\> <£ <£> ^ 4>1« W; #** Cr V i*> .H.. ^ X ^ 'M/k % r o^ 9> vr*V , o I* o -J /% HISTORIC A MERICANS THE LIFE OF Abraham Lincoln Sixteenth President of the United States 1S61-1865 By Professo ROBERT DICKINSON SHEPPARD D D ssor of American and English History, Northwestern Uni lversity FAMOUS GETTYSBURG AND SPRINGFIELD ADDRESSES, PATHETIC LETTER TO THE MOTHER OF FIVE SONS SLAIN IN B VTTLE SAYINGS, CHARACTERISTICS and CHRONOLOGY Copyright. 1898, by The University Association Copynght, 1903, by H. G. Campbell Publishing Co. Copyright, 1913, by Wm. H. Lee CHICAGO LAIRD & LEE, PUBLISHERS CONTENTS PAGE Biography 5 His Marriage to Mary Todd 3-4 Lincoln's Nomination for the Presidency 57 His Inauguration 64 Lincoln, the Emancipator 74 Suggestions From His Life 98 Early Years of Lincoln 114 Lincoln 's Campaign Against Douglas 133 Lincoln at Springfield, 1861 — Poem 135 Anecdotes and Characteristics 187 Money and Selfishness 128 Lincoln and the Office-Seekers 139 Loyalty to Friends 140 How Lincoln Received the News from Gettysburg. ... 141 Lincoln and Douglas 145 Pardons 145 No Pardon for Slave Stealers 147 A Father 's Experience 147 Lincoln and Stevens 149 Frederick Douglass on the Inauguration of Lincoln. . . . 150 Lincoln and Reporters 153 Lincoln 's Bravery 154 Lincoln 's Sadness 161 His Religious Experience 162 Lee 's Surrender 165 Lincoln 's First Dollar 166 Sayings of Lincoln 168 Extracts from Lincoln 's Speeches 170 Letter to Mother of Five Sons Lost in Battle 173 The Story of Lincoln for School or Club Program 173 Lincoln 's First Thanksgiving Proclamation 177 Questions for RevieAv 177 Subjects for Special Study 178 Chronological Events in the Life of Lincoln 178 Bibliography 179 ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Portrait and Autograph Frontispiece Early Home of Lincoln in Elizabethtown, Ky 9 Dennis Hanks H ll.»use in Coles County, Illinois, in Which Lincoln's Father Lived I 7 Lincoln's Pioneer House on the Sangamon River, Built and Occupied by Himself 20 Stephen A. Douglas 24 Library Chair Used by Lincoln During His Occupancy of the White House 30 President Lincoln and Master Thad 35 Mrs. Lincoln in Reception Gown 35 Andrew Johnson 39 Lincoln's Home at Springfield 44 Richard J. Oglesby 56 The Wigwam, Chicago, Scene of Nomination of Lincoln for Presidency 57 William H. Seward 59 President Lincoln and His Cabinet 62 James Buchanan 64 Bombardment of Fort Sumter 67 Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War 69 Ford's Theater, Washington, Where Lincoln was Shot by Booth 72 Robert T. Lincoln 138 The Battle of Bull Run 140 The Battle of Gettysburg 142 Jefferson Davis . . ." 146 Frederick Douglass 151 Last Dispatch of Lincoln to Grant 153 President Lincoln Visiting the Army of the Potomac, Being Received by General McClellan 155 General George B. McClellan 156 The Lincoln Monument, Springfield 160 'Idie Old State House, Springfield 164 ( iharles Sumner 167 General U. S. Grant 176 IT is a far cry from a Kentucky cabin to the White House at Washington, from the estate of a poor white child in the south to that of Chief Magistrate of the United States of America. Yet it is our task to show how that distance was spanned in the life of Abraham Lincoln, and the story of it should be of the highest in- terest to every American youth. We are probably not sufficiently removed from the times of Abraham Lincoln to estimate him in his full proportions. The greater part of the literature that has been written concerning him, that is not absolutely ephemeral, has been written for a people who reverenced him, and who would brook no other than a reverent hand- ling of the object of their devotion. Such jealousy, how- ever, was needless, for loving hands have written intel- ligently amd judicially the story of his life, and of the unfolding of his character. They have written with the ardor of personal friendship and almost in the heat of the exciting days when Lincoln stood as their champion and contended for the National Union to which they were devoted. These circumstances are not favorable to the ex- 5 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. position of the real Lincoln. And yet more than most of the great men of history, his individuality was so strik- ing-, its outlines were so well defined, that even a poor artist can trace them, and in his maturer years his action was so studied and deliberate — as if he were appealing to the solemn verdict of future generations — that it is not easy to go far astray in our judgments concerning him. Take him for all in all, he furnishes us a striking exam- ple taken from our own times, of a typical American who was born in poverty and reared amid unlikely surround- ings and influences, but who made the most of his slen- der opportunities for intellectual culture, kept himself pure amid much that was degrading, and step by step, attained to nobleness of character, to intellectual strength, to honor and station among those who knew him best and finally, to the highest eminence of position and honor that an American can reach. Iu his career he epitomizes a half century of the most interesting and critical conditions of our national life. And the progress of events that culminated in the Civil War, its conduct, and the work of reconstruction that followed it, can nowhere be studied as intelligently as in the story of his outlook on the political life of the nation, of his political affiliations, and his active participation in the settlement of the great questions that involved the existence and prosperity of the nation. We shall turn first to his ancestry and early environ- ment. He was born February 12th in the year 1809, in a miserable cabin on the farm of Thomas Lincoln, or c: Ivinkhorra.' : as he was sometimes called, three miles from ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 7 Hodgensville in the present county of LaRue in the state of Kentucky. Of his ancestry on the Lincoln side, little is known save that they were among the early settlers of Virginia and were of English descent, and probably were Quakers. The mother of Abraham Lincoln was Nancy Hanks, whose ancestors came from England to Virginia and moved on to Kentucky with the Lincolns, settling near them in Mercer County. It was while learning his trade as a carpenter in the shop of Joseph Hanks, the uncle of Nancy Hanks, that Thomas Lincoln met and courted the mother of the great president. He was of medium stature, standing five feet-ten in his shoes. His complexion was swarthy, his hair dark, his eyes gray, his face full and round, his nose prominent; he was strong and sinewy; he was peace lov- ing but brave enough to fight when occasion demanded, as it often did in those rough days in the border state of Kentucky; he was of roving disposition, a good story tel- ler, and full of anecdote picked up in his wanderings. In politics he was a Jackson Democrat, and in religion '-everything by turns and nothing long." A botch car- penter by trade, he soon tired of that and turned farmer, though he did not entirely abandon rough carpentry, and as a farmer he showed his inconstancy by frequent mi- grations from one location to another. Nancy Hanks is described as a slender, symmetrical, woman of medium height, with dark hair, regular feat- ures, and sparkling hazel eyes. Of her it is related, as an unusual circumstance in the illiteracy of the time, that she possessed the rare accomplishments of reading and 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. writing, and taught her husband to write his name. She was born to drudgery and her natural beauty soon gave place to the faded and woe-begone expression that pov- erty and struggle and uncertainty are wont to write on the faces and forms of the women of the frontier. The first home of her married life was a wretched hovel in one of the alleys of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, where her first child was born, and a little later she occupied with her husband the miserable cabin on Nolin Creek where, on account of his thriftlessness, he barely met the neces- sities of the little household. It was here that Abraham Lincoln was born. The manger at Bethlehem was not a more unlikely birth- place. And here he remained until he was four years old, and then the elder Lincoln migrated to another farm some six miles from Hodgensville, on Knob Creek,whose clear waters flowed at length into the Ohio, twenty-four miles below Louisville. This new move that might have proved advantageous — for the banks of the creek and the valleys of the region gave great promise of fertility — was like Thomas Lincoln's other experiences; only six acres out of the two hundred and thirty-eight that made up the farm, were worked, and no permanent title to the !and was acquired by him. After four years a new mi- gration began, this time to Indiana. During these yeais of Kentucky life young Lincoln's development went on with none of the modern aids. A tew days of schooling each summer at the hands of Zachariah Riney and Caleb Hazel were all the opportu- nities that Kentucky offered him. During the re- The early home of Lincoln in Elizabethtown, Ky. From Raymond's "Life of Lincoln." io ABRAHAM LINCOLN. mainder of his time he vegetated. In the fall of 1S16, the spirit of change came over Thomas Lin- coln once more. He had had some experience as a flat-boatman on two trips to New Orleans, and thought to move in that way. He used his skill in car- pentry for the construction of a flat-boat, converted his personal property into four hundred gallons of whiskey, and started w 7 ith his tools and his whiskey, alone. He was ship-wrecked on the raging Ohio but righted his boat, rescued most of his whiskey and a few of his tools, and floated down to Thompson's Ferry two and a half miles west of Troy, in Ferry County, Indiana. Sixteen miles distant from the river, he found a place that he re- garded a promising location. Thence he started back on foot for his wife and children, and on borrowed horses he brought the few remaining effects of his family, their clothing- and bedding and the small stock of kitchen utensils. The Lincoln farm was situated between the forks of the Big and the Little Pigeon Creeks a mile and a half east of the little village of Gentryville, in a small w T ell- wooded region, full of game. There he built a log cabin closed on three sides and open on the fourth. The house was about fourteen feet square and floorless. Into this comfortless cabin, with few of the ordinary arrange- ments for warmth or covering, exposed to all the winds that blow, for it was on a hillock and built of poles, he conducted his little family. The place was a solitude. No road approached it save the trail that Lincoln had blazed through the woods. For a whole year they en- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. dured the discomforts of this home in the woods, while some ground was being cleared and a little crop planted. Some relatives followed them from Kentucky the next year, and among them, Dennis Hanks, the young cousin of Abraham Lincoln. In 1817 a new log house was reared by Thom- as Lincoln of un- hewed timbers and without floor, door or windows. Sev- en or eight older settlers had pre- ceded them to this region and soon a tide of emigra- tion poured in, sparsely peopling the waste places of the new state of Indiana. The nearest hand-mill to Thomas Lincoln was ten miles away, whither Abraham carried the grist. Of schooling there was little more than in Kentucky, and that of a very simple kind. For two years Thomas Lin- coln went the even tenor of his way, raising a little corn, shooting a little game, failing to provide systematically or with any solicitude for the needs of his family. No furniture was in the house save the roughest — three-legged Dennis Hanks. I2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. stools for chairs, a log with legs on it for a table,, bed- steads made of poles fastened at one end to the wall and resting on forked sticks, driven into the earthen floor at the other end. On these, boards were laid, while leaves and old clothing served for the bed. They ate from a few pewter dishes, without knives or forks. A dutch oven and a skillet, were the sole utensils of their cabin. A bed-room in the loft, to which he climbed on pins driven in the wall, was the nightly roost of the future president. Now the milk sickness appeared, and Thomas Lin- coln's carpentry was employed in building rough coffins for the dying settlers. He cut out the timber from logs with his whip-saw and made rough boxes for a number *f his friends. Nancy Lincoln was stricken. There was not a physician within thirty miles, and no money to pay him should he come. Without a hand to relieve her, the poor jaded woman, the mother of the great president, dropped away on the 5th of October, 18 18, and was buried without ceremony in an unmarked grave. She had given birth to a man-child on whom time should set the seal of greatness. His sole apparent inheritance from her, however, seems to have been the tinge of melancholy that often clouded his life. In his observations upon the making of his character he has little or nothing to say of his own mother. The early years of his life were years of neglect. He grew up in deprivation, ill-fed, ill- clothed, to develop alone in the sunshine and in the forest the nature that was in him. But a new influence was soon imported into the Lin- coln home. After thirteen months of widowhood, ABRAHAM LINCOLN. [3 Thomas Lincoln made a journey to Kentucky, and brought home with him a new wife, whom he had known and loved many years before as Sally Bush, a woman of "great energy and good sense, very neat and tidy in her person and manners, and who knew how to manage children." She brought with her from her Kentucky home a store of luxuries and comforts that the Indiana cabin had never known. It took a four-horse team to move her effects, and at once she demanded that the floorless, windowless and doorless cabin should be made habitable. Warm beds were for the first time provided for the children. She took off their rags and clothed them from her own stores; she washed them and treated them with motherly tenderness, and to use her own lan- guage, she made them look a little more human. Her heart went out at once to young Abe and all was changed for him. She discovered possibilities in him and set about his training, gratified, loved and directed him, and won his heart. She was the mother whom he describes as his"saintly mother,hisangelofa mother who first made him feel like a human being"— and took him out of the rut of degradation and neglect and shiftless- ness that, if long continued, might have controlled his destiny. She insisted that he should be sent to school as soon as there was a school to go to; he had already ac- quired a little reading and writing and was quick in the acquisition of knowledge. In the rude school house at Little Pigeon Creek where Hazel Dorsey presided, Abraham attended in the winter of 181 9, and quickly became the best speller in the i 4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. school. In the winter of 1822 and '23 he attended An- drew Crawford's school in the same place, where manners as well as spelling, were a part of the curriculum. He was now a lanky lad of fifteen, and rapidly rising to his full stature of six feet-four. He was not a beauty with his big feet and hands, his shrivelled and yellow skin, and his costume of low shoes, and buckskin breeches too short by several inches, his linsey-woolsey shirt and coon- skin cap; but he was good-humored and gallant, popu- lar with the boys and girls, and a leader. His last schooling was in 1826, at a school four and a half miles from his home, kept by Mr. Swaney. By this time he had acquired all the knowledge that the poor masters of that frontier region could impart, henceforth he must supervise his own education, as the family were too poor to spare him if opportunities for learning had pre- sented themselves. He must work now in the shop or on the farm, or as a hired boy among the neighbors. One of his employers tells us that he used to get very angry with him, he was always reading or thinking when he got a chance, and would talk and crack jokes half the time. * After the days work was over, by the light of the fire, he would sit and cipher on the wooden fire shovel. Any book that fell in his way was eagerly devoured, and its striking passages were written down and preserved. "Aesops Fables" improved his native art of pungent story telling, "Robinson Crusoe," Bun- yan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and the Bible were eagerly read by him, as were Weem's "Washington" and a his- tory of the United States. These few books enriched ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 15 his mind and laid the basis of his straight-forward, lucid literary style. The Revised Statutes of Indiana, that could not be loaned from the office of the constable, drew him thither like a magnet, and became the basis of his legal lore. At home, he was the soul of kindness, instantly ready for kindly service, full of his jokes and stories. His father and his cousin were storytellers and it was often a matter of friendly rivalrv which could out-do the other. That talent, thus cultivated, was one of the sources of his mastery of men. He had a powerful memory and would often repeat to his comrades long passages from the books he had read, or regale them with parts of the Sunday sermon a-ith such perfect mimicry that the tones and gestures of the rude preachers of that day were vividly repro '.deed. Even in the harvest field, he was wont to take the stump and sadly interfere with the labor of the day by discoursing to the harvest hands, and more than once his father had to break up this diversion with se- verity. He had the instincts of the politician and the orator. He could please and divert men, and these rude early opportunities developed in him the consciousness of his power that should one day become so masterful. His fondness for the society of his fellows was very marked. He could withdraw himself utterly from men over a book, but his tastes were strong to be among men. All the popular gatherings where men assembled were eagerly sought out by him; corn shuckings, log rollings, shooting matches, weddings, had a strong fascination for him. He enjoyed the sport and was one of the foremost 16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. to make it. In all rustic sports he was at home. His strength was phenomenal, and as a wrestler he seldom found his match. From the time he left Crawford's school he was using all his faculties daily and learning all that the rude world about him had to teach him. Dennis Hanks tells us of the educational processes of the time, "We learned by sight, scent and hearing. We heard all that was said, and talked over and over the questions heard, wore them slick, greasy and threadbare, went to political and other speeches and gatherings as you do now. W r e would hear all sides and opinions, talk them over, discuss them, agreeing or disagreeing. He preached, made speeches, read for us, explained to us, etc. He attended trials, went to court always, read the Revised Statutes of Indiana, dated 1824, heard law speeches and listened to law trials. He was always reading, scribbling, writing poetry, and the like. To Gentryville, about one mile west of Thomas Lincoln's farm, Lincoln would go and tell his jokes and stories, and was so odd, original, humorous and witty, that all the people in town would gather round him and he would keep them there till mid-night. He was a good talker, a good reader, and a kind of news-boy." Thus he absorbed all the intellectual life that was astir, and used his powers as he had occasion, observing public business, watching the methods of the attorneys at the bar and kindling with their eloquence. Once the awkward boy attempted to compliment an attorney for his great effort, and years afterward he met him and re- called the circumstance, telling him that up to that time In' n r tr 5* n> o i-i n> °°',$ rt ABRAHAM LINCOLN. it was the best speech he had ever heard, and of his feel- ing that if ever he could make such a speech as that his soul would be satisfied. High aspiration was evidently stirring in him then, and more than once, when twitted with his fooling, as his story telling and pranks were called, and asked what would ever become of him, he was wont to answer that he was going to be President of the United States. In the rude circles in which he moved, his power of instructing, entertaining and leading was recognized. It was a prophecy to him of leadership in a larger sphere. In i828,he made his first trip to New Orleans as a flat- boatman at eight dollars a month. The trip was full of adventure, and attended with some danger, but it was a profitable one for his employer, and one of enlargement of mind for the employed. From that time till 1830, when he became of age, he worked among the neighbors or for his father. And then it was determined to emi- grate to Illinois. There, at a point ten miles west of De- catur, the Lincolns settled, and Abraham's last filial act before his majority was to split rails for the fencing of the ploughed land of the new homestead. Then he was free and the home ties were sundered, though his love for his step-mother was often manifested in later years by frequent gifts of money and frequent visits. He took odd jobs in the country round and the pay was all his own. In 1831, he went to New Orleans on a flat-boat which he helped to build. The boat was launched on the Sangamon, stranded on a dam, and re- lieved by Lincoln's ingenuity, and started again on a sue- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Ig cessful voyage, laden with pork, hogs and corn. It was on this trip that his reflective mind evolved an invention for helping flat-boats over snags and shoals. The inven- tion was patented, but like many another patent, failed to enrich the owner. It was on this trip that Lincoln observed for the first time some of the abominations of the slave trade in the City of New Orleans. It depressed him and drew from him the emphatic, almost prophetic statement, "If I ever get a chance to hit slavery, I'll hit it hard." He found his way back to New Salem where he kept store for the same employer that sent him to New Orleans. There he won his way to consideration by his genial ways, his gift of story telling, and his strength and skill in wrestling. There, too, he found an English grammar and mastered it by the light of pine shavings, in the long evening hours. In 1832, the Black Hawk War broke out. Lincoln en- listed, and though without military experience, his pop- ularity won him the captaincy of his company by popu- lar election. His career as an officer was not a brilliant one. His command was an unsoldierly company of American citizens who respected their captain, but who were unwilling to subject themselves to very strict disci- pline. They did no fighting and were discharged from service after a brief campaign, and Lincoln re-enlisted as a private in the Independent Spy Company. He was wont afterwards to excite much amusement by his stories of this bloodless war. Yet it was a school to him that revealed his relations to his country and helped to fit him ABRAHAM LINCOLN. for the great duties of Commander-in-Chief in the War of the Rebellion. Returning to New Salem after the war, his friends urged him, in view of his popularity in the recent war, ^ • *'J I • ■ f|;i "' ' '■*"• v ^"; ~ ■ ft. Lincoln's Pioneer House on the Sangamon River. Built and Occupied by Himself. to become a candidate for the State Legislature. His ap- pearance in debate, and the favorable impression he made, settled the question of his candidacy for his friends. He felt that an election was an impossibility for him at that time, but he undertook the canvass. It was the custom then for every candidate to stand on his own merits with- out the aid of a nominating convention. Mr. Lincoln at ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 21 this time was nominally a Jackson Democrat, though some of his statements in his first campaign for office re- sembled very closely Whig utterances, and he will be found speedily to be on that side. He issued a manifesto to the people of Sangamon County on the question of local improvements, propos- ing the improvement of the Sangamon River. He an- nounced himself in favor of usury laws which would limit the rate of interest to be paid in the state. He was in fa- vor of education, and of the enactment of sundry laws that would benefit the farming community in which he lived. His manifesto w r as that of a crude and immature states- man — or better, perhaps, of a young politician, seeking to adjust himself to the popular opinions about him and to reach public office thereby. He was defeated at the election, but he had the satisfaction of knowing, that the people who knew him best gave him their votes. The canvass, however, gave him a wider acquaintance with the people of the district and established him in their eyes as a young man of considerable promise. In default of a political opening, the question of his future career pressed upon him. He could earn a poor livelihood with his brawny arms, but to this he was in- disposed, feeling, as he did, that there was a larger des- tiny before him than of mere manual labor. He tried clerking in a store, then merchandising 011 credit, which last experience ended disastrously and left him a burden of debt. Then he began the study of law, with borrowed books. He put his new knowledge into practice by writ- ing deeds, contracts, notes and other legal papers for his 22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. neighbors, following prescribed forms, and conducting small cases in justice's courts without remuneration. This was his law school, self-conducted. Volumes on sci- ence were at the same time eagerly devoured by him, and the few newspapers on which he could lay hands were the sources of his political information. Burns and Shakespeare were his especial delight. To pay his way, he won the good opinion of the sur- veyor of Sangamon County, who appointed him dep- uty, and gave him a chance to acquire a knowledge of surveying, in which he became an expert. He was called hither and yon about the county as a surveyor, and was made arbiter in disputes on lines and corners. Best of all, he earned a good living and made many friends for the future. From 1833 to 1836, he was postmaster of New Salem, as a Jackson appointee on the score of right opinions. The emoluments of the position were not burdensome. He kept his office in his hat. In 1834, he was again a candidate for the Legislature. This time he leaned to the Whig party. It was during this year that his personal effects, including his survey- ing instruments, were sold under the hammer by the sheriff to satisfy a judgment against him on account of his unsuccessful career as a merchant. But warm per- sonal friendship intervened to save his property and keep him in courage for the work of his life. The campaign of 1834 was personally conducted, as was that of 1832. In the harvest field, at the grocery or on the highway, wherever he could find men to listen, ABRAHAM LINXOLN. 23 he interested them in his cause and his personality, chiefly the latter, Where he was known he was wel- comed, and where he found it necessary to make himself known, his auditors soon made the discovery that he belonged to the singed cat variety. With his calico shirt, short trousers, rough brogans, and straw hat with- out a band, he raised a laugh at his appearance that was soon turned to applause at his knowledge and his skill in presenting it. He headed the poll on election day, and appreciating the fact that a new outfit was necessary to comport with his dignity as a legislator, he borrowed two hundred dollars from Coleman Smoot, an admirer who had never seen him, and got himself up in the best clothes he had ever worn. The loan was scrupulously repaid. The time up to the session of the Legislature was spent in preparation for his new responsibilities, in reading and writing. He had enough of his two hundred dollars remaining to pay his passage on the stage coach to the scene of the Legislature at Vandalia. That body was overwhelming- ly Democratic in its political complexion, and set the pace for Illinois of that class of legislation so common in new countries: the creation of public debt and the starting of great and ill-considered public improvements, and the licensing of banks with great privileges, and practically no guarantees, a class of legislation that brought on the financial collapse of 1837. The legisla- ture represented the overwhelming majority of the people and accomplished their behests. All were crazed with the spirit of speculation, all were similarly responsible, 24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and all suffered in the same general consequences. Mr. Lincoln swam with the stream, voted for all the wild-cat measures which, according to the best wisdom of the time, were essential to the prosperity of the state. He was a silent member, how- ever, at this ses- sion of the Leg- islature, though he served on the committee on Public Ac- counts and Ex- penditures. It was at this session of the legislature that he met Stephen A. Douglas, with whose later ca- reer his own was destined to be so closely in- terwoven, and whom at his first meeting he characterized as the "least man he ever saw. ' ' In time he readily accorded him the title of u The Little Giant," w T ith whose powers he, only, seemed able to cope. This legislature was beset, as lat- er legislatures of Illinois have been, by a corrupt and persistent body of so-called log rollers, who were on Stephen A. Douglas. Born 1813. Died 1861 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 25 hand to push their schemes by persuasion and corrupt- ion. But no taint attached to young Lincoln, who, if he were carried away like the other legislators of the time, by schemes of artificial prosperity, was beyond the reach of bribery. In 1836, he was again a candidate for the legislature, self-nominated, for this was before the age of caucuses and conventions. In the Journal of New Salem he an- nounces his platform. He favors extending to all whites who pay taxes or bear arms (not excluding women) the right of suffrage. If elected, he should consider the whole people of the district as his constituents, regard- less of the manner of their voting, and while acting as their representative he would be governed by their will on all subjects on which they should make known their will, and on other subjects he would follow his own judgment as to what would advance their interests. He further announced that he was in favor of distributing the proceeds of the sales of public lands to the several states, to enable each state in common with others, to dig canals and construct railroads without borrowing money and paying the interest on it. On the question of national politics, he announced his adhesion to the standard bearer of the Whigs. For two months the campaign was conducted in the rough and ready manner peculiar to those times. Hot words were bandied, personalities were indulged in, pis- tols were frequently drawn, and the personal prowess of the candidate was one of his strong claims to the respect of a rough constituency. At no point was Lincoln lack- 26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ing in his knowledge of his audiences. They had had demonstrations of his physical prowess. Popular re- port had credited him with fearlessness, and his plain strong reasoning, his humor and skillful repartee did the rest. It was the custom for political antagonists to address the same audiences, or at least for both sides to get a hearing at the same time and place. It was during this campaign that Geo. Forquer, who had been a Whig in the legislature of 1834, and had changed his views on being appointed registrar of the Land Office, presumed to call Lincoln to account. Forquer had aroused much attention as a political turn-coat, and likewise by his sudden prosperity in being able to build the finest house in Springfield, on which he set up the only lightning rod of which the region could boast. He listened to Lincoln's speech in defense of the principles that he had recently repudiated, and when he had finished he arose to answer, with a fine assumption of superiority, saying that the young man would have to be taken down, and he was sorry that the task devolved upon him. He there- upon proceeded to take him down in a strong Democratic speech. When he had concluded Mr. Lincoln replied to his arguments, and then alluded to Mr. Forquer's re- mark that the young man must be taken down. Turn- ing to his audience, he said: "It is for you to say whether I am down or up. The gentleman has alluded to my being a young man. I am older in years than I am in the tricks and trades of poli- ticians. I desire to live and I desire place and distinct- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 27 ion as a politician, but I would rather die now than, like this gentleman, live to see the day that I would have to erect a lightning- rod to protect a guilty conscience from an offended God." Another Democratic orator met his Waterloo in an en- gagement with Lincoln in the same campaign. Dick Taylor was severely Democratic in theory, denouncing the Whig aristocracy arid making much of his sympathy with the hard-handed toiling masses, but in practice he adorned himself with splendid apparel, and shone con- spicuously with ruffled shirt, silk vest, and an impressive watch chain. On one occasion when Taylor was parad- ing his democracy and denouncing the aristocratic Whigs, Lincoln edged up to the platform, and gave a jerk to Taylor's vest, that exposed his ruffled shirt, his gold Watch and chain and pendant jewelry. It was a move- ment that took all the wind out of Taylor's sails and hardly needed the speech which Mr. Lamon credits to this occasion, which has so much of personal interest in it, that we repeat it. "While Taylor was making his charges against the Whigs over the country, riding in fine carriages, wearing ruffled shirts, kid gloves, massive gold watch chain with large gold seals, and flourishing a heavy gold-headed cane, I was a poor boy hired on a flat-boat at eight dol- lars a month and had only one pair of breeches to my back, and they were buckskin, and if you know the na- ture of buckskin, when wet and dried by the sun, they will shrink, and mine kept shrinking until they left sev- eral inches of my legs bare between the top of my socks 2 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and the lower part of my breeches, and whilst I was growing taller, they were becoming shorter, and so much tighter that they left a bine streak around my legs that can be seen to this day. If you call this aristocracy I plead guilty to the charge." Mr. Lincoln was elected by a larger vote than any other candidate. Sangamon County, that had usually gone Democratic, went Whig by more than four hundred majority. The Convention System was now taking root in the west Some of the members of the legislature of 1836 and 1837, among whom was Stephen A. Douglas, were nominated by conventions, and hereafter the Whigs are compelled to fall into line. Elections are to be con- ducted no more on the self-nominating plan and person- ally conducted canvass. But national issues and national parties are to control in state affairs. This change, in the minds of many, was prejudicial to the real interests of state affairs and certainly detracted much from the gro- tesqueness and individuality displayed in the self-nominat- ing and self-conducted campaign. Men now stood upon the platform of a party, when they accepted a nomination. Mr. Lincoln was hereafter to be a party man, sometimes leading his party, but all the time loyal to it, and seeking to force no movement until the rank and file of his party were abreast with him. In national politics, at the time of the meeting of the legislature of 1836-37, the country was on the verge of a panic. The deposits of the United States had been with- drawn from the U. S. Bank and deposited in specie-pay- ing state banks. The whigs had passed an act requiring ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 29 the funds of the government to be deposited with tl it- states, the act to go into effect Jan. 1st, 1837. A month before this date the Legislature of Illinois met at Van- dalia. Thither Mr. Lincoln went with the intention of being an active member. He had been instructed by his constituents to vote for a system of internal improve- ments. All parts of the state were clamoring for them and men of all parties were of one mind in the matter. Lines of railroads, improvement of rivers, the Illinois canal, and the location of the capital and the setting up of state banks, were the great questions of the session. Members of the legislature interested in one locality swapped votes to other localities for votes in favor of their project. Thus the log-rolling went on till nearly every county in the state shared in the plunder of their common treasury which was recruited by issues of bonds that ought to have paralyzed any sane company of leg- islators who could foresee the consequences; but they were intoxicated by the spirit of speculation. Among the schemes in which Mr. Lincoln chiefly fig- ured was the removal of the capital to Springfield. As a member of the Long Nine from Sangamon County — so called because their average height was over six feet— he so skillfully disposed of the votes of himself and his col- leagues, in return for votes on behalf of Springfield, that that city was selected as the capital of the state. Ford estimates, in his"History of Illinois," that it was made to cost the state six millions of dollars for the removal of the capital from Vandalia, and naming the men who participated in this reckless legislation and the high po- 3 o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. sitions to which most of them later attained, he declares all of them to be "spared monuments of popular wrath, evincing how safe it is to a politician, but how disas- trous it may be to the country to keep along with the present fervor of the people. " Mr. Lincoln, in his part in the proceedings of the leg- islature, obeyed the will of his constituents in lo- cating the capital at Springfield, and the will of the people at large in voting for a general sys- tem of improvements at the public expense, and his own judgment was committed to the policy. The fruition of their reck- less legislation was debt and disaster,all had sinned ^«^m^ and all suffered, and the Library Chair used by Lincoln during his r»ptiaHiVc were* riof \/i<:ifprl Occupancy of the White House. peildllieb were I1UL Vlblieu upon the legislators who recorded the popular will. More creditable to Lincoln's mind and heart at this session of the state legisla- ture was the protest in which he joined, against the act- ion of the legislature on the subject of slavery. No state was more pronounced than Illinois on the subject of repressing the Abolition movement. Illinois had de- cided once for all, in 1824, that it was not disposed to become a slave state, but its people had no sympathy ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 3 t as yet with the movement to interfere with slavery in the South. The name Abolitionist was counted by the peo- ple of Illinois as hardly better than Horse-thief and the so-called Black Code of the state, discriminating against negroes whether free or slave would have been a disgrace to Turkey. In 1836, Elijah P. Lovejoy, who had been publishing a moderately anti-slavery paper in St. Louis, moved to Alton, where he found the opposition even stronger than in Missouri, and his press was broken up and thrown into the river. He again set up his press which was to pub- lish a religious paper, and not distinctively an abolition paper, though he claimed the right as an American citi- zen to publish whatever he pleased on any subject, hold- ing himself answerable to the laws of the country in so doing. Only occasionally, did he discuss the subject of slavery, but so repugnant was abolition sentiment to the people about him that his office was again destroyed. The setting up of another press was followed by his murder in defence of his life and his property. It was during this state of feeling, that culminated in Lovejoy' s mur- der, that Lincoln bravely wrote a protest against the ex- treme action of the legislature on the slavery question, and obtained the signature thereto of a colleague with his own. The resolutions were read and ordered to be spread upon the journal of the house. In these resolutions he stated that he believed that the institution of slavery is founded upon injustice and bad policy, but that the pro- mulgation of abolition doctrine tends rather to increase than to abate its evils. That the Congress of the United 32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. States has no power under the Constitution to interfere with the institution of slavery in the different states. That the Congress of the United States has the power under the Constitution to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power ought not to be exer- cized unless at the request of the people of the district. On this question he saw clearer than his colleagues and came nearest to the view of wise statesmanship that at that stage of the game would make the abolition of slav- ery the result of growth and of the logic of events, rather than the result of upheaval and revolution. We do not decry the work of the abolitionists, nor would he in his later years. They preached the iniquity of slavery and roused the moral sense of the nation for the final struggle when the hand that wrote the protest of 1838 might write the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, with a possibility of its enforcement. Between these documents lies, perhaps, the most critical period of American his- tory. Lincoln is at length to be the foremost figure of that period, moving without haste, but steadily, to the accomplishment of that supreme act which the impatient Abolitionist would have performed at once, regardless of the wreck and ruin which the attempt at immediate en- forcement of his policy would work. Mr. Lincoln was again elected to the legislature in 1838, and had reached such prominence that he was the candidate of his party for speaker. He was not elected, but remained on the finance committee and took a hand in trying to extricate the state from the almost hopeless bankruptcy into which it had been plunged by the ex- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 33 travagant legislation of 1836 and ^y. Mr. Lincoln was elected again in 1840, but did not appear in the session of 1 84 1 and 1842 for reasons of a private nature. His early love for Ann Rutledge had met with disappoint- ment and he mourned over her grave with a heart well- nigh broken. Others had excited his interest, but the old love was the ideal love for him, and no later affection could compare with it, so that although he believed it was proper for him to settle down in married life, his loy- alty to such affection as he had known, and his honorable character, made it difficult for him to assume the vows of married life on any other basis than full and complete devotion to the woman whom he should call his wife. In 1839, he was thrown much in the society of Miss Mary Todd of Lexington, Ky., and he became engaged to her. The date of the wedding was set, but he did not appear. His struggle with himself as to whether he was doing right well-nigh unsettled his mind, and his friends withdrew him to the quiet of Mr. Speed's home in Ken- tucky, till this crisis of his history should pass. When he returned, his relations to Miss Todd were resumed. She was a clever writer, with some taste for politics, and dur- ing the period of their courtship they beguiled them- selves with political writing in the Sangamon Journal un- der the nom de plume of "Rebecca." The letters were cleverly done in the style of caricature and bore hard upon Mr. James Shields, an aspiring Democratic politician of somewhat pompous and pretending manner. Mr. Lin- coln chivalrously assumed the sole authorship of the let- ters, for the protection of Miss Todd, and speedily found 34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. himself embroiled with Mr. Shields, who demanded sat- isfaction. Nothing but a duel or an abject apology would be accepted, and the mutual friends of Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Shields were kept busy arranging the prelimi- naries of a contest. Mr. Lincoln treated the matter with indifference, chose broadswords as the weapons, and agreed upon the time and place for meeting, with little thought that the duel would ever come off. He was op- posed to dueling, and in choosing the weapons, he avoided pistols to avert a tragedy, and chose cavalry broadswords, knowing, as Arnold says, that if the meeting should take place nothing but a tragedy could have prevented its be- ing a farce. The matter was adjusted by the publication of a statement that while Mr. Lincoln was the author of the article signed "Rebecca," he had no intention of injur- ing the personal or private character or standing of Mr. Shields as a gentleman or man, and that he did not think that the article could produce such an effect, and had Mr. Lincoln anticipated such an effect he would have forborne to write it. Thus this serio-comic affair passed with little result save to emphasize the vanity and sensitiveness of Gen. Shields, and the cleverness and candor of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln carried out his engagement with Mary Todd, and was married to her in November, 1842, with forebodings that did not promise well for a happy married life. Possibly, as Mr. Lincoln feared, they were not alto- gether fitted for each other. But never, by word or deed, was he disloyal to his marriage vows, nor did he ex- pose the wounds of his heart. 3 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. He was not able at this time to provide a home of his own, but took up his residence at the Globe Tavern in Springfield at an expense of four dollars a week for board and lodging for himself and wife. Mr. Lincoln had been licensed as an attorney in 1837, an( * had removed to Springfield when that city became the capital of the state. Among the men who were his compeers, some of whom afterwards attained prominence, were Stephen T. Logan, Stephen A. Douglas, E. D. Baker, John T.Stuart, Ninian W. Edwards, Jesse B. Thomas, and others of local re- nown. Mr. Lincoln's reputation, thus far, has been as a poli- tician in Sangamon Co. Politics will continue to have the chief fascination for his mind, but law will be his profession and his means of livelihood. He found his first law partner in his friend John T. Stuart, to whom he had previously been indebted for the loan of books from which to learn the law. In a little dingy office in the then unkempt town of Springfield, the firm of Stuart & Lincoln was installed, and Lincoln began his career of divided interest between politics and law. He was still a member of the legislature, and though the affairs of the state were in sad need of attention, the politics of the time began to be confined to national issues, and Mr. Lin- coln, like the rest, began to occupy himself with a sur- vey of national affairs. In January, 1837, he delivered an address before the Springfield Lyceum on the Perpetuation of our Free In- stitutions, which shows that the young lawyer had now attained to the full consciousness and dignity of an Amer- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 37 ican Citizen, who prizes his birth-right and seeks calmly to discern the perils of the nation, and earnestly to put her in a position of security and permanence. This speech marks him at that early date, as more than a pol- itician, grabbing and compromising in the state assembly for local interests; rather as an American citizen open- ing his eyes to the greatness of the nation, the difficulties and the dangers that hazard the common weal. As his physical vision overtopped that of his fellows, so now he seems to look out on a broader political hori- zon than they. His eye henceforth will not be with- drawn from that wide view until all shall be clear to him, and he shall be accepted as his nation's prophet and seer. The speech to which I refer may be overcharged with rhetoric, a vice that is common with young orators, but it has the true ring of sincerity and patriotism, and time will add the charm and force of directness and sim- plicity to his style. In all the political campaigns of the time his voice was heard in the meetings of politicians, in the grocery, or the office or on the rostrum. He was a central figure in these meetings. He studied politics, got in shape his argu- ments, and learned the art of putting things to an aver- age American audience, as few politicians have acquired it. The question of the sub-treasury was an absorbing question of 1840. It was the Democratic party measure to provide for the convenient and safe keeping of the na- tional funds. It has proved a wise expedient, but Mr. Lincoln opposed it, as did his party. Apparently, on questions of public credit, fiscal expedients and finance, 38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. he was not destined to be an authority. It was on the questions of freedom and union, and the measures that make for them, that he was to specialize and succeed. Meanwhile, he was working hard at the bar, but leaving no opportunity unused to evince his interest in politics. In 1843, ne aspired to run for Congress, but was dis- tanced in the race for the Whig nomination by E. D. Baker. He was appointed a delegate to the nominating convention, and magnanimously served. He humorous- ly alludes to his predicament in writing to his friend Speed, where he says, "In getting Baker the nomination I shall be fixed a good deal like a fellow who is made groomsman to a man that has cut him out and is marry- ing his own dear 'gal.' " In 1844, he was a candidate for election on the Whig ticket, and stumped the state for Mr. Clay for President. In joint debates and independent speeches he maintained his Whig principles and chivalrously labored for the idol of his party. The defeat of Clay was, to him, a source of sorrow, but setting aside his political disap- pointment, he studiously set himself to the discharge of his professional duties until 1846, when he was nomina- ted for Congress and elected. Peter Cartwright was the standard-bearer of the opposition. He was a doughty antagonist, whose clerical relations were dead weight upon him, and Mr. Lincoln easily "got the preacher" as he expressed it, and with the aid of Democratic votes. He was the only Whig member from Illinois, and thus came into special prominence. Some of his colleagues from the state were Wentworth, McClernand, Fickli«\ ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 39 Richardson and Turner. Douglas had just reached the Senate. The roll of the house at this, the 30th Congress, showed a galaxy of great names. Robert Winthrop was the Speaker, and among the Whigs were John Quincy Adams, Horace Mann, Colla- mer, Stephens and Toombs; and among the Democrats were Wilmot and Cobb, Mc- Dowell and Andrew Johnson, while Webster and Calhoun, and Benton and Clayton were members of the Senate. Lincoln at once took an act-, ive part in the discussions that related to the Mexican War, that scheme of the Southern statesmen to acquire more territory for the ex- pansion of slavery. He held, as did the Whigs, that the war was unnecessarily and unconstitutionally begun, and in his famous "Spot Resolutions," he called upon the president to put his finger on the spot on American soil on which the Mexicans were aggressors, as the president had alleged. Mr. Lincoln did, however, vote with his party to give supplies to the troops and thanks to the generals who conducted the war, while censuring the president for his part in bringing it on. Mr. Lin- coln had a weary time explaining to his constituents what they considered his inconsistency in attacking the Andrew Johnson. Born 1808. Died 1875. 4 o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. president for bringing on the war and then voting sup- plies for its conduct. Before his return from the east and after the session of Congress, he made several cam- paign speeches in New England, enlarged his acquaint- ance and became more familiar with the elements that should enter into future politics. His second session passed without any striking inci- dent save one that indicated his attitude to the slavery question. On the Wilmot Proviso, which favored the purchase of Mexican territory and prohibiting of slavery thereon, he voted, as often as it was up, in the affirma- tive, and he himself proposed a resolution for the gradu- al compensated emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia. Thus ended his congressional career in which, in the national arena, he had gained a unique outlook on public affairs, and where he won some repu- tation as a consistent Whig, loyal to his party, and op- posed to the extension of slavery; and likewise as a po- litical antagonist, clear in statement, fertile in illustra- tion, and with a talent for ridicule and sarcasm that was difficult to be reckoned with. He easily yielded the nomination to the next Congress to his friend, Stephen T. Logan, and continued the practice of law, but with an abiding interest in national affairs, ready when the time should again come, to take his part in the struggle. From 1848 to i860, his chief work as a lawyer was to be done, and likewise the work that should determine his selection as a candidate for the presidency of the United States. In i860, the scene of his legal services lay in the eighth judicial circuit in which Sangamon ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 41 County was included till 1859. The court itinerated from county to county, and Mr. Lincoln followed it, first on a borrowed horse, then on a nag of his own, which he cared for himself, and later, in a second-hand buggy. His coming was always welcomed at the hotel where he was wont to stop and by the lawyers on the circuit. Un- complaining, genial and unselfish, he met the incidents and inconveniences of this itinerant life in so cheerful a manner, and his pranks and stories were so enjoyable, that outside of the court room and in it, no one was more popular than he. His honesty was a proverb. No shady case had any standing or encouragement from him. Pov- erty was no bar to the securement of his services, and when he entered on a case to which his judgment and conscience were committed he entered upon it with a thoroughness and fearlessness which seldom met with failure. Judge Caton, tor many years one of the judges of the Supreme Court and intimate with Mr. Lincoln, says of him: "He was a close reasoner, reasoning by analogy and usually enforcing his views by apt illustrations. His mode of speaking was generally of a plain and unimpas- sioned character, yet abounding with eloquence, imagin- ation and fancy. His great reputation for integrity was well deserved. The most punctilious honor ever marked his professional and private life. He seemed entirely ig- norant of the art of deception and dissimulation. His frankness and candor were elements which contributed to his professional success. If he discovered a weak point in his cause he frankly admitted it and thereby prepared 42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the mind to accept the more readily his mode of avoid- ing it. No one ever accused him of taking an unfair or underhanded advantage in the whole course of his pro- fessional career." He put the kindest construction possible on the frail- ties of his fellow men. He sympathized with the un- fortunate, and relieved them to the utmost of his ability in their distress. He was true as steel to his clear appre- hension of intellectual and moral truth, unyielding in matters of honor and principle. He could flay an adver- sary relentlessly who by cowardice or meanness, by ma- lice or greed, exposed himself to his denunciation. He could be tender as a woman to misfortune or suffering. He was wondrously constituted to be a great jury lawyer with his power of analysis, his logical faculties, his gen- erous sympathies, his apt illustration, his candor and his irresistable humor. He was offered a lucrative partnership in Chicago with Grant Goodrich on his return from congress, but he pre- ferred his old circuit and his old companions. Though he was frequently called to the trial of cases in prominent courts in his own and other states, and responded to the call, his heart was with his comrades on his old circuit, and he could not be tempted from it. The day before he left Springfield for Washington, in 1861, he went to the office to settle up some unfinished business. After disposing of it he gathered a bundle of papers and books he wished to take with him. Presently he addressed Mr. Herndon, his old partner: "Billy, how long have we been together?" ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 43 "Over sixteen years," he answered. "We've never had a cross word during all that time, have we?" Then, starting to go, he paused and asked that the sign-board of Lincoln & Herndon which hung on its rusty hinges at the foot of the stairs be allowed to re- main. '"Let it hang there undisturbed," he said, with a >ignificant lowering of his voice. "Give our clients to mderstand that the election of a president makes no change in the firm of Lincoln & Herndon. If I live I arn coming back sometime and then we'll go right on practicing law as if nothing had happened." Ix Lincoln had had no other career than as a lawyer in Central Illinois, he w^ould have occupied a unique place among the great lawyers of the state. But his mind was always at work upon the higher problems of the national life. He declined to run for congress in 1 848 in favor of Stephen T. Logan, who suffered defeat. He declined the governorship of Oregon, preferring to remain in closer touch with national affairs in Illinois, than he would be if he removed to that distant region. In 18^,0, he again declined to be a candidate for con- gress, though he was strongly urged. He was coming to the opinion that the sectional agitation between the North and South was beyond the skill of politicians to settle by the laethods that had been and were still, being tried. H e had hoped that time would heal the animosi- ties that threatened the existence of the union and the principle* of free government on American soil. In con- ryo *,j, . f,,. Lincoln's Home at Springfield. In front of the house stands the tree planted by Lincoln previous to 1850. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 45 versation with intimate friends, in 1850, he stated that, "the time is coming when we must all be Democrats or Abolitionists." Though he acquiesced in the measures of the Whig party, which were favorable to compromise to avert strife, he spoke out his own conviction as to the injustice of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850, and seemed to feel disheartened as to any improvement as things were going. In 1852, his fellow citizens at Springfield chose him to deliver a eulogy upon the life and services of Henry Clay. This discourse was not remarkable in itself, save as it was the occasion to Mr. Lincoln for emphasizing the opinion of Mr. Clay in regard to slavery and the proper method of putting an end to it. Mr. Lincoln agreed with him in his aversion to the institution and the advis- ability of gradual emancipation by the voluntary action of the people of the slave states, and the transporting of the freedmen to Africa. Compensated and voluntary emancipation and transportation were the features of his plan, and he hoped that it might be realized. Then, assuming the tones and language of a prophet, he said: "Pharaoh's country was cursed with plagues and his hosts were drowned into the Red Sea for striving to retain a captive people who had already served them more than four hundred years. May like disaster never befall us. If, as the friends of colonization hope, the present and coming generations of our countrymen shall by any means succeed in freeing our land from the dangerous presence of slavery, and at the same time restoring a captive peo- ple to their long lost fatherland with bright prospects for 46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the future, and this, too, so gradually that neither races nor individuals shall have suffered by the change, it will indeed be a glorious consummation.' ' If only that policy could have prevailed what sacrifice of human blood and treasure, what agony and sorrow, it might have saved! But it was not to be. The Fugitive Slave Law had been passed and in the Dred Scott Decision, not only was that law to be upheld, but the most extravagant demands of slavery were to be confirmed by the highest court in the land. Measures were to be set on foot to open the territories north of 36 . 30" to the spread of slavery. The Missouri Compromise was to be repealed and the agent of this legislation, its crafty and eloquent advocate, was to be a son of Illinois, the early compeer and antagonist of Mr. Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas. His rise in politics had been phenomenal. His abilities were great and his ambition more than kept pace with them. His objective point was the presidency of the United States. If he could become the candidate of a united Democracy for that high office, the coveted prize was within his reach. To this end, he lent his great abilities to the carrying of those measures that would be acceptable to the pro-slavery element of the nation. He identified himself actively with every movement that sought to increase the area of territory for slavery expan- sion. He held with Calhoun and Davis that, under the Constitution, slaveholders could take their slaves into the territories of the United States, subject only to the Mis- souri Compromise. This obstruction, as chairman of the committee on territories, he desired to set aside in the ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which opened that vast area of land to settlers who could vote up or down the question of slavery, within their limit. With the passing of this bill, the period of compromise was over. Friends of Union and Freedom saw that there was now no prospect of peace without submission to the extravagant and re- volting pretensions of the pro-slavery party. It was now that Mr. Lincoln girded himself for the great contest of his life, and at once, as if by common consent, he became the leader of the Anti-Nebraska party, as Mr. Douglas was the leader of the opposing party in the North, and attention was fastened on these two great antagonists whose strife should continue until freedom or slavery should prevail. It was in October, 1854, that they first measured weapons at the Illinois State fair. Mr. Douglas defended his position with his usual ability and Mr. Lincoln was put up to answer him. There was a marked contrast in the men. One was small of stature but of great physical force, a successful campaigner, a skilled debater, ready, resourceful and ambitious, con- tending for measures that could result only in unsatis- factory compromises, between those favoring the exten- sion of slavery and those demanding its extinction. Mr. Lincoln was stalwart, angular, and plain, not de- void of ambition, but resolutely opposed to the gaining of a single foot of American soil for the extension or per- petuation of slavery. He attacked the positions of Mr, Douglas with clearness and force. He so completely un- covered his purposes that he carried his audience captive, and his speech was so permeated with intense moral con- 48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. viction, that he often quivered with emotion in its utter- ance. Others addressed the people that day, but to Mr. Lincoln was awarded the honor of having pierced the armor of his antagonist, and of having won the right to carry the standard of freedom into the battle that could not be averted. The Abolitionists of the state now sought to commit him fully to their programme. They felt that in his Anti-Nebraska utterances he was with them and ought to declare himself fully, but he avoided them. The time for him had not yet come. In the fullness of time he could be more useful to the cause of union and freedom by a conservative record than if he had been open to the charge of being a fanatical abolitionist. On the question of the Anti-Nebraska Bill he could take strong ground, and he followed Mr. Douglas to Peoria to repeat the same triumph in debate as at Springfield. In 1854, in spite of his unwillingness, he was elected to the Illinois Legislature. A senator was to be elected at that session in place of General Shields, and Lincoln now aspired to that position. There was an Anti-Ne- braska majority of two on joint ballot, but some of them were pronounced Abolitionists, for whom Mr. Lincoln's position was not sufficiently advanced, and five were Dem- ocrats, who preferred to vote for a senator with antece- dents like their own. To the Abolitionists, Mr. Lincoln easily pledged himself to vote for the exclusion of slavery in all territories of the United States. Matteson, the Dem- ocratic candidate, was almost elected. The Anti-Ne- braska Democrats would probably vote for him on the ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 49 next ballot in preference to a Whig" like Lincoln. In this emergency Mr. Lincoln magnanimously said to the Whigs, "You ought to drop me and go for Trum- bull. That is the only way you can defeat Matteson. The cause in this case is to be preferred to men." Mr. Lincoln was reserved for the conspicuous cam- paign of 1 858, when he should contest for senatorial hon- ors with Mr. Douglas and discuss the great issues of slav- ery extension in the hearing of the nation. Meanwhile, the bloody conflicts between the freedom loving settlers of. Kansas, and the border ruffians, took place, and the North became aroused over the plan of the pro-slavery men to foist pro-slavery constitutions upon the territories that should seek admission to the union. For these events, Mr. Lincoln held Mr.Douglas responsible,and he likewise held fast to the conservative position that the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was an act of bad faith, and that slavery should not be extended into territories heretofore free. The first national convention of the Republican party met in February, 1856, and made its platform on the lines of Mr. Lincoln's contention on the subject of slavery. His prominence in the eye of the party was evinced by the fact that from that convention he received no votes for the vice-presidency. His voice was heard during the campaign, discussing the great issues of the time. In 1858, a Democratic state convention met in Illinois, which besides nominating a state ticket, indorsed the name of Stephen A. Douglas as his own successor in the senate. That crafty politician had begun to have doubts 50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. as to whether the Lecompton constitution was the act and deed of the people of Kansas, and sought to recall the support of the people of his state, who were estranged from him by the violence that had been introduced in Kansas. In the effort to restrain the friends of freedom from freely voting upon the issues that were really before them, it was even suggested that Mr. Douglas was on his way to the Republican fold. Mr. Lincoln was not deceived by Mr. Douglas's change of attitude. There was an election of senator in the next year in the state of Illinois, and the two candidates were the author of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill and his most con- spicuous opponent. If this prize should not slip from Mr. Douglas's grasp, he must disavow some of the fruits of his labor on behalf of slavery, and thus retain enough of his former supporters for his election. It was upon his record as a tool of slavery to open the territories to that institution, and upon the ground of his inconsistency in presenting the doctrine of popular sovereignty, that Mr. Lincoln assailed him in his candidacy for the United States Senate. In April, 1858, a Democratic state convention met in Illinois and indorsed Mr. Douglas. He had so befogged many leading men of Illinois that they begged the Re- publicans to trust him, and put no one in nomination against him. Already Mr. Lincoln perceived that Mr. Douglas had been crowded into a position that would ul- timately destroy his chances of leading a united Demo- cratic party in a national election, for in failing to uphold the Lecompton convention, and in representing in Illinois ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 51 that popular sovereignity would demonstrate the ability of the territories to protect themselves from slavery, he created genuine alarm in the South. Mr. Lincoln's bat- tle was nearly won. It did not matter if Mr. Douglas should defeat him by his insincere scheming in 1858. A greater day of reckoning was coming in i860. On the 1 6th of June the Republican convention of Illi- nois passed a resol ition unanimously declaring-that' • Abra- ham Lincoln is our first and only choice for United States Senator to fill the vacancy about to be created by the ex- piration of Mr. Douglas's term of office." On the evening of that day he locked his office door and produced the manuscript of a speech and read the opening paragraph to his partner, Mr. Herndon. When he had finished he looked into the astonished face of Mr. Herndon and asked him, "How do you like that?" It was the speech that was to be delivered before the Republican convention, avowing his candidacy for the Senate. The paragraph was as follows: "Gentlemen of the Convention: If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it. We are now far on into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise, of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased but has constantly augmented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis has been reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure, permanently, half slave and half free. I do not 5 2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. expect the Union to be dissolved. I do not expect the house to fall. But I do expect it will cease to be divid- ed. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the farther spread of it and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its adversaries will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new; North as well as South." Then followed a masterly review of the aggressive steps by which pro-slavery legislators had sought to ex- tend the institution, and the part that Mr. Douglas had played in it, and his present inconsistent attitude toward his party and his insincere overture to the Republican party. Then with the clarion peal of an acknowledged, trusted, and confident leader, he concluded: "Two years ago the Republicans of the nation mus- tered, over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against -us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gath- ered from the four winds, and formed and fought the bat- tle through under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud and pampered enemy. Did we brave all that to fall now? Now, when that same enemy is wavering, dis- severed and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail: If we stand firm we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but sooner or later the victory is sure to come." Mr. Herndon said, "Is it politic to speak it . Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history! We of tins Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War. Born 1814. Died 1869. 7 o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignifi- cance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor to the last generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We, even we, here hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free, honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just— a way which if followed, the world will forever applaud and God must forever bless." His plan, so earnestly and eloquently presented, re- sulted in no action. The matter pressed upon his mind until, on his own responsibility, he issued his proclama- tion of warning, his own magisterial act, on Sept. 22, 1862, advising the states in rebellion that if they did not return to loyalty by January, 1863, ne would issue a proclamation emancipating their slaves. January came, and with it the most momentous document in the history of the country, wherein the names of the states in rebel- lion were cited; and then, by virtue of his power as Pres* ident of the United States and Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, he ordered and declared that "all per- sons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states, are and henceforward shall be, free," and that "the Executive Government of the United States, includ- ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 7* ing the military and naval authorities thereof, will recog- nize and maintain the freedom of said persons." Upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of jus- tice warranted by the constitution, upon military neces- sity, he invoked, "the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." It was the crowning act of his career. The moment of destiny had come and found him ready. The promise of his young manhood, made amid the slave scenes of New Orleans, "If I ever get a chance to hit Slavery I'll hit it hard," was fulfilled. Henceforth, he is Lincoln the Emancipator! Supplementary legislation gave full effect to the pur~ pose of this great document, reaching to the slaves in bor- der states and in sections under the control of the Union. The tide of battle turned in favor of the Union, and ere the close of his term the purposes for which he had gone from Springfield to Washington were well-nigh accom- plished. Through it all, he was the masterful leader, bearing his own burden; resting his often breaking heart and burdened mind with the wit and humor that had al- ways been so restful to him; bearing with patience the mistakes and jealousies and malice of men; never falter- ing in his steady course; wisely avoiding entanglement with foreign nations till our crisis should be passed; prac- ticing humanity and kindness that sterner men thought subversive of discipline; approachable to all who had an errand, or who needed to invoke the great, strong, kind- hearted President. He came down to the close of his first term of office to be triumphantly re-elected, and to 7 2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. inaugurate the work of reconstruction, for he who saved the Union was, in the judgment of the people, the one who might most effectually restore it to its old form, free from the curse of slavery, to the condition of a great homo- geneous com- mon-wealth, the home of happi- ness and thrift and freedom. He began his work with his old kind, con- ciliatory, yet self-confident, tact, and just as he had begun, the bullet of an assassin remov- ed him from la- bor to reward. That assassina- tion conferred on him the crown of martyrdom. If he had survived, he might have been Moses and Joshua in one. It was enough that he was Moses. Let us close with the words of Owen Lovejoy, spoken when emancipation resolutions were under consideration and Mr. Crittenden had said, "I have a niche for Abraham Ford's Theatre, Washington, where Lincoln was shot by John Wilkes Booth, April 14, 1865. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 73 Lincoln." Mr. Lovejoy exclaimed, "I, too, have a niche for Abraham Lincoln, but it is in Freedom's holy fame and not in the blood besmeared temple of human bondage; not surrounded by slaves, fetters and chains, but with the symbols of freedom; not dark with bondage but radiant with the light of liberty. In that niche he shall stand proudly, nobly, gloriously, with shattered fetters and broken chains and slave whips at his feet. ( 'If Abraham Lincoln pursues the path evidently point- ed out for him in the Providence of God, as I believe he will, then he will occupy the proud position I have indicated. That is a fame worth living for, aye, more, that is a fame worth dying for, though that death led through the blood of Gethsemane and the agony of the accursed tree. That is a fame which has glory, honor and immortality and eternal life. "Let Abraham Lincoln make himself, as I trust he will, the Emancipator, the Liberator, as he has the opportunity of doing, and his name shall be not only en- rolled in this earthly temple, but it will be traced on the living stones of the temple which rears its head amid the thrones and hierarchies of heaven, whose top stone is to be brought in with shouting of 'Grace unto it."' Mr. Lovejoy's confidence was not in vain. LINCOLN, "THE EMANCIPATOR." (18C9— 1865) By G. Mercer Adam.* IF there ever was a life consecrated from early manhood to humanity's cause, it was that of Lincoln, "the Eman- cipator," the revered martyred President who fell in Free- dom's name. His death, sad and lamented as it was and is, was, however, a glorious and triumphal one, for it did almost as much for Freedom, and, no matter of what color the people were, for individual rights and popular liberty in this great nation, as was done by the holocaust of human life that fell in their cause, and by the colossal sums ex- pended throughout a most critical and appalling era. His demise and the manner of it, after so strenuous, honest, and conscientious a life, influenced, if it did not actually mould, the immediate future of the nation, and gave reconstruction such a set and direction as it might hardly otherwise have had, while potently reuniting and cementing the riven Union. One far-seeing and most humane event in Lincoln's admin- istration, while he lived, was instrumental not only in adding glory to his name, but in bringing about the close of the great conflict of his time. We refer, of course, to the edict of Emancipation and the prohibiting of slavery in the States and Territories of the Union. Emancipation, it is true, * Historian, Biographer, and Essayist, Author of a " Precis of English History," a "Continuation of Grecian History," etc., and for many years Editor of Self- Culture Magazine.— The Publishers. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 7 5 was resorted to as "a war measure" in the thick of the deadly contest; but with Lincoln, long before the era of the decree and the amendment to the Constitution which abolished slavery forever from the country, the vile traf- fic had always been held in abhorrence, and deep in his mind had lain the thought of abolishing it or seeing it abol- ished. The immediate effect of the measure, we know, was to drive the South to the verge of desperation ; while at the North it was only partially accepted and for a time it aroused even bitter animadversion. Happily, however, a change of sentiment came ere long, when it was seen what freedom meant to the slave, and how telling were the con- sequences of emancipation in the issues of the war. The act, almost entirely, was Lincoln's own, and its consumma- tion did surpassing honor to him, as well as to his adminis- tration, and, at large, to the people who endorsed and ap- plauded it. There is little need here to rehearse the well-known in- cidents in Lincoln's modest trading venture down the Mis- sissippi, which led the great and humane President early in his career to become an abolitionist, though he was never a negrophilist. To a heart so tender as his and so open to the dictates of justice and the rights of all, the sights he wit- nessed in tKat expedition in the flatboat on the great river of manacled and whipped slaves, were sufficient to turn his mind and heart against slavery and to avow, as he expressed it, that some day he would "hit it hard," while he knew and affirmed that it could never be compromised with. His con- servatism and moderation, together with his respect for law, at the outset of his career made him, not tolerant towards 76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the evil institution, nor timid in his attitude towards it, but careful to keep it within bounds and prevent its extension where it was not law. This it is that has led some writers to deny that Lincoln was opposed to slavery as a crime and a moral wrong, and to affirm that he assumed hostility to it only as a political manoeuvre, especially after his memorable contest with Stephen A. Douglas. This, we think, unfair and ungenerous toward the great Emancipator, since few rnen in public life have more remarkably shown, as Lin- coln throughout his career showed, a sense of moral right and a mind and heart influenced by humane motives, and prone to kindliness himself and by precept and example urged its sway and interaction upon others. In some meas- ure, then, critics are right, and are justified by Lincoln's own written and spoken words in regard to slavery. But while it is true that Lincoln's hand was for a time stayed by the limits of the Constitution, and by his early powerlessness to root the giant evil out, and while Emancipation was resorted to as a means of saving the Union by an astute war meas- ure, it is nevertheless also true that its author was, and had long been, opposed in his heart of hearts to the curse of slavery, believed it to be founded upon injustice and bad policy, and though he would not force abolition upon any State against the popular will and voice, he yet hated it thoroughly and looked with pain and abhorrence upon its existence in any and all sections of the Union. It may also assuredly be said that Lincoln looked forward with confidence to the ultimate extinction of slavery, though it took, as it did, a great crisis in the history of the Nation to get rid of it. His own belief in this respect is enshrined ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 77 not only in the momentous edict that forever banned it from the Republic, in his opposition to the Dred Scott decision, on the ground that it deprived the black man of the rights and privileges of citizenship, but in those prophetic words of his which he uttered at the Springfield convention, in 1858, that nominated him for the United States Senate. In that cry for unity and singlemindedness in the Nation he affirmed his belief that the Government of the country ''cannot endure permanently half-slave and half-free," for, as he added, "a house divided against itself cannot stand." Once more, in 1864, he said in memorable words, "if slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong" — a dictum of unmistakable truth and force ;— while he knew that the war then going on be- tween the North and South was a struggle on the part of the latter, not only for the right of secession, but to per- petuate slavery, the one factor that had divided the country into two hostile and irreconcilable camps, and was, materially and socially, the distinctive barrier between them. With the prescience that marked his statesmanship, he saw this fact so clearly that the Proclamation of Emancipation was the result— a measure that almost everywhere was hailed by the plaudits of mankind ; while, in the wording of the Act itself and in Lincoln's own defence of it, we see the great Liber- ator's realization of the profound moral agitation of the era and the significance of the remedy he would apply in bring- ing about the abiding issue of the conflict. We have dealt with Mr. Lincoln's moral convictions in re- gard to slavery, and of the righteousness of the measure he resorted to in planning and launching, at the right juncture in a critical time, the great Act of Emancipation. Of the 7^ ABRAHAM LINCOLN. President's other conspicuous virtues and characteristics much also might be said, and that not merely in the way of commendation, but as the memorial of an eminent and high- ly revered life of perpetual and priceless value as an example to the Nation. One of the notable qualities in the man, which has been the theme of not a little controversy, is that of his own personal religious life. The question has re- peatedly been asked: "What was his religious belief, if he had any," for some venture, and wrongly and unjustly, we believe, to class him as an unbeliever and agnostic. Of Mr. Lincoln's religious life we do not know much, since he never revealed his whole inner self to anyone. In early life he was doubtless indifferent to religion ; but when he came to high position he appeared to treat office as a trust, and again and again acted as if he were plastic in the hands of a Divine Being. His unblemished life, and thoughtful, humane career, and the consecration of himself to the Na- tion's need, show that he lived his life under a deep sense of responsibility to a Higher Power. At Salem, Illinois, he seems early to have come in con- tact with a rather reckless set of men, of the rough Western type, who among their other crudenesses indulged in scof- fings at things sacred. With these men, Lincoln, in his promiscuous comradeship, had associations, and it is prob- able that at this time he joined them in their heedless flings at Christian truth, and especially at the sects and their jar- ring discords. But if he took part in their levities, and even aired some of the cheap witicisims directed against religion by Volney and Tom Paine, of whose sceptical writ- ings he had been a reader, it was at an immature stage of ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 79 his intellectual and moral life, and before he was impressed with the realities of human existence, and with the providen- tial dealings of that Heavenly Power which he was after- wards profoundly to acknowledge and pay reverence to. Later on, we see the true, frank, outspoken but reverent man, who was the embodiment of kindness and "as tender as a woman" — the man who got near to the people, for whom he had a great, large-hearted, human love. To such he often spoke affectionately and most truly his mind, as on the occasion of his leaving Springfield, 111., to assume at the capital the arduous duties of the Presidency. At the station, before his departure, he addressed a large assem- blage of his fellow citizens and old acquaintances who had come to bid him good-bye. "Friends," he said to them, "one who has never been placed in a like position can little understand my feelings at this hour, nor the oppressive sad- ness I feel at this parting. I go to assume a task more difficult than that which devolved upon Washington. Un- less the great God who assisted him shall be with and aid me, I must fail ; but if the same omniscient mind and al- mighty arm that directed and protected him shall guide and support me, I shall not fail, I shall succeed." This is the true Lincoln, and in the above words there is the mighty source owned by him of his dependence and need. A like religious attitude he also manifested throughout his admin- istrations ; and during the great era of strife, when victory was vouchsafed to the North by the God of battles, often to that omnipotent Being did he publicly, and among inti- mates and associates, give devout and grateful thanks. Another and kindred trait in the man was his tender, 80 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. loving nature and the warmth of his sympathies for those who were in trouble, and especially towards the common people, whom, as he once said, God must assuredly like, else, as he characteristically put it, "He wouldn't have made so many of them." Very charming was the interesting, figurative manner in which he would at times address them ; while in his daily intercourse he ever showed his kindly in- terest in their welfare, and, without effort or evident design, would endear himself to them and readily win his way to their hearts. His homely ways and quaint humor — at times also even his caustic wit — were qualities that further com- mended him to the affections of his own rough people and brought him fame among those, far and wide, among whom he spent his early and maturing years. Nor among these honest, simple folk were his studious habits, meditative moods, and even his occasional plaintive sadness, missed by them, as many stories regarding him attest, such as are told by those especially who knew him intimately, who worked by his side, traded or did business with him in his early homes, or who spent the long winter evenings with him by his or their own kindly though rude firesides. Amid such associations and in such varied relations, Lincoln was al- ways the same modest, unassuming man, the same genial, kindly and sympathetic friend. Even after good-fortune and a change of circumstances came to him, aided by his own natural and acquired gifts, he never altered in this re- spect ; nor did he ever suffer himself to be beyond the reach, and if need be the aid, of an old acquaintance or of an erstwhile known and rarely-forgotten face. Humble and obscure as was his origin, and rough and uncouth ps was ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 8] the environment of his early days, only the possession of a manly, humanized mind, in close touch with its fellow-mind, and of a soul far removed from the ignobleness and mater- ializing influences of high position, could have kept Lin- coln the same kindly, approachable man he ever was and remained to his lamentable, tragic end. We have incidentally referred to Lincoln's studious habits and meditative moods, and important were the results to him of his early predilection for books and the acquisition of knowledge through his unappeasable thirst for reading. The stimulus in the direction of mental acquisitions appears to have been early given him by his kind and intelligent stepmother ; though his own ambition and longing for knowl- edge were, obviously, an inheritance of birth, afterwards strongly developed by innate propensity and an eager desire for information, so far as such could be gratified through the facilities and materials within his reach. Meagre, as we know, were these facilities, as were those which he could command through the fitful periods of desultory schooling. The books in early youth at his service were, moreover, few, including little besides the Bible and a spelling book ; for an English grammar, it is said, he tramped six miles to a neighbor's house to borrow and study it. Later on, he seems to have become possessed, or obtained the loan of, Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," the Life of Henry Clay, and Weems's biography of Washington. These he eagerly devoured. On the first of them he appears to have formed the rudiments of an eminently good literary style, after- wards assiduously improved by further reading, as well as by his own excellent judgment and good taste. On the 82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. biographies, he gratified his desire for some practical ac- quaintance with the political history of his country, other than could be picked up among his neighbors and fellow- settlers, and from such politicians of local fame as he came across. All told, this material was not much with which to equip the future debater and statesman ; but it was more to Lincoln than to a man of less inquiring mind and with little of his powers of assimilation and reflection. Not much more liberal was his training in law, though he assiduously read the statutes of his State and some text-books and other tomes of legal lore ; while, when he had need to search for materials for any case he had to get up, he delved into and primed himself with the decisions of the local courts. In these and such like exploitations into the dry literature of the law, he was greatly assisted by a retentive memory and a remarkable power of getting into the heart of a sub- ject and of clearly and cogently presenting it with all the illuminating skill of a sound understanding. When he had gained some local notoriety and was known as "a character" in the towns of the West, he began to take active part in the politics of the time, and occasion- ally to mount the orator's stump. In this delectation he more frequently indulged, especially after he . had gained confidence in his powers, and had partly slaked his appe- tite for mental food. At this time he even began to com- pose a little, one of his early attempts, it is related, being an essay, prompted by his humane feelings, in which he .fenounced cruelty to animals. What facility he manifested &ter in his career, in both his written and his spoken utter- ances, it is not a little curious to trace back to that early ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 83 •composition deploring- the cruelty of youth, in the wanton snaring of birds, and on catching terrapins and putting live- coals on their backs. But it was as a stump speaker that he more particularly shone, and on his appearance in that capacity he never lacked an audience, who enjoyed to the full the jokes and abounding humor of his harangues, and when in his more earnest moods, the heartfelt power and effectiveness of his serious address. The success he met with as a public speaker was, as we have hinted, not a little owing to his characteristic facetiousness, and, above all, to the fund of stories he was possessed of and could recall and use with remarkable appropriateness to the occasion, while giving added point to his argument. As his political educa- tion developed, Lincoln's fame as a speaker grew apace, es- pecially after his contest with Douglas over the Senator- ship, a contest that showed in a remarkable manner what his powers were as a debater in the field of national as well as of local politics, and how effectively he mastered the con- stitutional and other cmestions of the time that enabled him to floor his adversary. Other gifts and qualities as a debater brought him success, particularly those that extort admiration from an intelligent, dispassionate audience, namely, restraint in the speaker, that puts a check upon un- fair as well as inconclusive argument, and the absence of temper and of anything bitter or personal in the style and manner of his address. In these respects, the future Presi- dent was invariably honest with himself, as well as with his opponent and his hearers, and never allowed himself to utter an unbecoming taunt or fling at those opposed to him, even in the most heated of party controversies. Such 84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. were the traits in the man who, when great issues were beginning to loom on the political horizon, was to take a commanding position in their discussion and direction ; and who brought with him the potent influences of a clean, high heart, and a record for all that was worthy and honorable in one aspiring to usefulness and patriotic duty in public life. In treating, as ere long he was called upon to do, with the great issues of his time, another quality is discernable in Lincoln's public utterances that marks him out as one who will long live in the nation's heart. We refer to the lofty sentiments and the profound religious tone of his addresses and State papers. The tragic events of the era of the Civil War, an era of calamities and long-enduring strife, with its appalling shedding of blood which he deeply felt and de- plored, naturally gave occasion for the manifestation of emotion and for the heart-wringings he time after time experienced, as news reached the capital of some great bat- tle whose issues were either adverse or favorable to the Union cause. In reflecting upon these tragedies of the bat- tle-field, and especially in commenting upon them on some public occasion, as in the Gettysburg address or in his sec- ond Inaugural, Lincoln showed the moral grandeur of his nature and the deep heart of pity and reverence that was in him, by utterances of inspiring elevation that came home to and touched to the quick all sympathetic hearts. For dignity and simple beauty, as well as for the fervent patriotism which inspired them, these addresses are unique in the annals of eloquence, and as such are surely destined to immortality. About them there is little of conscious artifice; while they ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 85 are marked by compactness of statement, logicalness of thought, and lucidity of expression, as well as by a nervous force which reveals the sincere conviction of the speaker, and, despite his wonted humor, the earnestness and serious caste of his mind. "To these qualities in Lincoln," ob- serves a writer, "was added the great gift of poetry. lie spoke in figures, and they were tropes that, while they might (at times) shock the polite, never failed to illustrate and ornament what he was saying to the humble." Like the poet, Robert Burns, of whose writings he was a delighted reader and memorizer, Lincoln, as we have pointed out, was of and near to the people. He loved the humble bard's songs, and like him, too, he loved Mother Earth, and had that gentleness of nature, sympathy for, and tender- ness toward his fellowman which distinguished the Scot- tish poet. "It was this deep heart of pity and love in him," writes Hamilton \Y. Mabie, "which carried him far beyond the reaches of statesmanship or oratory, and give his words the finality of expression which marks the noblest art." Of his poetic temperament, the same critic (Mr. Mabie) thoughtfully remarks ; "That there was a deep vein of poetry in- Mr. Lincoln is clear to one who reads the story of his early life ; and this innate idealism, set in surround- ings so harsh and rude, had something to do with his mel- ancholy. The sadness which was mixed with his whole life, was, however, largely due to his temperament ; in which the final tragedy seemed always to be predicted. In that temperament, too, is hidden the secret of the rare quality of nature and mind which suffused his public speech and turned so much of it into literature. There was humor 86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. in it, there was deep human sympathy, there was clear mastery of words for the use to which he put them; but there was something deeper and more persuasive, — there was the quality of his temperament; and temperament is a large part of genius. The inner forces of his nature play- ed through his thought ; and when great occasions touched him to the quick, his whole nature shaped his speech and gave it clear intelligence, deep feeling, and that beauty which is distilled out of the depths of the sorrows and hopes of the world." Another interesting feature in the early career of Lincoln was his resort to law as a profession. His training for this was a little less haphazard than his fitful school edu- cation; though what he picked up in the way of legal lore was, as we are told, as much "by sight, scent, and hearing." He attended the Courts, read the Indiana Revised Statutes, heard law speeches, and listened to law trials. In time he became a popular Western advocate and a scrupulously honest one, never upholding any case that was not mor- ally right or in which he was likely to fail in court, so acute and deeply engrained were his honorable instincts and sense of justice. Where he had doubts of his client's truthfulness and honesty, he would abandon his case rather than take up his defense or argue in court what he knew or suspected to be a false and unjust position. Alike honorable was his attitude toward his fellowman, and especially with his relations with women. ''There is one part of Lincoln's early life," writes Professor Gold- win Smith, "which, though scandal may batten on it, we shall pass over lightly; we mean that part which relates to ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 87 his love affairs and his marriage. Criticism, and even bi- ography, should respect as far as possible the sanctuary of affection. That a man has dedicated his life to the service of the public is no reason why the public should be licensed to amuse itself by playing with his heart-strings. Not only as a storekeeper, but in every capacity, Mr. Lincoln was far more happy in his relations with men than women. He, however, loved, and loved deeply, Ann Rutledge, who appears to have been entirely worthy of his attachment, and whose death at the moment when she would have felt herself at liberty to marry him threw him into a transport of grief, which threatened his reason and excited the grav- est apprehensions of his friends. In stormy weather especi- ally, he would rave piteously, crying that 'he could never be reconciled to have the snow, rain, and storms to beat upon her grave.' This first love he seems never to have for- gotten. He next had an affair, not so creditable to him. Finally, he made a match of which the world, perhaps, has heard enough, though the Western lad was too true a gen- tleman to let it hear anything about the matter from his lips. It is enough to say that this man was not wanting in that not inconsiderable element of worth, even the worth of statesmen, strong and pure affection." His marriage, in 1842, with Alary Todd of Lexington, Ky., was, as all know, not a happy one, partly owing, it may be, to her higher social position and superior education, but more by reason of incompatability of temper. But of this not a word is known to have escaped Lincoln in the way of complaint or accusation, since his honor evidently shrank from such disclosures. What he did, on the con- 88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. trary, was to devote himself with more assiduity and pa- tience to his profession, in the practice of which, as we have affirmed, he was never mercenary or suffered the least taint of dishonor or wrongdoing. Though returned temporarily a member of Congress in 1847, ^ was not untn< x ^54 tnat ms poetical career activeiy began, a few years after the outbreak of the national agita- tion against slavery and the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law. At this time, Lincoln's chief political oppon- ent was Stephen A. Douglas, who, aspiring to the Presi- dency, was courting the favor of the South by bringing forward his Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which practically was a repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1850 opening the territory to the extension of slavery and adding to the politi- cal preponderance of the Slave States. It was at this junc- ture, when "the irrepressible conflict" began, that Lincoln came actively and interestedly on the scene and set himself to wrestle with the evil institution as an outspoken aboli- tionist. Soon now (1858) occurred the famous debates in Illinois between Lincoln and Douglas, in which the former delivered himself of the effective rhetorical figure of "the house divided against itself," which gave point to the controversy now on between freedom and slavery, and in that keynote brought himself to the fore as a candidate for the United States Senate, with an evident eye the while to the office of the President. Though Douglas was suc- cessful in the contest for the lesser post, Lincoln, by the masterly part he took in the debates with "the little giant," commended himself to the West as a candidate for the chief office in the nation, and in the East spread his fame among ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 89 the electorate at large, especially after his able political ad- dress at the Cooper Institute, New York, in February, [860, followed by other telling speeches in New England. The result came later in the year, with dissensions and a split in the Democratic party and the nailing of antislavery col- ors on the Republican banners, aided by the furore in the entire North over threatened secession and the coming precipitation of a conflict betwen the two radically opposed sections of the Union. In November the Republican party won by a large plurality in the North, in the contest at Chicago, and Lincoln was elected to the Presidency. In the following March (1861), the inauguration at Wash- ington took place, and the humble frontier "rail-splitter" assumed the reins of the Federal government, determined, God-willing, to maintain the integrity of the Nation and uphold its undivided authority. The election and installation of President Lincoln as suc- cessor in office to the then chief magistrate, Buchanan, pre- cipitated, as all know, the calamitous Civil War, and, by the irony of Fate, settled not only the distracting contro- versy in regard to State Rights, but ultimately the great human question of the freedom of the slave. In the pre- ceding month of December, South Carolina had declared for secession and dissolved her connection with the Union, in which momentous act she was joined before March, 1861, by six other States (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Florida, Louisiana, and Texas) ; while their people seized the Federal forts, arsenals, custom-houses, post-offices, and other national property within these States and practically defied its constitutional guardians. Placing themselves thus 90 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. outside the Union, they presently elected Jefferson Davis president of what was styled the Southern Confederacy, and in April (a month after Lincoln's inauguration) took up the weapons of war and with them bombarded and cap- tured Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor. This aggres- sion by the Confederacy while for the moment it appalled the North, inflamed its people to almost the point of frenzy. The retort to the Southern challenge to battle was the in- stant call by President Lincoln, as commander-in-chief, for 75,000 men of the Union militia — a summons that was promptly and enthusiastically responded to. In the procla- mation calling for additional troops, Lincoln, while demand- ing the seceding States in arms to disperse and retire peace- ably to their homes within twenty days, at the same time appealed "to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the integrity, and exist- ence of our national Union, and the perpetuity of popu- lar government, and to redress wrongs already long enough endured." There was one political advantage which the Lincoln administration gained by Secession, namely, that it with- drew the preponderating influence of the Southern Demo- cratic representatives from the House of Representatives and the Senate ; while in a large measure it fused in these institutions the two opposing sections of the Northern Re- publicans and united them in support of the government and the War. At first, the latter did not at once come to- gether in their design to coerce the South ; indeed, many leading men in the North were, for a while, if not apathetic, dazed by the grave situation and peril of the country ; ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 9 1 though they ere long reasserted their patriotism and rallied to the aid of the Nation and its administration. The latter, moreover, was by this time organized, and Mr. Lincoln had succeeded in forming a strong and able Cabinc' ; and this had its influence on the country in enabling it to tackle the great task before it, however little at first it was able to accomplish by its arms in the field. For long, indeed, it was a time of sore trial to the North, and a bitter humili- ation that so little was effected by its troops in coping with the enemy. The disaster and rout of Bull Run (July 21st) early revealed the extent of the demoralization of the Union forces at the outset and its inadequacy as the fighting re- liance of the Nation. Even when a year had passed, though the army had been recruited to over 200,000 men, there were no decisive results; while still darker days were to follow, and much inefficency and perplexity to come, ere any ap- preciable gain cheered the North and lifted a corner of the curtain of gloom. Nor did matters brighten for long, what with failures and other experiments in the chief command of the army; the depreciation ot the Federal currency; and with the adverse attitude of foreign powers (chiefly Great Britain and France) in according belligerent rights to the South, and having to surrender the Commissioners of the latter to England, after a Northern blockader had taken them from a British mail steamer on the high seas. Nor did the outlook improve even with the change of generals in command of the army of the Potomac after Mc- Dowell's disastrous defeat at Bull Run. These changes were successively from McClellan to Pope, and after the former had been reinstated to his subsequent replacement 92 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. by Burnside, who at length gave place to Hooker, and Hooker in turn gave place to Meade — all of them inferior to, or at least less successful, than the great Southern captains in the war, such as Lee, Longstreet, Johnslon, Beauregard, and Stonewall Jackson. These changes and other dispositions in the chief command of the Northern forces manifestly were a great concern and source of anx- iety to Lincoln, who, at this era and throughout the war, assumed the burden and responsibility of them, as well as of the other heavy cares and solicitudes in the conduct of affairs through the trying times and perplexities of the era. Only a resolute, patriotic purpose and an undaunted, in- vincible spirit, could have sustained him in these exacting, onerous duties amid the many discouragements and sadden- ing military reverses that marked his four years of rule, to the collapse of the rebellion and the era of his martyrdom. Nor was this all that we owe the mighty chieftain of the era — great as his burden of exacting work and care was — in these years of anxiety and prolonged civil strife; for we now reach the period when Lincoln's lofty soul yearned, and his sense of patriotic, statesmanlike duty compelled him, to launch that immortal edict of his which was to liberate the abject and downtrodden slave and extend the blessed reality, as well as the beneficent bounds, of free- dom to all men throughout the Union. Before this, com- pensated emancipation, had been honestly proposed and urged by the great Liberator ; while by Ben Butler's thought- ful, humane device, the escaping slaves had been relieved to the extent of being decreed "contraband of war," and thus entitled to liberty and freedom in crossing the line of ABRAHAM LINCOLN. nj strife. But both of these ameliorations, good as far as they went, palled before the great Edict of Emancipation itself — the act of Lincoln personally — and to him alone does the country and the world owe gratitude and praise for the magnanimity of the measure, the relief it brought to the deserving objects of it, and the removal forever from the nation of the reproach and sin involved in the condition and existence of slavery. That the edict of Freedom was "a war measure" matters little; and hardly in any degree, if at all, does it detract from the honors of him who had long entertained the hope of seeing the slave attain free- dom, and who now was happily instrumental in bringing about the blessed consummation. As a war measure, it is true, Emancipation was benefi- cent and effective, for it touched the South in its tenderest spot and gave a blow to the State-Rights doctrine, so dear to the Southern and Democratic heart. But even before the issue of the Edict much had been gained by the North in the war, for New Orleans had fallen before Farragut's fleet, and access was thus gained to the waters of the Mis- sissippi, made more effective by the possession taken by Halleck of Memphis and Corinth. Grant had also fought and won the battle of Shiloh ; Lee had been repulsed at Mal- vern Hill; while Richmond, the seat of the Confederate capital, had been seriously threatened. Following the is- sue and enforcement of the Edict came the Federal suc- cesses at Gettysburg and Vicksburg; the capture of Fort Donnelson on the Cumberland river, with the consequent surrender of Johnston's and Buckner's forces ; which broke the stubbornness of Southern fighting, soon to be para- 94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. lized by the victories at Chickamauga and Chattanooga, by Sherman's march through Georgia and his clever man- euvering and driving out the enemy from the Valley of the Shenandoah, and by Grant's destruction of Lee's army, the capture of Richmond, and the final surrender at Ap- pomattox. The elation in the North due to this auspicious turn of affairs for the Union, and the practical close of the long struggle, were an immense relief to Lincoln as well as to the entire Northern and Western people, soon now to be- come again, with the people of the South, a peaceful and reunited nation. The cost of the strife, however, was tre- mendous — a national debt contracted of over 3,000 million dollars, and the loss or disablement on either side of nearly half a million men each, including the dire slaughter on both sides in the battles of the Wilderness, at Spottsylvania Court House, and at Murfreesboro and Cold Harbor. The result to the Federal cause had been, moreover, at the cost of disastrous disturbance to the commercial, maritime, and other affairs of the country, besides the disorganization of the finances and the great depreciation of the currency, in spite of Secretary Chase's herculean ef- fort to control, improve, and check the effect of this, not to speak of the riots over the drafts of men needed for the recruitment of the army and the other difficulties of enlist- ment. Much of the anxiety and perplexity of all this natur- ally fell heavily upon President Lincoln, in addition to the oversight and supervision he was called upon to give to the army, in its different commands in the field, and to the se- lection and appointment of its responsible and guiding chiefs. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 95 For this illustrious man, who throughout showed consum- mate tact in the management of the nation's affairs — never inclining on one side unduly to weakness or on the other to the usurpation and exercise of autocratic author- ity — it was a period of grave trial, with continuous strain- ing of both heart and head. Alas ! that the end to him should come so pitifully and tragically after all he had suf- fered and borne ! The remaining facts of importance to relate in this "true story of a great American" may be briefly narrated. In the autumn of 1864, the North re-elected Lincoln for another period of rule, and showing public confidence in him and his administration it also emphasized the national will to prose- cute the war to a close. Happily the prospect of ending the conflict was now good, for at this time close upon a mil- lion men were upon the Northern muster rolls, while the Southern fighting strength was greatly reduced, and the shrunken forces under Lee and Johnston were in a precari- ous position and in actual want of food. The gravity of the situation soon now told upon the Confederates, men- aced alike by circumstances and by the pressure and en- leaguement of Grant's large force, aided by Sherman's cavalry. The closing scene finally came (April 9, 1865) at Appomattox, where Lee surrendered the army of North- ern Virginia and the end came of rebellion. The conditions imposed upon the South were no more irksome to these combatants than the laying down of their arms, the ceasing of all hostility, and the restitution to the Federal power of all public property. Following upon this, the Confeder- ate President and Cabinet abandoned Richmond for Dan- g6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ville, and Mr. Davis subsequently fled into Georgia, where he was captured and after a period of confinement was, at the close of the year 1868, magnanimously included in a general amnesty extended to all who had taken part on the side of Secession. In startling and grim contrast to the peaceful close of the great struggle at Appomattox came the event which was to send a thrill of horror and pain throughout and beyond the confines of the country. Five brief days after Lee's surrender, namely, on the evening of Good Friday, April 14th, the loved President Lincoln, who, since the evacua- tion of Richmond by the Confederate administration, had been visiting and had returned to Washington, 'sat with his wife in a box to witness a play at Ford's theatre. Here, in the fleeting hour of social relaxation from the engrossing cares of office, he was struck down by the murderous hand of an assassin and died on the following morning. Thus, by the weapon of "a demented sympathizer with the cause of disunion," came a close to the illustrous career of the Great Emancipator and his departure to his reward in the hither eternal world. Amid the lamentations and regret of the stricken nation which he loved and died for came the mighty pageantries which marked the funeral obse- quies of. the martyred one and the sad passing of his remains to their last resting-place at the former home of the patriot President, at Springfield, Illinois. In a sense, Lincoln's end came as a fitting sequel to, and admonition against, Civil War; and though it deprived the nati *n of his wise counsels in the great work that lay be- fcr.p. \t of Reconstruction, his death and the manner of it ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 97 were factors of value in hushing all criticism of the man and his career, while raising grateful peans to his memory. In unity well might the two sections of the country, now again become one, pay ceaseless honor to him who had had much to do, through the long and appalling conflict, hr bringing about the happy issue of Union, and who, in mem- orable words, in his immortal second Inaugural, after be- moaning the scourge of war and yet foreseeing its close, had admonished the Nation to have "malice toward none," and "with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right," besought them to "finish the work they were in, to bind up the Nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all na- tions." With such words of almost inspired wisdom and beauty, and with such a manifestation of kindly and thought- ful mood, ever customary in the speaker, we may take leave of our subject and close our tribute of homage to the great man. SUGGESTIONS FROM THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.* By Prop. Francis Wayland Shepardson, Ph. D., University of Chicago. TWO contradictory tendencies find frequent expression in American life. The one is a disposition to hero-worship of public leaders ; the other an inclination to ridicule and be- little them. The first is due partly to long prevalent meth- ods of instruction, and partly to the peculiar conditions of ex- istence here. The second results partly from these same con- ditions and partly from the asperities of party politics, which have encouraged both caricature and caustic criticism. The past has been constantly exalted. We have been accustomed to look backward through a haze, which has so distorted our vision that the leaders of days gone by have appeared as giants looming up through the mists of years. This continual glorification has been the bane of all instruc- tion. Environment has lent its powerful aid to the same end. This pre-eminently is the land of opportunity. The saying, ''Every American boy expects to be President," has sufficient warrant in the fact that several very unpromising American boys have been elevated to that distinguished po- sition. If conditions are favorable, a moment may make an American one of the Immortals. Just so long as the starry banner waves in the sky, the name of Lawrence will be revered, because of those heroic words he uttered as he was carried from the deck to his death below, "Don't give ♦Originally contributed, Feb. 1899. to Self-Culture Magazine, G. Mercer Adam, Editor, and published by The Werner Co., Akron. 0. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ,