the few ships comprism^^ the navy 
 scattered abroad; an empty national treasnry-surely. 
 surely never before was bnrden so heavy placed npon the 
 shoulders of man as that which Abraham Uncoln took up 
 when he stood <n the eastern portico ot the Capitol and 
 o mnly dedicated himself to the service of his distracted 
 
 country 
 
 Nine davs after Mr. Lincoln's arrual a. Waslung n 
 tl,e Nation was electrified by an inaugural address the 
 I mud of which had never been penned. Courtly gentlemen 
 : 1 p.d,shed scholars had preceded this home,y ntan ,n 
 his high office, tr.t never before had the people of th s 
 con.ntent been so touched and thrdled on l.ke occas o 
 a" they were by President Lincoln's lirst ntaugural. and , 
 "il ever stand a model of logic, of clean-cnt statement, of 
 patriotic fervor, of sympathetic regard lor m.sled people, 
 of co-ent reasoning, of winning perstias.veness. 
 
 Then followed, for this simple-minded man, four years 
 of unprecedented experience; of mental ;'"; l''j-; 
 strain of gleams of sunshine; ot days of gl""'"' "' J'^ 
 tr s wotttof cisaster and defeat; of "--;'.'-:/; J^' 
 „f vicious assault; of confidence expressed, of old ess 
 L, distrust; of official jealousies; of ';-'-; -'-j;',-';"- 
 <,f bloody sacrifices; of treasure wasted, o. '"";;' 
 planned and lost; of fraud and corruption, ot exa.ted 
 e "usi • of cowardice and treachery; of ag.mized app a s 
 1 fathers and mothers and little children - - = ^ 
 
 loved ones perishing in prisons; ot death m his ,,, ho 
 hold-the mere reading of the record o. t'"'- " f ^ 
 ful dreadful years tills one with amazement that tni. 
 l:!,d'rTelned'man should have lived through an e.<peii. 
 
 <ence so crushing. 
 
We know that there were times when his soul cried 
 out for relief. A friend of former years attended one of 
 the Presidential recej^tions and afterward related that Mr. 
 Lincoln paid little heed to the great throng, including 
 perst»ns of the highest distinction, pressing forward to 
 take him I53' the hand. After the reception rooms of the 
 White House were cleared the President took his friend's 
 arm and the two walked up and down in silence. A 
 remark was made upon A-Ir. Lincoln's evident depression, 
 whereupon he grasped his friend fiercely by the arm and 
 exclaimed: "What day is thi.,? What day is this? This 
 is Friday; this is the day they shoot farmers' boys dov\n 
 O; the I'otomac for goii'^g to sleep on sentry post! My 
 Go/ . I can't endure it! 1 can't endure it!" 
 
 With his keen sensibilities, his loving heart which took 
 in all mankind, his feeling of close kindred with the com- 
 mon people, what a shock it must have been to him to be 
 asked to approve the findings of courts martial imposing 
 the death penalt}' upon Union soldiers. At such times t- 
 took advantage of every possible pretext for withholdnig 
 his endorsement. On one occasion, in granting a pardon 
 to a deserter, he said: "It makes me feel rested after a 
 hard day's work if I can tind some good excuse for saving 
 a man's life, and 1 go to l:)ed happy as 1 think how joyous 
 the signing of my name makes him and his family and his 
 friends." L'pon being asked to sign the death warrant of 
 twenty-four deserters, he replied: "There are already too 
 many weeping widows in the United States. For God's 
 sake do not ask nre to add to the numl^er, for I won't do 
 it." On another occasion of this character he said: "i 
 think the bo}' can do us more good above the ground than 
 under it." An application for the i)ardon of a deserter 
 was presented tt) him in a case where the soldier had 
 
])re\i()usl3' (Hsi)layc(l distiiit^uished courage on tlu- hattlt,-- 
 tield. "Did you say he was once badly wounded?" he 
 asked. "Then, as tlie Scriptures say that in the shedding 
 ol blood there is remission of sins. 1 guess we will ha\e to 
 let him off this time." 
 
 In his relations with (tthers he was always considerate 
 and forbearing". This was shown in a marked degree in 
 his intercourse with Gen. AlcClellan during an entire year 
 of disaster, and a]>paliing sacrifices, bringing the country 
 to the verge of ruin. After the bloody battle of Fred- 
 ericksburg was fought by Gen. Burnside (who succeeded 
 McClellan) the leading officers of the army of the Potomac 
 were in a demoralized conditn n. By appointment, .i 
 midnight. December 31. 1862, Gen. Burnside met dr. 
 Lincoln at the White Hou.se and a long and anxious 
 conference followed. 'J^hen the President wrote to his 
 militar}' adviser. Gen. H. \V. llalleck. requesting him to 
 \-isit **he army of the Potomac in its camps, investigate the 
 s' lation. confer with the officers and then to direct Gen. 
 Bu"rnside to mo\'e forward, lU' direct him to remain where 
 lu- was. "If you fail me in this," wrote the President, 
 "you fail me preciseh' where I feel that 1 ha\e a right to 
 rely upon your military judgment." On the back of this 
 paper, now on hie in the War Department, is this endorse- 
 ment in ]\lr. Lincoln's handwriting, under the same date 
 as the paper itself, January 1, 1863: "Withdrawn, because 
 Gen. Halleck thinks it is too harsh." 
 
 Peneral Halleck did not render the service then asked of 
 him, but remained in Washington. Gen. Hooker succeeded 
 Gen. Burnside. fighting the battle of Chancellorsville, 
 which was almost as disastrous to the Unii-n as was that 
 of Fredericksburg, and was succeeded by Gen. Meade, who 
 commanded at the battle of Gettysburg. 
 
In the midsf of the disappointments and perplexities 
 of the first two years of the war, what a comfort it must 
 have been to Mr. Lincoln to look across the country to his 
 own loved West to the operations of the army commanded 
 by an officer to whom President Johnson was wont to 
 refer, in later years, as "that little man Grant"; who had 
 always obeyed orders, had never complained though often 
 treated with the grossest injustice by his immediate 
 superior, General Halleck, who never asked ror re-inforce- 
 ments and who never lost a battle. Grant was one after 
 Lincoln's own heart, and when the modest, unassuming 
 man from Galena, Illinois, stood before the modest, 
 unassuming man from Springfield, Illinois, on March 9, 
 1864, in the White House, to receive his commission as 
 Lieutenant-General and commander of all the armies of 
 the United States, what a blessed feeling of relief it must 
 have brought to the overburdened heart of the President 
 to know that at last he had found a man who would lift 
 from his own shoulders a great part of their burden. 
 
 Ours is a Christian Nation and Abraham Lincoln was a 
 Christian President of that Nation. Beginning by asking 
 the prayers of hs fellow citizens at Springfield when he 
 bade them good-bye on starting to Washington, he 
 expressed, on every suitable occasion, his reliance upon 
 God. In all of his State papers, in his correspondence, in 
 military orders, in congratulatory addresses, fitting refer- 
 ence was ever made to the power of the Almighty and 
 confidence expressed in His goodness, justice and mercy 
 in dealing with this people. On the eve of the battle of 
 Antietam, in September, 1862, he promised his Maker that 
 if victory should come to the Union arms he would issue 
 a proclamation abolishing human slavery in the rebellious 
 States, and this promise was followed by the immortal 
 
Emancipation Proclamation, which took effect January 1, 
 1863. Speaking of the battle of Gettysburg, he said to 
 General Sickles: "In the stress and pinch of the cam- 
 paign there T went to my room and got down on my 
 knees and prayed Almighty God for victory at Gettys- 
 burg. 1 told Him that this was His country and that 
 the war was His war, but that we really couldn't stand 
 another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville, and then and 
 there I made a solemn vow that if He would stand by the 
 boys at Gettysburg, 1 would stand by Him, and He did, 
 and I will." 
 
 We can take great satisfaction in knowing that 
 President Lincoln lived to see the Civil War practically 
 ended; that he walked the streets of the late capital of the 
 Confederacy surrounded by black men and women and 
 children who, with streaming eyes, sought to touch the 
 hand or kiss the garment of one who was, to them, God's 
 own instrument and direct representative; that he heard 
 from the lips of the Great Captain the story of General 
 Lee's surrender, and that he received the heartfelt con- 
 gratulation of the people of the Northern States over the 
 approaching end of his great task. 
 
 Tn a Chicago paper was printed an illustration of the 
 niarvelous growth of that city. Beginning with a mere 
 speck to typify the population of seventy persons in 1830, 
 a little larger dot illustrates that of 4,479 in 1840; then 
 the tigure of a pigni}^ is employed to indicate the relative 
 size of the population ten years later, the pigmy increasing 
 in proportion as the decades pass until, with the census of 
 1896 showing a population of a million and three quarters, 
 a great giant stands as the representation of this later 
 period. So may be illustrated the life of Abraham Lincoln. 
 Begun in obscurity, in direst poverty, a youth passed 
 
under conditions tending to debase rather than to elevate, 
 with no encouragement from those about him to gain an 
 echication or improve his condition, he sh)wiy grew as the 
 years went by. developing the worthier qualities of human 
 character and bravely meeting every resixmsibility, until, 
 hnalh'. he stood before the world, the noblest man this 
 earth hath known since the Savicn^ of mankind put off 
 mortalit}'. 
 
 "Heroic soul, in homely garb half hid 
 
 Sincere, sagacious, melancholy, cpuiint; 
 What he endured, no less than what he did. 
 
 Hath reared his monument and crowned him saint."' 
 
LB S '12 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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