973.7L63 BR632 Henry Munroe Rogers The Lincoln Era. Commandery of the State of Massachus etts Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER Commander of t^e ^>tate of ®$amti)umtfi Qfrilitavv £>toer of ti)t Loyal legion of ti)t aniteD ^tatejs THE LINCOLN ERA BY HENRY MUNROE ROGERS LATE ACTING ASSISTANT PAYMASTER UNITED STATES NAVY IN COMMEMORATION OF THE ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN FEBRUARY 12, 1809 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/lincolneraOOroge 1T3. r 7Lt3 L,^ THE LINCOLN ERA I WAS born almost exactly thirty years after the birth of Abraham Lincoln. I belong fairly, there- fore, in what Owen Wister would have us call ' The Lincoln Era.' At my birth Lincoln's formative period had begun. He was then in the Illinois Legislature. His fruition period was a long way off; his recognition by his own country and the world at large still farther away. In fact, not till after his death, April 15, 1865, was he recognized as one who 'belongs to the ages.' His apotheosis, his place among the supermen, has come within my own later lifetime. Let me set down two or three facts bearing upon this assertion of non-recognition. In the twelfth edition of a book of about eight hundred pages, now before me, 'The Political Text Book or Encyclopedia,' published in 1860 and edited by M. W. Cluskey, Postmaster of the House of Representatives of the United States, the name of Abraham Lincoln does not appear at all in text, or index, notwithstanding Abraham Lincoln's service in the House, in the Thirtieth Congress (1847), where many names are cited now buried in oblivion. In the additional appendix to this book the only allusions are 'the position of the parties in the present Presidential contest of I860' and in the index to this same appendix the words, 'Abraham Lincoln, Letter accepting the nomination for President, page 797.' When I, in 1860, at about twenty-one years of age, and then in Harvard, heard the name Abraham Lin- coln, Presidential candidate of the Republican Party, I think I had never heard his name before. I asked, ( i ) 'Who is he?' He was to me, at least, 'the unknown man.' There was not a single prominent man in the East who proclaimed Lincoln until just before his nomina- tion, and after Lincoln had made his impressive, un- answerable speech at the Cooper Union in New York, February 27, 1860. That speech waked up some of the thinking men of the East to the idea, 'A man has come to Court!' He was bitterly criticized and patronized even then, because among other things his black gloves did not fit him and were twisted at the finger ends. We boys of the Latin School knew of 'Bleeding Kansas/ of the runaway slaves, Burns and Shadrack, and something of John Brown; we helped to make the Tremont Temple and Music Hall pleasant for Wendell Phillips and the Abolitionists in 1859; but we knew nothing of Abraham Lincoln as the Moses, to lead the Nation out of the Wilderness. I had seen the chains across the entrance to Court Square from Court Street around the Court House, to prevent 'the mob' from interfering with the courts of Justice, perhaps at the moment Richard H. Dana, Jr., was arguing in the Shadrack case; and I knew, probably, of the attack on the Court House by Frank Sanborn and Thomas W. Higginson and others, though I did not know then the names of the leaders in the attempt at rescue of An- thony Burns. Some twenty years afterwards I was of counsel in the last case tried in Massachusetts where a former run- away slave was a party plaintiff. But that is another story, recorded elsewhere.* We are told that a son of William H. Seward, the expected nominee of the Republican Convention of *Memories of Ninety Years, — by Henry Munroe Rogers — Houghton, Mifflin Co., Boston. 1928. ( 2 ) May, 1860, was working in Albany on Thurlow Weed's paper The Times Union. That he called up to the foreman of the printing department a telegram he had just received from Chicago, 'Abraham Lincoln is nom- inated for President on the third ballot. 7 The foreman was hesitating and spluttered back, 'S-a-y — What damn name is that you said was nominated for President?' At the first election of Lincoln many of us in college marched in the torchlight procession of the Bell and Everett Party. We believed that slaves should be paid for; that emancipation might be accomplished and could be accomplished by statesmanship without war and the horrors attendant upon war; in 1864, at Lin- coln's second election the Bell and Everett Party almost to a man followed Edward Everett in his unequivocal support of Abraham Lincoln. Patriotic men differed with Abraham Lincoln and his policies. He knew, for example, that Kentucky must be saved for the Union, or hasten disaster and perhaps overthrow of the Union. 'How long,' wrote James Rus- sell Lowell, a patriot, 'shall we save Kentucky and lose our self-respect?' Abraham Lincoln, incarnate patriotism, declared 'We must save Kentucky at all hazards'; and he knew and he did. Every member of the Lincoln Cabinet believed he was superior to Abraham Lincoln, Seward and Chase in the forefront. Lincoln's treatment of these men and his letters to them exalt him to-day if never before. Event follows event. In Missouri, John C. Fremont, 'The Pathfinder,' for example, announced his policy. Lincoln, patient beyond human conception, lets him down gently, when most men in his position would have crucified him. Think one instant, in the light of our present knowledge, of that same John C. Fremont sup- planting the President. ( 3 ) It may not be generally remembered that Abraham Lincoln's name was mentioned for Vice-President on the Fremont Republican ticket at Philadelphia, June 17, 1856, but it was objected that he was not known, and Fremont and Dayton became the nominees of the party against James Buchanan, nominee of the Demo- cratic Party. The letter of John C. Fremont of July 8, 1856, accepting the nomination to the Presidency, is worthy of the review of any one interested in the burning questions of that day. It seems to me, at least, a letter that would have received the endorsement of Abraham Lincoln had his name been on the Fremont ticket as candidate for the Vice-Presidency. James Buchanan was, we know, overwhelmingly elected Presi- dent. My desire is to reproduce, to myself and to any in- terested, the atmosphere of 1863-1864-1865 as affect- ing the Lincoln Era. I am not a historian, only a sur- vivor of those vividly remembered days when the Country was in its greatest peril — when Treason stalked abroad; when long-time friends of the North repudiated Lincoln and his works; when Copperheads were blatant — yes, triumphant, for they declared the war a failure; that the blood of North and South had been shed in vain and more bloodshed would be crim- inal; and that peace now was the great and dominat- ing desire of the people — and they were the mouthpiece of the people — people with a capital P. This seems to me worth while, so let me recall some of the things that we then knew, and which we, in active service, had to reckon with, as factors to be fought, as much as Confederate armies and navies, as well as a Great Britain and France only waiting oppor- tunity to stab our Country to the heart. In 1864, the election of Abraham Lincoln to succeed (4) himself was in grave doubt. Great opposition to his nomination had developed in 1863, and, after the meet- ing of Congress in December of that year, opposition was increasing day by day and culminated in the 'secret circular' issued late in February, 1864. This circular was referred to by the Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles, in his 'Diary' under date of February 22, ' A circular "strictly private" signed by Senator Pom- eroy and in favor of Mr. Chase for President, has been detected and published.' There was mention in it of the 'one-term principle' as essential to the safety of our institutions, but plainly other objections to the renomination were more force- ful. The reelection of Lincoln was declared to be 'prac- tically impossible,' followed by the declaration that 'more of the qualities needed in a President during the next four years' were to be found in Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, the Honorable Salmon P. Chase, than were 'combined in any other available candidate.' This 'strictly private' circular soon found its way into the newspapers, and Secretary Chase hastened to deny any knowledge of it before its public appearance. In a letter to Lincoln he admitted, however, the fact of his candidacy and added: 'If there is anything in my action, or position, which in your judgment will pre- judice the public interest under my charge, I beg you to say so.' In his reply, Lincoln let it be known 'he was not shocked nor surprised' by the circular, as he was not without information concerning Senator Pomeroy's ac- tivities in connection with the matter. But he had known 'just as little of these things as his friends had reported,' and he added, with characteristic generosity, 'Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury ( 5 ) Department is a question I will not allow myself to con- sider from any standpoint other than my judgment of the public service. And in that view, I do not perceive occasion for a change.' Among the Senators opposed to the renomination of the President were Benjamin F. Wade, James W. Grimes, and Representative Henry Winter Davis, for the following summarized reasons: 'The President is felt to be too easy-going; to be disposed to give too much time to trifles; to be unbusinesslike in his methods; slow and hesitating where vigorous action is required'; and the objection in general was that in capacity and temperament he was inadequate to the responsibilities of the head of the Nation at such a momentous period. In June, 1864, Lincoln was renominated at Baltimore for reelection. His opponent was General George B. McClellan on a platform declaring, among other things, the war a failure. Governor Seymour of New York and Vallandigham of Ohio were in accord on this. On August 14, there was a meeting at the house of David Dudley Field in New York, at which Horace Greeley, Park Goodwin, Henry Winter 1 Davis, and twenty or more others were present, and as a result of the meeting a committee was appointed to request Mr. Lincoln to withdraw as a candidate, and it is said Charles Sumner shared in the opinion of the limita- tions of Mr. Lincoln and thought a change of candidate desirable, 'but only with Mr. Lincoln's free and vol- untary withdrawal.' The same position was taken by Senator Collamore and others. A week later, Thurlow Weed, a political leader, ad- dressed a letter to Mr. Seward, in which he used these words: 'When, ten days since, I wrote to Mr. Lincoln that his reelection was an impossibility, I also told him (6) that the information would soon come to him through other channels. It has doubtless ere this reached him. At any rate nobody here doubts it, nor do I see any- body from other States who authorizes the slightest hope of success. Mr. Raymond, who has just left me, says that, unless some prompt and bold step be now taken, all is lost. The people are wild for peace.' On the day Mr. Weed wrote to Mr. Seward, the President penned the following memorandum: 'This morning, as for several days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be reelected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the Presi- dent-elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards. Upon the back of this memorandum, which was so folded that it could not be read, Mr. Lincoln asked the members of his Cabinet to write their names, with- holding from them even a hint of the memorandum. Not till after the reelection of Lincoln did the contents of the memorandum become known. Then followed victory after victory to the Union armies, Mobile captured, Atlanta captured, Sheridan victorious over Early in the Shenandoah Valley, and later at Fisher's Hill, and, later still, at Cedar Creek, turning defeat into victory. E. B. Washburne, of Illinois, Mr. Lincoln's friend and supporter, in October wrote: 'It is no use to de- ceive ourselves; there is imminent danger of our losing the State.' Lincoln had vision. He knew better, even if he did lose Illinois. He wrote across Washburne 's envelope, 'Stampeded,' and laid the letter aside. November came and 'the boys in blue' shouted: 'We ( 7 ) are coming, Father Abraham, a hundred thousand strong'; then the great heart of the 'common people/ the bone and sinew of a country, the people whose hearts respond to an honest and simple heart, a God-fearing, God-trusting American people, rose in their might and swept like a torrent to victory, overturning Copper- heads, pacifists, traitors, intrenched politicians, and every one who declared the war a failure and the ideals and the cause to which Abraham Lincoln had dedicated his life were not to endure; that there was to be no United States of America forevermore. The people had not been deceived by clamor, by de- traction ; they had not been swerved by demagogues any more than by open enemies ; they would have a country, and they would follow 'Honest Old Abe/ whose God- like patience had been tried beyond human endurance by those who felt they knew everything, and who, as a fact, had no vision. Major Henry S. Burrage, who died in March, 1926, calls our attention to the fact that the South had been no uninterested spectator of the progress of political feeling in the North. The importance of the growing opposition to the reelection of Mr. Lincoln, that had developed in the loyal States in the early part of the year, had been fully recognized by the leaders of the Confederacy. The Honorable Benjamin H. Hill, Sen- ator from Georgia in the Confederate Congress, wrote to the Honorable Alexander H. Stephens, March 14, 1864, that Lincoln's defeat at the ensuing election would be followed by peace. Equally clear was it to him that Mr. Lincoln's ejection from power would be the end of the war; and he added, 'I think, therefore, that policy, as well as necessity, indicates that we should now make a direct appeal to the people of the United States against Lincoln and his policy and his party, and make (S) them join issue at the polls in November — we shaping that issue/ November 1-3, 1864, Major Burrage says, 'I was a prisoner at the headquarters of General A. P. Hill in the outskirts of Petersburg; and as I was paroled, await- ing some inquiries with reference to my capture, I had opportunities for frequent conversations with the mem- bers of General Hill's staff. Their greatest interest in these interviews had reference to the impending Presi- dential election in the North. Without exception I found them strong in the conviction that General Mc- Clellan was to be the successful candidate. To my assertion that they were deceiving themselves, they were unwilling to give any consideration whatever. Their information was from sources they evidently deemed trustworthy in the highest degree, and they remained as firm in this confidence as I in mine.' What happened has now passed into history, and all the doub tings of that time have disappeared, but those who have lived through them will never forget their anxiety and their delight when on November 8, 1864, the verdict of the people was announced. One of the most significant utterances which I know was made by Major-General Charles Devens when he said, in his great oration before the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States in Philadelphia in 1890, 'that the day after the fall of Richmond he rode in the headquarters wagon side by side with Abraham Lincoln through the streets of the captured Confeder- ate stronghold. That Lincoln seemed to him weary and tired, graver than he had ever seen him, less rejoicing in the triumph that had been won than anxious about the new problems looming up before him. He seemed (9 ) like one who felt that his life's work was done, and would willingly rest from his labors that his works might follow him/ While Lincoln after visiting Richmond was return- ing by steamer to Washington, he read aloud to the friends who were gathered around from his favorite 'Macbeth/ and this particular part he read and re- read to them, and to me it has wonderful significance: 'Duncan is in his grave. After life's fitful fever he sleeps well. Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison, Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing Can touch him further.' It seems to me as if he then had a forecasting of the coming event. At the time of the death of President Lincoln, I was in service on one of the rivers in North Carolina and the news trickled through with some un- certain sounds at first, but when we were convinced of the truth and knew that Andrew Johnson was to be the successor of Abraham Lincoln, we were conscious of a great overwhelming pity for our enemies who were not to have in their great need the guidance and con- trolling influence of a man so human, so patriotic, so broad in his conviction, so competent, that good could be brought out of evil and that there would be through his guidance and the support of the people a cementing anew of the bonds of affection and friendship that had at one time existed between the North and the South. We felt that Andrew Johnson would bring about a reign of terror in the South, and for the next ten years the extremists on the part of the North put back, as it seems to us of that day, the real healing and reestab- (10) lishment which Abraham Lincoln, if he had lived, would have brought almost immediately — the healing of wounds and the lessening of suffering that had been caused by the terrible war. The spirit of the South was like that of the North. We all wanted peace. The war had been fought to a finish; the great principles for which the North had fought had been established and, had Lincoln lived, his influence would have been supreme. The 'carpetbaggers' of the North incited such enmity in the South and such gratuitous mortification was in- flicted in the South that to this day, in spite of the great World War, there are things not yet healed. The impossibility of combining the life of an in- dividual with an epoch is axiomatic. As has been said, 'It is indeed a vain thing/ and yet the impress of the Lincoln Era upon myself and the effect that it has had upon my life lead me to venture into a brief introductory allusion to it. First, let it be remembered that to the world at large the Lincoln Era was from 1860 to 1865. In less than five years the man — Abraham Lincoln — passed from comparative obscurity into the glaring limelight of uni- versal observation; from the 'unknown man' of 1860 in- to the most conspicuous figure of an epoch, wherein the greatest republic of any time settled forever the ques- tions of union or disunion within its borders; of free- dom or slavery as its corner-stone. There is one outstanding fact in the Lincoln Era which overshadows all others, and it is this: that four million human beings held in bondage were by the stroke of a pen made free and that slavery in the United States thereby became extinct forever. The (ii) second fact, almost as impressive, is that Abraham Lincoln was the instrument chosen of God to bring about those wonderful achievements. Anybody who would care to, may review that most dramatic irony of our history whereby, after the framers of the Constitution with all their wisdom had set a bound to the slave trade, as they thought forever, just as soon as slavery became profitable through the in- vention of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney, a Massachusetts man, slavery became a God-given insti- tution, admittedly so, because of its profitableness, to be of God. In "Memories of Ninety Years" I have spoken of my entrance into the Navy of the United States through Abraham Lincoln, of the influence upon me of his life. I wish now to write a few words of my feelings at the time of his death as recorded in letters written on the day of his death, April 15, 1865, before the news of his death trickled through to us engaged in service in the South, and also after his death. The letters themselves are too voluminous to quote. Sufficient, however, for me to extract a few incidents from them. On Friday, April 14, I had been with a military deputation to Murfreesboro, North Carolina, in order that we might deliver to the inhabitants of that town a copy of the New York Herald, which had just come to us, informing us of the surrender of General Lee. At Murfreesboro we were met by many citizens of that town; their reply to the news we brought to them was, 'If General Lee has surrendered, we know all is over.' Thereafter followed the news of Lincoln's assassina- tion. On April 21,1 wrote as follows: I have made four or five attempts to write. I now give (12) it up in despair and shall content myself with simply saying I am well. The news from the North of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln of which we have only the most fragmentary accounts has completely upset me and I feel I would give all I possess in the world to be North, able to say some- thing and see something and able to take a man's share in the acts of the day. On the 24th day of April I again begin: For the past week I have been in such a state of unrest that writing has been almost an impossibility. Even now I cannot say that I feel like writing or talking. Perhaps action would relieve me for as we are situated here I can only think and my thoughts soon assume such bitter, re- vengeful shape that they are not pleasant for constant com- panions. I have been utterly prostrated by the news of the assassination of Mr. Lincoln owing to the fact that the reports have been vague and indistinct, not satisfying the craving to know the worst and to take action accordingly. I was afraid that the Government would be temporarily paralyzed, that vengeance would rise instead of justice and that passion might dictate instead of calm reason. I feared that an excited people might think of dictatorship and mili- tary leaders and be guided by them rather than the con- stituted authority. The unfortunate and unbecoming condition of Vice President Johnson when he delivered his inaugural address kept arising before me and I felt the greatest anxiety lest he should be found wanting in a sud- den crisis where brain, honor, courage and the firmest will were needed to allay excitement, to proclaim the policy of a great people and keep the wheels of Government moving uninterruptedly. Then comes a very illuminating sentence in this letter: I was speaking to a clergyman yesterday, formerly major in the Rebel Army, who spoke of the Confederacy as a failure. He said 'You (the Yanks) have never whipped us before. We are whipped now and we ought to acknowledge it' and he said that the death of Mr. Lincoln was a blow far worse to the South than to the North and felt that Mr. (13) Johnson would follow out the general policies laid down by Mr. Lincoln, to be sure, but would follow them out with cer- tain amendments as regarded the leaders of the South. He seemed to regard the assassination of Mr. Lincoln as a part of the general plans of Northern Copperheads and repudi- ated the idea of its having its origin with the Confederate authorities. I told him I believe it to be a plan of similar sort to that which attempted the death of Mr. Lincoln in March, 1861, and was only the natural result of such a traitorous and murderous combination. A later letter describes vividly the condition of planters generally and of one planter there with whom I became more intimate than with any other South- erner, visiting him and his family and receiving from him and them every courtesy and consideration. He told me he had owned one hundred and twenty negroes, of whom seventy were men, women, and children able to work. The rest were too old, too feeble, too young or too some- thing to work. The able-bodied negroes tell their former master that they are going off, that they are tired of staying where they are and decline to work for wages. Seventy can go; the fifty who remain cannot work. They will not leave. The planter cannot feed them, for he has no provisions. The South is exhausted, and on the work of this very year depends the crops of the year. What is to be done? Unless their trade is opened immediately and unless able-bodied negroes can be made to remain, an imminent danger threat- ens. I am not imagining cases. I am citing cases. This planter has two plantations. He has naval stores, rosin, pitch, etc., on one plantation and so far it has not been taken by his disappearing negroes who think that freedom means freedom from work; he has tobacco and some cotton, etc. Now Confederate money is not worth a dollar a barrel and unless the North sends real money down to buy the products of his plantation, and those products the North wants, how can he meet the exigencies of the day or perhaps prevent inconceivable misery, perhaps de- struction? (14) I leave these letters and other details unquoted hav- ing, as I think, given enough to indicate my own feel- ings at the time and my own sense of what should be done. The death of Abraham Lincoln at that critical period was the greatest disaster that could come to the South and led to conditions which postponed the hearty co- operation of North and South through years of a Freed- men's Bureau and other organizations. Twenty-five years after the death of Abraham Lincoln I made the acquaintance of a veteran of the Civil War who lived in Springfield, Illinois, kept store there, and was a neighbor of Lincoln before and at the time of Lincoln's nomination to the Presidency in 1860. He told me several anecdotes of those times that, so far as I know, have never been printed and I recall them now while they are on my mind. There was a story abroad that when Lincoln got the news of his nomination, he was playing ball in the streets of Springfield. This is the real story. As Lin- coln was on his way from his house to meet the first news that had come of his nomination, some young men on the street were tossing a ball, the one to the other. One missed his catch and the ball rolling to the feet of Lincoln, he picked it up and tossed it to the player who had missed the catch. On such slight in- cidents did the reporters then make 'copy' for the world. Another story was more significant and more illustra- tive of Lincoln at home. My friend said he was stand- ing in front of his store, nearly opposite Lincoln's office, shortly after Lincoln's nomination, when a stranger came along and said, 'I'd like to see Mr. Lincoln — do you suppose I can?' 'Yes,' was the reply, 'you can see (15) him by looking across the street into his office, where he is now talking to Judge Logan! ' The stranger looked and said, 'Will you go over with me?' ' Yes — though it isn't necessary!' They walked together across the street, up a flight of stairs to the door of the office, when the stranger pushed ahead, opened the door, and stood within the office and, looking down on Mr. Lincoln who was seated at his table, said, 'Mr. Lincoln, you don't remember me!' Mr. Lincoln said, T don't know about that: you were in the Color Company of the Regiment in the Black Hawk War and your name is Anderson' (we will call him). They then shook hands and laughed to- gether and introductions followed and they 'swapped talk' together. Then the stranger said, 'Well, you re- membered me and I didn't think you would, but I'll bet I'm a taller man than you are!' Lincoln laughed, say- ing, T don't know about that — stand up against the wall and let the Judge put a ruler on top of your head and mark against the wall!' This was done, the stranger put his heels against the wainscotting, Judge Logan put a ruler and marked the height. Mr. Lincoln looked at it, put his heels against the wall and went up and up and some two inches above his new-found friend, who acknowledged his defeat with a laugh, say- ing, T didn't think you were so tall!' 'Well,' said Lin- coln, 'I'm a pretty tall man when I shake the wrinkles out!' You remember he was six feet four inches in height. Then Anderson looking out the window asked what kind of a tree is that opposite. Mr. Lincoln, looking, said, 'An elm!' 'No,' said Anderson, 'I don't mean that one — I mean the one a little farther down the street!' Mr. Lincoln rose, went to the window, leaned a good way out and said, 'Oh — that's a mountain- (16) ash ! ' 'Thank you,' said Anderson ; ' I see my wife across the street and I thought I'd like to have her get a look at you ! ' — and so with more laughter and handshakes they parted. 'He was so human; whether high or low Far from his kind he neither sunk nor soared, But sat an equal guest at every board: No beggar ever felt him condescend — no prince presume — For still himself he bore at manhood's simple level, And where'er he met a stranger — there he left a friend.' One story of him told to me by a Colonel on Mc- Clellan's staff may be worth recalling. It was after the Battle of Antietam and the President had gone to General McClellan's headquarters. He was in his long black coat and high hat, and visited the battlefield and immediate surroundings. Wishing to see some of the more distant places he excused McClellan, and the of- ficer who told me this story was to attend the President with a small escort, wherever he wished to go. (A picture of Lincoln and his meeting with General Mc- Clellan, and his staff appears in a recent publication — 'Lincoln and his Generals/ 1925.) Lincoln, on his rather small horse for him and in his long coat and high hat, was an exceptionally notice- able figure as they rode side by side and talked about the events of this great battle, which settled the time, you will remember, for the issuing of the Proclamation of Emancipation. Noon came and the President asked if they could get a little luncheon somewhere. The Colonel said he had some apples and gingerbread in his saddle pouches, and the President went along, eat- ing the apple and gingerbread, entirely content. They came a little later to a near-by village that had played a part in the movements of the great battle, and there soon gathered around some villagers, men and (17) women, to see the President. Among others was an old man who said to the President, 'Be you the President? Be you Mr. Lincoln?' The President said, 'Yes. ' 'Well, now, would you go with me to see my old woman just across the road — she's never seen a President?' The President good-naturedly excused himself, as he had to go elsewhere in a few minutes, when the old man said, 'You just wait a minute, till I get my old woman! ' The President waited till the return of his new-found ad- mirer with a venerable old woman, whom he wheeled around and faced the President, exclaiming, 'Now, Mother, just look at him ! Ain't it just as I said ! Ain't he just as common as anybody you ever see?' The President felt that compliment and knew it was a compliment and so intended, and with some pleasant words of thanks and good wishes continued his sight- seeing. The incident made a very deep impression on my informant — no wonder! Robert Lincoln once told me that many stories were attributed to his father not his, and that he himself, Robert, believed that many real stories of his father were made up by him to illustrate the subject he was discussing. In other words, he spoke in parables. On the 12th of February, 1925, little Mary M (about seven or eight years old) went to hear about Abraham Lincoln, and confided to the family on her return that she had had a very interesting time hear- ing about George Washington. On further question- ing, she admitted she was not sure that it was Wash- ington; that it might have been Abraham Lincoln. 'Anyway,' she said, 'it was very sad.' 'Why sad?' she was asked. 'Why,' she continued, 'you see Mr. Lincoln (18) dropped into a "movie" and got shot! 7 Thus is his- tory simplified. No age is an heroic age unto itself. Every age has its mountain- tops and its valleys. Every age has its men of vision and its men of strabismus. The past has lessons for the present; if no other one, let me suggest preparedness, wherein past and present are as one. We in the United States slouch and forget; to-day, as we did after the Revolution, the War of 1812, the War of 1861-65, the Spanish War, the World War, and every other exigency we have ever been in, and because of this we have wasted billions of money and hundreds and thousands of young lives, the assets of our Coun- try's future. If Switzerland had not been prepared and with from three to four hundred thousand men on her frontier, how long would she have escaped the German invasion? It was because Germany did not dare that Switzerland was safe. Just the reverse with Belgium. She relied on treaties and they were proved scraps of paper. Nothing in God's world but preparedness of the peo- ple of the United States against all trespassers is real pacifism! No nation can have peace for long that is not ready to protect itself. It becomes merely an in- vitation. Therefore, my young and beloved brethren, gird on your armor and boast when you put it off — not on! Among us are more than one hundred thousand propagandists, pledged heart and soul and body to break up the United States, and every one of them ought to be hanged or shot or transported, for they are of those who have come from elsewhere to benefit them- selves and they bite the hands that feed them. Our Army and Navy should be efficient and sufficient (19) — Switzerland fashion, a civilian army almost entirely, and every young man in this country should be com- pelled to give to his Country some time of military training. There would be fewer 'hoodlums' if the youth from the beginning learned the value of discipline and team play. This is not Militarism; this is Pacifism; and I want peace and am ready to fight to get it and to keep it. Jesus of Nazareth was a pacifist, and blessed peace makers — that is, people who would make peace if they had to fight to get it. He was a virile, aggres- sive, militant crusader and carried a sword and advised you to get one if you hadn't one already. He knew you could not have peace unless you paid the price — and the price was preparedness against invaders. As has been well said, use all the religion you can get, all the world courts, all the measures leading to pre- venting wars, but keep a well-loaded gun in your closet. The people who are going to fight you are only wait- ing till they get ready. They only hope you will not be ready; that what you have been and so often called before, as you remember, 'Those damn-fool Yankees,' you will continue to be. They do not want you to get ready; they hope you will not. You can only head them off by being ready. No enemy is going to choose 'your time' for beginning hostilities, or invasion. A World Court without guns back of it will be like a police force which is on strike. Enunciate your de- crees! Well — what of it! Put back of it Scotty Briggs's idea of a real pacifist, Buck Fanshaw, killed, you will remember, in a bar-room brawl. Says Scotty: 'There weren't no fighting where Buck Fanshaw was! He would not permit it! 9 One final word to you young men, critics of another generation; you have before you enough to test all the patriotism, all the wisdom, all the experience of all (20) the time past, and your greatest work to-day is not money-making, but living up to your highest ideals, and from the point of view of one old enough to talk to you, I say that in my judgment there is no work to which you can put your soul more worthy of your every effort than to save the United States of America from impending or possible dangers that certainly will come and can only be avoided by a preparation to meet them. In vain for you to say that other generations have failed if you yourselves are slackers in your own gen- eration, and, therefore, put aside the striving for money. You do not need to be rich men. You do need to be men of character, for character is destiny, and the United States needs more than anything else in the world loyalty to the highest ideals and a crystallization of those highest ideals into acts and observances, and not into fantastic theories. Bend those young energies of yours, not so much to self, but to selflessness. No monument was ever erected to a man for what he got and kept. Every monument ever erected since man be- gan to recognize other men has been for what he gave. In one thing only is the whole world in accord, whether it be religion, literature, poetry, politics, social distinction — they have all followed and extolled the man who gave and not the man who merely got and kept. The world seems to be made up of the men who give and the men who get. If you read the history of science, or the development of a country, you will al- ways find that the greatest givers have been an in- finitesimal proportion of the whole people. Therefore, I say to you, do not stand aloof and criticize the past! Make your present a worth-while thing in order to bring about a more perfect future. Where do I come in?' is the meanest substitute for (21) achievement that the Devil ever put into the minds of men as a shibboleth for high achievement. 'What can I do' and 'What can I give' have back of them the best teachings of all ages. Ponder well, therefore, your aims in life as you buckle on your armor to meet the ex- igencies of life. The path is no easy path to follow. It is full of every kind of obstacle, as has been demon- strated in all the ages. I ask for you Buddha's bene- diction, given to him by Sujata, 'May you achieve. ' Henry Munroe Rogers. February 12, 1929. (22) CommanDet? of tlje ^>tate of Stpajsgacljuisettsi $®ilitaty flDrDer of t^e Loral legion of t^e Oniteti states Boatti of Officers Commander First Lieutenant ALFRED H. KNOWLES, U. S. V. Senior Vice-Commander First Lieutenant CHARLES D. HAMMER, U. S. V. junior Vice-Commander Mr. GEORGE G. S. PERKINS Recorder Mr. C. PETER CLARK Registrar Second Lieutenant ALBERT A. CHITTENDEN, U. S. V. 'Treasurer Mr. JOHN H. SELLMAN Chancellor Mr. WALTER S. FOX Chaplain Reverend ALAN McLEAN TAYLOR Council First Lieutenant L. LORENZO BILLINGS, U. S. V. Captain JOHN GIBBON, U. S. A. Mr. HENRY V. THAYER Mr. JAMES F. LeBARON DRUMM Mr. THOMAS W. FERGUSON UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 973.7L63BR632 C001 THE LINCOLN ERA [BOSTON? 3 0112 031790493