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 LINCOLN ROOM 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
 LIBRARY 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
 the Class of 1901 
 
 founded by 
 
 HARLAN HOYT HORNER 
 
 and 
 
 HENRIETTA CALHOUN HORNER 
 
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Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/lincolnstoryOOillshoo 
 
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 "His life was gentle 
 And the elements so mix'd in him that 
 Nature might stand up 
 And say to all the ivorld 
 This was a man." 
 
 Shakespeare 
 
The 
 
 LINCOLN STORY 
 
 As Told by 
 CHESTER R. SHOOK 
 
 CINCINNATI • OHIO 
 
^1 3, 1 LL>3 i fAiC 
 
 1150 
 
 'Soft as some song divine, 
 thy story flows." 
 
 Homer — Odyssey 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1950 
 by Chester R. Shook 
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1950 
 by Chester R. Shook 
 
 First printing 1950 
 
 (500 copies autographed and distributed but not sold) 
 
 Berman Printing Co. 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio 
 
 Second printing 1950 
 
 The C. J. Krehbiel Co. 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio 
 
 Illustrations by Paul G. Bogosian, Cincinnati artist 
 Printed in U.S.A. 
 
Preface 
 
 Since the first printing of "The Lincoln Story/' we have 
 been encouraged to have the book made available for the 
 public. Accordingly, we present this second edition. 
 
 Several changes have been made, which do not, in our 
 opinion, alter substantially the style or factual content of 
 the original book. 
 
 The covering of the book is symbolical. The seven stars 
 represent the number of perfection, its application being 
 explained in the first chapter. The blue and gray colors 
 signify the reunion of the North and South. 
 
 "One Nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." 
 
 I wish at this time to express my appreciation to my 
 friend, Paul G. Bogosian, Cincinnati artist, for his excel- 
 lent contribution. 
 
 I also feel grateful for numerous comments and criti- 
 cisms, which have been offered by readers of the original 
 book. In several instances, I have been glad to follow, in 
 this second printing, the suggestions so graciously given 
 me. 
 
 Through the kindness and generosity of Honorable 
 Alfred K. Nippert, former Judge of the Common Pleas 
 Court of Hamilton County, Ohio, former Trustee of the 
 University of Cincinnati, philanthropist, and leader in 
 many important civic events, there has been made avail- 
 able to the public and parochial schools of Cincinnati and 
 
 VII 
 
VIII PREFACE 
 
 Hamilton County, Ohio, a large number of this Lincoln 
 story. 
 
 We are indebted to Dr. Claude V. Courter, Superin- 
 tendent of the Cincinnati Public Schools, and Rt. Rev. 
 Msgr. Carl J. Ryan, Superintendent of the Parochial 
 Schools, for their cooperation in the placement of the 
 books in the schools for the use of the students and 
 teachers, more particularly for the American History 
 classes of the junior and senior high schools. 
 
 The following appraisal of this book by Judge Nippert 
 is significant: 
 
 "The value of your Lincoln lies in the fact that it is 
 written in easy, flowing style, touches the high spots of 
 Abraham Lincoln's life without giving the reader too 
 much detail, yet giving a comprehensive birdseye view 
 of the Great Emancipator. In this respect I think your 
 painstaking and splendid contribution to Lincolniana 
 is outstanding." 
 
 Chester R. Shook 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio 
 October, 1950 
 
Introduction 
 
 I have had the pleasure of listening to the reading of 
 most of the papers on the Lincoln Story by former Judge 
 Chester R. Shook. Not only does his factual material 
 show considerable research and knowledge of the subject 
 matter, but we have here a new approach. Certainly, he 
 has reached conclusions which are vibrant and very worth- 
 while for any serious student of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 Judge Shook started selling newspapers on the streets 
 of Cincinnati as a young boy; at fourteen years of age, 
 he began working as a cash boy in one of our depart- 
 ment stores; while working, he attended Night High 
 School, graduated, then attended one year of Evening 
 Law School. Later, he worked as a part-time stenographer 
 in one of the leading law offices in Cincinnati in order to 
 pay his way through the Cincinnati (day) Law School. 
 He had received his L.L.B. degree, and was practicing 
 law, when he felt the need for further academic training; 
 at the end of twelve years as a student in day and evening 
 courses at the University of Cincinnati, he received his 
 A.B. degree at the age of thirty-six. In the meantime he 
 had married and had children. 
 
 In his practice of the law, which has covered a con- 
 siderable range, Judge Shook has achieved the reputation 
 for rigid honesty and observance of the highest professional 
 ethics. He has served one complete term of six years as 
 
 IX 
 
X INTRODUCTION 
 
 Judge of the Common Pleas Court of Hamilton County, 
 with distinction. He has for years been active as a leader 
 in alumni affairs at the University of Cincinnati. He 
 formed the Committee of 100 in 1925, which has grown 
 into one of the most effective college alumni organizations 
 in the country. At that time, he was serving as President 
 of the general Alumni Association. He helped organize 
 and served as first President of the Evening Alumni 
 Association; also was President of the Men's Liberal Arts 
 Alumni Association for two terms, and of the Cincinnati 
 Law School Alumni Association. He has for years repre- 
 sented the Law School on the Executive Alumni Com- 
 mittee, with which he is still active. He has been on many 
 important committees in the Ohio State Bar Association 
 and the Cincinnati Bar Association; he is a member of 
 the American Bar Association, the American Judicature 
 Society and the Cincinnati Lawyers' Club. He has headed 
 many movements, both welfare and educational, in Cin- 
 cinnati, and is especially interested in the educational 
 program in his home town. 
 
 I recommend a careful reading and study of this interest- 
 ing Lincoln Story by a man who has been a disciple as 
 well as a student of our greatest American. 
 
 Michael G. Heintz, 
 
 Historian, Ohio Department, Sons of Union 
 
 Veterans of the Civil War, Cincinnati, Ohio 
 
Appreciation 
 
 From my earliest youth, the name of Abraham Lincoln 
 has been a source of inspiration. Having read, throughout 
 the years, a good deal of controversial Lincoln material, 
 especially concerning slavery, his ancestry and his married 
 life, I began, a few years ago, an intensive study of his life. 
 
 Within the past five years I have visited many of the 
 notable Lincoln shrines and monuments throughout the 
 country and have had discussions about Lincoln with 
 many eminent authorities. 
 
 In Washington, D.C., especially in the Library of 
 Congress, I found an imposing amount of Lincoln ma- 
 terial. 
 
 On the campus of Lincoln Memorial University, in 
 Harrogate, Tennessee, I lived in the Faculty House, 
 joined the students in the dining room, met with the 
 faculty, including Dr. Robert L. Kincaid, distinguished 
 president of the University, and had the rare privilege 
 of studying in the Lincoln library with Dr. R. Gerald 
 McMurtry, its Director. This library contains the 
 marvelous collection of Meserve portraits of Lincoln. 
 
 In Fort Wayne, Indiana, Dr. Louis A. Warren was of 
 invaluable assistance to me and allowed me access to the 
 magnificent library of the Lincoln National Life Founda- 
 tion, of which he is Director. 
 
 In the Illinois State Historical Library, in Springfield, 
 Illinois, I saw one of the signed copies of the Gettysburg 
 
 XI 
 
XII APPRECIATION 
 
 speech; also, the leather-bound volume containing the 
 masterful address of Edward Everett. Dr. Jay Monaghan, 
 State Historian in charge, patiently answered numerous 
 questions which were bothering me. Also, in Springfield, 
 I had the opportunity of interviewing Dr. Roy P. Basler, 
 Editor of the Abraham Lincoln Quarterly and Executive 
 Secretary of the Abraham Lincoln Association. At the 
 Lincoln Tomb, the late Herbert Wells Fay, state- 
 commissioned custodian, in his usual kindly, courteous 
 fashion, reminisced about Lincoln and displayed his world- 
 renowned collection of Lincolniana. I visited the Lincoln 
 home at Eighth and Jackson Streets and numerous other 
 places connecting Lincoln with his home town. There, 
 too, I saw two of his three law offices, all of which faced 
 the Old State House. The former offices of Stuart & 
 Lincoln and of Logan & Lincoln are kept in about the 
 same condition as during Lincoln's law practice. The third 
 office, Lincoln & Herndon, is designated by a large, bronze 
 plaque on the outside of a department store, which is on 
 the former site of this law office. The rebuilt New Salem 
 of his young manhood is particularly impressive. 
 
 Interesting discussions with Dr. Paul M. Angle, Secre- 
 tary and Director of the Chicago Historical Society, in 
 Chicago, were of lasting value. Also, I saw many places 
 of interest in Chicago, where Lincoln had tried a consider- 
 able number of law suits and where he was nominated for 
 the Presidency of the United States. 
 
 These gentlemen, eminent authors, scholars and orators, 
 
APPRECIATION XIII 
 
 stimulated my desire for further research. Likewise, I am 
 indebted to my friends, Honorable Michael G. Heintz, 
 well-known Lincoln scholar, and Honorable James G. 
 Stewart, Judge of the Supreme Court of Ohio and dis- 
 tinguished Lincoln orator, as well as to Dr. Ernest L. 
 Talbert, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, and Dr. Clyde 
 W. Park, Professor Emeritus of English, University of 
 Cincinnati, for their criticisms, corrections and sugges- 
 tions. 
 
 I recently returned from the National Shrine at Hodgen- 
 ville, Kentucky, containing the traditional log cabin in 
 which Lincoln was born. There, at the base of the knoll, 
 I saw the clear running spring from which Lincoln and 
 the other members of his family drank, during his early 
 childhood. There stands the mighty oak, almost three 
 hundred years old. As I walked up the fifty-six steps, 
 denoting the years Lincoln lived, and saw the sixteen 
 roseates on the ceiling of the Shrine, symbolizing Lincoln 
 as the sixteenth President of the United States, and read 
 the numerous encomiums inscribed on the tablets on the 
 walls fronting the cabin, I could understand the worship 
 of the American people for this gigantic figure. 
 
 All my activities have been directed toward a true 
 understanding of the real Lincoln ; they have inspired me 
 with a renewed patriotic zeal and love for my country. 
 With it has come the realization of the perils which con- 
 front us in our day. 
 
 I ask the indulgence of the reader for the reason that 
 
XIV APPRECIATION 
 
 the contents of this booklet were written for public de- 
 livery. There is no claim to special merit for literary 
 attainment, although all of the material has been analyzed 
 and criticized for accuracy. I have had the opportunity 
 of reading the substance of each of these papers in appear- 
 ances here and in other communities, before numerous 
 school children of various ages, teachers' organizations, 
 university groups, Bar associations, luncheon clubs, 
 churches and civic groups. I have been amazed and grati- 
 fied at the universal respect which our people, regardless 
 of age or sex, show toward all phases of the life of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln. 
 
 Sincerely, 
 
 Chester R. Shook, 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio 
 
Contents 
 
 PREFACE VII 
 
 INTRODUCTION IX 
 
 APPRECIATION XI 
 
 A GREAT MAN IS BORN 1 
 
 YOUTH AND EDUCATION 15 
 
 CONCERNING THE GENTLER SEX 25 
 
 HUSBAND AND FATHER 37 
 
 THE LAWYER 47 
 
 THE POLITICIAN 59 
 
 WAR PRESIDENT 73 
 
 THE LONG SHADOW 89 
 
 GREAT EMANCIPATOR 99 
 
 WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN Ill 
 
 AND IN CONCLUSION — 121 
 
 REFERENCES 133 
 
 COMMENTS 137 
 
 XV 
 
• 
 
 • 
 
 * 
 
 The 
 
 Lincoln 
 Storij 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 as 
 
 told by Chester R. Shook 
 
'Lives of great men all remind us 
 We can make our lives sublime." 
 
 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 
 
I 
 
 A Great Man Is Born 
 
 There is a legend that on February 12, 1809, in Hardin 
 County, Kentucky, at a forest crossing, two frontiersmen 
 were driving in opposite directions, through the rough 
 country. Said one to 
 the other, in passing: 
 "Any news, neighbor?" 
 "Nope," was the reply, 
 "Nothing ever happens 
 around here. Oh, by the 
 way, I hear Nancy Hanks 
 has just had another 
 baby." "Giddap," the 
 drivers yelled to their 
 teams and proceeded in 
 their several directions. 
 Thus, unheralded and 
 
 unsung, was born one of the earth's truly great. An im- 
 posing monument has been erected near Hodgenville, 
 Hardin County, Kentucky (formerly Hodgen's Mill), by 
 a grateful people, to the memory of Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 The year Abraham Lincoln was born, James Madison 
 was inaugurated President of the United States; George 
 Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson had 
 
 ended their illustrious careers as the heads of our Govem- 
 
 l 
 
2 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 ment, and had placed the new "experiment in democracy' ' 
 upon a firm foundation. 
 
 The primitive log cabin where Abraham Lincoln was 
 born blended with the wild surroundings. The floor con- 
 sisted of packed-down dirt. One door swung on leather 
 hinges, which let the family in and out. There was one 
 small window, probably covered with the tightly stretched 
 skin of a hog, or some small animal. A stick-clay chimney 
 carried off the smoke from the crude open fireplace. 
 Through the long winter evenings the children listened to 
 many blood-curdling stories about adventures with wild 
 animals and Indians. From these humble beginnings 
 Lincoln reached sublime heights during a life of hardship, 
 sacrifice and travail. 
 
 The story of Lincoln is known to nearly every school 
 child throughout America and the world. He was farm- 
 hand, splitter of rails, storekeeper, surveyor, clerk of the 
 Election Board and Postmaster of Salem, Illinois. In 
 1832, he was defeated for the State Legislature of Illinois. 
 As Lincoln himself said, this was the only time he was 
 ever defeated by the vote of the people for any office for 
 which he ran. He had served as a volunteer in the Black 
 Hawk War, and was elected captain of his company in the 
 same year of 1832. He had announced his candidacy 
 before volunteering, and after serving for about three 
 months, he returned to Salem, about two weeks before the 
 election. 
 
 From 1834 to 1840 he was elected four times to the 
 
A GREAT MAN IS BORN 3 
 
 State Legislature in Illinois. In 1837, he was admitted 
 to the Bar of Illinois ; during his practice he had as partners 
 three prominent and well-known lawyers: John T. Stuart, 
 cousin of Mary Todd, Judge Stephen T. Logan and 
 William H. Herndon. 
 
 On November 4, 1842, he was married to Mary Todd; 
 he was then thirty-three years of age; she was twenty- 
 three. In 1844, he was elected as a Whig candidate to the 
 Presidential Electoral College. From 1846-1848, he served 
 one term in Congress. In May of 1856, at the Republican 
 State Convention in Bloomington, Illinois, Lincoln was 
 nominated as a presidential elector, and made his famous 
 "Lost Speech." In the same year, the first Republican 
 National Convention was held at Philadelphia, Pennsyl- 
 vania. Lincoln received one hundred ten votes in this 
 Convention as a candidate for Vice President. 
 
 In 1858, he was a candidate for United States Senator 
 and engaged in seven debates with Stephen A. Douglas, 
 his formidable opponent. In addition, each of them made 
 numerous other addresses. During the campaign, this 
 series of seven debates was publicly known as "the fight 
 between the little giant and the giant killer." The elec- 
 tion was decided by legislative districts, and Mr. Douglas 
 was declared elected. 
 
 On February 27, 1860, Lincoln delivered his famous 
 Cooper Union Speech in New York City, before an 
 audience of distinguished scholars and leading citizens; 
 it attracted unusual attention. William Cullen Bryant, 
 
4 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 the poet, presided at the meeting. One auditor told 
 Lincoln, when asked what most impressed him: "The 
 clearness of your statements — the unanswerable style 
 of your reasoning — and especially your illustrations, 
 which were romance and pathos and fun and logic all 
 welded together." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was the first successful presidential 
 candidate of the Republican Party; he was nominated in 
 Chicago and, in 1860, elected President of the United 
 States; his running mate was Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. 
 Lincoln received a popular vote in this election of 1,866,452 
 votes against 1,375,157 votes for Douglas. 
 
 Lincoln was not a back-slapper. He was a melancholy 
 man, "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. ,, 
 Joshua Speed, one of his few close friends, with whom 
 Lincoln lived when he first went to Springfield, said: 
 "I never saw so gloomy and melancholy a face in my life." 
 He was reserved in manner, but sympathetic toward any 
 worthy appeal. 
 
 He was a persuasive orator, following the style of his 
 great ideal, Henry Clay of Kentucky, of whom Lincoln 
 said: "Mr. Clay's eloquence did not consist — as many 
 fine specimens of eloquence do — of tropes and figures, 
 of antithesis and elegant arrangements of words and 
 sentences — but rather of that deeply earnest and im- 
 passioned tone and manner which can proceed only from 
 great sincerity and a thorough conviction in the speaker 
 of the justice and importance of his cause." Lincoln often 
 
A GREAT MAN IS BORN 5 
 
 showed signs of nervousness in the beginning of his talks, 
 and had a high, shrill voice, but the content of his speeches 
 and his sincere and persuasive manner usually made a 
 lasting impression. A considerable number of his public 
 addresses, especially with his opponent, Douglas, were 
 delivered out-of-doors. Douglas had a guttural method 
 of speaking, whereas Lincoln usually spoke in a nasalized, 
 high-pitched tone, which carried much better in the open 
 air. As Lincoln would advance into the body of his speech, 
 he could sustain his tones in a high range, which gave him 
 quite an advantage. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was not only honest in the ordinary 
 meaning of the term, but, what is far more important, 
 he was intellectually honest. He said : "I made a point of 
 honor and conscience in all things to stick to my word, 
 especially if others had been induced to act on it." He 
 said, too : "I want in all cases to do right and most particu- 
 larly so in all cases with women." 
 
 In 1864, Lincoln was nominated at Baltimore, Md., and 
 re-elected President of the United States. Strange to say, 
 he did not make a campaign speech for either term in the 
 White House. 
 
 Lincoln was born on Sunday, the Sabbath day of the 
 Lord, and was shot fatally on Good Friday of 1865. That 
 year, the following Sunday was known as "Black Easter." 
 He lived a cycle of eight times seven years, which has been 
 considered of some significance by numerologists, seven 
 being the so-called number of perfection. Ancient Judea 
 
6 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 decreed that the candlesticks used in ritualistic services 
 should contain "two branches of one piece with it for the 
 six branches going out of the candlestick/' The seventh 
 day was decreed as the holy day in the creation. In 
 Revelations, the inspired writer speaks of "the mystery of 
 the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and 
 the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the 
 angels of the seven churches; and the seven candlesticks 
 are seven churches/ ' Lincoln lived the first seven years of 
 his life in Kentucky, two times seven years in Indiana; 
 four times seven years in Illinois (including seven years 
 in Decatur and New Salem, and twenty-one years in 
 Springfield); and seven years in Washington, counting 
 the two years in Congress, the four years of his first term 
 as President, and part of the year 1865 down to the date 
 of his death. His paternal ancestry has been traced 
 through seven generations. There are seven letters in both 
 his first and last names. 
 
 Astrologers have often designated February as the 
 "month of greatness." Many world figures were born in 
 February. Among these are : 
 
 COPERNICUS who discovered that the sun is the 
 
 center of the universe and laid the 
 foundation for modern astronomy. 
 
 GALILEO stargazer, follower of Copernicus. 
 
 CHARLES DARWIN noted scientist, born February 12, 
 
 1809, the same day as Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 THOMAS A. EDISON .... wizard of electricity. 
 
A GREAT MAN IS BORN 7 
 
 RAPHAEL whose genius gave to the world one 
 
 of its most revered paintings, "The 
 Sistine Madonna." 
 
 FELIX MENDELSSOHN .famous composer of the "Wedding 
 
 March." 
 
 GEORGE HANDEL who composed the "Messiah," 
 
 classed as the greatest Oratorio 
 ever written. 
 
 Then we have CHARLES DICKENS, VICTOR HUGO, 
 and HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW, in literature, 
 the immortal GEORGE WASHINGTON, and many others. 
 
 Lincoln was tall and awkward; by the time he was 
 sixteen, he was a strong, sturdy backwoodsman. He 
 reached his full height of six feet, four inches, at the age 
 of twenty-one. He had unusually long arms, a narrow 
 chest and small head; he gave the impression of loping 
 when he walked. 
 
 Yet, despite his ungainly appearance, Lincoln was a 
 very dignified man. Good authority states: "The only 
 person he ever heard address him by his first name was a 
 street urchin, whose impertinence astonished the future 
 president quite as much as it amused him." Lincoln was 
 known as "Honest Abe" from his early manhood, but this 
 was an appellation of affection and not a nickname. 
 Throughout his adult career he was designated as Mr. 
 Lincoln. 
 
 What is it which places Lincoln among the great leaders 
 and thinkers of the past? In one of Emerson's Essays, we 
 read : "He is great who is what he is from Nature and who 
 never reminds us of others." Abraham Lincoln was not a 
 
8 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 type. He stands alone. We have his own statement that 
 he had no background of substantial, successful or im- 
 portant forebears. He said : "I am not so much concerned 
 with who my grandfather was and am more concerned to 
 know what his grandson will he." However, his paternal 
 ancestry has been traced back to distinguished settlers in 
 Massachusetts. Many prominent and active men in 
 earliest American history are included. But, he always 
 minimized his ancestry. 
 
 On the walls of the Memorial Union Building of the 
 University of Indiana are engraved five of the greatest 
 names in history: 
 
 CHRIST ARISTOTLE 
 
 GALILEO SHAKESPEARE 
 
 LINCOLN 
 
 To date more has been written about Lincoln than 
 any other person in the world's history, aside from 
 religious figures. Up to 1900, literature about Napoleon 
 Bonaparte was leading in volume. This has been exceeded, 
 however, by the flood of Lincoln literature given the public 
 in the past four decades. It is interesting to note that the 
 story of Abraham Lincoln has been broadcast over the 
 world in at least twenty-seven different languages and 
 dialects, including French, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, 
 German, Greek, Hebrew, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, 
 Russian, Persian, Turkish, Spanish, and many others. 
 According to Carl Sandburg "the total number of Lincoln 
 words preserved for posterity is more than one million — a 
 
A GREAT MAN IS BORN 9 
 
 figure greater than that of all the words in the Bible 
 (including the Apocrypha) or of Shakespeare's complete 
 works." 
 
 Great statesmen and scholars have eulogized Lincoln 
 in superlatives. Several quotations will suffice : 
 
 GEORGES CLEMENCEAU 
 "One of the greatest men that ever lived, great by thought, 
 great by feeling, and great by action." 
 
 LORD CHARNWOOD 
 
 "Beyond his own country some of us recall his name as the 
 greatest among those associated with popular government." 
 
 NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 
 "What manner of man was this who had become the idol of a 
 free people, and the very incarnation of their loftiest spirit and 
 their noblest ideals? Years have passed and his stately sombre 
 figure stands out every day more clearly against the background 
 of history." 
 
 LEO TOLSTOY 
 
 "Of all the great national heroes and statesmen of history, 
 Lincoln is the only real giant." 
 
 The last speech of Winston Churchill as Prime Minister 
 in the House of Commons of England contained this 
 statement: 
 
 "The aim of the British people is to develop a government of 
 the people, by the people, for the people." 
 
 Thus did a spokesman for one of the great governments 
 of the world take this idealistic conception from the lips 
 of the immortal Lincoln. 
 
10 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 Thus spake the prophet Micah to all future generations: 
 "What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to 
 love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" 
 
 To a supreme degree, Lincoln developed the qualities 
 of Justice, Mercy and Humility. 
 
 Lincoln said : 
 
 "Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him 
 while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong." 
 
 What a keen sense of justice! 
 
 His Secretary of War, Edwin M. Stanton, frequently 
 cautioned Lincoln about relaxing military rules in order 
 to save the lives of soldiers who had been guilty of in- 
 fraction of discipline. This was especially true with 
 reference to young, inexperienced men. Lincoln often 
 said that his purpose was to save and not to destroy lives. 
 "The quality of mercy" in Lincoln was not strained. 
 
 His humility was probably his outstanding trait. In 
 
 1860, when he was running for President, he told J. L. 
 
 Scripps of the Chicago Tribune: 
 
 "Why, Scripps, it is a great piece of folly to attempt to make 
 anything out of me or my early life. It can all be condensed into 
 a single sentence, and that sentence you will find in Gray's 
 Elegy: 'The short and simple annals of the poor'." 
 
 In his famous letter of November 21, 1864, to Mrs. 
 Bixby, Lincoln wrote: 
 
 "Dear Madam: 
 
 I have been shown in the file of the war department a state- 
 ment of the adjutant-general of Massachusetts that you are the 
 mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of 
 
A GREAT MAN IS BORN 11 
 
 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 tendering 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 
 memory of the loved and lost and the solemn pride that must be 
 yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." 
 
 What a tender and compassionate heart had Lincoln! 
 
 Another mark of greatness about Lincoln was his 
 
 simplicity of manner and speech. His imperishable words 
 
 have been read through past generations and will continue 
 
 to be the inspiration of mankind through all future time. 
 
 One quotation is sufficient to show his use of language, 
 
 which all can understand. From the concluding words of 
 
 the Second Inaugural Address, we read : 
 
 "With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firm- 
 ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to 
 finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to 
 care for him who shall have borne the battle, to do all which 
 may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our- 
 selves and with all nations." 
 
 Lincoln had the genius to condense colossal, universal 
 
 ideas into few words. To illustrate this statement, we 
 
 quote from Dr. Louis A. Warren, noted Lincoln scholar: 
 
 "Within a period of approximatly a year and a half, there 
 came from the pen of Abraham Lincoln four masterpieces of 
 literature, which in their respective fields have not been sur- 
 passed. This group of compositions consisting of a proclamation 
 of Thanksgiving, an oration of dedication, a letter of condolence, 
 and an inaugural address, were all produced between October 3, 
 1863 and March 4, 1865. In referring to these writings they 
 might be called an American Quadruple of English Eloquence. 
 
12 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 "The proclamation written on October 3, 1863 was the first 
 annual national Thanksgiving proclamation, the oration of dedi- 
 cation was delivered at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863, the 
 letter of condolence was written to the Widow Bixby on Novem- 
 ber 21, 1864, and the inaugural address, the second one, was 
 delivered on March 4, 1865. 
 
 "These writings are also unusual examples of brevity in ex- 
 pression. The longest address contains but 700 words and it can 
 be read in five minutes. The shortest manuscript runs about 130 
 words and can be read in one minute. The four writings com- 
 bined total but 1600 words and only eleven minutes would be 
 required for a careful reading of all the documents." 
 
 It seems to be a common attribute of truly great men 
 to be able to reduce the most profound thoughts to the 
 simplest equations. Lincoln spoke in Biblical style, using 
 homely parables as illustrations. "He spoke as one with 
 authority and not as the scribes/ ' Abraham Lincoln looms 
 as an intellectual and spiritual giant above his fellows. 
 
 The finger of God touched this lowly and melancholy 
 man and lifted his head to the stars. Abraham Lincoln 
 was truly a son of God. God crowned him with honor 
 and with glory. The heart of Lincoln enshrined a cathedral 
 with deep sounding bells, because he was attuned to the 
 infinite. We bow our heads in gratitude before this 
 gigantic figure who will live in the hearts and minds of 
 men 'til time shall be no more. 
 
 In this critical period of the world's history, let us 
 resolve that Abraham Lincoln shall not have lived in 
 vain. 
 
"Remember also thy Creator in the days of thy youth." 
 
 ECCLESIASTES 12-1 
 
II 
 
 Youth and Education 
 
 The humble origin of Abraham Lincoln, his bitter 
 poverty, the death of his mother when he was nine 
 years old, which evidently was stamped indelibly upon 
 his memory, his hard and 
 incessant toil, his struggle 
 against adversity and 
 against the forces of 
 rugged nature, his innate 
 and everlasting honesty 
 (honesty of purpose, of 
 intellect, of heart), his 
 gloomy, melancholy ap- 
 pearance, his awkward- 
 ness and sensitivity, his 
 ambition, his final tri- 
 umph, have made this 
 great figure the ideal toward which the struggling youth 
 lifts his face. 
 
 In his youth, Lincoln had an unquenchable hunger 
 and thirst for knowledge. As a boy, he said : "I will study 
 and prepare myself and if the opportunity should ever 
 come, I will be ready/' Altogether, Lincoln spent about 
 one entire year in regular schools. Often he walked for 
 many miles to borrow books. He was obliged to walk 
 
 15 
 
16 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 four miles to and from one of the schools which he at- 
 tended. Two of the books he used at school were Webster's 
 Spelling Book and the American Speller. He also used 
 Pike's Arithmetic. His law partner, Herndon, said that 
 Lincoln had told him that Murray's English Reader was 
 the best school book ever put into the hands of an Ameri- 
 can youth. He managed to read, at an early age, the 
 Bible, Shakespeare, Aesop's Fables, Robinson Crusoe, 
 Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, A History of the United 
 States, Weems' Life of Washington, and a copy of the 
 Statutes of Indiana. His early desire to become a lawyer 
 was increased by the reading of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence and the United States Constitution. But let us 
 quote from his Autobiography, written in the third person, 
 about his training in his youth in Kentucky and Indiana: 
 
 "He had a sister, older than himself, who was grown and 
 married, but died many years ago, leaving no child; also a 
 brother, younger than himself, who died in infancy. Before leav- 
 ing Kentucky, he and his sister were sent, for short periods, to 
 ABC schools, the first kept by Zachariah Riney, and the second 
 by Caleb Hazel. At this time his father resided on Knob Creek, 
 on the road from Bardstown, Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee, 
 at a point three or three and a half miles south or southwest of 
 Atherton's Ferry, on the Rolling Fork. From this place he re- 
 moved to what is now Spencer County, Indiana, in the autumn 
 of 1816, Abraham then being in his eighth year. This removal 
 was partly on account of slavery, but chiefly on account of the 
 difficulty in land titles in Kentucky. He settled in an unbroken 
 forest, and the clearing away of surplus wood was the great 
 task ahead. Abraham, though very young, was large of his age, 
 and had an ax put into his hands at once; and from that till 
 within his twenty-third year he was almost constantly handling 
 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION 17 
 
 that most useful instrument — less, of course, in plowing and 
 harvesting seasons. * * * His father's residence continued at 
 the same place in Indiana till 1830. While here Abraham went 
 to A B C schools by littles, kept successively by Andrew Craw- 
 ford, James Sweeney, and Azel W. Dorsey. He does not remem- 
 ber any other. The family of Mr. Dorsey now resides in Schuyler 
 County, Illinois. Abraham now thinks that the aggregate of all 
 his schooling did not amount to one year. He was never in a 
 college or academy as a student, and never inside of a college or 
 academy building till since he had a law license. What he has in 
 the way of education he has picked up. After he was twenty- 
 three and had separated from his father, he studied English 
 grammar — imperfectly, of course, but so as to speak and write 
 as well as he now does. He studied and nearly mastered the 
 six books of Euclid since he was a member of Congress. He 
 regrets his want of education, and does what he can to supply 
 the want. In his tenth year he was kicked by a horse, and 
 apparently killed for a time. When he was nineteen, still residing 
 in Indiana, he made his first trip upon a flatboat to New 
 Orleans. * * * " 
 
 Early evidence of his latent sense of humor can be 
 found in these lines, scrawled in an arithmetic book in 
 his own handwriting: 
 
 1 'Abraham Lincoln 
 His hand and pen 
 He will be good 
 But God knows when" 
 
 We can all recall the familiar picture of the youth 
 Lincoln in a prone position in front of an open fireplace, 
 using a piece of charcoal on a broad wooden shovel. 
 When the writing was finished, he would use a sharp 
 knife or plane and shave off the markings cleanly, and 
 start over again. 
 
18 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 His father, Tom Lincoln, thought his boy was lazy, 
 but Abraham Lincoln had a tireless mind. As one who 
 was well-acquainted with young Lincoln said: "He dwelt 
 only in the land of thought." The idea of those in charge 
 of him was to keep him constantly at hard work. He 
 helped in the splitting of rails and became expert in 
 clearing farm lands. This developed his muscles and body 
 so that he became celebrated in his young manhood as the 
 strongest man in the community. However, the intellec- 
 tual fire burned slowly but with steady and intense glow 
 throughout all the years. Lincoln had a retentive memory 
 and had developed the faculty of self -discipline to a degree 
 seldom achieved by other men. With Lincoln, obstacles 
 became stepping stones to achievement. 
 
 We know that Lincoln had a thoroughly trained mind 
 and was educated in the broadest usage of that term. He 
 studied rhetoric and spent hours stretched full length 
 under trees in an effort to fix in his mind the arbitrary 
 rule that "adverbs qualify verbs, adjectives and other 
 adverbs/' It was his habit, as a young man, to practice 
 speaking extemporaneously to stumps and trees as he was 
 splitting rails in the clearance of farm lands. Similarly, 
 he studied mathematics, starting with the proof that 
 "multiplying the denominator of a fraction divides it 
 while dividing the denominator multiplies it." He bought 
 a book on logic and mastered the science of explanations — 
 how to analyze the absolutely true and relatively true, 
 the proximate and remote causes. He bought "The 
 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION 19 
 
 Elements of Euclid/' a book twenty-three centuries old. 
 He learned that things equal to the same thing are equal 
 to each other, etc. As a practicing lawyer, driving from 
 circuit to circuit on his horse, he quietly worked out these 
 mathematical problems. He was particularly partial to 
 mathematics. He often studied Euclid by the light of a 
 candle after other lawyers had dropped off to sleep. It 
 has been said of Lincoln: "He wanted to be simple as the 
 alphabet, definite as the numbers used in arithmetic, sure 
 as the axioms of common notions, that are the starting 
 point of Euclid.' ' 
 
 The great intellect of Abraham Lincoln was developed 
 very slowly. According to his own statement, he mastered 
 the six books of Euclid after he was in Congress, so that 
 he was past forty years of age when, still thirsting after 
 knowledge, he perfected himself in the science of mathe- 
 matics. 
 
 Let us turn back for a number of years and observe 
 Lincoln again as a little boy. He lived in a one room 
 log cabin with his parents and his older sister Sarah. His 
 brother, Thomas, died in infancy. There were long hand- 
 split shingles on the roof; there was a sleeping loft with 
 pegs in the wall for Abraham to climb up to his bed in the 
 attic. Most of the time he slept in dry leaves and kept 
 himself warm by wearing his clothes; occasionally, he 
 covered himself with skins or any material which might 
 provide warmth. Nancy Hanks loved her little boy dearly, 
 but died when he was nine years old. She was buried in a 
 
20 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 rough plank coffin made by her husband, Tom Lincoln, 
 and Dennis Hanks, her cousin. Weeks later, after her 
 death, it is related that an itinerant preacher passed that 
 way; the forlorn and ragged little boy and girl stood at 
 their mother's grave with the rough backwoodsman, Tom 
 Lincoln, and listened to these imperishable words: 
 
 "And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another 
 Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the 
 Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it 
 seeth him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know him; for he 
 dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you 
 comfortless: I will come to you." 
 
 There are those who heard Lincoln say: 
 
 "All that I am or hope to be I owe to my angel mother.' ' 
 
 Then Sarah Bush Johnston came into the life of little 
 Abraham and his sister. Tom Lincoln married her some 
 months after the death of his first wife. She was a widow 
 and had lived in Elizabethtown, Kentucky. She had 
 three children by her former husband. Tom Lincoln had 
 known Sarah Bush as a young girl; it is said they had been 
 sweethearts at one time. Sarah Bush Johnston made a 
 complete change in the lives of these motherless children 
 and the lonesome father. She was a fine, wholesome, 
 tender-hearted, matronly woman. She took a particular 
 fancy to little Abraham. He owed her much and showed 
 his appreciation in many ways even after he had become 
 universally known. 
 
 When running for the Legislature, in 1832, Lincoln 
 told the people of Sangamon County, Illinois: 
 
YOUTH AND EDUCATION 21 
 
 "Upon the subject of education, nor presuming to dictate any 
 plan or system respecting it, I can only say that I view it as the 
 most important subject we as a people can be engaged in. That 
 every man may receive at least a moderate education and 
 thereby be enabled to read the histories of his own and other 
 countries, by which he may duly appreciate the value of our 
 free institutions, appears to be an object of vital importance." 
 
 Need anything further be added to this statement of a 
 young man, then twenty-three years of age, showing his 
 burning desire for a knowledge of the truth, both for him- 
 self and his fellow Americans? This, Lincoln felt, could be 
 accomplished only through mental discipline and training. 
 Without exaggeration, we may conclude that a large 
 portion of the genius of Abraham Lincoln was his ability, 
 in spite of distressing adversities which beset him, to 
 discipline his mind and soul in furtherance of his con- 
 suming passion for an education. That he appreciated 
 higher education is also shown by the fact that he sent his 
 son, Robert Todd Lincoln, to Phillips-Exeter Academy 
 and Harvard University. 
 
 While the self-educated Lincoln was running for Presi- 
 dent, and after he had become President, great universities 
 saw fit to honor him with academic degrees. It is interest- 
 ing to note in this connection that Lincoln once said: 
 "I was never in a college or academy as a student and 
 never inside of a college or academy building till since I 
 had a law license." Abraham Lincoln had three honorary 
 degrees conferred upon him, all in absentia, before he died. 
 In July, 1860, Knox College, located at Galesburg, 
 
22 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 Illinois, granted him the first L.L.D. Degree ever voted 
 by the College. It is told that in 1858, in a debate at 
 Galesburg before a large crowd at Knox College, he 
 stepped through one of the windows onto the platform 
 and said: "At last I have gone through Knox College." 
 In June, 1861, at the 107th Commencement Celebration, 
 Columbia College (now Columbia University) conferred 
 upon Lincoln the honorary degree of L.L.D. Likewise, 
 the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) 
 conferred the same degree upon him in 1864. On Decem- 
 ber 27, 1864, Lincoln sent a letter to the Board of Trustees 
 of this College, one paragraph of which is significant: 
 
 "Thoughtful men must feel that the fate of civilization upon 
 this continent is involved in the issue of our contest. Among the 
 most gratifying proof of this conviction is the hearty devotion 
 everywhere exhibited by our schools and colleges in the national 
 cause." 
 
 This man whose education was thorough enough to 
 produce his "Farewell" at Springfield, the "Gettysburg 
 Address" and the "Second Inaugural" was truly deserving 
 of any academic honors conferred upon him. 
 
 And so, this ambitious youth, Abraham Lincoln, 
 proved to all posterity that he had studied and prepared 
 himself and when the opportunity came, he was ready. 
 

 l A Woman arrayed with the sun, 
 And the moon under her feet. ,J 
 
 Revelations 12-1 
 
Ill 
 
 Concerning The Gentler Sex 
 
 Probably the least understood phase of the life of 
 Abraham Lincoln is his relationship to and romantic 
 experiences with the opposite sex. In March of 1864, 
 Lincoln wrote: 
 
 "I am not accustomed to 
 the use of language of 
 eulogy; I have never studied 
 the art of paying compli- 
 ments to women ; but I must 
 say, that if all that has been 
 said by orators and poets 
 since the creation of the 
 world in praise of women 
 were applied to the women 
 of America, it would not 
 do them justice for their 
 conduct during this war. I 
 will close by saying, God 
 bless the women of Ameri- 
 ca. 
 
 In his youth, Abraham Lincoln had the loving, tender 
 care, first of his mother, Nancy Hanks, and then, in her 
 stead, the utmost affection of Sarah Bush, who married 
 Tom Lincoln, his father, after the death of his mother. 
 Although Sarah Bush, a widow, had three children of her 
 own, she lavished equal attention upon this strange and 
 lonesome step-child. 
 
 25 
 
26 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 The death of his mother, when he was nine years old, 
 had an everlasting effect upon Lincoln. From his mother, 
 who had always dreamed strange dreams about this 
 unusual child, he inherited his somewhat mystical and 
 instinctively religious qualities. 
 
 Nor did he ever forget the maternal care of Sarah 
 Bush, and, in many ways, after he became famous, he 
 expressed his gratitude for all she had done for him. 
 
 But great as is the interest in these two fine women, 
 and their important relationship to Lincoln, we are 
 primarily concerned with the truth about his romantic 
 experiences with the opposite sex. 
 
 We note that he became acquainted with little Kate 
 Roby while he attended Crawford's School. He was 
 about seventeen years old then; she was about fifteen. 
 Then Lincoln weighed about 160 pounds; he was six 
 feet, two inches in height, vigorous and awkward. His 
 feet and hands were disproportionately large; he was 
 small through his chest and had a small head. His skin 
 was shrivelled and yellow; he wore buckskin breeches and 
 a cotton shirt with a cap made of the skin of a squirrel 
 or raccoon. His breeches were usually several inches too 
 short, exposing his shin bones. 
 
 According to Kate Roby, Lincoln seemed to be at- 
 tracted to her and at one time, during a spelling match 
 given by schoolmaster Crawford, she was asked to spell 
 "defied." She began: d - e - f - and then hesitated because 
 she did not know if the next letter was "i" or "y." Looking 
 
CONCERNING THE GENTLER SEX 27 
 
 up, she saw young Abraham smiling, and pointing with 
 his index finger to his eye. So Kate went on with the 
 correct spelling of the word. Certainly, this was not a love 
 match in any real sense of the word, but Kate Roby liked 
 to walk with Abraham, and they often went down to the 
 river bank where they would dangle their feet in the water. 
 Instead of showing any romantic inclinations, he would 
 discuss, much to her amazement, mathematics and 
 astronomy. 
 
 History relates that Abraham Lincoln had courted 
 four young women: Ann Rutledge, Mary Owens, Sarah 
 Rickard and Mary Todd. 
 
 A great deal of mystery and uncertainty surrounds 
 the tragic romance with Ann Rutledge. She was born 
 on January 7, 1813 and died August 25, 1835. She was 
 the daughter of James Rutledge, who was one of the 
 founders of New Salem, Illinois. James Rutledge came 
 from Kentucky in 1829. He had business interests in a 
 general store and mill and kept the tavern where Lincoln 
 came to board in 1833. Ann Rutledge was a beautiful 
 girl and was considered the village belle of her day. She 
 was sensitive, industrious and a good housekeeper. We 
 know, at the time Lincoln met her, that she was about 
 five feet two inches in height and weighed about one 
 hundred twenty pounds. She had auburn hair, blue eyes 
 and fair complexion. Lincoln was fully aware of the fact 
 that Ann Rutledge was engaged to a young man named 
 John McNeil and that she evidently was in love with him. 
 
28 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 In fact, they had become engaged when she was only 
 seventeen years old. Mr. McNeil, having disposed of his 
 interest in a business venture in New Salem, had gone back 
 to New York, his native state. For some unexplained 
 reason, before he left New Salem, he told Ann that his 
 name was not McNeil but McNamar. After reaching New 
 York, he corresponded with her, but his letters grew less 
 ardent in time, and finally he stopped writing. Knowing 
 all these facts, Lincoln openly visited her and was fre- 
 quently seen with her. There were no letters written by 
 either of them, although Lincoln was a prolific writer. It 
 seems that everyone in New Salem was anxious to pre- 
 cipitate a marriage, although with his usual caution, 
 Lincoln had conflicting emotions. 
 
 Many songs and poems have been written, eulogizing 
 this courtship. In fact, it is safe to say that this has 
 become one of the best known romances in history. 
 
 There are two contradictory views of the Ann Rutledge 
 romance: 
 
 Recently, Dr. Louis A. Warren, acknowledged Lincoln 
 scholar, said, according to a newspaper report: 
 
 "The Rutledge romance in Abe Lincoln's life was 'pure fiction 
 from beginning to end'. It was true that Lincoln had a love 
 affair in Salem, Illinois, but it was with a Miss Owens and not 
 Ann Rutledge. Miss Owens turned down the opportunity of 
 becoming the wife of the Great Emancipator." 
 
 On the other hand, according to Lincoln's partner, 
 Herndon, the courtship of Ann Rutledge was the grand 
 passion of his life. However, Herndon said: 
 
CONCERNING THE GENTLER SEX 29 
 
 "I am aware that most of his (Lincoln's) biographers have 
 taken issue with me on this phase of Mr. Lincoln's life." 
 
 In all likelihood, the truth lies somewhere between 
 the two extreme viewpoints. Mr. Herndon admitted that 
 "Arnold says: The picture has been somewhat too highly 
 colored, and the story made rather too tragic/ Dr. Hol- 
 lard and others omit the subject altogether, while the 
 most recent biography — the admirable history by my 
 friends Nicolay and Hay — devotes but five lines to it." 
 
 The Herndon version of this love affair, however, has 
 become deep-rooted in the tradition and folk-lore of 
 Lincoln, although it was not published until almost a 
 quarter of a century after his death. 
 
 Let us pass to his next romance, with Mary Owens. 
 In less than a year after the death of Ann Rutledge, the 
 good women of New Salem again decided that Lincoln 
 needed a wife. A talented, vivacious young lady, Mary 
 Owens, had visited her sister, Mrs. Bennett Abell, some 
 years before, and Lincoln, among other young men, had 
 been attracted to her. So Mrs. Abell, who was deeply 
 interested in Lincoln, suggested that she would bring her 
 sister back to New Salem if Lincoln would marry her. 
 Lincoln, in his characteristic manner, partly in jest, said 
 that if she came and he didn't marry her, it wouldn't be 
 his fault. Of course, this was enough for any woman or 
 group of women. The campaign was on! Mary Owens 
 visited New Salem. She was tall and rather stout, and 
 about twenty-five years of age during this courtship. She 
 
30 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 was the pride of her father; a lively and interesting young 
 
 woman. There is considerable evidence concerning the 
 
 development and ending of the courtship of Lincoln and 
 
 Mary Owens. 
 
 In a letter written on May 22, 1866, by Mary Owens 
 
 to Mr. W. H. Herndon (law partner of Mr. Lincoln for 
 
 many years), she explains one of the reasons she declined 
 
 to marry Lincoln. 
 
 "You say you have heard why our acquaintance terminated 
 as it did. I, too, have heard the same bit of gossip; but I never 
 used the remark which Madam Rumor says I did to Mr. Lincoln. 
 I think I did on one occasion say to my sister, who was very 
 anxious for us to be married, that I thought Mr. Lincoln was 
 deficient in those little links which make up the chain of woman's 
 happiness, — at least, it was so in my case." 
 
 We quote from a letter Lincoln wrote to Miss Owens 
 from Springfield, Illinois, on August 16, 1837, which 
 can hardly be designated as a love letter: 
 
 ''Friend Mary: 
 
 "You will, no doubt, think it rather strange, that I should 
 write you a letter on the same day on which we parted; and I can 
 only account for it by supposing that seeing you lately makes 
 me think of you more than usual, while at our late meeting we 
 had but few expressions of thoughts. * * * I want, at this par- 
 ticular time, more than anything else, to do right with you, and 
 if I knew it would be doing right, as I rather suspect it would, 
 to let you alone, I would do it. * * * Do not understand by this 
 that I wish to cut your acquaintance. I mean no such thing. 
 What I do wish is that our further acquaintance shall depend 
 upon yourself. If such further acquaintance would contribute 
 nothing to your happiness, I am sure it would not to mine. * * * 
 
 Your Friend, 
 Lincoln" 
 
CONCERNING THE GENTLER SEX 31 
 
 In none of the letters of either of the parties do we 
 find any expression of deep emotion or passion. Sub- 
 sequently, both Mary Owens and Lincoln married and 
 established their separate homes, and a friendly interest 
 existed throughout their lives. 
 
 Lincoln proposed marriage in a quaint way to another 
 estimable young lady, in 1840. He was finishing his last 
 term in the state legislature and was thirty-one years old. 
 Sarah Rickard was then only sixteen years old. Mr. Lin- 
 coln had met Miss Rickard at the home of her sister, 
 Mrs. William Butler, in Springfield. Sarah Rickard later 
 wrote: 
 
 "As an old friend I will answer the question propounded to 
 me, though I can scarcely see what good it can do history. Mr. 
 Lincoln did make a proposal of marriage to me in the summer, 
 or perhaps later, in the year of 1840. He brought to my atten- 
 tion the accounts in the Bible of the Patriarch Abraham's 
 marriage to Sarah, and used that historical union as an argument 
 in his own behalf. My reason for declining his proposal was the 
 wide difference in our ages. I was then only sixteen, and had 
 given the subject of matrimony but little, if any, thought. I 
 entertained the highest regard for Mr. Lincoln. He seemed 
 almost like an older brother, being, as it were, one of my sister's 
 family." 
 
 This proposal to young Miss Rickard is typical of 
 Lincoln's attitude toward women. We can visualize the 
 scene. In his awkward, diffident manner, he probably 
 said: "Our names are Abraham and Sarah; the Biblical 
 Abraham married Sarah; will you marry me?" She 
 promptly replied : "No," 
 
32 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 Abraham Lincoln married Mary Todd, also a native 
 of Kentucky, a relative of Dolly Madison's first husband. 
 She was vivacious, impulsive, strong-willed, exceedingly 
 attractive and was descended from a long line of dis- 
 tinguished and aristocratic forebears. Mary Todd was 
 proud of her heritage and lineage. To her everlasting 
 credit it must be borne in mind that, although her parents 
 were not friendly toward Lincoln (in fact, her father did 
 not meet him until some years after the marriage), she, 
 nevertheless, under exceedingly difficult circumstances, 
 married a man in poverty, bore him four sons, and re- 
 mained faithful and steadfast to the end. No one has ever 
 questioned the sterling character and fine qualities of 
 Mary Todd. On the other hand, she was domineering and 
 extremely ambitious; in fact, she undoubtedly chose 
 Lincoln in preference to Stephen A. Douglas because 
 she felt, by some strange intuition, that Lincoln would 
 become president. She remarked to several friends who 
 were watching Lincoln's rather grotesque approaches to 
 her, that she expected to marry the man who would be- 
 come president. 
 
 The date for the wedding was first set for New Year's 
 Day of 1841. Lincoln, according to some narrators, 
 simply absented himself from the wedding and failed to 
 appear at the Edward's home where Mary Todd was 
 awaiting him; others claim Lincoln broke the engage- 
 ment by a personal call before the date fixed for the 
 wedding. 
 
CONCERNING THE GENTLER SEX 33 
 
 At any rate, we know that friends criticized Lincoln 
 and he himself came to the conclusion that he had not 
 been fair to Mary Todd. He went to her to apologize. 
 This meeting resulted in their marriage, which occurred 
 on November 4, 1842, at the Edward's home. At the 
 wedding, the Episcopal ceremony was performed by 
 Rev. Charles Dresser, the first time that service had ever 
 been observed in Springfield. On the bride's wedding 
 ring were inscribed the words: "Love is Eternal/ ' Weeks 
 later, Lincoln wrote to a friend : 
 
 "Nothing new here, except my marriage, which to me is a 
 matter of profound wonder." 
 
 Mary Todd started her married life with Abraham 
 Lincoln in the Globe Tavern in Springfield. They paid 
 four dollars a week for room and board. Later, on April 23, 
 1844, they were able to buy a modest frame house, lo- 
 cated at Eighth and Jackson Streets, Springfield, for 
 $1500.00 — $1200.00 in cash and a lot valued at $300.00 
 on Adams Street, owned by Lincoln. They lived together 
 until the assassination of Lincoln. At the time of the 
 marriage Mary Todd was 23, Lincoln 33 years of age. 
 
 Things never seemed to run smoothly in the Lincoln 
 household. Mr. Lincoln was taciturn, Mrs. Lincoln 
 inclined to be loquacious. Mr. Lincoln was indifferent 
 to social activities and, in the best sense of the term, 
 was a public servant throughout their married life. 
 Mrs. Lincoln, on the other hand, by training and inclina- 
 tion, loved to entertain and insisted on extensive social 
 
34 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 connections. As a practicing lawyer on the Eighth Circuit 
 in Illinois, where he made a lasting impression as a great 
 lawyer, he was away from home frequently for many 
 months at a time. He was engrossed in politics during 
 most of the twenty-three years of their married life. This 
 was his chief interest. Mrs. Lincoln was well educated, 
 an aristocrat by birth and training. She had many 
 influential friends, both in Illinois and elsewhere, and had 
 all of the "class" and charm of a "great lady." She con- 
 tributed enormously to valuable contacts which helped 
 raise Lincoln to the heights. 
 
 Lincoln had a genuine affection for each of these seven 
 fine women : for Nancy Hanks, his mother, who remained 
 first and foremost in his heart; for Sarah Bush, who helped 
 him with kindness and understanding during his period 
 of training and growth into manhood; for little Kate 
 Roby, for whom he had the affection of an adolescent boy 
 for a school girl friend ; for Ann Rutledge, the attachment 
 being perplexing and enigmatical; for Mary Owens, who 
 rejected him because he lacked necessary sentimental 
 qualities; for Sarah Rickard, for whom his feeling was 
 evanescent and paradoxical in its nature ; for Mary Todd, 
 resulting in a faithful marriage between two contrasting 
 personalities under extremely difficult circumstances. 
 
 And so, we conclude, when we look at the attitude of 
 this man toward the gentler sex, that we must not treat 
 him as a type. He simply did not fit in with the ways of 
 the conventional, average man. Here, as in almost every 
 
CONCERNING THE GENTLER SEX 35 
 
 other phase of his unusual character, his approach to 
 women was largely objective — therein lies the merit and 
 difficulty in all these attachments. Abraham Lincoln had 
 a great heart and his sympathies embraced all mankind. 
 He was gentle by nature but gave the impression of being 
 rather aloof and not easily approachable. He did not have 
 any real confidants. He was a lonely man. 
 
 It can be truthfully said of Lincoln that to him a woman 
 was "arrayed with the sun, and the moon under her feet." 
 
"God is thy law; thou mine." 
 
 John Milton (Paradise Lost) 
 
IV 
 
 Husband and Father 
 
 After his marriage, Abraham Lincoln wrote to a friend : 
 
 "Are you possessing houses and lands, and oxen and asses and 
 men servants and maid- 
 servants, and begetting sons 
 and daughters? We are 
 not keeping house, but 
 boarding at the Globe Tav- 
 ern, which is very well kept 
 now by a widow lady of the 
 name of Beck. Our room 
 (the same that Dr. Wallace 
 occupied there) and board- 
 ing only costs us four dollars 
 a week." 
 
 In another letter, in 
 explaining the reason for 
 not visiting Kentucky, he wrote : 
 
 "I am so poor and make so little headway in the world that I 
 drop back in a month of idleness as much as I gain in a year's 
 sowing." 
 
 There was a constant clash of different temperaments 
 in the marital relationship of the Lincolns. The high- 
 spirited wife, aristocratic, ambitious and impulsive, had 
 great difficulty in restraining herself with this unusually 
 taciturn but brilliant man. She understood all the fine 
 qualities as well as the weaknesses of her husband, prob- 
 
 37 
 
38 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 ably more than any other person. She was a faithful wife 
 to him, he was a faithful husband to her, over a long, 
 stormy period of twenty-three years. There were four 
 children born of this marriage, all sons. Joy and tragedy 
 walked hand in hand in the Lincoln household. 
 
 The first born was Robert Todd Lincoln, named after 
 the father of Mrs. Lincoln. He was born on August 1, 
 1843, and died in 1926. He was the only son who achieved 
 any distinction. The other boys died either in childhood 
 or in their early youth. Robert was educated at Phillips- 
 Exeter Academy and Harvard University. After gradu- 
 ating from Harvard University, he entered Harvard Law 
 School. On February 23, 1865, he became attached to the 
 staff of General Grant, and served until the end of the war. 
 He then resumed his law studies at Harvard, was admitted 
 to the Bar in 1867, and practiced in Chicago until 1881. 
 That year he was appointed Secretary of War in President 
 James A. Garfield's Cabinet, in which position he con- 
 tinued under President Chester A. Arthur. In 1881, he 
 refused to be a candidate for President of the United 
 States. Later he was named Minister to England by 
 appointment of President Harrison. In 1893, he withdrew 
 from public life and attained financial success in the busi- 
 ness world. He first served as counsel for the Pullman 
 Company; four years later, upon the death of George M. 
 Pullman, he became president of that company. He 
 resigned this position in 1911 and became chairman of the 
 Board of Directors. He died a wealthy man. 
 
HUSBAND AND FATHER 39 
 
 Robert Todd Lincoln was a Todd by nature and had 
 many of his mother's characteristics. He felt very keenly 
 the overshadowing greatness of his father; in fact, at 
 times he showed his resentment of this situation. Un- 
 doubtedly, Robert Todd Lincoln would have been success- 
 ful in his own right; the reflection of his father's greatness, 
 however, kept him in the limelight. 
 
 The next son, Edward Baker (Eddie) Lincoln, was 
 born March 10, 1846, and died at the age of four years. 
 The funeral services were held at the First Presbyterian 
 Church in Springfield, Rev. James Smith, Pastor. 
 
 William Wallace (Willie) Lincoln was born December 
 21, 1850, and died in 1862. 
 
 Thomas (Tad) Lincoln was born in April, 1853, and 
 died in 1871. 
 
 All of these sons were born in Springfield, Illinois. 
 Robert Todd, Willie and Tad lived with their parents in 
 the White House and Willie died in the White House. 
 
 Tad was generally accepted as the favorite of Mr. 
 Lincoln. Many well-known photographs have been pre- 
 served, showing the President with little Tad. Robert 
 Todd was always the most stable boy in the family; 
 the other three being rather untractable and spoiled 
 youngsters. 
 
 Many stories are told about the relationship of Lincoln 
 with his children. One often repeated tale is that Lincoln 
 would put the boys into a little wagon on Sunday after- 
 noons and start with them to his law office. On the way, 
 
40 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 as he would hit rough places in the street, one or more 
 of the children would fall off, and by the time he reached 
 his office, he often had an empty wagon. He had not 
 missed the children; so absorbed had he become in deep 
 thought that he was oblivious to everything and every- 
 body around him. When he discovered what had hap- 
 pened, to the great amusement of his neighbors and 
 friends, he would go back over the route he had taken, 
 asking people if they had seen his children anywhere. 
 
 Naturally, the eccentricities of Mr. Lincoln disturbed 
 his wife. She would frequently lose her temper, scold 
 him severely, and later, would suffer bitter remorse for 
 these outbursts. She understood her husband well enough 
 to realize that he was totally irresponsible for this sort of 
 action. The boys loved to go to the office with their father. 
 He would sit in his office chair and the children would run 
 riot all over the place, pulling papers, documents and books 
 from the shelves and out of the desk. They would create 
 general havoc, climbing all over their father and leaving 
 everything disheveled and upset. Mr. Herndon frequently 
 remonstrated with Mr. Lincoln, his law partner, about this 
 situation, but to no avail. 
 
 Mr. Herndon said about Lincoln that "all of the rela- 
 tives and friends called him the kindest father they had 
 ever seen. He let the boys do whatever they pleased. 
 Lincoln so adored his children he was deaf and dumb to 
 their faults. He restrained them from nothing. * * * He 
 had curious spells of abstraction in his home. Often at 
 
HUSBAND AND FATHER 41 
 
 meal time he would look straight ahead with unseeing 
 eyes, oblivious of his surroundings and unconscious of 
 the food before him." 
 
 Mrs. Lincoln had difficulty in trying to get her husband 
 to show proper concern for the importance of people in 
 high position. While, undoubtedly, contacts she was able 
 to make for him were of considerable value in his advance- 
 ment, he was never impressed by wealth or high social 
 position. His general physical makeup was awkward and 
 he was careless about his clothing; in fact, he seemed to 
 care very little about his appearance. This, naturally, 
 was extremely disconcerting to a lady who had been 
 reared in luxurious surroundings and who was accus- 
 tomed to all the habits of "good society." 
 
 So the lights and shadows in the married life of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln were in great contrast. Mr. Lincoln felt 
 that he was a failure in many ways. Certainly, he must 
 have been a disappointment to his wife, because of her 
 exceptional gifts as a hostess and because she had a natural 
 feminine desire for an orderly, well-conducted household. 
 His awkwardness and sensitivity, as well as the general 
 disregard, on his part, of conventional demands, made it 
 impossible for her to be at her best in her home among her 
 guests and visitors. Nevertheless, we must never forget 
 that Mrs. Lincoln, under extraordinarily difficult and 
 trying circumstances, managed to maintain a semblance 
 of orderly housekeeping and, what was more important 
 to her, arranged to have her husband meet many im- 
 
42 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 portant and influential people. She also appreciated the 
 fact that she was living with a man of unusual mental and 
 spiritual qualities. There was no use scolding him because 
 he had a childlike fear of his wife, which was somewhat 
 pitiful, and naturally aggravated the situation. 
 
 In the records of history, Lincoln is classed as a good 
 but rather indifferent husband — indifferent in the sense 
 that he was neglectful of the ordinary, everyday observ- 
 ances of little rules and regulations which go to make up 
 the sum total of living for most people. Lincoln lived in a 
 world of reason and abstract thinking. He did not have 
 close friends or companions; he was moody, very often 
 disconsolate and absent-minded; his sense of humor was 
 of the type, mostly, which conveyed a lesson and was 
 usually couched in parable form. It is not strange, there- 
 fore, that, being so completely detached from the average 
 outlook on life, he appears to be a different person to 
 many different people. We do not believe it is an over- 
 statement to say that Lincoln was probably the least 
 understood of all the presidents in our history. His wife 
 tried dutifully to understand him and, in large measure, 
 failed. This strain upon her, together with the loss of her 
 two sons, undoubtedly contributed to her poor health, 
 mental and physical, while she was in the White House. 
 
 Lincoln was never able to accumulate much money, 
 before he became president. He had the largest volume 
 of law practice of any of the Springfield lawyers. Although 
 he made one fee of $5000.00, representing the Illinois 
 
HUSBAND AND FATHER 43 
 
 Central Railway Company, nevertheless, according to his 
 own account, when he was elected President of the United 
 States in 1860, he listed his total assets, accumulated over 
 a quarter of a century, including his home in Springfield, 
 at about $15,000.00. This included eleven notes, each 
 bearing ten per cent interest, varying in amounts from 
 $150.00 to $3000.00, a total of $9,337.90. Of this amount, 
 one-half was secured by mortgage. He also listed a Spring- 
 field City bond worth at the time $666.67 and a certificate 
 of six shares of Alton and Sangamon Railroad stock. 
 However, after he became President, principally from his 
 salary of $25,000.00 per year, he increased the original 
 $15,000.00 to more than $85,000.00 at the time of his 
 death. After the death of Lincoln, Justice David Davis, 
 of the Supreme Court of the United States (appointed 
 by Lincoln), administered his estate and handled it so 
 judiciously that, by wise investment, when he made 
 final distribution in the Probate Court, he had augmented 
 the estate to $110,974.62. Justice Davis was one of the 
 principal leaders at the Chicago convention in obtaining 
 the nomination for the presidency for Abraham Lincoln 
 in 1860. He had sat as a judge in the Eighth Circuit from 
 1848 to 1860, during which time Lincoln tried many cases 
 before him. Lincoln excited the great admiration of 
 Justice Davis for his legal acumen and great ability as a 
 trial lawyer. 
 
 After the death of her husband, Mrs. Lincoln claimed 
 she had a very difficult time supporting herself from the 
 
44 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 income of her one-half of her husband's estate, the other 
 one-half going to her son, Robert Todd Lincoln. In a letter 
 to Justice David Davis, from Chicago, on September 12, 
 1865, among other statements, Mrs. Lincoln wrote: 
 
 "Whilst we are passing our days at boarding houses, if my 
 head was not bowed down with a sorrow deeper far than ever 
 fell to the lot of a bereaved and heartbroken woman, with my 
 natural pride I should feel greatly humiliated * * * for the 
 present I accept our most uncomfortable state." 
 
 Certainly, the most ardent admirers of Lincoln must 
 concede that he was not a success as a father and husband. 
 He was by nature endowed with talents which drove him 
 mercilessly into the field of statecraft. His outlook on 
 life was universal and general, not particular. He was 
 probably more interested in the general welfare of people 
 than in his own personal comfort. This applied equally 
 in his attitude toward his family. He had a deep sense of 
 obligation toward his family and in his peculiar way 
 loved the members of the entire family, but he could or 
 would not devote any but a small fraction of his attention 
 to their interests. This undoubtedly hurt Mrs. Lincoln, 
 although she was too proud and too big a person to com- 
 plain about this failing of her husband. 
 
 We close this phase of the life of this immortal character 
 with the observation that his mind embraced too large a 
 sphere for him to allow his own particular connections to 
 assume undue prominence in the scheme of creation. 
 
The Prairie Lawyer — Master of us all 11 
 
 Vachel Lindsay 
 
V 
 
 The Lawyer 
 
 This prairie lawyer once said : 
 
 " * * * If, in your judgment, you cannot be an honest lawyer, 
 resolve to be honest without being a lawyer." 
 
 On another occasion 
 Lincoln said : 
 
 "It is no use in my pre- 
 senting a case if I do not 
 believe in it, because any 
 jury would see it in my 
 face." 
 
 Early in life, Abraham 
 Lincoln gained the repu- 
 tation of being rigidly 
 honest and was af- 
 fectionately known as 
 "Honest Abe." 
 
 In his first term in the Legislature, Lincoln made an 
 important decision. In one of his autobiographies he said 
 he was then considering the trade of a blacksmith, and 
 also "thought of trying to study law." He thought, how- 
 ever, that he could not succeed in being a lawyer without 
 a better education. We can imagine how important was 
 his decision to become a lawyer, not only as it affected 
 his career, but the whole future of the nation. His mighty 
 
 47 
 
48 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 physique would have made him a competent blacksmith, 
 and he considered this with great seriousness. In this 
 term of the Legislature he met John T. Stuart, a fellow- 
 member (cousin of Mary Todd), who persuaded him to 
 study and prepare himself to become a lawyer. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was admitted to the Illinois Bar in 1837, 
 while serving in the State Legislature, at the age of 
 twenty-eight years. The Legislature was then meeting 
 in Vandalia, Illinois. He formed a partnership with 
 John T. Stuart, and started practicing in Springfield, 
 Illinois, in 1837. Mr. Stuart was one of the leading 
 lawyers in Springfield. The population of Springfield at 
 that time was about nine thousand. 
 
 Later, in 1841, Lincoln became the junior partner of 
 former Judge Stephen T. Logan, a prominent and pros- 
 perous lawyer. This partnership lasted only two years, 
 partly because both were seeking the nomination to 
 Congress, and also because the son of Mr. Logan was 
 studying law in this office and later became associated 
 with his father in the practice. Mr. Lincoln lost the 
 nomination to Congress in that year. Later Lincoln 
 formed a partnership with William H. Herndon (who had 
 also been a law clerk in the office of Judge Logan), under 
 the firm name of Lincoln and Herndon. Mr. Herndon 
 was the son of one of Lincoln's closest political friends, 
 Archer G. Herndon. This firm lasted until the death of 
 Lincoln. They practiced law together over a period of 
 sixteen years. Mr. Lincoln, upon being elected President, 
 
THE LAWYER 49 
 
 informed Mr. Herndon that he did not want their shingle 
 removed from in front of the building, because, upon his 
 return to Springfield, he desired to resume the practice 
 of the law with Mr. Herndon. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln became a famous lawyer in the Eighth 
 Circuit of Illinois, where he practiced for twenty-three 
 years, and undoubtedly was the outstanding lawyer in 
 the State of Illinois in his time. There is a record of 
 178 cases in which he appeared as counsel in the Supreme 
 Court of Illinois; he won 92 of these cases. He appeared 
 in 12 cases in the United States Circuit Court, of which 
 he won 7. He was counsel in 3 cases in the United States 
 Supreme Court, winning 2. In the trial courts, he was 
 attorney in about 2000 cases. 
 
 Prior to his admission to the Bar, Mr. Lincoln appeared 
 before a Justice of the Peace, the celebrated Bowling 
 Green of New Salem, and tried small cases, without com- 
 pensation. Many stories are related of the rough and 
 ready practice of this rustic dispenser of justice, who 
 weighed 250 pounds, and who loved the inimitable man- 
 nerisms of Lincoln and the droll illustrations he gave. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln, because of his unique character and evident 
 earnestness and natural ability as an advocate, gained 
 widespread reputation. He was a man of the people, a 
 true prairie lawyer, who spoke in the vernacular of the 
 day. Any notion, however, that Lincoln indulged in 
 "clowning" or the burlesquing of any situation in which 
 
50 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 he appeared is clearly erroneous. Mr. Lincoln was deadly 
 serious in everything he did. 
 
 From the beginning of his law practice, Lincoln was 
 known as a compromiser and conciliator. It was not 
 infrequent for both sides, in impending litigation, to agree 
 to be bound by any decision he might make. Lincoln 
 rapidly gained the reputation of being fair and honorable 
 and a sincere peacemaker. However, no one proved more 
 formidable than Lincoln in the court room. Those who 
 knew him well feared his great ability and persuasive 
 qualities before court and jury. His real strength was that, 
 because he was so patently honest, the courts and juries 
 would accept his statements as truth. Not that Lincoln 
 did not make mistakes, but he was never known to pur- 
 posely misrepresent or misconstrue any cause in which he 
 appeared as attorney. 
 
 Albert A. Woldman in "Lawyer Lincoln" has this to 
 say about Lincoln as a lawyer: 
 
 "He believed that to be a real lawyer one had to be honest 
 intellectually as well as morally. He had no patience with the 
 popular conception that no lawyer could be thoroughly honest.' 
 
 A man with these qualities possessed the fundamental 
 essentials of a good lawyer. 
 
 While it was not technically legal, Judge David Davis, 
 during his absence from court, often authorized Lincoln 
 to act as Judge, when both sides agreed, which they 
 usually did. Most of Lincoln's decisions were accepted as 
 correct, although there are records of several cases decided 
 
THE LAWYER 51 
 
 by Lincoln, which were taken to the Supreme Court of 
 Illinois and reversed. For some years before being elected 
 President, Lincoln served as one of the State Bar ex- 
 aminers. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln neither drank nor smoked. He did not 
 drink intoxicants because he did not like them, and he 
 did not smoke for the same reason. As a sample of his 
 keenness in repartee, he was once asked by Judge Douglas 
 whether he was a temperance man. With a smile, Mr. 
 Lincoln immediately replied: "I am not a temperance 
 man but I am temperate in this, I don't drink." 
 
 In the partnership of Logan and Lincoln, we find a 
 strange combination. Mr. Logan was ambitious to make 
 money and confined himself very closely to the details of 
 his profession. On the other hand, Mr. Lincoln was easy- 
 going, unsystematic in his methods, and without the 
 slightest inclination toward wealth. He told Mr. Logan: 
 
 "Wealth is simply a superfluity of things we don't need." 
 
 Logan died a rich man; Lincoln died a great man. 
 
 Once Lincoln said to his son, Robert, (in 1864) when 
 
 he favored the return of Robert to Harvard Law School: 
 
 "If you become a lawyer you will probably make more money 
 at it than I did, but you won't have half the fun." 
 
 It is interesting to note that Stephen A. Douglas, the 
 most formidable of Lincoln's opponents throughout his 
 career, was a member of the Supreme Court of Illinois 
 (1841-1843) when the case of Bailey vs. Cromwell, re- 
 ported in 4 Illinois Reports, at page 71, was argued. In 
 
 UBRAfW 
 UNlVERSntOflUiWO» 
 
52 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 this case, decided in the July Term of 1841, Abraham 
 Lincoln appeared for the appellant, Bailey, and his former 
 partner, S. T. Logan, appeared for the appellees. Lincoln 
 had lost his case in the trial court and in the intermediate 
 court, but the Supreme Court reversed both of the lower 
 courts. Thus Lincoln won this case. Not only was a 
 difficult legal principle involved, but the case was a portent 
 of future events in which Judge Douglas and Mr. Lincoln 
 were to play the leading roles. The facts were that a note 
 had been given in consideration of the sale of a Negro 
 girl. The lower courts held that the owner had a right to 
 sell her as his property and entered a judgment against 
 Lincoln's client in the sum of $431.97. The Supreme Court 
 of Illinois decided that, under the laws of Illinois, the 
 sale of free persons is illegal and that there had been a 
 failure of proof that this girl was not a free person; there- 
 fore, there could be no recovery on this note. While there 
 were technical and procedural questions involved, this 
 legal victory for Lincoln was carried out in his political 
 philosophy in later years, especially in his debates with 
 Judge Douglas in the senatorial campaign of 1858. 
 
 Lincoln in volume of cases tried during this period of 
 twenty-three years, probably had as many appearances 
 as any prominent present-day lawyer. He handled, as 
 does every lawyer, many unimportant matters. However, 
 as the records of the Supreme Court of Illinois and the 
 Federal Courts show, he also appeared in many important 
 cases and would probably be considered what members of 
 
THE LAWYER 53 
 
 the Bar call "a lawyer's lawyer." He represented several 
 railroads; he was special counsel for municipalities; he 
 represented insurance companies, bridge companies, sever- 
 al manufacturing companies and partnerships, and also 
 served as special prosecutor for the State in several 
 instances. One of the best known of the cases in which he 
 appeared was that of McCormick vs. Manny. Lincoln 
 was employed to defend a Mr. Manny in an action 
 brought by McCormick, the inventor of the reaping 
 machine, for infringement of his patent. Lincoln had been 
 recommended to Manny by a prominent member of the 
 Bar of Illinois. Only a leader of the Bar, of the first class, 
 would have been selected by a fellow-lawyer for this type 
 of case. The case was argued in Cincinnati, Ohio, in the 
 Circuit Court of the United States, in 1855. McCormick 
 was represented by Mr. Reverdy Johnson, considered by 
 many the outstanding lawyer of his day. Edwin M. 
 Stanton and General Harding of Philadelphia were em- 
 ployed with Mr. Lincoln to represent Manny. Lincoln 
 had looked forward to this experience with much en- 
 thusiasm because of the high rating of the other lawyers, 
 on both sides, and because he was particularly anxious to 
 prove his skill with such masters of the law. Mr. Stanton 
 snubbed Mr. Lincoln, both outside of the court room and 
 in court, and refused to read Lincoln's brief, which the 
 latter had prepared with infinite care and skill. Mr. 
 Lincoln was allowed to sit in the court room, but did not 
 take an active part in the trial. He went back to Spring- 
 
54 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 field very much dejected, both by reason of the discourtesy 
 shown him by Mr. Stanton and also because he had not 
 been given the opportunity to show his legal ability. 
 Lincoln's greatness of character was never more manifest 
 than when he later appointed Edwin M. Stanton as 
 Secretary of War in his Cabinet; further, Lincoln was 
 loyal to Stanton and defended him from many attacks, 
 because he felt that Stanton was the best person for 
 this difficult position. 
 
 One of Lincoln's colleagues in the McCormick-Manny 
 case said : 
 
 "When I first saw him standing at the head of the steps of 
 the Burnet House in Cincinnati, he looked like a tall, rawly 
 boned, ungainly backwoodsman, with coarse, ill-fitting clothing, 
 his trousers hardly reaching his ankles, holding in his hands a 
 blue cotton umbrella with a ball on the end of the handle." 
 
 Stanton described Lincoln as "A long, lank creature 
 from Illinois, wearing a dirty linen duster for a coat, on 
 the back of which the perspiration had splotched wide 
 stains that resembled a map of the continent/ ' 
 
 Lincoln proved his true humility by stating to a friend, 
 later: 
 
 "I am going home to study law. You know that for any 
 rough and tumble case I am good enough for any man we have 
 out in that country, but these college-trained men are coming 
 West. They have all the advantages of a life-long training in the 
 law, plenty of time to study and everything, perhaps, to fit 
 them. Soon they will be in Illinois and I must meet them. I 
 am just going home to study law and when they appear, I will 
 be ready." 
 
THE LAWYER 55 
 
 Lincoln was greatly impressed by the presentation of 
 Stanton and Harding, and never forgot Stanton's evident 
 ability. 
 
 We must bear in mind that when Stanton showed his 
 aversion to Lincoln in the Manny law suit tried in Cin- 
 cinnati his language was characteristic. Stanton was a 
 great lawyer, honest and very blunt, often given to ex- 
 plosive statements. We feel that Stanton greatly colored 
 his remarks, which present a caricature rather than a true 
 picture of the real Lincoln. At any rate, Stanton was 
 judging Lincoln by his outward appearance, which was 
 undoubtedly in great contrast to the well-groomed lawyers 
 who appeared in this celebrated case. 
 
 On February 12, 1896, in the Marquette Club in 
 
 Chicago, William McKinley, himself a capable lawyer, 
 
 (who was elected President of the United States in 1896) 
 
 said: 
 
 "The best training he (Lincoln) had for the presidency, after 
 all, was his twenty-three years of arduous experience as a lawyer 
 traveling the circuits of the courts of his district and state. Here 
 he met in forensic conflict, and frequently defeated, some of the 
 most powerful legal minds of the West. In the higher courts he 
 won still greater distinction in the important cases coming to 
 his charge." 
 
 A half-century ago, on November 13, 1900, Honorable 
 Joseph A. Choate, one of America's great lawyers, in an 
 address on Lincoln at Edinburgh, Scotland, said: 
 
 "I lay great stress on Lincoln's career as a lawyer — much 
 more than his biographers do; . . . and I am sure his training 
 and experience in the courts had much to do with the develop- 
 
56 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 ment of those forces of intellect and character which he soon 
 displayed on a broader arena." 
 
 Lord Shaw, eminent English jurist, said that in his 
 judgment the five greatest lawyers of all time were: 
 Papinianus Grotius 
 
 Duncan-Forbes Mansfield 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 In my judgment, the truest appraisal of Lincoln the 
 Lawyer was made by Justice Breese (a member of the 
 Illinois Supreme Court Bench), on behalf of the Bench, 
 in response to a memorial presented to the Court by a 
 former Chief Justice of the Court, on May 3, 1865. On 
 that date, the Supreme Court of Illinois held memorial 
 services for Mr. Lincoln in the Supreme Court room at 
 Ottawa, Illinois. Said Mr. Justice Breese: 
 
 "It becomes us to speak of him only as a man and as a lawyer 
 - - as a member of an honorable profession from whose ranks 
 have been taken in times of the greatest emergency men whose 
 high destiny it has been not only to guide the car of victory, but 
 to sustain the weight of empire. Not deeply read in his pro- 
 fession, Mr. Lincoln was never found deficient in all the knowl- 
 edge requisite to present the strong points of his case to the best 
 advantage, and by his searching analysis, make clear the most 
 intricate controversy. He was, besides, an honest lawyer prac- 
 ticing none of the chicanery of the profession to which he was 
 devoted, nor any of those mean and little and shuffling and 
 dishonorable arts all do not avoid; nor did he seek an advantage 
 over his adversary to which he was not fairly entitled by the 
 merits of his cause and by the force of his arguments. With an 
 exterior by no means polished, with nothing in the outward man 
 to captivate, there was that within him, glowing in his mind, 
 which enabled him to impress, by the force of his logic, his own 
 
THE LAWYER 57 
 
 clear perceptions upon the minds of those he sought to influence. 
 He was, therefore, a successful lawyer, but bore with humility 
 the distinction he had won. For my single self I have for a 
 quarter of a century regarded Mr. Lincoln as the fairest lawyer 
 I ever knew, and of a professional bearing so high-toned and 
 honorable as justly and without derogating from the claims of 
 others, entitling him to be presented to the profession as a model 
 well worthy of the closest imitation." 
 
 So Abraham Lincoln maintained the most honorable 
 and scrupulous attitude in an honorable profession. His 
 fellow-lawyers knew his worth and weaknesses more than 
 any other group. We feel that Mr. Lincoln's greatness as 
 a statesman, President, and world figure is based primarily 
 upon his painstaking ethical deportment and brilliant 
 mental attainments as a member of the Illinois Bar. In 
 fact, in any law school in America, the reading of the 
 cases in which he appeared and the background of his life, 
 including his legal and judicial conduct, should be the 
 cardinal requirements in the study of legal ethics. 
 
"To thine own set} be true" 
 
 Shakespeare 
 
 
VI 
 
 The Politician 
 
 On the wall of the entrance to the Administration 
 Building of the Lincoln Memorial University, located 
 at Harrogate, Tennessee, only a few miles from the 
 Oak Ridge atom bomb 
 plant, is framed a por- 
 tion of the address de- 
 livered by Abraham 
 Lincoln before the Young 
 Men's Lyceum of Spring- 
 field, Illinois, on Janu- 
 ary 27, 1838, when he 
 was twenty-eight years of 
 age: 
 
 "At what point shall we 
 expect the approach of 
 danger? By what means 
 shall we fortify against it? Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic 
 military giant to step the ocean and crush us at a blow? Never! 
 All the armies of Europe, Asia and Africa combined with all 
 the treasure of the earth in their military chest, with a Bona- 
 parte for a commander, could not by force take a drink from the 
 Ohio or make a track in the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand 
 years. 
 
 "At what point, then, is the approach of danger to be ex- 
 pected? I answer, if it ever reaches us it must spring up amongst 
 us; it cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot we 
 
 59 
 
60 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free 
 men we must live through all time or die by suicide." 
 
 While this address in no way compares with the majestic 
 utterances made by him during his occupancy of the 
 White House, it shows that from his early years Lincoln 
 was master of the spoken word, with universal ideas, 
 applicable in every crisis of our democracy. 
 
 Lincoln was active in public affairs from his early 
 manhood. At the age of twenty-three, he was a candidate 
 for the legislature in Illinois, but was defeated. In his 
 precinct, in New Salem, the vote was 277 for him and 7 
 against him. He was not yet well enough known outside 
 of his own district to carry his county. In the same year 
 he had come back with the New Salem Volunteers from 
 the so-called Black Hawk-Indian War. He was elected 
 Captain of the New Salem Company, which was formed 
 as a part of the Voluntary State Militia. Later, he often 
 told many funny stories at his own expense, growing out 
 of this bloodless campaign. He returned to New Salem 
 just two weeks before the election. In one of his speeches, 
 he said : 
 
 "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-improvements system and a high protective 
 tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If 
 elected I shall be thankful; if not, it will be all the same." 
 
 Four times thereafter, however, he was elected to this 
 office, serving from 1834-1842. Prior to 1834, he had 
 
THE POLITICIAN 61 
 
 served for a short time as deputy surveyor of Sangamon 
 County; he had also acted as postmaster at New Salem, 
 Illinois. It has been repeatedly told that he carried the 
 post office in his high, "stove-pipe' ' hat. This position 
 paid so little that he was also splitting rails and helping 
 at the mill and doing other hard work in addition, to 
 obtain a slender income. Besides, he had worked as a 
 clerk in the village store. 
 
 In 1836, at the age of twenty-seven, as candidate for 
 re-election to the State Legislature, Lincoln anticipated 
 woman's suffrage. Throughout his career he advocated, 
 either directly or indirectly, equal rights of suffrage for 
 women. He said, in this campaign : 
 
 "I go for all sharing the privileges of the government who 
 assist in sharing its burdens. Consequently I go for admitting all 
 whites to the right of suffrage who pay taxes or bear arms (by 
 no means excluding females)." 
 
 In the following year of 1837, when the abolitionist 
 Lovejoy was murdered at Alton, Illinois, Lincoln placed 
 in the record of the State Legislature his protest concern- 
 ing certain resolutions passed by this Body condemning 
 the abolition movement. Lincoln said : 
 
 "The institution of slavery is founded on both injustice and 
 bad policy, but the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends 
 rather to increase than to abate its evils." 
 
 In the same year of 1837 Lincoln was admitted to 
 practice law at the Illinois Bar. 
 
 In 1846, he was elected to the United States Congress. 
 His opponent was a famous traveling evangelist, Peter 
 
62 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 Cartwright, who was a frontier preacher of great elo- 
 quence. An interesting event occurred during this cam- 
 paign. Mr. Cartwright was holding a mass meeting under 
 a tent and was combining preaching and politics, with 
 great fervor. In his most persuasive manner, Mr. Cart- 
 wright was exhorting the people to follow the path of 
 righteousness and good living. In a dramatic way, he 
 asked all of those who expected to go to Heaven to stand 
 up. Most of the audience stood. Then he asked those who 
 expected to go in the opposite direction to stand up. 
 The rest arose, in a spirit of levity, except Mr. Lincoln. 
 He had unobtrusively strolled into the meeting and sat 
 in the rear seat. Mr. Cartwright, expecting to make a 
 point against his rival, said, in a loud voice: "Well, 
 Mr. Lincoln, you are the only one who remains seated. 
 Where do you expect to go?" Mr. Lincoln in his drawling 
 fashion replied: "I expect to go to Congress," and slowly 
 walked out of the meeting. 
 
 While in Congress, Mr. Lincoln's outspoken criticism 
 of the Administration's Mexican policy made him very 
 unpopular, although he was reflecting the position of the 
 Whig Party. He went back to Illinois and resumed the 
 practice of the law, at the end of one term, under the 
 firm belief that he was through with politics forever, and 
 could start accumulating a little money for the future 
 support of his family. He often said that his political 
 activities caused him to lose any opportunity to earn a 
 fair living. However, although between 1848 and 1854, 
 
THE POLITICIAN 63 
 
 Lincoln was nominally inactive, he was still known as one 
 of the leaders of the Whig Party in Illinois. In January, 
 1854, his big chance to attract public attention came to 
 him. Stephen A. Douglas, chairman of the Committee 
 on Territories, had recommended in the Senate, in the 
 Kansas-Nebraska Bill, that the voters of the territories of 
 Kansas and Nebraska should decide for themselves 
 whether they desired slavery or otherwise. The Bill was 
 passed. Douglas was the outstanding leader of "Home 
 Rule" in the territories. His announcement in 1854 made 
 a clear-cut issue and Lincoln was the logical man to 
 oppose him. On October 4, 1854, at the annual State 
 Fair at Springfield, before a tremendous crowd, so effec- 
 tive was a speech delivered by Lincoln that the aboli- 
 tionists attempted to commit him to their cause, without 
 success. He continued his open opposition to the Douglas 
 policies and was active in Illinois in organizing the new 
 Republican Party. 
 
 The Republican party came into existence in Illinois 
 at Bloomington, May 29, 1856. Abraham Lincoln made 
 a speech at this Convention which his partner, Herndon, 
 said was "the grand effort of his life." 
 
 Ten days later the action of the Bloomington Conven- 
 tion was confirmed at Springfield. Lincoln had been 
 named as one of the presidential electors and canvassed 
 the State, making in all about fifty speeches. He seemed 
 to be in demand everywhere and had adopted an issue 
 for the newly-formed Party, with himself as its principal 
 
64 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 champion. In the same year the national Republican 
 Convention was held in Philadelphia and nominated 
 John C. Fremont for President. Lincoln received 110 
 votes for the Vice-Presidency, but he was not nominated. 
 In his characteristic fashion, Lincoln said, when in- 
 formed about this vote: 
 
 "This must be some other fellow by the name of Lincoln who 
 was named. It couldn't be me." 
 
 Then, on March 7, 1857, the country was electrified 
 when the aged Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney, read the 
 opinion of the majority of the United States Supreme 
 Court in the noted Dred Scott Decision. Dred Scott 
 was a negro slave who had been taken into free terri- 
 tory. Justice Taney held that he was not entitled to 
 his freedom by reason of his having been brought into 
 free territory. It was also held in the majority opinion 
 that a negro could not become a citizen, had no legal 
 rights, and therefore could not sue; moreover, that 
 slaves were property and that Congress had no more 
 power over slave property than over chattels of any 
 other description. 
 
 Lincoln openly attacked this decision as erroneous 
 and declared that he would do everything within his 
 power to have it changed. In his future public debates 
 with Douglas and others he followed closely the line of 
 reasoning of dissenting Justice Curtis. 
 
 In 1858 the Republican Party of Illinois nominated 
 Lincoln for the United States Senate. From then on 
 
THE POLITICIAN 65 
 
 his career was built largely upon his debates in this 
 senatorial campaign in which Stephen A. Douglas, the 
 Democratic candidate, was his opponent. Douglas was 
 the exact opposite of Lincoln in his personal appear- 
 ance, his technique as a lawyer, and his strategy as a 
 public official. Stephen A. Douglas was born in 1813 
 and died at the age of forty-eight. He was small in 
 stature, with large head and shoulders, and was always 
 well-groomed. He was called the "Little Giant," giving 
 "the image of power under close compression/ ' He was 
 a polished and skillful orator; he might be termed in 
 present-day parlance a "rabble rouser," as he appealed 
 largely to the emotions of his audiences. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was tall, awkward, and melan- 
 choly. He gave no outward sign of his great genius. 
 To the multitudes, Douglas was the "man of the hour." 
 The lawyers with whom these two men had worked 
 for many years, however, had a saying that "with a 
 good case, Lincoln is the best lawyer in the state, but 
 in a bad case, Douglas is the best lawyer the state can 
 produce." Lincoln was careless about his dress. No 
 greater contrast can be presented in history. Each had 
 an abiding respect, however, for the other. It is said 
 that when Lincoln was inaugurated the first time as 
 President, in 1861, the year of Mr. Douglas' death, 
 Senator Douglas held the hat of Mr. Lincoln, saying 
 that he was proud to have this privilege. 
 
 The Convention which nominated Lincoln for 
 
66 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 United States Senator was held in Springfield on June 
 16, 1858. At this Convention, Lincoln gave one of his 
 immortal addresses, which startled the entire country 
 and which presented the foundation of the political 
 creed of Mr. Lincoln. This was the famous "House 
 Divided' ' speech. If we compare this speech with his 
 early political addresses, we can realize the tremendous 
 development in his intellectual, moral, and persuasive 
 powers : 
 
 " * * * 'A house divided against itself cannot stand/ I believe 
 this government 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 that it will cease to 
 be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other." 
 
 Douglas characterized the "House Divided Against 
 Itself" speech as highly dangerous, "advocating boldly 
 and clearly a war of factions." Douglas further de- 
 nounced Lincoln's "warfare upon the Supreme Court of 
 the United States because of their decision in the Dred 
 Scott Case." Lincoln replied: 
 
 "We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in 
 obedience to and respect for the judicial department of govern- 
 ment. But we think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We 
 know the court that made it has often overruled its own de- 
 cisions, and we shall do what we can to have it overrule this." 
 
 Shortly thereafter, Lincoln challenged Douglas to 
 seven debates. The first debate between the "Little 
 Giant" and the "Giant Killer" occurred at Ottawa, 
 
THE POLITICIAN 67 
 
 Illinois, on August 21, 1858, the last one at Alton, 
 Illinois, on October 15 of the same year. It was ap- 
 parent throughout these memorable debates that Doug- 
 las was appealing to the emotions and Lincoln to the 
 reason of the people. While Douglas emerged as the 
 victor as a result of this campaign, Lincoln received 
 more votes from the people than Douglas. Douglas was 
 declared elected by the Legislature by reason of the 
 system of voting by districts. Lincoln had laid a firm 
 foundation for his future, and felt secure in the knowl- 
 edge that he had driven a wedge between the northern 
 and southern Democrats which would defeat Douglas 
 in any Presidential campaign in the future. The strategy 
 of Lincoln in his political debates was superb. He was 
 willing to accept temporary defeat to gain the greater 
 victory. Douglas was a talented debater and popular 
 politician and statesman. 
 
 In the first of these seven debates, Douglas asked a 
 series of pertinent questions. In the next debate, at 
 Freeport, August 27, 1858, Lincoln answered them 
 clearly. In turn, however, he propounded four ques- 
 tions, the second of which confounded Douglas and 
 which Douglas was never able to answer satisfactorily; 
 this was the real cause of his future downfall and en- 
 tangled him in a paradoxical situation in which he was 
 sure to lose either the northern or the southern Demo- 
 cratic vote, whichever way he answered. The second 
 question propounded by Lincoln was: 
 
68 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 "Can the people of a United States territory, in any lawful 
 way, against the wishes of any citizen of the United States, 
 exclude slavery from its limits prior to the formation of a state 
 constitution?" 
 
 The most influential friends of Lincoln advised him 
 not to ask this question, but Mr. Lincoln foresaw that 
 this was to be a national issue and that it would be sure 
 to split the Democratic Party in 1860. In other words, 
 if Mr. Douglas answered in such a way as to satisfy the 
 Illinois voters, Lincoln foresaw that Douglas would 
 lose the southern votes; if he answered to the contrary, 
 he would not be elected to the Senate. Douglas' reply 
 satisfied the voters of Illinois in the immediate election, 
 but the soundness of Lincoln's position became more 
 evident as the years went on. 
 
 At Freeport, Lincoln said : 
 
 "I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the 
 right and duty of Congress to prohibit slavery in all the United 
 States territories. ,, 
 
 In the third debate at Jonesboro, Illinois, given on 
 September 15, 1858, Lincoln said: 
 
 "I say, in the way our fathers originally left the slavery 
 question, the institution was in the course of ultimate extinction, 
 and the public mind rested in the belief that it was in the course 
 of ultimate extinction. I say, when this government was first 
 established, it was the policy of its founders to prohibit the 
 spread of slavery into the new territories of the United States, 
 where it had not existed. All I have asked or desired anywhere 
 is that it should be placed back again upon the basis that the 
 fathers of our government originally placed it." 
 
THE POLITICIAN 69 
 
 He reiterated the same keynote of his talks in the 
 fourth debate at Charleston, Illinois, September 18, 
 1858, and with added emphasis; in the fifth debate at 
 Galesburg, Illinois, on October 7, 1858; also in the sixth 
 debate held at Quincy, Illinois, October 13, 1858, as 
 well as in the seventh and last debate at Alton, Illinois, 
 on October 15, 1858. 
 
 In other words, Lincoln was standing on well- 
 established constitutional principles. He did not argue 
 directly against the prohibition of slavery in the States 
 where it had existed, although he constantly expressed 
 his revulsion toward the system. He pleaded eloquently 
 and with the logic of a master lawyer against the illegal 
 extension of slavery. His thesis was that if the per- 
 nicious issue of human slavery could be "localized," it 
 would utterly die out, because the system was "per se" 
 morally wrong. 
 
 Lincoln has been charged with being "one of the 
 shrewdest, sharpest and adroitest politicians in the 
 country." Suffice it to say that he often followed in- 
 direct methods to attain his ends, but usually reached 
 the goal toward which he was aiming. 
 
 We believe that one of the best analyses of Lincoln's 
 political career is the following, by Mr. Horace White, 
 one of Lincoln's contemporaries: 
 
 "The popular conception of Mr. Lincoln as one not seeking 
 public honors, but not avoiding public duties, is a post-bellum 
 growth, very wide of the mark. He was entirely human in this 
 regard, but his desire for political preferment was hedged about 
 
70 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 by a sense of obligation to the truth which nothing could shake. 
 This fidelity to truth was ingrained and unchangeable. In all 
 the speeches I ever heard him make — and they were many — 
 he never even insinuated an untruth, nor did he ever fail when 
 stating his opponent's positions to state them fully and fairly." 
 
 As Mr. White, who knew Mr. Lincoln well, said, 
 "fidelity to truth' ' seemed to be the central purpose of 
 his life. No greater accomplishment could be attained 
 by any human being. 
 
 Lincoln throughout his political career was true to 
 himself and therefore was not false to any man. 
 
11 Never dreamed tho right were worsted 
 wrong would triumph" 
 
 Robert Browning 
 
VII 
 
 War President 
 
 On October 19, 1860, Mr. Lincoln wrote the following 
 letter to a little girl, in response to her request that he 
 
 grow a beard : j - — = ==, 
 
 "Miss Grace Bedell: _ — iH^h " =r 
 
 Your very agreeable letter yk\ m^^w^^m^^ == 
 
 of the 15th is received. I re- //^^m^^^^^^^m^W^^^^^Ty^Z 
 gret the necessity of saying §|\ Tl ff|W "' ^^^fe^^^^ J\ f 
 I have no daughter. I have J % jdML^ii J\ 1 I 
 
 three sons — one seventeen, ^^»^^^^^w[^f^_/^ \\() 
 one nine, and one seven %$n *mM \\ \^~^ 
 
 years of age. They, with W$i ^$57 t-tI 
 
 their mother, constitute my m \ fr^sk Bm a kJw 
 whole family. As to the _3\V>-4^^^^Vf ^-^^^^T 
 whiskers, having never worn yj^ — ]^^ J^M 
 any, do you not think peo- " 
 
 pie would call it a piece of silly affectation if I were to begin now? 
 
 "Your very sincere 
 well wisher, 
 
 "A. Lincoln." 
 
 Notwithstanding his query in this quaint letter, he 
 started to grow a beard. We are all familiar with the 
 many photographs of Lincoln, the President, always 
 with a beard. Up to the time he wrote this letter, he 
 
 73 
 
74 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 had no beard. The incident is typical of many strange 
 actions of Lincoln. 
 
 The first choice for President of the Republican 
 National Convention held at Chicago in 1860 was 
 William H. Seward, later Lincoln's Secretary of State. 
 Most Eastern papers had not mentioned Lincoln as a 
 possibility. Other candidates nominated at this Con- 
 vention were all mentioned, including William H. Seward, 
 Edward Bates, Simon Cameron, John McLean, and 
 Salmon P. Chase. 
 
 The spearhead of the support for Lincoln was a group 
 of prominent lawyers from the Eighth Circuit of Illinois, 
 including Judge David Davis, Norman B. Judd, Ward 
 Hill Lamon, William H. Herndon, Joseph Gillespie, 
 and many others. Norman B. Judd, General Counsel 
 of the Rock Island Railroad Company, placed the 
 name of Lincoln before the Convention (after William 
 H. Seward had also been named) in these words: 
 
 "I desire on behalf of the delegates from Illinois to put in 
 nomination as the candidate for the president of the United 
 States Abraham Lincoln of Illinois." 
 
 Mr. Seward led on the first two ballots, but without 
 sufficient votes to nominate him. On the third ballot 
 there was a tremendous stampede in the Convention for 
 Lincoln, largely engineered by Ward Hill Lamon, who 
 was the bodyguard of Mr. Lincoln on his entrance in 
 the dead of night into Washington on his way to the 
 presidency. Lamon had diligently and systematically 
 
WAR PRESIDENT 75 
 
 placed Lincoln "rooters" in strategic places in the 
 Convention Hall. At the psychological moment, Judge 
 Logan, one of the delegates from Springfield, arose and 
 shouted : 
 
 "Mr. President, in order or out of order, I propose that this 
 Convention and audience give three cheers for the man who is 
 evidently their nominee." 
 
 All the time Judge Logan, his former law partner, 
 had a letter from Mr. Lincoln in his pocket authorizing 
 him to withdraw his name whenever his friends decided 
 to do so. 
 
 On the morning of March 4, 1861, Lincoln rode in 
 an open barouche from the hotel in Washington to the 
 Capitol with President Buchanan for the inaugural 
 ceremonies. The oath of office was administered by 
 the aged Chief Justice Taney, who had written the 
 Dred Scott decision. There were fifty armed soldiers 
 concealed beneath the inaugural platform. Every mili- 
 tary precaution for the safety of the new President had 
 been taken along the line of march. There was an air 
 of apprehension manifest everywhere. There was still 
 general fear of assassination of Mr. Lincoln. On his 
 way to Washington from Springfield he was advised of 
 a plot to assassinate him. 
 
 The inaugural address at this time was an impassioned 
 appeal to the people of both the north and the south 
 to avert impending conflict. Lincoln closed this address 
 with these memorable words : 
 
76 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 "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 affection. The mystic chords of 
 memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to 
 every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will 
 yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as 
 surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 
 
 Thus spoke this once poor little desolate boy from 
 the Kentucky wilderness, the flat-boatman, rail-splitter, 
 surveyor, country lawyer and politician, friend of the 
 people. Dennis Hanks had said that Abraham Lincoln 
 would never amount to much — this same Abraham 
 Lincoln had become the sixteenth President of the 
 United States. 
 
 Lincoln had prepared his first inaugural address in 
 Springfield. He had locked himself in his room. His 
 partner, Herndon, was much surprised to learn that the 
 only authorities Lincoln used in the preparation of this 
 immortal address were Henry Clay's speech delivered 
 in 1850, Andrew Jackson's Proclamation Against Nulli- 
 fication, a copy of the United States Constitution, and 
 Webster's Reply to Hayne. Lincoln regarded Webster's 
 Reply as the finest specimen of American oratory. 
 
 Lincoln had a premonition that he would not live 
 through his term as President. He was melancholy and 
 depressed a great deal of the time. Once, when he was 
 acting in a facetious manner in the White House, a 
 visitor seemed to be shocked; whereupon, Mr. Lincoln 
 said that at times he felt he would go mad and that 
 
WAR PRESIDENT 77 
 
 he was obliged to relax by reading humorous stories 
 and telling anecdotes. 
 
 The first and one of the greatest difficulties which 
 confronted Lincoln as President was the selection of his 
 Cabinet. He chose the leading aspirants in the Republi- 
 can Convention at Chicago in 1860, none of whom was 
 a close personal friend. Most of them greatly misunder- 
 stood the President. The following three selections were 
 former Whigs: 
 
 William Henry Seward of New York, Secretary of State, 
 aged 60. 
 
 Caleb Blood Smith of Indiana, Secretary of the Interior, 
 aged 52. 
 
 Edward Bates of Missouri, Attorney General, aged 68, the 
 first choice of Lincoln. 
 
 The following four were Democrats : 
 
 Salmon P. Chase of Ohio, Secretary of the Treasury, in his 
 50th year. 
 
 Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, Secretary of War, who was 
 over 60 (shortly succeeded by Edwin M. Stanton). 
 
 Montgomery Blair of Maryland (born in Kentucky), Post- 
 master General, aged 48 years. 
 
 Gideon Welles of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy, 
 aged 58. 
 
 When Lincoln was reminded of the fact that he had 
 appointed three Republicans and four Democrats, he 
 is quoted as having said that "he also was a member 
 of the Cabinet, which made the political strength at 
 least equal." The average age of Lincoln's Cabinet 
 
78 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 was 55 years; Lincoln himself was 51 years old when 
 he became President. Upon the urgency of Lincoln, 
 Cameron later resigned and was appointed as Minister 
 to Russia. Edwin M. Stanton was appointed his suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 Edwin M. Stanton was selected as Secretary of War 
 at the suggestion of Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the 
 Treasury. At the time, Lincoln said that Stanton did 
 not like him and had offended him once. In offering 
 the position to Stanton, the President said : 
 
 "This is a time of war. * * * The life of the nation is in danger. 
 I need the best counsellors about me. I have every confidence 
 in your judgment. * * * Will you accept the position? * * * " 
 
 Stanton replied : 
 
 "Mr. President, you take me by surprise." 
 
 In a few days, he accepted. 
 
 Chase and Seward were far more extreme in their 
 attitude against the South than was Lincoln. Lincoln 
 wa,s looking forward to the day when there would be 
 peace between brother and brother and other kindred 
 who were divided on the "irreconcilable conflict" be- 
 tween the two sections, North and South. In the actual 
 pursuit of the war, however, Lincoln was uncompro- 
 mising in his determination that any and every method 
 of warfare, which could be used to bring the North a 
 necessary victory to preserve the nation, must be 
 followed. 
 
 In all American history, no man has been more mis- 
 
WAR PRESIDENT 79 
 
 understood or maligned than Abraham Lincoln. His 
 was a complex nature. Very often his conduct of affairs 
 did not coincide with his original intention. This was 
 because, very frequently, Lincoln acted upon his own 
 judgment and without advice. He was, however, ex- 
 tremely loyal to the members of his Cabinet. A story 
 is told that a friend went to Lincoln and said that Stan- 
 ton was criticising him. Mr. Lincoln replied: "Well, 
 Mr. Stanton is usually right." This ended the incident. 
 Mr. Stanton frequently tendered his resignation, but 
 Lincoln would not accept it. As a matter of fact, from 
 the time Stanton took charge of his position as Secretary 
 of War, the army seemed to become cognizant of the 
 fact that here was a head who would unrelentingly 
 build up a compact, fighting, victorious host. His appoint- 
 ment was the salvation of Lincoln's war aims. Too much 
 credit cannot be given him. 
 
 One of the chief conflicts between Lincoln and Stan- 
 ton was the apparent inability of Mr. Lincoln to resist 
 an appeal to pardon soldiers guilty of infraction of 
 military rules, which to Lincoln did not seem impor- 
 tant. A congressman who had heard that a friend of 
 his in the Army had been court-martialled and had 
 been sentenced to be shot, could get nowhere with 
 Stanton. He decided to appeal to the President. Late 
 at night, he persisted in seeing the President and ex- 
 citedly said: "This man must not be shot. I cannot 
 allow him to be shot." "Well," said the President in 
 
80 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 reply, "I do not believe shooting will do him any good. 
 Give me that pen." And so, the pardon, of course, was 
 granted. 
 
 The firing upon Fort Sumter was the overt act which 
 precipitated the bloodiest and most terrible civil war in 
 recent times. 
 
 General George B. McClellan, idol of the people, 
 had been given supreme command of the northern 
 troops. It developed that General McClellan was a 
 magnificent drill master, but not the ' 'driver" and 
 leader of precipitate action, which events required. 
 Lincoln and the North experienced a terrible shock when 
 the result of the Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, 
 was received. The Federal Army was defeated and 
 hurled back to the Potomac. The North was despon- 
 dent, the South jubilant. To make matters worse, there 
 were difficulties with Great Britain and France. Both 
 Great Britain and France were friendly to the Con- 
 federacy due to the cotton trade. 
 
 The fortunes of war during the military campaign 
 of 1861 and the summer of 1862 turned against the 
 North. The Southern armies were in command of 
 General Robert E. Lee, recognized generally as one of 
 America's greatest soldiers. In fact, it is said that 
 Lincoln had offered the command of the Union armies 
 to General Lee, who had refused, feeling that his first 
 duty was to his native State of Virginia. 
 
WAR PRESIDENT 81 
 
 The time had come to effectuate a great moral issue 
 in order to stimulate and invigorate the morale of the 
 North. In April, 1862, Congress purchased and freed 
 all slaves in the District of Columbia and two months 
 later abolished slavery throughout the public domain. 
 On September 22, 1862, after the Battle of Antietam, 
 the President issued a preliminary Proclamation of 
 Emancipation, in which he warned the South that 
 unless the seceded states returned to the Union by 
 January 1, 1863, all slaves would be declared free. Antie- 
 tam was an indecisive, but technical victory for the 
 North and a sufficient excuse for this proclamation. 
 Mr. Lincoln had gone so far as to urge upon his Cabinet 
 compensated emancipation. He suggested that a sum 
 of four hundred million dollars should be paid to the 
 slave owners in such of the States as would cease re- 
 sistance; however, the border states were opposed to the 
 plan, and the Cabinet disapproved, unanimously. 
 
 On January 1, 1863, Lincoln signed the formal Emanci- 
 pation Proclamation, which ranks with Magna Charta 
 and the Declaration of Independence among human 
 liberty documents. 
 
 Prior to the signing of this Proclamation, prominent 
 anti-slavery protagonists, including Horace Greeley, 
 editor of the "New York Tribune," were constantly 
 assailing Lincoln's policy of procrastination, as it was 
 called. Lincoln quaintly remarked about Greeley's 
 bitter attack against him that Greeley reminded him of 
 
82 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 the remark of the husband whose wife had given him a 
 good thrashing — "Let her alone; it don't hurt me, and 
 it does her a power of good." 
 
 The year 1863 saw a gradual turn of tide in favor 
 of the North. McClellan, having failed to take ad- 
 vantage of his opportunities at Antietam, was suc- 
 ceeded by Burnside. Burnside was found wanting and 
 Hooker was appointed chief. Hooker lost the Battle of 
 Chancellorsville. Then came the decisive battle of the 
 war. Meade stopped Lee at Gettysburg after three days 
 of sanguinary battle (July 1, 2 and 3). This ended the 
 possibility of the Confederate invasion of the North. 
 On July 4, 1863, Grant captured Vicksburg. From then 
 on, the war effort was simply a matter of "mopping 
 up." Grant became chief commander with the rank 
 of Lieutenant General of all of the Federal armies in 
 the field. He made his headquarters with the army 
 of the Potomac. Grant was persistent, called by many 
 "the butcher," but used his superior forces relentlessly 
 to cause the downfall of the Confederacy. On April 9, 
 1865, Grant received the surrender of General Lee's 
 Army at Appomattox Court House. Grant exceeded 
 Lincoln's instructions in allowing the Confederate officers 
 to keep their sidearms and horses. However, when 
 the President heard the terms of surrender he was greatly 
 pleased. 
 
 The favorite military leaders of Lincoln during the 
 Civil War were Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan. They 
 
WAR PRESIDENT 83 
 
 believed in offensive, as opposed to defensive, warfare. 
 They were men of action. Lincoln called McClellan, 
 Halleck, Thomas, and Meade ' 'lingerers/ ' They were 
 marvelous in defense, brave and intelligent, but, as 
 Lincoln said, their names figured too much on the "waiting 
 list/' 
 
 On November 19, 1863, Lincoln gave his immortal 
 address at Gettysburg. The crowd was walking away 
 and showed very little interest in the speech. He was 
 only an incidental speaker. Edward Everett, scholar, 
 college president, United States senator, governor, am- 
 bassador to England, man of letters, was the orator of 
 the day. He gave a polished speech, which took about 
 two hours. The next day, however, Mr. Everett wired 
 Lincoln to the effect that he, Lincoln, had said more 
 in two minutes than Everett had been able to say in 
 two hours. 
 
 It was well-known among his friends that Mr. 
 Lincoln did not desire to run for President the second 
 time. However, his work was not yet done. He was 
 again nominated by the Republican Party for President 
 at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1864. He had strong oppo- 
 sition for the nomination from Salmon P. Chase and 
 John C. Fremont. Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was 
 nominated as his running mate for Vice-President. 
 It was generally felt that even if he had escaped his 
 tragic end, Lincoln would not have long survived the 
 Civil War. He was, he said, "tired to death," and 
 
84 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 prayed for the rest he could not obtain in the White 
 House. 
 
 The Democratic National Convention at Chicago 
 nominated George B. McClellan of New York, who 
 had been named by Lincoln as the first chief of the 
 Federal armies. Mr. Lincoln did not make any cam- 
 paign speeches; in fact, there is evidence that he ex- 
 pected defeat. However, he won an overwhelming vic- 
 tory in the election. Lincoln's electoral vote was 212 
 against 21 for McClellan. McClellan carried only three 
 states, New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky. Lincoln 
 carried all the rest, including West Virginia, which 
 had been admitted to the Union on June 19, 1863. The 
 popular vote was much closer, Lincoln having received 
 2,330,552 to 1,835,985 for McClellan. In issuing a public 
 statement after his election for the second term, Lincoln 
 said: 
 
 "I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; 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 per- 
 sonal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of any one opposed 
 to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one, but I 
 give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's 
 resolution to stand by free government and the rights of hu- 
 manity." 
 
 On March 4, 1865, in a drizzling rain, on the inaugural 
 platform in front of the Capitol, Lincoln for the second 
 time placed his right hand on the open Bible, and was 
 sworn in by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, whom he 
 
WAR PRESIDENT 85 
 
 had appointed to this high office. The President, accord- 
 ing to custom, bent his head over the Book and kissed 
 the open page. 
 
 On Good Friday, April 14, 1865, General Grant arrived 
 in Washington. He attended a Cabinet meeting in 
 which reconstruction was discussed. From then on, 
 tragedy stalked swiftly across the pathway of Lincoln. 
 On the evening of that day, the President attended 
 a performance of "Our American Cousin" at Ford's 
 Theater. John Wilkes Booth, an actor, son of Junius 
 Brutus Booth and brother of Edwin Booth, forced 
 his way into the box of the President and shot him 
 in the back of the head. In leaping to the stage from 
 the President's box, Booth's spur caught in the folds 
 of the American flag. In the fall, Booth broke his leg, 
 but in his crippled condition, dragging his leg, he drew 
 a dagger and shouted to the audience "Sic semper ty- 
 rannis" (thus ever to tyrants), the motto of Virginia. 
 Mr. Lincoln never regained consciousness. He died the 
 next morning, April 15, 1865, surrounded by his family 
 and officials. On the same evening, a fellow conspirator 
 wounded William Henry Seward, Secretary of State, 
 who fortunately recovered. 
 
 Strange to say, upon the death of Lincoln, all hostility 
 toward him seemed to be buried with his body. The 
 special formal train from Washington to Springfield, 
 Illinois, was almost mobbed by continuous lines of dis- 
 consolate people. 
 
86 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 Lincoln was one of the earth's great champions of 
 human rights and a statesman of the first order. Phillips 
 Brooks said of him: 
 
 "There are men as good as he, but they do bad things. There 
 are men as intelligent as he, but they do foolish things. In him 
 goodness and intelligence combined and made their best result 
 of wisdom." 
 
"Now he belongs to the ages." 
 Edwin M. Stanton 
 
VIII 
 
 The Long Shadow 
 
 ^^S l ^/Sy/7<7! 
 
 The life of Abraham Lincoln was a tragedy. It 
 would be necessary to search the terrible tragedies of 
 the Greek writers, Aeschylus, Sophocles or Euripides, 
 or the Shakespearean 
 tragedies, in order to get . 
 a counterpart. From the 
 standpoint of the prac- 
 tical mind, it seemed 
 that he accomplished 
 his purposes in the most 
 tedious and roundabout 
 methods possible. He 
 was misunderstood by 
 his closest associates; he 
 seldom confided in his 
 friends. His association 
 with the gentler sex was filled with caution, forebodings 
 and vacillation. No American was ever more bitterly 
 attacked than was Lincoln. The subtle characteristics 
 of his nature did not blend with conventional thinking. 
 A good illustration of his method in solving perplexing 
 problems is shown by an occurrence when he was Presi- 
 dent. It is said that a delegation of church people waited 
 
 89 
 
90 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 upon him and called to his attention that he was not a 
 regular church member. He replied : 
 
 "When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole 
 qualification for membership, the Saviour's condensed statement 
 of both Law and Gospel, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind, 
 and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will I join with all my 
 heart and soul." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was a God-fearing man and be- 
 lieved in the church as an institution. But he did not, 
 in any phase of his life, allow himself to get engulfed 
 in the intricacies of church administration, nor was he 
 impressed greatly by symbolic display. 
 
 In the case of General Grant, when a complaint was 
 made about his excessive use of intoxicating liquor, 
 Lincoln (in his quizzical way) told the informers that if 
 they would find out the brand of liquor Grant used he 
 would like to put a barrel of it in the headquarters of 
 each of his commanding officers. Lincoln's retort to the 
 committee was typical. The personal habits of General 
 Grant were secondary to the results he was obtaining 
 for the Union. Lincoln always put "first things first." 
 
 Lincoln proclaimed the first annual nation-wide 
 Thanksgiving Day. His proclamation was issued on 
 October 3, 1863, fixing the day and month at Thurs- 
 day, November 26th. This was the same day as had 
 been selected by Washington in 1789. This was the first 
 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation which had been issued 
 for forty-eight years. Thanksgiving Day has been cele- 
 
THE LONG SHADOW 91 
 
 brated as a national holiday ever since. There had been 
 spasmodic local celebrations since the time of Washington, 
 but Lincoln made it lasting. 
 
 What manner of man was Lincoln? His partner, 
 Herndon, wrote a letter after he had been closely asso- 
 ciated with Mr. Lincoln for more than eighteen years, 
 in which he says: 
 
 "I know him better than he does himself. I know this seems 
 a little strong, but I risk the assertion. Lincoln is a man of 
 heart — aye, as gentle as a woman's and as tender — but he has 
 a will strong as iron. He therefore loves all mankind, hates 
 slavery and every form of despotism. Put these together — love 
 for the slave, and a determination, a will, that justice, strong 
 and unyielding, shall be done when he has the right to act, and 
 you can form your own conclusions." 
 
 John Drinkwater, famous English playwright, says 
 of Lincoln: 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln stands out not only as the greatest Amer- 
 ican, but as the greatest man in modern history, in that he did 
 the work that he saw as his to a greater degree of perfection 
 than any man in late centuries has been able to do. Lincoln 
 brought great dignity to a great public office more than any man 
 of modern times, and, at the same time, kept in personal contact 
 with those about him." 
 
 Woodrow Wilson, 27th President of the United States, 
 in a public address, said : 
 
 "Lincoln, nevertheless, rather than Jackson, was the supreme 
 American of our history. Lincoln was always a-making; he 
 would have died unfinished if the terrible storms of the war had 
 not stung him to learn in those four years what no other twenty 
 could have taught him and, as he stands there, in his complete 
 manhood, at the most perilous helm in Christendom, what a 
 
92 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 marvelous, composite figure he is! The whole country is summed 
 up in him. ,, 
 
 Frederick Trevor Hill, one of the leading authorities 
 on the life of Lincoln says : 
 
 "The history of the United States prior to 1860 is replete 
 with the names of men whose brilliant achievements added luster 
 to the records of their country. 
 
 "But throughout the miasma of civil war and bitter sectional 
 feeling, Lincoln, though the representative of a partisan group, 
 was the only statesman who, from first to last, thought na- 
 tionally. * * * 
 
 "He preeminently, if not alone, had the breadth of mind to 
 recognize that the North as well as the South was responsible 
 for the existence of slavery. * * * 
 
 "He dedicated himself, heart and mind, to the extinction of 
 human slavery. But he unwaveringly subordinated that object 
 to the preservation of the Union." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln in appearance gave the impression of 
 maturity at an early age. People began to refer to him, 
 affectionately, as "Old Abe," when he was only about 
 thirty years of age. At his untimely death, at the age of 
 fifty-six years, he seemed much older. 
 
 According to Carl Sandburg, "Lincoln read the 
 Bible closely, knew it from cover to cover, was familiar 
 with its stories and its poetry, quoted from it in his 
 talks to juries, in political campaigns, in his speeches, 
 and in his letters. There were evangelical Christian 
 church members who felt he was a solemn, earnest, 
 religious man." On the other hand, there were others 
 who felt that Lincoln was irreligious. However, his 
 
THE LONG SHADOW 93 
 
 expressed thoughts, his attitude toward life and his 
 official addresses all breathed the true essence of 
 religion. 
 
 Probably the best characterization of Lincoln is given 
 by Mr. Sandburg, as follows: 
 
 "In going to New Salem nearly thirty years back he had been, 
 in his own words, 'a piece of driftwood floating down the 
 Sangamon'. He was, in mood, a drifter, letting the wind and 
 weather of history have their way with him, and taking no 
 credit to himself for the inevitable. He told Herndon he had 
 seen great men up close who were not so great as they seemed 
 far off. 
 
 "The left corner of Lincoln's mouth had the lines of a laugh- 
 ing man. Beyond a struggle in which he was loser he could see 
 another struggle, and write in a letter, 'There will be another 
 blow-up and we shall have fun again'. But the right corner of 
 his mouth had a droop; he could say, 'I laugh because if I didn't 
 I would weep'." 
 
 The majesty and universal appeal of Lincoln's 
 thinking are demonstrated in his public utterances: in 
 the ''House Divided Against Itself" speech, accepting 
 the nomination as United States Senator delivered on 
 June 16, 1858, at Springfield, he focused the attention 
 of his countrymen upon slavery as the foremost issue 
 of the day; the First Inaugural address given on March 4, 
 1861, in which he pleaded for patience and forbear- 
 ance on both sides; his Emancipation Proclamation, 
 given to the world on January 1, 1863; his Second In- 
 augural address, one of the most poignant pleas to the 
 better nature of mankind in all literature, "with malice 
 toward none, with charity for all," etc., delivered on 
 
94 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 March 4, 1865. Included in this list of public addresses 
 should be his speech given to the Young Men's Lyceum 
 of Springfield, Illinois, at the age of twenty-eight, on 
 January 27, 1838, and his Cooper Union speech de- 
 livered in New York City on February 27, 1860, at 
 the age of fifty-one years. The reading of these last 
 two named speeches will show the remarkable intellectual 
 growth of Lincoln over a period of almost a quarter 
 of a century. The man had emerged into a world figure 
 in that time. 
 
 Also a beautiful example of his style is a speech de- 
 livered by him before the Wisconsin State Agricultural 
 Society, September 30, 1859: 
 
 "It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to 
 invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be 
 true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented 
 him the words, 'And this, too, shall pass away'. How much it 
 expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! How consoling 
 in the depths of affliction ! 'And this, too, shall pass away'. And 
 yet, let us hope, it is not quite true. Let us hope, rather, that by 
 the best cultivation of the physical world beneath and around us, 
 and the intellectual and moral world within us, we shall secure 
 an individual, social, and political prosperity and happiness, 
 whose course shall be onward and upward, and which, while the 
 earth endures, shall not pass away." 
 
 Perhaps the purest rhetorical gem which has been 
 given to posterity is found in the immortal words uttered 
 on November 19, 1863, in the dedication of the Gettys- 
 burg cemetery. The Gettysburg address divides itself 
 into seven separate parts (seven — the number of per- 
 fection), each a perfect facet. It is a message of spiritual 
 
THE LONG SHADOW 95 
 
 consolation and burning patriotism, which will be sung 
 and praised forever, wherever men dream of lofty ideals 
 and valorous deeds. We divide this address into its 
 component parts: 
 
 1. THE BIRTH OF A NATION 
 
 "Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth 
 on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and 
 dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. 
 
 2. THE TESTING OF ITS BIRTHRIGHT 
 
 "Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether 
 that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can 
 long endure. 
 
 3. THE DEDICATION 
 
 "We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come 
 to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for 
 those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It 
 is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. 
 
 4. APPRECIATION 
 
 "But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not 
 consecrate — we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, 
 living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it, far 
 above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little 
 note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never 
 forget what they did here. 
 
 5. RENEWAL OF PURPOSE 
 
 "It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the 
 unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so 
 nobly advanced. 
 
 6. CONSECRATION 
 
 "It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
 remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take 
 
96 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last 
 full measure of devotion — 
 
 7. THE SACRED PLEDGE 
 
 "That we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have 
 died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new 
 birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the 
 people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." 
 
 James Speed, (brother of Joshua Speed, who had 
 befriended Lincoln as a poor and struggling young man), 
 had been appointed Attorney General in the Cabinet 
 of Abraham Lincoln. In 1864, James Speed paid the 
 following tribute to Lincoln in an address before the 
 Society of the Loyal Legion of Cincinnati. This was the 
 last public occasion which James Speed attended, just a 
 month before his death. He said: 
 
 "I believe that in all the annals of our race Abraham Lincoln 
 is the finest example of an unknown man rising from obscurity 
 and ascending to the loftiest heights of human grandeur." 
 
 And so this strange figure, this illustrious statesman 
 and emancipator, belongs to the ages. As long as free 
 men live, the name of Abraham Lincoln will be a symbol 
 of democracy. He has cast his long shadow across the 
 pages of history as no other statesman has succeeded in 
 doing in the past. 
 
"I intend no modification of my oft-expressed 
 wish that all men everywhere could be free." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 (Letter to Horace Greeley, Oct. 22, 1862) 
 
IX 
 
 Great Emancipator 
 
 Abraham Lincoln ranks in world history with Moses 
 as the emancipator of a people. Lincoln had the same 
 sublime faith in an ever-guiding Providence which 
 governed the whole 
 career of Moses — law- 
 giver and emancipator. 
 To understand the ful- 
 fillment of Lincoln's life- 
 time desire to strike 
 down the slave traffic 
 and destroy it, we must | 
 recall, briefly, some of | 
 the steps in his career. 
 
 Lincoln had made 
 two trips by flatboat ^fffff 
 to New Orleans from 
 
 Indiana and Illinois before he was twenty-two years 
 of age. He had seen human beings sold on the auction 
 block. He had seen them maltreated, bought with 
 money, owned and delivered like any other chattel. 
 He had protested whenever possible against this evil. 
 When he first saw human beings auctioned as mer- 
 chandise, he determined, if the time should come, to 
 
 99 
 
100 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 strike this evil and strike it hard. We can detect here 
 that Lincoln as a young man understood that events 
 often forge the course of men; that no matter how high 
 his vaulting ambition might drive him toward fame 
 and usefulness, unless he had the opportunity, it would 
 avail him nothing. He had the patience of a true philoso- 
 pher and a universal, as opposed to a localized, mind. 
 We detect, too, a religious trend, an awe of Almighty God, 
 in both his oral and written expressions, throughout his 
 career. 
 
 When Lincoln was in the legislature of Illinois he 
 spoke against slavery; when he was in the United States 
 Congress, he again lifted his voice against slavery. After 
 he was elected to the high office of President, when he 
 was being pressed on every side for extreme positions and 
 actions, the following portion of a letter written by him 
 in September, 1862, demonstrates his philosophy and 
 religious trend of mind : 
 
 "We are indeed going through a great trial — a fiery trial. 
 In the very responsible position in which I happen to be placed, 
 being a humble instrument in the hands of our Heavenly Father, 
 as I am, and as we all are, to work out His great purposes, I 
 have desired that all my works and acts may be according to 
 His will, and that it might be so, I have sought His aid; but 
 if, after endeavoring to do the best in the light which He affords 
 me, I find my efforts fail, I must believe that, for some purpose 
 unknown to me, He wills it otherwise. 
 
 "If I had had my way, this war would never have been com- 
 menced. If I had been allowed my way, this war would have 
 been ended before this; but we find it still continues, and we 
 must believe that He permits it for some wise purpose of His 
 
GREAT EMANCIPATOR 101 
 
 own, mysterious and unknown to us; and though with our 
 limited understanding we may not be able to comprehend it, 
 yet we cannot but believe that He who made the world still 
 governs it." 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was misunderstood by both sides. After 
 his great unrecorded speech at Bloomington on May 
 29, 1856, the abolitionists were sure that he would join 
 them. On the other hand, many Northerners felt that 
 he was lukewarm on the subject of slavery and that it 
 was more or less a political ' 'front' ' for him. Further, 
 others thought that he was a Southern sympathizer. 
 Lincoln was revered after his death, but there are many 
 evidences that he was despised by men in high places 
 up to the time of his death. However, "the common 
 people heard him gladly." 
 
 In his "House Divided" speech, delivered by Lincoln 
 at the Convention which nominated him for United 
 States Senator he quoted directly from the Bible, "A 
 house divided against itself cannot stand." 
 
 The Missouri Compromise of 1820 was repealed in 
 1854 by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. By this repeal, it 
 was intended to extend slavery into the territories and 
 (as Lincoln and other objectors feared) generally, 
 throughout the nation, into the states. Then came the 
 Dred Scott decision in 1857 confirming this position. 
 The seven debates between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
 Douglas (between August 21, 1858 and October 15, 
 1858) revolved around this issue and the attempt on 
 Douglas' part to advance the theory of "Squatters' 
 
102 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 Rights or Popular Sovereignty." Mr. Douglas argued, 
 and successfully, in his race for the United States 
 Senate, that the territories had the right by vote to 
 determine whether or not they would adopt slavery as 
 a part of their basic laws. Mr. Lincoln adroitly and 
 patiently put those who were appealing for the ex- 
 tension of slavery on the defensive. He exhausted every 
 possible means, even advocating payment of a mone- 
 tary consideration to the slaveholders to avert bloody 
 and costly civil war. A leader of less brilliant strategic 
 ability undoubtedly would have succumbed to an 
 extreme position on one side of the question or the 
 other. Mr. Lincoln stood like a rock for the preserva- 
 tion of the Union and made this the primary issue of 
 the day, both by his stirring debates with the "Little 
 Giant" and his conduct as Chief Magistrate of the 
 nation. 
 
 History has proved the justification for the magnifi- 
 cent opposition of Lincoln against the extension of 
 slavery. 
 
 At eight o'clock on Monday morning of February 11, 
 1861, Mr. Lincoln addressed his friends and neighbors 
 on the rear of his train, which was carrying him from 
 Springfield on his way to the Capitol to assume the 
 Presidency. This was the last time he was heard in 
 Springfield. At that time, he said : 
 
 "My friends: No one not in my position can appreciate the 
 sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. 
 
GREAT EMANCIPATOR 103 
 
 Here I have lived more than a quarter of a century; here my 
 children were born, and here one of them lies buried. I know 
 not how soon I shall see you again. A duty devolves upon me 
 which is perhaps greater than that which has devolved upon any 
 other man since the days of Washington. * * * " 
 
 While Lincoln was in Congress, John C. Calhoun had 
 stated the very essence of his doctrine and the position 
 of his constituents when he gave to the world the slogan, 
 "Emancipation can only be effected by the prostration 
 of the white race." 
 
 In the Lincoln-Douglas Debate in 1858 at Alton, 
 Lincoln said : 
 
 "It is the eternal struggle between these two principles — 
 right and wrong — throughout the world. They are the two 
 principles that have stood face to face from the beginning of 
 time; and will ever continue to struggle. The one is the common 
 right of humanity, and the other the divine right of kings. It is 
 the same principle in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the 
 same spirit that says, 'you toil and work and earn bread, and 
 I'll eat it'. No matter in what shape it comes, whether from the 
 mouth of a king who seeks to bestride the people of his own 
 nation and live by the fruit of their labor, or from one race of 
 men as an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same 
 tyrannical principle. * * * " 
 
 In 1860 Lincoln said : 
 
 "There is but one political question before the people of this 
 country, which is this: Is slavery right — or is it wrong? * * * 
 Gentlemen, it has been said of the world's history hitherto that 
 'might makes right'; it is for us and for our times to reverse the 
 maxim and to show that 'right makes might'." 
 
 Lincoln was waiting for the time when his Proclama- 
 tion would be justified by events and when the morality 
 
104 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 of his position would reach its full strength. He was 
 
 particularly grieved by the constant importunities of 
 
 certain persons who urged him to submit to the "will 
 
 of God/' During this controversy he said: 
 
 "The will of God prevails. In great contests each party claims 
 to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be and one 
 must be wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing 
 at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible 
 that God's purpose is something quite different from the purpose 
 of either party; and yet the human instrumentalities, working 
 just as they do, are the best adaptation to effect His purpose." 
 
 The Union Armies during the troubled years of 
 1861 and 1862 were not getting decisive victories. In 
 fact, General Lee, brilliant military leader of the South, 
 at Manassas, at the second battle of Bull Run, and at 
 Antietam, proved his superior generalship. The Battle 
 of Antietam, however, gave Lincoln an excuse to issue 
 his Proclamation. This battle, with terrible losses on 
 both sides, lasted three days; it was fought in Septem- 
 ber of 1862. McClellan, Chief Commander of the Union 
 forces, had failed to destroy Lee's Army, and Lee had 
 retreated across the Potomac safely, leaving the blood- 
 drenched battlefield of Antietam behind him; there- 
 upon, McClellan smugly announced that this indecisive 
 victory was "a masterpiece of art." Lincoln was terribly 
 disappointed and visited the battleground of Antietam. 
 Two days later, McClellan received the following orders: 
 
 "The President directs that you cross the Potomac and give 
 battle to the enemy, or drive him south. Your army must move 
 now, while the roads are good." 
 
GREAT EMANCIPATOR 105 
 
 However, McClellan procrastinated. These dilatory 
 tactics of McClellan probably prolonged the Civil War 
 for some time. However, on January 1, 1863, the fatal 
 hour arrived. The immortal Emancipation Proclamation, 
 which freed four million slaves and revitalized the ques- 
 tion of freedom all over the world, was issued. The 
 Proclamation is simple and direct: 
 
 "That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
 one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as 
 slaves within any State, or designated part of a State, the people 
 whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall 
 be then, thenceforward, and forever free." 
 
 Immediately after issuing this proclamation, Lincoln 
 
 said: 
 
 "I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, 
 than I do in signing this paper. But I have been receiving 
 callers and shaking hands since nine o'clock this morning, till 
 my arm is stiff and numb. Now this signature is the one that 
 will be closely examined, and if they find my hand trembled they 
 will say, 'he had some compunctions.' But anyway it is going to 
 be done." 
 
 Lincoln had waited long and patiently. He had been 
 beset on all sides by conflicting forces. He realized that 
 this was an act for the ages. He had a two-fold purpose 
 in "timing" this action: the military effect, as well as 
 the reaction upon the working men of England and 
 France, who were having a struggle toward economic 
 betterment. In Europe the Proclamation was received 
 by the poor and distressed with great enthusiasm and 
 hope. In fact, with the exception of the affectionate 
 
106 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 designation given him as "Honest Abe/' which he always 
 cherished, the title of "Great Emancipator" hovers 
 about his great personality the closest. If Lincoln 
 had done nothing else, he would be remembered as one 
 of the world's immortals. He was fulfilling an early 
 dream. At the very beginning of his career he had said 
 that he "would speak for freedom against slavery until 
 everywhere in all this broad land the sun shall shine, 
 the rain shall fall and the wind shall blow upon no man 
 who goes forth to unrequited toil." 
 
 The Battle of Gettysburg July 1, 2, and 3, 1863, vindi- 
 cated Lincoln's military attitude. Lincoln, who prob- 
 ably hated war as no other man has hated it, once the 
 conflict began, strove with all his mighty power toward 
 a quick, aggressive and final determination of the con- 
 flict. He had to remove many leaders, including McClel- 
 lan, because of lack of aggressiveness. He clung to 
 Grant (who had never been considered in the same 
 class by military authorities as some of the leaders who 
 had preceded him), because, as Lincoln put it, "Grant 
 won victories." While all due credit and glory must be 
 given Grant, he was but the instrument serving the 
 purpose of a greater heart and mind. 
 
 In matters of principle and fundamental truths, 
 Lincoln was inflexible and implacable. No amount of 
 abuse or personal aspersion could turn him from his 
 pathway, once he decided he was going in the right 
 
GREAT EMANCIPATOR 107 
 
 direction. He listened to advice carefully, but as a 
 general rule followed his own judgments. 
 
 Shortly after the victory at Gettysburg, Lincoln issued 
 a devout Thanksgiving Proclamation on July 15, 1863. 
 It reads : 
 
 "It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplications 
 and prayers of an afflicted people, and to vouchsafe to the army 
 and the navy of the United States victories on the land and on 
 the sea so signal and so effective as to furnish reasonable ground 
 for augmented confidence that the Union of these States will be 
 maintained, their Constitution preserved, and their peace and 
 prosperity permanently restored. 
 
 "It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of 
 the Almighty Father, and the power of His Hand, equally in 
 these triumphs and these sorrows." 
 
 Sometimes one ponders what course our Republic 
 would have taken had Lincoln not represented us in 
 this critical hour. No one who studies the fretful life 
 of Lincoln can deny his nobility of purpose and his 
 sincerity of action. Lincoln, as no other statesman has 
 been able to do, lifted the ordinary small events of life 
 to a position of dignity. He was a religious man, a be- 
 liever in the final success of the right, within the provi- 
 dence of Almighty God. He revived the embers of 
 patriotism and stirred anew the serious desire of Wash- 
 ington and his colleagues to make all men free before 
 the law; to recognize the legal rights of the individual, 
 regardless of race, color or creed; to stamp out injustice 
 and to protect the weak against the agression and wrong- 
 doing of those in positions of power. 
 
108 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 People from all over the world have visited the magnifi- 
 cent temple erected by the American people, in Washing- 
 ton, D. C, as a memorial to the "Great Emancipator." 
 There, in the interior, is an impressive statue of Lincoln, 
 in repose. Almost automatically, one approaches this 
 appealing figure silently and in a prayerful mood. 
 
 Above the head of Lincoln, seated, is carved the feelings 
 of a grateful people: 
 
 "In this temple 
 As in the hearts of the people 
 For whom he saved the Union 
 The memory of Abraham Lincoln 
 Is enshrined forever." 
 
 In these times, our generation can look unafraid at 
 the figure of Lincoln and his great predecessors, and 
 with renewed courage and strength, fight with personal 
 sacrifice for the cause of justice and freedom for all 
 peoples everywhere, in every state or condition what- 
 soever. 
 
 
"That nation has not lived in vain 
 which has given the world Washington 
 and Lincoln, the best great men and 
 the greatest good men whom history 
 can show." 
 
 Henry Cabot Lodge 
 
 Lincoln address before the Mass. 
 Legislature on February 12, 1909. 
 
X 
 
 George Washington and 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, 
 at Bridges Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia; 
 he died at Mt. Vernon, Virginia, on December 14, 1799, 
 in his sixty-eighth year. 
 
 Washington said : 
 
 "I hope I shall always 
 possess firmness and virtue 
 enough to maintain what I 
 consider the most enviable 
 of all titles — the character 
 of an 'Honest Man'." 
 
 Abraham Lincoln was 
 born February 12, 1809, 
 in Hardin County, Ken- 
 tucky. He died April 
 15, 1865. Abraham Lin- 
 coln treasured the affec- 
 tionate title, "Honest Abe," which he earned through 
 a life-time of rigid, scrupulous conduct. 
 
 Washington was six feet, one inch tall, dignified, 
 handsome; he had a background of wealth and in- 
 fluence; he took pride in his dress and general appear- 
 in 
 
112 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 ance, and, with his wife, Martha Custis Washington, was 
 the center of social activities during his entire married life. 
 
 Lincoln was six feet, four inches tall, with narrow 
 chest and a comparatively small head, with arms and 
 feet out of proportion to his general build; he was 
 awkward and lonely, and could never accustom himself 
 to social activities. He was born in obscurity and 
 poverty. Mary Todd Lincoln, his wife, had a back- 
 ground of aristocracy and wealth, and had social as- 
 pirations which were never completely satisfied by her 
 husband. 
 
 Washington was somewhat hard to approach, but 
 was genial in his friendships, which he cultivated and 
 treasured. 
 
 Lincoln had few close friends, although he was kindly 
 and humane. Moreover, Lincoln appreciated the support 
 he was given by his circle of acquaintances. 
 
 Washington lived, in the main, among the so-called 
 wealthy class of people, and was a wealthy man 
 himself. 
 
 Lincoln kept in close contact, throughout his life- 
 time, with the poor and the masses of people without 
 influence. 
 
 Washington was a severe disciplinarian and a care- 
 ful supervisor of his affairs, both personal and public, 
 and always kept an accurate diary of his activities. 
 
 Lincoln was lax in his methods, and indifferent to his 
 personal affairs. 
 
WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN 113 
 
 Lincoln, like Washington, had dignity and an ob- 
 jectivity toward people and affairs in general, which 
 stamped upon him the mark of great leadership. 
 
 Mr. Washington enjoyed the luxuries of life. Through 
 the death of the daughter of his half-brother, Lawrence, 
 he became the owner of the estate of Mt. Vernon, one 
 of the show places on the Potomac. At an early age, 
 he had become one of the most distinguished and in- 
 fluential men in the colonies, and the possessor of con- 
 siderable wealth. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln was always comparatively poor and 
 seemed utterly indifferent toward any but the simplest 
 method of living. Lincoln, however, fully appreciated 
 the value and power of money. 
 
 Washington never developed a pronounced sense 
 of humor, whereas Lincoln was noted for his droll state- 
 ments and broad sense of humor. Once, when Lincoln 
 was President, a message bearer came into the room 
 with the information that the enemy had captured a 
 group of Union generals and some mules; Lincoln replied: 
 "What a pity to lose all those mules. ,, 
 
 After the death of Washington, the finest tribute was 
 paid him by one of his generals in the following im- 
 perishable words, which are now found in all school 
 books throughout the land : 
 
 "First in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his 
 countrymen/ ' 
 
114 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 Likewise, mankind everywhere reveres the memory 
 of Lincoln — "Great Emancipator." 
 
 It is correct to state that Washington was the strongest 
 individual force in creating the Union and that Lincoln 
 was the leading influence in preserving it. 
 
 Washington looms as the greatest figure in the 
 eighteenth century, as does Lincoln in the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 Washington was an active vestryman in the Episco- 
 palian Church and later became Master of the Masonic 
 Lodge in Alexandria, Virginia. 
 
 Lincoln never belonged to a church or a lodge. 
 
 "The shot heard round the world" at Lexington, 
 in 1775, precipitated the Revolutionary War against 
 Great Britain. When the date for the meeting of the 
 Second Continental Congress was reached, all New 
 England was in arms and Congress was asked to adopt 
 the army gathered around Boston, to assume the con- 
 duct of the war. Congress unexpectedly became a 
 governing body and began to do those things which 
 each colony could not do by itself. After a month's 
 delay, the Second Continental Congress accepted the 
 band of patriots gathered about Boston and made it 
 the Continental Army. George Washington, then a 
 delegate to Congress, was made the Commander in 
 
WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN 115 
 
 Chief of the army. Washington assumed his duties on 
 June 16, 1775, and set out for Boston on June 21. 
 
 Meanwhile, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Roger 
 Sherman and Robert R. Livingston were appointed a 
 committee to write the Declaration of Independence. 
 The Declaration of Independence was the handiwork 
 of Jefferson, with the exception of several phrases credited 
 to John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. On July 4, 1776, 
 the Declaration of Independence was adopted by Congress 
 and copies sent to the states. The old bell in Independence 
 Hall rang out the news to an expectant people. Strange 
 to say, the bell, which had been cast twenty-four years 
 before this historic date, had these prophetic words 
 engraved upon its side : 
 
 "Proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the 
 inhabitants thereof/' 
 
 Every peal of this bell proclaimed to the world that 
 "all men are created equal" — "that they are endowed 
 by their Creator with certain unalienable rights" — 
 and "that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit 
 of happiness." 
 
 The surrender of the British under Cornwallis, at 
 Yorktown, on October 19, 1781, practically ended the war. 
 However, fighting continued on an unimportant scale. 
 A provisional peace treaty was signed before the close 
 of 1782. On April 19, 1783, exactly eight years after the 
 Battle of Lexington, Washington declared the war at 
 
116 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 an end. The final peace treaty was signed in Paris on 
 September 3, 1783. 
 
 The American Peace Commissioners were Benjamin 
 Franklin, John Jay and John Adams. 
 
 It was the desire of Washington, after the peace treaty 
 had been signed, to retire from public life. However, 
 his work was not yet finished. The world knows of 
 his inestimable achievement as the first President of 
 the United States. Twice he was elected as the chief 
 executive, with virtually no opposition. His two ad- 
 ministrations of four years each (1789-1797) demon- 
 strated his capable statesmanship. He had the confidence 
 of all the nations of the world and the backing, almost 
 unanimously, of his own people. It is interesting that 
 in his cabinet were included such eminent names as 
 Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Henry Knox 
 and Edmund Randolph. 
 
 Not underrating the great military genius of George 
 Washington nor his splendid administrative achieve- 
 ments, we believe that the principal contribution of 
 this noble character was as presiding officer at the 
 Constitutional Convention, which convened in Phila- 
 delphia on May 25, 1787. At the age of fifty-five, Wash- 
 ington presided with infinite patience and tact. The 
 United States Constitution was adopted September 
 17, 1787, by the representatives of twelve of the thirteen 
 original colonies. The first ten amendments to the 
 
WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN 117 
 
 Constitution, known as the Bill of Rights, were adopted 
 in 1791. 
 
 Lord Bryce has said, concerning this great document: 
 
 "The Constitution of the United States, including the amend- 
 ments, may be read aloud in twenty-three minutes. It is about 
 half as long as Saint Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians, and 
 about one fourth as long as the Irish Land Act of 1881. History 
 knows few instruments which in so few words lay down equally 
 momentous rules on a vast range of matters of the highest im- 
 portance and complexity. 
 
 "Even including the nineteen amendments, after one hun- 
 dred and four years of development, the Constitution does not 
 exceed seven thousand words." 
 
 William Gladstone, one of the greatest English states- 
 men of all time, in a quotation which has become familiar 
 to most Americans, stated : 
 
 "The American Constitution is the most wonderful work ever 
 struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose of man." 
 
 When the Constitution was adopted, the country 
 was largely agricultural, mostly undeveloped, and 
 large portions of it undiscovered and unknown. The 
 United States Constitution survives in the present day 
 stress of mechanical development and mass production. 
 From a population of three million we have emerged 
 into a nation of approximately one hundred and fifty 
 million, and yet the instrument is still workable and 
 is our notable contribution to freedom's cause. Its 
 central idea is a combination of individual liberty and 
 national union. 
 
118 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 Abraham Lincoln had virtually no military experi- 
 ence, although he was elected captain of his company 
 in the so-called Black Hawk War. He and his com- 
 panions neither saw Black Hawk, nor did they engage 
 in any warfare. However, the bloodiest Civil War of 
 modern times was fought in his administration. Without 
 Lincoln at the helm, our ship of state would have been 
 adrift on a stormy sea. Lincoln's assassination drama- 
 tized — as nothing else could have accomplished — 
 the life of one of the world's leading exponents of the 
 rights and liberties of a nation. 
 
 George Washington, like Abraham Lincoln, was a 
 leader of men. The two names, George Washington, 
 the soldier-statesman, and Abraham Lincoln, the 
 lawyer-statesman, must be kept inseparable, insofar as 
 their connection with the United States Constitution is 
 concerned — the one, its creator, the other, its pre- 
 server. Both of these foremost Americans had certain 
 ideals in common: love of country, desire to perpetuate 
 democratic principles, love of liberty, opposition to all 
 forms of injustice. 
 
 Thus spoke Lincoln about his illustrious predecessor: 
 
 "This is the one hundred and tenth anniversary of the birth- 
 day of Washington. We are met to celebrate this day. Washing- 
 ton is the mightiest name on earth — long since mightiest in the 
 cause of civil liberty; still mightiest in moral reformation. On 
 that name an eulogy is expected. It can not be. To add bright- 
 ness to the sun or glory to the name of Washington is alike im- 
 
WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN 119 
 
 possible. Let none attempt it. In solemn awe pronounce the 
 name, and in its naked, deathless splendor leave it shining on." 
 
 It has truthfully been said that "men revere Wash- 
 ington — they love Abraham Lincoln/' 
 
'Righteousness exalteth a nation"; 
 Proverbs 14:34 
 
XI 
 
 And In Conclusion — 
 
 "He {Abraham Lincoln) was so abundantly representative 
 that he stands alone. He is our ideal and our test. The test 
 is not one of achievement, but of equality; Lincoln not only 
 saved the Union, but he incarnated the spirit which alone 
 can preserve it." 
 
 Charles Evans Hughes 
 
 We have attempted, in the foregoing chapters, to 
 picture the real Lincoln in various phases and activities 
 during his career. 
 
 We have tried to avoid deductions of sentimentalists, 
 who have portrayed Lincoln, with marked success among 
 the masses of the people, as a God-like figure, to be 
 worshipped — a figure of perfection. 
 
 On the other hand, we feel we have avoided the pitfalls 
 of extremists who, without evidence, but based largely 
 on rumor and hearsay, have very strenuously argued 
 that Lincoln was simply a "political accident," an ad- 
 venturer, a man of mediocre talents, cunning, irreligious, 
 willing to compromise with the truth to serve an exces- 
 sively personal ambition. 
 
 Our research has led us to reach the following conclu- 
 sions about Lincoln : 
 
 121 
 
122 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 FIRST 
 
 The overwhelming proof, based upon actualities, places 
 Lincoln with the seers and prophets of all ages. Among 
 the foremost we name : 
 
 MOSES SOCRATES CHRIST GHANDI 
 
 SECOND 
 
 Lincoln, undoubtedly, must be classed among the 
 great teachers, religious and secular, in the field of truth, 
 ethics and morality. 
 
 It has been said of Lincoln : 
 
 "His confidence that in the eternal struggle between right 
 and wrong only right could be victorious, shaped the destiny of 
 the Lincoln who was to save the Union." 
 
 It has also been said of him : 
 
 "Where other historic figures seem remote and aloof from 
 every day life, he is still a part of it." 
 
 Lincoln said : 
 
 "I am nothing. But truth is everything." 
 
 Albert Schweitzer, eminent religious philosopher and 
 humanitarian, ethical and moral teacher, master of 
 Bach, Goethe and the Bible, unequivocally advocates the 
 necessity of an ethical foundation for all human endeavor. 
 We quote from Dr. Schweitzer: 
 
 "The basis of civilization is ethical. Civilization has nothing 
 to do with scientific progress or cultural productivity pursued 
 for their own sakes. Ethical progress — the advance of man in 
 his moral relations with his fellow men — is the only future. The 
 fundamental question facing every human endeavor is not 'Is 
 
AND IN CONCLUSION 123 
 
 it socially or economically promising, or comfortable or beauti- 
 ful?' but 'Is it right or wrong?' If it is right it will automatically 
 lead to progress. It is precisely the loss of ethical foundation — 
 the growing lack of capacity for thinking about good and evil — 
 which deprives contemporary culture of all sense of direction." 
 
 This sounds like an echo from the life of Lincoln, as 
 he carried out this basic principle in his everyday living, 
 in his law practice, in the field of politics and statesman- 
 ship. 
 
 Lincoln said : 
 
 "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." 
 
 THIRD 
 We believe, further, that Lincoln had a universal mind. 
 This needs no special emphasis. He tells us: 
 
 "So long as one slave exists in this world, none of us is safe." 
 
 "I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down 
 upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he 
 could look up into the Heavens and say there is no God." 
 
 FOURTH 
 
 Lincoln was the incarnation of the democratic spirit. 
 Lincoln's definition of democracy is contained in three 
 sentences: 
 
 "As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This 
 expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, 
 to the extent of the difference, is no democracy." 
 
 The late Stephen S. Wise (Lincoln scholar) said of 
 Lincoln : 
 
124 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 "Abraham Lincoln was the greatest of Americans. He more 
 nearly than any American was America Incarnate." 
 
 The late President Theodore Roosevelt, in an address, 
 in 1907, to men of Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri, said : 
 
 "This was the region that brought forth mighty Abraham 
 Lincoln, the incarnation of all that is best in democratic life." 
 
 FIFTH 
 Abraham Lincoln's pre-eminent accomplishment, how- 
 ever, in our opinion, was in the mastery of the art of 
 expression. 
 
 In his early career, in the practice of law and in his 
 political and other addresses, his public utterances, 
 although often lengthy, reveal a lofty and noble spirit. 
 
 As Lincoln perfected himself in the use of words, his 
 addresses became shorter and shorter. The Gettysburg 
 address was in manuscript form, read in two minutes. 
 This well-known speech is considered one of the finest 
 examples of classical English structure. His First and 
 Second Inaugural addresses, his Thanksgiving message, 
 the Bixby letter, all contain brief but unique expressions 
 of truth. His style is Biblical and he was thoroughly 
 familiar with Shakespeare. 
 
 Here, too, we find a majesty, rhythm and dignity of 
 expression in words clothed in their simplest forms, 
 unsurpassed in literature. 
 
 In a recent editorial in the Cincinnati Times Star, the 
 tremendous power Winston Churchill has exerted over 
 
AND IN CONCLUSION 125 
 
 people is credited to his mastery of words. To quote 
 one sentence: 
 
 "He wrought something like a miracle, with words alone." 
 
 Lincoln, likewise, deserves this tribute. 
 * * * * 
 
 Now the argument is constantly made that Lincoln was 
 a great leader in his time, in fact, one of the greatest of 
 all times; but that he would not fit into our modern 
 complicated environment, resulting from mass and ma- 
 chine production. 
 
 On the contrary, we believe that the principles of 
 truth, morality, integrity and justice, as exemplified and 
 perfectly expressed by Lincoln, are all that can save our 
 constitutional form of government, today, from complete 
 collapse. 
 
 Moreover, as a matter of fact, Lincoln lived during 
 the early stages of the foremost industrial era in the 
 world's history. With reference to this period, we quote 
 from Carl Sandburg: 
 
 "And yet again, looking at business and industrial America, 
 one felt the future of America was to swarm with forces of 
 history. The editor of Harper's (in 1860) told his million readers 
 the future would take care of itself. * * * And the editor surveyed 
 the past. 'The United States, during the last eighty years, has 
 endowed the world with the lightning-rod, the steamboat, the 
 photograph, the electric telegraph, the discovery of the use of 
 inhaled ether, the sewing machine; the best and cheapest farm 
 implements, the best carpenter's tools, the best locks, fire- 
 engines, nails, spikes, screws, and axes; the best fire-arms, the 
 cheapest clocks, the fastest steamers and sailing vessels, the 
 
126 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 cheapest railroads, and the lightest wagons, and many labor- 
 saving machines. If any nation, during the same eighty years, 
 has done more, or as much, the fact is not generally known.' 
 And the editor wrote how machinery had made one man as a 
 thousand, and a thousand as a million, and as he looked at 
 science and industry he could hear 'mysterious voices whispering 
 forth majestic prophecies of a new future'." 
 
 In order to give Lincoln his proper place in the history 
 of our country, we suggest a division of our nation's 
 development into five epochs : 
 
 FIRST EPOCH 
 1607-1775 
 The foundation of our government was laid at James- 
 town, Virginia, in 1607. There was a slow growth of the 
 colonies, which were finally merged into a colonial feder- 
 ation. This period ended in 1775, when "The shot heard 
 round the world" was fired at Lexington. 
 
 SECOND EPOCH 
 1775-1799 
 A new nation was born and firmly consolidated by 
 the time of the death of George Washington, in 1799. 
 
 THIRD EPOCH 
 1799-1837 
 From 1799, through the Andrew Jackson administra- 
 tion in 1837, marked the end of the agricultural and the 
 rise of the industrial period. 
 
AND IN CONCLUSION 127 
 
 FOURTH EPOCH 
 
 1837-1865 
 
 Our nation was reborn and rededicated. The industrial 
 
 period advanced tremendously. During this epoch, the 
 
 genius of Abraham Lincoln was stamped indelibly upon 
 
 the pages of history. 
 
 FIFTH EPOCH 
 1865-1950 
 From 1865 to the present day, there has been a swift 
 acceleration of the industrial period, in the expansion 
 of the belt line and mass production methods. Our chief 
 contributions to society since 1896 have been the auto- 
 mobile, the airplane and the atomic bomb. 
 
 In reviewing a Report of date April 30, 1949, of the 
 Public Relations Committee of the New Jersey State Bar 
 Association, we were startled to find a quotation from 
 Mr. George E. Sokolsky, internationally known columnist, 
 a portion of which is apropos to this discussion: 
 
 "I would be the last person to say that there is not something 
 very ugly about our society in this generation, * * * It is that 
 morality seems to have lost its place in our lives. Anything seems 
 to go. Anything at all. Maybe we need a portrayal of all of us, 
 not as each of us sees himself but as we are seen by each other. 
 Dignity of person exists not by suppressions but in the grandeur 
 of personality. * * * " 
 
 The matter of right and wrong is a constant ethical 
 principle which has never changed from the beginning 
 
128 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 of time. On the other hand, no economic rule or principle 
 of politics or government is invariable. In fact, it makes 
 no difference, in our opinion, what form of government 
 or what system of economics is adopted by a people, in 
 any part of the world, if the foundation is built on the 
 conception of the difference between right and wrong. 
 
 We learned this truth at our mothers' knees when we 
 were children; the Bible reduces it to its simplest form; 
 the great moral, spiritual and ethical leaders of all times 
 make it the real and sole issue of good living. 
 
 And yet, the application of this principle of right and 
 wrong is shunned, perhaps because it seems too simple 
 a solution. 
 
 Confucius presented the same idea when he said : 
 
 "To know the truth is easy, 
 But ah — how difficult to follow it." 
 
 Our forefathers in America, in the Declaration of 
 Independence and the Constitution, recognized that we 
 are creatures of God; that all of us have certain inalienable 
 rights, among these being "Life, Liberty and the pursuit 
 of Happiness." 
 
 The pursuit of happiness does not mean the accumula- 
 tion of an abundance of things which a man possesseth, 
 but the spiritual and ethical values which he builds up 
 within himself. 
 
 We are living in a period, as Sokolsky said, when 
 "anything seems to go — anything at all." The solution 
 of acute daily problems, currently expressed by Dr. 
 
AND IN CONCLUSION 129 
 
 Schweitzer and others, is supported by leaders of thought 
 from the beginning of time. 
 
 "We cannot have our cake and eat it too" is a truism 
 which we are refusing to recognize in the materialistic 
 world of today, and, like the ancient Israelites, we are 
 bowing to the "golden calf." 
 
 The problems we are facing today are forcefully ex- 
 pressed by Lin Yutang, brilliant Chinese contemporary 
 scholar and author, in his book "Between Laughter and 
 Tears." We quote one passage: (page 19) 
 
 "And not in Asia alone, but throughout the earth, forces are 
 rising, growing, to demand that birth of a new freedom of which 
 Abraham Lincoln prophetically spoke, so that the world shall 
 not be 'half -free and half-slave'. These forces are causing a 
 dislocation of our general ideas and traditions. But being un- 
 prepared and caught unready, we are meeting them, not with 
 clarity and simplicity and strength, but in utter confusion. The 
 first principles being not yet established, we are lost in a desert 
 of temporizing ingenuities." 
 
 We believe that Lincoln, in his message to Congress 
 
 on July 4, 1861, stated the pertinent question which is of 
 
 immediate concern to our country today, and in the same 
 
 message, he gave the answer. 
 
 The question: 
 
 "Is there in all Republics the inherent and fatal weakness 
 that the government of necessity must be too strong for the 
 liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own 
 existence!" 
 
 And the answer: 
 
 "Surely each man has as strong a motive now to preserve our 
 liberties, as each had then to establish them." 
 
130 THE LINCOLN STORY 
 
 Are we to learn from the lessons taught us as the result 
 of the last two World Wars, fought in one generation, 
 and the fear of an impending third World War, that 
 regimentation of people results in intolerable tyranny 
 and oppression — that security at the sacrifice of freedom 
 is a ghastly price, destroying human dignity and "rever- 
 ence for life," and ultimately annihilating security as 
 well as freedom? 
 
 Shall we not rather listen to Lincoln and other great 
 voices of the past and present, so that we may preserve 
 our priceless heritage as a free people under our Consti- 
 tution? 
 
References 
 
 Angle, Paul M. 
 Angle, Paul M., Editor 
 Angle, Paul M., Editor 
 Appleman, Roy Edgar, 
 Editor 
 
 Arnold, Isaac N. 
 
 Babcock, Bernie 
 Baringer, William E. 
 
 Baringer, William E. 
 Barrett, Joseph H. 
 Barton, William E. 
 Barton, William E. 
 Barton, William E. 
 Basler, Roy P. 
 Basler, Roy P., Editor 
 
 Beveridge, Albert J. 
 Bryan, George S. 
 Bullard, F. Lauriston 
 
 Carman, Harry J. and 
 
 Luthin, Reinhard H. 
 Carmichael, Orton H. 
 Carpenter, F. B. 
 
 Carruthers, Olive and 
 
 McMurtry, R. Gerald 
 Charnwood, Lord 
 Colver, Anne 
 
 Daugherty, James 
 D'Aulaire, Ingri & 
 Edgar Parin 
 
 A Shelf of Lincoln Books 
 
 The Lincoln Reader 
 
 New Letters and Papers of Lincoln 
 
 Abraham Lincoln — From his Own 
 
 Words and Contemporary 
 
 Accounts 
 The Life of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 The Soul of Abe Lincoln 
 
 A House Dividing: Lincoln as 
 
 President Elect 
 Lincoln's Vandalia 
 Life of Abraham Lincoln 
 The Life of Abraham Lincoln, 2 vo. 
 The Paternity of Abraham Lincoln 
 The Soul of Abraham Lincoln 
 The Lincoln Legend 
 Abraham Lincoln, His Speeches 
 
 and Writings 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, 1809-1858, 4 vo. 
 The Great American Myth 
 Abraham Lincoln and the Widow 
 Bixby 
 
 Lincoln and the Patronage 
 
 Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 
 The Inner Life of Abraham Lincoln : 
 Six Months at the White House 
 Lincoln's Other Mary 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 Mr. Lincoln's Wife 
 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 Abraham Lincoln 
 
 133 
 
134 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 Dennett, Tyler, Editor 
 
 Dodge, Daniel K. 
 Donald, David 
 
 Eisenschiml, Otto 
 
 Hendrick, Burton J. 
 Herndon, William H. and 
 
 Weik, Jesse W. 
 Hertz, Emanuel, Editor 
 Hill, Frederick Trevor 
 Holland, J. G. 
 
 Keckley, Elizabeth 
 
 Lincoln and the Civil War in the 
 Diaries and Letters of John 
 Hay 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, Master of Words 
 
 Lincoln's Herndon 
 
 Why Was Lincoln Murdered? 
 
 Lincoln's War Cabinet 
 
 Herndon's Lincoln: The True Story 
 
 of a Great Life 
 Lincoln Talks 
 Lincoln the Lawyer 
 The Life of Abraham Lincoln 
 
 Behind the Scenes, or Thirty Years 
 a Slave, and Four Years in the 
 White House 
 
 Lamon, Ward H. 
 Lewis, Lloyd 
 Lorant, Stefan 
 Luthin, Reinhard H. 
 
 McClure, A. K. 
 McMurtry, R. Gerald 
 McMurty, R. Gerald, 
 
 Editor 
 Meserve, Frederick Hill 
 
 and Sandburg, Carl 
 Monaghan, Jay 
 Monaghan, Jay 
 Morrow, Honore Willsie 
 Morrow, Honore Willsie 
 Morrow, Honore Willsie 
 
 Newton, Joseph Fort 
 Nicolay, Helen 
 Nicolay, John G. 
 Nicolay, John G. and 
 Hay, John 
 
 The Life of Abraham Lincoln 
 Myths After Lincoln 
 Lincoln : His Life in Photographs 
 The First Lincoln Campaign 
 
 Lincoln and Men of War Times 
 
 Let's Talk of Lincoln 
 
 The Lincoln Log Cabin Almanac 
 
 The Photographs of Abraham 
 
 Lincoln 
 Diplomat in Carpet Slippers 
 Lincoln Bibliography, 1839-1939 
 Forever Free 
 The Last Full Measure 
 With Malice Toward None 
 
 Lincoln and Herndon 
 Personal Traits of Abraham Lincoln 
 A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln 
 Abraham Lincoln, A History, 10 vo. 
 
REFERENCES 
 
 135 
 
 Nicolay, John G. and 
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 Oldroyd, Osborn H., 
 
 Editor 
 Petersen, William F. 
 
 Potter, David M. 
 
 Pratt, Harry E. 
 
 Pratt, Harry E. 
 Pratt, Harry E. 
 Pratt, Harry E., Editor 
 
 Complete Works of Abraham 
 Lincoln, 12 vo. 
 
 The Poets' Lincoln 
 
 Lincoln-Douglas: The Weather as 
 Destiny 
 
 Lincoln and His Party in the Seces- 
 sion Crisis 
 
 The Personal Finances of Abraham 
 Lincoln 
 
 Lincoln, 1809-1839 
 
 Lincoln, 1840-1846 
 
 Concerning Mr. Lincoln 
 
 Randall, J. G. 
 Riddle, Donald W. 
 Rothschild, Alonzo 
 Ryan, Daniel J. 
 
 Sandburg, Carl and 
 
 Angle, Paul M. 
 
 Sandburg, Carl 
 
 Sandburg, Carl 
 
 Shaw, Albert 
 
 Shaw, Albert 
 
 Sherwood, Robert E. 
 Sparks, Edwin Erie, 
 Editor 
 
 Stephenson, Nathaniel 
 
 Lincoln the President, 2 vo. 
 Lincoln Runs for Congress 
 Honest Abe 
 Lincoln and Ohio 
 
 Mary Lincoln, Wife and Widow 
 
 Abraham Lincoln : The Prairie 
 Years 
 
 Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, 
 4 vo. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln : The Year of His 
 Election 
 
 Abraham Lincoln: His Path to the 
 Presidency 
 
 Abe Lincoln in Illinois 
 
 Collections of the Illinois State His- 
 torical Library, Vol. Ill, Lin- 
 coln Series 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Stern, Philip Van Doren, The Life and Writings of Abraham 
 Editor Lincoln 
 
 Tarbell, Ida M. 
 Tarbell, Ida M. 
 
 The Life of Abraham Lincoln, 2 vo. 
 In the Footsteps of the Lincolns 
 
136 
 
 REFERENCES 
 
 Tausek, Joseph 
 
 Thomas, Benjamin P. 
 Thomas, Benjamin P. 
 Townsend, William H. 
 Tracy, Gilbert A. 
 
 The True Story of the Gettysburg 
 
 Address 
 Lincoln's New Salem 
 Portrait for Posterity 
 Lincoln and Liquor 
 Uncollected Letters of Abraham 
 
 Lincoln 
 
 Warren, Louis A. 
 Warren, Louis A., Editor 
 Weik, Jesse W. 
 Whitney, Henry C. 
 Williams, A. Dallis 
 Williams, T. Harry 
 Wilson, Rufus Rockwell 
 Wilson, Rufus Rockwell 
 Woldman, Albert A. 
 
 Lincoln's Parentage & Childhood 
 Lincoln's Autobiographies 
 The Real Lincoln: A Portrait 
 Life on the Circuit with Lincoln 
 The Praise of Lincoln 
 Lincoln and the Radicals 
 Intimate Memories of Lincoln 
 Lincoln Among His Friends 
 Lawyer Lincoln 
 
Comments 
 
 "It was very good of you to mail me a copy of your new book The 
 Lincoln Story. I have found it a lucid account of important phases of 
 Lincoln's life. I have no doubt that it will stimulate interest, particu- 
 larly on the part of those relatively unfamiliar with Lincoln biography." 
 
 Paul M. Angle 
 
 Secretary and Director 
 
 Chicago Historical Society 
 
 "The Lincoln Story is readable and presents Lincoln in a way that 
 the common reader can understand him." 
 
 Roy P. Basler 
 
 Executive Secretary 
 
 The Abraham Lincoln Association 
 
 "I have read your book The Lincoln Story with a great deal of 
 interest. I think there is a particular field for your book. The format, 
 illustrations and easy narrative style are qualities that make your 
 publication outstanding." 
 
 R. Gerald McMurtry 
 
 Director, Department of Lincolniana 
 
 Lincoln Memorial University 
 
 "I find your The Lincoln Story has the happy combination of 
 accuracy and brevity. An authoritative one volume life of Lincoln 
 has long been needed." 
 
 Jay Monaghan 
 
 State Historian 
 
 Illinois State Historical Library 
 
 "Your Lincoln Story is admirably done. To select from the vast 
 amount of material on Lincoln those details which are most significant 
 was a formidable undertaking. In a combination of essential facts and 
 interesting side-lights, you have given the reader a well-rounded 
 picture. To me, the dignified simplicity of statement in your presenta- 
 tion is more in keeping with the greatness of the theme than any 
 fulsome eulogy could have been. Also, the implications concerning 
 Lincoln's message for our time, though they are unobtrusive, are still 
 clear enough to be impressive. I congratulate you on an excellent piece 
 of work." 
 
 Clyde W. Park 
 
 Professor Emeritus of English 
 
 University of Cincinnati 
 
 137 
 
138 COMMENTS 
 
 "You are fortunate in having the knack of putting a great deal into 
 comparatively short space and I believe this little book will prove to be 
 a genuine addition to Lincolniana." 
 
 William H. Townsend 
 
 "I have read The Lincoln Story with a great deal of pleasure and 
 we are happy indeed to add it to our collection." 
 
 Louis A. Warren 
 
 Director 
 
 The Lincoln National Life Foundation 
 
 "I wish to compliment you on your splendid book, The Lincoln 
 Story. In simple but graphic style you depict Lincoln in various 
 phases and activities of his epoch-making career. Anyone finding it 
 necessary to prepare a Lincoln speech would do well to read your 
 booklet as the various chapters contain eloquent material for addresses 
 on the different phases of the Lincoln saga. I especially enjoyed your 
 chapter on Lincoln, the Lawyer. Briefly yet ably it depicts Lincoln's 
 career of 23 years in his law offices and judicial circuits. All in all The 
 Lincoln Story makes a useful addition to my shelf of Lincoln books. 
 Congratulations for a fine achievement." 
 
 Albert A. Woldman 
 

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