LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER
 
 THE LINCOLN TETRALOGY 
 
 BY 
 
 DENTON J. SNIDER. 
 
 A national epos in four separate poems cor- 
 responding to the chief epochs of Lincoln's 
 career, and setting forth especially his inner life 
 and its transformations along with the outer 
 events of his time. 
 
 I. Lincoln in the Black Hawk War. 
 The first pivotal episode in Lin- 
 coln's evolution, written in free 
 rhymed tetrameters $1.50 
 
 IL Lincoln and Ann Rutledge. The 
 love idyl of Lincoln's life, written 
 in hexameters 1.50 
 
 III. Lincoln in the White House. Lin- 
 
 coln's development through inner 
 and outer conflict to his national 
 greatness — blank verse and prose 1.50 
 
 IV. Lincoln at Richmond, portraying his 
 
 last days of triumph and tragedy 
 
 (to appear in 1913) 1.50
 
 LINCOLN 
 
 IN THE 
 
 WHITE HOUSE 
 
 A Dramatic Epos of the Civil War 
 
 BY 
 
 DENTON J. SNIDER 
 
 ST. LOUIS, MO. 
 
 SIGMA PUBLISHING CO. 
 
 210 PINE ST. 
 
 For Sale by A. C. McClurg & Co. 
 Booksellers, Chicago, Ills.
 
 
 < TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 ■ — Page 
 
 ^ Book First. 
 
 Lincoln and Douglas 5 
 
 Book Second. 
 
 Lincoln with Himself 32 
 
 Book Third. 
 
 The Lower Cabinet 44 
 
 Book Fourth. 
 
 The Upper Cabinet 53 
 
 Book Fifth. 
 
 The First Proclamation 60 
 
 Book Sixth. 
 
 Mother Virginia 74 
 
 Book Seventh. 
 
 Lee and Thomas 94 
 
 Book Eighth. 
 
 The First Tragedy 110 
 
 Book Ninth. 
 
 The Backwoods' Sage 141 
 
 Book Tenth. 
 
 The Fatal Line .163 
 
 Book Eleventh. 
 
 Lincoln's Double Dragon Fight . . . . 179 
 Book Twelfth. 
 
 The Fightless Dictator 208 
 
 (3)
 
 Table of Contents. 
 
 Page 
 
 Book Thieteenth. 
 
 The Fatal Line Broken 222 
 
 Book Fourteenth. 
 
 Lincoln 's Lament Over His Son .... . 244 
 
 Book Fifteenth. 
 
 Lincoln at Harrison's Landing . . . 261 
 
 Book Sixteenth. 
 
 The South 's Resurgence 280 
 
 Book Seventeenth. 
 
 The Second Proclamation 295 
 
 Book Eighteenth, 
 
 Mother Virginia Again 310 
 
 Book Nineteenth. 
 
 At Antietam 329 
 
 Book Twentieth. 
 
 Lincoln's Return from Antietam . . . 341 
 
 Book Twenty-First. 
 
 The New Dictatorship ".__._• • • • ^48 
 Book Twenty-Secont). 
 
 Lincoln's Curse 359 
 
 Book Twenty-Third. 
 
 The Fourth of July, 1863 373 
 
 Book Twenty-Fourth. 
 
 Gettysburg and Vicksburg 381 
 
 Historic Intimations 394 
 
 (4)
 
 laoli Jfirst. 
 
 Lincoln and Douglas. 
 
 In his new home, heart of the Capital, 
 The central habitation of the land, 
 Seat of the Nation's will in act supreme, 
 Known as the White-House to the folk, 
 Lincoln uneasy lounged upon his chair 
 "With perturbations bubbled from the deep, 
 Waiting and watching in reposeless hope 
 For whom or what or why he hardly knew. 
 Still he had presage of one man's approach, 
 Though with an Alp of longing on his heart 
 Which seemed to crush and prison him just there, 
 As he upheaved his soul 's foreboding sighs : 
 "There is a Presence here, although unseen, 
 It haunts me with unknown expectancy 
 
 (5)
 
 6 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 Of some great visitor on -whom turns time 
 When huge events break over to new channels. 
 It bids me watch and will not let me go; 
 It weights me down if I but start to leave ; 
 Still I must take a look upon the heavens 
 From here, and yet I dare not quit this House. ' ' 
 
 So Lincoln straightened out his stature tall 
 
 "With slow sheer strength uprising from his seat 
 
 As if he would upbear a new-born world 
 
 In mighty Atlantean sufferance, 
 
 Strode to the window for a heart-worn glance 
 
 And gazed into the welkin overhead 
 
 Darkening before him round the distant hills. 
 
 It was an April day of sultry mood 
 
 Wliich lowered on the streets of Washington, 
 
 And twilight slyly drew a lengthening veil 
 
 Over the bosom of the Capitol 
 
 Wliose sovereign dome, unfinished still, 
 
 Now in the stress of being built complete, 
 
 Played with the passing clouds a spectral dance 
 
 And threw fantastic shapes athwart the sky. 
 
 At which the hurried multitude would gaze. 
 
 Turning around just for a breath's quick wonder. 
 
 Then onward seethed and surged the other way, 
 
 Facing the mansion of the President, 
 
 Whose light was flickering fitful on the gloom.
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 7 
 
 Who is the man there pushing through the mass 
 
 "Which rages round the White-House in huge waves 
 
 Of human atoms lashed to furious storm 
 
 As by some elemental power driven? 
 
 He dives forthright through the dense whirl of life, 
 
 His features are drawn tense with resolution, 
 
 His shaggy locks are not sleeked down to-day 
 
 But flap about his lion-head in wrath ; 
 
 The billowy crowd yields way to his set face. 
 
 As if a battle-ship cut through the foam 
 
 To reach the opposing obstacle for fight. 
 
 All scan him well as he goes sweeping on. 
 
 With anxious quest of look: What will he do? 
 
 For from his will hangs balancing the Nation, 
 
 Aye more, the world's futurity is his 
 
 Awhile to-day to pivot on his deed. 
 
 His steadied stride swerves not to right nor left. 
 
 Straight to the mark he shoots his body's bullet. 
 
 Not large, but rounded full of force and combat. 
 
 Upon the steps he mounts and treads the sill. 
 
 Bearing with him a node of History 
 
 If he could only see himself in act. 
 
 A ling-time friend has pushed to touch his arm, 
 
 And breathe request: "Let me go with you 
 
 thither?" 
 Firm- worded fell the answer : ' ' No ! alone 
 I must be there to-day — just two — and God." 
 Then through the crowded waiting-room he slips
 
 8 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 Shot at by glances of inquiring eyes, 
 To where the usher bids him enter in. 
 
 That man was Douglas named, of Illinois, 
 
 Renowned the Senate's greatest Senator, 
 
 Now speeding to this new-born task, his last 
 
 And highest for his country's future weal, 
 
 "When news had come that Sumter had been fired on. 
 
 He hastens to the chosen President, 
 
 His life-long rival in the race he lost 
 
 For the chief magistracy of the land. 
 
 Who now sits swajdng to and fro in doubt, 
 
 To offer loyal service of himself. 
 
 And all whom his example might inspire — 
 
 A million stalwart votes and more he polled 
 
 Last fall through his sheer personality. 
 
 As he takes off his hat and shakes his mane, 
 
 His leonine mane and heavy-chested trunk, 
 
 Leaning aback as ready for a spring. 
 
 Behold ! Lincoln appears with look released 
 
 Suddenly to a dimpled flow of joys — 
 
 They, living counterparts of one another 
 
 In stature, shape, and contour of the face, 
 
 Opposites even to the hand and hair. 
 
 All of their former days they stood apart 
 
 And were at odds in the whole game of life ; 
 
 But now they seem to fit symmetrical. 
 
 To harmonize their dissonance's jar
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. Q 
 
 Into one melody of mind and mould 
 And integrate two souls in one great cause, 
 Two mighty men turned to the superman 
 In sudden mutual clasp of heart and hand. 
 
 There stood the twain together like tower and base, 
 
 One with an overlook, one with support, 
 
 Both felt the Nation's mighty clash within 
 
 Tearing their hearts by its discordant throes, 
 
 Yet slowly turning to a deeper unison, 
 
 When Lincoln was the first to utter speech : 
 
 "Long separate, but now the more united 
 
 In that last bond which kins all patriots. 
 
 Bond of the Union's life here in us sealed ! 
 
 Perchance the bond too of our destiny 
 
 Yet to be written in our very blood ! 
 
 Of all men in the world I wished for you 
 
 Just you — I was then praying for your presence 
 
 When the high Powers brought you in response. 
 
 For at the bottom of my heart's best hope 
 
 Is bubbling now my glad presentiment 
 
 That this our union may foreshadow too 
 
 Eestored Union of our States distract 
 
 With a new birthdom of the Nation whole. ' ' 
 
 Douglas with rising throat, untongued of speech, 
 Clasped his old rival's hand in silent yes. 
 He had begun to have his far-off gleams
 
 10 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 Out of a world beyond the common ken, 
 Though not addicted to a rapturous strain 
 In the stern business of his word and deed. 
 Yet the strong moment drives him soon to utter 
 What has been lurking long unvoiced within : 
 ' ' Lincoln, beforehand let me say you this : 
 In that debate with you some two years since. 
 Despite the fierce encounter of our wits, 
 I felt our deeper oneness underneath 
 The outer flash and stroke of sword-like tongues, 
 E'en had forewarnings of this very hour. 
 And, Lincoln, you possess the gift of love. 
 Can rouse its throbs in every human soul 
 "Who hears your voice or looks upon your face. ' ' 
 
 Lincoln stared melting at the frank avowal, 
 And flowed at once into a like acknowledgment, 
 Trembling about his lips with grateful words 
 As in his heart 's own tone he throbbed his echo : 
 "I never did appreciate you fully, 
 Douglas, for I must first confess myself 
 To you, and win from conscience mine own shrift. 
 A greater character 3'ou now have shown 
 Than I am, greater far in recognition 
 Of other's worth, suppressing jealous}^; 
 You have outprized me just in prizing me, 
 Which hitherto I have not done for you; 
 Forgetful of a life-time's rivalries,
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. H 
 
 In this henceforth your rival I shall be, 
 
 And ban suspicion from its secret nook 
 
 To equal you in magnanimity. 
 
 Here by your presence I am thrilled to vow 
 
 Devotion to our sacred cause anew 
 
 And sink, like you, myself in duty's ocean 
 
 To cleanse me pure of blights of serving self, 
 
 Fountained in love's oblivion of hate." 
 
 When he had spoken thus he reached his hand, 
 
 That massive hand with sinewy fingers clutching 
 
 In former years the ax or iron sledge 
 
 Or knotted maul to cleave the oaken bole. 
 
 But now it had to do another task : 
 
 Unroll a scroll of paper written on. 
 
 Which act he prefaced with these measured words : 
 
 "I wish to read for your approval this 
 
 My call for troops to meet revolt now loosed ; 
 
 I have been waiting for you here — just you — 
 
 Though my whole cabinet agree to it, 
 
 Without assent of yours I would not dare 
 
 Issue it to the people, loyal still. 
 
 Of whom you represent by vote the half 
 
 Better than any other man to-day; 
 
 I know it well and do confess it here. 
 
 Yours is more true to you than mine to me ; 
 
 Yours is your own more than your party's own; 
 
 So the first union is of you and me,
 
 12 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 And then of yours and mine without a rift ; 
 Thus may we bring about the final union 
 Of these constituent States now sunderin;? ; 
 Your word is what must unify, not mine — 
 You rise the master of this crisis over all." 
 
 Lincoln then read the trumpet call to arms, 
 
 That lofty first endowment of the Nation 
 
 With the authority to save its life 
 
 "When jeoparded by enemies within, 
 
 Invoking the whole people to march forth 
 
 In the defence of that which makes them whole. 
 
 His eager looks he lavished on his guest 
 
 And closely watched the latter 's answering eyes : 
 
 "That's it — just what I now would do myself 
 
 If I were President," said radiant Douglas. 
 
 ' ' It has the ring of my heroic model 
 
 In word and deed, of mine own Andrew Jackson 
 
 When he near thirty years ago was forced 
 
 To grapple with this same South Carolina, 
 
 The discontented State both then and now, 
 
 Fault-finder general of Commonwealths, 
 
 The least republican in constitution — 
 
 Its greatest grievance is, methinks, itself. 
 
 Then I was but a stripling, scarce eighteen. 
 
 But to my patriotic bent I gave myself, 
 
 Was ready to enlist, started to drill; 
 
 The same old feeling throbs still in this breast ;
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 13 
 
 I took my early oath to the Union then 
 
 Which I shall keep — I swear it now to you." 
 
 Then he held up his hand to take the vow 
 
 Which from his soul irradiated him 
 
 With all the glow of blessed consecration. 
 
 Lincoln was rapt and stood in wondering glow 
 
 At this new greatness of the man before him. 
 
 He felt uplifted to new self -surrender, 
 
 Hearing the lofty words of one he deemed 
 
 His whole career's most dread antagonist, 
 
 And touched his words with tender chords of voice : 
 
 "Be it now mine to imitate your act 
 
 Which has attuned my deepest difference 
 
 And set before me clearer my true goal ; 
 
 Diviner than myself I hail you now 
 
 In this high all-forgiving deed like God's; 
 
 But I shall live up to the same fulfilment 
 
 Which you reveal me as the prize of life, 
 
 Ridding me of mean envy's secret nagging. 
 
 That I may share with you that common worth 
 
 Which fuses both our souls into one thought 
 
 To save what is salvation's very self — 
 
 Our country's institution, best-born of time." 
 
 Then lesser Douglas rose as if gigantic, 
 His stature seemed to grow just there 
 To aught of a colossal magnitude 
 As he uplifted his full voice sonorous,
 
 14 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 The echo of his heart's swoll'n overflow, 
 
 And raised his hand upright, palm to the front, 
 
 As he would swear before the magistrate 
 
 Of Heaven his everlasting fealty: 
 
 "My President, to you I pledge my oath; 
 
 Just in your presence here I would enlist, 
 
 Under that call of yours and take my place 
 
 In the fore rank of pressing volunteers, 
 
 Eeady to march, the first enlisted man ! ' ' 
 
 He strode the floor alert in springy pace, 
 
 And shook his lion's mane with that huge roar 
 
 Which seemed to voice a million of his followers, 
 
 Then leaped elastic as he shot his words: 
 
 ' ' Methinks I am become a youth again. 
 
 My memory shifts me to reality. 
 
 Each muscle is keyed up to test the battle, 
 
 I cannot longer hold me in delay; 
 
 You, my Commander, I await your orders." 
 
 Deliberately Lincoln dropped his front, 
 
 As if he would turn inward to himself 
 
 For a brief moment's counsel with his soul. 
 
 Then slowly throbbed his mind into his voice: 
 
 ''My first enlisted man — and greatest! 
 
 Greater than I am, I repeat the thought 
 
 Just now you stand above me in this crisis : 
 
 You can unite the North, in that same act 
 
 You can divide the South within itself;
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 15 
 
 Whilst I — well do I read the fateful sign — 
 
 Divide the North, but unify the South, 
 
 Unless you bring your poll of myriads 
 
 To me, and tie them to the Union's car. 
 
 Your votes for President combine with mine 
 
 Through you — through you alone — I know it well, 
 
 Through magic of your personality. 
 
 Your deed then is the grandest deed of all. 
 
 The presage and the starting point of victory ; 
 
 The primal battle of this war you have 
 
 Already won — I hail you Conqueror." 
 
 But Douglas turned and looked off at himself 
 O'erweighted by the vast acknowledgment, 
 Until he could pick up discourse again : 
 ' ' Friend — now I shall address you first as friend 
 Though I have never thought you such before — 
 Your words have spoken out my deepest hope 
 "Which you have raised to light for mine own vision 
 From where it has lain hid to me myself 
 Far down within my soul's dark underworld, 
 The buried treasure of my best self's being 
 Lifted by you that I possess my own, 
 Methinks for the first time in all my life." 
 The speaker stood a moment's silent spell 
 As gazing into depths beyond his speech. 
 When he looked up, out of his heart to view 
 A little bit of his own history:
 
 16 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOVSE—BOOK I. 
 
 "I saw this struggle coming on for years 
 
 As Senator in yonder Capitol ; 
 
 From my high vantage perch I watched its growth, 
 
 By compromise I sought to stem its course 
 
 "Whenever it would threaten dissolution ; 
 
 I threw it many a bone to pick in peace 
 
 That it might still its ever-gnawing hunger 
 
 Which always craved for rule more territory; 
 
 I humored it, but ever to my cost ; 
 
 In lesser things I yielded oft my will 
 
 Quite to the point where duty dreaks her staff. 
 
 Hoping to save the greater and the greatest, 
 
 This Union of the States, without the blood, 
 
 The fratricidal penalty now doomed. 
 
 All, all in vain ;' my work of compromise 
 
 Which made me try to temporise with God, 
 
 Has been rejected with a scowled disdain 
 
 By those to whom I sacrificed myself 
 
 For all my years up to the present time. 
 
 But now I see my higher immolation. 
 
 And feel me portioned with your dower divine, 
 
 The love which you impart e'en to your foes." 
 
 Tall sympathetic Lincoln looked his heart 
 
 Which he pulsed forth in tremulous tones of voice 
 
 As he on his part lipped confession too : 
 
 "How clearly now I see all that you did, 
 
 And grasp the motive of your great career
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 17 
 
 Where it beneath all difference of party 
 Conjoins with mine in love of our one country ! 
 With that deep spirit of your life to-day 
 I would commune and seek its present help, 
 Which is the time 's last need, and mine, mine too. 
 You I have had in mind for weeks, for months. 
 While I was helpless held at home in Springfield, 
 And watched in impotence the wrecking storm. 
 I would repeat to you my surest thought : 
 Yours is the will on which this moment hinges, 
 Turning to triumph or defeat just now: 
 Yours the initiative I say, not mine, 
 Although I voice the call, you give the sign 
 Which I have been beseeching of the Powers. 
 This is my prayer to the timely man : 
 ' make us whole and cleave the foe in twain ! ' 
 So you appear to step from out the air 
 In ansM^er to my fervent supplication, 
 As when a spirit drops down from above 
 In blest fulfilment of some high decree, 
 The presage of our victory at last; 
 The only rainbow promise I have seen 
 Is yours since I have come to take my seat 
 In this uneasy Presidential chair. ' ' 
 
 Such was the dark ray which escaped the guard 
 Of Lincoln's melancholy inner world; 
 But it he sought to overtake with gleams
 
 18 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 Of recognition bright for his high guest, 
 Culling from memory some pleasant flowers 
 To counteract the gloom of what he said: 
 "Let me repeat: that act of courtesy, 
 I never have acknowledged it, alas ! 
 The fairest gem of my inauguration. 
 Bright it is treasured in my gratitude ; 
 When I, distraught at the great throng of faces 
 And the far greater pressure of the time, 
 Crushed with a Nation's vast expectancy, 
 I knew not even where to put my hat; 
 Then you stepped up and held it in your hand, 
 With radiance so gracious from your eyes, 
 With whispered words of comfort from your lips. 
 That I at once took heart and pulsed it forth 
 Into my tongue that all the audience fused — 
 Your followers and mine became then one 
 More through your look and act than what I said. 
 Hear me! alone I never could have done it 
 Douglas, a stone rolls from my weighted back . 
 For I have failed to mete you recognition ; 
 I say you this confession to your face. ' ' 
 
 Tall Lincoln rose to his full stretch of stature. 
 The little stoop which always curved his shoulder 
 Seemed then to straighten out and make him 
 
 mighty, 
 While Douglas upward bent his gleaming eyes ;
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. I9 
 
 A stride, almost a military strut 
 
 He took across the floor against some foe 
 
 Invisible, as he discharged his words : 
 
 "My chieftain now, Lincoln, greatest to be 
 
 Of all our Presidents lined down the future, 
 
 Commander of the Nation give me your orders ! ' ' 
 
 More tenderly then Lincoln tuned his voice 
 Quite breathed to whisper confidential: 
 "Again you have forerun my dearest wish 
 AVhich at your bidding I unbosom you. 
 Haste to our common home, spacious North- West, 
 Which is the foremost child and aye free-born 
 Of this maternal Union ; rouse its people 
 By your compelling might of eloquence. 
 And to the cry of their endangered mother 
 Rally them in one mighty folk-soul's swell, 
 Kindle them to a rolling fiery mass 
 Of live volcanic valor, thence to swoop down 
 The stream-bed of the Mississippi's flood. 
 Freeing the Nation's future valley-home 
 Far to the tepid Gulf of Mexico. 
 Then hitherward shall turn that human tide 
 Eesistless of our patriot's soldiery, 
 Perchance around e'en to this Capital 
 Through all the realm of mad rebellion 
 'Twill have to march before its work is done, 
 Restoring this as center of the Nation.
 
 20 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 To you in privacy I dare divulge 
 What I must keep unsaid thougli oft it knocks, 
 The hid presentiment of days to come : 
 That valley is the way to our salvation." 
 
 More boldly then with words broke Douglas in, 
 As he unlocked a secret chamber of his soul : 
 "You hit my purpose right upon the head- 
 Hear too from me a note of prophecy, 
 Though mine be not the gift oracular : 
 The Mississippi is the marching road 
 For men to do the Nation 's winning deed : 
 Those men of ours — I deem I know them well," 
 
 Lincoln's sunk eye shot lightening of surprise: 
 
 ' ' Did you think too of that which I must hide ? 
 
 I never tongue the thought here in the East 
 
 Where is the strain of local vanity 
 
 Which I must not offend by noting it, 
 
 But hold myself impartial to each part. 
 
 Still I may whisper you my last night 's dream 
 
 That we can never reach revolted Charleston, 
 
 Unless we follow our great river's lead 
 
 Even in all it tortuosities 
 
 Which coil and roar through so much space and 
 
 time, 
 But never fail at last to reach the goal."
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 21 
 
 Douglas let fall his chin upon his breast 
 
 And slowly spoke with meditation's look: 
 
 "Yes, we are thinking now the self -same thought, 
 
 "We both are even dreaming the one dxeam, 
 
 And both our hearts pulse with one stroke together. 
 
 Hence first I shall fly to our common State 
 
 Of Illinois, and call to arms her sons, 
 
 Unite them all, both parties, j^ours and mine, 
 
 In this great enterprise — I must be off. ' ' 
 
 "The only man who can do that — 'tis you," 
 
 Spake Lincoln with an emphasis of heart, 
 
 ' ' And yours I deem the first great deed of war, 
 
 The most important to be done just now — 
 
 Unite the North, divide the South — that's yours — 
 
 Tours for all future time of history ; ■ 
 
 Methinks I see the world turn on your act. 
 
 God speed you well, my first enlisted man 
 
 Of thousands or of millions, and the greatest. ' ' 
 
 The orator turned soldier wheels about 
 And marches pensive quite unto the door; 
 But ere he trod the sill, he faced again 
 Lincoln, who closely followed in his steps, 
 Forefeeling somewhat still unsaid by both 
 "Wliich throbbed for utterance within each soul. 
 They felt the need in mutual mystery 
 To tell new revelations of themselves. 
 The bodeful secrets of their underworld
 
 22 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 "Wliicli darkly lurked within their present deeds. 
 The military Douglas calmed his speech 
 From Avar into low brooding tones of care : 
 "Let Death now strike me down — this shall I do; 
 For I would rather die at such conjuncture 
 When I have reached the oneness of myself, 
 And feel me vanish in my country's life, 
 Yielding my singleness unto the All. 
 In this forespoken act of mine there lurks 
 For me a shadowy sense of doomful Fate 
 "Which haunts my soul with dark presentiment. 
 Sad was I when I hither came — I leave 
 Instilled with a new joy of harmony. 
 As if I touched the center of my being, 
 And there discovered first my own true Self 
 Enshrined within my country's largest aspiration. 
 I feel nerved up to strive man's topmost reach; 
 Let Fate me slay, I shall coerce it still, 
 The master of it through its own success. 
 Stamping my impress on the age's loftiest deed 
 Just in my personal evanishment. " 
 
 Thus Douglas reveried against his wont 
 
 And strangely rhapsodized in prophecy ; 
 
 He thrilled a strand far down in Lincoln's soul, 
 
 Whereof vibrations rose into his words : 
 
 ' ' Therein again you do prefigure me 
 
 And strike concordant notes with mine own doom;
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 23 
 
 I too feel Destiny twang my heart-strings oft, 
 Which now your words attune as if a harp 
 Trills in response to wafture of your breath. 
 All through the gamut of our souls we seem 
 Communing from the sources nethermost 
 Which upward well to view we wot not whence. 
 How unexpected is all this in you! 
 Long have I known you, heard you often talk, 
 I never thought you had a vision, trance, 
 Or ecstacy, but kept to facts of sense. 
 It is the time 's upheaval in us both, 
 The outbreak of a world which hitherto 
 Unconscious lay far down in every soul. 
 But now sends forth new sudden rivulets. 
 From its mysterious depths of first creation; 
 An oversoul is working in us too. 
 As well as in the people's mighty tides 
 Responsive to a Presence universal. ' ' 
 
 Thus told they of their secret selves in turn. 
 And bared their hidden lives in mutual strain. 
 When both hushed to a moment's speechlessness. 
 Soon Douglas damped his voice to a whispering 
 
 dream, 
 And lisped out of the future this weird presage : 
 "Let me confess to what I here forefeel — 
 The first to fall I shall be in this battle 
 To which I go as soldier now in arms. 
 Obeying your command and mine, and God's.
 
 24 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 Never before have I had premouitions, 
 
 I always laughed at those who had — at you 
 
 Dropping a Avord in your sepulchral mood; 
 
 But now there dogs me everywhere I walk 
 
 A bodement strange of brief mortality, 
 
 An airy summons to the Judgment last 
 
 To which each step I take is but approach. ' ' 
 
 There Douglas stopped, held in reflection mute 
 
 As if he hesitated to speak out 
 
 Some word which would not let itself be hid, 
 
 But stammered with a jog across his lips: 
 
 "Lincoln, not I alone am brought to feel 
 
 The dread pursuit of doomful intimations, 
 
 But my own household too, the innocents. 
 
 Are whelmed into participation strange : 
 
 My women folk are haunted by this mood 
 
 Of boding prescience quite akin to mine 
 
 And try to hold me back from daring it. 
 
 But I shall go, of augury defiant 
 
 To outface Fate, turning its mortal blows 
 
 Back on itself, compelling it through death." 
 
 The ominous word smote Lincoln to a quake 
 Which ran a surge of momentary shocks 
 Along each member of his body 's frame ; 
 Again the common underlying chord 
 Reverberated sympathy in both 
 As Lincoln's heart-swells palpitated up
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 25 
 
 Into his speech and a small tear in tune 
 
 Coursed tumbling down his sallow channeled cheeks : 
 
 ' ' Another consonance ! what means it all ! 
 
 Are we intoxicated from that cup 
 
 Of rare divine elixir which the Gods 
 
 Once drank according to the ancient fable? 
 
 A draught in common somewhence we are drawing, 
 
 For listen to the match of your experience 
 
 Which seems to rise as counterpart to mine : 
 
 Last night as I lay waking in my thought 
 
 I heard my helpmate shriek in restless sleep 
 
 Almost the words of Caesar's wife, Calpurnia; 
 
 She shouted agonies in hideous dream : 
 
 Help, murder! Ho, they slay the President." 
 
 Lincoln staggered at the piercing blow 
 
 Of his own voice sharp-pointed to a scream ; 
 
 He grasped the arm of Douglas for support 
 
 As if beneath his own self 's imaged thrust 
 
 He might be falling in his dying blood ; 
 
 'Twas only for a moment's passing flash, 
 
 When he stood up erecter than before. 
 
 But both were silenced by the doomf ul word, 
 
 Each felt the palsied touch upon his tongue. 
 
 But each was listening a voice within. 
 
 Their spirits choired together Heaven's music, 
 
 Each tuned the other's soul above itself 
 
 Unto the final harmony of man 
 
 Which tensed the will to its divine resolve :
 
 26 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 ' ' Now let me do aud let me die — I dare not stay — 
 No longer victim blanched of Destiny 
 I crouch my weary days, but as her master 
 I throne myself just by my dying deed." 
 
 They parted, heroes under doom of death 
 That they might give unto the Nation life, 
 The first and last of mighty sacrifices; 
 Immortal made through their mortality, 
 By ministry they won Fate's mastery. 
 
 Douglas went sliding muffled through the throng. 
 Unrecognized, and dodging every lamp 
 Lest he be stopped by the salute of friends. 
 Or plied with questions of the eager crowd. 
 Soon he is speeding to his own North-West 
 "Whose folk he thrills with love for the Union's life 
 In mighty eloquence of word and deed 
 As he upholds the rule of that majority 
 "Which had elected not himself but LincoLo. 
 "Who long had been his chief antagonist. 
 Thus to his greatest triumph his defeat 
 He turns through noble magnanimity. 
 Transforming failure to highest heroship, 
 Outshining all success by character 
 "Whose prize the folk acclaimed without dissent. 
 So he was crowned the greater conquerer. 
 Touching the height of life's long climb of deeds. 
 And yet his heart was breaking in these days
 
 LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS. 27 
 
 Of victory supreme ; his country 's rift 
 Had rent his life in twain e'en as he spoke, 
 And gave a pathos to his parting voice, 
 The patriot's testament unto his people, 
 Y/hich they engrossed on Memory forever. 
 
 He counseled war, which then was slaying him, 
 
 With every word he felt the inner cut, 
 
 He flashed his tongue a sword against disunion, 
 
 The counterstroke fell hot upon his heart. 
 
 And so time turned his thrust back to himself, 
 
 The mightier his deed, the mightier his pain ; 
 
 The top of greatness was fatality. 
 
 On work supreme was laid the cost supreme. 
 
 The highest good has too the penalty. 
 
 For not a fortnight passed ere lapsed his voice ; 
 
 He spoke his last address unto the folk, 
 
 And capped the very summit of his days 
 
 Standing a moment in the Eternal's sheen 
 
 Upon the mount of God transfigured, 
 
 Then drooped to bed with death upon his brow. 
 
 The Nation witnessing his tragedy 
 
 Shuddered at view of its own mighty clash 
 
 In him as its first representative. 
 
 Beyond he passed before the people's eye, 
 
 A foretold prototype it felt in him 
 
 Of what was just beginning in itself 
 
 Eepictured on the many million hearts. 
 
 The war two-sided in each living soul.
 
 28 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 PRELUDE. 
 
 So Lincoln had his interview supreme 
 With Douglas at the turning of the time. 
 The age's constitutive parts they seemed, 
 Before divided, now one will they formed, 
 Presaging final oneness of their country. 
 Alone they talked, unwitnessed in their speech; 
 No history records their confidences, 
 No written document, no memory — 
 And yet their lips preluded the new hope 
 Which spurred the folk to nationality ; 
 Natheless their tale will not be lost to time. 
 But hear ! another voice has tuned the call 
 To mint to melody the golden mine — 
 The riches of their speech coercing Fate 
 To triumph of new love o'er ancient strife 
 In mutual fuse of personality. 
 That voice recording was once called the Muse 
 Who to old Homer breathed the secrets high 
 Of what the Gods above had said and done — 
 The last determiners of all events 
 Which sweep along the aeons to their goal. 
 Bearing the mortal in their hidden stream. 
 But now that Muse antique shows use of years, 
 And can no longer pipe her youthful note. 
 And what she says has lost its primal creed ;
 
 PRELUDE. 29 
 
 Her very self is now unfaithed of men. 
 
 But still that upper realm divine exists 
 
 And weaves into all human destinies 
 
 In which it will not let itself be missed, 
 
 Or stay unvoiced of noble poesy. 
 
 It rules — more mightily than ever rules — 
 
 With impress on the doer's highest deed, 
 
 Though tattered be its once supernal shapes, 
 
 And have to be re-clothed and e'en re-shaped 
 
 For faith and for imagination too. 
 
 That they may be once more presentable. 
 
 And so this Prelude of our Lincoln's sunrise 
 To be now built of glints foreplays this note ; 
 The true portrayal of the world above 
 And of the Order ruling thence the deed 
 Becomes anew the test supreme of writ 
 ]\rost worth to be of man remembered. 
 That world must be re-built to measured speech 
 And shown the spirit 's deepest living faith 
 In forms forged fresh of elemental soul 
 Amid the epoch's dread emergencies — 
 Not sent down to the hero from above 
 As feigned by Chian bard long long ago, 
 And in our brain reverberating still 
 With golden echoes from a thousand strains, 
 Through avenues of singing centuries 
 Invoking to their song the Gods of Greece.
 
 y 
 
 30 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK I. 
 
 The Gods must be re-shaped for the new aeon 
 
 From the creation's first material 
 
 By the great man of time who needs them most, 
 
 And when he needs them most at pinch of Fate, 
 
 Framing them from himself and from the All, 
 
 Fusing eternity's two miracles 
 
 Into responses for the listening folk. 
 
 Lincoln will have his higher Presences 
 Which come to him, yet are his own as well, 
 Re-made by him and still already made; 
 So he within will live an overlife 
 Above the clashing duties of the day, 
 Communing with existences beyond, 
 "Which also must appear in the account, 
 Revealed as the supernal potencies, 
 Unfolding in him with his noblest works. 
 
 ^tj 
 
 And Love will flit to him just at the need 
 
 In semblance of a vanished shape he knew, 
 
 Yet rising from the mortal one to all, 
 
 Imparting to his soul its sacred self 
 
 If for a moment he may lapse to hate. 
 
 Lifting him from the slough of the mad time. 
 
 And so it stranged him much when he heard Douglas 
 
 Acknowledging a fealty of Love 
 
 Unto himself, transformed from enmity. 
 
 ' ' That is the top of personality
 
 PRELUDE. 31 
 
 To change the heart from foe to friend," cried he 
 
 "Now I shall live for Love's own deepest trial, 
 
 Re-tested every day by fire of battle ; 
 
 I may think better of myself for that. ' ' 
 
 So Lincoln thrilled in blessed recognition 
 
 That he had touched far down his rival 's Love ; 
 
 Such he conceived his nature 's deepest worth. 
 
 And tuned a moment's joy, as to himself 
 
 He tingled thoughts of self -acknowledgment. 
 
 He rose and stirred about as inly driven 
 
 To utter to himself, now left alone, 
 
 This interview's upbursting memories. 
 
 Which he would letter on his living heart.
 
 iQOll Sttoitb. 
 
 Lincoln with Himself, 
 
 "Gone to his highest deed and doom in one! 
 To point the pinnacle of life with death ! 
 So Douglas now sets out for his last work 
 With whose fulfillment strikes his hour of Fate : 
 When he has done his best, that is his end. 
 My lot is also sucli, whene 'er it falls ; 
 I feel it troubling in each drop of blood, 
 As long as sour misfortune pours her frowns 
 Upon my days, I shall be living still ; 
 While I shall toil at my life's task and fail, 
 Death cannot smite me at my sorest tug, 
 Although I pray him to deliver me. 
 I have to live on ever in defeat, 
 Of my existence failure is the food. 
 
 (32)
 
 LINCOLN WITH HIMSELF. 33 
 
 I know prosperity is just what fates me ; 
 Like Douglas I now see myself in this: 
 My moment's moment is to be my last." 
 
 So Lincoln's melancholy bubbled up 
 
 From farthest-welling fountains of his soul, 
 
 As he looked out into the gloaming dusk 
 
 Through which the dimming form of Douglas fleeted 
 
 Until it had become a memory 
 
 Suggestive of their common destiny. 
 
 Whereat he turned again to his self 's talk : 
 
 "He knows he marches to his triumph's top 
 
 From which he plunges to the dark abyss, 
 
 Precipitated by the viewless Powers! 
 
 So he — so I am marching too, methinks. 
 
 But strange — how strange it is with me and Douglas ! 
 
 Our lives somehow will never keep apart. 
 
 But interwind, attract, and then repel, 
 
 And then again attract at last as now, 
 
 Still circling in the distance round each other ! 
 
 Two dozen years and more have rolled away 
 
 Since I began to spy his character ; 
 
 And still I have not fathomed it as yet, 
 
 I found him standing at my entrance first 
 
 In public life when I was chosen one 
 
 Of old Vandalia's callow legislators. 
 
 "We often met and simply passed salute. 
 
 Each of us feeling then some rivalry
 
 34 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK II. 
 
 Unconscious, yet at work withini our souls, 
 
 Creative germ of our careers to be. 
 
 I felt it when I boldly challenged him 
 
 To swim with me across Kaskaskia's flood, 
 
 Laying a trifling wager which I won. 
 
 In social gatherings at Springfield too, 
 
 "We spake our mutual distant compliments 
 
 Yet with a secret emulation felt 
 
 Far down in Nature's primal portion. 
 
 "We wooed the same career, public and private, 
 
 Aye, the same heart in love we wooed of woman ; 
 
 I followed close his track as Senator, 
 
 Since his successor I had hoped to be, 
 
 And clap the laurel from his brow to mine. 
 
 But he outstripped me far and rapidly 
 
 So that I quit the contest with his fame 
 
 Quit Congress where he shone the rising star. 
 
 And lapsed into my hope's dark subsidence, 
 
 Doomed to long years of purgatorial trial. 
 
 But resurrection came in that debate 
 
 Before the yeomanry of Illinois 
 
 "When I and Douglas clinched in warring words 
 
 Not three years since — it was a battle drawn — 
 
 I won the people, he the office won. 
 
 So I have watched him under all conditions. 
 And by encounter personal him tested, 
 Until I weened I had his outline charactered.
 
 LINCOLN WITH HIMSELF. 35 
 
 But in his deepest self I knew him not, 
 
 Never suspected what he showed to-night, 
 
 That hidden underlife of pregnant dreams. 
 
 With dim foreshadowings of haps to come. 
 
 "What possibilities lurk in that world 
 
 Which men call mind with easy thoughtlessness ! 
 
 What untold layers in the soul of man ! 
 
 All genesis lies stratified in me — 
 
 Deposit of the whole creation's growth, 
 
 Heirdom of all the universe's Time, 
 
 Be it the past, or be it yet to be ! 
 
 I cannot ban my fresh surprise at Douglas 
 
 Bursting to sunlight like a cosmos come ! 
 
 In him I saw the crafty politician, 
 
 I swayed in doubt of his last fealty ; 
 
 I watched him breach in twain his party, 
 
 Then a like inroad turn against my side. 
 
 I questioned if he might not breach as well 
 
 This Union of the States, the world's best hope. 
 
 Whose burden is now fallen me to save. 
 
 But no ! there stood he firm and whole with me — 
 
 And undivided his allegiance 
 
 In diamond flawlessness of loyalty. 
 
 That is the unit of his character 
 
 Which unifies himself beneath all scission. 
 
 And unifies myself to-day with him. 
 
 Yea unifies the folk with both of us
 
 36 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK II. 
 
 In one vast surge of patriotic fervor, 
 
 And will at last re-seal this broken Union, 
 
 Whose oneness I now see foretold in Douglas. 
 
 No doubt he wished to be the President 
 
 In every throb of heart and cast of brain ; 
 
 Each year the darling passion would blaze out, 
 
 Yet life but fed him with defeated hope. 
 
 I won the prize of him so coveted, 
 
 And still he comes to offer me his service ; 
 
 Could I have done as nobly too by him — 
 
 Forgotten all these years of rivalry. 
 
 And left unheeded all my party hate, 
 
 Unfelt the venomed sting of jealousy ? 
 
 I think me thus: were he now in my place. 
 
 Could I have come and tendered him my help, 
 
 Yea more, my life, my very destiny? 
 
 I shiver at my question asked myself ! 
 
 I dare not say I would have equaled him 
 
 In his heroic magnanimity ; 
 
 I fear a weakness which I oft have felt, 
 
 And yet his was the crowning deed to do, 
 
 And his the peak outtopping Presidency. 
 
 I now shall hold it up as my ideal. 
 
 The star of worth by me to be aspired ; 
 
 Him I shall rival at his highest point 
 
 Where excellence hath pinnacled his deed — 
 
 Unite the Union's friends, divide its foes, 
 
 Thus turn secession on itself to rend.
 
 LINCOLN WITH HIMSELF. 37 
 
 My anchor chief I feel that act of Douglas, 
 I shall dare issue now the Proclamation, 
 And challenge the arbitrament of blood; 
 For he has bonded with me the Union's friends, 
 Eeviving all its grand expectancy. 
 
 But mark again the fatal act supreme 
 Of his, for it he deems his tragedy ; 
 His greatest day is just his day of doom. 
 The garland of his noblest victory 
 Is wreathed in glory by grim destiny, 
 Only that it be laid upon his grave. 
 
 Oh ghastly irony of mortal Fame ! 
 Therein his lot, I read, attunes with mine : 
 The day I dare once call my happiest 
 Will be my last — I now can hear its knell — 
 And I, the man of peace, must stay in war ; 
 "When ends this clash of arms just now begun 
 I end, my peace is not of life but death ; 
 The joyful bells which peal the concord new 
 Of the saved People toll me to my rest 
 Eternal, the Union living sees my corpse, 
 The Nation 's gash of Fate turns back on me. 
 When I have closed secession's last rift 
 And made my People whole in a new birth. 
 That is the moment on the horologue 
 Of time which ticks mine own evanishment.
 
 38 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK II. 
 
 The chasm of existence then will ope 
 
 And gape for me, with sudden monstrous gorge 
 
 And in one swallow I shall disappear. 
 
 Bu,t why this brooding on my mortal lot ! 
 
 Not yet it is, that day is not yet here, 
 
 I still must gloom and suffer in defeat 
 
 Till my defeater, life, is too defeated : 
 
 Take heart from this, oh melancholy thought ! 
 
 As long as I can be unhappy here, 
 
 I shall not perish in my misery. 
 
 But toil at sorrow's task till Fortune smiles 
 
 One happy day which is my judgment day. 
 
 Yet is the Nation's day of prime deliverance. 
 
 The great releaser from the labor-pains 
 
 Sprung of the bearing of a new-born world. ' ' 
 
 Thus Lincoln in the White-House felt himself 
 To be prophetic of his destiny 
 Foreshadowed by that deep co-incidence 
 Which bound his lot at last in one with Douglas, ■ 
 Whose image always would leap up within him 
 And make him throb his wonderment to words : 
 ' ' Douglas ! I cannot keep thee out of mind. 
 So coupled are we in what lies beneath 
 The outer surface of us opposites ! 
 More intimate to me than all things else 
 Is now this fact of him first come to light : 
 He too is owner of a throbbing underworld
 
 LINCOLN WITH HIMSELF. 39 
 
 Replete with bodements and monitions dim, 
 
 Aye peopled with quick images of soul. 
 
 He too knows visions, dreams, and prophecies, 
 
 Can even hear a spirit's airy talk 
 
 In moments of his vision's ecstasy. 
 
 Oft have I heard him scoff at all such toys, 
 
 Proclaim to me his valiant skepticism, 
 
 "Which puts to death all spectral shapes of fogland. 
 
 The hauntings of aged superstition 's reign. 
 
 He said that I could have monopoly 
 
 Of all that nether life in which he knew 
 
 I had a share, inheritance of old. 
 
 I deemed him but intelligent of prose. 
 
 Not of the mold of winged fantasy, 
 
 Reft of communion with supernal powers, 
 
 Spread flat on level practicality. 
 
 How keen his mind would see and work his means. 
 
 Never afraid to use them for his end. 
 
 And sly in labyrinthine circumvention 
 
 Without the pang of scrupulosity ! 
 
 So held I all of him till up to now. 
 
 His speeches have no storied wealth of fable, 
 
 And little anecdote or humorous flash. 
 
 No rapturous vision of the upper world 
 
 Set to the music of eternity, 
 
 Whence Gods look down control of mortal men. 
 
 And bid us share with them the reign divine.
 
 40 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK II. 
 
 But facts were all his eloquence, bald facts, 
 Llarshaled in force, oft hot with rhetoric, 
 Shunning imagination's golden flight, 
 Unpanoplied with gleaming metaphors. 
 Without the rhythmic cadence of the word. 
 
 But now behold the man 's new revelation 
 
 He joins me in my deepest loyalty — 
 
 Not only that, but this which is more strange. 
 
 He dares descend down into Nature 's night-shade, 
 
 Companioned with me in that ghostly realm 
 
 Where lurk dark Fate and all the Powers unseen, 
 
 Directive agencies of human souls 
 
 For guidance, warning, and for punishment. 
 
 There in that dreamt domain of unlit life 
 
 Where dwells the Self unsunned of consciousness. 
 
 Where stalk in stealth our oldest energies 
 
 Or lift to life in hoary ancestry. 
 
 We found each other, felt each other out, 
 
 At those last depths of our humanity. 
 
 We saw ourselves beneath all difference, 
 And recognized our common destiny. 
 As there we faced each other, soul to soul. 
 And held communion deeper than our speech ; 
 Yet not alone we tokened eye to eye, 
 Between us stood the upper President.
 
 LINCOLN WITH HIMSELF. 41 
 
 The pivot ultimate of our careers 
 Moving from sides of life quite opposite 
 Unto the center of our universe 
 I see — I realize for the first time, 
 Confessing to my sin against his worth. 
 Now I shall watch his lot until his close, 
 For it will mirror mine, e 'en if drawn out 
 Into the testing years which are to come, 
 Letting me glimpse myself ahead of time 
 To hint me of my fate far in advance. 
 
 When we antagonized three years agone. 
 
 And met in hot debate before the folk, 
 
 I only thought him as my antitype 
 
 Wlio never could be twinned in soul with me. 
 
 And yet he gives me credit for this concord 
 
 Which has, by me unthought, sprung out the dark ; 
 
 He says I touched it secretly within him 
 
 When I would speak and stir the people 's sense 
 
 Of a community of man with man, 
 
 For he in all the folk felt the response. 
 
 Still that dumb feeling must have first been his, 
 
 And ready to be roused from dormancy 
 
 When the right moment came with the right word — 
 
 That is the soul's own precious mystery. 
 
 Which it holds hid within its brooding seas.
 
 42 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK II. 
 
 What is that far-down human unity 
 
 From which upbursts this severality of ours, 
 
 This separation of us into selves, 
 
 As if we sprang of one great over-man 
 
 From whose vast Self we snatched our own self's 
 
 spark — 
 In whom we all can be again united — 
 "Who fuses keenest contrarieties. 
 Such as were Douglas and myself before, 
 And with us melts the people each and all 
 Aglow in one vast common fire of soul, 
 So that we are again one individual ? 
 But yesterday the world seemed all distract, 
 The land, the time was breaking into pieces, 
 The crack of chaos, coming quickly, shot 
 Through the whole universe of God and man. 
 But now from Douglas springs a harmony 
 Which tunes me to a higher unity 
 And inwardly accords me to myself. 
 
 Fain would I now commune with Presences 
 Who at my better moments come to me 
 Impressing on my mind their messages 
 Which voiceless tell me the decrees above. 
 And make my house their shrine of weal and woe. 
 They form for me the other Cabinet 
 Which I found here installed already. 
 And busied of themselves with my affairs.
 
 LINCOLN WITH HIMSELF. 43 
 
 Nameless and of me unsolicited, 
 The overworld's advisers of my office. 
 
 But Douglas ! I cannot shake his image off, 
 Nor loose me of his lot so twinned with mine 
 And brothered deeply in our very hearts; 
 Fresh throbs keep bubbling up from depths un- 
 known. 
 Another thought comes creeping-in uncanny, 
 And tongues me its forbidden secrecy : 
 I am a fatal love to mine most dear, 
 So that I have to fear a new affection ; 
 My strongest feelings coiling serpentine 
 Crush in their mortal folds just my beloved. 
 
 But see ! here drops the interruption dread 
 
 Which drives to nought my higher intercourse; 
 
 A member of my Lower Cabinet 
 
 That comes to touch me at some faulted point, 
 
 Pulling me down to vision temporal 
 
 Which only sees the task of finitude ; 
 
 I know what he will say just by his gait 
 
 Which hints the soldier's charge with gun in hand. 
 
 That too has now become my part, alas ! 
 
 But let us listen to his shot of words. 
 
 } 5
 
 !0ali S^l^irb, 
 
 The Lower Cabinet. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Welcome, my fellow-craftsman of the States, what 
 views and news do you bring me ? You look intent 
 upon somewhat — hit me with your cannon-ball of 
 thought; you are a soldier bred, though now you 
 take a peaceful part. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 I confess I do not feel in fun to-day, nor am I 
 much at peace with myself or with things in gen- 
 eral. 
 
 The President. 
 I did not intend to hint that you were not in war- 
 like mood. Let us hear. 
 (44)
 
 THE LOWER CABINET. 45 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 I come again to urge upon you, Mr. President, 
 the Proclamation calling for troops to put down this 
 rebellion which has now started with such insolent 
 audacity. You know I always held that we ought 
 to have re-inforced Fort Sumter. You recollect 
 that I said so in a communication to you some weeks 
 ago. South Carolina is the leader in this conflict, 
 and we must not shrink from her challenge. 
 
 The President. 
 Yes, that has been your consistent attitude, the 
 force of which I always felt. But I had to be sure 
 before I struck. There was one man needed for the 
 side of the Union, about whom I did not feel certain. 
 But now I have no doubts. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 Who is that, if I may be allowed to make the in- 
 quiry ? 
 
 The President. 
 
 It is Douglas. I knew that I had to have him first 
 of all. He left me but a short time ago ; I read him 
 the draft of the Proclamation. He gave it not only 
 his approval, but he offered his hearty co-operation. 
 It will go forth to-morrow morning backed by my 
 signature and also by his confirmatory word which 
 is an appeal to his followers.
 
 46 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK III. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 I would have gone ahead without him. He is 
 tricky, you know ; can you be sure of him now in his 
 present mood? 
 
 The President. 
 
 I have indeed suspected him hitherto, but I de- 
 fend him now, and trust him ; I have learned some- 
 thing about him wholly unknown by me heretofore. 
 I caught a glimpse of what lies deepest in him — 
 which I never did during all the years I had known 
 him. Strange, but I now for the first time consider 
 that I understand Douglas. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 But how about Seward, the man of peace and 
 compromise? Also our Premier, if not to be our 
 secret President? He thought he would end this 
 conflict in ninety days, and seemed inclined to take 
 into his own hands all dealings with those Southern 
 Commissioners of separation. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Well, Seward is becoming my most ardent up- 
 holder; he has begun to show an attachment which 
 is not merely dutiful but personal. At first he was, 
 I grant, somewhat dominating and self-important. 
 A very useful man ; I need his keen mind, his learn-
 
 THE LOWER CABINET. 47 
 
 ing, his knowledge of men and affairs. Then he 
 sees turns in events that nobody else does. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 That is a great conquest of yours. Seward at the 
 start deemed himself the real Executive — and many 
 others held the same view, having some contempt for 
 the green Illinois sucker. So he set up to prescribe 
 a policy of his o^vn, even to carry it out. But we 
 know that he was gently though firmly halted by 
 the gloved hand of iron, for Avhich his respect is 
 growing. The general scope of that confidential 
 letter of his to you leaked out, for he did not con- 
 ceal its purport ; his self-love would wag his tongue 
 a little even to me. What answer he received from 
 you we have all surmised from his changed behav- 
 ior ; but your lips seem paralyzed on that point. 
 
 The President. 
 
 He is my friend; I hope to retain him — an in- 
 dispensable adviser in the present crisis. His aloof- 
 ness is gone; he has become a kind of non-official 
 comforter of mine — a person I much need. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 I must congratulate you just here on having tak- 
 en with success the first great step toward Union, 
 the most direct step. You have unionized your Cab-
 
 48 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK III. 
 
 inet which seemed at the start enthroned dissen- 
 tienee. Four of its present members were your rivals 
 in the Convention at Chicago which nominated you 
 for President. Each of them naturally thinks that 
 he should be in your place. I trembled lest that the 
 very center of the Government, the President and 
 his nearest advisors, would never cordially combine 
 in unity; here just at the heart threatened to be 
 the first and most dangerous Secession, But you 
 have well asserted your Primacy, forecasting, I hope 
 and believe, the Primacy of our political Union, 
 which we are now getting ready to assert by arms. 
 I can truly say that when I entered your Cabinet, I 
 thought its composition perilous; it seemed a kind 
 of powder magazine right here in the White House 
 — and everybody handling fire. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Yes, I have been blamed for this as well as for 
 everything else, and will be. I shall impart to you 
 my most intimate thoughts on this point. The very 
 strongest men, the supreme representatives of the 
 People of the various loyal sections I had to take 
 as my instruments for this decisive conflict of the 
 Nation, and mould them into one organic body with 
 its huge limbs, each of which is authoritative in its 
 sphere, as a so-called department of Government. I 
 felt that I could not avoid the test: I was to make
 
 THE LOWER CABINET. 49 
 
 over into a eommou organism the separate greatest 
 individuals of my party and bring them to work in 
 harmony ; I dared not leave them outside by them- 
 selves, where they would be certain to lapse into op- 
 position; I must compel them to co-operate. If I 
 were not strong enough to do that, I would be un- 
 equal to the situation at the start. I know the com- 
 mon prophecy that these members of my larger 
 body were too big for me and would not obey, that 
 they would fly asunder from the center, and that 
 the first Disunion would be in the Union's Cabinet. 
 The matter is not fully settled yet. I doubtless have 
 one or two dissatisfied associates — I think I know 
 who they are, and the bent they will take. Still I 
 hope to carry you all along in a general harmony, 
 notwithstanding individual diversities, which make 
 you a set of strong characters. If you were all just 
 like me you would be a band of non-entities. I 
 would not deem myself equal to my position unless 
 I could hold together powerful but differing natures 
 in our common work which is big enough for us all. 
 Still, that which peculiarly gratifies me at present is 
 that I have not only unified my own party but the 
 opposite party, that of Douglas, with our cause. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 "Why do you put so much stress upon him just 
 now? And why so needful his co-operation? But
 
 50 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK III. 
 
 above all, why so certain of the certainty of him — 
 just him the uncertain? 
 
 The President. 
 Your opinion is what mine was for many years. 
 But I now know that I saw only the outside of him, 
 I never penetrated to the center of the man, to his 
 creative conviction. I shall tell you. Douglas is at 
 this moment the pivot of the whole conflict — he is 
 the only man who can unite the North and divide 
 the South; that I deem the prime condition of any 
 future success. Think of him: he is the most im- 
 portant man in America to-day, with altogether the 
 largest personal following; I hold him to be the 
 central personality in our Nation's destiny at the 
 present conjuncture, more central than I am, the 
 President himself, who defeated him at the polls. 
 Yet he has come to me voluntarily and placed him- 
 self and his influence at the service of the Union; 
 yea he has enlisted personally under me as leader, 
 and I have sent him on the most important duty. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 All that is very appreciative of your recent an- 
 tagonist, but you have changed your opinion of him 
 not a little. I hope you are justified. I recognize 
 that men and circumstances are shifting very rap- 
 idly just now. The turn of the wheel dizzies me and 
 everybody.
 
 THE LOWER CABINET. 51 
 
 The President. 
 Of course I am speaking of this day's trend of 
 history; to-morrow the situation may be different. 
 Still I have the dominant conviction that my turn 
 will come. But we all are agents in the work of a 
 higher mind which has its pole star hardly visible 
 to us just now. Still I am M'atchiug for it eagerly. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 "Well, that is a new strain in your nature which I 
 have never noted before. And that mind also you 
 must consult as our supreme leader. Have you any 
 communication ? 
 
 The President. 
 
 You m'ight not understand it if I could tell. Still 
 so much I dare confess : above me, above my Cabinet 
 and my party, above both the North and the South, 
 there is a Will at work with His plan, of which I 
 would like to know somewhat and which I often in- 
 terrogate in my own imperfect way. What have the 
 Powers in mind by all this trouble — what do they 
 mean by defeat, yea by victory ? It is another set 
 of advisers whom I have to consult and whose de- 
 cree I fain would hear amid all this tumult of hu- 
 man deeds and purposes. Our conflict is not ours 
 alone, but all time's — a link in the chain which 
 reaches from past to future, a node of the World's 
 History. And there is a universal overseer giving
 
 52 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK III. 
 
 directions in his mj^sterious hierroglypliics called 
 events, hard to decipher. Still, I think I sometimes 
 catch his far-off voice which I would re-speak or re- 
 interpret to my people and to my age. Pardon my 
 fantasy, but even his shape has fleeted before me 
 in revery or dreams; oftener there appears one of 
 his ministering messengers. So you see I have a 
 President above the President, and even a Cabinet 
 above the Cabinet. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 Now you are out of my reach — I am not a mem- 
 ber there. Business calls me down. I must be off to 
 meet the earth again, which is a busy speck for us 
 all at present. 
 
 The President. 
 
 It is enough for once, perhaps too much. In this 
 time of war may peace caress you on your daily 
 lines.
 
 loali JfaiirtI;. 
 
 The Upper Cabinet. 
 
 The minister of State had gone his way 
 When Lincoln dropped again upon his couch, 
 And never seemed to stop till he sank down 
 Into the lowest depths of consciousness, 
 Where the old soul re-bears itself anew 
 And dips afresh into Creation's font. 
 Then of a sudden he looked up and saw 
 Himself as double flit by stealthily 
 And mope about in silent salutation. 
 His duplicated self appeared to him 
 As he had once beheld it rise at Springfield, 
 Before his journey to the Capital. 
 He much had mused at its significance, 
 Deeming it but his superstition 's shade, 
 
 (53)
 
 54 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IV. 
 
 Or witeh-work of his melancholy spun, 
 
 The mere abuse of troubled fantasy. 
 
 But here it comes again, a double I am, 
 
 And the twin shapes distinct, yet likenesses, 
 
 Seem of a different constitution : 
 
 The one shows vigorous and full of life. 
 
 Ready to grip the task with clutch of Will; 
 
 The other shadowy and vanishing 
 
 As if it would pass to the realm beyond, 
 
 A member of that Upper Cabinet. 
 
 So Lincoln gazed upon himself twofold : 
 
 Belonging here, most real of flesh and blood, 
 
 Yet too a dweller of the world ideal 
 
 Amid the spirit sway of essences. 
 
 The underself stood by in nature's frame 
 
 And stared eye-bulged in mortal wonderment; 
 
 Yet in his semblance rose before him there 
 
 The overself as ghostly counterpart 
 
 Until it faded with a fraying look 
 
 At him into the spectre-haunted air. 
 
 Lincoln sprang up and walked across the room, 
 
 ' ' I know me doomed to die by violence ! ' ' 
 
 He uttered slowly to his measured gait 
 
 And then went on reflecting to himself : 
 
 ' ' There is a Presence in this White-House here 
 Which sheds an influence about my steps 
 Distinctive in its ghostly character.
 
 THE UPPER CABINET. 55 
 
 Although some shy familiars bodiless 
 
 I long have known to dart into my life 
 
 At moments when I least expected them, 
 
 This Presence seems to dwell about the place, 
 
 And never wholly quits these premises 
 
 As if he held this mansion by o^\ti right, 
 
 Installed just here in sovereign residence. 
 
 He acts as he would stay and supervise 
 
 The present broil which is his interest ; 
 
 Methinks he has enlisted for the war, 
 
 And holds his hand on the machinery 
 
 "Whose clock-work of events times History. 
 
 He oft gives me the impress of his view 
 
 Of what is coming in this woful strife, 
 
 And breathes suggestion voiceless on my soul, 
 
 Though once he tapped my ear-drum with a word 
 
 Of spirit syllables rufiSing the air. 
 
 He seems at times to play the messenger, 
 And bring the one I need and most desire. 
 Or somehow move the man to bring himself 
 By touching inner springs unwatched of us 
 Which drive the soul to seek its symmetry. 
 How deeply longed I in my heart for Douglas, 
 Then felt that he was speeding on his way 
 When he appeared in a fulfillment sudden 
 To be my spirit's very counterpart. 
 And yet expected in my soul of presage !
 
 56 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK 17. 
 
 He felt it too, the unconscious pull — 
 
 So much he intimated in his talk — 
 
 And hastened to obey the Power 's edict. 
 
 "What was it that impressed him hitherward, 
 
 And bade me feel that he was on his way 
 
 Until I super-sensed him at my sill ? 
 
 I oft am led to query with myself : 
 
 Who is it living here in this old mansion ? 
 
 I and my family — but who indwells besides ? 
 
 Who is this House 's higher resident ? 
 
 Six weeks or so have gone since I came in, 
 
 Already then I found an occupant — 
 
 Yea, occupants — more than the one alone. 
 
 Without my knowing what at first they were. 
 
 Those Presences would flit with messages, 
 
 Impressions sent of what was distant from me 
 
 In place or time, yet most significant, 
 
 And traversing all my expectancy. 
 
 They make my other world of agencies. 
 
 And I must know them better than I do. 
 
 Find out what is their function and their order. 
 
 For they are ranked in duties organized ; 
 
 A kind of hierarchy I have marked 
 
 Methinks among their airy services. 
 
 Even I would control them somewhat, too, 
 
 At least have skill to summon them for help 
 
 When I would have a hint of the decrees 
 
 Hid in the bosom of Supernal Powers,
 
 THE UPPER CABINET. 57 
 
 For whom at last I wield my human will. 
 And thus to school I have to go again, 
 Learning how I may tap that overworld 
 In which those Presences abide and act, 
 That I may bid them tell me what I need. 
 And teach me ways of discipline divine, 
 Man's dues of individuality. 
 
 Two sets of tenants then, dwell with me here 
 
 In this weird White-House — the unseen and seen, 
 
 The uninvited guests and the invited. 
 
 The right possessors and possessed perchance; 
 
 Aye, ever since that day I entered it 
 
 I felt already it and me possessed 
 
 By something of a higher majesty. 
 
 This is for me, I deem, a haunted House 
 
 Whose spirits I must know and treat with love, 
 
 I must not shun them here, or be afraid 
 
 Of semblances, though supersensible. 
 
 But cultivate their friendship and their ways 
 
 For sake of intercourse ; what they impart 
 
 May be of weighty import to me in my task, 
 
 For which I seek suggestion everywhere. 
 
 But the last guidance I shall hope to win 
 
 From guider of the Universe itself. 
 
 Yet I must keep this upper world concealed 
 From the gross gazes of my visitors
 
 58 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IV. 
 
 Lest men may think I hold forbidden rites, 
 
 Invoking the dark powers of evil, 
 
 Perchance compacting with the fiend himself 
 
 To reach the goal of Heaven by road of Hell. 
 
 Or if not that, I shall be held in scorn 
 
 By those who claim themselves illuminated 
 
 With science torching now our time advanced, 
 
 And looked down on from its disdainful perch 
 
 As victim of my superstitious dread, 
 
 Which terrorizes weaker men to faith 
 
 And toys with Godship lost upon our planet. 
 
 Still of one fact I have become convinced. 
 
 Two sets I own of my advisers here 
 
 Who sit with me in weight}^ consultation: 
 
 The one I never did appoint — it came 
 
 Without my knowledge of its home, and stays. 
 
 For I am not its master or its sender. 
 
 The other I selected by my will, 
 
 A group of mortal men and visible. 
 
 Over whose acts I have the potency 
 
 As President, but mortal too, I feel. 
 
 So these two strands keep weaving through my life, 
 
 An upper and a lower I shall name them ; 
 
 The one of record and in public print. 
 
 Whose sounds go flying daily round the earth; 
 
 The other runs unuttered of its share, 
 
 The deeper current, silent in my deeds. 
 
 Whose sole apocalypse is Time's forged word.
 
 THE UPPER CABINET. 59 
 
 And yet I often have to speak it out 
 
 For my relief, which lips will sometimes give, 
 
 But I must tell my discourse to myself, 
 
 And with soliloquies my heart disburden ; 
 
 Or when my inner stress becomes too strong 
 
 I run to let me overflow Ward Lamon, 
 
 My soul-deep friend whom I have hither brought 
 
 To guard me outwardly and lift me inwardly. 
 
 Douglas, thou dost come again to me 
 
 In images foresent of sleep and dream — 
 
 Foreshadowing thy day of destiny ! 
 
 Ah me ! thy lot is happier than mine ! 
 
 Stricken at height of thy supremacy, 
 
 In the transfigured glow of highest deed ! 
 
 But I must lead henceforth a wayworn life 
 
 Impoverished of all success and peace, 
 
 Abused of foes, unrecognized of friends, 
 
 But when my work and worth win recognition, 
 
 No longer here I shall be to receive it. 
 
 Two Cabinets are mine, which meet in me 
 
 And through me join in one vast common purpose ; 
 
 The upper one me calls and comes unbidden ; 
 
 The lower one I bid into my presence. 
 
 Well, here it is and I must talk with it. 
 
 Offering this written document 
 
 Which is to turn a page of history 
 
 Unless time's drift I much miscalculate."
 
 i00h Jfift^. 
 
 The First Proclamation. 
 
 Attorney General. 
 I observe, Mr. President, in your hands a written 
 instrument which I take to be of great import. As 
 I am your law officer I would like to glance over it 
 and see whether it be bomb-proof. If it be a call 
 for troops, you are aware that heavy explosives will 
 be hurled at it by the lawyers. 
 
 The President. 
 
 I know the class somewhat, I am one myself, and 
 have expected their attack. But I have followed the 
 indications which you gave me in a recent inter- 
 view. That old statute dug up from the year 1795 
 we have followed to the letter, and complied with 
 its requirements, though they cramped us somewhat. 
 
 (60)
 
 THE FIRST PROCLAMATION. Ql 
 
 Still we shall doubtless get the relief when Congress 
 assembles which is called to meet on the coming 
 Fourth of July, Our Nation's birthday. 
 
 Secretary of the Navy. 
 Possibly the day of its re-birth — there is need of 
 its regeneration. A little faith may see it coming. 
 And yet this second parturition may be as painful 
 as the first. 
 
 Attorney General. 
 The document is legal, and rightly worded. We 
 must sail on the old lines even to a new port. But 
 how suggestive! That statute empowering the 
 President to suppress rebellion was enacted in the 
 time of George Washington of Virginia. He was to 
 enforce it against even his beloved State in case of 
 revolt. At present Virginia says No to it, but I, 
 sprung of Virginians, am inclined to say Yes. 
 
 The President. 
 
 I have often thought about what you speak of 
 during the past month. It may seem my egotism, 
 but I cannot help seeing Washington in my place, 
 and asking what he would have done in the present 
 contingency. My forefathers, too, came from Vir- 
 ginia, and in the family I have always heard of that 
 State and its glory. But it has long been in a con- 
 flict with itself between the two rights, that of
 
 62 LINCOLN 7A^ THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK Y. 
 
 Union and of Secession. So it hangs tetering now in 
 its Convention, and I have been waiting and even 
 trying to steady it, yet to no purpose. It still teters, 
 and loves just that condition — but with this Procla- 
 mation it must cease its balancing, it will have to 
 drop on one side or the other, or probably it will 
 fall asunder on both sides. Do you know I feel that 
 my chief struggle is with Virginia — her influence, 
 her history, her very person. 
 
 Attorney General. 
 
 I have hunted up and read again the Eesolutions 
 of 1798, attributed to Jefferson Avhich declare that 
 each State is the final judge of the powers delegated 
 to the General Government, as well as of the in- 
 fractions committed by the same, and even of the 
 mode and measure of redress. How true is that of 
 Virginia now, her very soul at this moment, yet 
 with strong protests against the doctrine also ! It 
 contains the germ of all this secession fostered by 
 Virginia leadership both in thought and in action. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Undoubtedly. I have been studying not only the 
 law of the case, but something deeper : that Virginia 
 consciousness which cannot transcend its limit and 
 rise into the vision of the Nation with the most of 
 us. Indeed the whole South seems honestly to be- 
 lieve that the State alone is the true guardian of
 
 THE FIRST PROCLAMATION. 63 
 
 liberty, while all the States together in their united 
 government must be its foe. On the other hand the 
 North, or especially the new North- West, holds em- 
 phatically the conviction that the total Union will 
 preserve freedom better and more mightily than the 
 single State. These two opposing political thoughts 
 have now appealed to the trial of battle — here is the 
 challenge, very unwillingly sent forth in this Proc- 
 lamation. Strange, but Jefferson had this same lim- 
 itation stamped on his political soul, so had Madi- 
 son, so too the Virginia leaders since then, who have 
 been ossified in this same fixed mental boundary, 
 like Fate itself. But there was one greatest excep- 
 tion — that was George Washington. 
 
 Attorney General. 
 Hold, there was another exception very great, 
 also from Virginia, Chief-Justice of the United 
 States, John Marshall. In his case too I have been 
 looking up the precedents in the Reports of the Su- 
 preme Court, and find that he fought legally just 
 this battle between Union and Disunion in the early 
 years of the present century, and won the fight even 
 against Jefferson and other Virginians. He vindi- 
 cated the right of the Federal Judiciary to pass 
 upon the constitutionality of State laws, and of de- 
 cisions by State judges. So the legal war for the 
 Union was waged long in advance of this war of 
 guns — may we be as successful as John Marshall !
 
 64 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK V. 
 
 Secretary of the Navy. 
 Dear me ! You Virginians can only think of Vir- 
 ginia and legality. You all seem closely fenced 
 about by the written enactment. But I tell you 
 there is another law, that inscribed on the human 
 heart, more enduring and mightier than what you 
 scribble on a piece of paper. That is the law we 
 obey and propagate up in New England, the moral 
 law. Our mouthpieces are not the lawyers, but the 
 ministers of the Gospel; they have already had 
 something to say in this struggle, and they will be 
 heard again before it is over. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Good ! I am always glad to hear from our 
 Heaven-born Yankee constituency, and certainly 
 they are not to be left out. I share in their belief, 
 especially on the subject of slavery. The moral 
 view is also mine, but it must not try to make itself 
 tyrannically the only one, else John Brown rises to 
 the surface. 
 
 Secretary of the Interior. 
 
 Since this talk has gotten a little sectional, I may 
 be permitted to put in a word for my section. I 
 have often noticed that when the Virginian breaks 
 loose from his fatal sod, crosses the Alleghenies and 
 breathes the free air of the West, he undergoes a 
 transformation: he cleaves his State fetters and
 
 THE FIRST PROCLAMATION. 65 
 
 turns national in the best sense. He seems unable 
 to do that on this side of the mountains. He must 
 quit the old colony with its diseased dualism, must 
 come out to us and get healed, then he can return 
 and possibly bring along the medicine to cure the 
 trouble here, though it be of long standing, veritably 
 chronic. 
 
 The President. 
 
 That would be a good political speech out in your 
 State of Indiana, but in these parts the Virginians 
 would call it clap-trap if they were genteel ; if not, 
 they have for it worse names, as they have for me. 
 But something of what you say appears to be al- 
 ready in the course of fulfilment; a number of us 
 Western Virginians have come back to the good old 
 graying mother who is not in happy sorts at our ar- 
 rival. Still our purpose is to stay awhile. Won- 
 derful old lady ! altogether the greatest of those co- 
 lonial mothers, more prolific of State children and 
 of lofty political characters than any other one of 
 the ancient set here along the Atlantic coast. I con- 
 fess my love for her illustrious men and for her in 
 person. I wish she could be present with us now. 
 
 But here comes the New Yorker, another ingredi- 
 ent in our national melting-pot. By his looks he 
 has some big idea ready to burst into that lofty 
 rhetoric of his, in which the muse of History sits en- 
 trancing us with her display of rich vestments.
 
 66 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK V. 
 
 Come, Mr. Secretary, let the fountains spout some 
 rainbows. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 (Entering.) I am agreed — nothing is left to us 
 but war, all my efforts at conciliation have failed. 
 The call for troops must now be issued, and with it 
 the assertion of the Nation 's sovereignty. As to me, 
 I sought to waive the test, I tried to shun in word 
 and deed the coercion of a State, so offensive even 
 to the Southern Unionists; but a mightier Volition 
 has otherwise decreed and forced the issue in spite 
 of us. South Carolina is, I hold, the unwilling in- 
 strument of the World's History; it is compelling 
 the Union 's authority, even while defying the same ; 
 it is bringing about just the opposite of w^hat it 
 intends. It is going to lose just what it has taken 
 arms to secure — State Sovereignty; indeed I pre- 
 dict that its method of defending slavery is what 
 will destroy the same. Lincoln, I love to see the 
 irony of History at play, it is as good as your 
 humor. Indeed Providence is the supreme historic 
 humorist, often with an ironical twist in those deal- 
 ings of his called events. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Yes, we shall have to vindicate the South against 
 
 itself, against the logic of its own deed, which 
 
 simply tears it to pieces. It lias already formed a 
 
 union with the right of secession in it — with the
 
 THE FIRST PROCLAMATION. 67 
 
 right of any single State to break it up at will, or 
 rather at caprice. This State caprice is what must 
 now be eliminated from our political system. Surely 
 I am defending the South against itself, if it could 
 only see calmly what it is doing. The Primacy of 
 our Union I have first truly uttered in the Procla- 
 mation ; next it must be enforced by arms ; finally I 
 think it will have to be put into our organic instru- 
 ment, the Constitution. This will then be the new 
 Constitution of the new Nation. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 Yes, that Proclamation, it means much. It is the 
 first push of a great new epoch; it proclaims the 
 majesty of the Nation, not of the personal ruler or 
 king. Let me hear it again, while the other mem- 
 bers are coming in, at least the first paragraphs. 
 
 The President. 
 
 I am glad to re-read it and to re-think it too — 
 the first real move toward a re-united country. 
 
 ''Whereas the Laws of the United States have 
 been for some time past and are now being opposed, 
 and the execution thereof obstructed in the States 
 of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, 
 Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations 
 too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary 
 course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers 
 vested in the marshals by law :
 
 68 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK V. 
 
 "Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
 of the United States, in virtue of the power vested 
 in me by the Constitution and the Laws, have 
 thought fit to call forth, and do hereby call forth 
 the militia of the several States of the Union, to 
 the aggregate number of seventy-five thousand, in 
 order to suppress said combination and to cause 
 the Laws to be duly executed. 
 
 "I appeal to all loyal citizens to favor, facilitate, 
 and aid this effort to maintain the honor, the in- 
 tegrity, and the existence of our National Union, 
 and the perpetuity of popular government ; and to 
 redress the wrongs already long enough endured." 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 "With what a whole-hearted uplift I shall haste 
 to affix my hand and seal to that instrument which 
 for the first time in our history, means Nationality ! 
 Firm as adamant, yet calm in tone, it heralds the 
 incoming order — the Primacy of the Union. Mr. 
 President, in your Inaugural I recollect that you 
 uttered the principle; but here you take a colossal 
 stride forward; you advance like a giant to the 
 execution. This Proclamation I hold to be the 
 grand test of our new Nation; the issue is drawn 
 clear, the long uncertainty and dubitation about 
 our new existence must at once end. 
 
 But now comes the question : will the People re-
 
 THE FIRST PROCLAMATION. 69 
 
 spond? Are they ready to make the sacrifice? 
 Have they the will to nationalize themselves, though 
 it cost blood, treasure, precious lives? And this 
 is to be not merely a Nation of the old separated 
 European sort, but the new federated Union, the 
 next great stage, I believe, in the World's His- 
 tory. Can we advance and grasp the fresh in- 
 heritance of the ages? This Proclamation says 
 that we can, we must. But the South, through the 
 doctrine of secession, tends to lapse backward to 
 Europe with its political separation, to recur to a 
 group of ever-clashing jealous States grinding hor- 
 ribly on their boundaries. We must transcend all 
 our fatherlands across the water in just that — so 
 I read the Proclamation before us. And it seems 
 by the already thunderous response of the People 
 from every side overflowing this Capital that they 
 are getting ready to march. But here comes the 
 man in whose office all this tramp and shout of 
 soldiery centers: let us hear his report. 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 (Enters.) What! am I the last! All here but 
 one, the Secretary of the Treasury. I could hardly 
 pull myself away from the overwhelming rush at 
 my headquarters — the offers of men from all the 
 Northern States, the solicitations of volunteers to 
 be accept'^d, the requests for arms, with thousands
 
 70 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK V. 
 
 of Other details. The war spirit is seething East 
 and West— it threatens to get uncontrollable. That 
 attack on Sumter has stirred up the People from 
 the bottom. They are asking for the Proclamation 
 in advance; it cannot be issued too soon; already 
 their souls are marching on, and impatiently wait 
 for their bodies to follow. 
 
 The President. 
 
 So we have begun to feel ourselves a Nation ; we 
 must now will ourselves to be one. But it is sad ; 
 our own South draws the limit which we have to 
 pass over through war in order to reach our true 
 destiny and also theirs. Our Capital is surrounded 
 by rebellion; half the faces on the street are un- 
 friendly; this city must first be nationalized; the 
 States not yet seceded must soon align themselves 
 on one side or the other. I have long seen that 
 Virginia will respond to such a Proclamation as 
 this by secession; she claims to be for the Union, 
 but her unionism must be transformed. If she 
 could dictate to the Government, she would stay; 
 if she could subordinate the Union, she would help 
 preserve it ; she might even favor its sovereignty if 
 she could be the Sovereign. But this Proclama- 
 tion commands her to put herself down — which 
 she will not do, I fear, though very needful for 
 her own happiness, yea for her salvation. That
 
 THE FIRST PROCLAMATION. 7I 
 
 line between North and South, it divides my heart ; 
 still I shall have to cut it, though it let my own 
 blood. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 Cheer up, Mr. President, this Nation is not 
 tragic, not fated, though the individual may be, 
 perchance many individuals. Our people are now 
 fusing together in the white-hot furnace of patriot- 
 ism; they are showing that inner union of spirit 
 Avhich is to make our political Union. For months 
 they have been brooding, smouldering in a kind of 
 dubitation, but now behold the outbreak of the 
 flames. Indeed for some seventy years there has 
 been a continued see-saw over the point of sover- 
 eignty — where is it seated, in the member or in 
 the Whole ? Your Proclamation not only announces 
 but commands with the voice of the Nation 
 heard authoritatively now for the first time, since 
 after all, in Andrew Jackson's episode, the matter 
 was left uncertain, and settled by an unsettling 
 compromise, which simply turned the crisis over 
 to us. The age is calling for a new unity by oblit- 
 erating the old separation in space ; really this Cap- 
 ital is now nearer to your home at Springfield than 
 it was to Richmond in the time of George Wash- 
 ington. Distance made our first government weak 
 of necessity; but the railroad and the telegraph 
 have long unionized Nature herself, of whom we
 
 72 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK V. 
 
 are the children, and we must take the inheritance 
 of the parent. Then the ever-present newspaper 
 has unified our North in spirit, making it funda- 
 mentally of one mind ; so cheer up, Mr. President, 
 we have enlisted on our side the two stoutest sol- 
 diers of all time, called Nature and Spirit. 
 
 The President. 
 Excellent ! those are the best recruits, and I shall 
 put you in command to summon them when we wish 
 to inspect them. Still, like all soldiers, they must 
 be paid, and here comes our missing member, the 
 paymaster himself. 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 (Enters.) Your pardon, gentlemen, but I have 
 been delayed by an effort to get a little money for 
 meeting the immediate needs of the Government. 
 A difficult task to raise funds where no credit exists. 
 
 But let me first speak out what is uppermost 
 in my heart : we ought to strike now at the root of 
 the trouble, slavery. Why should we longer tamper 
 with that servile institution? I tell you, I do not 
 want a Union restored with a slave in it. 
 
 The President. 
 
 The Union is first with me, in accord with my 
 oath, and still more in accord with my conviction. 
 The Union undone means slavery preserved, but 
 the Union preserved may mean slavery undone,
 
 THE FIRST PROCLAMATION. 73 
 
 though I cannot say so at present. Mr. Secretary, 
 I shall tell you how I look at the lowering situation. 
 We cannot win unless we unite our own side, 
 which is now inclined to split up into three parties. 
 First are the strong anti-slavery people, found 
 everywhere, but especially in New England, Avhose 
 hate of slavery seems greater than the love of the 
 Union ; still they must be kept in line. Second are 
 distinctively the anti-slavery unionists, to whom I 
 have belonged with the bulk of the North-West ; in 
 our case the Union is first and the slavery question 
 subordinate, though very important. But the 
 third party I may call the pro-slavery unionists, 
 the bulk of the people of the border States, who 
 are now the pivot of the war ; without them we can- 
 not succeed. They will fight for the Union with 
 slavery untouched at the start — but time may train 
 them to see that they must give up the one or the 
 other, perhaps the one for the other. We must wait 
 till then. But if they once are in the fight, they 
 will stay in — that is the only way to win both 
 stakes, the preservation of the Union as well as the 
 abolition of slavery. But let us watch the turn of 
 the wheel — it may get to whizzing very rapidly. 
 
 Hark! the newsboy's shout! What does he say! 
 Virginia going out, gone! And getting ready to 
 fight ! With her is the grand conflict for suprem- 
 acy ! Let us adjourn to listen to the news — and to 
 our own souls.
 
 !00h Sktl^* 
 
 Mother Virginia, 
 
 Lincoln again had laid him on his couch, 
 The cushioned couch on which he kissed repose ; 
 And yet more than sweet rest he fain would woo, 
 He sought communion with his world above, 
 Round him to gather his Upper Cabinet, 
 If it would fleet perchance down to his side 
 When he might revery or drop adream. 
 So he lay listening to the mighty roar 
 Of the Oceanic people in its tempest 
 Tiding from Maine to San Francisco's bay 
 In high upheavals of its tossing heart 
 Beating his call to nationality : 
 When he was ware of a white figure's flit 
 Before him there mid clouds within the room: 
 
 (74)
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 75 
 
 Real or unreal — he could not tell at first — 
 
 It hovered somewhere on the borderland 
 
 And let him feel uncertain of himself, 
 
 Whether he too were not a shade as well. 
 
 Her woman's features had the lines of age, 
 
 But she was wrinkled more with haughty scowls 
 
 Than with Time 's furrows on her haggard brow ; 
 
 And yet beneath looked native graciousness 
 
 Which rippled still amid her hottest ire, 
 
 And in her self's despite stray streaks of love, 
 
 Would flash their lightning on her blackest clouds. 
 
 But all her vesture 's flowing folds were blanched 
 
 Like marbled Goddess Greek to spotlessness. 
 
 And wreathed her form in a disdainful care 
 
 Bespeaking the aristocratic dame, 
 
 Whose art of dress is artless trance of art. 
 
 She crooked her bony finger's menace straight 
 
 At Lincoln as transfixing him with fate. 
 
 While from her frenzied eyes blazed rays of wrath 
 
 Which shot a fire-ball to the very soul. 
 
 With meteoric play on skiey blue. 
 
 The startled President upturned and stared. 
 
 Propping himself upon his elbow asked: 
 
 "Who art thou, stealthy ghost, slipping uncalled 
 
 Into my privacy while I am listening 
 
 With all my spirit's sense of far-away. 
 
 To the reverberations thunderous 
 
 Of this raged folk-soul echoing my M^ords
 
 76 LINCOLN IN TEE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VI. 
 
 Over the stretches of a continent 
 
 Entire from the Ocean's East to the Ocean's West?" 
 
 The word provoked the spectral woman's scorn 
 
 Yet more to maddened lightning from her look, 
 
 Wliile she upstraightened high her age's stoop, 
 
 And stiffed her neck to austere loftiness 
 
 As she hissed out her haughtiest disdain: 
 
 "That shout plebeian venoms in my ear. 
 
 And stings me with the serpent's fang infernal 
 
 Until I pulse with vengeance of the fiend ! 
 
 Yet my best warning I now bring to thee, 
 
 Remembering the work of my great sons; 
 
 And so I come, the old colonial mother, 
 
 Indeed the oldest on the Atlantic coast, 
 
 Mother of States, still throbbing love in me 
 
 Maternally, yea mother of this Union 
 
 Which now thou dost invite to strike me down. 
 
 And in my border civil strife hast brought. 
 
 Invoked my blood against my common weal, 
 
 To set thy people over me in rule. 
 
 Filial ingratitude ! I feel it more 
 
 Than aged Lear upon the fabled scene ; 
 
 My wrongs are real, not pictured for the stage. 
 
 Are present, not in distant time or place. 
 
 I hate — and still I love what I most hate." 
 
 Whereat streamed down the channels of her cheeks 
 The hottest rain of tearful indignation;
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 77 
 
 And yet almost too proud to be indignant, 
 
 With too much heart upheaving through her heat, 
 
 She turned away her look affeetioned 
 
 Till somewhat calmed in mien and word she spoke : 
 
 ' ' My blood is best of all the emigrants, 
 
 Whoever may have reached this Western world ; 
 
 My deeds the greatest in its history, 
 
 My sons the highest in authority, 
 
 My daughters too of woman's mould supreme, 
 
 The loveliest in love and ladyhood; 
 
 All mine are mannered, high-bred, gentle folk, 
 
 Forgetless aye of courtesy and chivalry. ' ' 
 
 But through these words there rolled a raucous 
 
 shout, 
 Like a refrain discordant with their mtisie, 
 The roar it rose of distant multitudes 
 Treading to angry beat of fife and drum 
 Or to shrill trumpets blaring some new doom, 
 So that this final sentence of her praise 
 Fell quenched just at the passage of her lips: 
 "My brain it is which still controls this land." 
 Lincoln's amazement was not yet becalmed 
 As he spake to himself more than to her: 
 ''An order new seems to be heralded 
 Along the waves of that tumultuous shout 
 Wliose lines keep concentrating on me here 
 To magistrate the coming sweep of time. 
 With its epiphany of great events."
 
 78 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VI. 
 
 Then suddenly the ghostly head bent sidelings, 
 With novel scoff the nose was twirled on high, 
 While words responsive to her look shot out: 
 "Railsplitter, base-born story-telling clown, 
 The populace's smattering demagogue 
 Whose trade is smear of words: You, You! 
 Successor of Virginia Presidents ! 
 This generation's rot instead of birth! 
 The rabble 's dregs upbelched to rule the State ! 
 Descendent of my poorest human trash 
 Now risen from the lees up to the head. 
 You will make edicts for my Families ! 
 Tremble, I bid you, at my queenly name 
 Baptized me at old Britain's regal font, 
 Virginia — oft will it shiver you. ' ' 
 And still the rumble multitudinous 
 Would intermingle swallowing her voice 
 In spite of all its screaming wealth of tones 
 Which shrilled the air with sudden stabs. 
 
 The kindly Lincoln reared himself upright 
 Saluting that hoar presence venerated 
 By him in memory affectionate : 
 "Full-hearted I do welcome thee, Virginia, 
 In hope just now I turn my look to thee 
 With childhood 's early love and reverence ; 
 The source incentred of me too thou art — 
 Thy sons have taught the lore I know of State,
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 79 
 
 Instilled me with their soul of institutions, 
 
 And I would not of thee be all disowned ; 
 
 My father was erst cradled on thy hills, 
 
 My father's father also with their kin; 
 
 Myself an infant nestled in the bosom 
 
 Of kind Kentucky, eldest daughter thine, 
 
 Whom still I love as homing me and mother. 
 
 So much of pride in pedigree I take 
 
 Airing a word on my Virginia blood, 
 
 Wherein I find me of first company. 
 
 But in response unto thy sorer challenge, 
 
 Let me vow here, on thee I shall not war. 
 
 Unless thou mak'st alliance with rebellion 
 
 And dar 'st assail what is so largely thine 
 
 By birth and by thy mothering care — this Union. ' ' 
 
 The spectral lips paled to a deathlier ash, 
 
 And quivered in a fiercer utterance. 
 
 Which tuned the White-House to a woman 's shriek : 
 
 "Take back that Proclamation — obeymybiddance — 
 
 Eevoke the call to arms against the South, 
 
 My people whom I come to represent, 
 
 For you have forced their cause to be now mine. 
 
 If not, tomorrow you shall see me cleave 
 
 This bond of States into a thousand fragments 
 
 Although it be of me the fosterling; 
 
 I swear me here, I shall dash out the brains
 
 80 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK YI. 
 
 Of this by you perverted polity 
 
 E 'en if it be the childed darling of my heart, 
 
 Beneath a mother's curse flung down to death." 
 
 "Whereat applausive echoes from afar 
 
 Mumbled as from the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 The President looked all his sorrow's soul 
 
 To see maternity's demonic spell 
 
 Which made the womb destroyer of its own. 
 
 For Abraham Lincoln loved Virginia, 
 
 And longed to hinder her self-murderous deed 
 
 Which, aimed in pride to hit the Nation's heart, 
 
 Most bloodily turned back upon herself. 
 
 But still the phantom had more wrath to voice : 
 
 "Revoke that Proclamation and at once! 
 
 With an apology let it be done ! 
 
 Lest in the whirling moment I shall join 
 
 The South 's Confederacy newly born, . 
 
 And lead its heroes to the battle's test 
 
 For rights assailed which I now vindicate. 
 
 Tyrant, to you I shall not subject bow 
 
 My neck unyoked to other sovereignty. 
 
 Or to the Nation which you glorify ; 
 
 I am the Sovereign, I am the State 
 
 And shall not knee the earth to mine own offspring, 
 
 Supremacy surrender I shall not. 
 
 And now I shall again command as lord. 
 
 Giving to you the last alternative: 
 
 Take back that call to war — obey or perish."
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 81 
 
 Then underneath, the phantom's eerie shriek 
 Resounded from afar defiant shouts 
 With echoing tramp of marching soldiery, 
 That shook the land in shocks of repercussion. 
 
 But Lincoln still more gently toned his tongue 
 
 As he dropped limply down upon his seat, 
 
 Unwilling he to stand upright in pride 
 
 Even against the proudest of the proud: 
 
 "So thou, grandmother, art to dictate now 
 
 To me, the President, lately arrived 
 
 With the new Nation at its Capital ! 
 
 I am elect to sway authority, 
 
 The folk has chosen me to be its will, 
 
 That choice I know not how to abdicate 
 
 Though my dictator may the wiser be. 
 
 Dear gentlewoman, well I ken thy fame, 
 
 The record of thy worth I oft have conned, 
 
 I linger over thy past potencies. 
 
 And thrill perusing thy high history, 
 
 Dreaming myself beside thy Presidents; 
 
 Of these United States I hold thee best, 
 
 Hast reared the greatest men in war and peace, 
 
 The builders early of the Nation's temple, 
 
 Constructive geniuses of institutions. 
 
 Thy glory would I never seek to dim, 
 
 It is my own and all the people's too. 
 
 Still we must not becloud our honor's sheen
 
 82 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VI. 
 
 But save it even for the sake of thee. 
 If I should dare obey thy spoken wish, 
 I would undo thy greatest, noblest deed." 
 
 The sootheing word was but an added brand 
 
 To that hot furnace of her kindled soul; 
 
 The untoward specter clenched her tiny hand 
 
 Her delicate white hand unused to toil, 
 
 And thrust it up alongside Lincoln's knuckles, 
 
 Big-boned and brawned, unflinching in their clutch, 
 
 The ready implement of Westerner, 
 
 And telling token of his character. 
 
 But now unfisted in their peaceful power, 
 
 E'en stretched out to persuasive gentleness. 
 
 But mid an eldritch scream she smote the air 
 
 With her soft slender fingers doubled over 
 
 Into a downy knot caressing hate : 
 
 "I care not for your mincing flatteries, 
 
 Not for your patronizing airs of office — 
 
 Take back that Proclamation — eat your words! 
 
 Else by this fist they down your throat be rammed. " 
 
 Whereat she whizzed it round his dark-knit brow, 
 
 Yet stopped it suddenly as if held back 
 
 By some compunction still at work within, 
 
 Which tried a little tilt of far-down love 
 
 Against the syllables of her own voice. 
 
 Then Lincoln strode to center of the room, 
 
 And took position square before the ghost
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 83 
 
 Wording the bubbles of his upstirred deeps : 
 
 "Dear Madam, know that a new epoch dawns 
 
 With throes of bearing a new kind of State 
 
 For domination of the rising ages; 
 
 And now I come the representative 
 
 Of States free-born and childed of the Union 
 
 Determined that this country hence shall be 
 
 A Nation whole with its authority. 
 
 I am their hand, their head, aye too their heart 
 
 Upheaving with a star-high aspiration, 
 
 And tuning to a music cosmical, 
 
 Of which the upper world hymns me the strain. 
 
 I never shall betray their hopes and mine, ■ 
 
 We ask no more of thee than what is duty, 
 
 Than what ourselves perform just in this act 
 
 Which has thy scorn — submission to the Nation. ' ' 
 
 Again there fell upon his words a rune 
 
 Of far-off rhyming with reverberation, 
 
 Whereat he took a turn around the shade. 
 
 Which left his muscles laxer in his look, 
 
 So that they bended to a ripple of his humor: 
 
 "We cannot w^holly for all time be ruled 
 
 By our good grandams, though we love them much ; 
 
 We seem to them unruly boys at school 
 
 When we unnoosed begin to rule ourselves; 
 
 Still we cannot give up self-government," 
 
 Such a bold sauce-box claiming what was hers
 
 84 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VI. 
 
 The ancient lady had not met for all her years ; 
 
 In wroth-red majesty about the room 
 
 She paced her footsteps, as if young again 
 
 When she bore Presidents of dignity 
 
 Very unlike this prairie favorite, 
 
 As she looked on him with disdain antique. 
 
 Writhing her face to furrowed sneers she scoffed 
 
 him: 
 ''Chief magistrate of Western impudence! 
 A daddy-long-legs for our President ! 
 Once more, the last time, I shall bid you here 
 Revoke that call to arms against my South, 
 Else I shall cutse you and depart for home. 
 Assembled my convention now awaits me, 
 Again and yet again our vote has been to stay 
 In this old crackling edifice of Union 
 Already crumbling down upon our heads; 
 But only shall we stay with this proviso 
 That you coerce not States which have gone out ; 
 They had the right to leave, although they ought 
 Not to have left, I grant; they did a wrong 
 Which they, however, had the right to do; 
 Hear then, unless you as the President 
 Over this Nation, as you choose to call it, 
 Unless you follow now my admonition, 
 I, quitting here your presence, shall go back 
 And say our only freedom is to secede, 
 Though I believe not in secession.
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 85 
 
 And I proclaim my Unionism dies, 
 
 Yea, will rise out its grave to fight you here, 
 
 If you shall dare maintain the Union." 
 
 She stepped aback at hearing her own speech 
 
 As if she felt in it the harsh discordance. 
 
 And looked a protest quite unconsciously 
 
 Against herself all in despite herself. 
 
 Lincoln sprang forth and pitched his voice anew 
 In firmest key as he spake out his heart: 
 "So perish now, the word and thing, coercion! 
 That is the monster which is booked to die, 
 Torn from its den within your consciousness — 
 The den of your own self -born dragon's woe. 
 But the sore point, the sorest, you have touched ; 
 From your Convention in the Capital 
 At Richmond has been brought me but dictation. 
 What I and the whole People have to do. 
 Namely, undo their will as some great crime. 
 The will of our law's own majority 
 Voiced at the polls last fall by count of votes. 
 So then defeat must rule the victory, 
 The fewer lord it over all the rest. 
 Prescribing what shall be my policy. 
 Although you shake the rod above my head 
 In spirit of your haughty domination, 
 I shall not yield our government's own soul 
 To petty threat of any member, not to yours.
 
 86 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK TI. 
 
 That Unionism which subjects the Union 
 To its caprice, must be made over new 
 And I shall do it — I the chosen man 
 For just that task now born. Autocracy 
 Of the one State, we shall as little suffer 
 As that of the one man — king, emperor — 
 Nor of Dictator, civil or military, 
 Nay, not of me, the President. And hence 
 My Proclamation I shall not recall, 
 "Which 'er you crowns the Nation sovereign. 
 Go out then, if you will — a President 
 I would not be, if, ruling, you stay in." 
 
 Louder than ever was heard the repercussion 
 
 Of the far-shouting Folk-soul mid these words; 
 
 But on the other side yelled rivalry — 
 
 Both seemed as two vast amphitheaters 
 
 Opposed, of North and South from Ocean to Ocean, 
 
 And shaken with a tumult millionfold. 
 
 Virginia rose up equal to her vengeance 
 
 And flashed her speech into stern Lincoln 's face : 
 
 "What! I submit to your authority! 
 
 I yield to you my Statehood 's primal right 
 
 Of sovereignty which won our independence! 
 
 And crouch before the Nation which I made ! 
 
 Rather let frantic war plough up my soil 
 
 With cannon-balls and sow destruction's seed 
 
 Till earth gulps down the blood of my best sons !
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 87 
 
 Expect them soon, my armies marching hither 
 
 To bivouac in your humbled Capitol, 
 
 Dictating thence the victor's terms of peace. 
 
 How I shall gloat to watch yon haughty dome 
 
 Enshrouded in my gunnery's wreaths of smoke! 
 
 I see me heading my brave soldiery 
 
 In solid tread along the Avenue, 
 
 To roll of drum and martial shout of triumph ; 
 
 And then I hear me giving my commands 
 
 To you as President just in this room, 
 
 Just here. Again Virginia as of yore 
 
 Shall be installed the ruler in this "White-House. 
 
 With power restored and greater than before 
 
 For she was born to have supremacy. 
 
 The crown of first authority I feel 
 
 Grow on my head again as I pass out. ' ' 
 
 A little note of hesitation here 
 
 She gasped as startled at what she had said ; 
 
 But not so soon could she lay down her wrath 
 
 And ban her temper's storm imperious 
 
 Bursting to fiery cannonade of speech: 
 
 "My Capitol shall not be citied here 
 
 But soon transferred to its own rightful seat. 
 
 My high-born Richmond on the river James; 
 
 There shortly will appear another "White-House 
 
 And in it a new President will dwell, 
 
 Coming out of the farther South to us,
 
 88 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VI. 
 
 Your rival, yea your ruler reared by war 
 Which smites in vengeance for your Proclamation ; 
 Begotten then will be the Nation true 
 With last but loftiest place in History. ' ' 
 And then she paused as if to take a look 
 Surprised at her own picture of herself. 
 ''Just that is what I too believe," said Lincoln 
 Thrusting his words upon the specter's tongue, 
 Then throbbed a bass-note fateful in reply: 
 ''Farewell this time — it is enough for once, 
 But mark — I shall thee see again in Richmond. 
 I shall be there e'en as thy President, 
 And take my seat upon thy chair of State, 
 Wielding from thence supreme authority 
 When the high work of Union is fulfilled. 
 Perchance thou wilt me then the honor show 
 Of a fresh visit in thy Capital." 
 
 She whispered on the air a bodement low 
 
 Which bore the tone of doomful prophecy: 
 
 "Whenever humble I shall come to you, 
 
 And bow the knee unto your Union won, 
 
 That is your Fate — your days are numbered few 
 
 Beyond that moment's mortal sunstroke dialed." 
 
 The presage touched to a responsive thrill 
 
 The deepest chord of Lincoln's tense-strung heart, 
 
 For he forefelt the same prophetic throb 
 
 Which now he heard that ghostly mouth intone
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 89 
 
 To airy speech, yet weighed with destiny. 
 
 They stood apart in mute astonishment, 
 
 Each eyed the other with a glance appalled 
 
 In some deep vision tongueless, overawed. 
 
 When both were ware of a vast Presence winged 
 
 Around, above, and everywhere at home; 
 
 It seemed to fill the room, the house, the world, 
 
 To wield the lordship over place and time. 
 
 To ride upon the ages as its car 
 
 Which it was driving to some far-off goal, 
 
 Onbearing both these shapes, Virginia's shade 
 
 And the real Lincoln too, as tiny motes, 
 
 Active within its universal action. 
 
 But see Virginia's still defiant look — 
 
 Denying e'en that Omnipresence too 
 
 She turned on it away from Lincoln, saying 
 
 "I shall not be coerced by such a ghost, 
 
 Although the Spirit of the Age itself 
 
 It comes to me demanding my submission." 
 
 Whereat she scowled at it her loftiest dare. 
 
 Ready to challenge that supernal Presence, 
 
 As if her harnessed enemy for battle. 
 
 But Lincoln took another attitude, 
 Treating it as his friend familiar 
 Whom he would cherish in his heart and brain : 
 "Spirit, I oft have glimpsed you here before: 
 Welcome, take up with me your fixed abode —
 
 90 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VI. 
 
 For I would know your will above all else, 
 And would consult you in my heavy task; 
 Be mate to me and tell me your decree 
 Which I would follow with true loyalty 
 And win the people also to your hest, 
 "When I may know it well enough to tell. ' ' 
 
 The Presence darted forth a spectral hand 
 
 And drew a line between the glaring twain 
 
 Who face to face had taken their position — 
 
 A red-lit line which neither then could cross 
 
 It rose dividing the two Capitals, 
 
 And separating North and South by fire 
 
 Which blazed each way enwrapping both in flames 
 
 Till it had wrecked in twain Virginia 
 
 Whose voice responsive fell to broken words 
 
 Which told at last her soul's confession: 
 
 ' ' How deeply do I feel myself divided ! 
 
 All is to me in scission and secession ! 
 
 Twofold my self, my people, and my State! 
 
 As well as States born of me in the West! 
 
 And oh ! my love itself is cut in two, 
 
 Each side is warring with its other self ! 
 
 My sons are drawn up now in ranks opposing 
 
 And soon will let each other's blood in strife. 
 
 See there ! the ensanguined line of separation — 
 
 The Fatal Line dividing me and mine!"
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 91 
 
 Whereat she fleeted off outside the White-House, 
 And vanished soon behind the bound of fire 
 Which seemed to crimson all its line in blood. 
 The greater Presence had transformed itself, 
 Becoming strangely one with Lincoln's semblance 
 Just as he, after trials numerous, 
 Advanced across that parting line aflame 
 Which slowly drooped to monumental ashes. 
 
 And so Virginia in her wrath defied 
 
 The omnipresent might which has to rule 
 
 Within the outer loud occurrences 
 
 Upseething on the stream of history : 
 
 Even to that her pride disdained submission. 
 
 But Lincoln tacked his course the other way: 
 
 He sought to know the Mind which is the Whole, 
 
 Even to ken the Will which wills all Will, 
 
 To find its goal e 'en in misfortune 's blows, 
 
 And recognize the discipline divine. 
 
 As guidance to his deeper work ordained. 
 
 So he would court the Spirit of the Time 
 
 Communing with its ghostly Presences 
 
 That he might catch their tongueless utterance, 
 
 Whether it spelt defeat or victory. 
 
 This higher message he would then impart, 
 
 In his own way of wording what he saw, 
 
 In spoken speech or written document. 
 
 Unto the folk who had to know it too,
 
 92 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VI. 
 
 Whose mighty travail was to turn to fact 
 The mandates of that Upper Cabinet. 
 
 The weird appearances, now turned to air, 
 Had left on Lincoln 's mood a mighty oracle : 
 "Was it a dream or brain-born fantasy, 
 Though pressing solid as reality? 
 An overworld of forms descended on him, 
 And played some mimic prelude of a drama — 
 A scene of disembodied characters, 
 Hoar phantoms pre-enacting great events. 
 And still through all his sun-born imagery 
 Would stray a streak of doubt clouded as night. 
 Passing to melancholy nothingness. 
 At last his thought forced out this utterance : 
 "So then we are to have two Capitals 
 And two White-Houses on two rivers built, 
 Each glaring at the other from their perch, 
 Within their walls two hostile Presidents — 
 How that division twinges me to horror! 
 And yet the deeper darker doubleness 
 Cuts the two Peoples at the blood-red line! 
 That line is what my task is to erase 
 Completely and forever — I hear the call." 
 Again flowed in upon his strong-willed words 
 A far-off shout as of the Folk itself 
 Between the seas upon the East and West 
 Responsive in a chorus to his thoughts.
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA. 93 
 
 Wlien the strong-voiced rebound had died away 
 
 Into the distant wilderness of sounds, 
 
 Lincoln began to hear his soul's own echo 
 
 Foretokening his destiny in words: 
 
 "Between myself and thee, Virginia, 
 
 This combat of our Folk divided writhes 
 
 As if between two personalities. 
 
 I cast that I shall have to go myself 
 
 From here down to your second Capital, 
 
 And therein take my Presidential seat 
 
 If I now heal this fevered dualism 
 
 Which rages in the Nation, State, and Soul. 
 
 But when I come to thee, Virginia, 
 
 Thou also shalt enfranchised be; 
 
 I say it here unto myself foresaid: 
 
 When I return to my grandfather's State 
 
 Which storied lies from childhood in my heart, 
 
 And take my seat within her Capital, 
 
 She shall be new-born of the Union free, 
 
 Rejuvenated in her liberty. 
 
 And though my doom be there suspended o'er me, 
 
 As thou dost threat in frenzy sybilline. 
 
 Whereto my own prophetic soul nods yea, 
 
 So let it fall, I cannot stay its scope. 
 
 And then I shall revoke this Proclamation 
 
 When it revokes itself in its own triumph. 
 
 This call, I say, will then recall itself, 
 
 Undone by its fulfilment, Virginia."
 
 i0ah Stkrttl^. 
 
 Lee and Thomas. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 I am glad to see you, fellow Virginian and old 
 comrade in arms. Welcome to Arlington, Colonel 
 Thomas. You are now commander of the Second 
 Cavalry. 
 
 TJiomas. 
 
 My heart responds to your courtesy with quicker 
 beats, my honored chief. But yours is a strange 
 salute. I have just come from Carlile Barracks to 
 confer with you as my official superior. How de- 
 lightful are these grounds and their mansion em- 
 bosomed in the trees whose tops are now throb- 
 bing out in a kind of smile the first leaves of April 
 green ! And some early flowers of spring twinkled 
 at me on my way hither. Still I confess that I 
 (94)
 
 LEE AND THOMAS. 95 
 
 appear before you oppressed and sorrowed by the 
 clouds hanging over our country, and therewith 
 over our Virginia. But tell me, why do you greet 
 me with a military title which is not mine but 
 yours ? 
 
 Lee. 
 It is no longer mine. I have resigned the Colo- 
 nelcy of the First Cavalry, and you are the rank- 
 ing officer of your regiment. I cannot take part 
 in any invasion of the South, whose rights are now 
 assailed by President Lincoln's call for troops. 
 And I tell you, Virginia will not permit any such 
 assault upon her Southern sisters. And yet I do 
 not think that they have done right — South Car- 
 olina has acted very precipitately, as if she would 
 provoke the issue of arms. 
 
 Thomas. 
 I see that you are in a battle with yourself. So 
 am I, or rather have been. But what about this 
 rumor which I heard as I passed through Wash- 
 ington? It was reported that you were to take 
 command of the Union army; I come to offer you 
 my help, or at least my good wishes. 
 
 Lee. 
 Let me state you the main fact. A messenger, 
 old Mr. Blair, brought to me the offer of some such
 
 96 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VII. 
 
 position from the President, as I understood the 
 matter. And I believe that General Scott, who 
 thinks well of my abilities, had thrown out a sim- 
 ilar intimation. To be sure, Mr. Blair is very sly 
 and not altogether open in his use of words. I 
 felt that he was sounding me, and so I gave him 
 the bluff refusal of the soldier. I could not yield 
 my honest service to carry out the President's 
 Proclamation, which grated the tenderest chords 
 of my soul. And my State to whom I owe my last 
 allegiance is sure to be involved. And you, you 
 too are a Virginian. 
 
 TJiomas. 
 
 Undoubtedly. I love the good old mother, but 
 also love her greater child, the Nation. 
 
 Lee. 
 I have felt the same double heart-beat, but al- 
 ways in unison hitherto. But now the two beats 
 strike counter so as to make unhappy discord 
 within me. Two supreme events have taken place 
 which jar me almost out of existence: the bom- 
 bardment of Fort Sumter and Lincoln's call to 
 violence in response. Both are unnecessary and 
 extremes; the one assails the Union in which I be- 
 lieve and the other assails the State in which I 
 believe. I am rent in twain by the two conflicting 
 sides, for both are mine, inwound in my memories
 
 LEE AND THOMAS. 97 
 
 and hopes; my examplar and my relative, George 
 Washington, they tear to pieces; and my own 
 father, Light-Horse Harry as he is best known, 
 lies bleeding with this mortal wound before me. 
 My ancestry is cleft in the middle, so are all the 
 great Virginians of history, who seem to groan in 
 me with the throes of the present strife. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 I understand your feeling, for I have shared 
 in it. I often ask myself what underlies this 
 mighty turmoil, this wrench of the spirit every- 
 where. Something must be coming out of it, per- 
 haps a new order; at least it cannot all be for 
 nothing. But what? 
 
 Lee. 
 
 If I had the four million slaves, I would give 
 them all for the Union. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 So would I. And if war comes, I believe that 
 the Union will have to pay that price and probably 
 a greater. If it is to be kept, it must have a new 
 valuation. 
 
 Lee. 
 I never did believe in slavery, nor did the great 
 Virginians of the past.
 
 98 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK TIL 
 
 Thomas. 
 Nor do I. Still neither they nor we ever sum- 
 moned our full strength to abolish it, and make 
 valid our conviction. And it is certainly the source 
 of the present split between North and South — 
 the alien wedge prying apart the Union. 
 
 Lee. 
 But that late Proclamation assails the right of 
 the State. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 But it asserts preponderantly the right of the 
 Union. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 Oh the pitiless time which forces me to choose 
 the one or the other! Still for me the State is 
 first and formed the Union. 
 
 Thomas. 
 Yes, the choice has to be made by every man — 
 such is the age's behest. But for me the Union is 
 first and forms the State. 
 
 Lee. 
 I see that you agree with Lincoln, but I must 
 face the other way. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 You will soon have to start. Here is the news- 
 paper with big headlines on the first page. Vir-
 
 LEE AND THOMAS. 99 
 
 ginia secedes. The dividing line is grooved al- 
 ready. 
 
 Lee. 
 I have been expecting it — the Richmond Con- 
 vention said as much to Lincoln. Virginia could 
 not do otherwise. I shall draw my sword only in 
 defence of my native State — so I have resigned 
 from the national army. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 I shall not resign — I cannot — I shall draw my 
 sword for the Union. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 Pardon me, my fellow-soldier, but I do not un- 
 derstand how a Virginian can take that course 
 against all that he holds dear. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 Permit me to say to you, my old commander, 
 that there are two Virginias, mutually antag- 
 onistic, each now wrestling with the other. I see 
 them both in you, your talk has uttered both; I 
 know that both are in me, and have had quite a 
 struggle; both even show themselves outwardly 
 in the State's territory. I behold Virginia (and 
 the whole South with her) at the cross-roads of 
 her destiny; one way she turns back and reverts 
 to the old colonial separation; the other way she
 
 100 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VII. 
 
 reaches forward to the new federation which is 
 not to be stopped till it circles the earth. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 Indeed! I never dreamed of your being such 
 a dreamer. Our hard-headed spare-worded Major 
 Thomas has become such an enthusiast ! Still, 
 coming down to the bald fact, I say that the States 
 made the Union and existed before it — so they 
 are the first creatively. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 That is true of the old Thirteen, Virginia in- 
 cluded — but just the opposite holds true of the new 
 Twenty States of the West — the Union made 
 them, and they are now the decided majority — so 
 the Union at present is the first creatively. Just 
 that is what is next to be wrought out, and per- 
 chance to be fought out; in fact here lies the real 
 meaning of the trouble, and the direction of its 
 final settlement. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 I confess that I did not altogether like the spirit 
 of the "West with its upstarts, of whom I learned 
 when stationed at St. Louis some years ago. The 
 old Dominion with its long-descended heirlooms 
 is more congenial to me. I shall not fight against 
 my ancestral friends, my kindred, my traditions, 
 my State.
 
 LEE AND THOMAS. IQl 
 
 TJiomas. 
 
 In that lies the test. I too love friends, rela- 
 tives, Virginia, the past. But my final allegiance 
 is to the future with its higher goal. I have had 
 the bitter struggle to give up what you will keep — 
 I dare immolate old associations, friendships, con- 
 sanguinities, my native State, for a greater cause, 
 though all my relatives and companions and even 
 Mother Virginia herself disown me. Still I grant 
 that I have a rent inside me which makes me bleed, 
 but which I shall bear around with me in silence. 
 For my relief I must quit the presence of the con- 
 tending forces here in the East. 
 
 Lee. 
 There will be a mortal grapple. My last news is 
 that Virginia will follow up secession by uniting 
 with the Southern Confederacy. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 That forecasts a long war just at the gates of 
 Washington. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 President Davis will be accepted by Virginia 
 and bring his Capital to Richmond. 
 
 Tliomas. 
 Then will open the desperate combat between 
 the two Capitals hardly a hundred miles apart.
 
 102 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VII. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 Governor Letcher has already sent me intima- 
 tions to come to Eichmond and take charge of the 
 military arm of the State. I judge you do not care 
 to go along, 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 By no means. But I do not wish to stay here 
 where I shall see Virginia cleft asunder, her peo- 
 ple divided, her State ripped through, while I am 
 torn within by her agony. Besides I would not 
 like to be arrayed- in battle-line against you, my 
 old Colonel, friend, Virginian. I shall flee as soon 
 as possible to the West, where there is no such 
 chasm as here, or only in the distance. Though I 
 be driven from the State, I shall not be driven 
 from the Union. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 Here the States will subordinate the Union, and 
 assert their own independent right of existence. 
 
 Thomas. 
 There the Union will subordinate the States — 
 even the old ones. Besides I may frankly tell 
 you that here on the Atlantic coast nothing can 
 be settled; the decisive work in this conflict must 
 be done in the "West, by the young vigorous chil- 
 dren of the Union, not in the East by the good old, 
 but somewhat backward, parents of the Union.
 
 LEE AND THOMAS, 103 
 
 Thither I shall go and take my part in the great 
 national deed which I believe is to be done out 
 there, where the line of separation in the Union 
 is weak and can be more easily crossed. Here it 
 is strong, perhaps too strong for me — I can feel 
 it drawn in myself, I must flee from it; if I stay 
 here in Virginia, I could fear myself. You say 
 you did not like that rough-and-ready Western 
 folk which we knew at Jefferson Barracks and 
 elsewhere; I grew fond of it and learned from it 
 much, for example to face about from East to 
 West, even from Virginia toward the Rockies. 
 And I was fascinated by the Mississippi with its 
 tossing turbulent independence, which seems to 
 repel you, and which you, as an engineer, sought 
 to curb and direct with success. I tell you, there 
 lies the new hope. 
 
 Lee. 
 Call me an old colonial, if you will, even a rebel 
 — so was George Washington, who, you know, is 
 in our family tree — a Virginia gentleman true- 
 bred. And your Western Lincoln has small at- 
 traction for me ; his blood is, I hear, of our South- 
 ern white trash — he is yonder in the White-House 
 I suppose — I slipped away from the city rather 
 than see him. I could not endure the contrast — 
 it makes my heart ache. How different from our 
 old Virginia line of Presidents !
 
 104 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK YII. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 But Lincoln also traces his descent from Vir- 
 ginia ancestors of Revolutionary stock. Therein 
 at least he is like you and me. The difference is 
 that he was baptized in the spirit of the West, and 
 is a child of the great migration from the old to 
 the new. Let me tell you something else: there 
 are more Virginians and sons of Virginians in 
 those young "Western States than here in old Vir- 
 ginia herself. They have dared break ancient ties 
 and start a new life of their own. And I should 
 not wonder if they would be coming back this way 
 some time. Lincoln, their representative, is al- 
 ready here, and in the seat of your old Virginia 
 Presidents, whom we all honor. And it would 
 seem that he is only the forerunner of some great 
 movement hitherward. 
 
 Lee. 
 
 As for me, I shall stay here on the sacred soil 
 of my State, living and dying for it if need -be. I 
 wish not to be free of its domestic, social, and 
 political chains, as you deem them. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 Strong and beautiful are the ties of family, of 
 community, of State — who can escape their subtle 
 bonds? Yet a new test has arisen in the World's 
 History, to be applied first here to us — a new
 
 LEE AND THOMAS. 105 
 
 judgment-day is at hand, I would almost dare say 
 that I hear its trump ; we, even we two, are to be 
 summoned before a new tribunal and tried by our 
 attitude toward the Nation — not toward the State, 
 the city, or our kindred, though these be dearest 
 to us in our feelings. Can we rise to that? 
 
 Lee. 
 I cannot and will not. 
 
 Thomas. 
 Then, whatever be your personal character — 
 and I know it to be tender-conscienced, of noble 
 honor, and deeply religious — you will stand con- 
 demned as in the wrong before the High Court of 
 the Ages, whose behest I have to obey. 
 
 Lee. 
 Here comes a messenger, I am summoned to go 
 at once to Richmond. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 And I shall return to the Capital. 
 
 Lee. 
 You see that I have laid aside my blue uniform, 
 never to be resumed. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 You may observe that I have come in a new suit 
 whose color I shall never change.
 
 106 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE H0U8E—B00K VII. 
 
 Lee. 
 I repeat that I do not like slavery or secession. 
 
 Thomas. 
 
 I know it. Still I fear that you will soon be 
 fighting for both. And just that is Virginia's 
 tragedy and yours: smiting Union and Constitu- 
 tion in which you believe and defending with your 
 blood slavery and secession in which you disbe- 
 lieve. All History furnishes no more crushing 
 Mill of the Gods. You are caught between the 
 upper and nether jaws of Fate itself. I must flee 
 the awful spectacle. Let me catch a breath of air 
 under the high-pillared verandah of Arlington — 
 yet it too seems fated. 
 
 Lee. 
 I must be off Southward by the coming train. 
 
 Thomas. 
 And I go in the other direction. Two Virginias 
 I see in us, of equal honor, conscience, character, 
 devotion to principle yet determined to let each 
 other's blood. What is above this mortal strife, 
 controlling it, directing it, to what end? 
 
 Lee. 
 I leave that wholly to Providence and do not 
 ask Him any questions. I believe that He grows
 
 LEE AND THOMAS. 107 
 
 impatient with too much interrogation. But be- 
 fore we part I shall tell you something else which 
 will not out of my mind. Your decision will bring 
 you your trouble. As a Virginian you cannot help 
 being suspected by your superiors, even if you say 
 nothing. 
 
 TJiomas. 
 I know it well, and have already had the ex- 
 perience of such suspicion in high quarters. That 
 is another reason why I would quit this locality 
 and plunge into the West, where, however, I may 
 not wholly escape. Yes, I too on my side shall have 
 a strain of Virginia's tragedy in my own career. 
 For her disloyalty — so I hold her act — will cast its 
 shadow upon my loyalty, and make me suffer. But 
 I shall remain faithful and defy envy and suspi- 
 cion. My allegiance will be doubted when I have 
 sacrificed everything for it; still I shall stay true, 
 for loyalty is ever loyal, and cannot be made to 
 turn its back on itself by ill treatment of friends, 
 or by blandishments of foes. Union cannot drive 
 me to disunion by any neglect it may visit upon 
 me, and disunion cannot win me by any honor it 
 may offer. I am a free man and propose to remain 
 such, following inner conviction which is not to 
 be swerved from the outside by personal favor or 
 disfavor.
 
 108 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VII. 
 
 Lee. 
 I feel quite the same way, but on the other side. 
 
 Thomas. 
 Yes we stand on the two opposite shores of Vir- 
 ginia's chasm, which is also that of the present 
 Union and its people. 
 
 Lee. 
 The bottom cannot be seen, but I must separate. 
 
 Thomas. 
 May you survive the conflict. 
 
 Lee. 
 May you survive the conflict. Farewell. 
 
 Thomas. 
 (Alone.) And so I pass from Arlington which 
 in my vision changes to the seat of Fate itself. Be- 
 hold these pleasant trees fluttering in the tender 
 winds of spring, these flower-beds with many-col- 
 ored laughter in the sunshine, this noble mansion 
 with its front of joyous columns looking from the 
 bluff across the river at the towering Capitol, and 
 even at the White-House of the President ! But 
 look again ! What an awful metamorphosis as 
 Lee is passing out for Richmond! The fair Vir- 
 ginia landscape transmutes itself to horrible Gol- 
 gotha, the place of dead men's skulls; even the
 
 LEE AND THOMAS. 109 
 
 flowering earth spirts up to inflorescence bloom- 
 ing human blood. The soldier used to carnage, 
 must needs sicken at the sight and turn away. 
 What a relief to see yon Capitol still the same on 
 its foundations firm ! Yet it seems to me to nod 
 and shake its head in warning to Arlington, and to 
 Virginia, my own dear State. As I look around 
 again, the horrible phantasm still pursues me — 
 here the tragedy will enact itself. 
 
 I must quit this scene and pass to the river- 
 valley of the Nation. Now I behold the White- 
 House in the distance ; a funeral pall floats over it, 
 yet leaves it intact — what does this all portend 1 I 
 know not, but my foreboding soul hints me that 
 the Union itself is tragic on this side of the moun- 
 tains, and bids me cross them to my higher des- 
 tiny. But look at it again ere it passes out of 
 view — beautiful but fated Arlington, like its 
 owner, like Virginia ! That rift is in me too, I 
 feel it tearing my heart in spite of me ! Here runs 
 the Potomac, let me put its flow quickly between 
 me and Arlington — and oh! Virginia. Brain- 
 cleaving in this step of severance but I must take 
 it! There, 'tis done, never to return to old Vir- 
 ginia, but perchance to new! Still oh my mother, 
 this pain of separation from thee slays me — saves 
 me!
 
 100k ^igl^tl^* 
 
 The First Tragedy. 
 
 "The time is a volcano charged with chaos 
 And in its crater we are living now, 
 As we sit here in dark expectancy; 
 I feel the primal molten elements 
 Of human passions long inherited 
 To be aglow and seething underneath 
 This house, this city, this whole land ; 
 And all the world turns to the pit infernal 
 Peopled with fiends, minded on deviltry. 
 Wearing the mask still of humanity." 
 
 So spake "Ward Lamon in an outburst fierce 
 Sprung of his office ; then he added this : 
 (110)
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. m 
 
 "The mischief swirls around our President, 
 
 And follows him wherever he may turn, 
 
 As centered in a hurricane of hell. 
 
 My duty is to trace dark passages 
 
 Of treason and of covered villany, 
 
 And nip them ere they ripen into blood. 
 
 Even to-day I ran upon a trail 
 
 Of plotted crime which seems to ramify 
 
 Northward as well as Southward, on sea and land, 
 
 Till I am lost in mazes of this task 
 
 And feel within my heart a brood demonic 
 
 Both gnawing me and clawing me at once 
 
 With teeth and talons of the Harpy worry." 
 
 So Lamon, Marshal of the Capital, 
 Turned loose his harried soul to ease itself 
 In speech to Ellsworth, the young officer, 
 Friend known in Illinois, now the commander 
 Of Fire-Zouaves, a flaming regiment 
 Whose character was tokened by its name,. 
 Which he had quickly disciplined for war, 
 And brought to the defense of Washington, 
 Full of the love of country in his heart, 
 Yet full of fate in his presentiment. 
 They both sat lone and darkling in a room 
 Where Lamon had his suite of offices, 
 Both weighted with the rash events transpiring 
 And to transpire in mighty sequence still,
 
 112 LIXCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 Wrenching each soul from anchorage of hope. 
 
 Virginia has seceded, soon the second tier 
 
 Of Southern States will follow her example, 
 
 And the third tier, the border commonwealths, 
 
 Were swaying to and fro, uncertain where 
 
 To drop their future in the lowering storm. 
 
 The Nation's heart was palpitating loud 
 
 In beats of doubt to which each man responded, 
 
 And dreadlier those in authority 
 
 Which concentrated at the Capital. 
 
 Lamon well watched the secret vengeances 
 
 Of foes tense with the passions of the hour; 
 
 He marked in many too the quivering line 
 
 Of loyalty at sea, like a tossed ship 
 
 Still to be brought to port and firmly moored. 
 
 The Marshal's thought, tuned to the half-lit gloom 
 
 Which flung its mood upon the air they breathed 
 
 Relaxed to reminiscence with his friend 
 
 From a dread anxious day whose toil closed not: 
 
 "Our Lincoln is the center of the Nation, 
 Yea more, the center of the world just now 
 As this takes a new step in History 
 Which through its mortal instruments strides on- 
 ward. 
 Most difficult position ever held 
 By the Great Man at turning point of ages 
 Is his, when God himself seems out of joint,
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 113 
 
 And all creation will undo itself 
 And strives to be again the uncreated, 
 As if the cosmos strove to chaos back. 
 Lincoln — will he rise equal to his task, 
 And stay the universal cataclysm? 
 Mistakes in human course he has to make. 
 But just through them will he be fortified 
 To mount up to the new recovery? 
 Limits he has — can he first see himself 
 Amiss, and then be quick to rectify 
 The lesser man to fresh transcendency? 
 The self-corrective soul must be his own 
 Ere he be able to correct his time 
 Or bring it to correct itself like him. 
 In error's school, will he be aptest scholar? 
 So I forecast, though tremblingly, the man." 
 
 The Marshal wheeled about upon his chair 
 
 As giving a new turn to his reflections: 
 
 ''That Proclamation still is ringing out 
 
 Upon the air the words of a new order 
 
 The militant trumpet of the rising Nation — 
 
 Has he the stuff to make the promise good? 
 
 War will begin — a long and desperate — 
 
 "Virginia gone ! How his task dizzies me ! 
 
 More still to go ! The earth cracks underneath him ! 
 
 Man seems dissolving in this dissolution! 
 
 And he to stop that elemental gulf
 
 11 4. LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 "Whose yawn keeps deepening down to ancient night 
 And lets the demons out of Hell escape ! ' ' 
 
 Then rising to his feet broke out his friend 
 
 Young Ellsworth, champion of forms blue-coated, 
 
 Touching instinctively his sword 's bright hilt : 
 
 "My regiment shall be the first to cross 
 
 Yonder Potomac in steady line of march, 
 
 With serried ranks of gleaming baj^onets 
 
 Fixed for the charge upon the enemy. 
 
 I at its head shall trample on the soil 
 
 Of the proud State which will be sovereign 
 
 And dare defiance to the Union. 
 
 My task allotted is just that, I know, 
 
 I must go first, though I be first to fall ; 
 
 I shall myself haul down rebellion's flag. 
 
 Then wrap me in the wreath of Stars and Stripes 
 
 Though it be reddened in mine own heart's blood; 
 
 T care not, if I only may do that." 
 
 Lamon had hardly marked the resolution. 
 Touched with a bodeful gleam of coming hap 
 In the youth's words enforced by look and gesture, 
 "When he again tapped what was inwards surging : 
 "What mighty shocks have we been passing 
 
 through ! 
 The boom of Charleston's cannon made us quake 
 In every blood-drop; then the counter clap.
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 115 
 
 The Presidential call for soldiery, 
 
 Fell on our peace with a still mightier roar 
 
 Re-echoed from Virginia's ordinance 
 
 Which tore her from us with a shock like doom; 
 
 Our planet seems now rocking to and fro 
 
 In some vast cosmical convulsion 
 
 On which this little earth is tossing like a bubble. 
 
 No one can tell what comet next may strike us 
 
 Madly dashing from spaces infinite ! ' ' 
 
 The Marshal roused by his upheaving thoughts, 
 
 Still more by his own elemental speech 
 
 Eeverberating thunderous on the air, 
 
 Sprang up and clutched with frantic grip, 
 
 As if he would arrest the age itself. 
 
 Haling it to prison for its turbulence. 
 
 Then he bethought himself of moderation. 
 
 And buttoned up his uniform to quiet. 
 
 Linking again his chain of memories : 
 
 ''You recollect the day with clouds o'ercast 
 
 And lowering presentiments within us 
 
 Of what might him befall the journey hither, 
 
 When we with Lincoln started out of Springfield. 
 
 You stood beside me as he said farewell 
 
 Unto the citizens assembled there. 
 
 With overflow of melancholy words 
 
 In which there lurked a doubt of his return. 
 
 I noticed that you gave a bodeful twinge
 
 116 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK Till. 
 
 Just at that point of his soul's dark foretoken 
 
 Which waked in you a thrilling sympathy, 
 
 As if the bolt smote you to hot response." 
 
 The youth in softened mood gave slowly answer: 
 
 '^I still must shiver in that memory 
 
 Which I bear with my sword from day to day, 
 
 Lurking beneath all this parade of war. 
 
 Let me confess, that was what brought me here, 
 
 To rid me of the presence of that hour 
 
 Which seems again approaching stealthily, 
 
 But with fate's prophecy born into fact. 
 
 Tell me the story of your coming hither, 
 
 It brings relief to hear of you and Lincoln. ' ' 
 
 The Marshal saw the shadow on the youth 
 Cast from his love of the good President, 
 Of whom he then began to anecdote : 
 "Some weeks before he was to quit his home 
 Lincoln had spoken to me, unwilling me. 
 About some office at the Capital, 
 In tones which weakened me of all resistance : 
 'Lamon, it looks as if there is to be 
 A fight, and I shall have to take my part ; 
 I need your personal help, such as you oft 
 Have shown, now more than ever in the past; 
 Start with me when I start, and you must stay 
 As long as I do in the Capital, 
 I shall provide you opportunity;
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. II7 
 
 But you must bring me back, alive or dead, 
 Perchance the latter, for I have presages, 
 You know them well, of doomful violence.' 
 He quivered out his sympathetic tones 
 As if he voiced in pity his own destiny. 
 And sighed compassion with his warring self. 
 I swayed a moment in his fateful words 
 Surprised, but rallied soon to give excuse 
 Of other tasks begun or in the promise. 
 Says he: 'This is your most important turn. 
 The clock is ticking now your life's best chance. 
 You will become a cog of that huge wheel 
 Of History now starting to revolve 
 More rapidly than ever it has done 
 Before in all the whirl of Time's events.' 
 'Another person better for that place 
 May soon be found, or is already there,' 
 I said not relishing the sort of work. 
 'No Lamon, I cannot,' he answered me 
 In a persuasive tremble of the lip, 
 'Besides, I have not time to hunt him up. 
 Nor do I even know where I might look, 
 And the emergency now thrusts me on. 
 More than a dozen years you have been known 
 To me as friend, as partner in the law; 
 You have an inborn way of seeing down 
 Into the souls of men, of guilty men 
 Especially, and spying their designs
 
 118 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 And their disguises multifarious. 
 
 My path on both sides with such characters 
 
 Is lined, their gauntlet I must run for life, 
 
 Yet scarce mistrust their evil purposes; 
 
 Suspicion I dislike as Hell itself. 
 
 That awful burden you can take from me. 
 
 For it sits easefully upon your back 
 
 As I have often noticed at the bar, 
 
 When we were dealing with the criminal. 
 
 Besides you are a Southerner by birth, 
 
 Aye, the Virginian needed, for you know 
 
 Your people well, especially the rogues, 
 
 If I may praise your talent to your face. ' 
 
 I answered with mine own his gentle smile: 
 
 'That flattery will hardly spoil me, friend. 
 
 Or charm me to an office-seeker's lot.' 
 
 He drooped his eyes on me affectionate 
 
 "With their sad pleading power, yet strong command. 
 
 Which bade persuasive like the word of conscience : 
 
 'Lamon, for me you show a deeper quality 
 Which reaches to the bottom of my nature. 
 And sets to flow the source of my existence 
 Afresh; you have a personal consecration 
 Which can commune with me at the origin. 
 And almost re-create me young again; 
 I need j^ou as a soul to whom my soul 
 I can impart when it will not hold in
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. jjg 
 
 But strains to burst its bounds to death itself 
 
 And so be free of all its anguishes. 
 
 To you I may tell things not told by me 
 
 To anybody else — the secrets of my being, 
 
 Aye, those first nodes where I seem joined to God. 
 
 Many you know already but not all, 
 
 I deem I do not know them all myself; 
 
 New sources of myself and of the Self 
 
 Above me will be opened by my trials 
 
 Which you must share with me in sufferance, 
 
 Helping to make me over from the germ. 
 
 friend, to you I can communicate myself, 
 
 1 need you for my deepest transformation. 
 For I must grow, re-living great events' 
 Within myself to win their deepest lore; 
 
 I must unfold in mine the time's own soul, 
 
 Mirror in me the spirit of the age 
 
 As it shifts through the shapes of fleet occurrences : 
 
 help me daily reconstruct myself, loved Lamon. ' 
 
 More in confession to himself he spoke, 
 
 1 fancy, than to me, and yet he meant it ; 
 I stood astonied at the confidence, 
 
 The crushing burden of his faith in me; 
 
 I drooped — ^he never told me that before 
 
 In all the years of our tried intimacy; 
 
 The task imposed seemed greater than my strength, 
 
 Yea, quite impossible, whereat I spoke:
 
 120 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK VIII. 
 
 ' Lincoln, of men you hold my heart 's own heart, 
 I fain would do for you what may be done, 
 E'en to the point which bade my sacrifice; 
 But you have often breathed me your belief 
 In your allotted death by violence; 
 You hold that Fate is ever hung above you 
 Ready to drop — how can I Fate forestall? 
 Nor yours nor mine is to be circumvented. 
 Have you not told me of your moping wraith 
 Which haunted you at Springfield as you lay 
 Upon the lounge just after your election? 
 Your double self reflected from a mirror, 
 Two counterparts, one dead and one alive, 
 Stood up before you there in imagery. 
 Facing each other till they swooned together 
 Into a nothingness at one lost breath. 
 You lay there thinking your Inaugural, 
 Dreaming its consequences to come on 
 Far-off in time perchance, but sure at last 
 Both to yourself as man and to the people, , 
 Death to the one, salvation to the other.' " 
 
 Young Ellsworth gave a spring out of his seat 
 As smitten with some sudden sympathy. 
 And paced the room in silent agitation; 
 Just one brief shudder whispered on his lips 
 In spite of his suppression of himself 
 "Which capped his discipline of soldiership.
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 121 
 
 Lamou well marked the penetrating stroke 
 Which, seemed to pierce some hidden depth of soul, 
 And start the throes to pulsing outwardly 
 Through all the close-knit frame of his brave friend, 
 Whom he addressed: "Colonel, why do you start 
 And shiver at our boding Lincoln's ghosts 
 Which rise unbidden in our talk to-night? 
 They cannot be your own as well, I trow." 
 Ellsworth re-took his seat and calmed himself, 
 Saying a smile-lit word to the narrator: 
 "Good story-teller of the spooks, go on; 
 I fain would hear the rest and all of it. ' ' 
 
 Full of his theme and keyed to consonance 
 
 The Marshal struck the note where it had dropped : 
 
 "So I in my distress of doubtfulness 
 
 Recalled to Lincoln his own spectral drama; 
 
 Reflectively he bowed his head atilt 
 
 And turning to himself replied to me : 
 
 'All that is true — I know that I am doomed 
 
 If I but go to Washington and dwell; 
 
 Still all the more mine is to go — I must — 
 
 If I do not — I speak my spirit's call — 
 
 Then is this Nation judged to death, and I 
 
 Am damned the deeper, though at ease I live 
 
 Out Nature's span disburdened of a task. 
 
 Not my small self, but the one Self of Selves 
 
 Lays that decree upon my shrinking will.
 
 122 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 Lamon, my priestly friend, I whisper thee 
 
 My dread alternative of destiny, 
 
 One or the other of the twain, this Nation 
 
 Or I myself must take the assassin's blow; 
 
 Here I can choose, and now my choice is made. 
 
 Stretched up to the last notch of will — I go.' 
 
 Whereat his stalwart frame, oft laxly lolling. 
 
 Rose upward tense and straight with high resolve ; 
 
 Before that godlike act of mortal duty, 
 
 I stood appalled and could not tongue a word." 
 
 Here Lamon stayed his speech's overflow, 
 While Ellsworth rose intensified like Lincoln, 
 And let a word leap from his toiling heart : 
 ' ' That is the spirit 's pattern I would choose. 
 And follow my exemplar's destiny, 
 E 'en if I have to go before to death. ' ' 
 
 Both stood unworded in a mutual stare, 
 Until the Marshal mended where he left 
 Matters of import deepest still unsaid, 
 Threading again his broken narrative: 
 "Then Lincoln fell back to a moment's trance 
 Which gave relief from high-wrought stress of mind, 
 Whence poured a gentler spoken stream of words : 
 'And yet I have to look ahead with care 
 That the allotted stroke fall not my way 
 Out of its time, but be held back by foresight
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 123 
 
 Until the Nation may have shaken off 
 The doom impending now', said prescient Lincoln, 
 'And risen up in new-born unity, 
 Which starts its fresh career through centuries. 
 Then let me die when this cleft people lives 
 And integrates itself anew — but not before — 
 You query at the words: But not before.' 
 Lincoln a moment stopped at his own question, 
 Whose mark he must have seen writ on my face, 
 When he, affectioned more in tone, began: 
 'Lamon, protector, friend,' he spoke uprisen 
 And showering gleams of Heaven from his face, 
 'You have your proper work in the grand scheme, 
 I know that Fate is clutching at me hourly; 
 But you must be for me the buffer grim 
 Against her fiercely hot precipitancy 
 Until the minute ripens my last breath; 
 You cannot slay my doom, but you can stay it — 
 Prevent you cannot, but you may retard — 
 And Chance you can outfence by skill — not Fate — 
 Inevitable the deed, but not the hour. 
 Stave off you may the Now until the Then, 
 Guard me against the secret stabs of hate 
 Which threaten from the air on every side; 
 Your part, though hid, is great and necessary, 
 You are to bring about that I must last 
 Until the Union be no longer fated. 
 When it can live, then I shall cease to live,
 
 124 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 Out goes my candle when the Sun has risen, 
 I say it, for I hear the trumpet call: 
 The moment I can take this Nation's doom 
 Upon myself, that moment is my last.' 
 So Lincoln gave me of his deepest Self 
 And I too heard my duty's thunder-tone 
 Of peremptory biddance to the task. 
 Somehow I seemed then to be fitted just 
 Into my niche of one vast dawning plan. 
 Not mine nor his alone, but the supernal; 
 We too must will what is beforehand willed. 
 Re-planning just the plan already planned, 
 And so we both can help our Providence. 
 As Man needs God for his completed Self 
 So God needs Man to get along as All." 
 
 Lamon here whirled in his revolving chair 
 
 And drew his plummet up from that deep well, 
 
 The well unbottomed of philosophy, 
 
 Then dropped it in the stream of history: 
 
 "Lincoln has oft foreboded me his death, 
 
 Reflecting on old tragic destinies; 
 
 He even read of Buddha in the East, 
 
 More knew he of the end of Socrates, 
 
 But most he ponders now the crucifixion 
 
 In which the dying deed was just redemption, 
 
 The individual's loss his victory. 
 
 The winning of his cause his tragedy.
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 125 
 
 The triumph of his life his farewell last. 
 
 My lot, I know, is but auxiliar, 
 
 I have to thwart the pressing destinies 
 
 By blows, or even by cajoleries 
 
 Until the circle of the hero's time 
 
 Be rounded to its node of last conjunction. 
 
 Ellsworth, here lies my fight against the foe, 
 
 Not like to yours in battle order ranged. 
 
 Where all the war is in the open waged. 
 
 Many a blow in secret have I parried 
 
 When ready to descend upon our ruler; 
 
 I watch the night-birds in their hidden haunts, 
 
 The faces writ with deadly messages 
 
 I have to read upon these surging streets, 
 
 And nip the murderer's deed ere it be done, 
 
 Forefend the dagger drawn from shedding blood. 
 
 But you, my friend, can smite the sunlit foe. 
 
 Though like Achilles, youthful, beautiful. 
 
 Heroic Greek of eld before Troy's walls, 
 
 Your fate may line to early death and glorious." 
 
 The youth in uniform again sprang up 
 Unable to suppress monition from within, 
 And loosed his melancholy into words: 
 *'That foe can strike me back — and woe — he will. 
 Lamon, your talk has tapped the fount far-down 
 Of my prophetic Self which hides its mood 
 Beneath my merry laugh exterior;
 
 126 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 Know that to-morrow morn we cross in force 
 
 Yon river's bound and tread Virginia's soil; 
 
 When from the "White-House I looked yesterday 
 
 I saw secession's flag flap in the distance, 
 
 Flaunting upon a house-top jeeringly, 
 
 As if to mock the Nation's Capital; 
 
 It must come down though mine own blood be pay. 
 
 You are aware I studied law with Lincoln, 
 
 Still not the jurist drew me to his presence 
 
 That I might daily gain his intercourse, 
 
 But his presaging vein of character 
 
 Was kindred to mine own though hid from view ; 
 
 And somehow for his little boy, his Willie 
 
 I bloomed a love as for a God-born sprite 
 
 Who lived in bud the father's flower of genius. 
 
 Yet a profounder strain united me 
 
 With him in elemental depths of soul: 
 
 That v/as his sense of Fate beneath man's life. 
 
 Oft bursting to the surface in a word 
 
 Which bubbled up from his dark underworld ' 
 
 Then fleeted into silence of the light. 
 
 Such winging words of his I caught and treasured 
 
 Making them mine in fellowship of soul ; 
 
 My military skill which he esteems 
 
 I hope to use in service of my country; 
 
 But the first goal of it I must confess: 
 
 I fain would follow him when he came hither, 
 
 In forecast of some common destiny,
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 127 
 
 Which I must live out for him in advance. 
 Lamon, I come my presage to unburden! 
 Over the White-House, over the Capitol, 
 Over the Nation what a pall is spread! 
 And over me too falls the gloaming sky! 
 The clock is striking and the hour is near 
 When I must head my marching regiment, 
 The actor be of mine own tragedy; 
 I shall be first to fall at the first shot, 
 Start the procession long of sacrifices, 
 Of whom I sometimes dream I glimpse the last — 
 The last and greatest of that mortal list — 
 Hearken ! a rap ! who comes at this late hour ! 
 I, soldier, shiver at the quick response." 
 
 Lamon, half-startled, leaps up from his lull. 
 And with his hand on bolstered pistol clapped 
 He passes jaw-set to unlatch the door 
 Expecting some detective's fresh report 
 Of an assassin's stealthy word or plot 
 'Gainst Lincoln, or the murderer himself 
 Might come to stab the Marshal in his den: 
 When lo ! in steps the President alone, 
 His tall gaunt shape ready to fall to pieces. 
 At every joint the bones seem loosening, 
 Pinched up his face and sunken, hollow-eyed, 
 Even his hat lies flattened into creases; 
 Lamon addressed him with a heart's reproof:
 
 128 LINCOLN IN TEE WEITE EOUSE—BOOK VIII. 
 
 ''Why do you, sir, expose your precious life 
 
 At this bloodthirsty hour without a guard. 
 
 Which I had sent, could I have dreamed this trip ? 
 
 The streets are thronged with secret foes of yours 
 
 Eager to knife you under covering night. 
 
 And you dare lay into their daggered fists 
 
 Just what they prowl for — opportunity. 
 
 How can I ward off even Accident 
 
 So fickle in its strokes, without your help — 
 
 Though I may have a spy at every corner, 
 
 And in each lair of brutal treachery, 
 
 To watch and hark, and to take hold if need be, 
 
 And have benetted with my unseen web 
 
 This entire city undergrown with treason: 
 
 In vain it is if you will bare your breast 
 
 In sheer defiance of the time and place 
 
 To the assassin w^riggling in my toils." 
 
 Lincoln appeared to drop down limb by limb 
 Into his seat as if his members lax 
 Would fall asunder from their central hold 
 So that his body looked a massed secession, 
 Ready to be dissolved his organism; 
 Whereat he spoke in piteous pleading tones 
 For he had heard before the same reproof: 
 "My Lamon, it was rash, but had to be — 
 Hither I come, driven resistlessly 
 By my inexorable scourge of longing
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 129 
 
 Without delay to tell myself to you 
 
 As sharer of my spirit's inmost burden. 
 
 The double vision of my counterparts 
 
 Clearer and longer in their ghostly stay, 
 
 Again has been vouchsafed me from above — 
 
 For such I deem it now — their visit filled 
 
 The White-House fuller than before at Springfield 
 
 With their mute messages, yet more pronounced; 
 
 They talked in act and look — I understood — 
 
 I seemed the third communing with the twain — 
 
 My single self spoke with my double self 
 
 In apparition strange of what must be — 
 
 Two different selves of me I saw myself, 
 
 Till shrank from view those twinned appearances. 
 
 Then to my vacant revery there slipped 
 
 Another spectral form, Virginia, 
 
 With many a wrathful threat of coming war 
 
 If I did not revoke my Proclamation; 
 
 I had to say to her my firm refusal. 
 
 When suddenly an ominous line was drawn 
 
 Blood-red between us, quite impassable 
 
 By either of us till a greater Presence 
 
 Filled all the room, whereat a vanishing plunge 
 
 She soared into the air about me misted, 
 
 And I was left alone to moon my gloom. 
 
 To wrangle with my whole demonic brood, 
 
 I had to speed to you, my soul's confessor 
 
 That I might ease me of my burdened world,
 
 130 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK 7III. 
 
 By intimate words of friendship's sjnnpathy. 
 
 I cannot always jest away my cares; 
 
 Although at times I lighten clouds with humor, 
 
 I feel the rain-drops gathering for the fall, 
 
 Which sometimes whirls me to a hurricane. 
 
 To you alone I turn my secret world, 
 
 I live in that as well as in this here 
 
 Lit by our common human consciousness, 
 
 Which well cognizes lesser needs of mine. 
 
 Though all uncognizant of what I am." 
 
 Then Ellsworth slowly lifted up himself ' 
 
 To leave, unwillingly, that company; 
 
 For in their converse he could hear himself 
 
 Wording anew his o\m foreboding bent. 
 
 In Lincoln's office for awhile at Springfield 
 
 The law he read, but soon he gave it up, 
 
 Obeying inner military trend. 
 
 Forecasting, too, the tenor of the time; 
 
 He trained a model band of soldiery 
 
 And marched it to the center of the storm. 
 
 But a still deeper vein ran underneath, 
 
 Which Lincoln had observed as kin with his, 
 
 A hidden strand of Fate's presentiment. 
 
 So he besought his youthful soldier friend, 
 
 Who had stepped twice until he touched the door, 
 
 To drop into his emptied chair again. 
 
 With words which flashed a momentary smile:
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 131 
 
 (( 
 
 Obey eonamand, I am your general now; 
 You are but colonel in your soldiership, 
 My name is writ by law Commander-in-chief; 
 Wait not to be cashiered for disobedience." 
 More soberly the speaker added then: 
 *'I know you have this self -same spooky world 
 In you, which I acknowledge also mine, 
 Though more unfolded 'tis in me, I deem, 
 By years and by my present task supernal, 
 Into a hierarchy's Presences, 
 Though of their order I have much to learn." 
 
 Ellsworth once more sat in that trinal group 
 
 For he was tuned just to the coming strain: 
 
 When Lincoln started to renew confession: 
 
 "Two Cabinets I have for consultation, 
 
 An Upper and a Lower they are termed 
 
 In my thought's nomenclature of them both; 
 
 For my affairs political is one. 
 
 The Lower, made up of tried and famous men 
 
 Who do the business of the Government 
 
 Down to the atoms of its finitude — 
 
 Are active members of the organism 
 
 Of State with its nice means for ends complex 
 
 And multitudinous as corpuscles; 
 
 These ministers deliberate with me 
 
 On all details of practicality 
 
 Which vary with the ever-shifting tide
 
 132 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 Of happenings that vesture naked Time. 
 
 But I well know there is another Power 
 
 Above me moving to its goal supreme; 
 
 For me this supra-mundane potency 
 
 Has its own members of its government, 
 
 Its ministers of last authority, 
 
 Who with their Spirit's Presidency bear 
 
 The over-rule of these United States, 
 
 And too of me, leading us onward all 
 
 To its own end which I must glimpse, though 
 faintly, 
 
 And tell unto the People in their speech 
 
 Which also is my homely dialect; 
 
 Thus I may bring them to participate 
 
 In the one foremost movement of the time, 
 
 Aye in the universal soul of History 
 
 Which also strives in them unwitting what. 
 
 Lamon, that is my Upper Cabinet 
 
 With which I oft commune in full-orbed vision, 
 
 We wordlessly imparting each to each. 
 
 By impress sent immediate of soul. 
 
 That Cabinet is not of my selection 
 
 But it appointed me for minister 
 
 Between the folk down here and it up there. 
 
 To realize its high decree in act, 
 
 And weave it in the sweep of man's whole move- 
 ment. 
 
 Such is my place supreme of mediation.
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. I33 
 
 Between what rules above and works below; 
 
 I know that I must serve for the last instance, 
 
 Service is mine, though I be ruler too, 
 
 I must be servant to the Universe 
 
 If I approve me rightful President." 
 
 Lincoln had straightened his loose-hanging frame, 
 
 He tensed each nerve up to a ruling "Will, 
 
 No longer sat he, but he rose and spoke : 
 
 *'I am a member of that Super-State 
 
 Which disciplines the Nations of the earth; 
 
 Its minister I seek to train myself, 
 
 Vice-gerent of it I may be designed 
 
 In this new nexus of "World 's History : 
 
 Such now I hold to be my highest call. 
 
 Long since some fitful gleams of it would fleet 
 
 Do^Ti on my path, then darken suddenly. 
 
 So that I thought it but my fantasy, 
 
 I even laughed at it as superstition. 
 
 And never wooed it in my anecdotes, 
 
 And hardly mentioned it in public speech. 
 
 But since I entered the enclosed soul 
 
 Of which the "White-House is the haunted shell, 
 
 That Upper Cabinet comes of itself 
 
 And sits with me alone, imparting first 
 
 The impress weird of its felt Presences, 
 
 Then making known its over-ruling "Will 
 
 "Which fuses into oneness with mine own
 
 134 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK YIII. 
 
 When I grow cognizant of it as truth, 
 
 To mediate it with my People 's deed. 
 
 That Cabinet is too a composite 
 
 Of varying membership in grade of power; 
 
 How many they may be, I cannot say 
 
 As yet — later I hope to know them better — 
 
 Some fade away beyond their airy bounds 
 
 To vanishing shadows of the realm unseen, 
 
 While one, the high tribunal's judge supreme 
 
 Comes only as a Presence free of form 
 
 Descending on me, in me, and around me. 
 
 Yet bringing, when it bids, the last decision 
 
 Of all, and over all the Cabinet 
 
 Above, of which it is the President, 
 
 Aye, President of me the President, 
 
 And of my Lower Cabinet as well. 
 
 By its decrees alone I was braced up 
 
 To hazard that first Proclamation's call 
 
 Unto the folk to guard our heritage 
 
 Of instituted freedom handed down. 
 
 It fetched me Douglas on the moment's tick, 
 
 And also whispered me as it was vanishing : 
 
 'The People will respond, be not afraid, 
 
 I shall be here myself with them — with you. 
 
 The two companions still were sitting there, 
 The Marshal and the Colonel as if dazed. 
 They felt themselves tongue-bound in trance to 
 thoughts
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. I35 
 
 Beyond the farthest stretch of human speech; 
 The world not to be cooped in mortal word 
 They glhnpsed as true, indeed the only truth, 
 In ecstacy of mood unspeakable, 
 And heard the note of sphering harmonies, 
 "Which echo in the soul from utmost spaces 
 When it is played on by the Universe. 
 
 Soon Lamon broke the silence getting weird, 
 With a quick-shouting line of vocables: 
 ''What! you and Douglas reconciled at last! 
 Antagonists in nature and in mind, 
 Twain in the very build of soul and body ! 
 Your difference, I deemed, reached to the bottom! 
 Narrate to me that union of disunion, 
 It gleams a touch of forecast to my soiil. " 
 Then Lincoln lifted up his downward brow. 
 Less sunken overhead in revery 
 Starting to tone more easefully his voice: 
 "Soon came a new appearance on the air. 
 In outline more distinct of shape before me, 
 And capable of breathing spirit-sounds 
 Which made me vibrant to them from the center, 
 Out of whose tones there flowed this new decree : 
 ' Call now your great opponent to the White-House, 
 The life-long rival of your triumph's rise, 
 Be reconciled with him — lock hand and heart 
 In the great common cause which fronts you here;
 
 136 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 Far down you both have this one pulse-beat — 
 
 Union. ' 
 But as I stood at balance in my doubts, 
 A third faint shadow fleeted with a voice: 
 *Be not the laggard — I shall bring him you, 
 See him now mount the steps — 'tis he who knocks.' 
 I hasten to the door, and in walks Douglas 
 And bows salute with gracious heart-throbbed 
 
 words : 
 'Now we are one to make our country one.' 
 I handed him to read my call for troops, 
 'That is the note,' he cried, 'I shall enlist, 
 Let me now march and be your soldier prime; 
 Give me your orders Captain, you I serve. ' 
 So he has gone to rouse our strong North-West, 
 The Union's child, to save its periled mother. 
 But as he stepped beyond the sill he said 
 With firm yet saddened look in sombre tones 
 Which welled out of his soul of deep misgiving : 
 'Lincoln, I know I shall be first to fall 
 Like him who first leaped on the shores of Troy ; 
 That is the word of Fate I hear decreed for me ! 
 So may I be, so pray I that I be 
 The firstling of my Nation 's sacrifice. ' " 
 
 Mid the tense words in intertangling sounds 
 A distant drumbeat rolls along with dawn 
 Which starts to phosphoresce crepuscular,
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 137 
 
 When Ellsworth springs up to his feet at once 
 
 As if he must obey that muffled call, 
 
 And follow the faint signal of the light; 
 
 But as he quickly strode and touched the latch, 
 
 He let this outburst tell his stormful heart: 
 
 "My Lincoln, nay — that lot is mine — the call 
 
 I heard just now — did you not hear it too — 
 
 The overture of battle tuning up ? 
 
 I shall be first to meet the doom of death 
 
 Preluding Fate for Douglas — and for you ! 
 
 Yea, e'en for yours a forecast haunts me dizzy." 
 
 But at that smiting voice oracular 
 
 Lincoln himself leaped up responsively : 
 
 "And I shall go the way along with you; 
 
 Lamon, farewell; doomed by ourselves we march." 
 
 Too bodeful for salute they slid apart. 
 The twain sped talkless down the sombered street, 
 Each weighted with his own and the other's gloom, 
 For both their bodes kept echoing through their 
 
 souls. 
 Until the "White-House in Aurora's smile 
 Glanced mid the leaves, when Ellsworth flashed a 
 
 word. 
 And pointed to a flag in the horizon gray: 
 "That token of the foe I shall pull down. 
 And then I shall return this way to you, 
 Again to-day you will behold me enter 
 Into the White-House. Fare you well, friend."
 
 138 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 He barkened not unto the gurgling words 
 Which Lincoln throated sighful in response; 
 The Colonel sprang into the quickstep's gait 
 And reached the camp where lay his regiment; 
 He formed his men in order of the march 
 For crossing over to Virginia. 
 
 But Lincoln turned away with melting eyes 
 In fellow-feeling of sad premonition 
 Which stirred him for the youth and for himself 
 Since he too thrilled at touch of Destiny 
 That had foredrawn for him the lines of life. 
 
 But ere the eve shut off the sunshine's sway, 
 On this same day was brought young Ellsworth's 
 
 corpse 
 Stretched on a bier in his blue uniform, 
 The first to stain in blood secession's soil. 
 So he returned within one dial's circle 
 Tallying the Hours' swift race around the sky, 
 Into the White-House, as he had presaged, 
 From which he was borne out to dwell his tomb. 
 In military honor of the hero. 
 The protomartyr for his country's life. 
 Having as mourner chief the President, 
 Who mooded in himself the tragedy, 
 While all the folk felt Heaven's the dispensation.
 
 THE FIRST TRAGEDY. 139 
 
 When Lincoln came back to his mansion craped, 
 
 The monumental White-House, now a shrine 
 
 In which the order new of time is throned, 
 
 He sought his solitary self again 
 
 With which he would commune about this hap, 
 
 Whose sudden shock had overset his heart: 
 
 *'I loved the youth, and had great hope for him, 
 
 When his career might flower out with years 
 
 And with the soldier's opportunity. 
 
 A native genius for command of men 
 
 Through military discipline was his. 
 
 Greater than any I have seen as yet. 
 
 For me it was his high advantage too 
 
 That he had come the citizen in arms; 
 
 The civil power with us must stay supreme 
 
 Over the sword of war which it invokes, 
 
 Yet which begets an arbitrary rule 
 
 Wherein doth lurk a jeopardy for freedom. 
 
 My Ellsworth seemed uniting opposites, 
 
 Civilian and soldier, oft at odds, 
 
 Were twinned in him into one harmony. 
 
 And so he shone the model volunteer 
 
 For all the people willed to wage this war 
 
 In which we have to watch the musket too 
 
 Lest it may turn to bayonet the law — 
 
 Which is its record past in history. 
 
 A tumbling crowd of men he regimented, 
 
 And trained to ways of war in New York City,
 
 140 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK VIII. 
 
 So suddenly that still the act appears 
 
 To me as done by higher inspiration 
 
 Which sealed in him the gift of leadership ; 
 
 And when I saw him head his soldiery 
 
 "Which wheeled encompassing the Capitol 
 
 Then trod in chorus down the Avenue, 
 
 Until they came huzzaing to the White-House 
 
 With him as very soul of their huge body, 
 
 I said unto myself in admiration 
 
 Of that young Mars on horseback winging by : 
 
 'There! he appears, my future general!' " 
 
 Here Lincoln raised his hand to point the man, 
 But dropped it slow with his sad muse : 
 ''Alas! my hope of him is buried now, 
 And whom I love is smit again by fate 
 Just at the moment of fulfillment's kiss; 
 So it has been and so it still must be 
 Until the cycle of my deeds runs full. 
 When my own lot of life shall come around, 
 And in my turn fetch me its mortal thrust. - 
 Farewell, my Ellsworth, tied to me in soul, 
 And even membered with my family 
 For thy heart 's love to mine OAvn child beloved : 
 But stop ! shut off the dread presentiment ! ' '
 
 i00h Itintl^. 
 
 The Backwoods^ Sage. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Indeed ! a new visitor from the West ! On your 
 card I read the name of Solomon Touchstone — it 
 sounds familiar and yet I cannot quite place you. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 From Illinois, Montgomery County. I support- 
 ed you in your last campaign in which you were 
 elected President; also I cut grain for you in our 
 locality when you ran for the Senate against Doug- 
 las. And so I have come to "Washington just to 
 note how you are getting on in this great crisis, 
 and perhaps to ask a question or two. I am my- 
 self a live interrogation. 
 
 (141)
 
 142 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Glad to see you. I like to receive visits from my 
 old friends and to have them give some drops of 
 public opinion from the distant parts of the coun- 
 try. I have already found that I cannot measure 
 the "whole people aright from this confined point 
 of view though it be the Capital. But tell me, what 
 do you particularly seek? Two places I have in- 
 deed, but three place-fillers hustling — 
 
 Touchstone. 
 Enough ! On that matter I shall set you at rest 
 in one brief sentence: I wish no office, either for 
 myself or for any relative or other person. I 
 would be your officeless caller. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 What ! not even a pen-knife to grind here ! The 
 first man I have met of that stripe from Illinois, or 
 from the East or "West; let me take you by the 
 hand. The little cross-roads Post Office is piling 
 upon me almost as much worry as the big war. But 
 where have I seen you before, and heard that much- 
 promising name, Solomon Touchstone ? Ever since 
 I glimpsed your profile, I have been delving for 
 its pictured counterpart in my memory through 
 many layers of years, and I cannot yet find the 
 picture. Still I know it is there if I could only rub 
 off time's dust somewhat.
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. 143 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 Let me help you a little. I was with you in the 
 Legislature at Vandalia at the start of your career, 
 and heard you make your first speech, in whose 
 grandest flight on the Union out popped your girl 
 sitting with you under the mulberry tree, at New 
 Salem, I judge. Do you not recollect the applause 1 
 I sat just before you and shouted for the name. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Yes, I vividly recall that scene with what went 
 before and came after. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 You do not respond with your usual sunburst 
 of smiles, but sadly, almost sighfully. Well, let me 
 refresh you with another incident. Perhaps the 
 reason why you do not identify me is because I 
 have changed my head-gear; I then wore the 
 backwoods' luxury of a coon-skin cap dangling 
 with ring-tails, but now, in order to appear before 
 the President of the United States, I have bought 
 me at cost of some good dollars, the stiff conven- 
 tional stove-pipe, which really disguises me. Then 
 I have for the occasion laid aside my checkered 
 cravatless shirt-collar and adjusted myself to the 
 dignity of the "White-House.
 
 144 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Dignity! that never was my passion, you know. 
 But the more welcome. I find a man now to keep 
 me in tune with my own tailored appearance. I 
 tell you, my friend, you and I look as if we had 
 donned stolen suits; our clothes seem to have been 
 made for somebody else. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 Yes, we both are rocking in the same ungainly 
 boat on this sea of Atlantic fashion. But now for 
 another little reminiscence : on our way to Van- 
 dalia we met at a chance farm-house, and both of 
 us slept under the same coverlet as the people had 
 only the one bed. In the night you gripped me so 
 hard that I woke, when I heard you whisper a 
 name in your dream with the deepest, tenderest 
 gush of emotion of which the heart is capable. I 
 was thrilled through and through with that tone, 
 but in the morning I said nothing about the matter, 
 as mj'- soul was heavy with other outlooks. Already 
 the great struggle which is now upon us was peep- 
 ing above the horizon, and I was intent on it with 
 no small anxiety. Do you remember my little dis- 
 sertation upon Jefferson and his twofold political 
 mentality, especially as regards the Union? He 
 then rose up before me as the prototj^pe of the 
 whole country in its rifted halfness, half black half
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. I45 
 
 white, half slave half free, half union half dis- 
 union, a condition which could not endure, as you 
 afterward stated in your most memorable utter- 
 ance, which I have read and pondered so much 
 that it must be written through all the folds of my 
 brain. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 That I have been led to recall often in my most 
 recent experience; I have just been dealing with 
 double Virginia now cleft to the bottom both within 
 and without, in her thinking soul and in her landed 
 body. Significant is it that her convention of 
 unionists have torn up the Union. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 Well, let that pass. I have something else on my 
 heart, whereof I would like to speak a word if 
 you have time to listen. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 With pleasure. I am not only glad, but deem it 
 very instructive and a part of my duty to talk 
 with such persons as you, fresh from the people, 
 and full of the beating of the popular heart. Es- 
 pecially do I wish to hear from my North-West, for 
 I must keep in touch with it, though I be now at a 
 distance from it and in quite another atmosphere. 
 It sent me hither to administer the whole Nation,
 
 146 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 yet as I believe, in subtle accord with its spirit. So 
 you must bring some quaffs of milk from the old 
 cow whose teats I used to suck directly, for my 
 deed's innermost nourishment. Here I feel my- 
 self at times in danger of losing my hold on my 
 original folk, that of the Union-begotten, free-born, 
 hope-giving North-West — the Lord's new Land of 
 Promise. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 Your words bring me to the chief object of my 
 visit, and I shall speak it out at once. In your 
 recent message to Congress on the Fourth of July, 
 you affirm in your argument that the Union is older 
 than any of the States, in fact created them as 
 States ; so in time, rank, and sovereignty it has the 
 Primacy. Still you must be aware the representa- 
 tives of the old colonial bodies politic met and 
 formed the Union and formed the Constitution, 
 That fact cannot be argued out of existence, as it 
 seems to me. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Well, what do you wish me to pump out of that 
 view? You are big with some thought, let it be 
 born. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 A distinction which is never to be forgotten, 
 which is to become more and more significant with
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. I47 
 
 the years, and, as I think, is to assert itself might- 
 ily in this approaching conflict of arms. There is 
 the old set of States which formed this Union, Co- 
 lonial, Europe-born, Atlantic, the old Thirteen, 
 never to be increased in number, fixed in trans- 
 mitted conventions, deeming themselves the fit 
 rulers. Then there is the new set of States Union- 
 born, river-tied, valley-joined, right aggressive, 
 ever increasing in number, whereby our country 
 is self-renewing and self-generating, and indeed 
 self-regenerating. They belong chiefly to the one 
 vast fresh-water valley which has oneness of ter- 
 ritory through itself in its one great river. That 
 difference is what must now be recognized — not for 
 the purpose of separation but of the deeper unity 
 which comes of the knowledge of differences. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Aye, but I am President of the whole United 
 States, of the East and West, even of the loyal and 
 disloyal. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 True and rightly said, and I believe that too 
 with all my heart. Still something must be added 
 at present even to that. Of course we are familiar 
 with the difference between Slave-State and Free- 
 State — we are having trouble enough about it just 
 now — but that difference existed before Union and
 
 148 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 Coustitution, and unfortunately for us was taken 
 up into both, from which it is probably in the 
 course of surgical elimination through this war. 
 But you cannot stop simply with the preservation 
 of the Union, it must be transformed. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 That may come in time. But at present we have 
 our hands full of the act of simple self-preserva- 
 tion. When we get to shore, we may wash in fresh 
 water our briny sea-stained garments. But what 
 about that other difference in our land with which 
 you began your lecture? It has evolved after and 
 under the Union, has it not? 
 
 Touchstone. 
 Certainly. Let me remind you, Mr. President, 
 you came from a Union-mothered State, and you 
 showed it unconsciously when you argued in your 
 Message and also in your Inaugural, that the Union 
 gave birth to all the States, even to the old Thir- 
 teen. That is true of Illinois and the North- West, 
 but not of Virginia and Massachusetts; the birth 
 of your own State you clapped upon all the rest 
 in a rather naive way, as it seems to me. 
 
 Liyicoln. 
 Thank you for that compliment to my innocence, 
 which is sometimes doubted in these days. So you 
 do not agree with my argument?
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. 149 
 
 Touchstone. 
 Not wholly, if you may permit me. You know 
 that the American people, though not technical 
 lawyers, are legal-minded, have to be so, if they 
 shall vote understandingly to maintain their in- 
 stitutions. The humblest elector has to realize the 
 Constitution and its history, and listen to its expo- 
 sition from the stump. Every presidential election 
 turns more or less profoundly upon some constitu- 
 tional questions. Your political campaign — how 
 well do I recollect my share in it ! — hovered about 
 the Dred Scott decision and the right interpreta- 
 tion of our organic law. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Very good; my speeches to the people have had 
 to be as legal as those addressed to judge and jury, 
 even though I changed at times the law's stiff hab- 
 iliments. Still, how about my argument upon 
 which I set some importance? 
 
 Touchstone. 
 It is only half true of our whole polity ; true of 
 the America-born States, the well-called New 
 States, now a decided majority of the family with 
 young babes always plumping in; imtrue of the 
 Europe-born States, the old Thirteen, rounded- 
 out, finished, no more possible to arrive. And
 
 150 LINCOLN IN TEE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 this difference of origin begets, yea necessitates a 
 difference of character, whereof I deem you the 
 most coercive instance — the unique personality be- 
 gotten of America, not of Europe. I have been 
 watching you unfold toward such a goal for some 
 years — you can stand a little praise to counter- 
 balance the blame you are getting. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 My friend, spare my burning cheeks, which your 
 talk has set afire. Then you will puff up my van- 
 ity so that there will be no getting along with me. — 
 But to the point: you hold, therefore, that the 
 Union-mothered States have naturally a greater 
 devotion to the mother, and will maintain their 
 birthright with a mightier filial love, and with a 
 deeper sense of filial duty. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 So I think, for their devotion to the Union is 
 filial. And hence State pride is not so strong with 
 us, since it was begotten in the old separate, jeal- 
 ous, mutually repellent colonies. It is neutralized 
 in every community, since this is made up of indi- 
 viduals from various commonwealths. The great 
 Western migration from the sea-bound States was 
 really what unionized our souls as well as our ter- 
 ritory. Still further, every large and small com- 
 munity built itself from within, through its o^vn
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. 151 
 
 members; it was not built by some individual 
 founder, some minister as usually in New England, 
 or by some English lord or gentleman, as often in 
 the South. It was self-organized, through each in- 
 dividual; hence the power of initiative, so observ- 
 able out there in our North- West. I tell you the 
 distinctive American character arose with that 
 great migration from the salt-water States to our 
 fresh-water River Valley. And I dare prophesy 
 that, in the course of the present war, this charac- 
 ter of ours will reveal itself as distinctive by feats 
 of arms. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 I suppose I am a sample of that lot — my grand- 
 father, my father and myself all shared in diiferent 
 stages of that migration. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 Yes, you are the prime example. Then our life 
 on the border, and our ceaseless struggle with the 
 Red Man developed the same traits of personal in- 
 dependence and forthright initiative, with the 
 power of self-organization. I remember you in the 
 Black Hawk War. I belonged to a different regi- 
 ment, but I saw you in command of your company 
 repeatedly ; much was then enacted in small which 
 afterwards took place in large, indeed is taking 
 place now tremendously magnified. I recollect the
 
 152 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 talk and the turmoil about that fugitive slave- 
 mother with her child who fled to your camp from 
 Missouri; you never sent her back. "What did you 
 do with her? Report has it that you smuggled her 
 out of camp in a Quaker's wagon. But the same 
 has occurred hundreds of times since. Then I was 
 not far off when a young Lieutenant named Jeffer- 
 son Davis swore you into the service of the United 
 States; the story was told that you brought your 
 big bony fist down upon the table at the conclusion 
 of the oath with such a thump, that the boards 
 rattled apart, the ink was spilled, the darky ran 
 out, and the Lieutenant sprang back startled, with 
 his hand reaching for the hilt of his weapon. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Many fables seem to be clustering about me, 
 spinning fancy 's cocoon from a wee maggot of fact ; 
 indeed I help a little in that line by a bit of fic- 
 tion now and then. Quite as marvelous seems the 
 incident that I first saw Robert Anderson in, the 
 Black Hawk War; he was the young Lieutenant 
 who mustered me out, and now he is the Nation's 
 first hero. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 Do you know that the people in Illinois have be- 
 gun to spin a legend out of that fact ever since 
 the bombardment of Fort Sumter but a few weeks
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. I53 
 
 ago, ill which Anderson took such an heroic part? 
 I have heard only during the last few days that 
 you then listened to a warm discussion between 
 those two Southern Lieutenants, Davis and Ander- 
 son, out there on the border; their theme was the 
 Union, at that time uppermost in all men's minds 
 through the nullification of South Carolina — each 
 of those two officers taking opposite sides, as they 
 do now. In fact the debate proceeded to such a 
 pitch that each threatened to open fire on the other 
 at Charleston Harbor, if they should happen to be 
 in command there of the two opening forces. A 
 wonderful prophecy of what has actually come to 
 pass! In many respects that Black Hawk War 
 must have been a rich experience for you, a sort of 
 preliminary training for your present work. In 
 my own case I often seem to be going through the 
 same encompassing world of events which I then 
 went through. A much larger circle it is now — 
 still I appear to be rounding it anew. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 I often now think of that war, embryonic truly 
 for me, and full of forecast. I felt the germ of the 
 present crisis throbbing then. The people had the 
 same presage and threw it out into a fable. They 
 must make a myth of what lurks deepest within 
 them, though the act be unconscious.
 
 154 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 Yes, so the people are, and so too you are. "What 
 we have been speaking of strikes me as a pointed 
 illustration. Though your argument that the Union 
 first produced the States holds only of the "West at 
 present, a change will come which will make your 
 words prophetic. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 I do not understand you — you are riddlesome as 
 the ancient Oracles. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 The old Thirteen are to be re-born as New States. 
 This war will put them all. Northern as well as 
 Southern, Free-States as well as Slave-States, back 
 into the womb of mother Union who will bear them 
 afresh, so that all the States will be Union-moth- 
 ered, old as well as new. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 In the name of Heaven who is to bring about 
 that miraculous regeneration? Is not that a con- 
 ception of your brain rather than of the mother? 
 But who? 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 You are the chosen man; you came from the 
 right place, from the right people, from our free 
 Union-born New World, whose character you are
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. I55 
 
 to make universal before you finish, imparting it 
 to all the rest of ovir country which has it not. So 
 I forethink your chief fulfilment. Your recent 
 message says as much, though in an uncertain way ; 
 when you declare that the Union is the begetter of 
 the single States you speak not of what has been or 
 yet is, but prophetically of what is to be. Really in 
 that argument of yours you touched the dumb but 
 fermenting aspiration of the folk-soul as yet unful- 
 filled, hardly yet expressed in its own right. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Some such intimations I confess that I have fore- 
 boded at times. But a great evolution lies between 
 now and such a fulfilment. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 Before this fiery smelting process of war is done, 
 the whole Union, North and South, East and "West, 
 old and new, must be flung into the furnace and 
 poured over. List ! do you hear that far-off shout ? 
 I have been listening to it for days — it calls for the 
 army's advance — 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 But enough, good friend, of such bodeful vatici- 
 nation at present. Still I am glad that you have 
 brought me your message, which comes like a 
 draught from the prairies of my own dear State.
 
 156 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK IX. 
 
 Now I have to commune with the whole People, 
 feel their willingness and unwillingness, move with 
 them when they are ready, and to a certain extent 
 educate them up to their enormous task. For they 
 have to do the work ; they must furnish the blood, 
 the treasure, the votes, and the lives for the great 
 sacrifice. And I, the unlearned Western petti- 
 foger, as they call me here in the East, am to stand 
 at the center of the Nation, am the very pivot of the 
 "World's History. And I have the temerity to be- 
 lieve in myself as capable of doing the job. There ! 
 I have caught the itch of praising myself from you. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 
 Excellent ! I see that you understand yourself. 
 But how unearthly it all seems! Little could I 
 foresee that I would meet you here in the White- 
 House, when I heard you dreaming in that farmer's 
 cabin on the way to Vandalia. You show the lad- 
 der of ascent from humblest to highest possible, for 
 every American boy, yea, for all coming peoples. 
 Hark ! that shout again ! now louder ! The whole 
 Nation seems to be marching ! I wonder if I dream ! 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Oh yes — I am reminded — I have a keen longing 
 to know what name I lisped in my sleep, at your 
 side, as you say, in that farm-house under a com- 
 mon coverlet.
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. I57 
 
 Touchstone. 
 I remember it well, for not only the words but 
 the very tones were imprinted on my heart's own 
 throbs — Ann Rutledge. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Dear friend — longer I cannot commune with you 
 to-day. Hereafter I may see you again. 
 
 Touchstone. 
 To me also this is enough for once, though I hope 
 it is not the last time. God speed you — farewell, 
 my President.
 
 158 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 Lincoln Alone. 
 
 "What a fierce whirl of stormy memories 
 Does that loved name call up within my brain 
 And dash me drifting on my inner Ocean! 
 Life's deepest pleasure and its deepest pain 
 Leap forth to combat in those syllables 
 And make my helpless soul their battle-field. 
 The image of that vanished maid has come to talk 
 
 with me, 
 And in this White-House has its lodgment taken, 
 It would not stay behind in its old home. 
 Merely to haunt a solitary grave. 
 Already I have seen it several times 
 Or known its presence in my brooding hours, 
 With its all-loving look of holy grace 
 Wliich ever smiles on me humanity, 
 Coming to answer my unconscious prayer. 
 
 And yet I feel a twitch of blame within, 
 I hardly dare confess it to myself 
 Beknown, that I two loves of woman feel 
 In the same household, aye in the same heart ; 
 One is a dweller of my Upper World, 
 And ranks there with the other Presences 
 Who have installed themselves without my hest.
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. I59 
 
 And bring me intimations of far things, 
 As well as warnings of transcendent Will. 
 The other woman is my wedded wife 
 The maker of my home as it is here; 
 The mother of my children, and their care, 
 Companion of life's journey with me still, 
 Having her part in my official rank. 
 The lady of the Presidency 's mansion. 
 
 But when I must commune with Love itself, 
 With universal Love in human semblance. 
 Whereof my heart doth often feel the need, 
 Until it breaks me down to overflow. 
 The vision of Ann Rutledge has the power 
 To dart into my mind ere I am ware 
 As if a living throb of my own soul, 
 With look allaying all my anguishes. 
 She comes and goes by no authority 
 Of mine, and oft when least expected ; 
 Still sweetest welcome give I to her presence. 
 She brings to me a draught of primal Love 
 Which the Creator stirs for his creation, 
 The first affection of the All for all. 
 Amid this war's fell hate and battle's fury 
 I often feel the need of that creative Love, 
 Love of all love which made the universe. 
 That I be saved from mad destruction's fiend 
 Engendered by the strife of man with man.
 
 160 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 Then o'er my longing flits that maiden form 
 And taps for me the heart of God Himself 
 When He has seemed cut off from me and mine 
 And makes it flow in fresh beatitude 
 Upon the desert of the time's hostilities. 
 
 And yet my wedded wife knows of that bond, 
 She heard of it by fame before our nuptials, 
 And asked me once about the tale she heard 
 And keeps it living by her jealousy — 
 She hears me speak the name within my dreams 
 Which bubble up the secrets of my underworld. 
 Awake I cannot always keep it down, 
 And stay it still in my unconscious sea — 
 Deepest experience of all my days. 
 When death transfigured in me my one love 
 From its eluded mortal counterpart, 
 And gave it back as an eternal Presence 
 Breathing the benediction from above 
 Which fills the character with charity — 
 I felt once more the worth of life on earth. 
 Now partnered with the purest self of love. 
 
 And yet that doubleness of soul I feel, 
 
 Two forms of womanhood dwell in my life — 
 
 A mortal one and an immortal too, 
 
 A lower world of love the dutiful, 
 
 With it an upper world of love ideal!
 
 THE BACKWOODS' SAGE. 161 
 
 Two threads of man's existence at its best 
 
 Stay separate — and I must still endure 
 
 Till I outdo my fate on earth, imposed. 
 
 Eternal has become the womanly 
 
 For me in a transcendent life of love, 
 
 To which I fly or else it comes to me 
 
 By some unbidden force which nature prompts. 
 
 Such is my lot, alas ! my love of woman 
 
 The sacred substance of all human worth 
 
 Quintescence of man's own creative being, 
 
 It is in me divided as my primal curse 
 
 Like that which drove poor Adam from his Eden. 
 
 Still I must love, and suffering still dare 
 
 To love the twain who rend my heart atwain, 
 
 And make each throb of it a civil war 
 
 Which turns me to a picture of Disunion 
 
 Whose' seat is love itself within itself. 
 
 The fount of the Creator's universe." 
 
 Thus Lincoln told upon himself again 
 What he would keep most hidden from himself, 
 The ever-bleeding secret of his heart, 
 Though it would bubble up betimes to light ; 
 The backwoods statesman mid his flinty thought 
 Had mingled tender old remembrances 
 Which smote in Lincoln his first blow of Fate 
 Again, which he again must overmaster :
 
 162 LIXCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK IX. 
 
 For hark! from the outside repeated shouts 
 Come rolling over him in revery, 
 And sternly wake him up to what is here, 
 The duty of the moment staring him. 
 "Forward to Richmond" is the omened cry 
 Which falls upon his shuddering ears untuned 
 From the whole North unthoughted of the stake, 
 And bids him start the march and bide the test.
 
 !00lv ^tnt)^. 
 
 The Fatal Line. 
 
 "Forward to Richmond! on to their Capital! 
 And light our camp-fires by the river James ! ' ' 
 So sang the quick-stepped regiments in line, 
 And cheering trod the streets of "Washington, 
 Then crossed Potomac's petty growl of wavelets 
 Wrying its front at what it could not help ; 
 Along Virginia's fields and streams they tramped, 
 Printing upon her lofty-featured face 
 The People's mark of heavy soldier-shoes; 
 From all the North too rose the shout ' ' Advance ! ' ' 
 The thousand-throated Press re-voiced the yell 
 From every little coign within the land, 
 And from the cities on the seaboard strown. 
 Loudest and farthest-reaching was the cry 
 
 (163)
 
 164 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK X. 
 
 Editor Greeley shouted to the People 
 "With many a streak of finding many faults, 
 Wherein he crowned himself the champion. 
 Of Lincoln he had never seen the worth, 
 From an old rivalry in leadership ; 
 He rather thought himself the greater man, 
 Likewise he deemed he had within himself 
 The better stuff for making Presidents. 
 
 But still the soldiery kept marching on 
 
 With steady tread and war-whoop thunderous, 
 
 Column on column, dressed in lines of blue 
 
 Vying with Heaven's dome, until they reached 
 
 The battle's roar at Bull Eun's rivulet. 
 
 Which drew the fighting line between the foes. 
 
 Upon the wi'inkled face of old Virginia. 
 
 All day Report which from the front sped winged. 
 
 Had messaged friendly words to Washington; 
 
 When suddenly came shivering on the air 
 
 A shriek importunate and charged with dread: 
 
 ''Back to the city! save the Capital 
 
 From the victorious foe now in pursuit ! 
 
 Safeguard the President before too late ! ' ' 
 
 So rolled the quaking rumors from the front 
 Increasing ever in reverberation 
 Until the romided welkin seemed to yield 
 Its heights to mighty hurly-burly
 
 THE FATAL LINE. 165 
 
 Uprising from the clash of earth below. 
 The city, still expectant of good news 
 Which had unbroken streamed for many hours, 
 Felt the quick shock as if the coming age 
 Reversed the wheel of great occurrences 
 Suddenly in the flow of History. 
 
 Soon roll in sight the waves of fugitives 
 
 Over the river, surging through the streets — 
 
 Affrighted human masses rushing onward, 
 
 Who never turn their heads around to see 
 
 If anybody may be in pursuit, 
 
 But quake the more because of their own noise. 
 
 And run the swifter from their very running. 
 
 Behold the Congressmen in flight pell-mell 
 
 Who rode out for a happy holiday 
 
 To see the play of easy victory ! 
 
 How they now lash their horses through the press 
 
 Of sweltering bluecoats, who are often gunless, 
 
 Aye hatless too, so great is now their hurry. 
 
 No rest of mind is possible to-day 
 
 Till they have quit Virginia's blistering soil 
 
 On which they trod so boldly yesterday 
 
 Thinking to end the war in one short fight 
 
 And so fulfil prophetic Seward's oracle. 
 
 The flood gates of the skies flew open too, 
 
 And poured an elemental deluge down 
 
 To help float faster still the roaring mass
 
 166 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK X. 
 
 Unto the roiled Potomac's bridge of sighs 
 Which eased the terror of the fugitives. 
 The blue-coats soaked flow down the Avenue, 
 Hungry, foot-weary of their rapid race, 
 Scourged by a power to them invisible, 
 Yet all the more it wrought their fantasy. 
 Soft-eyed they gaze unwitting of their prayer 
 Up to the Nation's domed Capitol 
 As to their overarching Providence, 
 "While still the moody rain upon their cheeks 
 From frowning skies would drizzle sullenly. 
 The dauntless host, starting in boastful glee 
 To sweep across Virginia's guarded hedge 
 Onward to Richmond, now the Capital 
 Of all secession and her own as well, 
 Is writhing in one mighty terror's clutch 
 Which wrenches everywhere all Washington, 
 Leaderless, almost weaponless with fear. 
 
 What is the sign ? A hand, not of the foe 
 
 So much as of the Power over all, 
 
 Hath seemed to interfere with grip divine. 
 
 The soldiers marched up to a certain mark 
 
 And toed it firmly for a while in fight, 
 
 Then felt the shock, the sudden shuddering shock 
 
 Which set the army's bravest heart a-tremble, 
 
 Not from without so much as from within, 
 
 As if a God had smit them for the act
 
 THE FATAL LINE. " I67 
 
 Which had in it the curse of some transgression. 
 And so their flight seems from their very selves, 
 Away from their own deed along Bull Kun. 
 Wagons and ambulances full of wounded, 
 Caisson and cannon horsed in furious speed, 
 The soldiers wedged together at the bridge, 
 Officers trying to order the disorder. 
 And make the ruin silent and respectable — 
 Such was the time's return to primal chaos. 
 Steeds took the panic, snorting with a plunge. 
 Even the herd of cattle felt the whiff of fate 
 And gave a horned dash, heads down, tails up. 
 Which made some soldiers run a little faster, 
 But madded more the Pandemonium. 
 The darky driver whipped his team of mules. 
 With eyes bulged out and curly poll unhatted 
 Until his wagon plunged down in the river. 
 To his crazed shout : * ' The spooks are after us, ' ' 
 Voicing that world's phantasmagoria, 
 Painting on his black face demonic terror. 
 
 The President slept not a wink that night. 
 
 But read the thickly wafted messages; 
 
 New sorrow plowed across his furrowed face. 
 
 As the disaster grew in magnitude 
 
 His sunken eyes drooped deeper in their sockets. 
 
 Sage Seward, who had learned to know him best. 
 
 And how to tap the spring of his hid thought,
 
 168 LINUOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK X. 
 
 Making it flow for his relief mthin, 
 
 And get it in the deluge of affliction. 
 
 Came to the White-House soon to give support 
 
 Their tongues spake little to the air, 
 
 Their souls communed the better in the silence, 
 
 As they went wandering down the billowy street 
 
 To see the surge of fleeing soldiery. 
 
 They heard the imprecation of the crowd. 
 
 And saw the faces haggard of despair 
 
 With cry repeated hundredfold: "We're whipped. 
 
 And Hell is after us — just at our heels." 
 
 Each struggled to push further on and on 
 
 As if he strove to get outside himself 
 
 With all his might, and could not do it still. 
 
 They also marked some features gleamed with joy, 
 
 Whose owners were those whispering citizens 
 
 Who stood at corners shoaled in twos or threes. 
 
 Expecting next their own victorious friends 
 
 To stake a camp on Presidential grounds; 
 
 And even neutral faces hitherto 
 
 Would teter toward the other side in smiles. 
 
 At last the two soul-worn pedestrians 
 
 Sat down to rest upon a bench alone; 
 
 The President then bowed his head and spoke: 
 
 "Seward, I have been trying all these steps 
 
 To delve out what the secret bearing is 
 
 Of this defeat and the calamities
 
 THE FATAL LINE. 169 
 
 "Which like the Furies seem to fang us still, 
 
 "Whatever may be our attempt of war. 
 
 Young Ellsworth's pall has spread itself on me 
 
 While our reverses thicken as the clouds : 
 
 Is the Almighty, then, against our cause ? 
 
 Or is our ill a discipline divine 
 
 Unto some higher end we know not of? 
 
 If so, what is that end to which we're scourged 
 
 By the remorseless Powers over us 
 
 Until we do the deed as yet undone ? 
 
 And I am whelmed to ask this question of myself: 
 
 What is, then, evil, and who uses it 
 
 To force compliance mortal to his Will?" 
 
 Then likewise Seward spoke his pensive mood 
 
 Though to another key he tuned his word : 
 
 "My prophesying I shall quit to-day. 
 
 And play no longer the time's oracle. 
 
 Almighty's voice I cannot counterfeit. 
 
 Three months I said at first the war would last 
 
 And deemed I had the high decree forestalled, 
 
 The hour is up and war has Just begun ; 
 
 The robe prophetic here I shall lay off. ' ' 
 
 Whereat unconsciously he tugged his lappet. 
 
 But Lincoln was too rapt to think a smile, 
 And lapsed again into his troubled vein: 
 "What is the bent of these events I probe, 
 And who directs them by a providence,
 
 170 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK X. 
 
 Teasing us with appearances at first 
 
 Of victory, to make the blow more heavy. 
 
 Manassas sent an early note of triumph 
 
 Then trumped the scornful counterblast of flight, 
 
 As if our arms were but a mockery; 
 
 Is the great Ruler some grim humorist 
 
 Who spins the universe in irony, 
 
 To watch our woe's grimaces on his stage 
 
 For his high self's amusement cosmical?" 
 
 But Seward is not mooded to such strain, 
 
 He turns gloomed Lincoln's look to contrast new: 
 
 * ' See him ! here comes a soldier with a laugh 
 
 As if he were enjoying just himself 
 
 In viewing desolation's comedy. 
 
 The only placid face that we have met : 
 
 Alone unscourged by demons seems his gait. 
 
 But dodges merrily the fiendish flight; 
 
 Fain would I find his secret for us both : 
 
 'Tell me, my man, whence come you and what 
 
 news?' " 
 The bluecoat leaned against a post in peace, 
 And marked his words M^ith great deliberation: 
 "I feel not here at home because I have 
 The one sole pair of legs that will not run; 
 The reason for it I may here confess: 
 My luck was to be nipped a prisoner 
 Soon in the fight by a gray-suited squad;
 
 THE FATAL LINE. 171 
 
 This done, the rebel lines before me there 
 Fled in a panic from the little stream 
 They call Bull Run, and headed swift for Rich- 
 mond, 
 The Capital of their Confederacy, 
 And never thought of taking me along. 
 Left to myself, I struck the other way: 
 I simply waded through some shallow water 
 To reach our men, when I beheld them too 
 Racing with all their strength from that same 
 
 stream 
 And headed swifter still for Washington, 
 The Capital of our good Nation still. 
 And brave, or to become brave yet, I hope. 
 I stood sole master of the battle-field, . 
 And held the line from which each side had run, 
 A while the arbiter of North and South, 
 A little God I feigned me of World's History, 
 Until I caught a commissary's donkey, 
 And rode from thence in peaceful contemplation, 
 Of the mad wreck of Avar strewn everywhere. 
 The broken vehicles upset and ditched, 
 Crackers and bacon scattered on the road, 
 The musket bayoneting gentle earth. 
 And the cocked pistol muzzled in the mud, 
 With the unownered sword of officer. 
 So T kept straddled till I met the guards 
 Who needed beasts and then I gave them mine.
 
 172 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK X. 
 
 I have just crossed the bridge flooded above 
 
 More than below, to take my promenade, 
 
 To see if I can see what is to be, 
 
 Perchance to meet the Lord who can command 
 
 Again this chaos fresh : ' Let there be light ; ' 
 
 Perchance to run across our President 
 
 That he might flash this scene with gleams of humor, 
 
 Or cap it for me with a pointed story. ' ' 
 
 Lincoln rose stirred and straightened at the speech 
 Of that blue-capped buffoon, so sage yet clownish. 
 Who then once more let out himself in mirth : 
 ' ' I split myself teeheeing on the way 
 To think how both sides like two silly pups 
 On coming face to face with swaggering tails. 
 Dropped them affrighted at each other's bark, 
 And yelping ran contrariwise to kennel. 
 And so that little puddle of a brook 
 Appeared possessed of some weird water-sprite 
 With charms to shoo each army off in terror." 
 Away the soldier strode still with a laugh- 
 At what he deemed the merry comedy 
 Enacted by the whole United States 
 Just for himself as sole spectator there. 
 
 Lincoln, although he smiled a frank good-bye, 
 Had keenly felt the deeper tragic thrust 
 Shown in the folly of that narrative ;
 
 THE FATAL LINE. 173 
 
 He rose up from his seat and walked in thought. 
 Addressing thus his minister beside him, 
 Yet talking also to himself within: 
 "The best report of all, most luminous 
 It shines its meaning on my soul. 
 Methinks I spy it now in bloody fact — 
 That line, that fatal line, whose fiery circle 
 Spectral Virginia saw enring herself, 
 Lit by a mighty Presence from above. 
 When she appeared once yonder in the White- 
 House, 
 And bade defiance, not to me alone, 
 But to the Power swaying both of us. 
 That phantom line now flames a wall of fire. 
 It seems to me to blaze the boundary 
 Between the two embattled ranks of war 
 That front it, bristling guns on either part: 
 Which side can cross it, break it down perchance? 
 This first fire-test, this battle of Bull Run 
 Proclaims to all the Nation, neither side: 
 It is the line between the North and South, 
 Between the Capitals, our own and Richmond, 
 Between the Rivers, James and the Potomac, 
 Between the going old and coming new. 
 The line between this Union and its death. 
 The Fatal Line of bloody separation 
 Which now impassable doth seem decreed; 
 But it I have to pass compelling Fate
 
 174 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK X. 
 
 Which strikes me back red-handed in revenge 
 When I dare reach the consummated goal; 
 That crimson line forewrites my tragedy." 
 
 He clapped his hands before his anguished look, 
 When Seward spake him kindly sympathy: 
 "My friend, be brave, surrender not yourself 
 To that grim fiend who lurks upon 3'our path, 
 Coiled up and quick to spring, snake Melancholy, 
 Encircling in black folds your boding heart — 
 Anticipation is the tempter sly, 
 The devil lurking in your Paradise." 
 
 Then Lincoln spoke his word more placidly. 
 And tuned his featured face to his reflection: 
 "The Nation's task it is, and mine therewith; 
 I see it well, and thus present it to me : 
 Can that dead-line, now drawn to sight, be crossed, 
 Or turned by some flank movement yet unseen 
 To save this Union from its mortal rent? 
 The rebels have repulsed our first offensive, ■ 
 Thrown back we are upon our self-defence, 
 Deeper than ever yawns the rifted States 
 Which drooping lie around in dissolution. 
 A greater effort than before is now required 
 To save from ruin's breach our Fathers' work. 
 Next I must hearken what the people say. 
 For they are now aware of this disaster
 
 THE FATAL LINE. I75 
 
 Whose news has sped already through the land, 
 And echoes back from, the remotest bounds 
 Unto its heart which is this Capital, 
 Where my set ear must catch the Folk-soul's 
 throbs." 
 
 Here parted the two friends, each went his way, 
 The President sprang up his mansion's steps, 
 And hastened to his office anxiously, 
 That he might hear the answer to defeat 
 Which swelled up from each Northern village 
 And rolled in volume vast to Washington, 
 Enkindled with a resolution new 
 To keep the Nation's first integrity, 
 And offering their strength and wealth and blood. 
 
 But still there rose some fresh discordances, 
 Old party lines began to gape again 
 Under new leaders — Douglas being gone; 
 But Lincoln held to his great policy 
 Which would unite his side, divide the other 
 And thus maintain the Union first of all. 
 But opposition rose in his own party 
 Just from this policy of wise forebearance, 
 Since some rash spirits sought to batter doAvn 
 Slavery as foremost cause of present evils, 
 Right at the start regardless of the Union. 
 To such the President set forth in print
 
 176 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK X. 
 
 A document of reasons for his course 
 Which too the People read and gave assent — 
 Aye, but they gave more than mere assent, 
 They gave themselves in deeds of consecration. 
 
 But well he saw in his foreseeing soul 
 The fruited time was ripening speedily, 
 When he would have to grip the monster black 
 Of servitude, whose life lay in that rift 
 Between the States, and sword it mortally 
 With one huge thrust of Presidential might — 
 The modern Theseus in his act supreme 
 Slaying the labyrinthine Minotaur 
 And setting free the victims of its curse. 
 
 Lincoln had flung himself upon his couch. 
 That teeming couch of his foreshadowed life, 
 From which he gazed up at and read his stars, 
 When he fell into musing on his mood : 
 *'Why is this trial sent upon me here? 
 The plan divine I grope for in my lot. 
 And glimpse it mazy with cross purposes, 
 With thwarted hope I live and love undone. 
 Yet plainer than before I see my goal. 
 But not the where or how or when to be, 
 Still less the why it is thus as it is :
 
 THE FATAL LINE. 177 
 
 Which counsel stays untold me in God's bosom. 
 
 And yet one oracle I can make out 
 
 Borne on the spirit-wings of this event: 
 
 That Fatal Line so dreadfully inscribed 
 
 I must break through to reach my destiny, 
 
 Or sweep around it somehow on the flank 
 
 Getting behind it by a long detour 
 
 Which may take years — alas ! I have to bleed 
 
 Responsive to ensanguined fantasy. 
 
 Thou, Bull Run, though a petty stagnant pool, 
 
 Thou hast me limned my labor's boundary 
 
 As thy sad waters blaze up suddenly, 
 
 And show to me a wall of living fire 
 
 Through which I have to pass ere I may rest, 
 
 Be it the peace of life, or yet of death." 
 
 So Lincoln brooded on that blood-lit line 
 Which wound before him in sad imagery 
 Through meadows of Manassas and its stream, 
 Significant of what was yet to be, 
 In prophecy of battles still unfought; 
 The bound it lay impressed upon his Fate 
 Which he has to surmount to save his world. 
 And then himself to find what lies beyond. 
 
 While thus he reveried in halved hope 
 Of what was to become of him and his, 
 Another portent sinister arose
 
 178 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK X. 
 
 And filled his field of vision more and more 
 With its new problem of an inner breach 
 Which menaced his own side of soldiery, 
 So deeply had the rifted time been graved 
 Upon the souls of those defending Union.
 
 laah ^kfaentl^. 
 
 Lincoln's Double Dragon-Fight 
 
 Sadly had come the sere autumnal months 
 Of the year eighteen-hundred-sixty-one ; 
 Gloomy they overhung the hapless Nation, 
 And yet the time kept thickening gloomier 
 Despite attempts to lift the dreadful pall, 
 And exorcise that spell of haps infernal. 
 The effort to erase the Fatal Line 
 Which rent the Union into warring halves 
 Seemed but to make it deeper all its length, 
 As if they could be welded nevermore, 
 And overmake the land into one Nation. 
 
 But now another rift seems opening 
 Within that side which sought to close the breach 
 
 (179)
 
 180 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI. 
 
 Secession creeps out of its Southern haunts, 
 Trailing across its public boundary 
 Slyly into the Northern armament, 
 "Which had in might uprisen to put it down. 
 And starts dividing also it in twain. 
 Those who support the Union and its cause 
 Threat new disunion of their side, 
 Though it as yet be but a secret thought 
 Of the two leaders highest in command, 
 Perchance unconscious to themselves, yet real — 
 For each keeps subtle grasping more and more 
 Of power personal unto himself and his. 
 Defiant of the center of authority. 
 
 Lincoln beheld and watched the first small creak 
 
 Which had kept widening out into a chasm 
 
 In spite of all his kindly remedies ; 
 
 His two chief Generals have now become 
 
 A puzzle to him in their purposes. 
 
 Alone he lay upon his couch in thought 
 
 And questioned what might be the hidden plan 
 
 Fermenting in their latest words and deeds. 
 
 Which had been streaming to him manifold 
 
 Through private channels and the public talk. 
 
 He knew the military character, 
 
 Which even in the humblest captaincy 
 
 Trains subtly to an autocratic sway, 
 
 And molds the mind by what it has to do.
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 181 
 
 From thence he was well w^are a trouble fresh 
 
 "Would rise, and with it also duty new 
 
 To save free civil government of laws, 
 
 And keep his own the place supreme of rule. 
 
 From both headquarters whispers often buzzed 
 
 Of a dictatorship by soldiery, 
 
 To take the place of legal Presidency — 
 
 From the near East and from the far-out West, 
 
 From Washington and from St. Louis schemed — 
 
 To wrest by might the scepter of supremacy. 
 
 Lincoln was nodding from his waking world 
 
 Into a slumberous doze of hazy horrors 
 
 Which flew like wraiths along a borderland 
 
 Of skiey cloud-wracks fleeting nebulous. 
 
 Until they hardened to one furious shape 
 
 Which grew to be a dragon of two heads, 
 
 One short, one very long in its outreach; 
 
 With both of them he had to wage a fight; 
 
 One after the other, thrust on thrust 
 
 They darted at him, for it fortuned so 
 
 Both did not strike together in their blows 
 
 As in a joint conspiracy for power. 
 
 But separately each would grasp it all ; 
 
 Nor would they share the prey between themselves. 
 
 Each dragon clawed at him with taloned paw. 
 
 Or with its fanged jaw sought to snap hold 
 
 Of just his single head and hurl him down
 
 182 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI. 
 
 And then to slip into his vacant seat; 
 
 But he with wit alert would dodge their blows 
 
 From both directions, so he kept his place. 
 
 Each of those shapes drew after it a tail 
 Of many followers like to itself, 
 "Which made great uproar with their bellowing 
 To fright into their ranks the anxious People. 
 Loudly pretended both to fight the rebels 
 While they rebellion nursed within their hearts, 
 Shunning the open foes in war embattled 
 For spinning plots against authority. 
 And yet that dragon had a function true 
 For which its mighty talons had been given: 
 To cleave the foe and not the magistrate. 
 Out of its bellj spat up fire and smoke 
 "With detonation of artillery, 
 While flashes of a thousand gleaming swords 
 Tongued everywhere around it menacing, 
 And myriads of muskets marched in sheen 
 To sound of drum and fife or martial brass. 
 Then countermarched in glittering parade 
 Up hill and down, across then back again. 
 Returning to the spot from which they started, 
 With outlay vast of semblance military 
 Making a large round zero of themselves: 
 So passed the precious days without result, 
 Although revolt stood daring them to fight.
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 183 
 
 Lincolu himself had called from out the deep 
 
 That monster for a work of magnitude 
 
 Which somehow it could not be brought to do, 
 
 But rather turned its secret war on him 
 
 Seeking to overtop his leadership. 
 
 The President then dreamed himself to be 
 
 A soldier holding in his hand a sword 
 
 Unscabbarded and ready for a clash ; 
 
 He thought to cut off both these heads at once 
 
 With that keen weapon of his might supreme, 
 
 Testing the edge of justice on the beast. 
 
 But as he raised his arm on high to smite 
 Those hissing dragon heads upreared aloft, 
 He felt a hand of aught invisible, 
 A grip full tense which held him from his blow, 
 And heard thus in monition's gentle tone: 
 * ' Hold Lincoln ! that is not the better way ; 
 Cut them not off in wrath, though much incensed 
 Thou be, and justly too, for their ill deeds. 
 Beware lest thou undo that dragon's strength 
 Which is to meet and slay rebellion armed, 
 When thou hast found a higher generalship. 
 Wait, and thine eyes will spy a wondrous act — 
 A stranger transformation of the beast 
 Than ever has been fabled in old lore, 
 How Cadmus slew his dragon, then sowed its teeth, 
 Which sprang up armed men with mutual slaughter.
 
 184 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI. 
 
 Letting each other's blood in civil strife. 
 Spare them and hand them over to themselves 
 Each will bite off its head without thy sword 
 If thou wilt give it but the time to act — 
 Let it unshape itself which it has shaped." 
 
 Then Lincoln looked up toward the startling sound, 
 Still half adream among his waking thoughts, 
 And voiced himself to the Invisible: 
 "They hold me weak, those dragon Generals, 
 And think to grasp and wield my easy power, 
 Which they deem drooping piecemeal from my 
 
 hands. 
 Weening they need but stoop and pick it up. 
 How separation runs adrift to-day 
 Upon the much perturbed stream of Time ! 
 The inbreathed air contains it everywhere 
 As the soul's ozone born of our great storm. 
 With lightnings flashed around a continent. 
 Time bids that I defy its subtle craft, 
 And smite it with my Presidential mace. 
 When I can reach it still among mine own. 
 So now methinks I shall snip off at once 
 Those soldier caps tipped on two dragon heads, 
 Which yawn secession's chasm within my ranks." 
 
 Whereat the speaker caught the sibilants 
 
 Of whispered words out of the weird unseen:
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 185 
 
 ''I voice once more thy upper guardianship: 
 
 Let those twin grisly shapes born of the hour 
 
 Undo themselves of their own nullity, 
 
 Then cast each out in turn a self-slain corpse, 
 
 Though living still as individual. 
 
 Besides, thou art to be exemplar new 
 
 Which shines forth universal charity, 
 
 Yet with the wisdom of all policy; 
 
 So stay the penalty, though due it be 
 
 Aye more, think not revenge against the foes 
 
 Embattled yonder on the other side. 
 
 Thus is the Nation's whole restored in thee 
 
 The first of all, the savior President, 
 
 From whom the healing balm drops to the future. ' ' 
 
 The voice died outwards but re-echoed still 
 The waves compassionate on Lincoln's heart. 
 "Whose was that word unsensed except of soul. 
 Yea quite unsyllabled of human speech? 
 So he kept looking at himself and quizzed 
 The rapt communion with what is above, 
 When of a sudden he bethought himself: 
 "That dragon of the West comes challenging 
 My exercise of last authority, 
 Dares me to give the blow decapitating. 
 For it will play the martyr to the cause 
 Flowering from emancipation's bud."
 
 186 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XL 
 
 While still he lay aswoon upon his couch 
 Quite in the middle of his fighting dream, 
 The messenger slipped in to wake him up: 
 "A lady from St. Louis has arrived" 
 Said he, and shook the dozer to a stare; 
 "She has to see you right away, she says." 
 Lincoln arose and rubbed his eyes while mumbling : 
 "Another dose of that Missouri mess; 
 Its factious spirit causes me more trouble 
 Than all the other States if put together. 
 Her card — how reads it 1 — Jessie Benton Fremont ; 
 I have already heard of her as General 
 Over her husband, Major-General Fremont, 
 Whose proclamation I have just revoked 
 Emancipating slaves within his district; 
 Well I must see what sort of scene she makes. 
 Some training I have had to stead me now. ' ' 
 
 As Lincoln came into her presence scornful 
 
 She rose and spoke in haughty dignity: 
 
 "From the commander of the Western army 
 
 Now overruled in his great deed of freedom 
 
 I bring an answer running in this wise : 
 
 He will not even modify a tittle 
 
 To suit your purposes political 
 
 That noble edict of emancipation 
 
 Which stirs such loud response in loyal hearts; 
 
 Revoke it if you will, but he shall not."
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 187 
 
 Then Lincolu after musing calmly stated: 
 
 "As friend I would advise him otherwise." 
 
 The woman's hearty wrath broke out thereat: 
 
 ' ' Friend ! let the word not pass your lips to me ! 
 
 You are no friend of Fremont, well I know it — 
 
 You never have been, always you have sought 
 
 His ruin, as a man too great for you, 
 
 Listening only to his enemies; 
 
 And now you send a foe to spy him out, 
 
 A bitter foe from your own cabinet, 
 
 One of that hostile family of Blairs 
 
 Who wish to rule St. Louis and its State, 
 
 Yea seek to make their favorite son, Frank Blair, 
 
 The President of the North- West entire 
 
 Ee-moulded to a new Confederacy, 
 
 From which he will ascend to take your place." 
 
 The words burst forth in deepest passion's lurch, 
 
 Which Lincoln answered with a soothing smile: 
 
 ''Tell me about that — all that you may know; 
 
 In such a work I take an interest." 
 
 The wrathful woman still kept up her strain: 
 
 ' ' He is the most ambitious man I know. 
 
 The lust to rule is his though ruin fall. 
 
 His henchmen everywhere insinuate 
 
 Their hateful speech against our policies, 
 
 And you give ear to all their calumnies. 
 
 But hear from me the truth at least for once :
 
 188 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK XL 
 
 The General took charge of vast confusion, 
 
 He had to make an army out of nothing, 
 
 Suppress corruption's reek at every nook 
 
 And root up treason in its hidden haunts. 
 
 By fiat he is bringing out of chaos 
 
 A world of order new to be the Union; 
 
 Huge is the task but we shall do it yet, 
 
 If only meddling hands will keep aloof 
 
 From here — this central point of interference. 
 
 I come to insist that Fremont be allowed 
 
 To use authority in his own way, 
 
 To make selection of his ofiScers, 
 
 Decreeing what he deems for public safety 
 
 Without officious check from central power, 
 
 That he may execute his grand designs." 
 
 Blandly the President to her replied: 
 
 ''Authority already he has used, 
 
 And followed his own will in what he did. 
 
 As if he were the monarch absolute." 
 
 How the high lady bristled in response ! 
 
 "And he was right in that — Fremont was right! 
 
 But now I come again to the main point: 
 
 His final message I have brought to you: 
 
 That proclamation of enfranchisement 
 
 He will not mutilate ; if you dare do it 
 
 The consequences be upon your head." 
 
 ''What are those consequences which you hint?"
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 189 
 
 Asked Lincoln rising from the easy loll 
 
 Upon his seat, with facial muscles tenser: 
 
 But Jessie Benton never yet had quailed 
 
 Before the shape of man, nor did she now, 
 
 With her forefinger pointing admonition: 
 
 "If he so wishes, for himself alone 
 
 He can set up another government; 
 
 The people are now with him in this blow 
 
 He strikes at slavery, source of all our trouble. 
 
 The North will flock to him and give him power, 
 
 Besides, he has a band of followers 
 
 Devoted to his fortunes personal. 
 
 Who would not fail to aid him at the test." 
 
 Then Lincoln steadied his fixed eyes on hers: 
 "So you have come to threaten me unless — " 
 "I am the daughter of the mighty Benton, 
 Illustrious Senator for thirty years. 
 Orator, writer, great in word and deed, 
 Who never blanched before a living foe; 
 Old Tom would dare — would fight a duel too. 
 And so would I — his blood seethes in my veins — 
 I claim to be a daughter worthy of him, 
 As steel strikes sparks from steel — such is my ans- 
 wer. ' ' 
 
 So spake the dareful woman to the ruler 
 
 Who deemed he had found out enough, and said:
 
 190 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI. 
 
 "Well, leave me his reply which you have brought 
 
 And it shall be considered at its time." 
 
 Such deference did only rouse her more, 
 
 She thought she spied a weak-willed President, 
 
 And so she gathered wrath for last attack: 
 
 "I shall not be put off with such disdain, 
 
 Say to me now what you intend to do, 
 
 I shall not go away with empty words, 
 
 Insulted for my absent husband here 
 
 By you, the President — give me your answer." 
 
 Then Lincoln straightened up his lopping look, 
 
 And over-towered with his presence lofty. 
 
 Speaking the word of highest majesty: 
 
 "Madam, the State can never let itself 
 
 Be threatened by its own subordinate, 
 
 Least by a soldier insubordinate. 
 
 I shall myself revoke that proclamation 
 
 And issue it, if need be, through myself. 
 
 Who am the Nation's hand to do such act." 
 
 "The People's execration light upon you!" 
 
 Hissed there a Fury at him who replied: 
 
 "I am the People's voice, aye too their will." 
 
 He turned around and picked a letter up : 
 
 "I had expected Fremont to refuse 
 
 My mild request, so I wrote out an order — 
 
 Here, this it is — present it to your husband. 
 
 My messenger has rapped and I must see 
 
 New visitors — fair journey to your home."
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. I9I 
 
 The angry woman soon had whisked herself 
 Out at the door, when Marshal Lamon was an- 
 nounced 
 Bringing another note from mad Missouri — 
 A Westerner wild-eyed but sleek for once 
 To meet in Eastern form the President. 
 
 The nodded salutation being over, 
 
 Lamon began to address his care-faced friend 
 
 In lowered tones of a secretive voice, 
 
 Quite natural to that subtle officer 
 
 Who had to explore the underworld of crime, 
 
 Especially to worm through in the dark 
 
 All the laid labyrinths of tortuous trea'son; 
 
 He whispered first of what he had just seen : 
 
 "Madam Fremont I noticed passing out. 
 
 In an excited flurry dashed she by, 
 
 I deem you had a red-hot interview. 
 
 She muttered as she whirled her skirts in wrath 
 
 'Incompetency in the highest places! 
 
 What lack of recognition for best worth! 
 
 I give this drifting Union up for lost. 
 
 The only man to save it is now thrown!' 
 
 So flew she out not saying a word more; 
 
 I know her — I have corresponded with her 
 
 Upon affairs affecting her department, 
 
 For it is hers as to the inner power, 
 
 While he, the husband may monopolize
 
 192 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XL 
 
 The outer show and splendor of his place 
 "Which she allows him in a fair division." 
 
 Soon Lincoln's face relaxed from austere lines 
 
 As he commented on what he had heard: 
 
 "Yes Jessie came and truly gave me Jessie, 
 
 So that I cannot wholly blame her husband. 
 
 She issued to me here a stern command 
 
 "What I should do on pain of her displeasure ; 
 
 Her words, her manner, and her fists implied 
 
 That her Fremont, if minded so, could seize 
 
 The strong North- West out of my feeble grasp ; 
 
 Yea the whole country was as good as his. 
 
 He needed but reach out his mighty hand 
 
 To pluck the fruit and take it for himself. 
 
 I let her run ahead in angry mood. 
 
 As she told much that I would gladly know; 
 
 Yea I provoked her to keep up her ire 
 
 Giving a little spur if she might lag. 
 
 For in her wrathful talk she let me see . 
 
 Her husband's secret spirit of ambition, " 
 
 "With all the ruling thoughts at his headquarters. 
 
 For hours she kept on tap her hidden heart. 
 
 And poured me out its treasures at first hand ; 
 
 The half I never had before suspected. 
 
 The best detective on herself she came : 
 
 Laraon, in your own line she has excelled you, 
 
 Better than spies is her own espionage."
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. I93 
 
 So Sped the President's free narrative 
 
 Until he turned about to look and darted 
 
 An eye-shot at the strange Missourian, 
 
 Who caught some whispered ravels of the talk ; 
 
 Him graciously the Marshal then presented, 
 
 And started for the door in worded haste: 
 
 "I must be gone — later I shall return — 
 
 I still have one wee word to tell my heart 
 
 To the chief magistrate — but now I leave you. ' ' 
 
 Lincoln surveyed the man before him tensely, 
 And marked the pointed flash and quick which 
 
 leaped 
 And pricked out of the easement of his eyes ; 
 The huge nose overhung was notable, 
 And played responsive to the part within; 
 His skin was browned somewhat to coppery, 
 For he had lived much in the open air. 
 Chasing the deer of the Missouri woods. 
 And dwelt a cabined hermit by himself. 
 Shunning the highways of the Time 's mad rush, 
 Disdainful of the man who civilized. 
 And so he came to grow an Indian's look 
 Companioning alone wild Nature's soul. 
 In deep communion with her lurking world. 
 The President had scanned his jutting features 
 And jotted him as an original, 
 Autodidact, perchance autochthonous,
 
 194 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI. 
 
 Man primitive emerged from Western wilds: 
 
 In gentle tones of homely courtesy 
 
 Lincoln could not forbear a bantering twitch: 
 
 ' ' What news from your part of the land, my friend ? 
 
 And still let me foresay you are yourself 
 
 To me already a prime piece of news; 
 
 Now I would hear you voice your personage." 
 
 The stranger tokening the friendly word, 
 Shot full his eye-beams from his luminaries, 
 Lipping his fluid accent strangely mixed 
 Between a backwoods English and Low-German, 
 Yet veined with gold of flashing fantasy: 
 "From out my holy log-house hermitage 
 Nestled amid the ancient trees and hills 
 I come lured by the call importunate 
 Which shrieked my country's prayer for Heaven's 
 
 help 
 To me within my humble hut remote 
 Where I was wooing days of solitude, 
 Communing with the Self omnipotent 
 Which is at once the All and I myself." 
 Lincoln felt foundered at the mystic speech. 
 The more because it grazed his deepest life, 
 The underworld unplummeted by sense. 
 The great uncouth, however, did not pause 
 At such a daring plunge of human mind 
 Down to the bottom of the Universe,
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 195 
 
 While ou his burning cheeks the sparkles snapped 
 
 And tipped his nose with gleams of irony. 
 
 The reason of his errand he bespoke: 
 
 "Well do I know my strangeness in this world! 
 
 I read such printed lines upon your face, 
 
 That they retort to me your most hid soul, 
 
 And speak your smile which you forbear to show. 
 
 But I shall break at once into my task : 
 
 I bring some letters from my friend, Frank Blair, 
 
 Who is the Genius local of our cause 
 
 In the great fluvial city of our West, 
 
 And taps the secrets of the plotting heart 
 
 Which meditates far down the public dole 
 
 Perchance itself not ware of what it is. 
 
 His message is in brief: Trust not Fremont. 
 
 I heard that same suspicion's whisper here 
 
 Between you and the Marshal ere he went. 
 
 And it has slyly crept through all the land, 
 
 Troubling the many patriotic minds who brood 
 
 The outcome of imperious soldiership 
 
 Which has been conjured up to slay the fiend 
 
 Rebellion, which now flaps its vampyre wings 
 
 And sucks the blood of all our youth most choice 
 
 Who have responded to their country's hope. 
 
 And yet behold the repercussion strange: 
 
 Secession glances back into our ranks 
 
 The very blow outthrust to smite it down. 
 
 We catch the plague which we would medicine. ' '
 
 196 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI. 
 
 The man made pause to give a look at Lincoln 
 That he might read the feature- writ response; 
 When the quick President snapped up the word: 
 "I see that you have ideas of your own to tell, 
 Gossamered subtly in the nets fine-spun 
 "Which catch philosophy the exquisite: 
 Interpret this Fremont, his character. 
 Philosophize me what he is — ^his soul." 
 
 The stranger's face pulled on its wisdom's mask, 
 
 To speak with gravity the saws of sage : 
 
 *'Just what I came so far to tell, you ask. 
 
 First in his columned traits I would set down: 
 
 He is by genius the adventurer 
 
 Who loves to make a dash to the unknoAvn, 
 
 And tamper with the unexpected turn, 
 
 Gambling his stake away for novelties. 
 
 He fits much better into nature's wilds, 
 
 Than into settled order of the law. 
 
 As he surprised Sierran solitudes, 
 
 So would he now bedaze the peopled State " 
 
 And charm it with emprises venturesome, 
 
 As if he were the first and only one. 
 
 Absolved from all authority above. 
 
 Romancer is he in his farthest soul. 
 
 And well he knows how to romance himself. 
 
 Encircling round his head the aureole 
 
 Of the romantic hero of the West
 
 LINVOLN'8 DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. I97 
 
 To brain-crack smit by glamour of his spell. 
 
 And yet his magic shuns the feats of arms, 
 
 Undeeding him to flights of fantasy; 
 
 A hero unheroic he in war 
 
 A conqueror without a victory. 
 
 I have to think, in his exploits and speech, 
 
 Of my old friend, of Latin origin — 
 
 As is Fremont — Don Quixote de la Mancha." 
 
 Lincoln looked trickling out his teehee tender, 
 Meeding the Spanish knight of writ's renown, 
 Then plumped his mite into the narrative : 
 ' ' Ay yes ! I see the Teuton in you still, 
 With his old grudge 'gainst Rome 's great centuries. 
 Although imported over cleansing seas; 
 And in your accent I can hear his echo. 
 But never mind — more speedy be our sail — 
 Though still one poignant fact I must declare: 
 I voted for Fremont not five years since 
 To be the President of these United States, 
 Now to such port I have arrived myself." 
 
 The answer waited not another tick 
 
 But struck the chime upon the tonguey bell: 
 
 "Next let me pop outright the pregnant word: 
 
 Fremont is sure he ought to have your place, 
 
 The Presidency, so think his followers. 
 
 To be more loyal to himself he trains them
 
 198 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI. 
 
 Than to the Union, which they care not for, 
 
 And M'hich indeed they do not understand, 
 
 As they are foreigners of Europe's birth 
 
 And character and speech, or mostly so; 
 
 Soldiers of fortune ready for the boldest stroke, 
 
 Many are outlawed from their homes abroad, 
 
 Adventurers from California's early days 
 
 Whom Fremont knew when he was in that State, 
 
 Living and loving a life of violence; 
 
 He acts as if he were the monarch sole 
 
 Already in his castle fortified. 
 
 Which is surrounded by his sentinels 
 
 Watching at every corridor's approach; 
 
 I sometimes saunter round his marbled mansion. 
 
 In which his quarters rise palatial ; 
 
 I feel me in a royal atmosphere, 
 
 In presence of some old-world satrapy, 
 
 While every tongue drops broken accents strange, 
 
 Till I run off from discords of my ear." 
 
 Here stopped the speaker's voice as if he heard 
 In his own tones the brogue reproving brogue, 
 And Lincoln listened to it smilingly 
 To hear the battle of the broken words, 
 Which jolted through the native idiom; 
 Whereat he threw a sentence in the gap : 
 "I like your accent, though it be not ours. 
 Upholding what is ours against itself.
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. I99 
 
 Now tell me more of your philosophy 
 
 "Which spins the fine Fremont in his cocoon." 
 
 The man picked up the thought and thus went on: 
 
 "No, not a citizen can ever reach him 
 
 To gaze the presence of his majesty, 
 
 So thickly layered round about him there 
 
 Are placed his guardsmen to enclose his person 
 
 From vulgar spial and speech, as in the Orient 
 
 Where is the sway of despot absolute. 
 
 When he goes forth a numerous body-guard 
 
 With gorgeous trappings circles him in state; 
 
 He now distributes to his favorites 
 
 The offices, and farms commissions out 
 
 For friends, and contracts marts for followers, 
 
 Makes even generals by his own fiat. 
 
 He plays already the grand autocrat. 
 
 Having his court and royal flatterers; 
 
 He tolerates no hero but himself — 
 
 Lyon he let be sacrificed unhelped 
 
 Whose lofty deeds he nagged at enviously, 
 
 Who famous stood, he deemed, blocking his way." 
 
 Then Lincoln interjected a quick word: 
 "I question that view of the case in hand. 
 It were short-sighted beyond reason. 
 But tell me, have you no report from Blair 
 Who ought to know best his own city's need? 
 I would be glad to hear what he intends ;
 
 200 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI. 
 
 Of all Fremont's opponents he is center, 
 Between them has arisen frenzied strife, 
 For each is not without a love of power. 
 And each would rule the other, but cannot, 
 Whereat they fly apart in desperate encounter. 
 Whose fury hunts me here in Washington." 
 
 The man then rose as tall as Lincoln's stature, 
 
 Made a grimace enforced by gesture quaint, 
 
 And in a dialect of fiery fragments 
 
 With elemental lightning from his eyes 
 
 Which lit Titanic brimstone for a moment. 
 
 He hurled his sentences of broken English 
 
 Until he calmed down to his fluent vein : 
 
 "I am the friend of Blair and know the man. 
 
 He has a gift which fathoms deepest plans 
 
 Instinctively when hostile to the State. 
 
 A genius goes with him political 
 
 Which whispers to him hidden strategems, 
 
 The possibilities of treasonous deeds 
 
 Ere they be done outright or even thought of. 
 
 I tremble at him when I list him probe 
 
 The plots which lurk within a character. 
 
 And hark him prophesy what is to be. 
 
 All this is merely to foresay to you, 
 
 That Blair suspects Fremont's fidelity. 
 
 Believes him prone to seize the civil power 
 
 If opportunity hit time aright.
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 201 
 
 Has he not tried to pluck what is not his, 
 
 As fruitage of his military title? 
 
 More perilous will grow this hid revolt 
 
 Than the wide-open one, if not soon nipped; 
 
 'Tis time to smite with power ultimate 
 
 The monster of two heads reared East and West, 
 
 Which threat division of our own one side 
 
 Whose unity is the sole hope of Union ; 
 
 President, decapitate the dragon." 
 
 The stranger shot out of his eye eonstringed 
 
 A lightning like the frantic basilisk 
 
 As if he would himself the horror pierce 
 
 Somewhere above him darkly hovering; 
 
 So for one glance he demonized his face, 
 
 Which then calmed back into its first serene. 
 
 But Lincoln felt a shiver chill him furrowing 
 
 Along his stature from the toe to crown, 
 
 And bristle up the roots of his stiff hair, 
 
 When he had heard this strangest of all strangers 
 
 Thus reproduce the monster of his dream. 
 
 The very ghost of his imagination, 
 
 Which he had weened the fiction of his soul. 
 
 Meanwhile the wordful man again had tapped 
 The philosophic fountain of his brain 
 Which shot up speeches darkly metaphored:
 
 202 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI. 
 
 "Metliinks the Universe will now divide 
 
 Cleaving itself in fresh creative act, 
 
 As once it rose new Cosmos out of Chaos, 
 
 The time is strange, Secession rides the air. 
 
 Like the world-slashing Norn of fabled fate, 
 
 Not only in the South, but in our North 
 
 Which shows a bent to split up into sections. 
 
 The entire country is centrifugal 
 
 In this wild whirl of mighty revolution. 
 
 Fremont has felt the time and seeks to be 
 
 Its pivot-turning representative. 
 
 But you, President, have double duty. 
 
 To put down both these sorts of separation: 
 
 That is to be your place in history. 
 
 With whose supernal Presence now you dwell. 
 
 And since I have been here in Washington 
 
 I find this seed of Northern separation, 
 
 With the attempt to wrest the civil power. 
 
 On the Potomac as on the Mississippi, 
 
 Out of your hands, if you will not hit home. - 
 
 How many times I caught that whispered word 
 
 Dictatorship, while strolling on the streets. 
 
 Lolling at the hotels, in the saloons. 
 
 Mid mingled groups of busied citizens, 
 
 Or as I strayed through camps of soldiery? 
 
 Look ! both these gullets gaping for your head 
 
 Right here and yonder too you must encounter! 
 
 Now split the double throat of that danTned dragon. '
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 203 
 
 Lincoln stood startled at the stinging words 
 
 Which tallied ghastly with the picture of his dream ; 
 
 He wondered at the man whose waking soul 
 
 Had streamed into one secret channel with his own ; 
 
 But he recovered from his lorn surprise 
 
 And spoke a placid word unto the man: 
 
 ''Let me then fortify you with a thought, 
 
 Ere you return to tell your stewardship. 
 
 I have revoked to-day the proclamation; 
 
 "With this keen pen I stabbed the ravening gorge. ' ' 
 
 The stranger loosed the features of his face 
 As if in great relief from inner strain ; 
 He took his hat and started for the door, 
 Saying, "I must be off this very tick 
 Of time's huge liorologue now tolling troubles, 
 Which hence will echo madly through the land; 
 I must be where I can some help extend 
 And try to barrier out the rising flood." 
 Whereat the man pressed on his shapeless felt 
 Over his long barbaric wires of hair 
 Which danced in tangled twirls down to his shoul- 
 der, 
 As he but gave a solitary nod 
 Turned more within than outward to the light. 
 He sprang across the sill upon the world, 
 Yet from his haste he shot back one more oracle: 
 "The outfought fight is here not to be won."
 
 204 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK XI. 
 
 Thus sped the stranger to the darkened future 
 Behind whose curtain seemed to syllable 
 Those final words of his while vanishing 
 Into the distant void of silent space. 
 Lincoln stood balancing their double sense 
 When he lopped to his couch of revery 
 And duly tapped a fresh soliloquy : 
 "I ween to glimpse my seer's prophetic sight, 
 Preluding in myself what he predicts. 
 Fremont I know has voiced the magic word 
 Which sends its cry to Heaven — emancipation, 
 And thrills the folk responsive East and West, 
 Though many lag along the Southern border. 
 That word is mighty too within myself 
 And makes me throb to love of liberty, 
 Which is man's heart-beat for his Paradise 
 Though never lost yet ever to be won. 
 I well can see the hour runs hitherward 
 When I shall have to seal from highest place 
 As the whole Nation's act, this very edict. 
 But now I dare not step so far ahead, 
 To challenge all the future in a minute, 
 It would still further disunite our people, 
 We cannot cross the flood ere it be reached. 
 I have to wait till time builds up our faith 
 Which now is daily marching to its goal 
 That only the free Union can be saved, 
 Made worthy of the bloody sacrifice.
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 205 
 
 So I reject this act, not ripened yet 
 
 "With the full season of the folk's conviction, 
 
 Though it has taught me lore which I shall treasure, 
 
 And made me hear awakened echoes far 
 
 Which time the tread of measures coming on 
 
 And tune the overture of History. 
 
 E'en if I quench in clouds this little comet 
 
 Which is a gleam out of a distant world. 
 
 But rays its only sheen from borrowed light, 
 
 The Nation's full-orbed Sun emancipated 
 
 I shall install forever bright on high 
 
 Bounding its course obedient to law, 
 
 When I first glimpse its morn crepuscular 
 
 Flashing the day ahead up the horizon. 
 
 Fremont, for this I shall thee not depose, 
 
 Despite thy wrong against the Nation's headship, 
 
 I leave thee still intact of rightful power. 
 
 Enough to make or yet unmake thyself. 
 
 But mark ! I cannot help removing thee 
 
 When thou hast by thine act removed thyself; 
 
 I have to re-enact thy fatal self 
 
 And stamp thereby my seal upon thy freedom, 
 
 T^ thou in doing still art self-undone." 
 
 There Lincoln ceased in some unspoken thought 
 Which writ relief across his furrowed front. 
 But only for a moment, when he clouded 
 To a fresh-featured scowl at aught he saw
 
 206 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XL 
 
 And broke once more to solitary talk : 
 
 "I do forget — wandering in my West 
 
 And playing with the future in my dreams 
 
 I lapse from what most presses me just here 
 
 "Where still the other dragon-head uprears 
 
 And menaces a longer, harder fight. 
 
 But the two monsters — so I comfort me — 
 
 Cannot co-operate to the same end, 
 
 E'en if they coalesce in common hate 
 
 Of me as of their rightful overlord. 
 
 Fremont outruns old Time in a wild race 
 
 To pluck the apples of Hesperides, 
 
 Ere they have ripened into golden fruit, 
 
 Romancing all the future to himself, 
 
 As hero hoar of deeds adventuresome, 
 
 Outfabling feats of antique Hercules 
 
 Who slew the snake in guard of Paradise. 
 
 But ah! M'Clellan looks the other way. 
 
 He faces backward for his ideal world, 
 
 And clings to the traditioned elder past, 
 
 Which he will re-instate though it be dust. 
 
 And keep the Nation slaved to its own chains 
 
 When they have rusted off quite of themselves. 
 
 I cannot make him quick-step with the Now, 
 
 He quails in horror from the Present's face 
 
 As if it were a Gorgon in its glance 
 
 Which turns him into stone stock-still at once, 
 
 And makes him shrink back from the Fatal Line
 
 LINCOLN'S DOUBLE DRAGON-FIGHT. 207 
 
 As it might be his own, his very self, 
 So that he cannot move a step's advance 
 When it but dawns within his vision's soul. 
 And still he dragon-like snaps back at me, 
 And will engorge all in his soldier's power, 
 Dreaming the word forbid — dictatorship. 
 Yet I shall utilize him in his worth — 
 "What is that noise — a rap at this late hour? 
 It strikes dark emphasis upon my thought ! ' '
 
 i00h Cixrjelftl^, 
 
 The Fightless Dictator, 
 
 Soldier. 
 Is that the White-House stretched out yonder 
 beneath the fitful half -moon's clouded face? 
 
 Watchman. 
 
 It is, my patriotic friend, for such I may salute 
 you by your uniform. Night's noon has struck, 
 but you can note that the President is still at work 
 by the small stream of light pouring hitherward 
 out of his chamber window. 
 
 Soldier. 
 
 "Would he were not so busy with our army at the 
 front, paralyzed by too much interference from 
 Washington ! Then what delay in sending us more 
 men and better equipment! Our needs are sadly 
 neglected. 
 (208)
 
 THE FIGHT LESS DICTATOR. 209 
 
 Watcliman. 
 
 Yes, that is M'Clellan's ever-growing shout, 
 more soldiers, more materials! Why does he not 
 do something with what he has? Parade and pa- 
 rade, day in day out, capped with the building of 
 more forts for defence ! Always getting ready, hut 
 never getting there! 
 
 Soldier. 
 
 "We all love M'Clellan, love him more than we 
 do Lincoln. He ought to he yonder at the other 
 end of this little streak of light, and then there 
 would be a sunburst. Perhaps he will reach there 
 some of these days. 
 
 Watchman. 
 
 Pass on, do not loiter here, go to youi* quarters. 
 You are not wanted on this beat. 
 
 Soldier. 
 A word more, and that word is still M'Clellan. 
 
 Watchman. 
 Enough of your idle camp-gossip ; besides, I 
 have something which weighs down my heart, and 
 which I must look after at once. Move on! 
 
 Soldier. 
 (Going.) Glad to get out of this hole. To- 
 morrow I shall see dear Little Mac again, as he 
 dashes by with his glittering staff before his sold-
 
 210 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XII. 
 
 iery's eyes at the grand review. The greatest man 
 of the time, the rest seem pigmies beside him. 
 
 Watcliman. 
 
 (Alone.) Happy riddance, for my soul sinks 
 with a heavier mill-stone than even M'Clellan's 
 inertia. A new attempt to murder the President, 
 whom I love ! This air is full of daggers of as- 
 sassination, the blades at times gleam to me in 
 the lamplight, then they scabbard themselves in 
 the dark. Or is it my fancy! Two nights ago I 
 heard a couple of suspicious fellows hatching a 
 plot ; when they saw me come out of cover, they ran 
 and escaped in the shadow of the bushes. I would 
 give my life for Lincoln ; I represent the People 
 too, their love for their President. But I am afraid 
 the murderer will reach him yet, he is so careless 
 of his own protection. I must walk into the White- 
 House here and unburden my heart. This is the 
 spot where he knows my rap. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 (Enters.) Welcome, my faithful guardian. I 
 judge by your close-drawn anxious face, that you 
 come bringing me a new detective story. I en- 
 joy such even if I have to be the hero of the plot. 
 I acknowledge there is enough reality in it to make 
 it exciting. Still I cannot see what anybody can 
 gain by killing me. Why, the rebels seem to re-
 
 THE FIGHTLES8 DICTATOR. 211 
 
 gard me even as an advantage to their cause. But 
 speak it out — what have you uncovered now? 
 
 Watchman. 
 
 You know I have volunteered this work without 
 your asking, and at first without your knowing. I 
 come again to warn you to take better care of your- 
 self. There is a plot to assassinate you some 
 evening while you ride out alone, as your habit is 
 when you go to the Soldier's Home. Have you 
 seen no sign of it? 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 I confess I saw a flash and heard the crack of a 
 gun, but the bullet whizzed by harmless, and old 
 Sorrel leaped for life. So I escaped, as has hap- 
 pened before, doubtless. I tell you my fixed im- 
 pression : my death is not for me now, in the mid- 
 dle of ill-fortune ; when my luck turns, then you 
 can look out more sharply; I am proof against 
 Fate, till the victory — and that is not in sight just 
 as present. 
 
 But here comes the Marshal who has charge of 
 rascaldom, and with him I must confer. Good-by, 
 my devoted protector, your affection touches me, 
 yea heals me, and you must come again, and show 
 it for my need. I repeat it, you have done me a 
 service in coming to me and showing me this 
 kindness.
 
 212 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XII. 
 
 The Marshal. 
 Strange fellow that! a detective on his own ac- 
 count, out of pure love for you which indeed we all 
 feel. But I must now tell you frankly that you 
 are to have a guard of cavalry to accompany you, 
 when you take a jaunt out along lonely roads — 
 we have had warning enough recently. You have 
 refused such escort hitherto, but to do without 
 it in the future is fatuous. I shall not try to pro- 
 tect you longer in this way of neglect — I shall 
 rather throw up my office, for I can do no good 
 and shall get only blame. If you keep courting 
 Fate, she will some day accept your invitation, 
 however much I may try to keep you apart. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 My dear friend, not so hot; you can have your 
 way. You are commander-in-chief over me and 
 I shall obey. Send your squad this evening ; I grant 
 I have had some convincing experience recently. 
 I may shun a few flying fragments of Accident, 
 though I cannot evitate the inevitable. You may 
 bulwark me somewhat against the Devil, but not 
 against the Lord. Send on your little buffer; it 
 will do some good, as it will comfort you. 
 
 The Marshal. 
 Very well so far; but I come to-day for an ad- 
 ditional purpose. We need not go to the West in
 
 THE FIGHTLE8S DICTATOR. 213 
 
 order to find germinating the idea of dictatorship, 
 of which you heard not long since. We have 
 right here in Washington that same perverted 
 notion in a military chieftain. It is a sprout 
 which grows out of the time. This vast array of 
 soldiery seems to waken everywhere the feeling of 
 arbitrary power in the highest officers, that is, the 
 military officers, which however we must keep 
 nourishing and even augmenting. Strange is the 
 spell; the Titan we have called up to lay revolt, 
 takes a strain of revolt. And I am getting to think 
 that some of our civil functionaries may not be 
 exempt. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 I know well what you are mything ; I have heard 
 much of that fabled monster, and I have felt him 
 more. 
 
 The Marshal. 
 Let me then speak straight out : our General has 
 opened two kinds of head-quarters, one over yon- 
 der in the army, and one here in the city, the po- 
 litical. 
 
 Li7icoln. 
 
 You signify M'Clellan, the new Grand Sachem 
 
 of many feathers; I too have been watching him, 
 
 often going to his house here and to his quarters 
 
 in the field. We have also summoned him to the
 
 214 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK XII. 
 
 White-House; I have been inclined to give him 
 what he wanted, to the extent of my ability. He 
 has asked for men, munitions, all the means of 
 war, and they have been furnished, though he 
 keeps on demanding more. Unsatisfiable he di- 
 verts hither not only the Eastern troops but many 
 Western ; he somehow has got to thinking that the 
 whole war centers here, centers in himself. And he 
 has always sought for more authority, more power 
 — but he does not do anything with it when he 
 gets it, except to make the bigger parade. Still I 
 must believe that Mac has his unique merit which 
 is needful for the country. 
 
 The Marshal. 
 Well, I come to talk to you about him. I have 
 been taking notes on him! and have resolved to 
 tell my results so far. He took a house here in 
 the city, that gave me my chance. I observed who 
 came and went ; I watched the crowd which surged 
 to worship the rising star. Of a sudden he saw 
 himself the center of a select society composed of 
 silent men and of talking women; and it is not 
 friendly to you, to your family, to the Union. I 
 noted at once the insidious influence; the whole 
 blast of Washington's rebellious atmosphere he 
 breathed, so did his household and those close to 
 him. In less than one month he began to cool to-
 
 THE FIGHT LESS DICTATOR. £15 
 
 ward you and become less hearty, more fault-find- 
 ing; he was not the M'Clellan of West Virginia, 
 active, sympathetic with the work, but a paralysis 
 had set in. That political house of his in a fash- 
 ionable quarter, was his bane — the first start down- 
 ward, I feel. Already I say he is not the same 
 man who won the Rich Mountain campaign. He 
 seems in the process of developing on a new line. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Yes, but this is a much greater job, and we must 
 give him credit for what he has done. That little 
 tack-hammer of West Virginia he wielded fully; 
 but can he whirl this ponderous sledge of the Po- 
 tomac Army ? He organizes it well, drills it indus- 
 triously, but always he will add to its size, till he 
 seems getting unable to lift the mighty implement 
 he has constructed. But I must let him try, yea 
 drive him to try, if I can. 
 
 The Marshal. 
 
 He is laborious — a scholar and a writer of books 
 — full of drill and closet strategy. He was an en- 
 gineer in the army service. I have noticed that 
 branch ; its work is to defend, and its votaries take 
 character from their profession. M'Clellan ex- 
 pects attack, seems unwilling to make attack, his 
 soul is on the defensive. But we in this war must
 
 216 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK XII. 
 
 take the offensive; unless we are ready to separate 
 forever, we have to assault secession in its lair. 
 The South claims the defensive and has the right 
 to it. So in M'Clellan's very self I see the Union 
 divided, simply defending itself — that is his voca- 
 tion, yea is his character — hence his conduct. Then 
 I cannot help thinking that the political germ is 
 already laid in his brain and must sprout. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 What you say I have observed, but I still hope 
 to spur him forward. I grant he lacks initiative. 
 But then see what affection he inspires! How the 
 soldiers love him, believe in him ! That is a trait 
 most necessary in an army — affection for their 
 leader, a personal devotion which impels them to 
 any sacrifice. I am fond of Little Mac myself, 
 though he has shown his disregard for me, has 
 even snubbed me. I may have felt indignant, but 
 I must suppress all my feelings of affront in view 
 of the great end; I shall hold the bridle to his 
 horse, if he will mount and ride to victory. A man 
 who can inspire such love in man as he does, has 
 some good in him; at least I shall not yet quit 
 hope. I confess I have that ideal myself; as my 
 eternal gift of fame I would inspire love in the 
 hearts of the people. Therein he and I have a 
 common goal; but he wins, I doubt if I do.
 
 THE FIGHTLESS DICTATOR. 217 
 
 The Marshal. 
 Let me say, my friend, that is your power over 
 me and over many, and in time perchance over all 
 men when this war's hate has passed into the calm 
 of History. But I shall have to tell you plainly: 
 you have not stirred love in M'Clellan's breast; 
 there, for some reason, you have failed. I know 
 that he deems you his secret foe, and thinks that 
 you are trying to ruin him. Strange hallucina- 
 tion ! But I have tested it on all sides and know it 
 to be true. He has said it — I could, if need be, 
 cite the witness — but I shall not. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 In that you touch the most sensitive spot. I can- 
 not win the heart of M'Clellan, though I have tried 
 in every way. He refuses his confidence, suspects 
 me, yea shows a sort of jealousy, as I construe the 
 fact. But it is my sorest disappointment that the 
 man's affection which I need most is refused me; 
 it makes my breast ache with a pang of unrequited 
 love. Still I must keep my affection for M'Clellan, 
 I shall not let him estrange me. 
 
 The Marshal. 
 
 Excuse me if I pained you, but I feel that my 
 
 duty is to communicate what I know. I have 
 
 traced the origin of this attitude of M'Clellan. 
 
 The first days he did not show it, but it budded
 
 218 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XII. 
 
 when malcontents began to whisper in his ear po- 
 litical ambition, that he was the greatest man in 
 the nation, that he was to save it, but in another 
 way from the present one. Well, he is capable of 
 vanity — what right soldier is not? Such a play 
 upon his self-conceit never took place before. He 
 came to dislike the President as limiting him, he 
 conceived he ought to be in your place; that title 
 of yours. Commander-in-chief, has become his 
 nightmare. So arose that jealousy you speak of. He 
 dreams already of being your successor, for the 
 partisans opposed to you now are oft seen at his 
 house, and even with him in the field. I have the 
 record of what some of them have written to him. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 I do not worry over that, as the election is some 
 three years hence. But it sets my eyes to scald- 
 ing to see old General Scott so harassed by this 
 young officer, that he has resigned. Still I shall 
 appoint M'Clellan the General of all the armies 
 which he wants. No other man appears, and I shall 
 try to win him still, and even humor him. And 
 yet I often pray for the coming Captain — when 
 will he drop down upon us? I know not where to 
 look. 
 
 The Marshal. 
 
 So Mac is now our generalissimo; more success 
 to him and to us. One other matter I must im-
 
 THE FIGHT LESS DICTATOR. 219 
 
 part, after having told of his political headquar- 
 ters. At his military headquarters runs a some- 
 what different word: dictatorship. The soldier's 
 training waits not for the legal process of govern- 
 ment, but he acts by sudden fiat out of himself; 
 that is the spirit — command — obey. Now at 
 M'Clellan's headquarters — that word is often 
 spoken by his military entourage; he himself has 
 said it — he has even written it. I may yet be able 
 to get the very copy. At any rate for months that 
 ominous word is given breath among the officers, 
 dictatorship. He has gone so far as to say aloud: 
 "I would take the dictatorship." 
 
 Lincoln. 
 That talk is idle, though mischievous. Only the 
 successful general can be dictator ; I have pondered 
 much the fact. But I am unable to push M'Clel- 
 lan into fight ; when he comes back a conquerer, I 
 shall settle with him then about usurpation. I 
 would like to drive him to a chance of being dicta- 
 tor by victory. But, my Lamon, that is the danger 
 of all war, that militarism mid free institutions. 
 
 The Marshal. 
 I am aware that you keep your eye on that pos- 
 sibility in such a time as this, in which the Nation 
 has become one vast camp of soldiery. The instru- 
 ment evoked to put down rebellion is next in peril
 
 220 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XII. 
 
 to the rebellion itself. The means may overweight 
 the end, unless guarded against by supreme cir- 
 cumspection. Therein I feel that you, the Presi- 
 dent, are again the pilot to our safety; there will 
 be no military dictator in this war despite the 
 menacing sign in the East and the West. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 My mind never strays far from this sleep-rob- 
 bing theme. But my chief stress now is to find a 
 General who will do the grand deed of arms; just 
 at present I would rather nurse him to power than 
 curb him. I need not tie success till it is caught. 
 I told you of the two-headed dragon ; that worries 
 me less now, though not out of sight by any means. 
 
 The Marshal. 
 What is your darling anxiety at this moment? 
 Possibly I may be able to give it a stab and let its 
 life. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 No, you cannot, it lies not in your field of war- 
 fare, I wdsh it did. But so much I must declare 
 to you as friend : it is the Fatal Line I saw drawn 
 and confirmed by the Upper Power at Manassas 
 between the North and South, and separating the 
 Union — I visioned it a deep and bloody chasm 
 which neither side could pass. Yet I have to pass
 
 THE FIGHT LESS DICTATOR. 221 
 
 it — and that is my fate. Upbear me in my trial, 
 Heaven ! I cannot face the ensanguined sight ! 
 
 The Marshal. 
 Terrible presentiment! Its shock rives you! 
 
 Lincoln. 
 I am better now for having told you, my friend, 
 doctor, aye my confessor. I have spent my deadly 
 mood upon you — now is the time for you to go. I 
 soon shall be myself again. God save you for me 
 and for the country.
 
 laalv Cl^irtont]^. 
 
 The Fatal Line Broken, 
 
 Lincoln alone. 
 That is the contradiction of my task! 
 The lawj'er I must yield the law to force ! 
 And nurse the soldier in his violence, 
 Train him to strike regardless of the law 
 So that the law may live to be supreme; 
 Since in it too is dra^wn that Fatal Line 
 Brought to this country with our ancestors, 
 Fixed in the Constitution's fettered forms, - 
 For generations gro^Ti into our thought, 
 Worded by daily speech and intercourse; 
 In me it is, I know, and in the people. 
 And yet it only can be now cast out 
 By exercise of military might. 
 Which I must raise and foster, and then use, 
 (222)
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 223 
 
 Daring the civil peril of war's will — 
 
 I scan this well and have it oft bethought; 
 
 Fiercely aggressive I must make its act, 
 
 Yet not transgressive of its higher goal 
 
 "Which is the restoration of the law. 
 
 I am to curb the furious steed of battle 
 
 Just at its topmost charge and rein it in, 
 
 Lest it may dash to death all government 
 
 And rushing riderless to ruin plunge — 
 
 Itself the victim of its very hope. 
 
 A double duty grinds me in between 
 
 As if two mill stones whisked me to their whirl; 
 
 The angry clash of danger from each side 
 
 Re-echoes through my soul's dread corridors, 
 
 Which vista to me far futurity. 
 
 The civil and the military have a war, 
 
 And I must wage and win the stroke of arms, 
 
 Yet also guard against their eounterstroke 
 
 Which turns its edged blade upon its wielder. 
 
 But now behold the fresh emergency ! 
 
 That Fatal Line between the North and South 
 
 With bloody sword-point at Manassas traced. 
 
 Seems to be drawn in my commanders too. 
 
 Unable all of them to break it down, 
 
 Or to pass over it to reach the foe. 
 
 Here in the East it threats to strangle us 
 
 Within the narrowed Capital itself, 
 
 And in the West where stronger drives the impulse
 
 224 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 To sweep ahead against the barrier bound, 
 Buell will simply hold the line and fortify; 
 Halleek the same ; such is my problem now, 
 To bring to use the military mind 
 That has much lore and drill and strategy, 
 But only knows defence and waits attack, 
 Daring not brave the assault upon the limit 
 Which is to be surmounted if we win, 
 And cross the rift dividing us from Union. 
 
 Oh for a General upon whose brain 
 
 His soldier's training plants not merely lines 
 
 Defensive in their rigid fixity! 
 
 Who will not stop to play the engineer 
 
 Sho\^dng his skill in labyrinths of forts. 
 
 And lie behind them in security. 
 
 Doing the pomp of war and the routine, 
 
 Rounding a hopeless zero every day 
 
 Which soon must bring us all to bankruptcy. 
 
 Would that I might become myself a nought 
 
 And sink in universal nothingness 
 
 To lose this awful consciousness of woe. 
 
 Which deluges within me and without ! 
 
 And now my darling boy, my dearest Willie 
 
 Is writ, I fear, with death's malignant sign 
 
 As he lies tossing in his malady ; 
 
 Methought I saw the dreaded angel's hand 
 
 Inscribe upon his brow mortality;
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 225 
 
 As at his bed-side I kept watch last night 
 I glimpsed her shears to snip life's fragile thread; 
 I think of Ellsworth's youth borne to the tomb 
 From here, this presence chamber of the White- 
 House ; 
 I clasp him in the love of my sick child, 
 With whom he felt twined in one heart; 
 And now comes flitting me a maiden's image — 
 But I must quit this brooding on mine own, 
 Lest melancholy venom reason's fount, 
 Unkeying me for higher duty to my task. 
 Still when I look outside me at my land 
 Writhing in its contortions of disease. 
 Which chasms it between its life and death 
 And cuts down to its heart Fate's boundary. 
 There thickens in my soul a deeper gloom. 
 In which for agony I shout to God : 
 If thou, Oh Heaven, wert ever rifted with revolt 
 As is set down upon thy holy page. 
 Send me a man who evens with the hour, 
 Vouchsafe a General who dares the deed, 
 Who dares the Fatal Line at breaking point, 
 And smites the fetter of our destiny.
 
 226 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 Seward enters. 
 The best news yet! the first decisive blow! 
 Fort Donelson has fallen, all its hosts 
 Of many thousands are now prisoners, 
 On terms of absolute surrender ours. 
 Southward the other foes have fled in haste, 
 And cannot Avell be stopped for headlong flight, 
 Until they reach a new protecting line. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Out of the West then comes the first relief! 
 You pluck me from a tumult of despair 
 Into whose pit I was just wilting dowTi, 
 At thought of all this helpless generalship ; 
 But tell me the commander! Yes I know 
 His name. I have been watching him — 'tis Grant. 
 Aye, U. S. Grant — that spells United States — 
 Auspicious sounds — let me but hope the omen. 
 
 Seward. 
 He moved forthright upon the hostile works, . 
 He halted not but pushed along his path, 
 Until he found that which he would assail; 
 He took the fort and all its garrison 
 In unconditional surrender — There ! 
 Mark the U. S. again — a presage double. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 I wonder if he be indeed the man 
 Whom we have prayed for daily with our hopes.
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 227 
 
 He has the education military, 
 
 And has seen service too in Mexico, 
 
 Yet has for years been dipped in civil life, 
 
 Which may transmute to use the soldier's skill, 
 
 Whose bent is else to exercise itself 
 
 For its own end without regard to ours. 
 
 Seward. 
 That is vocation 's strain in soldiership : 
 The soldier ever keeps a-soldiering. 
 He finds his one ideal — that is West Point — 
 Which drills and dresses all for its own sake; 
 His camp, his country, aye his universe 
 Will but become for him a vast West Point — 
 Plis schooling has fenced-in his very soul 
 That it cannot outsoar what it has learned. 
 But sticks fast in its forms so crystallized. 
 That it inspects just for its self-inspection. 
 Yet we can never do without this school 
 Which gives the discipline and lore of war. 
 Though stamping on the mind its boundary; 
 Yea, education's self runs on that limit. 
 
 Li^icoln. 
 It is a problem which I ponder oft. 
 When I go out to see M'Clellan's army, 
 Parading seemingly to see itself, 
 Drilling for sake of its own perfect drill; 
 A peacock large turns the embattled host
 
 228 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 Whose object is to spread its showy feathers, 
 Which arch the sunlight with a rainbow's pomp, 
 And then lock up their ease with task fulfilled. 
 
 Seward. 
 Now we may see beginning of the end 
 Which has defied so long our searching glance. 
 In this vast military coil on coil 
 Which interwinds itself in thousand folds 
 I never could spy out its head or tail, 
 Although I knew it had some huge aesophagus 
 Along its entire length so tortuous. 
 For it would raven down in greed more men 
 Than we could hasten to it armed for war, 
 And still its hunger never was appeased, 
 But as if starved would cry for more and more, 
 Like Ophiuchus of the starry belt 
 Gaping to gulp all Space into his maw. 
 But here enough! Let's turn our sight from this 
 Across the mountains to the Western valley 
 Whence dawns upon the peaks the morning bright ; 
 What think you of the new-fledged man ? 
 
 Lincoln. 
 This thought has slowly filtered from our talk: 
 Grant did again become one of the people 
 Whom he now leads, has risen from below, 
 Not from above appointed to his charge. 
 Thus he has sipped from fountains of the folk
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 229 
 
 Directly, has taken up within himself 
 
 The frontier spirit full of enterprise, 
 
 Which lives a life of the initiative; 
 
 And to the drillful learning of West-Point 
 
 Who is our learned Professor military 
 
 Self-occupied, aristocratic too, 
 
 Grant may impart the daring popular, 
 
 The forthright will which strikes out for the goal. 
 
 Him I shall store up in my memory, 
 
 Perchance he is the man — the man long sought. 
 
 But ah ! my throb of sudden joy is smit 
 
 With the quick counterstroke of anxious pain. 
 
 O Seward, did you ever lose a child! 
 
 Whose name lay tenderest within your heart 
 
 And filled your evil days with love and hope? 
 
 Seward. 
 Friend, banish nature's gloom to-day at least. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 My boy is sick, my Willie sick to death ; 
 Let me give out one sigh, one us between. 
 Even in your good news I feel the fate 
 Which countersigns in black my happiness. 
 
 Seward. 
 But let us contemplate our full success. 
 The other victories do not forget — 
 The lesser blows of war along the line
 
 230 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 ■Which have forecast the mighty master-stroke. 
 
 Mill Spring began the breach, the herald first 
 
 Of those successive triumphs of our arms; 
 
 A battle fought and won by General Thomas, 
 
 Virginian of blood and soldier trained, 
 
 But loyal to the cause which he deemed right 
 
 In spite of kinship, friends, society, 
 
 And all the blandishments of his dear State — 
 
 That was to me a high heroic deed — 
 
 A greater victory than that of arms, 
 
 Though he first cracked your lurid Line of Fate. 
 
 Li7icoln. 
 With all my heart, yes, yes ! but will he stick ? 
 I cannot yet quite banish from my thought 
 The nature of Virginia's Unionism 
 Which has inoculated all her sons, 
 Who vnll secede unless the State be lord, 
 As has been shown by her Convention's act — 
 A Unionism overturning Union. 
 
 Seward. 
 Let your foreboding soul to-day be banned! 
 And let us mark the sequence of our glories : 
 Mill Spring is followed by Fort Henry's capture. 
 Then comes the mighty deed of Donelson, 
 And soon the blockade of the Mississippi 
 Is to be shivered by our cannonry. 
 And then far off upon the Western border
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 231 
 
 I hear that Curtis drives the enemy 
 Beyond Missouri's lower boundary. 
 It is a line two thousand miles in length, 
 Extending from the Alleghenies here 
 Quite till the early stretches of the Rockies, 
 Across the entire valley of your river — 
 Now see it broken at its leading joints ! 
 
 Lincoln. 
 The Fatal Line is breached then in the "West! 
 Not in one spot but all along its length ! 
 And yet somehow we cannot budge our chain 
 Here in the East — it seems to coil us tighter — 
 Though we keep adding to our soldiery 
 And to the vast equipments for a fight 
 "Which is not fought ; we shrink back from the dare, 
 Ourselves oppressed by the collossal weight 
 Us hampering without and too within. 
 Seward, as you were reared a native here, 
 Have studied too and acted history. 
 Unriddle me the cause of character 
 Upon this coast whose troops stand face to face ? 
 Tell me why should the old States North and South 
 Keep still to that fixed line drawn at Bull Run 
 Each staying on his side in separation, 
 "While those new States in the broad "Valley 
 Trample it to pieces under conquering feet, 
 And sweep on Southward to their war-lit goal ?
 
 232 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 Seward. 
 That is a dark conundrum of the Gods 
 Whose answer lies not in my vision yet. 
 So I dismiss it as insoluble — 
 But I must run back to official tasks 
 Which I delayed to speak to you the news.
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 233 
 
 Lincoln alone. 
 What weighs on me the most sits light on him, 
 Or is not present to his consciousness: 
 The outcome of this war already turns 
 Upon the difference of East and West, 
 But Seward sees not yet the dawning light. 
 Long since I have it silently foref elt, 
 And Douglas hinted to like tenor once, 
 Which left its pressure active in my brain. 
 Tell me, ye Powers, having this in hand, 
 Must not we too upon this salt sea coast 
 Break through the Nation's minatory bourne. 
 That Fatal Line of separation's curse? 
 Our chief resources have been lavished here 
 Of men, of money and material; . 
 The most of each and best of all in choice, 
 And still there is no earnest stir to act. 
 Now I shall try to push my Little Mac 
 To rivalry of Grant and Donelson 
 And rouse the East to do the Western deed; 
 But of such purpose I must tongue-tied keep, 
 And trounce to silence the comparison, 
 Lest I excite the demon jealousy 
 Whom I already have observed at work 
 And heard him whisper in an undertone. 
 Some weeks ago when Mac was sick abed 
 I took command of his Potomac army, 
 And sought to shape it for its coming move;
 
 2S4 WNCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 I studied all the books of strategy, 
 
 Asked the opinion of his generals, 
 
 Planned the campaign which was then to begin, 
 
 Reorganized the army into corps. 
 
 And their commanders I selected too. 
 
 The order to advance would soon have been 
 
 Upon my lips, when lo ! who doth appear ? 
 
 None other than our Little Mac in bloom, 
 
 A miracle of quick recovery. 
 
 Without a trace of illness on his cheek; 
 
 He grumbled at the changes which I made, 
 
 But took his place again, yet lapsed afresh 
 
 To his old lethargy — calling for more — 
 
 More infantry, more cavalry, more, more — 
 
 And still spell-bound he stands within his tracks, 
 
 Week after week, refusing to break camp. 
 
 But what to me is more surprising yet: 
 His army shares in that same character, 
 Their idol is he, aye too their ideal, 
 Him heroizing high in admiration. 
 As if his were the world's chief soldiership. 
 They dub him young Napoleon risen here 
 To end the war in rapid victory, 
 Though he stir not, still unvictorious. 
 That mystery of power seemeth his 
 Which can inspire strong love just for his weak- 
 ness; 
 He molds his troops all over to himself,
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 235 
 
 And welds them to him in their hearts' affection 
 Far down to depths beneath their conscious will. 
 I have to think this army and its leader 
 Have some last likeness in a common soul 
 Whose throb M'Clellan's gift jets up to light, 
 And makes it pulse in every soldier's breast. 
 But I must pang me to the sour confession 
 That I can win nor him in love nor them, 
 Both seem to feel outside of my world's heart. 
 Still up I must from mine own maundering self. 
 Now he must start — I shall command again — 
 He deems the army his — a plaything huge; 
 But I shall borrow it a little while, 
 And make it spin unto its purposed task. 
 I feel the test has now been put to me: 
 This army of the East I have to force 
 Until it breaches too the Fatal Line 
 Between this Washington and yonder Richmond, 
 Repeating here the deed done in the West, 
 That tells me of the goal I have to reach. 
 Forward M'Clellan! that is now the word 
 "Of your commander here, the President. 
 But with this push of hope propelling me 
 I feel a backstroke in my very heart : 
 I must now go to watch my lingering boy, 
 Who too seems battling on the line of Fate — 
 But first here comes a man whom I must see, 
 Again I am kept back, bitter lot ! 
 Conferring on the Nation's high affairs.
 
 236 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 Attorney-General (enters). 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Welcome, my fellow-advocate from Missouri, and 
 my trusted legal advisor in the Cabinet ! What 
 new interpretation of the law bring you to-day, 
 that we may keep our work of violence within 
 civil bounds, as far as possible? Then you repre- 
 sent the Border States, now the pivot of our suc- 
 cess; also you hail from that turbulent city of St. 
 Louis, whose fierce factions sometimes act as if 
 they would start to cutting one another's throats. 
 
 Attorney-General. 
 It is my opinion that a fresh Reign of Terror 
 may break out there at almost any time between 
 the foreigners and the natives chiefly, both sides 
 claiming to be Unionists. The situation reminds 
 me of Robespierre and his bloody partisans guil- 
 lotining all who differed from them in the hey- 
 day of blood. My secret information presages a 
 revolutionary madness which starts to devouring 
 its own children. Old Saturn seems actually ris- 
 ing to life again in St. Louis. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Dear friend, it cannot come to that. Your eyes 
 magnify all just now through a heavy fog of gloom ; 
 mine often do so too, I know the cloudy mood.
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 237 
 
 First let me assure you that ample precautions 
 have been taken against excess; secondly, there is 
 little likelihood of such an outbreak anyhow. If 
 your city were isolated from the rest of us, or 
 were the whole of the nation, the case might be 
 different; but St. Louis is not Paris (which claims 
 to be all France), and Missouri is not the United 
 States, and makes no such pretence. In our politi- 
 cal system, if a part gets out of order, the whole 
 hastens to correct the trouble. Indeed that is 
 just what we are engaged in now : the total organ- 
 ism is trying to throw off this furious disease of 
 a part called secession. 
 
 Attorney-General. 
 Well, let the matter pass for the present; I 
 come for another purpose. 
 
 Lincohi. 
 Good! Let me now hear your legal animadver- 
 sions, which are always excellent. 
 
 Attorney-General. 
 
 Nay, I am not here for that business, though 
 I be your law-officer. I appear in a new role. I 
 wish to make a personal recommendation, and it is 
 of a man who does not push himself, who is with- 
 out political influence, and hence is likely to be 
 overlooked, to the injury of the great cause.
 
 238 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Good Heavens, you too! That stream will yet 
 drown me ! But to the matter — tell me whom you 
 mean, and what is the office. 
 
 Attorney-General. 
 You mistake — but let his name be spoken out at 
 once — General Thomas. He won the battle of Mill 
 Spring and started the wave of victories which is 
 now surging in our West from the Alleghenies to- 
 ward the Rockies. He is the one Virginia soldier 
 of high rank and of great ability who did not go 
 with his State into rebellion. The act is unique 
 and gives him a unique place in History. Mark, 
 I come to you not at his request; he is far from 
 here with his troops on the battle-line in Kentucky 
 or advancing into Tennessee. But I am sprung 
 of Virginia, and I feel that he is one of her great 
 towering characters — he cannot be too soon pro- 
 moted to a higher place. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 My eye has been on him ever since I noted 
 him here once in the White-House when he made 
 me a soldier's call. I observed that he said little, 
 was quite undemonstrative ; I rather wondered 
 what was going on in that massive head of his 
 with its well-fortified shock of hair; I recollect
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 239 
 
 of quizzing myself briefly about him w'heu I 
 signed his commission as Brigadier-General, and 
 sent him West, as he wished. I confess I liked 
 his choice of a field, it seemed he wanted to keep 
 away from the Virginia danger or disease, which 
 has carried off in revolt so many of her sons who 
 belonged to the old army. Among them he stands 
 forth the striking exception. 
 
 Attorney-General. 
 
 I tell you, Mr. President, that is the most heroic 
 deed yet done in this war by any commanding 
 personalty. It is a mighty self-conquest, antece- 
 dent perhaps to the greatest outer conquests, if 
 the opportunity be only furnished to the man. 
 I appreciate him the more because I have felt 
 the same internal conflict, though doubtless not so 
 deep and intense, since I have lived long in the 
 West away from the old Virginia home with its 
 death-like clutch upon the very hearts of its chil- 
 dren. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 I think I can appreciate that feeling, I do not 
 deny having a touch of it myself in my blood. 
 But I have had to deal with that strange Vir- 
 ginia conscienceness, which is for the Union but 
 fights against its maintenance, which dislikes slav- 
 ery yet battles for it, which mothered our govern-
 
 240 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 ment and is now bayoneting its own offspring — 
 and does it in all honesty of conviction. Blame 
 me not if I have some fear of that spirit still, 
 though I would not do an injustice to any one, 
 least of all to a soul loyal under the most trying 
 circumstances. 
 
 Attorney-General. 
 I venture to say that Thomas has already fought 
 with himself just that battle, the hardest battle 
 of this war, and won it. He has broken the fetters 
 of tradition which imprison so hopelessly the Old- 
 Dominion, has defied Family and State with all 
 their blandishments and all their excommunica- 
 tions, and risen to the Nation which he upholds 
 against them if they oppose, as they in this case 
 do. He, therefore, stands forth to me the great- 
 est hero of nationality — greater, I dare affirm, 
 than you or I, because he has had to make a 
 deeper conquest and against mightier odds. We 
 with our fathers had already broken those Vir- 
 ginia chains by migration to the West. We ran 
 away, but he stayed and fought out his primal 
 personal struggle unto victory. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 I shall not fail to keep track of him, though 
 I must be allowed to test him a little further. The 
 Virginia burns on my brain are not yet quite
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 241 
 
 healed. I may tell you that I am favorably dis- 
 posed to Thomas for another reason. His plan 
 of campaign was to march to East Tennessee and 
 there organize in arms its Union men of the moun- 
 tains, and thus to cut the Confederacy in two by 
 a living wall of the bravest soldiers defending 
 their fastnesses along the whole Appalachian 
 range from Kentucky to Georgia and Alabama. I 
 still believe that would have been the right strat- 
 egy for the whole war. The Confederate headship 
 at Richmond appreciated the situation, and did 
 their utmost to stamp out the loyalty of the hardy 
 East Tennesseans. I urged my plan, but the high 
 military men — Buell, Sherman, Halleck — discour- 
 aged it; only Thomas approved and was ready to 
 strike at once. So I naturally have admiration 
 for his ability. 
 
 'Attorney-General. 
 Yes, military ability and much more — unshaken 
 fidelity to supreme conviction of what is supreme. 
 I wonder at your progress in strategy, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, and accept it as correct, though it lies out- 
 side of my field. But what I would stress to you 
 is not Mill Spring or strategic skill, but that in- 
 ner deed of heroism in General Thomas, which I 
 can understand better than I do musket and can- 
 non. The typical deed of the whole conflict in
 
 242 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIII. 
 
 one man — I may presage it the prototype of the 
 war's full course rounded in one soul's experience, 
 the renunciation of the heart's fondest ties in obe- 
 dience to the highest behest of the Divine Order. 
 Only a Virginian, I hold, could so completely be 
 such a cycle of experience within himself and of 
 such intensity. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Yes, I have had some dealings with Mother 
 Virginia, and know a little about her inspirations. 
 Indeed I have talked with her in person, face to 
 face, and heard her issue her final edict to me 
 with threats of her vast displeasure, unless I 
 obeyed — which I as representative of the Nation 
 could not, and would not. 
 
 Attorney-General. 
 I am puzzling about what you mean. Spare me 
 your stories, particularly your ghost-stories. At 
 any rate you have not conquered Virginia and 
 you will not for a while, according to appearances 
 — ^but Thomas has. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Virginia conquered ! Explain me that riddle, 
 which is for me a tougher proposition than a 
 spook. 
 
 'Attorney-Oeneral. 
 Plainly, then, General Thomas has put down 
 the old Virginia within himself — the first act of
 
 THE FATAL LINE BROKEN. 243 
 
 the grand drama and standing for the last, which 
 is her outer subordination. Now for my final sug- 
 gestion: arm him with the Nation's power, have 
 him wheel about from the West to the Atlantic 
 coast, where he, victorious, will return to her soil, 
 his home, and inbreathe his new spirit into her 
 old body exanimate, endowing her with a fresh 
 incarnation. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Well, well, I did not know that you were so 
 good a dreamer. Your talk has indeed fore- 
 tokened much of the future as I catch it at times 
 in glimpses. But you have also called up an- 
 other line of thoughts to which I am at present 
 most sensitive: disease, decay, deatli. I beg you 
 to excuse me now; my boy Willie lies in throes 
 of illness, I must hasten to his sick bed-side — I 
 have tarried too long — methinks I hear his pierc- 
 ing cry of pain till here, Goodbye.
 
 i00h ^omtnntl^. 
 
 Lincoln's Lament Over His Son. 
 
 ''The vulture Fate swoops down on me again 
 
 And stabs his beak into my heart of hearts 
 
 As if I were the new Prometheus. 
 
 Dead, my Willie! son of my best hope! 
 
 Housed in thy homeless solitary tomb ! 
 
 I love my other sons, all of them well! 
 
 But thou some how could 'st win thy father 's choice ! 
 
 I saw in thee my boyhood bloom anew 
 
 And daringly leap forth into the world 
 
 To test like me the limits of thy lot ! 
 
 My gifted child, thou cam'st my soul new-born 
 
 Already in thy days of infancy ; 
 
 Many a little turn of thine spoke genius ! 
 
 Ambition of my world was also thine ! 
 
 (244)
 
 LINCOLN'S LAMENT OYER HIS SON. ^4,5 
 
 I heard thee flash on me one day a word : 
 'When I am President, I shall do thus.' 
 It seemed a momentary lightning shot 
 Out of the future — now it is all quenched 
 In human ashes — would I were such too ! 
 Methinks I could lie down with thee to rest 
 And sleep in love forever at thy side ! 
 But Oh this love of mine — I feel it kills ! 
 It is a fatal thing to him or her 
 "Who wins it whole — I have already known 
 That my affection slays its dearest object ! 
 Can I forget the maiden of my youth 
 Whose doom was coupled with this heart of mine, 
 Whose shadow haunts me still here in the White- 
 House ? 
 Last night they both came back to me in dream, 
 A little boy and somewhat older girl, 
 I saw them play together happily 
 And laugh when in their game I took a part ; 
 I lived with them a seeming age's bliss, 
 But when I woke and daylight shut me off 
 From that fair dreamland where I felt me glad 
 For the first time in all my days of gloom, 
 It seemed as if I could not quit that world 
 In which my love was stilled of all its yearning ; 
 I would go straightway back to those two shapes, 
 Would tear to very shreds that slender veil 
 Which shuts them out from my existence now.
 
 246 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIV. 
 
 I see them playing still beneath the tree, 
 
 The mulberry of lost New Salem village, 
 
 Upon the seat which I once plaited there 
 
 Of twigs and grapevines for my dreams of love, 
 
 Where I would meet the maiden oft in hope. 
 
 And where at last I told her all my heart, 
 
 Mid clashes of a conflict in our souls. 
 
 But from that moment she was fallen ill. 
 
 She quickly passed away from mortal gaze, 
 
 The early victim of my doomful love ; 
 
 I cannot help it though the stamp of death 
 
 It be upon the life which beats with mine. 
 
 It thrusts a dagger to that very heart 
 
 Which throbs unto mine own the most endeared.' 
 
 So Lincoln let his paroxysm vent 
 His mood gloom-laden into words which eased 
 His stress of suffering ; whereat more calm 
 A sacred reminiscense bubbled up : 
 ''With Willie I began to read my Bible 
 In deeper understanding of its import. 
 Through pregnant questions of his waxing wit 
 Which oft bespoke my puzzles more than his ; 
 In answering him I had myself to answer, 
 To clear his doubt, I had to doubt my doubt. 
 And so I got to glimpse that Upper World 
 Which is the burden of the Holy Writ, 
 Its deepest revelation unto man.
 
 LINCOLN'S LAMENT OVER HIS SON. 247 
 
 Soon I began its shapes to comprehend 
 
 And to identify them with mine own, 
 
 "Which seemed installed already in the White-House. 
 
 The Presences which fill that ancient Book 
 
 Are ruling still, I found, our world of Now, 
 
 And haunting me, my life and all my deeds ; 
 
 How glad I read them in the written word ! 
 
 And verify them in my far-down self 
 
 E 'en if I think them under different names 
 
 And tune their speech diverse from Scripture's talk ! 
 
 My own self's language I must make myself. 
 
 That Hebrew Book grows dearer daily still 
 
 To me for its own worth in highest love, 
 
 But chiefly it becomes a monument 
 
 On which I read my Willie's memory, 
 
 Through whom I came to know its overworld 
 
 Of guidance to our human goal supreme. 
 
 So with its tested texts I must commune 
 
 A little every day for uplift sure, 
 
 And suffer with its folk in sympathy 
 
 Who had to stand their trials for us all. 
 
 A Jew was brought to me the other day, 
 
 A blockade-runner caught the second time 
 
 By Lamon's vigilance in espionage; 
 
 His o'erhooked nose mid crispy matted beard 
 
 And baleful cockatrice 's demon-eyes 
 
 Which looked his lie and shot his guilt in scorn,
 
 248 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIV. 
 
 Made all my body crawl uncannily 
 As if old Eden's serpent crept along me; 
 But when he laid his hand upon the Book 
 And lit his face with look of reverence 
 As leaves fell open at the page of Paradise 
 Which I had often read with my boy Willie, 
 Then begged forgiveness of mortality, 
 Which was his common lot with Adam 's sons, 
 I pardoned him just for his race's sake. 
 And for the Book which it has given us 
 Although he looked like Judas more than Christ, 
 And stood his People's Satan, not their Jahveh, 
 Both of which characters they built for man. 
 To mould himself by them to good or evil. ' ' 
 
 So Lincoln soothed his lot in far-off thoughts ; 
 
 But moments only could he drown himself 
 
 In his own waters of oblivion, 
 
 For old remembrances still bubbled up. 
 
 As he turned to another scriptured page 
 
 Pursuing consolation 's fleeting cloud, 
 
 Behold ! between two leaves looks up at him 
 
 The laughing image of his pictured son 
 
 As if the boy would step to his young life 
 
 Again to ask his father for a story. 
 
 The parent slammed the covers of the Book 
 
 Writhing in agony of new despair ; 
 
 The Holy Writ itself had seemed to thrust
 
 LINCOLN'S LAMENT OVER HIS SON. 249 
 
 Back in his face the sorest stroke of time, 
 Fulfihnent of the judgment from above. 
 The anguished father seized that copied shape, 
 And welled an utterance from the last founts 
 Where surged his inner ocean 's cataclysm : 
 ' ' Could I but give myself the mortal stab, 
 End this demonic tussle with my Fate 
 "Which bids me live to be the more the fated, 
 And lets me love to reave me of the loved ! 
 If I were burdened only with myself 
 And in account for my own being merely 
 Methinks I could no longer cling to such a clod 
 Of cursed clay, mad sport of spit-fire Fortune, 
 But fling it off this minute into nothingness, 
 Taking my exit from this world's staged hell. 
 Aye even from my self 's own scene evanished. 
 But a belief I have which anchors me 
 As 'twere God's own belief all in himself. 
 And in the Universe which He creates, 
 That I must live just here beyond myself, 
 I am not merely I, but the institution; 
 Such I am too, by virtue of my office. 
 And of this nodal turn of History ; 
 This Nation's being is involved in mine, 
 So I am faithed to live and then to die 
 When the full cycle of my task is turned. 
 If I should slay myself, I would then slay 
 Far more than just this person of mine own,
 
 250 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK XIV. 
 
 Would wound the Future at its very birth 
 
 And rashly let the blood of Hope herself. 
 
 As I believe in me as sent to save, 
 
 I have no right to dare such godless act. 
 
 From the assassin 's knife I have been spared, 
 
 So oft unsheathed for me, but caught and held 
 
 By Power unseen, when I would welcome it — 
 
 I, ever scotched by Fate, but never slain 
 
 Till Time fulfilled brings round my due demission. 
 
 On Self I dare not raise the fatal blade 
 
 Which Heaven fends away with subtle hand. 
 
 Thus conscience as the soldier of the soul. 
 
 Doth make me brave to face the living line, 
 
 Which I might shrink the coward conscienceless. 
 
 Quenching in fear this petty spark of life. 
 
 Not viewing in me too the Universe. 
 
 So I defy my small self -slaughterous thoughts 
 
 Which only see this microcosm's speck 
 
 Of mine own little self of being here; 
 
 And I shall live not cabined in me sole. 
 
 But for the many, it may be for all — 
 
 Live the associated life of man. 
 
 And suffer with the whole, not me alone, 
 
 My pain must be not merely mine, but God 's, 
 
 And I, God 's son, must dare all suffering. ' ' 
 
 The sorrow-smitten Lincoln paced his room 
 Defiant of grief's mortal thunderbolts,
 
 LINCOLN'S LAMENT OVER HIS SON. 251 
 
 "Wresting himself from his own stroke of death 
 Kepeatedly suspended o 'er his head, 
 A swaying battle of recurrent struggles 
 From which he often sheerly dragged himself 
 Though the assault would surge and surge again, 
 With respite brief mid paroxysmal throes. 
 His stalwart frame shook shivering of anguish 
 For his evanished boy first in his heart, 
 "With whom was mingled in rare sympathy 
 His early love for woman at her bloom 
 Which also wilted down before his view. 
 Both shapes appearing to his soul upborne 
 In all the glory of their rosy youth. 
 
 But soon another paroxysmal storm 
 
 Of strong resurgent death raged in his soul 
 
 As if to sweep him off the brutal earth. 
 
 There heaved a longing unendurable 
 
 Within his breast to pass at once to both 
 
 And stay beyond with those whom he most loved. 
 
 He would not longer bear life 's separation 
 
 But step across one moment's boundary 
 
 Into another world untimed, unspaced. 
 
 But as he sprang upright he was aware 
 
 That he was still upon this side of death. 
 
 Which he could not invoke unto his aid 
 
 Except by his own voluntary act 
 
 On which fierce duty .frowned a stern refusal,
 
 252 LINCOLN IN, THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIV. 
 
 And bade him back to bear his mortal charge. 
 Still sighed he for that ideal otherwhere, 
 With heartbeats rapid not to be withstood 
 Which throbbed him out the house and down the 
 
 street, 
 Until he rapped upon the door of Lamon, 
 To whom he had to overflow in speech 
 When his swoln heart would burst its barriered 
 
 banks 
 And flood his being's stretches far and wide, 
 With all his inner Ocean's tides of feeling. 
 Lamon sprang up, responsive to the knock 
 Which tapped his outer ear expectingly 
 But touched concordant, too, a deeper sense. 
 
 Lamon. 
 How strange ! for I have been awaiting you ! 
 I knew you somehow stepping on the way, 
 Else I had ere this started hence myself; 
 I felt the pull between us in the distance, 
 If you had not appeared within this trice, , 
 I had set out e 'en for my own relief. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 My Lamon, friend, more than the Marshal now, 
 
 The Healer of my spirit's deepest rent, 
 
 I come to hear thy voioe remedial 
 
 And soothe me in thy look of benediction. 
 
 I would have died if I had stayed away,
 
 LINCOLN'S LAMENT OVER HIS SON. 253 
 
 I could not rid me of the round of thoughts, 
 The murderous round of my self-battling Self 
 Which let me live to slaughter me again. 
 Already drops thy presence me a balm. 
 
 Lamon. 
 
 What you have said I deem, President, 
 My greatest service to my country's need, 
 For what helps you and heals, is for our hope, 
 And yet reward enough it were to me 
 If I can serve you merely as your friend. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Thine is the dear oblation of a heart 
 Which offers all its wealth to save the lost, 
 And makes itself a shrine where the great God 
 Descends for worship to the sinking soul. 
 My sorrow draws me hither at this hour, 
 I could no longer stay my frame in life, 
 Or steady reason to her anchorage 
 Unless I brought me to your spirit hale 
 To heal me with its ever-flowing health. 
 My buried boy I would go sleep beside. 
 He was mine own, my very self of self. 
 And when he went, I seemed to have to go — 
 How it doth pang me now to think of him 
 Beneath his bare chill covering of sod ! 
 He had my bent, my brain, and oh my heart ! 
 Our souls were tuned to common harmonies.
 
 254 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIV. 
 
 Would sing together in a concord soft ; 
 They still refuse to dwell inseparate 
 E 'en if the grave so cruelly says no. 
 Lamon, to you I must make this confession : 
 My love doth hide a barb of mortal sting, 
 And I destroy the hearts I deepest touch, 
 When I unsheath the dagger of affection. 
 Ann Rutledge's demise you know about. 
 My most beloved son has followed her, 
 I scarce can hold me back from going too. 
 Sometimes I think when I and Douglas hearted. 
 That was his secret doom — he too has sped. 
 
 Lamon. 
 Remember, friend, the task unfinished here 
 Which thou alone canst do with Heaven's help. 
 Thou hast an oath recorded in the Book of Life 
 Pledging fulfilment of a mighty work 
 As yet undone, the acme of this age : 
 Break not the hour-glass of thy deedful days, 
 Remember too the bond of Family 
 Whose living ties are still thine own in love. 
 And the high promise of thy office still 
 Chains thee in duty's fetters to the Nation. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Both of these ties I know, but they are loosed, 
 I challenge death to come and break my bonds 
 Which hitch me in this dreary treadmill here
 
 LINCOLN'S LAMENT OVER HIS SON. ^55 
 
 Between the rising and the setting sun. 
 
 My love has passed beyond — how can I stay 
 
 On earth to be the poison to my dearest — 
 
 I dare not love again lest I destroy, 
 
 But what is life if it be shorn of love ? 
 
 Lamon, out of myself I feel the stroke of Fate 
 
 Smiting the hearts in which I find my All. 
 
 My love is an assassin to its own : 
 
 Should I not slay the slayer — e 'en myself ? 
 
 I am the fatal culprit and the judge ; 
 
 "Why shall I not be just by mine own sentence ? 
 
 If I may live, I then must love no more. 
 
 Tramp on my heart as bringer of my guilt. 
 
 Lamon, as I pour warm glances now 
 Into thy sympathetic speaking eyes, 
 
 1 feel a tremor which darts through my soul 
 That this my friendship going out to thee 
 May yet waylay thy life in stealthy lure, 
 
 And be thy wreck because thou art my friend — 
 My love itself thy executioner. 
 
 Lamon. 
 
 Kest calm; I could not die a better death. 
 Than just to die the victim of thy heart, 
 If I could choose, be that my epitaph. 
 But let me give condolence by confession : 
 I too have known such self-undoing thoughts ; 
 And every man at some unhappy pinch 
 Has dreamed perchance to quit him of his lot
 
 256 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK XIV. 
 
 By getting rid of life itself at once. 
 We all are Hamlets at some time or other 
 And balance pros and cons of our existence, 
 Letting them teeter up and down unsettled. 
 Such questioning I had e'en in my youth, 
 And still I am alive to let you know ; 
 Let me commend to you my safe example. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 'Tis well you switch me off my mood to humor, 
 And slyly let me glimpse of me in you. 
 Friend, I have had to run from suicide, 
 And flee to you to save me from myself 
 Who am in dread pursuit to be no more. 
 I turn to w^ords my self-upbraiding thoughts 
 Which triturate me back to human dust. 
 I lift those words out of my grinding depths 
 And in them hand to you my daggered grief 
 Then list your soothing tones remedial 
 To cure my melancholy's malady. 
 
 Lamon. 
 
 So make one uplift high unto your own ! 
 Just only think what Fortune now is bringing 
 To you in joy from out your West and mine ! 
 That strong embattled line is broken there 
 And fled in scattered fragments toward the Gulf. 
 Contemplate that for comfort new and hope, 
 Withdraw thy brooding soul out of itself
 
 LINCOLN'S LAMENT OVER HIS SON. 257 
 
 And view thy grander task of History, 
 
 Which now is taking a gigantic stride, 
 
 "Whose goal we glimpse through great occurrences 
 
 And catch the ken of far futurity. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 All that is right and sane, I know it well. 
 But can it balsam for me heart-struck woes? 
 Can it bring back my boy beneath my eye? 
 Restore the shattered love which Fate has smitten ? 
 And medicine in me that deepest wound 
 Which pierces to the source of all existence? 
 
 Lamon. 
 
 But think of those who still are left for love — 
 Sons still remain to you — and friends like me, — 
 Leave us not all in blank forgetfulness. 
 Chiefly a wife you have, a wedded helper. 
 Who should be hearted in your very life. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Confessor mine, again I must speak out 
 The darkest secret of my stressful lot ; 
 Two fealties I have to women due, 
 The one belongs beyond, to an immortal, 
 The fountain-soul bestowing tenderness, 
 The source of all my deeds of charity ; 
 Her image sways unbidden all my days 
 And on me unaware oft lays her spell.
 
 258 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIV. 
 
 The other is my mortal helpmeet here 
 And rules with loyal mind my household seen, 
 The law's allegiance she in full receives 
 From strongest sense of duty that I own. 
 And yet alongside of this lower home 
 I have an upper home beyond my will, 
 Which drops down on me by its self-made law. 
 Lamon, that is to me my harshest lot, 
 To feel my very love divided in itself. 
 Tearing in two my heart with double pains. 
 Dividing holy duty which is one. 
 
 Lamon. 
 
 What you now tell me in your confidence 
 Has not been hid from me this many a year. 
 I know too that your mate has cognizance 
 Of this true love ideal of yours above, 
 And cannot always stay her jealousy. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 I dare not blame her for her gusts of passion, 
 Nor can I help myself from loving love; 
 So I endure the ever-bleeding scission. 
 I try to speak of it the least I can, 
 And yet my heart bursts out despite myself 
 To sympathetic converse at the White-House 
 When mood of memory floods overpouring, 
 Or when Fate's utterance surprises me. 
 She marked me mutter once the name of Ann
 
 LINCOLN'S LAMENT OVER HIS SON. 259 
 
 In sleep as I lay dreaming at her side, 
 My revery she has too overheard 
 In tender talk with some dear presence else ; 
 And once a gossip told her my first love 
 Whose loss awhile shook reason on its throne. 
 
 Lamon. 
 It is a doom perverse of destiny ! 
 I '11 tell you what my dearest uttered once, 
 As we talked over how we might give help : 
 ' ' Poor Mary ! her fatality it is 
 To keep that lost love active evermore 
 Within her husband's longing memory 
 By her high temper — that 's her fate and his ! 
 She ought to win that specter's place supreme 
 Herself, by lady's subtle tact of love 
 Making him choose the real for the ghost. ' ' 
 So spake me one who knows the way to do it. 
 And I recount it as a woman's way 
 To solve a knotty problem of her sex. 
 But stop, we wander from the task before us 
 Which it to bring M'Clellan and his army 
 To break across rebellion's front of battle, 
 Force him to do the deed of Donelson 
 Here in the East so well equipped and drilled, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 You well have called me back into the world 
 In which we live for duty's high performance;
 
 260 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XI7. 
 
 Tomorrow I must see that start be made 
 To bring the Fatal Line once more to trial, 
 If it be drawn of Heaven against our cause, 
 Or in ourselves that we the weakling be, 
 Unable to compel our destiny. 
 
 Lamon. 
 That is the note which I have longed to hear, 
 Now think of Mac and drive him to the deed, 
 Be not like him of paralytic Will, 
 Mooding your time away in deedless gloom. 
 Your trusty messenger I would now be 
 To bear the mandate of the hour : "Advance" ! 
 
 Lincoln. 
 You are a little late in that, my friend ; 
 Already I have ordered him to move 
 And break the Fatal Line which ramparts Rich- 
 mond. 
 Here comes a messenger with newest news : 
 Hark ! Mae is off for the Peninsula. 
 Another stage begins of this sad war, 
 One tear I drop again for my lost boy ! 
 My love of him must now rise up to be 
 A new devotion to the Nation. Farewell, Lamon.
 
 mix Jfiftontl^, 
 
 Lincoln at Harrison's Landing. 
 
 Behold now Abraham Lincoln on the Ocean, 
 Swayed up and down and swirled around about 
 By tide and wind and wave tumultuous, 
 As centered mid the warring elements ! 
 The stalwart vessel which is bearing him 
 From the Potomac to the big-mouthed James, 
 Reels storm-smit on the waters to its side, 
 Then straightens up again to meet the blast 
 As if to fight its foe upon its feet, 
 Refusing still to sink when stricken down 
 And halfway buried in the plunging seas. 
 But suddenly the tempest gathers up 
 To concentrated rage the skies above 
 And waves below, and smites trip-hammer-like 
 
 (261)
 
 262 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XV. 
 
 Its topmost thrust upon the tottering craft, 
 As this rolls round the toothed Viginia coast 
 And turns the point where lies Fortress Monroe 
 Into the calmer roadstead of the James. 
 
 But Lincoln braved a mightier storm within 
 
 Than all the roar of Oceanic floods, 
 
 Though he was sidelings tossed in body oft 
 
 By the precipitancy of the boat. 
 
 He pondered what had happened these last months ; 
 
 His hope of victory had been shattered all, 
 
 M 'Clellan 's army had recoiled from Richmond 
 
 Blasting the Nation's grand expectancy. 
 
 And now it lay again inside its lines 
 
 Peacefully lulled as once at Washington, 
 
 Secure behind the gunboats in the river, 
 
 Though foiled of hope and shrinking from attack. 
 
 So Lincoln was come do^Ti to see the troops 
 
 And judge in person of the situation ; 
 
 His voyage raged a tumult of the soul, 
 
 "With gloom of nature clouding the horizon, 
 
 As he bethought himself of the mishaps 
 
 Which had overwhelmed him and the People too, 
 
 Pursuing the high end to save the Nation. 
 
 In all his play of moods one fact would weave 
 
 And drive him to his wonted monologue : 
 
 * ' As now alone I stand upon this deck 
 
 And gaze off yonder up the James,
 
 LINCOLN AT HARRISON'S LANDING. 263 
 
 To where both armies lie with front to front, 
 What is it that I see most prominent, 
 Aye the most real thing within my vision, 
 E 'en if I know it sprung but of myself. 
 Merely an image feigned of mine own mind ? 
 It is that Line again, that Fatal Line 
 Drawn by the compasses of destiny 
 Between the South and North in war enranked, 
 Which erst I saw Virginia's spectre trace. 
 And then to run with blood on Bull Run's field. 
 Here it now winds more deeply rifted stiU 
 Though other be the grim locality ; 
 Behold! it bends and rears and coils around 
 Like some prodigious serpent of old Earth, 
 Whose fell constriction circles our whole land. 
 Crushing it from Ocean East to Ocean West, 
 Till it shall swoon in impotence asunder. 
 Somehow that lissome body serpentine 
 Will keep its place, though folded round about. 
 Ever between the two contending hosts ; 
 If we assail it, then it sways and curves 
 But will not open at a single joint ; 
 Within four miles of Richmond once it bent 
 Beneath our fierce attack, but never broke; 
 And now 'tis lying yonder coiled at ease, 
 Sunning itself after the victory ; 
 But it will roll its spirals up in wrath 
 Impassable for us if we dare try
 
 264 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XV. 
 
 To cross beyond its fiery boundary 
 For seizure of the Southern Capital, 
 "Which it enfolds within its stout-ribbed rings 
 As its own heart of hot secession. ' ' 
 
 Thus Lincoln talking in his self 's debate 
 
 Would hold his inner conferences, 
 
 As his staunch craft kept crawling up the river 
 
 Round many a bay and bend of twisted stream 
 
 Which never failed to prompt his thought 's renewal ; 
 
 "And yet if we cannot transpierce that Line 
 
 We are a nation losing destiny, 
 
 Forever rent to hating halves. 
 
 What can it mean, this trial long and bloody. 
 
 As if to train us to the test supreme 
 
 Of doing the one deed as yet undone ? 
 
 For I cannot believe the Powers quit us. 
 
 Thwarting the time of its unfinished task. 
 
 What is the lacking link in Heaven's chain 
 
 So that we fail to gain our higher goal ? 
 
 That missing part I have to find and mend, " 
 
 Or weakling give myself as conquered. 
 
 Our lot seems knotted in one man — M 'Clellan ! 
 
 As much my problem he has come to be 
 
 As is the war itself here staggering, 
 
 Of whose enigma dread he is the tangle. 
 
 His character, his purposes, his army. 
 
 What are his instincts deeper than he knows,
 
 LINCOLN AT HARRISON'S LANDING. 265 
 
 I voyage hitherward to probe into, 
 
 Though I had thought to glimpse them all before 
 
 Through study of our testing intercourse ; 
 
 This new experience breeds a change in him. 
 
 I tried to push him off from Washington 
 
 For months and months ; he would not budge a step 
 
 Until I bade him start by sheer command 
 
 And took unwillingly myself his place, 
 
 Proverbing that the bottom would drop out 
 
 Unless that army dared its destined deed. 
 
 I hoped to have him break that Fatal Line 
 
 And follow in the "Western wake of triumph 
 
 E'en if the enterprise be here the harder. 
 
 But think it ! after these three months and more, 
 
 That Line lies drawn out yonder just the same. 
 
 Unbroken still at any single joint. 
 
 What means this trial, ye Powers above ? 
 
 Say, is that rifting token stamped of God ? ' ' 
 
 The boat swerved round, as Lincoln outward glanced, 
 And marked the Landing at the river's bend, 
 Called Harrison's where he had planned to moor; 
 And still the problematical M'Clellan 
 He would keep turning over in his mind : 
 "Sometimes I have to think despite myself 
 That Mac loves not our central Washington, 
 And might uncover it of its defence 
 Till I be prisoner or fugitive.
 
 266 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XV. 
 
 He does uot like the rule political, 
 Unless it should be centered in himself 
 Trained to the military consciousness, 
 Somehow he quite ignores our Capital 
 To have the first necessity of life. 
 The European soldiership he types 
 Whose spirit he ingrains to be his own ; 
 The standing army stamped is on his brain, 
 To that all else must be subordinate. 
 Even the Civil Power exists for it. 
 Not outwardly alone in sheen's parade. 
 But inwardly that discipline for war 
 Has reached and overmade his character, 
 Till it will brook nought but itself as final. 
 There flashes on my mind this inference : 
 The training of M'Clellan never can 
 Obliterate yon fatal boundary 
 For it is his, drawn in his brain ; 
 Transcending it, he must transcend himself 
 Which all his acts have shown he cannot do. " 
 His drill is physical, yet more of soul ; 
 The common soldier feels his inner touch 
 Which upward thrills to highest officer, 
 So that they all are fused with him in love 
 From top to bottom of this army whole ; 
 Courageous it has shown itself in fight 
 When it is at defence against the foe ; 
 But it recoils from that offensive stroke
 
 LINCOLN AT HARRISON'S LANDING. 267 
 
 Which means the breach of our fatality. 
 M'Clellan's very self it seems so like 
 As if it were by love insoiiled of him, 
 Without his person quite examinate. 
 Can I dare separate him from that body — " 
 
 But ere he could be answered by himself, 
 
 The boat ground sideiings on the groaning wharf. 
 
 Where he commanded that it should be moored 
 
 And kept in readiness at his disposal. 
 
 But who is that that waits him on the pier ? 
 
 M'Clellan with a gleaming entourage 
 
 Of officers, the jewels of his staff, 
 
 Who flashed their radiance on homely Lincoln 
 
 As he stepped forth untrimmed of personage, 
 
 With looks beridden by his night-mared thought, 
 
 Which told him a much-troubled President, 
 
 E 'en if he tried to sparkle in response 
 
 A care-worn smile and little glints of humor. 
 
 The company moves to M'Clellan's tent 
 
 Through all the forms of war and right parade 
 
 Which showed no droop of soldier's discipline. 
 
 When they arrived and both alone together, 
 
 M'Clellan made reply to Lincoln's query: 
 
 "Outnumbered \ve have fought, yes two to one, 
 
 E 'en more, I think ; and yet despite the odds 
 
 I have retrieved my troops from field of danger, 
 
 And brought them back within the line of safety
 
 268 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XV. 
 
 By my own deed of arms ; I owe uo thanks 
 
 For this success to you of Washington — 
 
 You who have done your best to sacrifice 
 
 This army true to me whose valor thwarts you. ' ' 
 
 Mute Lincoln listened to the words of blame 
 
 And marked their confirmation of his thought, 
 
 But soon he wheeled around to leave the tent 
 
 Saying a word with mien composed 
 
 And tone of judgment's impartiality: 
 
 ' ' Well, I must hear all of the evidence : 
 
 So I shall summon me the officers 
 
 Of high command in this fierce Seven Days ' battle. ' ' 
 
 "Hold your inquiry here," M'Clellan said; 
 
 ' ' Thanks for your courtesy, but I have ready 
 
 My private quarters on the quiet boat," 
 
 Spoke up the President and nodded starting 
 
 Although M'Clellan sorely urged his stay. 
 
 Then Lincoln called the leading Generals 
 
 To testify what they might know and think 
 
 Of the campaign which had turned out so ill. ■ 
 
 They all agreed that this withdrawal strange 
 
 Sprang not of a defeat, nor of a need. 
 
 That they repelled attack successfully ; 
 
 Some said outright they could have taken Richmond 
 
 Within the sight of which they lay a month. 
 
 Then came the sudden order for retreat 
 
 And once to burn the baggage and the trains,
 
 LINCOLN AT HARRISON'S LANDING. 269 
 
 Aye, e'en was mentioned a capitulation 
 
 Though from such scares there was recovery. 
 
 The whole upturned the strangest history. 
 
 No sooner would a given line be touched 
 
 With some smart overflow of energy 
 
 When the rebound would strike in sudden force 
 
 And with it followed a paralysis 
 
 From which the army took no forward step, 
 
 Although the prize hung tempting in their eyes, 
 
 Aye in their reach, so said one General, 
 
 If they would but extend their arm in might ; 
 
 Then Mac became a sudden fugitive, 
 
 And sent his hurried word to Washington 
 
 Announcing great calamity befallen 
 
 With possibility of his surrender. 
 
 But mark the telling counterstroke ! 
 
 Whene'er the foe assailed in turn our ranks, 
 
 He was thrown back with greater loss than ours. 
 
 If he dared touch in fight the line offensive 
 
 He drooped down maimed with sanguinary 
 
 slaughter. 
 From Beaver Dam, Gaines' Mill and White Oak 
 
 Swamp, 
 Up to his last repulse at Malvern Hill. 
 E 'en the most active spirit of the war. 
 Famed Stonewall Jackson felt the electric shock 
 And seemed to lose his bold initiative,
 
 270 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XV. 
 
 When he ran on the bound at Frayser's Farm 
 And drew back to himself unwilled. 
 
 In truth the victory remained with Fate, 
 Both sides had been defeated of their end, 
 If we but look at them in vision whole 
 Which rises to the view of Power supreme; 
 That Fatal Line itself was conqueror 
 Avenging each assault upon its being, 
 Come its assailant from the North or South. 
 Such was the blood-stained oracle again 
 Which Lincoln heard in speech of Generals 
 Who fought through that Peninsular Campaign 
 Deposing to him what they saw and did. 
 
 The oracle was plain enough outside 
 
 And yet some deeper meaning in it couched 
 
 Which Lincoln felt he must find out or die. 
 
 And so at last he calls M'Clellan too. 
 
 Bidding this leader to his boat alone 
 
 That he may have a final conference. 
 
 The little gorgeous General steps up 
 
 In his rank's uniform most exquisite. 
 
 Yet with a drawn disdain upon his lip 
 
 Which hardly moved a word at Lincoln's greeting, 
 
 As he at once reached to the President 
 
 A paper written out at length with care : 
 
 ' ' This will say all that now I have to tell. ' '
 
 LINCOLN AT HARRISON'S LANDING. 271 
 
 So he spake up, then begged to be excused 
 As he had weighty business on his hands. 
 
 The President began to read and ponder, 
 
 "While in an underbreath he self -communed : 
 
 "Ah yes! I understand! how good my luck! 
 
 Here is a document political 
 
 For my perusal handed me by Mac ! 
 
 Not military, which is his domain, 
 
 He pays me back for trenching on what 's his 
 
 Or what he deems his own by right divine. 
 
 He tells me all about the policy 
 
 "Which I should follow in my civil acts; 
 
 Its tone is somewhat dictatorial 
 
 As if my duty better than myself 
 
 He knew, and would prescribe it me aright. 
 
 Polite enough and yet impertinent — 
 
 It shows he has in mind this place of mine, 
 
 And thinks on my affairs more than his own, 
 
 Not soldiership seems here his first ambition, 
 
 I knew he had such hankering before. 
 
 And yet I thought if he were once away 
 
 From party intrigues of the Capital 
 
 He might show forth his better self — but no ! 
 
 And yet here lies no danger to our cause, 
 
 As he is impotent without success, 
 
 Failure is not the soldier's path to power. 
 
 Retreat he cannot to supremacy.
 
 272 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XV. 
 
 Indeed I 'm glad he wrote me this advice, 
 
 It shows a weakness I must remedy ; 
 
 A leader he will be political 
 
 And starts with a pronouncement to his own 
 
 More than to me, as I see into it. 
 
 And a still deeper lesson I can draw : 
 
 He writes the Fatal Line within himself, 
 
 More plain I see it now than e 'er before, 
 
 He cannot pass it here and go to Richmond, 
 
 Not if his re-inforcement be threefold. 
 
 For he must overcome himself to do it ; 
 
 Such feat of self -transcendence is not his. 
 
 So I shall take this army from the James, 
 
 And start it over in a new advance, 
 
 And with a leader new brought from the West 
 
 "Where no such breach infects the soldier's soul. 
 
 And still I feel the peril of the act — 
 
 To break the bond of love between these troops 
 
 And their commander whom they still adore. 
 
 Although he w^ill not fight but on retreat. 
 
 This mystery of military love 
 
 Baffles me — yet 'tis the universal tie — 
 
 And little Mac has made it all his own, 
 
 Stamping it on the very consciousness 
 
 Of every blue-coat serving under him 
 
 In these trained months of steady discipline. 
 
 would that I might catch from him the secret. 
 
 Transferring to the President's best right
 
 LZA^OOLJV AT HARRISON'S LANDING. 273 
 
 That fire which melts these hearts of soldiery, 
 But which M'Clellan kindles for himself!" 
 Here Lincoln rose in longing agitation, 
 He paced the deck and looked out on the sea, 
 And sighed to watch its boundless vacancy. 
 Then swept his glance back to the shore 's hard limit. 
 
 The little vessel meanwhile had begun 
 
 To puff its steamy breath full heavily. 
 
 Ready to breast again the Ocean's wrath 
 
 As Lincoln's face relaxed to short relief: 
 
 ' ' I see now what I have to do with Mac : 
 
 He will assert the line against the foe. 
 
 But he will never pass it with his forces, 
 
 In him that lies not, nor in this army, . 
 
 As long as at its head he has the sway ; 
 
 So that my resolution gleams to this : 
 
 I shall supplant him, for he can 't advance ; 
 
 But if disaster drives us to defence 
 
 And to maintain the line against attack, 
 
 Mac is the man, good fortune crowns him there. 
 
 The master of his huge machine of war. 
 
 Just now the rebels over yonder shrink 
 
 To grapple with that soul-drawn Line of Fate, 
 
 Which he himself in turn dares not transgress ; 
 
 Such is his strength and limit of his strength, 
 
 Such is their strength and limit of their strength. 
 
 Both of these sides stand out alike in this :
 
 274 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK ZV. 
 
 Both are clinched fast in fixed Destiny, 
 
 And dare not move beyond her bound laid down. 
 
 But ah! that means the separation won, 
 
 It seals the triumph of Disunion. 
 
 But that is what I shall not yield, 
 
 And so again I challenge Fate itself 
 
 To meet me in this wrestle for supremacy; 
 
 Though I be tumbled by it in my grave 
 
 I shall defy it to the utter test 
 
 Till one or both be sent to last account. 
 
 The battle of all battles in this war 
 
 The furious headlong combat desperate, 
 
 "Which keeps renewed again and still again, 
 
 I see it well, its wild contorted rages, 
 
 It sways between me and that Fatal Line, 
 
 Which still Virginia draws upon her soil 
 
 As once her spectre with it circled me ; 
 
 That fiend I have to sabre now in twain 
 
 Or else be crunched to death within its jaws. 
 
 Such is the one long duel of my life 
 
 In which this Nation's death I must destroy 
 
 Though it may grip me in the very deed. ' ' 
 
 Meanwhile the boat had swung out to the sea 
 Passing beyond the view of narrowed James, 
 On the return to sovereign "Washington ; 
 An Ocean breeze blew smiling out the sky 
 And soothed the President's hot furrowed brow
 
 LINCOLN AT HARRISON'S LANDING. 275 
 
 As off into the Future's blue-lit haze 
 
 He flung some prying glances well ahead : 
 
 ' ' Yes, I shall shift this Line which keeps so fixed 
 
 Just here around the hostile Capital 
 
 Into some other place of luck, I hope, 
 
 That we may start once more to wage its breach, 
 
 "Which is the blood-sprent prize of all this duel. 
 
 And yet the deeper question must come up : 
 
 This year's vast loss topped out with grim reverse. 
 
 Whose poignancy makes quiver every nerve, 
 
 What does it mean, what does it say to me. 
 
 To all the Nation, from the throne above ? 
 
 M'Clellan in his failures and his faults 
 
 Is but a means for something greater planned, 
 
 An instrument is he — and so am I — 
 
 In hand of Higher Power dirigent 
 
 Unto His end, not ours, which oft I pray 
 
 To know, that I might help the First Designer ; 
 
 In all our errors and this waste of blood 
 
 I would detect the clouded goal supernal ; 
 
 I feel that under discipline we cry 
 
 To Heaven — but for what ? and to what end ? 
 
 I query oft, what signifies this Line 
 
 From which M'Clellan quails at the mere touch ; 
 
 General though he be, out-generaled 
 
 He is at first by Lee and then by Heaven ; 
 
 And yet Lee flinches too just at this crossing, 
 
 Where over both stands the one Conqueror,
 
 276 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XV. 
 
 Whom still I have to conquer, else be fated. 
 But oh ! this world of men, this dismal world 
 Appeareth to me now M'Clellan's world 
 With Fatal Line enringed everywhere; 
 And God Himself, the Ruler over all, 
 Seems to become one vast M'Clellan too 
 As the last sovereign of the Universe." 
 
 Whereat high Lincoln shrank down in a seat 
 
 As crushed to nothingness by his own thought, 
 
 Which fell an iron sledge upon his brain ; 
 
 But swooning through his zero he uprose 
 
 Taller to meet his task than e 'er before ; 
 
 Thus he bespoke afresh his newer soul : 
 
 ' ' That Fatal Line doth lie in me myself, 
 
 And in the People too — I see it now — 
 
 It thwarts us in ourselves from the beginning. 
 
 First I must tear it out of mine own self 
 
 Ere I can work such miracle for others ; 
 
 Imbedded in the Law and Constitution 
 
 It lurks from starting of the Government. 
 
 But all the more I must remove its curse 
 
 From out the Nation 's wonted consciousness ; 
 
 Then ours, me thinks, will perch glad victory 
 
 Sent down to us by the world's overlord 
 
 Who now averts his help and sympathy, 
 
 And makes the foe's success our punishment 
 
 If we advance to drive them from their stronghold.
 
 LINCOLN AT HARRISON'S LANDING. 277 
 
 And yet I must re-think the self-same trait 
 
 Is stamped upon our adversaries too ; 
 
 They are whelmed back again from all assault, 
 
 If they but dare advance upon the limit. 
 
 The blue and gray show quite alike therein ; 
 
 Each quails recoiling from the Fatal Line 
 
 "Which blazes up a Hell to either side, 
 
 Whichever of them undertakes to cross it. 
 
 So Richmond cannot come to Washington, 
 
 And Washington in turn cannot reach Richmond: 
 
 They stand apart and glare in impotence 
 
 Across the wall w^hich neither can transcend. 
 
 is that wall built by the hand of God 
 
 And so forbidden to us both on high ! 
 
 Two answers have been given by the deed : 
 
 The East says yes, but hark ! the West says no. 
 
 If we may take the action as the word. 
 
 And I say no, it is not Heaven 's work 
 
 But is self-made our own infernal pit 
 
 Into whose chasm this Nation threats to fall. 
 
 But I am not to let it though I sink. 
 
 That Fatal Line itself I shall now grip, 
 
 And slay the fiend which rives our country twain. ' ' 
 
 The early morn was idling on the boat 
 Which cut its way through billows of the river 
 While in the distant sky an outline dawned 
 Which rounded soon into the Capitol,
 
 278 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XV. 
 
 Lincoln was looking homeward from the deck 
 As it would swim along Potomac's ripples, 
 When he beheld uprise the Nation's seat 
 Enthroned in sheen of new transparency: 
 ' ' I see it now, the world grows out to daylight ; 
 That Fatal Line which I must clinch as death 
 Is slavery dividing North and South ; 
 It is the wall of fire which I must pass 
 Myself by might of will as President, 
 Though it be fortressed in our Constitution, 
 And after me lead o'er it all my army. 
 Marching across it, through it breached to frag- 
 ments. 
 Until beneath the tread of soldiery 
 It shall be trampled out all time to come 
 The People willing thus with me their Will. ' ' 
 
 Already had the vessel neared the wharf 
 When Lincoln's eager eye was dazzled shut 
 By the almighty glare of sunlit strength 
 Shot from the Capitol's unfinished dome; 
 Whereat he whispered in himself a prayer 
 To his Creator lipped in fervency 
 That he would smite with all his power of office 
 The Fatal Line dividing slave from freeman : 
 ' ' Hear me, God, to thee I throb my vow. 
 The duty long deferred by policy 
 I shall outfill it full in nearest time,
 
 LINCOLN AT HARRISON'S LANDING. 279 
 
 For thou dost bid me by thy potent Presence : 
 
 Emancipation is the word divine 
 
 To which I voice the human utterance ; 
 
 I promise thee from broken mellowed heart, 
 
 Which speaks contrition mine and all the People's, 
 
 Our freedom 's fatal bound I shall undo 
 
 When I may hear as thine the moment come. ' '
 
 i00h Sktetntl^, 
 
 The South's Resurgence, 
 
 The President. 
 I have come over to you, Mr. Secretary, to hear 
 the latest news of the long battle which seems to 
 be raging all the way between here and Richmond. 
 Then you know I never fail to be instructed by 
 your view of the situation, even if I may not be 
 able to follow it. 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 Yes, I am well aware that you are too tender- 
 hearted for a war like this. You will revoke my 
 stern but necessary orders, and pardon black 
 criminals whom I would hang or shoot. 
 
 The President. 
 I grant that you are a very needful man to me 
 for tempering my too lenient, perhaps too flabby 
 (280)
 
 THE SOUTH' S RESURGEXCE. ogl 
 
 disposition. I hope that when our acts are brought 
 before Time's judgment-seat, they may be de- 
 cided to be a right happy admixture of those two 
 opposing virtues, Justice and Mercy. 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 I am the old Roman : Fiat justicia, ruat coelum. 
 Titanic old Latin words of the inflexible law, four 
 of them but enough. I eat them daily to tone my- 
 self up with the iron of their Will, which I would 
 put into my heart 's blood. I shall not say them in 
 English, they sound too weak and too many. 
 
 The President. 
 
 I think I understand, though my Latin be 
 shaky — you are yourself their translation, and I 
 believe a matchless one. Still as for me I do not 
 want the Heavens to break down over our heads 
 in consequence of Justice — for what would then 
 become of Justice herself? Now I am tempted to 
 cite you in counterplay, after the fashion of a par- 
 rot, four other Latin words M^hich I have repeat- 
 edly come upon in my legal reading: Summum 
 jus, summa injuria. Translate them for me not 
 only into words but into life, my altogether just 
 friend. 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 I see what you are squinting at again — M'Clel- 
 lan. My damnation of him holds, I shall not yield,
 
 282 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVI. 
 
 I shall issue no order for his restoration to com- 
 mand — let worst come to worst. 
 
 The President. 
 There you are again. But see with an all-in- 
 clusive eye the lowering situation. After a seven 
 days' bloody fight, and a hundred days' writheing 
 campaign, we have recoiled from Richmond — 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 Within sight of whose spires M'Clellan lay a 
 month, and no positive blow struck. 
 
 The President. 
 
 I have been studying the man, the army, and my- 
 self on the ground. Between his side and the 
 rebel Capital the Fatal Line was drawn ; he could 
 not prick a bayonet into it without a strange con- 
 vulsion in his own soul, as if he were somehow a 
 part of the organism which he was assailing. And 
 not he alone — 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 Your imagination is tricking you again, prod- 
 ded by that unruled sympathy of yours. There is 
 no such Line. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Indeed ! no such Line ! When he and his troops, 
 pushing forward in fight would touch it with the 
 tips of their soldier shoes, then would come a
 
 THE SOUTH'S RESURGENCE. 283 
 
 shock and a recoil, which would not only stop but 
 startle him, yea would frighten him as if it were 
 some supernatural warning sent from above not 
 to transgress that bound. 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 Crass cussedness in him, if not treason. I see 
 that you are trying to defend him. Recollect that 
 I shall not — no, I shall not — I shall resign — 
 
 The President. 
 
 Hold there! Mark, I am trying to understand 
 M'Clellan — that I have to do both for his sake 
 and ours. I must know what he can and cannot 
 perform. "Well, here comes Seward, with whom I 
 have promised to take a thoughtful promenade. 
 Goodbye, my invaluable help — but reflect a little 
 on Mercy. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 (Enters.) Shall we not go in and have a chat 
 with Stanton? I think he needs a little toning up 
 — or perchance down. 
 
 The President. 
 He and I have just had our lesson to-day, which 
 is enough for once. "We all are in the midst of a 
 mighty resurgence of the Confederacy, whose 
 troops, having hit ours some hard blows, came also 
 to a standstill. Down at Harrison's Landing I
 
 284 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK ZVI. 
 
 saw the two opponents as they stood staring at 
 each other in paralytic wonder, neither side daring 
 to touch the other in attack. But the enemy, 
 elated that they had pushed the constricting ser- 
 pent's coil from their Capital's door, resolve to 
 search some weaker jDoint to breach. The daring 
 Jackson starts down the Shenandoah Valley, driv- 
 ing our blue-coated weakness before him, and 
 flails it into so much chaff wind-blown, chilling 
 Washington to shivers of terror lest he pounce 
 down on us here. Look at it — the dome of yon 
 Capitol seems still to be quaking. Meantime we 
 quit the Peninsula, and Lee, released from guard, 
 trains his exultant legions Northward, till they 
 reach Manassas where a second time a bloody bat- 
 tle is fought along the same Fatal Line — Great 
 God, what can it all portend? 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 "Well do I recall that hour a little more than a 
 year ago, when we took a similar walk around the 
 city and shared in the rush and consternation of 
 the fugitives. Not so disorderly is the flight now, 
 but bad enough, and possibly more dangerous than 
 then. The enemy are in better condition and more 
 aggressive. But the main query is, Will the peo- 
 ple rise again to the support of the government, as 
 they have already done twice with the most lavish
 
 THE SOUTH' S RESURGENCE. 285 
 
 outpour of their money, of their blood, and of their 
 faith in the cause? They are on trial even more 
 than we, their feeble instruments. 
 
 The President. 
 "We shall see, for I shall appeal to them again: 
 I believe they will respond, I at least trust in them. 
 But that ominous Line, blood-bespattered and 
 swaying from place to place in many sinuosities, 
 but never broken, still keeps winding through my 
 vision as the very Satan shutting us out of our 
 Eden of hope. Seward, do you not see it over 
 yonder in Virginia, circling in many a coil between 
 us and the advancing foe, and lashing its wake 
 into ensanguined foam, like the fabled sea-ser- 
 pent ? 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 No, I have not that gift of sight, I may call it 
 second sight. Still, I do not deny that the Fatal 
 Line of which you speak, begins to hover before 
 my mind as a shadowy fact. I recollect when it 
 first seemed to slide into your brain with no little 
 energy ; that was when we had conversed with the 
 one panic-proof soldier of the first battle of Bull 
 Eun, who unwittingly told you the great secret. 
 Yet it is getting to be a secret open to every eye 
 that can take a providential glimpse.
 
 286 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XYI. 
 
 The President. 
 Very vivid darts that memory still. But what 
 impresses me most now is the recurrence, yea the 
 repeated recurrence of that Fatal Line here in 
 your East. It seems to be drawn again and again 
 by the Upper Powers to admonish us. I have told 
 you how it flashed upon me, crimsoned afresh with 
 many battles, at Harrison's Landing. And now it 
 rises up with strangely new emphasis on the very 
 same spot where it first appeared. Forward are 
 pressing victoriously our foes; can they be halted 
 at that same limit, as they always have been hith- 
 erto? That is now our problem. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 Evidently the new general called from the West 
 cannot perform the task. Whose is the fault? It 
 is difficult to say. At any rate General Pope is 
 unable to re-establish the Line, in fact he has given 
 up the job. Who can? 
 
 The President. 
 
 That is the pinching issue at this moment. The 
 new head set on the old body of the Potomac 
 army cannot govern it ; organism and brain- work 
 do not agree, but revolt against each other, or at 
 least refuse hearty co-operation. That method 
 will not serve, at least not now. Seward, I must
 
 THE SOUTH' S RESURGENCE. 287 
 
 put back the old head on the old body ere it be 
 too late; there is no other way of meeting the 
 press of the crisis, which closes us m its vice just 
 now. M'Clellan is the spirit which informs that 
 body ever^^where, now but a vast disorganized mass 
 of flesh without his controlling presence. Say 
 what you please, he alone has power to direct its 
 members to fresh effort, after gathering it up from 
 its awful sprawl where it lies all quashed out into 
 a kind of human pulp outwardly and what is 
 worse, inwardly — ruleless, headless, godless as if 
 smitten by Heaven's thunderbolts. So on that 
 beheaded trunk I have to clap the head which I 
 lately snipped off. Mac can restore the machine 
 now broken or breaking at every joint. The su- 
 preme fact is that he has the army's confidence, 
 aye their love ; no other man has that or can get it, 
 for it is not a bauble to be picked up anywhere on 
 the road. Alas, I have it not, and I must take the 
 leader who has. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 Hazardous to the last degree, but we are grind- 
 ing in the mill of the Gods, and it is whizzing at 
 top of its speed. But if you re-appoint him, what 
 next? And if he re-shapes his shattered troops, 
 will he then fight — or parade and drill, ever call- 
 ing for more and more? Dubious, dubious.
 
 288 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVI. 
 
 The President. 
 
 All that I have anxiously weighed for many 
 hours — even the whole night. I shall tell you how 
 I figure the future just crashing on us. Mac will 
 fight if attacked, and his army will too, with vigor 
 - — a quality which we have not seen in these recent 
 days. At present a successful defensive battle is 
 our first desperate need, for Lee is crossing the 
 Potomac into Maryland, and must be met at once. 
 He on his side is assailing the Fatal Line — can he 
 break through it? Right at that point Mac can 
 foil him, I believe ; so much he showed at least on 
 the Peninsula. Then I feel like giving him another 
 chance. He may have learned somewhat by his 
 adversity — the best school. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 His appointment will not be well received by 
 your best friends. They know too much about his 
 treatment of you, his open disparagement, his in- 
 subordination, yea his secret ambition. Stanton 
 will resign, I am afraid. 
 
 The President. 
 
 I dare say he will not. Still what you speak of 
 I know and have keenly felt. But I must at pres- 
 ent submerge my personal feelings, and even the 
 wrongs done me in the past, and regard only the
 
 THE SOUTH' S RESURGENCE. 289 
 
 Nation's emergency, which pivots just now upon 
 this decision. I am aware that my whole Cabinet 
 will disapprove my act, you possibly excepted — 
 some thinking Mae's re-appointment worse than a 
 defeat or the greatest defeat of all. My party 
 friends will be dismayed; many newspapers will 
 asperse me, my opponents only approving with an 
 ironical sneer. Still it is the single thing to be 
 done in this sudden criss-cross of fate; Mac the 
 organizer, the defender, I must have without a 
 day's delay. Here is the order for his re-instate- 
 ment. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 But what next? Our side can never win by a 
 mere defensive victory. The Union divides right 
 on the line of defense and offense, it is your Fatal 
 Line. 
 
 The President. 
 
 True enough; but we shall first wait for the 
 future to turn present. I shall keep Mac under 
 close eyesight ; I shall put a halter around his 
 neck and keep hold of it so that he feels its twitch. 
 At the same time I shall let him understand that I 
 am still his friend, and that I alone have saved him 
 for another opportunity to redeem himself, though 
 his egotism whisper of me: "he could not help 
 himself." "Well, that is not so far from truth.
 
 290 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVI. 
 
 Mae has little power of self-criticism, he cannot 
 say peccavi, and then from such confession start 
 on a new career; so I shall have to say it for him 
 and to him, as I do so often for myself. But his 
 mysterious greatness is the power of rousing love 
 in such a vast multitude of hearts; I wonder at 
 this divine gift of his, I would envy it if I dared, 
 and appropriate it if I could. But I must utilize 
 it for the Nation's sake right here, and for his too, 
 I hope. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 Therein you are yourself again ; nobody but you 
 w^ould appreciate that strange love of the soldiery 
 at your valuation. I have heard you say something 
 of the sort before; it has dominated your view of 
 M'Clellan, and made you cling to him in spite of 
 his notorious short-comings. You love the army's 
 love of LI'Clellan more than you love the man him- 
 self; and now you stake chiefly upon that in the 
 imminent battle. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Certainly, I deem that love our present salva- 
 tion. If it were not, I fear we would be lost. In 
 a few days he will fuse the refractory and dispir- 
 ited army with personal devotion, and mold it into 
 new shape for its task. Yes, I believe in love, in 
 the smallest genuine particle of it, as God is love.
 
 THE SOUTH' S RESURGENCE. 291 
 
 the all-creative and all-upholding- in man and in 
 the world. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 And so even in little Mae. Success to his divine 
 spark in the forthcoming trial of arms. But see 
 where he comes on the moment. I shall slip off and 
 leave you two alone, since here is the "White-House 
 to which we have wandered back from our prome- 
 nade. The Lord be with you both.
 
 292 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVI. 
 
 Lincoln {alone). 
 
 ' ' There was a look of heartiness unwonted 
 
 Upon his unlit military face: 
 
 M'Clellan's hope just lightened once his eyes 
 
 As he received his fresh authority, 
 
 Which I have put into his hands again 
 
 In disregard of my advisers here; 
 
 Still I obey the counsel of myself 
 
 Which whispers me its mandate ultimate; 
 
 And then the Presence came with its impression 
 
 Sealing the edict M'hich I heard within, 
 
 With its last proof unworded and unseen. 
 
 I felt the promise of its visitation: 
 
 So now the People add their vast response 
 
 To my new call to them to send me troops. 
 
 I know that Mac was glad to be restored. 
 
 And 5^et he said he felt his neck was haltered 
 
 And I by silence emphasized the word 
 
 That he cognize the rule above himself 
 
 Which he had sometimes held his underling. 
 
 Yet he is greater than myself just now, 
 
 I would not tell him though I know it well, 
 
 He turns the axis of our destiny; 
 
 He has the government at his own will. 
 
 Mightier than he ever was before 
 
 Though he commanded once the entire army;
 
 THE SOUTH' S RESURGENCE. 293 
 
 The Nation's lot is his to make or mar 
 
 This week it may be, or this month or more, 
 
 Until the outcome of the neariug battle. 
 
 Somehow I do forefeel his victory, 
 
 The foes too have defied the Fatal Line, 
 
 But it is theirs in fact as well as ours, 
 
 They cannot cross it any more than we. 
 
 Yea, 'tis the South 's more deeply than the North's: 
 
 So I forecast repulse for their transgression. 
 
 M'Clellan too will halt just there, I fear. 
 
 As he has done before at that dread Line 
 
 Wliich seems engraved upon his very soul; 
 
 Then he will drop to what he was, alas ! 
 
 Powerless to advance one step beyond. 
 
 Clutched by his inner fate with demon 's grip. 
 
 But hold ! I run ahead of mine own plan : 
 If we hurl back the legions of the foe 
 Till they retreat across Potomac's bound, 
 So that we win the name of victory 
 E'en if it be but a defensive one. 
 On mine own part I too shall take a step 
 Forward to what I deem the epoch's height. 
 I shall speak forth the word Emancipation 
 And so wipe out that mortal difference 
 Breaching so long the Slave States and the Free, 
 And will the country whole make free and one, 
 Through fiat of my liberating office.
 
 294 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XTI. 
 
 Mucli have I meditated on the act, 
 
 And still must balance me a little while 
 
 Upon the edge of keen expectancy 
 
 Till the right news rounds out the hope fulfilled." 
 
 Thus Lincoln to himself reiterated 
 
 The promise which already he had vowed 
 
 To God in his strong heart-scourged supplication, 
 
 Only astay to clinch the opportunity 
 
 Which was to shine in the first victory. 
 
 But as he lapsed into his musing mood. 
 
 He felt the impress of that upper sanction 
 
 Which breathed him courage for his greatest deed. 
 
 To turn an aeon of all History. 
 
 While on him gleamed that higher confirmation, 
 
 He heard a shout pierce through his revery : 
 
 "Antietam's battle has been fought and won."
 
 laah Stb^tttentl^, 
 
 The Second Proclamation, 
 
 The President. 
 
 I wish a full Cabinet to-day, since the step we 
 are taking will be the axis of the war, if not of the 
 century. Some members are still absent, so per- 
 mit me to read a passage from this clever book of 
 humor. (He reads, all laugh hut one.) 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 I can see nothing funny in that — I feel too much 
 burdened by my crushing duties — and I am har- 
 rowed by the agonies of this writhing Nation. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Just of that I would find for you and me a mo- 
 ment's respite. I know that some people take ex- 
 ception to my safety-valve of too much emotion. 
 
 (295)
 
 296 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVII. 
 
 But such a passage drives off my devil melancholy, 
 who obscures my vision of the future just when I 
 wish to see distinctly. That sheen of playful 
 humor pierces the vapors of my brooding soul and 
 clears my intellect for an outlook upon what is 
 and is to be. Of such clarification more than ever 
 before I am in need right now. So it is with us 
 all, I think. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 I confess this medicine does me some good, but 
 not so much. Still every man has a right to fight 
 his own demons after his own fashion, even if cer- 
 tain classic reporters will say of your humor again 
 as they have already said: Behold Nero fiddling 
 while Eome is burning. 
 
 The President. 
 Well, it is my way of putting to flight the Dragon 
 when he eclipses the sun and cuts off the light for 
 my vision of the Higher Powers. But enough of 
 this matter; I see that we are all arrived. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 No one missing for the supreme assault. 
 
 The President. 
 
 This is the third time I have conferred with you 
 on the subject of my Proclamation for Emancipa- 
 tion. We laid it aside, in accord with the wise sug-
 
 THE SECOND PROCLAMATION. 297 
 
 gestion of the Secretary of State, that we should 
 wait till we could re-inforee it by a victory. That 
 victory has just been won at Antietam, the enemy 
 have been driven out of Maryland, and have fallen 
 back behind their old lines. I wish their defeat 
 could have been more decisive. But doubtless just 
 that incompleteness is a sign that we must take a 
 new departure. I kept my own counsel, but I 
 made a vow to my God that I would strike the first 
 blow for an emanicipated Union, when the foe had 
 retreated. You know what the instrument is al- 
 ready ; I do not call you together for advice on the 
 main matter, I am resolved. But suggestions about 
 expression or minor points I would gladly have. 
 You are aware that I have been waiting a good 
 while for this pivotal moment, which turns now 
 upon me, and I must act for all time. So I decree 
 the freedom of the Slaves by fiat of executive au- 
 thority as a war measure for the preservation of 
 the Union. 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 It almost takes my breath away. I have been 
 known, I might say branded, as the abolitionist of 
 the Cabinet ; I wished to strike at slavery from the 
 start as the core of our disease; I supported Fre- 
 mont and Hunter in their military pronouncements 
 of Emancipation ; but this far outstrips anything 
 I had conceived in my most unruly dream.
 
 298 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVII. 
 
 The President. 
 Something has to be done and that quickly; we 
 are at the parting of the ways, and we must strike 
 into the new road; the old plan of restoring the 
 Union simply as it was, has been threshed out to 
 its last rag and must be transcended — unfolded 
 into a Union preserved indeed, but enfranchised. 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 On the whole my choice would be to let this work 
 be done by the military commanders, each in his 
 own department and somewhat in his own way, 
 according to the emergency. The present method 
 seems too sudden, too overwhelming, perhaps too 
 indiscriminate; then I would not except the frac- 
 tions of States mentioned in the document which 
 still leave so many plague-spots behind and be- 
 tween. I believe in the thing but I question the 
 method. It is a military act; let the soldier do it, 
 not the civil power. 
 
 The President. 
 
 I may be permitted to remind you that the Pres- 
 ident is also a soldier in this war, indeed the chief 
 one constitutionally. I see that you still approve 
 your approval of Fremont and Hunter. That is 
 certainly consistent.
 
 THE SECOND PROCLAMATION. 299 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 Such would be my way at any rate, if I were 
 dealing with this crisis, and I hold it to be the 
 only right way. 
 
 The President. 
 Let me make just here a frank confession to you 
 all, I believe that there are others who might 
 perform this supreme act better than myself. If 
 I could find such a man and knew of any lawful 
 way to put him in my place, I would turn it over 
 to him gladly. But I have no knowledge of any 
 such person, and if I had, I could not transfer to 
 him my office with its sworn responsibility. I have 
 reflected on this matter long and intently, at times 
 despairingly. Often the voice comes to me from 
 without and from within : you are not the man. 
 But here I am, and I shall have to stick, doing the 
 best I know how. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 Harbor no such thoughts, Mr. President ; if you 
 could get out, M'e would have to put you back — 
 just you. Before these gentlemen, let me distinctly 
 affirm my mature conviction : you are the best of 
 us all. I shall go further and state what I believe 
 future generations will acclaim: of the many mil- 
 lions of us you are the only one —
 
 SOO LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVII. 
 
 The President. 
 Enough of that, my dear friend ; your apprecia- 
 tion does me good, even if I am not now seeking 
 an office but rather the opposite. However I shall 
 seize this opportunity to enforce another fixed pur- 
 pose of mine. It is this : the supreme act of liber- 
 ation must come through the highest civil func- 
 tionary, not through a subordinate military of- 
 ficer. It should be the crowning deed of political 
 authority, subsuming under itself all the powers 
 of war. I hold myself very watchful upon this 
 point, perhaps sensitive. The State cannot af- 
 ford to let a soldier, even the greatest, perform the 
 highest work of the government which he is to obey. 
 Already I have told you that I cannot resign my 
 Presidential function to another, be he civilian or 
 soldier. Already they prophesy abroad and even 
 here at home the rise of the military despotism, the 
 overthrow of the rule of laws by the rule of arms, 
 whose beginning might be a general's manifesto of 
 freedom, which therefore hangs on his arbitrary 
 will. Such a manifesto cannot be permitted — at 
 least not till a dictator has stepped into my shoes 
 and is wielding my pen at the White-House. 
 
 Attorney General. 
 
 The true doctrine legally as well as patriotically. 
 We all are aware how rife has been the talk of a
 
 THE SECOND PROCLAMATION. 301 
 
 dictatorship in the army, especially here in the 
 East, and we have felt the dangerous spirit which 
 keeps spreading such reports, as if they were 
 nursed alive from headquarters. 
 
 The President. 
 
 I suppose you know the example which I have 
 made of such a spirit among the army officers, who 
 would allow their troops to be defeated for political 
 reasons of their own. If I have one fixed resolu- 
 tion it is this : our government in its present strug- 
 gle shall not pass through the iron grip of a 
 Caesar, a Cromwell, a Napoleon, or any autocrat 
 begotten of civil war, such as we have seen spring 
 up repeatedly in Europe. Just that fact I am go- 
 ing to stamp upon history as one great difference 
 between the old world and the new. As an instru- 
 ment of force, the army is of European birth and 
 organization, and in the land of its origin it has 
 often seized the State as its own; we on our side 
 have been compelled to invoke that same monstrous 
 giant of force, but we intend to keep him in his 
 place. Such was the deepest reason, though not 
 the only one, for recalling the proclamations of 
 Fremont and Hunter — generals playing the mil- 
 itary autocrat and usurping supreme political 
 functions. And I have had to warn several other 
 military gentlemen with political aspirations not
 
 302 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVII. 
 
 to attempt anything of the kind. Hitherto the 
 task has not been hard, as all these generals have 
 failed to win any decisive success in the field, 
 without which no great usurpation is possible. In- 
 deed my prayer has rather been that some of them 
 or even one of them would gain such an over- 
 whelming victory that there might be some peril 
 of his becoming dictator. Such a dangerous gen- 
 eral I have actually been hunting for in our army 
 here along the Potomac. But I cannot beat up such 
 big game. 
 
 No ! As the head of the civil and military de- 
 partments of this Nation under the Law, I alone 
 am the one empowered to issue this Proclamation, 
 the supreme National act of the present war. 
 Moreover it is mine constitutionally to meet in 
 advance any turn toward dictatorship, be it mil- 
 itary or civil — a man in blue or black. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 I wish to say that I am in favor of Emancipa- 
 tion as a principle, and I have always been in favor 
 of it; I sought to bring it about in Missouri, when 
 I resided in that State. Still I question its ex- 
 pediency just now; it will alienate the Union ele- 
 ment in the border Slave-States already sorely 
 tried, and if they turn to secession, the scale now 
 balancing will almost surely tip against us, I fear.
 
 THE SECOND PROCLAMATION. 303 
 
 Then it will lose us the coming fall elections in 
 many of the Free-States — several governors, and 
 possibly the National House of Representatives. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Those are certainly points to be considered, and 
 I assure you that I have considered them long and 
 anxiously. Loss there will be, but the greater gain. 
 Moreover those border Slave-States will not now 
 go over to rebellion for the sake of slavery; they 
 might have done so a year ago — I believe they 
 would, hence my very tender treatment of them at 
 the start. They have a hard problem and peculiar 
 to themselves, which may be stated thus: Choose 
 ye between preservation of the Union and loss of 
 slavery, or loss of the Union and preservation of 
 slavery. I have hitherto tried to preserve both, 
 but it cannot be done, and I have given them warn- 
 ing that I would lay a strong hand on slavery, if 
 necessary. I believe that they have made their 
 choice. Besides, with arms in the hand, and once 
 in the fight, they will not throw away their means 
 of defence. In the recent invasion the Maryland- 
 ers did not flock to the Confederates who expected 
 them in large numbers ; the same report comes from 
 Kentucky which did not receive Bragg 's liberation 
 from the Northern tyrant very enthusiastically. I 
 have counted the cost; the opposition will abuse
 
 304 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE H0V8E—B00K XVII. 
 
 US anyhow, and probably make some gains. That 
 would have happened without the Proclamation, 
 on account of our recent reverses. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 I wish to re-iterate that I believe in this meas- 
 ure; my doubt is about the present time as aus- 
 picious for such a far-reaching departure ; I would 
 hold back for a better moment. 
 
 The President. 
 Aside from expediency there has risen and is 
 pressing the question of eternal right, which is now, 
 in my view, enforced by the Supernal Powers. I 
 repeat that I have taken oath that if the Divine 
 Will manifested itself in the approaching conflict 
 by a victorj^ I would regard it not only as a sign 
 but as a command to move forward to the next 
 great station of our cause, that of Emancipation. 
 For me at least this act has been determined by an 
 influence greater than I am, and now I prepare to 
 fulfil my pledge. So I have called you together 
 not to decide this matter, for it has been decreed 
 by a Power higher than we are, but to help me im- 
 prove its effectiveness in one way or another. I 
 would have it as perfect as possible in utterance. 
 
 Attorney General. 
 I give my heartiest assent to this new action of 
 yours, Mr. President, I deem it just, necessary and
 
 THE SECOND PROCLAMATION. 305 
 
 also timely, though I come from a border Slave- 
 State and represent the same in this Cabinet. As 
 I have to be a man of exact speech, I would like to 
 hear you read the wording of it again, to try if I 
 may catch up any legal flaws. 
 
 The President. 
 
 You have all had copies of the Proclamation and 
 doubtless have pondered deeply its words and 
 their meaning. Let me read, however, the pivotal 
 sentences of the instrument: 
 
 "Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President 
 of the United States, by virtue of the power vested 
 in me as Commander-in-chief of the army and 
 navy of the United States, in time of actual armed 
 rebellion against the government and authority of 
 the United States, and as a fit and necessary war 
 measure for suppressing said rebellion, do order 
 and declare that all persons held as slaves within 
 said rebellious States and parts of States are, and 
 henceforward shall be free." 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 I would like to interject a word just there. This 
 Presidential edict ends slavery not only in the 
 United States, but in all America, and finally in 
 the world. The backward peoples will no longer 
 be enslaved by the more civilized man, even if they 
 have to be put under his training. "With such an
 
 306 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVII. 
 
 utterance of freedom, civilization turns a new cor- 
 ner, and strikes into a fresh road. The "World's 
 History will hereafter call this one of her chief 
 nodes. 
 
 The President. 
 
 After that I suppose you may not want to hear 
 the rest. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 I wish to add that I advise the immediate is- 
 suance of this Proclamation. You know I favored 
 waiting till we were backed up by a victory, which 
 has been won. So the edict is not now the last de- 
 spairing shriek of a beaten cause, but the first 
 triumphant shout of the new emancipated Union, 
 Besides I may confess to you here that in giving 
 that advice for delay I had another thought in 
 mind of which I did not then speak. I had to con- 
 sider M'Clellan as hostile to such a Proclamation, 
 but in command of the army which was then on the 
 march against the foe to win the battle. Never 
 before or since has he been in such a supreme po- 
 sition; he held in his hand the key to the future 
 and could turn it either way. With his tendency 
 to take in hand political matters, he might have 
 concluded that the moment for dictatorship had 
 come, using for pretext just this edict as uncon- 
 stitutional and revolutionary. But when the vic- 
 tory was gained and the enemy fleeing across the
 
 THE SECOND PROCLAMATION. 307 
 
 Potomac, his political opportunity was gone, and 
 lie suddenly sank again to his military subordina- 
 tion. But for some days, while he was the very 
 keystone of the arch, I shivered as much in fear of 
 him as of the rebels. 
 
 Secretary of War. 
 
 He ought never to have been re-appointed — I 
 deemed that to be a calamity as great as a defeat — 
 aye, already a defeat. 
 
 The President. 
 The risk was not small, but it had to be taken. 
 The result on the whole has justified the ac. The 
 Capital is safe, the North is free of invasion, the 
 grand Confederate resurgence is broken, and its 
 waves have dropped back to their old level. And 
 we can begin our task afresh with new hope. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 I have come to agree with you, Mr. President, 
 that there was nothing else then to be done. But 
 the crisis is now happily past, the military dicta- 
 torship, if not dead, is no longer so aggressive. 
 And here I would like to open my heart to you all 
 in confidence : I feel that another sort of dictator- 
 ship is brewing, which has also to be met. Con- 
 gress must not usurp authority outside of its 
 sphere, nor any committee of it dictate Presidential 
 functions. Peace may turn autocrat as well as
 
 SOS LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK XVII. 
 
 war; a co-ordinate branch of government may try 
 to be the whole ; a civil dictatorship seems to be as 
 tempting as a military; the legislative can seek to 
 be the executive, as well as the reverse. I know it, 
 for I have been a Senator myself. 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 Pooh, pooh! no danger in that direction. Pure 
 fancies are such suspicions against our Senatorial 
 fellow-workers in the great task of the Nation — 
 products of diseased imagination, or possibly of 
 terrified conscience. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Enough on that point at present. We shall, 
 however, keep an eye on both sorts of dictator- 
 ships, not omitting to guard against our own dic- 
 tatorship, with which we have often been charged, 
 and shall now be again. Deeper and far more 
 sacred than any personal struggle for power is 
 this work for the Emancipated Nation, upon 
 which we have entered, and from which there must 
 be no retreat. We shall next see whether we can- 
 not break through Virginia's Fatal Line of blood 
 with help of the Higher Powers. 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 I dare prophesy that this turn to Union en- 
 franchised as well as preserved begins a new cycle 
 of the ages.
 
 THE SECOND PROCLAMATION. 309 
 
 Secretary of the Navy. 
 I feel as if we might conclude this greatest ses- 
 sion of our service by singing the Doxology, the 
 favorite Puritan hymn. 
 
 Secretary of the Treasury. 
 
 (Apart.) What a chaos! Yet typical of all 
 that is now done here! Starting with Artemus 
 Ward and ending with Gloria in excelsis! Oh for 
 a guiding statesman in this welter! 
 
 The President. 
 Now to the loftier issue. Be adjourned.
 
 100k ^igl^tetitt]^. 
 
 Mother Virginia Again. 
 
 The Cabinet of mortals vanishing 
 
 Sped forth the White-House, each unto his stint, 
 
 Yet downward curved beneath the weight of 
 
 thought. 
 And shrinking to a startle in his look 
 As if he heard the tocsin of a planet born, 
 A younger earth flung from the fathering sun, 
 And hurtling its new path amid the spheres. 
 Lincoln had stalked off to his lolling rest. 
 And laid out at their ease his chorded nerves 
 Till every joint lopped lax with flaccid flesh, 
 Untensed from the fierce strain of his resolve. 
 And left his members piecemeal strewn astreteh. 
 So gave he up his centred organism 
 
 (310)
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA AGAIN. 31 1 
 
 Submissive whole to gravitation's will, 
 
 That he become one with all Energy, 
 
 And share in the high Genius cosmical, 
 
 Tapping the flow of the creation's seed 
 
 Which trickles through the brain of him who thinks, 
 
 And wins immortal voice from mortal tongue. 
 
 Thus he reposed in revery wide-eyed 
 
 That opes the portals of the overworld, 
 
 And lets it fill our human consciousness 
 
 Which then can hear and see with organs new 
 
 And integrated somehow with the All, 
 
 Not limited to what is here and now 
 
 But sensing true the Time's transcendences. 
 
 Fain would he catch the echo of the Folk 
 
 Eesponding to his voice of new enfranchisement. 
 
 Thus had he watched awhile in waking dream 
 Processions of the souls of men and things, 
 Which flit about in vision's vestibule 
 Or loiter with a look from out the cloud, 
 When suddenly slid standing there a shape 
 Before him which he recognized at once, 
 For he had seen and talked with it ere this, 
 His form he raised up to salute the ghost 
 With mien of a becoming dignity: 
 "Welcome — I know thee now, Virginia, 
 Thy visit I remember of last year ; 
 Since then has rolled a mighty revolution
 
 Sl^ LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XYIII. 
 
 Of Time 's huge wheel which still keeps whirring off 
 
 Events like fragments of a new-made world, 
 
 Whereof to glimpse the grand artificer 
 
 I seek, that he may help me train this chaos. 
 
 Whose strifeful elements 'tis mine to order." 
 
 The specter threw defiance from her eyes, 
 
 Though not so domineering lipped her tones 
 
 As when before she issued her command 
 
 Unto the President as her own vassal : 
 
 "Again I come advising for your good, 
 
 And for the common human heart still tender, 
 
 I hope, in spite of all its bleeding streams 
 
 Which each of us has made to gush in hate 
 
 Out of the other's veins in battle tapped. 
 
 But let me say the scope of this fresh visit, 
 
 And pipe at once to you my ghostly voice. 
 
 Revoke, I bid, this Proclamation new 
 
 Which frees our slaves by arbitrary will. 
 
 And gives our hearths to servile savagery, 
 
 Lest we be forced to hoist in self-defence 
 
 The mortal flag of black impending death 
 
 To every wretched captive bloused in blue 
 
 Who may be taken of your soldiery. ' ' 
 
 Lincoln responded unalarmed in mien: 
 ' ' No ! so far your scath would not hold out. 
 Although your Senate may in heat propose it. 
 Besides you soon will dare bethink yourself :
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA AGAIN. 313 
 
 Retaliation is a two-edged sword 
 
 Gashing the user just in using it. 
 
 I would not kill for what another did, 
 
 And you will not, I deem, when you cool off. 
 
 But weigh ! from Union now emancipated 
 
 Think not I shall go back to it enslaved." 
 
 To Lincoln's words rolled a reverberation 
 
 As of commingled strains not in agreement, 
 
 Applause and hisses at his hardiment. 
 
 Virginia still looked forth her mettle proud. 
 
 And told in fiercer tones her fresh demand 
 
 Sharpening her speech's point with finger tipped: 
 
 "Revoke the clause which lets our slave be soldier 
 
 Fighting his master on equality. 
 
 To win his freedom by his arms in hand. 
 
 My cavaliers enranked against my blacks — 
 
 The thought humiliates more than defeat. ' ' 
 
 Then Lincoln crossed his furrowed sombre face 
 
 With smiles agleam which lit his kindly words : 
 
 "You will be thinking soon that selfsame thing, 
 
 Embattling servitude with lordliness 
 
 In line together, and also proffering 
 
 The boon of freedom to the blackest skin 
 
 As prize of service in your sinking cause. 
 
 I only have anticipated you, 
 
 And seized the future's forelock in the date;
 
 314! LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XYIII. 
 
 Still you will strive to overtake my act, 
 
 Your war-hope trends that way — do you not see it ? " 
 
 Reflective turned Virginia's spectral face 
 
 As if confessing in her utterance: 
 
 "I know some of my soldiers harboring 
 
 Such thoughts of policy, but I do not, 
 
 E'en if the cannon-ball cleave me in twain. 
 
 And leave my body gobbeted forever." 
 
 Thus as she spoke her very face looked rifted 
 
 With line of separation through her form 
 
 As if a double specter she might turn, 
 
 Whence came, however, but a single voice: 
 
 "Division of me in two States complete 
 
 I know for my undoing you have planned, 
 
 In violation of the sacred pact 
 
 As worded by the Constitution. 
 
 From that desist — I warn you solemnly — 
 
 Although you split me into warring halves 
 
 And dog each on to lap the other's blood, 
 
 Till both expire — I shall not be co-ereed." 
 
 Condolence wrote its lines in Lincoln's look. 
 
 As he replied her deed's own consequence: 
 
 * ' That is what j^ou have done yourself — just that — 
 
 Unto yourself by your secession, 
 
 So that it turns upon you inwardly; 
 
 I never could have wrought that by myself. 
 
 Nor could the power of the government.
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA AGAIN. 315 
 
 Dual has been Virginia long in soul, 
 
 But thus in body she is realized 
 
 Through her own act of scission, not through me, 
 
 "Who long have prayed her not to turn her knife 
 
 Upon herself, and tried to stay her hand. 
 
 Yea, even in your ghostly self I seem 
 
 To see partition run quite through your form 
 
 "Whose doubleness doth grapple with itself, 
 
 The one side reddens with a victory 
 
 The other deathly pales to a defeat — 
 
 The haricari of Virginia." 
 
 The sworded vision of the President 
 With words which cut forthright down to the core 
 Where lay the fester of her deep disease, 
 Enforced the spectre to a writheing shout 
 Which voiced itself high in a counter speech 
 Whereby she imaged too her spectacle. 
 With her forefinger pointed at the picture: 
 "Do you not see yon quivering line of blood 
 Channeled between the North and South a chasm 
 Unpassed by you, impassable forever 
 The boundary laid down by Fate itself 
 In many a battle of antagonists? 
 Whenever you have crossed that red-lit line 
 Whatever force, though vast and valorous 
 You may have hurled against me on my soil 
 Striking in vengeance at my Capital,
 
 S16 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XYIII. 
 
 You have been smitten to disgraceful flight 
 By deeds of our courageous soldiery, 
 Then further driven backward in retreat 
 By unseen Powers scourging sinful trespass, 
 Till you have quickly crept to safety pale 
 Again behind your guard of battlements, 
 As racing in God's panic from old Death." 
 
 Whereat once more she indexed what she meant. 
 And Lincoln for the moment ducked his head 
 Before that spectral finger pointing Fate 
 Straight in his face and voicing its dire rune, 
 For he had watched that self -same crimson flood 
 Eise on his sight with its forbidding chasm 
 Both after the defeat and victory. 
 In his dumb interval the ghost resumed 
 Observing well the power of her image : 
 "Be witness in that dread ensanguined line 
 Of a wroth God's decree repeated oft; 
 Forbear the new attempt to pass that bound,- 
 Acknowledge your transgression hitherto, 
 And recognize the separated Nation." 
 Whereat from out the Southern skies afar 
 Rolled broken detonations of reply 
 Which muttered yes and no among themselves. 
 But from the thought so worded came a shock 
 Which thrilled to speech the silenced President 
 Who felt a cut down to his keenest nerve :
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA AGAIN. 317 
 
 "Never! Impossible! not till my corpse 
 Itself be cast the final sacrifice 
 Into that gulf vvhich cleaves the Union ! ' ' 
 The phantom still kept knelling him her words 
 "Which rang a toll sepulchral to the ear 
 Of Lincoln as he shuddered at her gaze : 
 "Seek not to thwart the one behest divine 
 "Writ in the blood of many thousands slain; 
 Upon Manassas at the very start 
 How could you help but read it plainly there? 
 And the Peninsula re-shouts the lesson 
 "Which tells you how you can not cross the Line — 
 The Fatal Line drawn round to guard my Rich- 
 mond. 
 And now again that sanguinary bound 
 Has been laid down with mightier emphasis 
 Upon the soil gore-thirsty of Manassas, 
 "Where lies your Union bleeding mortally. 
 "What means this repetition of the blow — 
 That sign re-iterated from above? 
 Stay with yourselves in holy name of peace 
 And leave us to ourselves in our own way. 
 Know that the earthly ruler cloeth best 
 "When he confirms the mandate from on high, 
 Obeying not his own, but Heaven's mind." 
 
 Lincoln looked inward with his seeing soul, 
 And still was mute at what he spied in there ;
 
 SIS LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVIII. 
 
 For he beheld the same the spectre spoke, 
 
 And sought to find the meaning of the portent, 
 
 "When that shrill voice commanded him afresh : 
 
 "Dash not against the limit God-decreed 
 
 In stubborn wrath of mortal insolence. 
 
 Lest the next time thou be not spared of Heaven, 
 
 And thy fixed punishment defeat and death 
 
 For wanton lawlessness to God and man, 
 
 "With subjugation of thy blinded folk 
 
 Told in the ruins of yon Capitol." 
 
 Lincoln let fall his chin upon his breast 
 
 And breathed a deep-heard sigh of confirmation 
 
 Which hardened soon to words responding thus: 
 
 "Oh yes, I have oft recognized that Line 
 
 Within the last twelve months calamitous; 
 
 I shall confess the grisly fatal image 
 
 Which has been gashed upon my piteous brain 
 
 Until the stream seems running my own blood 
 
 As it spouts up and down and round about, 
 
 Yet always staj^ed betv^een the Capitols, 
 
 In curves from the Potomac to the James. 
 
 But you on your side also must have seen 
 
 That self-same image in its counterpart; 
 
 For you, whenever you have hit that Line 
 
 Have too been halted and hurled back defeated 
 
 And have re-crossed the gory boundary. 
 
 To tread again secure your old domain.
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA AGAIN. Sig 
 
 You cannot pass it though we grant you brave, 
 
 That limit holds you in as well as us, 
 
 Antietam is not one week old as yet: 
 
 Do you not know what happened to you there?" 
 
 Virginia hesitated not in speech 
 
 She sprang as for a testful opportunity, 
 
 Her face gleamed e'en a smile victorious, 
 
 As she tacked on to what the speaker said : 
 
 "You have now given proof for my demand, 
 
 Supporting it with your own argument, 
 
 Which shows the line between us drawn eternal — 
 
 Divided by a power greater than ourselves, 
 
 Which we must fight if we dare quit our own, 
 
 And storm in war the battlements of Heaven. 
 
 Thus either of us doth provoke God's wrath 
 
 By violating what He has decreed — 
 
 The separation of us in two Peoples. ' ' 
 
 The spectre noting Lincoln sunk in thought. 
 Deemed him unworded by her battery 
 Of shotted arguments, perchance unwilled, 
 So she still spoke with mien victorious: 
 "The Upper Powers have confirmed secession; 
 Do you not mark how they will not permit 
 That either side subdue by arms the other, 
 But hold us balanced still in gain and loss ? 
 That Line, the seen unseen, which separates 
 Is guarded by angelic sentinels
 
 S20 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK XVIII. 
 
 Who have thrust back from their impartial watch 
 
 The strong transgressor, be he you or we. 
 
 Obey the plain decree celestial 
 
 Printed on many a bloody battle-field 
 
 And stop this godless enterprise of war 
 
 "Which but repeats the discipline of death. 
 
 How plain is the hand- writing on the wall, 
 
 Needing no prophet to unriddle it ! 
 
 Or let me play old Daniel warning thee, 
 
 That God Himself is a secessionist." 
 
 Whereat she stretched her spirit-finger out 
 
 As if she pointed at Belshazzar's doom. 
 
 And traced it on the gloomed Wliite-House wail. 
 
 At once tall Lincoln rose up to his height, 
 Straightly himself he statured from his stoop. 
 And pitched his words forthright, as he uncrooked : 
 "If ever the high Powers ordered me 
 To do a deed as their vicegerent human 
 And sealed it with their own impress divine, ■ 
 They bade me issue this new Proclamation, 
 Driving my pen, though mine the mortal hand, 
 Dictating in me e'en the flow of words 
 Which spell the Union's new enfranchisement. 
 That was the call which I cannot recall, 
 It was the spirit of my people too, 
 Now ready for this act of liberation. 
 It was the voice of Time in History
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA AGAIN. 321 
 
 Unfolding Nations on the way to freedom, 
 And this the farthest flight recorded yet. 
 A Union new we shall be fighting for 
 Henceforth with courage and with hope renewed, 
 "We shall by arms soon breach the Fatal Line 
 AVhicli hitherto has barriered us so long, 
 For we refused to do the Will above, 
 Which sent defeat to be our discipline. 
 But now by Heaven's ministers o'erwatched 
 We shall march forth to future victory, 
 E 'en on the soil of States the lordliest, 
 Be it mother of us all, Virginia." 
 
 Whereat again reverberant the welkin 
 
 Began to murmur thunder o'er the land 
 
 From sea to sea and aye from age to agQ, 
 
 For strange it fell the farther off the echo 
 
 The more it swelled with roll of rising years. 
 
 Once more the dreamy spectre woke to words 
 
 And syllabled its side with energy : 
 
 "You cannot pass the bound which God has drawn, 
 
 Without repulse more bloody than before — 
 
 The added penalty of insolence 
 
 Toward the decree supernally laid down. 
 
 Heaven cannot be stormed from Washington, 
 
 Our gunnery is voiced of Providence." 
 
 That view the President had well bethought, 
 
 His answer flew from off his tongue at once :
 
 SQQ, LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVIII. 
 
 ''Not in such waj^ I read the Powers now 
 
 Who rained upon us their calamities; 
 
 That is their mode of upper discipline : 
 
 When e 'en their people haulk to do their Will, 
 
 They scourge their own up to the highest task 
 
 Until the right be done — eternal right — 
 
 Which now I feel I voice in this emancipation. 
 
 Well do I know the deed is fruit of war, 
 
 The fiat of my military might, 
 
 Which yet must be transfigured into law — 
 
 The law organic governing our land. ' ' 
 
 In placid mien the spectre gave a twinkle 
 
 And lipped a whispered word replying thus: 
 
 ' ' Have you not heard that Lee has crossed the river 
 
 Back to his State and there re-drawn the line 
 
 Which parts and ever will, the North and South ? ' ' 
 
 Whereto the President gleamed his response, 
 With ripples through his furrowed wizen face: 
 "Have you not heard how that dividing line-^- 
 Here the dead-line of our fatalities — 
 Has in the West been broken through and pushed 
 Far down the spacious stream-bed of the River, 
 Where it is held in spite of fierce assault 
 Ready to sweep still onward to the Gulf? 
 Mark well! to the old States alone 
 Belongs that Fatal Line impassable 
 As yet, but henceforth to be passed."
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA AGAIN. 323 
 
 Amid these words a distant rumbled voice 
 
 Upheaved out the horizon of the "West; 
 
 Disdain the shadow shrugged and looked its scorn, 
 
 Whisking askance to fling its haughty scoff: 
 
 ' ' I care not for the West, the wild and wilful West, 
 
 Degenerately childed of my loins, 
 
 Ingrate for all that I have given it. 
 
 Here I shall live and die, on Old Dominion's soil, 
 
 And leave the Border to its barbarism. 
 
 But now I shall give out another note: 
 
 M'Clellan holds once more upon his side 
 
 Of that same Providential boundary. 
 
 And on the other side sits Lee opposed : 
 
 So is renewed the Line which you name fatal — 
 
 Just as they stood before Antietam's blood. 
 
 Before the massacres Peninsular; 
 
 Your General confirms all that I said, 
 
 And clinches by his deed my argument." 
 
 In Lincoln's face the gleams flashed into gloom, 
 As he backed up resolve with forceful words: 
 "Then has the Little Man too reached his limit, 
 I gave him one more chance to cross that Line, 
 For he and all his friends besought the test. 
 If he has let the enemy escape. 
 Establishing anew the old division 
 I shall remove him — be it said and done."
 
 S^^ LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVIII. 
 
 Virginia almost gave a pitying look, 
 As 'twere upon her God-forsaken foe: 
 "There you assail the ordinance divine 
 Proclaimed by cannon's mouth on field of carnage, 
 Which now booms out our sacred oaths to Heaven. ' ' 
 
 Lincoln responded solemnized in look: 
 
 "Another ordinance divine I hear 
 
 Bidding me clutch and slay the wrong 
 
 Which you would sanctify and make eternal; 
 
 The Devil can't be canonized by cannon. 
 
 I grant you show your conscience in your acts, 
 
 Likewise I conscience know in what I do, 
 
 Though it be quite the opposite of yours ; 
 
 Above them both there is an arbiter 
 
 Who judges of their suit ac his tribunal. 
 
 And will in his good time decision render, 
 
 The last, from which there can be no appeal. 
 
 For this war is not only one of arms 
 
 With loud-mouthed roar of smoking gunnery, ' 
 
 But stiller is the conflict of two consciences 
 
 And deeper, for they point the bayonets 
 
 In ranks opposed and speak the word to charge. 
 
 A lesson 'tis which I have had to learn: 
 
 For I deemed once I had within me seated high 
 
 The Judge supreme of all I thought and did 
 
 Without the final umpire over me. 
 
 But now I know there tries our causes both
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA AGAIN. 325 
 
 The last Justiciary of consciences 
 
 Though these be all sincere and true and brave 
 
 Keady to yield up life as sacrifice. 
 
 That is the real Chief Justice in whose court 
 
 The Highest Law, which is the Law of Laws, 
 
 I would implead for this my Proclamation." 
 
 Thus Lincoln spoke, with look to light upturned; 
 
 Whereat the room was filled to overflow 
 
 "With the vast Presence of a confirmation 
 
 Which seemed to stretch from Past to latest Future, 
 
 As if it would o'erarch all History. 
 
 It blent its harmonies with Lincoln's words, 
 
 Whose voice it took and filled with Time and Space 
 
 Ubiquitous and sempeternal raised 
 
 Kesounding down the record of the ages. 
 
 A mote recalcitrant Virginia stood, 
 
 Discomforted her mien and attitude. 
 
 Though borne along in her defiant spite 
 
 On tides of that great Ocean cosmical 
 
 But Lincoln felt the impress strong enough 
 To utter to it what lay on his heart : 
 "Spirit, unbidden thou hast come again. 
 At the right moment now to belp me win, 
 Virginia, lest she undo herself 
 Undoing her best work in wrath — this Nation. ' '
 
 S^Q LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVIII. 
 
 The ghostly dame heard Lincoln's word, but saw 
 
 not 
 To whom it was addressed so loftily 
 Up in the viewless air of vacancy ; 
 More haughty still she whisked her spectral skirts, 
 And shot her bitter glances into words: 
 "Your way to plaster over self-reproach 
 For violation of the Constitution, 
 Which you did swear to keep by vows to Heaven 
 With hand-clasp on the book of Holy Writ ! 
 But you will crash your stubborn skull anew 
 Against the wall of Fate which I have reared 
 Upon my soil and manned with my defenders." 
 
 But Lincoln still upbreathed his high petition : 
 Urging anew the one last overlord : 
 "Canst thou, oh spirit, not make me thy hand 
 To wipe forever out that Fatal Line 
 With which Virginia now has threatened me? 
 Or how it may be done engross my soul 
 With the true signature of thy great Will ? ' ' 
 The phantom lady raised apparent eyes 
 As if she too might say a prayer above 
 In counteraction of the President : 
 "Your spirit's favor I disdain, defy; 
 That Line, God-drawn, must stay, though gurgling 
 blood."
 
 MOTHER VIRGINIA AGAIN. 327 
 
 Upon such menace grim, firm Lincoln stamped 
 A fresh re-iteration of his will: 
 ''Your Fate I shall compel — such is my task — 
 E'en though I cap it with my tragedy." 
 
 Responsive to the Presidential vow 
 
 There rolled into that spectral conference 
 
 A mighty shout inlaid with tramp and song, 
 
 The echo of advancing soldiery 
 
 As if the Folk itself was on the march ; 
 
 Then into it and with it also moved 
 
 That Presence of Eternity now timed, 
 
 Filling it with the all-compelling power 
 
 Which rules the round of human deeds through 
 
 ages, 
 In which Virginia's shade drooped vanishing 
 Yet left her whispered swoon : ' ' The Line still is. ' ' 
 
 The apparitions both had slid to space, 
 "When Lincoln seized his pen and wrote strong- 
 willed 
 Selecting a new General for the work 
 And bidding him to cross the Fatal Line, 
 But he recalled himself and thus bethought: 
 ''I would not wrong M'Clellan in this act. 
 His recent service I esteem the highest 
 "Which could be rendered in that moment's crisis. 
 First I Sust go and see him in the field.
 
 S28 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XVIII. 
 
 Till then I shall put off the change once more, 
 
 Indeed I would retain him if I can. 
 
 And then that love, that army's love for him 
 
 I would not smite — granitic as the hills 
 
 Though as an air-built ghost intangible. 
 
 It works a Titan's force in Nature's self, 
 
 I cannot harm it, nor can I win it, 
 
 It is M'Clellan's owti, inalienable. 
 
 I oft have tried to spy its unseen way. 
 
 Or woo its secret by some sly surprise; 
 
 Its fealty stays firm to its ideal, 
 
 I\Iy nearest problem now is just that love. 
 
 Off now I must, to scan Antietam's field 
 
 Where lies the Nation bleeding with its wound 
 
 "Which floods the rift from both the North and 
 
 South, 
 Thy crimson line of Fate, Virginia — 
 I shudder at the sight — still go I must."
 
 '§aa\x ^ineteentl^. 
 
 At Antietam. 
 
 First Soldier. 
 
 Now for a little rest after the fight and a good 
 camp smoke. A great victory! and our Mac is 
 again on top, where I think he will now stay. Lee 
 is retreating, he has recrossed the Potomac and 
 got back into his own country again, where we shall 
 keep him hereafter. 
 
 Second Soldier. 
 
 If that were only the end of the matter — but 
 really it is a new beginning of the war, quite where 
 we started more than a year ago. I wonder if this 
 seesaw is to continue — how long and how often? 
 That is not going to restore the Union if we always 
 have to come back to the place we started from. 
 It is a Devil's circle and we are in Hell. 
 
 (329)
 
 330 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIX. 
 
 First Soldier. 
 Cheer up, comrade, and enjoy our success. Let 
 us give a hip, hip, hurrah ! for our victorious chief- 
 tain who has driven the enemy out of our territory, 
 hurling him back to his own soil. Now we may 
 sing a triumphal song ; the invaders have been met 
 and repulsed. 
 
 Second Soldier. 
 
 True enough, and I rejoice. Still I do not quite 
 like the idea of their soil not being ours, and our 
 soil not being theirs — it is all our one country. 
 You seem to draw a boundary in it, making it two 
 countries, which is just what we are fighting to 
 overcome, just what they are fighting to establish. 
 To my mind your words declare unwittingly that 
 the other side has won even in our victory. 
 
 First Soldier. 
 Fine hair-splitting is that; good enough in 
 theory, but worthless in practice which is our task, 
 and which requires two battle-lines, and now, they 
 are drawn again. Say what you please, there is a 
 North and a South, Secession and Union, which 
 are arrayed against each other along two deeply 
 separated fronts — the one here, the other over 
 
 yonder. 
 
 Second Soldier. 
 Aye, but that is not the whole of it. If our side 
 truly wins, we must not allow the foe to fix perma-
 
 AT ANTIETAM. 331 
 
 nently his hostile limit against us; that is just 
 what we are to break down, else what is the use of 
 fighting? I have heard that Mac had some 30,000 
 fresh troops, which he did not put into battle or 
 employ seriously for the pursuit of the retreating 
 Southerners. Why is that ? 
 
 First Soldier. 
 I know that the authorities at Washington are 
 sending out such news over the country for the pur- 
 pose of injuring M'Clellan, who is so beloved of 
 us all, excepting a few grumblers like you. I sup- 
 pose they are getting ready to remove him again — 
 he is too great for them. I dare tell you Avhat I 
 believe: Mac will yet have to take into his own 
 hands the government, before anything gets done. 
 Some call this treason, but it runs a common ru- 
 mor among us private soldiers. What a botch did 
 Old Abe make by his interference during the Pen- 
 insular campaign! If Mac could have had his 
 way, we would now be in Richmond. 
 
 Second Soldier. 
 I see that you, like every enlisted blue-coat in 
 this war, are an accomplished strategist. That is, 
 indeed, our right as American citizens. I am en- 
 gaged in fathoming a piece of strategy myself, and 
 I shall tell you what it is. I was not in the recent 
 battle, nor was my division, though we were lying
 
 332 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIX. 
 
 almost within gun-shot eager to rush in, as we 
 heard the roar of the firing; nor have we been sent 
 in pursuit to any purpose; something seems to be 
 holding us back, or at least leaving us idle; what 
 is it? Such is my strategic problem, which seems 
 not to be present to you, nor to most of your com- 
 rades here. 
 
 First Soldier. 
 I trust all that to Little Mac in whom I have 
 complete confidence. I hear that the President is 
 coming out to pay us a visit. I wish he would keep 
 away, and leave Mac alone, who would have ended 
 this war months ago, if his hands had not been tied. 
 I confess to another disgruntlement : that fresh ab- 
 olition document of the President, which was 
 printed a day of two ago under the name of the 
 Proclamation of Emancipation, is not at all to my 
 liking. It changes the whole scope of the war for 
 which we enlisted. 
 
 Second Soldier. 
 
 Therein again I shall have to differ from you. It 
 has been plainly shown that slavery stands in the 
 w^ay of Union, and so must be wiped out. But is 
 Old Abe coming out to see us here ? How I would 
 like to march in review before him and to catch a 
 glimpse of his long legs again, with his big feet in 
 the stirrups. He is my man of the whole set, civil- 
 ians and soldiers, especially since that great pro-
 
 AT ANTIETAM. 333 
 
 nouneement of an enfranchised Nation. We can 
 win now because we ought to win. How dearly I 
 want to see Lincoln, who at present stands above 
 all men for what this war means! 
 
 Fit'st Soldier. 
 
 Not to my notion is his mount — too uncouth, too 
 unsoldierly. How the little M'Clellan surpasses 
 him in lordliness and magnificence when they are 
 seen together riding along the ranks of the well- 
 drilled polished soldiery ! Besides Mac shows him- 
 self the ruler. 
 
 Second Soldier. 
 
 He has wonderful magnetism and I see that you 
 are magnetized into a kind of spell-bound ador- 
 ation. Though I wear the blue, I am still an 
 American citizen with my own vote, which I cast 
 for big Father Abraham against your Little Mac. 
 
 First Soldier. 
 
 No voting is necessary now, though it may come 
 to that issue literally. I confess to a political feel- 
 ing about M 'Clellan as well as a military ; there is 
 an undercurrent of the sort in this army. Of 
 course we dream our hero as President when he 
 shall come to his own; such is our final promotion 
 of our leader. 
 
 Second Soldier. 
 
 I have heard of that; evidently the two parties
 
 334 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE—BOOK XIX. 
 
 are already aligning themselves for the Presidential 
 year. But enough! do you hear that bugle? It 
 calls me to parade — I hope to prepare for Lin- 
 coln's reception. 
 
 First Soldier. 
 
 Now look up to yon tented hillock, it is M'Clel- 
 lan's Headquarters. There he is walking to and 
 fro in contemplation; great thoughts are doubtless 
 surging in his head — soon, I believe to be realized. 
 
 Second Soldier. 
 Let me take a good eye-shot at him from this 
 distance — perhaps I may hit his tune. Look how 
 jerkily he steps! He must be lashed by his own 
 reflections. No small amount of agitation is busy 
 in that little framework of his; I have my guess 
 what it is about. 
 
 First Soldier. 
 
 He is merely taking a brief round before his 
 meal. How little do you people know his great- 
 ness! Make a complete revision of yourself — and 
 now be off.
 
 AT ANTIETAM. 335 
 
 M'Clellan alone. 
 Saved worthless Washington again I have ! 
 Though but the fortress of my bitter foes 
 Who risk the Nation in their hate of me! 
 Thence comes a growl in spite of my great deed, 
 Because I did not capture Lee's whole army, 
 But let it march in peace to its old haunts. 
 Fools in high places ! weening that they know 
 The art of war, and daring to prescribe 
 What I shall do in my domain of peril 
 From their safe perch inside the Capital! 
 Stanton, trained only to his legal quibbles. 
 Though set above the soldier by his office. 
 Bids me at once pursue the rebel troops 
 Who still outnumber mine, as I believe. 
 But I am glad of this Potomac's flow 
 Which they have placed between themselves and me, 
 And left our soil free of their presence dread. 
 Mad Stanton is the evil genius throned 
 Which seeks my ruin and the Nation's too. 
 And Halleck hither sends me his command: 
 A Western failure brought to Washington 
 Who with a hundred thousand men once took 
 Corinth, manned with wood-guns but not a man; 
 He would perchance now have me do the same.
 
 336 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIX. 
 
 I know that Halleck is a soldier trained, 
 
 Books he has written of war's theory, 
 
 And given lectures on grand strategy, 
 
 Telling about the things he could not do. 
 
 I read his bookish stuff unpractical, 
 
 But only recollect that I forgot it, 
 
 So pointless that it would not stick my brain. 
 
 And now as Chief-of-staff to the President — 
 
 An office made to get him out the way — 
 
 He gives me a short job to capture Lee, 
 
 As if that were an easy holiday 
 
 To hug the savage bear which might hug me, 
 
 To pluck ripe fruit which he could never reach; 
 
 And if I could I doubt if it were best. 
 
 I whisper to myself my secret thought: 
 
 Too great a victory might be our curse. 
 
 Then all this talk which stabs from everywhere. 
 Comparing me with Grant, the Westerner, 
 Has its first source from dismal Washington,. 
 Which city I have saved to be my fate. 
 I have to read and even hear this scorn: 
 "Now take a Donelson here in the East 
 And duplicate for us that great success. 
 Breaking the hostile line as yet unbroken." 
 So runs the senseless jargon of the hour, 
 Dreaming to conquer armies with a phrase. 
 That Grant I ordered twice to be cashiered
 
 AT ANTIETAM. 337 
 
 For drunkenness, but our wise President 
 
 Came to his rescue with a wretched joke 
 
 And with a fling at me saying ' ' He fights ' ' ! 
 
 As if I never fought and would not fight. 
 
 Some even hint that Grant should be brought hither 
 
 Whom I avoided taking on my staff 
 
 When he in writ applied at Cincinnati; 
 
 But he is fitted only for a fight; 
 
 At West-Point trained, he quite has lost its polish 
 
 Lax in the academic discipline. 
 
 Without true soldier's ceremonial, 
 
 Shunning the sheen and pomp of arms' parade; 
 
 With troops whom I have moulded to my soul 
 
 He would not be at home e'en if he came. 
 
 He could not take my place in their affection, 
 
 I drill them till they love me in their drill, 
 
 Another would be hated for such forms. 
 
 But of disorder Lincoln shows enough, 
 Making the White-House a boor's paradise 
 Where every clown and crank have access free 
 To jibe a jest or pour some panacea 
 For curing all the time's big deviltry. 
 I knew him when I lived in Illinois, 
 I saw him challenge to debate great Douglas, 
 Saw how he pandered to the populace. 
 By prating freedom and by telling stories 
 Till the rail-splitter of the Sangamon
 
 338 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIX. 
 
 Was borne up to the Nation's Presidency 
 "Whence now he sends his proclamation forth 
 To free the slaves 'gainst Law and Constitution, 
 To which he swore his last obedience. 
 And so the rift between the North and South 
 Has widened out far greater than before, 
 Whereby the fight will grow more desperate 
 And Union be henceforth much further off. 
 
 Down at the Lauding on the River James 
 
 When he was there, I gave him best advice 
 
 Against such actions mad, and wrote it out 
 
 Although I marked he deemed me out my sphere 
 
 In meddling thus with matters of the State, 
 
 For I have noticed oft his jealousy 
 
 If I would dare a word political; 
 
 I was to keep my military cage 
 
 Lest I might break out thence and take his place. 
 
 Suspicion of me grinds him day and night. 
 
 For his own weakness has called up a word 
 
 And sent it under-breathed throughout the land — 
 
 A word which fevers him : dictatorship. 
 
 I say he is himself the cause of it 
 
 Though he would throw the blame on other people. 
 
 Especially on me for thinking how 
 
 We must in the last pinch restore the Union, 
 
 Though he be the chief obstacle — just he.
 
 AT ANTIETAM. 339 
 
 But mark ! here on a gallop to me rides 
 
 An orderly still roweling his steed 
 
 And bears a message fresh from Washington. 
 
 I look upon his coming with disgust, 
 
 Another numbskull interference I forecast. 
 
 If they would only leave me to myself 
 
 And let me carry out my grand designs 
 
 Of which they have no brain for comprehension, 
 
 Equiping me with men and means enough, 
 
 I soon would put a period to this war 
 
 So long drawn out by the incapables 
 
 And still to last in rage more bloodily 
 
 Unless I somehow touch the helm of State 
 
 And sway its drifting to the right direction. 
 
 "What is this news I read? The President 
 
 Is coming out to visit us in person, 
 
 And will inspect his army in the field 
 
 As chief Commander of it over me. 
 
 Whose higher soldiership I must obey. 
 
 Heaven ! what an invasion damnable ! 
 
 The soldier's outlet is profanity 
 
 When he is filled up to the brim with spite, 
 
 Which I as right church-member have essayed 
 
 To dam from its bad overflow somewhat 
 
 By regulations worded to my troops; 
 
 But now I feel myself like saying damn 
 
 If I again must brook that President
 
 340 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XIX. 
 
 Who comes out hither smelling all about 
 To find some little defect in my work 
 And meanly fault me for not marching faster. 
 See there ! he comes ! I mark his long-legged strad- 
 dle 
 Upon his plunging steed, his high pipe-hat 
 Unlike the tilted blue-cap of our soldier. 
 And at his side his satelite detective. 
 Out of such view I slink me to my tent.
 
 ^00h Cto^ntid^* 
 
 Lincoln's Return From Antietam. 
 
 Lincoln (alone). 
 A jangled world outside me and within! 
 The Lord himself seems out of tune to-day, 
 And all the antique music of the spheres 
 Is grating godless in a cosmic clash ! 
 I have just seen the field of victory 
 And strolled along Antietam 's rivulet, 
 Till where it ripples with Potomac's flow. 
 I have conversed with men and officers 
 "Who have outbraved the foe in winning fight 
 Though thousands lie in stillness tombed, 
 Or gasp their wounded lot in hospitals. 
 And yet despite the triumph of our arms, 
 There is a discord rising from our own ; 
 
 (341)
 
 342 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XX. 
 
 I found M'Clellan tuneless to his task, 
 
 The army too I felt in undertones 
 
 Of dissonance with our new policy, 
 
 In subtle echo to its leader's will 
 
 "Which seems its organism's own throughout, 
 
 With thrill electric to his unvoiced self — 
 
 His the one soul of that one massive body. 
 
 Oh that I might get hold of just that love 
 
 With its weird fascination over hearts! 
 
 It even works a charm upon myself 
 
 Against myself, and strains me to resist it. 
 
 When I but touch its presence magical ; 
 
 It pulsed me when I came within its lines, 
 
 I half relented when I faced M'Clellan 
 
 And listened to his voiceful sympathy 
 
 Which tranced his words into my very soul 
 
 Swooning away a moment in that flood 
 
 Of personality 's own ecstacy : 
 
 I cannot shake me of the prophecy 
 
 That such a man with Love 's primeval dower 
 
 Which the Creator stirred to make the world 
 
 Must somewhere have his part within our task. 
 
 And needed be to heap the measure round 
 
 Which is fulfillment of our destiny. 
 
 Fain would I utilize such merit rare, 
 
 Participating in the deepest bond 
 
 Which holds of God the universe together.
 
 LINCOLN'S RETURN FROM ANTIETAM. 343 
 
 I would transfer it to myself — oli how ! 
 
 Or to another, but I know him not — 
 
 A General whose skill throbs love, 
 
 The soldier's love defiant of defeat. 
 
 A following of citizens belike, 
 
 "Whom I would win as mine, M'Clellan holds — 
 
 Those who will keep the Union as it was. 
 
 Where lies the Nation's turning-point just now 
 
 Into the order new of world enfranchised. 
 
 United North against divided South 
 
 Till we may rid this of its sore division. 
 
 Has been, since Douglas spoke his great farewell, 
 
 My striven policy for braver concord 
 
 In which all partisans might sink theit strife 
 
 To face the common peril of the country. 
 
 Alas ! that peril sounds again the omen, 
 
 The omen dread which wafts me shivers chill 
 
 Along the nervy flushes of my brain:- 
 
 For at its hint I see once more the Fatal Line 
 
 Streaming around through all my imagery, 
 
 As if a Fury bent on clutching me 
 
 Just at the worth supreme of all my deeds. 
 
 Would pluck me in the act of flowering. 
 
 And throne me on new heights of tragedy. 
 
 M'Clellan is now standing to that Line, 
 
 But there he shrinks to move a step beyond. 
 
 He dares not tiptoe to a fearful look
 
 344 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XX. 
 
 Into the chasm of that monstrous spell 
 Lest he behold himself in counterpart. 
 He has the Fatal Line run in him too, 
 He is it now — he has become it here 
 Under the transformation of his genius; 
 And my next task is to encounter that, 
 And cast it out ere this great army moves 
 Its works of war across the Fatal Line 
 Whose coils I must undo or in them die. 
 
 And yet that army's love I have to smite 
 
 If I cut off its leader from command ; 
 
 The very thought of it is torture 's hell 
 
 That inwardly I groan in agony; 
 
 For what is deepest in my spirit's hope 
 
 And drops me purest balm for sorest fate, 
 
 The giver of my only blessedness. 
 
 The love of man which fuses many men, 
 
 I have to stab within these soldiers' hearts 
 
 When I shall sever them from their ideal, 
 
 And break the common bond which centers there. 
 
 Such is the counterstroke in my own self: 
 
 The blow I give unto that army's Love 
 
 I feel rebound in hate upon mine own, 
 
 And I must bleed for those I have to wound, 
 
 I am the penalty and guilt in one: 
 
 And yet that is the deed I have to do; 
 
 M'Clellan is not now the minded man
 
 LINCOLN'S RETURN FROM ANTIETAM. 345 
 
 To help restore emancipated Union. 
 The mighty cleft in it he cannot close, 
 For it is in him deep as in this land 
 And with him it will rift his soldiery. 
 
 While at his tent we sat amid his staff, 
 
 Lamon began to sing a little song 
 
 By my request to ban my inner discord, 
 
 Which had crept over me in my sad visit 
 
 And more unstrung me there at those headquarters. 
 
 I marked the echo in the featured looks 
 
 Which glanced at me their high-bred irony; 
 
 The music made the larger dissonance, 
 
 Whereat we two arose and bade good-bye 
 
 In courtesy I hope, but yet in flight. • 
 
 And as I quit the camp, the Fatal Line 
 
 I saw within it and on front of it 
 
 Aye running through it everywhere, 
 
 More plainly writ than I had ever seen, 
 
 And read the letters of the gory lesson 
 
 More deeply crimsoned than they flashed before, 
 
 Until I felt the pressure of the Presence 
 
 Which bids me act by its supernal best. 
 
 And which I dare not shy in misbelief : 
 
 That Upper Cabinet of mine it was 
 
 Who first decreed to me this Proclamation, 
 
 And stamped the impress of it on my soul, 
 
 So that it always stood before my inner eye
 
 346 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XX. 
 
 Unfurling everywhere its lettered scroll 
 
 Which I must spell and syllable within 
 
 Until the very words I learned by heart, 
 
 And wrote them down upon my document. 
 
 This then I read my Lower Cabinet 
 
 Who gave approval to the writ, 
 
 With words of argument on this and that. 
 
 But yet it was not theirs, it was not mine. 
 
 We were the channels of that higher stream 
 
 Which from above flows down through mortal men, 
 
 And bears their deeds on to their final goal, 
 
 Whose thought is wreathed in higher harmonies, 
 
 Yet to be played to future generations. 
 
 But what a shock discordant grates below. 
 
 And still convulses me between two loves. 
 
 The one of which must throttle now the other! 
 
 It is a task which rends the heart in two. 
 
 And makes the brain reel round at its own stroke ! 
 
 That Line I must start to eliminate, 
 
 Although M'Clellan be it in himself; 
 
 But can I find another General 
 
 So free of it that he can smite it down ? 
 
 Once I have tried but soon I had to shrink, 
 
 And to restore the leader whom I dropped. 
 
 It is a hazard dread which shudders me. 
 
 But I must dare again else we are lost.
 
 LINCOLN'S RETURN FROM ANTIETAM. 347 
 
 Meanwhile let me but watch the star of hope 
 
 Which twinkles still its smile in Western skies, 
 
 For there the South 's resurgence has been stayed 
 
 And beaten back beyond its broken front ; 
 
 But I must still wait for the coming man 
 
 Whose dawn perchance I spy, may he rise 
 
 And in the sheen of deeds strip off obscurity ! 
 
 So I indwell this world of dissonance, 
 
 Hoping to choir it yet to music sweet 
 
 When these harsh days have jolted off to chaos. 
 
 But hark ! another jar begins to grate — 
 
 Not now the untuned military one — 
 
 Its sound is different, yet threatening — 
 
 It must be found and to the surface brought.
 
 laah ^imnt^'^xxBt 
 
 The New Dictatorship. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 Before this new sort of battle begins fire, I wish, 
 Mr. President, to liave a little consultation with 
 you in advance. Of course I am going to take a 
 hand, naturally on the side of the Cabinet, against 
 this attempt at Senatorial domination. It is sig- 
 nificant how every branch of Government, or the 
 individuals at its head, will usurp the supreme 
 power, in the present time of upheaval. First ap- 
 peared the trend toward a military dictatorship, 
 both in the East and the West. That was per- 
 haps to be expected, as the soldier must be profes- 
 sionally an autocrat; I know him for I graduated 
 
 (348)
 
 THE NEW DICTATORSHIP. 349 
 
 at "West-Point myself. But now rises the monster 
 of a civil dictatorship, on the part of men who 
 are makers of the Law, and should not be its vio- 
 lators. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Yes, everybody seems to want to get into my 
 shoes, thinking it an easy task to manage the 
 government in a time of civil war. I at least am 
 finding the job a hard one, the holiday of it is 
 3'et to come. The Senatorial Committee which 
 proposes to dictate who shall be members of my 
 Cabinet, has not escaped my attention in the past 
 months, though their descent upon me this morn- 
 ing was somewhat sudden. Their, attack was 
 chiefly directed against Seward, and to a less de- 
 gree against the rest of you, but indirectly it was 
 aimed at me, being planned to break up my Cab- 
 inet and leave me helpless without advisers, and 
 the chief departments without official heads. 
 Seward, having heard of the movement, had al- 
 ready sent me his resignation. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 I see, I see. You then summoned your official 
 family and warned us of the impending onslaught, 
 bidding us get ready to resist. I believe I shall 
 enjoy the fight — a civil duel between two branches 
 of the Government, executive and legislative.
 
 350 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXI. 
 
 The President. 
 Undoubtedly, but let me warn you. Both sides 
 are for the Union, yea of the same political party 
 which supports the war. So I must not let the 
 said committee break up my Cabinet in its own in- 
 terest or in that of some possible Presidential can- 
 didate; such inner disruption would give en- 
 couragement to the common enemy. Still I must 
 not alienate that committee, which is composed of 
 the Senate's ablest men, and all of them holding 
 our political creed. Therefore restrain your bel- 
 licose disposition, do not make a permanent 
 breach between us and them, we shall need them. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 I do not deny that I have my good Scotch 
 broadsword ready for those who would hamstring 
 the executive Power by legislative usurpation. To 
 my mind a Senatorial dictatorship is far less ex- 
 cusable, because far less natural, than a military 
 dictatorship ; the soldier has to be arbitrary, tho 
 lawyer ought to be always legal. Chiefly because 
 of that distinction I passed in my career from the 
 army to the law. 
 
 The President. 
 
 Hold, my friend of legality; on this ease also I 
 would cite precedent. The gentlemen composing 
 this Committee are deeply grounded in English
 
 THE NEW DICTATORSHIP. 35I 
 
 jurisprudence from, which ours is derived, and 
 have imbibed more or less of its character. Now 
 the whole movement of English History, I may 
 say, of the English legal consciousness, is the limi- 
 tation of the king's power by parliament, that is, 
 of the executive authority by the legislative. The 
 result is that Parliament is declared supreme, hav- 
 ing practically usurped all the other supreme func- 
 tions of Government. In fact the process is still 
 going on: the House of Commons has been trying 
 to swallow that of the Lords, and may do it yet. 
 So I hold that this Senatorial Committee, com- 
 posed as it is of Anglo-Saxon lawyers, have sim- 
 ply manifested the Anglo-Saxon legal spirit, as 
 is has come down through a long evolution of cen- 
 turies. To be sure, personal ambition plays in, 
 and lust for power, and factional hate; still in its 
 very nature the legislative mind will rasp against 
 the executive power and try to curb it — 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 And suspect it of all sorts of schemes of usurpa- 
 tion, which is just what the legislator is doing 
 himself. I can find the traces of this spirit in our 
 own Constitution made of course by English Ameri- 
 cans. Have you never noticed how full is the 
 legislative section, compared to the executive sec- 
 tion, and how carefully fenced off and buttressed 
 on all sides?
 
 352 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXI. 
 
 The President. 
 Now that you speak of it, I remember. So you 
 agree that these men are simply acting out their 
 inherited consciousness, and cannot altogether help 
 themselves. You see I am trying to understand 
 them, and I have to trace their conduct on lines 
 deeper than they themselves are aware of. Mark, 
 too, I am a lawyer, and seek to appreciate the legal 
 spirit on the side of its greatest worth. We can- 
 not do without it, as this is a government of law, 
 which is just what I am trying to save. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 I cannot help adding that you have several law- 
 yers in your Cabinet, who seem to be touched 
 with that same spirit of limiting executive author- 
 ity — at least your authority. And that is the chief 
 difficulty before us in the coming battle. I am 
 afraid that some of the Cabinet, instead of stand- 
 ing to the fire-line, and fighting with us, may go 
 over to the enemy. Not one alone, but possibly 
 more. Indeed it is my opinion that this whole 
 turmoil started from certain members of the Cab- 
 inet intrigueing with the Senatorial Committee, 
 even if this has its own ambition for greater power. 
 
 The President. 
 I think I know whom you mean. But let me 
 whisper to you in confidence what I am eager to
 
 THE NEW DICTATORSHIP. ' 353 
 
 get hold of — it is Chase's resignation to counter- 
 balance that of Seward. I tell you in order that 
 you may be careful not to spoil my game, but to 
 help me to success. Then I can keep you all with 
 me, and thwart the Senate Committee, without of- 
 fending its members seriously. Privately let me 
 say to you that this whole movement is gotten up 
 in the interest of Chase as the coming candidate 
 for the Presidency. But I cannot dismiss him; I 
 am aware of no man equal to him in his present 
 office; then I must not permit him to get outside 
 of the administration of the government, where 
 he could do much harm, possibly head a new party 
 in opposition. I deem it the highest .test of my 
 capacity that I be able to keep together the two 
 extremes, conservative and radical, Seward and 
 Chase, and make them work in co-operation. The 
 union of my Cabinet is the first won Union. Many 
 are the dictators whom I must meet — Cabinet dic- 
 tators, military dictators, and now legislative dic- 
 tators — 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 Well, here they come in a body; the whole Com- 
 mittee, nine of them, have passed through the 
 gate. See Sumner leading the way, watch his 
 high-chinned dictatorial strut, his air is that of tak- 
 ing possession of the White House —
 
 354 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXI. 
 
 The President. 
 Let forbearance rule in our words and in our 
 hearts, I deem it a very critical moment, fraught 
 with greater peril to our cause than a battle with 
 Lee. Stay by me, you are the one to defend the 
 Cabinet, but let there be moderation. I do not in- 
 tend to say much, I shall sit as judge before both 
 sides, the accusers and accused, and let each of 
 them assail the other and defend itself, till both 
 of them even themselves out in charge and coun- 
 tercharge, and are ready for a mutual understand- 
 ing and new peace. Moreover, I wish to see which 
 side our good friend, the Secretary of the Treas- 
 ury, will take in the fight. I think the storm will 
 clear the atmosphere generally. Soon the Cabinet 
 will appear, I timed them some minutes later than 
 the Senators, who will be surprised when they find 
 themselves face to face with those whom they have 
 accused. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 A great scheme indeed! It beats anything my 
 father ever did in the way of political strategy. 
 Already the Senatorial dictatorship cannot dic- 
 tate, but is thrown back upon its own defence. 
 How I pulse to give it some home-thrusts! 
 
 The President. 
 Again I must beg you to put a guard over 
 yourself. "We do not wish to estrange these Sen-
 
 THE NEW DICTATORSHIP. S55 
 
 ators but win them, or a majority of them, who 
 are certainly not devoid of insight and patriotism. 
 But here come your associates of the Cabinet, as 
 they agreed to do this morning at my solicitation. 
 They know what is in the air evidently. 
 
 Postmaster General. 
 
 I have been observing them for some moments 
 through the window, as they slowly and rather 
 meditatively trudge along the walk. Especially I 
 am watching Chase, who lags alone in the rear ; he 
 is plainly non-plussed by the situation he feels 
 himself in. There ! he stops in his tracks and 
 lapses into a brown study. He seems debating 
 with himself whether he will continue his trip or 
 turn back. He acts as if he felt himself caught in 
 a trap. See ! a fellow member, "Welles, returns to 
 him and takes him by the arm. A fresh advance ! 
 
 The President. 
 
 You may take your place among the Cabinet ; be 
 alert for defence, but remember my warning ! The 
 Committee looks astonished at the presence of their 
 culprits, who propose not only defence but at- 
 tack. I see the Attorney General is ready with 
 the Constitutional argument — I shall enter and set 
 the ball a-rolling.
 
 356 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXI. 
 
 Postmaster General (alone). 
 
 The episode is over, though it lasted several 
 days. So I have come out to Silver Springs to take 
 a little rest in the country, and to think back on 
 the drama which has turned out a veritable com- 
 edy. Most amusing was the scene when Lincoln 
 actually snatched from Chase's hand the latter 's 
 resignation when he had drawn it from his pocket 
 and was still holding it in a kind of doubt or pos- 
 sibly menace. So Lincoln had the two resignations 
 of the two hostile counterparts of his Cabinet, 
 Seward and Chase, and could balance one against 
 the other, keep both in his Cabinet, and handsomely 
 nullify the Senatorial interference. The most 
 skillful political device that I ever saw plaj^ed ! 
 Lincoln could not contain himself, but sprang up 
 elated with one of his very rare looks of happi- 
 ness, and plumped out perhaps his best rural met- 
 aphor: "Now I can ride, I have got a pumpkin 
 in each end of my bag. " So we could see Lincoln 
 with his long legs getting a-straddle of his donkey 
 again in peace. 
 
 The President then ordered both of his resigned 
 ministers to resume their customary official duties. 
 Seward obeyed with alacrity, since he at once saw
 
 THE NEW DICTATORSHIP. S57 
 
 through the whole game ; Chase with hesitation and 
 sullenness, for how could he help feeling completely 
 outwitted and defeated? But he was unable to 
 find any excuse for quitting his post; such a de- 
 sertion would be his political decease. And the 
 legislative usurpers shrank back to their haunts 
 utterly thwarted; though one of them, Trumbull, 
 stayed behind for a while, to frame to Lincoln some 
 excuse for such conduct toward an old friend and 
 benefactor, or possibly to declare his penitence. 
 So ends the civil dictatorship, be it of the Senate 
 or of the Cabinet; Lincoln makes it conclude it- 
 self in a comedy. Ha ! Ha ! Tee Hee ! 
 
 But my laugh cannot last ; here are the awful 
 details of that butchery of our troops at Fred- 
 ericksburg; by it we are whirled into the bloodiest 
 tragedy, and the sigh, yea the tear will bubble up. 
 My God, how long ! Utter incompetency of mili- 
 tary leadership! If Lincoln's political strategy 
 could somehow be transformed into military strat- 
 egy, the war would be brought to a close in a 
 month or two. Impossible it seems out of this 
 huge, well-disciplined Eastern army to evolve a 
 General. Still another trial will have to be made; 
 Burnside cannot be retained. But who is to suc- 
 ceed him? Alas who? Hooker is spoken of, but 
 hazardous will be the experiment with a man of
 
 358 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXL 
 
 his known habits. Very strange but doubtless sig- 
 nificant is the sterility of this great army in pro- 
 ducing military leaders. And still after Emanci- 
 pation's offering victory averts her face. What 
 can it all mean? But I must quit this brooding, 
 else I shall drop dead.
 
 i00h Ctoentg-Strnntr. 
 
 Lincoln^s Curse. 
 
 Lincoln {alone). 
 Fredericksburg ! Chancelorsville ! Oh why ! 
 Anew that Fatal Line is drawn in blood 
 Against our cause, and deeper gapes than ever 
 Between us and the goal of all our toil ; 
 The crimson flood runs full to overflow, 
 And always flings us back upon our bank 
 Whenever we dare try to cross its bound. 
 Not merely once the lesson has been trounced 
 Into our very souls with reddened pain, 
 But twice upon us falls the penalty 
 Again, until we swoon for loss of blood. 
 But why defeat's ensanguined repetition 
 Aye, this repeated repetition's Hell ! 
 
 (359)
 
 360 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK XXII . 
 
 Is then that Fatal Line some stronger God 
 
 Who can defy our will to pass beyond 
 
 And e 'en punish us for such attempt ? 
 
 The Proclamation of enfranchisement 
 
 By which I thought to win the Upper Powers 
 
 Has not to us lured once a victory, 
 
 But rather has it brought the deeper scourge 
 
 With sting of doubt in Providence Himself, 
 
 M'Clellan could not budge the boundary, 
 Which, fortressed high as Heaven's battlements. 
 Within his soul rose up impregnable ; 
 And so I had to shift him from command. 
 But whose the talent which can take his place? 
 That army never riped a general, 
 The monster somehow could not grow a head 
 Which all might see and shout: "Behold the 
 
 leader ; ' ' 
 Though many men of stellar shoulder-straps 
 With soldier 's lore and patriotic zeal 
 Performed the daily tasks of mediocrity. , 
 At last I diced a choice at hazard's throw, 
 Burnside I took, a worthy officer, 
 Who did not wish the place, and voiced himself 
 Unequal to the opportunity. 
 Then followed fast the bodeful clash of arms 
 With fresh inscription in the gore of thousands 
 Which drew the Fatal Line at Fredericksburg.
 
 LINCOLN'S CURSE. 3J1 
 
 And still no leader bulked above the mass, 
 
 The soldier's genius fell down self-defeated. 
 
 So I once more must grip the bag of luck 
 
 And try to draw the prize of generalship. 
 
 I chose a man more famed for fight than headship, 
 
 Addicted to his dram and blatancy, 
 
 Which I dared hope by warning to correct. 
 
 And ban all obstacles to his success. 
 
 But at the very point of Fortune's sword 
 
 Our fighting Joe turned fightless suddenly, 
 
 And coupled with his name : Chancelorsville ! 
 
 Where was rewrit in crimson characters 
 
 The fated lesson of the parting line. 
 
 To scholar us with bloody repetition. 
 
 Our army has again been whirled aback 
 
 In lurid energy from its assault 
 
 Upon the wall between the North and South 
 
 As if that were God's sacred demarcation. 
 
 Are then the Presences wdiose messages 
 
 Impressed me with their signature divine 
 
 Fate's weaklings of the age's furious clash? 
 
 In agony I cite them to my bar 
 
 Of judgment for their broken promises. 
 
 Who breathed me hope, though voiceless and un- 
 
 viewed 
 Then whelmed me to this maelstrom of despair.
 
 362 LINCOLN IN THE WHI TE HO USE—B OOK XXII. 
 
 Or has tliat Upper Cabinet of mine 
 
 "Which has so seemed to guest at home mth me, 
 
 Abiding here at will in residence 
 
 Been but a lying choir of spirits damned, 
 
 To take advantage of my melancholy. 
 
 Perchance a cohort of black devildom 
 
 Sent to abuse my gift of fantasy 
 
 Unto perdition of my cause and me ? 
 
 That higher Presence to whose best I list. 
 
 Invoking it to guide my very soul 
 
 And to direct my world's last governance, 
 
 May be old Satan 's self in fresh disguise 
 
 Of airy shapes from mine own mint of brain. 
 
 In which he masks the better to beguile me. 
 
 And thus to snare my soul in his false wiles. 
 
 Slipping into my prime creative self 
 
 The deeper to bedamn me and mine own. 
 
 The devil may obsess my consciousness — 
 But hold ! I must not spin so far and fine 
 The gossamers of dread imagination ; 
 I must bethink me of this striking minute ; 
 Our army marching up Potomac's valley 
 A monstrous megatherium headless crawls, 
 Like some huge coil of the primeval globe ; 
 Almost unbrained is its huge organism. 
 Colossal in its courage and its strength. 
 But dangerous to friend and to itself
 
 LINCOLN'S CURSE. 363 
 
 Unless concentred newly in a head, 
 "Which will direct aright its mighty limbs 
 Against the pressing foe who has resurged 
 Afresh across the battle-line to us, 
 And makes for Maryland and Pennsylvania. 
 I know not what to do, and yet must do 
 At once, to meet the quick emergency; 
 M'Clellan's name is in those soldiers' hearts 
 And often rises to their lips outspoken. 
 And I may have to call him back again — 
 Not yet — that cannot be — though it may be. 
 
 All of my famous Generals have failed. 
 
 So I am forced to try another way, 
 
 A fameless officer shall be my choice 
 
 One who has done high duty unobtrusive, 
 
 For nought remains but this blind lottery. 
 
 And yet the Fatal Line I fear in all, 
 
 So deeply charactered by time and wont 
 
 From its first birth within our Constitution ; 
 
 It has been graved on the Atlantic mind. 
 
 Which now must meet and crush its very self; 
 
 Against it I have launched my Proclamation, 
 
 Erased the bound between the slave and free 
 
 Under the seeming favor from on high. 
 
 But now I dare to oath my creed Satanic : 
 
 The promise to me is not kept above, 
 
 I doubt that Upper World to be the truth :
 
 364 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK XXII. 
 
 I challenge God here to defend himself 
 Before my high tribunal of Judge Conscience ; 
 I make the charge proved by these new defeats 
 Right in the face of our great edict east, 
 The Lord Himself is a secessionist. 
 
 And now there speeds this way the shadowy flight 
 
 Of Presences invisible but felt 
 
 Which hover over me in mockery 
 
 As I toss on my vision-breeding couch. 
 
 But longer I shall hearken not to lies, 
 
 Though they be vouched for by the Powers of 
 
 Heaven. 
 Avaunt ye spectral falsehoods, brood of Hell ! 
 With guile ye make yourselves pretend to me 
 My honest ghosts with messages of truth 
 Sent from supernal sources down to earth. 
 Henceforth I ban ye with my execration 
 From every nook and chamber of this White-House 
 Where ye have lodged unbidded in my home 
 And found the way unto my faith and heart, 
 The ministers of Pandemonium. 
 Ye sneaking guests disguised in welfare's mask 
 Away ! I shall with you no more commune, 
 Betrayers of my holiest confidences, 
 I damn you with my black infernal curse 
 Which is your own hurled back from me to you: 
 Forever I abjure all intercouse —
 
 LINCOLN'S CURSE. S65 
 
 Stop ! hark ! a rap ! a strange response to me ! 
 The door unlatches by a mortal hand. 
 
 Lamon. 
 What means this maddened talk — with whom and 
 
 why! 
 Let me dare enter, though without your call; 
 At home I felt the pull to you in haste, 
 And could not stay myself against the hand 
 Which gripped my heart and fain would drag it 
 
 forth 
 Out of my very breast into your presence. 
 But say it me, why such confusion here, 
 As if you had been wrestling with a fiend ? 
 I heard you storming loudly with yourself, 
 For I can see nobody here who speaks. 
 And yet your voice was pitched in high defiance 
 Which toned a challenge to the very death. 
 Tell me who was it ? — I would lend my help. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Lamon, I feel the better for your voice, 
 It calms my mood already to renounce, 
 And soothes me to a higher resignation. 
 Your tone of friendship lays my stormy sea 
 And charms the rage in every drop of blood. 
 But oh the paroxysm seethes again, 
 I feel myself in a revolt with Heaven 
 Who has refused to seal my cause with victory. 
 Belied his promise given for my edict —
 
 366 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK XXII. 
 
 Lamon. 
 Hold! turn away! Keep off your thoughts from 
 
 that ! 
 How wild your look distracted rolls above 
 As if you dared to death what rules beyond ! 
 Your glittering eye-balls from their inner pit 
 Are flinging flakes which scintillate Inferno. 
 Your straight lank hair stands lodged upon your 
 
 head 
 Like cornfield curled in a tornado's gust. 
 
 Lincoln, turn your face unto your friend : 
 
 1 would give help to ban your hidden foe, 
 I never saw you looking so before. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 Already you have fortified my heart, 
 The music of your voice has gleamed me hope ; 
 Still I must fight to flight my devils own. 
 You cannot put them in your Marshal's prison, 
 Or hunt them to their hell with sword and shot, 
 As you can treat the plotters of rebellion. • 
 Alas ! I am the rebel now myself 
 Revolted from the guidance of the Gods. 
 
 Lmnon. 
 For such arrest, friend, I bear no writ, 
 And still I hope to serve you in that war. 
 Grasp me in hand, and call me now again 
 Consoler, mediator, priestly friend,
 
 LINCOLN'S CURSE. 367 
 
 As you have done before in nighted gloom ; 
 Bethink yourself once more of your great task 
 On which the ages pivot just to-day, 
 Remember, you belong not merely to yourself 
 But to the cycle of all History. 
 So free yourself from your own brooding self 
 And live the timeless life of very Time, 
 Of it, in it, and yet above it whole, 
 The guerdon winning thus of immortality. 
 Methinks your steadied eyes speak readiness, 
 Your mien has even smiled acceptance new 
 Of that high order which we call divine. 
 Let us come down to work which is at hand 
 And presses for decision on the spot. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 With all my might I force me to recall 
 Myself to Earth from the despair of Hell. 
 But must I start again vain labor's task 
 To heave the stone of fabled Sisyphus? 
 No longer myth but realized in me, 
 Who after more than toils of Hercules, 
 Have to begin anew where I began. 
 And make the same old round in streams of lilood. 
 Damned to the gory treadmill of Moloch 's rites ? 
 
 Lamon. 
 Withdraw your mind from here and think the West, 
 Where Grant is sweeping down the Mississippi,
 
 3G8 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK XXII . 
 
 And soon will cleave its chains until its mouth, 
 Breaking the final link to make it free, 
 Wherewith the Fatal Line out there is gone 
 And soon must weaken here to its last break. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 That is the word to stanch my bleeding heart, 
 And drip me balm for my infernal pains. 
 Lamon, you have charmed my solacer 
 Out of the clouds of my environment 
 "Which hid from me the promise of the Valley, 
 Though I was born and reared its very child. 
 The rainbow I can see across the mountains; 
 You point the arch of iridescent hope 
 Which yet will reach to overbend us here, 
 Crossing forever our fixed Line of Fate. 
 And now methinks I see the chosen way 
 In which the Upper Powers wisely move 
 Unto their goal of due accomplishment. 
 
 Lamon. 
 Let us then seize the hope's recovery 
 To meet the crisis roaring round our gates. " 
 Lee wheels his soldiers to Potomac's bound, 
 And seems to mean invasion of the North. 
 Our army is deploying steadily, 
 To shed attack wherever this may strike. 
 Valiant and yet unfaithed of leadership 
 It grimly marches to its duty's trial. 
 Is there to be a change of Generals ?
 
 LINCOLN'S CURSE. SQ9 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 The sorest word in all my dictionary 
 
 You tongue me in that petty vocable ! 
 
 A General! A Leader who can lead 
 
 Our soldiery across the Fatal Line 
 
 And break the fetter of our destiny ! 
 
 Him I have sought in every avenue, 
 
 Have prayed for his descent from God above; 
 
 But he has not come down at cry of mine. 
 
 And so I picked from out the mass a man 
 
 Of whom you scarcely have once heard, I deem, 
 
 Meade is the choice whom I have hazarded 
 
 To buffet Fortune's frantic waywardness — 
 
 A Dame most damned for her frivolity. 
 
 Lamon. 
 
 That army will repel the foe's attack 
 
 Of its own instinct's push, though leaderless; 
 
 Such is its might defensive of its line ; 
 
 But when it turns to make assault beyond. 
 
 That is the pinch which seems to crush its will. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 You see the point on which my problem turns. 
 Has turned, and will perchance to-morrow turn. 
 But now we have to wait the clash of arms 
 Watching to-day the keen arbitrament.
 
 370 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK XXII. 
 
 Lamon. 
 
 Enough ! I must make haste to mine own cave, 
 From which I tread with guards the underworld 
 Which has its lightless eyes for seeing night. 
 But when your mood shall overpower you, 
 My Lincoln, cast your sight on your own skies 
 Where you will glimpse above your prairie 's tilth 
 The star-lit hope of rising Hesperus.
 
 LINCOLN'S CURSE. 37I 
 
 Lincoln (alone). 
 I feel the guilty weight of crushing sin 
 As if God's universe piled on my heart, 
 So that I droop me down in supplication. 
 Ye Upper Presences, come back, I pray, 
 "Whom I have cursed in bitter blasphemy 
 When I saw not the better way ye wrought 
 To win the Union's consecration, 
 And so unfaithed me of your governance. 
 Mine own short sightedness I dared too much, 
 Too sudden was my fool's expectancy 
 That through my edict of enfranchisement 
 The Powers above would interpose down here. 
 Perchance in fight appear in their own shapes. 
 As once the Gods came down from skied Olympus 
 And warred upon the plains of towered Troy. 
 Thus we were to behold with human eyes 
 By one supernal blow dealt out of Heaven 
 The Powers breaking through our mortal Fate, 
 Just at the battle-line so often fixed 
 Against ourselves with bloody demarcation. 
 
 Now I confess my sin's f oolhardiness ; 
 I ought not dare direct that higher world 
 Which has its own procedure and its goal, 
 Whose providential order I must find 
 And then I humbly may co-operate. 
 Already I can glimpse me reconciled
 
 372 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK XXII. 
 
 With the world's government and with myself; 
 I see the light along that "Western Eiver 
 Whose flood upbears our Nation's destiny, 
 And flows on hope's own highway to the Future. 
 Here I repent me of my hasty doubt 
 And do unsay me of my blasphemy ; 
 I shall pray back my Upper Cabinet 
 Which I in curse had banned out of my life, 
 Hearting it with a new-born hospitality. 
 But hark — a note of the last clash of arms ! 
 The newsboys shout : a fight at Gettysburg !
 
 100k Cixrtntg-CIjkir, 
 
 The Fourth of July, 1863. 
 
 Seward alone. 
 
 Suspense ! suspense ! that is the demon whose 
 infernal bat-wings overhang to-day our Washing- 
 ton, covering even noon-tide with the pall of night ! 
 This awful anxiety is not merely in my mind, the 
 air itself is leaden and weighs me under it with 
 a pressure never felt before. Down the Missis- 
 sippi the great battle decisive of its Valley's 
 future is reported raging ; the stake is vast though 
 somewhat remote. But what strangles me with a 
 fiendish care is the conflict now at height in Get- 
 tysburg; three days has surged the desperate bat- 
 tle; the last news leaves it unsettled still. Can we 
 push Lee and his Southern legions back from our 
 
 (373)
 
 374 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXIII. 
 
 North into their own territory? Or will the vic- 
 torious South dictate its terms to us here in Wash- 
 ington? Methinks yon Capitol quakes in anxious 
 dubitation. 
 
 And to-day is our festal anniversary of the Na- 
 tion's birth. Four score and eight are the years 
 which have circled over us from then, when we cut 
 by violence the natal cord which tied us to our 
 English mother. This morning I read the strong- 
 worded pronouncement of 1776 wdth many a re- 
 flection; that was an act of separation, of seces- 
 sion, of revolt, which our rebels claim as their pro- 
 totype ; some of our seceding States re-affirmed that 
 document of Jefferson, But now the tide of time 
 runs different — we are to unify and not separate. 
 The Constitution made the Union, but left within 
 it the ever-wadening rift of slavery which now the 
 Nation has to close or die. Emancipation has been 
 proclaimed by the President, erasing the line be- 
 tween slavery and freedom, w^here lies all the trou- 
 ble. That is the new Declaration of Independence, 
 far-reaching as the first, and to-day, I hope, will 
 be the new Fourth of July for the Nation here- 
 after. But alas! this latest act of freedom has 
 not been stamped with the seal of victory; some- 
 how the Powers above do hesitate, withholding 
 their approval. Just now I recall high Zeus weigh- 
 ing the two Fates of success and defeat in his
 
 THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1863. S75 
 
 Olympian balance ; I can almost see him yonder on 
 the mountain holding his golden scales; up and 
 down teeter the two sides, and I with every rise 
 and fall am thrilled through and through with the 
 lightning of hope and despair. I cannot endure 
 the shocks, I must flee — but whither? Escape om- 
 nipresence I cannot, and this suspense is omni- 
 present, hung over this city, this country, this 
 planet, aye this universe, methinks. 
 
 Well, somehow I have dropped into Lincoln's 
 vein, I have caught from him these intimations of 
 the Upper Presences, which seem to brood over 
 me to-day, and over the time pregnant with mighty 
 occurrences. I need him, and possibly he needy 
 me, as he often says ; I shall go and commune with 
 him a little while. But see ! here he comes and 
 enters the open door, 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Indeed ! I rather thought you were waiting for 
 me, as I was for you. I come to get relief from the 
 anxiety which dilacerates me. To-day is the great 
 pay-day of the centuries; each side is paying off 
 long-accumulated debts; the accounts of ages are 
 being squared and the balance struck in blood, 
 both in near-by Pennsylvania and in far-off Mis- 
 sissippi. It is the most significant of our national 
 holidays; the Gods are to-day celebrating their 
 Fourth of July, not ours. The Nation is chiefly
 
 376 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXIII. 
 
 looking on in unspeakable suspense, though some 
 of its people are terribly employing gunpowder — 
 not in fun but in deadly clash. Seward, the time. 
 the atmosphere, the very sunshine seems peniten- 
 tial; there is a divine penalty hovering over us, 
 yea lurking within us. Now I understand Pur- 
 gatory. 
 
 Seward. 
 Certainly I have been feeling something of the 
 sort all day, waiting for the outcome. In accord- 
 ance with the transmitted American custom, I 
 started to read the Declaration of Independence; 
 I shall have to confess that it seemed no longer to 
 fit the present Fourth of July, which is in process 
 of being made over. The stress then w^as upon di- 
 vision, rebellion; now it goes the other way. Still 
 I pondered the old document with new reflections. 
 I tell you, Mr. President, we are making the grand 
 settlement to-day whether we shall lapse to sepa- 
 rated Europe or advance to united America. In 
 fact the outlook reaches much farther, as I have 
 heard you intimate: it is being now decided 
 whether the world shall continue an eternal grind 
 between rasping national and racial boundaries, or 
 become the one great unitary federation of nations 
 and races, with peace universal. This Fourth of 
 July is the new turning-point of total History. No 
 wonder that the very Earth seems oppressed with
 
 THE FOURTH OF JULY, 18G3. 377 
 
 the new duty, and makes us feel sympathetic in 
 suspense at her throeful parturition of the young 
 ffion. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 Excellent, Mr. Orator! Your lofty-toned words 
 elevate me into their skiey region of faith and 
 hope, of which I am in dear need. But let me 
 surprise you with the remark that I have not been 
 reading the Declaration of Independence or other 
 patriotic lore, but a very ancient piece of writ, the 
 Book of Job. Doubtless you can judge somewhat 
 of my mind at present by such a choice. I never 
 before understood that precious bit of biblical ex- 
 perience. I am Job, I feel me put under divine 
 training; I have to learn what is misfortune, de- 
 feat, suffering, even death of the most beloved. 
 
 Seward. 
 I have noticed it, and must tell you that your 
 life has deepened mine. I have often thought that 
 you were born to suffer, it is a part of your great 
 calling at the present time which is an era of uni- 
 versal suffering, an epoch of the Nation's supreme 
 tribulation. You bear all its sorrows in you, and 
 therein you are its deepest, truest representative. 
 How you respond to the bereavement of the widow 
 and the orphan! Sometimes I have to think that 
 there beats in your bosom the whole huge folk-
 
 378 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXIII. 
 
 heart, so compassionate are you with its thousand- 
 fold throbs of war-wrought woe. In that I go to 
 school to you daily, taking a lesson every time I 
 hear you speak or intone your piteous voice. The 
 Great Exemplar whom we adore, was such through 
 being the Great Sufferer. Man, when he touches 
 the bottom of his being, worships suffering as the 
 ultimate fact of his own godlike nature. In such 
 a time as this the whole People is crucified, nailed 
 as it were to the cross of suffering, in the agony 
 of the age's mighty transition. I look upon you 
 and behold not merely an individual's anguish, but 
 a world's, which is mirrored in you; many are be- 
 ginning to have that same vision of you, and with 
 the clarification of the years it will come to all. 
 Such is the divine lesson which you have taught 
 me, though you be unconscious of it, and you are 
 imparting the same lesson to every soul that en- 
 ters your presence. friend, teacher, redeemer, 
 do not think that your suffering is lost; it is your 
 supreme, all-embracing gift, that which makes you 
 savior of the Nation and of yourself, yea even of 
 me. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 No greater comfort could be given to a poor 
 
 sorrowed human heart than what you have spoken. 
 
 It soothes me to reconciliation with my lot and 
 
 with the Order above me, against which I some-
 
 THE FOURTH OF JULY, 1863. 379 
 
 times revolt to sheer defiance, yea to downright ex- 
 ecration. At least once or twice I have sunk to 
 that damnation. Do you know I felt some relief 
 when I read Job's words charging God wath in- 
 justice, even with cruelty, and with deluding 
 wretched man ? Job too suffered quite to the point 
 of sinking to unbelief in the good Providence. I 
 could not forbear a throb of sympathy with him 
 for the sake of myself, as I conned the passage in 
 the light of my own experience. 
 
 Seward. 
 I question if I could get as much out of Job as 
 I do out of you, though with j^our living commen- 
 tary I shall this night turn to that book again. I 
 may note, however, this seeming difference between 
 you and Job : he represents nobody but himself, 
 his is a purely individual relation between himself 
 and his God, whereas I cannot think of you with- 
 out taking you as the embodiment of your People, 
 of your age; you are rather a national Job, per- 
 chance a world-Job, not simply a personal one, 
 and you have to be scourged and disciplined by the 
 Upper Powers — not merely for your own perfec- 
 tion, but for your Nation's, perchance for your 
 race's. Then, friend, let me add, you own love, 
 you touch its source in every heart, you have 
 roused it in me, and made it active, as never be- 
 fore.
 
 380 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK XXIII. 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 That would be indeed my ambition, but I know 
 too well my shortcomings. I never could reach 
 M'Clellan's affection, though he had a goodly por- 
 tion of mine. And I never could quite find the 
 heart of the Potomac army, though I have not yet 
 given up the effort. But the thought of it brings 
 us back to the furious battle which that army is 
 now waging for us. See! in the nick comes the 
 messenger ! What, two telegrams ! Break them 
 open and read. 
 
 Seward. 
 
 Two victories ! surrender of Vicksburg to Grant ! 
 Repulse of Lee at Gettysburg! Great God! this 
 doomsday of suspense is cracking overhead ! 
 
 Lincoln. 
 
 So to-day turns out a new celebration of the 
 Fourth of July. The bell rings — the tocsin of an 
 epoch ! The war seems rounding a corner at last, 
 and to start the march toward its close. Let us 
 hurry off to hear the telegraph.
 
 §oah Ctoentg-Jfniittlj. 
 
 Gettysburg and Vicksburg. 
 
 Penning a letter with uplifted heart 
 
 From which the words flowed in the ink to paper, 
 
 For the two victories on one great day, 
 
 Here in the East and yonder in the West, 
 
 This of the older States, that of the new, 
 
 Lincoln was seated at his desk alone, 
 
 And pondered what these battles twinned might 
 
 mean 
 Born the same hour in mighty throes of pain 
 Which told the Nation's palingenesis. 
 Well he bethought their strange identity 
 Which tied them to one point of sundering time, 
 And coupled them in might to one high cause. 
 But soon he passed to muse their difference, 
 
 (381)
 
 382 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXIV. 
 
 So far apart in space and character, 
 
 As well as in the kind of victory, 
 
 And in the consequences sprung of both. 
 
 Each deed of arms he felt as some far forecast, 
 
 The symbol of events yet to be born, 
 
 Which he had to construe as President. 
 
 While in such mood he sensed within his view 
 
 The sudden coming of the Presences 
 
 Who dropped at their own will into the White- 
 
 House, 
 The meeting of the Upper Cabinet 
 Called by themselves at time's articulation, 
 Where the historic cycle starts afresh 
 Its node of revolution round the ages. 
 So he again began to hold communion 
 With that weird otherwhere, his overworld 
 Which ran its strain ideal through his sensed life, 
 Immortal part bound with mortality, 
 ]\Iaking eternal what belongs to Time, 
 Impressing God's advice upon the man 
 Through avenues hid in presentiment. 
 
 But now behold the transformation new 
 Which rises from those shapeless Presences 
 As they walk out of shadowy evolution 
 Into fixed forms of our humanity, 
 Whose outlines rounded in the yielding haze 
 With languaged lips just ready for a word.
 
 GETTYSBURG AND VICKSBURG. 383 
 
 Two private soldiers soon they hatch, themselves 
 
 Out of the circumambient nest of air, 
 
 Both uniformed in blue with tilted caps, 
 
 The belted cartridge box around their loins, 
 
 A bayoneted musket in their hands, 
 
 Nor failed the dangling cup and haversack. 
 
 But each slipped in from opposite directions : 
 
 One marched in stately step out of the East 
 
 And tipped his head in military mien ; 
 
 The other trod his easy Western gait 
 
 Dressed in free blouse and tattered overcoat, 
 
 Unshined his shoes, unpolished drooped his buttons 
 
 And were not always present in their ranks. 
 
 And still he eyed the goal without a flinch 
 
 Letting parade be minded on itself. 
 
 Lincoln addressed them both drawn up before him. 
 
 United in one link yet different: 
 
 "Welcome, thrice welcome, soldier boys in blue! 
 
 But tell me, what may be your errand hither? 
 
 Are you the bearers of some messages 
 
 From distant battlefields where fight now rages?" 
 
 Both strangely spoke at once in unison: 
 
 ' ' We come to celebrate with you our deeds 
 
 Done on our Nation's Independence Day; 
 
 We would restore the Union of these States 
 
 Preserving with it freedom for our People. ' '
 
 384 LINCOLN IN THE WHI TE HO USE—B OOK XXIV. 
 
 Then Lincoln answered with his voice enkindled: 
 
 "Both of yon brave and patriotic too, 
 
 You speak a common purpose in your hearts 
 
 To which you offer life as sacrifice. 
 
 Alas ! I have to think now of our foes, 
 
 As honest and as valorous as we, 
 
 Fighting for what they hold to be the right 
 
 And yet we deem them wrong in thought and act. 
 
 That is the pang which we must often feel, 
 
 Conscience we have to crush by violence. 
 
 And yet we too affirm as rule our conscience. 
 
 But never mind this moody turn of mine: 
 
 I wish to hear whence both of you have come. 
 
 Of the same regiment you cannot be, 
 
 You seem to hail from regions quite diverse, 
 
 "With charactery writ in ways and looks. ' ' 
 
 The Western soldier clenched his gun more firmly. 
 
 And made one daring lurch as if assailant, 
 
 Then shot his words like bullets through the air : 
 
 "From Vicksburg I to greet our President - 
 
 Who keeps himself a comrade like ourselves." 
 
 The Easterner stood stiff and soldierly. 
 
 He toed the line aright with polished shoes, 
 
 But showed no inner push to cross its bound. 
 
 While still obeying his superior ; 
 
 How fine he looked, well-postured in his stand ! 
 
 His musket vied in sheen with his brass buttona
 
 GETTYSBURG AND YICKSBURG. 385 
 
 "Well-kempt, well-fed, with store of meat and 
 
 crackers, 
 Aesthetic in his graceful turns and whiskers, 
 He trimmed his answer to the President : 
 "From Gettysburg I come with salutation, 
 To tell of this war 's greatest victory. ' ' 
 Lincoln stood silent at the words of each, 
 Weighing the triumphs of his armies both, 
 When the two soldiers faced each other squarely. 
 And then began to voice their mutual strains : 
 
 Getty shurger. 
 The fierce assault of Lee has been repulsed 
 When he once dared attack us on our line ; 
 He has been driven back from Northern bounds. 
 No more to vex the State of Penn or Maryland. 
 
 Yickshiirger. 
 Broken again by us has been the line. 
 As once we did before at Donelson ; 
 And we shall breach it still and wipe it out 
 Wherever it be drawn against our marching host. 
 
 Gettysburger. 
 The enemy re-cross Potomac's flood 
 In haste to tread once more their Southern land ; 
 Let them assail us if they only dare, 
 We shall hurl back their bravest soldiery.
 
 386 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK XXI7. 
 
 Yicksburger. 
 
 Our Mississippi flows now to the Gulf, 
 Without a fortressed foe to chain its course, 
 Its Valley's people welded are to one 
 "Without division of the South from North. 
 
 Gettysburg er. 
 
 We have expelled the dread invader's horde 
 From our free soil to land of slavery, 
 Methinks he will not try so soon again 
 To cross Potomac's fluid boundary. 
 
 Yicksburger. 
 
 But see our Mississippi 's newest flow, 
 No longer rolling wroth within itself. 
 But surging joyfully it leaps unfettered, 
 It sighs no more its course half -slave, half-free 
 Its fury turns to rage of liberty. 
 
 Gettyshurger. 
 We Gettysburgers shall again march forth, . 
 (How often have we done the same before!) 
 And take position on the battle-line 
 Against the files of the Confederacy, 
 Keady to spend our blood for the Union's cause. 
 
 Yickshurger. 
 Vicksburgers we who never can be halted. 
 But shall sweep on and on to seek the foe.
 
 GETTYSBURG AND VICK8BVRG. 387 
 
 And cleave his ranks embattled wherever found ; 
 
 Already we are wheeling to the East, 
 
 And soon shall burst on your Atlantic coast, 
 
 Headed again by Generals our best. 
 
 Whom we have reared from our own people's ranks. 
 
 Gettyshurger. 
 
 I must not fail to tell what thrilled me most 
 
 As I stood ranged for fight at Gettysburg: 
 
 A rumor darted up like lightning streaked, 
 
 And leaped as sudden spark from tongue to tongue 
 
 Electrifying all our regiment: 
 
 "M'Clellan is again to-day our leader!" 
 
 The shout ran through our own brigade at once 
 
 Then rolled in waves through all the field of 
 
 fighters, 
 And echoed far along the battle's front; 
 Whence it might come no one has ever told. 
 Or who did start that strange hallucination. 
 For such we found it at the close of day 
 When it had done its work inspiring us, 
 And filled our hearts with throb of victory. 
 In yell responsive then we smote our foes 
 As they advanced up to us haughtily 
 So that they soon recoiled back to their lines 
 Whence they had charged upon our cannonry. 
 I must confess the fact of mine own soul: 
 Around M'Clellan's wraith we fought the day.
 
 388 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE— BOOK XXIV. 
 
 And deemed we heard the voice of his command 
 
 Amid the furious fusilade of arms, 
 
 Encouraging to conquer though we die. 
 
 That ghostly rumor bubbled up unwilled 
 
 Out of the underself of that great army, 
 
 Where lies enthroned alone our Little Mac 
 
 As the ideal beloved of all our troops. 
 
 The chevalier of noble soldiery. 
 
 But now I come to speak my last appeal, 
 
 Like him the shade of the reality : 
 
 Give back to us M'Clellan's flesh and blood, 
 
 That we no longer have a ghost as leader ; 
 
 President, restore him to our hearts! 
 
 VicJcshurger. 
 Pardon my laugh, whose rise I cannot choke 
 With my wee tinct of Western courtesy ; 
 But let me fairly state the solid fact: 
 At Vicksburg we nor saw nor heard the spooks, 
 But had the actual Grant before us there 
 Directing the assault upon the w^alls. 
 Behind whose battlements the foe lay hid 
 Seeking to hold the line which he would breach, 
 And thus to keep division of the Union. 
 Already Grant had broken through that line, 
 And was again about to hit it there 
 A shivering blow, when it was yielded up 
 With all its garrison and war's munitions.
 
 GETTYSBURG AND VICK8BURG. 389 
 
 I too may voice to yon, President, 
 My fervent prayer for which I came so far : 
 The breaker of the Fatal Line, our Grant, 
 Bring from the West and give supreme command 
 That he do here just what he has done there, 
 Supplanting by his deed M'Clellan's WTaith, 
 Which seems still to command — " 
 
 The flow of words unfinished on the air 
 Had stopped in sudden halt their rivalry 
 For Lincoln sprang up from his dreamy couch 
 Tense-nerved, full-orbed of eye, and statured 
 
 straight. 
 Peeping about upon the vacant space 
 Where those two soldiers stood erstwhile in talk ; 
 But they had fled and yet had left within 
 His sounding soul a loud reverberation. 
 Which roundly shouted to his brooding self 
 The echo of his own soliloquy, 
 Unconsciously preluding what he thought. 
 The deepest layer in his mental life 
 He now was ware and outered it in words: 
 
 "Colossal figure of M'Clellan still! 
 His very ghost yet dominates his army ; 
 I cannot help me worshipping that love, 
 That love undying for his personality. 
 Beneath whose image his devoted soldiers
 
 390 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE— BOOK XXiy. 
 
 March to the very death in ecstacy, 
 
 With vision of their leader on the clouds ! 
 
 And yet that love is what I have to meet, 
 
 Alas ! encounter it in mortal combat 
 
 As that which now most stands in way of Union. 
 
 The shadow of M'Clellan I must fight, 
 
 For it commands above me yonder army, 
 
 And honest Meade, the appointed General, 
 
 Is more its officer than mine, I fear. 
 
 Even if unaware of what he is. 
 
 But what now threatens me with sorer trouble 
 
 Is that the shadow of M'Clellan 's name 
 
 Has winged itself beyond its military field 
 
 Into the new domain political. 
 
 Where it will fortress forces of disunion, 
 
 And seek to win a love within the folk. 
 
 There too I have to grapple with M 'Clellan, 
 
 Whose dragon still confronts me with oped jaws 
 
 Even among the people of the North. 
 
 That is my newest Fate which I must cleave ; . 
 
 The spectral soldier touched the note aright 
 
 Saying that I must call Grant from the West 
 
 To break the Fatal Line here in the East, 
 
 That it may bar no more my way to Richmond. 
 
 But what if Grant, the Western limit-breaker, 
 Should fail to break the stubborn limit here, 
 Where he is separated from his own —
 
 GETTYSBURG AND VICKSBURG. 391 
 
 His soil, his river, and his soldiery? 
 Perchauce the task may be too great for him, 
 As it has been for me, though I must try it. 
 Let all this come, at any rate I see 
 The way to circumvent Atlantic Fate, 
 As it has been revealed by bloody struggle : 
 In those new States, the children of the Union, 
 There is no North, no South, no Fatal Line 
 Once drawn by slavery on our Nation's face; 
 It has been blotted out by the huge hand 
 Smiting from yon gigantic free North-West 
 To make its valley free just like itself, 
 From Mississippi's mouth up to her fountain. 
 That army having done its first great task. 
 And broken down its bound of liberty. 
 Is setting out in mighty tread of valor 
 For these old States beside the hoary Ocean. 
 With it is marching my best hope of Heaven, 
 Which saves me from the hellish fiend Despair, 
 And keeps me from the curse of God Himself 
 Whose way I see through fiery discipline, 
 So that I hold myself the more in tune 
 With intercourse of higher Presences. 
 
 And now there overflows my brooding soul 
 A flight of far-borne reminiscences, 
 Which whisper me again my talk with Douglas, 
 Who pointed to the stream-bed of our River,
 
 392 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HO USE—BOOK XXIV. 
 
 And designated it the marching road 
 
 For us to do the Nation's winning deed, 
 
 And circle all the States into new Union. 
 
 His word foresaid me mine own deepest presage, 
 
 Which I had felt far down in depths unspoken, 
 
 And tuned me to a note I still remember : 
 
 'That valley is the way to our salvation.' 
 
 So spake I then to sympathetic Douglas 
 
 Who thought with me the thought of all my 
 
 thoughts, 
 And fellow-felt with me my very heart. 
 Yea, we had dreamed together the same dream 
 Which he re-echoed when I told it him, 
 That we can never reach revolted Charleston 
 Unless we follow our great River's lead, 
 And, wheeling, turn the road to Washington. 
 So I had dreamed Fort Sumter's troubled night 
 The way which now the Hours realize : 
 And in my vision I had heard me named : 
 'Lincoln, your own true people of the West 
 Are coming round to see you at the Capital, 
 And in their might to break the Fatal Line 
 Which has been drawn so long against you here. 
 But I must tell to you the counterstroke : 
 With their last victory they bring your judgment, 
 With Nation resurrected, you are to die. 
 To Richmond you shall go and take your seat 
 Within the vacant Presidential chair,
 
 GETTYSBURG AND VICESBVRG. 393 
 
 But then you shall return to Washington 
 To meet the appointed hour of Destiny, 
 For the united folk will be your doom.' " 
 
 At the recital of his ancient dream 
 
 Just to himself, the President sprang up 
 
 And stood as if he faced the Presences : 
 
 ''Then welcome, Fate, I bid thee hasten hither! 
 
 Though thou me slay, I shall co-erce thee still, 
 
 I, master of thee through thine own success, 
 
 I, conqueror of life in very death, 
 
 Stamping my impress on my Nation's loftiest deed 
 
 Just in my personal evanishment; 
 
 Immortal I through my mortality. 
 
 By ministry I win Fate's mastery. 
 
 So let me do and let me die, I would not stay 
 
 The coward victim blanched of Destiny ; 
 
 The lord of all my suffering I rise 
 
 To wrench from Fate my immortality, 
 
 Deathless dowered by my dying deed."
 
 \miaxxt lixlimatbns. 
 
 Book First. On the morning of April 14, 1861, 
 the news of the bombardment and capitulation 
 of Fort Sumter had reached Washington. At 
 once it was felt that the crisis of war or peace 
 had arrived. In the forenoon Lincoln and his 
 Cabinet assembled at the Executive Mansion, and 
 a proclamation was drafted by the President, and 
 approved by the Cabinet. But it was not sent forth 
 till the next day, of which it bears the date (April 
 15). 
 
 There is little doubt that Lincoln during that 
 Sunday afternoon (April 14) was much perplexed 
 about issuing the proclamation. As regards him- 
 self and his party, the previous political canvass 
 had shown a divided North and a united South. 
 Practically no Republicans existed in the South, 
 while in the North there were nearly as many non- 
 Republicans as Republicans, who had elected him. 
 Upon this division in the North the South had 
 based much of its hope. (Popular vote of Lin- 
 coln 1,857,610; of Douglas 1,291,574.) 
 
 The key of the situation was held by Douglas, 
 
 (394)
 
 HISTORIC INTIMATIONS. 395 
 
 who had remained in Washington, well foreseeing 
 the power which time was placing in his hands. 
 Really it was not Lincoln and his Cabinet who 
 threw the casting vote for issuing the proclamation 
 which called for 75,000 men, but Senator Douglas. 
 Without him and his following the conflict had 
 better not begin, at least had better be deferred. 
 This fact nobody appreciated more fully than Lin- 
 coln himself. His longing that Sunday afternoon 
 to see Douglas must have been little short of 
 agony. The latter after while sent him a request 
 for an interview. Very pale compared to his feel- 
 ings are the words of Lincoln's biographers (Nicolay 
 & Hay) : "It is safe to say none were personally 
 so welcome and significant as the unreserved en- 
 couragement and adhesion of Senator Douglas." 
 (Vol. Ill, p. 86.) 
 
 Quite all that we know directly of this epoch- 
 turning conference is contained in the brief para- 
 graph: "Douglas went to the Executive Man- 
 sion between seven and eight o'clock on this Sun- 
 day evening, April 14, and being privately re- 
 ceived by the President, these two remarkable men 
 sat in confidential interview, without a witness, 
 nearly two hours." (Nicolay & Hay, do.) Lin- 
 coln never afterwards told what was said at this 
 conversation, being amply occupied with other 
 matters; Douglas never left any account of it,
 
 396 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 
 
 having died a few weeks later, which were also 
 very full. 
 
 And yet the actual war for the Union takes its 
 decisive start out of this interview, set a-going by 
 the joint wills of these two supreme leaders, hitherto 
 in opposition, now in co-operation. But History 
 has no document of what was spoken, and so leaves 
 us in the lurch at this point, surely the most im- 
 portant event of this earlier period of the war. But 
 if the Muse of History deserts us, the Muse of 
 Poetry enters the field, truly her own, and recon- 
 structs from what went before and came after, 
 that which must have passed between these two 
 pivotal men of the time. 
 
 Book Second. Says Biographer Herndon, Lin- 
 coln 's law partner for many years : ' ' He always 
 contended that he was doomed to a sad fate, and 
 he repeatedly said to me when we were alone in 
 our office: 'I am sure I shall meet with some ter- 
 rible end. ' ' ' Most of the biographers give the 
 details of the vision of himself as double in a mir- 
 ror just after his election in 1860. Indeed "the 
 thing" repeated itself three times before it finally 
 vanished. His inference from it was : " I am fated 
 to be taken off by a violent death." All this has 
 its superstitious side, but such a view by no 
 means exhausts this phase of Lincoln's character; 
 it was his way of deeply communing with himself
 
 HISTORIC INTIMATIONS. 397 
 
 and with the regnant powers which he felt to be 
 over him. 
 
 Book Third. The Cabinet which Lincobi started 
 with is listed as follows: 
 
 W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, New York. 
 
 S. P. Chase, Secretary of TrearAiry, Ohio. 
 
 Simon Cameron, Secretary of AVar, Pa. 
 
 Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, Conn. 
 
 C. B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior, Ind. 
 
 Edward Bates, Attorney General, Missouri. 
 
 M. Blair, Postmaster General, Maryland. 
 
 Book Fourth. Herndon observes that Lincoln 
 (this was during his Springfield life) was "con- 
 stantly endeavoring to unravel his many dreams. ' ' 
 He had his own dream-world which always meant 
 to him something, and became his expression of 
 what others may have reached through philosophy 
 or religion. Another friend of many years (See 
 Lamon's Life of Lincoln) dwells on Lincoln's ten- 
 dency to presentiment and revery, which were evi- 
 dently his form of construing the inner nature not 
 only of himself, but of the world. 
 
 Book Fifth. The First Proclamation contained 
 the call, issued to the various States which had not 
 seceded, for troops (75,000) to put down the re- 
 bellion already begun in the Cotton States. 
 As already intimated, it was not given out 
 till it received the sanction of Douglas, who
 
 398 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 
 
 sent forth the next morning his call alongside of 
 the President's Proclamation, that he "would sus- 
 tain the President in the exercise of all his consti- 
 tutional functions to preserve the Union, and main- 
 tain the Government, and defend the Capital," 
 though still "opposed to the Administration on 
 all its political issues." This seeming exception 
 was really in the interest of uniting both parties 
 in support of the Union. 
 
 Book Sixth. Of the Southern States at this 
 time Virginia may be taken as the best represen- 
 tative — not so devoted to Secession as the Gulf 
 States, nor so devoted to Union as the Border 
 Slave-States. It had elected a Union Convention, 
 which, however, was determined to dominate the 
 Union. Lincoln summed up not only the A^irginia 
 attitude but the Virginia consciousness in one of 
 his telling metaphors: "Your (Union) Conven- 
 tion in Eichmond has been sitting now nearly two 
 months and all that they have done has been to 
 shake the rod over my head." No prominent 
 statesmen appears above Virginia's horizon at this 
 time; perhaps her most typical public man in 
 mind and action was Judge George W. Summers, 
 President of the Union Convention. 
 
 Book Seventh. The falling-off in Virginia's 
 statesmanship at the time of war was strikingly 
 compensated by the superiority of her soldiership.
 
 HISTORIC INTIMATIONS. 399 
 
 Her genius seems to have turned military from its 
 former supreme political bent. 
 
 Book Eighth. Lamou was the chosen intimate 
 of Lincoln, taken by the latter from Illinois to 
 "Washington, who said to him: "I want you with 
 me if there is to be a fight. * * * You must 
 go and go to stay." (Lamon's Recollections of 
 Abraham Lincoln, edited by Dorothy Lamon, p. 
 29.) Secretary Usher, who was in "Washington 
 during the period of the war, writes concerning 
 Lamon: "You were with him, I know, more than 
 any other one," and "he gave free expression of 
 his opinions and of his trials and troubles" to you 
 (Lamon) as "his confidential friend during the 
 time he was President." (Letter dated 1885, 
 cited in preceding book, Preface.) 
 
 On the death of Ellsworth, see Lincoln's letter 
 to his parents (Works II, p. 52) : "In size, in 
 years, and in youthful appearance a boy only, his 
 power to command men was surpassingly great. 
 This power, combined with a fine intellect, an in- 
 domitable energy, and a taste altogether military, 
 constituted in him the best natural talent in that 
 department I ever knew." Ellsworth also had ac- 
 companied Lincoln's Presidential party from Illi- 
 nois. 
 
 Book Ninth. For the political matters here 
 discussed see Lincoln's Message to Congress, July
 
 400 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 
 
 4, 1861 (Works II, p. 55). For the personal inci- 
 dents, see Lincoln & Ann Rutledge, Book VIII, 
 and Lincoln in the Black Hawk War, passim. 
 
 Book Tenth. The first battle of Bull Run was 
 fought July 21, 1861. First part of the day was 
 favorable to the Federals. Then the cry arose: 
 ' ' Johnson 's army has come ! ' ' and the panic be- 
 gan. Yet there was a panicky flight on the other 
 side, which met Jefferson Davis coming from Rich- 
 mond to Manassas. Says the Confederate General, 
 J. E. Johnston : "The Confederate army was more 
 disorganized by victory than that of the United 
 States by defeat." He says that pursuit was im- 
 possible. Still he clung to his part of the field 
 while Federals fled. 
 
 Book Eleventh. The factious spirit of the 
 Unionists of Missouri, and especially in St. Louis, 
 caused Lincoln more trouble than the State's Dis- 
 unionists. For an account of Mrs. Jessie Benton 
 Fremont, see Nicolay & Hay's Lincoln IV, p. 413. 
 Lincoln said of her afterwards: "She" sought an 
 audience with me at midnight and taxed me so 
 violently with many things that I had to exercise 
 all the awkward tact I have to avoid quarreling 
 with her. She more than once intimated that 
 General Fremont * * * could set up for him- 
 self."
 
 HISTORIC INTIMATIONS. 401 
 
 Book Twelfth. M'Clellan gave to Lincoln the 
 greatest personal problem of his administration — 
 problem both military and civil. 
 
 Book Thirteenth. The marked distinction be- 
 tween the Eastern and Western armies in charac- 
 ter and achievement began to show itself decisively 
 at Fort Donelson. 
 
 Book Fourteenth, William Wallace Lincoln 
 died Feb. 20, 1862. Lincoln's deepest domestic af- 
 fliction (see Carpenter's account, Six Months at 
 the White House, p. 116). Repeatedly he shut 
 himself up and gave wa}^ to his melancholy and 
 sorrow. A clergyman was called and from this 
 event some have dated a religious change in Lin- 
 coln. The boy was in his twelfth year. 
 
 Book Seventeenth. It is now generally agreed 
 that the Proclamation of Emancipation was the 
 central act of Lincoln's Administration. It has 
 turned out one of those historic deeds whose great- 
 ness increases with the perspective of years. The 
 President's first suggestion of it to the Cabinet 
 was made about July 22, 1862, amid great disas- 
 ters. Seward favored it, but urged that it be post- 
 poned till it was backed up by military success. 
 Lincoln followed this view, saying that ' ' its wisdom 
 struck him with great force." After the victory 
 of Antietam, the subject was again brought before
 
 402 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 
 
 the Cabinet by the President (Sept. 22). Of this 
 epochal meeting two members of the Cabinet 
 (Chase and Welles) have left accounts in their dia- 
 ries, noting particularly the manner of Lincoln. 
 Chase writes, citing the President : " I determined, 
 as soon as it (the rebel army) should be driven 
 out of Maryland, to issue a proclamation of eman- 
 cipation. I said nothing to any one, but made the 
 promise to myself and (hesitating a little) to my 
 Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and 
 I am going to fulfil that promise." The account 
 of Secretary Welles is differently worded, but is 
 of the same general purport : ' ' The President re- 
 marked that he had made a vow, a covenant, and 
 that if God gave us the victory in the approach- 
 ing battle, he would consider it an indication of 
 Divine Will, and that it was his duty to move for- 
 ward in the cause of emancipation. God had de- 
 cided this matter in favor of the slaves. He was 
 satisfied it was right, was confirmed and strength- 
 ened in his action by the vow and the results. His 
 mind was fixed, his decision made, but he wished 
 his paper announcing his course as correct in 
 terms as it could be made without any change in 
 his determination." (The Diary of Gideon Welles, 
 I, 143; also Warden's CJiase, p. 481-2.) Very im- 
 pressive and significant of Lincoln are both these
 
 HISTORIC INTIMATIONS. 403 
 
 statements; the comment lies near that his other 
 Cabinet has made the decision and is voicing it 
 through him to his appointed Cabinet. 
 
 This first Proclamation was admonitory; but as 
 the warning remained unheeded, the second and 
 actual edict of freedom was issued January 1, 1863. 
 
 Book Twenty-Fourth. The battle of Gettys- 
 burg ought to have been as decisive as that of 
 Vicksburg ; but it was not ; why ? Military author- 
 ities have said again and again that Meade let 
 slip his opportunities; the President also thought 
 so. He said: "We had them within our grasp, 
 but nothing I could say or do could make that 
 army move." It or its officers or both acted as if 
 they deemed their task fulfilled in repelling the 
 attack of Lee. John Hay writes, citing his diary : 
 "Lincoln had been most unfavorably impressed by 
 a phrase in Meade's general order after the vic- 
 tory in which he spoke of 'driving the invader 
 from our soil.' Lincoln said upon reading it: 
 'This is a dreadful reminiscence of M'Clellan, it is 
 the same spirit. * * * Will our generals 
 never get that idea out of their heads ? The whole 
 country is our soil.' " 
 
 As to the Confederates, their statesmanship 
 made its greatest mistake in not bringing about 
 peace after these two Federal victories. To be sure
 
 404 LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 
 
 they would have had to accept Union and the 
 abolition of slavery; still they would have been 
 spared their later and greatest calamities. But 
 the easy escape of Lee with his booty seems to have 
 filled them with an utter contempt of Federal gen- 
 eralship, and thereby to have drawn the line of 
 separation more deeply than ever. Hence a new 
 Iliad of woes.
 
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 2. Biocosmos. , 1.50 
 
 4. Psychology of Art. 
 
 1. Architecture. . , . 1-50 
 
 2. Music and Fine Arts 1-50 
 
 5. Psychology of Institutions. 
 
 1. Social Institutions 1.50 
 
 2. The State 1.50 
 
 6. Psychology of History. 
 
 1. European History 1-50 
 
 2. The Father of History 1-50 
 
 3. The American Ten Years' War 1.50 
 
 7. Psychology of Biography. 
 
 1. Abraham Linciln 1-50 
 
 2. Frederick Froebel 1-25 
 
 III. Poems — in 5 vols. 
 
 1. Homer in Chios 1-00 
 
 2. Delphic Days 100 
 
 3. Agamemnon's Daughter 100 
 
 4. Prorsus Retrorsus 100 
 
 5. Johnny Appleseed's Rhymes 1.25 
 
 IV. The Lincoln Tetralogy — An Epos. 
 
 1. Lincoln in the Black Hawk War 1.50 
 
 2. Lincoln and Ann Rutledge 1-50 
 
 3. Lincoln in the White House 1.50 
 
 4. Lincoln at Richmond 1.50 
 
 V. Kindergarten. 
 
 1. Commentary on Froebel's Mother Play-Songs 1.25 
 
 2. The Psychology of Froebel's Play-Gifts 1.25 
 
 3. The Life of Frederick Froebel 1.25 
 
 VI. Miscellaneous. 
 
 1. A Walk in Hellas 1.25 
 
 2. The Freeburgers (a novel) 1.25 
 
 3. World's Fair Studies 1.25 
 
 4. A Tour in Europe 1-50 
 
 5. A Writer of Books in His Genesis 1.50 
 
 For salo by A. G. McCLURG & CO., Chicago, III.
 
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