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portrait Me of Lincoln 
 
Bortratt Htf e of Lincoln 
 
 Life of Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest American, told from Orim- 
 
 o 
 
 nal Photographs taken with His Authority during the Great 
 Crisis through which He Led His Country Treasured 
 among the 7000 Secret Service War Negatives in 
 the Brady-Gardner Collection at Spring 
 field, Massachusetts, and in Private 
 Collections, valued at $150,000 
 
 Collected by 
 Edward Bailey Eaton 
 
 Founder and Editor-in-Chief of " The Journal of American History " 
 
 Author of " The Photographic History of the Civil War " 
 
 Author of "American Hero Tales" Editor of the Search-Light Library 
 
 Member of The American Historical Association 
 
 Fellow of The American Geographical Society 
 Member of The American Statistical Association 
 
 Member of The National Geographic Society 
 Member of The American Academy of Political and Social Science 
 
 Anno Domini SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS M c m x 
 
 TOfje patriot ^Publtsrtntts Company 
 
 NEW YORK, 439 Lafayette Street Marquette Building, CHICAGO 
 
 Trade Supplied by The Orange Judd Company of New York 
 
.18 
 
 Copyright, 1910, by 
 
 PATRIOT PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 Press of the 
 Springfield Printing and Binding Company 
 
OREWORD 
 
 is with pleasure that this volume is presented to the American 
 people as a direct and original contribution to our national litera- 
 ture. As a collection of the famous portraits of Lincoln, taken 
 from the greatest collections in the world and valued at more than 
 $150,000, it alone would claim distinction. This is the first collec 
 tion of all the known original photographs of Lincoln and represents years 
 of research by the most eminent American collectors. 
 
 It is, however, upon its graphic literary treatment that this volume 
 must take its position as one of the most important books of the times. It 
 is a book with a mission and that mission is to revive in the homes of 
 America the true spirit of Lincoln ; that man of rugged honesty who said 
 that " God must have loved the common people or he would not have made 
 so many of them;" the man who "knew what it meant to start at the 
 bottom and work to the top ; " the man who " met misfortune face to face 
 and overcame it with the might of manhood." Its psychological insight 
 into human nature; its philosophical grasp on life and its opportunities; 
 its appeal to the American heart and conscience, with its vigorous applica 
 tion of the principles of Lincoln to everyday life, inspire one with new 
 courage and new ambition. 
 
 Lincoln lives again in the pages of this volume, through the portraits 
 and the word paintings that are masterpieces of literary art. It has been 
 the desire of the publishers to make it a new American classic in which the 
 generations may look upon Lincoln in the most dramatic situations in his 
 life, feeling the impulse of a great heart and the inspiration of an indomit 
 able will and resolute purpose. 
 
 More books have been written about Lincoln than any other man in 
 the world s history, but this is the first time that he has been brought before 
 the people in the actual negatives for which he sat during his life and in text 
 pictures in which he again moves among us. It has been the purpose of 
 the publishers to present, in the fewest possible pages, a full acquaintance 
 with Lincoln and an understanding of what such a man means to the world 
 of humanity. It has further been desired to make this a complete unfold 
 ing of the vital events in his life. This has been accomplished by an 
 interesting chronology in which the whole panorama of the growth of the 
 nation, during the life of Lincoln, is presented. The volume further 
 includes the nine great speeches upon which Lincoln rose to the highest 
 political honor within the gift of the American people. These, with a record 
 of the celebrated Lincoln Collections in America, and the hundred greatest 
 books on Lincoln, fulfill its title as the "Portrait Life of Lincoln," and give 
 it immediate position as the first authoritative handbook on Lincoln. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERS 
 
 226733 
 
G O N T E N 
 
 PART I 
 
 An Epigrammatic Philosophy on Life and Its Opportunities Drawn from 
 the Early Experiences of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 THE ROAD TO GREATNESS 3 
 
 THE FULLNESS OF LIFE AND OPPORTUNITY BIRTH 4 
 
 THE JOYS AND SORROWS OF LIVING CHILDHOOD 5 
 
 THE UNFOLDING OF KNOWLEDGE SCHOOL DAYS 6 
 
 THE REVELATION OF LIFE S SECRETS BOYHOOD 7 
 
 THE THRILL OF AMBITION YOUTH 8 
 
 THE DISCOVERY OF POWER CITIZENSHIP 9 
 
 THE COURAGE OF CONVICTION MANHOOD. . 10 
 
 PART II 
 
 A Photographic Narrative Which Interprets the Character and Life of 
 Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest American 
 
 THE FOUNDATION OF LINCOLN S CHARACTER 12 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF LOVE ON LINCOLN S LIFE 14 
 
 THE POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF LINCOLN 16 
 
 THE IMPULSE THAT HELD LINCOLN STEADFAST 18 
 
 THE RUGGED HONESTY OF LINCOLN S HEART 20 
 
 THE MAN WHO FIRST MADE LINCOLN KNOWN 22 
 
 THE CHALLENGE THAT TESTED LINCOLN S STRENGTH 24 
 
 THE DEFEAT THAT MADE LINCOLN FAMOUS 26 
 
 THE APPEAL OF HUMANITY THAT LINCOLN HEARD 28 
 
 THE FIRST TEST OF LINCOLN S NATIONAL GREATNESS 30 
 
 THE INSPIRATION OF LINCOLN S PATRIOTISM 32 
 
 THE GATHERING OF HUMANITY UNDER LINCOLN 34 
 
 THE BURDEN OF A NATION ON LINCOLN S HEART 36 
 
 THE AFFECTION OF LINCOLN FOR His HOME 38 
 
 THE WILLINGNESS OF LINCOLN TO GIVE His LIFE 42 
 
 THE FORTITUDE OF LINCOLN IN HOUR OF TRIAL 44 
 
 THE CRUMBLING NATION IN LINCOLN S ARMS 46 
 
 THE DETERMINED WILL OF LINCOLN AMONG MEN 48 
 
 THE TRUE TEST OF LINCOLN S STATESMANSHIP 50 
 
 THE STRENGTH OF LINCOLN IN A NATION S PERIL 52 
 
 THE FAITH OF LINCOLN IN THE COMMON PEOPLE . . ; 54 
 
 THE ABILITY OF LINCOLN TO OVERCOME DEFEAT. . 56 
 
 THE HOPEFULNESS OF LINCOLN IN MISFORTUNE 58 
 
 THE MIGHT OF LINCOLN IN His COUNTRY S CRISIS 64 
 
 THE HAND OF LINCOLN ON THE CHAIN OF BONDAGE 66 
 
 THE GREATEST SACRIFICE OF LINCOLN S LIFE 68 
 
 THE POWER OF LINCOLN TO CONQUER HIMSELF ... 70 
 
 THE HUMILITY OF LINCOLN IN HOUR OF VICTORY ... 72 
 
 THE SYMPATHY OF LINCOLN FOR THE UNFORTUNATE 76 
 
 THE WORTH OF A MAN IN LINCOLN S JUDGMENT 78 
 
G O N T E N 
 
 THE LOYALTY OF LINCOLN TO His LIFE WORK 80 
 
 THE INSIGHT OF LINCOLN INTO HUMAN NATURE 84 
 
 THE HEART OF LINCOLN THAT KNEW No MALICE 86 
 
 THE FATHERHOOD OF LINCOLN AMONG THE LOWLY 88 
 
 THE MAGNANIMITY OF THE SPIRIT OF LINCOLN 90 
 
 THE VICTORY OF LINCOLN A RE-UNITED PEOPLE 92 
 
 THE VEIL OF SORROW OVER AN EXULTANT NATION 94 
 
 PART III 
 
 A Revelation of the Last Scenes in the Closing Hours of Lincoln from 
 Actual Photographs Taken at the Time 
 
 THE LAST LINGERING MOMENTS OF A NOBLE LIFE 96 
 
 THE MAGNIFICENCE OF LIFE S LAST TRIUMPH 98 
 
 THE INFAMY OF A DEED THAT ROBBED A NATION 100 
 
 THE GLORY OF A MAN WHO LOVES His FELLOWMEN 106 
 
 PART IV 
 
 The Great Speeches that Mark the Rise of Abraham Lincoln as 
 an Orator and Leader of the People 
 
 THE FIRST PUBLIC SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 112 
 
 THE FIRST GREAT PATRIOTIC SPEECH OF LINCOLN 113 
 
 THE FIRST GREAT NATIONAL SPEECH OF LINCOLN 119 
 
 THE SPEECHES IN LINCOLN S POLITICAL GREATNESS 132 
 
 THE SPEECH THAT MOLDED A NATION S FUTURE 133 
 
 THE GREATEST SPEECH IN AMERICAN HISTORY 139 
 
 THE LAST PUBLIC SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 141 
 
 THE WORDS OF WISDOM FROM LINCOLN S PHILOSOPHY 144 
 
 PART V 
 
 A Chronology of the Historic Events in the Growth of the American 
 Nation from the Birth to the Death of Lincoln 
 
 THE CHRONOLOGY OF THE LIFE OF LINCOLN . . 145 
 
 PART VI 
 
 A Handbook of the Famous Photographic Portraits of Abraham Lincoln 
 Treasured in the Great American Collections 
 
 THE FAMOUS PORTRAITS OF LINCOLN WITH COMPLETE INDEX TO ALL PHOTOGRAPHS 
 
 REPRODUCED IN THIS VOLUME 155 
 
 THE BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN THE HUNDRED GREATEST BOOKS ON His 
 
 LIFE 161 
 
 THE GREATEST POEM ON LINCOLN O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! BY WALT WHITMAN . 164 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 S an American, who loves his country and his people, I believed 
 that I knew Lincoln. Throughout my life I have read the anec 
 dotes and biographies that make him familiar to the generations, 
 but it was not until I looked upon his portraits that I began to 
 understand the real character of the man. It was then, as Bart- 
 lett, the sculptor, has said, that I looked into a face in which is written 
 the history of a nation and the hopes of its people the face of democracy. 
 There is always something about an old photograph that is intensely 
 human. In it still lives one who has been long absent; the expression on 
 the face, the light in the eyes, the kindness and the firmness of the mouth. 
 One can almost feel the heart that beat beneath it. So it was that, in 
 these photographs, I found the living Lincoln. My acquaintance with him 
 before had been only through the various estimates of his character. 
 I believe that there are more than two thousand of them, including many 
 masterly biographies, in which one listens to the men who knew him and 
 hears reminiscences of his drollery and wit. 
 
 But it is in these time-stained photographs that the man comes back 
 to us. About them gather all the events of his life. Look at that familiar 
 picture of the old log cabin where he was born. In your imagination you 
 can see the great forests, and the sunshine in the trees; you can see the 
 little creeping figure before the door; it is a baby; it laughs and cries. 
 Look, look again; now it is a boy; he runs and jumps and shouts; he is 
 standing at the opening of the woods; he is shielding his eyes with his 
 hands and looking this way; he is calling to us; he is waving his arms; 
 he is coming down the forest path, under the great trees, nearer and nearer. 
 Look again he stands right before us; he is a man! 
 
 And now, taking up his first photograph, look into the youthful face 
 filled with hope and courage. In it you can see the storms that are gather 
 ing about his life. One by one these old portraits unfold the life story of 
 the man who gave his personality to them they are all that remain of the 
 physical Lincoln. 
 
 Sit down with me and turn these pages in reverie. In your mind s 
 eye you can see the gaunt figure in the law office; you sit with him as he 
 pores over his books during that long, weary period of a lawyer s life- 
 waiting for clients; you fight with him as a captain in the Black Hawk 
 War; you take your letters to him as the village postmaster; you cast your 
 ballot for him as a member of the state legislature; you see him take his 
 first stand against slavery. Now you are listening to his convincing oratory 
 against the great Douglas for the senate; those ringing words are dropping 
 from his lips: "You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some 
 of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of 
 the time." 
 
 In this reverie over these old portraits you can hear the cheering; he 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 is being nominated for the presidency. You are standing beside him as 
 he receives the news that he has been elected to the highest political honor 
 in the gift of mankind the leadership of the American people; you listen 
 to his farewell speech to his friends at Springfield; you go with him to 
 Washington and sit with him in the White House; you hear the news of 
 the first shot at Fort Sumter; you hear the clank of the cavalry and the 
 tramp of regiments of marching men offering their lives on the altar of 
 civilization; you sit silent with him in the gloom of defeat; you catch the 
 gleam of light in the din of victory; you gaze bewildered upon him as he 
 issues the Emancipation Proclamation. Now you are going with him to 
 Antietam, to Gettysburg, to Richmond; you are standing beside him as 
 he hears the news of the surrender at Appomattox. The soldiers are 
 passing through the streets of Washington on their homeward march, and 
 your foot beats time to the strains of the "Star Spangled Banner" and 
 "Dixie." 
 
 The pages are now nearly turned. The last portrait is before you. 
 A shot rings in your ears; a figure falls prostrate to the floor; you linger 
 by his bedside through the long hours; Seward is whispering: "Now he 
 belongs to the ages/ You stand over the bier and look upon the kindly 
 face that you have learned to love; you heap his grave with flowers. This 
 is the "Portrait Life of Lincoln." 
 
 In simple words I have endeavored to gather about these old por 
 traits the scenes in which the living Lincoln stood at the time that the 
 photographs were taken. I have neither the desire nor the ability to make 
 this volume a biography of Lincoln nor a history of the times in which 
 he lived. It is but a series of word-pictures and life-portraits in which 
 you may look upon Lincoln and come to your own conclusion regarding 
 his strength of character and his greatness as a man. 
 
 It has seemed to me, after looking upon them, that in this man we 
 find the strongest character that American civilization has produced. 
 I know no other man in American history who has been called upon to 
 meet such overwhelming obstacles and who has overcome thorn with 
 truer courage, finer fortitude, and greater self-sacrifice. This is the man 
 who led his people through the greatest crisis that the American Nation 
 has known. I believe that when one considers that the United States 
 exist today largely through the faith and hope and indomitable will of 
 this man, he may justly be entitled "The Greatest American." 
 
 It is not my privilege, however, to fix the historical position of Lincoln. 
 I shall be satisfied if my humble service is but to bring the generations into 
 personal acquaintance with him, for it is in his character that they will find 
 the whole secret of the power of common manhood. The strength with 
 which he faced the problems of life is an inspiration to all men; it is the 
 hope of the future; the convincing proof of the ability of the common man 
 
INTRODUCTORY 
 
 to rise above his surroundings and make his way in the world through 
 the courage of his convictions. It is the very simplicity of Lincoln as a 
 man that brings him so close to us. He is the most companionable of men. 
 In him you find many of your own characteristics the common qualities 
 of human nature. To know Lincoln is to know yourself. He is the com 
 mon heritage of the American people. 
 
 In these introductory words I desire to express my appreciation to 
 those who have assisted in giving me a clear understanding of the man 
 whose portraits are here presented in photograph and text. I am espe 
 cially indebted to Honorable Robert Todd Lincoln, of Chicago, Illinois, 
 who has advised me regarding the sources for original investigation, and 
 to Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton, of Hartford, Connecticut, who, in his untiring 
 historical research, has collected these photographs and has collaborated 
 with me in preparing "The Portrait Life of Lincoln/ 
 
 I further desire to give credit to the collectors who have rendered 
 assistance. The Frederick H. Meserve Collection of Americana, in New 
 York, and the Fay Collection of photographs of historic personages, in 
 Illinois, are among the most valuable collections in America. The Oldroyd 
 Lincoln Memorial Collection, which now occupies the Jiistoric house in 
 which Lincoln died, at Washington, is a shrine that should be visited by 
 every American. Among its treasures are nearly twenty thousand exhibits 
 relating to the life of the great American. The Lambert Collection, in 
 Philadelphia, is the work of one of the leading authorities on Lincoln- 
 iana. Many original negatives are treasured in the Handy and the Rice 
 Collections in Washington. 
 
 The largest collection of original Civil War negatives is the famous 
 Brady-Gardner Collection, in Springfield, Massachusetts, which contains 
 more than seven thousand negatives taken under the protection of the 
 Secret Service during the American Crisis. The only other collection of 
 its magnitude is deposited in the War Department at Washington, where 
 it is held as official documentary evidence of this great epoch in American 
 history. In these collections can be found practically everything pertain 
 ing to the life and character of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The author takes pleasure in commending these collections to the 
 American people and acknowledging the valuable services extended by all 
 who have co-operated in preparing this volume, which we trust may bring 
 the generations closer to the heart and ideals of the world s greatest apostle 
 of common manhood Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 FRANCIS TREVELYAN MILLER 
 
 "Buena Vista " 
 Hart/ordy Connecticut 
 
Dedicated to the United States of America, the only land 
 
 on earth where a man can rise from a cabin to the 
 
 palace within the hearts of a Great People 
 

The Portrait Life of Lincoln 
 
 PART I 
 
 An Epigrammatic Philosophy on Life and 
 
 Its Opportunities drawn from 
 
 the Early Experiences of 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
The Life-Mask of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 This bronze doth keep the very form and mold 
 
 Of our great martyr s face. Yes, this is he; 
 That brow all wisdom, all benignity; 
 
 That human, humorous mouth; those cheeks that hold 
 
 Like some harsh landscape all the summer s gold; 
 That spirit fit for sorrow, as the sea 
 For storms to beat on; the lone agony 
 
 Those silent, patient lips too well foretold. 
 
 Yes, this is he who ruled a world of men 
 
 As might some prophet of the elder day 
 Brooding above the tempest and the fray 
 
 With deep-eyed thought and more than mortal ken. 
 A power was his beyond the touch of art 
 Or armed strength his pure and mighty heart. 
 
 From poems of Richard Watson Gilder. 
 
THE ROAD TO GREATNESS 
 
 Philosophy of the Life of Lincoln 
 
 Greatest Man in the World is not the man who accumulates 
 the most money or the most power; it is not the man who takes 
 the most out of life; it is the man who gives the most to life. 
 The world is a great harvest-house of man s bounteous industry. 
 Death garners the crops which he has sown. His true riches are estimated, 
 not by that which he leaves to his sons, but by that which he leaves to his 
 fellow-men as a heritage for the generations to come. 
 
 Life is a journey between the starting point of Decision and the far 
 away mountain heights of Ambition. The path is long and tortuous. It 
 leads down through the dark and dismal swamps of Indecision, and over the 
 rough and stony hills of Disappointment. There loom in the pathway the 
 jagged cliffs of Discouragement that seem almost impossible to climb. 
 Below them is the deep abyss of Lost Hope. Thete are crossroads of 
 Temptation; and rivers of Sorrow to ford. 
 
 It takes a strong man to make the journey; one who knows the forests, 
 who has been hardened to the storms; who knows Nature because he has 
 lived close to its heart. It is the rugged country boy, with his face tanned 
 by the winds, his muscles strengthened by hard labor, and his heart full of 
 sunshine and cheerfulness as its own beacon light, that makes the most 
 courageous journeyman. It needs one whose will has been beaten into 
 steel on the forge of life; one who knows the sweet peace of the rest that 
 follows fatigue and suffering; one who has no fear because he has many 
 times met danger face to face and overcome it. He knows that just 
 beyond the gloomy clouds the golden light of life still shines; he knows 
 the truth of the old adage, that it is darkest just before the dawn. 
 
 The abyss of Time holds the millions that have been too weak for 
 the journey; those who wandered in the glamour of luxury and ease only 
 to be lost. Far beyond, on the pinnacles that pierce the sky, where the 
 glorious sun casts a halo about them, are the strong who have gained the 
 heights and live forever in the sublime light of Immortality. Among them 
 are many who were without worldly possessions and were counted poor on 
 earth. Few, indeed, are there who were rich and powerful. Not one is 
 among them who purchased his way with tributes of gold and silver. 
 
 Courage, Fortitude, Sacrifice, Sympathy, Love these are the price of 
 Immortal Greatness; they lie in the heart of man. 
 
THE FULLNESS OF LIFE AND OPPORTUNITY BIRTH 
 
 3T ts with this measure of a man that we look upon the American 
 boy who journeyed from the humblest log home, along the road of 
 life, to an everlasting abiding-place in the heart of humanity; who 
 overcame the greatest obstacles that can beset man; who carried on 
 his shoulders a burden that weighed down the world. 
 
 There is not one who reads these lines who was born in humbler 
 circumstances than Abraham Lincoln; not one whose opportunities in life 
 are so limited as those which surrounded him; and yet he became one of 
 the greatest of men. His life proves to all generations the power of an 
 indomitable will and a resolute purpose; that man, when he conquers him 
 self, can conquer the world. 
 
 Do you remember that old homestead where you were born ? It was 
 a mansion compared with that rough log cabin in the Kentucky wilderness 
 where Abraham Lincoln began life on that cold winter day on the twelfth 
 of February, in 1809. 
 
 Do you remember the dear old village where you spent your child 
 hood days; its long country roads, shaded with towering maples and elms, 
 along which you romped and shouted and played on your way to school 
 those good old days in the country ? It was a great world of light and 
 laughter, of pleasure and friendship, of wonderful opportunities, compared 
 with that forest home of Abraham Lincoln where only the growl of the 
 bear echoed along the trail, where the ring of the ax was the only sound 
 of civilization, and desolation and poverty were his only friends and they 
 were staunch friends. 
 
 Every American is rich today in comparison with the worldly posses 
 sions of Abraham Lincoln during his childhood, his youth, and his early 
 manhood rich in surroundings of home; rich in the comforts of life; rich 
 in the opportunities for learning and education. There is not an American 
 youth who is not a millionaire in the possibilities of vast success in life, 
 compared to the possibilities that were within the grasp of Abraham Lincoln 
 on the day that he left his father s roof to go out into the great world, of 
 which he knew only the knowledge that comes from the school of the woods 
 and the motherhood of Nature. There was one thing that he did not know 
 and never learned and that was Fear. He learned early that man is his 
 own master; that with a strong arm, a strong heart, and a strong will, there 
 is no power on earth that he need fear; that with his conscience clear and his 
 mind clean the future will take care of itself and even Death is conquered. 
 
THE JOYS AND SORROWS OF LIVING CHILDHOOD 
 
 ^t^^^HE safest capital on which to begin life is good health and 
 
 a sound morals. With these, permanent failure is almost impos- 
 
 ^^f J sible. There is not money enough in the banks of the world to 
 
 buy them. In partnership with Industry and Thrift, they must 
 
 succeed. Any man who possesses them has the wealth of the world within 
 
 his reach. Education, social position, political power, financial credit all 
 
 these, then, but await your desire. 
 
 This is the capital upon which Abraham Lincoln began. His father 
 was a woodsman who could neither read nor write; his mother was an 
 orphan girl. His cabin home of rough-hewn logs sheltered but a single 
 room; but here, on the banks of Nolen Creek, in desolate Hardin County, 
 he started on life s journey. 
 
 Do you remember the first time that you left home ? How you bade 
 good-by to the old scenes ? How you turned and looked back for one last 
 lingering glance at the old place that you loved and then wiped a tear 
 away ? You know, then, what it meant to the seven-year-old Lincoln when, 
 with his little sister, he trudged behind his father and mother from the 
 Kentucky wilds into southern Indiana, where, with an ax, they cut their 
 way through the dense forests to start life anew. 
 
 Here, in the savage wilds of Little Pigeon Creek, they felled the trees 
 for a new cabin. The bare earth, which turned to mud in the winter thaws, 
 was its floor. There were no windows to let in the sunlight and not 
 even a skin to hang over the doorway to shut out the sleet and snow. The 
 little lad fell asleep on the heap of loose leaves and he called it home. 
 
 Do you remember the first great sorrow that came into your life ? 
 The loved one whose lips you kissed for the last time ? Whose eyes were 
 never to look again into yours ? Whose hand as you clasped it in your 
 own was cold and white ? You know, then, the grief that lay in the heart 
 of this lad as he knelt sobbing beside his dying mother. You can feel, 
 then, the touch of her hand as she laid it on his young head and whispered 
 the last message from those loving lips: Be good to your father and 
 sister. Be kind to one another and worship God." Your heart goes 
 out to him as they lay her away in a rough box, hewn from the pine forest, 
 and tenderly lower her to the resting place on the knoll where the sunlight 
 pours its golden wreaths upon her grave. You know what was in his 
 heart when in after years he bowed his head and called her "My angel 
 mother " 
 
THE UNFOLDING OF KNOWLEDGE SCHOOL DAYS 
 
 IFE S lessons are not all learned in a university. Poverty, toil, 
 suffering these are the schools of discipline, and the man who 
 passes through them has an education that all the universities of 
 the earth could not give. The book of Nature does not teach the 
 conjugation of verbs; it teaches the conjugation of life. It may not master 
 the tongues of dead languages, but it does master the tongues of the thou 
 sand living languages the language of the Heart, of the Hand, of 
 Common Sense. It may not lead to a doctorate in science, but it does 
 lead to the highest degree within the power of man the degree of 
 strong character. 
 
 The backwoods is the university that made Lincoln. Here he learned 
 a lesson that few men ever learn how to bear the burdens of life without 
 complaint, and how to overcome them. 
 
 At ten years of age, he was walking nine miles a day to and from the 
 little log schoolhouse in the woods. At night, he lay before the fireplace 
 ciphering on a wooden shovel and scrawling his name on the logs of the 
 cabin. A new world had been revealed to him the world of knowledge. 
 Within his humble home there had never been a newspaper or a story 
 book, but now he had made the first great discovery of his life. He had 
 found that within the covers of books lay the secrets that unlock the 
 mysteries of the earth; that through them you can sit in the comradeship 
 and listen to the wisdom of the wise men of the ages; that with them you 
 cannot be alone, for the intimate friendship of the world s greatest men 
 is yours. 
 
 This is the education that is within the reach of every man, woman 
 and child in America today the university of outdoor life and of books. 
 
 Do you remember the first book that you ever read ? Possibly it 
 was ^Esop s Fables or Bunyan s "Pilgrim s Progress," or "Robinson 
 Crusoe." These were the books that kindled the flame of desire in 
 Lincoln s mind, until, at nineteen years of age, although his total school 
 ing was less than a year, he had read every book that he could borrow 
 within fifty miles of his home. 
 
 This was Lincoln s education. There he stood, long, lank, swarthy; 
 six feet four inches tall; strong as a giant, a heart like the oak, and a 
 head full of Common Sense ready and eager to fight it out with 
 Destiny. 
 
THE REVELATION OF LIFE S SECRETS BOYHOOD 
 
 CHOOSING an occupation is the first great crisis in life. Many 
 a good farmer is spoiled in the making of a lawyer, and so it is 
 through all the trades and life professions. There is in each one of 
 us some natural tendency toward certain lines of work, and success 
 depends largely upon giving heed to this warning. Whatever line of work 
 you may choose there is always some opportunity to reach the top. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln did not choose his calling; he allowed it to choose 
 him. He passed the apprenticeship of hard work and answered the call 
 of duty wherever he found it. He was a wood chopper and a farm hand; 
 he swung the ax and the scythe, slaughtered hogs and wielded the flail. 
 A day s work was from sunrise to sunset. The pay, which was a quarter 
 of a dollar, went to his father, to whom he owed all his time until noon of 
 his twenty-first birthday. A ferryman offered thirty-seven cents a day for 
 his services, on the deck as a bow hand, to help pole the craft down 
 the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. This was his first real revela 
 tion of the great channels of trade and commerce. He realized for the 
 first time that he lived in a great world of throbbing humanity in which 
 every man is trying to make the most of his short journey through it. He 
 began to feel the beat of the human heart and the pulse of life itself. The 
 great brotherhood of man, with its laughter and tears, gripped at his heart; 
 and he found himself a man among men. 
 
 Do you remember the thrill that you felt when you earned the first 
 dollar that was to be your very own ? No matter what success may come 
 to you, or whatever fortune you may accumulate, you will never be as rich 
 as that again. It was this same feeling that Lincoln felt when in after 
 life he told the story. 
 
 "I was about eighteen years of age," he said. :< Two men hailed me 
 and asked me to take their trunks to a steamer which waited for them 
 in midstream. I sculled them out to the steamer. They got on board, 
 and I lifted the trunks and put them on the deck. The steamer was about 
 to put on steam again, when I called out, You have forgotten to pay me/ 
 Each of them took from his pocket a silver half dollar and threw it on the 
 bottom of my boat. You may think it was a very little thing, and in these 
 times it seems to me like a trifle, but it was a most important incident in 
 my life. I could scarcely credit that I, the poor boy, had earned a dollar 
 in less than a day; that by honest work I had earned a dollar. I was a 
 more hopeful and thoughtful boy from that time." 
 
THE THRILL OF AMBITION YOUTH 
 
 CVERY man must make bis own place in the world. There is no 
 one who will do it for him. It takes good grit to hew your way 
 to the front. Abraham Lincoln started out into the world with 
 an ax over his shoulder. An ox team had drawn the family and 
 its scanty possessions from Indiana to Illinois. The wagon wheels were 
 but round blocks of wood cut from the trunk of an oak tree, with a hole 
 in the center for the axle. He was now twenty-two years of age, and, 
 having helped build the new home in the wilderness, he bid good-by to 
 his father and stood alone in the world his own master and his own 
 servant. 
 
 Look far down the road you can see that tall, gaunt, sad-faced youth; 
 his coat ragged; his hat battered; his trousers of torn and patched home 
 spun and, as he passes from view, you feel that one not wholly unlike 
 yourself has passed by; that if he, with only struggle behind him and strug 
 gle ahead of him, has the courage to fight it out with the might of man 
 hood, then you cannot stand by as an idler and a coward. 
 
 The experiences that Lincoln met were those that we all meet in the 
 necessity of earning a livelihood. He took whatever honest occupation 
 came to him; he split rails; he became a flatboatman; he worked in the 
 country store at New Salem, a village of twenty log houses, and more 
 than all, he left kindness wherever he went. He watched with the sick; 
 if a widow were in need of firewood he would cut it for her; if he made a 
 mistake in weight or change, he did not sleep until he had corrected the 
 error and through this he received the first and highest honor of his life, 
 the title of "Honest Abe." 
 
 There comes a day to each of us when we decide whether we are to 
 be the leader or the follower of men. With Lincoln, as with many youths 
 today, it was his physical prowess. Remarkable stories were told of his 
 giant strength, of his picking up and moving a chicken house weighing 
 600 pounds, and how he could raise a barrel from the ground and lift it | 
 until, standing erect, he could drink from the bunghole, and by means 
 of ropes and straps fastened about his hips he could lift a box of stones 
 weighing nearly 1000 pounds; but his first real victory came when he 
 thrashed the chief bully of the village and won the admiration and respect 
 of the community. It was this that resulted in his being chosen captain 
 in the Black Hawk War, and sent his fame broadcast through the frontier 
 settlements. It is as true today as it was then, that, whether it be in brawn 
 or brain, it is the survival of the fittest. 
 
THE DISCOVERY OF POWER CITIZENSHIP 
 
 man who is not interested in public affairs cannot hope to 
 succeed. He has no right to either complain or ask help, for he 
 ^ as deliberately shut himself off from the world. In this great 
 brotherhood of men, which we call a democracy, every man is 
 pledged upon his honor to do his part for the community in which he lives. 
 Lincoln laid the foundation for his own success when he discovered the 
 power and opportunity of American citizenship. 
 
 Lincoln was twenty-three years of age when he found his birthright 
 and entered into the full privileges of citizenship by attending the public 
 meetings in the little town of New Salem, and expressing his opinion and 
 power by voice and ballot. 
 
 "I jnay be wrong in regard to any or all of them," he said, "but, hold 
 ing it a sound maxim that it is better only some time to be right than at 
 all times to be wrong, so as soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous 
 I shall be ready to renounce them." His townspeople made him their 
 candidate for the state legislature, and, in accepting their leadership, he 
 declared: "My greatest ambition is to be truly esteemed of my fellow- 
 men by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. I was born and have 
 ever remained in the most humble walks of life. If the good people in their 
 wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar 
 with disappointments to be very much chagrined." 
 
 This was the beginning of his political career and it began with 
 defeat, for, having no acquaintance outside of the village, the residents 
 from the other towns in the county jeered and asked: u Who is this Abra 
 ham Lincoln ? " and the only response was ridicule and laughter at the 
 sight of the gawky youth with his tan brogans and blue yarn socks. 
 
 As a country merchant, he failed and was left $1,100 in debt, and for 
 years afterwards gave his creditors every dollar that he could earn above the 
 cost of living. "That debt," he said in later years, "was the greatest 
 obstacle I have ever met in life. It was my national debt!" 
 
 "I will succeed now, anyway," he declared. During the hours after 
 the hard labor of the day, he pored over the law books which he borrowed 
 by walking twenty miles to Springfield and back. At night he would go 
 to the cooper s shop and build a fire of shavings and read by its light. 
 Whenever he gained a new point in law he would put it into practice by 
 drawing up the legal papers for the neighbors. It is such a man as this, 
 with courage to start life again with the future mortgaged, who wins ! 
 
THE COURAGE OF CONVICTION MANHOOD 
 
 ^^^f A I LURE is but the closed door to success try again and you 
 ^ may open it. There is not one man in a thousand who 
 
 I succeeds the first time. We learn only by experience. No 
 ^^*^ matter how many times you have failed, the possibility for 
 success is only greater the next time. It is not defeat that is dishonorable; 
 it is giving up. Struggling to regain his lost foothold, Lincoln, at twenty- 
 four years of age, earned by his honesty the postmastership at New 
 Salem. The mails came but once or twice a week, and in the winter only 
 once a month; the cheapest postage was six cents for thirty miles, and rose 
 as high as twenty-five cents on a letter, according to the distance. The 
 frontiersmen lived largely on credit and did not pay cash even for their 
 letters, so that the postmaster had to carry the accounts. So humble was 
 this political office that Lincoln found it necessary to continue as a day 
 laborer, and he took up surveying to add to his income, so that he might 
 pay off the indebtedness of his failure in business. The foreclosure of a 
 note given by him during his financial reverses resulted in the seizure of 
 his horse, saddle and bridle, including his surveying instruments, leaving 
 him again stripped of all the belongings he had in the world. The keenness 
 of this humiliation wrote itself deep into his character. But his faith in 
 man and in himself never wavered, and during the next election he again 
 accepted the nomination for the legislature and won. 
 
 Lincoln was now twenty-five years of age, and so poor that he had to 
 borrow the money with which to buy suitable clothes to take his seat in the 
 State Capitol at Springfield. No man has ever come into American politics 
 under more adverse conditions. Here was a young legislator who had never 
 lived in a town, who had never lived where there was a church, who had 
 attended school hardly more than six months of his life, and whose entire 
 income was not averaging $4.00 a week. It is this first impulse of political 
 power that tests the character of a man. The temptation of joining the 
 majority and stepping into immediate influence beset Lincoln in the same 
 way that it lures the man of today. True to himself, and to those whom 
 he loved, he took up the cause of the common people, creating a furor by 
 agitating the emancipation of women from political thraldom, raising his 
 his voice for freedom in a moral protest against slavery, and denouncing 
 the citizenship that orders its politics according to personal rewards. He 
 had reached the position in life where he had the courage of his convictions 
 and that is Manhood. 
 
 10 
 
The Portrait Life of Lincoln 
 
 PART II 
 
 A Photographic Narrative Which Interprets 
 
 the Character and Life of 
 Abraham Lincoln, the Greatest American 
 
THE FOUNDATION OF LINCOLN S CHARACTER 
 
 ^y^t&HERE comes a moment in every man s life when he discovers 
 
 m himself; when he finds that the years of labor and experience have 
 
 ^^^ J laid a foundation upon which he must stand, and that foundation 
 
 is either strong or weak according to the manner in which he has 
 
 built it. We are today only what we made ourselves yesterday. 
 
 Lincoln was thirty-three years of age when he discovered his fixed 
 position in life. And what a foundation he had laid! Built without tools 
 or material, crude blocks of opportunity, he found himself standing be 
 fore the burning heart of humanity, from which there is no turning back. 
 Behind him were those long years of poverty and struggle, the Kentucky 
 cabin, the savage wilds of Indiana, the prairies of Illinois; childhood of 
 poverty, boyhood of toil, the wrestle with destiny. The people had claimed 
 him as their own, and for the first time in his life he could now look straight 
 ahead into the future. A youth of twenty-five years, he had been sent by 
 his townspeople to represent them in the legislature of Illinois, and had allied 
 himself with the cause of the downtrodden. The call of the larger town 
 appealed to him. In his twenty-ninth year, he mounted a borrowed horse, 
 and with all his worldly possessions in the saddlebags, rode away to Spring 
 field to become a lawyer. Here he was again forced to fight his way through 
 many misfortunes, but during his years in the halls of legislation he had 
 made the acquaintance of men who were to become the nation s leaders. 
 
 It was here that Lincoln took his first stand against slavery, with but 
 one member of the legislature in sympathy with him. His honesty and integ 
 rity at the bar brought him a law practice that allowed him to remove the 
 indebtedness of his earlier life, and at thirty-three years of age he was main 
 taining himself through his own abilities. He had been eight years a 
 legislator and had risen to the leadership of the Whig party, rejecting the 
 nomination for the governorship. The fortunes of politics are as varied as 
 those of war; when Lincoln first announced his ambition to be sent to 
 Washington as a congressman, the honor was refused him by his party. 
 
 Struggle chisels its lines on the countenance of a man. Upon Lin 
 coln s face there was now being written the story that was to become a 
 nation s history. And as he sat for his first photograph, when the call 
 of the people demanded the privilege of looking upon the features of the 
 young lawyer who desired to carry their interests into the halls of congress, 
 he realized that he no longer belonged to himself, but was now a servant 
 of the great democracy. It was the face of prophecy. 
 
 12 
 
FIRST PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN TAKEN WHEN HE ENTERED 
 NATIONAL POLITICS AGE 37 
 
 This daguerreotype is undoubtedly the first time that Lincoln sat for 
 
 his portrait. It was taken during his campaign for Congress 
 
 or shortly after his election, when he delivered his first 
 
 speeches from 1846 to 1848. Photograph from 
 
 original daguerreotype in possession of 
 
 Honorable Robert T. Lincoln 
 
 of Chicago, Illinois 
 
THE INFLUENCE OF LOVE ON LINCOLN S LIFE 
 
 is no man so strong that he cannot be won by gentleness. 
 The power of affection is the most subtle force in the world, and 
 interwoven in the lives of all men, whether they be among the 
 greatest or the most humble runs the silken thread of a woman s 
 heart. It was this new world of tenderness that flooded its golden light on 
 Lincoln and ignited new fires of ambition within him. It was when he first 
 entered politics that he first felt the power of a woman s influence. The 
 beauty and the character of little Anne Rutledge, daughter of the village 
 tavernkeeper at New Salem, appealed to Lincoln, but while she admired 
 his manliness and ambition she was betrothed to another. Her compan 
 ionship with Lincoln is one of the love idylls in American history. The 
 impress which it made upon his character lived with him throughout his 
 life, for in it was written a tragedy. Lincoln s strong friendship for the 
 girl finally won her heart, but in the midst of almost the first happiness 
 which he had ever known his sweetheart fell sick and died. Lincoln was 
 constantly with her during her last hours, and the last song that she sang 
 was for him. The veil of darkness fell upon him, and in all the stirring 
 events that beset his after life he never fully emerged from the melancholy, 
 although her memory was one of his richest possessions. His grief for the 
 dead girl was such that his friends feared that he was losing his mind. 
 
 The experience of Lincoln was not unlike that of many others who have 
 saved themselves at such critical moments by summoning their will power 
 to lift them from despair. Work is man s greatest friend. It has been 
 the salvation of man since the world began. Lincoln turned to it in his 
 time of need and entered earnestly into the political problems that were 
 gathering like foreboding clouds over the nation, ardently supporting the 
 moral principles that underly every public question of moment. 
 
 It was during these days in his yearning for companionship that he 
 met and married Mary Todd, a Kentucky society girl, whose keen intuition 
 saw in the poor and awkward young legislator a great political destiny. 
 It was a turning point in his career, that fourth day in November in 1842, 
 when this son of the woods, now thirty-three years of age, brought into 
 his life this daughter of pride and social ambition, descended from governors 
 and generals, who, then twenty-one years of age, exclaimed: "I mean to 
 to make him President of the United States. You will see that, as I always 
 told you, I will be the President s wife." Woman became in the life of Lin 
 coln, as she is in the homes of the nation today, the power behind the throne. 
 
 14 
 
PHOTOGRAPH OF MARY TODD, WHO MARRIED ABRAHAM LINCOLN IN 1842 
 
 Lincoln was now 33 years of age. This negative was taken some years later at the time 
 
 of Lincoln s inauguration for the Presidency, and presents her 
 
 in the gown worn at the Inaugural Ball 
 
 Original Life Negative in Collection of Americana Owned 
 by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
THE POLITICAL PRINCIPLES OF LINCOLN 
 
 MBITION is a noble comrade, but a dangerous master. It 
 walks beside a man as a faithful friend, but when once given the 
 reins of control it becomes a despot. 
 
 Lincoln s mastery of himself was his greatest safeguard in 
 life. He never allowed his political aspirations to overcome his principles, 
 and, while this for a time retarded his progress, it ultimately proved to 
 be the stepping stone upon which he rose to the fullest heights of ambition. 
 He was forced to overcome the same difficulties that beset every man who 
 enters politics. The party leaders, who were unable to mold him accord 
 ing to their desires, gave him but little consideration. This reason which 
 keeps so many men out of politics is in reality the very reason why they 
 should enter them. Strong men of honest purpose need never fear the 
 ultimate outcome of their contest with corruption. 
 
 Lincoln s failure to secure the nomination for congress only strength 
 ened his resolution, and on the following election he swept his district by 
 the largest majority that ever had been given to a Whig candidate. The 
 tall, gaunt figure of the young congressman of Illinois, on the streets of 
 Washington, amused the passers-by as he walked to and from the National 
 Capitol ; his books tied in a bandana handkerchief, hanging on the end 
 of a cane over his shoulder. While he was considered droll, he did not 
 make a very deep impress on the statesmen of the times, owing largely to 
 the fact that his viewpoint was seldom political or economic, but almost 
 wholly moral. The war with Mexico, and the victory of the American 
 arms, inspired the American spirit of progress, but Lincoln weighed its 
 issue wholly in the scales of the old precept, "Whatever ye would that men 
 should do to you, do ye even so to them." His speeches, coming when 
 the country was elated with military glory, brought denunciation upon him 
 and cost him his political popularity. Political agreements, similar to those 
 which are still practiced today, deprived him of re-election and he returned 
 to the dingy law office in the back room of a two-story building on the 
 square at Springfield. Upon his retirement to private life it was believed 
 that the untactful country lawyer had passed forever from political memory. 
 
 The politicians administered "a decisive blow" to the slavery agitation 
 with the Missouri Compromise, only to learn that the heart of humanity 
 cannot be suppressed, and to witness that unforeseen force, Lincoln, being 
 carried to the leadership of the tremendous economic problem that was 
 soon to make him the supreme figure in American politics. 
 
 1C, 
 
Photograph taken while Lincoln, age 45, was engaged in the Missouri Com 
 promise in 1854 Original taken in an itinerant gallery in Chi 
 cago, for George Schneider, editor of "Staats Zeitung" 
 
 Photograph taken in 1856, when Lincoln, age 47, was mentioned for 
 Vice-President in the First Republican National Convention 
 
 Print in Collection of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd of Washington, D. C. 
 
THE IMPULSE THAT HELD LINCOLN STEADFAST 
 
 ^^B^HE man who takes the world philosophically can never be per- 
 
 m manently beaten. Lincoln was greatly disappointed when his 
 
 ^^^ J political party set him aside, but in referring to it, in his life as 
 
 a country lawyer, he said: "I have always been a fatalist and 
 
 what is to be, will be, or rather, as Hamlet says, There is a divinity that 
 
 shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will. ; 
 
 Lincoln admitted that he was losing interest in politics when the repeal 
 of the Missouri Compromise, "stirred him as he never had been stirred 
 before." It aroused him to such an extent that he again entered the arena 
 and became the candidate for the United States Senate. The abolition 
 movement was beginning to sweep New England. The people began to 
 rally to the new standard by the tens of thousands. A great political party, 
 for the altruistic purpose of equality to all men, was being organized. 
 
 Lincoln became one of the first Republicans. The oratory of this 
 strange, serious man seemed to inspire the hopes of the people. They looked 
 upon him in bewilderment as they saw this giant of the woods, in a black 
 alpaca coat, with his sleeves rolled up, hammering away at the institution 
 which he believed to be unjust. His appeal was always one of peace, for 
 in his heart or mind there had not yet been a suggestion of the clash of 
 arms that was to come through his leadership. He recognized that slavery 
 was an established institution and that its property rights were legal and 
 just according to the economic system of the times, but he believed that it 
 was unworthy of the high principles of American self-government and that 
 in the interest of civilization we should dissolve the institution by pur 
 chasing the chattels from their owners and extending liberty and freedom 
 to all men, regardless of color or race. 
 
 "Our political problem now is, can we as a nation continue together 
 permanently forever half slave and half free, the problem is too mighty 
 for me. May God superintend the solution," he remarked prophetically. 
 
 The one dominant note in Lincoln s character was hope. He believed 
 that hope was the saving grace in humanity. " Free labor has the inspira 
 tion of hope, pure slavery has no hope," he said. "The power of hope 
 upon human exertion and happiness is wonderful." When the Republican 
 party came into existence, Lincoln, now forty-seven years of age, stood 
 on the convention floor and held his hearers spellbound; men cheered and 
 women wept; the audience rose to its feet enmasse. The great popu 
 lace had found their champion at last in this frontier lawyer. 
 
 is 
 
First photograph of Lincoln circulated throughout the country for campaign 
 
 Ambrotype taken in 1858, shortly after Lincoln s speech at Galesburg, 
 Illinois Print owned by Mr. O. H. Oldroyd of Washington 
 
THE RUGGED HONESTY OF LINCOLN S HEART 
 
 heart of every man is a furnace of smoldering fires, which, 
 when fanned by inspiration, bursts into flame. It is the man 
 who can rekindle the dormant fire of humanity, and cause it to 
 rise from its own ashes, who becomes the leader of his people. 
 There were hundreds of men in Lincoln s time who were more learned 
 in the law than he; there are thousands today. It is not how much you 
 know, but rather how much you know how to use it. 
 
 Lincoln knew more about the heart of man than he did the head. 
 The secret of his success and his greatness was his simple humanity. 
 All the political wisdom and legal knowledge of the great men of the times 
 could not overcome the simple, direct words of his homely philosophy 
 that sank deep into the understanding of every hearer. 
 
 Listen you can hear the resonant tones echoing down through the 
 years from the lips of the tall, gaunt orator: "When the white man governs 
 himself, that is self-government; but when he governs himself and also 
 governs another man, that is more than self-government that is despotism." 
 "No man is good enough to govern another without that other s consent." 
 "Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromise, repeal the 
 Declaration of Independence, repeal all past history, still you cannot repeal 
 human nature." 
 
 You can see him as he stands in the halls of the Republican Conven 
 tion in Illinois. He raises his arms and shouts: "We must make this a 
 land of liberty, in fact as it is in name." "We will say to the Southern 
 disunionists, we won t go out of the Union, and you shan t!" You can 
 see that great audience rise to its feet, and as the crowd takes up the slogan, 
 the hall rings with the words that have ignited the hearts of his hearers 
 and set them aflame. Twenty days later, the delegates met in the first 
 National Republican Convention in the city of Philadelphia. Abraham 
 Lincoln received one hundred and ten votes for the Vice-Presidency. It 
 was the following noon that he walked into the tavern in the village 
 where he was trying a law case on the Illinois circuit. He found an excited 
 group discussing the news which had just arrived. The country lawyer 
 carelessly replied that there was another Lincoln up in Massachusetts 
 and it probably meant him. The vote for Lincoln was not sufficient to 
 place his name on the first Republican ticket, but it saved him from the 
 necessity of going down to political oblivion in the election that followed. 
 This is another instance in a man s life where defeat is good fortune. 
 
Lincoln sat for this photograph in Springfield, Illinois, during the 
 
 memorable campaign of 1858 age 49 years Print owned 
 
 by Mrs. Harriet Chapman of Charleston, Illinois 
 
 Ambrotype taken at Pittsfield, Illinois, October 1, 1858, immediately after 
 
 Lincoln had made his speech on the public square age 49 Original 
 
 by C. Jackson, owned by Miss Hattie Gilmer of Pittsfield, Illinois. 
 
 Print in collection of Frederick H. Meserve, New York 
 
THE MAN WHO FIRST MADE LINCOLN KNOWN 
 
 ^g^O a strong man opposition is a challenge that goaas him on to 
 
 m victory. It requires some crucial effort in a man s life to bring 
 
 ^^^ J out his full strength. We all have what we consider our obstacles 
 
 in the way of success. The strong man does not attempt to go 
 
 around them, he cuts straight through them. 
 
 Lincoln s life was filled with obstacles, but the last and greatest of them 
 was a man of political strength even greater than his own; a man, who, 
 like himself, had come to the wilderness to fight his way to success the 
 "Little Giant," Stephen A. Douglas. 
 
 You possibly can remember in your own experience some one indi 
 vidual who has had more effect upon your life than all the others that you 
 have ever known. Friends are frequently milestones and occasionally 
 one of them is a turning point. 
 
 Douglas was this and more to Lincoln. The roads of the two men 
 had been similar in early life. Douglas knew the school of hard work and 
 poverty, for he had come from the hills of Vermont to the Western plains 
 with but thirty-seven cents in his pocket. He had worked on a farm and 
 taught school. He first appeared in Lincoln s life as a suitor for the hand 
 of the same woman. In this first conflict Lincoln won. They both studied 
 law; they both entered politics; they both entered the legislative halls. 
 
 Here their roads seemed to part. Douglas, allying himself with Demo 
 cratic powers, plunged ahead toward the goal of his ambition. He became 
 Secretary of State in Illinois, and Judge of the Supreme Court; he was 
 sent to Washington as a Congressman; he was elected to the United States 
 Senate. The name of Douglas stood for statesmanship; his strong hand 
 could be seen in all the great political movements; he favored the acqui 
 sition of new territory to extend the principles of American self-government; 
 he advocated the compromise of 1850; he formulated the doctrine of Popular 
 Sovereignty, and the famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 
 
 In this heyday of fame he had almost forgotten the country lawyer 
 back on the Illinois circuit, who had been left so far behind. It did not 
 occur to him that this gaunt youth was now literally walking on his 
 shadow, until suddenly he turned about and found himself once more look 
 ing into the strong, homely face of his first opponent Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The "Little Giant s" career was now brought to a halt for the first 
 time; not by a man who wished to obstruct him, but by one who heard the 
 cry of humanity ahead, and challenged him for the right of way. 
 
PHOTOGRAPH OF STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS TAKEN DURING His DEBATES WITH LINCOLN IN 1858 
 
 Lincoln was now 49 years of age; Douglas was 45 years This negative was taken after Douglas 
 
 defeated Lincoln for the United States Senate, which was followed two years later 
 
 by Lincoln s defeat of Douglas for President of United States 
 
 Original in the Collection of American Celebrities Owned 
 by Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, D. C. 
 
THE CHALLENGE THAT TESTED LINCOLN S STRENGTH 
 
 every man must be weighed in the balance sooner or 
 later, but it is not often that the scales of justice are to be the 
 crucial test. Lincoln knew when he challenged Douglas for 
 hjg seat j n tne United States Senate that he was challenging 
 destiny, that he was inviting an irrepressible conflict in which both his 
 life and his nation were at stake. 
 
 The problem of Slavery, which had been suppressed by politicians for 
 a generation, now demanded the judgment of the American people. Lin 
 coln, now forty-nine years of age, brought it to its first crisis. 
 
 "I know there is a God, and He hates injustice and slavery. I see 
 the storm coming. I know His hand is in it. If He has a place and work 
 for me and I think He has I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but 
 truth is everything." 
 
 Like every man who undertakes to follow his conscience at the risk 
 of his material gain, Lincoln was advised by his friends that he was ruining 
 himself and his party; that he was not only unwise, but a fool; that while 
 he was only a country lawyer, without money, and struggling to make a 
 living, he was courting destruction at the hands of the strongest political 
 leader of the day; a man who was now of independent fortune, whose home 
 in Washington was the gathering place of the distinguished men of the 
 world, and who had been honored in the capitals of Europe. 
 
 Lincoln fully realized the difference between himself and his opponent. 
 "With me," he said sadly, "the race of ambition has been a failure a 
 flat failure; with him it has been one of splendid success." "I affect no 
 contempt for the high eminence he has reached. So reached that the 
 oppressed of my species might have shared with me in the elevation, I would 
 rather stand on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever pressed 
 a monarch s brow." "I shall try to conduct myself as a gentleman in 
 substance at least, if not in outward polish. The latter I shall never be, 
 but that which constitutes the inside of a gentleman, I hope I understand." 
 
 With full conviction of this inequality, Lincoln declared: "We have 
 to fight this battle upon principle, and principle alone." It was now that 
 he sounded the trumpet call to patriotism: "A house divided against 
 itself cannot stand." "I believe this government cannot endure perma 
 nently half slave and half free. I do not expect the union to be dissolved 
 I do not expect the house to fall but I do expect that it will cease to be 
 divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." 
 
Ambrotype taken August 25, 1858, at Macomb, Illinois, when Lincoln 
 
 was campaigning against Douglas for the United States Senate. 
 
 Owned by Mr. W. J. Franklin of Macomb, Illinois 
 
 Lincoln as he appeared in the political campaign in 1858 age 49 
 
 Original negative owned by Dr. McWilliarns of Dwight, Illinois. 
 
 Print in possession of Mr. Stuart Brown of Springfield 
 
THE DEFEAT THAT MADE LINCOLN FAMOUS 
 
 man who dares to fight a superior foe has already won half 
 the battle. When Lincoln stepped to the platform to stand beside 
 Douglas, in his first great combat against brilliancy and wit, on 
 that twenty-first day of August, in 1858, he stepped into great 
 ness. Carloads of people from Chicago poured into the little villages of 
 Illinois; the roads were filled with country folk, camping on the prairie, 
 like an army in bivouac. 
 
 Douglas journeyed in state in a private car, from which floated the 
 militant strains of a band playing the national airs; a cannon mounted on 
 a flat car proclaimed his coming. Lincoln made his way from town to 
 town by horse or foot, by slow trains or in the caboose of a freight. 
 
 Look at the two men as they stand before the cheering multitudes, the 
 champions of the two greatest causes that have ever met in conflict in the 
 annals of mankind freedom and slavery. There stands Douglas, the 
 "Little Giant," five feet four inches tall; his shoulders broad, his head 
 massive and majestic. There stands Lincoln, his awkward figure, of six 
 feet four inches, slightly stooped; his hair disheveled; his clothes uncouth; 
 his sunken face furrowed by struggle. The throng is cheering and jeering. 
 The strains of Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean," swell from ten thou 
 sand throats. The flags of the Republic flutter in the breeze. 
 
 The multitude becomes quiet. A deep, manly voice hushes them to 
 silence: "I don t care whether slavery be voted up or voted down. I don t 
 believe the negro is any kin of mine at all. Who among you expects to 
 live, or have his children live, until slavery be established in Illinois or 
 abolished in South Carolina?" It is the voice of Douglas, combative, 
 forceful, decisive. 
 
 The tall, gaunt figure now rises before the multitude. His lips 
 part. "Is slavery wrong? It is the eternal struggle between these two 
 principles right and wrong throughout the world. They are two prin 
 ciples that have stood face to face from the beginning of time; and will 
 ever continue to struggle. The one is the common right of humanity, 
 and the other the divine right of kings." It is the voice of Lincoln, 
 resonant, gentle, appealing. 
 
 The battle of human emotions rose and fell before seven vast audiences 
 on the circuit of Illinois, with intense heat and fury. Then came the voice 
 of the people the ballot the highest law in the land, in whose judgment 
 there speaks an authority which no monarch in the world can overrule 
 and Lincoln lost. 
 
Faded ambrotype of Lincoln in linen coat, during Douglas debates 
 at Beardstown, Illinois, in 1858 -Original now in Lincoln Mon 
 ument Collection at Springfield, Illinois Print in possession 
 of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd of Washington, D. C. 
 
 Photograph taken during the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates in 
 1858 age 49 Collection of Mr. J. C. Browne of Philadelphia 
 
THE APPEAL OF HUMANITY THAT LINCOLN HEARD 
 
 world loves a man who knows how to lose. No man has ever 
 yet gone through life without having to take his losses. That is 
 one of the first lessons that we have to learn and one of the 
 severest. Abraham Lincoln probably had more setbacks than 
 any man who reads these lines. 
 
 While Lincoln was walking home in the rain after his defeat for tne 
 United States Senate, he stumbled in the muddy street, but quickly regain 
 ing his balance, he naively muttered, "It is a slip and not a fall." The 
 defeat had cost Lincoln nearly a thousand dollars all the money that he 
 possessed, and the loss of over six months from his law practice. He was 
 left without money for even household expenses. It had cost Douglas 
 eighty thousand dollars of his private fortune to save his seat in the United 
 States Senate and to discover a new political power that was to rival him 
 for the leadership of the American people. 
 
 Though I now sink out of view and shall be forgotten," remarked 
 Lincoln, "I believe I have made some marks which will tell for civil liberty 
 long after I am gone." "Let the past as nothing be. The fight must go 
 on, and I shall fight in the ranks." 
 
 Lincoln returned to his work on the circuit to get a living. He carried 
 his love for humanity into the court room and in defense of the fallen 
 appealed to the forgiving spirit of brotherly love. His practice of law 
 was almost wholly based on these principles. 
 
 There is an old saying that the truth never dies, and so it was with 
 Lincoln s words. The fires that he had kindled in his campaign were 
 spreading throughout the country. There came loud calls for him from 
 distant cities. He found that his defeat was once again a victory, the step 
 ping stone upon which he was to rise to greater heights. 
 
 This is a world of compensation," was the message that he sent to 
 New England, "He who would be no slave must be content to have no 
 slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, 
 and, under a just God, cannot long retain it." 
 
 These messages stirred the populace as had nothing else since the 
 Declaration of Independence. His speeches were printed and given 
 wide circulation. His neighbors gazed wonderingly on the growing fame 
 of their townsman, who, to them, was but a simple, uncouth man who 
 had no special position among them. It is the old story of the prophet 
 being without honor in his own home. 
 
 - 8 
 
LINCOLN AT THE TIME OF JOHN BROWN S RAID AT HARPER S FERRY AGE SO 
 
 This negative, taken in 1859, was destroyed in the Chicago Fire Mrs. Lincoln 
 
 considered it the best likeness of her husband that she had ever 
 
 seen It presents Lincoln as he appeared just before 
 
 his nomination for the Presidency 
 
 Original negative by S. M. Fassett of Chicago, Illinois 
 
 Photograph owned by Mr. William Lloyd Garrison of Boston, Massachusetts 
 Print in collection of Mr. H. W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois 
 
THE FIRST TEST OF LINCOLN S NATIONAL GREATNESS 
 
 VERY day that a man lives he is building a reputation good 
 or bad. There is sure to come a time when this reputation must 
 be weighed in the balance of public opinion. In such an hour 
 as this money may be the most worthless thing in the world. 
 Lincoln, at fifty-one years of age, was still poor in money, but becoming 
 very rich in reputation, 
 
 When the call came for him to speak in the metropolis of New York, 
 he knew that the greatest test of his life had now come; that he was now 
 to be measured by the standards of the cosmopolitan world. 
 
 A great crowd gathered at Cooper Institute, on that memorable night, 
 the twenty-seventh of February, in 1860. No man since the days of 
 Clay and Webster had spoken to a larger assemblage of intellect. On 
 the platform were the dignitaries of the day. There was William Cullen 
 Bryant, Horace Greeley, and David Dudley Field. 
 
 The tall, awkward figure of Lincoln rose from his chair. His hair 
 was disheveled; his coat was too large; his arms hung ungainly at his sides, 
 much longer than his sleeves; and one of the legs of his trousers was two 
 inches above his shoes. The vast audience smiled. 
 
 Lincoln, for the first time in his life, seemed to be embarrassed. His 
 hands were trembling. His words were first low and stammering. He had 
 read but three pages and was passing to the fourth when he lost his place. 
 For a moment he hesitated. Then turning the manuscript over two or 
 three times, he threw it upon the table. His shoulders straightened. His 
 whole being seemed to be marshalling power. As he advanced toward the 
 audience, he seemed to grow in stature and might. His face flashed with 
 a glow of inspiration. The words rang through the great amphitheatre as 
 he quoted from Frederick Douglass: "It is written in the sky of America 
 that the slaves shall some day be free." 
 
 The audience listened spellbound to his wisdom as he laid before 
 them the entire constitutional and legislative history of the institution of 
 slavery since the nation was founded. 
 
 "Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against 
 us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government 
 nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, 
 and in that faith, let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it." 
 No man had ever made such an impression in his first appeal to a New 
 York audience. Lincoln loomed before the nation as the master of men. 
 
 80 
 
Photograph of Lincoln taken in 1860 at the time of his "Cooper Institute 
 
 Speech " in New York during his campaign for the Presidency age 51. 
 
 Original negative by Mathew Brady of New York 
 
 Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, D. C. 
 
 Photograph taken in summer of 1860 for campaign purposes Original 
 
 negative owned by Mr. M. C. Tuttle of St. Paul, Minnesota Print 
 
 from collection of Mr. Daniel Fish of Minneapolis, Minnesota 
 
THE INSPIRATION OF LINCOLN S PATRIOTISM 
 
 ^y^fjjHERE is nothing in this world that merely happens as a matter 
 / of chance. Life is filled with surprises as well as disappoint- 
 
 ^^F J ments, but back of each one of them is a well-defined cause. The 
 conditions that were now gathering about Lincoln, at fifty-one 
 years of age, were the cumulative results of a long life of work and faith. 
 
 The distant rumbles of the greatest political campaign the American 
 people have ever waged, could now be heard. Public opinion was now 
 hopelessly divided over slavery. In the great Wigwam" at Chicago, 
 the Republicans gathered to nominate the standard bearer. Trains 
 from the East brought the great political organizers of the day, and 
 poured their martial bands and drilled clubs into the dusty streets, 
 only to be met by the tremendous onslaught of enthusiasm that inspired 
 the West. 
 
 It was now the day for nominations. The great "Wigwam" was 
 a surging sea of men. 
 
 "I nominate William H. Seward, of New York, for President," 
 shouted the clear, penetrating voice of the campaign leader from the East. 
 The name of the great statesman was greeted by a storm of applause. 
 
 "I nominate Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois, for President of the United 
 States." The words came from the deep, powerful voice of a Westerner. 
 A tremendous cheer broke from ten thousand throats. The balloting 
 began. Nine states of the South did not respond and the silence was 
 greeted with hisses and jeers. The delegates from the East rose en masse 
 from their seats. Seward had received 173! votes against 102 for Lincoln 
 but he was short more than a score necessary for a majority. The bal 
 loting proceeded again. Once more the East broke into applause, but 
 from the throats of the West there came a challenging ovation. Seward 
 still led with 184! votes, but Lincoln had received 181 and still no 
 majority. The third ballot proceeded. A deep suspense fell upon the 
 multitude. Lincoln had received 23 1| votes; Seward 180 still i| votes 
 short of a majority. The "Wigwam" was in deathlike silence. Suddenly 
 the figure of a man sprang to a chair. "Ohio changes its four votes to 
 Abraham Lincoln!" he shouted. The tumult that rose in that auditorium 
 had never before been witnessed in American politics. A deafening roar 
 echoed across the "Wigwam." The multitude was thrown into pande 
 monium. Men embraced each other and wept. The crowds at the doors 
 took up the chorus, which echoed through the streets until it was heard a 
 mile away. Abraham Lincoln, the quaint, ungainly prophet of the New 
 
 West, had been nominated for President of the United States. 
 I _ 
 
Photograph taken before the Republican National Conven 
 tion at Chicago in 1860 Found in Collection of the 
 late Mr. J. Henry Brown of Philadelphia 
 
 Photograph taken at his home in Springfield, Illinois, immediately 
 
 after his nomination for Presidency in 1860 age 51 Originalby 
 
 Alexander Hesler of Chicago, destroyed during the fire Print 
 
 in collection of Mr. Herbert W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois 
 
THE GATHERING OF HUMANITY UNDER LINCOLN 
 
 you want to discover just what there is in a man give him 
 power. It will either make him or wreck him. Prosperity has 
 ruined more men than poverty. Watch a man when he catches 
 his first glow of success and you will discover just how big or how 
 little he really is. 
 
 Lincoln was standing in the door of a shop in Springfield, talking, 
 when a shout went up from a group in front of the telegraph office. An 
 excited boy ran across the square shouting, "Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln, 
 you are nominated!" His townspeople flocked about him, half laughing, 
 half crying. He stood for a moment looking at them curiously. Then 
 he quietly remarked: "My friends, I am glad to receive your congratu 
 lations, and as there is a little woman down on Eighth Street who will be 
 glad to hear the news, you must excuse me until I inform her. 
 
 When the delegation from the national convention arrived at the 
 Lincoln home to officially notify him of his nomination, they found a 
 plain two-storied house, with not more than a dozen citizens gathered in 
 front and one of Lincoln s sons perched on the gatepost. Mr. Lincoln 
 was standing in front of the fireplace, his eyes downcast. 
 
 The campaign opened with the true Western spirit. Orators stumped 
 the country from one end to the other. Torchlight processions marched 
 through the streets. Campaign songs both ridiculed and eulogized 
 "Honest Abe of the West" the plain man of the people. The opposing 
 journals jeered at him as a "third rate country lawyer," coarse and clumsy, 
 who could not even speak good grammar. The patriotic press held him 
 before the people as "a man who, by his own genius and force of character, 
 has raised himself from being a penniless, uneducated flatboatman." 
 
 The West was exuberant. Seventy thousand excursionists poured 
 into Springfield on a single day to shake the hand of "Our Lincoln." 
 Every road leading to the prairie city was crowded for twenty miles men, 
 women and children. They brought their tents, camp kettles, and coffee 
 pots. It was a pageant, such as no other American had ever known. 
 The strains of the campaign songs passed along the country roads like 
 trumpet notes. "Our Lincoln is the man! Our Lincoln is the man!" 
 
 "Who is this huckster in politics?" demanded a New Englander. 
 "Who is this country court advocate?" Lincoln, without resentment 
 and without humility, calmly replied that his life presented nothing but 
 "the short and simple annals of the poor." 
 
 34 
 
Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, in June, 1860 Print 
 owned by Mr. George B. Ayres Copyrighted 1894 
 
 Ambrotype taken at Springfield, Illinois, May 20, 1860 Original 
 
 presented to Governor Marcus L. Ward of New Jersey Now in 
 
 possession of the Ward family of Newark, New Jersey 
 
THE BURDEN OF A NATION ON LINCOLN S HEART 
 
 MAN S life is much like a pendulum. It swings back and 
 forth over the sweep of events between his birth and death. There 
 is seldom a moment that becomes forever lost. His deeds are 
 ever recurrent. The beat of time in Lincoln s life always brought 
 him before the strong, manly presence of one man. It was this man 
 who now challenged him for the Presidency of the United States Douglas. 
 
 The two were now arrayed against each other in their last great 
 conflict. Douglas, as the candidate of the Northern Democracy, stood 
 for state rights; a principle by which each commonwealth or territory 
 could accept or reject slavery according to its own dictates without inter 
 ference of Congress or the neighboring states. Lincoln, the candidate of 
 the new Republicanism, placed the responsibility of the problem on Con 
 gress as the final authority, declaring that there was no power that legalized 
 slavery anywhere, but that it was within the privilege of Congress to pro 
 hibit it in any and every Federal territory. Breckenridge, the candidate 
 of the Southern Democracy, upheld the principle that the citizen of any 
 state has a right to migrate to any territory, taking with him his property 
 by the law of his own state, and that Congress is bound to protect him. 
 
 Election day fell on the 6th of November, in 1860. Lincoln came 
 down to his room at the State House, at eight o clock in the morning. He 
 went to the polls in the late afternoon, and cutting his own name from 
 the head of the Republican ticket, cast the ballot. 
 
 The election returns began to arrive in the evening. Lincoln and 
 his friends withdrew to the little telegraph office on the village square. 
 Late in the night the announcement came that his own townspeople had 
 given him a majority. It was then that he showed his first emotion. 
 Cannon boomed from the village green. The villagers remained up 
 until daylight shouting and singing. 
 
 It was shortly after midnight that Lincoln was informed of his election. 
 "Boys," he said, "I think I will go home now, for there is a little woman 
 there who would like to hear the news." Three rousing cheers followed 
 him as he passed out into the night. As he entered his bedroom he found 
 his wife had fallen asleep. He touched her gently on the shoulder. "Mary!" 
 She made no answer. He spoke again, a little louder: "Mary, Mary! 
 We are elected!" 
 
 The cheers of his townspeople rang through the night, but on his heart 
 there now rested the burden of the nation. 
 
 3fl 
 
Lincoln as he entered campaign for Presidency at SI years of age. 
 
 Original negative taken in June, 1860, at Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 Print owned by Mr. George B. Ayres Copyright 1881 
 
 Ambrotype taken August, 1860, when seventy thousand Westerners 
 visited Lincoln at his home in Springfield, Illinois Age 51 years 
 
 Original in collection of Mr. William H. Lambert of Philadelphia 
 
THE AFFECTION OF LINCOLN FOR HIS HOME 
 
 is no pinnacle of greatness so high that you cannot reach 
 down and touch hands with those at the bottom. When Lincoln 
 realized that he had been lifted to the highest honor within the 
 gift of the American people, he found that humanity was strug 
 gling at his feet. He found that while he had secured the required 
 majority in the electoral college, ten states of the South had not cast a bal 
 lot for him; that while he had received the votes of 1,866,452 Americans 
 who were opposed to slavery, an army nearly a million greater had cast 
 their ballots against him, for the combined votes of the other candidates 
 reached 2,814,741. 
 
 The fearful import of it all cast its shadow upon his face. The cotton 
 states of the South refused to abide by the election. Trade was paralyzed, 
 banks suspended, and the national treasury was nearly bankrupt. The 
 states in the South began to secede. The North became bewildered at 
 the grim forebodings of the end of the republic. Mobs in Boston rose 
 against the abolition agitators, charging them with bringing on the disaster. 
 
 The gentle, peace-loving man, about whom the storms were brewing, 
 remained silent. His heart turned to the old log cabin days and to the 
 simple woman, who, as his step-mother, had come into the desolation of 
 his boyhood. It was a long drive through the country, and the river was 
 filled with running ice, but he made the dangerous passage and arrived at 
 the woman s humble cottage. Tears came to their eyes, as she embraced 
 him with deep emotion. "Good bye, Abraham," she said, "I know I 
 shall never see you again. I know your enemies will kill you." 
 
 The tall, sad-faced man caressed her and said gently: "No, no, 
 mother; they will not do that. Trust in the Lord and all will be well." 
 
 Then, going to the unmarked and neglected grave of his father, he 
 stood over it in reverie, and asked that a suitable tombstone be erected. 
 
 It was now his last day in Springfield. He went to the old law office 
 in the little back room, and, stretching himself out on the worn lounge, he 
 lay there a moment with his face toward the ceiling. "Billy," he said, 
 to his law partner, "let the old sign hang there undisturbed. If I live, 
 I m coming back sometime, and then we ll go right on practicing law as 
 if nothing had ever happened." 
 
 Then rising and walking toward the door, he lingered a moment as 
 if to take a last look at the familiar scenes to impress them on his memory, 
 and, turning away, passed down the stairs for the last time. 
 
LINCOLN GREETING His NEIGHBORS FOR THE LAST TIME AT His OLD HOME 
 
 Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, in 1861, when Lincoln was bidding 
 farewell to his townspeople before going to his inauguration at Washington 
 
 Negative in the Collection of Americana owned by Mr. F. H. Meserve of New York 
 
CAPITOL AT WASHINGTON WHEN LINCOLN WENT TO His INAUGURATION 
 
 Photograph taken while the crowd was gathering for the inauguration in 1861, 
 showing the National Capitol of the Republic in course of its construction 
 
 Negative in Collection of Americana owned by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
LINCOLN AT His HOME IN SPRINGFIELD Photograph taken early in 1861 as Lincoln stood with his two 
 younger sons in his front yard Print in collection of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington 
 
 WHITE HOUSE AS LINCOLN ENTERED IT Photograph taken at Presidential mansion in Washington, in 1861, 
 in first spring of Lincoln s occupancy Print in collection of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington 
 
THE WILLINGNESS OF LINCOLN TO GIVE HIS LIFE 
 
 ^f^f^HE final test of a man s ability is responsibility. The calm 
 
 / dignity of Lincoln in the storms of violence that were thundering 
 
 ^^T J about him perplexed the people. He did not repent of "the 
 
 crime of having been elected"; he did not ask forgiveness nor 
 
 apology; neither did he heed the warnings that were flooding upon him 
 
 from all parts of the country, begging him to resign or to compromise. 
 
 The day arrived for him to start for Washington. It was a clear, cold, 
 winter morning the eleventh of February in 1861. Lincoln rose long 
 before daylight and was at the railroad station at eight o clock. Less than 
 a hundred people were there to shake hands with him, neighbors who had 
 watched him rise from humbleness to greatness and who knew that the 
 gulf was so narrow that they could clasp hands from either side. 
 
 The tall, solemn figure stood on the rear platform of the train that 
 was about to bear him away. The snow was beginning to fall. He raised 
 his hand to silence them, and, baring his head, he looked into their faces. 
 There was a tear on his cheek; his lips quivered. He spoke a few 
 words of encouragement, and bowed: "I bid you an affectionate farewell!" 
 The train pulled away, and as it disappeared from view, Lincoln, the 
 country lawyer, could be seen still lingering on the platform. 
 
 At the villages and cities where the train paused, women and children 
 threw bouquets into the car, while men and boys shouted for "Lincoln." 
 
 To the salvation of the Union there needs but one thing," he said, 
 slowly, "the hearts of a people like yours. Of the people when they rise in a 
 mass in behalf of the Union and the liberties of their country, truly may it be 
 said the gates of hell cannot prevail against them! 3 
 
 For two weeks he passed through the principal cities of the North, 
 leaving words of encouragement and inspiration. It was now Washington s 
 Birthday. He stood at Independence Hall, the historic shrine where the 
 world first heard the Declaration of Independence that proclaimed a new 
 era of civilization in which all men are politically "free and equal." 
 
 "If this country cannot be saved without giving up that principle I 
 would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it!" he cried. 
 The words thrilled his hearers. The voice of the solemn man rang through 
 the great gathering: "I have said nothing that I am not willing to live by, 
 and if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by!" 
 
 It was the clear, clarion note of a Nation s patriotism a man was 
 offering his own life as a sacrifice for the country that he loved. 
 
Photograph taken shortly after Lincoln s election to the Presidency. 
 
 Believed to be his first portrait with beard, early in 1861, at 52 
 
 years of age Owned by Mr. H. W. Fay, DeKalb, Illinois 
 
 Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, just prior to Lincoln s 
 
 departure for Washington in 1861 Original negative by 
 
 F. M. McNulta Now owned and copyrighted, 1894, 
 
 by Mr. Herbert Wells Fay of DeKalb, Illinois 
 
THE FORTITUDE OF LINCOLN IN HOUR OF TRIAL 
 
 ^y^fj^HE man who stands for a principle must value duty higher than 
 
 / life. When Lincoln was told that it was sworn that he would 
 
 ^^T V never enter Washington alive, he determined to die if need be 
 
 only at the Nation s capital with his hand at the helm of state. 
 
 He had a work to do and he intended to do it. 
 
 His journey was fraught with danger. There was a hurried conference 
 with a messenger in his room at Harrisburg. A plot had been discovered 
 to take his life. Kissing his wife and children good bye, he left them sob 
 bing and slipped away into the night with two friends. 
 
 When Washington awakened on the morning of the twenty-fourth of 
 February, it was startled to find that the new President, Abraham Lincoln, 
 was in their midst; that he had entered the capital of the republic on a 
 midnight train as a common passenger, unknown and unrecognized by 
 his fellow-travelers, a stranger. 
 
 The National capital was in no welcoming mood. It was a Southern 
 slave-holding community and looked upon Lincoln as a revolutionist who 
 intended to set up a new system of government under the radical doc 
 trines of a new republican party, which had come into being to destroy 
 their property rights. The statesmen, who had known slavery as an 
 American institution from the founding of the republic, looked upon the 
 new party as a menace to the Nation and shook their heads in dismay. 
 Here was a man who would upset the republic. 
 
 At daybreak on the fourth of March, in 1861, the city of Washington 
 was astir. There was the clatter of cavalry and the tramp of the militia 
 in the streets. The Senate had been in session the whole night long and 
 the drowsy statesmen walked the corridors with sullen faces. 
 
 At noon the inaugural procession moved slowly over the historic route 
 which almost every President since Jefferson had traveled to take his oath 
 of office. Thousands of people crowded the streets. Around the presi 
 dential carriage rode the protecting guard of militia to thwart any attempt 
 at assassination. Platoons of soldiers were stationed along the avenue. 
 Riflemen were posted on the roof-tops, watching for the slightest sign of 
 hostility, while cavalrymen guarded every approach from the side streets. 
 
 As Lincoln entered the Senate chamber, his pale face and black attire 
 brought a stillness over the august body. He was leaning on the arm of an 
 old man withered and bowed with age President Buchanan, from whom 
 he was now to lift the weight of a crumbling republic. 
 
 44 
 
Photograph of Lincoln taken early in 1861 about the time that he 
 entered the White House Original negative by Alexander Hesler 
 of Chicago Print owned by Mr. Frank A. Brown of Minneapolis 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln taken just before leaving Springfield for the 
 
 White House in 1861, age 52 years Original negative by 
 
 C S. German Print owned by Mr. Allen Jasper Uonant 
 
THE CRUMBLING NATION IN LINCOLN S ARMS 
 
 HEN the world thinks that a man has won, his struggles have 
 just begun. When Lincoln stood before the throng at the 
 steps of the National Capitol, to be inaugurated President of 
 the United States, the first "government of the people, by the 
 people, and for the people," that the world had ever known, he stood as 
 the personification of the principles upon which the republic is founded. 
 
 Before him now gathered a remarkable group of men who had made 
 history. Here were statesmen who had served their country through long 
 lives of distinguished loyalty and had seen it rise from the war with England 
 to become one of the world s greatest powers. Here were diplomats of 
 foreign embassies who were pledged to the divine rights of kings and shook 
 their heads prophetically as they agreed that the theory of self-government 
 was now to take its place as the heresy of civilization. 
 
 Lincoln rose and stood before them. There was a faint cheer from 
 the crowd that was being held in restraint by the battalion of soldiers. 
 Riflemen scanned the scene from the capitol windows, while just ahead 
 moved a battery of flying artillery. 
 
 There was a moment s pause as Lincoln moved forward. He removed 
 his tall silk hat. A short, heavy, strong-featured man stretched forth his 
 hand and took it from him. Lincoln bowed courteously and smiled. It 
 was Stephen A. Douglas, the political antagonist of his whole public career, 
 the man who had fought him through every step of progress, and who 
 had just contested him for the crowning honor of his life and lost. 
 
 "If I can t be President," he whispered to a member of the Lincoln 
 party, "I at least can hold his hat." 
 
 As Lincoln stood there, pledging himself to preserve, protect and 
 defend the Constitution and the Union, every ear was strained to catch 
 the words from his lips: 
 
 "I am loath to close," he said. "We are not enemies, but friends. 
 We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must 
 not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretch 
 ing from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth 
 stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when 
 again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 
 
 A hush fell over the assemblage. The oath of office came from his 
 lips. The cannons of the battery boomed. And Abraham Lincoln, the 
 son of a log cabin, held the future of a nation in his arms. 
 
THE DETERMINED WILL OF LINCOLN AMONG MEN 
 
 OJVER is not so much what a man can accomplish as what he 
 can lead others to do. Lincoln had the ability to lead men. 
 It was with a heavy heart that he entered the White House. 
 The South had insisted upon the supremacy of the state as the 
 true interpretation of the Constitution, and to uphold this principle seven 
 historic old states had withdrawn and established a new republic to be 
 known as the Confederate States of America. 
 
 The Southern Senators and Representatives were withdrawing from 
 the Congress of the United States. The Federal courts were suspending, 
 and the stars and stripes were being hauled down from their flagstaffs. 
 The prophecy of Lincoln had come true and the house was now divided. 
 
 Lincoln gathered his cabinet about him. Among them were states 
 men who had opposed him for the nomination for the Presidency and who 
 now beheld him with grave perplexity. They were strong men of strong 
 convictions, but they could little comprehend the subtle power of this 
 strange man who had come up from the western wilderness and taken 
 control of their government. 
 
 Look at Lincoln as he sat in his cabinet room. Among the faces of 
 those men there is not a friend, not one who had known Lincoln a year 
 before. But to establish the new spirit of republicanism in power, he had 
 gathered about him this cabinet composed of his rivals for political honors 
 and had not even reserved for himself the appointment of one personal 
 friend to whom he might now turn. 
 
 There they sat, in their inability to measure the greatness of their 
 chief, contending for leadership and power, only to find at last that a mighty 
 man may come from the rough paths through the woods, one who takes 
 his heart from the oak and his judgment from the mountain rocks. 
 
 In the corridors of the White House strode the wily politicians in the 
 wild stampede for office in the new political party that had come into power 
 for the first time. Within was dissension and misunderstanding, political 
 prowess and manipulation. Without were the rumbles of discontent and 
 threats of war. But there sat Lincoln, with words of hope and courage, 
 turning away impatience and wrath with pointed stories of wit and phi 
 losophy, holding the threads of a nation together with the keen insight 
 of human nature and the instinctive understanding of men, while in his 
 mind he was working out the solution in the mighty problem of maintaining 
 the American people one and inseparable. 
 
Lincoln s Vice-President in 1861-1865 
 HANNIBAL HAMLIN of Maine 
 
 Lincoln s Secretary of War in 1862-1865 
 EDWIN M. STANTON of Ohio 
 
 Lincoln s Secretary of War in 1861-1862 
 SIMON CAMERON of Pennsylvania 
 
 Lincoln s Secretary of State in 1861-1865 
 WILLIAM H. SEWARD of New York 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEMBERS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN S CABINET 
 
 Original negatives taken from 1861-1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington. Now in the Brady-Gardner Collection 
 of Seven Thousand Negatives deposited at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
THE TRUE TEST OF LINCOLN S STATESMANSHIP 
 
 ^f^^jHE man w ho can control other men without their realizing it 
 
 m is in himself great. The firm decision of gentleness has won 
 
 ^^F J more victories than aggressive force. The statesmen sitting in 
 
 Lincoln s political family all felt that in experience and judg 
 
 ment they were much greater than their chief; each man was confident 
 
 that he alone was the real master of the situation. Now they were 
 
 advising, now threatening, now demanding. Clamor and intrigue sur 
 
 rounded him. 
 
 "Let the Union slide," shouted the abolitionists. 
 
 "Let the South go her way. The North can take care of itself," 
 cried the financial powers. 
 
 "Wayward sisters, depart in peace," exclaimed the venerable patriot 
 of two wars who was now in command of the Federal Army. 
 
 Lincoln heard the words but made no reply. 
 
 "Turn public attention immediately by waging a war with some 
 foreign nation on some pretext or other and thus force the South to unite 
 with the North to protect themselves against foreign invasion," advised 
 the most distinguished member of the cabinet. 
 
 "We must change the question before the public from one upon 
 slavery or about slavery, to one upon union or disunion," he urged. "I 
 would demand explanations (on the Monroe Doctrine) from Spain and 
 France, energetically, at once . . . and if not received ... I would convene 
 Congress and declare war against them. I would seek explanations from 
 Great Britain and Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico, and 
 Central America to arouse a vigorous spirit of continental independence." 
 
 But the man in the White House remained calm. He betrayed no 
 emotion of anger against the insinuations nor boastful self-confidence. 
 
 o o 
 
 Whether it was to be war or peace, union or disunion, life or death, he 
 took the fearful burden of it wholly upon his own shoulders, with the simple 
 words that whatever the course might be: "I must do it." 
 
 "Remind the British that we have whipped them in two wars," urged 
 the cabinet adviser, "and are ready to fight them again, and, if need be, 
 two or three other European powers at the same time." 
 
 Lincoln sat at his cabinet table, with his eyes looking out of the 
 window on the soldiers that guarded the White House, as if peering into 
 the future. "One war at a time," he said, softly. "One war at a time." 
 
 Native common sense was now in contest with statesmanship. 
 
 50 
 
Lincoln s Secretary of Treasury in 1861-1864 
 SALMON P. CHASE of Ohio 
 
 Now in the Original Brady Collection 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 Lincoln s Secretary of the Navy in 1861-1865 
 GIDEON WELLES of Connecticut 
 
 Now in the Original Brady Collection 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 Lincoln s Secretary of the Interior in 1861-1865 
 CALEB B. SMITH of Indiana 
 
 Now in the Original Brady Collection 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 Lincoln s Postmaster-General in 1861-1864 
 MONTGOMERY BLAIR of Maryland 
 
 Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy 
 
 at Washington, District of Columbia 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEMBERS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN S CABINET 
 
 Original negatives taken from 1861-1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington 
 
THE STRENGTH OF LINCOLN IN A NATION S PERIL 
 
 MAN must be willing to resign to the inevitable, but he must 
 first be sure that it is the inevitable. Lincoln knew that every 
 stroke of the hour was now moving him toward it; that there 
 was no human power that could resist it. All that he could now 
 do was to meet it with the courage and resignation of manhood. 
 
 It was on the twelfth of April in 1861 the day was Friday. Lincoln 
 had arisen with the dawn and was sitting at his morning duties in the 
 executive mansion when a messenger approached. 
 
 "They have fired on Fort Sumter!" he exclaimed. 
 
 The message startled the National capital and passed from city to 
 city until it had aroused the continent and was echoing around the world. 
 The ancient monarchies well understood its meaning. 
 
 The American Flag had been assailed; not by a foreign foe, but by 
 its own sons. The sound of that shot was like the tap of a drum calling 
 its people to arms. The South, inspired by its own convictions, rose in 
 courage and cheered. The North sprang to its guns in an outburst of 
 frenzied patriotism. The bonds of brotherhood were now severed. The 
 whole people cried out for war. 
 
 Excited groups of statesmen gathered at the White House. Party 
 dogmas and doctrines were forgotten. Diplomatic relations and policies 
 were set aside. Political enemies clasped hands and pledged themselves 
 to the service of their country. 
 
 Lincoln walked among them, grave and calm. All day long came 
 the news of the deadly fire in the ramparts of Fort Sumter. Lincoln shook 
 his head as he listened to the despatches that told of the brave defense 
 of the little garrison, who for thirty-four hours stood at their post, enveloped 
 in sheets of flame, and when they, too, faced the inevitable, marched bravely 
 out on that Sunday afternoon with colors flying and drums beating, saluting 
 the bullet-ridden flag of the Union with fifty guns as it was lowered from 
 its staff. 
 
 The Confederate States of America had now proclaimed their empire. 
 The sovereignty of the state had now been baptized by shot and shell. 
 The last vestige of "federal despotism," as they looked upon it, was now 
 driven from their soil and the American people stood arrayed against each 
 other in two mighty republics, ready and waiting to lay down their lives 
 on the fields of battle for the sake of the principles which each held more 
 precious than life. The inevitable had come. 
 
 52 
 
Lincoln s Attorney-General in 1861-1863 
 EDWARD BATES of Missouri 
 
 Now in the Original Brady Collection 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 Lincoln s Assistant Secretary of War 
 CHARLES A. DANA of New York 
 
 Now in the Original Brady Collection 
 at Springfield , Massachusetts 
 
 Lincoln s Secretary of the Treasury in 1864- 1865 
 WILLIAM P. FESSENDEN of Maine 
 
 Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy 
 at Washington, District of Columbia 
 
 Lincoln s Secretary of Interior in 1863-1865 
 JOHN P. USHER of Indiana 
 
 Now in the Original Brady Collection 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEMBERS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN S CABINET 
 
 Original negatives taken from 1861-1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington 
 
THE FAITH OF LINCOLN IN THE COMMON PEOPLE 
 
 ^y^ffjHE heart of the people has never faded to respond when duty 
 
 m calls it and never will. The great army of humanity that has 
 
 ^^T J come down through the ages in endless procession since the 
 
 world began may have seemed to waver at times under the 
 
 sieges of fire, but its lines have never been known to break when standing 
 
 on the battle-line of civilization. 
 
 And so it was when Lincoln called for volunteers to defend the nation s 
 flag, and the Confederacy marshaled its sons under the new standard of 
 the Stars and Bars. Throughout the North could be heard the tramp 
 of marching men. Over the green plantations of the South rolled the 
 call to arms. From village to village sounded the drumbeat of the Union. 
 Men left their plows and laid down their tools of labor to take up arms 
 in defense of their homes and their country, while wives and mothers prayed. 
 
 The tragedy of it all lay before the eyes of Lincoln. The flag of the 
 Confederacy floated on the bluffs across the Potomac River in Virginia. 
 In the streets before him were women fleeing with their children to the 
 hills. Great wagons of ammunition and provisions thundered over the 
 thoroughfares. Outside, at the door, he could hear the gruff voices of the 
 soldiers barricading his home into a fortress. Office seekers and statesmen 
 walked the corridors of the White House with muskets and revolvers. 
 
 Lincoln, turning to his wife and children, urged them to flee from the 
 city in safety. The terror-stricken woman looked into the sad face of 
 her husband, and, clinging to his arm, whispered, "I am as safe as you. 
 I shall never leave you here alone." 
 
 It was five o clock in the evening on the nineteenth of April, in 1861. 
 Lincoln stood at the window in the White House. Far down the street, 
 he could see a great body of men moving nearer and nearer the men 
 of the North, who had heard his call and had come to the defense of 
 their country, dusty, torn and bleeding. On their faces was grim deter 
 mination. Behind them, in single file, came seventeen stretchers bearing 
 the wounded. Their dead they had left behind in the streets of Baltimore, 
 where, a few hours before, they had shed the first blood for the Union. 
 
 On came the volunteers, pouring floods of men into the national 
 capital, until, on the Fourth of July, three hundred thousand were 
 marching under the Stars and Stripes, and from every hill and valley 
 throughout the land echoed the refrain: "We are coming, Father Abraham, 
 three hundred thousand more!" 
 
Lincoln s Secretary of the Treasury in 1865 
 HUGH McCuLLOCH of Indiana 
 
 Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy 
 at Washington, District of Columbia 
 
 Lincoln s Attorney-General in 1864-1865 
 JAMES SPEED of Kentucky 
 
 Now in the Original Brady Collection 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 Lincoln s Postmaster-General in 1864-1865 
 WILLIAM DENNISON of Ohio 
 
 Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy 
 at Washington, District of Columbia 
 
 Lincoln s Second Vice-President in 1865 
 ANDREW JOHNSON of North Carolina 
 
 Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy 
 at Washington, District of Columbia 
 
 PHOTOGRAPHS OF MEMBERS OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN S CABINET 
 
 Original negatives taken from 1861-1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington 
 
THE ABILITY OF LINCOLN TO OVERCOME DEFEAT 
 
 ^f^fj^HERE is one quality that always comes to the aid of a man in 
 
 / time of adversity it is patience. This has never been demon- 
 
 ^^F J strated more forcibly than in the experience of Lincoln during 
 
 the early days when the American people were in fratricidal war. 
 
 Congress authorized an army of a half million men, with a half billion 
 dollars to support it. The Confederacy marshaled its strongest sons 
 to defend its capital at Richmond. The North, with the courage of its 
 great army and wealth, was eager to pit itself against the new republic 
 and appealed to Lincoln to strike the fatal blow. But Lincoln, always 
 with hope in his heart that some unforeseen power would avert the 
 tragedy, waited patiently. The North, in its impatience, charged him 
 with being a coward. 
 
 Lincoln listened to the abuse without reply. It was now July 
 the twenty-first day. The sun rose hot on that Sunday morning. Lincoln 
 went to church. Suddenly the city was aroused. The two great armies 
 were standing face to face at Manassas, but thirty-two miles from Wash 
 ington. Couriers hurried to the White House. There was deep anxiety 
 on the face of the President. The North and South were in battle. The 
 two great fighting forces were in deadly combat. 
 
 The Union army is victorious!" Crowds waited anxiously for the 
 next word. The dispatches ceased coming. The prolonged silence per 
 plexed the watchers and they were seized with a strange fear. 
 
 It was six o clock in the evening. A statesman hurried to the White 
 House and asked excitedly for Lincoln. 
 
 "The battle is lost," he exclaimed. "The Confederates are coming!" 
 
 Lincoln quietly turned, and, without a word, went to the War Depart 
 ment. The telegraph instruments were ticking the story of the fearful 
 disaster and the probable capture of Washington. Turning to the door, 
 he returned to the White House, and threw himself onto a lounge. 
 
 It was midnight when the routed army staggered across Long Bridge 
 into the city, and when morning dawned the defeated soldiers were pouring 
 into Washington in great streams of frightened humanity. 
 
 Lincoln still lay on the lounge. His deep set eyes had not closed 
 during the long night. But beneath them there seemed to brood a new 
 strength. He arose and greeted the disheartened soldiers with the grasp 
 of a warm heart. On his face was a fixed expression of determination 
 the determination of a man who had learned how to grow strong in defeat. 
 
 56 
 
Photograph of Lincoln seated with his secretaries, Nicolay and Hay Taken in 
 
 Springfield, Illinois, in 1861, just before leaving for Washington Print 
 
 in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 Photograph presented by Lincoln to Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, on October 3, 1861 
 
 on which he inscribed his autograph Negative in the Collection of 
 
 Americana in possession of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
THE HOPEFULNESS OF LINCOLN IN MISFORTUNE 
 
 MAN who spends his time fighting over old battles is surely 
 lost. Life, in its shortness, gives us no opportunity to re-live 
 the lost days. The only value of yesterday is the experience 
 that we learned from it; otherwise nature would never have 
 given us memory. 
 
 Lincoln understood life. Bull Run was nothing more than the price 
 that is paid for experience. His life had been full of Bull Runs, and from 
 every defeat he had gained a great victory. 
 
 The wrath of the North now fell upon him. Famine began to lay its 
 hand upon the country. The nation was overwhelmed in debt. The 
 army was costing more than two millions of dollars a day and yet no 
 battles were being won. Men pressed about him with conflicting advice. 
 Cabinet ministers charged him with incompetency. His friends appealed 
 to him to resign, or to march his armies against the capital of the Con 
 federacy and conquer it by overwhelming numbers. 
 
 The generals upon whom he relied, failed to meet the emergencies. 
 The mighty Confederacy strengthened its power of government and slowly 
 but firmly drew its lines more tightly around the nation s capital. 
 
 As Lincoln sat surrounded by his family, the battle-line crossed the 
 very threshold of his home. A Southerner by birth, he found many of his 
 dearest friends under the flag of the Confederacy. Mrs. Lincoln s own 
 family were arrayed against the Union. Her sisters were parted from her 
 by the war, and their husbands were fighting against her husband s cause. 
 When the news came of the Union victory at Shiloh, and Mrs. Lincoln 
 found it her duty to receive in honor of the victorious soldiers, one of her 
 own brothers, the darling of her heart, lay dead in a uniform of gray on 
 that battlefield. 
 
 Lincoln, with the terrible imprint of it all being written upon his 
 countenance, stood for hours with his big white gloved hand grasping 
 the hands of the passing throng, but his eyes were looking far beyond into 
 the trenches of the humanity that he loved. And when he received the news 
 of the terrible slaughter at Antietam, where, in defense of the nation s 
 capital, the army in blue withstood the army in gray and forced it back on 
 to its own soil, Lincoln, with his heart overflowing with hope in the belief 
 that now the war was to cease, went to the battlefield and looked into 
 the faces of the soldiers upon whom he relied in this hour of need. 
 
LINCOLN IN CAMP WITH THE ARMY AT ANTIETAM 
 
 Photograph taken on October 3, 1862, when Lincoln was 
 
 standing in front of General McClellan s tent Taken 
 
 by Mathew Brady, Government Photographer 
 
 Original negative in the Brady Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 Copyright, 1910, by the Patriot Publishing Company 
 
PRESIDENT LINCOLN ON BATTLEFIELD OF ANTIETAM UNDER GUARD OF THE SECRET SERVICE 
 
 jsi -- 
 
 Springfield, Massachusetts Copyright, 1907, by Mr Edward Bailey Eaton 
 
LINCOLN- WITH His GENERALS Photograph taken in the army of the Potomac at Antietam, on October 3, 1862, 
 
 while Lincoln was addressing General McClellan and staff Negative in Brady-Gardner Collection 
 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts Copyright, 1907, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton 
 
 LINCOLN WITH His SOLDIERS AT THE BATTLE-LINE Photograph taken while Lincoln was inspecting 
 
 conditions m army at Antietam on October 3, 1862 Original negative by Mathew Brady 
 
 Print in Collection of Mr. C. M. Derickson of Monessen, Pennsylvania 
 
PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN GENERAL MCCLELLAN S TENT AT BATTLE GROUNDS OF ANTIETAM 
 
 Original negative taken by Mathew Brady on October 3, 1862, while Lincoln was in_ conference 
 
 with General McClellan a few days after the great battle Now deposited in the 
 
 Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts Copyright, 1907, 
 
 by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton and valued at ten thousand dollars 
 
PRESIDENT LINCOLN IN THE SECOND YEAR OF THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR 
 
 Original negative taken by Mathew Brady in Washington, in 1862 
 Print owned by Mr. Baldwin Coolidge of Boston, Massachusetts 
 
THE MIGHT OF LINCOLN IN HIS COUNTRY S CRISIS 
 
 3N every man s life there are times when the burdens that press upon 
 him are beyond all human endurance; when patience is no longer 
 a virtue, and all the powers within him demand decision and action. 
 Lincoln found that there was a moment when even sympathy and 
 diplomacy must give way to the destiny of mankind; when it must work 
 out its own salvation or destruction with the blood of men. 
 
 It was five days after the battle of Antietam the twenty-second day 
 of September in 1862. Members of the cabinet were seated in secret 
 session. Lincoln sat with a book in his hands. The faces of the states 
 men were stern. He did not seem to notice them as they entered. Then, 
 turning to them, he said: Gentlemen, did you ever read anything from 
 Artemus Ward ? Let me read you a chapter that is very funny." 
 
 A look of anger passed over the ministers. Lincoln laughed heartily; 
 not a member of the cabinet smiled. 
 
 "Well," he said, "let s have another chapter." He continued to read 
 with great deliberation. The statesmen were astonished. Abruptly, he 
 threw the book down, and exclaimed: "Gentlemen, why don t you laugh ? 
 With the fearful strain that is upon me night and day if I do not laugh I 
 shall die, and you need this medicine as much as I do." 
 
 His face and his tone became grave. Turning to his tall silk hat that 
 lay upon the table, he took a paper from it. He gazed for a moment at 
 his ministers. "I have called you here," he said slowly, "upon very 
 important business. I have prepared a little paper of much signifi 
 cance ... I have said nothing to any one, but I have made a promise to 
 myself and to my Maker. I am now going to fulfill that promise." 
 
 Holding the sheets before him, he began to read. His voice was low 
 but firm: "On the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 1863, 
 all persons held as then slaves in any state or designated part of a State, 
 the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, 
 shall be then, thenceforth and forever free." 
 
 The statesmen were silent. The tremendous meaning of it all flooded 
 upon them. The man upon whom they had looked as without power of 
 decision, sat before them with grim determination. In the might of 
 decision, he had with a single blow issued to the world a proclamation 
 that was to break the shackles of bondage and to shake the foundations 
 of civilization. 
 
 The news swept through the army. "Lincoln has freed the slaves!" 
 The North shouted in exultation. The South retorted in defiance. 
 
PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN AFTER THE FIRST EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 
 
 Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washington in September, 1862, age 53 years 
 Print in possession of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, District of Columbia 
 
THE HAND OF LINCOLN ON THE CHAIN OF BONDAGE 
 
 ^y^^j^l - greatest gift that man has ever known is moral courage. 
 
 / It is the secret power that makes men rise above themselves 
 
 ^^^ V and rule their destiny. It is a legacy that is bequeathed to every 
 
 living man to use or not to use according to his own desire. 
 
 You are your own master of your God-given fortunes and you alone are 
 
 held accountable for them. 
 
 The Confederacy reeled at the blow of the Emancipation Proclamation 
 and referred to it as the "most execrable measure recorded in the history 
 of guilty man." Lincoln understood the responsibility upon him. He saw 
 in it the omen of racial and social strife to come. 
 
 "I do it," he said, "only to save the Union ... I can only trust in 
 God." 
 
 It was New Year s Day in 1863. The White House was a scene of 
 social brilliancy. Ministers from foreign nations, senators and congress 
 men and army officers gathered to pay their respects to the courageous 
 republic. Lincoln stood among them with words of cordial greeting. 
 Passing from them, he entered the executive chamber. He seated himself 
 at the long cabinet table. Before him lay a broad sheet, the words of which 
 were engrossed in heavy letters. He raised his pen, and, dipping it in the 
 ink, moved his hand to the place for the signature. Hesitating a moment, 
 he dropped the pen. Turning toward the cabinet minister, and his son, 
 who were the only persons in the room, he said: "I never, in my life, felt 
 more certain that I was doing right than I do in signing this paper. But 
 I have been shaking hands since nine o clock this morning, till my arm 
 is stiff and numb. If my name goes into history it will be for this act, and 
 my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign this proclamation, 
 they will say: He hesitated. 
 
 Turning again to the table, he took up the pen, and slowly but firmly 
 wrote at the close of tie document "Abraham Lincoln." He sat for a 
 moment with his eyes fixed on the signature. Looking up, he smiled and 
 said: "That will do!" 
 
 His hand fell by his side the hand that by a single stroke had un 
 chained a race that had been held in bondage almost since the world began. 
 The cabinet member left the room. Lincoln looked straight ahead as 
 though into the future. The lines were chiseled deep about his lips. He 
 seemed to be listening as though he could hear the clanking shackles 
 break from the arms of three million human beings, as though he could 
 hear the anguished sigh that arose from three million human hearts. 
 
 06 
 
PHOTOGRAPH OF LINCOLN SHORTLY AFTER THE SIGNING 
 OF THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 
 
 Original negative taken by Alexander Gardner at Washington, in 1863, when 
 Lincoln, age 54, broke the chains that had bound three million slaves 
 
 Negative in the Collection of Americana of Frederick H. Meserve, New York 
 
THE GREATEST SACRIFICE OF LINCOLN S LIFE 
 
 E who forgets that he was once a child is not a man. The dearest 
 memories that most of us possess are those of childhood; we 
 look back at those long lost days with fondest recollections. Lin 
 coln never got so far that he could not hear the call of the whip- 
 poor-will and brown thrush singing in those old Kentucky forests far away. 
 
 Lincoln loved children. He had three sons, another having died in 
 infancy. The army to him was but somebody s boys his boys; over two 
 million boys under twenty-one years of age; a million not even eighteen; 
 eight hundred thousand less than seventeen; two hundred thousand had 
 not reached sixteen; while one hundred thousand children less than fifteen 
 years of age were standing on the battle-line under the Stars and Stripes. 
 
 It was during the darkest days of the war, that Lincoln was called upon 
 to make his own sacrifice. The White House was the scene of a brilliant 
 reception. The President, with his wife leaning on his arm, entered the 
 room where the dignitaries of the world were gathered to meet him. The 
 notes of the Marine Band floated far away to the chamber where the 
 companion of his heart lay in fever his twelve-year-old boy, Willie. The 
 night passed slowly. Lincoln left the ball-room and went to the chamber. 
 
 "He is not as well tonight," remarked the physician. "He may be 
 better in a few days." The passing hours were filled with messages from 
 the boys who were dying on the field of battle. Lincoln turned again to 
 his own chamber. His head was bowed with grief. He came to the bed, 
 and, lifting the cover from the face of his child, he gazed into it. 
 
 "My poor boy," he murmured. "He was too good for this earth. 
 God has called him home. I know he is much better off in heaven, but 
 we loved him so. It is hard hard to have him die!" Great sobs choked 
 his words. He bowed his head in his hands, and his gaunt frame shook. 
 
 Those of you who have lost sons, stand with him here a moment. 
 Listen to the sobs of the broken-hearted mother. Look upon the grief 
 of a father. Bending over her gently, he takes her by the arm and leads 
 her to the window: "Mother, do you see that large, white building on the 
 hill yonder?" He is pointing to the asylum on the hill. Try to control 
 your grief, for it will drive you mad, and we may have to send you there." 
 
 The lifeless body of the beloved boy lay in the green room, beneath 
 his office. Strong men gathered about him, ambassadors, senators and 
 soldiers, all struggling with their tears for, whatever the dissensions of 
 life may be, this is a moment when all the world has a heart in common. 
 
Photograph of President Lincoln s son, William Wallace 
 
 Lincoln, who died at the White House, February 20, 
 
 1862, at twelve years of age Collection of 
 
 Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
 Photograph of Thomas (Tad) Lincoln, born April 4, 18S3, 
 
 who became the companion of President Lincoln during 
 
 his last years in the White House The oldest son, 
 
 Robert Todd Lincoln, was in Harvard 
 
 Collection of Frederick H. Meserve 
 
THE POWER OF LINCOLN TO CONQUER HIMSELF 
 
 RE AT achievements are but the accumulation of conquered diffi 
 culties. As we look over our own experiences we find that there 
 is one simple truth in life that is always well worth remembering 
 our richest possessions are those which cost us the most, not in 
 money, but in disappointments, sacrifices, and hope. The Emancipation 
 Proclamation plunged the nation into despair. It was a bugle call to 
 the hosts of the South who now arose in vengeance to strike a staggering 
 blow at the man who had despoiled them of their property. 
 
 The mighty columns of the Confederacy were now sweeping toward 
 the North, vowing that they would unfurl their flag over the capitol at 
 Washington and force a prostrate nation to return their property to them. 
 The North, stricken with terror, called for the resignation of Lincoln, the 
 man who was responsible for the disaster, and threatened to take his life. 
 
 "I shall never be happy again," he said. "My life springs are wearing 
 out and I shall not last ... I long ago made up my mind that if any 
 body wants to kill me, he may do it." Then he added dejectedly, "How 
 hard it is to die, unless I can make the world understand that I would 
 be willing to die if I could be sure I am doing my work toward lifting the 
 burdens from all mankind!" 
 
 It was a bright afternoon in May, in 1863. The door leading to the 
 family apartments in the White House swung open. There stood Lincoln, 
 holding a telegram in his hand. It was from Chancellorsville. 
 
 "My God! My God!" he cried in broken tones. "What will the 
 country say ? Oh, what will the country say ? " 
 
 He tottered to a chair, and sat down. As the night fell he paced the 
 floor in deep thought. In front of him were heaps of letters, the purport 
 of which he well knew. They were piteous appeals for peace, the cries 
 of heart-stricken mothers. They were denunciations branding him with 
 the blood of the hundred thousand homes that were being left fatherless. 
 
 The doors of the room were ajar. The night was warm; its stillness 
 was broken only by the slow, steady tread back and forth. One by one 
 the hours passed, but Lincoln, with head bowed, walked the chamber, the 
 steady footfalls breaking the silence. A battle greater than Chancellors 
 ville was raging within him. When the morning light sifted through the 
 window, Lincoln, his eyes heavy with sleeplessness, sat at his desk, but 
 his face was strong in resignation. A great battle had been fought that 
 night and Lincoln had won another victory over himself. 
 
 70 
 
Photograph of Lincoln taken at Washington in 1863 
 
 shortly after the Battle of Chancellorsville 
 
 Original negative by Mathew Brady 
 
 Photograph taken the Sunday before Lincoln left for the 
 
 Battlefield of Gettysburg in November, 1863 
 
 Original negative by Mathew Brady 
 
THE HUMILITY OF LINCOLN IN HOUR OF VICTORY 
 
 it is always darkest just before the dawn is a truth that 
 comes to every man sooner or later. No matter how hard the 
 storm may rage there is always a break in the clouds through 
 which the golden light floods the heart with warmth and hope. 
 
 The sun rose hot on the first morning in July, in the year 1863. Its 
 scorching rays looked down on two great armies standing face to face. The 
 legions of the South, on their onward march into the strongholds of the 
 North, stood in battle-line against the hosts in blue under the Stars and 
 Stripes on the field of Gettysburg. Nearly two hundred thousand strong, 
 they passed through the fire of hell for the sake of the cause that they loved. 
 On and on they charged, beneath the maddening hail of iron, into the ter 
 rible roar and din of belching flame, their banners flying; and when the 
 clouds of smoke lifted at the end of the third day, more than fifty thousand 
 dead, wounded and missing, had laid down their lives on the altar of sacrifice. 
 
 Lincoln, with anxiety and anguish on his face, waited for the tidings. 
 When the news came to him that the flag of the republic had triumphed, 
 that the great army of the Confederacy had been driven from Northern 
 soil and was fleeing back to its own beautiful valley he thanked God. 
 
 It was four months later that Lincoln stood on the battlefield at 
 Gettysburg. Before him was a great throng of people. Garlands of 
 flowers were placed upon the graves of the heroes who had given their 
 lives on the sacred ground on those terrible days in July. The chill of 
 November had now fallen upon the hills. 
 
 Dressed in black, the somberness and ghastly pallor of his face brought 
 silence to the multitude. His words, as if by magic, fell upon their ears: 
 "Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this conti 
 nent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition 
 that all men were created equal." 
 
 A hush fell over the great audience. There was now and then an 
 outburst of suppressed emotion. The notes rang clear. "It is due our 
 own who have died here . . . This nation in God shall have a new proof 
 of freedom . . . Government of the people, by the people, for the people, 
 shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 The tall, solemn figure disappeared from view. As he resumed his 
 seat the words seemed to leap from man to man across the continent until 
 the American people were inflamed by their inspiration, the fires of which 
 are still blazing, and will forever blaze, down through the generations. 
 

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Photograph taken about the time of the Battle of Gettysburg 
 in 1863 Original negative by Mathew Brady 
 
 Photograph taken in the Brady gallery at the National Capital 
 
 in 1863 during darkest days of Civil War Original negative 
 
 by Mathew Bradv L fe negative in Collection of 
 
 Americana of Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
Photograph taken shortly after Lincoln called for a half 
 
 million more men in 1 864 Original negative by 
 
 Mathew Brady of Washington 
 
 Photograph taken when Lincoln was seeking a General for 
 
 all the armies of the Republic in 1864 Negative 
 
 by Mathew Brady at Washington 
 
THE SYMPATHY OF LINCOLN FOR THE UNFORTUNATE 
 
 OME men work only with their bands; some with their heads; 
 others with their hearts. A great man works with them all and 
 of such was Lincoln. He knew that any man who tries to build 
 his life upon any one of these qualities, at the expense of the 
 other, is destined to failure. Lincoln began life with his hands; his first 
 discovery was his heart; and he learned to control them both with his head. 
 
 Go back to those days in 1864, and sit with him in his cabinet. The 
 ministers are impatient and stubborn, but he conquers them not with a 
 scourge of discipline but with pointed wit. An officer having some trouble 
 with Sherman, hurries to Lincoln and reports excitedly: "Mr. President, 
 I have a cause of grievance. This morning I went to see Colonel Sherman 
 and he threatened to shoot me!" 
 
 "Threatened to shoot you?" exclaims Lincoln in surprise. "Well, if 
 I were you I would not trust him for I believe he would do it." 
 
 Go with Lincoln to the battlefields. Stand beside him as he aims 
 the guns to assure himself of their efficiency, and with his early instinct 
 scores a dozen hits in fourteen shots. Sit with him as he eats at their mess 
 tables and hear him exclaim, " How willingly would I exchange places today 
 with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the Army of the Potomac." 
 
 He knew neither pride of rank nor the glory of war; he touched his hat 
 to the General, but bared his head to the boys in the ranks. The mother s 
 prayer, the father s plea, the babies cry, the story of an empty sleeve or 
 a crutch, he never failed to hear. Every soldier who carried a musket was 
 his son all were his children. 
 
 There are already too many weeping widows," he protested when 
 asked to sign execution papers against deserters. "For God s sake, do not 
 ask me to add to the number, for I won t do it!" 
 
 A girl is pleading for her brother s life; he has been condemned to die. 
 He is speaking to her: "My poor girl, you have come here with no Gov 
 ernor or Senator or member of Congress to plead your cause; you seem 
 honest and truthful ... If he has not a friend, I will be his friend!" 
 
 A poor widow has lost five sons in battle; he is writing to her: "I 
 pray our Heavenly Father to assuage the anguish of your bereavement 
 and leave only the memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride 
 that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of 
 freedom." 
 
 Firm and determined it was the balance of justice. 
 
Photograph of Lincoln taken early in 1864 at the request of Secretary Sewaid 
 
 of his cabinet Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washing ion 
 
 Now in the Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy at Washington 
 
 Photograph taken about the time of the Battle of Spottsylvania Court House 
 
 in 1864 Original negative by Mathew Brady Deposited 
 
 in the War Department Collection at Washington 
 
THE WORTH OF A MAN IN LINCOLN S JUDGMENT 
 
 ^FB^jHERE is a place in the world for every man and a man for 
 
 m every place. The secret is in securing the right man for the 
 
 ^^^ J right place. Lincoln was an experimenter with men. He knew 
 
 that throughout the annals of mankind, whenever the people 
 
 are in danger, somewhere, sometime, a man always rises among them to 
 
 lead their cause. 
 
 The Confederacy found such a man to lead their army at the begin 
 ning a man of courage, character, and nobility, a master leader of men. 
 The Union found many men, brave, loyal, conscientious but it had not 
 yet found the right man for the right place at the right moment. Down 
 in the Mississippi valley, Lincoln s eyes fell upon a little, silent man 
 who was fighting his way through almost insurmountable obstacles; a vol 
 unteer, who, without political influence, had offered his services to his 
 country and through his courage was leading his men to victory. 
 
 It was early in March, in 1864, that this little, silent man came quietly 
 to Washington. As he passed through the streets, leading his young son 
 by the hand, he wore an old blue uniform; there was a well-worn army 
 hat on his head, and a cigar in his mouth. 
 
 A few hours later he entered the White House. Lincoln rose to meet 
 him. His kind, sympathetic face looked down upon the stranger. 
 
 "This is Ulysses S. Grant," he exclaimed, and the two men clasped 
 hands. It was a moment that was molding the future of the western 
 world. Here was a man whose life at thirty-nine had been a failure, and, 
 although a graduate of West Point, had never been able to find his right 
 place in the world; who, before the war, was a store clerk at fifty dollars 
 a month. 
 
 As Lincoln stood before him, to bestow upon him the highest 
 military honor, which none but Washington among American soldiers had 
 ever borne on the battlefield, ministers of the cabinet gathered about him. 
 
 "As the country trusts you," said Lincoln, profoundly, "so under 
 God will it sustain you." 
 
 The silent, little man bowed as he took the commission which gave 
 him the destiny of an army. "I feel the full weight of the responsibilities 
 devolving upon me," he said, "and I know that if they are met it will be 
 due to those armies, and above all to the favor of that Providence which 
 loves both nations and men." Declining a public dinner as the guest of 
 the President, he pulled his worn army hat down over his eyes, and left 
 the White House to marshal about him the legions that were now to lead 
 a republic to glorious triumph. The right man was now in the right place. 
 
Photograph of Lincoln about the time that Lincoln met Grant in 1864 
 
 Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washington Life negative 
 
 in Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln about the time of Grant s taking command of the 
 
 Army in 1864 Original negative by Mathew Brady Print in 
 
 Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
^flj^^HERE is a halfway point in life where every man hesitates, where 
 M he is undecided whether to go ahead or turn back. It is one of 
 
 ^^^ V the most difficult moments in life, when, not knowing the dis 
 tance before him, but knowing the distance behind him, he 
 abandons hope with success just around the next turn in the road. 
 
 Lincoln never abandoned hope; if he had there would be no United 
 States of America today. "If I go down," he said, "I will go with my 
 colors flying!" But a thousand men with hearts less stout lost hope 
 and appealed to him to turn back, until, in 1864, the whole American 
 people stood at the point of hesitancy. Lincoln had reached the end of 
 the four years administration to which he had been elected years of 
 carnage and terror, of death and famine. But the talons of war still 
 clutched the people, tearing their hearts and hopes. Politicians protested 
 that he had been given his opportunity and that he had failed to fulfill 
 his promises. The new Republican party declared that he had wrecked it. 
 His cabinet ministers wavered; one of them offered himself to the people; 
 while Lincoln s friends appealed to him to give up the struggle. 
 
 "I have pledged myself," he replied, "to save the Union!" 
 
 The radicals in the Republican party met in convention and nomi 
 nated one of Lincoln s generals in the army for President. The Demo 
 crats were pledged to nominate another of Lincoln s generals to succeed 
 him; both appealed to the people with the declaration that "the war 
 is a failure," and promised to end the terrible slaughter. 
 
 Lincoln answered them with but one appeal: "I believe that the 
 people will give me a chance to finish the work that I have begun." The 
 sense of fair play always surges through the masses. "Give Lincoln a 
 chance," came back the response from the plain people. The sentiment 
 passed through the country. 
 
 When Lincoln heard of his re-nomination as the standard bearer of 
 the National Union League, he felt that the American people were still 
 with him, although he knew that the political powers would conspire to 
 overwhelm and defeat their purpose. 
 
 "I do not allow myself to suppose," he said, "that they have con 
 cluded that I am either the greatest or best man in America, but rather 
 they have concluded that it is not best to swap horses while crossing a 
 stream." The homely phrase caught the spirit of the American people, 
 and Lincoln again stood before them as their candidate for President. 
 
LINCOLN ABOUT THE TIME OF His SECOND NOMINATION FOR THE 
 PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES 
 
 Photograph taken in 1 864 when the political leaders were declaring that Lincoln could not 
 
 be re-elected and the American people were demanding his leadership 
 
 Original negative by Walker in Washington 
 
 Print from the Collection of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd at the Lincoln Museum at Washington 
 
Photograph of Lincoln at the time of his second nomination for the 
 
 Presidency, in 1864 Original negative by Mathew Brady From 
 
 Collection of Americana of Frederick H. Meserve 
 
 L 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln with his son Thomas (Tad) in 1864 
 Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washington 
 
LINCOLN WITH His SON, THOMAS, (TAD) IN THE WHITE HOUSE 
 
 Photograph taken with Lincoln in his characteristic attitude at home 
 
 with his eleven years-old son by his side His son William 
 
 Wallace had died at the White House two years before 
 
 Original negative by Mathew Brady in Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy at Washington 
 
THE INSIGHT OF LINCOLN INTO HUMAN NATURE 
 
 WORD of wisdom is worth more than volumes of argument. The 
 shaft of reason has frequently won victories while armies are 
 meeting defeat. The summer of 1864 was long and disappointing. 
 The success of the great armies swung back and forth with almost 
 endless precision. Now the war was to end; now the conflict raged 
 fiercer than ever; now again the Confederacy seemed shattered; only to 
 rise once more in brave defiance. 
 
 "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," came 
 the message from the silent, little general on the battle-line. 
 
 Political leaders insisted that Lincoln could never be re-elected. 
 Business interests grew more and more doubtful. The Stars and Bars 
 swept so close to the national capital that Lincoln looked into the firing 
 line. The North was in panic. Preparations were made for abandoning 
 Washington. A steamer was in readiness to take the President and his 
 cabinet to safety. The wounded and the sick poured into the city. 
 
 "We must have more men!" said Lincoln. His demand for five hun 
 dred thousand more fighting men from the states staggered the politicians. 
 
 "Lincoln must withdraw his candidacy," demanded the political 
 leaders. "Patriotism demands his retirement. He has proved that he 
 cannot meet the necessities of the emergency." 
 
 "Don t swap horses while crossing a stream," was the only reply 
 that came from the man in the White House. 
 
 Suddenly the nation was aroused by the message from the battlefield: 
 "Atlanta is ours and fairly won! Sherman is marching to the sea! 
 The Northern forces are sweeping down the valley of the Shenandoah!" 
 
 Election day came on the eighth of November. Lincoln spent the 
 day at his desk in the war office, expressing more interest in the messages 
 from the battlefield than the political conflict. About midnight the wire 
 ticked: "Lincoln has carried every state in the Union except three. He 
 has been re-elected President by a majority of nearly a half million votes!" 
 
 As he walked in the darkness to the White House, he found a party 
 of serenaders under the window of his chamber. It was about two o clock 
 in the morning. "Friends," he exclaimed, "if I know my heart, my 
 gratitude is free from any intent of personal triumph. I do not impugn 
 the motive of anyone who opposed me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph 
 over anyone, but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the 
 people s resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity." 
 
Photograph of Lincoln about the time of his second election as 
 
 President in 186-t Original negative by Walker, photographer 
 
 for the Treasury Department at Washington Print from 
 
 Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln, age 56 years, shortly before his second 
 
 inauguration in 1865 Original negative by Alexander 
 
 Gardner at Washington Print from the Collection 
 
 of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
THE HEART OF LINCOLN THAT KNEW NO MALICE 
 
 are a few men who can forgive their enemies but it takes 
 a great man to forget them. Lincoln forgot all animosity when 
 he forgave. He found that 2,216,067 Americans had pledged 
 their loyalty to him at polls, while 1,808,725 had registered their 
 ballots against him under the leadership of his former friend, General 
 McClellan. The cabinet minister, who in envy had tried to take the presi 
 dency from him, and had resigned in indignation, was honored by Lincoln 
 with the highest tribute that the President can confer Chief Justice of 
 the United States Supreme Court. He lived by the Golden Rule. "If 
 any man ceases to attack me, I never remember the past against him/ 
 he said. "We must not be animated by any motive for revenge, or any 
 purpose to punish for punishment s sake." 
 
 It was now the fourth of March, in 1865 the day of inauguration, 
 A light rain was falling in the chill and gloom. A carriage stopped at the 
 White House door, and Lincoln came down the steps and entered it, alone. 
 
 It was about two o clock in the afternoon. A curious crowd had 
 gathered around the national capitol; negroes, who were but yesterday 
 slaves, and citizens jostled each other in the crowd to catch a glimpse of 
 "Father Abraham." Four years had wrought great changes in the scene. 
 Statesmen who had then gathered here, were now dead; while others were 
 now battling on the firing line; and still others had renounced the Republic. 
 
 As Lincoln appeared on the steps a rousing cheer greeted him. His 
 stooping shoulders, and sunken eyes, told the tragic story. As he looked 
 out over the applauding throng, a stream of sick and wounded heroes were 
 coming in endless procession from the fields of battle. 
 
 "Fellow countrymen." The words brought a hush to the gathering. 
 The tall, solemn figure spoke in inspiration. "Let us judge not that we 
 be not judged," he said. "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that 
 this scourge of war may speedily pass away." The great audience 
 listened. The closing words rested upon them like a benediction: 
 "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, 
 as God gives us to see the light, let us stand on to finish the work we are 
 in; to bind up the nation s wounds; to care for him who shall have won 
 the battle and for his widow, and his orphan; and do all which may 
 achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among races and with all 
 nations." As he stood before the cheering throng, the sun, which had been 
 veiled by rain throughout the day, burst through the clouds in splendor. 
 
 8G 
 
Photograph of Lincoln in the closing days of the American 
 
 Crisis in 1865 Original negative by Alexander Gardner 
 
 at Washington Print from the Collection of Mr. L. 
 
 C. Handy in Washington, District of Columbia 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln at his second inauguration in 1865, 
 
 age 56 years Original negative by H. F. Warren, Waltham, 
 
 Massachusetts Print in the Collection of Mr. Osborn H. 
 
 Oldroyd at the Lincoln Museum in Washington 
 
THE FATHERHOOD OF LINCOLN AMONG THE LOWLY 
 
 ^F^^jHE fortunes of war are much like the fortunes of men. While 
 
 m Lincoln was winning his battles over the people, his silent, little 
 
 ^^^ J general was carrying the armies to victory. With irresistible 
 
 power he was driving back the Confederacy and marching on to 
 
 their seat of government. A messenger hurried to the White House with 
 
 a dispatch. Lincoln read it and then sat pondering over its contents. 
 
 "I must go to the front," he said. "They may need me." The 
 next night a boat steamed up the James River. There, lying on a berth, 
 four inches shorter than his body, stretched a long, gaunt figure. The 
 roar of the battle rolled along the shore. 
 
 "Richmond has fallen! The Confederacy is destroyed! The capital 
 is burning!" The tidings aroused the continent; leaped the oceans, and 
 resounded around the world. The North was wild with joy. The South 
 was bowed with grief. Brave hearts shouted and wept; cheered and sighed. 
 The noble city burst into flames. With the rumble of the drums, and 
 colors flying, the hosts of the Republic marched into the fallen capital. 
 
 It was the month of April, in 1865. The sun rose clear on the morning 
 of the fourth. At twelve o clock the barge reached the river bank. As it 
 came alongside, the tall, gaunt man stepped ashore. An old negro with 
 snow white hair was standing on the bank. He was bent and worn. 
 
 "Bless de Lord," he shouted, "dere is de great Messiah! I knowed 
 him as soon as I seed him. He s been in my mind fo long yeahs, an he s 
 cum at las to free his chilun from deir bondage Glory Hallelujah!" 
 
 And, falling on his knees, the old slave kissed the feet of Lincoln. The 
 negroes crowded about him and threw themselves on the ground. Lincoln 
 looked at the poor creatures before him. "Don t kneel to me," he said 
 quietly. "That is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank 
 Him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy." 
 
 "Father Abraham is here!" The streets were instantly alive with the 
 colored race. They seemed to spring from the earth, tumbling, shouting, 
 weeping, praying, singing. There stood the Emancipator among the 
 people he had redeemed from bondage. 
 
 "My poor friends," he said, "you are free free as air. You can 
 cast off the name of slave and trample upon it; it will come to you no more. 
 Liberty is your birthright. God gave it to you as he gave it to others . . . 
 Let the world see that you merit it, and are able to maintain it by your 
 good works . . . There, now let me pass on." 
 
PRESIDENT LINCOLN ABOUT THE TIME OF THE FALL OF RICHMOND IN 1865 
 
 Photograph taken a few days before Lincoln went to the capital of the Confederacy 
 to look upon the ruins of the historic city Original negative by Mathew B rady . 
 
 Deposited in the Original Brady Collection at Springfield. Massachusetts 
 Copyright. 1909, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton 
 
THE MAGNANIMITY OF THE SPIRIT OF LINCOLN 
 
 great question is not alone how did you bear yourself in 
 defeat, but how did you bear yourself in victory. As Lincoln 
 walked through the streets of the destroyed capital of the Con 
 federacy, his eyes looked upon ruin and devastation; starvation 
 and pillage. The flames were still smoldering in the noble capital. 
 
 Before him stood the White House of the Confederacy, from which, 
 only thirty-six hours before, the statesmen of the "Lost Cause" had fled 
 for safety. Ascending the steps, he entered the stately mansion. There 
 lay a great desk, with a huge chair, deserted. 
 
 "It must have been President Davis chair," he said, as he sank into 
 it wearily, relaxing himself against its comfortable back and resting his 
 hands on its arms. The lines upon his forehead deepened. "Judge not," 
 he said, thoughtfully, "that ye be not judged!" 
 
 The boat bearing Lincoln sailed up the Potomac, to take him back 
 to the capital of the Republic at Washington. His eyes fell upon the white 
 dome. An expression of dread came to the face of Mrs. Lincoln, who was 
 now with him. "That city," she whispered, in apprehension, "is full of 
 our enemies!" Lincoln turned, and with perplexed expression, he ex 
 claimed, "Enemies! we must never speak that word again!" 
 
 The evening was falling. Mount Vernon loomed in the distance. 
 Lincoln looked out into the gathering twilight. "Springfield!" he said, in 
 reverie. " How happy, four years hence to return there in peace and tran- 
 quility!" 
 
 The Nation s capital was waiting in expectancy. The air was rent 
 with exploding rockets. Crowds gathered in front of the White House 
 and cheered. The throngs outside called for "Lincoln! Lincoln!" 
 
 "Fellow Citizens," he said, "We meet this evening not in sorrow but 
 in gladness of heart ... In the happiness of all this, however, Him from 
 Whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten. I call for a National 
 Thanksgiving which is being prepared and will be duly promulgated." 
 
 A great cheer arose from the serenaders. The martial notes of the 
 "Star Spangled Banner" passed through the crowd. Lincoln stood with 
 his head bared. As the refrain ceased, he raised his hand and called: 
 "Give us Dixie! We have a right to that tune now!" As he turned and 
 entered the White House, the strains of the hymn of the South-land fell 
 upon his ears and echoed through his heart. "This," he said, "is one 
 of the happiest moments of my life. " 
 
 90 
 
LINCOLN AT THE END OF THE CIVIL WAR AND THE SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX 
 
 Photograph taken in Washington in 1865 shortly before the Hosts of the South and the 
 Legions of the North clasped hands in Peace Original negative by Mathew 
 Brady now considered the greatest portrait of Lincoln ever taken 
 
 Deposited in the Original Brady Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 Copyright, 1908, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton 
 
THE VICTORY OF LINCOLN A REUNITED PEOPLE 
 
 RACE bath its victories no less than war. Through all the four 
 years of magnificent courage there is not a moment more inspir 
 ing than that April day when the hosts of the South stood before 
 the legions of the North to pledge themselves to peace and 
 brotherhood. In an heroic stand, the warriors of the Confederacy had 
 made their last gallant charge under the Stars and Bars. Now they stood 
 before the victorious warriors of the Republic, welcoming peace with the 
 same brave hearts with which they faced battle. 
 
 The two greatest generals that the world has ever known stood face 
 
 o o 
 
 to face Grant and Lee. Behind them were the armies in the mightiest 
 struggle that has ever been recorded in human annals. There stood the 
 silent, little general, the conqueror, in his uniform of blue; his figure, of 
 five feet eight inches, slightly bent; there was no sword in his hand; only 
 his shoulder straps to designate him from the rank of a private soldier. 
 There stood the gallant leader of the Confederacy in his uniform of gray; 
 his silver hair crowning his erect figure of six feet in height; at his side he 
 carried a long sword, the hilt studded with jewels. 
 
 The war was over. The camp fires were left to smolder into ashes; 
 the flags were tenderly furled; and two great armies sheathed their swords. 
 Along the roads moved regiments of men, no longer foes, but citizens of 
 a common country. The rattle of the artillery; the rumbling wheels of the 
 ammunition trains; all in the pageant of peace echoed through the streets. 
 
 Lincoln stood and gazed long upon them. The long night of blood 
 shed had ended. The day of peace and love had dawned. He looked 
 upon a portrait of the conquered commander of the Confederacy. 
 
 "It is a good face," he said. "It is the face of a noble, brave man. 
 I am glad that the war is over at last. We soon will live with the brave 
 men who have been fighting against us. I trust that the era of good feeling 
 has returned and that henceforth we will live in peace." 
 
 And, turning to his family, his heart trying to lift the veil of tragedy 
 that had so long enshrouded it, he said: "It is nearly over; now we shall 
 be happy." Throughout the hills and dales resounded the shouts of 
 rejoicing. Mothers clasped their long lost sons to their hearts; and children 
 climbed into the arms of their fathers who had come home at last. 
 
 The war was over! The miracle of the reunited people had been per 
 formed. And above it all loomed the tall, strong figure of one man- 
 Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 92 
 
LAST PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN EVER TAKEN 
 
 Photograph taken a few days before the end of Lincoln s life in April, 1865, 
 
 when the War was over and the American People were re-united 
 
 into an inseparable brotherhood Ordinal negative 
 
 by Alexander Gardner at Washington 
 
 Collection of Mr. M. P. Rice of Washington Copyright, 1891 
 
THE VEIL OF SORROW OVER AN EXULTANT NATION 
 
 man knows what the morrow may bring forth. We live today, 
 but what of the morning ? The morning of the fourteenth of 
 April, in 1865, was bright and warm. The balm of spring 
 bathed the hills. The Judas and the dog-wood bent in the 
 the breeze; the perfume of the lilacs floated through the morning air. 
 
 It was Good Friday, the nation s day of prayer and thanksgiving. 
 Lincoln rose early. A great weight seemed to have lifted. Today he was 
 to clasp the hand of Grant, the silent, little general who had led his armies 
 to triumph. Today the flag of the republic, which had been lowered from 
 Fort Sumter four years ago, was to be unfurled over the ruins. Today 
 his oldest son was to return from the war with a captain s commission. 
 
 As Lincoln took his seat at the head of the cabinet table, his grave, 
 sad eyes smiled; the haggard lines in his face seemed to disappear. He 
 greeted his ministers with words of affection, and, as he dropped his arm 
 upon the shoulders of one of his statesmen, he drew him close to him in 
 hearty embrace in their rejoicing over the end of the mighty struggle. 
 
 "The war is over," he said. "Enough lives have been sacrificed. 
 We must extinguish all resentment if we expect harmony and Union." 
 
 He grasped the hands of his cabinet ministers, and, entreating them 
 to be considerate of the vanquished foes, he left them and was soon driv 
 ing with his wife along the country roads on this beautiful spring day. 
 
 As the carriage rumbled along the blossom-laden lanes, he turned to 
 her and said: "Mary, we have had a hard time of it since we came to 
 Washington, but the war is over, and with God s permission we may hope 
 for four years of happiness and peace, and then we will go back to Illinois 
 and pass the rest of our lives in quiet." 
 
 He spoke of the old home in Springfield, and the recollections of his 
 early days came crowding back to him. He spoke of their early struggles 
 together and of their future. "We have laid by some money," he said 
 "and during this term we will try to save up more. Then we will go home." 
 
 The night fell. Throughout the nation, in a hundred thousand homes, 
 loved ones were gathering in reunion and thanksgiving. Now and then 
 there was a cheer, or the beat of a drum at the head of the soldiers 
 marching home. Suddenly, a great tumult arose in the streets. Newsboys 
 ran excitedly over the pavements. Great throngs gathered at the bulletins. 
 
 "Lincoln has been assassinated! The President has been shot!" 
 
 The crowds in the streets seemed stunned. 
 
The Portrait Life of Lincoln 
 
 PART III 
 
 A Revelation of the Last Scenes in the 
 
 Closing Hours of Lincoln 
 from Actual Photographs Taken at the Time 
 
THE LAST LINGERING MOMENTS OF A NOBLE LIFE 
 
 is life s greatest moment it comes to us all. It matters not 
 how great or how humble we may be, we are all one at the end; 
 the millions that have gone before, the millions that are to come. 
 As Lincoln, on that tragic night, on the fourteenth of April, 
 entered the box at the theater, in honor of the dawning peace, the or 
 chestral strains of "Hail to the Chief* greeted him. The great audience 
 rose to its feet and cheered. Lincoln bowed. It was a gala night. 
 The spirit of joyousness filled every heart. The audience roared with 
 laughter over the farcical lines of the mimic world on the stage. 
 
 Suddenly, a shot rang through the theater. There was the scream of a 
 woman. The figure of a man, an actor, sprang from the Presidential box, 
 his eyes gleaming with passion. A smoking pistol fell from his hand as he 
 clutched at a dagger. His spur caught in an American flag, and he fell 
 upon the stage with the ensign wound about him. Raising his knife in 
 the air, his words echoed above the tumult: "Sic semper tyrannis!" 
 
 The great audience was in frenzy; aisles and seats and galleries were 
 filled with shouting, weeping, panic-stricken men and women; the crowd 
 became uncontrollable. "My God, the President is shot!" sobbed strong 
 men, while women fainted. 
 
 The body of Lincoln was lifted from his chair; his head drooped; 
 blood was flowing from a wound. Over him, moaned his wife, pleading 
 for him to speak. Gently they bore him from the theater. As they passed 
 to the street, and carried him to the nearest house, their steps were marked 
 by his ebbing blood. Behind them walked Mrs. Lincoln, weeping. 
 
 Great throngs crowded about the humble dwelling. Anxiously they 
 waited for a message. The curtains were drawn at the windows. All 
 
 o 
 
 night long the crowds lingered; now they were silent under the burden of 
 grief; now bitterness rankled within them as its meaning flooded upon them. 
 
 At the White House, not far distant, all was still. Suddenly the east 
 door of the basement was thrown open. "Oh Tom! Tom!" cried a little 
 voice. "They have killed papa dead! They have killed papa dead!" 
 and he burst into sobs. It was little Tad. He threw himself into the 
 arms of an old family servant. 
 
 "Now, now, boy," said the faithful friend, caressing him, "don t cry 
 any more; let s go to bed." They turned down the cover and lay down 
 together. The old servant put his arm around the grief-stricken lad; the 
 sobs died away, and Tad fell into sound sleep. 
 
Photograph taken at Ford s Theater in Washington, after the assassination on the night of April 14, 1865 Original negatives by 
 Alexander Gardner Now deposited in the Original Brady Collection of seven thousand negatives at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 Photograph of President Lincoln s box in Ford s Theater 
 as it appeared on night of the tragedy 
 
 Photograph of the chair in which President Lincoln was sitting 
 when he was shot by John Wilkes Booth 
 
THE MAGNIFICENCE OF LIFE S LAST TRIUMPH 
 
 ND after all what does it mean for a man to live well ? Come 
 to that little chamber in the dingy brick building across the way. 
 The stairs are dark and narrow. Walk softly through the long, 
 dim hall. There is a door; knock gently; someone is opening it; 
 there are tears in his eyes. 
 
 Step into the room the simple bedchamber of a soldier. The 
 flickering light of a gas-jet falls upon the pallid face of a man that you 
 love. How pale and sad it is! The long, gaunt figure that you have 
 known so long, how motionless it lies! 
 
 A moan comes from a grief-pent heart; the arms are lifted; now they 
 fall; there is a long sigh. A smile comes to the face and rests upon it; 
 how restful it is, like the benediction of peace. How long the night seems! 
 How still it is : only the footfalls of the loved ones and a sob ! 
 
 The April rain is falling. Daylight sends its first gray rays through 
 the window. The notes of the robin float on the morning breeze. States 
 men are gathering about the bed; army generals and senators stand with 
 bowed heads. How white the face looks in the morning light. The pale 
 cheeks flush; the lips seem to part; a magnificent light leaps from the deep, 
 sunken eyes. A physician is leaning over the figure; his ear is close to the 
 heart. The clock is ticking. He speaks: "The President is dead!" 
 
 A clergyman kneels by the bedside. A cabinet minister leans over 
 the ashen face and gazes for a moment into it how happy it looks! 
 Then, tenderly stroking the lids with his hands, he closes the kind eyes in 
 their last, long sleep, and, drawing a sheet over the slumbering man, his 
 voice speaks low and deep: "Now he belongs to the ages!" 
 
 The hands of the clock on the mantel point at twenty-two minutes 
 after seven. It is Saturday morning. Tomorrow will be Easter Sunday. 
 The statesmen bow, and pass from the room. A woman falls upon the 
 lifeless form; oh, how she sobs; her loving heart is breaking! Close the 
 door gently; leave them alone in life s greatest moment a moment that 
 you and I must soon meet life s last triumph! 
 
 Was there ever a scene more magnificent ? Was there ever a greater 
 victory ? Was there ever a man whose tribute from the world was more 
 beautiful ? Look at the thousands and the hundreds of thousands passing 
 before his bier looking into the face that they loved men, women, and 
 children, weeping; all races and sects knit together into one kinship his 
 beloved children. 
 
HOUSE IN WHICH PRESIDENT LINCOLN DIED ON SATURDAY MORNING, APRIL 15, 1865 
 
 Photograph taken of the building opposite Ford s Theater in which Lincoln 
 
 spent his last hours The house is now the famous Lincoln Museum 
 
 established by Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd at Washington, D. C. 
 
 Print in possession of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington 
 
THE INFAMY OF A DEED THAT ROBBED A NATION 
 
 ND after all what does it mean for a man to live ill? The world 
 turned in wrath against the murderers of the man who had loved 
 humanity. Bitterness raged in their hearts against the assas 
 sins. Their names, which are hardly fit to speak, except as they 
 stand as ignominious warning to mankind, aroused only the hatred 
 of their fellow-men, and, like all who break the laws of God and man, 
 are passing down through the generations to be loathed. 
 
 The assassin, who, craving for notoriety, had fired the fatal shot in 
 the theater, fled from the stage in the excitement. His leg broken by the 
 fall from the balcony, he escaped on a horse that was waiting for him in 
 the streets, all the fast closing hours of his life to be haunted as a creature 
 too low to be allowed to exist even in the blood of his own crime. 
 
 Pitiful figure that he was, cursed by his own morbid longings, and 
 believing that the world might look upon and glorify him for his daring, 
 he found himself riding into the mouth of hell. Slowly, but surely, the grip 
 of the law tightened about him. Driven to desperation, he took his last 
 refuge in a barn on a Virginia farm, only to see his last friend betray him. 
 
 As the flames leaped from his place of refuge, he rose from his crouch 
 ing position and stood upright, leaning upon a crutch, and holding a car 
 bine. His eyes glared with the light of fever; his face was haggard from 
 eleven days of the most fearful torture that a man can endure. There 
 was a flash from a cavalry rifle. The crutch fell at his side. A long groan 
 came from his lips; his face writhed in agony he had paid the penalty. 
 
 Look upon him with all the pity that is within your heart poor, 
 unfortunate, deluded man. In his moment of ambition he forgot the ruling 
 hand of Justice that no man ever was or ever will be able to overpower. 
 He forgot that while, for a time, we may withstand it, there is within 
 every man s heart a law that he never can escape the law of conscience. 
 
 As they carried his body away, to give it a secret resting place that no 
 man will ever know, a diary fell from his pocket. In it was scribbled 
 the last words of an agonized heart: "Hunted like a dog through the 
 swamps ... I am here in despair ... I am abandoned with the curse 
 of Cain upon me." 
 
 And turn now to the prison yard. There on the gallows hang the 
 bodies of those, who, in their blindness, were led into this plot. There 
 in the prison cell sit those who listened to false ambition now rejected 
 and despised by their fellow-men. Look upon them all with pity! 
 
 100 
 
Photograph of John Wilkes Booth, the actor, who shot Lincoln 
 at Ford s Theater, Friday night, April 14, 1865 
 
 Photograph of Sergeant Boston Corbett, 16th New York Cavalry, 
 
 who fired the shot that killed the fugitive Booth in a 
 
 barn in Virginia at 3:15 a.m., April 26, 1865 
 
 Negatives in the Original Brady-Gardner Collection 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, an unfortunate widow and mother, whose 
 home unwittingly became the center of the conspiracy 
 
 George Atzerodt, a carriage painter, who, it was charged, 
 was delegated to assassinate Vice- President Johnson 
 
 Davey Herold, the boy who aided Booth to escape, and left 
 his mother and seven sisters heartbroken 
 
 Lewis Payne (Powell), a Florida boy, in double irons He 
 attempted to assassinate Seward in his home 
 
 HANGED AS CONSPIRATORS IN ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN 
 Original Secret Service Negatives in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
Michael O Laughlin, sentenced for life and died during 
 imprisonment; his remains were sent to his mother 
 
 Sam Arnold , clerk in sutler s store, sentenced for life 
 but pardoned after serving four years 
 
 Edward Spangler, scene shifter, sentenced to six years; 
 pardoned in four years and died 18 months later 
 
 Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, physician, who, for harboring Booth 
 was sentenced for life ; pardoned after four years 
 
 IMPRISONED AS ACCESSORIES IN ASSASSINATION OF LINCOLN 
 Original Secret Service Negatives in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
PRISON WHERE THE CONSPIRATORS WERE CONFINED Photograph taken at the old 
 penitentiary building on the Arsenal grounds at Washington where the accused 
 were imprisoned in cells and heavily chained and manacled Original negative 
 in the Brady-Gardner Collection deposited in Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 MILITARY COURT THAT TRIED THE LINCOLN CONSPIRATORS Photograph taken 
 when the commission began to take testimony on May 12, 1865 Lieutenant 
 General Grant, whose life was also in the conspiracy, was the first witness Print 
 in the Collection of Americana of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
GALLOWS IN THE PRISON YARD WHERE THE CONSPIRATORS WERE HANGED 
 Photograph taken on the afternoon oi July 7, 1865 when the ropes were being noosed 
 about the conspirators Original negative by Alexander Gardner, government 
 photographer, now in Brady-Gardner Collection in Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
 EXECUTION OP THE CONVICTED PRISONERS IN THE LINCOLN ASSASSINATION 
 This remarkable negative is a silent witness of the end of one of the world s 
 greatest tragedies Taken by Alexander Gardner while those who paid 
 penalty were hanging on gallows Negative in Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
THE GLORY OF A MAN WHO LOVES HIS FELLOW-MEN 
 
 HAT, then, do we learn from the life of such a man as 
 Abraham Lincoln ? It is the simplest, plainest truth in all 
 history the greatest man in the world is the man who 
 loves his fellow-men. Kings come and go; nations rise and 
 fall; military glory and political eminence flare for their moment and 
 then die away. Men may erect great monuments to their memory; genius 
 may leave its marvels behind it; masters may build their powerful insti 
 tutions, but there is only one living force that pulsates through the 
 ages and that is the heart of man himself. 
 
 Let your eyes rest upon Lincoln, not with the din of battle in your 
 ears, not with the shout of victory nor the pangs of defeat in your heart, 
 but as a man who knew no malice, who knew no envy, who knew no 
 glory, but who knew only that he loved his fellow-men and that he was 
 one of the most humble among them. 
 
 The funeral train moves slowly from the nation s capital; watch-fires 
 blaze in the darkness as it passes; bells are tolling. Was there ever a 
 procession like this nearly two thousand miles of a people s tribute! 
 Twenty-five million fellow-men bowing their heads in prayer. 
 
 Now he is home at last home again in Springfield, where he longed 
 to rest after his work was done. It is May-day the fourth. Tenderly, 
 they are bearing him to the foot of the wooded knoll; they are laying him 
 in the shade of the oaks. 
 
 Hark! Can you hear the melody? From every mountain and valley; 
 from every state and clime the solemn strains of the dirge are swelling. 
 
 The sun drops over the hills. Twilight bathes the blossoming foliage 
 and gathers its darkening shadows about the tomb. The world has lost 
 a simple, honest man and immortality has gained one. From every 
 nation and from every people, from farm and bench and throne of monarchs, 
 come tributes of his greatness; for days and months they came; for years 
 and for decades they have been coming, and ever will as long as memory 
 shall last and men shall love an honest heart. 
 
 This is the true Lincoln the Lincoln that you should know; the 
 Lincoln the generations will know when they have forgotten that blinding 
 war of brother against brother, and come to grasp the hand of this great, 
 strong, homely man among men. This is the Lincoln that the world will 
 love the common heritage of all races and times the man with a heart big 
 enough to hold the whole world. 
 
 106 
 
Photograph of the iuneral procession of Lincoln passing through the streets of Washington at the beginning of the 
 sixteen hundred mile journey of triumph to his old home at Springfield, Illinois, on April 21, 1865 Negative by Gardner 
 
 Bier on which President Lincoln rested in state while men, women, and children wept over their lost leader on his 
 funeral day on April 19, 1865, when twenty-five million people throughout the country bowed their heads in tribute 
 Original negatives by Alexander Gardner now deposited in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 
 
Photograph of Funeral Catafalque of Lincoln passing through Philadelphia 
 
 Photograph while Lincoln s body lay in state before great throngs at City Hall in New York 
 
 Photograph of the funeral car bearing the dead Lincoln back to Springfield, Illinois 
 Prints from the Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
Lincoln is "home at last" Photograph as they are laying Lincoln in his tomb 
 in beautiful Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Illinois, on May 4, 1865 
 
 Tomb of Lincoln where he was left with a soldier s guard by a mourning 
 nation Prints from the Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
A NATION S TRIBUTE TO LINCOLN 
 
 Magnificent Memorial at Lincoln s burial-place in his old home city 
 
 of Springfield, Illinois -Massive marble shaft rising above 
 
 the catacomb and memorial hall proclaims the simple 
 
 greatness of the man whom the whole world loves 
 
 Photograph taken shortly after its erection in 1874, showing the original tomb 
 at the foot of the hill where Lincoln lay for nine years 
 
 Print in the Collection ot Americana owned by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 
 
The Portrait Life of Lincoln 
 
 PART IV 
 
 The Nine Great Speeches that Mark the 
 
 Rise of Abraham Lincoln 
 as an Orator and Leader of the People 
 
FIRST PUBLIC SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Delivered at twenty-three years of age when " Honest Abe " the country store 
 clerk at New Salem, Illinois, became a candidate for the Legislature, in 1832 
 
 FELLOW-CITIZENS: I presume you all know who I am. I am 
 humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become 
 a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the 
 old woman s dance. I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor of the 
 internal improvement system, and a high protective tariff. These are my 
 sentiments and political principles. If elected, I shall be thankful; if not, 
 it will be all the same. 
 
 INCOLN left his own written record of his character and intellect 
 in his speeches. They are the living witnesses that remain long 
 after human lips are silent. In them is woven the true life-story 
 of the man. 
 
 Oratory has always been the forerunner of the world s civiliza 
 tion. It is the resounding voice of the future. In modern times, oratory has 
 not aroused the people as it did of old, owing to the democracy of the public 
 press which now speaks to the whole world while the human voice can 
 reach but the few who are within its hearing. The art of oratory will, 
 nevertheless, always remain one of the greatest gifts of genius. 
 
 Lincoln lived in a day when oratory was the road to greatness. His first 
 public speech, in its homely candor, is much like the first experiences of most 
 men when they find themselves before their first audience. He was the back 
 woods youth, but twenty-three years of age, when he delivered this first 
 speech; he neither knew nor was known by the world. In it, however, is the 
 beginning of his journey. It epitomizes the political principles that were the 
 foundation of his strength and character throughout his life. 
 
 In these pages are recorded the nine great speeches that mark the rise of 
 Lincoln as the leader of his people. He occupied the platform on nearly all 
 public occasions and spoke on all the varied subjects from temperance to 
 invention. It was not until he met Douglas in debate that his speeches were 
 very widely known. He was fifty-one years of age when he made his first 
 appearance in the East as an orator, and delivered his first national speech 
 at the Cooper Union mass meeting in New York. From this time he became 
 one of the great American orators and his speeches had a deeper effect upon 
 the trend of events than those of any other man of the generation. His 
 inaugural addresses inspired the nation, while his speech at Gettysburg has 
 taken its place as one of the world s greatest orations. 
 
 Lincoln was not the turgid rhetorician of the old-school of statesmanship, 
 but a simple, logical reasoner. His words did not inflame the imagination; 
 they carried conviction. While it is estimated that Lincoln delivered nearly 
 a hundred speeches many of them were extemporaneous and cannot be recorded. 
 Others were not reported at the time and there are various versions of them. 
 The nine speeches given here are the result of long research through author^ 
 tative sources. They represent the turning points in Lincoln s life and accu 
 rately establish the nine progressive steps through which he rose from a back 
 woodsman to the highest political honor in the world. 
 
 112 
 
FIRST GREAT PATRIOTIC SPEECH OF LINCOLN 
 
 Delivered at twenty-eight years of age, while a member of the Legislature of 
 Illinois, before the Young Men s Lyceum, at Springfield, on January 27, 1837 
 
 3N the great journal of things happening under the sun, we, the American 
 people, find our account running the date of the nineteenth century 
 of the Christian era. We find ourselves in the peaceful possession of 
 the fairest portion of the earth as regards extent of territory, fertility 
 of soil, and salubrity of climate. We find ourselves under the govern 
 ment of a system of political institutions conducing more essentially to the ends 
 of the civil and religious liberty than any of which the history of former times 
 tells us. We, when mounting the stage of existence, found ourselves the legal in 
 heritors of these fundamental blessings. We toiled not in the acquirement or 
 establishment of them ; they are a legacy bequeathed to us by once a hardy, brave, 
 and patriotic, but now lamented and departed, race of our ancestors. Theirs was 
 the task (and nobly they performed it) to possess themselves, and through 
 themselves us, of this goodly land, and to uprear upon its hills and its valleys 
 a political edifice of liberty and equal rights; tis ours only to transmit these 
 the former unprofaned by the foot of an invader, the latter undecayed by the 
 lapse of time and untorn by usurpation to the latest generation that fate 
 shall permit the world to know. This task of gratitude to our fathers, justice 
 to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all impera 
 tively require us faithfully to perform. 
 
 How then shall we perform it ? At what point shall we expect the approach 
 of danger ? By what means shall we fortify against it ? Shall we expect some 
 transatlantic military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! 
 All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa combined, with all the treasure 
 of the earth (our own excepted) in their military chest, with a Bonaparte for 
 a commander, could not by force take a drink from the Ohio or make a track 
 on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. 
 
 At what point is the approach of danger to be expected ? I answer, if 
 it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us; it cannot come from abroad. 
 If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As 
 a nation of free men, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. 
 
 I hope I am not over wary; but if I am not there is even now something 
 of ill omen amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades 
 the country the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions 
 in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the 
 executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any com 
 munity; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, 
 it would be a violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence to deny. 
 Accounts of outrages committed by mobs form the every -day news of the times. 
 They have pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; they are 
 neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the former nor the burning suns of 
 the latter; they are not the creature of climate, neither are they confined to 
 the slave-holding or the non-slave-holding States. Alike they spring up among 
 the pleasure-hunting masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens 
 of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their cause may be, it is common 
 to the whole country. 
 
 It would be tedious as well as useless to recount the horrors of all of them. 
 
 113 
 
Mob Law Is the Greatest Danger of the Nation 
 
 Those happening in the State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are perhaps the 
 most dangerous in example, and the most revolting to humanity. In the 
 Mississippi case, they first commenced by hanging the regular gamblers 
 a set of men certainly not following for a livelihood a very useful or honest 
 occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden by the laws was actually 
 licensed by an act of the legislature passed but a single year before. Next, 
 negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an insurrection were caught up and 
 hanged in all parts of the State; then, white men supposed to be leagued with 
 the negroes; and finally, strangers from neighboring States, going thither on 
 business, were in many instances subjected to the same fate. Thus went on 
 this process of hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to white citizens, 
 and from these to strangers, until dead men were seen literally dangling from 
 boughs of trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost sufficient to rival 
 the native Spanish moss of the country as a drapery to the forest. 
 
 Turn then to that horror-striking scene at St. Louis. A single victim was 
 only sacrificed there. This story is very short, and is perhaps the most highly 
 tragic of anything of its length that has ever been witnessed in real life. A 
 mulatto man by the name of Mclntosh was seized in the street, dragged to 
 the suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and actually burned to death; and 
 all within a single hour from the time when he had been a free man attending 
 to his own business and at peace with the world. 
 
 Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the scenes becoming more 
 and more frequent in this land so lately famed for love of law and order, and 
 the stories of which have even now grown too familiar to attract anything 
 more than an idle remark. 
 
 But you are perhaps ready to ask, "What has this to do with the per 
 petuation of our political institutions?" I answer, "It has much to do with 
 it." Its direct consequences are, comparatively speaking, but a small evil, 
 and much of its danger consists in the proneness of our minds to regard its 
 direct as its only consequences. Abstractly considered, the hanging of the 
 gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. They constitute a portion 
 of population that is worse than useless in any community; and their death, 
 if no pernicious example is set by it, is never a matter of reasonable regret by 
 anyone. If they were annually swept from the stage of existence by the plague 
 or smallpox, honest men would perhaps be much profited by the operation. 
 Similar, too is the correct reasoning in regard to the burning of the negro at 
 St. Louis. He had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an outrageous murder 
 upon one of the most worthy and respectable citizens of the city, and had he 
 not died as he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law a short time 
 afterward. As to him alone, it was as well the way it was as it could otherwise 
 have been. But the example in either case was fearful. When men take it 
 into their heads to-day to hang gamblers or burn murderers, they should recol 
 lect that in the confusion usually attending such transactions, they will be 
 as likely to hang or burn someone who is neither a gambler nor a murderer as 
 one who is, and that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of to-morrow 
 may, and probably will, hang or burn some of them by the same mistake. And 
 not only so ; the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against violations 
 of law in every shape, alike with the guilty, fall victims to the ravages of mob 
 law; and thus it goes on, step by step, til all the walls erected for the defense 
 
 114 
 
Rights of Persons and Property Must Be Protected 
 
 of the persons and property of individuals are trodden down and disregarded. 
 But all this, even, is not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by 
 instances of the perpetrators of such acts going unpunished, the lawless in 
 spirit are encouraged to become lawless in practice; and having been used 
 to no restraint but dread of punishment, they thus become absolutely unre 
 strained. Having ever regarded government as their deadliest bane, they 
 make a jubilee of the suspension of its operations, and pray for nothing so 
 much as its total annihilation. While, on the other hand, good men, men who 
 love tranquillity, who desire to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, 
 who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country, seeing their 
 property destroyed, their families insulted, and their lives endangered, their 
 persons injured, and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for 
 the better, become tired of and disgusted with a government that offers them 
 no protection, and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine 
 they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocratic 
 spirit which all must admit is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark 
 of governments, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectu 
 ally be broken down and destroyed I mean the attachment of the people. 
 Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious portion 
 of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, 
 and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing-presses into 
 rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and 
 with impunity, depend on it, this government cannot last. By such things 
 the feelings of the best citizens will become more or less alienated from it, and 
 thus it will be left without friends, or with too few, and those who are too weak 
 to make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and under such circum 
 stances, men of sufficient talent and ambition will not be wanting to seize the 
 opportunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric which for the last 
 half century has been the fondest hope of the lovers of freedom throughout 
 the world. 
 
 I know the American people are much attached to their government; 
 I know they would suffer much for its sake; I know they would endure evils 
 long and patiently before they would ever think of exchanging it for another, 
 yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws be continually disregarded and despised, 
 if their rights to be secure in their persons and property are held by no better 
 tenure than the caprice of a mob, the alienation of their affections from the 
 government is the natural consequence; and to that sooner or later it must 
 come. 
 
 Here, then, is one point from which danger must be expected. 
 
 The question recurs, "How shall we fortify against it?" The answer 
 is simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to 
 his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least 
 particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their violation by 
 others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration 
 of Independence, and so to the support of the Constitution and laws, let every 
 American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor let every man 
 remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and 
 to tear the charter of his own and children s liberty. Let reverence for the 
 laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles 
 
 115 
 
Nation s Safety Is the Preservation of Its Laws 
 
 on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be 
 written in primers, in spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from 
 the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. 
 And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old 
 and the young, the rich and poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues 
 and colors sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. 
 
 While ever a state of feeling such as this universally or even very generally 
 prevails throughout the nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every 
 attempt, to subvert our national freedom. 
 
 When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of all the laws, let me not 
 be understood as saying that there are no bad laws, or that grievances may 
 not arise for the redress for which no legal provisions have ever been made. 
 I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean to say that although bad laws, 
 if they exist, should be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they continue 
 in force, for the sake of example they should be religiously observed. So also 
 in unimproved cases. If such arise, let proper legal provisions be made for 
 them with the least possible delay, but til then let them, if not too intolerable, 
 be borne with. 
 
 There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law. In any 
 case that may arise, as, for instance, the promulgation of abolitionism, one 
 of two positions is necessarily true that is, the thing is right within itself, 
 therefore deserves the protection of all law and good citizens, or it is wrong, 
 and therefore proper to be prohibited by legal enactments; and in neither case 
 is the interposition of mob law either necessary, justifiable, or excusable. 
 
 But it may be asked, "Why suppose danger to our political institutions? 
 Have we not preserved them for fifty years? And why may we not for fifty 
 times as long?" 
 
 We hope there is no sufficient reason. We hope that all danger may be 
 overcome; but to conclude that no danger may ever arise would itself be 
 extremely dangerous. There are now, and will hereafter be, many causes, 
 dangerous in their tendency, which have not existed heretofore, and which 
 are not so insignificant as to merit attention. That our government should 
 have been maintained in its original form, from its establishment until now, 
 is not much to be wondered at. It had many props to support it through that 
 period, which now are decayed and crumbled away. Through that period 
 it was felt by all to be an undecided experiment; now it is understood to be 
 a successful one. Then, all that sought celebrity and fame and distinction 
 expected to find them in the success of that experiment. Their all was staked 
 upon it; their destiny was inseparably linked with it. Their ambition aspired 
 to display before an admiring world a practical demonstration of the truth 
 of a proposition which had hitherto been considered at best no better than 
 problematical namely, the capability of a people to govern themselves. If 
 they succeeded they were to be immortalized; their names were to be trans 
 ferred to counties, and cities, and rivers, and mountains; and to be revered 
 and sung, toasted through all time. If they failed, they were to be called 
 knaves, and fools, and fanatics for a fleeting hour; then to sink and be forgotten. 
 They succeeded. The experiment is successful, and thousands have won their 
 deathless names in making it so. But the game is caught; I believe that 
 the catching ends the pleasures of the chase. This field of glory is harvested, 
 
 116 
 
True Patriotism Builds Up It Does Not Pull Down 
 
 and the crop is already appropriated. But new reapers will arise, and they 
 too will seek a field. It is to deny what the history of the world tells us is true, 
 to suppose that men of ambition and talents will not continue to spring up 
 amongst us. And when they do, they will as naturally seek the gratification 
 of their ruling passion as others have done before them. The question then 
 is, Can that gratification be found in supporting and maintaining an edifice 
 that has been erected by others? Most certainly it cannot. Many great and 
 good men, sufficiently qualified for any task they should undertake, may ever 
 be found whose ambition would aspire to nothing beyond a seat in Congress, 
 a gubernatorial or a presidential chair; but such belong not to the family of 
 the lion, or the tribe of the eagle. What! think you these places would sat 
 isfy an Alexander, a Caesar, or a Napoleon ? Never! Towering genius dis 
 dains a beaten path. It seeks regions hitherto unexplored. It sees no dis 
 tinction in adding story to story upon the monuments of fame erected to the 
 memory of others. It denies that it is a glory to serve under any chief. It 
 scorns to tread in the footsteps of any predecessor, however illustrious. It 
 thirsts and burns for distinction; and if possible, it will have it, whether at 
 the expense of emancipating slaves or enslaving free men. Is it unreasonable, 
 then, to expect that some man possessed of the loftiest genius, coupled with 
 ambition to push it to its utmost stretch, will at some time spring up among 
 us? And when such an one does, it will require the people to be united with 
 each other, attached to the government and laws, and generally intelligent, 
 to successfully frustrate his designs. 
 
 Distinction will be his paramount object, and although he would as willingly, 
 perhaps more so, acquire it by doing good as harm, yet, that opportunity being 
 past, and nothing left to be done in the way of building up, he would set boldly 
 to the task of pulling down. 
 
 Here is a probable case, highly dangerous and such an one as could not 
 well have existed heretofore. 
 
 Another reason which once was, but which to the same extent, is now 
 no more, has done much in maintaining our institutions thus far. I mean the 
 powerful influence which the interesting scenes of the Revolution had upon 
 the passions of the people as distinguished from their judgment. By this 
 influence the jealousy, the envy, and avarice incident to our nature, and so 
 common to a state of peace, prosperity and conscious strength, were for the 
 time in a great measure smothered and rendered inactive, while the deep-rooted 
 principles of hate, the powerful motive of revenge, instead of being turned 
 against each other, were directed exclusively against the British Nation. And 
 thus, from the force of circumstances the basest principles of our nature were 
 either made to lie dormant, or to become the active agents in the advancement 
 of the noblest of causes that of establishing and maintaining civil and religious 
 liberty. 
 
 But this state of feeling must fade, is fading, has faded, with the circum 
 stances that produced it. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the scenes of the Revolution are now or ever 
 will be entirely forgotten, but that like everything else, they must fade from 
 the memory of the world, and grow more and more dim by the lapse of time. 
 In history, we hope, they will be read of, and recounted, so long as the Bible 
 shall be read; but even granting that they will, their influence cannot be what 
 
Reason Must Ultimately Rule There Can Be No Hate 
 
 it heretofore has been. Even they cannot be so universally known nor so 
 vividly felt as they were by the generation just gone to rest. At the close of 
 that struggle, nearly every adult male had been a participator in some of its 
 scenes. The consequence was that of those scenes, in the form of a husband, 
 a father, a son, or a brother, a living history was to be found in every family 
 a history bearing the indubitable testimonies of its own authenticity in the limbs 
 mangled, in the scars of wounds received, in the midst of the very scenes related 
 a history, too, that could be read and understood alike by all, the wise and 
 ignorant, the learned and the unlearned. But those histories are gone. They 
 can be read no more forever. They were a fortress of strength; but what 
 invading foemen could never do, the silent artillery of time has done the 
 leveling of its walls. They are gone. They were a forest of giant oaks; but 
 the all-restless hurricane has swept over them, and left only here and there 
 a lonely trunk despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its foliage, unshading and 
 unshaded, to murmur in a few more gentle breezes, and to combat with mutilated 
 limbs a few more rude storms and then to sink and be no more. 
 
 They were pillars of the temple of liberty; and now that they have crum 
 bled away that temple must fall unless we, their descendants, supply their 
 places with other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober reason. Passion 
 has helped us, but can do so no more. It will in future be our enemy. Reason 
 cold, calculating, unimpassioned reason must furnish all the materials for 
 our future support and defense. Let those materials be molded into general 
 intelligence, sound morality, and, in particular, a reverence for the Constitu 
 tion and laws; and that we improve to the last, that we remained free to the 
 last, that we revered his name to the last, that during his long sleep we per 
 mitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his resting-place, shall be that 
 which, to learn, the last trumpet shall awaken our Washington. 
 
 Upon this let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; 
 ana as truly as it has been said of the only greater institution, "the gates of hell 
 shall not prevail against it." 
 
 Words of Wisdom from the Lips of Lincoln 
 
 "Gold is good in its place; but loving, brave, patriotic men are better 
 than gold." 
 
 "Would you undertake to disprove a proposition in Euclid by calling 
 Euclid a liar?" 
 
 "I am like the boy that stumped his toe: hurt too much to laugh and too 
 big to cry." 
 
 "Meet face to face and converse together the best way to efface unpleasant 
 feeling." 
 
 "I want it said of me that I plucked a thistle and planted a flower where 
 I thought a flower would grow." 
 
 "Let not him who is homeless pull down the house of another, but let him 
 labor diligently to build one for himself." 
 
 "You may fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people 
 all of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time." 
 
 "If all that has been said in praise of woman were applied to the women 
 of America, it would not do them justice . . . God bless the women of America! 
 
 118 
 
FIRST GREAT NATIONAL SPEECH OF LINCOLN 
 
 First Speech Delivered by Lincoln in the East, at Fifty-one Years of Age, before a 
 Great Mass Meeting at Cooper Union in New York City, on February 27, 1860 This 
 Is the Speech That First Made Lincoln a Great National Political Leader in America 
 
 R. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW-CITIZENS OF NEW 
 YORK: The facts with which I shall deal this evening are 
 mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new in the 
 general use I shall make of them. If there shall be any novelty, 
 it will be in the mode of presenting the facts, and the inferences 
 and observations following that presentation. In his speech last autumn at 
 Columbus, Ohio, as reported in the New York Times, Senator Douglas said: 
 
 Our fathers, when they framed the government under which we live, understood this 
 question just as well, and even better, than we do now. 
 
 I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this discourse. I so adopt 
 it because it furnishes a precise and an agreed starting-point for a discussion 
 between Republicans and that wing of the Democracy headed by Senator 
 Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry: What was the understanding those 
 fathers had of the question mentioned ? 
 
 What is the frame of government under which we live? The answer 
 must be, "The Constitution of the United States." That Constitution consists 
 of the original, framed in 1787, and under which the present government first 
 went into operation, and twelve subsequently framed amendments, the first 
 ten of which were framed in 1789. 
 
 Who were our fathers that framed the Constitution? I suppose the "thirty- 
 nine" who signed the original instrument may be fairly called our fathers who 
 framed that part of the present government. It is almost exactly true to say 
 they framed it, and it is altogether true to say they fairly represent the opinion 
 and sentiment of the whole nation at that time. Their names, being familiar 
 to nearly all, and accessible to quite all, need not now be repeated. 
 
 I take these "thirty -nine, " for the present, as being "our fathers who framed 
 the government under which we live." What is the question which, according 
 to the test, those fathers understood "just as well, and even better, than we 
 do now?" 
 
 It is this: Does the proper division of local from Federal authority, or 
 anything in the Constitution, forbid our Federal government to control as 
 to slavery in our Federal Territories? 
 
 Upon this, Senator Douglas holds the affirmative, and Republicans the 
 negative. This affirmation and denial form an issue; and this issue this 
 question is precisely what the text declares our fathers understood "better 
 than we." Let us now inquire whether the "thirty-nine" or any of them ever 
 acted upon this question; and if they did, how they acted upon it how they 
 expressed their better understanding. In 1784, three years before the Con 
 stitution, the United States, then owning the Northwestern Territory, and 
 no other, the Congress of the Confederation had before them the question 
 of prohibiting slavery in that Territory; and four of the "thirty -nine" who after 
 ward framed the Constitution were in that Congress, and voted on that question. 
 Of these, Roger Sherman, Thomas Mifflin, and Hugh Williamson voted for 
 the prohibition, thus showing that, in their understanding, no line dividing 
 local from Federal authority, nor anything else, properly forbade the Federal 
 
 119 
 
Federal Control Is a Principle of the Government 
 
 Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. The other of the 
 four, James McHenry, voted against the prohibition, showing that for some 
 cause he thought it improper to vote for it. 
 
 In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the convention was in 
 session framing it, and while the Northwestern Territory still was the only 
 Territory owned by the United States, the same question of prohibiting slavery 
 in the Territory again came before the Congress of the Confederation ; and two 
 more of the "thirty -nine" who afterward signed the Constitution were in that 
 Congress, and voted on the question. They were William Blount and William 
 Few; and they both voted for the prohibition thus showing that in their 
 understanding no line divided local from Federal authority, nor anything else, 
 properly forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal 
 territory. This time prohibition became a law, being part of what is now well 
 known as the ordinance of 87. 
 
 The question of Federal control of slavery in the Territories seems not to 
 have been directly before the convention which framed the original Constitu 
 tion ; and hence it is not recorded that the "thirty-nine" or any of them, while 
 engaged on that instrument, expressed any opinion on that precise question. 
 
 In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under the Constitution, an act 
 was passed to enforce the ordinance of 87, including the prohibition of slavery 
 in the Northwestern Territory. The bill for this act was reported by one of 
 the "thirty -nine" -Thomas Fitzsimmons, then a member of the House of 
 Representatives from Pennsylvania. It went through all its stages without 
 a word of opposition, and finally passed both branches without ayes and nays, 
 which is equivalent to a unanimous passage. In this Congress, there were 
 sixteen of the "thirty -nine" fathers who framed the original Constitution. They 
 were John Langdon, Nicholas Gilman, William S. Johnson, Roger Sherman, 
 Robert Morris, Thomas Fitzsimmons, William Few, Abraham Baldwin, Rufus 
 King, William Paterson, George Clymer, Richard Bassett, George Read, Pierce 
 Butler, Daniel Carrol and James Madison. 
 
 This shows that, in their understanding, no line dividing local from Federal 
 authority, nor anything in the Constitution, properly forbade Congress to 
 prohibit slavery in the Federal Territory; else both their fidelity to correct 
 principle, and their oath to support the Constitution, would have constrained 
 them to oppose the prohibition. 
 
 Again, George Washington, another of the "thirty -nine," was then President 
 of the United States, and as such approved and signed the bill, thus completing 
 its validity as a law, and thus showing that, in his understanding, no line 
 dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, for 
 bade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. 
 
 No great while after the adoption of the original Constitution, North Carolina 
 ceded to the Federal Government the country now constituting the State of 
 Tennessee; and a few years later Georgia ceded that which now constitutes 
 the States of Mississippi and Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was made 
 a condition by the ceding States that the Federal Government should not prohibit 
 slavery in the ceded country. Besides this, slavery was then actually in the 
 ceded country. Under these circumstances, Congress, on taking charge of 
 these countries, did not absolutely prohibit slavery within them. But they 
 did interfere with it take control of it even there, to a certain extent. In 
 
 120 
 
Founders of the Republic Forecast Its Problems 
 
 1798, Congress organized the Territory of Mississippi. In the act of organi 
 zation, they prohibited the bringing of slaves into the Territory from any place 
 without the United States, by fine, and giving freedom to slaves so brought. 
 This act passed both branches of Congress without yeas and nays. In that 
 Congress, there were three of the "thirty -nine" who framed the original Con 
 stitution. They were John Langdon, George Read and Abraham Baldwin. 
 They all probably voted for it. Certainly they would have placed their oppo 
 sition to it upon record if, in their understanding, any line dividing local from 
 Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, properly forbade the Federal 
 Government to control as to slavery in Federal territory. 
 
 In 1803, the Federal Government purchased the Louisiana country. Our 
 former territorial acquisitions came from certain of our States ; but this Louisiana 
 country was acquired from a foreign nation. In 1804, Congress gave a territorial 
 organization to that part of it which now constitutes the State of Louisiana. 
 New Orleans, lying within that part, was an old and comparatively large city. 
 There were other considerable towns and settlements, and slavery was exten 
 sively and thoroughly intermingled with the people. Congress did not, in 
 the Territorial Act, prohibit slavery; but they did interfere with it take control 
 of it in a more marked and extensive way than they did in the case of 
 Mississippi. The substance of the provision therein made in relation to slaves 
 was : 
 
 1st. That no slave should be imported into the Territory from foreign 
 parts. 
 
 2nd. That no slave should be carried into it who had been imported 
 into the United States since the first day of May, 1798. 
 
 That no slave should be carried into it, except by the owner, and for his 
 own use as a settler; the penalty in all these cases being a fine upon the violator 
 of the law, and freedom to the slave. 
 
 This act also was passed without ayes or nays. In the Congress which 
 passed it there were two of the "thirty -nine." They were Abraham Baldwin and 
 Jonathan Dayton. As stated in the case of Mississippi, it is probable they 
 both voted for it. They would not have allowed it to pass without recording 
 their opposition to it if, in their understanding, it violated either the line properly 
 dividing local from Federal authority, or any provision of the Constitution. 
 
 In 1819-20 came and passed the Missouri question. Many votes were 
 taken, by yeas and nays, in both branches of Congress, upon the various phases 
 of the general question. Two of the "thirty-nine" Rufus King and Charles 
 Pinckney were members of that Congress. Mr. King steadily voted for 
 slavery prohibition and against all compromises, while Mr. Pinckney as 
 steadily voted against slavery prohibition and against all compromises. By 
 this, Mr. King showed that, in his understanding, no line dividing local from 
 Federal authority, nor anything in the Constitution, was violated by 
 Congress prohibiting slavery in Federal territory; while Mr. Pinckney, bv 
 his votes, showed that, in his understanding, there was some sufficient reason 
 for opposing such prohibition in that case. 
 
 The cases I have mentioned are the only acts of the "thirty -nine," or of 
 any of them, upon the direct issue, which I have been able to discover. 
 
 To enumerate, the persons who thus acted as being four in 1784, two in 
 1787, seventeen in 1789, three in 1798, two in 1804, and two in 1819-20, there 
 
 121 
 
Liberty Under Law Is the Intent of Our Constitution 
 
 would be thirty of them. But this would be counting John Langdon, Roger 
 Sherman, William Few, Rufus King, and George Read each twice, and Abra 
 ham Baldwin three times. The true number of those of the "thirty -nine" 
 whom I have shown to have acted upon the question which, by the text, they 
 understood better than we, is twenty-three, leaving sixteen not shown to have 
 acted upon it in any way. 
 
 Here, then, we have twenty-three out of our "thirty-nine" fathers "who 
 framed the government under which we live," who have, upon their official 
 responsibility and their corporal oaths, acted upon the very question which 
 the text affirms they "understood just as well, and even better, than we do 
 now"; and twenty-one of them a clear majority of the whole "thirty -nine" 
 so acting upon it as to make them guilty of gross political impropriety and 
 willful perjury if, in their understanding, any proper division between local 
 and Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution they had made them 
 selves, and sworn to support, forbade the Federal Government to control as 
 to slavery in the Federal Territories. Thus the twenty -one acted; and, as 
 actions speak louder than words, so actions under such responsibility speak 
 still louder. 
 
 Two of the twenty-three voted against congressional prohibition of slavery 
 in the Federal Territories, in the instances in which they acted upon the ques 
 tion. But for what reasons they so voted is not known. They may have done 
 so because they thought a proper division of local from Federal authority, or 
 some provision or principle of the Constitution, stood in the way; or they may, 
 without any such question, have voted against the prohibition on what appeared 
 to them to be sufficient grounds for expediency. No one who has sworn to 
 support the Constitution can conscientiously vote for what he understands to 
 be an unconstitutional measure, however expedient he may think it; but one 
 may and ought to vote against a measure which he thinks constitutional 
 if, at the time, he deems it inexpedient. It, therefore, would be unsafe to set 
 down even the two who voted against the prohibition as having done so because, 
 in their understanding, any proper division of local from Federal authority, 
 or anything in the Constitution, that forbade the Federal Government to con 
 trol as to slavery in Federal territory. 
 
 The remaining sixteen of the "thirty -nine," so far as I discovered, have 
 left no record of their understanding upon the direct question of Federal control 
 of slavery in the Federal Territories. But there is much reason to believe that 
 their understanding upon that question would not have appeared different 
 from that of their twenty-three compeers, had it been manifested at all. 
 
 For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I have purposely omitted 
 whatever understanding may have been manifested by any person, however 
 distinguished, other than the "thirty -nine" fathers who framed the original Con 
 stitution; and, for the same reason, I have also omitted whatever understand 
 ing may have been manifested by any of the "thirty -nine," even on any other 
 phase of the general question of slavery. If we should look into their acts 
 and declarations on those other phases, as the foreign slave-trade, and the 
 morality and policy of slavery generally, it would appear to us that on the 
 direct question of Federal control of slavery in Federal Territories, the six 
 teen, if they had acted at all would probably have acted just as the twenty- 
 three did. Among that sixteen were several of the most noted anti-slavery 
 
 122 
 
Intent of the Fathers of the American Republic 
 
 men of those times, as Dr. Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Gouverneur 
 Morris, while there was not one now known to be otherwise, unless it may be 
 John Rutledge, of South Carolina. 
 
 The sum of the whole is that of our "thirty-nine" fathers who framed the 
 original Constitution, twenty-one a clear majority of the whole certainly 
 understood that no proper division of local from Federal authority, nor any 
 part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control slavery 
 in the Federal Territories; while all the rest had probably the same understand 
 ing. Such, unquestionably, was the understanding of our fathers who framed 
 the original Constitution ; and the text affirms that they understood the question 
 "better than we." 
 
 But, so far, I have been considering the understanding of the question 
 manifested by the framers of the original Constitution. In and by the original 
 instrument, a mode was provided for amending it; and, as I have already stated, 
 the present frame of "the government under which we live" consists of that 
 original, and twelve amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument. 
 Those who now insist that Federal control of slavery in Federal Territories 
 violates the Constitution, point us to the provisions which they suppose it 
 thus violates; and, as I understand, they all fix upon provisions in 
 these amendatory articles, and not in the original instrument. The 
 Supreme Court, in the Dred Scott case, plant themselves upon the fifth 
 amendment, which provides that no person shall be deprived of "life, liberty, 
 or property, without the due process of law"; while Senator Douglas and his 
 peculiar adherents plant themselves upon the Tenth Amendment, provided that 
 "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution" "are 
 reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." 
 
 Now, it so happens that these amendments were framed by the first 
 Congress which sat under the Constitution the identical Congress which passed 
 the act, already mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the North 
 western Territory. Not only was it the same Congress, but they were the 
 very identical, same individual men who, at the same session, and at the same 
 time within the session, had under consideration, and in progress toward 
 maturity, these constitutional amendments, and this act prohibiting slavery 
 in all the territory the nation then owned. The constitutional amendments 
 were introduced before, and passed after, the act of enforcing the ordinance 
 of 87; so that, during the whole pendency of the act to enforce the ordinance, 
 the constitutional amendments were also pending. 
 
 The seventy-six members of that Congress, including sixteen of the 
 framers of the original Constitution, as before stated, were pre-eminently our 
 fathers who framed that part of "the government under which we live" which 
 is now claimed as forbidding the Federal Government to control slavery in the 
 Federal Territories. 
 
 Is it not a little presumptuous in anyone at this day to affirm that the 
 two things which that Congress deliberately framed, and carried to maturity 
 at the same time, are absolutely inconsistent with each other? And does not 
 such affirmation become impudently absurd when coupled with the other affir 
 mation, from the same mouth, that those who did the two things alleged to 
 be inconsistent, understood whether they really were inconsistent better than- 
 we better than he who affirms that they are inconsistent ? 
 
Honest Conviction Is the Inherent Right of Man 
 
 It is surely safe to assume that the thirty-nine framers of the original 
 Constitution, and the seventy-six members of the Congress which framed the 
 amendments thereto, taken together, do certainly include those who may be 
 fairly called "our fathers who framed the government under which we live." 
 And so assuming, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, in his 
 whole life, declared that, in his understanding, any proper division of local 
 from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
 Government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories. I go a step 
 further. I defy anyone to show that any living man in the whole world ever 
 did, prior to the beginning of the present century (and I might almost say 
 prior to the beginning of the last half century) declare that, in his understand 
 ing, any proper division of local from Federal authority, or any part of the 
 Constitution, forbade the Federal Government to control as to slavery in the 
 Federal Territories. To those who now so declare I give not only "our fathers 
 who framed the government under which we live," but with them all other 
 living men within the century in which it was framed, among whom to search, 
 and they shall not be able to find the evidence of a single man agreeing with 
 them. 
 
 Now, and here, let me guard a little against being misunderstood. I do 
 not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers 
 did. To do so would be to discard all the lights of current experience to 
 reject all progress, all improvement. What I do say is that if we would sup 
 plant the opinions and policy of our fathers in any case, we should do so upon 
 evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, that even their great authority, 
 fairly considered and weighed, cannot stand; and most surely not in a case 
 whereof we ourselves declare they understood the question better than we. 
 
 If any man at this day sincerely believes that a proper division of local 
 from Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal 
 Government to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories, he is right to say 
 so, and to enforce his position by truthful evidence and fair argument which 
 he can. But he has no right to mislead others, who have less access to history, 
 and less leisure to study it, into the false belief that "our fathers who framed 
 the government under which we live" were of the same opinion thus substi 
 tuting falsehood and deception for truthful evidence and fair argument. If 
 any man at this day sincerely believes "our fathers who framed the government 
 under which we live" used and applied principles, in other cases, which ought 
 to have led them to understand that a proper division of local from Federal 
 authority, or some part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Government 
 to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories, he is right to say so. But 
 he should, at the same time, brave the responsibility of declaring that in his 
 opinion, he understands their principles better than they did themselves; and 
 especially should he not shirk that responsibility by asserting that they "under 
 stood the question as well, and even better, than we do now." 
 
 But enough! Let all who believe that "our fathers who framed the gov 
 ernment under which we live understood this question just as well, and even 
 better, than we do now," speak as they spoke, and act as they acted upon it. 
 This is all Republicans ask all Republicans desire in relation to slavery. 
 As those fathers marked it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be 
 extended, but to be tolerated and protected only because of and so far as its 
 
 124 
 
Argument Is the Life of Political Conscience 
 
 actual presence among us makes that toleration and protection a necessity. 
 Let all the guarantees those fathers gave it be not grudgingly, but fully and 
 fairly, maintained. For this Republicans contend, and with this, so far as 
 I know or believe, they will be content. 
 
 And now, if they would listen, as I suppose they will not I would 
 address a few words to the Southern people. 
 
 I would say to them: You consider yourselves a reasonable and a just 
 people; and I consider that in the general qualities of reason and justice you 
 are not inferior to any other people. Still, when you speak of us Republicans, 
 you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, or, at the best, as no better than 
 outlaws. You will grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing like 
 it to "Black Republicans." In all your contentions with one another, each 
 of you deem an unconditional condemnation of "Black Republicanism" as the 
 first thing to be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation of us seems to be 
 an indispensable prerequisite license so to speak among you to be admitted 
 or permitted to speak at all. Now can you or not be prevailed upon to pause 
 and to consider whether this is quite just to us, or even to yourselves? Bring 
 forward your charges and specifications, and then be patient long enough to 
 hear us deny or justify. 
 
 You say we are sectional. We deny it. That makes an issue; and the 
 burden of proof is upon you. You produce your proof; and what is it? Why, 
 that our party has no existence in your section gets no votes in your section. 
 The fact is substantially true; but does it prove the issue? If it does, then 
 in case we should, without change of principle, begin to get votes in your 
 section, we should thereby cease to be sectional. You cannot escape this 
 conclusion; and yet, are you willing to abide by if? If you are, you will prob 
 ably soon find that we have ceased to be sectional, for we shall get votes in 
 your section this very year. You will then begin to discover, as the truth plainly 
 is, that your proof does not touch the issue. The fact that we get no votes in 
 your section is a fact of your making, and not of ours. And if there be fault in that 
 fact, that fault is primarily yours, and remains so until you show that we repel 
 you by some wrong principle or practice. If we do repel you by any wrong 
 principle or practice, the fault is ours; but this brings you to where you ought 
 to have started a discussion of the right or wrong of our principle. If our 
 principle, put in practice, would wrong your section for the benefit of ours, or 
 for any other object, then our principle and we with it are sectional, and 
 are justly opposed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the question ot 
 whether our principle, put in practice, would wrong your section; and so meet 
 us if it were possible that something may be said on our side. Do you accept 
 the challenge? No! Then you really believe that the principle which "our 
 fathers who framed the government under which we live" thought so clearly 
 right as to adopt it, and indorse it again and again, upon their official oaths, 
 is in fact so clearly wrong as to demand your condemnation without a moment s 
 consideration. 
 
 Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the warning against sectional 
 parties given by Washington in his Farewell Address. Less than eight years 
 before Washington gave that warning, he had, as President of the United 
 States, approved and signed an act of Congress enforcing the prohibition of 
 slavery in the Northwest Territory, which act embodied the policy of the 
 
 125 
 
True Conservatism Must Not Deny Stable Progress 
 
 government upon that subject up to and at the very moment he penned that 
 warning; and about a year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he con 
 sidered that prohibition a wise measure, expressing in the same connection 
 his hope that we should at some time have a confederacy of free States. 
 
 Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionalism has since arisen upon 
 this same subject, is that warning a weapon in your hands against us, or in our 
 hands against you ? Could Washington himself speak, would he cast the blame 
 of that sectionalism upon us, who sustain his policy, or upon you, who repudiate 
 it ? We respect that warning of Washington, and we commend it to you, together 
 with his example pointing to the right application of it. 
 
 But you say you are conservative eminently conservative while we are 
 revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? 
 Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We 
 stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which 
 was adopted by "our fathers who framed the government under which we live"; 
 while you with one accord reject, and scout, nd spit upon that old policy, and 
 insist upon substituting something new. True, you disagree among yourselves 
 as to what that substitute shall be. You are divided on new propositions and 
 plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and denouncing the old policy of 
 the fathers. Some of you are for reviving the foreign slave-trade; some for 
 a congressional slave code for the Territories; some for Congress forbidding 
 the Territories to prohibit slavery within their limits; some for maintaining 
 slavery in the Territories through the judiciary; some for the "gur-reat pur- 
 rinciple" that "if one man would enslave another, no third man should object," 
 fantastically called "popular sovereignty"; but never a man among you is in 
 favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in Federal Territories, according to 
 the practice of "our fathers who framed the government under which we live." 
 Not one of all your various plans can show a precedent or an advocate in the 
 century within which our government originated. Consider, then, whether 
 your claim of conservatism for yourselves, and your charge of destructiveness 
 against us, are based on the most clear and stable foundations. 
 
 Again, you say we have made the slavery question more prominent 
 than it formerly was. We deny it. We admit that it is more prominent, but 
 we deny that we made it so. It was not we, but you, who discarded the old 
 policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still resist, your innovation; and thence 
 comes the greater prominence of the question. Would you have that question 
 reduced to its former proportions ? Go back to that old policy. What has 
 been will be again, under the same conditions. If you would have the peace of 
 the old times, re-adopt the precepts and policy of the old times. 
 
 You charge that we stir up insurrections among your slaves. We deny it; 
 and what is your proof? Harper s Ferry! John Brown! John Brown was 
 no Republican; and you have failed to implicate a single Republican in his 
 Harper s Ferry enterprise. If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, 
 you know it, or you do not know it. If you do know it, you are inexcusable 
 for not designating the man and proving the fact. If you do not know it, you 
 are inexcusable for asserting it, and especially for persisting in the assertion 
 after you have tried and failed to make the proof. You need not be told that 
 persisting in a charge which one does not know to be true, is simply malicious 
 slander. 
 
 126 
 
New Political Parties Are Always Galled Radical 
 
 Some of you admit that no Republican designedly aided or encouraged the 
 Harper s Ferry affair, but still insist that our doctrines and declarations neces 
 sarily lead to such results. We do not believe it. We know we hold no doc 
 trine, and make no declaration, which were not held to and made by "our 
 fathers who framed the government under which we live." You never dealt 
 fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it occurred, some important State 
 elections were near at hand, and you were in evident glee with the belief that, 
 by charging the blame upon us, you could get an advantage of us in those 
 elections. The elections came and your expectations were not quite fulfilled. 
 Every Republican man knew that, as to himself at least, your charge was a 
 slander, and he was not much inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor. 
 Republican doctrines and declarations are accompanied with a continual protest 
 against any interference whatever with your slaves, or with you about your 
 slaves. Surely, this does not encourage them to revolt. True, we do, in 
 common with "our fathers who framed the government under which we live," 
 declare our belief that slavery is wrong ; but the slaves do not hear us declare 
 even this. For anything we say or do, the slaves would scarcely know that 
 there is a Republican party. I believe they would not, in fact, generally know 
 it but for your misrepresentations of us in their hearing. In your political 
 contests among yourselves, each faction charges the other with sympathy with 
 Black Republicanism; and then, to give point to the charge, defines 
 Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, blood and thunder among 
 the slaves. 
 
 Slave insurrections are no more common now than they were before the 
 Republican party was organized. What induced the Southampton insurrection, 
 twenty-eight years ago, in which at least three times as many lives were lost 
 as at Harper s Ferry ? You can scarcely stretch your very elastic fancy to the 
 conclusion that Southampton was "got up by Black Republicanism." In the 
 present state of things in the United States, I do not think a general, or even 
 a very extensive, slave insurrection is possible. The indispensable concert of 
 action cannot be attained. The slaves have no means of rapid communication; 
 nor can incendiary freemen, black or white, supply it. The explosive 
 materials are everywhere in parcels; but there neither are, nor can be supplied, 
 the indispensable connecting trains. 
 
 Much is said by Southern people about the affection of slaves for their 
 masters and mistresses; and a part of it, at least, is true. A plot for an uprising 
 could scarcely be devised and communicated to twenty individuals before 
 some one of them, to save the life of a favorite master or mistress, would 
 divulge it. This is the rule; and the slave revolution in Hayti was not an 
 exception to it, but a case occurring under peculiar circumstances. The gun 
 powder plot of English history, though not connected with slaves, was more 
 in point. In that case only about twenty were admitted to the secret; and 
 yet one of them in his anxiety to save a friend, betrayed the plot to that friend, 
 and, by consequences, averted that calamity. Occasional poisonings from the 
 kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations in the field, and local revolts 
 extending to a score or so, will continue to occur as the natural results of 
 slavery; but no general insurrection of slaves, as I think, can happen in this 
 country for a long time. Whoever much fears, or much hopes, for such an 
 event, will be alike disappointed. 
 
 m 
 
A People s Hopes May Be Restrained Never Destroyed 
 
 In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many years ago, "It is still in 
 our power to direct the process of emancipation and deportation peaceably, 
 and in such slow degrees as that the evil will wear off insensibly ; and their places 
 be, pari passu, filled up by white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to 
 force itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect held up." 
 
 Mr. Jefferson did not seem to say, nor do I, that the power of emancipation 
 is in the Federal Government. He spoke of Virginia; and, as to the power of 
 emancipation, I speak of the slave-holding States only. The Federal Govern 
 ment, however, as we insist, has the power of restraining the extension of the 
 institution the power to insure that a slave insurrection shall never occur 
 on any American soil which is now free from slavery. 
 
 John Brown s effort was peculiar. It was not a slave insurrection. It 
 was an attempt by white men to get up a revolt among slaves, in which the 
 slaves refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd that the slaves, with 
 all their ignorance, saw plainly enough it could not succeed. That affair, in 
 its philosophy, corresponds with the many attempts, related in history, 
 at the assassination of kings and emperors. An enthusiast broods over the 
 oppression of a people till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to lib 
 erate them. He ventures the attempt, which ends in little less than his own 
 execution. Orsini s attempt on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown s attempt 
 at Harper s Ferry, were, in their philosophy, precisely the same. The eager 
 ness to cast blame on Old England in the one case, and on New England in the 
 other, does not disprove the sameness of the two things. 
 
 And how much would it avail you, if you could, by the use of John Brown, 
 Helper s Book, and the like, break up the Republican organization? Human 
 action can be modified to some extent, but human nature cannot be changed. 
 There is a judgment and a feeling against slavery in this nation, which cast 
 at least a million and a half votes. You cannot destroy that judgment and 
 feeling that sentiment by breaking up the political organization which 
 rallies around it. You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which has 
 been formed into order in the face of your heaviest fire; but if you could, how 
 much would you gain by forcing the sentiment which created it out of the 
 peaceful channel of the ballot-box into some other channel. What would that 
 other channel probably be ? Would the number of John Browns be lessened 
 or enlarged by the operation ? 
 
 But you will break up the Union rather than submit to a denial of your 
 constitutional rights. 
 
 That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would be palliated, if not fully 
 justified, were we proposing, by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of 
 some right plainly written down in the Constitution. But we are proposing 
 no such thing. 
 
 When you make these declarations you have a specific and well under 
 stood allusion to an assumed constitutional right of yours to take slaves into 
 the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as property. But no such 
 right is specifically written in the Constitution. That instrument is literally 
 silent about any such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such a right 
 exists in the Constitution, even by implication. 
 
 Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is that you will destroy the government, 
 
 128 
 
Rule or Ruin Is Not a Principle of Self-Government 
 
 unless you be allowed to construe and force the Constitution as you please, 
 on all points in dispute between you and us. You will rule or ruin in all events. 
 
 This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps you will say the Supreme 
 Court has decided the disputed and constitutional question in your favor. Not 
 quite so. But waiving the lawyer s distinction between dictum and decision, 
 the court has decided the question for you in a sort of way. The court has 
 substantially said, it is your constitutional right to take slaves into the Federal 
 Territories, and to hold them there as property. When I say the decision was 
 made in a sort of way, I mean it was made in a divided court, by a bare 
 majority of the judges, and they not quite agreeing with one another in the 
 reasons for making it ; that it is so made as that its avowed supporters disagree 
 with one another about its meaning, and that it was mainly based upon a mis 
 taken statement of fact the statement in the opinion that "the right 
 of property in a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Constitution." 
 
 An inspection of the Constitution will show that the right of property 
 in a slave is not "distinctly and expressly affirmed" in it. Bear in mind, 
 the judges do not pledge their judicial opinion that such right is 
 impliedly affirmed in the Constitution; but they pledge their veracity, that it 
 is "distinctly and expressly" affirmed there "distinctly," that is, not mingled 
 with anything else "expressly," that is, in words meaning just that, without 
 the aid of any inference, and susceptible of no other meaning. 
 
 If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that such right is affirmed 
 in the instrument by implication, it would be open to others to show that 
 neither the word "slave" nor "slavery" is to be found in the Constitution, 
 nor the word "property" even, in any connection with language alluding to the 
 things slaves or slavery ; and that wherever in that instrument the slave is alluded 
 to, he is called a "person" ; and wherever his master s legal right in relation to him 
 is alluded to, it is spoken of as "service or labor which may be due" as a debt 
 payable in service or labor. Also it would be open to show, by contemporaneous 
 history, that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, instead of speaking 
 of them, was employed on purpose to exclude from the Constitution the idea 
 that there could be property in man. 
 
 To show all this is easy and certain: 
 
 When this obvious mistake of the judges shall be brought to their notice, 
 is it not reasonable to expect that they will withdraw the mistaken statement, 
 and reconsider the conclusion based upon it ? 
 
 And then it is to be remembered that "our fathers who framed the govern 
 ment under which we live" the men who made the Constitution decided 
 this same constitutional question in our favor long ago ; decided it without division 
 among themselves when making the decision; without division among them 
 selves; without the meaning of it after it was made, and, so far as any evidence 
 is left, without basing it upon any mistaken statement of facts. 
 
 Under all these circumstances, do you really feel yourselves justified to break 
 up this government unless such a court decision as yours is shall be at once 
 submitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political action ? But you will 
 not abide the election of a Republican president ! In that supposed event, 
 you say, you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great crime of 
 having destroyed it will be upon us! That is cool. A highwayman holds 
 
 129 
 
To Extort a Vote Like Extorting Money Is Robbery 
 
 a pistol to my ear, and mutters through his teeth, "Stand and deliver, or 
 I shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer!" 
 
 To be sure, what the robber demanded of me my money was my own; 
 and I had a clear right to keep it; but it was no more my own than my vote 
 is my own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my money, and the threat of 
 destruction to the Union, to extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished 
 in principle. 
 
 A few words now to Republicans. It is exceedingly desirable that all 
 parts of this great Confederacy shall be at peace, and in harmony one with another. 
 Let us Republicans do our part to have it so. Even though much provoked, 
 let us do nothing through passion and ill temper. Even though the Southern 
 people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their demands, 
 and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of duty, we possibly can. Judging 
 by all they say and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy 
 with us, let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. 
 
 Will they be satisfied if the Territories be unconditionally surrendered 
 to them? We know they will not. In all their present complaints against 
 us, the Territories are scarcely mentioned. Invasions and insurrections are 
 the rage now. Will it satisfy them, if, in the future, we have nothing to do 
 with invasions and insurrections ? We know it will not. We so know, because 
 we know we never had anything to do with invasions and insurrections; 
 and yet this total abstaining does not exempt us from the charge and the 
 denunciation. 
 
 The question recurs what will satisfy them? Simply this: We must 
 not only let them alone, but we must somehow convince them that we do let 
 them alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. We have been 
 so trying to convince them from the beginning of our organization, but with 
 no success. In all our platforms and speeches we have constantly protested 
 our purpose to let them alone ; but this has had no tendency to convince them. 
 Alike unavailing to convince them is the fact that they have never detected 
 a man of us in any attempt to disturb them. 
 
 These natural and apparently adequate means all failing, what will con 
 vince them? This, and this only: Cease to call slavery wrong, and join them 
 in calling it right. And this must be done thoroughly done in acts as well 
 as in words. Silence will not be tolerated we must place ourselves avowedly 
 with them. Senator Douglas s new sedition law must be enacted and enforced, 
 suppressing all declarations that slavery is wrong, whether made in politics, 
 in presses, in pulpits, or in private. We must arrest and return their fugitive 
 slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our free-State constitutions. 
 The whole atmosphere must be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, 
 before they will cease to believe that all their troubles proceed from us. 
 
 I am quite aware they do not state their case precisely in this way. Most 
 of them would probably say to us, "Let us alone; do nothing to us, and say 
 what you please about slavery." But we do let them alone, I have never 
 disturbed them, so that, after all, it is what we say which dissatisfies them. 
 They will continue to accuse us of doing, until we cease saying. 
 
 I am also aware that they have not as yet in terms demanded the over 
 throw of our free-State constitutions. Yet these constitutions declare the 
 wrong of slavery with more solemn emphasis than do all other sayings against 
 
 130 
 
Let Us Dare to Do Our Duty as We Understand It 
 
 it; and, when all these other sayings have been silenced, the overthrow of these 
 constitutions will be demanded, and nothing be left to resist the demand. 
 It is nothing to the contrary that they do not demand the whole of this just 
 now. Demanding what they do, and for the reason they do, they can volun 
 tarily stop nowhere short of this consummation. Holding, as they do, that 
 slavery is morally right and socially elevating, they cannot cease to demand 
 a full national recognition of it as a legal right and social blessing. 
 
 Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground save our conviction 
 that slavery is wrong. If slavery is rignt, all words, acts, laws, and constitu 
 tions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced and swept away. 
 If it is right, we cannot justly object to its nationality its universality; if 
 it is wrong, they cannot justly insist upon its extension its enlargement. All 
 they ask we could readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they 
 could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and 
 our thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole con 
 troversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame for desiring 
 its full recognition as being right; but thinking it wrong as we do, can we yield 
 to them ? Can we cast our votes with their view, and against our own ? In 
 view of our moral, social, and political responsibilities, can we do this? 
 
 Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where it 
 is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its actual presence 
 in the nation; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, allow it to spread 
 into the national Territories, and to overrun us here in these free States? If 
 our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and 
 effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances 
 wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored contrivances such 
 as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong: vain as 
 the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man ; such 
 as a policy of "don t care" on a question about which all true men do care; 
 such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, 
 reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to 
 repentance; such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what 
 Washington said and undo what Washington did. 
 
 Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against 
 us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the government, nor 
 of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might, and in 
 that faith let us dare to do our duty as we understand it. 
 
 "Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm." 
 "When you have written a wrathful letter put it in the stove/" 
 "Suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in any situation." 
 "Never get between the woman s skillet and the man s axhelve." 
 "Shakespeare was the best judge of human nature that ever wrote." 
 "It is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong." 
 "If men never began to drink they would never become drunkards." 
 "Don t shoot too high aim low and the common people will understand." 
 "I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was 
 yesterday." 
 
 131 
 
SPEECHES IN LINCOLN S POLITICAL GREATNESS 
 
 Lincoln s Speech in Accepting Nomination for President of the United States at 
 His Home in Springfield, Illinois, May 19, 1860, at Fifty-one Years of Age 
 
 MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COMMITTEE: 
 I tender to you, and through you to the Republican National Convention, 
 and all the people represented in it, my profoundest thanks for the high honor 
 done me, which you now formally announce. 
 
 Deeply, and even painfully sensible of the great responsibility which is 
 inseparable from this high honor a responsibility which I could almost wish 
 had fallen upon some one of the far more eminent men and experienced states 
 men whose distinguished names were before the convention I shall, by your 
 leave, consider more fully the resolutions of the convention, denominated 
 the platform, and without any unnecessary or unreasonable delay respond to 
 you, Mr. Chairman, in writing, not doubting that the platform will be found 
 satisfactory, and the nomination gratefully accepted. 
 
 And now I will not longer defer the pleasure of taking you, and each of 
 you, by the hand. 
 
 Lincoln s Last Speech to His Neighbors When Leaving His Home at Spring 
 field, Illinois, on February 11, 1861, to Go to the White House at Washington 
 
 MY FRIENDS: No one, not in my situation, can appreciate my feel 
 ing of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, 
 I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed 
 from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is 
 buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may return, with 
 a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without 
 the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. 
 With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trusting in Him who can go with me, 
 and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope 
 that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers 
 you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell. 
 
 Lincoln s Speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia at a Flag Raising on 
 Washington s Birthday, February 22, 1861, on His Way to the National Capital 
 
 FELLOW-CITIZENS: I am invited and called before you to partici 
 pate in raising above Independence Hall the flag of our country, with an 
 additional star upon it! I propose now to say that when the flag was originally 
 raised here, it had but thirteen stars. I wish to call your attention to the fact 
 that, under the blessing of God, each additional star has given additional pros 
 perity and happiness to this country, until it has advanced to its present con 
 dition; and its welfare in the future, as well as in the past, is in your hands. 
 Cultivating the spirit that animated our fathers, who gave renown and celeb 
 rity to this Hall, cherishing that fraternal feeling which has so long character 
 ized us as a nation, excluding passion, ill temper, and precipitate action on 
 all occasions, I think we may promise ourselves that not only the new star 
 placed upon that flag shall be permitted to remain there to our permanent 
 prosperity for years to come, but additional ones shall from time to time be 
 placed there until we shall number, as it was anticipated by the great histo 
 rian, five hundred millions of happy and prosperous people. 
 
 With these few remarks, I proceed to the very agreeable duty assigned 
 to me. 
 
 132 
 
SPEECH THAT MOLDED A NATION S FUTURE 
 
 Great Epoch-Making Address Delivered by Abraham Lincoln as He Took the 
 Oath of Allegiance on His First Inauguration as President of the United States 
 Before a Vast Throng at the National Capitol on the Fourth of March in 1861 
 
 ^^ELLOW-CITIZE NS OF THE UNITED STATES: In com- 
 ^j Wf pliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear be 
 fore you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the 
 
 WM oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be 
 ^^0^ taken by the President "before he enters the execution of his office." 
 
 I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters 
 of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement. 
 
 Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that 
 by the accession of a Republican administration their property and their peace 
 and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any reason 
 able cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the 
 contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is 
 found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I 
 do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, 
 directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the States 
 where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no 
 inclination to do so." Those who nominated and elected me did so with full 
 knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never 
 recanted them. And, more than this, they placed in the platform for my accept 
 ance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution 
 which I now read : 
 
 RESOLVED: That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and 
 especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions accord 
 ing to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the 
 perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless 
 invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, 
 as among the greatest of crimes. 
 
 I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, I only press upon the 
 public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, 
 that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in any wise endan 
 gered by the now incoming administration. I add, too, that all the protection 
 which, consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can be given, will be 
 cheerfully given to all the States when lawfully demanded, for whatever cause 
 as cheerfully to one section as to another. 
 
 There is much controversy about the delivering up of fugitives from service 
 or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as 
 any other of its provisions: 
 
 No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into 
 another, shall in consequence of any law or regulation therein be discharged from such 
 service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
 labor may be due. 
 
 It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended by those who 
 made it for the reclaiming of what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention 
 of the law giver is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to 
 the whole Constitution to this provision as to any other. To the proposition, 
 then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause "shall be 
 delivered up," their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort 
 
 133 
 
Self-Government Depends Upon a Unity of Purpose 
 
 in good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanimity frame and pass 
 a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath ? 
 
 There is some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced 
 by national or by State authority ; but surely that difference is not a very mate 
 rial one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to 
 him or to others by which authority it is done. And should any one in any 
 case be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial con 
 troversy as to how it shall be kept ? 
 
 Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of liberty 
 known in civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free 
 man be not in any case, surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well 
 at the same time to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the 
 Constitution which guarantees that "the citizen of each State shall be entitled 
 to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States"? 
 
 I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no 
 purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules. And 
 while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper 
 to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official 
 and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand un- 
 repealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them 
 held to be unconstitutional. 
 
 It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a President under 
 our National Constitution. During that period, fifteen different and greatly 
 distinguished citizens have, in succession, administrated the executive branch 
 of the government. They have conducted it through many perils, and gener 
 ally with great success. Yet with all this scope of precedent, I now enter upon 
 the same task for the brief constitutional term of four years under great and 
 peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only men 
 aced, is now formidably attempted. 
 
 I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and of the Constitution, the 
 union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, 
 in the fundamental law of all national governments. It is safe to assert that 
 no government proper ever had a provision in its organic law for its own ter 
 mination. Continue to execute all the express provisions of our National Con 
 stitution, and the Union will endure forever it being impossible to destroy 
 it except by some action not provided for in the instrument itself. 
 
 Again, if the United States be not a government proper, but an association 
 of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably 
 unmade by less than all the parties who made it ? One party to a contract 
 may violate it break it, so as to speak; but does it not require all to lawfully 
 rescind it ? 
 
 Descending from these general principles, we find the proposition that 
 in legal contemplation the Union is perpetual confirmed by the history of 
 the Union itself. The Union is much older than the Constitution. It was 
 formed, in fact, by the Articles of Association in 1774. It was matured and 
 continued by the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was further matured, 
 and the faith of all the then thirteen states expressly plighted and engaged 
 that it should be perpetual by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. And, 
 
 134 
 
There Need Be No Bloodshed Nor Violence in Justice 
 
 finally, one of the declared objects for ordaining and establishing the Con 
 stitution was "to form a more perfect Union." 
 
 But if the destruction of the Union by one or by part of the States be law 
 fully possible, the Union is less perfect than before the Constitution, having 
 lost the vital element of perpetuity. 
 
 It follows from these views that no State upon its own mere notion can 
 lawfully get out of the Union; and resolves and ordinances to that effect are 
 legally void; and that acts of violence, within any State or States, against the 
 authority of the United States, are insurrectionary or revolutionary, according 
 to circumstances. 
 
 I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the 
 Union is unbroken; and to the extent of my ability I shall take care, as the 
 Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faith 
 fully executed in all the States. Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on 
 my part; and I shall-perform it so far as practicable, unless my rightful masters, 
 the American people, shall withhold the requisite means, or in some authori 
 tative manner direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded as a 
 menace, but only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitu 
 tionally defend and maintain itself. 
 
 In doing this there need be no bloodshed or violence; and there shall be 
 none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to 
 me will be used to hold, to occupy, and possess the property and places belonging 
 to -the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what 
 may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion, no using of force 
 against or among the people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, 
 in any interior locality, shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent 
 resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to 
 force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. While the 
 strict legal right may exist in the government to enforce the exercise of these 
 officers the attempt to do so would be so irritating, and so nearly impracticable, 
 withal, that I deem it better to forego for the time such use of these offices. 
 
 The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be furnished in all parts of 
 the Union. So far as possible, the people everywhere shall have that sense 
 of perfect security which is most favorable to calm thought and reflection. 
 The course here indicated will be followed unless current events and experience 
 shall show a modification or change to be proper, and in every case and exigency 
 my best discretion will be exercised according to circumstances actually existing, 
 and with a view and a hope of peaceful solution of the national troubles and 
 the restoration of fraternal sympathies and affections. 
 
 That there are persons in one section or another who seek to destroy the 
 Union at all events, and are glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm 
 nor deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to them. To those, 
 however, who really love the Union may I not speak ? 
 
 Before entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national 
 fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise 
 to ascertain precisely why we do it ? Will you hazard so desperate a step while 
 there is any possibility that any portion of the ills you fly from have no real 
 existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater than all the 
 real ones you fly from Will you risk the commission of so fearful a mistake ? 
 
 135 
 
Majority Opinion Is the Only True Sovereign 
 
 All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights can be 
 maintained. Is it true, then, that any right, plainly written in the Consti 
 tution, has been denied? I think not. Happily the human mind is so consti 
 tuted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, 
 of a single instance in which a plainly written provision of the Constitution 
 has ever been denied. If, by the mere force of numbers, a majority should 
 deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a 
 moral point of view, justify revolution certainly would if such a right were 
 a vital one. But such is not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and 
 of individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirmations and negations, 
 guarantees and prohibitions, in the Constitution, that controversies never 
 arise concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a provision 
 specifically applicable to every question which may occur in practical adminis 
 tration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reasonable 
 length contain, express provisions for all possible questions. Shall fugitives 
 from labor be surrendered by national or by state authority ? The Constitu 
 tion does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery in the Territories? 
 The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress protect slavery in 
 the Territories? The Constitution does not expressly say. 
 
 From questions of this class spring all our constitutional controversies, and 
 we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. If the minority will not 
 acquiesce, the majority must, or the government must cease. There is no 
 other alternative; for continuing the government is acquiescence on one side 
 or the other. 
 
 If a minority in such case will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a 
 precedent which in turn will divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own 
 will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be controlled by such a 
 minority. For instance, why may not any portion of a new confederacy a 
 year or two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as portions of the present 
 Union now claim to secede from it ? All who cherish disunion sentiments are 
 now being educated to the exact temper of doing this. 
 
 Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States to compose 
 a new Union, as to produce harmony only, and prevent renewed secession? 
 
 Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy. A majority 
 held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing 
 easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only 
 true sovereign of a free people. Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to 
 anarchy or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, 
 as a permanent arrangement, is wholly inadmissible; so that rejecting the 
 majority principle, anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. 
 
 I do not forget the position assumed by some, that constitutional questions 
 are to be decided by the Supreme Court ; nor do I deny that such decisions must 
 be binding, in any case, upon the parties to a suit, as to the object of that suit, 
 while they are also entitled to very high respect and consideration in all parallel 
 cases by all other departments of the government. And while it is obviously 
 possible that such decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the evil 
 effect following it, being limited to that particular case, with the chance that 
 it may be over-ruled and never become a precedent for other cases, can better 
 be borne than could the evils of a different practice. At the same time, the 
 
 136 
 
This Country with Its Institutions Belongs to the People 
 
 candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, upon vital 
 questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions 
 of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, in ordinary litigation between 
 parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, 
 having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands 
 of that eminent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault upon the court 
 or the judges. It is a duty from which they may not shrink to decide cases 
 properly brought before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek to turn 
 their decisions to political purposes. 
 
 One section of our country believes slavery is right, and ought to be extended, 
 while the others believe it is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is 
 the only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause of the Constitution, 
 and the law of the suppression of the foreign slave-trade, are each as well en 
 forced, perhaps as any law can ever be in a community where the moral sense 
 of the people imperfectly supports the law itself. The great body of the people 
 abide by the dry legal obligation in both cases and a few break over in each. 
 This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured; and it would be worse in both cases, 
 after the separation of the sections than before. The foreign slave-trade, now 
 imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately revived, without restriction, in 
 one section, while fugitive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not 
 be surrendered at all by the other. 
 
 Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respec 
 tive sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. 
 A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and beyond the 
 reach of each other; but the different parts of our country cannot do this. They 
 cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either amicable or hostile, 
 must continue between them. Is it possible then to make that intercourse 
 more advantageous or more satisfactory after separation than before? Can 
 aliens make treaties easier than friends can make laws ? Can treaties be more 
 faithfully enforced between aliens than laws can among friends? Suppose 
 you go to war, you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, 
 and no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions of inter 
 course are again upon you. 
 
 This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. 
 Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise 
 their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dis 
 member or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy 
 and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the National Constitution amended. 
 While I make no recommendation of amendments, I fully recognize the rightful 
 authority of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised in either of the 
 modes prescribed in the instrument itself; and I should, under existing circum 
 stances, favor rather than oppose, a fair opportunity being afforded the people 
 to act upon it. I will venture to add that to me the convention mode seems 
 preferable, in that it allows amendments to originate with the people themselves, 
 instead of only permitting them to take or reject propositions originated by others 
 not specially chosen for the purpose, and which might not be precisely such as 
 they would wish to either accept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment 
 to the Constitution which amendment, however, I have not seen has passed 
 Congress, to the effect that the Federal Government shall never interfere with 
 
 137 
 
Patient Confidence in Ultimate Justice of the People 
 
 the domestic institutions of the States, including that of persons held to service. 
 To avoid misconstruction of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to 
 speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, holding such a provision 
 to now be implied constitutional law, I have no objection to its being made 
 express and irrevocable. 
 
 The chief magistrate derives all his authority from the people, and they 
 have conferred none upon him to fix terms for the separation of the States. 
 The people themselves can do this also if they choose; but the executive, as 
 such, has nothing to do with it. His duty is to administer the present govern 
 ment, as it came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to his 
 successor. 
 
 Why should there not be a patient confidence in the ultimate justice of 
 the people ? Is there any better or equal hope in the world ? In our present 
 differences is either party without faith of being in the right ? If the Almighty 
 Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, 
 or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the 
 judgment of this great tribunal of the American people. 
 
 By the frame of the government under which we live, this same people 
 have wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief; and have, 
 with equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to their own hands 
 at very short intervals. While the people retain their virtue and vigilance, 
 no administration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very seriously 
 injure the government in the short space of four years. 
 
 My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. 
 Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry 
 any one of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, 
 that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frus 
 trated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have the old Consti 
 tution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing 
 under it; while the new administration will have no immediate power, if it 
 would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied 
 hotel the right side in dispute, there still is no good reason for precipitate action. 
 Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never 
 yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way 
 all our present difficulties. 
 
 In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the momen 
 tous issue of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have 
 no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath regis 
 tered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn 
 one to "preserve, protect and defend" it. 
 
 I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. Yv : e must not 
 be enemies. Though passion may have strained it, it must not break our 
 bond of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every 
 battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over 
 this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, 
 as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature. 
 
 138 
 
GREATEST SPEECH IN AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 Speech Delivered by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, on November 19, 1863, Four 
 Months After the Greatest Battle on American Soil. Greatest Address in Magna 
 nimity of Spirit, Simplicity, Brevity, and Historical Import in American Annals 
 
 ^^^^OURSCORE and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this 
 0m mf continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to 
 the proposition that all men are created equal. 
 
 mm Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether 
 
 ^^0^ that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can 
 long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come 
 to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place for those who 
 nere gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting 
 and proper that we should do this. 
 
 But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate we cannot consecrate we 
 cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled 
 here, have consecrated it far -above our poor power to add or detract. The 
 world will little note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never 
 forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here 
 to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly 
 advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining 
 before us that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that 
 cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here 
 highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, 
 under God, shall have a new birth of freedom; and that government of the 
 people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 Magnificent Tribute to American Character in Which Lincoln at the Close of the 
 Greatest War of Brother Against Brother that the World Had Ever Known 
 Appealed for Love and Brotherhood at His Second Inauguration, March 4, 1865 
 
 ^^BELLOW-COUNTRYMEN: At this second appearing to take 
 
 ^H mf the oath of the presidential office, there is less occasion for an 
 
 extended address than there was at the first. Then a statement, 
 
 WM somewhat in detail, of a course to be pursued, seemed fitting 
 ^^^ and proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which 
 public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and 
 phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the 
 energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented. The progress of 
 our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as 
 to myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. 
 With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 
 
 On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were 
 anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it all sought 
 to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, 
 devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were 
 in the city seeking to destroy it without war seeking to dissolve the Union, 
 and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of 
 them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would 
 rather accept war than let it perish. And the war came. 
 
 139 
 
 \ 
 
With Malice Toward None With Charity for All 
 
 One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed 
 generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves 
 constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, 
 somehow, the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this 
 interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even 
 by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than restrict the 
 territorial enlargement of it. 
 
 Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which 
 it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict 
 might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. Each looked 
 
 o 
 
 for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both 
 read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against 
 the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God s 
 assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men s faces; but 
 let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be 
 answered that of neither has been answered fully. 
 
 The Almighty has His own purposes. "Woe unto the world because of 
 offenses! For it must needs be that offenses come ; but woe to that man by whom 
 the offense cometh." If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of 
 those offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs come, but which, 
 having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and 
 that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those 
 by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those 
 divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? 
 Fondly do we hope fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge of war 
 may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth 
 piled by the bondman s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall 
 be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by 
 another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still 
 it must be said, "The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." 
 
 "With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, 
 as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; 
 to bind up the nation s wounds; to care for him whom shall have borne the 
 battle, and for his widow, and his orphan to do all which may achieve and 
 cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations. 
 
 "Work, work, work!" 
 
 "Hold on with a bull-dog grip." 
 
 "It s all in that one word, Thorough." 
 
 "Freedom is the last, best hope of earth." 
 
 "Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time." 
 
 "Calling a sheep s tail a leg doesn t make it so." 
 
 "Wealth is a superfluity of what we don t need." 
 
 "Many have got into a habit of being dissatisfied." 
 
 "Disenthrall ourselves, then we shall save ourselves." 
 
 "When you can t remove an obstacle, plough around it/" 
 
 "Discourage litigation. There will still be business enough." 
 
 "God bless my mother! All I am or hope to be I owe to her." 
 
 140 
 
LAST PUBLIC SPEECH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 Speech Delivered by Lincoln on April 11, 1865, Three Days Before His Assassination 
 in Which He Appeals to the American People to Join Hands in Peace and Build a Re- 
 United Nation to Stand Forever as a Beacon of Liberty to the People of the Earth 
 
 E meet this evening not in sorrow, but in gladness of heart. The 
 evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, and the surrender of 
 the principal insurgent army, give hope of a righteous and 
 speedy peace, whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. 
 In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings 
 flow must not be forgotten. A call for a national thanksgiving is being 
 prepared, and will be duly promulgated. Nor must those whose harder part 
 give us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors must not be par 
 celed out with others. I myself was near the front, and had the high pleasure 
 of transmitting much of the good news to you; but no part of the honor for 
 plan or execution is mine. To General Grant, his skillful officers and brave 
 men, all belongs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in reach to take 
 active part. 
 
 By these recent successes, the reinauguration of the national authority 
 reconstruction which has had a large share of thought from the first is 
 pressed much more closely upon our attention. It is fraught with great diffi 
 culty. Unlike a case of war between independent nations, there is no author 
 ized organ for us to treat with no one man has authority to give up the 
 rebellion for any other man. We simply must begin with and mold from dis 
 organized and discordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment 
 that we, the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and 
 measure of reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports 
 of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I cannot 
 properly offer an answer. In spite of this precaution, however, it comes to 
 my knowledge that I am much censured for some supposed agency in setting 
 up and seeking to sustain the new State government of Louisiana. 
 
 In this I have done just so much and no more than the public knows. 
 In the annual message of December, 1863, and in the accompanying proclama 
 tion, I presented a plan of reconstruction, as the phrase goes, which I promised, 
 if adopted by any State, should be acceptable to and sustained by the execu 
 tive government of the nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the 
 only plan which might possibly be acceptable, and I also distinctly 
 protested that the executive claimed no right to say when or whether 
 members should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. This 
 plan was in advance submitted to the then Cabinet, and distinctly approved 
 by every member of it. One of them suggested that I should then and in that 
 connection apply the Emancipation Proclamation to the theretofore excepted 
 parts of Virginia and Louisiana ; that I should drop the suggestion about appren 
 ticeship for freed people, and that I should omit the protest against my own 
 power in regard to the admission of members to Congress. But even he approved 
 every part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or touched 
 by the action of Louisiana. 
 
 The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation for the whole 
 State, practically applies the proclamation to the part previously excepted. 
 It does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and it is silent, as it could 
 
 141 
 
We Must Mold from the Discordant Elements of Society 
 
 not well be otherwise, about the admission of members to Congress. So that, 
 as it applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet fully approved the 
 plan. The message went to Congress, and I received many commendations 
 of the plan, written and verbal, and not a single objection to it from any pro 
 fessed emancipationist came to my knowledge until after the news reached 
 Washington that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance 
 with it. From about July, 1862, I had corresponded with different persons 
 supposed to be interested in seeking a reconstruction of a State government 
 for Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan before mentioned, 
 reached New Orleans, General Banks wrote me that he was confident that 
 the people, with his military co-operation, would reconstruct substantially 
 on that plan. I wrote to him and some of them to try it. They tried it, and 
 the result is known. Such has been my only agency in getting up the 
 Louisiana government. 
 
 As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before stated. But as bad prom 
 ises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break 
 it whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is adverse to the public interest ; 
 but I have not yet been so convinced. I have been shown a letter on this 
 subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the writer expresses regret that 
 my mind has not seemed to be definitely fixed on the question whether the 
 seceded States, so called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add 
 astonishment to his regret were he to learn that since I have found professed 
 Union men endeavoring to make that question, I have purposely forborne any 
 public expression upon it. As appears to me, that question has not been, nor 
 yet is, a practically material one, and that any discussion of it, while it thus 
 remains practically immaterial, could have no effect other than the mischievous 
 one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may hereafter become, that 
 question is bad as the basis of a controversy and good for nothing at all a 
 merely pernicious abstraction. 
 
 We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper, 
 practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of the government, 
 civil and military, in regard to those States, is to again get them into that proper 
 practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, 
 to do this without deciding or even considering whether these States have 
 ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, 
 it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us 
 all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations 
 between these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge 
 his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States from without 
 into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been 
 out of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on which the new Louisiana 
 government rests, would be more satisfactory to all if it contained 50,000 
 or 30,000, or even 20,000, instead of only about 12,000, as it does. It is also 
 unsatisfactory to some that the elective franchise is not given to the colored 
 man. I would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the very intelli 
 gent, and on those who serve our cause as soldiers. 
 
 Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana government, as it stands, 
 is quite all that is desirable. The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it 
 is and help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it ? Can Louisiana be brought 
 
 142 
 
If We Reject and Scorn We Do Our Utmost to Disorganize 
 
 into proper practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by dis 
 carding her new State government ? Some twelve thousand voters in the 
 heretofore slave State of Louisiana have sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed 
 to be the rightful political power of the State, held elections, organized a State 
 government, adopted a free-State constitution, giving the benefit of public 
 schools equally to black and white, and empowering the legislature to confer 
 the elective franchise upon the colored man. Their legislature has already 
 voted to ratify the constitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, 
 abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These 12,000 persons are thus fully 
 committed to the Union and to perpetual freedom in the State committed 
 to the very things, and nearly all the things, the nation wants and they ask 
 the nation s recognition and its assistance to make good their committal. 
 
 Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our utmost to disorganize and 
 disperse them. We, in effect, say to the white man: You are worthless or 
 worse; we will neither help you, nor be helped by you. To the blacks we say: 
 This cup of liberty which these, your old masters, hold to your lips we will 
 dash from you, and leave you to the chances of gathering the spilled and scat 
 tered contents in some vague and undefined when, where, and how. If this 
 course, discouraging and paralyzing both white and black, has any tendency 
 to bring Louisiana into proper practical relations with the Union, I have so 
 far been unable to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize and sustain 
 the new government of Louisiana, the converse of all this is made true. We 
 encourage the hearts and nerve the arms of the 12,000 to adhere to their work, 
 and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and fight for it, and feed it, and grow 
 it, and ripen it to a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing all united 
 for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, and daring, to the same end. 
 Grant that he desires the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by 
 saving the already advanced steps toward it than by running backward over 
 them? Concede that the new government of Louisiana is only what it should 
 be, as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the fowl by hatching the egg 
 than by smashing it. 
 
 Again, if we reject Louisiana, we also reject one vote in favor of the pro 
 posed amendment to the national Constitution. To meet this proposition, 
 it has been argued that no more than three-fourths of those States which have 
 not attempted secession are necessary to validly ratify the amendment. I do 
 not commit myself against this further than to say that such a ratification 
 would be questionable, and sure to be persistently questioned, while a rati 
 fication by three-fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and unques 
 tionable. I repeat the question: Can Louisiana be brought into proper 
 practical relation with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her 
 new State government? What has been said of Louisiana will apply generally 
 to other States. And yet so great peculiarities pertain to each State, and such 
 important and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal so new 
 and unprecedented is the whole case that no exclusive and inflexible plan can 
 safely be prescribed as to details and collaterals. Such an exclusive and inflexible 
 plan would surely become a new entanglement. Important principles may 
 and must be inflexible. In the present situation, as the phrase goes, it may be 
 my duty to make some new announcement to the people of the South. I am 
 considering, and shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be proper. 
 
 143 
 
Wisdom and Philosophy of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 "I desire to see the time when education, by its means, morality, sobriety, 
 enterprise, and integrity, shall become much more general than at present, 
 and should be gratified to have it in my power to contribute something to the 
 advancement of any measure which might have a tendency to accelerate the 
 happy period." 
 
 "And when the victory shall be complete, when there shall be neither 
 a slave nor a drunkard on earth, how proud the title of that land, which may 
 truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both those resolutions that 
 shall have ended in that victory! How nobly distinguished that people, who 
 shall have planted, and nurtured to maturity, both the political and moral 
 freedom of their species!" 
 
 "Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any rights. 
 nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between 
 labor and capital, producing mutual benefits ... No men living are more 
 worthy to be trusted than those who toil up from poverty none less inclined 
 to take or touch aught which they have not honestly earned." 
 
 "In regard to the Great Book, I have only to say that it is the best gift 
 which God has given man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is 
 communicated to us through this Book. But for this Book we could not know 
 right from wrong. All those things to man are contained in it." 
 
 "Give the Boys a chance." "We cannot escape history." "I can bear 
 censure, but not insult!" "Don t swap horses in crossing a stream." "Let 
 us have faith that right makes might." "Public opinion in this country is 
 everything." "I know I am right because I know Liberty is right." "Is a 
 man to blame for having a pair of cowardly legs?" 
 
 "That some are rich shows that others may become rich." 
 "Come what will, I will keep my faith with friend and foe." 
 "Faith in God is indispensable to successful statesmanship." 
 "There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law." 
 "My boy, never try to be President! If you do, you never will be." 
 "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present." 
 
 "The Lord must love the common people that s why he made so many 
 of them." 
 
 "Keep that (temperance) pledge and it will be the best act of your life." 
 
 "No man is good enough to govern another man without that other man s 
 consent." 
 
 "Familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage and you prepare your 
 own limbs to wear them." 
 
 "A man has no time to spend in quarrels. If any man ceases to attack 
 me I never remember the past against him." 
 
 "The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the 
 sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the 
 best sentiments of a Christian people, and a due regard for the divine will, 
 demand that Sunday labor be reduced to the measure of strict necessity." 
 
 144 
 
The Portrait Life of Lincoln 
 
 PART V 
 
 A Chronology of the Historic Events in the 
 
 Growth of the American Nation 
 from the Birth to the Death of Lincoln 
 
Chronology of the Life of Lincoln 1809-1817 
 
 1809 February 12; Abraham Lincoln born at 
 Hodgensville, Hardin County, Kentucky ; 
 parents, Thomas and Nancy Hanks Lincoln. 
 
 February 28 ; Embargo Act repealed. 
 
 March i ; Territory of Illinois organized. 
 
 March 4 ; James Madison inaugurated fourth 
 President of the United States, succeed 
 ing Thomas Jefferson. 
 
 1810 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s first birth 
 day ; still living in log cabin where he was 
 born. 
 
 March 23 ; Napoleon, in his conquest of the 
 world, decrees that all American vessels 
 entering French ports shall be seized and 
 condemned. 
 
 June i ; Total population of the United States 
 7,239,822, of which 1,191,363 are colored 
 slaves. 
 
 1811 January 9; Entire militia of New Orleans 
 is called out to suppress negro insurrection. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s second 
 birthday ; still living in log cabin where 
 he was born. 
 
 October 1 1 ; First steam ferry-boat in the 
 world across the Hudson river at New 
 York. 
 
 October 29 ; First steamboat on western 
 waters leaves Pittsburg for New Orleans. 
 
 November 7 ; Battle of Tippecanoe, in war 
 fare with Indians. 
 
 November 9 ; Henry Clay, age 34, Speaker 
 of House of Representatives, having served 
 two terms in United States Senate. 
 
 1812 January 9; Society is formed at Trenton for 
 organizing a colony of colored people. 
 
 February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln s third birth 
 day ; still living at cabin where he was 
 born. 
 
 March 9 ; President Madison reveals to Con 
 gress a plot to destroy the Union. 
 
 April 30 ; Louisiana admitted into the Union. 
 
 June 4 ; Territory of Missouri established. 
 
 June 18; Congress declared war against 
 England ; the naval victories of the Ameri 
 cans over the greatest of naval powers 
 aroused intense excitement. 
 
 June 18 ; New England threatens secession 
 from the Union (the first in United 
 States history) while repudiating war 
 with England. 
 
 June 23 ; First naval encounter in War of 
 1812. 
 
 July 12; First land engagements. Hull 
 invades Canada. 
 
 August 16; Surrender of Detroit to British. 
 
 August 19 ; Constitution destroys British 
 ship-of-war, Guerriere, off Banks of New 
 foundland. 
 
 October 13 ; Americans attack Queenstown 
 Heights, in Canada, and are severely re 
 pulsed. 
 
 October 13 ; Wasp victorious over the British 
 ship, Frolic, off the coast of North Car 
 olina. 
 
 November i ; Daniel Webster enters political 
 life ; age 30. 
 
 1813 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fourth 
 birthday ; moved during this year from 
 cabin in which he was born to Knob Creek, 
 fifteen miles distant, where he met the 
 first soldier he had ever seen, during War 
 of 1812 which was now raging. 
 
 1813 March 4; Inauguration of James Madison 
 into his second term as President of the 
 United States. 
 
 March 20 ; Great Britain proclaims Atlantic 
 coast of America under blockade. 
 
 April 23 ; Birth of Stephen A. Douglas at 
 Brendon, in Vermont, who was to be 
 come Lincoln s greatest political rival. 
 
 May 10; First ferry connects Brooklyn with 
 New York. 
 
 June i ; Chesapeake captured by the British 
 ship, Shannon. Captain Lawrence fatally 
 wounded. 
 
 1814 January 14; Daniel Webster s first speech in 
 the House on the Enlistment Bill ; age 32. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fifth birth 
 day ; he begins his first schooling. 
 
 August 24 ; City of Washington captured by 
 the British ; President and Cabinet flee ; 
 National Capitol burned. 
 
 September 13; National hymn, "The Star 
 Spangled Banner," composed during bom 
 bardment of Fort McHenry near Balti 
 more. 
 
 December 15 ; Hartford Convention with ob 
 ject of secession. Peace between England 
 and United States ended session. Feder 
 alist party ruined. 
 
 December 19 ; Birth of Edwin B. Stanton at 
 Steubenville, Ohio, who was to become 
 Lincoln s great secretary of war. 
 
 December 24 ; Peace between England and 
 America negotiated through Treaty of 
 Ghent. 
 
 1815 January 8; American victory at battle of 
 New Orleans, under Andrew Jackson. 
 
 June 30 ; Americans dictate terms of peace 
 at Algiers. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s sixth birth 
 day ; during this year he barely escaped 
 drowning in Knob Creek. 
 
 March 3 ; United States declares war against 
 Algiers. 
 
 June 18; Hostilities cease between the United 
 States and England ; estimated cost of war, 
 $85,500,000. 
 
 August i ; First Peace Society in the world 
 is founded. 
 
 1816 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s seventh 
 birthday ; removed this year with his 
 parents to Gentryville, Spencer County, 
 Indiana, crossing the Ohio river from 
 Kentucky on a raft. 
 
 December 1 1 ; Indiana admitted into the 
 Union. 
 
 1817 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s eighth birth 
 day ; living in open camp in Indiana wil 
 derness ; wielding the ax in the primeval 
 forest. 
 
 March 4 ; James Monroe of Virginia, inau 
 gurated fifth President of the United States. 
 
 July 4 ; Construction of the Erie Canal be 
 gins. 
 
 August 2 ; First steamship arrives at St. 
 Louis. 
 
 November 20 ; Outbreak of Seminole Indian 
 War. 
 
 December 10; Mississippi admitted into the 
 Union. 
 
 December 28 ; American Colonization So 
 ciety organized at Washington to return 
 negroes to Africa. 
 
 146 
 
Chronology of the Life of Lincoln 1818-1827 
 
 1818 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s ninth birth 
 day ; living in rough cabin of unhewn tim 
 bers in Indiana, which he helped his father 
 to build. 
 
 April 4 ; Act establishing flag of the United 
 States, with thirteen horizontal stripes, al 
 ternating red and white, and a white star 
 in a blue field for each state. 
 
 August 23 ; First steamboat trip on Lake 
 Erie. 
 
 October 5 ; Death of Nancy Hanks, Lincoln s 
 mother, at Pigeon Creek, Indiana; age 35. 
 
 December 3 ; Illinois admitted to the Union. 
 
 December 18; Great agitation of Slavery 
 Question by petition of Missouri for ad 
 mission to Union as a slave state. 
 
 1819 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s tenth birth 
 day ; living with his father and sister 
 Sarah (Nancy) in Indiana wilderness. 
 
 February 17; Bill presented to Congress for 
 the gradual emancipation of the slaves in 
 Missouri ; fails to pass Senate. 
 
 February 22 ; Treaty with Spain in which 
 the United States gains possession of 
 Florida and surrenders all claim to Texas. 
 
 May 26 ; First steamship crosses the Atlantic, 
 " The Savannah." 
 
 October 24 ; Erie Canal is open from Utica 
 to Rome. 
 
 December i ; First national financial crisis 
 occurs ; many banks barely escape in 
 solvency ; national debt $95,529,648. 
 
 December 2 ; Second marriage of Abraham 
 Lincoln s father, Thomas Lincoln, to 
 Sarah Rush Johnston, at Elizabethtown, 
 Kentucky. 
 
 December 14; Alabama admitted to the Union. 
 
 1820 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s eleventh 
 birthday ; walking nine miles a day to and 
 from the frontier school. 
 
 March 2 ; Missouri Compromise temporarily 
 quells anti-slavery agitation. 
 
 March 3 ; Maine admitted into the Union. 
 
 May 5 ; Congress recognizes slave trade to 
 be piracy and prohibits citizens from en 
 gaging in it under penalty of death ; total 
 slaves 2,009,031. Webster and Calhoun de 
 nounce agitators against the slave system. 
 
 June i ; First steamship line between New 
 York and New Orleans. 
 
 1821 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s twelfth 
 birthday ; he was now under the influence 
 of his stepmother, who had awakened in 
 him an eagerness for learning. 
 
 March 4 ; James Monroe of Virginia, inau 
 gurated into his second term as President 
 of the United States. 
 
 August i ; Liberia is secured for the negro 
 colonization by the American Coloniza 
 tion Society. 
 
 August 10 ; Missouri admitted into the 
 Union amid a tempest of political excite 
 ment ; anti-slavery agitation becomes vio 
 lent. 
 
 August 10; City Council of Charleston, South 
 Carolina, prohibits opening of night or 
 Sunday school for the instruction of negro 
 slaves. 
 
 1822 February i ; First cotton mill is erected in 
 Massachusetts. 
 
 1822 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirteenth 
 birthday ; he was now working on the farm 
 and acting as chore boy for the neighbors, 
 devoting his leisure to ciphering on a 
 wooden shovel and on the logs of his 
 cabin. 
 
 April 27 ; Birth of Ulysses S. Grant at Point 
 Pleasant, Ohio, who was to bring victory 
 to Lincoln as commander of the armies 
 in the Civil War. 
 
 1823 February i ; Stephen F. Austin obtains from 
 Mexico a grant of land in Texas for col 
 onization. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fourteenth 
 birthday ; attending Andrew Crawford s 
 neighborhood school, where he wrote his 
 first essay against cruelty to animals. 
 
 June i ; First steam power printing press in 
 New York. 
 
 December 2 ; Declaration of the Monroe 
 Doctrine : a protest against interference 
 of any European power on the American 
 continent. 
 
 1824 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fifteenth 
 birthday ; it was about this time that he 
 began to read eagerly, and is said to have 
 borrowed all the books within fifty miles 
 of his home. 
 
 May 22 ; Protective tariff bill adopted ; op 
 posed by the South and New England. 
 
 August 10 ; Robert Owen of Scotland estab 
 lishes a Communistic settlement in Indiana. 
 
 August 15 ; Lafayette revisits America. 
 
 1825 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s sixteenth 
 birthday ; employed in Indiana as ferry 
 man and butcher at six dollars per month. 
 
 Mcy;ch 4 ; John Quincy Adams inaugurated 
 "sixth President of the United States. 
 
 October i ; Working people begin to dis 
 cuss question of shorter hours and greater 
 safety. 
 
 October 26 Erie Canal completed, 363 miles 
 long; cost $7,500,000; connects Great 
 Lakes with seaboard at New York. 
 
 1826 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s seventeenth 
 birthday ; he now began to read his first 
 law book and wrote a paper on the Ameri 
 can Government. 
 
 July 4 ; Fiftieth anniversary of American 
 Independence. 
 
 July 4 ; Death of John Adams, second pres 
 ident, and Thomas Jefferson, the third. 
 
 October i ; Morgan Anti-Mason excitement in 
 politics. 
 
 October 7 ; First railroad in the United 
 States, three miles long, at Quincy, Massa 
 chusetts. 
 
 October 10; Kerosene first used for illumi 
 nating purposes. 
 
 December 3 ; Birth of George B. McClellan 
 at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was to 
 become Lincoln s first general in the Civil 
 War. 
 
 1827 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s eighteenth 
 birthday ; during this year he earned his 
 first dollar. 
 
 July 30; Protectionists hold a convention and 
 demand higher tariff. 
 
 July ; Death of Lincoln s sister, Sarah 
 (Nancy), age twenty. 
 
 147 
 
Chronology of the Life of Lincoln 1828-1836 
 
 1828 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s nineteenth 
 birthday ; he was now a giant youth of 
 six feet, four inches ; went on his first 
 trip as a flat-boatsman down the Missis 
 sippi to New Orleans, at eight dollars a 
 month. 
 
 May 15; First American dictionary of Eng 
 lish language, by Noah Webster. 
 
 May 19; High protective tariff enacted, caus 
 ing serious distress between the North 
 and the South. 
 
 December i ; Political party known as 
 Workingman s Association appears in 
 principal cities. 
 
 December ; First steamboat in Boston 
 Harbor. 
 
 1829 February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln s twentieth 
 birthday ; working as wood chopper, known 
 as a backwoods orator, arguing on slavery 
 and political subjects. 
 
 March 4 ; Andrew Jackson inaugurated 
 seventh President of the United States ; 
 beginning of the Spoils System in Ameri 
 can politics. 
 
 June 30 ; Robert E. Lee of Virginia, 
 twenty-two years old ; graduates at West 
 Point. 
 
 August 8 ; First locomotive in the United 
 States. 
 
 September 21 ; First public school in Balti 
 more. 
 
 September ; First asylum in the United 
 States for the blind, at Boston. 
 
 - William Lloyd Garrison advo 
 cates immediate emancipation of the 
 slaves. 
 
 - First emancipation of slaves on 
 American Continent when Mexico issued 
 a proclamation of emancipation. 
 
 1830 February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln s twenty-first 
 
 birthday ; preparing to leave Indiana with 
 
 family for Illinois. 
 April 6 ; First settlement of Mormons, in 
 
 Manchester, New York. 
 August 12; The first American railroad is 
 
 completed ; it connects Albany and Sche- 
 
 nectady. 
 October 5 ; American ports are re-opened to 
 
 British commerce. 
 
 1831 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s twenty- 
 second birthday ; helps his father build 
 their new home in Illinois ; works as a 
 flat-boatsman, later acting as clerk in store 
 at New Salem, Illinois. 
 
 April 21 ; Beginning of the Black Hawk War 
 in Indiana. 
 
 April 26 ; Imprisonment for debt is abolished 
 in New York. 
 
 August 21 ; Negro insurrection in Virginia, 
 fifty whites killed. 
 
 1832 January 6 ; Founding of American Anti- 
 Slavery Society by William Lloyd Garri 
 son. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s twenty- 
 third birthday ; volunteers in the Black 
 Hawk War, and is chosen captain of his 
 company ; entered partnership in a store- 
 keeping project, which soon failed ; reads 
 a copy of Blackstone s Commentaries on 
 the Common Law. 
 
 May 21 ; First Democratic (so-called) Na 
 tional Convention meets in Baltimore. 
 
 1832 July 13; Henry R. Schoolcraft discovers the 
 
 source of the Mississippi River. 
 August ; Abraham Lincoln defeated for 
 
 state Legislature in Illinois. 
 November i ; First street railroad in the 
 
 United States is opened between the City 
 
 Hall and i4th Street, New York. 
 December 1 1 ; Nullification Proclamation 
 
 issued by President Jackson. 
 December 31 ; Immigrants and other aliens 
 
 rush to America 60,482 in fifteen months. 
 December ; " My Country, tis of Thee " 
 
 is written by Samuel Francis Smith, New 
 
 Center, Massachusetts. 
 December ; First house in Iowa is erected 
 
 near Davenport. 
 
 1833 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s twenty- 
 fourth birthday ; burdened with debt, 
 studies and practices surveying. 
 
 March 2 ; Bloody Bill passed by Congress to 
 enforce tariff of 1832 which was declared 
 null and void by South Carolina. 
 
 March 4 ; Andrew Jackson inaugurated into 
 his second term as President of the United 
 States. 
 
 March ; Texas begins a war against Mex 
 ico for independence. 
 
 March ; Anti-slavery societies formed in 
 several states. 
 
 May 7 ; Abraham Lincoln appointed post 
 master at New Salem, Illinois. 
 
 1834 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s twenty-fifth 
 birthday ; elected to the Legislature ; meets 
 Stephen A. Douglas ; appointed second 
 place on the Committee of Public Accounts 
 and Expenditures by Speaker Hon. James 
 Semple. 
 
 February 17; Treaty with Spain signed. 
 
 June 21 ; Invention of the reaping machine 
 patented by Cyrus H. McCormick, of Vir 
 ginia, which became the foundation of 
 the great agricultural wealth of America. 
 
 June 30 ; Indian Territory is set apart ex 
 clusively for Indians. 
 
 November ; Abraham Lincoln elected to 
 the state Legislature of Illinois. 
 
 1835 January 30 ; Attempted assassination of 
 President Jackson. 
 
 February 10; Philadelphia is first lighted 
 with gas . 
 
 February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln s twenty-sixth 
 birthday ; borrows money to be suitably 
 clothed before going to the state capitol 
 as a legislator ; favors woman s suffrage, 
 and raises his voice against slavery. 
 
 December 16; Great conflagration in New 
 York City with a loss of $20,000,000. 
 
 December 23 ; Beginning of the Florida In 
 dian War. 
 
 1836 January n; A petition is presented to Con 
 gress praying that the institution of slav 
 ery may be abolished in the District of 
 Columbia. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s twenty- 
 seventh birthday ; licensed to practice law. 
 
 March 2 ; Texas declares her independence. 
 
 April ; Abraham Lincoln commences the 
 practice of law in Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 May 14 ; Mexico acknowledges independence 
 of Texas. 
 
 June 15 ; Arkansas admitted to the Union 
 as the twenty-fifth state. 
 
 148 
 
Chronology of the Life of Lincoln 1836-1845 
 
 1836 November ; Abraham Lincoln is re-elected 
 
 to the Legislature of Illinois. 
 November ; Territory of Wisconsin or 
 ganized. 
 
 1837 January 26; Congress admits Michigan into 
 the Union as the twenty-sixth state. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s twenty- 
 eighth birthday ; retired from postmaster- 
 ship at New Salem, Illinois. 
 
 March 3 ; Texas recognized as independent 
 by United States, England and France. 
 
 March 4 ; Martin Van Buren of New York 
 is inaugurated the eighth President of the 
 United States. 
 
 March ; Abraham Lincoln protests against 
 the pro-slavery action of the majority in 
 the Legislature; entered on the journal 
 of the Assembly. 
 
 May 5 ; The Creek Indian war begins. 
 
 December i ; The Cherokee Indian disturb 
 ance caused by the enforced removal of 
 the Indians to the West. 
 
 December 8 ; Wendell Phillips s first "aboli 
 tion " speech in Faneuil Hall, Boston, to 
 protest against the murder of Elijah P. 
 Lovejoy. 
 
 December - ; Samuel F. B. Morse first pub 
 licly exhibits his telegraph. 
 
 December 29 ; American sympathizers with 
 Canadians in revolt against English rule 
 attacked in Niagara River ; known as 
 " Patriot War." 
 
 1839 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirtieth 
 birthday ; during this year he is arguing 
 against slavery, in the Legislature at Illi 
 nois. 
 
 June ; Governor of the territory of Florida 
 offers a reward of two hundred dollars for 
 every Indian killed or taken. 
 
 June ; Daguerreotypes first taken in the 
 United States by Prof. J. W. Draper. 
 
 September i ; Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio en 
 ters the Military Academy at West Point ; 
 age seventeen. 
 
 1840 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirty-first 
 birthday ; during this year he is again re- 
 elected to Legislature. 
 
 February ; Another pro-slavery " Gag-law " 
 passes the House. 
 
 1841 February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln s thirty-sec 
 ond birthday ; re-awakens interest in tem 
 perance ; finds Stephen A. Douglas his 
 rival in state legislature. 
 
 March 4 ; William Henry Harrison of Ohio 
 is inaugurated ninth President of the 
 United States, dies within a month (April 
 4) and John Tyler is inaugurated tenth 
 President. 
 
 1841 September 4, 5 ; A riot against abolitionists 
 and negroes occurs at Cincinnati. 
 
 October ; Uprising of slaves in Virginia. 
 
 October ; Elias Howe of Massachusetts, 
 a mechanic, invents the first practical sew 
 ing machine. 
 
 1842 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirty-third 
 birthday. 
 
 February 22 ; Abraham Lincoln addresses 
 the Washingtonian Temperance Society at 
 Springfield, favoring total abstinence and 
 the temperance revolution. 
 
 March 30 ; First use of Anaesthetics in medi 
 cal practice in America. 
 
 May 2 ; First governmental exploration of 
 western country beyond the Missouri. 
 
 August 9 ; Lord Ashburton and Daniel Web 
 ster sign Treaty, establishing the North 
 western boundaries, and those extending 
 westward along the Great Lakes ; provides 
 for the suppression of the African slave 
 trade, and makes provision for the extra 
 dition of criminals. 
 
 September ; Duel between Abraham Lin 
 coln and General Shields. 
 
 November 4 ; Abraham Lincoln marries Mary 
 Todd of Lexington, Kentucky. 
 
 November ; Earliest actual finding of gold 
 in California, in Los Angeles district. 
 
 November ; Anti-slavery meetings are 
 broken up in many states ; buildings dam 
 aged and its advocates assaulted. 
 
 1838 February i ; John Ericsson patents first 1843 
 
 screw-propeller. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s twenty- 
 ninth birthday ; enters partnership in prac 
 tice of law with John T. Stuart in Spring 
 field, Illinois. 
 
 November ; Abraham Lincoln is re-elected 
 to the state Legislature, and becomes leader 
 of the Whigs. 
 
 November ; Abolitionists organize a po 
 litical party in New York. 
 
 December 1 1 ; Congress ; House passes a 
 slavery " Gag-law." 
 
 December ; Government forcibly removes 
 Cherokee Indians beyond the Mississippi. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirty- 
 fourth birthday. 
 
 March 3 ; Congress appropriates $30,000 to 
 aid Professor Morse in establishing the 
 first telegraph line, between Washington 
 and Baltimore. 
 
 June 30 ; Ulysses S. Grant graduates at West 
 Point ; he ranks number twenty-one in a 
 class of thirty-nine. 
 
 June ; About 1,000 emigrants leave West- 
 port on the Missouri frontier on a journey 
 of 2,000 miles to Oregon and arrive in 
 October. 
 
 August i ; Abraham Lincoln s son, Robert 
 Todd Lincoln, born. 
 
 October 25 ; Fremont s expedition reaches the 
 Columbia River in Oregon. 
 
 1844 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirty-fifth 
 
 birthday. 
 February ; Both political parties in the 
 
 North are divided by an anti-slavery and 
 
 a pro-slavery wing. 
 February ; New England Workingmen s 
 
 Association is organized in Boston. 
 
 1845 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirty-sixth 
 birthday. 
 
 March 3 ; Florida (slave) admitted as the 
 twenty-seventh state. 
 
 March 3 ; Congress reduces postage on let 
 ters to five cents within radius of three 
 hundred miles ; ten cents for greater dis 
 tances. 
 
 March 4 ; James K. Polk, of Tennessee, is 
 inaugurated the eleventh President. 
 
 December 29 ; Texas admitted as the twenty- 
 eighth state ; slavery is permitted. 
 
 December ; Order of United American 
 Mechanics is founded. 
 
 149 
 
Chronology of the Life of Lincoln 1845-1854 
 
 1845 December ; Whigs oppose slavery. South 
 ern Whigs, under lead of Henry Clay, now 
 considered slavery an evil to be removed 
 in some practical way, at some distant 
 period, but not to be interfered with in 
 the states where it existed. 
 
 ^46 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirty- 
 
 seventh birthday. 
 March 10; Abraham Lincoln s son, Edward 
 
 Baker Lincoln, born but died in infancy. 
 April 25 ; First engagement of the Mexican 
 
 war at La Rosa. 
 May 8 ; American victory in battle of Palo 
 
 Alto. 
 May 9 ; American victory in battle of Resaca 
 
 de la Palma. 
 November ; Abraham Lincoln is elected 
 
 to Congress from Illinois, a solitary Whig 
 
 among seven Democrats. 
 December 28; Iowa (free) admitted into 
 
 the Union as the twenty-ninth state. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirty- 
 
 eighth birthday. 
 February 23 ; American victory in battle of 
 
 Buena Vista. 
 February 23 ; American victory in battle 
 
 of Sacramento. 
 July 26 ; First electric locomotive was ex 
 
 hibited and operated. 
 September 14; American army triumphantly 
 
 enters city of Mexico. 
 December ; Abraham Lincoln and Andrew 
 
 Jackson in the House of Representatives 
 
 at Washington ; Stephen A. Douglas and 
 
 Jefferson Davis in the United States Sen 
 
 ate. 
 December 22 ; Lincoln introduced his 
 
 " spots " resolutions in Congress. 
 
 - First use of postage stamps un 
 
 der governmental authority. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s thirty- 
 ninth birthday ; speaking in Massachusetts 
 in the summer of this year against the Free 
 Soil Party ; introduced bill for the aboli 
 tion of slavery in the District of Columbia 
 late in the year ; meets Seward for the 
 first time. 
 
 February ; Discovery of gold hastens emi 
 gration to California. 
 
 May 29 ; Wisconsin (free) admitted to the 
 Union as the thirtieth state. 
 
 July 4 ; Peace with Mexico is proclaimed. 
 
 July ; President Polk authorizes the United 
 States Minister at Madrid to offer Spain 
 $100,000,000 for Cuba; he obtains a curt 
 refusal. 
 
 1849 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fortieth 
 birthday ; studies and masters Euclid ; 
 seeks appointment as Commissioner of the 
 General Land Office under President Tay 
 lor ; fails to secure same ; returns to law 
 office in Springfield. 
 
 March 5 ; Zachary Taylor of Louisiana, in 
 augurated the twelfth President of the 
 United States. 
 
 December ; Exciting debates occur in 
 Congress on the Slavery Question ; several 
 Southern members threaten secession and 
 Civil War if slavery is excluded from the 
 territories. 
 
 December ; Gold dollars are first coined. 
 
 1850 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s forty-first 
 birthday ; declines lucrative offer to move 
 to Chicago and enter partnership of lead 
 ing law firm. 
 
 March 7 ; Daniel Webster delivers his mem 
 orable address against his anti-slavery 
 friends, who regard it as a betrayal. 
 
 July 9 ; Death of President Taylor. 
 
 July 10 ; Vice-President Millard Fillmore of 
 New York is inaugurated the thirteenth 
 President of the United States. 
 
 July ; President Fillmore favors compro 
 mise measures with slavery. 
 
 September 9 ; New Mexico and Utah terri 
 tories are organized. 
 
 September 9 ; California admitted into the 
 Union as the thirty-first state ; slavery ex 
 cluded. 
 
 September 10; Congress passes the Fugitive 
 Slave Bill. 
 
 September 20 ; Slave trade suppressed in 
 District of Columbia to take effect Jan 
 uary i, 1851. 
 
 September i ; Total slaves in the United 
 States, 3,204,313. 
 
 December 21 ; Abraham Lincoln s son, Wil 
 liam Wallace Lincoln, born. 
 
 December ; Chicago organizes a Board of 
 Trade ; the city is lighted with gas. 
 
 1851 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s forty-sec 
 ond birthday ; circuit lawyer. 
 
 February ; Death of Abraham Lincoln s 
 father, Thomas Lincoln, age seventy-three 
 years. 
 
 December 24 ; Fire consumes part of the 
 National Capitol and the Congressional 
 Library at Washington. 
 
 1852 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s forty-third 
 birthday; joins the Sons of Temperance 
 in Springfield. 
 
 June 29 ; Death of Henry Clay, age seventy- 
 five. 
 
 August ; Lone Star Society is organized 
 for the extension of National influence in 
 the Western Hemisphere, and for the ac 
 quisition of Cuba and the Sandwich 
 Islands. 
 
 October 24 ; Death of Daniel Webster, age 
 seventy. 
 
 October ; " Uncle Tom s Cabin," by Mrs 
 Harriet Beecher Stowe, causes sensation 
 and inflames public mind against slavery. 
 
 1853 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s forty-fourth 
 birthday. 
 
 March 4 ; Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire 
 is inaugurated the fourteenth President of 
 the United States. 
 
 April 4 ; Abraham Lincoln s son, Thomas 
 Lincoln, born. 
 
 July 14; World s Fair; Crystal Palace open 
 ing at New York. 
 
 July ; " Know-Nothing " Society, a politi 
 cal organization, springs up soon disap 
 pears. 
 
 July ; Washington Territory is organized. 
 
 December 30 ; Gadsden purchase consum 
 mated with Mexico securing additional ter 
 ritory for New Mexico and Arizona. 
 
 1854 January ; Slavery agitation is re-opened 
 in Congress by Archibald Dixon of Ken 
 tucky (Democrat) who gives notice that 
 the Missouri Compromise is to be repealed 
 and new states will be given to slavery. 
 
 150 
 
Chronology of the Life of Lincoln 1854-1861 
 
 1854 January ; Acrimonious debates on the ex 
 tension of slavery engage the Senate for 
 four months. 
 
 February 12 ; Abraham Lincoln s forty-fifth 
 birthday. 
 
 March 31 ; Commodore Perry s treaty with 
 Japan. 
 
 April 20 ; Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Com 
 pany is organized with a fixed capital 
 limited at $5,000,000. 
 
 May 30; President Pierce signs the Kansas- 
 Nebraska Bill, which provides for the or 
 ganization of the Kansas and Nebraska 
 territories. 
 
 July ; Connecticut Legislature incorpo 
 rates an Emigrant Aid Association. 
 
 October ; Abraham Lincoln challenges 
 Stephen A. Douglas to a joint debate in 
 the canvass for Congress. 
 
 1855 January ; First bridge across the Missis 
 sippi completed at Minneapolis. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s forty-sixth 
 birthday. 
 
 February ; Anti-Slavery party becomes 
 generally known as the Republican party ; 
 Whig party rapidly disappears. 
 
 February ; Struggle over the Slavery Ques 
 tion in Kansas. 
 
 1856 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s forty-sev 
 enth birthday ; became Republican and 
 name was presented for yice-President to 
 the first National Convention. 
 
 May 22 ; Senator Sutnner assaulted in Sen 
 ate because of his anti-slavery speeches. 
 
 May 29 ; Lincoln delivers his famous " Lost 
 Speech " at organization of Republican 
 party at Bloomington, Illinois. 
 
 June 17; The Republican National Conven 
 tion at Philadelphia denounces " those town 
 relics of barbarism, polygamy and slavery." 
 
 August 29 ; A band of pro-slavery men, under 
 Captain Reid, defeats John Brown, the 
 abolitionist of Osawatomie. 
 
 1857 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s forty- 
 eighth birthday. 
 
 March 4 ; James Buchanan of Pennsylvania 
 is inaugurated fifteenth President of the 
 United States. 
 
 March 6 ; Dred Scott case confirms North 
 ern feeling against slavery. 
 
 1858 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s forty-ninth 
 
 birthday. 
 
 May ; Abraham Lincoln wins Armstrong 
 murder trial as defending counsel. 
 
 May ii ; Minnesota (free) admitted into 
 the Union as the thirty-second state. 
 
 June 16; Lincoln delivers his celebrated open 
 ing speech in his campaign for the Senate 
 at Springfield, Illinois. 
 
 August 5 ; Celebration of the successful lay 
 ing of the Atlantic cable. 
 
 August 21 ; First of the famous Lincoln- 
 Douglas debates at Ottawa, Illinois. 
 
 August 27 ; Second Lincoln-Douglas debate 
 at Freeport, Illinois. 
 
 September 15 ; Third Lincoln-Douglas de 
 bate at Jonesboro, Illinois. 
 
 September 18; Fourth Lincoln-Douglas de 
 bate at Charleston, Illinois. 
 
 October 7 ; Fifth Lincoln-Douglas debate at 
 Galesburg, Illinois. 
 
 1858 October 13 ; Sixth Lincoln-Douglas debate at 
 
 Quincy, Illinois. 
 
 October 15 ; Seventh Lincoln-Douglas debate 
 at Alton, Illinois. 
 
 1859 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fiftieth 
 birthday. 
 
 February 14 ; Oregon (free) admitted into 
 the Union as the thirty-third state. 
 
 September ; Abraham Lincoln answers 
 Douglas in Ohio. 
 
 October 16; John Brown makes a raid at 
 Harper s Ferry, in Virginia, to free the 
 slaves. 
 
 October ; Jefferson Davis addresses the 
 Democratic State Convention of Missis 
 sippi in behalf of slavery and the extension 
 of the slave territory. 
 
 December 2 ; John Brown hanged for treason 
 at Charleston, West Virginia. 
 
 1860 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fifty-first 
 birthday. 
 
 February 27 ; Abraham Lincoln delivers his 
 first great address in New York at Cooper 
 Union. 
 
 May 18; Abraham Lincoln of Illinois nom 
 inated for President of the United States 
 by the Republican party at Chicago ; Han 
 nibal Hamlin of Maine, Vice-President. 
 
 November 6 ; Abraham Lincoln elected Presi 
 dent of the United States (Republican), 
 receiving 1,866,452 votes; Stephen A. 
 Douglas (Southern Democratic), 1,375.- 
 157; Breckinridge (Democratic), 845,763 
 Bell (Union), 589,581. 
 
 December 14 ; Senators and Representatives 
 from eight Southern states issue addresses 
 to their constituents, urging secession of 
 separate states for the purpose of organiz 
 ing a Southern Confederacy. 
 
 December 20 ; South Carolina secedes from 
 the Union ; this leads to Civil War between 
 the North and the South. 
 
 December 26 ; Fort Sumter fortified by Ma 
 jor Anderson. 
 
 December 27-30 ; South Carolinians take 
 possession of United States property in 
 their state, except Fort Sumter. 
 
 December 31 ; There are thirty-three states 
 in the Union ; eighteen free and fifteen 
 slave ; this gives the control of the gov 
 ernment to the free states. 
 
 1861 January 5; Steamship "Star of the West" 
 sails with reinforcements and supplies for 
 Major Anderson in charge of Fort Sum 
 ter. 
 
 January 9 ; First shot is fired in the Civil 
 War, when the " Star of the West," ap 
 proaching Fort Sumter, is attacked by 
 the batteries of Fort Moultrie and com 
 pelled to retire. 
 
 January 9 ; Mississippi, the second state, 
 
 Florida, the third state, secedes. 
 Alabama, the fourth state, se- 
 
 secedes. 
 
 January n 
 
 January 1 1 
 cedes. 
 
 January 19 ; Georgia, the fifth state, secedes. 
 
 January 26 ; Louisiana, the sixth state, se 
 cedes. 
 
 January 29 ; Kansas (free) is admitted into 
 the Union as the thirty-fourth state. 
 
 February i ; Texas, the seventh state, se 
 cedes. 
 
 151 
 
Chronology of the Life of Lincoln 1861-1863 
 
 1861 February 4; Confederate Congress is or 
 ganized in Alabama. 
 
 February 4 ; Peace Congress met at Wash 
 ington. 
 
 February 4 ; Twenty-one states sent dele 
 gates to Washington in response to Vir 
 ginia s call for peace conference to avert 
 war. Conference failed. 
 
 February 1 1 ; Lincoln delivers farewell ad 
 dress to his neighbors at Springfield, Illi 
 nois, as he departs for Washington. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fifty-second 
 birthday. 
 
 February 18 ; Inauguration of Jefferson Davis 
 as President of the Confederate States of 
 America. 
 
 February 22 ; Lincoln, at Philadelphia, 
 warned of a plot to assassinate him while 
 passing through Baltimore by Allan Pink- 
 erton, chief of the Secret Service. 
 
 February 22 ; Lincoln speaks in Independence 
 Hall at Philadelphia ; abandons his public 
 journey and makes a secret and hasty de 
 parture in the night from Harrisburg for 
 Washington. 
 
 February 23 ; Lincoln arrives at Washington. 
 
 February 28 ; Congress organizes the terri 
 tory of Colorado. 
 
 March 2 ; Congress organizes the territories 
 of Nevada and Dakota. 
 
 March 4 ; Abraham Lincoln of Illinois is 
 inaugurated the sixteenth President of the 
 United States. 
 
 March 4 ; President Lincoln delivers his 
 inaugural message and announces a change 
 of administrative policy. 
 
 March n ; Confederate Congress provides 
 for organization of an army. 
 
 April 12; Confederates open fire on Fort 
 Sumter at 4.40 A. M. 
 
 April 14; Major Anderson evacuates Fort 
 Sumter. 
 
 April 15; Lincoln calls for an extra session 
 of Congress and 75,000 volunteer soldiers. 
 
 April 17; Virginia, the eighth state, secedes. 
 
 April 18; First volunteer troops reach Wash 
 ington. 
 
 April 19; First bloodshed in the Civil War, 
 on streets of Baltimore, Maryland. 
 
 April 29 ; Maryland house of delegates re 
 jects ordinance of secession. 
 
 May 3; Lincoln calls for 500,000 volunteers; 
 
 700,680 respond. 
 
 May 6 ; Arkansas, the ninth state, seceded. 
 May 10 ; Lincoln proclaims martial law. 
 May 20 ; North Carolina, the tenth state, 
 
 secedes. 
 June 3 ; Death of Stephen A. Douglas, age 
 
 forty-eight, on the eve of the Civil War. 
 
 June 8 ; Tennessee, the eleventh state, 
 secedes. 
 
 June 1 1 ; Forty counties in western part of 
 Virginia repudiate secession ordinance and 
 proclaim themselves a new state. 
 
 July 21 ; Confederates win battle of Bull 
 Run. 
 
 July 22 ; Federal Congress votes $500,000,- 
 ooo to support the war, and gives Lincoln 
 war-powers. 
 
 July 27 ; General George B. McClellan ap 
 pointed to the command of the Army of 
 the Potomac. 
 
 1861 November 8; Trent Affair Mason and Sli- 
 
 dell, Confederate Commissioners, taken 
 from English ship, and England threatens 
 war. Mason and Slidell are released. 
 
 1862 January 13; Lincoln calls Stanton to his 
 
 cabinet as Secretary of War. 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fifty-third 
 
 birthday. 
 February 16; First great victory of the Fed 
 
 eral arms ; capture of Fort Donelson. 
 February 20 ; Abraham Lincoln s son, Wil 
 
 liam Wallace Lincoln, age twelve, dies 
 
 in the White House. 
 February 25 ; Congress passed Legal Ten 
 
 der Act. 
 March 9 ; Ironclad " Monitor " repulses the 
 
 Confederate battleship " Merrimac " in 
 
 four hours naval combat. 
 April 4 ; Beginning of Peninsula Campaign. 
 April 6-7 ; Confederate attack on Pittsburg 
 
 Landing repulsed. 
 April 16; Confederate Congress passed Con 
 
 scription Acts, calling to military service 
 
 all able-bodied persons between 18-45 
 
 years of age. 
 April 1 6 ; Slaves in District of Columbia 
 
 emancipated by Congress. 
 April 25 ; Farragut wrests New Orleans from 
 
 Confederates after desperate battle. 
 June 28 ; Conference of loyal governors at 
 
 Altoona, Pennsylvania. 
 July 2 ; Lincoln calls for 300,000 volunteers 
 
 for three years. 
 August 4 ; Lincoln calls for 300,000 militia 
 
 for nine months. 
 August 30 ; Second defeat of the Federals 
 
 at Second Bull Run. 
 August 31 ; General Fremont (Federal) or 
 
 dered slaves freed in Missouri, but Lin 
 
 coln modified proclamation. 
 September 17; Federal army victorious at 
 
 battle of Antietam. 
 September 22 ; Lincoln issues the Emanci 
 
 pation Proclamation. 
 October i ; Lincoln visits the battlefield of 
 
 Antietam. 
 October 4 ; Confederates defeated at Cor 
 
 inth. 
 December 13; Battle of Fredericksburg. 
 
 December 19; Attempt of the Senate to 
 
 reconstruct the Cabinet. 
 December 31 ; Beginning of three days bat 
 
 tle at Murfreesboro. 
 
 January i ; Emancipation Proclamation takes 
 effect and slaves are declared free. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fifty-fourth 
 birthday. 
 
 February 25 ; Congress established a na 
 tional currency : National Bank Act 
 passed by Congress. 
 
 March 3 ; Draft Act passed calling every 
 
 able-bodied citizen of the United States 
 
 into military service. 
 May 2-3 ; Federal army retreats at battle of 
 
 Chancellorsville. 
 June 19; West Virginia, the thirty-fifth 
 
 state, admitted to the Union. 
 July 1-3 ; Federal army wins battle of Gettys 
 
 burg. 
 July 4 ; Federal army captures Vicksburg. 
 
 152 
 
Chronology of the Life of Lincoln 1863-1865 
 
 1863 July ii ; Washington threatened by Con 
 federate hosts at its threshold. 
 
 July 13-16; Riots in New York City in op 
 position to Draft Act about a thousand 
 persons killed ; a million and a half dol 
 lars worth of property destroyed. 
 
 July 16; Second Conscription Act passed by 
 Confederate Congress. 
 
 August 6 ; National Thanksgiving was ob 
 served for Union victories. 
 
 September 19-20; Federal army defeated at 
 Chickamauga. 
 
 October 17 ; Lincoln calls for 300,000 vol 
 unteers. 
 
 November 19; Lincoln delivers his immortal 
 eulogy at the battlefield of Gettysburg. 
 
 November 23-25 ; Federal army wins battle 
 of Chattanooga. 
 
 1864 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fifty-fifth 
 
 birthday. 
 March 9 ; Grant made Commander-in- 
 
 Chief of Federal forces. 
 May 5-12 ; Battles of the Wilderness. 
 June 14 ; The beginning of the siege of 
 
 Petersburg, Virginia. 
 June 28 ; Secretary of the Treasury Chase 
 
 resigns. 
 
 July 3 ; Delaware placed under martial law. 
 July 18; Lincoln calls for 500,000 men. 
 
 July 18; Conference at Niagara Falls of 
 Horace Greeley and Confederate Com 
 missioners. 
 
 September 2 ; Federals capture Atlanta. 
 
 October 31 ; Nevada, the thirty-sixth state, 
 admitted to the Union. 
 
 November 8 ; Abraham Lincoln re-elected 
 President of the United States; (Repub 
 lican) 2,216,067; George B. McClellan 
 (Democrat) 1,808,725. 
 
 December 10-21 ; Federal army captures Sa 
 vannah. 
 
 December 15-16; Federal army wins battle 
 of Nashville. 
 
 December 19; Lincoln calls for 300,000 vol 
 unteers. 
 
 1865 February i ; Thirteenth Amendment, con 
 stitutionally prohibiting slavery, adopted 
 by Congress and ratified by states De 
 cember 1 8, 1865. 
 
 February 3 ; Peace conference between Con 
 federates and Federals at Hampton 
 Roads, Virginia. 
 
 February 9 ; General Robert E. Lee made 
 Commander-in-Chief of Confederate forces. 
 
 February 12; Abraham Lincoln s fifty-sixth 
 birthday. 
 
 March 4 ; Lincoln delivers his second inau 
 gural address. 
 
 1865 March 5 ; First negro ever entertained at 
 White House Frederick Douglas. 
 
 March 22 to April 9 ; Lincoln visits Grant s 
 army at City Point, in Virginia. 
 
 April 3 ; Fall of Richmond, the capital of the 
 Confederacy. 
 
 April 4-5 ; President Lincoln visits the ruins 
 
 of the evacuated city of Richmond. 
 April 9 ; Surrender of Lee to Grant at Ap- 
 
 pomattox, Virginia. 
 April 1 1 ; Lincoln delivers his last speech 
 
 from one of the windows at the White 
 
 House. 
 April 14; Lincoln shot at Ford s Theater by 
 
 John Wilkes Booth, the actor ; the nation 
 
 thrown into consternation. 
 April 14 ;_ Secretary of State, Seward, 
 
 stabbed in bed. Failure of plot to assassi- 
 ~ nate General Grant and Vice-President 
 
 Johnson. 
 April 15; Death of Abraham Lincoln at the 
 
 hour of 7:22 on Saturday morning; the 
 
 republic bows in grief ; the world extends 
 
 condolences. 
 April 15 ; Andrew Johnson of Tennessee 
 
 takes oath of office as seventeenth Pres 
 ident of the United States. 
 
 April 19; Funeral of Abraham Lincoln at the 
 the White House ; body borne to the 
 National Capitol, to lie in state ; memorial 
 services held throughout the nation at 
 tended by more than 25,000,000 mourners. 
 
 April 21 ; Funeral train bearing remains of 
 Lincoln leaves Washington ; journey of 
 nearly 2,000 miles ; one of the greatest 
 funeral pageants that the world had ever 
 known. 
 
 April 26 ; John Wilkes Booth, assassinator 
 of Lincoln, shot by " Boston " Corbett, 
 cavalry sergeant, in Garrett s tobacco^ 
 house, near Bowling Green, in Virginia. 
 
 May 3 ; Arrival of funeral cortege of Lincoln 
 at Springfield, Illinois, a million Americans 
 having looked upon the face of the nation s 
 savior. 
 
 May 4 ; Burial of Lincoln at " Oak Ridge " 
 near his old home in Illinois ; the press 
 of the world paid tribute in eulogies to him 
 as " the Greatest American." 
 
 May 12; Trial of conspirators in assassina 
 tion plot begins. General Grant one of 
 the first witnesses. 
 
 July 5 ; Mrs. Mary A. Surratt, Davey Herold, 
 George A. Atzerodt and Lewis Payne 
 found guilty and sentenced to be executed. 
 Michael O Laughlin, Sam Arnold and Dr. 
 Samuel A. Mudd sentenced to life im 
 prisonment. Edward Spangler sentenced 
 to imprisonment for 6 years. 
 
 July 7 ; Hanging of Mrs. Surratt, Herold, 
 Atzerodt and Payne in prison yard at 
 Washington, as conspirators in the assas 
 sination of Lincoln. 
 
 Thy task is done ; the bond are free : 
 We bear thee to an honored grave, 
 
 Whose proudest monument shall be 
 The broken fetters of the slave. 
 
 Pure was thy life ; its bloody close 
 
 Hath placed thee with the sons of light, 
 
 Among the noble host of those 
 
 Who perished in the cause of Right. 
 
 William Cullen Bryant. 
 
 153 
 
The Portrait Life of Lincoln 
 
 PART VI 
 
 A Handbook of the Famous Photographic 
 
 Portraits of Abraham Lincoln 
 Treasured in the Great American Collections 
 
Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Page 
 
 First portrait taken of Lincoln when he entered National politics age 37. This daguerreotype 
 is undoubtedly first time that Lincoln sat for his portrait. It was taken during his cam 
 paign for Congress or shortly after his election, when he delivered his first speech from 
 1846 to 1848. Photograph from original daguerreotype in possession of Honorable Robert 
 T. Lincoln of Chicago, Illinois 13 
 
 Photograph of Mary Todd, who married Abraham Lincoln, in 1842 Lincoln was now 33 
 years of age. This negative was taken some years later, at time of Lincoln s inauguration 
 for Presidency, and presents her in gown worn at Inaugural Ball Original life negative 
 in collection of Americana Owned by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 15 
 
 Photograph taken while Lincoln, age 45, was engaged in Missouri Compromise, in 1854. Original 
 was taken in an itinerant gallery in Chicago, for George Schneider, editor of "Staats 
 Zeitung 17 
 
 Photograph taken in 1856 when Lincoln, age 47, was mentioned for Vice-President in first 
 Republican Convention Print in collection of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd of Washington, 
 D. C 17 
 
 First photograph of Lincoln circulated throughout the country for campaign purposes Taken 
 in Chicago, in 1857 Lincoln was now 48 years of age. Original negative, by Alexander 
 Hesler, burned in Chicago fire. Print in collection of Mr. H. W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois. . 19 
 
 Ambrotype taken in 1858, shortly after Lincoln s speech at Galesburg, Illinois. Print owned by 
 
 Mr. O. H. Oldroyd of Washington 19 
 
 Photograph Lincoln sat for in Springfield, Illinois, during the memorable campaign of 1858 
 
 age 49 years. Print owned by Mrs. Harriet Chapman of Charleston, Illinois 21 
 
 Ambrotype taken at Pittsfield, Illinois, October 1, 1858, immediately after Lincoln had made 
 his speech on public square age 49. Original by C. Jackson, owned by Miss Hattie 
 Gilmer of Pittsfield, Illinois. Print in collection of Frederick H. Meserve, New York. . 21 
 
 Photograph of Stephen A. Douglas, taken during his debates with Lincoln in 1858 Lincoln 
 was now 49 years of age; Douglas was 45 years. This negative was taken after Douglas 
 defeated Lincoln for United States Senate, which was followed two years later by 
 Lincoln s defeat of Douglas for President of the United States. Original in the collec 
 tion of American celebrities Owned by Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, D. C 23 
 
 Ambrotype taken August 25, 1858, at Macomb, Illinois, when Lincoln was campaigning against 
 
 Douglas for United States Senate Owned by Mr. W. J. Franklin of Macomb, Illinois. ... 25 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln as he appeared in political campaign, in 1858 age 49 Original negative 
 owned by Dr. McWilliams of Dwight, Illinois. Print in possession of Mr. Stuart Brown 
 of Springfield, Illinois 25 
 
 Ambrotype of Lincoln in linen coit, during Douglas debates at Beardstown, Illinois, in 1858 
 Original now in Lincoln Monument Collection at Springfield, Illinois Print in possession 
 of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd of Washington, D. C 27 
 
 Photograph taken during famous Lin coin- Douglas debates, in 1858 age 49 Collection of Mr. 
 
 J. C. Browne of Philadelphia 27 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln at time of John Brown s raid, at Harper s Ferry age 50 This negative, 
 taken in 1859, was destroyed in Chicago fire Mrs. Lincoln considered it best likeness of 
 her husband she had ever seen It presents Lincoln as he appeared just before his nomi 
 nation for Presidency Original negative by S. M. Fassett of Chicago, Illinois Photograph 
 owned by Mr. William Lloyd Garrison of Boston, Massachusetts Print in collection of 
 Mr. H. W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois 29 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln taken in 1860 at the time of his "Cooper Institute Speech" in New York 
 during his campaign for the Presidency age 51 Original negative by Mathew Brady of 
 New York Collection of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington, D. C 31 
 
 Photograph taken in summer of 1860 for campaign purposes Original negative owned by 
 Mr. M. C. Tuttle of St. Paul, Minnesota Print from collection of Mr. Daniel Fish of Minne 
 apolis, Minnesota 31 
 
 Photograph taken before the Republican National Convention at Chicago, in 1860 Found in 
 
 collection of the late Mr. J. Henry Brown of Philadelphia 33 
 
 Photograph taken at his home in Springfield, Illinois, immediately after his nomination for 
 Presidency, in 1860 age 51 Original by Alexander Hesler of Chicago, destroyed during 
 the fire Print in collection of Mr. Herbert W. Fay of DeKalb, Illinois 33 
 
 Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, in June, 1860 Copyright, 1894, by Mr. George B. 
 
 Ayers Negative now owned by Mr. H. C. Brown of New York 35 
 
 Ambrotype taken at Springfield, Illinois, May 20, 1860 Original presented to Governor Marcus 
 
 L. Ward of New Jersey Now in possession of the Ward family of Newark, New Jersey. 35 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln as he entered campaign for Presidency at 51 years of age Original neg 
 ative taken in June, 1860, at Springfield, Illinois Copyright, 1881, by Mr. George B. 
 Ayers Negative now owned by Mr. H. C. Brown of New York 37 
 
 Ambrotype taken August, 1860, when seventy thousand Westerners visited Lincoln at his home 
 in Springfield, Illinois Age 51 years Original in collection of Mr. William H. Lambert 
 
 of Philadelphia 37 
 
 156 
 
Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Page 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln greeting his neighbors for last time at his old home Photograph taken 
 at Springfield, Illinois, in 1861, when Lincoln was bidding farewell to his townspeople 
 before going to inauguration at Washington Negative in the collection of Americana, 
 
 owned by Mr. F. H. Meserve of New York 39 
 
 Photograph of Capitol at Washington when Lincoln went to his inauguration Photograph 
 taken while crowd was gathering for inauguration, in 1861, showing National Capitol 
 of Republic in course of its construction Negative in collection of Americana, owned 
 
 by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 40 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln at his home in Springfield Photograph taken early in 1861 as Lincoln 
 stood with his two younger sons in his front yard Print in collection of Mr. L. C. Handy 
 
 of Washington 41 
 
 Photograph of White House as Lincoln entered it Photograph taken at Presidential mansion 
 in Washington, in 1861, in first spring of Lincoln s occupancy Print in collection of 
 
 Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington 41 
 
 Photograph taken shortly after Lincoln s election to the Presidency. Believed to be his first 
 portrait with beard, early in 1861, at 52 years of age Owned by Mr. H. W. Fay, DeKalb, 
 
 Illinois 43 
 
 Photograph taken at Springfield, Illinois, just prior to Lincoln s departure for Washington, in 
 1861 Original negative by F. M. McNulta Now owned and copyrighted, 1894, by 
 
 Mr. Herbert Wells Fay of DeKalb, Illinois 43 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln taken early in 1861, about time he entered White House Original 
 negative by Alexander Hesler of Chicago Print owned by Mr. Frank A. Brown of 
 
 Minneapolis 45 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln taken just before leaving Springfield for White House, in 1861, age 52 
 
 Original negative by C. S. German Print owned by Mr. Allen Jasper Conant 45 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln at his inauguration Negative taken while Lincoln was delivering inau 
 gural address before great throng that had gathered at National Capitol The judges 
 of the Supreme Court can be seen sitting at his left Print in the Brady-Gardner Collec 
 tion deposited at Springfield, Massachusetts 47 
 
 Photographs of members of President Lincoln s Cabinet Original negatives taken from 1861- 
 
 1865 by Mathew Brady of Washington 49-55 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Vice-President in 1861-1865 Hannibal Hamlin of Maine 49 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Secretary of War in 1861-1862 Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania ... 49 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Secretary of War in 1862-1865 Edwin M. Stanton of Ohio 49 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Secretary of State in 1861-1865 William H. Seward of New York . 49 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Secretary of the Treasury in 1861-1864 Salmon P. Chase of Ohio ... 51 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Secretary of the Navy in 1861-1865 Gideon Welles of Connecticut . . 51 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Secretary of the Interior in 1861-1865 Caleb B. Smith of Indiana . . 51 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Postmaster-General in 1861-1864 Montgomery Blair of Maryland.. 51 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Attorney-General in 1861-1863 Edward Bates of Missouri 53 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Assistant Secretary of War Charles A. Dana of New York 53 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Secretary of the Treasury in 1864-1865 William P. Fessenden of Maine 53 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Secretary of the Interior in 1863-1865 John P. Usher of Indiana .... 53 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Secretary of the Treasury in 1865 Hugh McCulloch of Indiana. ... 55 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Attorney-General in 1864-1865 James Speed of Kentucky 55 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Postmaster-General in 1864-1865 William Dennison of Ohio 55 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln s Second Vice-President in 1865 Andrew Johnson of North Carolina. 55 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln seated with his Secretaries, Nicolay and Hay Taken in Springfield, 
 Illinois, in 1861, just before leaving for Washington Print in original Brady-Gardner 
 Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 57 
 
 Photograph presented by Lincoln to Mrs. Lucy G. Speed, on October 3, 1861, on which he 
 inscribed his autograph Negative in the collection of Americana in possession of Mr. 
 Frederick H. Meserve of New York 57 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln in camp with army at Antietam Negative taken October 3, 1862, when 
 Lincoln was standing in front of General McClellan s tent Taken by Mathew Brady, 
 government photographer Original negative in the Brady Collection at Springfield, 
 Massachusetts Copyrighted, 1910, by the Patriot Publishing Company 59 
 
 Photograph of President Lincoln on battlefield of Antietam under guard of the Secret Service 
 Original negative taken by Mathew Brady on October 3, 1862; Lincoln was accompanied 
 by Allan Pinkerton (Major Allen), first chief of the Secret Service, standing at his right, 
 and General McClernand. at his left Deposited in the Original Collection of seven thou 
 sand negatives valued at $150,000 at Springfield, Massachusetts Copyright, 1907, by 
 Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton, Hartford, Connecticut 60 
 
 157 
 
Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Page 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln with his Generals Original negative taken in Army of the Potomac 
 at Antietam, on October 3, 1862, while Lincoln was addressing General McClellan and 
 staff Negative in Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts Copyright, 
 1907, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton, Hartford, Connecticut 61 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln with his soldiers at battle-line Negative taken while Lincoln was 
 inspecting conditions in army at Antietam on October 3, 1862 Original negative by 
 Mathew Brady Print in collection of Mr. C. M. Derickson of Monessen, Pennsylvania 61 
 
 Photograph of President Lincoln in General McClellan s tent at battle grounds of Antietam 
 Original negative taken by Mathew Brady on October 3, 1862, while Lincoln was in con 
 ference with General McClellan a few days after the great battle Now deposited in the 
 Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts Copyright, 1907, by Mr. Edward 
 Bailey Eaton and valued at ten thousand dollars 62 
 
 Photograph of President Lincoln in the second year of the American Civil War Original 
 negative taken by Mathew Brady in Washington, in 1862 Print owned by Mr. Baldwin 
 Coolidge of Boston, Massachusetts 63 
 
 Photograph taken after first Emancipation Proclamation Original negative by Mathew Brady 
 at Washington in September, 1862, age 53 years Print in possession of Mr. L. C. Handy 
 of Washington, District of Columbia 65 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln shortly after signing of Emancipation Proclamation Original negative 
 taken by Alexander Gardner at Washington, in 1863, when Lincoln, age 54, broke the 
 chains that had bound three million slaves Negative in collection of Americana of 
 Frederick H. Meserve, New York 67 
 
 Photograph of President Lincoln s son, William Wallace Lincoln, who died in White House, 
 February 20, 1862, at twelve years of age Collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of 
 New York 69 
 
 Photograph of Thomas (Tad) Lincoln, born April 4, 1853, who became companion of President 
 Lincoln during his last years in White House The oldest son, Robert Todd Lincoln, 
 was in Harvard Collection of Frederick H. Meserve 69 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln taken at Washington, in 1863, shortly after battle of Chancellorsville 
 
 Original negative by Mathew Brady 71 
 
 Photograph taken the Sunday before Lincoln left for battlefield of Gettysburg in November, 
 
 1863 Original negative by Mathew Brady 71 
 
 Photograph taken during Lincoln s speech on battlefield of Gettysburg Original negative 
 by Alexander Gardner on November 19, 1863, while Lincoln was delivering his famous 
 Gettysburg address at consecration of the cemetery Original in Brady-Gardner Collec 
 tion at Springfield, Massachusetts Copyrighted, 1910, by the Patriot Publishing Com 
 pany 73 
 
 Photograph taken about time of battle of Gettysburg, in 1863 Original negative by Mathew 
 
 Brady 74 
 
 Photograph taken in Brady Gallery at National Capital, in 1863, during darkest days of Civil 
 War Original negative by Mathew Brady Life negative in collection of Americana of 
 Frederick H. Meserve of New York 74 
 
 Photograph taken shortly after Lincoln called for a half million more men, in 1864 Original 
 
 negative by Mathew Brady of Washington 75 
 
 Photograph taken when Lincoln Was seeking a new general for all the armies of the Republic, 
 
 in 1864 Negative by Mathew Brady at Washington 75 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln taken early in 1864 at request of Secretary Seward of his cabinet 
 Original negative by Mathew Brady at Washington Now in the collection of Mr. L. C. 
 Handy at Washington 77 
 
 Photograph taken about time of battle of Spottsylvania Court House, in 1864 Original nega 
 tive by Mathew Brady Deposited in the War Department Collection at Washington. . 77 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln about time Lincoln met Grant, in 1864 Original negative by Mathew 
 Brady at Washington Life negative in collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New 
 York 79 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln about time of Grant s taking command of the army, in 1864 Original 
 
 negative by Mathew Brady Print in collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 79 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln about time of his second nomination for Presidency of United States 
 Negative taken in 1864, when political leaders were declaring that Lincoln could not be 
 re-elected and American people were demanding his leadership Original negative by 
 Walker of Washington Print from the collection of Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd at the Lincoln 
 Museum at Washington 81 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln at time of his second nomination for Presidency, in 1864 Original 
 negative by Mathew Brady From collection of Americana of Frederick H. Meserve of 
 New York 82 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln with his son Thomas (Tad), in 1864 Original negative by Mathew 
 
 Brady at Washington 82 
 
 158 
 
Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Page 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln with his son Thomas (Tad) in White House Negative taken with 
 Lincoln in his characteristic attitude at home with his eleven-year-old son by his side 
 His son William Wallace had died at the White House two years before Original nega 
 tive by Mathew Brady in collection of Mr. L. C. Handy at Washington 83 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln about time of second election as President, in 1864 Original negative 
 by Walker, photographer for the Treasury Department at Washington Print from 
 collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 85 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln, age 56 years, shortly before his second inauguration, in 1865 Original 
 negative by Alexander Gardner at Washington Print from the collection of Mr. Fred 
 erick H. Meserve of New York 85 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln in closing days of American Crisis, in 1865 Original negative by Alex 
 ander Gardner at Washington Print from the collection of Mr. L. C. Handy in Wash 
 ington, District of Columbia 87 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln at his second inauguration, in 1865, age 56 years Original negative 
 by H. F. Warren, Waltham, Massachusetts Print in the collection of Mr. Osborn H. 
 Oldroyd at the Lincoln Museum in Washington 87 
 
 Photograph of President Lincoln about time of fall of Richmond, in 1865 Original negative 
 taken a few days before Lincoln went to capital of Confederacy to look upon ruins of 
 historic city Original negative by Mathew Brady Deposited in Original Brady Col 
 lection at Springfield, Massachusetts Copyright, 1909, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton. ... 89 
 
 Photograph of Lincoln at end of Civil War and Surrender at Appomattox Original negative 
 taken in Washington, in 1865, shortly before the hosts of the South and the legions of 
 the North clasped hands in peace Original negative by Mathew Brady, now considered 
 the greatest portrait of Lincoln ever taken Deposited in the Original Brady Collection 
 at Springfield, Massachusetts Copyright, 1908, by Mr. Edward Bailey Eaton 91 
 
 Last portrait of Lincoln ever taken Photograph taken a few days before end of Lincoln s life, 
 in April, 1865, when war was over and American people were re-united into an inseparable 
 brotherhood Original negative by Alexander Gardner at Washington Collection of Mr. 
 M. P. Rice of Washington Copyright, 1891 93 
 
 Photograph taken at Ford s Theater in Washington, after assassination on night of April 14, 
 1865 Original negative by Alexander Gardner Now deposited in the Original Brady 
 Collection of seven thousand negatives, at Springfield, Massachusetts 97 
 
 Photograph of President Lincoln s box in Ford s Theater as it appeared on night of tragedy 97 
 Photograph of chair in which President Lincoln was sitting when shot by John Wilkes Booth 97 
 
 Photograph of house in which President Lincoln died on Saturday morning, April 15, 1865 
 Photograph taken of building opposite Ford s Theater in which Lincoln spent last hours 
 The house is now the famous Lincoln Museum established by Mr. Osborn H. Oldroyd at 
 Washington, D. C. Print in possession of Mr. L. C. Handy of Washington 99 
 
 Photograph of John Wilkes Booth, actor, who shot Lincoln at Ford s Theater, Friday night, 
 
 April 14, 1865 101 
 
 Photograph of Sergeant Boston Corbett, 16th New York Cavalry, who fired shot that killed 
 fugitive Booth in a barn in Virginia, at 3.15 a. m., April 26, 1865 Negatives in Original 
 Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 101 
 
 Photographs of conspirators hanged for assassination of Lincoln Original Secret Service nega 
 tives in Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 102 
 
 Photograph of Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, an unfortunate widow and mother, whose home unwit 
 tingly became the center of the conspiracy 102 
 
 Photograph of George Atzerodt, carriage painter, who, it was charged, was delegated to assas 
 sinate Vice- President Johnson 102 
 
 Photograph of Davey Herold, boy who aided Booth to escape, and left his mother and seven 
 
 sisters heartbroken 102 
 
 Photograph of Lewis Payne (Powell), a Florida boy, in double irons. He attempted to assas 
 sinate Seward at his home 102 
 
 Photographs of accessories imprisoned for assassination of Lincoln Original Secret Service 
 
 negatives in the Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 103 
 
 Photograph of Michael O Laughlin, sentenced for life and died during imprisonment; his remains 
 
 were sent to his mother 103 
 
 Photograph of Samuel Arnold, clerk in sutler s store, sentenced for life and pardoned after serv 
 ing four years 103 
 
 Photograph of Edward Spangler, scene shifter, sentenced to six years; pardoned in four years, 
 
 and died eighteen months later 103 
 
 Photograph of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, physician, who, for harboring Booth, was sentenced for 
 
 life ; pardoned after four years 103 
 
 159 
 
Famous Portraits of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Page 
 
 Photograph of prison where conspirators were confined Negative taken at old penitentiary 
 building on arsenal grounds at Washington, where accused were imprisoned in cells and 
 heavily chained and manacled Original negative in Brady-Gardner Collection deposited 
 
 in Springfield, Massachusetts 104 
 
 Photograph of Military Court that tried Lincoln conspirators Negative taken when com 
 mission began to take testimony on May 12, 1865 Lieutenant-General Grant, whose life 
 was also in conspiracy, was first witness Print in collection of Americana of Mr. Fred 
 erick H. Meserve of New York . 104 
 
 Photograph of gallows in prison yard where conspirators were hanged Negative taken on 
 afternoon of July 7, 1865, when ropes were being noosed about conspirators Original 
 negative by Alexander Gardner, government photographer, now in Brady-Gardner Col 
 lection in Springfield, Massachusetts 105 
 
 Photograph of execution of convicted prisoners in Lincoln assassination This remarkable 
 negative is silent witness of end of one of the world s greatest tragedies Taken by Alex 
 ander Gardner while those who paid penalty were hanging on gallows Negative in 
 Springfield, Massachusetts 105 
 
 Photograph of funeral procession of Lincoln passing through streets of Washington at begin 
 ning of sixteen hundred mile journey to his old home at Springfield, Illinois, en April 
 21, 1865 Negative by Gardner 107 
 
 Photograph of bier on which President Lincoln rested in state while men, women, and children 
 wept over their lost leader on his funeral day on April 19, 1865, when twenty-five million 
 people throughout country bowed their heads in tribute Original negatives by Alexander 
 Gardner now deposited in Brady-Gardner Collection at Springfield, Massachusetts 107 
 
 Photograph of funeral catafalque of Lincoln passing through Philadelphia 108 
 
 Photograph while Lincoln s body was lying in state before great throngs at City Hall in New 
 
 York 108 
 
 Photograph of the funeral car bearing the dead Lincoln back to Springfield, Illinois Prints 
 
 from the collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York 108 
 
 Photograph taken while laying Lincoln in his tomb in beautiful Oak Ridge Cemetery in Spring 
 field, Illinois, on May 4, 1865 109 
 
 Photograph of tomb of Lincoln where Lincoln s body was left with a soldier s guard by a 
 
 mourning nation Prints from the collection of Mr. Frederick H. Meserve of New York. . 109 
 
 Photograph of national memorial at Lincoln s burial place in his old home city of Springfield, 
 Illinois Massive marble column rising above the catacomb and memorial hall proclaims 
 the simple greatness of the man whom the whole world loves Photograph taken shortly 
 after its erection, in 1874, showing the original tomb at the foot of the hill where Lincoln 
 lay for nine years Print in collection of Americana owned by Mr. Frederick H. Meserve 
 of New York .110 
 
 This collection includes all the original photographs of Abraham Lincoln that are known 
 to be in existence. In many instances the original negatives have been destroyed and prints are 
 in possession of several collectors. It has been the desire of this handbook to give the credit to 
 the owner of the original negative whenever it is known to be in existence. Otherwise the credit 
 is given to the collection from which the print used in this volume is taken. During the exhaus 
 tive investigations necessary in making this collection it was found that various coyprights on the 
 same print are held by several collectors, while the holder of the original negative seems to be 
 unprotected. While there has been considerable democracy in copyright protections, it is not 
 probable that the collector holding merely a print has an equitable right to control another man s 
 property. This condition is probably partially due to the kinship which Abraham Lincoln holds 
 to the American people a kinship which has made his portraits a common heritage of the genera 
 tions. The actual property right is undoubtedly with the owner of the original negative. It has 
 been the desire of the investigator, however, to fully respect the claims of the various collectors 
 and to give them full credit for the courtesy that they have extended without entering into their 
 conflicting claims. 
 
 160 
 
Hundred Greatest Books on Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, A History By his secretaries, John C. Nicolay and John Hay A monumental 
 work in ten volumes, portraying the life of a man and the history of the times from intimate 
 association. 
 
 History and Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln By his law partner, William H. Herndon, 
 assisted by Jesse William Weik A true story of a great life by one who was with him when 
 he rose from obscurity Recorded in two volumes. 
 
 Life of Abraham Lincoln By Ida Minerva Tar bell Testimony of many witnesses who knew Lincoln 
 in his early life, with reminiscences by his friends, including many exhibits of rare documents, 
 speeches, letters and telegrams Recorded in two volumes. 
 
 The Everyday Life of Abraham Lincoln By Francis F. Browne Lincoln s life and character por 
 trayed by those who knew him ; the friends, neighbors and associates during his whole career 
 Estimates and impressions of distinguished men, with reminiscences, incidents, and tributes 
 from universal sources. 
 
 The True Abraham Lincoln By William Eleroy Curtis Entertaining and graphic pictures of 
 Lincoln from men who knew him The simple story of a common man. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, The Man of the People By Norman Hapgood Story of a man who became the 
 leader of the plain people A virile expression of the character of Lincoln and qualities that 
 made him the greatest man of his times and yet the simplest and most humble. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, The Boy and the Man By James Morgan A dramatic story of the struggles 
 and troubles of the common man; how he solved great problems by the plain reasoning of 
 common sense and wrought great deeds by the exercise of the common qualities of honesty 
 and courage, patience, justice and conscience. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, American Statesman By John Torrey Morse An able and critical study of 
 Lincoln and his work An estimate of his statesmanship and political greatness, in two volumes. 
 
 The Life of Abraham Lincoln By Isaac Newton Arnold An entertaining narrative by the lawyer 
 Who was associated with Lincoln at the bar of Illinois and as a member of Congress in war 
 time The same author wrote The History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery, 
 immediately after Lincoln s death, in 1866. 
 
 The Life of Abraham Lincoln from His Birth to His Inauguration as President By Ward Hill 
 Lamon Personal recollections of Lincoln s law partner at Springfield, who, after Lincoln s 
 election as President, became his private secretary and later his marshal His recollections 
 have also been edited by his daughter, Dorothy Lamon. 
 
 The Life and Public Services of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States By 
 Henry Jarvis Raymond, who himself took a prominent part in the politics of the times 
 This is one of the first biographies of Lincoln and appeared in 1864-5, given with state papers, 
 speeches, messages, letters, and intimate descriptions of the closing scenes connected with 
 his life and death. 
 
 The Life of Abraham Lincoln By Joseph Gilbert Holland, one of the journalists who knew Lincoln 
 intimately and was one of the first to write his biography in 1865-6 He was a Northerner 
 who had lived in the South and knew the estimate of the man His simple story is still one of 
 just and honest judgment. 
 
 Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln By Francis B. Carpenter, an artist who 
 painted one of the famous portraits of Lincoln and lived with him during the most critical 
 days of the American Crisis, portraying the inner life at the White House This is an intimate 
 story written in 1866. 
 
 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln By Henry Clay Whitney, a fellow circuit rider who knew the 
 simple manhood of Lincoln as the country lawyer A characterized portrayal of Lincoln in 
 his most picturesque background. 
 
 Recollections of Abraham Lincoln By Lucius Eugene Chittenden, an official in Lincoln s admin 
 istration who gives his personal reminiscences and experiences with the President during the 
 war Entertaining memories of one who was close to Lincoln in Washington. 
 
 Lincoln, Master of Men By Alonzo Rothschild A study of the character of Lincoln and his anility 
 as a leader A brilliant estimate of his power, original in its treatment and executed with skill. 
 
 Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War By James Roberts Gilmore En 
 tertaining glimpses into the personal characteristics of Lincoln with memoirs and anecdotes 
 of personal relations with him during the dark days of the Civil War. 
 
 Washington in Lincoln s Time By Noah Brooks, a trusted friend of Lincoln who was associated 
 with the man and the events during the American Crisis His books also include a biography 
 of Lincoln for young people; a narrative of the worth and early manhood of Lincoln; and his 
 connection with the downfall of slavery. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, An Essay By Carl Schurz, who was appointed minister to Spain by President 
 Lincoln and later became a member of President Hayes cabinet A luminous appreciation, 
 given with testimonies by Emerson, Whittier, Holmes and Lowell. 
 
 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln Twelve volumes containing several authentic lines known 
 to be in existence from the speeches and writings of Lincoln, including his letters, state papers, 
 and messages With exhaustive Lincoln biography by Daniel Fish. 
 
 161 
 
Hundred Greatest Books on Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Abraham Lincoln s Pen and Voice Compiled by G. M. Van Buren A complete compilation of his 
 
 letters, civil, political, and military; also his public addresses, messages to Congress, inaugurals 
 
 and others. 
 Abraham Lincoln s Speeches Complete Edited by J. B. McClure From his first address in Papps- 
 
 ville, Illinois, 1832, to his last address in Washington, April 11, 1865. 
 Abraham Lincoln, Stories and Speeches Edited by J. B. McClure. 
 Lincoln s Early Speeches Edited by Bliss Perry Springfield speech Cooper Union speech 
 
 Inaugural addresses Gettysburg address Selected letters Lincoln s last speech. 
 Lincoln; Passages from His Speeches and Letters With an introduction by R. W. Gilder. 
 The Table Talk of Abraham Lincoln Edited by W. O. Stoddard. 
 
 Words of Abraham Lincoln Selected, arranged and annotated by I. Thomas For use in schools. 
 Words of Lincoln Compiled by O. H. Oldrpyd With an introduction by M. W. Fuller and T. S. 
 
 Hamlin Including several hundred opinions of his life and character by eminent persons of 
 
 this and other lands. 
 Political Debates Between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas In the celebrated campaign 
 
 of 1858 in Illinois; including the preceding speeches of each at Chicago, and Springfield. 
 Political Speeches and Debates of Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas, 1854-1861 Edited 
 
 by Alonzo T. Jones. 
 Abraham Lincoln, The Backwoods Boy By Horatio Alger, Jr. Story of how a Young Railsplitter 
 
 became President Boyhood and Manhood Series of Illustrious Americans. 
 Life of Abraham Lincoln By Joseph H. Barrett With a condensed view of his most important 
 
 speeches, his messages, proclamations, letters, and a concise history of the war. 
 The Life and Public Services of Honorable Abraham Lincoln By Davis Vandewater Golden 
 
 Bartlett. 
 
 The True Story of Abraham Lincoln, the American, Told for Boys and Girls Children s Lives of 
 
 Great Men By Elbridge Streeter Brooks. 
 In the Boyhood of Lincoln By Hezekiah Butterworth. 
 Abraham Lincoln By Charles Carleton Coffin. 
 Life of Abraham Lincoln, Sixteenth President of the United States By Frank Crosby Containing 
 
 his early history and political career; together with his speeches, messages, proclamations and 
 
 other official documents. 
 Greeley on Lincoln Edited by Joel Benton With Mr. Greeley s letter to Charles A. Dana and 
 
 a lady friend Added reminiscences of Horace Greeley. 
 Abraham Lincoln: His Life and Public Services Narrative by a woman in 1865 By Phebe Ann 
 
 Coffin Hanaford. 
 Assassination of Lincoln By Thomas Mealey Harris A history of the great conspiracy Trial of 
 
 the conspirators by a military commission and a review of the trial of John H. Surratt. 
 Nancy Hanks By Caroline Hanks Hitchcock The story of Abraham Lincoln s mother, Nancy 
 
 Hanks. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln and the Abolition of Slavery in the United States By Charles Godfrey Leland. 
 
 Abraham" Lincoln and Men of War- Times By Alexander Kelly McClure Some personal recollec 
 tions of war and politics during the Lincoln administration. 
 
 Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln s Stories By James B. McClure. 
 
 Life of Abraham Lincoln By Clifton M. Nichols Being a biography of Lincoln s life from his birth 
 to his assassination; also a record of his ancestors, and a collection of anecdotes attributed 
 to Lincoln. 
 
 The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln By Osborn Hamiline Oldroyd Flight, pursuit, capture, 
 and punishment of the conspirators, with an introduction by T. M. Harris. 
 
 The Lincoln Memorial; Album-Immortelles Collected and edited by O. H. Oldroyd Original life- 
 pictures, with autographs, from the hands and hearts of eminent Americans and Europeans, 
 contemporaries of the great martyr to liberty, Abraham Lincoln; together with extracts from 
 his speeches and sayings With an introduction by M. Simpson, D. D., and a sketch of the 
 patriot s life by I. N. Arnold. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln By John Carroll Power His life, public services, death and great funeral 
 cortege, from Washington to Springfield, Illinois With history and description of the national 
 Lincoln monument History of the attempt to steal the body of Abraham Lincoln Including 
 a history of the Lincoln guard of honor, with eight years Lincoln memorial services. 
 
 Lincoln in Story By Silas Gamaliel Pratt The life of the Martyr- President told in authenticated 
 anecdotes. 
 
 The Children s Life of Abraham Lincoln By M. Louise Putnam. 
 
 Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln, By Distinguished Men of His Times By Allen Thorndike 
 Rice Contains articles by Ulysses S. Grant, Elihu B. Washburne, George W. Julian, R. E. 
 Fenton, J. P. Usher, George S. Boutwell, Benjamin F. Butler, Charles C. Coffin, Frederick 
 Douglass, Lawrence Weldon, Benjamin P. Poore, Titian J. Coffey, Henry Ward Beecher, 
 William D. Kelley, Cassius M. Clay, Robert G. Ingersoll, A. H. Markland, Schuyler Colfax, 
 
 162 
 
Hundred Greatest Books on Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Daniel W. Voorhees, Charles A. Dana, John A. Kasson, James B. Fry, Hugh McCulloch. 
 Chauncey M. Depew, David R. Locke, Leonard Swett, Walt Whitman, Donn Piatt, E. W- 
 Andrews, James C. Welling, John Conness, John B. Alley, and Thomas Hicks. 
 
 The First Published Life of Abraham Lincoln By John Locke Scripps Written in the year 1860; 
 reprinted in the year 1900, by the Cranbrook Press. 
 
 The Life, Stories, and Speeches of Abraham Lincoln By Paul Selby A compilation of Lincoln s 
 most remarkable utterances, with a sketch of his life. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, A Character Sketch By Robert Dickinson Sheppard With anecdotes, character 
 istics and chronology. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln: The True Story of a Great Life By William Osborn Stoddard Showing the 
 inner growth, special training and peculiar fitness of the man for his work Also Inside the 
 White House in War-Times, and Lincoln at Work; Sketches from Life. 
 
 Pioneer Home to the White House By William Makepeace Thayer Life of Abraham Lincoln 
 With Eulogy by Honorable George Bancroft The Pioneer boy, and how he became President. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, The First American By David D. Thompson. 
 
 Tributes to the Memory of Abraham Lincoln Reproduction in facsimile of eighty-seven memorials 
 addressed by foreign municipalities and societies to the government of the United States 
 Prepared under the direction of the Secretary of State at Washington. 
 
 The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln; late President of the United States of America, and the 
 attempted assassination of William H. Seward, Secretary of State, and Frederick W. Seward, 
 Assistant Secretary, on the evening of the 14th of April, 1865 Expression of condolence and 
 sympathy inspired by these events Washington; Government Printing Office, 1867. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, Tributes from His Associates Reminiscences of soldiers, statesmen and citizens 
 By William Hayes Ward. 
 
 Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln Edited by John G. Nicolay and John Hay; with a general 
 introduction by Richard Watson Gilder, and special articles by other eminent persons. 
 
 Writings of Abraham Lincoln Edited by Arthur Brooks Lapsley, with an introduction by Theodore 
 Roosevelt; together with The Essay on Lincoln, by Carl Schurz; The Address on Lincoln, 
 by Joseph H. Choate, and The Life of Lincoln, by Noah Brooks. 
 
 The Lincoln and Douglas Debates The senatorial campaign of 1858 in Illinois, between Abraham 
 Lincoln and Stephen Arnold Douglas; containing also Lincoln s address at Cooper Institute, 
 with introduction and notes by Archibald Lewis Bouton. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, a True Life By James Baldwin. 
 
 The Lincoln Legion, the Story of Its Founder and Forerunners By Louis Albert Banks. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln and His Presidency By Joseph Hartwell Barrett. 
 
 The Genesis of Lincoln By James H. Cathey Truth is stranger than fiction. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, The Liberator: A Biographical Sketch By Charles Wallace French. 
 
 The Story of Abraham Lincoln By Mrs. Eleanor Gridley The journey from the log cabin to the 
 White House. 
 
 "Abe" Lincoln s Yarns and Stories By Alexander Kelly McClure A complete collection of the 
 funny and witty anecdotes that made Lincoln famous as America s greatest story teller; with 
 introduction and anecdotes The story of Lincoln s life told by himself in his stories. 
 
 The Real Lincoln By Charles Landon Carter Minor From the testimony of Lincoln s contem 
 poraries. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln By Ellis Paxson Oberholtzer American Crisis Biographies. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, A Character Sketch By Robert Dickinson Sheppard With Supplementary 
 Essay By G. Mercer Adam Also Suggestions from the Life of Lincoln By Prof. Francis 
 W. Shepardson The Early Years of Abraham Lincoln By Prof. Goldwin Smith . . . together 
 with anecdotes, characteristics, and. chronology. 
 
 The Boy Lincoln By William Osborn Stoddard. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, the Pioneer Boy, and How He Became President The story of his life By 
 William Makepeace Thayer. 
 
 A List of Lincolniana in the Library of Congress By G. T. Ritchie Writings of Abraham Lincoln 
 Writings relating to Abraham Lincoln Washington; Government Printing Office, 1903. 
 
 Lincoln and the Freedmen By J. Grant Eaton, in collaboration with Ethel Osgood Mason Remi 
 niscences of the Civil War, with special reference to the work for the contrabands and freedmen 
 of the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 History of the Administration of President Lincoln By H. J. Raymond Including Lincoln s 
 speeches, letters, proclamations and messages With preliminary sketch of his life. 
 
 The Life of Dr. Samuel A. Mudd By N. Mudd Containing Dr. Mudd s letters from Fort Jeffer 
 son, Dry Tortugas Island, where he was imprisoned four years for alleged complicity in the 
 assassination of Abraham Lincoln, with statements of Mrs. Samuel A. Mudd, Dr. Samuel A. 
 Mudd, and Edward Spangler regarding the assassination and the argument of General Ewing 
 on the question of the jurisdiction of the military commission, and on the law and facts of the 
 case; also the "diary" of John Wilkes Booth. 
 
 163 
 
Hundred Greatest Books on Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Lincoln in the Telegraph Office By D. H. Bates Recollections of the United States military tele 
 graph corps during the Civil War. 
 
 Lincoln the Lawyer By F. T. Hill. 
 
 The Story-Life of Lincoln By Wayne Whipple A biography composed of five hundred true stories 
 told by Abraham Lincoln and his friends, selected from all authentic sources. 
 
 The Memory of Lincoln Poems selected, with an introduction by M. A. DeW. Howe, Boston, 1899. 
 
 The Lincoln Album; life of the preserver of the Union, the liberator of a people, and the first Ameri 
 can Told by authentic picture Facsimile, letters, speeches, quotations, genealogy, and a 
 chronological table giving the principal events of his career, with the dates of their occurrence. 
 
 The Lincoln Centennial Medal, presenting the medal of Abraham Lincoln by Jules Edouard Roine, 
 together with papers on the medal. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln By George Haven Putnam, Litt. D. The People s leader in the struggle for 
 national existence. 
 
 The Death of Lincoln By Clara E. Laughlin The story of Booth s plot, his deed and the penalty. 
 
 The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln and Its Expiation By David Miller Dewitt. 
 
 O Captain ! My Captain ! 
 
 O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, 
 The ship has weather d every rack, the prize we sought is won, 
 The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, 
 While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; 
 But O heart! heart! heart! 
 O the bleeding drops of red, 
 
 Where on the deck my Captain lies, 
 Fallen cold and dead. 
 
 O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; 
 Rise up for you the flag is flung for you the bugle trills, 
 For you bouquets and ribbon d wreaths for you the shores a-crowding, 
 For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; 
 Here Captain! dear father! 
 This arm beneath your head! 
 
 It is some dream that on the deck, 
 You ve fallen cold and dead. 
 
 My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, 
 My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, 
 The ship is anchor d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, 
 From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; 
 Exult O shores, and ring O bells! 
 But I with mournful tread, 
 
 Walk the deck my Captain lies, 
 Fallen cold and dead. 
 
 Walt Whitman. 
 
 164 
 
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