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 LIFE OF 
 
 TtBRAHAM 
 
 J* 
 
 j 
 
 INCOLN, 
 
 FOR THE YOUNG MAN AND THE SABBATH SCHOOL, 
 
 ;Y WM. C. GRAY. 
 
 Having chosen our course without suile and with pure purpose, let us 
 
 renew our trust in God, and go on without far and with 
 
 manly hearts." Message^ July 5, 1361. 
 
 CINCINNATI : 
 
 WESTERN TRACT AND BOOK SOCIETY, 
 
 No. 28 WEST FOURTH STREET. 
 
 1867.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1807, by the 
 WESTERN TRACT AND BOOK SOCIETY, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District. Court of the United States, for the 
 
 Southern District of Ohio. 
 
 STEREOTYPED AT THE 
 FRANKMN TYPK FOVNUBT, 
 CINCINNATI. 
 
 \
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 CHAPTEK I. Parentage and childhood Early life The 
 
 Christian mother . 7 
 
 " II. Removal from Kentucky New home 
 
 Death of his mother 16 
 
 " III. Life in Indiana Going to mill Education- 
 Rescuing a drunkard 21 
 
 ** IV. Voyage- to New Orleans Incidents Re- 
 moval to Illinois Rails for raiment A 
 merchant's clerk Honesty War policy.... 27 
 
 " V. Indian war Store-keeping Postmastership 37 
 
 '* VI. Surveying Study of law Election to the 
 Legislature " Why Abe was cold" Re- 
 moval to Springfield 42 
 
 " VII. His course as a lawyer Armstrong trial 
 
 Strange incident Humanity to a pig 47 
 
 " VIII. Marriage Defense of fugitives Election to 
 
 Congress 59 
 
 " IX. Slavery Stephen A. Douglas Great de- 
 bates Specimens of his logic 64 
 
 *' X. The Presidential contest In a Sabbath- 
 school Reliance on God Slavery in 
 arms God against slavery Rebel exulta- 
 tion Election and inauguration 74 
 
 (in) 
 
 391903
 
 iv CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAP. XI. The call to arms Lincoln and Douglas The 
 
 great uprising Arduous labors 87 
 
 " XII. Lincoln and slavery Whittier's hymn 
 
 Why emancipation was delayed 91 
 
 " XIII. His religious character A Christian mother 
 Incidents of religious life Literary pre- 
 ferences Never read a novel 99 
 
 " XIV. Patience McClellan Personal abuse The 
 
 slave trader Reprieves and pardons 114 
 
 " XV. Lincoln stories Use of wit 127 
 
 " XVI. Magnitude of the war Selections from Lin- 
 coln's speeches and proclamations " Po- 
 litical blunders " Among the freedmen 
 " lo Triumphe " 139 
 
 " XVII. In the hospitals Incidents of his last days 
 
 His death and burial 159 
 
 " XVIII. Lessons from the life of Lincoln 1. The 
 secret of his success 2. The theater 3. 
 The providence of God 169 
 
 " XIX. Tributes to his character from Europe Con- 
 clusion ... . 183
 
 PEEFACE. 
 
 . r 
 
 f? HE emancipation of four millions of people from a 
 state of bondage, the most cruel and degrading 
 known in the annals of oppression, was an event 
 which will fix attention so long as history shall be 
 read. The prominence attained by the Chief Magis-. 
 trate who led in the achievement of this grand result, 
 and the affection cherished for him by the people whose 
 liberties he so greatly aided in preserving, combine to 
 render his personal example a moral power with the 
 masses. To the colored race he stands in a higher re- 
 lationship than that of any man who ever lived. Crushed 
 for half a thousand years in a bondage which seemed as 
 hopeless as it was cruel, the light of liberty burst upon 
 them with a suddenness that brought shouts of wildest 
 joy from every lip; and Abraham Lincoln became to 
 them the Angel of Deliverance, sent direct on his mis- 
 sion by the blessed Jesus. Their enthusiastic gratitude 
 kindled almost to idolatry. "He walks de earf like de 
 Lord," exclaimed an aged freedman in describing the 
 Emancipator. With these people the example of hon- 
 esty, industry, and humanity found in Abraham Lin- 
 coln will have an influence proportionate to the love and 
 veneration in which his memory is held. 
 
 (v)
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 The design of this volume is to portray the life and 
 character of this honored patriot in a volume the brev- 
 ity of which will render it available for wide circula- 
 tion in home circles and Sabbath-schools, and among 
 that grateful and affectionate people who have most rea- 
 son to cherish and honor his memory. 
 
 While the central object in view in writing these 
 pages was the commendation of pure Christian mor- 
 ality, the facts and attending circumstances of Lincoln's 
 life produce also an argument of a different cast and 
 higher range. However nakedly stated, and for what- 
 ever purpose, they illuminate the truth of the discrim- 
 inating, particular, and unerring PROVIDENCE OF GOD, 
 with a brightness that has fastened the attention of the 
 Christian world. 
 
 The palm of martyrdom gives peculiar fragrance to 
 the fame of any champion of the right. This is par- 
 ticularly true of one whose name had already been en- 
 shrined in the affections of the people. While writing 
 under these influences, we have sought to avoid a spirit 
 of hero-worship ; to represent and commend that which 
 is admirable and worthy of imitation, and to condemn 
 with impartiality that which may be used in apology 
 for evil w. o. G.
 
 ' </#/; "AY, 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 i 
 
 PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 
 
 : ; :' - >; :''-' ': V ! f ?;-.-'' :: ' .*. i.. : :. -. \: 
 
 BRAHAM LINCOLN was born on 
 Nolin Creek, in Hardin County, Ken- 
 tucky, on the 12th of February, 1809. 
 Before that time, the savage tribes had been de- 
 feated and driven from his native State, but they 
 yet lingered in broken and straggling bands in 
 the adjacent territory, north and south, arid 
 reigned in their original power a few leagues 
 westward. The whole country west of the Ka- 
 nawha was, as yet, a wilderness, almost undis- 
 turbed. The great forests covered the solitary 
 hills and valleys. The deer and bears had not 
 yet forsaken their ancient haunts. The dashing 
 
 (7)
 
 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 saw-mills had not riven to planks the giant oaks 
 and poplars. No busy grist-mills, driven by the 
 tumbling waterfall, prepared the settler's corn. 
 The swift locomotive, with its shrill shriek, was 
 a thing as unknown to little Abe as it was to 
 Abraham of old, sitting by his tent on the field 
 of Mamre. Some shreds or antiquated garments 
 of silk or broadcloth may have descended from 
 the past as family mementoes, but otherwise they 
 were unknown. The free school and the Sabbath 
 school, with their precious privileges and de- 
 lightful surroundings, were in reserve for the 
 children of a later day. "Home" was a word 
 as sweet to the heart then as now, but little 
 Abe's home and those of his neighbors were not 
 such as the most of children now enjoy. Little 
 cabins of rough logs and clay, covered with 
 clapboards, floored with puncheons, beds often 
 of leaves, a fire-place nearly as wide and deep 
 as a bed is long and broad such was " home,"- 
 and yet little Abe's father and mother devoutly 
 thanked God for the protection and comfort it 
 afforded them; and well they should, for even 
 such a home was a great blessing. 
 
 Their fare consisted of corn-bread, milk, and 
 such luxuries as the garden, field, and woods
 
 PARENTAGE AND CHILDHOOD. 9 
 
 afforded them. It was abundant often luxu- 
 rious. The wild plum, blackberry, raspberry, 
 fox-grape and other fruits grew in rich profu- 
 sion ; while squirrels, venison, and fat turkeys 
 were to be had by the sharp-shooting pioneers, 
 for the taking. The maple gave freely the most 
 delicious sweet that nature anywhere affords. 
 The gold of a king could purchase nothing nicer 
 than the sugar fresh and warm from the kettle. 
 And then how pleasant it was to sit in a cozy 
 camp before the roaring furnace, gaze at the 
 stars through the swaying branches above, listen 
 to the music of the dripping " spiles," and dream 
 of the future, as many a ragged backwoods boy 
 has done. Hickory-nuts rattled down in plenty 
 on the yellow leaves little Abe probably knew 
 all the best trees for a mile around and many 
 were the pleasant winter nights spent till bedtime 
 around the great "fire-place" cracking them and 
 telling Indian and bear stories while the icy 
 winds were tossing the snow drifts without. 
 
 Little is known of his ancestry, and that little 
 does not extend far back into the past. His 
 grandfather came to Kentucky, from Virginia, 
 in 1780, or eleven years after the famous pioneer, 
 Daniel Boone, first established his cabin on Ken-
 
 10 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tucky soil. He brought a large family of little 
 children to brave the dangers and privations of 
 pioneer life, but he lived only four years to afford 
 them protection and support. While working in 
 the woods one day a skulking savage stole upon 
 him and shot him dead. We may imagine the 
 terror and distress which fell upon the wife and 
 little ones at this dreadful calamity ; and yet it 
 was not the helpless despair which would have 
 seized upon a family of our times could they have 
 been placed in similar circumstances. Such oc- 
 currences were not then uncommon. Pioneer's 
 wives were brave spirited and adequate to such 
 emergencies. Not long before this occurrence, 
 and in the same county, lived a settler and his 
 family named Davis. The husband was absent 
 from home one day, and his wife, with the sharp 
 scrutiny, which exposure to danger had given, 
 observed an Indian peering from behind the door 
 of the stable, about ten rods distant from the 
 cabin. She well knew his hostile intent, but did 
 not scream, or faint, or do any such like absurd 
 thing. Walking carelessly into her cabin, she 
 took down her husband's rifle, crept into the loft, 
 carefully placed the muzzle in a crevice between 
 the logs, aimed long and well, and fired. With a
 
 THE CHRISTIAN MOTHER. 11 
 
 yell of rage and pain the savage broke from his 
 covert and fled to the woods, his speed hastened 
 by a defiant cheer from the undaunted woman. 
 Many such instances of hardihood and bravery, 
 and not a few of high moral heroism might be 
 given of the pioneer women of those early times. 
 The part of the country where the grandfather 
 Lincoln was killed is not known. The widow 
 gathered up her children and removed to Wash- 
 ington County, then more thickly settled if such 
 an expression may be used in reference to an ex- 
 ceedingly sparce population and there reared, 
 as best she could, the little ones cast wholly 
 upon her care. The father of Abraham Lincoln 
 grew up an ignorant, wandering boy. He could 
 not so much as read, but was respected as a man 
 of inflexible honesty and generous nature, and 
 beloved for his amiability and kindness. Abra- 
 ham's mother came from Virginia. She was a 
 woman of elevated Christian character, posessing 
 sound judgment and strong common sense. With 
 these traits in an eminent degree, she was hum- 
 ble, tender, and loving. What a precious mother 
 was that for a little boy ! How sweet her mem- 
 ory. Mr. Lincoln always looked back to her, 
 amid the storms of political strife and furious
 
 12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 war, with deepest reverence and affection. "All 
 that I am or hope to be," he said, " I owe to 
 my angel mother blessings on her memory." 
 It is much to have such a mother on earth, 
 much to have such a mother in heaven to draw 
 our affections to that blessed place, and to meet 
 us when Jesus shall have redeemed us and called 
 us to himself. Let us who are so blessed thank 
 God every day for a pious mother, whether she 
 be on earth or in heaven. 
 
 There was no church or school within many 
 miles of the humble home of this little family. 
 Abraham had a little sister whom he tenderly 
 loved, and a little brother who died young. The 
 well-worn Bible and the family circle were al- 
 most the only means of religious instruction 
 afforded to these children. An itinerant Baptist 
 minister, Parson Elkin, came at intervals of 
 many months and held public worship at some 
 of the settlers' cabins, or beneath the spreading 
 branches of a forest tree, and to his rude but 
 earnest eloquence the little family and their 
 neighbors listened with pleasure and profit. 
 Those early pioneer preachers, in their sim- 
 plicity and devotion, remind us of the saints 
 of olden time, " who wandered about in sheep-
 
 PIONEER MINISTERS. 13 
 
 sldns and goat-skins destitute and afflicted." 
 They rode through forests and wilds, swam 
 rivers, and braved the tempests for the love of 
 Jesus. They thought little of their hardships, 
 and God was with them. Go'd always goes with 
 his children who love him. An old itenerant, 
 with white locks, relates the following incident 
 of those times. He was walking across a wide 
 prairie. Night came upon him, and foot-sore 
 and weary, he sought a place to rest. Finding 
 a little tree he lay down and placed his feet up 
 against it, as they ached less while raised higher 
 than his body. He heard the wolves howling in 
 the distance and was greatly afraid. However, 
 he prayed and fell asleep. As soon as he slept 
 he dreamed he saw a bright angel standing over 
 him with a drawn and glittering sword, who said, 
 "Sleep without fear, I have come to protect 
 you." The morning sun awoke the minister 
 from a refreshing sleep, and he went on his way 
 with a psalm of joy. 
 
 The opportunities for education were quite 
 as limited. At the age of seven Abraham was 
 sent to school for about two months. The school 
 was kept in a vacant cabin by a catholic school- 
 master named Zachariah Riney. A school-
 
 14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 teacher he could scarcely be called. "Zack" 
 was as innocent' 1 of any knowledge of geog- 
 raphy or grammar as little bare-footed Abe 
 himself. But the young pupil rapidly mastered 
 the mysteries of his borrowed speller, and took 
 care, when the school closed, not to forget what 
 he had learned. The next year he had another 
 opportunity of attending a school kept by a 
 young man named Caleb Hazel. At the end 
 of Hazel's "quarter" little Abe could both read 
 and write pretty well. For several years after- 
 ward his penmanship was cultivated by writing 
 with coals upon the smooth end of chopped 
 logs, and his reading by lessons in the Bible 
 and a copy of Pilgrim's Progress, which, taken 
 together, constituted the "family library.'*' His 
 time was busily employed in wielding the ax 
 and hoe, clearing fields, building fence, and 
 such other rugged labors as he had strength 
 to perform. 
 
 These were hardships, and yet how much 
 of genuine boyish pleasure was mingled with 
 them. For instance, what grand sport it was 
 to fire the brush-heaps at night! How the 
 flames leaped and crackled, the great trees 
 suddenly standing out from the darkness with
 
 EARLY SCENES. 15 
 
 shadows swaying like phantoms in a dream. 
 And then to see the dry trees in the "dead- 
 ening" wrapped in twisting fire, or tumbling 
 with a crash in jclouds of sparks and smoke. 
 Those were better bon-fires than those made 
 of store-boxes and barrels, lighted for a better 
 purpose, and free from evil surroundings.
 
 16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 r 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE FIRST REMOVAL. 
 
 HEN Abraham was ten years old, his 
 father sold his farm for ten barrels of 
 whisky and twenty dollars in money. 
 Leaving his family at home, he took his whisky 
 and a few farming utensils, on an ox-wagon, and 
 started to find and prepare a new abode in the 
 dark woods of Indiana. . Arriving at the Ohio 
 River, he attempted to cross it, with his valuables, 
 in a flat-boat. Unfortunately fortunately, we 
 would say of a similar occurrence in our times 
 one of the barrels slipped from its place, upset- 
 ting the boat and tumbling whisky, plows, and 
 boatman into the river. He saved but little of 
 his property, and considered himself fortunate 
 to have escaped with his life. 
 
 It must not be supposed that Mr. Lincoln was 
 an immoral man because he received whisky in 
 'part pay for his farm. The terrible conse-
 
 THE NEW HOME. 17 
 
 quences of intemperance were not so prominent 
 in the thinly populated country as they after- 
 ward became, and public opinion was not then 
 enlightened on this subject. Whisky was a com- 
 mon beverage among all classes, rich and poor, 
 ministers and people. Little log distilleries were 
 found in every neighborhood, and the whisky-jug 
 in almost every house. If such customs pre- 
 vailed now the consequences would be indescriba- 
 bly destructive of morals, life, and property. 
 
 Having selected a home in Spencer County, 
 Indiana, he returned for his family, and they were 
 soon housed in a new cabin. The little furniture 
 which they had was in the river. To begin with, 
 a bed must be had ; they had no bedstead, and 
 no means of getting one but to make it, and no 
 tools but the augur and ax to make it with. But 
 the process was simple. A stake was driven in 
 the ground near the corner of the cabin, about 
 four feet from one wall and six from the other ; 
 augur-holes were then bored in the logs opposite, 
 and 'poles driven into them, the other ends meet- 
 ing on the stake. Across these were laid laths, 
 rived from an oak log, and upon them rested the 
 straw bed. A little three-legged stool, also the 
 result of saw-and-ax carpentry, was the incipient
 
 18 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 presidential chair. A fire-place, nearly as wide 
 as the end of the cabin, built of logs, and lined 
 with broad stones and clay, a few shelves, a pun- 
 cheon table, and such like conveniences, com- 
 pleted the establishment. 
 
 Shortly after the family were settled in their 
 new quarters, little Abe distinguished himself by 
 a noted feat with his father's rifle, which always 
 hung upon a pair of wooden hooks above the fire- 
 place. His father was out chopping, and his 
 mother and little sister engaged in firing brush- 
 heaps, when Abe heard the call of a flock of wild 
 turkeys in the woods at the back of the house. 
 Mounting his stool, he reached the rifle down with 
 trembling hands, put the muzzle out of a crevice, 
 and gave the adventurous gobblers a broadside. 
 One of them sprang high in the air, and came 
 down flapping and fanning up the dry leaves in 
 its last flutter. Dropping his gun, he ran out 
 with a whoop of triumph, and bore his game aloft 
 to his admiring little sister and mother. Game 
 was abundant in fact the only reliance of the 
 pioneers for meat and doubtless little Abe, with 
 his father, often followed the bay of the trusty 
 ''coon-dog, in the darkness and stillness of the 
 heavy forests ; yet he never afterward so greatly
 
 A MOTHER IN HEAVEN. 19 
 
 distinguished himself as a hunter as on the fa- 
 
 D 
 
 mous day when he brought down his first gob- 
 bler. 
 
 But a dark day was at hand for the little pio- 
 neer family. The devoted, tender wife and 
 mother was seized with a quick consumption, 
 and almost before the desolate family could re- 
 alize it she was gone to her Savior. With many 
 a bitter tear and despairing sob, they prepared 
 a grave near the cabin and laid her to rest. 
 
 So passed away from an humble cabin home a 
 woman who had done more to elevate and bless 
 the human race than the greatest empress that 
 ever wore a crown. The principles of justice, 
 the love of truth, which she had implanted in 
 the heart of her little boy, and the kindly, pa- 
 tient, persevering nature which he inherited from 
 her, made him the great liberator of a prostrate 
 race. 
 
 Little Abe sat down, in his grief, and wrote to 
 Parson Elkin, who lived near the old Lincoln 
 home in Kentucky, requesting him to come and 
 preach a funeral sermon at the grave of his 
 mother. In due time an answer came, appoint- 
 ing a day when the parson would preach. He 
 traveled over one hundred miles on horseback
 
 20 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 to pay the last honors to one whose godliness 
 and worth he had so well known. Word had 
 been passed from house to house, and on the 
 appointed day a congregation of about two hun- 
 dred people assembled, some of them coming 
 a distance of twenty miles. At the foot of the 
 grave, and surrounded by that congregation of 
 coarsely-clad but earnest worshipers, the minis- 
 ter lifted his voice in the solemn hymn, the sim- 
 ple prayer, and the plain-spoken but eloquent 
 appeals of the Gospel. 
 
 About two years afterward the father married 
 a Mrs. Sarah Johnston, who lived near their old 
 home in Kentucky. She proved to be an amia- 
 ble and provident step-mother.
 
 LIFE IN INDIANA. 21 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 LIFE IN INDIANA. 
 
 HE inconveniences and privations of their 
 life in Indiana is shown by the fact that 
 there was no grist-mill nearer than fifty 
 miles distant from their home, and that was a 
 rude affair, in which the grinding-stones were 
 slowly turned by a horse hitched at the end of 
 a lever. Meal was usually manufactured in a 
 large wooden mortar, formed by burning a bowl 
 into the end of a log of oak or other hard wood. 
 The corn was beaten in this with a heavy wooden 
 pestle, suspended by bending over a tough sap- 
 pling and tying the pestle to it with a piece of 
 leather. This saved labor by lifting the pestle 
 after it had been brought down with all the 
 operator's force upon the corn. 
 
 When Abraham was about fourteen years old 
 he went occasionally to the horse-mill, ground 
 his corn and returned, the whole trip occupying
 
 22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 from four to five days. On one occasion, while 
 grinding at this mill and following the horse in 
 his rounds, the vicious animal gave him a severe 
 kick, knocking him senseless. When he became 
 conscious, he proceeded without delay to finish 
 his grinding and return home. 
 
 About the same time, a man named Andrew 
 Crawford, a neighboring farmer, opened a winter 
 school on his own place. This school Abraham 
 attended for about three months, and there 
 learned the rudiments of arithmetic. Grammar 
 was a mysterious science to most of the back- 
 woods school-masters. An illustration of this 
 occurred, at the same period, in a neighboring 
 county in Ohio. John Woods, who afterward 
 became a member of Congress, and a man of 
 note and usefulness, having cyphered as far as 
 the " Single Rule of Three," heard of a teacher 
 some miles off who "knew grammar," and forth- 
 with posted away to attend his school. He be- 
 came so absorbed in the study that he was ac- 
 customed to con over his lesson on the way to 
 and from school. One evening his father and 
 the family were startled by their trusty neigh- 
 bor, Deacon Silvers, who rode up to the house 
 in hot haste, and called out :
 
 BAD EFFECTS OF GRAMMAR. 23 
 
 " I say, Alex. Woods, your John is in the 
 edge of my clearing, a mile back, sitting on a 
 log, and he 's crazy as a loon ! Come, and I '11 
 help you home with him afore he gits away." 
 
 " What 's that ye say ? ' exclaimed the aston- 
 ished father ; " ye do n't mean to say " 
 
 " I say he 's gone crazy, and I 'in afeard he '11 
 be off into the woods, and may be die there." 
 
 "And what's he at that makes ye think so?' 
 excitedly asked the mother, while "Alex." was 
 after his hat. 
 
 " He 's talking gibberish and staring at the 
 ground. He says 4 1 love, you love, she loves ; 
 nom'tive I possesses me.' He 's mad crazy ; and 
 Mrs. Woods, I believe it was that Jane Pettigrew 
 that cracked the silly fellow's head I'm very 
 sorry for you, Mrs. Woods." 
 
 The acquaintance of Abraham with Mr. Craw- 
 ford, as pupil and teacher, resulted in mutual 
 confidence and esteem. Mr. Crawford had in 
 his possession an old copy of Weems's life of 
 Washington, which Abe greatly desired to read, 
 and Mr. Crawford freely loaned it to him. He 
 pored delighted over the history of that great 
 and good man by whose side he was destined to 
 stand in the pages of history and in the affec-
 
 24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tions of mankind. One unguarded evening he 
 left it on a table near an open window. A dash- 
 ing rain-storm blew up in the night, and the 
 book was soaked through and ruined. Little 
 Abe's grief and self-reproach knew no bounds at 
 the discovery of this disaster. But he took up 
 the book and went straight to the owner, showed 
 him its condition, and offered to make payment 
 in full. Mr. Crawford put him to the test by 
 offering to take two days' corn-husking in pay- 
 ment for the loss. Abe regarded the proposal 
 as very liberal, and at daylight next day was in 
 the corn-field, and continued faithfully and in- 
 dustriously at the work till his obligation was 
 discharged. 
 
 As Abraham grew up he became a muscular 
 and powerful youth ; but his strong arm and 
 hard hand were never employed in bullying or 
 oppressing his weaker companions. He loved 
 peace and justice, and lacked neither courage nor 
 will to enforce their observance when occasion 
 required. Two stout and well-matched young 
 rowdies, whom he had often reproved for their 
 quarrelsome and profane conduct, getting into 
 a fisticuff encounter at a log-rolling, he seized 
 them both, dragged them to a pond close by, with
 
 RESCUING A DRUNKARD. 25 
 
 the intention of pitching them in, as he said, " to 
 cool them off," and was only dissuaded from 
 ducking them by their promises to behave more 
 decently in the future. 
 
 At another time, as he was going home one 
 freezing winter night with two companions, from 
 a debating society, they found an incorrigible 
 toper, well known in the neighborhood, lying 
 drunk upon the snow. His companions proposed 
 to let him lie there, as he was worthless and past 
 reformation. Not so, thought Abraham. If he 
 was a miserable sot he was still a man, and he 
 would not willingly let him pass from his inebriate 
 sleep into the sleep of death, to wake in a dread 
 eternity. He asked his companions to aid him by 
 lifting the half-lifeless form from the snow, while 
 he sank upon one knee to receive it. Having the 
 drunken man balanced across his shoulder, he 
 rose and carried him a distance of a quarter of 
 a mile, to the nearest house, and stayed with 
 him till morning, sparing no efforts to Save his 
 life. The drunkard lived, but so great was the 
 power of appetite that the terrible lesson of that 
 night was lost upon him, and he soon after filled 
 a drunkard's grave. 
 
 Alcohol is one of the most deceptive and
 
 26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 deadly enemies of the human race. It besets 
 the young man in many attractive forms, and 
 disguises itself in generous virtues. It stills his 
 fears, hushes conscience, and leads him in giddy 
 mazes of delirium to that 
 
 mysterious bourne 
 
 By which our path is crossed, 
 Beyond which God himself hath sworn 
 That he who goes is lost.
 
 FIRST VOYAGE TO NEW ORLEANS. 27 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FIRST VOYAGE TO NEW ORLEANS. 
 
 T the age of eighteen, Abraham longed to 
 see more of the great world than his se- 
 eluded life had yet brought to his view. 
 A pleasure trip by post-roads and public convey- 
 ances was out of the question. But combining 
 toil with pleasure, with the assistance of a few 
 neighbors, he built a little flat-boat, launched it 
 on the Ohio, loaded it with such produce as his 
 neighbors were willing to risk in the adventure, 
 and with one companion, pushed off to find the 
 far-distant market at New Orleans. While he 
 was preparing to start, a little occurrence took 
 place, which, insignificant as it seems, produced 
 a marked impression on his mind. As he stood 
 at the landing loading his boat, two passengers 
 came up, who wished to be placed on an ap- 
 proaching steamer. Abe volunteered, and hav- 
 ing safely placed them on board and handed up
 
 28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 their baggage, they each threw back into the 
 bottom of his canoe a silver half dollar. " I 
 could scarcely believe my eyes," said the Pres- 
 ident afterward, in relating this incident, " I 
 could scarcely believe that I, a poor boy, had 
 earned a dollar in less than a day. The world 
 seemed wider and fairer to me. I was a more 
 hopeful and confident being from that time." 
 
 The vast extent and power of our country 
 must have been strongly impressed upon his 
 mind by that voyage of eighteen hundred miles. 
 Floating slowly down for days and weeks upon 
 the mighty rivers, the hills and rocks, prairies 
 and forests, with ever- vary ing scenery, which 
 rose upon his vision, were all new, vast, and 
 strange to him as they were to Marquette, 
 whose canoe, first of any white explorer, trav- 
 ersed those great rivers. He and his compan- 
 ion alternately slept in a little bunk on the deck, 
 keeping watch at night when there was light 
 enough to keep the boat off the bars and snags, 
 and approaching the shore when it was neces- 
 sary to cook their simple meals of mush and 
 venison, or rashers of pork. 
 
 Arriving at a little town below Natchez, Abe 
 had his first acquaintance with some of the fea-
 
 "CARRYING THE WAR INTO AFRICA." 29 
 
 tures of slavery. During the night, when he 
 and his companion were asleep, seven stout 
 negro slaves, in quest of more liberal rations than 
 the negro quarters afforded them, undertook to 
 rob the boat. Abe suddenly awoke before they 
 had succeeded in boarding his deck, and, seizing 
 a handspike, knocked four of them off the plank 
 into the water. The other three fled, but Abe's 
 blood was up, and he and his companion pursued 
 and administered a severe pounding to each of 
 them. The next castigation he inflicted in that 
 " sunny land ' was on a much larger scale, and 
 the subjects of it were robbers of loftiest pre- 
 tentions. 
 
 Having disposed of his cargo and the boat 
 which contained it, he returned home on foot 
 a weary journey of weeks. 
 
 The family had attained to years of maturity. 
 Sarah Lincoln, Abraham's only sister, married a 
 man named Aaron Grigsby, and about a year 
 afterward died. His two step-sisters also mar- 
 ried. The hard labor of clearing away the 
 heavy timber to convert the land into produc- 
 tive fields was discouraging to the young people ; 
 
 and in addition to this, thev suffered much from 
 
 t/ 
 
 that obstinate and enervating affliction the fever
 
 30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 and ague. Hearing much of the wide and fer- 
 tile prairies of Illinois, they longed to find 
 more pleasant homes and a more tractable soil 
 from which to win their bread. The matter was 
 discussed around the parental hearth many an 
 evening during the winter of 1830, and they 
 concluded to abandon the wooded hills for the 
 far-famed prairies in the following spring. On 
 the 30th of March they all, 'sons, daughters, 
 husbands, and little ones, with their effects, 
 loaded in ox-wagons, started on their westward 
 way. The streams were swollen, the roads deep 
 with mud, and the progress consequently slow 
 and wearisome. After fifteen days' journeying, 
 they rested on the north side of the Sangamon 
 River, in Mason County, Illinois, about twelve 
 miles west of Decatur. Abraham Lincoln en- 
 tered Illinois on foot, in a threadbare suit of wal- 
 nut jeans, splashed and smeared with mud, driv- 
 ing an ox-wagon ; he left it the trusted President 
 of his country, honoring the office more than it 
 honored him. 
 
 Again the work of constructing a cabin was 
 to be done, and in a few days one was built on 
 a ridge which divided the woodland from the 
 prairie mostly the result of the stout arms of
 
 RAILS FOR RAIMENT. 31 
 
 Abraham. He then set to work and split rails 
 enough to fence ten acres, plowed and planted it 
 before the first of June ; and, having thus pro- 
 vided for his father's family, set out to seek his 
 own fortune. 
 
 He was sadly in need of sufficient clothing to 
 cover his lank but muscular limbs, and the first 
 necessity was to provide himself a new suit. A 
 widow named Mrs. Nancy Miller had a loom 
 and plenty of flax and wool. Abe opened ne- 
 gotiations with her on the subject of his neces- 
 sities, and concluded a bargain to chop and split 
 twenty-nine hundred good rails for a suit of 
 jeans, to be spun, woven, and made to fit. The 
 widow and the axman each performed their part 
 of the contract, and Mr. Lincoln rejoiced in a 
 substantial suit of new clothes, shirt included. 
 
 Their old enemy, the fever and ague, again vis- 
 ited the Lincoln family, and the following spring 
 they again abandoned their homes, this time re- 
 moving to Coles County. Here Abraham worked 
 about among the farmers, at such labor as he 
 could get, for two years. It is related that a 
 respectable-looking traveler stopped one even- 
 ing at a farm-house where he was working, and 
 requested a lodgment for the night. The host
 
 32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 informed him that he was welcome, but that 
 they had no spare bed, and that he would be 
 obliged to sleep with his hired man. " Let me 
 see him," said the gentleman. He was con- 
 ducted around the house to where Abe lay, rest- 
 ing over six feet of himself upon the grass. 
 "He'll do," said the traveler, and so stayed 
 and slept with his future President. 
 
 Abraham's faithfulness and honesty were soon 
 known among his new acquaintances ; also that 
 he had held the " responsible position" of cap- 
 tain of a flat-boat. A Kentucky trader, Denton 
 Offut, wishing to send a boat to New Orleans, 
 applied to him to undertake the trip. John 
 Hanks, a cousin of Abraham's mother, and a 
 stout young man named Johnston, were em- 
 ployed to accompany him. The trip was suc- 
 cessfully made, and the proceeds paid off to 
 Offut with scrupulous honesty. 
 
 At the period of Mr. Lincoln's life when he 
 became of age, there was nothing in his personal 
 appearance that would recommend him as a dry- 
 goods clerk, or indicate his probable success as 
 a merchant. Six feet four inches high, clad in 
 a blue warmus, with tow pantaloons a world too 
 short, coarse cowskin shoes, lank arms, a weather-
 
 A MERCHANT'S CLERK. 33 
 
 brown, angular face the last man to twirl a 
 yardstick, skip a counter, or play the agreeable 
 to ladies yet such was to be his next occupa- 
 tion. Offutt had a store in New Salem, of which 
 the stock in trade consisted of an assortment of 
 trace-chains, tea, sickles, sugar, mop-sticks, mo- 
 lasses, cheese, castor-oil, cotton lace, nails, rib- 
 bons, and similar goods, not forgetting a barrel 
 of tar and one of vinegar in the cellar. His 
 clerks had cheated and stolen from him to the 
 extent that he was on the point of abandoning 
 the business, but he concluded to make a trial 
 of Abraham. He justified the confidence of his 
 employer, and proved himself adequate to the 
 business. 
 
 The honesty of Abraham Lincoln was exhib- 
 ited in numerous instances while in the employ 
 of Offutt, in matters which would seem to a per- 
 son less conscientious to be trivial and unneces- 
 sary. Once he sold a woman a little bill of 
 goods amounting, as he reckoned it, to two dol- 
 lars and a sixpence. She paid the amount and 
 left the store. Abe ran over the figures again 
 to see that all was right, and discovered that he 
 had charged her six and a quarter cents too 
 much. It was night and dark, and the woman 
 3
 
 34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 lived nearly three miles away; but he closed the 
 store, followed her home, and paid over the six- 
 pence. Such exhibitions of rigid honesty show 
 that he regarded strict adherence to principle as 
 important in the smallest transactions. It was 
 not a cunning attempt to secure a reputation for 
 fair dealing and accuracy, for that would itself 
 be dishonest, and wholly repugnant to his charac- 
 ter. Most young men, in similar circumstances, 
 would have quieted conscience by the reflection 
 that the wrong was not intentional, and could be 
 rectified at another time. His conduct shows 
 that he did not consider this procrastination as 
 honest. In this he was correct. Postponement 
 is the first and fatal step in the total abandon- 
 ment of duty. 
 
 This scrupulous regard for truth and justice 
 was not confined to the rights of others. He 
 was mild, patient, amiable, forgiving, but would 
 not permit himself to be injured or humiliated 
 without earnest and usually effective protest. 
 He was a peace man but not a non-combatant. 
 A number of illustrations of this trait occurred 
 during his life, before he gave that grand display 
 of heroism, endurance, and persistence which 
 resulted in the defeat and destruction of slavery.
 
 A LITTLE JOB OF THRASHING. 35 
 
 While in Offutt's store, an amusing test of his 
 peculiar courage occurred. A swaggering bully 
 and fighter came in while he was dealing with 
 some ladies, and opened upon him with a torrent 
 of vile and abusive language. Lincoln begged him 
 to desist till the ladies were gone, when he would 
 hear whatever he had to say. When the ladies 
 had departed, the ruffian became more abusive and 
 profane than ever. Abe listened to him a mo- 
 ment, and then said, in a reluctant way, " Well, 
 I see that somebody will have to whip you, and 
 I suppose I may as well do it as to leave the 
 job for some other man." 
 
 Leaping over the counter, he walked out, fol- 
 lowed by the pugilist, who stripped for the bat- 
 tle, while he poured out his most frightful 
 threats and imprecations. Abe stood by, look- 
 ing on, neither angry nor alarmed, but inter- 
 ested in this violent exhibition of human nature. 
 The bully leaped from the ground, struck a sci- 
 entific attitude, and declared himself READY. 
 Lincoln seized him with the grip of a vice, 
 threw him upon the grass, arid, gathering a 
 bunch of smart- weed, which grew at his feet, he 
 rubbed it in the fellow's eyes till he bellowed 
 with pain and begged for mercy ; then lifting
 
 36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 him up, lie led him to the well, furnished him 
 with a basin of water, " hoped it would not 
 smart long," and did what he could to afford 
 him relief. 
 
 His opportunities for acquiring knowledge, 
 meager as they might seem, were greatly in- 
 creased by his employment in the store. While 
 there, a copy of Kirkham's Grammar fell into 
 his hands, and the common-sense method of 
 the old author led him easily and pleasantly, as 
 it did thousands of others, into the principles 
 of language. The author's plan of reasoning on 
 the subject, and his pithy attacks on the absurd- 
 ities of his predecessors, was the very style to 
 interest and delight the logic-loving mind of 
 Lincoln. 
 
 After Abraham had been in Offutt's employ a 
 little over a year, that gentleman failed in busi- 
 ness ; the store was closed, and Abe had to look 
 elsewhere for labor of muscle or brain. His 
 management of Offutt's business had gained him 
 the title of "Honest Abe," and the homely 
 
 * 
 
 phrase clung to him long after he had exhibited 
 much more striking and brilliant traits of mind 
 
 O 9 
 
 and character.
 
 THE INDIAN WAR. 37 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE INDIAN WAR. 
 
 1831, while Abraham Lincoln was em- 
 ployed as a clerk, rumors of trouble with 
 the Indians became prevalent throughout 
 the Western States. In pursuance of a treaty 
 made with them in 1825, they had retired from 
 Illinois to the west of the Mississippi. The ter- 
 ritory now included in the beautiful States of 
 Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, and inhabited 
 by a population second to none in the world in 
 enterprise, intelligence, and patriotism, was then 
 the country of warlike and powerful savage 
 tribes. The Sacs and Foxes, Kickapoos, and 
 Pottawatamies, in Iowa, and the Winnebagoes, 
 Ottawas, and Chippewas in what is now Wiscon- 
 sin and Minnesota, were as numerous as their 
 kindred ever were in Kentucky or Ohio. It is 
 astonishing to reflect that in one brief generation, 
 thirty-five years only, they have so nearly dis- 
 appeared and become extinct. But so it is or-
 
 38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 dained of Providence. Man may so degrade Lira- 
 self that the influences of civilization and light, 
 which to others are elevating, will be to him 
 harbingers of swift destruction. So it is with the 
 Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, our Sav- 
 ior to some a message of joy and endless pro- 
 gression in happiness, to others a savor of death. 
 The famous Tecumseh and Black Hawk, old 
 chiefs of the Sacs, resolved to violate the treaty 
 and invade Illinois. This they did in the spring 
 of 1831 ; but on the approach of a few hundred 
 troops, under Gen. Gaines, retired to their own 
 territory. In 1832 they again crossed the river, 
 and Gov. Reynolds, of Illinois, called for volun- 
 teers to repel them, and Abraham, then twenty- 
 three years old, instantly responded, and, bor- 
 rowing a buck-rifle, repaired to the rendezvous 
 at Salem. His friends and neighbors among 
 whom, and most zealous for him of all, was his 
 friend of the smart-weed combat proposed him 
 for captain. A well-to-do and somewhat self- 
 important man, named Kirkpatrick, for whom 
 Abe had labored as a farm-hand, was seeking 
 and expecting the commission. An election was 
 held, and Abe beat his former employer by a 
 vote nearly unanimous.
 
 THE BLACK HAWK WAR. 89 
 
 The forces then assembled at Bardstown, and 
 from thence marched to the field of operations. 
 The wily savages refused to give battle, divided 
 their forces into marauding bands, and scattered 
 over the country. The volunteers became dis- 
 couraged with the dull and futile toil of march- 
 ing here and there in pursuit of the swift-footed 
 redskins, and when the Indians, finding retreat 
 across the river necessary to avoid battle, left 
 the soil of Illinois, the volunteers refused to 
 follow, and disbanded. The Governor at once 
 called for volunteers from the disorganizing 
 troops, and again Abe stepped forward. But be- 
 fore these new organizations could be perfected 
 and brought into the field, Black Hawk and nearly 
 all his warriors were defeated and captured at 
 the battle of Bad Ax, on the Wisconsin River. 
 
 The " veterans ' of the Black Hawk war re- 
 turned home a few days before the fall elections 
 in 1832, and immediately placed their captain in 
 nomination for the Legislature. Abe was little 
 known, except in Salem and the immediate 
 vicinity, and the short time intervening between 
 their return and the election-day prevented any 
 efforts at canvassing the county, but in Salem 
 he beat his opponent nearly two to one.
 
 40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Soon after, a man named Redford, who had a 
 store in Salem, sold out to a Mr. William G. 
 Greene, who was well acquainted with young 
 Lincoln. Greene proposed to Lincoln and an- 
 other young man named Berry to take the store 
 off his hands. The copartnership was formed; 
 and Greene became their security to Redford. 
 But Berry proved to be dissolute and dishonest, 
 and the firm of Lincoln and Berry became bank- 
 rupt. Lincoln assumed the debt, and set to 
 work to pay it out of his earnings, and at the 
 end of six years had paid the last cent, princi- 
 pal and interest. 
 
 During the fall following, while Abe was em- 
 ployed in gathering corn, chopping and hauling 
 wood for the winter, and similar labors, he re- 
 ceived the appointment of postmaster from Pres- 
 ident Jackson. Postage was then high, mails 
 few, and came but twice a week, correspondence 
 meager, and the profits of such a position very 
 small. He could not remain in an office, and so 
 carried the letters in his hat ! It was somewhat 
 comical to go in quest of the perambulating 
 " post-office," and to find it one day in a corn- 
 field, and the next at a shingle-tree in the woods, 
 but so the literary people of Sangamon were
 
 A PERIPATETIC POSTMASTER. 41 
 
 compelled to do. When a letter, by frequent 
 contact with the dusky pate upon which the 
 "United States mail" rested, became worn and 
 greasy, the postmaster posted it off to the dead- 
 letter office, with the evidences of its age patent 
 upon its surface. The office was discontinued, 
 and no one appeared to take charge of the pro- 
 ceeds, until many years afterward, when Lincoln 
 was engaged in a thriving and successful prac- 
 tice at law. An agent then called on him and 
 presented the claim. Lincoln read it over with 
 an embarrassed look ; and some friends who sat 
 by, supposing he had not the money to pay, drew 
 out their wallets to assist him. He thanked 
 them, and said he had almost forgotten what he 
 had done with that money. But going to an 
 old trunk in a corner of the office, full of old 
 papers, pleas, and other office rubbish, he dug 
 down to the bottom, exhumed a lot of silver 
 coin, tied up in a faded piece of calico, laid it 
 upon the table, and counted out the exact sum 
 which the agent's claim demanded not a cop- 
 per more nor less did the rag contain. In all 
 those years of privation, penury, and toil, he had 
 not used a cent even for a brief period of the 
 money belonging to the Department.
 
 42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 SURVEYOR AND LAWYER. 
 
 y* *w* 
 
 * ffi N the winter of 1834, Abraham obtained 
 
 u \ /A" 
 
 a book on surveying, which had an in- 
 troductory chapter on such principles 
 of geometry and trigonometry as were neces- 
 sary in the art of measuring heights and dis- 
 tances. This gave him a taste for those sciences, 
 and he did not desist from their pursuit till he 
 had mastered Euclid. He afterward remarked, 
 that from that time he was never satisfied with 
 any argument short of the nearest possible ap- 
 proach to mathematical demonstration. 
 
 The following spring he was so fortunate as to 
 have the opportunity to turn his mathematical 
 acquirements to good account. John Calhoun, 
 afterward well known or rather infamously 
 known during the Kansas-Nebraska contest of 
 1855-6, as "Lecompton Calhoun," was then 
 surveyor for Sangamon County. The great im-
 
 STUDY OF THE LAW. 43 
 
 migration into that part of the State gave him 
 more business than he could manage. Hearing 
 of young Lincoln's acquirements in his line, he 
 gave him employment. Abe soon became an 
 accurate and reliable surveyor. 
 
 Happening at a book auction, at Springfield, 
 he purchased an old copy of Blackstone's Com- 
 mentaries, and, as was his habit with any book 
 new to him, plunged at once into the devious 
 mazes of English law. A fresh book to him was 
 as a defiant kingdom to Alexander a new con- 
 quest to be undertaken, and achieved without 
 delay. Alternately surveying for bread and 
 clothing, and wherewithal to buy more books, 
 Abe pushed forward in the study of law. His 
 studio was some shady tree in the edge of the 
 woods in summer, and by a lard lamp at some 
 hospitable fireside in the winter. His devotion 
 to his studies rendered him absent-minded; and 
 some of his neighbors, noticing the change that 
 had come over him, reported that he was be- 
 coming insane. These fits of abstraction con- 
 tinued to mark him during the remainder of his 
 life. He would sometimes sit down at the family 
 board, eat mechanically, and without noticing 
 conversation addressed to him ; but suddenly re-
 
 44 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 calling himself, as from a dream, he would launch 
 out some witty allusion or quotation of poetry, 
 and at once enter upon the topic which came up 
 in the circle, with great humor and vivacity. 
 
 In the fall of 1834, two years after his first 
 candidacy for the Legislature, he was again nom- 
 inated, and this time elected by a majority of 
 two hundred and fifty above that of the others 
 on his ticket. During this campaign he met his 
 opponent at various places in public debate, and 
 acquitted himself as a logical, witty, and effective 
 public speaker. The State of Illinois was then, 
 and so remained for twenty years afterward, over- 
 whelmingly Democratic, the Whig party forming 
 scarcely a respectable opposition. Had Mr. Lin- 
 coln sought popular favor and the honors and emol- 
 uments of office, without regard to his convic- 
 tions of right, he could have placed himself at the 
 head of the party in the State, and shared with 
 Mr. Douglas the political triumphs which that 
 leader achieved; but he was convinced that the 
 principles advocated by the minority were just, 
 that the majority were wrong, and he would not 
 sacrifice an iota of what he regarded as truth 
 for political success or pecuniary gain. 
 
 The capital of the state was then at Vandalia,
 
 WHY ABE WAS COLD. 45 
 
 about one hundred miles from Salem, the home 
 of Mr. Lincoln. The Legislature met in De- 
 cember, when the roads were deep and the 
 weather inclement. But he had not the means 
 to pay his way by public conveyance or to pur- 
 chase a horse ; he therefore walked all the way 
 to the capital, and at the close of the term 
 walked back again. As he returned in the 
 spring the weather was severe, and he, being 
 thinly clad, complained of the cold. One of his 
 colleagues, all of whom were upon horseback, 
 in allusion to his big feet, said : " It is no wonder 
 Abe is cold ; there 's so much of him on the 
 ground!' Lincoln laughed as heartily at this 
 broad joke as any of his companions. 
 
 During this session of the Legislature, a series 
 of resolutions were passed pledging the legisla- 
 tors, and, so far as their influence could extend, 
 the people of the State, to vile subserviency to 
 slaveholders. Mr. Lincoln and one other inde- 
 pendent and honorable man, DANIEL STONE, 
 would not submit to this humiliation, but entered 
 a vigorous protest upon the journal of the House. 
 By that one manly act " Dan Stone ' will be re- 
 membered as a just and fearless man, even if 
 all other events of his life are forgotten.
 
 46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 At the close of the second session of the Leg- 
 islature, Major Stewart, of Springfield, offered him 
 a partnership in the practice of law, which flat- 
 tering proposal he immediately accepted, and, 
 packing up his scanty wardrobe and library, 
 turned his back upon his old home, with its rough 
 toils, but with its many pleasant associations, for 
 a new and broader field of usefulness. In thus 
 leaving the scene of so many hardships and pri- 
 vations, he also left friends who knew him best 
 and trusted him most friends who had honored 
 him with his first political success. But mingled 
 with his regret were high hopes as he looked for- 
 ward to the expanding and brightening future. 
 
 The young lawyer did not pack an expensive 
 trunk, with stores of glossy linen, patent collars, 
 and fancy toilet fixtures, as a preparation for 
 this journey to Springfield. He would have 
 been well suited to tie up his extra cotton shirt 
 in a handkerchief, and make a straight line for 
 his new home across lots, taking advantage of 
 his lengthy supply of legs to ford the streams, 
 as he often had done before, and did afterward. 
 But he accumulated a burden of wealth, in the 
 shape of law-books, which he could not carry
 
 PADDLING HIS OWN CANOE. 47 
 
 upon his back. He was, therefore, under the 
 necessity of asking a neighbor boy to haul his 
 box to the Sangamon River, but not to await a 
 passing steamer, as there were none, but to take 
 passage in a vessel of his own. He procured a 
 little skiff, and, loading in his worldly goods, 
 applied his tough hands to the oars, and so 
 "paddled his own canoe" to fortune and fame. 
 
 This little incident in Lincoln's life has much 
 in it that is picturesque and pleasing. He had 
 passed the primary grade in his school of disci- 
 pline. The ax and the maul, the scanty clothing 
 and penury, the struggle for education and cul- 
 ture against most discouraging disadvantages, 
 all were left behind as he stepped from the bank 
 of the stream into his little boat. He was now 
 to test his powers in efforts of intellect instead 
 of muscle. He doubtless looked to success in 
 the legal profession as the summit of his ambi- 
 tion, not knowing that this, also, was merely a 
 higher school of discipline to prepare him for the 
 work of his life. 
 
 His success at the law was immediate. Po- 
 litical campaigning had given him fluency and 
 confidence as a public speaker ; and his acute 
 and logical mind was peculiarly fitted for the
 
 48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 work of that controversial profession. The next 
 Legislative election the people of Springfield 
 returned him for a second term to the Legisla- 
 ture ; this was repeated from time to time, till 
 his professional duties became so onerous that 
 he was compelled to decline further service in 
 that body.
 
 HIS COURSE AS A LAWYER 49 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HIS COURSE AS A LAWYER. 
 
 RICKERY and deception are regarded 
 as vices almost inseparable from the 
 legal profession. In almost every con- 
 test one or both of the parties are seeking to do 
 injustice. The attorney is constantly brought in 
 contact with knavery, becomes familiar with all 
 its devious ways, and is often strongly tempted, 
 by pecuniary gain and professional ambition, to 
 resort to it himself. And yet the most certain 
 avenue to success in this, as in other callings, is 
 unswerving honesty. No business man is will- 
 ing to incur the vexation, watchfulness, and, 
 withal, the uncertainty, of dealing with a knave. 
 On the other hand, business intercourse with a 
 man of Christian uprightness and integrity is a 
 constant source of satisfaction and security. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's course as a lawyer was " obsti- 
 nately honest." So thorough was the confidence 
 4
 
 50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 reposed in him by those who knew him well, 
 that with them his logical deductions, in ad- 
 dressing a jury, would outweigh the testimony 
 upon oath of some respectable witnesses. Con- 
 stantly acting upon principle, he could not and 
 would not defend the wrong. He not only would 
 not lie for any man or any cause, but he would 
 have nothing to do with a cause for the main- 
 tenance of which it was necessary for any body 
 to lie. 
 
 During the progress of an important trial at 
 Springfield, he became convinced that his client 
 was acting dishonestly, and that justice and the 
 law were against him. He at once notified his 
 associate counsel that he would not argue such 
 a case, and took no further part in it. The trial 
 proceeded, and, much to Mr. Lincoln's astonish- 
 ment, his colleague gained the verdict. The 
 successful client paid over to the firm the hand- 
 some fee of nine hundred dollars, but Mr. Lin- 
 coln would not accept a dime of it. 
 
 At that time it was customary, as now, for the 
 common pleas judges to pass from county to 
 county, holding courts in each, with the differ- 
 ence that the judicial districts embraced a much 
 wider area of country than at present. It was
 
 THE ARMSTRONG TRIAL. 51 
 
 also the custom of the best lawyers to follow the 
 judges from one county to another, and thus 
 extend their practice over the whole district. 
 This was called " circuit riding," a term applied 
 to the itinerant labors of both lawyers and 
 preachers. 
 
 The minister and the lawyer, each equipped 
 with saddle-bags and leggings, pursued their 
 journeys on horseback, through mud and rain, 
 snow and sleet, through sloughs and across riv- 
 ers, contented and happy in the pursuit of their 
 callings. 
 
 While engaged in studying his profession in 
 intervals of hard labor, in Menard County, a 
 family named Armstrong, father, mother, and 
 sons, had kindly made him welcome to a home 
 in their cabin during one winter. This generous 
 hospitality from a poor mail, as Armstrong then 
 was, was treasured in the grateful memory of the 
 rising lawyer, and brought a full reward, as the 
 following incident, related by one who witnessed 
 it, fully shows : 
 
 " Some few years since, the oldest son of Mr. 
 Lincoln's old friend Armstrong, the chief sup- 
 port of his widowed mother the good old man 
 having some time previously passed from earth
 
 52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 was arrested on the charge of murder. A young 
 man had been killed during a riotous melee in 
 the night-time, at a camp-meeting, and one of 
 his associates stated that the death-wound was 
 inflicted by young Armstrong. A preliminary 
 examination was gone into, at which the accuser 
 testified so positively that there seemed to be no 
 doubt of the guilt of the prisoner, and, therefore, 
 he was held for trial. As is too often the case, 
 the bloody act caused an undue excitement in 
 the public mind. Every improper incident in 
 the life of the prisoner, each act which bore the 
 least resemblance to rowdyism, each school-boy 
 quarrel, was suddenly remembered and magni- 
 fied, until they pictured him as a fiend of the 
 most horrid hue. As these rumors were spread 
 abroad they were received as gospel truth, and 
 the most feverish desire for vengeance seized 
 upon the infatuated populace, while only prison- 
 bars prevented a horrible death at the hands of 
 a mob. The events were heralded in the news- 
 papers, painted in the highest colors, accompa- 
 nied with rejoicing over the certainty of punish- 
 ment being meted out to the guilty party. The 
 prisoner, overwhelmed by the circumstances in 
 which he found himself placed, fell into a mel-
 
 THE ARMSTRONG TRIAL. 53 
 
 ancholy condition bordering on despair ; and the 
 widowed mother, looking through her tears, saw 
 no cause for hope from earthly aid. 
 
 " At this juncture the widow received a letter 
 from Mr. Lincoln, volunteering his services in 
 an effort to. save the youth from the impending 
 stroke. Gladly was his aid accepted, although 
 it seemed impossible for even his sagacity to 
 prevail in such a desperate case ; but the heart 
 of the attorney was in the work, and he set 
 about it with a will that knew no. such word as 
 fail. Feeling that the poisoned condition of the 
 public mind was such as to preclude the possi- 
 bility of impaneling an impartial jury in the 
 court having jurisdiction, he procured a change 
 of venue and a postponement of the trial. He 
 then went studiously to work unraveling the his- 
 tory of the case, and satisfied himself that his 
 client was the victim of malice, and that the 
 statements of the accuser were a tissue of false- 
 hoods. When the trial was called', the prisoner, 
 pale and emaciated, an.d with hopelessness writ- 
 ten on every feature accompanied by his half- 
 hoping, half-despairing mother, whose only hope 
 was a mother's belief in her son's innocence, in 
 the justice of God, and in the noble counsel
 
 54 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 who, without hope of fee or reward on earth, 
 had undertaken the cause took his seat in the 
 prisoner's box, and with stony firmness listened 
 to the reading of the indictment. 
 
 " Lincoln sat quietly by, while the large audi- 
 tory looked on him as though wondering what 
 he could say in defense of one whose guilt was 
 deemed certain. The examination of the wit- 
 nesses for the State was begun, and a well- 
 arranged mass of evidence, circumstantial and 
 positive, was introduced, which seemed to impale 
 the prisoner beyond the possibility of extrica- 
 tion. Mr. Lincoln propounded but few ques- 
 tions, and those of a character which excited no 
 uneasiness on the part of the prosecutor, merely, 
 in most cases, requiring the main witness to be 
 definite as to time and place. When the evi- 
 dence of the prosecution was closed, Lincoln 
 introduced a few witnesses to remove some er- 
 roneous impressions in regard to the previous 
 character of his client, who, though somewhat 
 rowdyish, had never been known to commit a 
 vicious act, and to show that a greater degree 
 of ill-feeling existed between the accuser and 
 the accused than between the accused and the 
 murdered man. The prosecutor felt that the
 
 THE ARMSTRONG TRIAL. 55 
 
 case was a clear one, and his opening speech 
 was brief and formal. 
 
 " Lincoln arose, while a deathly silence pervaded 
 the vast audience, and, in a clear but moderate 
 tone, began his argument. Slowly and carefully 
 he reviewed the testimony, pointing out the hith- 
 erto unobserved discrepancies in the statements 
 of the principal witness. That which appeared 
 plain and plausible he made to appear crooked 
 as a serpent's path. The witness had stated 
 that the affair took place at a certain hour in 
 the evening, and that, by the aid of the brightly- 
 shining moon, he saw the prisoner inflict the 
 death-blow with a slung-shot. Mr. Lincoln 
 showed that at the hour referred to the moon 
 was not yet above the horizon, and, consequently, 
 the whole tale was a fabrication. He then drew 
 a picture of the perjurer so horrid and ghastly 
 that the accuser could sit under it no longer, 
 but reeled and staggered from the court-room. 
 Then, in words of thrilling pathos, Lincoln ap- 
 pealed to the jurors as fathers of sons who 
 might become fatherless, to yield to no previous 
 impressions of ill-founded prejudice, but to do 
 his client justice ; and as he alluded to the debt 
 of gratitude which he owed the boy's sire, tears
 
 56 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 were seen to fall from many eyes unused to 
 weep. It was near night, when he concluded by 
 saying that if justice were done, as he believed 
 it would be, before the sun should set it would 
 shine upon his client a free man. Half an hour 
 had not elapsed when a messenger announced 
 that the jury had agreed upon their verdict. 
 The court-room was soon filled to overflowing 
 by citizens of the town. When the prisoner and 
 his mother entered, silence reigned as completely 
 as if the house were empty. The foreman of the 
 jury, in answer to the usual inquiry from the 
 court, in a strong, clear tone, announced the 
 verdict, "NoT GUILTY!" The widow dropped 
 into the arms of her son, who held her up, and 
 told her to look on him as before, a free man 
 and innocent. Then, with the words, " Where 
 is Mr. Lincoln?" he rushed across the room and 
 grasped the hand of his deliverer, while his 
 heart was too full for utterance. Lincoln turned 
 his eyes toward the west, where the sun still 
 lingered in view, and then turning toward the 
 
 youth, said, "It is not yet sundown, and you 
 
 - f )) 
 are tree. 
 
 While riding alone, at one time, to attend court 
 in a neighboring county, an incident occurred
 
 HUMANITY TO A PIG. 
 
 , . 
 
 which would have seemed strange and ludicrous 
 to a bystander, and which yet gives a view of 
 the humane and sensitive heart of Mr. Lincoln, 
 and shows that, in the quality of mercy, he was 
 as child-like and sincere as he was determined 
 iii his ideas of truth and justice. 
 
 He was riding by a deep slough, in which 
 he saw a pig ingulfed, and showing by its ex- 
 hausted efforts that it would never succeed in 
 extricating itself. He looked at it a moment 
 with a pitying eye, but the mud was deep and 
 black, and his wardrobe for the journey was 
 limited to the suit he had on. He therefore 
 rode on, but more than once looked back at the 
 pitiable object. Pursuing his way about two 
 miles, during which time he sought in vain to 
 banish the struggling pig from his mind, he 
 turned suddenly about and rode quickly hafck, 
 fearing he might ba too late to save the animal's 
 
 ^j ^3 J^ 
 
 life. Dismounting, he hitched his horse and set 
 about his labor of mercy in good earnest. He 
 
 soon had a bridge of rails built to within 
 
 
 
 reach of the pig, f0ied him by the ears and 
 landed him on terra fir ma. After looking at him 
 with a smile, as he scampered off, he re-mounted 
 his horse and rode away. Mr. Lincoln probably
 
 58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 never in his life inflicted wanton pain on the 
 sensibilities of any person, or upon the humblest 
 of God's creatures. But while 
 
 "Meekly bending heart and brow 
 To the helpless and the low" 
 
 was also ever 
 
 "Ready to redress the wrong 
 Of the weak against the strong." 
 
 After he had attained power and fame, his for- 
 mer humble and illiterate friends found him the 
 same unassuming, considerate, and affectionate 
 friend that he was while sharing their hospitality 
 as a poor boy at the cabin fireside, or around 
 the homely meal. Having one night left his 
 comfortable quarters and agreeable companions, 
 at the hotel of a village where he was attending 
 court, to visit an aged friend in her cabin, his 
 friends remonstrated with him. " 0," said he, 
 " it would break old Aunty's heart to hear that 
 I had left town without visiting her." He took 
 pleasure, and it was pleasure in its highest and 
 noblest form, in seating himself at the old ma- 
 tron's table, to listen to her garrulous talk, relate 
 his merriest stories, and gratify her by his un- 
 affected respect.
 
 A STRANGE INCIDENT. 59 
 
 An incident in wide contrast to these, and 
 which brought out wholly different traits of his 
 character, took place in 1839. The Legislature 
 was then in session at Springfield, and Mr. Lin- 
 coln was a member. During the session, a young 
 lady wrote, and the editor of the paper at Spring- 
 field published, a sarcastic poem, which the pub- 
 lic at once understood as directed against James 
 Shields, also a member of the Legislature. 
 Shields demanded of the editor the name of so 
 audacious a writer, with the intent to repay the 
 shedding of ink by the shedding of blood. Lin- 
 coln was unmarried, and understood to be at 
 least an admirer of the offending young lady, arid 
 the editor, dishonorably fearing to meet the re- 
 sponsibility, repaired to Lincoln, with the request 
 that he would assume it, and settle the difficulty 
 with Shields. He at once consented, and Shields 
 was informed that Lincoln considered himself 
 responsible. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln seems to have gone into this 
 difficulty without thinking of its folly his mind 
 absorbed with the idea of defending the name 
 and privacy of the lady. Shields immediately 
 challenged him to mortal combat, and Lincoln 
 as promptly accepted, naming broad-swords as
 
 60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the weapons, and " Bloody Island ' in the Illi- 
 nois river as the place. At the time appointed, 
 Shields and his friends, and a surgeon, repaired 
 to the place, and found Abe busy chopping away 
 the underbrush with his sword, to clear a place 
 for the duel. Friends who knew the trivial na- 
 ture of the quarrel interfered and put an end to 
 it. Lincoln said, doubtless truly, that he did not 
 intend to injure Shields, and chose broad-s words 
 that his superior reach of arm might enable him 
 to defend himself and disarm his antagonist; 
 but even with this purpose, it was the most .un- 
 reasonable act of his life.
 
 MARRIAGE. 61 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MARRIAGE. 
 
 N 1842 Mr. Lincoln was thirty-three 
 years old, and established in a flourish- 
 ing practice at law. He therefore deemed 
 himself of sufficient age, and in possession of 
 resources adequate, for the maintenance of a fam- 
 ily. Accordingly he sought and won the heart 
 and hand of Miss Mary Todd, daughter of Hon. 
 Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Ky. His bride 
 had resided in Springfield for several years pre- 
 vious to her marriage, and doubtless fully ap- 
 preciated the value of the " rough diamond " she 
 had chosen. His social nature and kind dispo- 
 sition fitted him to enjoy the attractions of a 
 home, and his wit, drollery, and genuine hospi- 
 tality to render it singularly attractive to inmates 
 and friends. His private correspondence at 
 this time shows how happy he was in his new 
 relation, and in the new cares and motives
 
 62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 for exertion which that relation brought upon 
 him. 
 
 One afternoon, while sitting in the law-office 
 with his partner, Wm. Herndon, Esq., busily 
 employed in his professional labors, a poverty- 
 stricken old negro woman, with care and sorrow 
 depicted on her furrowed face, came in and re- 
 quested an interview. She and her children had 
 been slaves in Kentucky, and their master had 
 brought them into Illinois and set them free. 
 Her son obtained employment as steward on a 
 river steamer plying between Springfield and 
 New Orleans, and supported her by his wages. 
 Imprudently stepping off the boat at the latter 
 city, he was seized by the rapacious police, un- 
 der the assumed authority of the laws of Louis- 
 iana against the immigration of free negroes, 
 and hurried off to prison, where he was liable to 
 be sold into perpetual slavery in payment of his 
 fine. Mr. Lincoln heard the story, and requested 
 Mr. Herndon to go to Gov. Bissell, whose office 
 was near at hand, and request his interference. 
 Bissell replied that the Constitution gave him 
 no right whatever to call in question the Uws 
 of a Southern State. On hearing this, Lincoln 
 sprang to his feet in great excitement, struck his
 
 DEFENDING THE FRIENDLESS. 63 
 
 desk with clinched hand, and exclaimed, " I '11 
 have that negro back, or I'll have such an agi- 
 tation in Illinois that the Governor will learn 
 his constitutional rights ! ' It did not become 
 necessary for Mr. Lincoln to make his threatened 
 appeal for justice to the people. The colored 
 man was recovered by the New Orleans author- 
 ities and restored to his aged mother. 
 
 Not unfrequently fugitive slaves were pursued, 
 in their eager flight for freedom, and captured 
 in Mr. Lincoln's district, or in the vicinity. 
 But such was the terror which the epithet " Ab- 
 olitionist" or "nigger thief" inspired that most 
 lawyers were unwilling to incur the odium of 
 defending them before the courts. But Lincoln 
 in Illinois, like Chase in Ohio, and Stephens in 
 Pennsylvania, never quailed before that cruel, 
 black, and bloody power. He stood between it 
 and its trembling victims, defending them to 
 the utmost, whenever called upon. Other law- 
 yers said, " It is right and just to defend these 
 fugitives, but we have political aspirations, and 
 can not afford it." Lincoln and Chase had 
 aspirations too, but they could not afford to un- 
 man and degrade themselves. The one became 
 President and the other Chief Justice of the
 
 - 
 
 64 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 United States, by regarding justice as the first 
 object to be sought; while of all that herd of 
 pliant politicians, scarce one is known beyond 
 a limited circle. 
 
 In 1846 Mr. Lincoln sought and obtained a 
 nomination for Congress in the Sangamon dis- 
 trict, and after a spirited canvass was elected 
 by a majority of 1,511 votes 597 greater than 
 the same district had given the year before to 
 that polished and popular statesman Henry Clay, 
 as candidate for the Presidency. The great 
 lights of the past generation were then in the 
 legislative halls Clay, Webster, Calhoun, Ben- 
 ton, and Adams. Those men, though probably 
 not superior in intellect and eloquence to many 
 now occupying their places, exerted a wider in- 
 fluence and control than men of equal powers 
 could do now. That was the era in our coun- 
 try's history for the leadership of men. The 
 mighty struggle of a later day reversed this or- 
 der, and gave the country the leadership of the 
 masses. The personal fortunes of the leader 
 were then an object of interest; they are now 
 wholly disregarded. The people use the men 
 who seem best adapted to se'rve their purposes ; 
 the moment he proves himself unfit, unwilling,
 
 .7$ 
 
 A PERIOD OF RETIREMENT. 65 
 
 or inadequate, he is cast aside with as little re- 
 gret as the artisan casts aside a worthless in- 
 strument, which is a change greatly for the 
 better. Mr. Lincoln made a respectable legis- 
 lator, but did not succeed in rising above the 
 shadow cast by those great names. 
 
 At the close of his Congressional term, in 
 1849, Mr. Lincoln returned to the quiet routine 
 of his profession, taking little part in politics, 
 but by no means indifferent to the questions of 
 importance in the political world, as they arose. 
 His next appearance in public life was in a con- 
 troversy far more grand in its proportions and 
 glorious in its results than any that had taxed 
 the strength of true patriots since the close of 
 the American Revolution. The better to under- 
 stand the circumstances of this contest, let us 
 briefly recur to the aggressive power by whom 
 it was forced upon the country, and for the 
 struggle with which God had trained Abraham 
 Lincoln from his mother's knee. 
 5
 
 66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 CHAPTERIX. 
 
 , 
 
 THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 
 
 ** 
 
 FRICAN slavery and the slave-trade 
 ^ were first introduced into Morocco, 
 Spain, and Portugal, by the Moors, nearly 
 seven hundred years ago. After the banishment 
 of that race from their possessions in Europe, 
 the Spaniards and Portuguese seized upon the 
 abhorrent traffic, and have practiced it continu- 
 ally since, even after other nations had pro- 
 nounced it piracy and punished it with death. 
 From that cruel and unprincipled people the 
 New World received that spirit of oppression and 
 sham-chivalry which became such a mighty power 
 for wickedness in our hemisphere. The tortures 
 inflicted by Pizarro in Peru, by Cortez in Mex- 
 ico, and by the rebels at Andersonville, are all 
 parts of the same cast, actuated by the same 
 spirit, and repeating age after age, the same 
 bombastic ideas, stilted forms of expression, and 
 the same cruel practices.
 
 THE IRREPRESSIBLE 'CONFLICT. 67 
 
 The slave-trade was introduced in the Western 
 Hemisphere by Christopher Columbus, on his 
 first voyage. He beguiled a number of unsus- 
 pecting natives on board of his ship, the Santa 
 Maria, when on the point of starting on his re- 
 turn, took them to Spain, and sold them into 
 slavery. They were, however, afterward liberated, 
 by order of Queen Isabella. The colonists, who 
 followed in the wake of Columbus, also followed 
 his example ; but the aboriginal tribes withered 
 and perished under the hard hand of the impla- 
 cable Spanish task-master. At the professedly 
 pious suggestion of Las Casas, a Jesuit missionary, 
 the Spaniards sent vessels direct to the coast of 
 Guinea, to capture the hardier Africans and im- 
 port them to supply the demand. The system, 
 once introduced, spread rapidly in every colony 
 planted in the New World Portuguese, Dutch, 
 English, and French. 
 
 Ten years after the first cargo of slaves was 
 landed in St. Augustine, Florida, the Mayflower, 
 freighted with Puritans and free principles, 
 touched the Plymouth Rock. From that clay 
 began the growth of two hostile systems on 
 American soil incongruous and antagonistic as 
 fire and water each intolerant of the life of the
 
 68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 other. The conflict began and continued with 
 increasing violence till the death-blow was dealt 
 by Abraham Lincoln ; and that its doom might 
 be irrevocably sealed, Providence permitted the 
 vanquished system to close its infamous history 
 with a crime that filled mankind with horror. 
 
 True, the lines between the conflicting moral 
 forces were not, in point of geographical location, 
 distinctly drawn. Georgia, at an early day, and 
 before she became a colony of the British crown, 
 prohibited slavery and rum ; while New Eng- 
 land both manufactured the one and practiced 
 the other. But the principles of the Puritans 
 gathered clearness and strength in the rugged 
 hills of the North, while the dark spirit of slav- 
 ery spread and intensified its hideous reign along 
 the malarious levels of the southern coast. 
 
 When the war of the Revolution was termi- 
 nated by the triumph of the colonies, and the 
 statesmen of that day assembled at Philadelphia, 
 in 1787, to frame a government for our then 
 independent country, the population consisted 
 of a little less than three millions, of whom one- 
 sixth, or near five hundred thousand, were Afri- 
 can slaves. That convention was almost unani- 
 mously opposed to the continued existence of the
 
 GROWTH OF BARBARISM. 69 
 
 system of bondage, but they unwisely and un- 
 righteously yielded to the determined spirit of 
 caste and oppression, and inaugurated those 
 wicked compromises with the evil, which have 
 borne such bitter fruits of sorrow and blood. 
 
 From this time forward slavery grew in ex- 
 tent, in wealth and influence, as it also did in 
 the intensity and malignance of its cruel spirit. 
 Every department in the organization of society 
 was invaded and held. The church was cor- 
 rupted, the press subsidized, the highest seats 
 of justice occupied, the new territories, as far 
 as possible, overrun and secured, popular educa- 
 tion suppressed, the freedom of speech and of 
 the press abridged, the minds of the people 
 poisoned with disloyalty and treason, and finally 
 the boundaries and authority of the system de- 
 clared to be coextensive and coequal with those 
 of the free Republic. 
 
 In pursuance of this arrogant pretension, an 
 attempt was made to seize upon the territories 
 of Kansas and Nebraska, which had been sol- 
 emnly pledged to freedom, and a decision of the 
 Supreme Court obtained at the hand of Chief 
 Justice Taney, whose memory, by that act, is 
 now buried in infamy, known as the Dred Scott
 
 70 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 decision, which rendered the free States them- 
 selves slave territory. 
 
 These tremendous strides of usurpation alarmed 
 the people of the free States, and in 1854 they 
 combined, under the name of the Republican 
 party, to resist its further encroachments. 
 
 Stephen A. Douglas, a Senator from Illinois, 
 a man of great intellectual power combined with 
 political sagacity, though but little influenced by 
 moral principle, had become the leader and 
 champion of the slave power. He led in the 
 contest which resulted in the violation of the 
 compact between the free and slave States, 
 known as the Missouri Compromise, and had 
 much to do in concocting and sustaining the de- 
 cision of Judge Taney, before alluded to. At 
 the organization of the Republican party, Mr. 
 Lincoln at once entered into the spirit of that 
 combination, with his whole soul and energy. 
 During the years of his seclusion from political 
 life, he had grown steadily in intellectual strength 
 and resource. His wise, original, and practical 
 methods of thought had received rhetorical pol- 
 ish, and his delivery, though not that of the 
 finished orator, had acquired vivacity and force. 
 When, therefore, Mr. Douglas, the "Little Giant,"
 
 STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 71 
 
 as his admirers delighted to style him, returned 
 to his constituency to ask their approval of his 
 policy, the friends of freedom put Mr. Lincoln 
 forth, as the ablest man in their ranks, to grap- 
 ple with this champion of the slave power. He 
 accepted the task with alacrity. To deal un- 
 sparing blows upon oppression, injustice, and 
 cruelty, and to advocate the principles involved 
 in the Golden Rule, was a work which aroused 
 all the enthusiasm of his nature, and armed 
 anew every power of his mind. He had for his 
 antagonist one esteemed among the first intellects 
 of the nation, strengthened by long experience, 
 untiring industry, and by unscrupulous cunning, 
 and animated by unconquerable ambition. 
 
 The great contestants were not long in com- 
 ing in collision. In October, 1864, the State 
 Fair for Illinois was held at Springfield, and Mr. 
 Douglas improved the opportunity to deliver a 
 carefully-prepared and elaborate defense of his 
 course. He affirmed that the people of each ter- 
 ritory should determine for themselves whether 
 they should form a free or a slaveholding State. 
 This enunciation he styled the " great principle 
 of popular sovereignty." He maintained that 
 this Government was instituted solely for the
 
 72 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 benefit of white people ; that the declaration in 
 the Declaration of Independence that " all men 
 are born free and equal r only meant that Brit- 
 ish subjects in the colonies were equal in their 
 rights with British subjects in England; that the 
 decision in the Dred Scott case was the supreme 
 law, and as such must be respected and obeyed 
 by all good citizens ; and denounced the Repub- 
 licans as being favorable to the admixture of the 
 white and black races. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln replied the following day. The 
 Springfield Journal thus pictures the scene : " He 
 quivered with feeling and emotion. The whole 
 house was still as death. He attacked the Sen- 
 ator's Kansas-Nebraska Bill with warmth and 
 energy, and all felt that a man of strength was 
 its enemy, and that he intended to blast it, if he 
 could, by his strong and manly efforts. He was 
 most successful, and the house approved the 
 glorious triumph of truth by loud and long-con- 
 tinued huzzas. He exhibited the bill in all its 
 aspects, to show its humbuggery arid falsehood ; 
 and when thus torn to tatters and held up to the 
 vast crowd, a kind of scorn was visible upon the 
 face of the crowd and upon the lips of the elo- 
 quent speaker. At the conclusion of the speech,
 
 POPULAR SOVEREIGNTY. 73 
 
 every man felt that it was unanswerable ; that no 
 human power could overthrow it or trample it 
 under foot." 
 
 As a specimen passage from this argument, 
 the following may be quoted : " My distinguished 
 friend says it is an insult to the emigrants to 
 Kansas and Nebraska to suppose that they are 
 not able to govern themselves. We must not 
 slur over an argument of this kind because it 
 happens to tickle the ear. It must be met and 
 answered. I admit that the emigrant to Kansas 
 and Nebraska is competent to govern himself, 
 but (the speaker rising to his full height) I DENY 
 
 HIS RIGHT TO GOVERN ANY OTHER PERSON WITH- 
 OUT THAT PERSON'S CONSENT." Never was a 
 sophistry more hopelessly impaled than was Mr. 
 Douglas's " great principle ' by that one sharp 
 and luminous sentence. 
 
 The next discussion was held, a few days after, 
 at Peoria. Mr. Lincoln's triumph here was even 
 more signal than at Springfield. One of his 
 happy rejoinders was as follows : " In the course 
 of my main argument, Judge Douglas inter- 
 rupted me to say that the principle of the Ne- 
 braska Bill was very old; that it originated when 
 God made man, arid placed good arid evil before
 
 74 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 him, allowing him to choose for himself, being 
 responsible for the choice he should make. At 
 the time I thought that this was merely playful, 
 and I answered it accordingly ; but in his reply 
 to me he renewed it as a serious argument. In 
 seriousness, then, the facts of his proposition are 
 not true, as stated. God did not place good and 
 evil before man, telling him to make his choice. 
 On the contrary, he did tell him there was one 
 tree of the fruit of which, if he ate, he should 
 surely die. I could scarcely wish so strong a 
 prohibition of slavery in Nebraska." 
 
 In 1858 occurred the most memorable politi- 
 cal canvass, at a State election, that the country 
 has ever witnessed. Mr. Douglas's term of office 
 as United States Senator was about to expire, 
 and it would devolve upon the Legislature of 
 the State to be chosen at that election to ap- 
 point his successor. The Democratic Convention 
 which assembled to nominate State officers also 
 named Mr. Douglas as their choice for Senator, 
 and the Republicans, following their example, 
 nominated Abraham Lincoln. Douglas received, 
 soon after, a challenge from Lincoln to canvass 
 the State in friendly public discussions. They 
 accordingly met and debated the questions at
 
 DEFEAT AS CANDIDATE. 75 
 
 issue before immense audiences in various parts 
 of the State. The manner in which Mr. Lin- 
 coln acquitted himself in these debates may be 
 judged by the fact that they were collected and 
 published in full, giving Mr. Douglas's speeches 
 without abridgment, by the Republicans in other 
 States, and circulated free as campaign docu- 
 ments. 
 
 > J i 
 
 The result of this campaign was that the Re- 
 publicans carried the State by about five thou- 
 sand majority, but a large number of Democratic 
 legislators who had been elected the previous 
 year held their offices at the next session, and 
 were sufficient to overcome Mr. Lincoln's gain 
 and reelect Mr. Douglas. But such was the 
 enthusiasm aroused for the defeated aspirant, 
 that he was immediately named ii various parts 
 of the North as the Republican candidate for 
 the Presidency in 1860 rather a remarkable 
 result for a defeated politician. 
 
 Mr. Douglas was as able a political debater 
 as our country has produced. He had not the 
 breadth and stateliness of Webster, nor the finish 
 and brilliance of Clay, but in readiness, audacity, 
 compression of style, and in dauntless courage 
 he had no superior. He lacked nothing to place
 
 76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 him among the first of American orators and 
 statesmen, except that high moral principle 
 which prefers truth and right to every inferior 
 consideration. He accomplished much for the 
 material prosperity of his State, and for the 
 temporary triumphs of his party. He exhibited 
 on many occasions the elements of profound 
 statesmanship and far-reaching forecast; and 
 had the American people been dealing with 
 questions of material interest merely, his repu- 
 tation would be different from what it now is. 
 But the issues contested before the people di- 
 rectly involved the laws of God concerning the 
 rights of man. With all his sagacity and knowl- 
 edge he did not know that those laws are far 
 mightier than the ablest inventions of man, and 
 that they would vindicate themselves to the 
 defeat and shame of any man or party who 
 undertook to trample them beneath their feet. 
 Mr. Lincoln did most thoroughly understand this 
 great truth. He sought footing on those resist- 
 less moral forces, God's laws, and by them, not 
 by his own intellectual powers, was carried for- 
 ward over prostrate opposition to enduring tri- 
 umph. On the contrary, Mr. Douglas, with all 
 his rare intellectual gifts, his wide influence, his
 
 STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS. 77 
 
 oft-repeated political victories, his lite has gone 
 into history as one of disappointment and fail- 
 ure failure which he deeply and bitterly felt 
 during the last few months of his life. 
 
 The history of the past is strewn with such 
 wrecks. Every generation presents examples to 
 prove beyond cavil the fact that HONESTY, TRUTH, 
 JUSTICE, and the other virtues enjoined by the 
 Savior, are absolutely essential to a life that can, 
 in any true sense, be either successful or happy.
 
 78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE PRESIDENTIAL CONTEST. 
 
 the spring of 1860, Mr. Lincoln re- 
 ceived pressing invitations to visit and 
 address the people in New York and 
 New England. He accepted the call, and was 
 heartily welcomed in several Eastern cities. In 
 Cooper Institute, New York city, he delivered 
 his last and perhaps most brilliant political ad- 
 dress as a citizen, and one which, perhaps more 
 than any other event, fixed the hearts of the 
 people upon him as their choice for the next 
 President. 
 
 During his stay in that city, he started out 
 one Sabbath morning alone, and wandered into 
 a mission Sabbath- school. The teacher, in de- 
 scribing the incident, says : " Our Sunday-school 
 in the Five Points was assembled one Sabbath 
 morning, a few months since, when I noticed a 
 tall and remarkable-looking man enter the room
 
 THE FIVE POINTS MISSION. 79 
 
 and take a seat among us. He listened with 
 fixed attention to our exercises, and his counte- 
 nance manifested such genuine interest that I 
 approached him, and suggested that he might be 
 willing to say something to the children. He 
 accepted the invitation with evident pleasure, 
 and, coming forward, began a simple address, 
 which at once fascinated every little hearer and 
 hushed the room to silence. His language was 
 strikingly beautiful, and his tones musical, with 
 intensest feeling. The little faces around would 
 droop into sad conviction as he uttered sentences 
 of warning, and would brighten into sunshine as 
 he spoke cheerful words of promise. Once or 
 twice he attempted to close his remarks, but the 
 imperative shout, i Go on ! ' ' 0, do go on ! ' 
 would compel him to resume. As I looked upon 
 the gaunt and sinewy frame of the stranger, and 
 marked his powerful head and determined fea- 
 tures, now touched into softness by the impres- 
 sions of the moment. I felt an irrepressible curi- 
 osity to know something more about him, and 
 as he was quietly leaving the room, I begged to 
 know his name. He courteously replied, ' It is 
 Abraham Lincoln, from Illinois.' 
 
 On the 16th day of May the Republican Na-
 
 80 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tional Convention met at Chicago, Illinois. The 
 two most prominent candidates were William H. 
 Seward, of New York, and Mr. Lincoln, and 
 great efforts were made by the friends of each 
 to secure the nomination of their candidate. 
 Mr. Seward had thus far in his life been an 
 able, tolerably consistent, and very eloquent 
 friend of freedom. He was recognized as the 
 most accomplished a.nd capable statesman in the 
 Republican ranks ; his friends were, therefore, 
 
 numerous and confident of the result. On the 
 
 . 
 
 first ballot he had nearly double the number of 
 votes that were cast or Mr. Lincoln, but not a 
 majority of all the votes cast. On the second 
 ballot, those who had before cast their ballots 
 for Mr. Chase, Mr. Wade, and others, combined 
 upon Mr. Lincoln, and he was nominated for 
 the Presidency. The result was hailed through- 
 out the whole North with the ^wildest demon- 
 strations of joy. In November he was elected 
 by great majorities in every Northern State, his 
 vote in the electoral college being 180 to 123. 
 
 The slaveholding States had not only antici- 
 pated this result, but did indirectly what they 
 could to secure it, intending to make it a pre- 
 text for rebellion. No sooner was the result
 
 SLAVERY IX ARMS. 81 
 
 announced than the slave States at once began 
 the most vigorous preparations for war. In 
 December South Carolina seceded, and seized 
 upon Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor. Dur- 
 ing January the other States lying upon the 
 Gulf (except Texas, which followed the first day 
 of the next month), seceded, and seized upon 
 the forts and arsenals within their limits ; and 
 on the 9th of February the rebel government 
 was organized at Montgomery, Alabama, by the 
 election of Jefferson Davis as President. War 
 was inevitable, and the weak and corrupt old 
 politician James Buchanan, then President, per- 
 mitted every influence of his high office to be 
 used by his traitorous officials in strengthening 
 the rebel cause and in preparing to overthrow 
 the Government. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln foresaw the tremendous ordeal 
 through which he was called to pass as the Pres- 
 ident of the nation, but calmly awaited, at his 
 home in Springfield, till the time should come 
 when his work was to begin. He had foreseen 
 it clearly before his election, and relied upon 
 the almighty arm of God with implicit confi- 
 dence, and with the humble dependence of a 
 
 little child. In a most serious conversation with 
 6
 
 82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 a friend, a few days before the election took 
 place, he alluded to the fact that many promi- 
 nent ministers of the Gospel and professing 
 Christians of his own town intended to vote for 
 the pro-slavery candidates. "I have carefully 
 read the Bible, and I do not so understand this 
 book," he said, as he drew from his bosom a 
 pocket Testament. " These, men well know that 
 I am for freedom in the territories, for freedom 
 every-where, as far as the Constitution and laws 
 will permit, and that my opponents are for 
 slavery. They know this, and yet, with this 
 book in their hands, in the light of which human 
 bondage can not live for a moment, they are 
 going to vote against me. I do not understand 
 it at all." With cheeks wet with tears, and a 
 trembling voice, he continued: "I know there is 
 a God, and that he hates slavery and injustice. 
 I see the storm coming, and I know that his 
 hand is in it. If he has a place and work for 
 me, and I believe he has, I believe I am ready. 
 I am nothing, but truth and justice are every 
 thing. I know that I am right, because I know 
 that liberty is right ; for Christ teaches it, and 
 Christ is God. I have told them that a house 
 divided against itself can not stand, and Christ
 
 GOD AGAINST SLAVERY. 83 
 
 and reason say the same, and they will find it 
 so. Douglas does not care whether slavery is 
 voted up or down, but God cares, and human- 
 ity cares, and I care ; and with God's help I 
 shall not fail. I may riot see the end, but it 
 will come, and I shall be vindicated ; and these 
 men will find that they have not read their 
 Bibles aright." Pausing a moment, and walk- 
 ing to and fro across the room in silence, he 
 resumed : " A revelation could not make it 
 plainer to me than that slavery or the Govern- 
 ment must be destroyed. The future would be 
 something awful to me but for this rock upon 
 which I stand [holding up the Testament in his 
 hand]. It seems to me that God has borne with 
 this thing [slavery] until the very teachers of 
 religion claim for it a divine sanction and char- 
 acter; and now the cup of iniquity is full and 
 the vials will be poured out." 
 
 In alluding to his secret feeling to this friend, 
 he said : " I think more on these subjects [the 
 providence, protection, and justice of God] than 
 upon all others, and have done so for years." 
 These years of thoughtful contemplation of the 
 justice, faithfulness, and sovereignty of God 
 were not an hour longer than was needed to
 
 84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 establish his mind and prepare him to look 
 calmly and fearlessly into the black future that 
 lay before him. One ray only lit up the gloomy 
 prospect, but that was the light of God. Lin- 
 coln fixed his eyes upon it and stepped forward, 
 " without fear and with a manly heart." * 
 
 The hoarse roar of treason, falsehood, and 
 rage arose from the Atlantic to the Mississippi ; 
 such, in fact, as we may imagine arises from 
 that congregation of evil ones to which God for- 
 ever banishes his implacable enemies and the 
 enemies of mankind. The nations awaited with 
 absorbing interest the impending burst of the 
 tempest. In the midst of it he prepared for his 
 departure for Washington, arid on the llth of 
 February bade good-bye to his home and friends, 
 whom he was never again to visit while living. 
 Addressing them, he said : " My friends, no one 
 not in my position can appreciate the sadness I 
 
 * The question whether Mr. Lincoln was truly a con- 
 verted man at this time has given rise to difference of 
 opinion. His intellectual belief in our Lord Jesus Christ 
 was clear and strong, and his confidence may have been 
 based upon logical conclusions concerning God's attributes 
 and providence, without any experimental knowledge of his 
 saving love. This interesting subject will be more fully 
 discussed in a succeeding chapter.
 
 RELIANCE UPON GOD. 85 
 
 feel at this parting. To this people I owe all 
 that I am. Here have I lived for more than a 
 quarter of a century. Here my children were 
 born, and here one of them lies buried. I know 
 not how soon I shall see you again. A duty 
 devolves upon me which is greater, perhaps, 
 than that which has devolved upon any other 
 man since the days of Washington. He never 
 would have succeeded except for the aid of Di- 
 vine Providence, upon which he at all times 
 relied. I feel that I can not succeed without 
 the same divine aid which sustained him, and 
 on the same almighty Being I place my reliance 
 for support; and I hope you, my friends, will 
 pray that I may receive that divine assistance 
 without which I can not succeed, but with which 
 success is certain. Again I bid you an affec- 
 tionate farewell." 
 
 As he progressed in his journey he was re- 
 ceived with the grandest displays of affection 
 and honor by a nation who felt that, under God, 
 their lives, and liberties, and national existence 
 were in his hands. 
 
 Intense anxiety pervaded the nation to dis- 
 cover the feelings and plans of the new Presi- 
 dent. He was called upon at almost every
 
 86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 station for a speech ; and as he could not 
 prudently divulge any plans he may have enter- 
 tained, or use expressions which might be con- 
 strued to inflame to a greater degree the malig- 
 nant passions of the rising rebels, or otherwise 
 complicate the difficulty, his brief addresses were 
 necessarily tame and unsatisfactory, and calcu- 
 lated to fill the hearts of patriots with anxious 
 forebodings. 
 
 At Philadelphia, as he was about to leave the 
 loyal States and take his journey through a 
 part of the country where slavery prevailed, he 
 learned of the discovery of a conspiracy at Bal- 
 timore to assassinate him. Taking a train the 
 evening before the day on which he was expected 
 in that city, he passed through in safety. 
 
 The aged hero and patriot WINFIELD SCOTT, 
 then Commander-in-chief of the United States 
 Army, was in Washington during the inauspi- 
 cious months between Mr. Lincoln's election 
 and his inauguration. He did all he could to 
 induce the weak and traitorous President, James 
 Buchanan, to prepare the country for the im- 
 pending storm of war, but without avail. On 
 learning the approach of Mr. Lincoln, he gath- 
 ered the few soldiers stationed at Washington,
 
 THE INAUGURATION. 87 
 
 and organized them for the protection of the 
 Government, and arranged with such patriotic 
 citizens as were to be found in the city for 
 volunteer reinforcements, should the emergency 
 require them. Mr. Lincoln, on his arrival, was 
 conducted to a public hotel, and the following 
 day the usual ceremonies of the inauguration 
 proceeded without disturbance. Chief Justice 
 Taney, though very old, still discharged the 
 duties of his high office, and administered the 
 oath to Mr. Lincoln. As he thus legalized the 
 stamp of condemnation which the people had 
 placed upon his wicked decision, his reflections 
 must have been gloomy. He could not but fore- 
 see that his name would go down to posterity 
 inseparably associated with the infamous attempt 
 he had made to destroy justice and establish 
 oppression upon the prostrate rights of man. 
 
 The inaugural was delivered in a clear and 
 distinct tone, touched, at times, with pathos and 
 softened with expostulation. In it the new 
 President exhausted all his powers of reason 
 and persuasion, in an effort to disabuse the minds 
 of the rebels, and bring them peaceably back to 
 their allegiance. His absorbing desire to avert 
 the horrors of war overshadowed every other
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 thought, and he plead with those determined trai- 
 tors as a father would plead with his wayward 
 sons. He concluded by saying: "In your 
 hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and 
 not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
 The Government will not assail you. You can 
 have no conflict without being yourselves the 
 aggressors. You can have no oath registered 
 in heaven to destroy the Government, while I 
 have the most solemn one to ' preserve, protect, 
 and defend' it. 
 
 "I am loth to close. We are not enemies, 
 but friends. We must not be enemies. Though 
 passion may have strained, it must not break 
 the bonds of affection. The mystic cords of 
 memory, stretching from every patriot grave 
 and battle-field to every living heart and hearth- 
 stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the 
 chorus of the Union when touched again, as 
 they surely will be, by the better angels of our 
 nature/" 
 
 These solemn and touching words were re- 
 ceived by the rebels and their friends in Balti- 
 more, Cincinnati, Richmond, Charleston, and 
 elsewhere, with outcries of vituperation and con- 
 temptuous sneers. God had " prepared to pour
 
 PREMATURE EXULTATIOX. 89 
 
 out his vials of wrath." The tongue of an angel 
 could not have softened those traitor hearts. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln proceeded to organize his cabinet 
 and prepare for the trying emergencies which 
 obviously hastened upon him, trusting, however, 
 that some peaceable exit might be found from 
 the difficulties which beset the Government. 
 Meantime the fully-organized "Confederacy" at 
 Montgomery used every exertion to concentrate 
 and strengthen their cause, and to make their 
 first intended blow fatal to the Government. 
 Their newspapers and orators were full of boast- 
 ing and intimidation. They sang the triumph- 
 ant songs of victory before the battle began, and 
 gloated in imagination over the prostrate land 
 of liberty : 
 
 "In dreams through camp and court they bore 
 The trophies of the conqueror." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln and the loyal Christian peo- 
 ple of the land labored and prayed as Ameri- 
 cans never labored and prayed before. On the 
 17th of April the storm burst on Sumter, envel- 
 oping that fortress in a shower of bombs and 
 wrapping it in consuming fire. 
 
 We have now arrived at a period in the life
 
 90 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 of Abraham Lincoln where the grandest events 
 crowded thick and fast upon him and upon the 
 country. To write his life as it transpired dur- 
 ing the succeeding four years, would be to write 
 the history of the greatest civil war ever waged 
 upon the globe. And were such a task within 
 the capacity of this volume, or of the writer, it 
 would be wholly beyond the object sought in this 
 biography. Let us trace only such incidents as 
 more directly illustrate his character and the 
 principles by which he was actuated.
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 91 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE CALL TO ARMS. 
 
 |;P HE news of the bombardment of Sumter 
 flew on the wings of the lightning to 
 every hamlet and home in our broad 
 Union, and instantly patriotic millions sprang to 
 their feet, looking eagerly to Mr. Lincoln, and 
 ready for his word of command. He hastily 
 drew up his proclamation for seventy-five thou- 
 sand men, a number which, in the light of later 
 events, appears strangely inadequate to the task 
 before them. Mr. Douglas, the life-long politi- 
 cal antagonist of Mr. Lincoln, and the cham- 
 pion of this very power now in arms, could not 
 resist the appeal. On the evening before it was 
 issued, he visited Mr. Lincoln at his private 
 apartments, listened to the proclamation, and 
 gave it his hearty approval, except in the num- 
 ber of men called to arms, which he recom-
 
 92 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 mended should be made at least two hundred 
 thousand. The two former rivals and contest- 
 ants sat in earnest consultation, Mr. Lincoln 
 listening with gratified and eager interest to the 
 advice which Mr. Douglas, from his intimate 
 acquaintance with the leaders in his great con- 
 spiracy prepared him well to give. They parted, 
 and with the President's call, the next morning, 
 went the cheering intelligence that Lincoln and 
 Douglas were standing side by side and shoulder 
 to shoulder in the support of the Government. 
 This was almost the last, and was the most hon- 
 orable act, of Mr. Douglas's life. Within a few 
 weeks he returned on a visit to his home in 
 Illinois, where he became sick and died. 
 
 With the answering thousands to Mr. Lincoln's 
 proclamation came cares and duties to his office 
 more arduous and wearing than had ever crowded 
 upon any former Chief Magistrate. Where 
 hundreds were expected, thousands flew to the 
 rescue of the imperiled Government. These 
 raw volunteers had to be armed, clothed, organ- 
 ized, and led. The civil officers, to a great ex- 
 tent, were filled with traitors ; these had to be 
 removed and true men appointed. The vast 
 army rising quickly, almost as a vision, must be
 
 ARDUOUS LABORS. 93 
 
 officered ; and for the vacancies in these two 
 departments came thousands of applicants, who 
 beset Mr. Lincoln by night and by day, and he 
 gave audience and a word to all who could crowd 
 into his presence. The rebels were powerful in 
 numbers, and led by men of surpassing ability. 
 The Democratic party of the North was suspi- 
 cious of their late political antagonists, and had 
 to be managed with caution and profound states- 
 manship. The governments of Europe, with the 
 single exception of the Emperor of Russia, were 
 delighted at the prospective downfall of free 
 government, and sought opportunity and pretext 
 to take part in its destruction and share in its 
 spoils. A navy had to be built, arms provided, 
 and, in fact, every thing necessary to convert a 
 peaceable, unarmed nation into a vast military 
 power was to be done, and done quickly. To 
 accomplish all this, a sum of money was to be 
 provided and expended, in comparison with 
 which the revenues and wealth of King Solomon 
 were but a pittance. Such was the task which 
 fell upon Mr. Lincoln, and ipon men laboring 
 under his authority. He earned with him into 
 his labors not only a hopeful heart, but a con- 
 stitution of iron strength and endurance. Both
 
 94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 were needed, and both were taxed to the utmost 
 by these diversified and urgent cares. 
 
 The first battles of the war resulted disas- 
 trously to the Union armies. After vast prep- 
 arations, and with confident hopes of victory, 
 the first battle was fought at Bull Run, resulting 
 in a most disgraceful defeat and rout of the 
 Union troops, who fled frantically back upon 
 Washington. Under this and the great disasters 
 which afterward occurred, Mr. Lincoln bore up 
 with unfailing faith in his cause and confidence 
 in its success. When the tide turned, and vic- 
 tory followed victory in resplendent succession, 
 he did not suffer himself to be unduly exalted 
 or jubilant. Hopeful in disaster, humble in 
 triumph, laborious at all times, he worked out 
 the mission appointed for him of God.
 
 LINCOLN AND SLAVERY. 95 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 MR. LINCOLN AND SLAVERY. 
 
 URING the first year and a half of the 
 war, the policy of the Government was 
 to conciliate the pro-slavery element 
 both North and South. Mr. Lincoln was care- 
 ful to show that he respected the rights guaran- 
 teed to slavery by the Constitution. Pro-slavery 
 generals were placed in command. McDowell, 
 Patterson, McClellan, Buell, and others an- 
 nounced that they would not only respect prop- 
 erty in slaves, but assist in putting down an in- 
 surrection of slaves against the rebels I Rebels' 
 horses and corn were to be confiscated, while 
 they were to be aided in retaining their bond 
 men. Slaveholders impudently entered the Union 
 armies to search for their lost human chattels. 
 The Hutchinson Family of minstrels volunteered 
 to cheer the soldiers in the Army of the Poto-
 
 96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 mac with their heart-easing songs. One of these, 
 by the patriot poet Whittier, was as follows : 
 
 What gives the wheat-fields blades of steel ? 
 
 What points the rebel cannon? 
 What sets the roaring rabble's heel 
 On the old Star-Spangled pennon ? 
 What breaks the oath 
 Of the men o' the South ? 
 W^hat whets the knife 
 For the Union's life? 
 Hark to the answer : SLAVERY ! 
 
 Then waste no blows on lesser foes 
 
 In strife unworthy freemen; 
 God lifts the veil to-day and shows 
 The features of the demon ! 
 0, North and South, 
 Its victims both, 
 Can ye not cry, 
 Let slavery die, 
 And Union find in freedom ? 
 
 W r hat though the cast-out spirit tear 
 
 The nation in his going? 
 We who have shared his guilt must share 
 The pangs of his o'erthrowing. 
 Whate'er the loss, 
 Whate'er the cross, 
 Shall they complain 
 Of present pain 
 Who trust in God's hereafter?
 
 LINCOLN AND SLAVERY. 97 
 
 For giving voice to these beautiful and heroic 
 lines, General McClellan ordered the Hutchin- 
 sons to be expelled at once from the army, and 
 it was done. The liberty-loving people were in- 
 dignant and clamorous. General Butler eluded 
 the pro-slavery influence by declaring the slaves 
 contraband of war, and, therefore, liable to con- 
 fiscation confiscation, of course, meaning eman- 
 cipation. Generals Hunter and Fremont broke 
 over the restraint and issued emancipating proc- 
 lamations of their own, and were both removed 
 from command for so doing. But as defeat -fol- 
 lowed defeat, and disaster trod upon the bloody 
 heels of disaster, the cry came forth, " LET MY 
 PEOPLE GO ! ' To every just mind the alterna- 
 tive was riot only obvious but the result near at 
 hand justice or total national destruction. A 
 year and a half was spent in this useless strife 
 against God and the rebels, when the Proclama- 
 tion of Emancipation sounded clear and strong 
 over the nation. Then the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness broke upon the land in victory and justice. 
 
 How shall the sincerity and integrity of Mr. 
 Lincoln's character be reconciled with his toler- 
 ance of such a course on the part of his sub- 
 alterns ? He was one of the first American 
 7
 
 98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 statesmen to announce that there was an irre- 
 pressible mortal conflict between slavery and 
 freedom one or the other must perish. As we 
 have seen, before his election he had declared, 
 with tearful earnestness, " God cares, and hu- 
 manity cares, and / care, and with God's help 
 I shall not fail." On his journey to Washing- 
 ton to assume the Presidency, in his speech 
 delivered at Philadelphia, alluding to the prin- 
 ciple of the Declaration of Independence, he 
 said : " If this country can not be saved without 
 giving up that principle, I would rather be as- 
 sassinated on the spot than to surrender it." 
 " I have said nothing but what I am willing to 
 live by, and, in the pleasure of Almighty God, to 
 die by" He had from childhood hated and 
 fought against oppression ; and now that slavery 
 had lifted its knife against the heart of the 
 nation, this double crime must have intensified 
 his hatred of it, as it did the abhorrence of 
 every just man in the civilized world. The facts 
 will show that Mr. Lincoln did not design that 
 slavery should live ; that he did not renounce 
 for an hour his conviction, long before expressed, 
 that slavery or liberty must perish, utterly and 
 forever, from the country.
 
 LINCOLN AND SLAVERY. 99 
 
 He found, in looking about for the means to 
 resist and destroy the rebellion, that the utmost 
 prudence and caution would be requisite to unite 
 the remaining strength of the nation against it. 
 The great Democratic party was, as such, pro- 
 slavery a large part of it so much so as to side 
 with and strive, by any means in their power, 
 to secure the triumph of the rebellion. The 
 Republican party, which had elected him, were 
 but half-hearted in their opposition to it. Had 
 he issued his Proclamation of Emancipation any 
 time during the year 1861, the Democrats -would 
 have almost unanimously refused further part in 
 the struggle, unless to go in a body to the other 
 side. The border States, then fully half for the 
 Government, would have become as intensely 
 rebellious as South Carolina. So powerful was 
 the pro-slavery influence, even in the party or- 
 ganized to oppose it, that the Republican jour- 
 nals and leaders, during the first eighteen months 
 of the war, indignantly denied that the abolition 
 of slavery formed any part of their motives for 
 prosecuting hostilities ; and had the rebels, at 
 any moment during that time, signified their 
 willingness to return to the Union with slavery 
 unimpaired, public opinion, in all parties, would
 
 100 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 have compelled the Government to receive 
 them. To have adopted radical measures against 
 slavery in rebellion before the public mind was 
 educated to the necessity of so doing, would 
 have proved destructive of the cause of emanci- 
 pation and of the Republic itself. Just and wise 
 men, who clearly saw the end of the struggle 
 from the beginning and confidently predicted 
 the destruction of slavery, were alarmed at the 
 possibility that Mr. Lincoln, after all, might 
 yield to temporizing expediency and betray the 
 cause of justice, and by betraying, indefinitely 
 delay it; but their fears were groundless. It 
 was acknowledged by those very men that Mr. 
 Lincoln's course was the best course by which 
 the result, so long and so earnestly desired 
 and prayed for, could have been accomplished. 
 God's hand directed the cause of emancipation, 
 and when the hour of destiny came, Abraham 
 Lincoln, with a willing hand, struck the fatal 
 blow ; and the death struggles of that mightiest 
 
 svstem of wickedness that the world ever saw 
 
 / 
 
 was visible to all beholders. Mr. Lincoln's 
 policy was not dilatory, not temporizing, but 
 wisely patient in abiding the propitious moment. 
 When the proclamation was directed against the
 
 LINCOLN AND SLAVERY. 101 
 
 institution it did not fall short, as feebly hurled 
 by the arm of one man, but went crashing to 
 the heart of the mail-clad monster, driven by 
 the mighty power of a united and an indignant 
 nation.* 
 
 In a conversation with George Thompson, the 
 distinguished English abolitionist, Mr. Lincoln 
 thus expressed himself: "It is my conviction 
 that had the Proclamation [of Emancipation] 
 been issued even six months earlier than it was, 
 public sentiment would not have sustained it. 
 Just so as to the subsequent enlistment of the 
 blacks in the border States. The step, taken 
 sooner, could not, in my judgment, have been 
 carried out. A man watches his pear-tree, day 
 after day, impatient for the ripening of the fruit. 
 Let him attempt to force the process, and he 
 may spoil both fruit and tree. But let him pa- 
 
 * In a conversation with a committee of clergj'men from 
 Chicago, after he had his proclamation written, they not 
 knowing his intentions, urged the necessity of liberating 
 the slaves, Mr. Lincoln said: "I do not want to issue a 
 document that all the world will see must necessarily be 
 inoperative, like the Pope's bull against the comet," add- 
 ing, " Whatever shall appear to be God's will, that I will 
 do."
 
 102 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tiently wait, and the ripe pear at length falls 
 into his lap. I can now solemnly assert that I 
 have a clear conscience in regard to my action 
 on this momentous question." 
 
 Who can doubt this? And yet it must be 
 admitted that the delay was unnecessarily pro- 
 tracted. The people were in advance of their 
 honest, true-hearted Lincoln. The pear was 
 ripe before it fell.
 
 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 103 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 
 
 most Beautiful moral specta- 
 cles to be found upon earth is that of a 
 Christian wife and mother. He'r heart 
 softened in a Savior's love, her faith reaching be- 
 yond the valley, her gentle hand leading the little 
 ones to the God who gave them, adding sweet- 
 ness to childish joy, soothing childish sorrow, 
 enshrined in a husband's love, she is the cen- 
 tral object of all that is purest and sweetest in 
 human society. She gathers to herself the 
 deepest and strongest aifections of the human 
 heart. Even the hardened and the depraved, 
 the lost to every other noble emotion are hushed 
 into respect in her presence. Her influence, 
 strong in life, grows stronger when her quiet 
 hands lie moldering in the grave. We cherish 
 the memory of her loving life, her words,
 
 104 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 assiduous affection, her advice and instruction, 
 as we do no other treasures that lie within the 
 grasp of the mind. How often have those who 
 resisted her influence while she yet lived, and 
 rushed madly down the broad track to destruc- 
 tion, been arrested in their career by a mother 
 who long since passed away and has been for- 
 gotten by the world ! 
 
 As no position can be more elevated and hon- 
 orable, so none entails responsibilities more pro- 
 found. The Bible impresses this truth with 
 great clearness, and history continues to verify 
 it in ever-recurring pages. Lincoln's mother 
 had been called to her rest when her little son 
 was scarcely ten years old, and yet his charac- 
 ter was formed and his course in life fixed and 
 bounded. He left her hand true to his destiny 
 as the arrow from the hand of the trusty archer. 
 Almost unseen and unknown in that isolated 
 cabin, she clothed his arm with those mighty 
 principles of Christian truth with which she 
 smote the chains from millions of slaves and 
 rescued an imperiled country. And thus, could 
 we trace to their origin the great and noble deeds 
 which here and there light up the history of our 
 race, nearly all would be found due to impres-
 
 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 105 
 
 sions received in childhood. Nancy Lincoln 
 knew nothing of profound ethical or political 
 principles. The history and science which lay 
 outside of the lids of her Bible were in regions 
 of thought where she had never trod; and yet as 
 a Christian she possessed knowledge and moral 
 power for good greater than the learning of the 
 universities could, without this knowledge, afford. 
 
 The Bible is so replete with precious promises 
 to Christian parents, and these promises are so 
 often, against apparent probabilities, fulfilled, that 
 the truly faithful parent may lay hold of them 
 with perfect assurance. It is even a cause for 
 hope when the object of these prayers and labors 
 has passed to his account. 
 
 It has been said that if Lincoln's life and char- 
 acter do not furnish evidence that he was a 
 Christian, we may look in vain for such evi- 
 dences anywhere among men. Secretary Sew- 
 ard said : " He is the best man I ever knew." 
 Dr. Bellows, who knew him intimately, said : 
 "He is the purest-hearted man I ever knew." 
 The people know him to have been marked with 
 more humility than any man they ever elected 
 to high office. No man since Cromwell (and we 
 doubt the justice of excepting him) so entirely
 
 106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 distrusted his own ability to meet future emer- 
 gencies, or so wholly disclaimed the glory of past 
 triumphs by referring all to the beneficent power 
 and providence of God. " I should be the most 
 presumptuous blockhead upon this footstool," he 
 once said, " if I for one day thought that I could 
 discharge the duties which have come upon me 
 since I came to this place, without the aid and 
 enlightenment of One who is stronger and wiser 
 than all others." 
 
 And yet had he glided quietly down the stream 
 of life, he would have been regarded as a man 
 full of generous virtues, of high-toned and inflex- 
 ible morality, but not a Christian. It required 
 the tremendous ordeal through which he passed, 
 like the refiner's fire, to consume the dross and 
 bring forth the fine gold. It is possible to be 
 very near the kingdom of God, and yet lack one 
 thing needful. If he had truly consecrated him- 
 self to the Lord Jesus before that trial of his 
 faith came, the probabilities are strong that he 
 would have openly and publicly professed his 
 name and acknowledged his claims. The Savior 
 has made it a duty to unite with his visible 
 church. Greater duties than that may be vio- 
 lated by a man who is truly a disciple of Christ,
 
 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 107 
 
 and yet it is not the neglect of duty alone in 
 this particular which gives it its weight in de- 
 termining Christian character. The fellowship 
 of the saints is the natural element of the con- 
 verted man. He is impelled by his wants and 
 desires, to seek their companionship and commun- 
 ion. When the man's heart is warmed by the 
 love of Jesus, he wants every other man to love 
 Jesus, and will do all he can to impart his joy to 
 others. He thirsts for more light and knowledge 
 on this absorbing interest, and hears with avidity 
 the Christian experience of Christian people. 
 
 Nothing of all this is seen in Lincoln's life 
 until shortly before his first election to the Pres- 
 idency. With a grasp of intellect which our 
 ablest statesmen do not seem to have possessed, 
 he had seized upon the character of slavery, the 
 relations it bore to the will and attributes of 
 Almighty God, the immense power in which it 
 was intrenched, and from these facts and the 
 signs of the times was convinced that the tre- 
 mendous contest was near at hand. He knew 
 intellectually that " our God is a mighty tower," 
 and then, as we believe, and as he himself 
 thought, it was that he first earnestly desired 
 security within its impregnable \valls.
 
 108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 It may be asked, How could a man think 
 more upon the subjects of God's justice and 
 providence, and the desirableness of faith in 
 Christ than upon all others for years, and yet 
 have no love for God? What hidden motive 
 would impel him to carry the Testament, in his 
 bosom, and how could he truly describe it as 
 his rock without having felt its shadows above 
 his head and its firm footing beneath his feet ? 
 Does any man habitually for years employ a 
 large proportion of his thoughts upon God's 
 perfections and providence unless he loves God ? 
 We may not know that dividing line which is 
 known only to the Father of spirits ; yet " no 
 man lighteth a candle and putteth it under a 
 bushel." "My sheep hear my voice, and they 
 know me and they follow me. He that confess- 
 eth me before men him will I confess before my 
 Father." God knows our time and our future, 
 and in his own good time and way brings his 
 saints into his kingdom. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln once asked a lady connected with 
 the Christian Commission for her idea of true 
 
 Christian experience. " Mrs. ," said he, 
 
 " I have formed a high opinion of your Chris- 
 tian character, and now, as we are alone, I wish
 
 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. 109 
 
 you, in brief, to give me your idea of what con- 
 stitutes a true religious experience." The lady 
 replied that, in her judgment, "it consisted of a 
 conviction of one's own sinfulness and weakness, 
 and personal need of the Savior for strength and 
 support ; and that when one was brought to feel 
 his need of Divine help, and to seek daily the 
 aid of the Holy Spirit for strength and guidance, 
 it was satisfactory evidence of his having been 
 born again." Mr. Lincoln replied, earnestly : 
 " If this is really a correct view of this great 
 subject, I think I can say, with sincerity, that 
 I hope I am a Christian. * * I think I can 
 safely say that I know something of that change 
 of which you speak ; and I will further add, 
 that it has been my intention for some time, at 
 a suitable opportunity, to make a public relig- 
 ious profession." 
 
 Afterward, referring to a change of heart, he 
 said he could not mention any particular period 
 when he experienced such a change, except so 
 far that he thought it became manifest to him at 
 the period of his first election to the Presidency, 
 and that in the crisis immediately following, his 
 mind became more confident and fixed upon this 
 subject.
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 \ 
 
 In a conversation with Hon. H. C. Deming, 
 of Connecticut, he said : " I have not united 
 myself to any church, because I have found 
 difficulty in giving my assent, without mental 
 reservation, to the long-complicated statements 
 of Christian doctrine which characterize their 
 articles of belief and confessions of faith. When 
 any church will inscribe over its altar the Sav- 
 ior's condensed statement of both law and gos- 
 pel, i Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
 thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
 mind, and thy neighbor as thyself/ that church 
 will I join with all my heart and with all my 
 soul." 
 
 A clergyman, who, if his expression correctly 
 indicated his feelings, must have been a doubt- 
 ing Thomas, once remarked to Lincoln that he 
 " hoped the Lord was on our side in this con- 
 test." The reply was as characteristic as it 
 was epigrammatic and noble : " I am not at all 
 concerned about that," said he, " for I know the 
 Lord is always on the side of the right ; but it is 
 my constant prayer and anxiety that I and this 
 nation should be on the Lord's side." That sen- 
 tence contains the kernel and essence of all true 
 statesmanship.
 
 HIS RELIGIOUS CHARACTER. Ill 
 
 Let us trace Mr. Lincoln's Christian character 
 by the light of other events. Armies, both as 
 such and as individuals, have always been prone 
 to disregard the obligations of the Sabbath. 
 This gave Mr. Lincoln great pain. So much 
 was his feelings enlisted by the wanton viola- 
 tions of the Lord's day, that on the 16th of 
 November, 1863, he issued a circular, saying: 
 " The importance for man and beast of the pre- 
 scribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Chris- 
 tian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference 
 to the best sentiment of a Christian people, and 
 a due regard for the Divine will, demand that 
 Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced 
 to the measure of strict necessity. * * The dis- 
 cipline of the national forces should not suffer, 
 nor the cause they defend be imperiled, by the 
 profanation of the name or the day of the Most 
 High." We need not allude to the joyous proc- 
 lamations of thanksgiving sounded forth by him 
 at various times when God gave us victory, be- 
 cause the rebel chief blasphemously sought, by 
 similar proclamations, to implicate God in his 
 burnings and butcheries for the establishment of 
 slavery ; and we have, within a brief period after 
 his departure, heard devout proclamations from
 
 112 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 lips foul with falsehood and odorous from the 
 carousal; but we know that from him they were 
 the outburst of emotion from a sincerely-thank- 
 ful heart. 
 
 When the great battle of Stone River was in 
 progress, Mr. Lincoln was informed of it, and 
 became so anxious that he could not eat. A 
 lady friend told him that he must trust in God, 
 and at least could pray. " Yes," he said, " I 
 can,'* and, taking up his Bible, left the room. 
 The news of the rout of Bragg soon followed, 
 and Lincoln came in, exclaiming, " Good news ! 
 Good news ! The victory is ours, and God is 
 good." " Nothing like praying," said the lady. 
 " Yes, there is," said Lincoln " PRAISE prayer, 
 and praise." 
 
 In February, 1862, he lost a little son, in 
 whose life his affections were bound up by the 
 tenderest ties of parental love little WILLIE. 
 His loss afflicted Mr. Lincoln deeply. A Chris- 
 tian lady told him the people were praying for 
 him. "I am glad to hear that," he said; "I 
 want them to pray for me ; I need their prayers;' 
 and added, " I will try to go to God with my 
 sorrows." Afterward he said : " I think I can 
 trust in God; I wish I had that childlike faith
 
 A RELIGIOUS REBEL. 113 
 
 you speak of, and I think God will give it to 
 me." What language could be more childlike 
 in faith than this ? 
 
 We select illustrations without regard to 
 chronological order. A few members of the 
 Christian Commission, in whose labors he took 
 unflagging interest, in conversing with him one 
 day, referred to the trust they could repose in 
 God's providence. Mr. Lincoln replied : " If it 
 were not for my firm belief in an overruling 
 Providence, it w r ould be difficult for me, in such 
 a complication of affairs, to keep my reason on 
 its seat. But I ain confident that the Almighty 
 has his plans and will work them out. * * I 
 have always taken counsel of him, and referred 
 to him my plans, and have never adopted a 
 course of proceeding without being assured, as 
 far as I could be, of his approbation." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln had a supreme contempt for hy- 
 pocrisy in religion, and many were the times, in 
 his professional career as a lawyer and a poli- 
 tician, that he subjected it to his merciless ridi- 
 cule. Of this we give a single illustration. The 
 wife of a rebel officer, imprisoned on Johnson's 
 Island, beset him for his release, alledging that 
 her husband was a " very religious man ! ' Mr. 
 8
 
 114 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 Lincoln could not but be touched with the ridic- 
 ulous nature of this appeal, and said : " Tell him 
 that, in my opinion, the religion that sets men 
 to fight and rebel against their Government be- 
 cause, as they think, that Government does not 
 sufficiently help them to eat their bread in the 
 sweat of other men's faces, is not the sort of re- 
 ligion upon which men can get to heaven." 
 
 We may farther trace the religious tendencies 
 and character of Lincoln's mind by his literary 
 preferences. In a conversation with Mr. F. B. 
 Carpenter,* the artist, he remarked : " There are 
 some quaint, queer verses, written, I think, by 
 Oliver W. Holmes, entitled ' The Last Leaf,' one 
 of which is to me inexpressibly touching ; it is this : 
 
 "The mossy marbles rest 
 On the lips that he has pressed 
 
 In their bloom, 
 
 And the names he loved to hear 
 Have been carved for many a year 
 
 On the tombl" 
 
 * Mr. Carpenter was employed, for a period of six months, 
 in producing his great picture, " The First Reading of the 
 Emancipation Proclamation," during which time he was on 
 intimate relations with Lincoln. He has since produced a 
 book of extraordinary interest, "Six Months at the White 
 House," to which we are indebted for the above, and also for 
 some incidents hereinafter related.
 
 HIS FAVORITE POEM. 115 
 
 " For pure pathos," said he, " there is noth- 
 ing finer than these six lines in the English 
 language." 
 
 His " favorite poem," now so widely known, 
 he clipped from the columns of a newspaper 
 while a young man, and by frequent readings 
 came to know it by heart. It was written by 
 William Knox, a young man who died in Edin- 
 burgh, Scotland, in 1825. This poem Mr. Lin- 
 coln recited to friends at various times. It is 
 as follows : 
 
 WHY SHOULD THE SPIRIT OF MORTAL BE PROUD? 
 
 O, why should the spirit of mortal be proud? 
 Like a swift-flying meteor, fast-flying cloud, 
 A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave, 
 He passes from life to his rest in his grave. 
 
 The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade, 
 
 Be scattered abroad and together be laid, 
 
 And the young and the old, and the low and the high, 
 
 Shall molder to dust, and together shall lie. 
 
 The infant a mother attended and loved, 
 The mother that infant's affection who proved, 
 The husband that mother and infant who blessed, 
 Each, all are away to their dwelling of rest. 
 
 The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye 
 Shone beauty and pleasure, her triumphs are by;
 
 116 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 And the memory of those who loved her and praised 
 Are alike from the minds of the living erased. 
 
 The hand of the king that the scepter hath borne, 
 The brow of the priest that the miter hath worn, 
 The eye of the sage and the heart of the brave, 
 Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave. 
 
 The peasant whose lot was to sow and to reap, 
 The herdsman who climbed with his goats up the steep, 
 The beggar who wandered in search of his bread, 
 Have faded away like the grass that we tread. 
 
 The saint who enjoyed the communion of heaven, 
 The sinner who dared to remain unforgiven, 
 The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just, 
 Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust. 
 
 So the multitude go, like the flower or the weed 
 That withers away to let others succeed : 
 So the multitude come, even there we behold, 
 To respect every tale that has often been told. 
 
 For we are the same that our fathers have been; 
 We see the same sights that our fathers have seen; 
 We drink the same stream, we view the same s.un, 
 And run the same course our fathers have run. 
 
 The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think; 
 From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would 
 
 shrink ; 
 
 To the life we are clinging, they also would cling, 
 But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing.
 
 NEVER READ A NOVEL. 117 
 
 They loved but the story we can not unfold; 
 They scorned but the heart of the haughty is cold ; 
 They grieved but no wail from their slumber will come; 
 They joyed but the tongue of their gladness is dumb. 
 
 They died ah, they died ! We things that are now, 
 That walk on the turf that lies over their brow, 
 And make in their dwellings a transient abode, 
 Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road. 
 
 Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain, 
 Are mingled together in sunshine and rain, 
 And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge, 
 Still follow each other, like surge upon surge. 
 
 'Tis the wink of an eye, 'tis the draught of a breath, 
 From the blossom of health to the paleness of death, 
 From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud 
 O, why should the spirit of mortal be proud ! 
 
 Mr. Lincoln never read a novel. He said he 
 once began to read "Ivanhoe," but cast it aside. 
 A single one of those books of delusive dreams 
 might have, in early life, tempted his mind from 
 the difficult facts and problems of life, and led 
 him to waste his energies in regions of idle im- 
 agination and sickly fancy. 
 
 While he probably had no fear of becoming a 
 drunkard, he was careful not to take the first 
 step in that direction, being a temperate man in
 
 118 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 the only true sense of that term, total absti- 
 nence. 
 
 The prevalence of drinking habits in high 
 places at Washington are well known. Every 
 office, from that of President to the lowest, has 
 at one time or another been disgraced by an 
 incumbent possessed with the ruinous and. de- 
 grading vice. Mr. Lincoln was, in consequence, 
 often pressed to take a " social glass," but al- 
 ways refused. The Religious Telescope, pub- 
 lished at Dayton, Ohio, in its issue of June 
 19th, 1867, relates the following, which may 
 serve as an example of many similar incidents 
 which might be related : 
 
 " Mr. Lincoln is well known to have been a 
 man of rigid temperance principles. A circum- 
 stance illustrating his habits in this respect is 
 worthy of repetition here. During his first 
 presidential campaign he made a speech in the 
 city of Dayton. A prominent citizen invited 
 him to drink before speaking, that he might have 
 the benefit of a warmer circulation. He declined 
 the proffered courtesy, saying, 'I never drink, 
 sir.' He then added : ' You remember that 
 Douglas and I stumped Illinois together. He
 
 "I NEVER DRINK." 119 
 
 drank every day, and I didn't drink at all. He 
 broke down, and I didn't.' 
 
 He might personally have been safe in making 
 concessions to the drinking usages of the times, 
 but he felt that he had no right to endanger the 
 bodies and souls of others by such an example. 
 It was his duty, as it is the duty of every young 
 man, to manifest his independence and manhood 
 by standing upon principle, and yielding not an 
 iota to usages and customs and such claims of 
 etiquette as require him to do wrong. The 
 drinking-cup, the social game of cards, the 
 billiard-table, the lottery he who yields to such 
 amusements unmans and degrades himself to 
 that extent. We are proud of our political 
 liberties. Let us be equally jealous of any 
 weakness on our own part, or influence upon us 
 by others, that may render us the weak, con- 
 temptible, unmanly slaves of vice.
 
 120 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 INSTANCES OF PATIENCE. 
 
 v 
 
 ROB ABLY no man of prominence in 
 modern times possessed, in such an em- 
 inent degree, the power of self-control 
 as Mr. Lincoln. In some persons, evenness of 
 temper arises from insensibility or indifference. 
 The slings and arrows which goad other men to 
 passion or grief rebound harmlessly from their in- 
 sensate armor, not attracting serious notice. In 
 such persons forbearance is not a virtue, because 
 it does not arise from principle but from a want 
 of feeling. Mr. Lincoln was, as we have seen, 
 sensitive, and susceptible both to pleasure and 
 pain ; yet he was rarely, if ever, provoked to 
 personal recrimination or revenge. 
 
 It is probable that the severest, because most 
 protracted, test of his patience and forbearance 
 arose from his relations with General McGlellan. 
 Without wishing unnecessarily to discuss this
 
 GENERAL M'CLELLAN. 121 
 
 general's character, it is sufficient to say that lie 
 was pro-slavery in his political opinions, and 
 held his military skill and his statesmanship in 
 much higher estimation than his countrymen 
 have since done. Delaying for weary months, 
 at the head of the finest army in the world, in 
 supine inaction, he treated Mr. Lincoln's urgent 
 appeals for vigorous effort with contempt and 
 often with insolence. When his army was wast- 
 ing in his ill-fated peninsular campaign, he busied 
 himself in writing pretentious instructions to the 
 President in regard to his proper policy ; all of 
 which he knew to be contrary to the views of 
 the Cabinet, and which, had they been complied 
 with, would have proved as disastrous to the 
 country as his own military management was 
 to his army. Reaching the climax of insolent 
 effrontery, he wrote a letter charging the Pres- 
 ident with conspiring to destroy the army of 
 which he was commander. Any other Com- 
 mander-in-chief would have instantly ordered 
 his removal and trial by court-martial. Lincoln 
 sought only that in McClellan's course which he 
 could commend, wrote to him frequently the 
 most encouraging letters, deferred against his 
 own judgment to McClellan's so-called "strat-
 
 122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 egy,'' and only removed him when convinced, as 
 the country had long previously been, of his un- 
 fitness for the command. After McClellan's re- 
 moval, Lincoln expressed his desire to find some 
 post for him, where whatever engineering ability 
 he might possess could be employed. 
 
 General McClellan was nominated by the pro- 
 slavery party, in 1864, in opposition to Mr. 
 Lincoln. The result was Lincoln's overwhelm- 
 ing triumph before the people. One would sup- 
 pose it impossible for him to achieve this triumph, 
 over one who had so denounced him, without ex- 
 ultation. When a delegation of friends called 
 upon to congratulate him, he said: 
 
 "I am thankful to God for this approval of 
 the people. But, while deeply grateful for this 
 mark of confidence in me, if I know my heart, 
 my gratitude is free from any taint of personal 
 triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any 
 one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to 
 triumph over any one, but I give thanks to Al- 
 mighty God for this evidence of the people's 
 resolution to stand by the Government and the 
 rights of humanity." 
 
 The re-nomination of Mr. Lincoln for the 
 Presidency in 1864 called forth a storm of abuse
 
 WITH MALICE TOWARD NONE. 123 
 
 and calumny such as had fallen upon the good 
 name of no previous candidate. He was con- 
 stantly and habitually referred to by his oppo- 
 nents as the " tyrant," the " widow-maker," 
 "butcher," "beast," "baboon," and "monster." 
 He was described as avaricious, blood-thirsty, 
 and cruel ; and every effort was made to con- 
 vince the people that his efforts to destroy the 
 rebellion were, in reality, made to supplant re- 
 publican institutions by a monarchy, with him- 
 self as the autocrat. These false accusations 
 and vile epithets were intended to destroy con- 
 fidence in the Union cause, and to weaken and 
 defeat the Union armies. But Mr. Lincoln 
 never noticed them, in word or deed, nor har- 
 bored a thought of retaliation or revenge. 
 
 In full view of all these attempted injuries to 
 himself, with all the malice, treachery, cruelty, 
 and unexampled barbarity of the rebellion, amid 
 the exasperating and hardening circumstances 
 of fierce civil war, his second inaugural sin- 
 cerely expressed the emotions of his heart : 
 " With malice toward none, with charity for all, 
 with firmness for the right, as God gives us to 
 see the right, let us strive on to finish the work 
 we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds ; to
 
 124 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 care for him who shall have borne the battle, 
 and for his widow and his orphan ; to do all 
 which may achieve and cherish a just and 
 lasting peace among ourselves and with all 
 nations." 
 
 The point of character in which he was sup- 
 posed to be most deficient was that of firmness 
 in the administration of penal justice. That he 
 erred on the side of clemency is probably true, 
 and yet that there was any of that contemptible 
 mawkish sympathy for atrocious criminals, when 
 brought to justice, which of late so paralyzes 
 the defensive arm of the law, is not true. While 
 he could remain calm and unruffled under the 
 most exasperating abuse and injury of himself, 
 injustice and villainy inflicted upon others inva- 
 riably aroused his indignation not a mere ebul- 
 lition of feeling, but the hostility which mani- 
 fests itself in deeds. During his administration 
 we had none of the wholesale pardons of coun- 
 terfeiters, and murderers, and traitors which 
 indifference to crime prompted in his immediate 
 successor. On the contrary, no gross or sordid 
 crime escaped the appropriate penalty, during 
 his administration, through any culpable tender- 
 ness on his part.
 
 THE SLAVE-TRADER. 125 
 
 A slave-trader who had been sentenced to five 
 years' imprisonment in the penitentiary of Mas- 
 sachusetts, and a fine of one thousand dollars, 
 had served his full time in the state-prison, but 
 could not pay his fine so as to obtain release. 
 A very strong appeal was made on his behalf 
 by some respectable, namby-pamby people of 
 that State. Mr. Lincoln read the document, 
 and then said to the messenger : " My friend, 
 that is very touching. You know my weakness 
 is to be, if possible, too easily moved by appeals 
 for mercy, and if this man were guilty of the 
 foulest murder, I might forgive him on such an 
 appeal; but the man who could go to Africa 
 and rob her of her children, and sell them into 
 interminable bondage, with no other motive than 
 that which is furnished by dollars and cents, is 
 so much worse than the most depraved mur- 
 derer, that he can never receive pardon at my 
 hands. No, he may rot in jail before he shall 
 have liberty by any act of mine." 
 
 The heartless oppressor, the mercenary rob- 
 ber, the cool, calculating criminal of any sort, 
 might as well appeal to a blind statue of Justice 
 as to him. But the wearied sentinel, overcome 
 with sleep upon his beat ; the deserter ; even the
 
 126 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 rebel spy, who took his life in his hand for a bad 
 cause, and persons guilty of other acts in them- 
 selves criminal, if the result of sudden tempta- 
 tion or passion, found in him a merciful magis- 
 trate. 
 
 A boy who fell asleep while on guard in the 
 Army of the Potomac, was sentenced to be shot. 
 On the presentation of the warrant for his sig- 
 nature, Mr. Lincoln said : " It is not a wonder 
 that a boy raised on a farm, and probably in the 
 habit of going to bed at dark, should fall asleep 
 while required to watch. I can not consent that 
 he should be shot for such an act. I should 
 regard the blood of the poor young man as on 
 my skirts." This young man was found with 
 the slain on the field of Fredericksburg, with a 
 photograph of Mr. Lincoln next his heart, upon 
 which was written, " God bless Mr. Lincoln." 
 
 A number of deserters, twenty-four, were sen- 
 tenced at one time to death, and the military 
 authorities insisted that the discipline of the 
 army would be ruined if Mr. Lincoln pardoned 
 them. He replied: "Mr. General, there are 
 too many weeping widows already in the United 
 States. For God's sake, do not ask me to add 
 to their number, for I WON'T DO IT ! "
 
 JOHN MORGAN. 127 
 
 When the notorious guerrilla (" horse-thief," 
 as Parson Brownlow always called him) John 
 Morgan was killed, some one brought the news 7 
 to Mr. Lincoln. " Well," said he, " I would not 
 crow over anybody's death, but I can take 
 Morgan's death as resignedly as I can any- 
 body's." Pausing a moment, he indignantly 
 exclaimed: "Morgan was a coward and a negro- 
 driver the kind of a man that the North knows 
 nothing about." 
 
 A friend and neighbor of Judge Kellogg, of 
 Illinois, who had enlisted, was guilty of a mis- 
 demeanor, for which he was tried by court- 
 martial and condemned to be shot. The night 
 previous to the day on which he was to be ex- 
 ecuted, Kellogg heard of it, and applied to the 
 Secretary of War for a reprieve. Stanton flatly 
 refused. " Too much leniency in the service 
 already ; we must make an example of him." 
 " Well," Mr. Secretary," said Kellogg, " I give 
 you fair notice that the boy is not going to be 
 shot." So saying, he posted off to Lincoln, who 
 had retired for the night, and partly begged, 
 partly forced his way into Lincoln's sleeping- 
 room. The President listened quietly to the 
 excited Congressman, and then, rising on his
 
 128 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 elbow, said : " Well, I do n't believe shooting Mm 
 will do him any good ; give me that pen." 
 
 A boy soldier was confined at Elmira, New 
 York, and under sentence of death for the atro- 
 cious crime of poisoning his guards, who were at 
 the time holding him in confinement for deser- 
 tion. One of the guards died from the eifects of 
 the poison. His mother and other friends made 
 repeated efforts to have the sentence commuted, 
 without avail. On the morning of the day when 
 the prisoner was to die, his friends succeeded in 
 convincing Lincoln that he was probably insane. 
 He at once ordered a reprieve till this question 
 could be determined ; and greatly fearing his 
 telegraphic dispatch should fail to reach Elmira 
 in time to save the boy's life, sent, during the 
 forenoon, three other dispatches by as many 
 different lines to different parties at Elmira, 
 each repeating the reprieve. 
 
 A poor girl, a foreigner, whose only friend 
 was a brother in the army, received the crush- 
 ing intelligence that her brother had been in- 
 duced to desert, and was captured and con- 
 demned. She \\eut to Washington, and tried, 
 without avail, to get an interview with the Pres- 
 ident. Hon. Thomas Ford, -of Ohio, met her at
 
 REPRIEVES AND PARDONS. 129 
 
 the portico of the White House, and his sym- 
 pathies were deeply enlisted. As he had an 
 appointment to meet the President, he told her 
 to follow him closely, and force herself between 
 him and the President, and present her plea. 
 She did as she was instructed. Lincoln looked 
 first at her tearful face, then at her neat but 
 scanty dress, and said : " My poor girl, you 
 have come here with no governor or senator to 
 plead your cause. You seem honest and truth- 
 ful, and you do n't wear hoops, and I will be 
 whipped but I will pardon your brother." 
 
 This pardoning of deserters was just as well 
 as humane. Young men and boys who were in 
 the ranks, and whose relations were besotted 
 with the virus of slavery, were, during the whole 
 of the war, discouraged, deceived, arid induced 
 to desert by their traitorous friends at home. 
 The pardoning power, so freely used, saved the 
 life of many a young man who was less to blame 
 for desertion than the unprincipled people who 
 thus covertly and basely sought to weaken the 
 armies and destroy the Government. 
 
 A poor woman, advanced in life, obtained an 
 interview with the President, and said : " My 
 
 husband and three sons all went into the army. 
 9
 
 130 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 My husband was killed at the fight at . I 
 
 got along very badly since then, living all alone, 
 and I thought I would come and ask you to 
 release to me my oldest son." Mr. Lincoln 
 replied, in his kindest tone, " Certainly, certainly, 
 my good woman, if you have given us all, and 
 your prop has been taken away, you are justly 
 entitled to one of your boys." The poor woman 
 thanked him gratefully, and, fearing to trust her 
 precious paper to other hands, went with it her- 
 self to the front in search of her son. She 
 found him in a hospital mortally wounded. 
 Having buried him, she returned with a broken 
 heart to the President. He was greatly affected 
 by her appearance and story, and said : " I know 
 what you wish me to do, and I will do it with- 
 out your asking." He then took up a pen and 
 commenced writing an order for the release of 
 the second son. " While he was writing, the 
 poor woman stood by his side, the tears running 
 down her face, and passed her hand softly over 
 his head, stroking his rough hair as I have seen 
 a fond mother caress a son. By the time he 
 had finished writing, his own eyes and heart 
 were full. He handed her the paper : ' Now/ 
 said he, ''you have one and / one of the other
 
 " PIGEON-HEARTED." 131 
 
 two left ; that is no more than right.' She took 
 the paper, and reverently placing her hand again 
 upon his head, the tears still upon her cheeks, 
 said : ' The Lord bless you, Mr. Lincoln. May 
 you live a thousand years, and may you always 
 be the head of this great nation ! ' 
 
 " A couple of well-known New York gentle- 
 men called upon the President to solicit a pardon 
 for a man who, while acting as mate for a sailing 
 vessel, had struck one of his men a blow which 
 resulted in his death. Convicted and sentenced 
 for manslaughter, a powerful appeal was made 
 in his behalf, as he had previously borne a good 
 character. Giving the facts a hearing, Mr. Lin- 
 coln responded : 
 
 " ' Well, gentlemen, leave your papers, and I 
 will have the Attorney-General, Judge Bates, 
 look them over, and we will see what can be 
 done. Being both of us pigeon-hearted fellows, 
 the chances are that, if there is any ground 
 whatever for interference, the scoundrel will 
 get off!'"* 
 
 Instances similar to the preceding were con- 
 stantly recurring during the last eventful years 
 of Mr. Lincoln's life. They were a source of 
 
 * " Six Months at the White House."
 
 132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 pleasure and rest to him. He said, in referring 
 to his free exercise of the pardoning power, 
 " Some of our generals complain that I impair 
 discipline and subordination in the army by my 
 pardons and respites ; but it makes me rested 
 after a hard day's work, if I can find a good 
 excuse for saving a man's life, and I go to bed 
 happy, as I think how joyous the signing of my 
 name will make him and his family and friends." 
 That was a prescription for securing a good 
 night's sleep which it would be well for us all to 
 adopt. The reflection that we have during the 
 day carried joy to some one's heart, and have 
 sincerely sought to fulfill our duty toward God 
 and our neighbors, is well calculated to tranquil- 
 ize our minds and bring softly upon our closing 
 eyes the balmy shades of slumber.
 
 LINCOLN STORIES. 133 
 
 CHAPTER XV, 
 
 LINCOLN STORIES A REMARKABLE TRAIT. 
 
 you think my father has gone to 
 heaven?" asked little Tad. Lincoln of 
 a gentleman who called upon the fam- 
 ily when their great sorrow had fallen upon 
 them. "I have not a doubt of it," was the 
 reply. " Then I am glad he has gone there," 
 said the boy, in accents broken with sobbing, 
 " for he never was happy after he came here. 
 This was not a good place for him." 
 
 A lady who was urging the establishment of 
 hospitals in the Northern States, to which sick 
 and wounded soldiers might be brought, de- 
 scribed the suffering of the invalids in the com- 
 fortless field hospitals in the South, and added, 
 " If you will grant my petition, it will make 
 you happy as long as you live." With counte- 
 nance betraying extreme dejection and pain, the
 
 134 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 President replied : " Not happy. I shall never 
 be happy any more." 
 
 In conversing with his wife, a few hours be- 
 fore his decease, he said : " We must be more 
 cheerful in the future ; between the war and the 
 loss of our darling Willie we have been very 
 miserable." 
 
 And yet this man, burdened with a nation's 
 sorrows, will pass into history as the most in- 
 veterate joker of his time. He presented the 
 strange anomaly of a mind naturally yielding to 
 sadness and melancholy, and yet possessing the 
 liveliest appreciation of wit and humor. When 
 weariness and care pressed too heavily upon him, 
 he was able to make a quick transition to the 
 other extreme. The furrowed face, every line 
 of which was full of sadness, would suddenly 
 break from the gloomy shadows and light up 
 with mirth. When a good story was gotten off, 
 and a hearty laugh indulged, he returned as 
 suddenly to his toil and habitual sadness. The 
 stories were always for a specific purpose, and 
 from the relaxation and rest they afforded him, 
 as the following examples will show : 
 
 " Violent criticism, attacks, and denunciation, 
 coming either from radicals or conservatives,
 
 "WEEPING WATER." 135 
 
 rarely ruffled the President, if they reached his 
 ears. It was in connection with something of 
 this kind that he told me this story : ' Some 
 years ago,' said he, ' a couple of emigrants fresh 
 from the ' Emerald Isle,' seeking labor, were 
 making their way toward the West. Coming 
 suddenly, one evening, upon a pond of water, 
 they were greeted with a grand chorus of bull- 
 frogs, a kind of music they had never heard be- 
 fore : 4 Breck-eck-ex, B-a-u-m, B-a-u-m.' Over- 
 come with terror, they clutched their shillalahs, 
 and crept cautiously forward, straining their 
 eyes in every direction to catch sight of the 
 4 inemy,' but he was not to be found ! At last 
 a happy idea seized the foremost one ; he sprang 
 to his companion and exclaimed, * And sure, 
 Jamie, it's my opinion that it's nothing but a 
 noise ! ' 
 
 Some Western tourists, who had called on the 
 President, referred to the picturesque names 
 given by the Indians to many localities, streams, 
 and other natural objects, referring, among oth- 
 ers, to the " Weeping Water ' ; in Nebraska. 
 Mr. Lincoln, looking up, replied ; " AS ' Laugh- 
 ing Water,' according to Longfellow, is 4 Minne- 
 haha,' this evidently should be Minneboohoo ! "
 
 136 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 A farmer called to protest against depre- 
 dations made by Union soldiers on his hay, 
 horse-feed, etc.; Lincoln told him the following 
 story : 
 
 " In my early days, I knew a lumberman in 
 Illinois, one Jack Case, who was one of the best 
 raftsmen on the river. It was quite a trick in 
 those times to take the logs over the rapids, but 
 Jack always kept his raft straight in the chan- 
 nel. Finally, a steamer was put on, and Jack 
 (he 's dead now, poor fellow !) was made captain 
 of her. One day, when the boat was plunging 
 and wallowing along the boiling rapids, and 
 Jack's utmost vigilance was exercised to keep 
 her in the narrow channel, a boy pulled his coat- 
 tail and hailed him with, 'I say, Mr. Captain, I 
 wish you would just stop your boat a minute 
 I've lost my apple overboard!' 
 
 When Porter's great naval expedition against 
 Port Royal sailed out from Hampton Roads, and 
 the country was full of curiosity concerning its 
 destination, an inquisitive patriot called on the 
 President and confidentially asked for the much- 
 coveted information. 
 
 "Would you really like to know?' queried 
 the President.
 
 LINCOLN STORIES. 137 
 
 " I am very desirous of knowing, Mr. Presi- 
 dent." 
 
 " And will you sacredly promise me to keep 
 the secret if I tell you ? ' 
 
 The anxious inquirer was ready to pledge 
 himself by any amount of sacred and pecuniary 
 obligations. 
 
 " Well, then," said Lincoln, " I will tell you," 
 and advancing to the expectant listener, he took 
 him by the coat-collar, placed his lips to his 
 ear, and whispered, with portentous earnestness, 
 " Porter has gone down South ! ' 
 
 Another visitor bothered him to know how 
 many men the rebels had in the field. Lincoln 
 replied, gravely, "Twelve hundred thousand!'' 
 
 "TWELVE HUNDRED THOUSAND!' exclaimed 
 the astonished questioner, with alarm starting 
 from his open mouth and eyes. 
 
 " Yes, sir, twelve hundred thousand. You 
 see, all of our generals, when they get whipped, 
 say that the enemy outnumbers them from three 
 or five to one, and I must believe them. We 
 have four hundred thousand men in the field, 
 and three times four make twelve! Don't you 
 see it?" 
 
 Some croakers were making themselves inter-
 
 138 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 esting by prophesying all sorts of ruin and dis- 
 aster to the cause " breakers ahead " " im- 
 pending crisis," and all that. " That reminds 
 me," said Lincoln, " of the school-boy who never 
 could pronounce the names Shadrack, Mesheck, 
 and Abednego. He had been repeatedly whipped 
 for it, without effect. Some time afterward, see- 
 ing the names occur in the regular lesson for 
 the day, he put his finger upon the place and 
 whispered to his next neighbor, i Here comes 
 those tormented Hebrews again ! ' 
 
 In one of his debates with Senator Douglas, 
 the latter had attempted to escape his conclu- 
 sions by denying the veracity of a senator whom 
 he had quoted. Lincoln replied that it was not 
 a question of veracity : " By a course of reason- 
 ing," said he, " Euclid proves that all the angles 
 in a triangle are equal to two right angles. 
 Now, if you undertake to disprove that propo- 
 sition, would you prove it to be false by calling 
 Euclid a liar f " 
 
 A delegation of ministers made a persevering 
 and pertinacious effort to induce the President 
 to correct alledged evils in the appointment of 
 army chaplains, many of whom, they urged, 
 were unfit for the position. " But, gentlemen,"
 
 LINCOLN STORIES. 139 
 
 said he, " that is a matter which the Govern- 
 ment has nothing to do with ; the chaplains are 
 chosen by the regiment." The ministers were 
 not satisfied, but urged a change in the manner 
 of selecting them. Lincoln had his unfailing 
 resource to end the controversy, and resorted to 
 it. "Without any disrespect, gentlemen, I will 
 tell you a 4 little story.' Once, in Springfield, I 
 was going off on a short journey, and reached the 
 depot a little ahead of time. Leaning against 
 the fence, just outside the depot, was a little 
 darkey boy whom I knew, named Dick, busily 
 digging with his toe in a mud-puddle. As I 
 came up, I said : i Dick, what are you about ? ' 
 ' Making a church,' said he. ' A church ! ' said 
 I ; * what do you mean ? ' ' Why, yes,' said Dick, 
 pointing with his toe, ' do n't you see ? There is 
 the shape of it ; there 's the steps and front- 
 door, here the pews where the folks set, and 
 there 's the pulpit.' ' Yes, I see,' said I ; ' but 
 why do n't you make a minister ? ' Laws,' an- 
 swered Dick, with a grin, ' I ha'n t got mud 
 enough!' 
 
 It was known that the rebel traitor Jacob 
 Thompson would make an effort to pass through 
 a Northern State, just after the fall of Rich-
 
 140 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 mond, for the purpose of escaping from the 
 country. The Secretary of War urged that he 
 ought to be arrested and punished as a traitor. 
 " Well/' said Lincoln, " let me tell you a story. 
 There was an Irish soldier here last summer, 
 who wanted something to drink stronger than 
 water, and stepped into a drug-store, where he 
 espied a soda-fountain. ' Mr. Doctor,' said he, 
 * give me, if you plase, a glass of soda-wather, 
 and if yees will put in a few draps o' whishkey 
 unbeknown till me, I '11 be obleeged/ Now," 
 said Lincoln, " if Jake Thompson is permitted 
 to pass through ' unbeknown,' what's the harm? 
 So don't have him arrested." 
 
 Speaking of the office-seekers who thronged 
 so incessantly and pertinaciously upon him, he 
 said: "I am like a man so busy in letting rooms 
 in one end of his house, that he can't stop to 
 put out the fire that is burning in the other." 
 
 It was intimated to him that Secretary 
 
 would be a formidable rival for succession to the 
 Presidency. With the usual reservation, " mean- 
 ing no disrespect," he said : " R , you were 
 brought up on a farm, were you not? Then 
 you know what a cliin-fly is. Well, my brother 
 and I were once plowing corn on a Kentucky
 
 LINCOLN STORIES. 141 
 
 farm, I driving the horse, he holding the plow. 
 The horse was lazy, but on one occasion he 
 rushed across the field so that I could scarcely 
 keep up with him. On reaching the end of the 
 furrow, I found an enormous chin-fly fastened 
 upon him, and knocked it off. My brother 
 asked what I did that for. I told him I did n't 
 want the horse bitten in that way. * Why,' 
 said my brother, i that ' all that made him go I ' 
 
 Now, if Secretary has a presidential chin- 
 
 fly biting him, I'm not going to knock it off; 
 it will only make his department go I ' 
 
 As the rebel confederacy was tumbling in its 
 final crash, Lincoln foresaw the embarrassment 
 which the capture of Jeff. Davis would bring 
 upon him, and was asked by a friend what he 
 was going to do with him. He replied : " There 
 was a boy in Springfield who saved up his 
 money and bought a 'coon, which, after the nov- 
 elty had worn off, became a great nuisance. He 
 was one day leading him through the street, and 
 had all he could do to keep clear of the little 
 vixen, which had torn his clothes half off him. 
 At last he sat down on a curb-stone, completely 
 flagged out. A man passing, was stopped by 
 the disconsolate appearance of the little fellow,
 
 142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 and asked him the matter. ' 0," said he, t this 
 'coon is such a trouble to me ! ' ' Why do n't 
 you get rid of him, then ? ' said the gentleman. 
 * Hush ! ' said the boy, ' do n't you see he is 
 gnawing his rope off? I'm going to let him do 
 it, and when I go home / can tell the folks that 
 he got away from me!' 
 
 He was free to make merry at his own per- 
 sonal appearance. He was dressed for a state 
 party one evening, and, holding up his gloved 
 hands, said : " An Illinois friend tells me that 
 he can never see these without thinking of can- 
 vased hams." 
 
 A friend observing the accuracy of a new 
 portrait of him, spoke of it in flattering terms. 
 "Yes," said Lincoln, "it is horridly like me;" 
 and added : " That reminds me of a good woman, 
 not remarkable for good looks, who, on a visit to 
 the Young Men's Christian Association, caught 
 sight of herself in a concealed looking-glass, 
 and retired in great confusion, saying she would 
 not visit an institution where she could not go 
 without meeting disreputable people." 
 
 Volumes of such " stories " might be gathered 
 from the newspapers of the time, which repro- 
 duced them, from time to time, under the caption
 
 THE PROPER USE OF WIT. 143 
 
 of " Old Abe's Last." Such wit is a valuable 
 faculty, designed by the beneficent Creator to 
 add to the happiness of his creatures. The use 
 of this talent for the purpose of wounding the 
 sensibilities of our neighbors, or giving them 
 pain in any manner, is, therefore, a direct per- 
 version of its use, and a heinous abuse of God's 
 goodness, and will surely be punished. Cheer- 
 fulness and merriment are not inconsistent with 
 Christian character; it is inconsistent only in 
 those who are " without hope and without God 
 in the world." The Psalmist, in describing his 
 inexpressible joy at the return of the people 
 from captivity, said : 
 
 " When Zion's bondage God turned back, 
 
 As men that dreamed were we; 
 Then filled with laughter was our mouth, 
 Our tongues with melody." 
 
 If the use of wit and humor for the purpose of 
 injuring another is directly contrary to the pur- 
 poses of God in giving the faculty, the use of it 
 in obscenity and vulgarity is a horrible degra- 
 dation, fit only for the carnivals of devils. Let 
 every young man beware of listening to it, as 
 he prides in his manhood, or hopes for happiness 
 here or in the world to come. Many a Chris-
 
 * 
 
 144 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 tian man is stung in his inmost soul by the rec- 
 ollection that he, at some time in his life, has 
 been guilty of this degrading abuse of his intel- 
 lectual gifts. Nor is it lawful or consistent with 
 Christian character to use ridicule as a weapon 
 except in self-defense. It is a sharp blade if 
 handled by a master. It may be used properly 
 and lawfully in cutting down the pride of scoffers 
 or unprincipled assailants of truth, not against 
 an honest or misled opponent. Him we are 
 bound to convince with truth itself, not to at- 
 tack and annoy, or humiliate with the superi- 
 ority of wit.
 
 MAGNITUDE OF THE WAR. 145 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 MAGNITUDE OF THE WAR. 
 
 will be difficult for those who come 
 after us either to realize the vast pro- 
 portions of the American civil war, or 
 to appreciate the feelings of the people while 
 bearing its burdens. The rescue of the country 
 was undertaken with enthusiasm and alacrity, 
 but with a very limited conception of the im- 
 mensity of the task. The burden grew grad- 
 ually heavier as the months of self-sacrifice, toil, 
 and sorrow wore away, until it seemed too heavy 
 to be borne, and yet the President and people 
 sustained it with hopefulness, fortitude, and res- 
 olution such as has not been exceeded in the 
 history of man. The debt of the General Gov- 
 ernment rose, notwithstanding the heaviest prac- 
 tical taxation, to the sum of over twenty-seven 
 
 hundred millions of dollars ; and this did not in- 
 10
 
 146 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 elude nearly all the pecuniary burdens created 
 by the war. Nearly two and a quarter millions 
 of soldiers were, from first to last, enlisted in the 
 service of the Government. Three hundred and 
 sixty battles were fought upon the land. The 
 deaths resulting directly and indirectly from the 
 war, among the Union forces, can never be accu- 
 rately known, but were probably not less than a 
 quarter of a million. It is vain to attempt a con- 
 ception of the physical agony, the sorrow of 
 friends, and the weight pressing on the hearts 
 and minds of the people which were endured ; 
 and yet such were the terrible calamities which 
 arose from that bottomless pit of oppression and 
 cruelty, American slavery. 
 
 Every day of the life of Mr. Lincoln, during 
 the progress of this contest, was of necessity 
 crowded with important events and labors. /But 
 there are but a few other incidents which the 
 limits proposed in this volume will permit to be 
 noticed. These are selected as showing at once 
 his character and his style as a writer and con- 
 troversialist. 
 
 When the battle of Antietam was in progress, 
 he made a solemn vow to God that if he would 
 give us the victory, he would free the bondmen
 
 EMANCIPATION. 147 
 
 in our land ; that he would take this as an indi- 
 cation that the time had come to execute this 
 act of justice. On the 17th of September that 
 battle was fought and won ; on the 22d, the pre- 
 liminary Proclamation of Emancipation was 
 issued, declaring that " on the first day of Jan- 
 uary, in the year of our Lord, 1863, all persons 
 held as slaves within any State, or designated 
 part of a- State, the people whereof shall then be 
 in rebellion against the United States, SHALL BE 
 
 THEN, THENCEFORWARD, AND FOREVER FREE." 
 
 On the first day of January, in accordance 
 with this -proclamation, he issued its counter- 
 part : " I do order and declare that all persqns 
 held as slaves within said designated States and 
 parts of States ARE AND HENCEFORWARD SHALL 
 BE FREE, and that the Executive Government 
 of the United States, including the military and 
 naval authorities thereof, will RECOGNIZE AND 
 MAINTAIN the freedom of said persons. 
 
 " And I hereby enjoin upon the people so de- 
 clared to be free to abstain from all violence, 
 unless in necessary self-defense ; and I recom- 
 mend them that, in all cases, when allowed, they 
 labor faithfully for reasonable wages. 
 
 " And I further declare and make known, that
 
 148 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 such persons, of suitable condition, will be re- 
 ceived into the armed service of the United 
 States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and 
 other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in 
 said service. 
 
 " And upon this act, sincerely believed" to be 
 an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution 
 upon military necessity, I invoke the consid- 
 erate judgment of mankind and the gracious 
 favor of Almighty God." 
 
 Thenceforward the freedmen and the colored 
 men of the free States were received freely into 
 the service, uniformed in the garb of American 
 soldiers ; and to the two hundred thousand who 
 thus bravely came to the country's rescue, and 
 bravely fought beneath her banners, the future 
 historian will award the honor of having turned 
 the scale of battle in favor of liberty, and thus 
 having secured the perpetuity of free institu- 
 tions on this continent. 
 
 In his annual message, delivered December 1, 
 1862, between the issuing of the preliminary and 
 final Proclamations of Emancipation, he defended 
 his course in the following language : 
 
 " The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate 
 to the stormy present. The occasion is piled
 
 EMANCIPATION. 149 
 
 high with difficulty, and we must rise with the 
 occasion. As our case is new, so we must think 
 anew and act anew. We must disenthrall our- 
 selves, and then we shall save* our country. 
 
 "Fellow-citizens, we can not escape history. 
 We of this Congress and this Administration 
 will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No 
 personal significance or insignificance can spare 
 one or another of us. The fiery trial through 
 which we pass will light us down in honor or 
 dishonor to the latest generation. * * In giving 
 freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the 
 free honorable alike to what we give and what 
 we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly 
 lose the last hope of earth. Other means may 
 succeed this can not fail. The way is plain, 
 peaceful, generous, just a way which, if pur- 
 sued, the world will forever applaud and God 
 forever bless." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln viewed the calamities of the 
 nation from the stand-point of a Christian as 
 well as that of a statesman. In his last inaug- 
 ural he said: 
 
 " It may seem strange that any men should 
 dare to ask God's assistance in wringing their 
 bread from the sweat of other men's faces ; but
 
 150 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 let us judge not, that we be not judged. * * 
 The Almighty has his own purposes. t Woe 
 unto the world because of offenses, for it must 
 needs be that offenses come ; but woe unto that 
 man by whom the oifenses cometh.' If we shall 
 suppose American slavery is one of those oifenses 
 which, in the providence of God, must needs 
 come, but which, having continued through his 
 appointed time, he now wills to remove, and 
 that he gives to both North and South this ter- 
 rible war as the woe due to those by whom the 
 offense came, shall we discern therein any de- 
 parture from those divine attributes which the 
 believers in a living God always ascribe to him ? 
 Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that 
 this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass 
 away. Yet if God wills that it continue until 
 all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hund- 
 red and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be 
 sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with 
 the lash shall be paid with another drawn with 
 the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, 
 so still it must be said, ' The judgments of the 
 Lord are true and righteous altogether/ 1 
 
 Another incident highly characteristic of Mr. 
 Lincoln was brought about by the banishment
 
 ANSWER TO A COMMITTEE. 151 
 
 of a rebel sympathizer of Ohio into the rebel 
 lines, after trial and conviction by court-martial. 
 A committee of gentlemen, members of Congress 
 and prominent politicians from Ohio, whose sym- 
 pathies were against the war, called upon Mr. 
 Lincoln with a paper, which they read to him, 
 arguing against the legality or justice of this act 
 of banishment. Lincoln replied in wrjting, dis- 
 cussing the points presented with much minute- 
 ness, particularity, and cogency of reasoning. 
 Well knowing that this would be lost equally upon 
 them and upon the political party which they 
 represented, he resorted to an appeal which not 
 only set the whole question at rest, but also placed 
 his opponents in a most embarrassing dilemma : 
 
 "I send you," he wrote, "duplicates of this 
 letter, in order that you, or a majority of you, 
 may, if you choose, indorse your names upon 
 them, and return them thus indorsed to me, 
 with the understanding that those signing are 
 thereby committed to the following propositions: 
 
 "1. That there is now a rebellion in the Uni- 
 ted States, the object and tendency of which is 
 to destroy the National Union, and that, in your 
 opinion, an army and navy are constitutional 
 means for suppressing that rebellion.
 
 152 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 " 2. That no one of you will do any thing 
 which, in his own judgment, will tend to hinder 
 the increase, or favor the decrease, or lessen the 
 efficiency of the army and navy, while engaged 
 in the effort to suppress that rebellion ; and, 
 
 " 3. That each of you will, in his sphere, do 
 all he can to have the officers, and soldiers, and 
 seamen of the army and navy, while engaged in 
 the effort to suppress the rebellion, paid, fed, clad, 
 and otherwise well provided and supported. 
 
 " And with the further understanding that, 
 upon receiving this letter, with the names thus 
 indorsed, I will cause them to be published, 
 which publication shall be, within itself, a revo- 
 cation of the order in relation to Mr. Vallandig- 
 ham." 
 
 It may seem strange that to men making any 
 pretensions whatever to patriotism to men not 
 avowedly enemies of their country and in league 
 with the rebels propositions like the above 
 could involve any questionable alternative ; and 
 yet had they indorsed these propositions, they 
 would have condemned their own partisan prin- 
 ciples. If they refused, they made it obvious to 
 all men that not only the banished convict, but 
 they themselves were disloyal men. They pre-
 
 SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG. 153 
 
 ferred the latter horn of the dilemma, refused to 
 indorse the propositions, and left their confrere 
 under the military sentence of banishment to 
 rebeldom. 
 
 The battle of Gettysburg, on the first three 
 days of July, 1863, is regarded as approaching 
 nearer to the honor of a "decisive battle " than 
 any other of the war. Thenceforward the rebell- 
 ion steadily retrograded till it was crushed out. 
 The victory was hung in the balance, and was 
 only won by the most stubborn and heroic 
 efforts on the part of the Union forces. Had it 
 gone against them, our country would have been 
 in a different position from that which she now 
 occupies. The people, grateful to the thousands 
 of brave and patriotic dead who fell there, pur- 
 chased the field for a national cemetery. Mr. 
 Lincoln was invited to attend the ceremonies 
 of dedication. He there delivered the following 
 brief address : 
 
 " Four-score and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth upon this continent a new nation, 
 conceived in liberty and dedicated to the prop- 
 osition that all men are created equal. Now we 
 are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether 
 that nation, or any nation so conceived and so -
 
 154 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 dedicated, can long endure. We are met on the 
 great battle-field of that war. We are met to 
 dedicate a portion of it as the final resting-place 
 of those who here gave their lives that the nation 
 might live. It is altogether fitting and proper 
 that we should do this. 
 
 " But in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, 
 we can not consecrate this ground. The brave 
 men, living and dead, who struggled here, have 
 consecrated it far above our power to add or 
 detract. The world will little note nor long re- 
 member what we say here, but it can never 
 forget what they did here. It is for us, the 
 living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfin- 
 ished work that they have thus far so nobly 
 carried on. It is rather for us to be here dedi- 
 cated to the great task remaining before us ; 
 that from these honored dead we take increased 
 devotion to the cause for which they here gave 
 the last full measure of devotion ; that we here 
 highly resolve that the dead shall not have died 
 in vain ; that the nation shall, under God, have 
 a new birth to freedom, and that the Govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, and for the 
 people, shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 That " the world will little note nor long re-
 
 "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN.' 155 
 
 member' 1 what Lincoln said there, was a mis- 
 taken prophecy. It will be read and admired 
 so long as Gettysburg is remembered as a battle- 
 field of freedom. 
 
 The Union National Convention which met 
 in Baltimore in June, 1864, nominated Mr. Lin- 
 coln for reelection without a dissenting voice ; 
 arid yet such was the apparent national discon- 
 tent with the management of aifairs, and such 
 the apparent weariness and impatience of the 
 people under the crushing burdens of the war, 
 that the success of the Unionists at the election 
 was for a time regarded as very doubtful. The 
 opposition were clamorous for compromise, con- 
 cession to the rebels, abrogation of the Procla- 
 mation of Emancipation in short, for " peace 
 at any price : ' and the noisiness of these time- 
 servers made them appear to be much more nu- 
 merous and formidable than they really were. 
 To foster this spirit and to furnish them elec- 
 tioneering capital, the rebel government sent 
 emissaries to Canada, who announced themselves 
 peace commissioners, authorized to propose terms 
 for the cessation of hostilities. Lincoln declined 
 to hold any official intercourse with them, but 
 published the following proclamation
 
 156 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ''EXECUTIVE MANSION, ") 
 "WASHINGTON, July 8, 1864. ) 
 
 " To WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : 
 
 " Any proposition which embraces the restoration of 
 peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the aban- 
 donment of slavery, and which comes by and with an 
 authority that can control the armies now at war against 
 the United States, will be received and considered by the 
 Executive Government of the United States, and will be 
 met by liberal terms on other substantial and collateral 
 points, and the bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe 
 conduct both ways. 
 
 "ABRAHAM LINCOLN." 
 
 This was regarded by many of the Union 
 party to be a great political blunder, and one 
 which might result in the triumph of the " peace- 
 at-any-price party," and in that view greatly to 
 be deplored. Lincoln's reply was that, " If I 
 go down, I will go down, like the Cumberland, 
 with my colors flying." He meant to stand by 
 justice and principle, sink or swim, and he 
 did it. 
 
 Another great "blunder 5 ' was perpetrated by 
 the President-candidate soon after. Sherman 
 was beating Johnson back step by step upon 
 Atlanta, and Grant fixing his grip firmly upon 
 Richmond, but the terms of enlistment of many
 
 "FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND MORE." 157 
 
 thousands of soldiers were expiring, the waste 
 of war was thinning our ranks, and it became 
 necessary to the continued success of the armies 
 for the President to repeat his call, so often be- 
 fore sounded over the land, for "five hundred 
 thousand more." His over-cautious political 
 friends protested that it would be suicide to lay 
 this new burden on the people on the eve of the 
 Presidential election. It was urged that Grant 
 and Sherman could at least hold their own dur- 
 ing the brief time to elapse previous to the 
 election, and that if the election was lost the 
 cause would be lost. Mr. Lincoln replied that 
 his duty required him to sustain the armies who 
 were fighting at the front ; that the election was 
 no part of his business the people must attend 
 to that ; and, at any rate, he had perfect confi- 
 dence in the patriotism of the masses and the 
 favor of God. The wheels of the lot again 
 began revolving in every provost-marshal's dis- 
 trict, and the song of July, 1862, was again 
 heard : 
 
 "We are coming, Father Abraham, five hundred thou- 
 sand more; 
 
 From Mississippi's winding stream, and from New 
 England's ^hore;
 
 158 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 We leave our plows and workshops, our wives and 
 children dear, ^ 
 
 With hearts too full for utterance, with but a silent tear: 
 
 We dare not look behind us, but steadfastly before; 
 
 We are coming, Father Abraham, five hundred thou- 
 sand more ! " 
 
 : '*. 
 
 The Five Hundred Thousand came forth, and 
 Abraham Lincoln was reflected, while the col- 
 umns were marching in, by the heaviest major- 
 ities ever rolled up for a presidential candidate. 
 
 Then Sherman marched to the sea, and up 
 through the hot-bed of secession, South Caro- 
 lina, leaving ruin in his track, and sending 
 despair to traitorous hearts. Grant dealt his un- 
 ceasing and tremendous blows upon the stag- 
 gering rebellion at Richmond. The crash came 
 sudden and resounding as the fall of some mon- 
 arch tree in the forest, and the long, glad shout 
 of triumph rang and reechoed from Maine to 
 California. 
 
 As the last battles at Richmond drew near, 
 Mr. Lincoln went to City Point, to be near the 
 field of operations and convenient for any emer- 
 gency in which his presence would be desirable. 
 When the news came of the evacuation of Rich- 
 mond by the feeble remnant of the late power-
 
 AMONG THE FREEDMEN. 159 
 
 ful rebel army, he took a steamer, and, in com- 
 pany with Admiral Porter, and his little son, 
 whom he held by the hand, steamed up the 
 river, and was landed with a small boat in the 
 rebel city. An eye-witness, Mr. C. C. Coffin, 
 thus describes the scene : " He entered the city 
 unheralded; six sailors armed with carbines 
 stepped upon the shore, followed by the Presi- 
 dent, his son, and Admiral Porter ; the officers 
 followed, and six marines brought up the rear. 
 
 " There were thirty or forty freedmen who had 
 been sole possessors of themselves for twenty- 
 four hours, at work on the bank of the canal. 
 Somehow they obtained the information that the 
 man who was head and shoulders taller than all 
 others around him, with features large and irreg- 
 ular, with a mild eye and a pleasant countenance, 
 was President Lincoln. 
 
 " ' God bless you, sah ! ' said one, taking off 
 his cap and bowing very low. 
 
 " c Hurrah ! hurrah ! President Linkum has 
 come ! ' rang through the streets. 
 
 "The lieutenant found himself without a com- 
 mand. What cared these freedmen, fresh from 
 the house of bondage, for military orders ! Their 
 deliverer had come he who, next to the Lord
 
 160 ABRAHAM LXICOLX. 
 
 Jesus, was their best friend. It was not a hur- 
 rah they gave, but a wild jubilant cry of inex- 
 pressible joy. They gathered around the Pres- 
 ident, ran ahead, hovered upon the flanks of the 
 little company, and hung like a dark cloud upon 
 the rear. Men, women, and children joined the 
 constantly-increasing throng ; they came from 
 all the by-streets, running in breathless haste, 
 shouting, hallooing, and dancing with delight. 
 The men threw up their hats, the women waved 
 their bonnets and handkerchiefs, clapped their 
 hands, and sang, i Glory to God ! glory ! glory ! 
 glory ! ' rendering all the praise to God, who 
 had heard their waitings in the past, their moan- 
 ings for wives, husbands, children, and friends 
 sold out of their sight, had given them freedom, 
 and, after long years of waiting, had permitted 
 them thus unexpectedly to behold the face of 
 their great benefactor. 
 
 " < I thank you, dear Jesus, that I behold 
 President Linkum,' was the exclamation of a 
 woman who stood upon the threshold of her 
 humble home, and, with streaming eyes and 
 clasped hands, gave thanks aloud to the Savior 
 of men. Another, more demonstrative in her 
 joy, was jumping and striking her hands with
 
 AMONG THE FREEDMEN. 161 
 
 all her might, crying, ' Bless de Lord ! bless 
 de Lord ! ' as if there could be no end of her 
 thanksgiving. The air rang with a tumultuous 
 chorus of voices. The street became almost 
 impassable on account of the increasing multi- 
 tude. Soldiers were summoned to clear the 
 way. How strange the event! The President 
 of the United States he who had been hated 
 and maligned above all other men living, to 
 whom the vilest epithets had been applied by 
 the people of Richmond was walking their 
 streets, receiving the thanksgivings, blessings, 
 and praises from thousands of those who received 
 him as the ally of the Messiah ! ' 
 
 The walk was long and the way obstructed 
 by the blackened ruins of the part of the city 
 swept by a devastating conflagration a short 
 time previous, as well as by the throngs of jubi- 
 lant freedmen. Pausing to rest a moment, an 
 aged negro removed his tattered hat from his 
 fleecy locks, and, with a deep obeisance, said : 
 " May de good Lord bless you, President Link- 
 urn ! ' The President reverently removed his 
 own hat and bowed to the man, representative 
 of his race, who had for three-score years borne 
 
 the blows and insults of the cruel oppressor. 
 11
 
 162 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 He was the first public man who, during these 
 long years of the reign of injustice, had recog- 
 nized, in a slave State, the manhood of the bond- 
 man. In God's good providence their haughty 
 oppressors will erelong be compelled, both as 
 individuals and as States, to do the same. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln remained in Richmond two days, 
 rode through the streets, visited the prisons and 
 fortifications, ordered bread to be distributed to 
 the famished rebel families left behind, and to 
 the freed people, and then took his departure 
 for home. 
 
 He witnessed scenes of the- most profound 
 significance. The blackened city, the ashes of 
 that resplendent castle in the air, the Southern 
 Empire, the broken fetters of slavery, and heard 
 that shout of deliverance of millions of slaves, 
 which once to hear was worth a lifetime of labor 
 and toil. He stood there, as Moses stood upon 
 Mount Nebo, and gazed from the departing 
 mists upon a bright and far-reaching future, 
 prosperous in the reign of peace, justice, and 
 freedom. A glad day was this for Mr. Lincoln, 
 a memorable day in the annals of the irrepres- 
 sible and ever-recurring conflicts in defense of 
 the rights of man.
 
 "10 TRIUMPHS." 163 
 
 O, land, through years of shrouded nights 
 
 In triple blackness groping, 
 Toward the far-prophetic lights 
 
 That beacon the world's hoping, 
 Behold, no tittle thou shalt miss 
 
 Of that transforming given 
 To all who, dragged through hell's abyss, 
 
 Hold fast their grip on heaven. 
 
 The Lord God's purpose throbs along 
 
 Our stormy turbulances; 
 He keeps the sap of nations strong 
 
 By hidden recompenses. 
 The Lord God sows his righteous grain 
 
 In battle-blasted furrows, 
 And draws from present days of pain 
 
 Large peace for calm to-morrows. 
 
 For lo! the branding flails that drave 
 
 Our husks of foul belf from us, 
 Show all the watching heavens we have 
 
 Immortal grains of promise. 
 And lo ! the dreadful blasts that blew 
 
 In gusts of fire amid us, 
 Have scorched and winnowed from the true 
 
 The falseness which undid us. 
 
 Wherefore, O ransomed people shout 1 
 
 0, banners, wave in glory 1 
 0, bugles, blow the triumph out 1
 
 164 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 O, drums, strike up the story! 
 Clang, broken fetters, idle swords! 
 Clap hands, States, together! 
 
 AND LET ALL PRAISES BE THE LORD'S, 
 
 OUR SAVIOR AND OUR FATHER ! 
 
 Lieut. RICHARD REALP.
 
 RETURN TO WASHINGTON HIS DEATH. 165 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 RETURN TO WASHINGTON DEATH AND BURIAL. 
 
 VN 
 
 LINCOLN remained in Richmond 
 two days, looking over the great fortifi- 
 cations of that rebel stronghold, and 
 gathering such information as might be of value 
 in his future duties. 
 
 On his return, he stopped at City Point. 
 " Calling upon the head surgeon at that place, 
 Mr. Lincoln told him that he wished to visit all 
 the hospitals under his charge, and shake hands 
 with every soldier. The surgeon asked if he 
 knew what he was undertaking, there being five 
 or six thousand soldiers at that place, and it 
 would be quite a task upon his strength to visit 
 all the wards and shake hands with every sol- 
 dier. Mr. Lincoln answered, with a smile, he 
 ' guessed he was equal to the task ; at any 
 rate he would try, and go as far as he could.
 
 166 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 He should never probably see the boys again, 
 and he wanted them to know that he appre- 
 ciated what they had done for their country/ 
 Finding it useless to dissuade him, the surgeon 
 began his rounds with the President, who walked 
 from bed to bed, extending his hand to all, say- 
 ing a few words of sympathy to some, making 
 kind inquiries of others, and welcomed by all 
 with the heartiest cordiality. As they passed 
 along, they came to a ward in which lay a rebel 
 who had been wounded and was a prisoner. As 
 the tall figure of the kindly visitor appeared in 
 sight, he was recognized by the rebel soldier, 
 who, raising himself on his elbow in bed, 
 watched Mr. Lincoln as he approached, and, 
 extending his hand, exclaimed, while tears ran 
 down his cheeks: 'Mr. Lincoln, I have long 
 wanted to see you, to ask your forgiveness for 
 ever raising my hand against the old flag.' Mr. 
 Lincoln was moved to tears. He heartily shook 
 the hand of the repentant rebel, and assured 
 him of his good-will, and, with a few words of 
 kind advice, passed on. After some hours, the 
 tour of the various hospitals was made, and Mr. 
 Lincoln returned with the surgeon to his office. 
 They had scarcely entered, however, when a
 
 IN THE HOSPITALS. 167 
 
 messenger came, saying that one ward had been 
 omitted, and ' the boys wanted to see the Pres- 
 ident.' The surgeon, who was thoroughly tired, 
 and knew Mr. Lincoln must be, tried to dissuade 
 him from going, but the good man said he must 
 go back; he ' would not knowingly omit one, 
 the boys would be so disappointed.' So he 
 went with the messenger, accompanied by the 
 surgeon, and shook hands with the gratified 
 soldiers, and then returned again to the office. 
 The surgeon expressed the fear that the Presi- 
 dent's arm would be lamed with so much hand- 
 shaking, saying that it certainly must ache. Mr. 
 Lincoln smiled, and, saying something about his 
 strong muscles, stepped out at the open door, 
 took up a very large, heavy ax which lay there, 
 by a log of wood, and chopped vigorously for a 
 few moments, sending the chips flying in all 
 directions ; and then pausing, he extended his 
 right arm to its full length, holding the ax out 
 horizontally without its even quivering as he 
 held it. Strong men who looked on, men accus- 
 tomed to manual labor, could not hold the ax 
 in that position for a moment. Returning to 
 the office, he took a glass of lemonade: for he 
 would take no stronger beverage and while he
 
 168 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 was in, the chips he had chopped were gathered 
 up and safely cared for by a hospital steward, 
 because they were the chips that ' Father Abra- 
 ham' chopped." 
 
 He returned to Washington on that ever- 
 memorable Tenth of April when the whole land 
 was resplendent with banners and the air vibrat- 
 ing with the music of bands. No sooner had he 
 received the embraces of his family, than his 
 residence was surrounded by thousands of peo- 
 ple, determined to see him and compel him to 
 gpeak. He appeared and made a little speech, 
 which he said he thought would be sufficient to 
 " disperse them," but they would not be " dis- 
 persed." Appearing at a later hour, he said : 
 
 " I am greatly rejoiced that an occasion has 
 occurred so pleasurable that the people can 't 
 restrain themselves. I suppose that arrange- 
 ments are being made for some sort of formal 
 demonstration. If there should be such a dem- 
 onstration, I, of course, shall have to respond 
 to it, and I shall have nothing to say if I dribble 
 it out before. [Laughter, and cries of < We 
 want to hear you now.'] I see you have a 
 band. [Voice, ' We have three of them.'] I 
 propose now closing up by requesting you to
 
 HIS LAST DAYS. 169 
 
 play a certain air or tune. I have always 
 thought i Dixie ' one of the best tunes I ever 
 heard. [Laughter.] I have heard that our ad- 
 versaries over the way have attempted to appro- 
 priate it as a national air. I insisted, yesterday, 
 that we had fairly captured it. I presented this 
 question to the Attorney-General, and he gave 
 his opinion that it is our lawful prize. [Laugh- 
 ter and cheers.] I ask the band to give us a 
 good turn upon it." 
 
 The tune was played vigorously, and Mr. 
 Lincoln retired. On the llth of April he issued 
 a proclamation requiring foreign nations to ac- 
 cord to our war vessels all the privileges and 
 immunities of a friendly power at peace, on the 
 penalty, should they refuse, of placing the same 
 restrictions upon their vessels that they did 
 upon ours. 
 
 This was his last official act. On the 14th he 
 went out to ride with Mrs. Lincoln, and was in 
 an unusually happy mood. He spoke to her 
 hopefully of rest from his years ofexhaustive 
 care and toil, and of a visit to their old home. 
 From his inauguration onward he frequently 
 received letters threatening his life, and often 
 expressed a presentiment that he would not long
 
 170 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 survive. But the sunlight of peace which broke 
 upon the country had driven those gloomy fore- 
 bodings away from his heart, and he was full of 
 happiness, and full of generous and benevolent 
 emotions toward his late enemies and antag- 
 onists. 
 
 At the suggestion of some friends, it was ar- 
 ranged, during the day, that General Grant and 
 the President should attend a play at Ford's 
 Theater in the evening. To this Mr. Lincoln 
 consented, arid about nine o'clock, in company 
 with Mrs. Lincoln, entered the theater, taking a 
 private box above the stage. General Grant was 
 called away by business and left the city early 
 in the evening. While the play was progressing. 
 Mr. Lincoln seemed amused by the entertain- 
 ment, and smiled and conversed in a lively mood 
 to those near him. Suddenly a pistol-shot re- 
 sounded through the house, and a man leaped 
 from Mr. Lincoln's box upon the stage, bran- 
 dished a knife in a tragical manner, and disap- 
 peared be&nd the scenes. The screams of Mrs. 
 Lincoln, an instant later, revealed what had 
 taken place, and the audience sprang to their 
 feet in wildest excitement and horror. One of 
 the audience pursued the assassin, and saw him
 
 THE ASSASSINATION. 171 
 
 mount and ride swiftly away. Mr. Lincoln had 
 fallen slightly forward and was insensible. The 
 shot had taken effect in the back part of the 
 head, and was at once known to be mortal. He 
 was carried to a house opposite, and surgeons 
 and friends gathered around. During the night, 
 he breathed at times easily, and at other times 
 so laboriously that the friends who were present 
 gathered around to see the last. At six o'clock 
 in the morning his struggle was over, and his 
 spirit took its flight from the earth. 
 
 At the same hour in which the fatal shot was 
 fired in Ford's Theater, an assassin forced his 
 way into the sick chamber where Mr. Seward, 
 Secretary of State, was lying prostrate with 
 disease, and stabbed him repeatedly, striking 
 down and killing one attendant who came to his 
 rescue, and severely wounding others. Mr. 
 Seward, after receiving the first blow, sought 
 escape by rolling off the back part of the bed, 
 and, though severely injured, recovered both 
 from his disease and the wounds inflicted by the 
 assassin. 
 
 The assassin of Mr. Lincoln was recognized, 
 as he crossed the stage after committing the 
 deed, as a play-actor named Wilkes Booth ; and,
 
 172 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 although for a few days he eluded pursuit, he 
 was traced up, surrounded in a barn, where 
 he had taken refuge, and was shot in the head 
 by a soldier and killed. His body was cast 
 none but two men intrusted with the task know 
 where. The assassin who attempted the life of 
 Mr. Seward and the immediate accomplices of 
 Booth were captured, tried, and hung. 
 
 On the 14th of April the country was in the 
 height of its joy over the glorious termination 
 of four long years of dreadful war. On the 
 morning of the 15th the terrible news of the 
 assassination flew to the remotest villages, and 
 the nation stood overwhelmed with horror and 
 grief. The sun-and-storm-beaten soldier, the 
 aged patriot on his staff, the strong man in his 
 prime, bent like rushes and wept and sobbed 
 like children. The death of no other man since 
 time began carried sorrow to so many hearts 
 and drew tears from so many eyes as the tragic 
 death of Abraham Lincoln. Most appalling it 
 was to the poor colored people. They had 
 looked to him as their deliverer, their tender 
 father, their protector, almost their earthly all. 
 In some of their simple hearts he was enshrined 
 and endowed with superhuman attributes. They
 
 THE FUNERAL. 173 
 
 regarded him as clothed with wisdom and love, 
 in some degree approaching and resembling the 
 attributes of JESUS. He fell beneath the malice 
 of that system which had so long and so terribly 
 trampled them to the earth, and they could only 
 find comfort in casting themselves upon the 
 mighty arm of their Father, God. 
 
 The body of the dead emancipator was em- 
 balmed and borne on its funeral march to his 
 home in Springfield. No such funeral proces- 
 sion has the world ever seen probably will never 
 see again. The cities and villages radiant, but 
 a brief time before, with banners and illumina- 
 tions were hung, street by street, with heavy 
 folds of black drapery. Tens of thousands 
 pressed to cast a last sad gaze at that cold face, 
 and sobbed aloud at the mournful view. Arriv- 
 ing at Springfield, he was entombed in a family 
 vault; and thus, glorious in life and grand in 
 death, passed away the great and good Pres- 
 ident. 
 
 The death-shot under which the President fell 
 was such as to extinguish sensation and conscious- 
 ness instantly. He did not, could not know, while 
 his spirit lingered in the body, any thing of what 
 had been done. The pall of darkness and insensi-
 
 174 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 bility fell upon him in the twinkling of an eye ; he, 
 therefore, suffered no pain. Other martyrs have 
 passed through the fire and the torments in- 
 vented by human malignity have had to nerve 
 themselves for days and weeks in anticipation 
 of the ordeal through which they were called to 
 pass. Lincoln was suddenly called from the 
 triumph on earth, as we may fondly trust, to 
 the triumph in salvation through the merits of 
 Jesus, without a conscious struggle or a pang of 
 mind or of body. 
 
 In extreme contrast with the last days and 
 death of the illustrious victim was the close of 
 the career of the assassin. Vengeance leaped 
 upon him while the report of his murderous 
 pistol-shot yet echoed through the hall not 
 with sudden annihilation, but with the first pang 
 of protracted torment. Springing down from 
 the box to the stage of the theater, his leg was 
 broken near the ankle by the fall ; and although 
 he succeeded in reaching and mounting his horse, 
 the rugged bones of his broken limb lacerated 
 the flesh at every leap of his flight. Having 
 secreted himself in a swamp, the agony of his 
 swollen leg was lost in the fiercer pangs of 
 despair. Abhorred and hunted down with im-
 
 GOD'S RETRIBUTIVE JUSTICE. 175 
 
 placable animosity, he wrote in his diary that 
 God could not pardon a crime which proved so 
 revolting to human nature. Detested, abandoned, 
 starving, in agony and weakness of body, and in 
 despair, listening with alert terror for the foot- 
 steps of the avenger, not a word of sympathy or 
 cheer, not an act of kindness, with no possible 
 relief except through death, and no exit from 
 death but into hell so he passed the few days 
 between his crime and his painful, bloody end. 
 
 While we can not, in most instances, safely 
 ascribe overwhelming disaster to the retributive 
 justice of God, yet that the Almighty does, on 
 some occasions, suddenly follow crime with ter- 
 rible evidences of his indignation is beyond per- 
 adventure. So marked have been the examples 
 of instant vengeance on atrocious crimes, that 
 in every age and every land the fact has been 
 impressed on the human mind. His "burning 
 coals of juniper " and his " sharp arrows " flash 
 and fly even in a world designed to be proba- 
 tionary. The persistency with which horrible 
 disease, horrible death, and intolerable anguish 
 of soul have pursued the Herods, Neros, and 
 such like monsters of iniquity, is a fact too 
 sharply defined to admit of cavil. And yet
 
 176 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 amid all such instances there is none more 
 clearly marked than the instant torment which, 
 without human agency, followed the crime of the 
 assassination.
 
 LESSONS FROM HIS LIFE. 177 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 LESSONS FROM THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 I. THE SECRET OF HIS SUCCESS. 
 
 fc 
 
 HE Presidency of the United States is 
 an exalted position, but it proved only 
 a subordinate accessory to the fame of 
 Abraham Lincoln. We have had many Presi- 
 dents, of whom some were only lifted sufficiently 
 high by their official honors to be within the 
 reach of the scorn and contempt of good men. 
 But Lincoln's name and fame is forever linked 
 with tha.t of Washington, on a level of equal 
 elevation. No names in the history of any land 
 stand above them, none so universally command 
 the admiration of mankind. England has her 
 Hampden and Cromwell, Russia her Peter the 
 Great, Germany her Charles V and Frederick, 
 Sweden her Gustavus Adolphus ; France can 
 
 onlv point to Charles Martel and Henry IV, 
 12
 
 178 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 despots of surpassing ability, and conquerors of 
 terrible power. Among these, none but Hamp- 
 den and Cromwell can be considered as ap- 
 proaching comparison with the two most honored 
 names of America, and these awaken but qualified 
 admiration, and that with few others than Eng- 
 lishmen or their descendants, while the " Father " 
 and the " Preserver " of America are subjects of 
 enthusiastic eulogy in every civilized nation. 
 
 The qualifications of mind and heart which 
 raised this man of humble origin, lowly life, and 
 self-distrust to this great elevation should be 
 deeply pondered by every young man. They 
 were 
 
 1. HONESTY. His success in life, from the 
 first, was mainly the result of this trait in his 
 character. He would have failed in every de- 
 partment of life without it. As a laborer, a flat- 
 boatman, clerk, surveyor, legislator, lawyer, and 
 as President, the secret of his power was the un- 
 qualified confidence his employers and the peo- 
 ple had in his incorruptible, unswerving integrity. 
 Every one who knew him knew they could de- 
 pend upon him in every undertaking, from the 
 smallest pecuniary transaction to the emancipa- 
 tion of a race. Failure was possible in all these ;
 
 THE SECRET OF HIS SUCCESS. 179 
 
 but in calculating the probabilities of success, it 
 was in no case necessary to make any allowance 
 for possible insincerity or evasion on the part 
 of Abraham Lincoln. He had superiors in elo- 
 quence and intellectual gifts, and few prominent 
 men who were not superior to him in general ed- 
 ucation and acquirements. With a fair share 
 of all these, and excelling in the one great ele- 
 ment of his success, he rose immeasurably above 
 them. It is to be observed that this was not 
 honesty in its limited sense, as applied to truth 
 and rectitude in business relations, but in its 
 broader sense of justice, respect for the rights 
 of all men, pecuniary, civil, and political. While 
 honesty made him President, it dictated his im- 
 mortal Proclamation of Emancipation, and ren- 
 dered him the unfaltering champion of the lib- 
 erty and equality of all men. 
 
 2. HUMILITY. In the highest reach of his 
 fame, in the hours of most brilliant success, in 
 his broadest grasp of power, not a trace of pride 
 or arrogance was seen in his simple and trans- 
 parent nature. His elevation he attributed to 
 the too partial estimate of the people. His suc- 
 cesses he referred, at once and always, to " the 
 gracious favor of Almighty God."
 
 180 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 This unaffected humility, while gathering hon- 
 ors and achieving triumphs which would have 
 lifted other men's heads high in self-confidence 
 and pride, enkindled a love in the hearts of the 
 people for him of which they then knew little 
 till it burst forth in irrepressible grief at his 
 loss. It is a remarkable commentary on human 
 perverseness, that while millions cherish the 
 memory of an imperfect man with affection, for 
 benefactions rendered with modesty, the larger 
 part of them regard without emotion the infinitely 
 sweeter and more profound. humility and benev- 
 olence of bur Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 
 
 3. " CHARITY suffereth long and is kind ; 
 charity envieth not ; charity vaunteth not itself, 
 is not puffed up ; * * is not easily provoked ; 
 thinketh no evil." It is not too much to say 
 that this beautiful language may be used with 
 little qualification in describing the mind and 
 heart of Abraham Lincoln. That such attractive 
 Christian virtues are not more frequently recog- 
 nized and rewarded by the people, is only be- 
 cause they are not exhibited by the men of in- 
 tellect who aspire to public favor. 
 
 4. INDUSTRY and PERSEVERANCE. From child- 
 hood till death, Abraham Lincoln was a willing,
 
 FAITH IN GOD. 181 
 
 cheerful, hopeful son of toil. No labor was 
 avoided because of its severity. The idea prob- 
 ably never occurred to him that any kind of 
 hard labor in the fields, woods, on the river, or 
 mental drudgery in his profession was too hard 
 or not sufficiently dignified for him. His rough, 
 horny hands, badges of humble labor, were not 
 to him either suggestive of disgrace or of pride. 
 Met by disheartening discouragements, he strug- 
 gled hopefully against hope, persevered against 
 the greatest obstacles, and, whether elated or 
 depressed in spirits, ivorked on. So great was 
 his mental and physical exhaustion, at the time 
 of the battle of Chicamauga, that he said: 
 u Would to God I could rest in death on the 
 field with those brave boys ! ' Exhausted, dis- 
 spirited, apparently discouraged, he toiled on 
 till that last, dreamless sleep fell upon him. 
 
 5. FAITH IN GOD. "Ask and ye shall receive." 
 He believed that God would give him wisdom, 
 guide him by his counsels, and maintain the 
 cause of justice and truth. It was doubtless 
 this confidence that lifted him above unjust ex- 
 pedients, and gave him that fearless adherence 
 to principle which marked his whole life. He 
 was confident that the great struggle for free-
 
 182 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 dom and justice was embraced in God's plans, 
 would be shaped by his purposes; that he was 
 only a humble instrument whose business it was 
 to execute God's will. Without this faith, he 
 would have hesitated oftentimes and faltered, but 
 to falter was tp fail and bring ruin and disaster 
 upon the cause of his country. 
 
 Honesty, humility, industry, benevolence, and 
 trust in God's providence such were elements 
 in the character which God, in his love and 
 mercy, placed at the head of our nation in its 
 trying hour. To him be the praise. 
 
 II. THE THEATER. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's usefulness and his fame were 
 almost wholly due to the practice of those prin- 
 ciples and the exhibition of those traits which 
 lead us to trust that he was a true Christian ; 
 yet he met his death in the box of a theater, a 
 circumstance which was not only deeply humil- 
 iating and painful to those who loved and hon- 
 ored him most, but one which, by the force of 
 example, is fraught with irreparable evil. As 
 time passes away, and the faults and follies 
 which are 4 inseparable from human character fall 
 from his name into forgetfulness, this fact, stead-
 
 THE THEATER. 183 
 
 fast as his fame, will be read and remembered. 
 And yet this circumstance can scarcely be plead 
 in honor of those houses of iniquity. The fact 
 that the stage was selected for the scene of the 
 foulest deed in the annals of crime, that the 
 perpetrator was one of the most popular in the 
 theatrical profession, and that his immediate 
 accomplices were habitues of such places, are 
 surely not facts to which any advocate of thea- 
 ters can refer with complaisance. 
 
 - The Christian will remember that, if Mr. Lin- 
 coln had boldly taken position with Christ's dis- 
 ciples, and consistently adhered to the precepts 
 of the Gospel, he would not have died in the 
 theater, and might not have fallen at all at the 
 hand of an assassin. 
 
 We may charitably suppose that Mr. Lincoln 
 visited the theater as a momentary relaxation 
 of his overtaxed mind, as an opportunity to 
 cast aside his cares and relieve himself from his 
 anxieties. Why may riot others do the same 
 and remain innocent? What evil is there in 
 the gaslight, music, arid pantomime of the stage ? 
 Let us answer these questions briefly : 
 
 1. The playwrights who construct the fict'ons 
 now displayed upon the stage are, without a sol-
 
 184 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 itary exception, enemies of our Lord and Savior, 
 and hence at heart scoffers at piety ; most of them 
 have been open and profane revilers of pure re- 
 ligion ; many of them grossly immoral, sensual, 
 and debauched. These traits exhibited in their 
 lives permeate their productions, and are hidden, 
 in part only, by a tawdry veil of mock morality. 
 Are such writers fit instructors of those who 
 wish to attain purity of mind and life ? 
 
 2. The play-actors, men and women who and 
 what are they ? It is sufficient to answer that 
 the very names " actor" and " actress" have be- 
 come the synonyms of immorality and vice. 
 There are, it is true, exceptions. There are 
 even those in whom a solitary virtue shines out 
 with peculiar brightness, but these are exceptions. 
 The rule is, that not only the moralities but the 
 decencies of life are ignored and disregarded. 
 Are such persons such as those who would avoid 
 the misery and ruin of vicious courses should sit 
 beneath and listen to ? 
 
 3. The surroundings of the theater what are 
 they ? Not a house of that kind in the world 
 but casts its shadow and sustains by its influ- 
 ence a drinking saloon, a gambling den, and, 
 more or less directly, other places not fit to be
 
 THE THEATER. 185 
 
 named. Why are these avenues to destruction 
 and death crowded, with open portals, close 
 around the theater ? Because the entrance into 
 the theater is the first step into their jaws. If 
 fascinated by the false lights into the first, the 
 steps are easily and almost certainly taken, by 
 short gradations, into the others. 
 
 4. The pretense that the rewards of virtue 
 and punishments of vice are exhibited there, is 
 a sham as obvious as their tawdry costumes. 
 No reasonable mind would pretend that such 
 characters, in such a place, would seek to pro- 
 mote purity among the people. Their success 
 in obtaining money is dependent upon, and in- 
 separable from, their success in depraving and 
 polluting the minds of their auditors. 
 
 5. The pleasure they offer by their displays 
 is not worthy the name. The fact that it sickens 
 and palls so quickly on the senses of even those 
 who have succeeded in drowning their conscien- 
 tious scruples against such exhibitions, is one 
 reason why the deeper excitement of the saloon 
 and the gaming-table is so quickly sought by 
 its devotees. 
 
 6. The audience of the stage of whom is it 
 composed? Not a thief, robber, gambler, bur-
 
 186 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 glar, or harlot can be found, in any city, who does 
 not make the theater a place of regular resort. 
 Without the patronage of the classes of most 
 grossly immoral people, not one-fourth of these 
 institutions could be sustained. The perform- 
 ances are, and must of necessity be, adapted to 
 their tastes and preferences. Many respectable 
 and moral people are found associated with 
 them in witnessing the same exhibitions ; but is 
 such the company in which those who desire to 
 honor God and win everlasting life would desire 
 their Lord and Master to find them ? Is it pos- 
 sible to plunge in such a pool without contam- 
 ination ? 
 
 But from this sad chapter, this humiliating 
 circumstance, let us turn away. 
 
 III. THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 
 
 In no chapter of the history of man was the 
 sovereignty of God more clearly manifest than 
 in the American civil war. It stood out so ob- 
 vious as to attract the attention of the most 
 stolid and unbelieving. As each inexplicable 
 event, disaster, and defeat burst upon the coun- 
 try, the question seemed to rise involuntarily on 
 every hand, "What are God's designs in this?"
 
 PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 187 
 
 Many of these purposes very soon were un- 
 veiled. We all have seen the necessity of the 
 defeat of the Union army at Bull Run, and 
 other reverses in the early part of the conflict, 
 and know that without them no lasting peace 
 could have been attained. This subject opens a 
 wide and fruitful field for most interesting inves- 
 tigation, which will doubtless hereafter be trav- 
 ersed by some one capable of the task. Let us 
 notice a few evidences of God's providence : 
 
 1. All Christian men of thought and intelli- 
 gence knew that God would destroy slavery. 
 For seventy years this prophecy was reiterated 
 in every part of the Christian world. How he 
 would do it none could tell. When that in- 
 stitution had attained the very summit of its 
 insolent pride and its triumphant influence, and 
 seemed intrenched in impregnable power, it sud- 
 denly fell. 
 
 2. When God had prepared his instrument, 
 and was moving him forward to do his work, 
 how poor and inadequate that instrument ap- 
 peared! Bebeldom laughed aloud in derision. 
 "Ape," "idiot," "buffoon," "imbecile," were 
 epithets that came from every rebel chief, as 
 the sad, self-distrustful embassador of God's
 
 188 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 justice advanced to the seat of Government. 
 The wise heads of Europe were shaken in utter 
 distrust of the " ignorant backwoods attorney." 
 Patriotic hearts failed as their anxious eyes 
 detected supposed evidences of vascillation arid 
 fear. As time progressed and events crowded 
 fast, conviction and surprise took the place of dis- 
 trust, and the London Times exclaimed, " That 
 ignorant pilot may yet blunder into port." 
 There was no blundering about it ; God makes 
 no mistakes. 
 
 3. The .work of deliverance was long in prep- 
 aration. While the slave-mother was bewailing 
 her stolen offspring, while the whip whistled in 
 its swift descent upon the quivering back, while 
 the coffle plodded its sorrowful way, the ener- 
 gies for reprieve and retribution were gathering 
 strength. 
 
 A tough, elastic physical constitution was re- 
 quired for the emancipator; a weakling would 
 have failed. It was prepared in the Western 
 clearing, and tested by wrestling with the trees 
 of the forest. Prudence and caution were requi- 
 site ; inconsiderate or passionate rashness wouid 
 have ruined the cause. High moral qualities 
 were indispensable incorruptible integrity, per-
 
 PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 189 
 
 severance, hopefulness, intense hatred of injus- 
 tice, and delicate regard for human rights, hu- 
 mility, moral courage, and endurance inflexible 
 firmness for principle and, as a sheet-anchor, 
 childlike confidence in God. 
 
 These were furnished forth from a backwoods 
 cabin, molded by an unknown and illiterate 
 Christian mother, disciplined by the hardships 
 and vicissitudes of toilsome pioneer life, led by 
 gradual steps of promotion into power, and 
 brought into requisition at the exact time when 
 needed. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln's first nomination for the Pres- 
 idency was seemingly the result of accident, and 
 against the probabilities as understood by his 
 supporters. This and all the other events of his 
 rise and progress in life, when viewed in the 
 light of God's purpose to destroy slavery, ex- 
 hibit design, and the most exact adaptation of 
 the means to the end in view. The preparation 
 of the work is equally obvious to us now. The 
 aggressions of the slave power, the defeat of 
 the antislavery candidate four years before, 
 when his success would have precipitated the 
 conflict before either the people or the leader 
 were prepared for the Avork even the bountiful
 
 190 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 harvests poured upon us during the great strug- 
 gle, when our barns and store-houses were 
 crowded to overflowing with the lavish gifts of 
 God's providence. 
 
 The combination of the " blunders " and " ac- 
 cidents ' of the war, in the establishment of 
 union, liberty, and justice, is referred to by the 
 New York Herald as something strange and 
 inexplicable in history. In an issue in March, 
 1867, that irreligious paper says : 
 
 "It is curious to note how the accidents of the war 
 and the blunders of opposing politicians have assisted 
 in the work of this great political revolution. A deci- 
 sive defeat of the rebels at the first Bull Run fight might 
 have saved Southern slavery in the collapse of the Jeff. 
 Davis confederacy. Had McClellan succeeded at Rich- 
 mond, there would most likely have been no Emancipa- 
 tion Proclamation from President Lincoln. Had An- 
 drew Johnson, when called to take his place, convened 
 Congress for the legislative work of Southern recon- 
 struction instead of undertaking it himself, the States 
 concerned would douhtless have been restored upon a 
 half-way compromise on negro suffrage. Had those 
 States followed the example of Tennessee, they would 
 now be in Congress on the same terms. Had the Dem- 
 ocrats in the House voted for this last bill as it came 
 from the Senate, they would have secured to the leading 
 rebels the privilege, now denied them, of assisting in
 
 THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD. 191 
 
 rebuilding their respective States. As our failures in 
 the war in defense of slavery brought about the extirpa- 
 tion of slavery, so all our failures in half-way plans of 
 restoration have worked out a full and decisive settle- 
 ment on the basis of civil and political equality." 
 
 " Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee." 
 The demonstration of God's providence afforded 
 by the facts of our history are a source of great 
 joy and encouragement to every Christian patriot. 
 We may labor on in the cause of liberty and 
 human brotherhood in the whole cause of Christ, 
 with the perfect assurance that the very machi- 
 nations and inventions of the devil and of op- 
 pressors will be made by the great Ruler to 
 work with and for us. With such evidences of 
 God's aid, despondency is sin, discouragement is 
 doubt of God's faithfulness.
 
 192 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS CHARACTER FROM EUROPE. 
 
 ffr \\ir~ C?*y 
 
 j r HERE was no circumstance attending 
 the bereavement of the. American peo- 
 ple so grateful to them, in their grief, 
 as the expressions of sympathy and appreciation 
 which came from Europe. The avowed and 
 active hostility of the ruling classes in England 
 and France ; the words of reproach and ridicule 
 which came by every steamer during the con- 
 tinuance of the war, and the aid they rendered 
 to the rebels had aroused the resentment of the 
 nation to an extent that rendered a war of retal- 
 iation on our part a probable event. This ani- 
 mosity was drowned in tears over Lincoln's 
 grave. The London Times, the busy and able 
 detractor of our country, said : 
 
 " The news will be received in this country 
 with sorrow as sincere and profound as it awoke 
 even in the United States."
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS CHARACTER. 193 
 
 This proved to be true. The sensation pro- 
 duced throughout the kingdom was intense, and 
 pervaded all classes from the throne to the 
 hovel. The Queen, without delay, sent a letter 
 of condolence to the bereaved family. Both 
 houses of Parliament, meeting, passed resolu- 
 tions of sympathy with the American people. A 
 nobleman who had favored the rebel cause said: 
 " Nothing but the death of our own Queen could 
 have produced such sincere sorrow in the breast 
 of every Englishman." Public meetings were 
 held, business suspended, buildings draped in 
 black, and every indication of public grief man- 
 ifested in all parts of the country. The effect 
 was similar, though perhaps to a less extent, in 
 Germany, Russia, Italy, and France. Even the 
 Sultan of Turkey, separated so far from us by 
 space, ideas, and religion, sent his words of con- 
 dolence and sympathy. 
 
 The London News said: 
 
 "In all time to come, among all who think 
 of manhood more than rank, the name of Lin- 
 coln will be held in reverence." 
 
 The London Telegraph said : 
 
 " From corruption, hatred, jealousy, or un- 
 
 charitableness this great ruler was wholly free." 
 13
 
 194 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 The London Globe said : 
 
 " The news from America will send a thrill 
 of horror throughout the land. It is too soon to 
 estimate the breadth and depth of the calamity 
 to Europe and America. Mr. Lincoln had come 
 nobly through a great ordeal. He had extorted 
 the approval even of his opponents. On this 
 side of the water they had reluctantly come to 
 admire his firmness, fairness, and sagacity." 
 
 The Star said : 
 
 " While the civilized world will lament the 
 cruel death of Mr. Lincoln, now that the pro- 
 slavery rebellion has been put down, and slavr 
 ery received its death-blow, he has accomplished 
 the mission he was raised to fulfill, and leaves 
 behind a pure and spotless name the name of 
 a martyr as well as a patriot." 
 
 The London Spectator published an elaborate 
 review of the character of Mr. Lincoln, from 
 which the following paragraph is taken : 
 
 " We all remember the animated eulogium on 
 Gen. Washington which Lord Macaulay passed, 
 parenthetically, in his essay on Hampden : ' It 
 was when, to the sullen tyranny of Laud and 
 Charles, had succeeded the fierce conflict of 
 sects and factions, ambitious of ascendency or
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS CHARACTER. 195 
 
 burning for revenge ; it was when the vices and 
 ignorance which the old tyranny had engen- 
 dered, threatened the new freedom with de- 
 struction, that England missed the sobriety, the 
 self-command, the perfect soundness of judg- 
 ment, the perfect rectitude of intention to which 
 the history of revolutions furnishes no parallel, 
 or furnishes a parallel in Washington alone.' 
 If that high eulogium was fully earned, as it 
 was, by the first great President of the United 
 States, we doubt if it has not been as well 
 earned by the Illinois peasant proprietor and 
 village ' lawyer/ whom, by some divine inspira- 
 tion of Providence, the Republican caucus of 
 1860 substituted for Mr. Seward as their nom- 
 inee for the President's chair." 
 
 The satirical London Punchy which had selected 
 its sharpest arrows for the ungainly emancipator 
 while living, came forward with its apology and 
 tribute, which is given below entire: 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 
 FOULLY ASSASSINATED APRIL 14, 1865. 
 
 You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln's bier 
 You, who with mocking pencil wont to trace, 
 
 Broad for the self-complacent British sneer, 
 
 His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face;
 
 196 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hair; 
 
 His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease; 
 His lack of all we prize as debonair, 
 
 Of power or will to shine, of art to please; 
 
 You, whose smart pen backed up the pencil's laugh, 
 Judging each step, as though the way were plain ; 
 
 Reckless, so it could point its paragraph, 
 Of chiefs perplexity or people's pain. 
 
 Beside this corpse, that bears for winding-sheet 
 The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear anew, 
 
 Between the mourners at his head and feet 
 Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? 
 
 Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer, 
 To tame my pencil and confute my pen ; 
 
 To make me own this kind of princes' peer 
 This rail-splitter a true-born king of men. 
 
 My shallow judgment I had learned to rue, 
 Noting how to occasion's height he rose; 
 
 How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true; 
 How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows. 
 
 How humble, yet how hopeful he could be; 
 
 How in good fortune or ill the same; 
 Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he, 
 
 Thirsty for gold nor feverish for fame. 
 
 He went about his work such work as few 
 Ever had laid on head, and heart, and hand 
 
 As one who knows, Where there 's a task to do, 
 
 Man's honest will must Heaven's good grace command;
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS CHARACTER. 197 
 
 Who trusts the strength will with the burden grow, 
 That God makes instruments to work his will, 
 
 If but that will we can arrive to know, 
 Nor tamper with the weights of good and ill. 
 
 So he went forth to battle on the side 
 
 That he felt clear was Liberty's and Eight's, 
 
 As in his peasant boyhood he had plied 
 
 His warfare with rude Nature's thwarting mights 
 
 The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil; 
 
 The iron-bark, that turns the lumberer's ax; 
 The rapids, that o'erbears the boatman's toil ; 
 
 The prairie, hiding the mazed wanderer's tracks ; 
 
 The ambushed Indian, and the prowling bear 
 Such were the needs that helped his youth to train; 
 
 Rough culture, but such trees large fruit may bear, 
 If but their stocks be of right girth and grain. 
 
 So he grew up a destined work to do, 
 
 And lived to do it; four long suffering years 
 
 Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report lived through, 
 And then he heard the hisses change to cheers, 
 
 The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise, 
 
 And took both with the same unwavering mood ; 
 
 Till, as he came on light from darkling days, 
 
 And seemed to touch the goal from where he stood, 
 
 A felon hand, between the goal and him, 
 
 Reached from behind his back, a trigger press' d 
 
 And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim, 
 Those gaunt, long laboring limbs were laid to rest!
 
 198 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 The words of mercy were upon his lips, 
 Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen, 
 
 When this vile murderer brought swift eclipse 
 To thoughts of peace on earth, good-will to men. 
 
 The Old World and the New, from sea to sea, 
 Utter one voice of sympathy and shame! 
 
 Sore heart, so stopped when it at last beat high I 
 Sad life, cut short just as its triumph camel 
 
 A deed accursed! Strokes have been struck before 
 By the assassin's hand, whereof men doubt 
 
 If more of horror or disgrace they bore; 
 But thy foul crime, like Cain's, stands darkly out 
 
 Vile hand, that brandest murder on a strife, 
 Whate'er its grounds, stoutly and nobly striven ; 
 
 And with the martyr's crown crownest a life 
 With much to praise, little to be forgiven ! 
 
 Young man, friend and brother, we have seen 
 what honesty, Christian principles, and persever- 
 ing industry accomplished for an obscure pioneer 
 laborer. If we practice the same virtues, we can 
 not fail to win the confidence and affection of 
 our fellow-men, or fail in usefulness to ourselves, 
 our friends, and our country. If we avoid his 
 errors, we will also avoid many of his sorrows. 
 If we give our hearts to Jesus, we may fail of 
 the distinction achieved by him on earth, but we
 
 TRIBUTES TO HIS CHARACTER. 199 
 
 will be crowned with honors before which the 
 brightest earthly glory is as emptiness and van- 
 ity. Let us stand up for ourselves, our honor, 
 our purity, our manhood. Let us defend justice, 
 liberty, and human rights, at any cost, and at 
 all hazards. Above all, let us stand firm for 
 JESUS, who was not ashamed to die for us ; firm 
 in honoring him by obeying him and following 
 his example ; and may his mighty arm uphold 
 us to the end ! 
 
 / 
 - /, /
 
 200 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 
 
 BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. 
 
 / 
 
 0, SLOW to smite and swift to spare ! 
 
 Gentle, and merciful, and just ! 
 Who in the fear of God did'st bear 
 
 The sword of power a nation a trust- 
 In sorrow by thy bier we stand, 
 
 Amid the awe that hushes all, 
 And speak the anguish of a land 
 
 That shook with horror at thy fall. 
 
 Thy task is done the bond are free; 
 
 We bear thee to thy honored grave, 
 Whose proudest monuments shall be 
 
 The broken fetters of the slave. 
 
 Pure was thy life; its bloody close 
 
 Has placed thee with the sons of ligl t, 
 
 Among the noble host of those 
 
 Who perished in the cause of Right
 
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