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Lincoln's Birthday, 1907. 
 
 Personal Reminiscences 
 
 OF" 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 AN ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 DR. WILLIAM JAYNE. 
 
 Delivered before the 
 
 Springfield Chapter 
 
 of tine ] ^ ', 
 
 Daughters of the American Revolution, 
 February 12, 1907, 
 
 at 
 
 ITlith (Cmnplimrnts nf 
 
 Htnrnht ffithrary 
 
0^: 
 
 Gift 
 
I do not purpose in my remarks today to proceed 
 into any extended relation of the justly celebrated 
 political debate between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Douglas 
 in 1858, or concerning Mr. Lincoln's administration 
 of the Federal Government from 1851 to 1865, because 
 both are known to every intelligent and well informed 
 person in our whole country, and more esiDecially, as 
 the great debate and the transactions of the period of 
 the civil war is an open book, with the contents of 
 which you all are familiar. 
 
 I purpose to relate facts bearing upon his early 
 days and incidents of his life, which are personally 
 known to me; incidents which may seem small in 
 themselves, but yet serve to show and illustrate the 
 habits, traits of disposition and character, the heart 
 and head, the humor and melancholy, in a word, the 
 peculiar and varied moods in all affairs, great or small, 
 private or public, of this pure, kind, gentle, decided, 
 and steadfast man. 
 
 He was sensitive and conscientious at all times and 
 in every relation of life, and never in youth or man- 
 hood did he knowingly do wrong to any one. 
 
 More than forty years have passed since his tragic 
 death ; seventy years are past and gone since he bade 
 farewell to New Salem and the friends of his early 
 manhood and settled in Springfield to commence the 
 practice of law with John T. Stuart, his colleague in 
 the Illinois Legislature of 1836. Probably there is 
 not a man or woman living today who was of adult 
 
age when Mr. Lincoln left Salem. Before many years 
 have come and gone the last person who has taken 
 Mr. Lincoln by the hand and looked into that kind, 
 familiar face will have passed from earth. 
 
 So it is well that those who knew him should gather 
 up facts, great and small, honestly related without 
 Ijrejudice or partiality. Let us, in narrating events 
 and the story of his life, cling close to truth and the 
 man, then those who come after us will know the real 
 man — the true Lincoln. 
 
 Let me repeat, if the story of his life is truthfully 
 and courageously told — nothing colored or suppressed; 
 nothing false either written or suggested — the coming 
 generation will see and feel the presence of the living 
 man. 
 
 Let us not be over sensitive about his origin and 
 ancestry. If his' birth was humble and his extraction 
 was from the ordinary class of poor laboring people, 
 he knew the severe struggles, the plain living and 
 self-denial, which is a priceless discijjline to a man of 
 ambition, determined to gain place and power, to up- 
 lift the race and benefit his country and mankind. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was ambitious — a laudable ambition. 
 He once said to his closest friend, Joshua Speed, that 
 he did not wish to die until the world was better for 
 his having lived. 
 
 I think we shall all agree that his was a beautiful, 
 blameless and beneficent life. 
 
 Compare his life with that of Napoleon or Bismarck. 
 No remembrance of harshness, of cruelty or of innocent 
 blood spilt, disturbed his composure. If he made 
 
mistakes, it was to pardon and save the life of some 
 youthful soldier, condemned to be shot for sleeping 
 on his post. 
 
 I first met Mr. Lincoln in 1836, more than seventy 
 years ago. He was then residing at New Salem, where 
 he was deputy surveyor under Thomas Neale and post- 
 master of the village. He had served one term in the 
 legislature and was a candidate for re-election at the 
 coming August election. 
 
 At that time there was something about this un- 
 gainly and poorly clothed young man that foretold to 
 an observing man a bright future in public and politi- 
 cal life. 
 
 After dinner at the Rutledge tavern, when driving 
 on the road to Huron, where my father and Mr. N. 
 W. Edwards (afterwards a brother-in-law of Mr. Lin- 
 coln) had a store; I remember as distinctly as if it 
 occurred only yesterday, my father said to Mr. Ed- 
 wards: "Edwards, that young man Lincoln will some 
 day be Governor of Illinois." I, only a lad ten years 
 of age, thought my father was daft. I had seen at 
 Sj)ringfield two Governors of Illinois, Ninian Edwards 
 of Belleville and Joseph Duncan of Jacksonville. 
 They often came to our city, both well dressed. Each 
 came in his carriage, with fine horses and colored 
 drivers. Mr. Lincoln, up to this time, had only been a 
 captain of volunteers in the Black Hawk Indian War, 
 and one term a member of the legislature. He did 
 not then look to me like a prospective Governor, when 
 I had in my mind's eye those stately gentlemen, Ed- 
 wards and Duncan. But it seems that my father's 
 foresight was much better than his son's vision, for 
 
ill a little over twenty years this poorly clad and un- 
 known young man was the imperial ruler of a country 
 of fifty million people, commanding an army of a 
 million men — a more effective and potential army 
 than Caesar or Napoleon ever marshaled in battle array. 
 
 Of Mr. Lincoln's birth and ancestry little need be 
 said — a subject about which he was never communi- 
 cative. His early days in Hardin county were days 
 of poverty and obscurity; pathetic years of childhood, 
 which he never cared to recall and linger over as a 
 pleasant memory. Doubtless from all accounts, that 
 are laid before us, during his first seven years of life 
 in the log cabin on Nolan's creek, he was poorly clad 
 and scantily fed. After his father hioved to Spencer 
 county, Indiana, he lived in a little half-faced camp 
 for one year; the second year a log cabin took the 
 place of the camji, but it was without window, door 
 or floor for some time. 
 
 Food was abundant, game jjlenty; deer, bear, wild 
 turkey, ducks, fish in every stream, wild fruits of 
 many kinds in the summer months, and these fruits 
 were dried for winter use, potatoes about the only 
 vegetable raised and corn dodger the daily bread of 
 the Lincoln household. The supply of groceries and 
 cooking utensils were limited. His mother died in 
 1818, of the prevailing disease of that country, known 
 as the milk-sick. 
 
 In 1819, Lincoln's father went back to Kentucky, 
 and returned with a second wife, in the person of 
 widow Johnson; with her came three children. She 
 was a woman of gentleness, thrift and energy. The 
 
new wife at once made the cabin homelike, she taught 
 the children habits of of cleanliness and comfort. 
 
 The boy became very fond of nis new mother and 
 remained so all of the years of his life. After he 
 was elected President and before leaving home to be 
 sworn into office, he paid his mother a last farewell 
 visit; in speaking of her he always called her his ''an- 
 gel mother." For ten years after his father's second 
 marriage he lived at home, laboring on the farm, ex- 
 cept when his father hired him out to his neighbors 
 to hoe corn, pull fodder, harvest grain, cut wood and 
 make rails. 
 
 During these years he read more or less, eagerly; 
 reading whatever books he could get jjossession of. 
 He was hungry for books and read intently all his 
 spare time, having no taste or inclination for hunting 
 wild game. 
 
 In 1830, his restless father again moved, this time 
 to Illinois and settled in Sangamon county. Here 
 they built a log cabin and made rails sufficient to 
 fence ten acres of land. 
 
 This was the last work he did for his father. Hav- 
 ing now arrived at his majority, he left home and 
 started out in the world to shift for himself. 
 
 During the coming winter, he and his step-brother 
 John Johnson and his cousin John Hanks, hired out 
 to a trader, Denton Offutt, to take and pilot a flat- 
 boat down the Mississippi river to New Orleans 
 loaded with country j)roduce, which OflPut would 
 gather up — produce needed and marketable in the 
 Creole city of the south, butter, lard, eggs, bacon, 
 pickled pork, etc. 
 
Failing to purchase a suitable boat, Lincoln and 
 his companions built one at Sangamontown, six miles 
 northwest of this city. In floating down the Sanga- 
 mon river, the boat stuck on the dam built for Rut- 
 ledge's mill, just opposite the village of New Salem, 
 and for nearly a day it hung bow in the air, stern in 
 the water — shipwreck seemed almost certain. The 
 villagers of Salem turned out in a body to see what 
 the strangers would do to save their boat ; while the 
 sight-seers suggested and advised, a tall big fellow of 
 the crew, worked out a plan of relief and succeeded 
 in tilting his craft over the dam and proceeded on his 
 trip down the river. This was Lincoln's second trip 
 to New Orleans. There he witnessed a public sale 
 of slave negroes. A young mulatto female was 
 placed on the block; as the auctioneer was calling 
 for the highest bidder, man after man walked 
 around the block, handling the girl, as you would feel 
 the points and parts of a horse; Lincoln turned and 
 walked away, and expressed his hatred of slavery, say- 
 ing to his step-brother, "if I ever get a chance to hit 
 the system of slavery, I will hit it damned hard." 
 He kept his word — the proclamation of Emancipa- 
 tion. 
 
 There was something about the people and village 
 of Salem which fascinated Lincoln. On his return 
 from the south after a brief visit to his old home, he 
 came to Salem, settled there and spent the next seven 
 years of his early and eventful life. Here he lived 
 and loved, worked and sported, laughed and joked, 
 grew merry and serious, as the varied moods im- 
 pressed his mental disposition. Here he made fast 
 
friends and commenced his wonderful political career. 
 Here he, as clerk of the election board performed his 
 first official act. 
 
 Here he became acquainted with Green and Arm- 
 strong, Kelso and Dimcan, Alley and Carmer, Hern- 
 don and Radford, Hill and McNamara, Rutledge and 
 Berry and many other pioneers of the vicinity. 
 
 New Salem soon became to him, what Venice was 
 
 to Byron: 
 
 "A fairy city of the heart, 
 
 Of joy the sojourn, and of wealth the mart." 
 
 There were to be found the best specimens of the 
 pioneer settler; hardy, industrious, kind and courage- 
 ous men and women. As a physician of early days, I 
 knew and loved them intimately and well. I knew 
 their foibles which were superficial, and their virtues 
 which were innate and loveable. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's first permanent employment was as a 
 clerk in the store of Offutt, where he continued until 
 the spring of 1832, when the Indian war was opened, 
 by the return of Chief Black Hawk and his band to 
 re-occupy their old homes in the Rock-river country. 
 
 The Governor calling for soldiers, Lincoln volun- 
 teered and was elected captain of his company. 
 
 After the defeat of Black Hawk at the battle of Bad 
 Axe and the close of the war, he returned home, and 
 in partnership with Berry bought a store and became 
 a merchant in general country trade. He soon dis- 
 covered he was not a success as a merchant, sold out 
 his stock of goods and was appointed postmaster by 
 President VanBuren. To help out a living, he became 
 a deputy surveyor and was twice elected a member of 
 
the Legislature; also read law and appeared before 
 justices of the peace in legal suits. Was licensed to 
 practice law. 
 
 In the spring of 1837 he moved to Springfield, com- 
 menced his enlarged life as a lawyer, and entered into 
 partnership with Major John T. Stuart. Here he had 
 to meet and contend at the bar with the brightest and 
 ablest lawyers of the state, such as Logan, Baker, 
 Trumbull, Hardin, Purple and Douglas. And it is 
 not going too far to say that he held his own before 
 judge and jury with the best legal talent of the state. 
 
 To show his care of trust money, I would state that 
 after he had moved to our city, Mr. James Brown, the 
 traveling postoffice agent, came into Robert Irwin's 
 store and inquired where he could find Mr. Lincoln, 
 former postmaster at New Salem, that he wished to 
 collect the money of the United States still in his 
 possession. William Butler being present said, "Mr. 
 Brown, I will see Mr. Lincoln at my house at dinner; 
 he will call on you at the hotel and pay you." At 
 dinner Mr. Butler told him what Mr. Brown's business 
 was. Thinking Mr. Lincoln might not have the 
 money to settle his postoffice collections, Butler said: 
 '•I will let you have the money to settle up your post- 
 office account." Lincoln replied, "I thank you very 
 much, but I have all the money in my trunk which 
 belongs to the government." The identical silver, 
 quarters and twelve and a half cent pieces were safely 
 put away in an old sock in his trunk, ready any day 
 for immediate settlement of his official account. If 
 every man handling government money was as care- 
 ful, there would be no defalcations. 
 
 Mrs. Dallman, wife of ex-Alderman Dallman, loves 
 
 10 
 
to tell how kind both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln were to 
 her years ago when she lived in her small home just 
 across the street from them. It was when little Thomas 
 Lincoln was a nursing child; she was very sick, had 
 no help and an infant girl to care for. She says Mrs. 
 Lincoln often nursed her little child, and Mr. Lincoln 
 rocked the cradle until her child was happily asleep. 
 
 There was not a particle of avarice in our subject's 
 mental make-up. Greediness of wealth was absolutely 
 foreign to his nature. . He wanted money sufficient to 
 pay ordinary living expenses of his household, but he 
 cared not for gold just to possess and handle. 
 
 To illustrate this statement 1 will relate a little story 
 of our college society of Illinois College and his con- 
 nection with said society. It was customary prior to 
 the civil war, for the literary society to give a series 
 of lectures, the profits from which were expended to 
 purchase books for the library. Mr. Lincoln was en- 
 gaged to deliver one of the lectures. After the lecture 
 was over and the audience left, he recognized the fact 
 that the attendance was not large and therefore the 
 receipts at the door must be limited. Mr. Lincoln 
 with a kind smile said to the president of the society, 
 "I have not made much money for you tonight.'" In 
 reply the financial officer said: "When we pay for 
 rent of the hall, music and advertising, and your com- 
 pensation, there will not be much left to buy books 
 for the library." "Well, boys, be hopeful, pay me my 
 railroad fare and fifty cents for my supper at the hotel 
 and we are square."" That was our subject's kindness 
 and liberality all over; yet at that day he was not 
 burdened with cash and could have found good use 
 
 11 
 
for a few extra dollars. He thought the poor society 
 needed the money more than he did. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, after his arrival in our city, boarded 
 at the home of Mr. Butler, the second house west of 
 my father's home. I often observed him as he passed 
 to and fro from his meals to his office. He usually 
 walked alone, his head inclined as if he was absorbed 
 in deep thought, unmindful of surrounding objects 
 and persons. Though he had his wonderful gift of 
 humor, I venture to assert that in the long run of 
 years life was to him serious and earnest. 
 
 He once said to Joshua Speed, his close friend: 
 •'Speed, when I am dead, I wish my friends to remem- 
 ber that I always pluck a thorn and plant a rose when 
 in my power." He roomed with Speed over his store 
 on the west side of the public square. 
 
 If asked what in my opinion, were the marked quali- 
 ties of his mental organization,orinother words, what 
 were the salient traits of his character, I would reply, 
 his kindness and patience, integrity, humor, patriotism 
 and ambition, and his moral and physical courage. 
 
 His integrity is proved by all his acts, private, pub- 
 lic and official. He never betrayed a cause or party, 
 friend or the people. His kindness and humanity 
 were innate, he was always considerate of man, beast 
 or bird. He was ambitious, seeking position, ex- 
 pecting to benefit his country. 
 
 His moral courage was potent and sublime, as often 
 shown in the Legislature of Illinois, Congress of the 
 United States, and in his wise and efficient administra- 
 tion of the Federal Government, in the most critical 
 days of the civil war. 
 
 12 
 
His love of liberty, justice and right was visible and 
 manifest to all, in every purpose and act during his 
 entire life. During the long and dreary days of the 
 war, his patience and kindly heart, won the admira- 
 tion of all his countrymen. By his decision of char- 
 acter and avowal of his convictions of a slaveholder's 
 right to hold a slave in the territories of the Union, 
 he lost a senatorial race in 1858, only to win the 
 Presidency in 1860. 
 
 I venture to sa,y that no man was less elated by 
 prosperity, or depressed by adversity. He was so 
 mentally balanced, that he could calmly share the 
 triumph or endure defeat. 
 
 Probably, it is not going too far, when I state my 
 opinion that the law was not his first love; that he 
 adopted the profession of law, as a means of a liveli- 
 hood, and yet more likely he adopted the law as the 
 most direct road to increase his prospects for pro- 
 motion in his political career. I think he always felt 
 much more interested in, and loved to discuss political 
 and public issues and affairs of state, than he did pure 
 legal suits about business and dollars, between man 
 and man. 
 
 He was anti-slavery in heart and head, had intense 
 feelings on this question, and the grievous wrong of 
 slavery aroused his kind nature, to earnest opposition 
 to its spread and extension into new territory. He 
 could consent to abide its existence in the States, 
 where the constitution of the States protected the sys- 
 tem, but from his early manhood, like Henry Clay, he 
 hoped for its ultimate extinction, either by coloniza- 
 
 1.3 
 
tion to Africa, or by money compensation to the slave- 
 holder. 
 
 Members of the Springfield bar, the Judges of our 
 State courts and United States courts, all coincide in 
 the opinion, that Mr. Lincoln was a very able and per- 
 suasive lawyer before a jury when he was on the right 
 side of a case, and a very poor lawyer when his client 
 was in the wrong. 
 
 There was in him that innate sense of justice which 
 disabled him when on the wrong side. He could not 
 successfully attempt to make black white. 
 
 He has been known to refuse his legal service, when 
 satisfied that his applicant had the wrong side of the 
 case. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's language and style was Anglo-Saxon, 
 he was not a classical scholar, his words were English 
 pure and clear. He had great power of condensation, 
 used no unnecessary words. The common people 
 understood his arguments. 
 
 He summed up the doctrine of squatter sovereignty 
 advocated by Douglas in the Kansas-Nebraska issue, 
 in these few words "that if a man choose to enslave 
 another, no third man shall be allowed to object." 
 
 You may read many different lives of him, but you 
 will find little said of him as a lawyer. 
 
 His enduring fame belongs to him, as an anti- 
 slavery debater, a pure-minded and far-sighted state- 
 man, a ruler of men. The wonderful contrast in his 
 first and last years, best illustrates the possibilities of 
 American citizenship. The poor boy who could scar- 
 cely reach the lowest round of the ladder, as am an in 
 
 14 
 
only middle life, stood upon the top most round, then 
 by his tragic death, passed up to the sky. 
 
 Whenever Mrs. Hill of New Salem heard any re- 
 marks about Lincoln and Ann Riitledge, she woxild 
 tell of her recollections of a quilting bee at Salem. 
 Lincoln was sitting next to Ann, as the girl was in- 
 dustriously using her needle, Abraham was softly 
 whisijering in her ear, and Mrs. Hill was wont to say, 
 that she noticed the rose color flushed in the cheek of 
 Ann — her heart throbbed quicker and her soul thrilled 
 with a joy as old as the world itself. 
 
 Upon the same subject, I will relate what Isaac 
 Cogdal tells of his interview with Lincoln. In De- 
 cember, after his election as president, Cogdal called 
 to see him. He requested his old friend from Salem 
 to wait until his callers from a distance went to their 
 hotels, so that he might inquire about his old friends 
 in Menard county. All visitors having retired, they 
 both drew their chairs close to the fire. There in the 
 quiet twilight Lincoln inquired after his old Salem 
 friends, their sons and daughters, when and whom 
 they had married and how they had prospered. When 
 he had told Lincoln all, he said, "Mr. Lincoln, I 
 would like to ask you one question." He promptly 
 replied, "Well, Isaac, if it is a fair question, I will 
 answer it." "What is the truth about you and Ann 
 Rutledge?" "Isaac, I dearly loved the girl, and I 
 never to this day hear the name Rutledge called with- 
 out fond memories of those long past days." 
 
 He was modest, rather retiring than pushing him- 
 self forward in society, never sought to be conspicuous. 
 
 Even after his great debate with Douglas and after 
 
 15 
 
he had been nominated for president by a great party, 
 he was disinclined to notoriety. When Mr. Scripps of 
 the Chicago Tribune came to Springfield to visit him 
 and gather from him the materials for a campaign 
 biography, he hesitated whether to aid the publica- 
 tion. He said to Mr. Scripps, "there is no romance, 
 nothing heroic in my early life, the story of my life 
 can be condensed into one line, and that line you can 
 find in Gray's Elegy." "The short and simple annals 
 of the poor." "This is all you or any one can make 
 out of me or my early life." What pathos — recalling 
 early days of childhood — years of penury and want ! 
 
 I witnessed the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, on the 
 5th of March 1861 . The first three days of March 
 were quite warm. Sunday March 3rd was a delightful 
 spring day, the soft mild breeze from the south, which 
 came up to Washington city to mark the quiet Sab- 
 bath as the last day of James Buchanan in the White 
 House and his loosening hold on the reins of the Fed- 
 eral Union, was springlike and filled with fragrance 
 from the land of the orange and magnolia. 
 
 After a crimson sunset, the wind seemed to rise 
 and came in fitful gusts, quick and sharp as the even- 
 ing advanced; during the evening of Sunday, the wind 
 shifted to the west, and on the morning of the 4th the 
 sky was over cast with clouds, and the wind came from 
 the north. By ten o'clock the temperature had fallen 
 80 degrees, but notwithstanding the frosty, biting air, 
 Pennsylvania avenue was crowded with a mass of 
 moving humanity. The liberty loving people had 
 come from New England, from the great central states, 
 
 16 
 
from the far off west, from the valley of the Ohio and 
 Mississippi. 
 
 They had come 100,000 strong, not to witness the 
 pomp and ceremony of the crowning of a king, but 
 the simplicity of the inauguration of the chosen ruler 
 of a free rei3ublic. 
 
 In the presence of the assembled citizens, Abraham 
 Lincoln, with Stephen A. Douglas and Edward Baker 
 on either side, with head bare and hand uplifted, was 
 sworn to support, maintain and defend the constitu- 
 tion of the United States. 
 
 So long as liberty remains; so long as Christianity 
 and civilization are the legacy of the race, will history 
 record how faithfully that sacred vow was fulfilled. 
 
 That cold bleak day fitly illustrated, the stormy 
 and tempestuous path which he was compelled to 
 to walk, that uneven, perilous road, he trod cautiously, 
 waril}^ yet with calmness and fortitude, determined to 
 preserve the union of the states. The dark and peril- 
 ous days of storm and battle were foreshadowed in the 
 forbidding weather of that inauguration day. The 
 very air was portentous. The rising murmurs of dis- 
 content, came up angrily on every breeze wafted 
 from Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas. These 
 murmurings and threatenings, were the prelude to the 
 crimson tempest through which Lincoln finally passed 
 in triumph, but at what a cost of men and treasure! 
 
 Not until Grant had overwhelmed the south with a 
 million of armed men; not until the tramp, tramp of 
 Sherman's army had been heard and felt in the very 
 heart of the Confederacy. 
 
 Those days have gone, never to return. 
 
 n 
 
The competition of the sections will be in the future, 
 in the line of education, the industries and achieve- 
 ments in the arts of peace, which will make the 
 republic of Washington foremost of the nations of the 
 earth as a great, free, enlightened and prosperous 
 country. 
 
 Probably, each of the ladies here assembled, can 
 testify for themselves and the world about them, how 
 they enjoy the little stories relating to the domestic 
 affairs of any family of prominence. The concerns of 
 the Lincoln household are no exception. Right here 
 let me say that much of fiction has been interwoven 
 by historians and papers in tracing and relating little 
 incidents which are reported to have occurred in that 
 home. 
 
 I am not prepared to say that that home was an 
 ideal home, but I do say, without hesitation, that it 
 was a happy home. 
 
 The husband was kind and considerate; the wife 
 bright, impulsive, educated, cultured, industrious and 
 loveable, a good wife and fond mother. 
 
 This much I desire to say, on his birthday, in the 
 Lincoln home, where many of us, his and her life-long 
 friends have partaken of their hospitality, and know 
 whereof we speak. 
 
 Lincoln was a man of peace ; he never sought a con- 
 troversy or quarrel; he never retreated under fire. 
 
 As a whig and as a republican, he did not always 
 agree with all the policies of his party, and he did 
 submit often to some measures which he did not ap- 
 prove. But on any vital question, where a principle 
 was involved, the question of slavery and the civil 
 
 18 
 
rights of man, he was immovable, constant and stead- 
 fast. 
 
 His religious views and opinions have been dis. 
 cussed again and again. I believe that Mr. Lincoln 
 was by nature a deeply religious man. But I have 
 seen no evidence that he ever accepted the formulated 
 creed of any sect or denomination. I should say that 
 all churches had his respect and good wishes. 
 
 What would have been the history of reconstruc- 
 tion, had Mr. Lincoln survived to serve through his 
 second term we cannot tell; but it has often occurred 
 to me that the country, and especially the republican 
 party, would have escaped much of the humiliation 
 and disgrace heaped upon it by the conduct and i^olit- 
 ical management of the northern carpet-baggers, who, 
 through the support of the ignorant blacks of the 
 south, desjooiled and dominated the political control 
 of the offices, state and federal, of many southern 
 states. The kind and firm hand of Lincoln would 
 never have i3ermitted this blot of carpet-baggism upon 
 the fair fame of our reconstruction of the states. 
 
 In the heart of that noblest of men there was no 
 hatred of any man or section of his country; there 
 dwelt sweet peace and sublime humanity. 
 
 The restoration of the Union he lived for and died 
 for. In the love and reverence of his countrymen 
 through all coming time, he stands side by side with 
 George Washington. 
 
 Much of interest could be related of those long and 
 dreary years of the rebellion — of Lincoln's masterly 
 ability, tact and wariness as a ruler of men, in hold- 
 ing in harmony for the prosecution of war and the 
 
 19 
 
union of the States, many diverse elements which 
 were to be found in eastern, western and border 
 states, but his conduct and management of affairs, 
 civil and military, has been told and retold and is 
 known to all. 
 
 The closing scene of his life is too cruel to dwell 
 upon. With the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, 
 just as a benign peace smiled upon a reunited country 
 and alluring prospects of prosperity, tranquility and 
 contentment were spread out before his delighted 
 vision, and his evening of life promised to be blest 
 with the love and reverence of a grateful people — 
 darkness and death came. In an instant, his brain 
 was paralyzed by the bullet of the assassin; uncon- 
 scious he passed from life to death; thus ful- 
 filling, fancy, vision or foreboding, which came 
 to him years before. In the deepning twilight, 
 when reclining for repose, on his couch in his own 
 home, he was musing in silence and sadness on the 
 past, present and future, he beheld on the mirror of 
 of his room two contrasting views of his own features, 
 one in the vigor of health, one wearing the paleness 
 of death. This vision disturbed him — he spoke to 
 his wife about it, and seemed to regard it as an ill 
 omen, which portended and forshadowed misfortune. 
 Probably in a brief time this depressing incident 
 vanished from his mind. Strange and mysterious are 
 the ways of Providence. We can but submit to the 
 supreme will of that infinite intelligence, which made 
 and governs the universe. 
 
 Illinois called for her dead son ; silently, yet in tri- 
 umph the body of Lincoln was borne through cities 
 
 20 
 
and States, all draped in emblems of woe. His pallid 
 face, worn with deep lines of care and anxiety, was 
 looked upon by tens of thousands. 
 
 Home was reached. The casket was placed in the 
 great Hall of the Capitol, so often the silent witness 
 of his intellectual combats and triumphs. 
 
 Men, women and children came from all the sur- 
 rounding country. The old and young bowed in sor- 
 row and anguish, by day and by night pressed close 
 around that coffin and gazed for the last time upon 
 the well marked and familiar features of that kind 
 face. That heart which had always throbbed "in 
 charity for all. and malice to none," was now stilled 
 in death. 
 
 There is little doubt as to the place, which will be 
 assigned the war President, in the final judgment of 
 mankind. Let us believe, nor is the belief in vain, 
 that the pitiless and impartial historian, when he has 
 measured and weighed and analyzed, the great his- 
 toric characters of nations, will deliberately pro- 
 nounce that among the marked rulers of men, he was 
 not surpassed by any statesman of the modern world. 
 
 All that is physical and mortal, now reposes in 
 quiet. Oak Ridge, in that crypt of Fame, beneath 
 stately monument of granite, erected by a grateful 
 state. 
 
 The thought, intellect and spiritual, of that heart 
 and soul survives in the unknown beyond, and lives 
 on with the ages. 
 
 In the world's pantheon of heroes and martyrs, there 
 will be graven by a cunning hand the name Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 21 
 
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