LI N CO LN Ms WORDS «m)DEEDS CORSON LINCOLN ROOM UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY MEMORIAL the Class of 1901 founded by HARLAN HOYT HORNER and HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER Keystone View Co. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN Of all existing paintings of the famous President, many feel that this profile best reveals the real soul of the great man. ABRAHAM LINCOLN His Words and Deeds By Oscar Taylor Corson LECTURER ON EDUCATION, WESTERN COLLEGE, OXFORD, OHIO FORMERLY STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION, OHIO AUTHOR OF "OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS" F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY DANSVILLE, N. Y. Copyright, 1927 F. A. OWEN PUBLISHING COMPANY Abraham Lincoln fBINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 7 CHAPTER I Lincoln's Humility 11 CHAPTER II Lincoln's Reverence 33 CHAPTER III Lincoln's Loyalty 56 CHAPTER IV Lincoln's Honesty 80 CHAPTER V Lincoln's Simplicity 105 CHAPTER VI Lincoln's Humor 124 CHAPTER VII Lincoln's Magnanimity 151 CHAPTER VIII Lincoln's Education 179 CHAPTER IX Lincoln's Gettysburg Address .... 201 CHAPTER X The Lincoln Tomb 232 INDEX 251 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author's grateful appreciation is hereby expressed to the following publishers for their generous permission to quote, from the volumes named, the selections which are specified in the text and to summarize various incidents and stories : D. Appleton and Company, New York — Abraham Lincoln, W. H. Herndon and Jesse W. Weik. The Baker and Taylor Company, New York — The Life of Abraham Lincoln, Henry C. Whitney. The Century Company, New York — Abraham Lincoln — A History, John G. Nicolay and John Hay; A Short Life of Abra- ham Lincoln, John G. Nicolay; Personal Traits of Abraham Lin- coln, Helen Nicolay; Lincoln the Lawyer, Frederick Trevor Hill. The Century Magazine, February, 1894 — Special permis- sion to quote from article on "Lincoln's Gettysburg Address," by John G. Nicolay. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston — Daniel Webster, Henry Cabot Lodge; Honest Abe, Alonzo Rothschild; The Real Lincoln, Jesse W. Weik. J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia — The True Abraham Lincoln, William Eleroy Curtis; Intimate Character Sketches of Abraham Lincoln, Henry B. Rankin. Little Brown and Company, Boston — Tad and His Father, F. Lauriston Bullard. The Macmillan Company, New York — The Life of Abra- ham Lincoln, Ida M. Tarbell; Abraham Lincoln, the Man of the People, Norman Hapgood. The Methodist Book Concern (Abingdon Press), New York — Abraham Lincoln the Christian, William J. Johnson. The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, October 1909— "The Gettysburg Address," by Major William H # Lambert. 6 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York — Abraham Lincoln, Man of God, John Wesley Hill. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York — History of Andrew Jackson, Augustus C. Buell. The Centenary Edition of the Life and Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Marion Mills Miller, and published by The Current Literature Publishing Company, is the source of the quotations from Lincoln's letters, addresses, and state papers. Other volumes which have been carefully read and which are recommended to students of Lincoln are: Six Months At the White House, F. B. Carpenter. The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln; The Soul of Abraham Lincoln; and The Life of Abraham Lincoln, all by William E. Barton. Lincoln, Master of Men, Alonzo Rothschild. Lincoln, Nathaniel Wright Stephenson. Abraham Lincoln, Lord Charnwood. Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln, Henry B. Rankin. Abraham Lincoln, George Haven Putnam. The Boy's Abraham Lincoln, Helen Nicolay. Gettysburg and Lincoln, Henry Sweetser Burrage. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, Orton H. Carmichael. The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and The Poets' Lin- coln, Osborn H. Oldroyd. Lincoln in the Telegraph Office, David Homer Bates. Personal Reminiscences [of Lincoln], L. E. Chittenden. Uncollected Letters of Abraham Lincoln, Gilbert H. Tracy. Abraham Lincoln, Defendant, William H. Townsend. Abraham Lincoln, the Prairie Years, Carl Sandburg. Lincoln's Parentage and Childhood, Louis A. Warren. INTRODUCTION It has been stated that every one who can recall the assassination of President Lincoln has a vivid recollection of all the details connected with the re- ceipt of the news of that terrible tragedy. The author has interviewed many persons who remember that saddest of all events in our nation's history. Without exception they all testify to the truthfulness of the statement, and are able to tell exactly where they were at the time as well as to give in the minutest detail all the attendant circum- stances. This is of itself a most impressive tribute to the memory of the martyred President. It con- clusively proves the large place which he occupied in the hearts of the common people of his day. People who knew Lincoln personally are now few in number. Even those who can remember that fateful fourteenth of April, 1865, when the whole world mourned, form a relatively small portion of the living. And it is feared that the younger gen- eration are not as familiar with his life and char- acter as they should be. Fortunately, there are many volumes prepared by authors who knew him intimately, which contain a reliable record of his life and work. His letters, speeches, and state papers have been carefully pre- 8 INTRODUCTION served and edited. In the preparation of this volume all the more important Lincoln literature has been carefully studied. Credit is also due a number of persons, some of whom are no longer living, who generously accorded the author personal interviews in which they gave freely of their intimate personal knowledge of Lin- coln, gained by association with him. To all such a debt of gratitude is due for their valuable contribu- tion. Visits to all the important Lincoln shrines have been made in the course of the study, which has covered a period of several years. In this study there has come an ever deepening impression of the great- ness of Lincoln's character together with the con- viction that his character can best be revealed and interpreted by what he, himself, said and did. As Lowell so well describes him : "Here was a type of the true elder race; And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face." Just as the white light from the sun, when passed through a prism of glass, reveals the seven primary colors of the solar spectrum, so the white light em- anating from the soul of Abraham Lincoln, when passed through the prism of a sympathetic study of his words and deeds, reveals the seven primary vir- tues of his great character — Humility, Reverence, Loyalty, Honesty, Simplicity, Humor, and Magna- nimity. To each of these a chapter is devoted. INTRODUCTION 9 In addition a chapter each is given to Lincoln's Ed- ucation, which was gained by the most persistent effort and intense application ; to the Gettysburg Ad- dress, which has been and still is so grossly misrepre- sented as having been delivered with little or no preparation; and to the Lincoln Tomb, about which centers much interesting history not generally known but of sufficient importance to justify its in- sertion at the close of this book, even if it is not in harmony with the title. The volume is published with the sincere desire that it may help to create in all who read it a keen appreciation of the rich heritage to be found in the life and character of Abraham Lincoln, of whom his great war secretary, Edwin M. Stanton, declared, at the time of his death, "Now he belongs to the ages." ^Kp front log cabin to ilje Capitol, (©ne firs foras on Ijis spirit, on^ rssolfe- ©o ssnb tlf£ femt ax to tlje root o£ forong, Clearing a fr*£ faag for ifys fed: of dob, Wc\t sges of ronsrfencs testing jeferg stroke, tEo mab Ijis btth ti\t measure of a man* £&e hnilt ilf£ rail-pita as Ije bnili ifye jiiahe, Ponring Ifis spten&ifa strength tljronglj jeferg blofo; ®Ijs grip tljat s&mng tlj£ ax in Illinois pias on ii\z pm ifyai: ssi a psopfe foee. From "Lincoln, the Man of the People," in Collected Works by Edwin Mark ham (in preparation). Used by permission of the author. ABRAHAM LINCOLN CHAPTER I LINCOLN'S HUMILITY ON February 12, 1809, in the midst of circumstances so disheartening and of conditions so unpromising that it is impossible to realize or even to imagine their effect upon the life of a sensitive child, Abraham Lin- coln was born. "A blend of mirth and sadness, smiles and tears, A quaint knight-errant of the pioneers : A homely hero born of star and sod; A Peasant Prince; a Masterpiece of God." By his own unaided efforts, he overcame the effects of the surroundings in which he grew to man- hood and won for himself such recognition as made him the great, outstanding, dominating figure of his century. And yet, notwithstanding the great success which he earned and the merited honors which came to him as a result, the keynote of his marvelous life, the secret of his mighty influence was his humility, which enabled him to forget himself in his unselfish desire to serve humanity. For a third of a century, in the midst of the great slavery contest which stirred the soul of the nation as 12 ABRAHAM LINCOLN it had never been stirred before, he was almost con- stantly before the public eye and in the public thought. And yet, from the time he announced his first candi- dacy for the Legislature in 1832 — a candidacy which resulted in defeat — until that memorable day, the eighth of November, 1864, when he closed his second campaign for the Presidency with a triumphant vic- tory, he never uttered a word or performed a deed which indicated that he ever indulged in any unbecom- ing exultation because of victory or any unkindly crit- icism because of defeat. "I presume you all know who I am. I am humble Abraham Lincoln. I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the Legislature. My politics are short and sweet, like the old woman's dance. I am in favor of a national bank. I am in favor of the internal improvement system, and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments and polit- ical principles. If elected I shall be thankful; if not it will be all the same." With these simple, direct, and unpretentious state- ments, this young man of only twenty-three presented his claims to the votes of his constituents with that humility which was to characterize his career through- out life. About the same time (March, 1832) that this brief announcement of his candidacy was made, in one of the longest letters he ever wrote, he presented some- what in detail his views on the public questions which interested the people at that time. One of these ques- tions related to the possible need of changes in exist- LINCOLN'S HUMILITY 13 ing laws. With humility, which might well serve as an example for some legislators of the present day, in both state and nation, who are ever ready to enact new laws or to amend old ones with slight considera- tion, this young aspirant for legislative honors modestly declared: "But considering the great probability that the f ramers of those laws were wiser than myself, I should prefer not meddling with them, unless they were first attacked by others; in which case, I should feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand which, in my view, might tend most to the advancement of justice/' The concluding paragraphs of this letter, announc- ing his first candidacy for public office, reveal in a most interesting manner his ambition to succeed, made worthy by marked humility and modesty combined with rare sincerity and gratitude : "But, fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering the great degree of modesty which should always at- tend youth, it is probable I have already been more presuming than becomes me. However, upon the sub- jects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them, but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be errone- ous I shall be ready to renounce them. "Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying 14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN this ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, and unknown to many of you. I was born, and have ever remained, in the most humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recommend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the inde- pendent voters of the county; and, if elected, they will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But if the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too familiar with disappointments to be very much chagrined." The people, good or bad, or both, did see fit to keep him in the background. He was defeated. But it is most interesting and important to note that Lincoln received six hundred and fifty-seven out of the two thousand one hundred and sixty-eight votes cast in the county, and in his home precinct of New Salem, two hundred and seventy-seven — all but three — of the en- tire vote. Three months later, in the election for President, the same precinct gave Andrew Jackson one hundred and eighty-five votes, and Henry Clay, whom Lincoln supported, only seventy votes. Considering the fact that he was young and unknown to many of the voters, and that his service in the Black Hawk War made it impossible for him to conduct an extended personal campaign, the vote he received in the county was a fine tribute to his standing and character, while the almost unanimous support he was given at home plainly indicated the confidence reposed in him by his neighbors, who knew him so intimately. It is characteristic of the man that he never ceased to be grateful for this mark of confidence and for the re- LINCOLN'S HUMILITY 15 membrance that this was the only time that he was ever defeated by a direct vote of the people. This defeat was followed by four successive elections to the legislature, where he constantly grew in in- fluence each session because of his tactful, forceful, and intelligent management of both measures and men. His success in leading to victory the forces which favored the change of the state capital to Spring- field, gave him great prominence in that city which was to be honored by his future residence. But in all the success and prominence which came to him, it was the absence of all self -exaltation and the willingness to give credit to others in his achievements which secured for him such a fast hold upon the hearts of the people. Success in winning these repeated elections to the legislature was followed by two defeats for the nomi- nation for Congress and one nomination and election to that body, where he served with his accustomed faith- fulness and modesty. His letters written while in Congress to his intimate friend and law partner, William H. Herndon, whom he always addressed as "Dear William," are full of interest. In these letters can be found no trace of that feeling of self-importance which sometimes character- izes men who are elected to serve the people but who forget their duty to their constituents in their, admira- tion of themselves. "As to speech-making, by way of getting the hang of the House," he writes, "I made a little speech two or three days ago on a post office question of no gen- eral interest. I find speaking here and elsewhere 16 ABRAHAM LINCOLN about the same thing. I was about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am when I speak in court. I expect to make one within a week or two, in which I hope to succeed well enough to wish you to see it." Nearly six months later, he refers to what was probably the most important speech he made while in Congress, by saying: "I made an internal-improve- ment speech day before yesterday, which I shall send home as soon as I can get it written out and printed — and which I suppose nobody will read." Lincoln was twice defeated for the United States Senate, the first time in 1854 when, as the candidate of the Whig Party, he had forty-five votes to forty-one for the candidate of the Douglas Democrats; and five for Trumbull, an avowed, uncompromising Democrat upon every issue except the Nebraska Bill, in opposi- tion to which he was in agreement with the supporters of Lincoln. Notwithstanding the fact that the sup- porters of Trumbull were in such a minority, they stubbornly refused to vote for Lincoln who, with gen- erosity and sagacity seldom shown in political strife, urged his supporters to drop his name and to vote for Trumbull. This they did, "though with lingering sorrow," and thereby secured the election of a senator who represented their views upon the question of slavery alone. It is difficult to realize what this defeat, under such circumstances, meant to Lincoln, to whom an election to the United States Senate must have seemed a most attractive prize. But he never complained or indulged in any unkindly criticism of any one. A few sentences ABRAHAM LINCOLN From original negative owned by H. W. Fay, custodian Lincoln Tomb, Springfield, and reproduced by his permission. It is known as the German-Butler-McNulty negative and was taken in Springfield. January, 1861. o & rO f-i H w C3 a ^j pfl 2 > .s <8 J2 <\> *> a QJ u ° U %2 X H LINCOLN'S HUMILITY 19 quoted from a letter to a trusted friend will serve to show his feelings in the matter: "The agony is over at last, and the result you doubt- less know. ... I regret my defeat moderately, but I am not nervous about it. . . . On the whole, it is perhaps as well for our general cause that Trum- bull is elected." To Lincoln, "the general cause" was always of more importance than his personal success. On June 16, 1858, Lincoln was declared to be "the first and only choice of the Republicans of Illinois for the United States Senate as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas." In addressing the convention which made this declaration, he delivered a most carefully prepared speech, which opened with the historic statements that were to result in such momentous consequences to both himself and the nation. He said : "If we could first know where we are and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do and how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated, with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agita- tion. Under the operation of that policy, that agita- tion has not only not ceased, but has constantly aug- mented. In my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided against itself cannot stand.' I believe this govern- ment cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the .Union to be dissolved — I do not expect the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the 20 [ABRAHAM LINCOLN public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as South." On July 24, 1858, Lincoln challenged Douglas to a joint public debate. The challenge was accepted, and the debates followed at Ottawa, Freeport, Jonesboro, Charleston, Galesburg, Quincy, and Alton. That Lin- coln entered upon these debates in a spirit of deep ear- nestness, reverent seriousness, and genuine humility, is shown in a marked manner in the closing sentences of his "Back to the Declaration" speech at Lewistown, Illinois, only four days before the formal opening of the debates: "Think nothing of me," declared he in one of his impassioned moods, — "take no thought for the political fate of any man whomsoever — but come back to the truths that are in the Declaration of Independence. You may do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to death. While pretending no indifference to earthly honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought for any man's success. It is nothing; I am nothing; Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not de- stroy that immortal emblem of Humanity — the Dec- laration of American Independence." Lincoln was again defeated in this contest, because of an antiquated apportionment in the membership of the legislature, which deprived him of his hard-earned victory. The defeat, however, was only temporary. LINCOLN'S HUMILITY 21 The contest had revealed his true greatness. Just as success in legislature and Congress had not unduly elated him, so successive defeats for a higher office had not unduly disappointed him. In either success or defeat, he always remained the same "humble Abra- ham Lincoln," as announced in 1832 in his first can- didacy for the legislature. When asked how he felt over his defeat, he humor- ously remarked to one friend : "I am like the boy who stubbed his toe. It hurts too bad to laugh and I am too big to cry." But in a letter to another friend, he revealed the humility of his character and, thereby, the foundation of his greatness by saying: "You doubtless have seen ere this the result of the election here. Of course I wished, but I did not much expect, a better result I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a hearing on the great and durable question of the age, which I could have had in no other way ; and though I now sink out of view, and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I am gone." It was not possible that a man with such a spirit could sink out of view, and he was not forgotten. In- stead, in the providence of God, he was soon to become the nation's leader in the hour of its gravest peril and the emancipator of a race. The marks which he had made were indeed to tell for the cause of civil liberty long after he was gone. On November 6, 1860, he was elected President. Then followed the four months of intense anxiety be- 22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN fore he could enter upon his duties as President of the distracted nation, all sections of which he loved with patriotic devotion. These were months of sacred, silent dedication to the great task to which he had been called. The spirit in which he entered upon this task is revealed in the beautiful words spoken, Feb- ruary 11, 1861, to his friends and neighbors as he left his home which he was never to see again : "My Friends : No one, not in my situation, can ap- preciate my feeling of sadness at this parting. To this place, and the kindness of these people, I owe everything. Here I have lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a young to an old man. Here my children have been born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing when or whether ever I may re- turn, with a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington. Without the assistance of that Divine Being who ever attended him, I cannot succeed. With that assistance, I cannot fail. Trust- ing in Him who can go with me, and remain with you, and be everywhere for good, let us confidently hope that all will yet be well. To His care commending you, as I hope in your prayers you will commend me, I bid you an affectionate farewell." This same spirit of humility, claiming little for him- self, trusting in God for guidance and assistance, and relying upon the people for sympathy and support, manifested itself in his every utterance on his journey to Washington. At Columbus, Ohio, on February 13, he said: "I cannot but know what you all know, that without a name, perhaps without a reason why I should have a name, there has fallen upon me a task such as did not LINCOLN'S HUMILITY 23 rest even upon the Father of his Country; and so feeling, I can turn and look for that support without which it will be impossible for me to perform that great task. I turn, then, and look to the American people, and to that God who has never forsaken them." At Steubenville, Ohio, the following day : "I fear that the great confidence placed in my abil- ity is unfounded. Indeed, I am sure it is. . . . If I adopt a wrong policy, the opportunity for con- demnation will occur in four years' time. Then I can be turned out, and a better man with better views put in my place." At Pittsburgh, February 15 : "By the Constitution, the executive may recommend measures which he may think proper, and he may veto those he thinks improper, and it is supposed that he may add to these certain indirect influences to affect the action of Congress. My political education strong- ly inclines me against a very free use of any of these means by the executive to control the legislation of the country. As a rule, I think it better that Congress should originate as well as perfect its measures with- out external bias." On the same day at Cleveland, he addressed a great crowd of people who had marched or stood in the rain for two hours awaiting his train : "The large numbers that have turned out under these circumstances testify that you are in earnest about something, and what is that something? I would not have you suppose that I think this extreme earnestness is about me. I should be exceedingly sorry to see such devotion if that were the case. But I know it is paid to something worth more than any 24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN one man, or any thousand or ten thousand men. You have assembled to testify your devotion to the Consti- tution, to the Union, and the laws, to the perpetual liberty of the people of this country." Before the New York Legislature at Albany, Feb- ruary 18: "It is true that while I hold myself, without mock modesty, the humblest of all individuals that have ever been elevated to the Presidency, I have a more difficult task to perform than any one of them." In Independence Hall, Philadelphia, early in the morning of Washington's birthday, he took part in raising a new flag, and said: "All the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated in and were given to the world from this hall. I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. . . I have often inquired of myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this Confederacy so long to- gether. It was not the mere matter of separation of the colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but hope to all the world, for all future time. . . . This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independ- ence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved on that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. . . . But if this country cannot be saved with- out giving up that principle, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated on this spot than sur- render it." LINCOLN'S HUMILITY 25 On the afternoon of the same day, at Harrisburg, Lincoln related his experiences of the morning in Inde- pendence Hall and then added : "Our friends there had provided a magnificent flag of the country. They had arranged it so that I was given the honor of raising it to the head of its staff, and when it went up I was pleased that it went to its place by the strength of my own feeble arm. When, according to the arrangement, the cord was pulled, and it floated gloriously to the wind, without an accident, in the bright, glowing sunshine of the morning, I could not help hoping that there was in the entire success of that beautiful ceremony at least something of an omen of what is to come. Nor could I help feel- ing then, as I have often felt, that in the whole of that proceeding I was a very humble instrument. I had not provided the flag ; I had not made the arrangements for elevating it to its place ; I had applied but a very small portion of even my feeble strength in raising it. In the whole transaction I was in the hands of the people who had arranged it, and if I can have the same generous co-operation of the people of this nation, I think the flag of our country may yet be kept flaunting gloriously." It is impossible to imagine the emotions which must have stirred the humble soul of Abraham Lincoln as he closed his First Inaugural Address with the immor- tal words so expressive of his sympathetic, generous, forgiving spirit: "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 have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the 26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN government, while I shall have the most solemn one 'to preserve, protect, and defend it/ "I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of af- fection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." The Gettysburg Address has well been described as being unique not only for what it contains but also for what it omits. It gives, in the small compass of only two hundred and sixty-eight words, one hundred and ninety-six of which are words of one syllable, the most complete and eloquent expression ever re- corded of th.e ideals of free government and of the pur- poses of a civil war waged in its defense, together with the most touching tribute ever spoken in memory of the soldier dead. It omits everything of a harsh, un- kind, or critical nature, as well as everything sugges- tive of personal exaltation or triumph. No pronoun of the first person, singular number, mars the unsur- passed beauty of the unrivaled diction of this prose poem, which breathes the spirit of humility in every line. In this immortal address, Lincoln reached the heights of sublimity through the depths of humility, 3vhen he said : "But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate — we cannot consecrate — we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, LINCOLN'S HUMILITY 27 have consecrated it far above our poor 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." In the early hours of the morning of November 9, 1864, Lincoln left the War Department, where he had gone the evening before to receive the news of his triumphant re-election to the Presidency. A feeling of exultation on his part would certainly have been pardonable, under the circumstances. But no such feeling possessed him. On the contrary, his mind and heart were overflowing with humility, gratitude, and generosity, as indicated by his remarks to a group of serenaders who greeted him: "I am thankful to God for this approval of the peo- ple ; but, while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not im- pugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one." A few days after these words were spoken, the great President found time in his busy life to write the his- toric letter to Mrs. Bixby, a framed copy of which adorns the walls of one of the colleges of Oxford Uni- versity, England — placed there by the direction of the faculty of that great institution, as being the finest specimen of English ever written. But it is much more than a fine specimen of English. It reveals in a marked manner the heart of humility which characterized Lin- coln, who would not presume to intrude his own per- sonality upon the grief -stricken mother, but with rare 28 ABRAHAM LINCOLN delicacy tendered to her the consolation that could be found in the thanks of the Republic her five sons had died to save. Lincoln's Letter to Mrs. Bixby "I have been shown in the files of the War Depart- ment a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massa- chusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tender- ing to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished mem- ory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." On March 1, 1865, the usual congressional com- mittee waited upon President Lincoln and formally notified him of his re-election by the electoral college. To this notification he responded by reading the fol- lowing brief address expressive of the same humility, gratitude, and generosity manifested in his informal remarks to the friends who greeted him on the morn- ing of November 9 : "With deep gratitude to my countrymen for this mark of their confidence ; with a distrust of my own ability to perform the duty required under the most favorable circumstances, and now rendered doubly difficult by existing national perils; yet with a firm reliance on the strength of our free government, and the eventual loyalty of the people to the just princi- LINCOLN'S HUMILITY 29 pies upon which it is founded ; and above all, with an unshaken faith in the Supreme Ruler of Nations, I accept this trust/' No more sublime utterances ever fell from the lips of a human being than those contained in the Second Inaugural Address of President Lincoln, delivered on March 4, 1865, "in a diction rivaling the fire and dig- nity of the old Hebrew prophecies/' to quote a phrase from Nicolay and Hay. In this Inaugural, one of the briefest in our history, the President contrasts the conditions existing at the time of his first inauguration and the present one ; discusses in a few comprehensive sentences the relation of the war to slavery; calls at- tention to the unexpected duration of the war to both the North and the South ; and then, in the most humble and forgiving spirit, declares his belief in "the eternal law of compensation," and closes with these words of appeal : "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in ; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him 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." • It was in reply to the congratulations of his friend, Thurlow Weed, upon his notification speech and in- augural address, that Lincoln expressed his own views of that address with characteristic frankness, simplic- ity, and humility : 30 ABRAHAM LINCOLN "Every one likes a compliment. Thank you for yours on my little notification speech and on the re- cent inaugural address. I expect the latter to wear as well as — perhaps better than — anything I have produced; but I believe it is not immediately popular. Men are not flattered by being shown that there has been a difference of purpose between the Almighty and them. To deny it, however, in this case, is to deny that there is a God governing the world. It is a truth which I thought needed to be told, and, as what- ever of humiliation there is in it falls most directly on myself, I thought others might afford for me to tell it." On April 9, 1865, came the surrender at Appomat- tox, which was a prophecy of the near approach of the end of the war whose burdens Lincoln had borne for four years with unspeakable sadness and anxiety. The few days still allotted to him to live were days of happy relief from the long strain to which he had been subjected. The fateful fourteenth of April was one of the happiest days of his entire life. His mind was busy with plans for the full restoration of the Union, which he hoped soon to see realized, and his heart was overflowing with gratitude "free from any taint of personal triumph." But that happy day was to be fol- lowed by the saddest night in our nation's history — the night which witnessed the assassination of Abra- ham Lincoln, the kindest man the world has ever known. For the first time the telegraph was used to carry to the world the tidings of a tragedy which produced world-wide sorrow, in the midst of which the victory LINCOLN'S HUMILITY 31 at Appomattox was, in a large measure, lost sight of. As a result, there was no organized expression of re- joicing over the downfall of the rebellion. And as we think of Lincoln's humility, hearty accord will be given to the statement of John G. Nicolay, his private secretary and biographer in his A Short Life of Abra- ham Lincoln: "It was unquestionably best that it should be so ; and Lincoln himself would not have had it otherwise. He hated the arrogance of triumph ; and even in his cruel death he would have been glad to know that his pas- sage to eternity would prevent too loud an exultation over the vanquished." It was the belief of John Ruskin that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. In all the expe- riences of his life, Abraham Lincoln met and perfectly passed this test. As a result, he is to-day enshrined in the hearts of millions of the so-called common people, who love him and who revere his memory because they know that his great heart always beat true in the common cause of a common humanity. On each recurring anniversary of his birth, in ever- increasing numbers, children in the public schools study with interest and profit the story of his early struggles with poverty and misfortune; students in colleges are encouraged to persevere in their work by his experience in educating himself practically without the help of either schools or teachers; people of all classes and conditions, in homes and churches and great mass meetings and banquet halls, unite in pay- ing tribute to his memory and in pledging anew their 32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN allegiance to the principles for which he lived and died. We honor ourselves in gratefully acknowledging the debt of gratitude we owe him. And we can im- measurably bless our own lives, as well as all the lives we touch by our influence, by dedicating ourselves body, mind, and soul to the high ideals of service proclaimed more than nineteen hundred years ago ^y the Lowly Nazarene and so perfectly exemplified in the life of humility lived by Abraham Lincoln. "Whosoever will be great among you let him be your minister. "And whosoever will be chief among you let him be your servant/' CHAPTER II LINCOLN^ REVERENCE THE preceding chapter furnishes conclusive evi- dence of Lincoln's Humility — that dominant qual- ity of his great soul which was the controlling factor in all that he said and did. Closely related to Humility, that lowliness of mind which leads all who possess it in a reasonable degree to esteem others better than themselves, is Reverence, another soul quality which recognizes that there are some things in the world which are sacred and, there- fore, worthy of veneration and worship. Reverence cannot exist without humility. Humility naturally begets reverence. As has been truly said : "Reverence is one of the signs of strength ; irrever- ence one of the surest indications of weakness. No man will rise high who jeers at sacred things. The fine loyalties of life must be reverenced or they will be forsworn in the day of trial." The pages of history record many incidents which illustrate the ennobling effects of reverence, and also, sad to relate, the destructive influence of irreverence upon human life and character. In 1836 Aaron Burr died in poverty and obscurity. His life began with the most brilliant promise. It ) 34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ended in the most dismal failure. When Andrew Jack- son, beneath whose rough exterior there was a truly reverent soul, learned of Burr's death, he remarked to Francis P. Blair, one of his most intimate friends, who was afterwards a cordial supporter of President Lincoln : — "Burr came within one trait of exalted greatness." Upon being asked by Mr. Blair what trait that was, he replied : "Reverence, sir, reverence. I don't care how smart or how highly educated, or how widely experienced a man may be in this world's affairs, unless he reveres something and believes in somebody beyond his own self, he will fall short somewhere. That was the trouble with Burr. I saw it when I first met him at Philadelphia in 1796. . .... I liked him and for many things admired him. But I never could get over that one impression that he was irreverent. And that was what stood in his way Yes, Blair, a man must revere something, or no matter how smart or brave he is, he will die as Burr died in New York the other day, friendless and alone." Reverence, which was sadly lacking in Aaron Burr, to whom nothing seemed sacred either in life or gov- ernment, Abraham Lincoln possessed in an unusual degree and constantly manifested in all his life both private and public. After he was nominated for the Presidency in 1860 and was asked to furnish material for a history of his life, he replied that his early life could all be con- Keystone View Co. SCENE AT THE TIME OF THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATES One of the debates between Lincoln and Douglas was held in 1858 at Galesburg, Illinois, the seat of Knox College. LINCOLN'S REVERENCE 37 densed into one sentence, found in Gray's Elegy — "The short and simple annals of the poor." While this is literally true, he revered the memory of his mother, who died when he was only nine years old, and he was always reverently considerate of his step- mother, who was a woman of unusually strong char- acter and deeply devoted to his welfare. His love for her was shown in many ways but in none more strik- ing than in his last visit with her before he left to as- sume his duties as President. With the tears stream- ing down her cheeks, she gave him her parting bene- diction mingled with an expression of fear that his life might be taken by his enemies and that she might never see him again. After her fears had been re- alized, she paid him the loving tribute of her heart by saying: "He was the best boy I ever saw or expect to see." Lincoln also revered the cardinal virtues, which are the foundation of all true character, such as truth, honesty, and sincerity. It is related of him that one morning when he was on his way to the woods with his ax on his shoulder, he was followed by his young stepsister, 'Tilda Johnston, who had been forbidden by her mother from accompanying him. With true girlish enthusiasm she silently slipped up behind her big brother, who was singing on his way to his work, and with a cat-like leap jumped squarely on his back and succeeded in throwing him to the ground. In the fall, the sharp ax inflicted an ugly wound on 'Tilda's ankle from which the blood flowed freely. When the 38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN wound was rudely bound up by a generous use of the brother's scanty wardrobe, and the sister's fright had somewhat subsided, he said:* "'Tilda, what are you going to tell Mother about getting hurt?" "Tell her I did it with the ax," sobbed the sister. "That will be the truth, won't it?" To which her brother replied: "Yes, that's the truth, but it is not all the truth. Tell the whole truth, 'Tilda, and trust your good mother for the rest." "Telling the whole truth" and "trusting for the rest" to the justice which truth ultimately brings, was char- acteristic of Lincoln's entire life. Because of this characteristic, he would not — he could not, in his law practice, defend any one who willfully misrepresented the facts. To one client who unfolded to him the de- tails of a dubious claim, which he pressed in a proposed suit he said:f "Well, you have a pretty good case in technical law, but have a pretty bad case in equity and justice. You'll have to get some one else to win it for you. I couldn't do it. All the time while standing before the jury, I'd be thinking, 'Lincoln, you're a liar'; and I believe I should forget myself and say it out loud." On another occasion, the same author tells us, he became so disgusted with the evidently false statements made by a client on the witness stand that he arose and left the court room. The judge in charge of the ^Abraham Lincoln, by Herndon and Weih. t Honest Abe, by Rothschild. LINCOLN'S REVERENCE 39 case sent the sheriff to the hotel, where Lincoln had gone, to call him back. When Lincoln was informed that the judge wanted him to return, he replied : "Oh, does he? Well, you go back and tell the judge that I can't come. My hands are dirty and I came over to clean them." He would not return, and the untruthful client lost his case. It was reverence for the truth that led Lincoln, on July 17, 1858, to make his celebrated "house-divided- against-itself" speech, in opposition to the advice and protest of many of his closest friends. To their sug- gestion that it would defeat him in his contest with Douglas for the United States Senate, he replied : "This thing has been retarded long enough. The time has come when these sentiments should be uttered, and if it is decreed that I should go down because of this speech, then let me go down linked with the truth — let me die in the advocacy of what is just and right." Lincoln's profound reverence for the truth and his intense loyalty to the truth influenced in a great degree both his thinking and his expression of thought. This is clearly revealed in a beautiful tribute to his mem- ory by President J. M. Sturtevant of Illinois College, who says : "I knew Mr. Lincoln very well, I may say somewhat intimately, before he was ever thought of in con- nection with the exalted station to which he was after- wards elected. In those years of his comparative ob- scurity, I knew him as pre-eminently a truthful man. His love of truth was conspicuous in all his thinking. 40 ABRAHAM LINCOLN The object of his pursuit was truth, and not victory in argument or the triumph of his party, or the success of his own cause. This was always conspicuous in his conversation. It constituted the charm of his con- versation. In his society one plainly saw that his aim was so to use words as to express and not to conceal his real thoughts. This characteristic had formed his style, both of conversation and of writing. His ha- bitual love of truth had led him successfully to cultivate such a use of language as would most clearly and ac- curately express his thoughts. His words were a per- fectly transparent medium through which his thought always shone out with unclouded distinctness. No matter on what subject he was speaking, any person could understand him. This characteristic of his mind and heart gave a peculiar complexion to his speeches, whether at the bar, or in discussing the great political issues of the time." Lincoln's reverence for the Constitution is in strik- ing contrast to the lack of respect shown for it by those to whom age either of a person or a government seems to be an object of derision and contempt. To opinionated egotism and bigoted self-conceit ever ready to speak and act out of the abundance of ignorance or the "arrogance of inexperience," the Constitution may appear to be only an ordinary document, unworthy of respect even if it has stood the severe test of time and proved its perfect adaptability to the growing needs of an advancing civilization — a document to be amended without serious consideration, upon the slightest pretext or to be ignored or nullified at the de- LINCOLN'S REVERENCE 41 mands of lawlessness and selfishness. To Lincoln's well-trained mind, ripened judgment, and reverent soul, the Constitution was the sacred charter of our government, worthy of the highest respect and ven- eration. On June 20, 1848, in a speech made in the Congress of the United States, on the subject of Internal Im- provements, Lincoln said: "I wish now to submit a few remarks on the general proposition of amending the Constitution. As a gen- eral rule, I think we would much better let it alone. No slight occasion should tempt us to touch it. Better not take the first step which may lead to a habit of altering it. Better, rather, habituate ourselves to thinking of it as unalterable. It can scarcely be made better than it is. New provisions would introduce new difficulties, and thus create and increase appe- tite for further change. No, sir: let it stand as it is. New hands have never touched it. The men who made it have done their work, and have passed away. Who shall improve on what they did?" With such reverence for the Constitution, the fun- damental law of the land, it is not surprising that he always manifested the deepest reverence for laws enacted in accordance with its provisions. To Lincoln all laws, divine or human, were sacred. His reverence for law was publicly declared more than a decade before he made his famous "remarks on the general proposition of amending the Constitu- tion." On January 27, 1837, when only twenty-eight years of age, he delivered his remarkable address on "The Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions" be- 42 ABRAHAM LINCOLN fore the Young Men's Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois — a society organized by Lincoln and other young men in the fall of 1836. This address has been the subject of adverse criticism by at least one of Lincoln's recent biographers, who refers to it as a "mere rhetorical stunt, in his worst vein, and deservedly forgotten." The answer to all such criticism is found in the fact that, notwithstanding the address was made in 1837 — ninety years ago — it is still constantly referred to and quoted from as having a direct bearing upon present-day conditions. Long after the author of such criticism is dead and forgotten, the address will live and be remembered because it strongly empha- sizes the importance and necessity of reverence for law and obedience to law, both of which are absolutely essential to the life of any government. In the opening paragraph of this address, attention is called to the indisputable fact that the people of this nation are the legal inheritors of the fundamental blessings of civil and religious liberty bequeathed as a legacy by the fathers who had purchased them at the cost of self-sacrifice and sometimes of even life it- self. It was, therefore, the task of each generation to transmit these blessings to the next, and so on to "the latest generation that fate shall permit the world to know." "This task," declared Lincoln, "gratitude to our fathers, justice to ourselves, duty to posterity, and love for our species in general, all imperatively re- quire us faithfully to perform." It was Lincoln's belief that whatever grave dangers threatened to interfere with the performance of this LINCOLN'S REVERENCE 43 task, were within, rather than without the Republic, and he declared : "If destruction be our lot we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." Even then he called attention to "something of ill omen amongst us — the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country — the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the executive ministers of justice." The remedy he proposed then is the remedy needed now — the only remedy which will ever cure law- lessness : "Let every American, every lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the least particular the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their viola- tion by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so to the support of the Constitution and laws let every American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred honor — let every man remember that to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to tear the charter of his own and his children's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every American mother to the lisping babe that prattles on her lap; let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, spelling- books, and in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it become the political religion of the nation; and let the old and 44 ABRAHAM LINCOLN the young, the rich and the poor, the grave and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and condi- tions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars." The primary cause of lawlessness in any nation is a lack of reverence for law, which can be corrected only by the united and persistent effort of homes, schools, churches, newspapers, law makers, and courts in in- sisting that all constitutionally enacted laws are sacred, should be reverenced, and must be enforced. Reverence for the Constitution and the laws of the Republic naturally leads to reverence for the rights which the Constitution and the laws were adopted and enacted to protect. These rights include human rights and property rights — the rights of both labor and capital, all of which stand or fall together. It is not uncommon to hear or to read statements of a radical nature, relative to these rights, which are credited to Lincoln — statements which he never made and which any student of his life and character would at once recognize as being a part of false propaganda on the part of some one who was attempting to secure support for a wrong cause by misrepresenting Lin- coln's attitude toward that cause. He is often quoted as having prophesied "the ruinous reign of the money power," and in various ways attempting to incite a warfare between capital and labor. Nothing could be farther from the truth. His attitude toward both labor and property is definitely stated in his "Remarks on the Interest of Labor in Respecting Rights of Property," made March 21, 1864, to a Committee from the Workingmen's Association of New York : LINCOLN'S REVERENCE 45 "The strongest bond of human sympathy, outside of the family relation, should be one uniting all working people, of all nations, and tongues, and kin- dreds. Nor should this lead to a war upon property, or the owners of property. Property is the fruit of la- bor; property is desirable; is a positive good in the world. That some should be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is house- less pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built." Whenever Abraham Lincoln is quoted as being on the wrong side of any great moral issue or as express- ing radical views regarding any great social or eco- nomic question, it is always safe to conclude that he has been misquoted either because of ignorance, which is inexcusable, or because of a purpose to de- ceive, which is criminal. Charges have been made from time to time that Lincoln was an agnostic, an infidel, and an atheist. Usually such charges have originated with men who were, themselves, skeptically inclined, and who evidently desired to place Lincoln in their class be- cause of the support which his name would bring to their cause. The refutation of all such charges is found in Lincoln's life as revealed in his words and deeds, which prove beyond doubt that he was a man of profound faith in God and of the deepest reverence for everything associated with His name. His reverence for the Bible is shown not only in 46 ABRAHAM LINCOLN the manner and the frequency with which he quoted from its pages but also in what he said about it on different occasions. On September 7, 1864, in accepting a Bible presented by a committee of colored people from Baltimore, he said: "In regard to this great book, I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man. "All the good Savior gave to the world was com- municated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong. All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are to be found por- trayed in it." In the summer of 1864, Lincoln and his family lived for a short time at the Soldiers' Home near Washing- ton. .While there his life-long friend, Joshua Speed, visited them. Upon entering the room he found the President sitting near a window reading his Bible, and remarked that he was glad to see him "so profitably engaged." To this Lincoln replied, "Yes, I am profit- ably engaged," and then in one terse statement, which revealed his belief in and reverence for the Bible, he suggested how it should be read : "Take all of this book upon reason that you can, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man." Lincoln's addresses, messages to Congress, and other state papers, are filled with statements which plainly indicate his reverence for the Bible and for the God therein revealed. In his First Inaugural Address, he declared: LINCOLN'S REVERENCE 47 "Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this fav- ored land, are still competent to adjust in the best way all our present difficulty." Four years later, in his Second Inaugural Address, with his reverent soul chastened by four years of terri- ble agony due to civil war between the North and South, both of which he passionately loved, his rever- ence again manifests itself as he declares: "The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Woe unto the world because of offences! for it must needs be that offences come; but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh/ If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those offences which, in the provi- dence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued through His appointed time, He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war, as the woe due to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any depart- ure from those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him? Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.' " In response to a resolution by the Senate of the United States that the President be requested "to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and 48 ABRAHAM LINCOLN humiliation," Lincoln issued his Proclamation of March 30, 1863, in which he gave indisputable evidence of his deep reverence and profound faith. In this Procla- mation attention is called to "the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the over- ruling power of God; to confess their sins and trans- gressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and par- don ; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proved by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord." Declaring his belief that "nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements," he inquires whether "we may not justly fear that the aw- ful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our pre- sumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national ref- ormation as a whole people." He then recites how the people of the United States had been "the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven"; how they "had been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity" ; how they had "grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown." And then, with a keen realization of the effects produced by material success, he adds: "But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us ; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated LINCOLN'S REVERENCE 49 with unbroken success, we have become too self-suffi- cient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserv- ing grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. "It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness." The closing paragraph of this remarkable Proclama- tion named April 30, 1863, "as a day of national hu- miliation, fasting, and prayer" and requested "all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary sec- ular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keep- ing the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the hum- ble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion." Lincoln reverenced the Sabbath Day, He was a regular attendant upon the services of the church both in Springfield and Washington. His order for Sab- bath Observance issued November 15, 1862, plainly indicates both his reverence for the day and his belief in the importance of its sacred observance. In that order he says : "The President, Commander-in-chief of the Army and Navy, desires and enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of the prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiments of a Christian people, and a due regard for the Divine will, demand that Sunday labor in the army and navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity. The discipline and character of 50 ABRAHAM LINCOLN the national forces should not suffer, nor the cause they defend be imperilled, by the profanation of the day or name of the Most High." Lincoln's reverence for the church and the worship which its services promote, was shown, while he was President, not alone by his attendance on Sunday but also at the weekly meeting. The late William Henry Roberts, D. D., for so many years Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A., testifies to that fact in his Foreword to Abraham Lincoln, The Christian, by William J. John- son, under date of November 26, 1912: "It was my privilege as a young man to have known Abraham Lincoln. Entering the service of the United States government in the fall of 1863, the first Sab- bath of my sojourn in Washington City I went to the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church. When the time for the long prayer came, according to imme- morial usage in many Presbyterian congregations, a number of the men stood up for prayer, and among those upright figures I noticed in particular that of the President of the United States. As a member of the New York Avenue Church I was seated not far from Mr. Lincoln at Sunday services for a year and a half, and his attitude was always that of an earnest and devout worshipper. He was also an attendant at the weekly meeting, though for a considerable period tak- ing part in the service, privately. It having become known that he was an attendant at the prayer meet- ing, many persons would gather in or near the church at the close of the service in order to have access to LINCOLN'S REVERENCE 51 him for various purposes. Desiring to put an end to these unwelcome interruptions, the Rev. Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, the pastor of Mr. Lincoln, arranged to have the President sit in the pastor's room, the door of which opened upon the lecture room, and there Mr. Lincoln would take a silent part in the service. He informed his pastor on several occasions that he had received great comfort from the meetings, and for the reason that they had been characterized more by prayer than by the making of addresses "It will be fifty years next fall since I came into di- rect touch with the man, who in the providence of God was the liberator of a race, and I shall always hold in sweet and blessed memory my first sight of him, as a devout worshipper standing for prayer in the sanctuary of the Most High." It is gratifying to all lovers of Lincoln that this beautiful and impressive picture of the Great War President, in the attitude of a devout worshipper, has been left us by Dr. Roberts. It adds one more link to the chain of evidence that Lincoln's soul was filled with reverence, and it increases the interest which centers about the historic church where he regularly wor- shipped and in that way made known his faith in God. There can be no prayer without reverence and there is no doubt that Lincoln prayed. Mr. Nicolay, his sec- retary, who knew him most intimately, says: "There is not the slightest doubt that he believed in a Supreme Being of omnipotent power and omniscient watchfulness over the children of men, and that this great Being could be reached by prayer. Mr. Lincoln 52 ABRAHAM LINCOLN was a praying man ; I know that to be a fact. And I have heard him request people to pray for him, which he would not have done had he not believed that prayer is answered. Many a time have I heard Mr. Lincoln ask ministers and Christian women to pray for him, and he did not do this for effect. He was no hypo- crite, and had such reverence for sacred things that he would not trifle with them." The truth is that he literally talked with God in a simple, direct, familiar way, unknown to mere for- malists of the type who "love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corner of the streets that they may be seen of men." Of the numerous instances which prove that he thus communed with God in prayer, none is more convincing than the one connected with his visit on July 5, 1863, to General Sickles as he lay wounded in the hospital at Washington just after the great victory at Gettysburg. To the truthfulness of this incident, recorded in Abraham Lincoln, The Christian, General Sickles certified on February 11, 1911: "In reply to a question from General Sickles wheth- er or not the President was anxious about the battle at Gettysburg, Lincoln gravely said, 'No, I was not; some of my Cabinet and many others in Washington were, but I had no fears/ General Sickles inquired how this was, and seemed curious about it. Mr. Lin- coln hesitated, but finally replied: 'Well, I will tell you how it was. In the pinch of your campaign up there, when everybody seemed panic-stricken, and nobody could tell what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I went to my room one Keystone View Co. SAINT-GAUDENS' STATUE OF LINCOLN This statue is in Lincoln Park, Chicago. A replica stands in London. LINCOLN'S REVERENCE 55 day, and I locked the door, and got down on my knees before Almighty God, and prayed to Him mightily for victory at Gettysburg. I told Him that this was His war, and our cause His cause, but we couldn't stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God, that if He would stand by our boys, at Gettys- burg, I would stand by Him. And He did stand by you boys, and I will stand by Him. And after that (I don't know how it was, and I can't explain it) , soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that God Almighty had taken the whole business into His own hands and that things would go all right at Gettysburg. And that is why I had no fears about you/ " In view of the reverence which Lincoln always man- ifested in all the relations of life, it is certainly most fitting, and perhaps more than a mere coincidence, that the last act of Congress signed by him was the one requiring that the motto, so constantly exempli- fied in his life, "In God We Trust," should thereafter be inscribed upon all national coin; and that, in the last address he ever made, April 11, 1865, in referring to the joy which "the hope of a righteous and speedy peace" brought, he should say : "In the midst of this, however, He from whom all blessings flow must not be forgotten." CHAPTER III LINCOLN'S LOYALTY THE word loyalty is fraught with deep meaning. It is synonomous with faithfulness and devotion to home, to friends, to lawful government, to a righteous cause, and to a just principle. Loyalty implies moral consistency which is essential to firmness of character. Moral consistency should not be confounded with mere consistency of opinion, which it is reasonable to assume Emerson had in mind in the oft-quoted sentence from his celebrated essay on "Self -Reliance" : "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Out upon your guarded lips ! Sew them up with packthread, do. Else if you would be a man speak what you think to-day in words as hard as cannon balls, and to-morrow, speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict everything you said to-day." While there is some truth in the statement that only fools never change their minds, it is absolutely true that only moral weaklings and moral cowards are de- LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 57 void of moral consistency. Only those who have unal- terable convictions upon the great question of right and wrong are ever able to speak to-day or to-morrow or any time "in words as hard as cannon balls." With consistency of opinion, it is certainly true that "a great soul has simply nothing to do." With moral consist- ency — loyalty to a righteous cause or to a just princi- ple — a great soul has everything to do. Lack of such loyalty has been the cause of failure on the part of some otherwise really great men of our nation, who were unable in a moral crisis to stand true to what must have appealed to them as right. Instead they heeded the call of passing expediency rather than the enduring demand of fidelity to duty. Daniel Webster is an example of such failure. His memorable "Seventh of March (1850) Speech" can be studied with profit as a warning against any attempt to compromise with wrong in order that good may come. Even at this late day, it is impossible to read this speech without a feeling of deep regret that as great a man as Webster lacked the moral consistency to keep himself true to the principles which he had held and courageously defended on so many previous occasions. Whatever his motive may have been, he failed in this speech to remain loyal to the moral con- victions on the question of slavery, which had charac- terized all his words and acts, up to that time. And he paid dearly for the failure. "If the Seventh of March Speech was right," declares Henry Cabot Lodge in his biography of Webster, "then all that had gone before was false and wrong. In that speech he broke 58 ABRAHAM LINCOLN from his past, from his own principles and from the principles of New England, and closed his splendid public career with a terrible mistake." In the speeches of Stephen A. Douglas, another man of rare ability and remarkable power, will be found many evidences of his entire lack of any positive con- victions on the great moral question of slavery. In fact he freely admitted and frequently declared in his speeches that he did not care whether slavery was voted up or down. In the senatorial contest of 1858, Douglas, without any convictions on this moral issue, was successful and went to the United States Senate. Lincoln, with positive convictions and the courage to express them, was unsuccessful, but went later to the Presidency and "finally to immortality." The loyalty of both Webster and Douglas to the Union has never been and never can be questioned. The failure of both was a moral failure, due either to a lack of conviction on the great moral question of their day, or a lack of loyalty to such conviction. Web- ster died nearly a decade before the opening of the Civil War which ended with the abolition of slavery and the preservation of the Union that he had al- ways defended with all the power of his great elo- quence. Douglas lived to see the Union attacked by the friends of slavery, which he had failed to recognize as a moral issue. But in justice to his memory it must not be forgotten that when the crisis came, in the brief remnant of life which remained to him, he was loyal to the Union and to President Lincoln, to whom he pledged his support to sustain him "in the exercise of LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 59 all his constitutional functions to preserve the Union, and maintain the Government, and defend the Federal capital." On the monument erected to his memory in the grounds of the State House, Springfield, Illinois, is re- corded his dying message to his children : "Tell them to obey the laws and support the Consti- tution of the United States." No better example of loyalty characterized by moral consistency based upon and guided by profound moral conviction can be found than that furnished by the life of Abraham Lincoln. In thought, word, and deed he was guided and controlled in all his actions in relation to slavery by two fundamental principles : 1. Uncompromising opposition to the extension of slavery because it was wrong. 2. Unswerving loyalty to the Constitution of the United States as the Fundamental Law, together with implicit obedience to all laws enacted in accordance with its provisions. Lincoln always believed that slavery was wrong in both theory and practice. In his remarkable letter to Mr. A. G. Hodges of Frankfort, Kentucky, dated April 4, 1864, he says : "I am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel.". Verification of this conviction, expressed within a year of the close of Lincoln's life, is found in all his actions relating to slavery. Tradition, at least, as- serts that, 5vhen a young man on his famous voyage 60 ABRAHAM LINCOLN to New Orleans, he was so stirred with the revolting scenes which he witnessed in the slave market of that city that he declared : "If I ever have a chance at that thing, Til hit it hard." Under the historic Ordinance of 1787 freedom from slavery was guaranteed to all the great Northwest Territory. Illinois, one of the states carved from this Territory, was admitted into the Union in 1818. In 1822-23, an attempt was made to change it into a slave state. This attempt was defeated largely through the influence of Governor Coles, a Virginian by birth, but a strong antislavery man, who used all his in- fluence and spent all his four years' salary in the in- terest of freedom. The bitterness of the pro-slavery sentiment in Illinois, as late as 1837, is shown in the murder of Elijah P. Lovejoy, who published an anti- slavery paper in Alton. And yet, notwithstanding this condition of affairs, Lincoln's loyalty to his conviction that slavery was wrong led him to record that conviction in the historic "Lincoln-Stone Protest," which was formally entered upon the journal of the legislature of which he was a member, nearly a year before the Alton tragedy. This "Protest" called attention to the fact that resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery had passed both branches of the General Assembly and declared the be- lief "that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy." Lincoln was one of only six members of the legislature to vote in the negative on the resolutions against which the "Protest" was re- LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 61 corded, while the "Protest" itself was endorsed by only his colleague, Dan Stone, and himself. Although in a hopeless, and no doubt a very unpopular minority, Lincoln was loyal to his conviction and left no doubt as to his exact position and feeling on the question of slavery. It took rare moral courage for a young man only twenty-eight years of age and just entering upon a political career to stand almost alone for what he be- lieved was right. But Lincoln did not hesitate. Loy- alty to both his conscience and his reason would not permit him to keep silent. When in 1820 the Missouri Compromise became ef- fective, it was vainly hoped that the vexatious slavery question was settled. As late as 1849 and 1850, this Compromise was strongly defended by Senator Doug- las, who described it as having had "an origin akin to the Constitution" and as having become "canonized in the hearts of the American people as a sacred thing which no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb." In view of this fact, it is not difficult to realize the surprise and indignation which swept over the North, when in 1854, the Missouri Compromise was repealed by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, largely through the influence of Senator Douglas. After Lincoln closed his one term in Congress in 1849, he devoted his time and attention to the practice of law. "In 1854," he says, in his Autobiography, writ- ten in the third person, "this profession had almost superseded the thought of politics in his mind, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused him as never before." 62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN The contest was on between Douglas, who "didn't care whether slavery was voted up or down," and Lin- coln, who believed "that the institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and bad policy/' This con- test was to continue through the most remarkable campaign in American history and to center about the historic Lincoln-Douglas Debates which stirred the whole nation to its depths. Preliminary to the regular debates, the two contest- ants met on different occasions and discussed the great issue of the day. One of the most noted of these meet- ings was in Peoria, Illinois, on October 16, 1854. In the afternoon of that day Douglas addressed a large audience and announced that Lincoln, who was present, would follow him and that he, in turn, would follow Lincoln. It was after five o'clock when Douglas con- cluded his address of three hours, and Lincoln was called to the platform. Since he expected to occupy three hours in answering Douglas, who had announced that he would take an hour to reply to Lincoln, it is not surprising that he suggested an adjournment till after supper and that the audience accepted the sug- gestion and reassembled at seven o'clock. Lincoln's frankness is well illustrated in his statement to the audience to the effect that he had no doubt that they were surprised that he had given to one of such high reputation and known ability as Judge Douglas such an advantage over himself; but that in consenting to it, he was not wholly unselfish, since in so doing he suspected that if it were understood that the Judge's speech was finished, those who favored him would LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 63 leave, and not hear the reply, adding, with a touch of his rare humor, "But by giving him the close I felt confident you would stay for the fun of hearing him skin me." With his accurate knowledge of the history of the Missouri Compromise and the steps leading to its re- peal, and with his unusual power of critical analysis, Lincoln proceeded to answer Douglas and to picture the ominous effects of the repeal of that Compromise. With his soul on fire with indignation at the wrong and injustice of slavery, and the admitted indifference of Douglas to it, he expressed his own opinions and feelings in the following, quoted from his reply: "This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our repub- lican example of its just influence in the world; enables the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as hypocrites ; causes the real friends of free- dom to doubt our sincerity; and especially because it forces so many good men among ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of civil liberty, criticizing the Declaration of Independ- ence, and insisting that there is no right principle of action but self-interest. "Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's na- ture — opposition to it in his love of justice. These principles are in eternal antagonism, and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Repeal the Missouri Compromise, repeal all compromises, repeal the Declaration of In- 64 ABRAHAM LINCOLN dependence, repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It still will be the abundance of man's heart that slavery extension is wrong, and out of the abundance of his heart his mouth will con- tinue to speak. "Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving up the old for the new faith. Nearly eighty years ago we began by declar- ing that all men are created equal ; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a 'sacred right of self-government/ These principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and Mammon ; and whoever holds to the one must despise the other." At Bloomington, Illinois, on May 29, 1856, Lincoln made a speech which aroused such interest and en- thusiasm that even the newspaper reporters sat spell- bound and failed to take notes. However, notes of this speech, commonly referred to as "The Lost Speech," were taken in longhand by Henry C. Whitney, one of the biographers of Lincoln, who, in writing out his notes for publication, claimed to have followed the ar- gument and in many instances to have reproduced the exact statements of Lincoln. From his report of this speech the following quota- tion is taken : "Slavery is a violation of the eternal right. We have temporized with it from the necessities of our condition; but as sure as God reigns and school chil- , dren read, that black foul lie can never be consecrated into God's hallowed truth !" "We want and must have," said Lincoln in Decem- ber, 1859, when making a tour of the Territory of LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 65 Kansas, "a national policy as to slavery which deals with it as being wrong. Whoever would prevent slav- ery becoming national and perpetual yields all when he yields to a policy which treats it as being right, or as a matter of indifference." In his historic Cooper Institute Speech, February 27, 1860, Lincoln said : "If slavery is right, all words, acts, laws, and con- stitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to its nationality — its universality! If it is wrong, they (the Southern States) cannot justly insist upon its extension — its enlargement. All they ask we could readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right, and our thinking it wrong, is the precise fact upon which depends the whole controversy. * * * * "Let us be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between the right and the wrong ; vain as the search for a man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man; such as a policy of 'don't care' on a question about which all true men do care ; such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to repent- ance; such as invocations to Washington, imploring men to unsay what Washington said and undo what Washington did. "Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by men- 66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN aces of destruction to the government, nor of dun- geons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might ; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." The foregoing expressions regarding slavery fur- nish conclusive evidence that Lincoln never wavered in his loyalty to the first principle, which guided and controlled all his actions, that of uncompromising op- position to the extension of slavery because it was ;wrong. In order that intelligent and just consideration may be given to Lincoln's attitude toward slavery as it ex- isted under the Constitution and the laws enacted in accordance with its provisions, it is necessary to re- view the salient facts relating to its history; also to keep in mind that the second fundamental principle which controlled his actions, was unswerving loyalty to the Constitution and implicit obedience to law. Slavery began in the American colonies with the im- portation of slaves into Virginia in 1619, and was gradually introduced into the other colonies. Being unprofitable in the northern states and not in harmony with the sentiments of a great majority of the people, it was either abolished directly or else indirectly, by gradual emancipation. Being profitable in the south- ern states, especially after the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, it soon came to be considered a necessity to the industrial life of that section. When the government of the United States was in- stituted in 1789 the slave trade was quite general throughout the world. It was favored by the British LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 67 government during the eighteenth century. The Con- stitution of the United States, adopted in 1787, forbade Congress to prohibit it until 1808, and gave to the several states representation in the House of Repre- sentatives for three-fifths of their slaves. Provision was made for the arrest and return of fugitive slaves, by law of the colonies, in the Ordinance of 1787, and in the Constitution, In 1793, Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Act, which provided that upon proof of ownership furnished by the owner before a magistrate of the locality where the slave was found, the magistrate should order the slave delivered up to the owner with- out a trial by jury. Hindering the arrest or harboring a runaway slave was punishable by a fine of five hun- dred dollars. Under this act the federal government assumed the responsibility for the pursuit and return of fugitive slaves. In the Compromise of 1850, the new Fugitive Slave Act provided for the trial of cases in a "summary manner" by United States Commis- sioners, and for a fine of one thousand dollars for the failure of a United States marshal to execute a war- rant for the arrest or removal of a fugitive slave. By this act, citizens were required to assist in the execu- tion of the law, when called upon to do so, under pen- alty of a heavy fine and civil damages to the owner of the slave, together with imprisonment for six months for any assistance given to the fugitive or any attempt to rescue him. The only evidence of owner- ship required was the affidavit of the person who claimed the slave. 68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN In 1854, the Missouri Compromise was practically- repealed by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, and in 1857 the whole nation was stirred to its depths by the Dred-Scott Decision, which in substance de- clared that in the Declaration of Independence and in the Constitution of the United States, negroes were included or referred to only as property and could not become citizens of the United States nor sue in the Federal courts. And further, that under the Consti- tution neither Congress nor the legislature of a ter- ritory had the power to prohibit slavery in any terri- tory of the United States. With these facts in mind it is interesting to study the evidences of Lincoln's loyalty to the Constitution and of his obedience to all constitutionally enacted laws relating to slavery. In the "Lincoln-Stone Protest/' previously referred to, he was loyal not only to his moral conviction that slavery was wrong as indicated by the declaration of his belief "that the institution of slavery is founded upon both injustice and bad policy," but he was also equally loyal to the Constitution as shown by the dec- laration of his belief "that the Congress of the United States has no power under the Constitution to inter- fere with the institution of slavery in the different states." A little more than a decade later, when a member of Congress, Lincoln introduced a carefully framed bill providing for the abolishment of slavery in the Dis- trict of Columbia. This bill was based upon the idea which, later on when he was President, he frequently urged Congress to adopt and the border slave states to LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 69 accept, that "the just and generous mode of getting rid of the barbarous institution of slavery was by a system of compensated emancipation, giving freedom to the slave and a money indemnity to the owner." The pro- visions of this bill, which never came to a vote, breathe the same spirit of loyalty to his convictions with re- spect to both slavery and the Constitution. Many of the extremely radical opponents of slavery did not hesitate to denounce the Dred-Scott Decision in unmeasured terms and to suggest such radical ac- tion as accorded with their radical views, regardless of the Constitution and the laws. Although Lincoln's keen sense of right and justice was outraged by this Decision, his loyalty to the Constitution and his rever- ence for law and order kept him from saying any- thing of a harsh or revolutionary nature. On June 26, 1857, he replied to a speech made by Senator Douglas, who had defended the decision of the Supreme Court, notwithstanding the fact that it completely contra- dicted his theory of popular sovereignty that the peo- ple of a territory could decide the slavery question for themselves. In this speech, Lincoln said: "We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in obedience to, and respect for, the judicial department of government. We think its decisions on constitutional questions, when fully settled, should control, not only the particular cases decided, but the general policy of the country, subject to be disturbed only by amendments of the Constitution as provided in that instrument itself. More than this would be revolution. But we think the Dred-Scott Decision is erroneous. We know the court that made it has often 70 ABRAHAM LINCOLN, overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this. We offer no resistance to it" Lincoln's loyalty to the Constitution must have been severely tested by the provision relating to the return of fugitive slaves — a provision which undoubtedly grieved his generous soul, so filled with a hatred of the injustice of slavery. And yet he did not hesitate in his First Inaugural Address to quote this provision and to express his conviction that "All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution — to this provision as much as to any other." The assurance of the sincerity of his own purpose to support the whole Constitution is indicated in his declaration: "I take the official oath to-day with no mental reser- vations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitu- tion or laws by any hypercritical rules." That this oath was, to him, a most sacred one is re- vealed in his fervid appeal to his "dissatisfied fellow- countrymen" : "You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall have the most solemn one to 'preserve, protect, and defend it/ " Because of his unswerving loyalty to the Constitu- tion, he would not perform any act in violation of its provisions, even to interfere with slavery. On this account he was severely criticised by men who should have defended him in his conscientious performance of duty. One of the severest of these unreasoning critics was Horace Greeley, the great editor of the New York Tribune, which wielded a mighty influence Keystone View Co. LINCOLN AT THE FRONT This picture shows Lincoln visiting the headquarters of General McClellan during the last years of the Civil War. /Zfiyt-viii P**A % yj^4*&^m* Keystone View Co. PORTRAIT OF LINCOLN This autographed picture was presented to Mr. Thomas F. Rochford, of Brooklyn, by Mr. Hagen, a classmate of Lincoln. LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 73 on northern public sentiment. Lincoln's historic let- ter £o Greeley, August 22, 1862, will always stand as a fine example of courtesy and generosity in replying to unwarranted and unkindly criticism as well as of candor in outlining the policy which governed in the prosecution of the war. As an example of convincing reasoning and fine diction, it has never been surpassed : "I have just read yours of the 19th (August, 1862), addressed to me through the New York Tribune. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now and here, argue against them. If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always supposed to be right. "As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing/ as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. "I would save the Union. I would save it the short- est way under the Constitution. The sooner the na- tional authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it was.' If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this strug- gle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it ; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery and the 74 ABRAHAM LINCOLN colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union ; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views. "I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official duty; and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every- where could be free." As the war progressed, it became more and more evident that the destruction of slavery would come with the saving of the Union and that its abolition would help to save the Union. The processes through which the mind of Lincoln passed in reaching the con- clusion that freeing the slaves would help to restore the national authority are shown in his letter of April 4, 1864, to Mr. A. G. Hodges of Frankfort, Kentucky. This letter presents in the straightforward, logical, and sincere manner, so characteristic of all Lincoln's work and acts, the different steps taken in dealing with slavery, every one of which was in strict accord with his belief that slavery was wrong and in loyal obe- dience to the solemn oath which he had taken "to pre- serve, protect, and defend the Union." This letter is a masterpiece of English and fur- nishes a striking illustration of Lincoln's loyalty to the two principles w T hich controlled his actions toward slavery : LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 75 "You ask me to put in writing the substance of what I verbally said the other day in your presence, to Governor Bramlette and Senator Dixon. It was about as follows: "1 am naturally antislavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never under- stood that the Presidency conferred upon me an un- restricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling. It was in the oath I took that I would, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and de- fend the Constitution of the United States. I could not take the office without taking the oath. Nor was it my view that I might take an oath to get power and break the oath in using the power. I understand, too, that in ordinary civil administration this oath even forbade me to practically indulge my primary ab- stract judgment on the moral question of slavery. I had publicly declared this many times, and in many ways. And I aver that, to this day, I have done no official act in mere deference to my abstract judg- ment and feeling on slavery. " 'I did understand, however, that my oath to pre- serve the Constitution to the best of my ability im- posed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indis- pensable means, that government — that nation, of which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Con- stitution? By general law, life and limb must be pro- tected, yet often a limb must be amputated to save a life; but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I felt that measures otherwise unconstitutional might become lawful by becoming indispensable to the pres- ervation of the Constitution through the preservation of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best of 76 ABRAHAM LINCOLN my ability, I had even tried to preserve the Constitu- tion, if, to save slavery or any minor matter, I should permit the wreck of government, country and Consti- tution all together. When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted military emancipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable necessity. When, a little later, General Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected because I did not yet think it an in- dispensable necessity. When, still later, General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again for- bade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. When in March and May and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come un- less averted by that measure. They declined the prop- osition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution, or of laying strong hand up- on the colored element. I chose the latter. In choos- ing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss ; but of this, I was not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none in our white military force — no loss by it anyhow or any- where. On the contrary it shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no caviling. We have the men; and we could not have had them without the measure. " 'And now let any Union man who complains of the measure test himself by writing down in one line that he is for subduing the rebellion by force of arms ; and in the next, that he is for taking these hundred and LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 77 thirty thousand men from the Union side, and placing them where they would be but for the measure he condemns. If he cannot face his case so stated, it is only because he cannot face the truth. "I add a word which was not in the verbal conver- sation. In telling this tale I attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of three years' struggle, the na- tion's condition is not what either party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whith- er it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the re- moval of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North, as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God." The history of the final act in the great tragedy of African slavery in the United States can be briefly told. Having been fully convinced that the "indispen- sable necessity" for military emancipation had come and that "measures otherwise unconstitutional" would be "lawful" because "indispensable to the preservation of the Constitution through the preservation of the Union," Lincoln on July 22, 1862, read to his Cabinet the first draft of the Emancipation Proclamation. Criticisms and suggestions were offered by different members of the Cabinet. One suggestion, made by Secretary Seward, that it be postponed until it could be given to the country with the support of a military victory, appealed to Lincoln and he put the Proclama- tion aside. On September 22, 1862, he informed his Cabinet that he thought the time had come ; that when 78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN the rebel army was at Frederick, he had determined, as soon as it had been driven out of Maryland, he would issue the Proclamation; that he had said nothing to any one, but had promised himself and his Maker that he would issue it; and that he was going to ful- fill that promise. This he proceeded to do by issuing the preliminary proclamation of September 22, 1862. On December 30, 1862, he presented to his Cabinet the final draft of the Proclamation. On the following day, the members of the Cabinet again offered their criti- cisms and suggestions. Lincoln then carefully re- wrote it, and on January 1, 1863, the immortal docu- ment was published to the world. It quoted the an- nouncement of the preliminary proclamation of Sep- tember which was issued "as a fit and necessary war measure" ; named the states and parts of states which were in rebellion against the United States on that day; ordered and declared "that all persons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall be free" ; and "that such persons of suitable condition will be received into the armed service of the United States." In the closing paragraph, the form of which was submitted by Sec- retary Chase, Lincoln added after the words, "war- ranted by the Constitution," the very important quali- fying phrase, "upon military necessity" — additional evidence of his loyalty to the Constitution : "And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of man- kind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." LINCOLN'S LOYALTY 79 Later on, after the death of the mighty leader who had so directed affairs that slavery, which he had al- ways abhorred, was overthrown and the Union saved, the Constitution which he revered and to which he was always loyal, was so amended as to complete emanci- pation. Lincoln's loyalty, founded upon convictions which gave to all his acts moral consistency, had won the victory for the right, and slavery, which had been sanctioned by the Constitution and protected by va- rious laws enacted by Congress, was abolished forever from the United States. CHAPTER IV LINCOLN'S HONESTY THAT honesty was one of the dominant traits of Lincoln's character is the universal testimony of all who knew him. It was, as Justice David Davis of the United States Supreme Court, one of Lincoln's life- long friends, declared in his beautiful tribute to his memory, "the framework of his mental and moral being." His honesty constantly manifested itself in all that he said and did. It was the controlling factor in all his activities, including even the sports in which he so often took part. The great physical strength with which Lincoln was endowed made him, when quite a young man, a recognized leader in the sports which characterized the frontier life of which he was a part. He loved these sports, both for their own sake and for the human companionship which they fostered. His humility, which was such a prominent factor in all the intel- lectual and political achievements of his later life, kept him from making any idle boasts as to his physi- cal powers. He had neither the desire nor the inclina- tion to pick a quarrel, which he always abhorred ; and he rarely, if ever, initiated a physical contest. Not all of his friends, however, were as modest as he LINCOLN'S HONESTY 81 with reference to his abilities. One of these friends, Denton Offutt, for whom Lincoln worked in various capacities, was loud in his praise. He did not hesi- tate to declare that "Abe knew more than any man in the United States" and that "he could beat any man in the country, running, jumping or 'wrestling/ " The sweeping statement relative to the knowledge pos- sessed by Abe seems to have aroused little or no ex- citement in the community. Perhaps the extent of the territory included in this statement was somewhat bewildering to those who heard it and who had no means of disproving it. But to be told that Abe could out-run, out-jump, and "out-wrastle" any man in the country, was the signal for action. Such an announce- ment could not be permitted to pass unchallenged. The challenge promptly came from the ranks of the "Clary Grove Boys," a crowd of young ruffians who visited New Salem once or twice a week for the pur- pose of drinking, fighting, or otherwise disturbing the peace. They considered it a part of their duty to initiate all newcomers by means of such ceremony as they chose to appoint. For a time they let Lincoln alone. His reputation for strength was such as to lead them to be cautious in molesting him. But the fulsome praise of Offutt was more than they could stand. A dispute resulted and finally a challenge to a wrestling- match, which Lincoln most reluctantly accepted, be- cause he was opposed to what he called all such "wool- ing and pulling." Jack Armstrong, the leader of the gang, was selected to wrestle with Lincoln, and the contest was on in 82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN earnest. Jack's uniformly successful experience up to that time had given him great confidence in his physical powers. He fully expected to win another victory, but he was doomed to disappointment. He soon realized that the "tall stranger" was more than a match for him. His friends rushed to his rescue and by every means known to their kind almost succeeded in throwing Lincoln to the ground. With character- istic self-control, he mustered all his strength, over- came the unfair attack made upon him, and soon won the contest. What was of far greater importance, he won the sincere admiration of his antagonist and all his followers, who were ever afterward his loyal friends. And best of all, he had won by the use of honest, straightforward methods, unaided by any of the tricks and deceptions which too often characterized such sports. He had conclusively proved that he was honest and fair even in a wrestling-match held under the most trying conditions. When Governor Reynolds of Illinois issued his call for volunteers in the Black Hawk War, Lincoln was one of the first to respond. He was promptly elected cap- tain of his company by a large majority. The record shows that three-fourths of the men made known their choice by the informal procedure of walking over to where Lincoln stood, while the remainder "stood by" a man by the name of Kilpatrick, who had con- siderable prominence in the community. This first official trust came to Lincoln unsought and was greatly appreciated by him. Frequently in his later life he is reported to have said that no subsequent success LINCOLN'S HONESTY 83 brought him such unmixed pleasure. The company contained a number of "genteel ruffians" of the type whose confidence Lincoln had won by his action in the wrestling-match with Jack Armstrong. Something of their character is indicated in the reported statement of Lincoln that in reply to one of the first orders he gave, there came the instant response, "Go to the devil, sir!" This response was simply a manifestation of their fun-loving spirit, and was not intended to show any disrespect to their captain, to whom they were de- votedly loyal. One evening an altercation took place between some of the members of Lincoln's company and those of an- other company from an adjoining county over a camp- ing ground which both had reached about the same time. To avoid what threatened to be a most disgrace- ful scuffle, Captain Lincoln proposed to Captain Moore of the other company that they settle the dispute by means of a friendly physical contest. Since Captain Moore had no skill in wrestling, the proposal was modified to allow each company to select its strongest representative. As a result, Lincoln and Lorenzo Dow Thompson were put forward to settle the dispute. Captain Moore's brother was selected as referee, and the fun began in the midst of the wildest enthusiasm on the part of the men, who, it is said, wagered all their property, both present and in future prospect, on the outcome. The referee announced that "two falls in three would decide the match." In the first round Lincoln was fairly thrown. In the second both men went down to- 84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN gether. Then followed a dispute which threatened a general fight of a serious nature. This was avoided by a declaration from Lincoln advising his friends to give up their bets, stating as his reason, — "If he has not thrown me fairly, he could." This honest admis- sion ended the contest, Captain Moore and his com- pany taking possession of the disputed territory. It was a rough scene, but not without its redeeming features, the most striking of which was the absolute fairness and honesty of Lincoln, upon whose mind the affair made a lasting impression. There is abundant evidence that, even when he was President, he fre- quently discussed the experience with his old-time friends. Of one of these friends, he inquired, "What- ever became of our old antagonist, Thompson, — that big, curly-headed fellow who threw me at Rock Island ?" To the expression of surprise on the part of this friend that such a question should be asked, Lin- coln "playfully remarked that if he knew where he was living, he would give him a post office by way of showing him that he bore him no ill will." It was in such contests as these that Lincoln demon- strated that whether winning or losing, he could al- ways be generous, fair, and honest. As a result, he won the love and confidence of the neighbors, who in- sisted that he should preside over all kinds of games and sports. When he became famous, it was the de- light of the old residents, who knew him in these early days, to recall their experiences with him. One of these loved to rehearse how he had persuaded Lincoln, much against his own will, to serve as a judge in a LINCOLN'S HONESTY 85 horse race and how he had decided with such fairness as to lead the other judge to declare : "Lincoln is the fairest man I ever had to deal with. If Lincoln is in this country when I die, I want him to be my adminis- trator, for he is the only man I ever met with that was wholly and unselfishly honest." Thus it was that in the midst of that pioneer life — crude in many respects — in which his young man- hood was thrown, Lincoln laid the foundation of his future greatness. The corner stone of that foundation was rugged, uncompromising honesty. It is not sur- prising, therefore, that early in his life, the friends who knew him best and loved him most should give expression to their abiding confidence in his integrity by calling him "Honest Abe." In all his financial dealings Lincoln was so scrupu- lously honest as to be considered eccentric by some. .When serving as a clerk in Offutt's store, he sold a small bill of goods to a woman, who paid cash for them. After she had gone, he discovered that he had over- charged her six and a quarter cents. As soon as the store was closed in the evening, he walked several miles into the country to return the amount due. Another time, just as the store was about to be closed, he sold some tea to a belated customer. On opening the store early the next morning, he noticed that he had used a smaller weight than he had in- tended. Before eating his breakfast, he proceeded to correct the mistake by taking the balance of the order to the customer, who lived a long distance from the store. 86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN For three years, Lincoln served as postmaster at New Salem. The place was very small and the mail so light that he is said to have carried it in his hat at times as he walked about distributing it to the people in the community. Finally the population decreased to such an extent that the office was discontinued. No chance to make final settlement with the Post Office Department came until several years later when an agent called on Lincoln, after he had moved to Spring- field, and presented a claim for the balance due. This claim was immediately paid by Lincoln in the coin which had been taken in when he was postmaster, with the remark that he never used any money but his own. He never deviated from this rule. Even after he had acquired an extensive law practice, as soon as a fee was paid for service rendered by the law firm of which he was a member, he insisted upon an immediate division. If both partners were present, each received his share ; if either was absent, then his share was wrapped in a piece of paper and laid aside for him with a proper notation fully explaining what it was for. Because of his self-respect and keen sense of honor, he naturally resented any intimation that he was not strictly honest in all his dealings. This is evident in the following interesting letter written to George Spears : "At your request, I send you a receipt for the post- age on your paper. I am somewhat surprised at your request. I will, however, comply with it. The law re- quires newspaper postage to be paid in advance, and now that I have waited a full year you choose to wound LINCOLN'S HONESTY 87 my feelings by insinuating that unless you get a receipt I will probably make you pay it again." The letter enclosed a receipt "in full for postage on the Sangamon Journal up to the first of July, 1834." After Lincoln's defeat as a candidate for the legis- lature, he found himself in a serious situation which he afterward described in the following statement con- tained in a short autobiography (written in the third person) prepared at the request of a friend, to be used for campaign purposes : "He was now without means and out of business, but was anxious to remain with his friends, who had treat- ed him with so much generosity, especially as he had nothing elsewhere to go to. He studied what he should do — thought of learning the blacksmith trade — thought of trying to study law — rather thought he could not succeed at that without a better education." It was in this crisis that the unfortunate partner- ship with William F. Berry was formed with the pur- pose of buying out the store owned by the Herndon Brothers in New Salem. Later on, the new firm bought two other stores. For their purchase not a cent of money was paid, notes being given to cover the amounts of the different transactions. Berry was dis- sipated, the business proved to be a disastrous failure, and was disposed of on credit to the Trent Brothers. They broke up and left the country. Later, Berry died and Lincoln became responsible for the entire debt. With the lax moral ideals relating to business which prevailed in the community, it would have been easy for Lincoln to repudiate his liabilities, pleading the 88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN failure of the business and the attendant circum- stances. But he did not even try to compromise the claims against the firm. He deliberately assumed re- sponsibility for the entire amount due and resolutely determined to keep his promise to the creditors to pay all as soon as possible. It took him seventeen years to redeem this promise, but finally every penny of the debt, which he humorously referred to as "the national debt," was paid, with interest. While he was serving in Congress in 1848, portions of his salary were sent to his law partner from time to time to apply on the debt. In writing to an intimate friend of his later years, Lincoln revealed the seriousness of the burden of this experience by saying: "That debt was the greatest obstacle I have ever met in my life. I had no way of speculating, and could not earn money except by labor, and to earn by labor eleven hundred dollars, besides my living, seemed the work of a lifetime. There was, however, but one way. I went to the creditors and told them that if they would let me alone, I would give them all I could earn over my living, as fast as I could earn it." Out of such a disheartening failure in business, there came the victory of character growth in the form of that uncompromising honesty for which Abraham Lincoln was to be known and honored for all time. Lincoln's sterling honesty was no doubt largely re- sponsible for his appointment as deputy county sur- veyor, which came to him in his direst need. The work thus secured "procured bread, and kept soul and body Keystone View Co. STATUE— LINCOLN AND THE SLAVE The original of this statue, by Thomas Ball, is in Boston, and the replica is in Washington. It is considered one of the best treatments of the emancipation of the slave. LINCOLN'S HONESTY 91 together," to quote his own words in referring to the matter in after years. The fact that the county sur- veyor, John Calhoun, who made the choice, was a lead- ing Democrat, while Lincoln was an ardent Whig, gives special significance to this appointment which was made at a time when party spirit ran high and politi- cal contests were noted for their bitterness. Striking evidence of the honesty in politics, which was to be such a marked feature in his political career, was shown in his statement made when he was offered the much-needed position. He stated that he would take the office if he could be perfectly free in his political actions but that if his political sentiments or even the expression of them were to be abridged in any way, he would not have it or any other office. But honesty was not the only qualification which appealed to Calhoun in selecting his deputy. He must have had unlimited faith in Lincoln's ability to pre- pare to fill the important position to which he had ap- pointed him, for he certainly knew that he had little or no knowledge of surveying. There is a well authen- ticated tradition at least that when he gave him the ap- pointment he supplied him with the necessary books to study in preparation for his work. Certain it is that in a few weeks Lincoln had prepared himself to enter upon his duties, which were performed with satisfac- tion to all concerned. He soon became an excellent surveyor, so noted for his accuracy that when disputes arose about corner stones or boundaries, it was not uncommon for the parties to the dispute to agree to send for Lincoln and let him decide the matter. 92 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Lincoln's work as surveyor necessitated the pur- chase of a horse. He was unable to pay cash and agreed to make settlement on the installment plan. When all but ten dollars had been paid, he was sued for that amount. He was able to raise the money and soon settled this suit. A little later he was sued again on one of the Berry-Lincoln notes. Judgment was ob- tained and his horse, saddle, and surveying instru- ments were attached to secure the claim. Loyal friends, who had confidence in his honesty, came to his rescue, redeemed the property, and thus enabled him to continue his work. Additional evidence of Lincoln's honesty is found in the fact that he never used the information gained as surveyor to make money for himself by means of real estate deals of any kind. No doubt many oppor- tunities for profitable speculation came to him, but he would not use for private gain the knowledge secured in public office, which was to him indeed a public trust, never to be violated in the least particular. His high ideals relative to public office were exemplified many times when he was President. On one occasion, he was strongly urged by a delegation of friends to appoint to an important office one of his closest personal friends. This he declined to do, with the explanation that he did not "regard it as just to the public to pay the debts of personal friendship with offices that be- longed to the people." While serving as postmaster and surveyor, Lincoln rapidly extended his acquaintance. His generous na- ture, manifested by his readiness to help others, and LINCOLN'S HONESTY 93 his gratitude for every favor received, soon turned acquaintance into lasting friendship. His honesty in financial matters won the confidence of all. As a re- sult, he grew in political influence to such an extent that he won four successive victories as a candidate for the legislature, notwithstanding the handicap of his debts. Fortunately, in those days election expenses were not so large as at present. As an indication of this, as well as an illustration of Lincoln's honesty, it is especially interesting to note an incident of one of his campaigns as related by his friend, Joshua Speed. The Whigs raised two hundred dollars which Speed gave to Lincoln to pay his personal expenses in the campaign. After the election was over, he gave back one hundred and ninety-nine dollars and twenty-five cents of the amount, with the request that it be re- turned to the subscribers, accompanying the request with the frank statement: "I did not need the money. I made the canvass on my own horse; my entertainment, being at the houses of friends, cost me nothing; and my only outlay was seventy-five cents for a barrel of cider, which some farm hands insisted I should treat them to." In securing the removal of the state capital from Vandalia to Springfield, Lincoln played the leading part. The change was bitterly contested. To secure the removal, the customary trading of votes was un- doubtedly indulged in. In playing the political game Lincoln was an expert so long as it was played hon- estly. But in this contest, as in all others in which he had a part, he never violated his high ideals of right 94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN and duty. He was honest from principle and not from policy. He would not use wrong means to secure right ends. An illustration of this is found in his refusal to lend his influence in support of a proposed measure of doubtful character, which his friends urged upon him as a means of helping to win in the contest. It is related that at different conferences, the strongest in- fluences were used without avail. Every possible ar- gument in favor of the proposed measure was pre- sented. Lincoln was implored to lay aside his "incon- venient scruples" and to join in making sure of the re- moval of the capital. The discussion was brought to a close by Lincoln in what is reported to have been a "most eloquent and powerful" speech against the measure, closing with the frequently quoted words: "You may burn my body to ashes and scatter them to the winds of heaven; you may drag my soul down to the regions of darkness and despair, to be tormented forever; but you will never get me to support a meas- ure which I believe to be wrong, although by doing so I may accomplish that which I believe to be the right." One of the provisions of the act for the removal of the capital was that the place selected should be re- quired to obligate itself to contribute fifty thousand dollars to be used in helping to erect a state house. This was a large sum of money for the citizens of a small frontier town to raise, especially under the fi- nancial conditions existing at that time. Stephen A. Douglas, the Register of the Land Office, proposed a measure to release Springfield from the obligation which it was in honor bound to meet. This measure LINCOLN'S HONESTY 95 Lincoln opposed and helped to defeat. His reason for so doing was tersely stated : "We have the benefit ; let us stand to our obligation like men." Under his leadership, the obligation was met, and the honor of the community was maintained by the payment of the full amount in three equal installments. Money for the first two was raised with much diffi- culty. The last was paid by borrowing the amount from the State Bank, for which a note was given, signed by all the citizens of the town, including Lin- coln. For many years this liquidated note was ex- hibited in one of the banking houses of Springfield — a silent witness to the honesty of the people who fol- lowed the advice of Lincoln and stood by their obli- gation like men. Many additional instances could be given to show that Lincoln never deviated in his loyalty to the high- est ideals of honor and honesty in public as well as in private life. Any proposal to repudiate in the slight- est degree a debt or a promise, invariably met with his disapproval. His word was indeed as good as his bond. In "Notes for a Law Lecture" prepared by Lincoln in 1850 can be found a clear presentation of the high ideals which he always maintained in the practice of law, together with the principles which always guided him in that practice. In this, as in all other relations of life, honesty was the foundation of all his acts. "There is a vague popular belief," says he in these "Notes," "that lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague, because when we consider to what extent confidence and honors are reposed in and conferred 96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN upon lawyers by the people, it appears improbable that their impression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet the impression is common, almost uni- versal. Let no young man choosing the law for a call- ing for a moment yield to the popular belief — resolve to be honest, at all events; and if in your own judg- ment you cannot be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation, rather than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, consent to be a knave." This advice — "Resolve to be honest at all events," — Lincoln followed in all his relations with his clients, with his associates in the profession, and with the courts. Evidence of this is found both in the tributes paid to him by other members of the bar, who travelled the circuit with him, and in numerous incidents re- corded by his biographers. "But it was morally impossible for Lincoln to argue dishonestly," says Henry C. Whitney, one of his most intimate associates. "He could no more do it than he could steal ; it was the same thing to him, in essence, to despoil a man of his property by larceny, or by illog- ical or flagitious reasoning; and even to defeat a suitor by technicalities or by merely arbitrary law savored strongly of dishonesty by him." . . . "He gave but the slightest attention to rules of evidence, and rarely objected to the admission of anything at all allowable ; he could not endure those illiberal prac- tices required at the hands of the complete lawyer ; he could not practice or countenance that selfishness which the requirements of good practice demanded. All the LINCOLN'S HONESTY 97 generalizations of his mind tended to frankness, fair- ness, and the attainment of substantial justice, and the simplest mode was to him the best. In entering upon a trial, he stated the whole case on both sides, as he understood it, with fairness and frankness, not at- tempting to gloss over the faults and imperfections of his own case, or to improperly disparage the adverse side." In illustration of Lincoln's readiness to admit "any- thing at all allowable" in the way of evidence, Whitney relates the following personal experience: "When I was new to the bar, I was trying to keep some evidence out, and was getting along very well with the court, when Lincoln sung out: 'I reckon it would be fair to let that in/ It sounded treasonable, but I had to get used to this eccentricity." Whitney was not the only member of the bar who was rebuked for an attempt to indulge in sharp prac- tice in order to win a point. His law partner, William H. Herndon, in his life of Lincoln, tells of his experi- ence in running counter to Lincoln's uncompromising honesty : "Messrs. Stuart and Edwards once brought a suit against a client of ours which involved the title to con- siderable property. At that time we had only two or three terms of court, and the docket was somewhat crowded. The plaintiff's attorneys were pressing us for a trial, and we were equally as anxious to ward it off. What we wanted were time and a continuance to the next term. We dared not make an affidavit for contin- uance, founded on facts, because no such pertinent 98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN and material facts as the law contemplated existed. Our case for the time seemed hopeless. One morning, however, I accidentally overheard a remark from Stuart indicating his fear lest a certain fact should happen to come into our possession. I felt some re- lief, and at once drew up a fictitious plea, averring as best I could the substance of the doubts I knew existed in Stuart's mind. The plea was as skilfully drawn as I knew how, and was framed as if we had the evidence to sustain it. The whole thing was a sham, but so con- structed as to work the desired continuance, because I knew that Stuart and Edwards believed the facts were as I pleaded them. This was done in the absence and without the knowledge of Lincoln. The plea could not be demurred to, and the opposing counsel dared not take the issue on it. It perplexed them sorely. At length, before further steps were taken, Lincoln came into court. He looked carefully over all the papers in the case, as was his custom, and seeing my ingenious subterfuge, asked, 'Is this seventh plea a good one?' Proud of the exhibition of my skill, I answered that it was. 'But/ he inquired, incredulously, 'is it founded on fact?' I was obliged to respond in the negative, at the same time following up my answer with an explanation of what I had overheard Stuart intimate, and of how these alleged facts could be called facts if a certain construction were put upon them. I insisted that our position was justifiable, and that our client must have time or be ruined. I could see at once it failed to strike Lincoln as just right. He scratched his head thought- fully and asked, 'Hadn't we better withdraw that plea? LINCOLN'S HONESTY 99 You know it's a sham, and a sham is very often but another name for a lie. Don't let it go on record. The cursed thing may come staring us in the face long after this suit has been forgotten/ The plea was with- drawn. By some agency — not our own — the case was continued and our client's interests were saved I venture the assertion that he was the only member of the bar in Springfield who would have taken such a conscientious view of the matter." "Discourage litigation," advised Lincoln in his "Notes for Law Lectures" previously quoted from. "Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often the real loser — in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough. "Never stir up litigation. A worse man can scarcely be found than one who does this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife, and put money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be infused into the profession which should drive such men out of it. "The matter of fees is important, far beyond the mere question of bread and butter involved. Properly attended to, fuller justice is done to both lawyer and client. An exorbitant fee should never be claimed. As a general rule, never take your whole fee in advance, nor any more than a small retainer. When fully paid beforehand, you are more than a common mortal if you can feel the same interest in the case, as if something was still in prospect for you, as well as for your client. And when you lack interest in the case, the job will very likely lack skill and diligence in the performance." 100 ABRAHAM LINCOLN The following incidents conclusively prove that Lin- coln followed his own advice to the letter. To one man who presented a case for consideration, he said : "Yes, we can doubtless gain your case for you; we can set a whole neighborhood at loggerheads; we can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless chil- dren and thereby get for you six hundred dollars to which you seem to have a legal claim, but which rightly belongs, it appears to me, as much to the woman and children as it does to you. You must remember that some things legally right are not morally right. We shall not take your case, but will give you a little advice for which we will charge you nothing. You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man; we would advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars in some other way." To another client, he wrote : "I do not think there is the least use of doing any- thing more with your lawsuit. I not only do not think you are sure to gain it, but I do think you are sure to lose it. Therefore the sooner it ends the better." In one instance a client, who was a widow, employed Lincoln and Herndon to investigate the title to a valu- able piece of property which she owned, with the pur- pose of determining the validity of certain alleged tax liens against it. The investigation revealed an unsat- isfactory description in one of the deeds. To deter- mine the facts in the case, Lincoln surveyed the ground and thereby discovered that a former owner, Charles Matheney, by name, in selling the property, had given a deed for more land than he was paid for, because of LINCOLN'S HONESTY 101 an error in the description. Lincoln decided that this loss should be made up to the Matheney heirs and so advised his client, who strenuously objected to follow- ing his advice. However, upon learning that unless she did so, the firm of which Lincoln was a member would drop the case, the required sum to make resti- tution was paid, and distributed by Lincoln to the va- rious heirs. Lincoln's fees for services rendered were exceed- ingly small — provokingly small to many of his asso- ciates at the bar. In some instances, he returned all the retaining fee given him, when convinced by inves- tigation that the case which he was retained to prose- cute or to defend was without merit. A notable illus- tration of this is related by Carpenter in his Six Months at the White House: "About the time Mr. Lincoln began to be known as a successful lawyer, he was waited upon by a lady who held a real-estate claim which she desired to have him prosecute, — putting into his hands, with the necessary papers, a check for two hundred and fifty dollars, as a retaining fee. Mr. Lincoln said he would look the case over, and asked her to call again the next day. Upon presenting herself, Mr. Lincoln told her that he had gone through the papers very carefully, and he must tell her frankly that there was not a 'peg' to hang her claim upon, and he could not conscientiously ad- vise her to bring an action. The lady was satisfied, and, thanking him, rose to go. 'Wait/ said Mr. Lin- coln, fumbling in his vest pocket ; 'here is the check you left with me/ 'But, Mr. Lincoln/ returned the lady, 102 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 'I think you have earned that.' 'No, no/ he responded, handing it back to her; 'that would not be right, I can't take pay for doing my duty/ " At one time Lincoln prepared a lease for a client, ;who sent him a check for twenty-five dollars, which he considered a proper charge for the service he had re- ceived. In a short time he was surprised to receive the following letter : "I have just received yours of the 16th, with check on Flagg and Savage for twenty-five dollars. You must think I am a high-priced man. You are too liberal with your money. Fifteen dollars is enough for the job. I send you a receipt for fifteen dollars, and return to you a ten dollar bill." On another occasion Ward H. Lamon, Lincoln's as- sociate on the circuit, was retained in an important case by a client named Scott. This client was acting as the guardian of a demented sister, whose property amounting to ten thousand dollars had induced an un- principled adventurer to attempt to marry the unfor- tunate girl. In order to carry out his nefarious de- sign, it was necessary to remove the guardian. To op- pose this action, Lamon was retained by Scott, who insisted that the amount of the fee be named in ad- vance. Lamon advised against this, as the probabili- ties were that the matter would be easily settled and the fee would be small. His advice was ignored, and upon the further insistence of Scott, the fee was fixed at two hundred and fifty dollars. This amount was eagerly agreed to by him, in view of what he believed would be a prolonged contest in the court. LINCOLN'S HONESTY 103 Lincoln, himself, took charge of the case when it came on, and in a few minutes won a complete victory for his client, who gladly paid to Lamon the promised fee. When Lincoln learned that the fee was two hun- dred and fifty dollars, he indignantly exclaimed: "Lamon, that is all wrong. The service was not worth that sum. Give him back at least half of it." In reply to this demand, Lamon protested that the fee had been agreed upon in advance and that their client was perfectly satisfied. But Lincoln was im- movable, as he always was when his ideals of honesty and justice were at stake. He replied: "That may be, but I am not satisfied. This is positively wrong. Go, call him back, and return half the money at least, or I will not receive one cent of it for my share." It is, perhaps, needless to add that there was no further argument. Lincoln's demand was complied ;with by returning half of the fee. It is related that the presiding judge on this occa- sion, David Davis, afterward a member of the Supreme Court of the United States by Lincoln's appointment, took advantage of the situation to rebuke Lincoln by saying : "I have been watching you and Lamon. You are impoverishing this bar by your picayune charges of fees, and the lawyers have reason to complain of you. You are now almost as poor as Lazarus, and if you don't make people pay you more for your services, you will die as poor as Job's turkey." It is further related that the members of the bar who overheard the rebuke, said to have been spoken "in a poorly controlled whisper, which could be heard 104 ABRAHAM LINCOLN throughout the court room," enthusiastically ap- plauded the remarks of the judge and that Lincoln de- fended his course by saying : "That money comes out of the pocket of a poor, demented girl, and I would rather starve than swindle her in this manner." It is possible that Judge Davis may have recalled this scene when, shortly after Lincoln's death, he paid tribute to his honesty, as quoted in the opening para- graph of this chapter, and described how he exempli- fied this honesty in actual practice as follows: "To his honor be it said that he never took from a client, even when his cause was gained, more than he thought the services were worth and the client could reasonably afford to pay. The people where he prac- ticed law were not rich, and his charges were always small. When he was elected President, I question whether there was a lawyer in the circuit who had been at the bar so long a time, whose means were not larger. It did not seem to be one of the purposes of his life to accumulate a fortune. In fact, outside of his profession, he had no knowledge of the way to make money, and he never even attempted it." Lincoln's life began in the midst of poverty ; much of it was burdened with debt; it ended without the ac- cumulation of a large fortune. But he bequeathed to the world a legacy of honesty and integrity in all that he thought, said, and did in all the varied activities of his marvelous career, that cannot be measured by any material standard — a legacy which will continue to en- rich human life as long as time endures. CHAPTER V LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY WITH Humility, Reverence, Loyalty, and Honesty as the foundation of Lincoln's character, it is not surprising that Simplicity was a distinctive feature of his habits and actions, as well as of his thought and language. All of these were in harmony with the se- vere simplicity which characterized the society in which he grew up and which has furnished the theme of many writers of both history and fiction. Interesting and illuminating glimpses of this society are given in the Nicolay and Hay Life of Lincoln. In Volume 1, Chapter II, on Indiana, we read : "Their houses were usually of one room, built of round logs with the bark on Their dress was still mostly of tanned deer-hide, a material to the last degree uncomfortable when the wearer was caught in a shower. Their shoes were of the same, and a good Western authority calls a wet moccasin 'a decent way of going barefoot.' About the time, however, when Lincoln grew to manhood, garments of wool and of tow began to be worn, dyed with the juice of the butter- nut or white walnut, and the hides of neat-cattle began to be tanned. But for a good while it was only the women who indulged in these novelties. There was 106 ABRAHAM LINCOLN little public worship. Occasionally an itinerant preacher visited a county, and the settlers for miles around would go nearly in mass to the meeting. If a man was possessed of a wagon, the family rode lux- uriously ; but as a rule the men walked and the women went on horseback with the little children in their arms. It was considered no violation of the sanctities of the occasion to carry a rifle and take advantage of any game which might be stirring during the long walk." "Governor Reynolds," we learn from Chapter III on Illinois, of the same volume, "tells us of a preacher in Sangamon County, who, before his sermon, had set a wolf-trap in view from his pulpit. In the midst of his exhortations his keen eyes saw the distant trap collapse, and he continued in the same intonation with which he had been preaching, 'Mind the text, brethren, till I go kill that wolf!' There was very little social intercourse ; a visit was a serious matter, involving the expenditure of days of travel. It was the custom among families, when the longing for the sight of kindred faces was too strong to withstand, to move in a body to the distant settlement where their relatives lived and remain with them for months at a time. The claims of consanguinity were more re- garded than now. Almost the only festivities were those that accompanied weddings, and these were, of course, of a primitive kind. The perils and adventures through which the young pioneers went to obtain their brides furnish forth thousands of tales by Western firesides An old farmer of Sangamon LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY 107 County still talks of a feather-bed weighing fifty-four pounds with which his wife made him swim six rivers under penalty of desertion." In no way does Lincoln's greatness manifest itself more conclusively than in his actions after he had been elevated to exalted position. Had he possessed littleness of mind or soul, it would have shown itself by acting as if he were ashamed of the simplicity of the life through which he had advanced to prominence and of the friends whose support had made his ad- vancement possible. Had he not been great in thought and action, he might have felt that his election to the Presidency would necessitate a change in the simple manner and habits which had always characterized his life. All of his biographers unite in testifying that, in accepting the nomination to the Presidency, in the campaign which resulted in his election, and in the performance of his official duties as President, he re- mained unchanged. At the time of Lincoln's nomination, simplicity char- acterized the procedure of political conventions. The two prominent candidates for nomination by the Re- publican party in 1860 were Seward and Lincoln. The name of the former was presented to the convention by William M. Evarts of New York, who simply stated — "I take the liberty to name as a candidate to be nominated by this convention for the office of Presi- dent of the United States, William H. Seward." Nor- man B. Judd of Illinois followed with the announce- ment — "I desire on behalf of the delegation from Illi- nois, to put in nomination as a candidate for Presi- 108 ABRAHAM LINCOLN dent of the United States, Abraham Lincoln of Illinois." The people of Springfield, who were in close touch with Lincoln at the time of the convention, have never agreed as to the details of his actions when the news of his nomination reached the city. There is general agreement, however, that he was restless under the strain of anxiety which naturally accompanied the telegraphic reports of the proceedings of the conven- tion ; that while he felt that he had a fighting chance of winning, he was not at all confident of success; and that when he was handed the telegram informing him that he had been nominated for the high office of President of the United States, and was surrounded by his neighbors and friends who were rejoicing over the victory, his simplicity found expression in the statement — "My friends, I am glad to receive your con- gratulations, and as there is a little woman down on Eighth Street who will be glad to hear the news, you must excuse me until I inform her." The committee which came to Springfield, after the adjournment of the convention, to notify Lincoln of his nomination, was composed of some of the most dis- tinguished men of the nation. When they visited his modest home, noted the simplicity of the surroundings, and watched with keen interest his sad face as he lis- tened to the formal notification of his nomination, which called him to leadership in such a grave crisis, it is not surprising to learn that their hearts were at first filled with misgivings and forebodings. What they thought and how they felt when, in violation of LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY 109 the common custom at that time of serving wine on all such occasions, water was substituted, will prob- ably never be fully realized. However, when they lis- tened to his brief reply phrased in simple but perfect English, expressing his thanks for the honor con- ferred, together with a full realization of the respon- sibility which came with the honor, all of the members of the notification committee were satisfied that no mistake had been made in choosing a leader. And whatever their views were on the temperance question, they could not but respect and admire the consistency of a man who would not sacrifice principle to conform to custom. His formal response in writing followed a few days later : "Springfield, III., May 23, 1860 "Hon. George Ashmun, "President of the Republican National Convention "Sir: I accept the nomination tendered me by the Con- vention over which you presided, and of which I am formally apprised in the letter of yourself and others, acting as a committee of the convention for that pur- pose. "The declaration of principles and sentiments which accompanies your letter meets my approval; and it shall be my care not to violate or disregard it in any part. "Imploring the assistance of Divine Providence, and with due regard to the views and feelings of all who were represented in the convention; — to the rights of all the States, and Territories, and people of the nation ; to the inviolability of the Constitution; and the per- petual union, harmony, and prosperity of all — I am 110 ABRAHAM LINCOLN most happy to co-operate for the practical success of the principles declared by the convention. "Your obliged friend and fellow-citizen, "A. Lincoln/' The brevity and simplicity of this important letter, so characteristic of all that Lincoln wrote, were the result of the most painstaking thought and care in its preparation. After it was finished, he took it to his friend, Newton Bateman, State Superintendent of Pub- lic Instruction for Illinois, and requested him "to see if it was all right," remarking that he was "not very strong on grammar" and "wouldn't like to have any mistake in it." Only one change was suggested. In the last clause of the second paragraph, Lincoln had "split an infinitive" in writing "and it shall be my care to not violate or disregard it in any part." He was advised to change the order of the words so as to con- form to a rule of grammar considered more essential to correct usage at that time than at present. This advice Lincoln followed by making the change, accom- panied by the comment, "So you think I better put those two little fellows end to end, do you?" The familiar signature to this letter of acceptance, "A. Lincoln," evidently led to correspondence relative to his first name, as indicated by the following letter: ^'Springfield, III., June 4, 1860 "Hon. George Ashmun, "My dear Sir: "It seems as if the question whether my first name is 'Abraham' or 'Abram' will never be settled. It is 'Abra- ham/ and if the letter of acceptance is not yet in print. LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY 111 you may, if you think fit, have my signature thereto printed 'Abraham Lincoln/ Exercise your judgment about this, "Yours as ever, "A. Lincoln." This letter furnishes additional evidence of the de- lightful informality and simplicity which were so prominent in all of the varied activities of his life. Interesting glimpses of the unchanged simplicity of Lincoln's life, after the recognition which made him a world figure came to him, are given by all his leading biographers. In describing the progress of the cam- paign which resulted in his election to the Presidency, Miss Tarbell in her Life of Lincoln says : "From May until November this work for the ticket went on steadily and ardently. Mr. Lincoln during all this time remained quietly in Springfield. The con- spicuous position in which he was placed made almost no difference in his simple life. He was the same genial, accessible, modest man as ever, his habits as unpretentious, his friendliness as great. The chief outward change in his daily round was merely one of quarters. It seemed to his friends that neither his home nor his dingy law office was an appropriate place in which to receive his visitors and they arranged that a room in the State House which stood on the village green in the center of the town, be put at his disposal. He came down to this office every morning about eight o'clock, always stopping on his way in his old cordial fashion to ask the news or exchange a story when he met an acquaintance. Frequently he went to the post 112 ABRAHAM LINCOLN office himself before going to his office, and came out, his arms loaded with letters and papers. "He had no regular hours for visitors ; there was no ceremony for admittance to his presence. People came when they would. Usually they found the door open ; if it was not, it was Mr. Lincoln's own voice which answered 'come in/ to their knock. ***** "Among his daily visitors there were usually men of eminence from North and South. He received them all with perfect simplicity and always, even on his busiest days, found a moment to turn away from them to greet old friends who had known him when he kept grocery in New Salem or acted as deputy-surveyor of Sangamon County. One day as he talked to a company of distinguished strangers an old lady in a big sun- bonnet, heavy boots and short skirts, walked into the office. She carried a package wrapped in brown paper and tied with a white string. As soon as Mr. Lincoln saw her he left the group, went to meet her and, shak- ing her hand cordially, inquired for her 'folks/ After a moment the old lady opened her package and taking out a pair of coarse wool socks, she handed them to him. 'I wanted to give you somethin', Mr. Linkin/ she said, 'to take to Washington, and that's all I hed. I spun that yarn and knit them socks myself/ Thank- ing her warmly, Mr. Lincoln took the socks and holding them up by the toes, one in each hand, he turned to the astonished celebrities and said in a voice full of LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY 118 kindly amusement, 'The lady got my latitude and longi- tude about right, didn't she, gentlemen?' " In the Nicolay and Hay Life of Lincoln, we learn in the interesting chapter on "The President-Elect" that: "To all appearances Lincoln remained unchanged. In the unpretending two-story frame house which con- stituted his home, his daily routine continued as be- fore, except that his door was oftener opened to wel- come the curious visitor or to shelter the confidential discussion of ominous occurrences in national affairs. His daily public occupation was to proceed to the Governor's office in the State House, to receive the cordial and entirely unceremonious greetings of high and low, — whosoever chose to enter the open door, — and in the interim to keep himself informed, by means of the daily-increasing budget of letters and news- papers, of the events of the country at large, and to give directions to his private secretary as to what re- plies should be made to important communications. Beyond the arrival of distinguished visitors, there was in all this no sign of elevation and rulership ; he was still the kind neighbor and genial companion, who had for every one he met the same bearing which for a quarter of a century had made his name a house- hold synonym of manly affection, virtue, and honor." For a few days before leaving Springfield for Wash- ington, the Lincoln family lived at the Chenery House, the leading hotel in the city at that time. From the Springfield Register, quoted in Weik's The Real Lin- 114 ABRAHAM LINCOLN coin, the following paragraph is taken as a further illustration of Lincoln's simplicity: "During Mr. Lincoln's sojourn at the hotel he had been visited by many men of prominence whom he had summoned for conferences on national affairs. The complete absence of ostentation and his physical self- reliance was illustrated on the morning of his depar- ture when in the hotel office he roped his trunks with his own hands, took somQ of the hotel cards, on the back of which he wrote 'A. Lincoln, White House, Washington, D. C/ and tacked them on the trunks, supplementing the act by writing his autograph on another card and giving it to the landlord's daughter." "Because he did not appoint a goodly portion of his early associates to comfortable offices, and did not in- terest himself in the welfare of every one whom he had known in Illinois, or met while on the circuit, the erroneous impression grew that his elevation had turned his head," says Herndon, his law partner and biographer, who answered the false accusation by de- claring : "There was no foundation for such an unwarranted conclusion. Lincoln had not changed a particle. He was overrun with duties and weighted down with cares ; his surroundings were different and his friends were new, but he himself was the same calm, just, and devoted friend as of yore." LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY 115 * In his meetings with his Cabinet, Lincoln's simplicity- was always in evidence. "The Cabinet sessions were absolutely informal," writes Helen Nicolay in Per- sonal Traits of Abraham Lincoln. "Regular meetings were held at noon on Tuesdays and Fridays. When special meetings were necessary, the President or Sec- retary of State called the members together. There was a long table in the Cabinet room, but it was not used as a council board. The President generally stood up and walked about. The others came in and took their seats according to convenience, staying through the session, or stating their business and de- parting, as pressure of work demanded. Sometimes the meeting was opened by a remark or an anecdote by the President, oftener by the relation of some offi- cial or personal happening to one of his advisers." A characteristic call for a special Cabinet meeting illustrative of the informality described in the pre- ceding paragraph, quoted from the same source, is found in the following: "Please come to Cabinet y% past ten to-day. "A. Lincoln." But it was not alone in his associations with men and women of all classes and conditions that Lincoln's simplicity was shown. It was revealed in a most striking and beautiful manner by his attitude toward children. He loved his own children with passionate devotion. He was never too busy with the affairs of state to listen to the appeals of little Tad, as his boy Thomas was called, whose unexpected presence caused a break in more than one Cabinet meeting. It is sig- 116 ABRAHAM LINCOLN nificant that when Lincoln's last picture was taken on April 9, 1865 — the day of the surrender at Appomat- tox, the photographer found the great President and the indulgent father engaged in sharpening a pencil for Tad. One of the most touching tributes to Lincoln's memory is found in the little volume entitled Tad and His Father, by F. Lauriston Bullard, in which is re- corded a sympathetic account of the many amusing escapades of the little lad whose mischievous pranks often helped to relieve his father's terrible anxiety. Not infrequently the President would join in "hav- ing a little fun with the boys" by playing simple games with Tad and his companions. Sometimes Tad would steal into his father's room late at night, creep into his bed, and thus "the lonely man who bore in his heart the sorrows of the nation and the lad in whose com- radeship he found relief from the awful ordeal which it was his duty to endure, the father and the boy to- gether entered the peaceful refuge of sleep." But Lincoln's generous treatment of children was not by any means confined to his own. He was never happier than when performing some simple acts of kindness for any child anywhere. To Mrs. Mary Ed- wards Brown of Springfield, Illinois, we are indebted for a most interesting incident in which her mother, a niece of Mrs. Lincoln's, was the recipient of his kind- ness, when a little girl. She was about to leave her home to take her first trip on a train, to which she had been looking forward with eager anticipation for weeks. It was nearly train time and the drayman had not come for her trunk. She was nervous with fear LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY 117 that she would miss the train and was crying bit- terly, when her "Uncle Abe" came by on the way to his office. Learning the cause of her grief, he pro- ceeded at once to quiet her fears by shouldering her trunk and carrying it to the station, while his grate- ful niece trotted on behind. They reached the station in good time, and the future President of the United States, happy in the knowledge that he had relieved the distress of a child, put her on the train, kissed her good-by, and told her to have a good time. One of the most interesting incidents connected with the life of Lincoln occurred in his first campaign for the Presidency in 1860, and centered about a little girl who had never seen him, but who was so deeply interested in his success that she wrote him a letter. This letter contained no reference to any of the issues of the campaign. It was written with the purpose of telling him how she thought he could improve his per- sonal appearance. Descriptions of how this historic letter came to be sent have been given at different times by its writer. Perhaps the most complete of these descriptions is con- tained in her letter, dated April 3, 1905, and exhibited in the museum connected with the Lincoln monument at Springfield. Permission to quote this letter has been generously granted by Mr. H. W. Fay, the custo- dian of the Lincoln Tomb : "I am in receipt of your letter of recent date asking an 'account of the circumstances leading up to Mr. Lincoln's departure from the clean shaven face/ At that time I was a child of less than twelve years of age 118 ABRAHAM LINCOLN and was full of interest in the stirring events of the day. Naturally, my father being a Republican, I was, with him, a sincere admirer of Mr. Lincoln, listening to the stories of his early life, his struggles to obtain an education — and deploring the poverty and priva- tion which had so beset his youth, and deeply resenting the slurs cast upon him as being ugly and uncouth in appearance. Perhaps it had so happened that I had not noticed very particularly the cuts of his face which were in the papers, for certainly a glance at the huge and gaudy posters brought us children by our father was rather disappointing, and quick in my de- sire to improve him, I suggested in a letter that he would look better if he would let his whiskers grow and asked him to let me know if he would, or if he had no time to reply, to let his little girl do so for him. "I promised him I would do my best to win over two brothers who were Democrats to cast their votes for him, and to soften the blow somewhat, I told him I thought the rail fence around his picture looked real pretty. Because of the ridicule which overwhelmed me I remember another circumstance. I confided to an older sister that I had written to Mr. Lincoln and she questioned whether I had addressed him properly. I said / knew I had and rewrote the address, 'Honor- able Abraham Lincoln, Esquire,' — but my mother comforted me by saying in the midst of the laughter that the postmaster would be in no doubt for whom the letter was intended, and this is the reply I re- ceived in a few days, a kindly, simple letter from a great-hearted man to a child : LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY 119 " 'Springfield, Illinois, October 19, 1860. " 'Miss Grace Bedell: " 'My dear little Miss : " 'Your very agreeable letter of the 15th is received. I regret the necessity of saying I have no daughter. I have three sons — one seventeen, one nine, and one seven years of age. They, with their mother, constitute my whole family. As to the whiskers, having never worn any, do you not think people would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin it now? " 'Your very sincere well-wisher, "'A. Lincoln/ "When he made the journey to Washington before the inauguration he recalled the circumstance when the train stopped at our town (Westfield, New York) and called for his little correspondent, giving her name and the purport of her letter to himself. I was helped forward and Mr. Lincoln stepped to the platform be- side the track, shook my hand and kissed me, saying, 'You see, I let these whiskers grow for you, Grace/ I was so overcome with confusion that I remember little else excepting the twinkle which came into his sad eyes as he held my hand, and the cheers of the assembled crowd." "Very truly, (Signed) "Mrs. Grace Bedell Billings/' It is remarkable that a child should write such a let- ter to such a man. It is even more remarkable that such a man should reply to such a letter from a child ; that he should so promptly carry out the suggestion which her letter contained ; and that he should so kindly re- member and so cordially greet his "little correspond- 120 ABRAHAM LINCOLN ent" when on his way to assume his grave duties as President of the United States. No action of Lincoln's life ever revealed more completely the greatness of his simplicity than the courtesy shown to his little friend, Grace Bedell. It is the opinion of Lord Charnwood, to whom is credited "the first considered attempt by an English- man to give a picture of Lincoln," that few men can be compared with Lincoln in his ability to reduce thought to the simplest and plainest terms possible. All his leading American biographers emphasize this same remarkable power which was shown in his treatment of all the questions with which he had to deal. Lin- coln's thinking was always characterized by simplic- ity. "Given his clear perception of the thing he wanted to do," says Helen Nicolay in Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln, "his direct, simple processes of reasoning would show him a way to do it." Abun- dant evidence of this can be found in his arguments as a lawyer in presenting a case to the judge or jury, in his discussion of political issues in the various cam- paigns in which he had a prominent part, in his de- bates with Douglas, in his messages to Congress, and in other great state papers. Simplicity of thought always finds expression in language of simplicity. In the use of such language, Lincoln was a master. He never used words of great length whose meaning was not plain to the common people. "Billy, don't shoot too high," he once warned his young law partner, Herndon, who had a tendency to indulge in language of a pretentious nature — "aim LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY 121 lower and the common people will understand you. They are the ones you want to reach — at least they are the ones you ought to reach. The educated and refined people will understand you anyway. If you aim too high, your ideas will go over the heads of the masses, and only hit those who need no hitting." This advice Lincoln, himself, always followed. His greatest thoughts on the most profound questions were clothed in the simplest language, made up in a large measure of words of one syllable, as the following quo- tations, selected from a variety of sources, conclu- sively prove: "As a nation of freemen we must live through all time or die by suicide." — Address on the Perpetuation of Our Political Institutions. "Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." — Speech on the Missouri Compromise. "But we must not promise what we ought not, lest we be called on to perform what we cannot." "Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under the rule of a just God, can- not long retain it." — Speech delivered at Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856, commonly known as "The Lost Speech." "Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it." — Cooper Institute Speech. "But I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by." — Address in Independence Hall. "Property is the fruit of labor; property is desira- ble; is a positive good in the world. That some should 122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN be rich shows that others may become rich, and hence is just encouragement to industry and enterprise. Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of an- other, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built." — Remarks to a Com- mittee from the Workingmen's Association of New York. "In regard to this great book, I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it we could not know right from wrong." — Remarks upon the presentation of a Bible by a commit- tee of colored people from Baltimore. "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration will be remem- bered 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. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save or meanly lose the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." — Appeal for Compensated Emancipation, Annual Message to Congress, December 1, 1862. "The way for a young man to rise is to improve him- self every way he can, never suspecting that anybody wishes to hinder him." — Letter to William H. Herndon. LINCOLN'S SIMPLICITY 123 "In law, it is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you cannot." — Letter to U. F. hinder. "Truth to speak, I do not appreciate this matter of rank on paper as you officers do. The world will not forget that you fought the battle of Stone River, and it will never care a fig whether you rank General Grant on paper, or he so ranks you." — Letter to Major-Gen- eral Rosecrans. The most notable example in all literature of the expression of profound thought and noble, patriotic sentiment in the simplest language, is found in Lin- coln's Gettysburg Address. Attention has already been called to the humility which characterizes this Ad- dress. In another chapter will be found the history of its preparation and delivery. In this remarkable Ad- dress, which is known around the world, and which has been translated into nearly all languages, there are only two hundred and sixty-eight words, including the articles "a" and "the," of which number, one hundred and ninety-six, or seventy-three per cent, are words of one syllable. And so out of the simplicity in which he was born and reared and from which he never departed, Abra- ham Lincoln struggled to success and constantly exem- plified in thought, word, and deed, the sentiment ex- pressed by Emerson: "Nothing is more simple than greatness ; indeed, to be simple is to be great." CHAPTER VI LINCOLN'S HUMOR HUMOR played an important part in the life of Abraham Lincoln. By means of his kindly humor, friends were made and enemies placated. It helped him to endure failure as well as to win success. It kept him from taking himself too seriously and developed in him a generous attitude toward others. It enabled him to see things in their proper relations. It gave him a keen insight into human nature and a sympa- thetic understanding of the motives which control human actions. It revealed truth and exposed error in such a manner as to influence judges to give opin- ions and juries to render verdicts in accordance with right and justice, tempered with mercy. It harmonized discordant factions in Cabinet and Congress and thus helped to save the Union. While little is known of Lincoln's childhood and youth, there is good reason to believe that his humor manifested itself at an early age and that it served to brighten many a dull day in his lonely life as a boy. One instance of his quaintly humorous way of helping a friend in need is related by Herndon and other biog- raphers. The friend was Kate Roby, a little miss of fifteen. LINCOLN'S HUMOR 125 In the spelling class, the word "defied" was pronounced as it came her turn to spell. "Abe stood on the opposite side of the room," Kate is reported as saying, "and was watching me. I began d-e-f- and then I stopped, hesitating whether to proceed with an T or a 'y*' Looking up I beheld Abe, a grin covering his face, and pointing with his index finger to his eye. I took the hint, spelled the word with an % 9 and it went through all right." We are reliably informed that "as a boy Lincoln loved a story for the fun of it," and there is abundant evidence that he cultivated his natural ability to tell stories whenever an opportunity presented itself. The principal story book he had a chance to read was Aesop's Fables, which he devoured with intense inter- est, and which no doubt had a large influence in devel- oping his remarkable power to use an anecdote or an illustration with such telling effect in driving home an argument before a jury or in making plain to his neighbors and friends his views on public questions. His stories were usually taken from the experiences of the pioneer life with which he was familiar. As he quaintly put it, he "did not care to quarry among the ancients for his figures." Whenever he was "re- minded" of something that had happened "down in In- diana" or of some experience in "Sangamon County," all who were fortunate enough to be in his company knew that he was preparing the way for a choice story and a good laugh, in which he always heartily joined. In fact, it was his own keen enjoyment of a story which enabled him to tell it with such irresistible effect. 126 ABRAHAM LINCOLN In laughter, he found the tonic which strengthened him to carry his heavy load of responsibility and the relief which made it possible for him to endure the sor- row which was breaking his heart. There were some who were unable to understand how he could ever in- dulge in levity in the midst of all the sadness caused by the war, and who criticised him unkindly and cen- sured him severely for so doing. To one such, he sadly explained: "If it were not for this occasional vent, I should die." How many of the stories credited to Lincoln were ever told by him cannot be accurately determined. Certain it is that many of them he never even heard. From the most reliable sources of information we learn that less than a hundred of the so-called "Lin- coln stories" are genuine, and Lincoln, himself, is credited with the statement that as near as he could reckon, about one-sixth only of those credited to him were old acquaintances, and that he was only "a retail dealer." Lincoln's stories were always short. They were al- ways well told. But their unusual effect was due to the fact that they were always apt. They were told not so much for the sake of the story and the laughter it provoked as for the purpose of making plain some important point which he clearly saw and was anxious that others should see. It was his way of realizing the desire of his childhood, which became the passion of his life, to have people comprehend his meaning. There is a lingering impression, due in part to state- ments made by a few biographers, but more especially LINCOLN'S HUMOR 127 to a tradition which has been handed down through the years, that it was Lincoln's habit, even in ordinary- conversation, to indulge in objectionable stories marked by vulgarity in both their content and teaching. There is good reason for the belief that this impression does great injustice to his memory. This belief is based upon the evidence furnished by the most reliable wit- nesses, who had an intimate acquaintance with his daily life, and who bear testimony to the fact that Lin- coln was a remarkably pure-hearted, clean-minded man. In her Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln, Helen Nicolay refers to the false impression that Lincoln's stories were "coarse," calls attention to one source of the impression, and most conclusively defends him against the charge as follows: "The life in which he grew up, the life of pioneer times, and of the small village communities which im- mediately followed it in the Middle West, was poor in culture and refinements of living, but strong in racy human nature. Hence over-fastidious people, who liked 'quarrying among the ancients/ found his stories coarse. Homely would be a truer term, for they were never coarse in spirit, even when most sordid in detail. Ethically they always pointed a clean moral. They were of the soil — strongly of the soil — but never of the charnel-house." Frank B. Carpenter, the artist who painted the his- toric picture — The Emancipation Proclamation — literally lived with President Lincoln for six months. In his Six Months at the White House, he refers to 128 • ABRAHAM LINCOLN the report that Lincoln sometimes indulged in stories of a questionable nature, and says: "Mr. Lincoln, I am convinced, has been greatly wronged in this respect. Every foul-mouthed man in the country gave currency to the slime and filth of his own imagination by attributing it to the President. It is but simple justice to his memory that I should state that during the entire period of my stay in Washing- ton, after witnessing his intercourse with nearly all classes of men, embracing governors, senators, mem- bers of Congress, officers of the army, and intimate friends, I can not recollect to have heard him relate a circumstance to any one of them, which would have been out of place uttered in a ladies' drawing-room. And this testimony is not unsupported by that of others, well entitled to consideration. Dr. Stone, his family physician, came in one day to see my studies. Sitting in front of that of the President, — with whom he did not sympathize politically — he remarked with much feeling, 'It is the province of a physician to probe deeply the interior lives of men, and I affirm that Mr. Lincoln is the purest hearted man with whom I ever came in contact/ " It is time that the libel on Lincoln's memory that he was coarse and vulgar in either thought, word, or deed, along with those that he was not of legitimate birth and that he was an infidel and atheist, should re- ceive the denunciation which the truth demands. A few of the well-authenticated "Lincoln stories" will serve to illustrate both his humor and the aptness which always characterized his use of the story. LINCOLN'S HUMOR 129 Two men had a fight. One of them started the row by using abusive language and by making a bodily at- tack upon the other. He vigorously defended himself and completely worsted his assailant. A lawsuit re- sulted in which the first charged the second with as- sault and battery. Lincoln defended the man so charged and in addressing the jury was "reminded" of the story of a man who, while walking peaceably along the road with a pitchfork on his shoulder, was viciously attacked by a ferocious dog belonging to a neighbor. In using the pitchfork to defend himself, one of the prongs stuck into the dog and killed him. "What made you kill my dog?" demanded the angry owner. "What made him bite me?" asked the man. "But why did you not go at him with the other end of the pitchfork?" inquired the owner. "Why did he not come at me with his other end?" re- plied the man. It is needless to add that the jury greatly enjoyed the story, heartily appreciated its aptness, readily made the application, and soon brought in a verdict for the defendant. In another case Lincoln defended a client who had been sued by a neighbor for damages caused to his growing crops by hogs belonging to the defendant. There was no question as to the fact that the crops had been somewhat damaged, but there was conflicting testimony as to whether or not the plaintiff's fence was such as to meet the requirements of the law in being strong enough to keep out stock. In fact, the 130 ABRAHAM LINCOLN whole case hinged on the condition of the fence. Lin- coln did not argue the case seriously, as the amount of damages involved was insignificant. The humor of the situation appealed to him and "reminded" him of a story he had heard about "a fence that was so crooked that, when a hog went through an opening in it, invariably it came out on the same side from which it started." He then proceeded to describe in his in- imitable manner the bewildered look of the hog after an experience of going through the fence several times and still finding itself on the side from which it first started. The jury joined in the fun, which no doubt influenced them in reaching a verdict. One of Lincoln's opponents in a political campaign refused to commit himself definitely upon any question. He would either dodge the issue entirely, or else dis- cuss it in such an indefinite or evasive manner as to leave an opening for escape should he be cornered in the future. His actions "reminded" Lincoln of the story of a hunter who boasted of his ability as a marks- man. He described how he was able to direct his aim, when in danger of mistaking a calf for a deer, by de- claring : "I shot at it so as to hit it if it was a deer, and to miss it if it was a calf." In one of his political speeches, Lincoln referred to the "Free Soil Party" as representing but one princi- ple with only one plank in its platform. This "re- minded" him of the story of a Yankee peddler who sold pantaloons which he highly recommended as being "large enough for any man, and small enough for any boy." LINCOLN'S HUMOR 131 When Simon Cameron, who was Secretary of War in Lincoln's Cabinet for a short time, resigned, some officious friends called on the President to express their gratification at the resignation and to suggest that, in their opinion, the best interests of the coun- try required a complete change in the Cabinet, This suggestion at once "reminded" Lincoln of "Joe Wil- son," who had a little log cabin near where he lived in the early days. Being fond of chickens and eggs, "Joe" fitted up a poultry shed and proceeded to raise a fine lot of choice fowls. Being annoyed by repeated visits of skunks, which killed a number of his chickens, he loaded his old musket one night and fired into a group of the pestiferous little animals, only one of which was killed. When asked why he didn't kill the rest, "Joe" replied : "Blast it ! Why, it was eleven weeks before I got over killin' one." One would be over-fastidious indeed to find any- thing coarse or vulgar in this story which furnished a more complete answer to the foolish suggestion that the entire Cabinet should be changed, than any formal argument which could have been made. Lincoln was constantly subjected to the most severe and unreasonable criticism. It was his rule to pay no attention to such criticism, however unjust it might be. When he was certain that he was right, the abuse heaped upon him did not disturb him. On one occa- sion a friend called to express his righteous indigna- tion at what seemed to him an unusually unfair at- tack from men who were quite prominent in public affairs. "It is not worth fretting about," quietly re- 132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN plied Lincoln, who was "reminded" of an acquaintance who had a young son with an inquiring type of mind. A microscope was given to the boy to help him in his investigations. The lad examined everything within reach, including some cheese which he advised his father not to eat, as it was full of "wigglers." "Let 'em wiggle," was the reply of the father, as he took a larger bite of the cheese than usual, "I can stand it if they can." All kinds of people volunteered to advise Lincoln as to the conduct of the war* At one time when Wash- ington was threatened by the Confederate forces, a delegation called to suggest that a fleet of war vessels be sent at once to Charleston, Mobile, Savannah, and other cities "to draw off" the army which endan- gered the safety of the national capital. The sugges- tion "reminded" Lincoln of a girl in New Salem who was greatly troubled with "singing in her head." Different physicians were consulted but no relief se- cured. Finally "a common sense sort of man" ad- vised that "a plaster of Psalm tunes" be applied to her feet "to draw the singing down." When a telegram was received stating that firing was heard in the direction of Knoxville, Lincoln re- marked that he was "glad of it." Surprise was ex- pressed that he should be "glad" when Burnside's army might be in danger. He replied that it "re- minded" him of "Mistress Sallie Ward," a one-time neighbor, with a large family. Whenever one of her numerous progeny was heard crying in some out-of- the-way place, she would exclaim with apparent satis- LINCOLN'S HUMOR 133 faction — "There's one of my family that isn't dead yet." An old-time friend from New Salem is reported to have related how Lincoln illustrated his doubts as to who was the loser when a tariff was levied on imports, by telling the story of a man who entered a grocery and ordered a nickel's worth of ginger snaps. As he was about to take them, he changed his mind and or- dered a glass of cider instead. After drinking the cider, he started to leave, when the following dialogue took place. "Say, Bill, ain't you goin' to pay me for the cider ?" The customer replied, "Didn't I give you the ginger snaps for it?" "Well then, pay me for the ginger snaps." "But, I never ate your ginger snaps," was the answer. The puzzled groceryman had to admit that both re- plies were true, but at the same time he knew that he had lost something in the deal. "So it is with the tariff," Lincoln is reported to have said, "somebody loses, but I do not know as yet just who it is." Among the many perplexing questions which claimed attention during the Civil War was the one relating to San Domingo. In his Message of December 6, 1864, President Lincoln called attention to the fact that "Civil war continues in the Spanish part of San Do- mingo, apparently without prospect of an early close." Since the slavery question was involved in the war on the island as well as in our own war, there was dan- ger that serious complications might arise with Spain, 134 ABRAHAM LINCOLN which showed a tendency to be more friendly to the North as the war with the South progressed. How to encourage this tendency and at the same time not to offend the abolitionists, who sympathized with the negroes of San Domingo in their struggle for free- dom, was a question which caused a great deal of anxiety to Secretary Seward. When he brought the matter before the Cabinet for consideration, the ques- tion "reminded" Lincoln of a negro preacher who earnestly reproved one of his members for some of his sins. "Dar am," said the preacher, "only two roads befo' you. Be careful which one of dem you take. Narrow am de way dat leads straight to destruction; but broad am de road dat leads direct to damnation." The erring brother opened wide his big eyes and exclaimed — "Parson, you take whichever road you likes best. Dis here darky am gwine to take to de woods !" The President proceeded to make a fitting applica- tion of the story by stating to his Cabinet that he was not willing to assume any new trouble or responsibil- ity at the time, and that he would avoid going to the one place with Spain or to the other with the negroes, by maintaining an honest and strict neutrality. Story telling, however, was not by any means, the only avenue through which Lincoln's rare humor found expression. His way of putting things in con- versation, correspondence, and public address, was often so quaint and droll as to be exceedingly amusing. Many of his letters contain touches of delightful humor. LINCOLN'S HUMOR 135 No one else could have thought of writing such a letter as the following to ask for the renewal of a railroad pass: "Springfield, III., Feb. 13, 1856. "R. P. Morgan, Esq. "Dear Sir : Says Tom to John : 'Here's your old rotten wheelbarrow. I've broke it, usin' on it. I wish you would mend it, 'case I shall want to borrow it this arter-noon.' "Acting on this as a precedent, I say, 'Here's your old chalked hat.' I wish you would take it and send me a new one, 'case I shall want to use it the first of March. "Yours truly, "A. Lincoln." Having been requested by a New York firm to fur- nish them with information relative to the financial standing of one of his neighbors, he replied : "Yours of the 10th received. First of all, he has a wife and baby; together they ought to be worth $500,000 to any man. Secondly, he has an office in which there is a table worth $1.50 and three chairs worth, say $1.00. Last of all, there is in one corner a large rat hole, which will bear looking into. "Respectfully, "A. Lincoln/' While in Congress Lincoln wrote to Herndon, his law partner, calling attention to the losses sustained by the Whigs in his district and urging a more effective organization. Among other things he suggested: "You young men get together and form a 'Rough and Ready Club,' and have regular meetings and speeches. 136 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Take in everybody you can get. Harrison Grimsley, L. A. Enos, Lee Kimball, and C. W. Matheney will do to begin the thing; but as you go along gather up all the shrewd, wild boys about town, whether just of age or a little under age, — Chris Logan, Reddick Ridgely, Lewis Zwizler, and hundreds such. Let every one play the part he can play best, — some speak, some sing, and all 'holler/ Your meetings will be of evenings; the older men, and the women, will go to hear you ; so that it will not only contribute to the election of 'Old Zach,' but will be an interesting pastime, and improving to the intel- lectual faculties of all engaged. Don't fail to do this." This furnishes a fine illustration of Lincoln's inti- mate knowledge of the political situation at home as well as of his political shrewdness, organizing ability, and humor, which always kept him human. In his earlier speeches he sometimes indulged in a species of rollicking humor which was in keeping with the times and most effective in securing the desired re- sults. The following incidents will serve as illustra- tions : George Forquer, a prominent lawyer, had been a Whig, and was accused with having forsaken that party for the appointment of Register of the Land Office. His new house was protected with a lightning rod, then a new device, and the first one seen by Lin- coln. He attended a meeting addressed by Lincoln in one of his campaigns for election to the legislature, and asked to be heard. The crowd, anxious for some fun, signified their wish that the request be granted. Forquer assumed a haughty attitude and introduced his insulting remarks with the statement that "this LINCOLN'S HUMOR 137 young man would have to be taken down." His inso- lent manner thoroughly roused Lincoln. He replied to the attack with a vigor which surprised all who heard him, and then turned his attention to Forquer, personally : "This anomalous Forquer, if he has taken me down, as he calls it, I reckon you know it, and if he is satis- fied, I am. He seems to be thoroughly up to political tricks — something I am not familiar with, and I never intend to be. If I can't get office honestly, I am content to live as I am, and I hope I never may be so thoroughly steeped in political trickery as to change my political coat for a big office, and then feel so guilty about it as to run up a lightning rod to protect my house from the vengeance of an offended God." In another of Lincoln's campaigns, "Dick" Taylor was one of the Democratic "orators" who opposed him. Taylor was a professional politician who, along with his brother, had held office the greater part of his life. In one of his speeches he made an appeal to the prej- udices of the crowd by ridiculing the Whigs, speak- ing of them as "bankers and toadies to the English" — representatives of aristocracy. He lauded his own party as the friend of the poor man, and characterized by simplicity and honest purposes. Taylor, himself, was a fop who always wore a ruffled shirt, blue coat, and brass buttons, oiled his hair with great care, and carried a gold-headed cane. As he closed his demagog- ic appeal, Lincoln caught hold of his vest, suddenly jerked it open, and thus exposed to the view of the jeering crowd the ruffled shirt, the ponderous watch chain and other ornaments which had been carefully 138 ABRAHAM LINCOLN concealed for the occasion. With this striking object lesson to attract the attention of his hearers, Lincoln proceeded to address them: "And here's Dick Taylor charging us with aristoc- racy and gilt manners, and claiming to be an exponent of the farmers and cattle-raisers ; and while he's doing this, he stands in a hundred-dollar suit of clothes, in a dancing-master's pomp and parade, with a ruffled shirt just such as his master, General Jackson, wears, and a gold log-chain around his neck to keep his watch from being stole by some of us, and with a big gold-headed cane. And while he was raised in this style, I was a- steering a flatboat down the river for eight dollars a month ; with a torn shirt, one pair of buckskin breeches, and a warmus as my only suit. The Bible says, 'By their fruits ye shall know them' ; now I have got on my best to-day, and Taylor has got on his shabbiest. You can judge which one of us is the aristocrat by our appear- ance." In the campaign of 1848, the friends of Lewis Cass attempted to make political capital out of his rather obscure service on the frontier in the War of 1812. Their actions amused Lincoln, who made a speech in Congress in which he cleverly ridiculed their efforts by humorously referring to his own military experi- ence in the Black Hawk War : "Did you know," said he in addressing the Speaker, "I am a military hero? Yes, sir; in the days of the Black Hawk War I fought, bled, and came away. Speak- ing of General Cass's career reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterward. It is quite certain I did Keystone View Co. LINCOLN STATUE This statue of Lincoln, at Hodgenville, Kentucky, is the work of the well-known sculptor Adolph Weinman. LINCOLN'S HUMOR 141 not break my sword, for I had none to break ; but I bent a musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in desperation; I bent the musket by accident. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking huckleberries, I guess I sur- passed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live, fighting Indians, it was more than I did ; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the mosquitoes, and, although I never fainted from the loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry." In commenting upon Lincoln's campaign speeches, the Nicolay and Hay Life observes that "he never took his campaigning seriously." This was no doubt true in his early campaigns in which relatively unim- portant subjects were under discussion. But it is important to note that in his later campaigns when the issues involved grave moral and political questions, such as slavery and the preservation of the Union, he was always intensely in earnest and reverently serious. One will look in vain in the Cooper Institute Speech for any trace of the humor for which Lincoln's earlier speeches were noted. Different persons who heard the Lincoln-Douglas Debates have left on record their impression of the seriousness which characterized Lin- coln in that great contest. When he was urged by his friends to put more humor into the discussion and was told that the people would be disappointed if he did not, he replied that he could not do so, because of the seriousness of the question under consideration. In fact, Lincoln's humor, which so often manifested it- self in such an inimitable manner, never intruded where seriousness had a right to be. 142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN Lincoln's keenest humor is found in the observations which often flashed from his alert mind in the form of pertinent remarks which so completely answered a criticism or met a condition under consideration as to leave nothing to be said. On one occasion a prominent senator called on the President to urge the removal of General Grant. One of his remarks "reminded" Lincoln of a story, the mere mention of which threw the Senator into a pas- sion to which he gave vent by saying : "It is with you, sir, all story, story! You are the father of every military blunder that has been made during the war. You are on your road to hell, sir, with this government, by your obstinacy ; and you are not a mile off at this minute." To this outburst, Lincoln quietly replied: "Senator, that is just about the dis- tance from here to the Capitol, is it not?" It is related that the Senator grabbed up his hat and cane and indignantly left the White House, but soon came to his senses as he realized the humor of the situation, and returned in a very different frame of mind. At the opening of the Civil War, the state of Mary- land protested against sending troops across her ter- ritory on their way to Washington. A delegation com- posed of representatives of one of the religious bodies of Baltimore, with a clergyman as their spokesman, called on President Lincoln to join in the protest and even to propose that he should "recognize the inde- pendence of the Southern States." Lincoln's patience was sorely taxed, but, as usual, he kept his temper. LINCOLN'S HUMOR 143 His reply, which contained a vein of humor, left no doubt as to his intentions. He said in part: "Your citizens attack troops sent to the defense of the Government, and the lives and property in Wash- ington, and yet you would have me break my oath and surrender the Government without a blow. There is no Washington in that — no Jackson in that — there is no manhood or honor in that. I have no desire to invade the South; but I must have troops to defend this capital. Geographically it lies surrounded by the soil of Mary- land ; and mathematically the necessity exists that they should come over her territory. Our men are not moles, and can't dig under the earth; they are not birds, and can't fly through the air. There is no way but to march across and that they must do. But in doing this, there is no need of collision. Keep your rowdies in Balti- more, and there will be no bloodshed. Go home and tell your people that if they will not attack us, we will not attack them, but if they do attack us, we will return it, and that severely." One day, a woman of haughty mien called upon President Lincoln and insolently demanded that her son be given a commission as colonel. She insisted that he had a right to such recognition because her grandfather had fought at Lexington, her uncle had shown unusual bravery at Bladensburg, her father had been in the battle of New Orleans, and her hus- band had been killed at Monterey. After listening patiently to this dramatic recital of family history, he calmly and courteously replied that he thought her family had done enough for the country and that some one else should be given a chance. At another time a self-appointed delegation called 144 ABRAHAM LINCOLN at the White House to criticise the Administration for what they deemed its mistakes of omission and com- mission. As usual Lincoln listened patiently and then replied with the use of an illustration which, while quaintly humorous in the picture presented, com- pletely answered their complaints: "Gentlemen," said he, "suppose all the property you were worth was in gold, and you had put it in the hands of Blondin (famous tight-rope performer of that time) to carry across the Niagara River on a rope, would you shake the cable, or keep shouting out to him, 'Blondin, stand up a little straighter — Blondin, stoop a little more, go a little faster — lean a little more to the North, — lean a little more to the South? No, you would hold your breath as well as your tongue, and keep your hands off until he was safe over. The Government are carrying an immense weight. Untold treasures are in their hands. They are doing the very best they can. Don't badger them. Keep silence, and we'll get you safe across." One of Lincoln's intimate friends wanted to visit a brother-in-law, a good Union man, who lived in Vir- ginia. He called on General Halleck for a pass to go outside the lines for that purpose and was refused. He appealed to Secretary of War Stanton with the same result. He related his experience to President Lincoln, who smilingly replied : "I can do nothing for you; for you must know that I have very little in- fluence with this administration." Lincoln's patience was such as to lead him to listen with courtesy to all sorts of recommendations and schemes for the supposed betterment of humanity. LINCOLN'S HUMOR 145 After an attentive hearing to a tedious presentation of a visionary plan for an "ideal community," he was asked for an expression of his opinion, and replied: "For those who like that sort of thing that is the sort of thing they like." It is not difficult to imagine the surprise which must have come to the aristocratic senator Charles Sum- ner who, when in search of President Lincoln, was told that he was downstairs, where he found him polishing his boots. But it is difficult to realize the shock which his senatorial dignity must have suffered, when in response to his protest, "Why, Mr. President, do you black your own boots?" he received the laugh- ing reply, "Whose boots did you think I was blacking?" All Presidents have been subjected to great annoy- ance in making appointments — none more so than Lin- coln. It is difficult to realize in these days, when civil service laws have greatly reduced the number of polit- ical appointments, what he had to endure from the horde of office seekers seeking preferment from him. Early in his administration when he was doing all in his power to avert the threatened Civil War, and was constantly besieged by applicants for office, he re- marked that the situation was not unlike that of a man who was busy renting rooms at one end of his house, while the other was in flames. On another occasion, after the war had begun, when he appeared much depressed, an anxious friend asked whether the loss of another battle was the cause. "No," replied Lincoln, "it's the post office at — ," an insignificant hamlet in & western state. 146 ABRAHAM LINCOLN In such perplexities, Lincoln's humor usually came to the rescue. A fine illustration of this is found in his reply to a delegation of distinguished men who called to urge the appointment of a friend for Com- missioner to the Sandwich Islands. With eloquent earnestness they argued that the appointment they sought would be of great value not only to the United States, because of the character and ability of their candidate, but also to the man, himself, whose declin- ing health would be greatly benefited by the climate of the Islands. "I am very sorry to say," replied Lin- coln, after listening good-humoredly to their presenta- tion, "that there are eight other candidates for the place, all sicker than your man." The "red tape" which has always characterized military procedure was a constant source of disturb- ance to Lincoln, who had little patience or sympathy with the unnecessary delay often caused by official formality. Evidence of this, together with another illustration of his unfailing humor, is found in his let- ter to Secretary of War Stanton : "I personally wish Jacob Freeze of New Jersey to be appointed Colonel for a colored regiment, and this regardless of whether he can tell the exact shade of Julius Caesar's hair." Notwithstanding the fact that he was a member of the Cabinet, Secretary of the Treasury Chase was un- sparing in his criticism of President Lincoln. At dif- ferent times, in a fit of indignation because he could not have his own way, or because of some imaginary slight, he resigned. Finally his resignation was ac- LINCOLN'S HUMOR . 147 cepted, June 30, 1864, and he retired from the Cab- inet. He did not hesitate to encourage Lincoln's out- spoken enemies in their attempt to defeat him for re- nomination, and gave his approval to the movement in behalf of his own candidacy. A few months after his retirement from the Cab- inet, Chief-Justice Taney of the United States Su- preme Court died. The friends of Chase at once be- gan to insist that he should be appointed to fill the vacancy. Letters of recommendation poured in from all sections of the country. While it is probable that Lincoln intended from the first to appoint him, he gave no intimation of his intentions until the ap- pointment was made, remarking to his secretary, — "I shall be very 'shut pan' about this matter." One day his attention was called to a letter from Chase himself. "What is it about?" inquired the President. "Simply a kind and friendly letter," answered the secretary. Without reading it, and with exquisite humor, rein- forced with a shrewd smile, Lincoln replied: "File it with his other recommendations." The "radical element" of Lincoln's day, so far as his own party was concerned, consisted largely of the men with extreme antislavery sentiments, who were determined, if possible, to defeat his renomination. Finding that this would be impossible, a number of "informal consultations" were held, with the result that a "Mass Convention of the People" was called to meet in Cleveland, Ohio, the week before the Baltimore Convention at which Lincoln was renominated. This "Mass Convention," which was not largely attended, 148 ABRAHAM LINCOLN denounced the administration of Lincoln, and nomi- nated John C. Fremont, who later withdrew his name from the list of candidates. While Lincoln's friends were excited and indignant at the whole proceeding, he was greatly amused. When he was informed that the attendance at the Convention, instead of numbering thousands as had been predicted, never included more than four hundred men, his sense of humor at once suggested that the second verse of the twenty-second chapter of First Samuel well de- scribed the situation. Acting upon the suggestion, he picked up his Bible, which lay on his desk, and to the delight of all present, read : "And every one that was in distress, and every one that was in debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him; and he became a cap- tain over them : and there were with him about four hundred men." On February 3, 1865, the historic Hampton Roads Conference was held on board the River Queen, near Fort Monroe, where President Lincoln and Secretary Seward met Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, who were delegated to represent the Southern Con- federacy as "Peace Commissioners." At this confer- ence, as at all other places and times, President Lin- coln was unalterable in his insistence that no proposi- tion looking to an armistice could be entertained until it was settled that the Union was to be restored, and that even if the Confederate States would consider a return to the Union, he could not enter into any agree- ment of any kind with parties who were in arms LINCOLN'S HUMOR 149 against the government. In reply to the ""^gestion of one of the "Peace Commissioners" that Charles I of England had treated with the people who were in arms against him, Lincoln replied : "I do not pretend to be posted in history. On all such matters I will turn you over to Seward. All I distinctly recollect about Charles I is that he lost his head." No finer humor can be found than that which flowed so freely from the keen brain and kind heart of Abra- ham Lincoln. It furnishes a pleasant and profitable study which it is well to make in order that justice may be done to his memory. Too often, however, the impression has been left by those who have written or spoken of Lincoln's life that he was "a sort of end-man with an itinerant minstrel show," as he travelled the historic Eighth Judicial District of Illinois. One of Lincoln's most intimate friends, who travel- led with him on that district, has described how "he would frequently lapse into reverie and remain lost in thought" long after his companions had gone to bed; and how sometimes in the early morning he would be found "sitting before the fire, his mind apparently concentrated on some subject and with the saddest ex- pression ever seen in a human being's eyes." "No one knows," writes this friend, "with what thoughts Lincoln was struggling in those hours, but this side of his character has almost disappeared under the mass of silly stories which are coupled with his name. One would think, to read some of the biogra- phies, that he never had a serious moment, and that 150 ABRAHAM LINCOLN most of his life on the circuit was spent in retailing dubious stories to gaping circles of country-folk at wayside taverns." No one will ever know "with what thoughts Lin- coln was struggling in those hours." It is known, how- ever, that when the time came to free the slaves and save the Union, he was prepared to lead the way be- cause he had thought his way through the problems of the relation of slavery to the Union as no one else had done. It was no accident, as some would have us be- lieve, that he was called to leadership in the nation's greatest crisis. Perhaps he may have had, in those long hours of solemn reverie and serious thought, a vision of the terrible responsibility which he was later on to be called to assume, together with the heart-breaking sorrow which was to be his. But when the responsi- bility and sorrow came, it was his sense of humor that helped him to bear them. For it will be recalled that he, himself, has told us that but for that "occa- sional vent" he would have died. CHAPTER VII LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY AS humility was the foundation upon which the sterling character of Abraham Lincoln was built, so magnanimity was the crowning virtue of his re- markable life. Like all words of large meaning, mag- nanimity is difficult to define. It includes greatness of mind and exaltation of soul. It enables its pos- sessor to rise above all that is little and low. It will not stoop to revenge. It despises injustice, hates wrong, and disdains meanness. It is calmly cour- ageous in the midst of danger and difficulty. It is kind under all circumstances and remains patient even in the presence of insult and injury. It exercises self- control when provoked, and is willing to make per- sonal sacrifice to attain a noble purpose. All these characteristics which are included in magnanim- ity, Lincoln exemplified to an unusual degree. His kindness is proverbial. The sight of suffering either in human beings or in animals aroused his keen sense of sympathy and led him to do all in his power to relieve it. When fully grown, he did not think it unmanly to go out of his way to replace a fluttering bird in the nest from which it had fallen. When serving as a member of the legislature of his state, on 152 ABRAHAM LINCOLN one of his homeward journeys, he did not deem it un- dignified to retrace his steps and engage in the menial service of releasing an unfortunate pig that had been caught under the fence, remarking that he felt much better after relieving its distress. On the frontier where Lincoln grew up, almost every youth was an excellent marksman. Hunting was greatly enjoyed as a sport and was one of the chief means of food supply, game of all kinds being plentiful. Because of his unusual kindness of heart, Lincoln differed in this particular from all the boys around him. Hunting was the one sport in which he never took any pleasure. He could not bear the thought of killing or inflicting pain. It is related that when Lincoln was once asked what he remembered about the war of 1812 with England, he replied: "Only this: I had been fishing one day and had caught a little fish, which I was taking home. I met a soldier in the road, and having always been told at home that we must be good to soldiers, I gave him my fish." In this simple childish act may be found a prophecy of the great-hearted President's kindness to the sol- diers of the Civil War, with whose hardships and trials he sympathized so keenly. This kindness often led him to interfere to save the life of some soldier boy who was under sentence of death by military authority because of violation of the military code. Numerous instances of such interference are recorded. One re- lates to a New England boy who volunteered to stand guard for a sick comrade. Having gone without sleep LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 153 for forty-eight hours, he was so overcome with weari- ness that he fell asleep at his post, which was near the enemy. He was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be shot. President Lincoln went to the tent where he was kept under guard, awaiting his execution the following day. In the most kindly manner, he talked with the boy about his early life, and his home and mother. The lad quietly responded by taking his mother's picture from his pocket and showing it to the President, who was deeply moved. Laying his hand gently on the prisoner's shoulder, he said : "My boy, you are not going to be shot to-morrow. I be- lieve you when you tell me you could not keep awake. I am going to trust you, and send you back to your regi- ment. Now, I want to know what you intend to pay for all this?" Thinking only of pay in money, all that the poor boy could reply was that he did not know. He sadly re- called the poverty of his people, his own small pay, and an insignificant sum in the savings bank. A ray of hope came with the thought of the possibility of borrowing something by mortgaging the little home farm and of securing help from his comrades in the army. From all these sources, he told the President that it might be possible to raise five or six hundred dollars, and then pathetically asked whether that would be enough. It is not difficult to imagine the relief which came to the grief-stricken soldier in the reply of the President that he was the only man in the world who could pay the bill by so faithfully and loyally serv- ing his country as a soldier that when death came, he 154 ABRAHAM LINCOLN could truthfully say that he had kept his promise to the President to do his duty. With a joyful heart he returned to his regiment where, a few months later, he was killed in battle. The promise had been kept. The duty had been performed. The debt had been paid. While the truthfulness of this incident has been questioned, it so faithfully portrays the characteristic magnanimity of Lincoln that it is believed to be worthy of repetition. The war department repeatedly protested against the President's leniency in dealing with soldiers who were under sentence from a court-martial, declaring that the discipline of the army was being undermined and its efficiency destroyed by the numerous pardons granted. As a rule Lincoln was unmoved by such pro- tests, sometimes saying in reply that he did not think shooting a soldier would do him any good, anyhow. "Military cowardice" was the technical phrase often used in the charges preferred against soldiers whose cases were referred to the President. In filing them for future consideration, he labeled them "Leg Cases." He fully sympathized with a soldier boy who became frightened in battle and not infrequently was reminded of the Irishman who declared that while he had a heart as brave as ever beat in a human bosom, yet in the pres- ence of danger, his cowardly legs would often run away with him. That Lincoln, himself, realized that the pardons granted by him were quite numerous is indicated in his quaint remarks to Marshal Lamon, who had called to get one signed. "Lamon," said he, LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 155 "have you ever heard how the Patagonians eat oysters ? They open them and throw the shells out of the win- dow until the pile gets higher than the house, and then they move. I feel to-day like commencing a new pile of pardons, and I may just as well sign it just here." Lincoln's kindness of heart led him to be generous in his treatment of foes as well as of friends. On the last day he lived on earth he talked with his Cabinet about the magnanimous plans for reconstruction which he had in mind and which he hoped would help to re- store good will between the North and the South. Referring to the men who had been responsible for bringing on the war, he said no one need expect that he "could take any part in hanging or killing these men, even the worst of them." It is significant that his last official act was writing "Let it be done" on the petition of a Confederate prisoner who wanted to swear allegiance to the Union. Had he lived, there can be no doubt that he would have done all in his power "to bind up the nation's wounds," literally "with malice toward none; with charity for all." "I am a patient man, always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance," President Lincoln once wrote to a man in Louisiana who had complained of the methods which were being used to save the govern- ment That he was "a patient man" was constantly exemplified in his life. Certainly no human being ever had his patience more severely tested. 156 ABRAHAM LINCOLN "His kindness and patience in dealing with the gen- erals who did not succeed is the wonder of all who study, the history of the Civil War," is the expressed conviction of one of his most competent biographers. A most striking illustration of this is found in the kindness and patience shown to General George B. McClellan in return for the most unkind and humiliat- ing treatment to which President Lincoln was sub- jected during the trying days of the war. General McClellan had been called to Washington after the defeat at Bull Run and given command of the rapidly growing army. Although successful as an organizer, he failed as a commander. This failure was due in part to his insufferable conceit, which led him to imagine that he, and he alone, had "become the power of the land," to quote his own words. All others, in- cluding General Scott, with whom he quarreled, and the President, himself, were beneath his notice and unworthy of his consideration. An example of the contempt with which he treated President Lincoln, who was doing all in his power to help him to succeed, is given by Nicolay and Hay: "The friendly visits of the President to army head- quarters were continued almost every night until the 13th of November, when an incident occurred which virtually put an end to them. On that evening Mr. Lincoln walked across the street as usual, accom- panied by one of his household, to the residence of the Secretary of State, and after a short visit there both of them went to General McClellan's house on H Street. They were there told that the General had Courtesy Chicago Statuary Company ABRAHAM LINCOLN From a statue by V. Vanueci LINCOLN FAMILY AT THE WHITE HOUSE Between the President and Mrs. Lincoln is Robert, the eldest son. youngest son, Thomas ("Tad"), stands beside Lincoln. The LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 159 gone to the wedding of an officer and would soon re- turn. They waited nearly an hour in the drawing room, when McClellan returned and, without paying any special attention to the orderly who told him the President was waiting to see him, went upstairs. The President, thinking his name had not been an- nounced, again sent a servant to his room and received the answer that he had gone to bed. Mr. Lincoln at- tached no special importance to this incident, and, so far as we know, never asked for an explanation nor re- ceived one. But it was not unnatural for him to infer that his frequent visits had become irksome to the General. There was no cessation of their friendly re- lations, though after this most of their conferences were held at the Executive Mansion/' General Fremont, who had been a candidate for President in 1856, was given an important command at Saint Louis. Extremely radical in his opinions, erratic in judgment, rash in action, and unwilling to take advice, he was a constant source of embarrass- ment to the Administration, until, being unwilling to serve in a position to which he had been appointed, he was relieved at his own request. But through all the trying experiences resulting from the actions of Mc- Clellan, Fremont, and other generals, President Lin- coln's kindness was constantly shown. His patience never failed. There were times when the failure of the military authorities to follow up success in battle and thereby to secure the full fruits of victory, brought bitter dis- appointment to Lincoln and most severely tested his 160 ABRAHAM LINCOLN patience. It was in the midst of the disappointment resulting from such failure after the battle of Gettys- burg, that he wrote to General Meade, who had been urged to pursue Lee's Army, and who felt so keenly the expressed dissatisfaction with his failure to do so, that he asked to be relieved of the command of the army. In the historic letter published in the Nicolay and Hay Life, Lincoln said: "I have just seen your dispatch to General Halleck asking to be relieved of your command because of a supposed censure of mine. I am very, very grateful to you for the magnificent success you gave the cause of the country at Gettysburg; and I am sorry now to be the author of the slightest pain to you. But I was in such deep distress myself that I could not restrain some expression of it. I have been oppressed nearly ever since the battles at Gettysburg by what appeared to be evidences that yourself and General Couch and General Smith were not seeking a collision with the enemy, but were trying to get him across the river without another battle. What these evidences were, if you please, I hope to tell you at some time when we shall both feel better. The case, summarily stated, is this : You fought and beat the enemy at Gettysburg; and, of course, to say the least, his loss was as great as yours. He re- treated, and you did not, as it seemed to me, pressingly pursue him; but a flood in the river detained him till, by slow degrees, you were again upon him. You had at least twenty thousand veteran troops directly with you, and as many more raw ones within supporting distance, all in addition to those who fought with you at Gettys- burg ; while it was not possible that he had received a single recruit; and yet you stood and let the flood run down, bridges be built, and the enemy move away at LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 161 his leisure without attacking him. And Couch and Smith — the latter left Carlisle in time, upon all ordi- nary calculation, to have aided you in the last battle at Gettysburg, but he did not arrive. At the end of more than ten days, I believe, twelve, under constant urging, he reached Hagerstown from Carlisle, which is not an inch over fifty-five miles, if so much, and Couch's move- ment was very little different. "Again, my dear General, I do not believe you appre- ciate the magnitude of the misfortune involved in Lee's escape. He was within your easy grasp, and to have closed upon him, would, in connection with our other late successes, have ended the war. As it is, the war will be prolonged indefinitely. If you could not safely attack Lee last Monday, how can you possibly do so south of the river, when you can take with you very few more than two-thirds of the force you then had in hand? It would be unreasonable to expect, and I do not expect (that) you can now effect much. Your golden opportunity is gone, and I am distressed immeasurably because of it. "I beg you will not consider this a prosecution or persecution of yourself. As you had learned that I was dissatisfied, I have thought it best to kindly tell you why." That he should have written this letter is not at all surprising. The marvel is that General Meade never received it. Lincoln's magnanimity — his greatness of mind, kindness of heart, and spirit of forgiveness, — quickly overcame his momentary impatience. The unsigned letter was put in his desk and never sent. The night of November 6, 1860, Lincoln spent in the Springfield telegraph office upon special invitation of the superintendent. There he read the dispatches 162 ABRAHAM LINCOLN which announced his election to the Presidency, to- gether with the shower of congratulatory messages which poured in from friends in all sections of the country. There, with a deep consciousness of the mighty task and the heavy responsibility which his election brought, he tells us that he substantially com- pleted the framework of his Cabinet. That this frame- work was wisely constructed, after events most con- clusively proved. As the leading members of his Cabinet, he selected two of his prominent competi- tors for the nomination to the Presidency, William H. Seward of New York for Secretary of State, and Sal- mon P. Chase of Ohio for Secretary of the Treasury. Each had served his state with distinction as gover- nor and United States Senator. Both were recognized as men of ability and character, well qualified in all respects to perform the important duties to which they had been called. It is interesting, even at this day, to conjecture what may have passed through the minds of these men, so widely experienced in the affairs of state, as they met for the first time in Cabinet session under jbhe new President whose experience in public life had been confined to service in his state legislature, and to one term in the Congress of the United States. He had little personal knowledge of them and they, no doubt, "looked upon him as a simple frontier lawyer at most, and a rival to whom chance had transferred the honor they felt to be due to themselves." Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that they considered themselves superior to the President, and were in- LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY i 6 3 clined to assume the role of leadership to which his position entitled him. Secretary Seward was the first to manifest this attitude. During the first month of the new Admin- istration he was busy in the performance of what he, no doubt, deemed his legitimate official duties. He knew, perhaps more than any other man, what had transpired in Washington during the months which had intervened between Lincoln's election and in- auguration and was using his knowledge, together with his powers of mediation and conciliation, to di- rect the affairs of state in the midst of the alarming conditions which existed. But the performance of his legitimate duties did not seem fully to satisfy his am- bition, and on April 1, 1860, he presented "Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration" which plainly indicated a doubt in his own mind as to the President's ability either to formulate or to execute a policy to meet the needs of the time, together with his own willingness to direct the affairs of the government. This remarkable document opened with a specific criticism of the new Administration — "We are at the end of a month's administration, and yet without a policy, either domestic or foreign." It contained equally specific recommendations for an extensive and radical policy for the conduct of the threatened war and for the guidance of the United States in its relations with foreign nations, even sug- gesting a war with France and Spain, under certain conditions. Following these surprising recommenda- tions came the astounding suggestions — 164 ABRAHAM LINCOLN "But whatever policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it. For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it inces- santly. "Either the President must do it, himself, and be all the while active in it, or "Devolve it on some member of his Cabinet. Once adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide. "It is not my especial province. "But I neither seek to evade nor assume responsi- bility." Whatever may have been the feelings of the Presi- dent when he read "The Thoughts" presented for his consideration by the leading member of his Cabinet, his perfect self-control enabled him at once to send a reply, which revealed no trace of impatience or indig- nation, and which conclusively settled the question in dispute. Executive Mansion, April 1, 1861. Hon. W. H. Seward. My dear Sir : Since parting with you I have been con- sidering your paper dated this day, and entitled "Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration." The first proposition in it is, "First, We are at the end of a month's administration, and yet without a policy, either domestic or foreign." At the beginning of that month, in the inaugural, I said: "The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and im- posts." This had your distinct approval at the time; LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 165 and, taken in connection with the order I immediately gave General Scott, directing him to employ every means in his power to strengthen and hold the forts, comprises the exact domestic policy you now urge, with the single exception that it does not propose to abandon Fort Sumter. Again, I do not perceive how the reenforcement of Fort Sumter would be done on a slavery or party issue, while that of Fort Pickens would be on a more national and patriotic one. The news received yesterday in regard to St. Do- mingo certainly brings a new item within the rang6 of our foreign policy; but up to that time we have been preparing circulars and instructions to ministers and the like, all in perfect harmony, without even a sug- gestion that we had no foreign policy. Upon your closing propositions — that "whatever pol- icy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecution of it. "For this purpose it must be somebody's business to pursue and direct it incessantly. "Either the President must do it himself, and be all the while active in it, or "Devolve it on some member of his Cabinet. Once adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and abide" — I remark that if this must be done, I must do it. When a general line of policy is adopted, I apprehend there is no danger of its being changed without good reason, or continuing to be a subject of unnecessary debate; still, upon points arising in its progress I wish, and suppose I am entitled to have, the advice of all the Cabinet. Your obedient servant, A. Lincoln. This remarkable letter is additional evidence of Lin- coln's forbearance and of his ability to rise above mere 166 ABRAHAM LINCOLN personal considerations in his dealings with others. Even more remarkable is the fact that, so far as is known, the knowledge of its contents was confined to the President and Secretary Seward and that neither of them ever alluded to it afterward. The President put the correspondence away in an envelope and it was not made public until several years after his death. Secretary Seward graciously recognized the greatness and magnanimity of his Chief, became his devoted friend, and loyally served at the head of his Cabinet until the end. The unquestioned ability and integrity of Secre- tary Chase admirably fitted him to take charge of the nation's finances in the crucial days of the Civil War, when vast sums of money had to be raised to de- fray the expenses of the government. But unfortu- nately he possessed other characteristics which made it almost impossible for him to work in harmony with other members of the Cabinet. He was opinionated, petulant, envious, unsparing in his criticisms of his associates, and always ready to encourage such criti- cism by others. Much of this criticism related to Sec- retary Seward, against whom a strong feeling of hos- tility developed in the Senate. This feeling grew to such an extent that, in a caucus to consider the matter, it was voted to demand his dismissal from the Cabinet. While this rash action was later on modified to take the form of a request that President Lincoln should recon- struct his Cabinet, the original purpose to secure the resignation or removal of Secretary Seward remained unchanged. Learning of the action of the caucus, LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 167 both the Secretary and his son, the Assistant Secretary, offered their resignations to the President, before he had been formally notified of such action by the com- mittee of the Senate appointed for that purpose. It was in this grave crisis, which was the cause of great anxiety on the part of President Lincoln, and which severely tested his patience and forbearance, that his greatness of soul and keenness of mind once more came to the rescue, and won a victory which con- clusively proved that he was indeed a "master of men." His method of procedure in dealing with the warring factions in both his Cabinet and the Senate furnishes an interesting study. On the day after the Senate had determined to re- quest that the Cabinet be reconstructed, a committee called upon President Lincoln to present the resolutions which had been adopted. In the long conference which followed, the different members of the committee voiced their opposition to Secretary Seward, dwelling especially upon what they considered his failure to give cordial support to the antislavery measures of the Administration, to the success of which Secretary Chase was earnestly devoted. The conference ad- journed to meet again in the evening. A meeting of the Cabinet was immediately called by President Lincoln who, with characteristic frank- ness, related what had taken place at the conference with the committee from the Senate, quaintly remark- ing — "While they seemed to believe in my honesty, they also appeared to think that when I had any good purpose or intention Seward contrived to suck it out 168 ABRAHAM LINCOLN of me unperceived." After assuring the members of the Cabinet that he needed the services of all of them and that he did not desire the resignation of any of them he dismissed them with the request that they meet him again in the evening. When the committee of the Senate and the members of the Cabinet, with the exception of Secretary Seward, met the President in the evening, according to agreement, they were greatly surprised to find that it was to be a joint meet- ing with such a free and open discussion as to make it impossible for any one, either in the Senate or Cabi- net, to claim in the future that anything had been con- cealed or misrepresented. President Lincoln took charge of the joint meeting, stated the case at issue, read the resolutions passed by the Senate, and made some characteristic comments. In the exceptionally frank discussion which followed, the Cabinet was rather sharply criticised in general and Secretary Seward in particular. They in turn defended them- selves and their absent associate with vigor and dignity. To Secretary Chase, the discussion was exceedingly humiliating, as he was compelled to listen to criticisms of Secretary Seward by the members of the committee of the Senate, which were in substance a repetition of the expressions which he, himself, had often used in talking with the members of the committee about his colleague in the Cabinet. A most embarrassing situa- tion confronted him in the presence of both parties to the dispute. He could not join the committee of the Senate in their attack upon the Cabinet and the Ad- LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 169 ministration which they represented. His unkind and unjust criticism of both President Lincoln and Sec- retary Seward, in which he had freely indulged in the presence of the senators, made ineffective any de- fense which he might offer in behalf of the Cabinet of which he was a member. Late at night, the joint meeting closed "in a milder spirit than it met," to quote a phrase from Secretary Welles. The contro- versy clearly revealed the weakness of Secretary Chase, resulting from the jealous, envious, and de- ceitful traits of an otherwise strong character, and the strength of President Lincoln, who never lost his self-control and who constantly manifested that mag- nanimity and spirit of fairness which enabled him to decide every question upon its merits, without refer- ence to the effect of the decision upon his own personal success or welfare. Throughout the whole proceeding, President Lin- coln had one definite purpose in mind. He wanted to be in a position where he could refuse to accept the resignation of Secretary Seward without forfeiting the support of the senators who were insisting upon his removal from the Cabinet, and who were friendly to Secretary Chase. In fact, he was anxious to retain both. The realization of his purpose was made possi- ble the morning after the joint meeting, when Secre- tary Chase, with evident reluctance, tendered his resig- nation, which was accepted with such alacrity and ap- parent gratification as to be both surprising and dis- appointing to the Secretary, who had the habit of re- signing when matters did not go to his liking. With 170 ABRAHAM LINCOLN the resignations of both secretaries in his hands, Presi- dent Lincoln was in complete control of the situation. In his own inimitable manner, he remarked: "Now I can ride ; I have got a pumpkin in each end of my bag." He at once sent the following identical note to Secre- tary Seward and to Secretary Chase : "You have respectively tendered me your resignations as Secretary of State and Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. I am apprised of the circumstances which may render this course personally desirable to each of you; but after most anxious consideration my deliberate judgment is that the public interest does not admit of it. I therefore have to request that you will resume the duties of your Departments respectively." Both acceded to the request of the President. Sec- retary Seward acted with commendable promptness, replying the next morning : "I have cheerfully resumed the functions of this Department, in obedience to your command." Secretary Chase was not so prompt. He first wrote a brief letter, saying, "My reflections strengthen my conviction that being once honorably out of the Cabinet, no important public interest now re- quires my return to it. If I yield this judgment, it will be in deference to apprehensions which really seem to me unfounded. I will sleep on it." He could not get over the feeling of wounded pride which resulted from his observation of the gratification with which his res- ignation had been accepted. He again wrote the Pres- ident that he did not want him to decline to accept his resignation, but did not at once send the letter. After learning that Secretary Seward had resumed his LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 171 duties, he finally concluded that he ought "to conform his action to the President's judgment," and returned to his post, with an expressed readiness to retire any- time, if the President felt that such retirement would promote the success of the Administration. "The untrained diplomatist of Illinois," declare Nicolay and Hay, "had thus met and conjured away, with unsurpassed courage and skill, one of the severest crises that ever threatened the integrity of his Admin- istration. He had to meet it absolutely unaided ; from the nature of the case he could take no advice from those who were nearest him in the Government. By his bold and original expedient of confronting the senators with the Cabinet, and having them discuss their mutual misunderstandings under his own eye, he cleared up many dangerous misconceptions, and as usually happens when both parties are men of intelli- gence and good will, brought about a friendlier and more considerate feeling between his Government and the Republican leaders than had ever before existed. By placing Mr. Chase in such an attitude that his res- ignation became necessary to his own sense of dignity Lincoln made himself master of the situation; by treating the resignations and the return to the Cabinet of both ministers as one and the same transactions, he saved for the nation the invaluable services of both, and preserved his own position of entire impartiality between the two wings of the Union party." Lincoln's magnanimity was constantly shown by the absence of all personal feeling when it became necessary for him to decide public questions or to 172 ABRAHAM LINCOLN make important appointments. Edwin M. Stanton did not belong to his political party and did not vote for him as President. He had received scant courtesy at Stanton's hands, when they first met in Cincinnati as associate counsel in the historic "Reaper Case." After Lincoln became President, Stanton was unspar- ing and abusive in his criticism, often referring to him and his Administration in terms of contempt. Not- withstanding all this, Lincoln did not hesitate to in- vite him into his official family to fill the exceedingly important post of Secretary of War, made vacant by the resignation of Secretary Cameron. Knowing the forcefulness of Stanton's great per- sonality, his firmness, which sometimes developed into obstinacy, and his lack of tact in dealing with others, some of Lincoln's friends were greatly alarmed at his appointment, warned the President that nothing could be done with him, and predicted that he "would run away with the whole concern." To this expres- sion of alarm, Lincoln is said to have replied: "We may have to treat him as they are sometimes obliged to treat a Methodist minister I know of out West. He gets wrought up to so high a pitch of excitement in his prayers and exhortations, that they are obliged to put bricks into his pockets to keep him down. We may be obliged to serve Stanton in the same way, but I guess we'll let him jump a while first." It was inevitable that differences of opinion should arise between men who were so unlike in their temper- aments as Lincoln and Stanton. But the fact that both of them were passionately devoted to the Union LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 173 and were united in a common purpose with the same end in view, usually made it possible for them to work together in harmony. Sometimes Stanton lost his tem- per and made unkind remarks about his Chief, but Lincoln's inexhaustible patience and never-failing good humor enabled him to ignore these ill-natured outbursts and to hold his attention to the main issue. Even when it was reported to him that Stanton had called him a fool, he good-naturedly replied that if Stanton said that, he supposed it must be true, for Stanton was nearly always right. Stanton was given the largest liberty in the conduct of the affairs of his department and had the full con- fidence and the loyal support of the President, who frequently defended his Secretary against the bitter attacks which were made upon him, sometimes assum- ing personal responsibility for acts which were the sub- ject of the criticism. There was, however, a limit to Lincoln's forbearance. When necessary, he did not hesitate to act with prompt- ness and with a finality that once for all settled an important issue or forever put an end to unnecessary quibbling. A most impressive illustration of this is found in the lecture which he read to his Cabinet when he was convinced that a movement was on foot to force one of their number to resign : "I must myself be the judge how long to retain in, and when to remove any of you from his position. It would greatly pain me to discover any of you endeavor- ing to procure another's removal, or in any way to prejudice him before the public. Such endeavor would 174 ABRAHAM LINCOLN be a wrong to me, and much worse, a wrong to the country. My wish is that on this subject no remark be made, nor question asked by any of you, here, or else- where, now, or hereafter/' But the test of Lincoln's patience and forbearance was not by any means confined to his experiences with generals and Cabinet members. He had to contend constantly with disturbing influences which were in no way officially connected with his Administration. One of the most annoying of these influences centered in the public press of which the New York Tribune was the most influential representative. Its editor, Horace Greeley, was a man of unique character. His ability was unquestioned. His motives were, in the main, good. But his impulses sometimes overpowered his judgment, and his eccentricities were so marked as to make it exceedingly difficult to retain his good will and support without surrendering to his dictation, which was not infrequently the result of his prejudice. In the months which intervened between the election and the inauguration of Lincoln, when he was passing through the severe ordeal of witnessing the organized preparation to destroy the Union which he was hop- ing and planning to save when he became President, Greeley was publishing editorials in which he con- tended that if certain states wanted to go out of the Union, they should be permitted to do so. While this "dangerous and illogical" policy was in direct opposi- tion to Lincoln's views and greatly increased the bur- den of anxiety which he was carrying, he nevertheless made no reply. LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 175 Under date of August 20, 1862, The Tribune pub- lished an editorial entitled "The Prayer of 20,000,000/' This "Open Letter" to President Lincoln charged him with failure to execute the laws already enacted against slavery, and of being "unduly influenced by the coun- sels, the representations, the menaces of certain fos- sil politicians hailing from the border slave States." This unwarranted attack came at a most critical time in the progress of the war, when the patient President was bending every energy to hold the "Border States" in the Union, and was awaiting a Union victory before making public his Emancipation Proclamation, which had been prepared and submitted to his Cabinet for their consideration nearly a month before. On August 22, he replied in an "Open Letter" which, while most magnanimous in spirit, was so forceful in its logic as to nullify the effects of the false charges and insinua- tions made against him and his Administration. The summer of 1864 was crowded with trouble for President Lincoln. Constant criticism poured in upon him. By some, he was severely arraigned for the con- tinuation of the war. Others denounced him for using all the means at his command to hasten the end. Not a few were for peace at any price, and therefore ready to give friendly consideration to any suggestion look- ing to that end. Prominent among them was Greeley, who transmitted to the President a letter from an ir- responsible individual by the name of Jewett, who claimed to have authority for stating that two ambas- sadors representing the Southern Confederacy were in Canada with full powers to negotiate for peace. 176 ABRAHAM LINCOLN With this letter was enclosed one of his own in which he declared that there existed "a widespread convic- tion that the government and its prominent supporters are not anxious for peace, and do not improve prof- erred opportunities to achieve it." Following this un- warranted attack, it was urged that overtures for peace be made. While Lincoln had no faith in Jewett's proposal, he promptly proceeded to act upon Greeley's urgent re- quest that it be given consideration, by replying to his letter under date of July 9, 1864 : "If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it embraces, say to him he may come to me with you ; and that if he really brings such proposition, he shall at the least have safe conduct with the paper (and without publicity, if he chooses) to the point where you shall have met him. The same if there be two or more persons." This frank reply greatly embarrassed Greeley, as it made him responsible for carrying out his own re- quest. Instead of acting, he continued to write letters. Finally the correspondence was ended by a telegram from the President, dated July 15, 1864: "I suppose you received my letter of the 9th. I have just received yours of the 13th, and am disappointed by it. I was not expecting you to send me a letter, but to bring me a man, or men. Mr. Hay goes to you with my answer to yours of the 13th." The letter referred to bore the same date as the telegram and read : LINCOLN'S MAGNANIMITY 177 "Yours of the 13th is just received, and I am disap- pointed that you have not already reached here with those commissioners, if they would consent to come on being shown my letter to you of the 9th instant. Show that and this to them, and if they will come on the terms stated in the former, bring them. I not only in- tend a sincere effort for peace, but I intend that you shall be a personal witness that it is made." No longer able to evade responsibility, Greeley re- luctantly went to Niagara, where he learned that the alleged commissioners were without authority to act and that their whole purpose was to deceive the people of the United States into thinking that President Lin- coln had refused to consider an offer for peace. Un- willing to assume the blame for his own failure, his only defense was implied censure of the President, in- dicated by his persistence in insisting that he was de- termined to refuse all offers of peace. Lincoln's opportunity for complete vindication came with a request that he permit the publication of the entire correspondence. To this request he readily acceded, with the one condition that a few passages from the Greeley letters be omitted, since he felt that their publication would have an injurious effect upon the Union cause because of the gloomy aspect which they disclosed. With characteristic obstinacy, Greeley insisted that his letters, if published at all, must be printed entire, and even declined the cordial invitation of the President — "Please come over and see me." The final outcome was that Lincoln dropped the matter and silently submitted to the continued misrepresentations which resulted. Not until after his 178 ABRAHAM LINCOLN death were all the facts made known by the publica- tion of the entire correspondence. In this whole proceeding is found another striking illustration of the magnanimity of the great President, who was ever ready to sacrifice himself, if he could thereby advance the cause to which his life was dedi- cated. In fact, it was Lincoln's magnanimity, so constantly manifested in all the varied relations of his eventful life, that enabled him to evince that unlimited patience — to exercise that remarkable self-control, which was the secret of his control of all the turbulent factors with which he had constantly to contend. It was his magnanimity which made possible the realization of both his "oft-expressed personal wish that all men everywhere could be f ree" and also of his exalted pur- pose that "this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom ; and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth." CHAPTER VIII LINCOLN'S EDUCATION <