LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 973.7L63 1887 cop. 2 The person charging this material is re- sponsible for its return to the library from which it was withdrawn on or before the Latest Date stamped below. Theft, mutilation, and underlining of beaks are reasons for disciplinary action and may result In dismissal from the University. To renew call Telephone Center, 333-84OO UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS LIBRARY AT URBANA CHAMPAIGN rW 28 ft MAY i o 19! JAN 3 19! L161 O-1096 . . * ' \ * ->A ' .' I ' '. . - '' - \ l THE LIFE ABRAHAM LINCOLN. BY ISAAC N. ARNOLD, Author of " The Life of Benedict Arnold," etc. ; Late President of the Chicago Historical Society ; Member of Congress daring the Civil War. FOURTH EDITION. CHICAGO: A. C. McCLURG & COMPANY. 1887. COPYRIGHT BY JANSEN, McCLURG, & CO. A. D. 1884. R. B. DO.VNELI.EV & SONS, THE LAKKSIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL. INTRODUCTION. BY THE HON. E. B. WASHBURNE. This work " The Life of Abraham Lincoln " was completed only a few days before the death of the dis- tinguished author, the HON. ISAAC N. ARNOLD. He did not live to oversee its publication. That was entrusted to competent and friendly hands; and the work, with its chap- ter heads and its full and elaborate index, is herewith pre- sented to an indulgent public. Few had known Mr. Lincoln better than had Mr. Arnold, and no man was more familiar with his life or had studied more profoundly his personal and political character, or his public career. They had been personal friends for a quar- ter of a century. They were much together in the courts and often associated in the trial of causes, and had been opposing counsel in important litigation. Their long acquaintance and association had made them to know each other well and had engendered mutual respect and mutual regard. From the time that Mr. Arnold entered Congress, at the breaking out of the War of the Rebellion, he became one of the most trusted advisers of Mr. Lincoln, and few men out- side of the Cabinet were more frequently consulted by him in important matters. No one knew better Mr. Lincoln's 4 INTRODUCTION. thoughts and intentions than Mr. Arnold, and no one enjoyed his confidence to a higher degree. It may be truly said that no man was better qualified to write a serious and authoritative life of Mr. Lincoln, and to enlighten the public in respect to the character, career and services of that illustrious man. There is no doubt that for some time prior to the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Arnold had contemplated writing his life. Previous to that event, and while yet a member of Congress, he had commenced to write the " History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery," which he completed and published in 1867. He brought to the preparation of that work the qualities of an able and conscientious historian, who wrote very largely from personal knowledge and personal observation. It is a book of real interest and exceptional historic value. Impor- tant and valuable facts are to be obtained therein which are not to be found elsewhere. This work was never entirely satisfactory to Mr. Arnold, so far as it related to Mr. Lincoln, and hence some two years since he determined to write in a stricter sense the life of Mr. Lincoln, in the light of additional material he had gathered, and disconnected with the history of the overthrow of slavery, except in so far as the subject was connected generally with the administration of Mr. Lincoln. Stimulated by his admiration and friendship for Mr. Lincoln, Mr. Arnold entered on his work con amore, and devoted to it his most earnest thoughts and great labor. He undertook his self-imposed task with the Idea and purpose that it would be the finishing work of his life. His great object was to write a life worthy of the man. He has taken INTRODUCTION. C p the utmost pains to procure reliable material, to verify all statements of fact, and to bring out the incidents of Mr. Lincoln's life, with candor, fairness, and accuracy. Mr. Arnold has shown in his life of Mr. Lincoln that he has a full and just appreciation of the true province of history. He was guided by that spirit which governed the greatest historian of modern times, M. Adolph Thiers. M. Xavier Marmier, in his admirable discourse before the French Academy, quotes M. Thiers as saying : " I have for the mission of history such a respect, that the fear of alleging an inexact fact fills me with a sort of consternation. I have no repose till I have discovered the proof of the fact, the object of my doubt. I seek it wher- ever it ought to be, and I never stop till I have found it, or when I have acquired the certainty that it does not exist" In the present volume Mr. Arnold has shown himself, in this regard, a worthy disciple of M. Thiers. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. Early History of the Family. Removal of the President's Grandfather from Virginia to Kentucky. He is Killed by the Indians. Auto- biography of the President. His Father's Marriage. His Mother. * Their Children. Death of His Mother. His Education. Books He Read. Father's Second Marriage. Trip to New Orleans. 13-27 CHAPTER II. LIFE AT NEW SALEM. The Lincoln Family Remove to Illinois. Second Trip to New Orleans. Life at New Salem. Jack Armstrong and the Clary Grove Boys. Black Hawk War. Acquires the Name of " Honest Abe." Post- master at Salem. Trust Funds. Studies Law. A Surveyor. Story of Anne Rutledge. Elected to the Legislature. . 28-44 CHAPTER III. THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE. Lincoln at Twenty-Five. At Vandalia. Re-elected in 1836. Replies to Forquer. To Dr. Early. To Col. Taylor. State Capital Removed from Vandalia to Springfield. Anti-Slavery Protest. Re-elected in 1838. Removes to Springfield. Re-elected in 1840. Partnership with John T. Stuart. Riding the Circuit. . 45-60 7 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. MISCELLANEOUS SPEECHES AND MARRIAGE. Speech of 1837 on Perpetuation of the Government. Reply to Douglas in 1839. Temperance Address. Partnership with Judge Logan. Campaign of 1840. Protects Baker while Speaking. Mary Todd. Lincoln's Courtship. Challenged by Shields. His Marriage. Entertains President Van Buren. Elected to Congress. . 61-75 CHAPTER V. CONGRESS AND THE BAR. Lincoln Takes His Seat in Congress. His Colleagues and Associates. How He Impressed Them. His First Speech. Speech on the Mexican War. Delegate to National Convention. His Campaign Speech. Introduces Bill to Abolish Slavery in District of Columbia. Seeks Appointment as Commissioner of Land Office. Declines to be Governor of Oregon. At the Bar. Defends Bill Armstrong. Lincoln as an Advocate, Lawyer and Orator. . . . 76-91 CHAPTER VI. THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. Slavery at the Adoption of the Constitution. Efforts for its Abolition. Ordinance of 1787. Its Growth. Its Acquisition of Territory. Florida. Louisiana. The Missouri Compromise. Annexation of Texas. The Wilmot Proviso. Mexican Provinces Seized. The Liberty Party. Its Growth. The Buffalo Convention. The Com- promise of 1850 92-107 CHAPTER VII. THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. Stephen Arnold Douglas. Repeal of the Missouri Compromise. The Nebraska Bill. Condition of Matters in Kansas. Lincoln Comes Forward as the Champion of Freedom. Speeches at Springfield and Peoria. Election of Trumbull to the United States Senate. 108-123 9 w CONTENTS CHAPTER VIII. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. The Republican Party. The Bloomington Convention. Platform. William H. Bissell. Republican Convention at Pittsburgh. At Philadelphia. Nomination of Fremont and Dayton. Douglas Opposes the Lecompton Constitution. Dred Scott Decision. Lincoln Nominated for the Senate. Speech at Springfield, June, 1858 124-138 CHAPTER IX. THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. Douglas's Return to Illinois. Speeches of Lincoln and Douglas at Chicago, Bloomington and Springfield. Lincoln and Douglas Com- pared. The Joint Discussions at Charleston. At Freeport. At Alton 139-152 CHAPTER X. LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. Douglas Re-elected to the Senate. Lincoln Assessed for Expenses of the Canvass. Visit to Kansas. Called to Ohio. Speaks at Colum- bus and Cincinnati. In the New England States. He Shrinks from the Candidacy. The Cooper Institute Speech. Is Nomi- nated for President. The Campaign. Douglas's Canvass. Lin- coln's Election 153-171 CHAPTER XI. LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. Buchanan's Weakness. Traitors in his Cabinet. Efforts to Compro- mise. Seven States Secede and Organize Provisional Government. The Counting of the Electoral Vote. Lincoln Starts for Washing- ton. His Journey. The Assassination Plot. His Arrival at the Capital. 172-187 IO CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. Lincoln's Inauguration. His Cabinet. Douglas's Prophecy. South Carolina, the Prodigal Son. Douglas's Rallying Cry for the Union. His Death. Difficulties of the President. Rebels Begin the War. Uprising of the People. Death of Ellsworth. Great Britain and France Recognize the Confederates as Belligerents. Negroes Declared " Contraband." 188-219 CHAPTER XIII. EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. Prominent Members of 37th Congress. President's Message. Vacant Chairs of Prominent Rebels. Baker's Reply to Breckenridge. Andrew Johnson. Owen Lovejoy. Law to Free the Slaves of Rebels. Bull Run. Fremont's Order Freeing Slaves Modified by the President. Capture and Release of Mason and SlidelL 220-236 CHAPTER XIV. EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION. President's Message. Condition of the Country. Death of Baker. Stanton, Secretary of War. Abolition of Slavery in the District of Columbia. Prohibition in the Territories. Employment of Negroes as Soldiers. Emancipation in the Border States. . 237-252 CHAPTER XV. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. < Lincoln and Emancipation. Greeley Demands It. The People Pray for It. McClellan's Warning. Crittenden's Appeal. Lovejoy's Response. The Proclamation Issued. Its Reception. Question of Its Validity. 253-271 CHAPTER XVI. MILITARY OPERATIONS IN l86l-l862. Battles in the West. Belmont to Corinth. Successes in the South. New Orleans Captured. The Monitor. McClellan and the Presi- dent. Pope's Campaign. McClellan Re-instated. . 272-294 CONTENTS. 1 1 CHAPTER XVII. ANTIETAM AND CHANCELLORSVILLE. Harper's Ferry Captured. Antietam. McClellan's Delay. Relieved of Command. Burnside Appointed. Fredericksburg. Burnside Resigns. Hooker Succeeds Him. Lincoln's Letter to Hooker. Chancellorsville 295-305 ' CHAPTER XVIII. THE TIDE TURNS. The Conscription. West Virginia Admitted. The War Powers. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. Case of Vallandigham. Grant's Capture of Vicksburg. Gettysburg. Lincoln's Speech. 306-330 CHAPTER XIX. AFTER GETTYSBURG. Effects of the Battle. Lee Crosses the Potomac. Chickamauga. Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The Draft Riot in New York. Meeting at Springfield. The President's Letter to his old Friends. 331-34* CHAPTER XX. THE AMENDMENT PROPOSED. Debate in the Senate. Speeches of Trumbull, Wilson, Johnson, Howard and Others. A New Year's Call on the President. Debate in the House. Test Vote. Speeches of Wilson, Arnold. Randall, Pendleton and Others. The Amendment Fails. . . 342-356 CHAPTER XXI. PASSAGE OF THE AMENDMENT. The President's Message. His Personal Appeal to Rollins and Border States Members. Speeches by Voorhees, Kasson, Woodbridge and Garfield. Thaddeus Stevens Closes the Debate. The Resolution Passes. Lincoln's Speech on Its Passage. Ratification by the States. Seward Certifies Its Adoption. . . . 357-368 12 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXII. GRANT AND SHERMAN. General Grant Comes to the Potomac. Sherman Goes Through Dixie to the Ocean. Fort McAllister Taken. Savannah Falls. The Alabama is Sunk. Farragut Captures Mobile. . . 369-383 CHAPTER XXIII. THE SECOND TERM. Lincoln Renominated and Re-elected. His Administration. Peace Conference. Greeley and the Rebel Emissaries. Blair's Visit to Richmond. Hampton Roads Conference. Second Inaugu- ration 384-405 CHAPTER XXIV. THE APPROACHING END. The Sanitary and Christian Commissions. Lincoln's Sympathy with Suffering. Proposed Retaliation. Treatment of Negro Prisoners. Lincoln's Reception at Baltimore. Plans for Reconstruction. Views Upon the Negro Franchise. His Clemency. . 406-417 CHAPTER XXV. VICTORY AND DEATH. Conference of Lincoln, Grant and Sherman. Richmond Falls. Lee Surrenders. Davis Captured. Lincoln's Visit to Richmond. Last Day of His Life. His Assassination. Funeral. The World's Grief. Mrs. Lincoln Distracted. Injustice to Her. Her Death. 418-440 CHAPTER XXVI. CONCLUSION INDEX . 441-454 455 LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. CHAPTER I. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. EARLY HISTORY OF THE FAMILY. REMOVAL OF THE PRESIDENT'S GRANDFATHER FROM VIRGINIA TO KENTUCKY. HE is KILLED BY THE INDIANS. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE PRESIDENT. His FATH- ER'S MARRIAGE. His MOTHER. THEIR CHILDREN. DEATH OF His MOTHER. His EDUCATION. BOOKS HE READ. His FATH- ER'S SECOND MARRIAGE. WOODCRAFT. TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS. HISTORY furnishes the record of few lives at once so eventful and important, and ending so tragically, as that of Abraham Lincoln. Poets and orators, artists and histo- rians, have tried to depict his character and illustrate his career, but the great epic of his life has yet to be written. We are probably too near him in point of time fully to com- prehend and appreciate his greatness, and the influence he is to exert upon his country and the world. The storms which marked his tempestuous career have scarcely yet fully subsided, and the shok of his dramatic death is still felt ; but as the clouds of dust and smoke which filled the air dur- ing his life clear away, his character will stand out in bolder relief and more perfect outline. I write with the hope that I may contribute something which shall aid in forming a just estimate of his character, and a true appreciation of his services. 13 14 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Abraham Lincoln was born to a very humble station in life, and his early surroundings were rude and rough, but his ancestors for generations had been of that tough fiber, and vigorous physical organization and mental energy, so often found among the pioneers on the frontier of Ameri- can civilization. His forefathers removed from Massachu- setts to Pennsylvania, in the first half of the seventeenth cen- tury; and from Pennsylvania some members of the family moved to Virginia, and settled in the valley of the Shenan- doah, in the county of Rockingham, whence his immediate ancestors came to Kentucky. For several generations they kept on the crest of the wave of Western settlement. The family were English, and came from Norfolk County, Eng- land, in about the year 1638, when they settled in Hingham, Massachusetts. Mordecai Lincoln, the English emigrant who thus settled in Massachusetts, removed afterwards to Pennsylvania, and was the great-great-grandfather of the President. His son John, who was the great-grandfather of the President, moved to Virginia, and had a son Abraham, the grandfather of the President. He and his son Thomas moved, in 1782, from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky. 1 It was in the same year that General George 1. The following statement, of which a fac-slmlle U now before me, was drawn up by Mr. Lincoln, at the request of J. W. Fell, of Bloomlngton, Illinois : I was born Feb. 12, 1809, In Hardln County, Kentucky. My parents were both born In Virginia, of undistinguished families second families, perhaps I should say. My mother, who died In my tenth year, was of a family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside In Adams, and others In Macon Counties, Illinois. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from Rockingham County, Virginia, to Kentucky, about 1781 or '2, where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not In battle, but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm In the forest. His ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks County, Pennsylvania. An effort to identify them with the New England family of the same name, ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of Christian names in both families, such as Enoch, Levl, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and the like. My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and he grew up literally without education. He removed from Kentucky to what Is now Spencer County, Indiana, In my eighth year. We reached our new home about the time the state came into the Union. It was a wild region, with many bears and other wild animals still In the woods. There I grew up. There were some schools.so called, but no qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond "reodtn 1 , writin\ and ctpherin'" to the Rule of Three. If a straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to sojourn ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 15 Rogers Clark captured Kaskaskia, and on the i2th of Sep- tember, 1782, Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, ap- pointed John Todd commandant of the county of Illinois, then a part of Virginia, These ancestors of the President were rough, hardy, fearless men, and familiar with wood- craft ; men who could endure the extremes of fatigue and exposure, who knew how to find food and shelter in the for- est ; brave, self-reliant, true and faithful to their friends, and dangerous to their enemies. The grandfather of the President and his son Thomas emigrated to Kentucky in 1781 or 1782, and settled in Mer- cer county. This grandfather is named in the surveys of Daniel Boone as having purchased of the United States five hundred acres of land. ' A year or two after this settlement in Kentucky, Abra- ham Lincoln, having erected a log cabin near " Bear Grass In the neighborhood, he was looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know much. Still somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the Rale of Three, bat that was all. I have not been to school since. The little advance I now have upon this store of education, I have picked up from time to time under the pressure of neces- sity. I was raised to farm work, which I continued till I was twenty-two. At twenty- one I came to Illinois, and passed the first year In Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in Sangamon, now in Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk war, and I was elected a Cap- tain of Volunteers a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had since. I went [through] the campaign, was elated, ran for the Legislature the same year (1832), and was beaten the only time I have ever been beaten by the people. The next, and three succeeding biennial elections, I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterwards. During this legislative period I had studied law, and removed to Springfield to practice It. In 1846 I was once elected to the Lower House of Congress. Was not a candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, both Inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever before. Always a Whig In politics, and gen- erally on the Whig electoral tickets, making active canvasses. I was losing Interest in politics, when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I have done since then Is pretty well known. If any personal description of me Is thought desirable, it may be said, I am in height, six feet, four Inches, nearly ; lean In flesh, weighing, on an average, one hun- dred and eighty pounds : dark complexion, with coarse black hair, and gray eyes. No other marks or brands recollected. Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN . 1. " Abraham Lincoln enters 500 acres of land on a Treasury warrant on the south side of Licking Creek or River, In Kentucky." See the original Field Book of Daniel Boone, in possession of the Wisconsin Historical Society. 1 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Fort," the site of the present city of Louisville, began to open up his farm. Shortly after this, he was one day, while at work in the field, waylaid, shot, and instantly killed, by a party of Indians. Thomas Lincoln, born in 1778, and the father of the President, was in the field with his father when he fell. Mordecai and Josiah, his elder brothers, were near by in the forest. Mordecai, startled by the shot, saw his father fall, and, running to the cabin, seized the loaded rifle, rushed to one of the loop-holes cut through the logs of the cabin, and saw the Indian who had fired; he had just caught the boy, Thomas, and was running towards the forest. Point- ing the rifle through the logs, and aiming at a silver medal on the breast of the Indian, MordeCai fired. The Indian fell, and the boy, springing to his feet, ran to the open arms of his mother, at the cabin door. Meanwhile, Josiah, who had run to the fort for aid, returned with a party of settlers, who brought in the body of Abraham Lincoln, and the Indian who had been shot. From this time throughout his life, Mordecai was the mortal enemy of the Indians, and, it is said, sacrificed many in revenge for the murder of his father. It was in the midst of such scenes that the ancestors of the President were nurtured. They were contemporaries of Daniel Boone, of Simon Kenton, and other border heroes and Indian fighters on the frontiers, and were often engaged in those desperate conflicts between the Indians and the set- tlers, which gave to Kentucky the suggestive name of " the dark and bloody ground." ' These Kentucky hunters, of which the grandfather and the father of the President are types, were a very remarkable class of men. They were brave, sagacious, and self-reliant, ready in the hour of danger, frank, generous and hospitable. Tough and hardy, with his trusty rifle always in his hands or 1. It is a curious fact that the grandfather of the President should have been a comrade of Daniel Boone In Kentucky, and that the President and a grandson of Boone should have been fellow soldiers In the Black Hawk war; both volunteers from Illinois. See Major Robert Anderson's manuscript sketch of the Black Hawk (quoted hereafter), In possession of the Chicago Historical Society. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. I 7 by his side, his long, keen knife always in his belt, and his faithful hunting-dog his constant companion, of greater endurance and of far superior intellect, the Kentucky hunter could outrun his Indian enemy, or whip him in a man to man fight. This man, who has driven away or killed the Indian, who has cleared the forests, broken up and reclaimed the wilderness, and whose type still survives in the pioneer, is one of the most picturesque figures in American history. From this sort of ancestry have sprung Andrew Jackson and David Crockett, Benton and Clay, Grant and Lincoln. Thomas Lincoln was married on the 2d of September, 1806, to Nancy Hanks, she being twenty -three and he twenty-eight years of age. They were married by the Rev. Jesse Head, a Methodist clergyman, near Springfield, Ken- tucky. She has been described as a brunette, with dark hair, regular features, and soft, sparkling hazel eyes. Her ances- tors were of English descent, and they, like the Lincolns, had emigrated from Virginia to Kentucky. Thomas and his wife settled on Rock Creek farm, in Hardin County; and here, on the i2th of February, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born. He was the second child, having an older sister, named Sarah. He had, besides, a younger brother, named Thomas, who died in infancy. The ancestors of President Lincoln for several genera- tions were farmers, and, as has already been stated, his grand- father purchased from the United States five hundred acres of land. His father, Thomas, on the i8th of October, 1817, entered a quarter-section of government land; and President Lincoln left, as a part of his estate, a quarter-section which he had received by patent from the United States for ser- vices rendered as a volunteer in the Black Hawk war. So that this humble pioneer family for three generations owned land, by direct grant from the government, and in that sense may be said to have belonged to "the landed gentry." It is curious to note in this race of Lincolns many of the same strong and hardy traits of character which have marked the founders of influential historic families in older nations, 2 1 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and especially among the English. Had Abraham Lincoln been born in England or in Normandy, or on the Rhine, some centuries ago, he might have been the founder of a baronial family, perhaps of a royal dynasty. He could have wielded with ease the battle-axe of " Richard of the Lion Heart," or the two-handed sword of Guy, the first Earl of Warwick, some of whose characteristics were his also. Indeed, the difference between such men as Boone, and Kenton, and Abraham Lincoln, the grandfather of the President, on the one hand, and the early Warwicks, the Douglases and the Percys on the other, is that the Kentucky heroes were far better men and of a more advanced civilization. In 1816, the year in which Indiana was admitted into the Union, the family of Lincoln removed from Kentucky to Spencer County, in the former state. It was a long, hard, weary journey. Many streams were to be forded, and a part of the way was through the primeval forest, where they were often compelled to cut their path with the axe. At the time of this removal the lad Abraham was in his eighth year, but tall, large and strong of his age. The first things he had learned to use were the axe and the rifle, and with these he was already- able to render important assistance to his parents on the journey, and in building up their new home. The family settled near Gentryville, and built their log-cabin on the top of an eminence which sloped gently away on every side. The landscape was beautiful, the soil rich, and in a short time some land was cleared and a crop of corn and vegetables raised. The struggle for life and its few com- forts was in this wilderness a very hard one, and none but those of the most vigorous constitution could succeed. The trials, privations, and hardships incident to clearing, break- ing up, and subduing the soil and establishing a home, so far away from all the necessaries of life, taxed the strength and endurance of all to the utmost. Bears, deer and other sorts of wild game were abundant, and contributed largely to the support of the family. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 19 Mrs. Lincoln, the mother of the President, is said to have been in her youth a woman of beauty. She was by nature refined, and of far more than ordinary intellect. Her friends spoke of her as being a person of marked and decided char- acter. She was unusually intelligent, reading all the books she could obtain. She taught her husband, as well as her son Abraham, to read and write. 1 She was a woman of deep religious feeling, of the most exemplary character, and most tenderly and affectionately devoted to her family. Her home indicated a degree of taste and a love of beauty excep- tional in the wild settlement in which she lived, and, judg- ing from her early death, it is probable that she was of a physique less hardy than that of most of those by whom she was surrounded. But in spite of this she had been reared where the very means of existence were to be obtained but by a constant struggle, and she had learned to use the rifle and the tools of the backwoods farmer, as well as the distaff, the cards, and the spinning wheel. She could not only kill the wild game of the woods, but she could also dress it, make of the skins clothes for her family and prepare the flesh for food. Hers was a strong, self-reliant spirit, which com- manded the respect as well as the love of the rugged peo- ple among whom she lived. She died on the 5th of Octo- ber, 1818, aged thirty-five years. Two children, Abraham, and his sister, Sarah, alone survived her. The country burying-ground where she was laid, half a mile from their log cabin home, had been selected perhaps by herself, and was situated on the top of a forest-covered hill. There, beneath the dark shade of the woods, and under a majestic sycamore, they dug the grave of the mother of Abraham Lincoln. The funeral ceremonies were very plain and simple, but solemn withal, for nowhere does death seem so deeply impressive as in such a solitude. At the time no clergyman could be found in or near the settle- ment to perform the usual religious rites. But this devoted mother had carefully instructed Abraham to read the Bible, 1. John Hanks. 2O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and to write; and perhaps the first practical use the boy made of the acquisition was to write a letter to David Elkin, a traveling preacher whom the family had known in Ken- tucky, begging him to come and perform religious services over his mother's grave. The preacher came, but not until some months afterwards, traveling many miles on horseback through the wild forest to reach their residence; and then the family, with a few friends and neighbors, gathered in the open air under the great sycamore beneath which they had laid the mother's remains. A funeral sermon was preached, hymns were sung, and such rude but sincere and impressive services were held as are usual among the pioneers of the frontier. His mother's death and these sad and solemn rites made an impression on the mind of the son as lasting as life. She had found time amidst her weary toil and the hard struggle of her busy life, not only to teach him to read and to write, but to impress ineffaceably upon him that love of truth and justice, that perfect integrity and reverence for God, for which he was noted all his life. These virtues were ever associated in his mind with the most tender love and respect for his mother. " All that I am, or hope to be," he said, " I owe to my angel mother." The common free schools which now so closely follow the heels of the pioneer and settler in the western portions of the republic had not then reached Indiana. An itinerant teacher sometimes " straggled " into a settlement, and if he could teach "readin', writin', and cipherin'" to the rule of three, he was deemed qualified to set up a school. With teachers thus qualified, Lincoln attended school at different times; in all about twelve months. Among anecdotes re- lating to this period, there is one that peculiarly illustrates his kindness and his readiness of invention. A poor, diffi- dent girl, who spelled definite with a y, was threatened and frightened by the rude teacher. Lincoln, with a significant look, putting one of his long fingers to his eye, enabled her to change the letter in time to escape punishment. He ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 21 early manifested the most eager desire to learn. He acquired knowledge with great facility. What he learned he learned thoroughly, and everything he had once acquired was always at his command. There were no libraries, and but few books, in the " back settlements " in which he lived. Among the few volumes which he found in the cabins of the illiterate families by which he was surrounded were the Bible, Bunyan's " Pil- grim's Progress," Weems' "Life of Washington," and the poems of Robert Burns. These he read over and over again, until they became as familiar as the alphabet. The Bible has been at all times the one book in every home and cabin in the republic; yet it was truly said of Lincoln that no man, clergyman or otherwise, could be found so familiar with this book as he. This is apparent, both in his conversation and his writings. There is hardly a speech or state paper of his in which allusions and illustrations taken from the Bible do not appear. Burns he could quote from end to end. Long afterwards he wrote a most able lecture upon this, perhaps next to Shakespeare, his favorite poet. His father afterwards married Mrs. Sally Johnson, of Kentucky, a widow with three children. She was a noble woman, sensible, affectionate, and tenderly attached to her step-son. She says of him: " He read diligently. * * * He read everything he could lay his hands on, and when he came across a passage that struck him, he would write it down on boards, if he had no paper, and keep it until he had got paper. Then he would copy it, look at it, commit it to memory, and repeat it." He kept a scrap-book, into which he copied everything which particularly pleased him. His step-mother adds: " He never gave me a cross word or look, and never refused, in fact or appearance, to do any- thing I requested of him." He loved to study more than to hunt, although his skill with the rifle was well known, for while yet a boy he had brought down with his father's rifle, a wild turkey at which he had shot through an opening between the logs of the cabin. 22 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The family consisted now of his father and step-mother, his sister Sarah, sometimes called Nancy, the three chil- dren of his step-mother, and himself. The names of Mrs. Johnson's children were John, Sarah, and Alexander. They air went to school together, sometimes walking four or five miles, and taking with them for their dinner, cakes made of the coarse meal of the Indian corn (maize), and known as "corn dodgers." The settlers used the phrase "corn dodgers and common doings," to indicate ordinary fare, as distinguished from the luxury of " white bread and chicken fixings." In these years he wore a cap made from the skin of the coon or squirrel, buckskin breeches, a hunting shirt of deerskin, or a linsey-woolsey shirt, and very coarse cow- hide shoes. His food was the "corn dodger " and the game of the forests and prairies. The tools he most constantly used were the axe, the maul, the hoe and the plough. His life was one of constant and hard manual labor. The settlers on the frontier, both in Indiana and Illinois, whose homes dotted the edges of the timber, or were pitched along the banks of streams, were so far apart at that time that they could rarely see the smoke from each other's cabins. The mother with her own hands carded and spun the rolls of flax and wool on her own spinning-wheel. She and her daughters wove the cloth, dyed it, and made up the garments her children wore. The utensils of the farm and the furniture of the cabin were rude, primitive, and often home-made. Pewter plates and wooden trenchers were used. The tea and coffee cups were made of japanned tin; these, and the shells of the gourd, were the usual drinking-vessels. In those days Lincoln ate his "Milk and bread With pewter spoon and bowl of wood, On the door-stone, gray and rude." The wild thorn and the acacia furnished a good substitute for pins. The axe, the rifle, the maul, and the plough were the farmer's tools and means of livelihood. Every child, ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 23 boy or girl, was early trained to habits of industry. The people were kind and neighborly, always ready to help one another, and were frugal, industrious, and moral. There was a quick sense of justice among them. No gross w.rong, fraud, or injustice, but was promptly punished, and, if too often repeated, the offender was expelled from the com- munity. Young Abraham borrowed of the neighbors and read every book" he could hear of in the settlement within a wide circuit. If by chance he heard of a book that he had not read, he would walk many miles to borrow it. Among other volumes, he borrowed of one Crawford, Weems' " Life of Washington." Reading it with the greatest eagerness, he took it to bed with him in the loft of the cabin, and read on until his nubbin of tallow candle had burned out. Then he placed the book between the logs of the cabin, that it might be at hand as soon as there was light enough in the morn- ing to enable him to read. But during the night a violent rain came on, and he awoke to find his book wet through and through. Drying it as well as he could, he went to Crawford and told him of the mishap, and, as he had no money to pay for it, offered to work out the value of the injured volume. Crawford fixed the price at three days' work, and the future President pulled corn three days, and thus became the owner of the fascinating book. He thought the labor well invested. He read, over and over again, this graphic and enthusiastic sketch of Washington's career, and no boy ever turned over the pages of Cooper's "Leather Stocking Tales " with more intense delight than that with which Lincoln read of the exploits and adventures and vir- tues of this American hero. Following his plough in break- ing the prairie, he pondered over the story of Washington and longed to imitate him. Perhaps there is no biography in the language better calculated to exert a lasting influence on an ingenuous and ambitious boy, situated as he then was, than this of Weems'. Its enthusiasm was contagious, and 24 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lincoln began to dream of being himself a doer of great deeds. Why might not he also be a soldier and a patriot ? Bred in solitude, brooding and thoughtful, he began very early to study the means of success, and to prepare himself for a life which, as we shall see by and by, he early had a presentiment was to be an eventful one. He now set himself resolutely to learn, to educate him- self. It has been a matter of surprise that, with such meagre opportunities, he became a man of such general intelligence and culture. But when it is remembered that, united with an intense desire to learn, he had great facility in acquisition; that he early formed the important habit of learning thor- oughly and going to the bottom of everything he studied; and that his memory was both ready and tenacious enough to enable him to retain forever what he had once learned; it will not seem so surprising. His habits of study, of con- stant investigation and acquisition, he retained up to the day of his death. He studied Euclid, Algebra, and Latin, when traveling the circuit as a lawyer. He began early to exercise himself in writing prose and in making speeches. One of the companions of his boyhood says: " He was always read- ing, writing, cyphering, writing poetry." " He would go to the store of an afternoon and evening, and his jokes and stories were so odd, so witty, so humorous, that all the peo- ple of the town would gather around him." ' * * * * "He would sometimes keep his crowd until midnight." 1 " He was a great reader, and a good talker." In after life, when pronouncing a eulogy on Henry Clay, whose opportunities for education at schools were little bet- ter than his own, Lincoln said: "His example teaches us that one can scarcely be so poor, but that, if he will, he can acquire sufficient education to get through the world respectably." A truth of which he himself furnished a still more striking illustration. 1. Dennis Hanks. 2. " I would get tired, want to go home, curse him for staying." Dennis Hanks. 8. See Lincoln's Eulogy on Henry Clay, In July, 1852. ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 25 In practicing his speeches on political and other subjects, he made them so amusing and attractive that his father had to forbid his speaking during working hours, " for," said he, "when Abe begins to speak, all the hands flock to hear him." He attended court at Boonville, the county seat of War- wick County, to witness a trial for murder, at which one of the Breckenridges, from Kentucky, made a very eloquent speech for the defence. The boy was carried away with intense admiration, and was so enthusiastic, that, although a perfect stranger, he could not refrain from expressing his admiration to Breckenridge. He wished he could be a law- yer, and went home and dreamed of courts, and got up mock trials, at which he would defend imaginary prisoners. Several of his companions at this period of his life, as well as those who knew him after he went to Illinois, declare that he was often heard to say, not in joke, but seriously, as if he were deeply impressed, rather than elated with the idea: " I shall some day be President of the United States." * In March, 1826, Lincoln was seventeen years old. At that time, from specimens of his writing in the possession of the author, he wrote a clear, neat, legible hand, which is instantly and easily recognized as his by those familiar with Lincoln's handwriting when President. He was quick at figures, and could readily and accurately solve any and all problems of arithmetic up to, and including, the " rule of three." * He studied, at about this time, the theory of surveying. Afterwards, and after his removal to Illinois, 1. I have myself beard from many of Lincoln's old friends, that be often said, while still an obscure man : " Some day I shall be President " He undoubtedly bad, for years, some presentiment of this. 2. I have In my possession, a few pages from bis manuscript " Book of Exam- ples in Arithmetic." One of these Is dated March 1, 1S26, and headed "Discount," and then follows In his careful handwriting, .first; "A definition of Discount," second; " Rules for Its computation," third; " Proofs and Various Examples," worked out In figures etc.; then " Interest on money" Is treated In the same way, all In his own handwriting. I doubt whether It would be easy to find among scholars of our common or high schools, or any school of boys of the age of seventeen, a better written speci- men of this son of work, or a better knowledge of figures than is indicated by tola book of Lincoln's, written at the age of seventeen. 26 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. as we shall see, he became like Washington, a good practical surveyor. 1 In the spring of 1828, young Lincoln, in the employ of the proprietor of Gentryville, and in company with Allen, a son of Mr. Gentry, made a trip to New Orleans. They made the descent of the Mississippi in a flat-boat loaded with bacon and other farm produce. This was his first opportunity of seeing the world outside of the Irttle settle- ment in which he lived. Having disposed very successfully of their cargo and boat, the young adventurers returned home by steamboat. Living thus on the extreme frontier, mingling with the rude, hard-working, simple, honest backwoodsmen, while he soon became superior in knowledge to all around him, he was at the same time an expert in the use of every imple- ment of agriculture and woodcraft. As an axe-man he was. unequalled. He grew up strong in body, healthful in mind, with no bad habits, no stain of intemperance, profanity or vice. He used neither tobacco nor intoxicating drinks, and 1 thus living, he grew to be six feet and four inches high, and a giant in strength. In all athletic sports he had no equal. His comrades say " he could strike the hardest blow with axe or maul, jump higher and further, run faster than any of his fellows, and there was no one, far or near, could lay him on his back."* Among these rough people he was always popular. He- early developed that wonderful power of narration and story- telling, for which he was all his life distinguished. This, and his kindness and good-nature, made him a welcome guest at every fireside and in every cabin. A well authenticated inci- dent illustrating his kindness occurred while he lived near 1. I have also In my possession, the book from which he learned the art of sur- veying. It la entitled, "The Theory and Practice of Surveying, by Robert Gibson." It was published by Evert Duycklnck, New York, In 1814, as appears from the title- page. Lincoln's name, In his own handwriting, appears In several places and on blank, leaves of the book. 2. " He could strike with an axe," says old Mr. Wood, " a heavier blow than any man." * "He could sink an axe deeper than any of his fellows.* ANCESTRY AND EARLY LIFE. 2 J Gentryville. Going home with a companion, late on a cold night, they found an acquaintance dead drunk in the road. Although his companion refused assistance, young Lincoln would not leave the drunken man, but, lifting him in his long, stalwart arms to his shoulders, he carried him a con- siderable distance to the cabin of Dennis Hanks, and there warmed him and brought him to consciousness. The poor fellow often afterwards: declared : " Abe Lincoln's strength and kindness saved my life." CHAPTER II. LIFE AT NEW SALEM. THE LINCOLN FAMILY REMOVE TO ILLINOIS. ABRAHAM'S SECOND TRIP TO NEW ORLEANS. LIFE AT NEW SALEM. JACK ARM- ' STRONG AND THE CLARY GROVE BOYS. BLACK HAWK WAR. LINCOLN ACQUIRES THE NAME OF " HONEST ABE." POSTMASTER AT SALEM. TRUST FUNDS. STUDIES LAW. A SURVEYOR. STORY OF ANNE RUTLEDGE. ELECTED TO THE LEGISLATURE. IN the spring of 1830, the Lincoln family removed from Indiana to Illinois, and settled near Decatur, in Macon County. The family and their personal effects were trans- ported by an ox-team, consisting of four yoke of oxen, which were driven by the future President. Young Lincoln helped to build a cabin for his father, and to break up, fence, and plant a portion of the farm splitting the rails for the enclosure himself. He was now in his twenty-second year, and living in the land of the Illinii, which signifies the land of full grown men ; as an example of such in size, strength, and capacity, one might search the country through and not find his equal. Up to this time all his earnings, with the exception of his own very frugal sup- port, had gone to the maintenance of his father and family. Ambitious to make his way in the world, he now asked per- mission to strike out for himself, and to seek his own fortune. His father, after several changes, finally settled near "Goosenest Prairie," in Coles County. There he made his home, until his death, in 1851, at the age of seventy-three. He lived to see his son one of the most prominent lawyers, 28 LIFE AT NEW SALEM. 2O ^ and one of the most distinguished men of the state. During his life this son was continually performing for him acts of kindness and generosity. He shared in the prosperity, and his pride was gratified in the rising fortunes of his son, who often sent money and other presents to his father and mother, bought land for them, and always treated them with the kind- est consideration. When, in 1830, Lincoln became a citizen of Illinois, this great commonwealth, now the third or fourth state in the Union, and treading fast upon the heels of Ohio and Penn- sylvania, was on the frontier, with a population a little exceed- ing one hundred and fifty thousand. In 1860, when Lincoln was elected President, it had nearly two millions, and was rapidly becoming the center of the republic. Perhaps he was fortunate in selecting Illinois as his home. Touching on the northeast the vast chain of lakes through which passes to the Hudson and to the St. Lawrence the commerce of the valley of the Mississippi, and having that river along its entire western boundary, more than five hundred miles in length ; on the south the Ohio, reaching eastward to the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia ; while from the west comes to its shores the Missouri, bring- ing for three thousand miles the waters of the springs of the Rocky Mountains ; this was the Illinois in which he settled ; then a wilderness, but destined to become in the near future the keystone of the Federal arch. Being thus situated, the National Union was to this state an obvious necessity, and Lincoln, as we shall see, early and always recognized this fact. He realized that his own state, with its vast products, must seek the markets of the world by the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as by the Great Lakes and the Hudson, but never through foreign territory. He early declared that no foreign flag or custom house must ever inter- vene between Illinois and salt water. To these lakes and rivers encircling her with their mighty arms, is Illinois indebted for her prosperity. Her rich soil, her emerald prai- ries, her streams fringed with stately forests, have made her 3O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the emigrant's paradise. And this land so attractive and beautiful, lacked not the charm of early historic association. Before Penn had pitched his tent on the banks of the Dela- ware, LaSalle had found his way around the chain of lakes to Chicago, and erected Fort St. Louis on the banks of the Illinois. The settlement of Kaskaskia and Cahokia was contemporaneous with the founding of Philadelphia. Young Lincoln, although a thoughtful, dreamy youth, would, when brooding over the future, have been almost as unlikely to anticipate the marvelous growth of the state, as to foresee his own still more wonderful elevation. When the sturdy blows of his axe resounded through the primeval forests, or while he lay on the grass at his nooning, with his ear to the earth, one would like to know whether he heard " The sound of that advancing multitude, Which soon should fill these deserts ; from the ground Come up the laugh of children, the soft voice Of maidens, and the sweet and solemn hymn Of Sabbath worshippers." Did he hear this ? If so, he was soon awakened to the stern necessities of the hour. Day dreams would bring neither food nor clothing. Leaving his father's cabin and seeking abroad for employ- ment, he was engaged by one Denton Offutt to aid in taking a flat-boat loaded with provisions to New Orleans. In April, 1831, the boat reached New Salem, on the Sangamon, and lodged on the dam which had been erected across the stream. When the owner had given up all hope of being able to get the craft over the dam, Lincoln, by the exercise of that inge- nuity of invention for which he was ever distinguished, de- vised a means for the extrication of the boat, and it passed on safely to the Illinois and down the Mississippi to New Orleans. On this his second visit, he for the first time observed slavery in its most brutal and revolting form. New Orleans was a slave mart, and his companion 1 reports that Lincoln then 1. John Hanks. LIFE AT NEW SALEM. 3 I witnessed for the first time the spectacle of the chaining together and whipping of slaves. He saw families sold, the separation forever of husband and wife, of parent and child. When we recall how deeply he always sympathized with suffering, brute as well as human, and his strong love of justice, we can realize how deeply he was affected by these things. His companions on this trip to New Orleans have attempted to describe his indignation and grief. They said, " his heart bled," * * * "he was mad, thoughtful, abstracted, sad and depressed." Lincoln often declared to his intimate friends that he was from boyhood superstitious. He said that the near approach of the important events in his life were indicated by a presentiment or a strange dream, or in some other mysterious way it was impressed upon him that something important was to occur. There is a tradition that on this visit to New Orleans he and his companion, John Hanks, visited an old fortune teller, a Voudou negress. Tradition says that during the interview she became very much excited, and after various predictions exclaimed: "You will be President, and all the negroes will be free." That the old Voudou negress should have foretold that the visitor would be President is not at all incredible. She doubtless told this to many aspiring lads, but the prophecy of the free- dom of the slaves requires confirmation. 1 On his return from New Orleans, in July, 1831, he was employed by Off utt to take charge of a country store at New I. The author wrote to William H. Herndon, the partner of the President, Inqulr . tog If he had heard of the tradition referred to In the text. In the reply, dated Octo- ber 21, 1882, Herndon said: " It seems to me just now that I once heard of the fortune- telling story, but can not state when I heard it, nor from whom I got It. It seems that John Hanks, who was with Lincoln at New Orleans in 1831, told me the story. At that time and place Lincoln was made an anti-slavery man. He saw a slave, a beautiful mulatto girl, sold at auction. She was/ett oner, pinched, trotted around to show to bidders that said article was sound, etc. Lincoln walked away from the sad, Inhuman scene with a deep feeling of unsmotheraWeb&te. He said to John Hanks this: 'By God! If I ever get a chance to hit that institution, I'll hit It hard, John.' He got his chance, and did hit it hard. John Hanks, who was two or three times examined by me, told me the above facts about the negro girl and Lincoln's declara- tion. There Is no doubt about this. As to the fortune-telling story, I do not affirm anything or deny anything." 32 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Salem, a small village near the Sangamon River. In Aug- ust of the same year, he acted as clerk of the election. He remained as a salesman with Offutt until the spring of 1832. He was a great favorite, both with his employer and his cus- tomers. Anecdotes of his scrupulous honesty and his bravery in protecting women from annoyance by bullies, are so numerous that we have not space to relate them. Offutt often declared that his clerk, or salesman, knew more than any man in the United States, and that he could outrun, whip or throw any man in the county. These boasts came to the ears of " The Clary Grove Boys," a set of rude, roy- stering, good-natured fellows, who lived in and around " Clary's Grove," a settlement near New Salem. Their leader was Jack Armstrong, a great, square-built fellow, strong as an ox, and who was believed by his partisans to be able to whip any man on the Sangamon River. The issue was thus made between Lincoln and Armstrong as to which was the better man, and although Lincoln tried to avoid such contests, nothing but an actual trial could settle the question among their partisans. And so they met and wrestled for some time, without any decided advantage on either side. Finally Jack resorted to some foul play which roused Lin- coln's indignation. Putting forth his whole strength, he seized the great bully by the throat, and holding him at arm's length, shook him like a boy. The "Clary Grove Boys," who made up most of the crowd of the lookers-on, were ready to pitch in, on behalf of their champion, and a general onslaught upon Lincoln was threatened. Lincoln backed up against Offutt's store, and was ready, calmly awaiting the attack of the whole crowd. But his cool courage touched the manhood of Jack Armstrong. He stepped forward, seized Lincoln's hand and shook it heartily as he declared; "Boys! Abe Lincoln is the best fellow that ever broke into this settlement. He shall be one of us." From that time on, Jack Armstrong was Lincoln's man and his most willing thrall. His hand, his table, his purse, his vote, and that of the " Clary Grove Boys," belonged to Lincoln. Lincoln's LIFE AT NEW SALEM. 33 popularity with them was unbounded, and his rule was just. He would have fair play, and he repressed the violence and brutality of these rough fellows to an extent which would have been impossible to another man. He could stop a fight and quell a riot among these rude neighbors when all others failed. What made Lincoln so popular with the " Clary Grove Boys " ? He did not use tobacco, nor drink, nor gamble, nor fight except when he was obliged to, and yet the rough fellows almost worshipped him. Why ? He was brave, he could fight, and physically he was .their superior, but he indulged in none of their vices, nor did he flatter them. Although he was their companion, he made them respect him. He treated them like men, and always brought out the best there was in them. They felt his moral and intellectual superiority, but they also felt that he did not despise them, and that he sympathized with them. In a certain sense he was one of them, but he was their ideal, their hero. A fellow-clerk in Offutt's store, a Mr. Green, declares that Lincoln's talk showed that he was, even then, dreaming of " a great life, and a great destiny." He, at this time, although extremely poor, took, and read, the Louisville Jour- nal, edited by George D. Prentice, a man who for wit and repartee has, perhaps, never had his superior among the edi- tors of the United States. In the spring of 1832, Offutt having failed, Lincoln was again out of employment. During the spring and summer, great excitement and alarm prevailed in Northern Illinois, on account of the Black Hawk war. There is nowhere a more beautiful, fertile, and picturesque valley, than the valley of Rock River, in Northern Illinois. It had been the hunt- ing-ground and home of the Sac tribe of Indians of which Black Hawk was the chief. The tribe for several years had been living on their reservation, west of the Mississippi, but this brave warrior and skillful leader, uniting several tribes under his leadership, determined to return to the old home, and re-occupy the old hunting-grounds. Crossing the Miss- 3 34 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. . issippi with his warriors, several white families were mur- dered, and the whole state was alarmed. John Reynolds, Governor of Illinois, issued his proclamation, calling for vol- unteers to help the Federal troops drive the Indians out of the state. Lincoln promptly volunteered, and his friends, the " Clary Grove Boys," soon made up a company. The volunteers gathered at Rushville, in Schuyler Coun- ty, at which place they were to be organized and elected officers. Lincoln was a candidate for the place of captain, and in opposition to him was one William Kirkpatrick. The mode of election was novel. By agreement, each candidate walked off to some distance, and took position by himself ; the men were then to form, and those who voted for Lin- coln were to stand in a line with him, and those who voted for Kirkpatrick to range on a line with their candidate. When the lines were formed, Lincoln's was three times as long as that of Kirkpatrick, and so Lincoln was declared elected. Speaking of this when President, he said that he was more gratified with this, his first success, than with any other election of his life. Neither Lincoln nor his company was in any engagement during the campaign, but there was plenty of hardship and fatigue, and some incidents occurred to illustrate his courage and power over men. Perhaps the most notable event in the campaign, so far as Captain Lin- coln was concerned, was his determined and successful effort to save the life of an Indian from the infuriated soldiers. One day there came into camp, a, poor, old, hungry Indian. He had in his possession, General Cass's " safe-con- duct," and certificate of friendship for the whites. But this he did not at first show, and the soldiers, suspecting him to be a spy, and exasperated by the late Indian barbarities, with the recent horrible murder by the Indians of some women and children still fresh in their minds, were about to kill him. Many of these soldiers were Kentuckians with the hereditary Indian hatred, and some, like their captain, could recall the murder by the red men, of some ancestor, or other member of their own families. In a phrensy of excitement LIFE AT NEW SALEM. 35 and blind rage, they believed, or affected to believe, that the " safe-conduct " of the old Indian, which was now produced, was d forgery, and they were approaching the old savage, with muskets cocked, to dispatch him, when Lincoln rushed forward, knocked up their weapons, and standing in front of the victim, in a determined voice ordered them not to fire, declaring that the Indian should not be killed. The mob, their passions fully roused, were not so easily to be restrained. Lincoln stood for a moment between the Indian and a dozen muskets, and, for a few seconds, it seemed doubtful whether both would not be shot down. After a pause, the militia reluctantly, and like bull-dogs leaving their prey, lowered their weapons and sullenly turned away. Bill Green, an old comrade, said: "I never in all my life saw Lincoln so roused before." The time for which the company had volunteered having expired, the men were discharged. But Black Hawk and his warriors being still east of the Mississippi, Governor Rey- nolds issued a second call for troops, and Lincoln at once responded by volunteering again, and this time he served as a private in a company of which Elijah lies, of Springfield, was elected captain. This company did service as a company of mounted rangers, and in it Lincoln served until the close of the war. Here he met as a fellow soldier, John T. Stuart, afterwards member of Congress, and others, who became prominent citizens of Illinois. 1 In their camp on the banks of Rock River, near where the city of Dixon is now situated, there met at this time, 1. In a letter to the author, dated Springfield, Ills., December 7, 1868, Captain DCS says: * * " I have yours asking whether Mr. Lincoln was a member of my com- pany In the Black Hawk war, etc. In reply, I answer he was a member of my company during a portion of the time, and received an honorable discharge. The first call for volunteers, Mr. Lincoln volunteered, and was elected captain. The term of Governor Reynolds' first call being about to expire, he made a second call and the first was then disbanded. * * * I was elected a captain of one of the companies. I had aa members of my company, General James D. Henry, John T. Stuart, and A. Lincoln, and we were mustered Into the service on the 29th of May, 1832, by Lieutenant Robert Anderson, Assistant Inspector General. We reported to Colonel Zachary Taylor, at Dlxon's Ferry (on Rock River). Mr. Lincoln remained with the company to the close of the war." 36 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lieutenant Colonel Zachary Taylor, Lieutenant Jefferson Davis, Lieutenant Robert Anderson, and private Abraham Lincoln of Captain Iles's company of Illinois Mounted Rangers. 1 Lincoln and Anderson did not meet again until sometime in 1 86 1, and after Major Anderson had evacuated Fort Sumter. He then visited Washington, and called at the White House to pay his respects to the President. After having expressed his thanks to Anderson for his conduct in South Carolina, Mr. Lincoln said: " Major, do you remem- ber of ever meeting me before ? " " No, Mr. President, I have no recollection of ever having had the pleasure before." " My memory is better than yours," said Mr. Lincoln. " You mustered me into the service of the United States, in 1832, at Dixon's Ferry, in the Black Hawk war." Father Dixon, who, as below stated, was attached to this company of mounted rangers as guide, says that in their marches, when approaching a grove or depression in which an Indian ambush might be concealed, and when scouts were sent forward to examine the cover, Lincoln was often selected for that duty, and he adds that while many, as they approached the place of suspected ambush, found an excuse for dismounting to adjust girths or saddles, Lincoln's saddle was always in order. He also states that at evening, when off duty, Lincoln was generally found sitting on the grass, with a group of soldiers eagerly listening to the stories of 1. John Dlxon, who then kept the ferry across Rock River, was a guide attached to the troops. The Indians gave him the name of ya-cliu-sa, or " White-Head." He told the author of the curious meeting mentioned In the text. 2. The author happened to be present at this interview. Colonel Robert Ander- son, In a manuscript sketch of the Black Hawk war, now before me, dated May 10, 1870, and addressed to the Hon. E. B. Washburne, to whom the manuscript belongs, Bays : "I also mustered Abraham Lincoln twice Into the service, and once out. He was a member of two of the Independent Companies. * * I mustered him into the service at the mouth of Fox River (Ottawa), May 29, 1832, In Captain Elijah Iles's company. I have no recollection of Mr. Lincoln, but when President he reminded me of it. * * * William S. Hamilton, son of Alexander Hamilton, joined us with a small party of friendly Indians. * The Rock River country was beautiful beyond description, surpassing any thing I' ever saw in our country, Mexico, or ID Europe." LIFE AT NEW SALEM. which his supply seemed inexhaustible, and that he invariably declined the whiskey which his comrades, grateful for the amusement he afforded, pressed upon him. When a member of Congress, Mr. Lincoln made a very amusing campaign speech, in which, alluding to the custom of exaggerating the military service of candidates, and ridiculing the extravagant claims to heroism set up for General Lewis Cass, then a candidate for the Presidency against General Zachary Taylor, he referred with great good humor to his own services in the Black Hawk war in the following terms: o ' ' By the way, Mr. Speaker, did you know I am a military hero ? Yes, sir; in the days of the Black Hawk war I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of General Cass's career reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's defeat, but I was about as near it as Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the place very soon afterwards. It is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had none to break; but I bent my musket pretty badly on one occasion. If Cass broke his sword, the idea is he broke it in desperation. I bent my musket by accident. If General Cass went in advance of me in picking whortle- berries, I guess I surpassed him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live fighting Indians, it was more than I did ; but I had a good many bloody struggles with the musquitoes, and, although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry. Mr. Speaker, if I should ever conclude to doff whatever our democratic friends may suppose there is of black-cockade federalism about me, and thereupon they shall take me up as their candidate for the Presidency, I protest they shall not make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by attempting to write me into a military hero." The volunteers returned from the Black Hawk war a short time before the state election. In this expedition Lincoln had rendered himself so popular that his comrades and others insisted upon his being a candidate for the Legislature. Although not elected, he received the unani- mous vote of New Salem. For member of Congress both candidates together received 206 votes, while Lincoln alone received 207 votes for the Legislature. Left again without employment, he was induced, in asso- ciation with one Berry as partner, to become the purchaser 38 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of a small store at New Salem. Berry turned out to be a dissipated, worthless fellow, and within a few months the enterprise failed, leaving Lincoln responsible for the purchase money. It was six years before he was able entirely to pay off the liabilities thus incurred. It was while he was salesman for Offutt, and proprietor of this little store, that Mr. Lincoln acquired the sobriquet of " Honest Abe." Of many incidents illustrating his integ- rity one or two may be mentioned. One evening he found his cash overrun a little, and he discovered that in making change for his last customer, an old woman who had come in a little before sundown, he had made a mistake, not having given her quite enough. Although the amount was small, a few cents only, he took the money, immediately walked to her house, and corrected the error. At another time, on his arrival at the store in the morning, he found on the scales a weight which he remembered having used just before closing, but which was not the one he had intended to use. He had sold a parcel of tea, and in the hurry had placed the wrong weight on the scales, so that the purchaser had a few ounces less of tea than had been paid for. He immediately sent the quantity required to make up the deficiency. These and many similar incidents are told, exhibiting his scrupu- lous honesty in the most trifling matters, and for these the people gave him the name which clung to him through life. In the course of the great debate between Lincoln and Douglas, in 1858, at their joint discussion at Ottawa, Doug- las alluded to Lincoln's store-keeping. He said : " I have known him for nearly twenty-four years. There were many points of sympathy between us. When we first got acquainted, I was a school-teacher at Winchester, and he a flourishing grocery-keeper at Salem." * * * " He soon got into the Legislature. I met him then, and had a sympathy with him because of the up-hill struggle we both had in life." 1 On the yth of May, 1833, he was appointed postmaster at New Salem. This was a small office with a weekly mail. 1. Lincoln and Douglas Debates, p. 69. LIFE AT NEW SALEM. -in O 7 He kept the office until the station was discontinued and the place of delivery changed to Petersburg. The balance in his hands at the time of the discontinuance of the office was sixteen or eighteen dollars. This small sum was perhaps overlooked by the post-office department and was not called for until some years after Lincoln had removed to Spring- field. During these years he had been in debt and very poor. So poor, indeed, that he had often been compelled to borrow money of his friends to pay for the very necessa- ries of life. One day an agent of the post-office called on Dr. Henry, with whom Lincoln at that time kept his law office. Knowing Mr. Lincoln's poverty, and how often he had been pressed for money, Henry says: 1 "I did not believe he had the money on hand to meet the draft, and I was about to call him aside and loan him the money, when he asked the agent to be seated a moment, while he went over to his trunk at his boarding-house, and returned with an old blue sock with a quantity of silver and copper coin tied up in it. Untying the sock, he poured the contents on the table and proceeded to count the coin, which consisted of such silver and copper pieces as the country-people were then in the habit of using in paying postage. On counting it up there was found the exact amount, to a cent, of the draft, and in the identical coin which had been received. He never used, under any circumstances, trust funds." The anecdote will recall an incident narrated by Sir Walter Scott, in the famous "Chronicles of the Canongate."* On the return of Craftengry, who had been absent twenty years, honest " Shanet," in triumph, hands him the fifteen shillings, she has kept sacred for him, saying: " Here they are, and Shanet has had siller, and Shanet has wanted siller, mony a time since that. The gauger has come, and the factor has come, and the butcher, and the baker. Cot bless us just like to tear poor ould Shanet to pieces, but she took good 1. Dr. Henry gave me the details of this Incident at Washington when Mr. L. President. 2. " Waverley Novels," Black's Ed., v. 19, p. 384. 4 three very prominent men were the whig candidates, Lincoln, Edward D. Baker, and John J. Hardin. Baker carried the delegation from Sangamon County, and Lincoln was one of the delegates to the Con- gressional Convention, and was instructed to vote for Baker. He took his defeat with good humor, saying, when he tried to nominate Baker : " I shall be fixed a good deal like the fellow MISCELLANEOUS SPEECHES AND MARRIAGE. 73 who is made groomsman to the man who cut him out, and is marrying his own girl." l On this occasion Hardin, of Morgan County, was nominated and elected. In 1843, Baker was nominated and elected, and, in 1846, Lincoln was elected. Of these four members of Congress, Stuart alone survives, at the age of seventy-five years. The others all died by violence. Hardin was shot on the field of Buena Vista. Baker received a volley of bullets as he was leading his troops at Ball's Bluff, in Virginia, and Lincoln was assas- sinated. Mr. Lincoln's opponent on the democratic ticket for Congress, was the celebrated Methodist circuit preacher, Peter Cartwright. The democrats supposed that the back- woods preacher would " run " far ahead of his ticket, and might beat Lincoln. But it fell otherwise ; the " Sangamon Chief," as he was sometimes called, receiving a majority of sixteen hundred and eleven, a vote considerably greater than his party strength. In 1844, in the presidential contest between Clay and Polk, Lincoln, who had admired Clay from boyhood, was placed at the head of the electoral ticket, and canvassed with great zeal and ability, Illinois, and a part of Indiana for his favorite. In this campaign he again met the leaders of the democratic party, and especially Douglas, and added to his reputation as one of the ablest and most popular speakers of the Northwest. His chagrin and disappointment at the election of Polk was very great. The partnership between Judge Logan and Lincoln was, on the 2oth day of September, 1843, dissolved, and on the same day he formed a partnership with a young lawyer, William H. Herndon, a relative of one of his old Clary 1. Of Colonel Baker, the following incredible, but characteristic anecdote was current around the mess-table of the early circuit-riders and Judges of Central Illi- nois. Soon after he settled In Springfield, a friend found him in the woods, seated on a fallen tree, weeping bitterly. On being pressed to tell the cause of his grief, he said : " I have been reading the Constitution of the United States, and I find a provis- ion that none but native citizens can be President. I was born In England, and am Ineligible." 74 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Grove friends, which partnership continued until his election as President. A very amusing illustration of Lincoln's power to enter- tain in conversation was given the author by the late Judge Peck. 1 In June, 1842, the year after Martin Van Buren had left the presidential office, he and the late Secretary of the Navy, Mr. Paulding, made a journey to the West, and visited Illinois. The party on their way to the capital were delayed by bad roads, and compelled to spend the night at Rochester, some miles from Springfield. The accommoda- tions at this place were very poor, and a few of the ex-Presi- dent's Springfield friends, taking some refreshments, went out to meet him, and try and aid in entertaining him. Knowing Lincoln's ability as a talker and narrator of anec- dotes, they begged him to go with them, and aid in making their guest at the country inn pass the evening as pleas- antly as possible. Lincoln, with his usual good nature, went with them, and, on their arrival, entertained the party for hours with graphic descriptions of Western life, bar anecdotes, and witty stories. Judge Peck, who was of the party, and then a democrat, and a warm friend of the ex- President, says that Lincoln was at his best, and adds: "I never passed a more joyous night." There was a constant succession of brilliant anecdotes and funny stories, accom- panied by loud laughter in which Van Buren bore his full share. " He also," says the Judge, "gave us incidents and anecdotes of Elisha Williams, and other leading members of the New York Bar, and going back to the days of Hamilton and Burr altogether there was a right merry time, and Mr. Van Buren said the only drawback upon his enjoyment was that his sides were sore from laughing at Lincoln's stories for a week thereafter." 1. See also to the same effect the statement of the Hon. Joseph Glllesple, In the Lincoln Memorial Album, p. 461. "As a boon companion," says Judge Glllesple, " Lincoln, though he never drank a drop of liquor, nor used tobacco In any form in his life, was without a rival." MISCELLANEOUS SPEECHES AND MARRIAGE. 75 During Lincoln's administration, John Van Buren, son of President Van Buren, and distinguished alike for his bril- liant wit and his eloquence, visited Washington, and, dining with the President, the latter recalled and described to the son, the night which Van Buren and he had passed so pleas- antly at the country inn on the prairies of Illinois. CHAPTER V. CONGRESS AND THE BAR. LINCOLN TAKES His SEAT IN CONGRESS. His COLLEAGUES AND ASSOCIATES. How HE IMPRESSED THEM. His FIRST SPEECH. SPEECH ON THE MEXICAN WAR. DELEGATE TO NATIONAL CON- VENTION. His CAMPAIGN SPEECH. INTRODUCES BILL TO ABOL- ISH SLAVERY IN DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. SEEKS APPOINTMENT AS COMMISSIONER OF LAND OFFICE. DECLINES TO BE GOVERNOR OF OREGON. AT THE BAR. DEFENDS BILL ARMSTRONG. LINCOLN AS AN ADVOCATE, LAWYER AND ORATOR. IN December, 1847, Lincoln took his seat in Congress (the 3oth) the only whig member from Illinois. His great rival, Douglas, had already run a brilliant career in the House, and now for the first time had become a member of the United States Senate. These two had met at Vandalia, and in the Illinois Legislature had always been rivals, and each was now the acknowledged leader of his party. The democratic party had, since the year 1836, been strongly in the majority, and Douglas in his state, more than any other man, directed and controlled it. Among Lincoln's colleagues in Congress from Illinois, were John Wentworth, John A. McClernand ,and William A. Richardson. This Congress had among its members many very distinguished men. Amongthem were ex-President John Quincy Adams ; George Ashmun, who presided over the convention which nominated Lincoln for President; Caleb B. Smith, a member of his cab- inet ; John G. Palfrey, the historian of New England ; Rob- ert C. Winthrop, speaker ; Jacob Collamer, postmaster-gen- 76 CONGRESS AND THE BAR. 77 eral ; Andrew Johnson, elected Vice-President with Lincoln on his second election ; Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-Presi- dent of the Confederacy; besides Toombs, Rhett, Cobb, and other prominent leaders in the rebellion. In the Senate were Daniel Webster, John P. Hale, John A. Dix, Simon Cameron, Lewis Cass, Thomas H. Benton, John J. Crittenden, Mason and Hunter from Virginia, John C. Calhoun, and Jefferson Davis. Lincoln entered Congress as the leader of the whig party in Illinois, and with the rep- utation of being an able and effective popular speaker. It is curious to learn the impression which this prairie orator, with no college culture, made upon his associates. Robert C. Winthrop, a scholarly and conservative man, representing the intelligence of Boston, says, when writing thirty-four years thereafter : " I recall vividly the impressions I then formed, both of his ability and amiability. We were old whigs together, and agreed entirely upon all questions of public interest. I could not always concur in the policy of the party which made him President, but I never lost my personal regard for him. For shrewdness and sagacity, and keen practical sense, he has had no superior in our day and generation." ' The vice-president of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens, writing seventeen years after Lincoln's death, and recalling their service together in Congress, from 1847 to 1849, says : " I knew Mr. Lincoln well and intimately, and we were both ardent supporters of General Taylor for President in 1848. Mr. Lincoln, Toombs, Preston, myself and others, formed the first Congressional Tay- lor club, known as ' The Young Indians,' and organized the Taylor movement, which resulted in his nomination." * * * " Mr. Lincoln was careful as to his manners, awkward in his speech, but was possessed of a very strong, clear, vigorous mind." * * * " He always attracted and riveted the attention of the House when he spoke. His manner of speech as well as thought was original. He had no model. He was a man of strong convictions, and what Carlyle would have called an earnest man. He abounded in anec- 1. The Lincoln Memirlal Album, p. 165. 78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. dote. He illustrated everything he was talking about by an anecdote, always exceedingly apt and pointed, and socially he always kept his company in a roar of laughter." ' From the time they parted as members of the Taylor Club, until the Hampton Roads Conference in 1865, of which hereafter, these two remarkable men did not again meet. Lincoln took a more prominent part in the debates than is usual for new members. On the 8th of January, 1848, writing to his young partner, Herndon, he says: " By way of experiment, and of getting ' the hang of the house,' I made a little speech two or three days ago on a post-office question of no general interest." (He was second on the Committee of Post-offices and Post Roads.) "I find speak- ing here and elsewhere almost the same thing. I was about as badly scared, and no more than when I speak in court." Writing to his partner again soon after, he gave the young . gentleman some very good advice. " The way for a young man to rise," said he, " is to improve himself every way he can, never suspecting anybody wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you that suspicions and jealousy never did help any man in any station." And it may be truthfully added, as will hereafter appear, that no man was ever more free from these faults than Lincoln. On the 1 2th of January, 1848, he made an able and elaborate speech on the Mexican war, which established his reputation in Congress as an able debater. Douglas, long afterwards, in their joint debate at Ottawa, charged him with taking the side of the enemy against his own country in this Mexican war. To which Lincoln replied: " I was an old whig, and whenever the democratic party tried to get me to vote that the war had been righteously begun by the President, I would not do it. But when they asked money, or land warrants, or anything to pay the soldiers, I gave the same vote that Douglas did."* 1. Lincoln Memorial Album, p. 241. 8. Lincoln and Douglas debates. CONGRESS AND THE BAR. 79 He had offered resolutions calling on the President, Mr. Polk, for a statement of facts respecting the beginning of this war, and speaking to these resolutions said: "Let him answer, fully, fairly, and candidly. Let him remember he sits where Washington sat, and so remembering let him answer as Wash- ington would answer." * * "But if the President," he said, "trusting to escape scrutiny by fixing the public gaze upon the exceeding brightness of military glory, that attractive rainbow that rises in showers of blood, that serpent's eye that charms to destroy, plunged into it (the war) and was swept on and on till disappointed in the ease with which Mexico might be enslaved, he now finds himself he knows not where." On the 27th of July, after he had, as a delegate from Illinois, aided to nominate General Taylor for President, Lincoln made what is called a campaign speech to promote his election against Cass, the democratic candidate. For that purpose the speech was very effective. It is full of satire, sarcasm, and wit; some of it rather coarse, but it was designed to reach and influence a class of voters by whom coarse and keen illustrations would be appreciated. The following extract will exhibit its characteristics: " But in my hurry I was very near closing on the subject of military coat-tails before I was done with it. There is one entire article of the sort I have not discussed yet; I mean the military tail you democrats are now engaged in dovetailing on to the great Michigander. Yes, sir, all his biographers (and they are legion) have him in hand, tying him to a military tail, like so many mischievous boys tying a dog to a bladder of beans. True, the material they have is very limited, but they drive at it might and main. He mvaded Canada without resistance, and he out- vaded it without pursuit. As he did both under orders, I suppose there was to him credit in neither of them; but they are made to constitute a large part of the tail. He was volunteer aid to General Harrison on the day of the battle of the Thames, and as you said in 1840 that Harrison was picking whortleberries, two miles off, while the battle was fought, I suppose it is a just conclusion with you to say Cass was aiding Harrison to pick whortleberries. This is about all, except the mooted question of the broken sword. Some authors say he broke it; some say he threw it away, and some others, who ought to know, say nothing about it. Per- haps it would be a fair historical compromise to say, if he did not break it, he did not do anything else with it." 8O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lincoln entered into this presidential canvass very zeal- ously. Writing to Herndon to get up clubs and get the young men to join, he says: " Let every one play the part he can play the best. Some can speak, some sing, and all can hallo ! " He went to New York and New England, speaking often and earnestly for Taylor. Returning, he spoke with great effect in Illinois and other parts of the West during the can- vass. General Taylor's election inspired hopes that the extension of slavery might be stopped, and that the admin- istration might be brought back to the policy of prohibiting it in the territories. The most important and significant act of Lincoln at this Congress, was the introduction by him into the House, of a bill to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia. The bill provided that no person from without the District should be held to slavery within it, and that no person born thereafter within the District should be held to slavery. It provided for the gradual emancipation of all the slaves in the District, with compensation to their masters, and that the act should be submitted to a vote of the people of the District. He prepared the bill with reference to the condition of public sentiment at that time, and what was possible to be accom- plished. The bill represents what he hoped he could carry through Congress, and into a law, rather than his own abstract ideas of justice and right. He believed, as he had declared many times, and emphatically in his protest to the resolutions in the Illinois Legislature, that slavery was "unjust to the slave, impolitic to the nation," and he meant to do all in his power to restrict and get rid of it. Even this bill, mild as it was, would not be tolerated by the slave states, and their opposition was so decided and unanimous that he was not able even to bring it to a vote. He also at about this time voted against paying for slaves lost by officers in the Seminole war. His term as member of Congress expired March 4, 1849, and he was not a candi- date for re-election. CONGRESS AND THE BAR. 8 1 He sought an appointment as Commissioner of the Gen- eral Land Office from President Taylor, but, to the surprise of his friends, it was given to Justin Butterfield, a distin- guished lawyer from Chicago. The offices of secretary and governor of Oregon Territory were offered to him, but were declined. When it is remembered how very active and influential he had been in securing the nomination and election of Taylor, the failure of the administration to appoint him to the office which his friends asked, is strange, and it was a great disappointment. He did not hesitate to decline the appointment to Oregon, conscious, perhaps, that there was a great work for him to do on this side of the Rocky Mountains. After he became President, the member of Congress rep- resenting the Chicago district, in behalf of a son of Mr. Butterfield, asked for an appointment in the army. When the application was presented, the President paused, and after a moment's silence, said: " Mr. Justin Butterfield once obtained an appointment I very much wanted, and in which my friends believed I could have been useful, and to which they thought I was fairly entitled, and I have hardly ever felt so bad at any failure in my life, but I am glad of an opportunity of doing a service to his son." And he made an order for his commission. He then spoke of the offer made to him of the governorship of Oregon. To which the reply was made: " How fortunate that you declined. If you had gone to Oregon, you might have come back as sen- ator, but you would never have been President." " Yes, you are probably right," said he, and then with a musing, dreamy look, he added : " I have all my life been a fatalist. What is to be will be, or rather, I have found all my life as Ham- let says: ' There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. ' " Mrs. Lincoln was not with him much of the time while he was in Congress. Robert Todd, their eldest son, was born on the ist day of August, 1843; the second, Edward Baker, 6 82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. on. the loth of March, 1846; the third, William Wallace, on December 2ist, 1850; and the fourth, Thomas, on April 4th, 1853. The mother was too busily engaged with family cares and maternal duties while her husband was at Washington, to leave home for any considerable time. His term having expired, and he having failed to obtain the office his friends sought for him, he left the capital for his prairie home, not to return until he went back, amidst the throes and convul- sions of the rebellion, clothed with the fearful responsibilities of the Executive. While at Washington as member of Con- gress, did any dim, mysterious vision of the future dawn upon his mind ? Did he sometimes dream of the White House, of the Presidency, of emancipation? Did the prophecy of the Voudou negress ever recur to him ? What- ever his dreams, he returned to Illinois to devote himself, with zeal and energy, to the practice of the law. Before entering upon the history of the slavery conflict, let us pause and consider Mr. Lincoln as a lawyer, advocate, and orator. From his retirement from Congress in 1849, 'until the great Lincoln and Douglas debate in 1858, and, indeed, until his nomination for the Presidency in 1860, he was engaged in the laborious and successful practice of his profession. He rode the circuit, attended the terms of the Supreme Court of the state and United States circuit and district courts, and was frequently called on special retainers to other states. He had a very large, and it might have been a very lucrative practice, but his fees were, as his brethren of the bar declared, ridiculously small. He lived simply, comfortably, and respectably, with neither expensive tastes nor habits. His wants were few and simple. He oc- cupied a small, unostentatious house in Springfield, and was in the habit of entertaining, in a very simple way, his friends and his brethren of the bar, during the terms of the Court and the sessions of the Legislature. Mrs. Lincoln often en- tertained small numbers of friends at dinner, and somewhat larger numbers at evening parties. In his modest and sim- ple home, everything was orderly and refined, and there was CONGRESS AND THE BAR. 83 always on the part of both Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, a cordial, hearty, western welcome, which put every guest perfectly at ease. Her table was famed for the excellence of its rare Kentucky dishes, and in season was loaded with venison, wild turkeys, prairie chickens, quails, and other game, which in those early days was abundant. Yet it was the genial manner and ever kind welcome of the hostess, and the wit and humor, anecdote, and unrivalled conversation of the host, which formed the chief attraction, and macte a dinner at Lincoln's cottage an event to be remembered. Lincoln's income from his profession was from $2,000 to $3,000 per annum. His property at this time consisted of his house and lot in Springfield, a lot in the town of Lincoln, which had been given to him, and 160 acres of wild land in Iowa, which he had received for his services in the Black Hawk war. He owned a few law and miscellaneous books. All his property may have been of the value of $10,000 or $12,000. When he returned from Washington in 1849, he would have been instantly recognized in any court room in the United States, as being a very tall specimen of that type of long, large-boned men produced in the northern part of the Mississippi valley, and exhibiting its most peculiar character- istics in the mountains of Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, and in Illinois. He would have been instantly recognized as a western man, and his stature, figure, dress, manner, voice, and accent indicated that he was from the Northwest. In manner he was cordial, frank, and friendly, and, although not without dignity, he put every one perfectly at ease. The first impression a stranger meeting him or hearing him speak would receive, was that of a kind, sincere and genuinely good man, of perfect truthfulness and integrity. He was one of those men whom everybody liked at first sight. If he spoke, before many words were uttered, the hearer would be impressed with his clear, direct good sense, his simple, homely, short Anglo-Saxon words, by his wonderful wit and humor. 84 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Attention has already been called to the great number of short and simple words in his writings and speeches. Lin- coln was, upon the whole, the strongest jury lawyer in the state. He had the ability to perceive with almost intuitive quickness the decisive point in the case. In the examina- tion and cross-examination of a witness he had no equal. He could compel a witness to tell the truth when he meant to lie, and if a witness lied he rarely escaped exposure under Lincoln's cross-examination. He could always make a jury laugh, and often weep, at his pleasure. His legal arguments addressed to the judges were always clear, vigorous, and logical, seeking to convince rather by the application of principle than by the citation of cases. A stranger going into court when he was trying a cause would, after a few moments, find himself on Lincoln's side, and wishing him success. He seemed to magnetize every one. He was so straightforward, so direct, so candid, that every spectator was impressed with the idea that he was seeking only truth and justice. He excelled in the statement of his case. However complicated, he would disentangle it, and present the real issue in so simple and clear a way that all could understand. Indeed, his statement often rendered argument unnecessary, and frequently the court would stop him and say: " If that is the case, Brother Lincoln, we will hear the other side." His illustrations were often quaint and homely, but always apt and clear, and often decisive. He always met his opponent's case fairly and squarely, and never inten- tionally misstated law or evidence. 1 Out of a multitude of causes a few are cited for illustra- tion. One of the most interesting cases in which Lincoln was engaged early in his professional life, grew out of the sale of a negro girl named Nancy. It was the case of Bailey 1. Judge David Davis said of Lincoln: " In order to bring Into activity his great powers. It was necessary he should be convinced of the righi and justice of the case he advocated. When so convinced, whether the case was great or small, he was usually successful." Judge Thomas Drammond say s: >; He had a clearness of statement which was Itself an argument. * * He was one of the most successful lawyers we ever had In the state." CONGRESS AND THE BAR. vs. Cromwell, argued and decided at the December term of the Supreme Court of Illinois, 1841.' The girl was alleged to have been held as an indentured servant or slave, and had been sold by Cromwell to Bailey, and a promissory note taken in payment. Suit was brought in the Tazewell Circuit Court to recover the amount of the note, and judgment was recovered. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, and Mr. Lincoln made an elaborate argument in favor of reversing the judgment. Judge Logan represented the opposite side. Lincoln contended, among other positions, that the girl was free by virtue of the ordi- nance of 1787, prohibiting slavery in the Northwestern Ter- ritory, of which Illinois was a part, as well as by the consti- tution of the state, which prohibited slavery. He insisted that, as it appeared from the record that the consideration of the note was the sale of a human being in a free state, the note was void; that a human being in a free state could not be the subject of sale. The court, the opinion given by Judge Breese, reversed the judgment. The argument by Lincoln, a very brief and imperfect statement of which is given in the report, was most interesting, and the question of slavery under the constitution, the ordinance of 1787, and the law of nations, was very carefully considered. He was then thirty-two years of age, and it is probable that in preparing the argument of this case he gave the subject of slavery and the legal questions connected with it a more full and elaborate investigation than ever before. 1 The suit of Case vs. Snow, tried at the spring term of tne Tazewell Circuit Court, illustrates both Mr. Lincoln's love of justice and his adroitness in managing an ordinary case. He had brought an action in behalf of an old man named Case, against the Snow boys, to recover the amount of a note given by them in payment for what was known as a 1. See 3d Scammon'g Illinois Reports, p. 71, where an Imperfect report of the case will be found. 2. Mr. Lincoln's private library was never large. There was a respectable law library at Springfield, and a fair miscellaneous library In the office of the Secretaiy of State, to which he always had access. 86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. " prairie team." This consists of a breaking plow and two or three yoke of oxen, making up a team strong enough to break up the strong, tough, thick turf of the prairie. The defendants, the Snow boys, appeared by their counsel and plead that they were infants, or minors, when the note was given. On the trial Lincoln produced the note, and it was admitted that it was given for the oxen and plow. The defendants then offered to prove that they were under twenty-one years of age when they signed the note. " Yes," said Lincoln, " I guess that is true and we will admit it." " Is there a count in the declaration for oxen and plow, sold and delivered ? " inquired Judge Treat, the presiding judge. "Yes," said Lincoln, "and I have only two or three questions to ask of the witness." This witness had been called to prove the age of the Snow boys. " Where is that prairie team now ? " said Lincoln. "On the farm of the Snow boys." " Have you seen any one breaking prairie with it lately ? " "Yes," replied the witness, "the Snow boys were break- ing up with it last week." " How old are the boys now ? " " One is a little over twenty-one, and the other near twenty-three." " That is all," said Mr. Lincoln. "Gentlemen," said Lincoln to the jury, " these boys never would have tried to cheat old farmer Case out of these oxen and that plow, but for the advice of counsel. It was bad advice, bad in morals and bad in law. The law never sanc- tions cheating, and a lawyer must be very smart indeed to twist it so that it will seem to do so. The judge will tell you what your own sense of justice has already told you, that these Snow boys, if they were mean enough to plead the baby act, when they came to be men should have taken the oxen and plow back. They can not go back on their con- tract, and also keep what the note was given for." The CONGRESS AND THE BAR. 87 jury without leaving their seats gave a verdict for old farmer Case. 1 One of the great triumphs of Lincoln at the bar was won in the trial of William D. Armstrong, indicted with one Nor- ris, for murder. The crime had been committed in Mason County, near a camp-meeting. Norris was convicted and sent to the state prison. Armstrong took a change of venue to Cass County, on the ground that the prejudices of the people in Mason County were so strong against him that he could not have a trial. He was the son of Jack Armstrong, who had been so kind to Lincoln in early life. Jack was dead, but Hannah, who when Lincoln was roughing it at New Salem, had been so motherly; who had made his shirts, and mended his well worn clothes; who, when Lincoln was depressed and gloomy, had in her rude and motherly way tried to cheer him ; she now came to him and begged that he would save her son from the gallows. She had watched his rise to distinction with pride and exultation. In a cer- tain way she looked upon him as her boy, and she believed in him. Lincoln, and Lincoln only, as she thought, could save Bill from disgrace and death ; he could do anything. She went to Springfield, and begged him to come and save her son. He at once relieved her by promising to do all he could. The trial came on at Beardstown, in the spring of 1858. The evidence against Bill was very strong. Indeed, the case for the defence looked hopeless. Several witnesses swore positively to his guilt. The strongest evidence was that of a man who swore that at eleven o'clock at night he saw Armstrong strike the deceased on the head. That the moon was shining brightly and was nearly full, and that its posi- tion in the sky was just about that of the sun at ten o'clock in the morning, and that by it he saw Armstrong give the mortal blow. This was fatal, unless the effect could be broken by contradiction or impeachment. Lincoln quietly looked up an almanac, and found that, at the time this, the 1. See Lincoln Memorial Album, pp. 187-188. 88 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. principal witness, declared the moon to have been shining with full light, there was no moon at all. There were some contradictory statements made by other witnesses, but on the whole the case seemed almost hopeless. Mr. Lincoln made the closing argument. " At first," says Mr. Walker, one of the counsel associated with him, " he spoke slowly and care- fully, reviewed the testimony, and pointed out its contradic- tions, discrepancies, and impossibilities. When he had thus prepared the way, he called for the almanac, and showed that, at the hour at which the principal witness swore he had seen, by the light of the full moon, the mortal blow given, there was no moon at all." > This was the climax of the argument, and of course utterly disposed of the principal witness. But it was Lin- coln's eloquence which saved Bill Armstrong. His closing appeal must have been irresistible. His associate says : " The last fifteen minutes of his speech was as eloquent as I ever heard." * * "The jury sat as if entranced, and when he was through, found relief in a gush of tears.' 1 One of the prosecuting attorneys says : " He took the jury by storm." * "There were tears in Lincoln's eyes while he spoke, but they were genuine." * * " I have said an hun- dred times that it was Lincoln's speech that saved that crim- inal from the gallows." He pictured to the jury the old Armstrong home, the log cabin at New Salem; the aged mother, her locks silvered with time, was sitting by his side, as he spoke; all the associations of those early days came thronging up, his own feelings were thoroughly roused, and when he was once thus roused, his personal magnetism was well nigh irresistible. None but men of the strongest will 1. The story has been widely circulated that Mr. Lincoln deceived the jury, by producing an almanac of a year other than the one in which the man was killed. Mr. Henry Shaw says (see Lamon's Lincoln, p. 330), " I have seen several of the jury, who sat In the case, who only recollect that the almanac floored the witness. * * " My own opinion is that Lincoln was entirely Innocent of any deception in the matter. Mr. Milton Logan, the foreman of the jury, says that he is willing to make an affidavit that the almanac was of the year of the murder." Shaw adds: "Arm- strong was not cleared by want of testimony against him, but by the irresistible appeal of Mr. Lincoln " to the Jury. CONGRESS AND THE BAR. 89 could stand against his appeals. The jury in this case knew and loved Lincoln, and they could not resist him. He told the anxious mother: " Your son will be cleared before sun- down." When Lincoln closed, and while the state's attor- ney was attempting to reply, she left the court room and " went down to Thompson's pasture," where, all alone, she remained awaiting the result. Her anxiety may be imag- ined, but before the sun went down that day, Lincoln's mes- senger brought to her the joyful tidings : " Bill is free. Your son is cleared." For all of this Lincoln would accept nothing but thanks. There was a latent power in him, which when roused was literally overwhelming. There were times, when fired by great injustice, fraud, or wrong, when his denunciation was so crushing that the object of it would be driven from the court room. A story is current around Springfield, that on one occasion his reply to an outrageous attack by a man named Thomas, was so severe, that Thomas was completely broken down, and ran out of the court room, weeping with rage and mortification. The only instance known of his taking a fee regarded as large, was his charge of five thousand dollars to the Illinois Central Railroad, for very important services in the Supreme Court. This great corporation, extending with its road bed and branches, more than seven hundred miles in the state, was party in a case involving questions of difficulty ; in this case Lincoln appeared and obtained a decision of vast pecu- niary importance to the road. His friends, knowing his cus- tom of charging small fees, insisted that in this case, and against a client so abundantly able to pay, his charge should be liberal, and bear some relation to the great service he had rendered. In 1855, he was retained by Manny, in the great patent case of McCormick vs. Manny, involving the question of the infringement of the McCormick reaping machine patents. It was argued at Cincinnati, before Jus- tice McLean, of the Supreme Court of the United States. . 90 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lincoln was associated with Edwin M. Stanton, afterwards his Secretary of War, and George Harding, of Philadelphia. On the side of McCormick were William H. Seward, Reverdy Johnson, and Edward N. Dickinson. ' The last case Mr. Lincoln ever tried, was that of Jones vs. Johnson, in April and May, 1860, in the United States Circuit Court, at Chicago. The case involved the title to land of very great value, the accretion on the shores of Lake Michigan. During the trial, Judge Drummond and all the counsel on both sides, including Mr. Lincoln, dined together at the house of the author. Douglas and Lincoln were at the time both candidates for the nomination for President. There were active and ardent political friends of each at the table, and when the sentiment was proposed, " May Illinois furnish the next President," it was drunk with enthusiasm by the friends of both Lincoln and Douglas. Was Lincoln, then, an orator ? Yes, at times as great as the greatest of orators. He was always simple, earnest, and entirely sincere. At times he rose to the very highest elo- quence on rare occasions when greatly moved. When car- ried away by some great theme, with some vast audience before him, he seemed at times like one inspired. He would begin in a diffident and awkward manner, but, as he became absorbed in his subject, then there would come that wonder- ful transformation, of which so many have spoken. Self-con- sciousness, diffidence, and awkwardness disappeared. His attitude became dignified, his figure seemed to expand, his features were illuminated, his eyes blazed with excitement, and his action became bold and commanding. Then his voice and everything about him became electric, his cadence changed with every feeling, and his whole audience became completely magnetized. Every sentence called forth a responsive emotion. To see Lincoln, on such great occa- sions, on an open prairie, the central figure of ten thousand people, every sound but that of his voice hushed to perfect silence, every eye bent upon him, every ear open, eager to I. See McCormick rs. Manny, 6 McLean's Rep. p. 539. CONGRESS AND THE BAR. catch each word, his voice clear and powerful, and of a key that could be distinctly heard by all the vast multitude ; to hear him on such occasions, speaking on the great themes of lib- erty and slavery, was to hear Demosthenes thundering against Philip ; it was like hearing Patrick Henry plead for American liberty. CHAPTER VI. THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. SLAVERY AT THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION. EFFORTS FOR ITS ABOLITION. ORDINANCE OF 1787. ITS GROWTH. ITS ACQUISITION OF TERRITORY. FLORIDA. LOUISIANA. THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. THE WILMOT PROVISO. MEXICAN PROVINCES SEIZED. THE LIBERTY PARTY. ITS GROWTH. THE BUFFALO CONVENTION. THE COMPRO- MISE OF 1850. THE life of Lincoln had thus far been one of prepara- tion. He had hardly begun his great work. He had become, by study and experience, fitted and armed for the great career upon which he was now about to enter. His life may be considered as divided into three distinct periods, which may be thus characterized. The first period, that of preparation, embraces his life from his birth in 1809, to 1849-50; the second covers the birth, growth, and triumph of the repub- lican party from 1850 to 1860 ; the third includes his administration and re-election, his triumph in the abolition of slavery and the suppression of the rebellion, closing with his death in 1865. When he entered upon his life-work, he was, like Moses, the deliverer of the Jews, about forty years of age. Before entering upon the narrative of the second period of his life, let us pause to consider his surroundings. To understand and fully appreciate his work, we must first sketch in brief outline, the history of African slavery in the republic. The antagonism between freedom and slavery 92 THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 93 has never been more strikingly exhibited than in the United States. From the beginning, slavery was the only serious cause of division in the republic. The people of our coun- try were substantially one. They had to a great extent a common lineage, the same religion, literature, laws, and his- tory. That portion of the earth known as the United States is adapted by its physical conformation to be the home of one great national family, and not of many. Without slavery the people would naturally have gravitated into one homo- geneous nation. But the antagonism between free and slave labor produced a great conflict of ideas, growing more and more earnest and fierce, until it ended in a tremendous ^con- flict of arms. Let us briefly sketch the history of this anomaly of slavery in a nation which, in the words of Lin- coln, was "conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposi- tion that all men are created equal," and embodying in its Declaration of Independence, the great charter of human rights. _ Slavery was introduced into the English Colonies in America, against the protests of the early settlers. As early as 1772, the Assembly of Virginia petitioned the British Government to stop the importation of slaves. To which petition the King replied that " upon pain of his highest dis- pleasure, the importation of slaves should not be, in any respect, obstructed." The fathers of the revolution tolerated slavery as a tem- porary evil, which they justly regarded as incompatible with the principles of liberty embraced in the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and the Constitution of the United States. They never intended that it should be a permanent institution, much less, that it should extend beyond the states in which it then existed. They confidently hoped that it would soon disappear before the moral agencies then operating against it. They believed that public opinion, finding expression through the press, public discussion, and religious organiza- tions, would secure such state and national legislation, as 94 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. would at an early day, secure liberty to all, throughout the republic. 1 At the first general Congress of the colonies, held in Philadelphia, in 1774, Jefferson presented a bill of rights, in which it is declared that " the abolition of slavery is the greatest object of desire of these colonies." In October, 1774, Congress declared: "We will neither import, nor purchase any slave imported after the ist of December next." On the i4th of April, 1775, there was organized at the Sun Tavern, on Second Street, in Philadelphia, the first anti- slavery society ever formed. 9 Patrick Henry, in a letter dated January i8th, 1773, and addressed to Robert Pleasant, afterwards president of the Virginia Abolition Society, says: "I believe a time will come when an opportunity will be offered to abolish this lamentable evil." General Washington, in a letter to Robert Morris, speaking of slavery, says: "There is not a man living, who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it." In 1787, Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush, both signers of the Declaration of Independence, were president and secretary of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. In 1787, a society was formed in New York, of which John Jay,who had presided over the Continental Congress, was president, "for promoting the manumission of slaves." Alexander Hamilton was a mem- ber, and afterwards president. The Maryland Society for the promotion of the abolition of slavery was- formed in 1789, and in the same year, a society for the same purpose was organized in Rhode Island. The Connecticut Society was organized in 1790, and of this, Dr. Ezra Stiles, president of Yale College, was president. The Virginia Society was 1. There la nowhere to be found in American literature, an exposition of the opinions of the fathers on the subject of slavery, and the power of the Federal Gov. eminent to control and prohibit its extension in the territories, as full as that con- tained in Mr. Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech. It is thorough, exhaustive and accurate. 2. See a very carefully prepared and learned tract by William F. Poole, entitled "Anti-Slavery Opinions before 1800." P. 43. THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 95 formed in 1791, and that of New Jersey in 1792.* The officers of these anti-slavery societies were the most eminent men of the time. In 1780, Pennsylvania passed a law for gradual eman- cipation, Rhode Island and Connecticut did the same in 1784, and New York in 1799. In 1784, Mr. Jefferson drew up an ordinance for the government of the western territories, prohibiting slavery after 1800. Had this been adopted, there would have been no slave state added to the original thirteen, for there would have been no slave terri- tories out of which to form new slave states. The original thirteen were, state after state, abolishing slavery. The institution was thus, in the language of Lincoln, in " the way of ultimate extinction." The ordinance of 1787, by which freedom was forever secured to the Northwest, to the territory out of which were formed the important states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mich- igan, and Wisconsin, was by far the most important anti- slavery measure from the organization of the government down to the proclamation of emancipation by Abraham Lincoln. Its influence has been decisive, both on the moral and martial conflict which was then a thing of the future. Without the votes and influence of the Northwest, slavery would probably have triumphed. It is true, that the love of freedom nurtured by the free schools and literature of New England, beginning like the source of her great rivers among her granite hills, expanded like those rivers, until it became a mighty stream, but it was the broad and majestic torrent from the Northwest, which, like its own Mississippi, gave to the current of freedom, volume and power and irre- sistible strength, until it broke down all opposition and swept away all resistance. While the principles of the Revolution seemed likely by peaceful agencies to destroy slavery, new elements entered into the conflict. The most important of these was the 1. See "Anti-Slavery Opinions before 1800," by William F. Poole. 96 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. invention by Whitney of the cotton-gin, and the rapid increase in the production of cotton, thereby making slave labor far more profitable. This was followed soon after, by a vast addition to the domain of the Union of new territory, adapted to the cultivation by negro labor of the cotton plant. Then there soon arose also a gigantic pecuniary interest which found rapidly acquired wealth in slave labor. A powerful cotton and slave aristocracy was with consummate skill soon organized, and, with an immense property invested in lands and negroes, soon dominated over the cotton states, and by and by in its arrogance proclaimed " Cotton is King." In sympathy with this, there grew up in the more northern slave states a powerful interest which sought wealth in rear- ing negroes for sale. And simultaneously with these, there grew up in the North a strong cotton manufacturing interest hostile to any interference with slavery. Knowing their own weakness, feeling the insecurity of property founded upon wrong and injustice, the slaveholders, relatively few in num- bers, combined and united into a compact, active, bold, unscrupulous, and determined political power. They became skillful politicians. They selected their ablest men for lead- ers, and kept them in office and power. They carefully educated their most talented young men for public life. In the free states they bought up, and subsidised, by the rewards of official position, many of the most talented and ambi- tious public men. The masses of the people in the free states, absorbed in material pursuits, engrossed with the labor of subduing the forests, and in opening their farms, in build- ing towns, cities, schools, churches, colleges, canals, and railways, were skillfully kept divided, and were for many years ruled by the more adroit and experienced politicians of the slave states. A great change in public sentiment soon became appa- rent. The abolition societies, which not long after the organization of the government were very generally formed, and embraced among their members the most prominent and influential citizens, gradually disappeared, while the religious THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 97 organizations ceased to protest against slavery, and many of them went so far as to give the institution their sanction and support. The vigilant and sagacious leaders of the slave power began carefully and systematically to strengthen and entrench. In 1790, Congress accepted from North Carolina the territory now constituting the state of Tennessee, upon condition that so much of the ordinance of 1787 as forbade slavery should not be applied to it, and that no regulation should be made by Congress for the emancipation of slaves. This was fbllowed, in 1796, by the admission of Tennessee into the Union as a slave state. In 1790, the capital was located at Washington, in the District of Columbia, upon territory ceded for that purpose to the United States by Maryland and Virginia. All the laws of these two states relating to slavery were continued over this territory. Thus slavery was legalized in the capi- tal of the republic, and in a district over which Congress had exclusive jurisdiction and control. The capital, which had been on free soil in Philadelphia and New York, was removed to slave territory, and this was a most important step in strengthening the slave aristocracy. The public opinion of the capital to some extent gave tone to national sentiment. This change secured for slavery the great and active influence of fashionable society. The power of Wash- ington society and public opinion over the executive, judi- cial, and legislative departments of the government, has always been felt, and down to the advent of Lincoln as President was an ever present ally of slavery. In 1802, Georgia ceded to the United States the country lying between her present western boundary and the Missis- sippi, providing that the ordinance of 1787 should be extended over it, carefully excepting the clause which prohibited slavery. From the territory thus ceded came the slave state of Mississippi, admitted into the Union in 1817, and the state of Alabama, admitted in 1819. In 1803, the United States purchased from France, for fifteen millions of 7 98 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. dollars, the territory of Louisiana, where there were already forty thousand slaves. Louisiana territory was cut up into three states: Louisiana, admitted in 1812; Missouri, admitted in 1821, and Arkansas, admitted in 1836. In 1809, the United States purchased of Spain the territory of Florida, and Florida was admitted as a slave state in 1836. Thus the slave aristocracy had secured four new slave states from the original territory of the United States, viz.: Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi, and from new territory purchased for its expansion it had secured four other states, to- wit: Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas, and Florida. Not content with this, but eager for power and expansion, the slaveholders determined to extend the insti- tution still further south, and as the first step, resolved to annex the immense territory of Texas. The leading slave- holding statesmen, shrewd and sagacious, now boldly declared that Texas would give them the control of the national government, and make slavery secure. " It will give a Gibraltar to slavery," said one of their leaders. This compact, well organized power now pursued its purpose with vigor and sagacity and relentless determination, strik- ing down and politically sacrificing every statesman and every public man who dared to oppose its designs. Van Buren, Benton, and Wright, each of whom had been a trusted leader, were sacrificed because of their opposition to the annexation of Texas. President Garfield, in Congress in 1865, speaking on the joint resolution to abolish and prohibit slavery forever throughout the republic, and alluding to the power of slavery, exclaimed: " Many mighty men have been slain by her, and many proud ones have humbled themselves at her feet. All along the coast of the political sea they lie like stranded wrecks, broken on the headlands of freedom." Unable to accomplish the annexation by treaty, the lead- ers of the slavery party finally, in 1845, carried it by joint resolution of both houses of Congress. Thus slavery had secured nine slave states, and eighteen senators in the THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 99 United States Senate, thereafter appropriately called the citadel of its power. The free states saw with uneasiness these vast accessions of territory in the hands of imperious slave holders, and murmurs, deep if not loud, began to be heard, but the cotton growing and manufacturing interests rebuked these murmurs, tried to stifle discussion, and cried peace to those who agitated for freedom. A most determined resistance was made to the admission of Missouri as a slave state. The conflict over this question continued from 1819 to 1821, and was finally settled by what is known as the Missouri Compromise, carried through Con- gress largely by the personal influence of Henry Clay. By this compromise, Missouri was admitted as a slave state, with a law providing that all the western territory, north of the parallel of latitude of 36 30', should be forever free. It was the first great and direct conflict between the free and the slave states, and was terminated by a victory for the slave- holders in the form of this compromise, which all parties for a long time considered sacred, and which afterwards, the author of its repeal, Douglas, declared that " no ruthless hand would ever be reckless enough to disturb." Although the admission of Missouri as a slave state was opposed with the utmost vigor, yet the importance of the question was not at the time fully appreciated by the free states. Had Missouri come in as a free state, it would probably have been decisive, and have given the balance of power to the North, and perhaps might have saved the republic from the great Civil War. As a free state, the route of free labor, of pioneer colonization, would have passed up the valleys of the Mississippi, the Missouri, and the Arkan- sas, to all the West, and to Northern Texas. As a slave state, free labor was crowded far to the North and West. By this success, the slave holders secured in the great state of Mis- souri, a most commanding position in the very center of the republic. From that time until 1860, the control of slavery over the National Government was substantially absolute. Whatever the slave power seriously determined should be 100 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. done, was done. It is true free labor triumphed in Califor- nia and in Kansas, but it was over, and in spite of, the adverse influence of the Federal Government. From the Missouri struggle down to, and after, the Mexican war, the predomi- nating influence of the slave power was marked and decided. That power had a great advantage in the provision of the Constitution which gave representation to slaves. In the apportionment of members of Congress, and in the electoral college, a man owning five thousand slaves had a power equivalent to three thousand freemen, and practically far more, because the slaveholders, relatively few in number, and held together by a common interest, were a compact, vigilant, sagacious body. They constituted an aristocratic class, carefully educated for affairs and public life. Nearly all the brightest intellects of the South were absorbed in politics, while in the free states, they were engaged in all the varied pursuits of civilization. They were inventing labor- saving machinery, producing the steam engine, the cotton gin, the telegraph, the reaping machine, opening canals and constructing railways, rivaling the world in ship building, creating a national literature and schools of art, and com- peting successfully with Europe in the products of skilled labor, in learning, in science, and in the fine arts. During this period the slaveholders, though in a minority, largely monopolized the offices of power, profit, and influence under the government. And it must be admitted, that they fur- nished able statesmen to govern the country. They selected their best men, trained them for, and kept them permanently in public life, while in the North, a custom of rotation in office, kept many of the ablest men out of public life, and if elected, they did not remain long enough to acquire the practical skill and experience necessary to govern a great nation. Thus the slave power, united, wise, and watchful, seized and held the reins of government. The national capital became a slave mart. The noble old commonwealth of Virginia, with her stern motto " sic semper tyrannis," sought wealth, but found poverty and barbarism, in breeding slaves for sale to the Gulf States. THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. IQI We have already stated the fact that this power, desiring Texas for the extension of slavery, made war on Mexico, and seized and appropriated the coveted territory. Gov- ernor Wise, of Virginia, boldly announced the determination that " slavery should pour itself abroad, and have no limit but the southern ocean." This grasping spirit, as will be seen directly, overreached itself. Texas, and Mexican territory, was needed for the extension of slavery, and Mexico refusing to sell or cede, the territory was seized by force. On the yth of July, 1845, Commodore Sloat, of the United States Navy, issued a proc- lamation declaring that California (then a Mexican province) "now belongs to the United States." The gallant and adventurous Fremont scaled the Rocky Mountains, and took possession of that land of gold. Scott and Taylor marched their armies at will through Mexico, and took possession of its capital. Mexico, unable to resist, yielded all of Texas ; New Mexico and Upper and Lower California were also ceded, and now the slave power was more confident than ever of securing the ultimate control of the republic, and of the indefinite extension of the slave empire. But the end of the day of their supremacy was rapidly approaching. When, in 1846, President Polk asked an appropriation of two millions, with which to negotiate peace, David Wilmot, member of Congress from Pennsylvania, moved what is known as the " Wilmot Proviso," which declared that it should be a condition to the acquisition of any territory from Mexico, "that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude should ever exist in any part thereof, except for crime, whereof the party should be duly convicted." This proviso was adopted by the House of Representatives, but was not at that session acted upon by the Senate. At the next ses- sion, President Polk asked an appropriation of three millions for the same purpose, and to that appropriation the same proviso was applied. It was adopted, after a fierce contest in the House, but rejected in the Senate, and the bill coming back to the House, was finally, after a long and passionate IO2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. struggle, passed without the proviso. In the negotiations which followed, Mexico sought to make the prohibition of slavery a condition of cession, and this especially as slavery did not then exist in the territory in question. The United States minister peremptorily refused to treat on this basis, declaring that " if the whole territory was offered, increased ten fold in value, and covered a foot thick with pure gold, upon the single condition that slavery should be excluded therefrom, he would not entertain the idea, nor even think of communicating the proposition to Washington." Such was the animus of the Mexican war, and such the arrogance of the slave power. Mexico, weak and helpless, her capital and provinces held by the Federal troops, was compelled to accept such terms as were dictated to her. But these aggres- sions had at last aroused the free states, and brought on at last the " IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT." An anti-slavery party, independent of all existing ones, was about to be organized, and thereafter rapidly to increase in power. In December, 1833, a few zealous and determined men met in Philadelphia, and formed the American Anti- Slavery Society. The convention was composed of sixty- two delegates from ten states. 1 John G. Whittier, the poet, was secretary. This, with other and similar local associa- tions, formed the beginnings of the party which, twenty-seven years thereafter, elected the great statesman of Illinois to the presidency. These men planted the acorn of that oak which, in 1860, overshadowed the land. Garrison, Wendell Phillips, the Lovejoys, John Quincy Adams, Giddings, Ger- rit Smith, Dr. Channing, Cassius M. Clay, and many others were pioneers in the great cause of freedom. Differing widely in opinions and as to means, yet in various ways they exerted a powerful influence in arousing the public mind to the wrongs of slavery, and the dangerous encroachments of the slave power. 1. See "Rise and Fall of the Slave Power," by Henry Wilson, pp. 254, 255. Whit- tier Bald thirty years thereafter, and after his fame as a poet had extended over the world : " I love perhaps too well the praise and good will of my fellow men, but I set a higher value on my name as appended to the antl- slavery declaration of 1833, than on the title page of any book." THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 103 The societies thus organized boldly declared their reso- lution to exterminate slavery from the republic, but declared that this was to be done by moral influences. They encoun- tered mobs and personal violence. Their printing presses were destroyed. The halls in which they met were burned, and some of them were murdered for boldly expressing by voice and pen, their convictions. While in the free states, the outrages of mobs and the various persecutions to which the anti-slavery men were subjected, served only rapidly to add to their strength, in the slave states, liberty of the press and freedom of speech were subject to every outrage, and the laws furnished neither protection nor redress. Neither at the bar nor in the pulpit, neither from the newspaper nor from the stump, not in courts nor in legislative halls, was the voice of free debate permitted to be heard. Free negroes and fugitives from slavery were scourged, whipped, and tor- tured. The literature of the vernacular in school books, history, and poetry was expurgated, and the generous and manly utterances of liberty stricken from their pages. Such was the dark despotism which settled over a republic which had been constructed on the principles of the Declaration of Independence. It was against this despotic power, many of whose repre- sentatives were vulgar, gross, licentious, cruel, and treacher- ous men, that the free spirit of the North now rose. The anti-slavery party, small in numbers, yet full of fiery zeal and ardor, and counting in its ranks much of the cul- ture and intellect of the nation, grappled with a power which at that time controlled the national and nearly all the state governments, which dominated both the great parties, ruled the churches, the press, and the financial and business inter- ests of the country ; a power whose social influence was almost omnipotent. It held the press and the sword of the nation, and filled every office, from that of village postmas- ter to that of President. This small anti-slavery party, armed with truth and right, met this giant despotism, and ultimately triumphed over it. Although its first vote was so IO4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. small as to be almost counted among the "scattering," in 1840 it had increased more than ten fold. The ability, elo- quence, and genius displayed by its advocates in their speeches and publications, largely aided by the encroach- ments, cruelties, and arrogance of the slave power, prepared the way for the free soil party of 1848. In that year the whig party nominated as its candidate for President, General Zachary Taylor. The democratic party nominated General Lewis Cass over Mr. Van Buren, who had opposed the annexation of Texas. Both of these great parties refused to take position against the extension of slavery. Then the liberty, or anti-slavery democrats, with the anti-slavery men of all parties, called the convention which met at Buffalo in June, 1848, and organized the free soil party. It was largely attended, both by delegates from all the free states, and by representatives from Maryland, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Virginia, Kentucky, and Missouri. Many very distinguished and able men were there, who had hitherto acted with the whig and democratic parties, and their presence indicated the breaking up of old party organizations. Among its leading members were Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Preston King, Charles Francis Adams, Benjamin F. Butler of New York, Joshua R. Giddings, and many others scarcely less distinguished. This memorable convention, made up of many thousands of active, intelligent, zealous men, exerted a great influence in advancing the cause of freedom. Its declaration of prin- ciples was bold and independent. Disclaiming any power to interfere with slavery in the states, it declared that Con- gress possessed and should exercise the right of prohibiting slavery in all the territories. To the demand of the South for more slave states and more slave territory, its answer was clear and categorical, " No more slave states and no slave territory." The leaders of this free soil party were made up of ardent, enthusiastic democrats and whigs, active and zealous against the encroachments of slavery ; and of the "Old THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 105 Guard." as they called themselves, who had organized and led the anti-slavery and liberty parties; and with these were many personal friends of Van Buren, indignant at, and determined to revenge his sacrifice by the slave power. They were determined by all means to defeat General Cass. The canvass against the old parties was conducted with a zeal, an eloquence, an ability of speech and of the pen, never surpassed. It was the romance and poetry of politics, the religion of patriotism. John Van Buren, the son of the late President, then in the meridian of his power, canvassed most of the free states, and brought into the discussion an indignant personal feeling towards those who had " done his father to death." He possessed a fiery eloquence, a scathing wit and sarcasm, which rendered him a great popular favorite and secured for him a most brilliant national reputation. Each free state had its great popular leaders, and the people turned out in vast numbers to listen to eloquence, inspired by all the fervor and poetry of liberty, and the wrongs and cruelties of slavery. John P. Hale, Charles Sumner, Henry Wilson in New England, Benjamin F. Butler, William C. Bryant, Preston King and John A. Dix in New York, Salmon P. Chase and Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio, and David Wilmot of Pennsylvania, were among the most active and ardent in the contest. Although the ticket carried no electoral vote, it received a very large popular support, especially in New England, New York, Ohio, and the Northwest, and it defeated the election of Cass. General Taylor received the support of many earnest anti-slavery whigs. Among them were William H. Seward, Horace Greeley, and he who was, by and by, to lead the anti- slavery party to victory Abra- ham Lincoln. Meanwhile the whig and democratic leaders, alarmed by the rapid growth of this new and vigorous party, under- took again to settle the slavery question by compromise. When Congress met in December, 1849, the slavery issue confronted its members. The United States had acquired IO6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. from Mexico, Upper and Lower California and New Mexico. The Wilmot proviso excluding slavery had twice passed the House of Representatives, but had been as often rejected by the Senate. The slave power had secured a cession of the territory, but the extension of slavery into it was not yet secure. Fourteen free states had adopted resolutions pro- testing against its extension. The slaveholders, fearing the result of a struggle in Congress, attempted to frustrate Con- gressional action by sending out emissaries to California to organize a slave state. After the inauguration of General Taylor, in March, 1849, Thomas Butler King, a whig, and a warm advocate of slavery, and Senator Gwin, of Missis- sippi, representing the democratic party, went to California and sought to get up a state constitution which should secure and protect slavery. Slaves were already there. Mr. King declared: "We can not settle this question on the other side of the Rocky Mountains. We look to you to settle it by becoming a state." The friends of freedom on the eastern side of the conti- nent had not much hope of success in the Constitutional Convention of California. They rather expected to be compelled to make the fight in Congress on the admission of that territory as a slave state. There was then no tele- graph spanning the continent, and no railroad to the Pacific, and mails were slow and tedious. Few more thrilling mes- sages from that distant shore were ever received than that which told that the new constitution excluded slavery. It was the prelude, heralding the death of the system. The miners and laborers of California, who had flocked there in great numbers, would not tolerate the competition of the slaveholder with his gang of slaves, and they, uniting with those who were opposed to slavery from conviction, secured by constitutional provision the exclusion of slavery, and now, with her free constitution, California presented herself at the capital for admission into the Union. This was a surprise to the slaveholders, and they, who would have welcomed her as a slave state, now wheeled THE IRREPRESSIBLE CONFLICT. 107 about and refused her admission. Thus another issue was added to the grave questions growing out of slavery. After long debate, Mr. Clay, who had carried through Congress the Missouri Compromise, reported a series of measures by which he and his associates hoped to settle the slavery agitation. California was to be admitted as a free state. Territorial governments were to be established in New Mexico and Utah, without attaching to them the proviso excluding slavery. The claim of Texas to nearly ninety thousand square miles of territory north of 36, 30', and thus made free by the Missouri Compromise, was to be recognized, and slavery extended over it. Ten millions of dollars were to be paid to Texas for her relinquishment of New Mexico. The slave trade was to be abolished at the national capital, but a new fugitive slave law, cruel and stringent in its provisions, was to be enacted. These measures, by a combination of the leaders of both great parties, were finally forced through Congress. Mr. Webster made them the occasion of his celebrated 7th of March speech, and now the leaders said: "There shall be no more agitation, these measures are a finality, and we will have peace," and they drew up and signed a paper declar- ing this, and pledging one another to oppose any man who should not so regard them. But they soon learned that the conflict between slavery and freedom was irrepressible, inevitable, and must go on until one or the other should triumph. In this Lincoln was wiser than Webster, and more sagacious than Clay, who in early life had been his great leader. CHAPTER VII. THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. STEPHEN ARNOLD DOUGLAS. REPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPRO- MISE. THE NEBRASKA BILL. CONDITION OF MATTERS IN KAN- SAS. LINCOLN COMES FORWARD AS THE CHAMPION OF FREE- DOM. SPEECHES AT SPRINGFIELD AND PEORIA. ELECTION OF TRUMBULL TO THE UNITED STATES SENATE. THE 33d Congress convened December 5th, 1853. The election of 1852 had resulted in the choice of Franklin Pierce as President, General Scott, the whig candidate, receiving the votes of only four states. The celebrated com- promise measures of 1850, already described, were, it was claimed, endorsed by the election of Pierce, and the leaders of the slavery party boasted that the slavery question was settled, and that the abolitionists and agitators were crushed to rise no more. The territory out of which the great states of Kansas and Nebraska were to grow, was then becoming settled, and the people were asking for the organ- ization of territorial governments. Throughout all this ter- ritory, slavery had been prohibited by the time-honored Mis- souri Compromise. The great senatorial leaders, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and Benton, had left the theatre of their renown. In the Senate there were three only, who were distinctly anti-slavery men, or " free soilers," as they were called Charles Sumner, Salmon P. Chase and John P. Hale. Edward Everett occu- pied the seat of Webster, William H. Seward Was the leader of the anti-slavery whigs, but perhaps the most prominent 108 THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. 109 figure then in the Senate was the young and ambitious mem- ber from Illinois, Stephen Arnold Douglas. Douglas was then not quite forty years old, but had already become the idol of his party, and was then in the zenith of his popularity. He had had a brilliant career in Illinois in the House of Representatives, and since his elec- tion to the Senate in 1847, had been constantly rising in influence and power. He was especially the favorite of the young democracy, who looked upon him as certain, and at no distant day, of the presidency. He had a frank, open, cordial, familiar manner; at the same time he was bold, decided, and magnetic, possessing the qualities which made a popular leader in a degree hardly surpassed by any other man in American history. Possessed of a retentive memory, without being a scholar and without much study, by conversation and otherwise, his mind had become well stored with practical knowledge, and he was well informed in regard to the history and politics of the country. He did not forget anything he had ever read or seen or heard, and he had the happy faculty, so useful to the politician, of always remembering faces and names. His resources were fully at his command, so that he was always ready. Although he lacked humor and wit, yet as a speaker he had few equals, either in the Senate or on the stump. He had great fluency; he seized the strong points of his case, and enforced them with much vigor. His denunciation and invective were extremely powerful. He was chairman of the Committee on Territories, and now had the audacity to introduce, in his bill organizing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, a provision repealing the prohibition of slavery. The proposition startled the peo- ple of the free states like the fire-bell at midnight, and opened again the question of slavery, with a violence and bitterness never before equalled. The motives which led Douglas to introduce this measure were denounced with the greatest severity. He was accused of being bribed by the promise of the presidency to break down this barrier against HO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the extension of slavery. It was charged that the leaders of the slavery party dazzled his eyes and bewildered his judg- ment by holding up to lis eager ambition the White House. But whatever his motives, the act was political suicide to him and to slavery itself; it was the beginning of the end. From that time on, the conflict raged with ever increasing force, until slavery was destroyed in the flames which itself had kindled. It must be conceded that Douglas carried on the conflict with a nerve and vigor, a courage and ability, worthy of a nobler cause. Senators Seward, Chase, Sumner, and Hale led the oppo- sition to the bill. The speech of Mr. Seward against it was able, calm, and philosophic. After an historical review of the whole question, he spoke of the uselessness of all efforts to stifle the love of liberty and hatred of slavery. " You may," said he, " drive the slavery question out of these halls to-day, but it will revisit them to-morrow. You buried the Wilmot proviso here in 1850, and here it is again to-day, stalking through these halls incomplete armor." * * * " Slavery," he continued, "is an eternal struggle between truth and error, right and wrong." * * * "You may sooner, by act of Congress, compel the sea to suppress its upheavings, and the earth to extinguish its internal fires, than oblige the human mind to cease its inquiries, and the human heart to desist from its throbbings." In its last maddened throes, this early, able champion of liberty was struck down by the hand of slavery, the same hand which assassinated Lincoln, but not until he had lived as Secretary of State, officially to proclaim, that " slavery no longer exists " in the republic. At five o'clock, on the 3d of March, 1854, the Nebraska bill passed the Senate. On its passage, Senator Seward said: " The shifting sands of compromise are passing from under my feet." With characteristic hopefulness, he exclaimed: "Through all the darkness and gloom of the present hour, bright stars are breaking that inspire me with hope, and excite me to persevere." Sam Houston, of Texas, THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. I I I was one of the two senators from the slave states, who voted against the bill. 1 In concluding his speech against it, Hous- ton said: "-Yon proud symbol" (pointing to the eagle), " above your head remains enshrouded in black, as if deplor- ing the misfortune that has fallen upon us, or as a fearful omen of the future calamities which await our nation in the event that this bill becomes a law." In the House of Representatives, the struggle over the passage of the bill was renewed with still greater violence. During the struggle the House remained in continuous ses- sion for more than thirty-four hours. Colonel Benton, then a member of the House, and representing St. Louis, vigor- ously opposed the bill. Having gone out for refreshments, he was, on a call of the House, arrested and brought to the bar by the sergeant-at-arms, to offer an excuse for his absence. The venerable old man said: " It was neither on account of age nor infirmity that I was absent." * * * " I went away animo revertandi, intending to return, re- freshed and invigorated, and take my share and sit it out; to tell the exact truth, to husband some strength for a pinch when it should come, for I did not think we had got to the tightest place." Benton was indignant at the violation of the compact; he saw the danger which would follow, and resisted with all the ability and pluck of his best days.* On the 8th of May, 1854, the bill finally passed the House. Salvos of artillery from Capitol Hill announced the triumph of the slave power, but the boom of these cannon awakened echoes and aroused the people, filling them with indignation, in every valley and on every hillside in the free states. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise shocked the moral sense, and was everywhere regarded in the free 1. John Bell, of Tennessee, was the other. 2. I am Indebted to my late colleague In Congress, the Hon. E. B. Washburne, for much of the material and language of the account of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. He was an able and fearless actor In these exciting scenes, and has written a most graphic sketch of them. 1 1 2 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. states, not only as a humiliation, but as a gross violation of faith. Thoughtful men realized that the days of concession, of mutual compromise and forbearance had passed, and that the struggle between freedom and slavery was irresistible and at hand. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise removed the barrier against the extension of slavery over an area equal in extent to that of the entire thirteen original states. This' territory was now open, and the leaders of the slaveholders determined to occupy and control it, and especially the southern portion, called Kansas. The people of the free states, betrayed and defeated at Washington, determined to prevent this. Douglas and a large portion of the demo- cratic party defended the repeal, on the ground that the people of each territory should determine for themselves whether they would exclude or protect slavery. This doc- trine, known as "popular sovereignty," or "squatter sover- eignty," became a watchword of that party. Each section resolved to colonize and settle Kansas; the one to make it a free, and the other a slave state. The slave states had the immense advantage of proximity. Kansas was directly west of Missouri, and the only direct route to it was across Mis- souri, and up her great river to its border. Western Mis- souri was full of slaves, and their masters could not tolerate the idea of a free state just west of them. Under the lead of General Atchison, then a senator, and formerly Vice-President of the United States, the slave- holders organized secret societies, known as " Blue Lodges," and by force of arms endeavored to seize and hold Kansas. With arms in their hands, their organized bands marched in military array into that territory, marked out their claims, and, taking their negroes with them, declared that slavery already existed there, and proclaimed " Lynch law " for all abolitionists. In New England and in the Northwest, and elsewhere in the free states, " Emigrant aid societies " were organized, with a view of aiding to settle Kansas with free labor. Settlers were furnished with mills, farming imple- THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. 113 ments, domestic animals, seed, and cheap dwelling houses; school houses and churches were also supplied to the emi- grants. This property soon began to be seized by the slave party in its passage up the Missouri river. Settlers and their families were arrested, maltreated, and their property plundered or destroyed, and they were compelled by force to turn back. But with pluck and persistence they turned aside, and with horses and ox teams, made the long, weary, overland journey through Iowa to the disputed territory. Each party was striving to found a state. The slavehold- ers had, as has been stated, the great advantage of close proximity, and, under the lead of Atchison and Stringfellow, sent their organized bands, armed with revolvers and bowie knives, to build up the new commonwealth with slaves and whiskey. In the long run it was found to be bad material. The free state emigrant, starting often from a distance of hundreds of miles, took with him his family, his farming tools, school books for his children, his Bible, and often the farm house, school house, and little church framed at home, and by and by, he took also his Sharp's rifle, which he quickly learned to use with skill. Under the lead of John Brown, known in Kansas as Ossawatomie Brown, Charles Robinson, Generals Pomeroy and Lane, and others, farms were opened, and villages and settlements were located and built up. The negro in Kansas did not long remain a slave. The grog- shop, the bowie knife and the revolver could not permanently compete with the school house, free labor, order, and thrift. But the struggle was long, and for a time doubtful. On the side of slavery was all the influence of the United States officials, the state government of Missouri, its border militia, ever ready to make a raid into Kansas for plunder, violence, and destruction. The free state party had the aid of the northern press, Yankee enterprise and persistence, and the rough and rude sense of justice, which characterizes the pioneer of the West. The slave party, by the aid of votes imported from Missouri, the Missouri militia, and the Federal officers, held for a time the nominal government, and perpe- 8 114 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. trated a series of outrages, frauds, and ballot- stuffings to secure a constitution establishing slavery. But the free state men soon outnumbered their wandering, plundering, whiskey drinking adversaries. The slaves ran away, and found secur- ity in the free state settlements or beyond the border. Territorial governor after governor was appointed by Presidents Pierce and Buchanan, and resigned or was removed, finding the task of imposing slavery on Kansas too difficult. Governor Geary, one of these, became disgusted and indignant at the outrages of the slave party, and gives this picture of the situation. He says : " I reached Kansas and entered upon the discharge of my official Duties in the most gloomy hour of her history. Desolation and ruin reigned on every hand ; homes and firesides were deserted ; the smoke of burning dwellings darkened the atmosphere ; women and children, driven from their habitations, wandered over the prairies, and among the woodlands, or sought refuge and protection from the Indian tribes. The highways were infested with predatory bands, while the towns were for- tified and garrisoned by armies of conflicting partisans, excited almost to frenzy, and determined on mutual extermination." Such was the struggle in Kansas upon the slavery ques- tion. It was like the great civil war, of which it was the type and prophetic prelude, a contest between barbarism and civilization. Whenever anything like a fair vote of the act- ual settlers could be obtained, the free state men had large majorities. The story of this struggle between freedom and slavery ; between fraud, violence, and outrage on the one side, and heroic firmness, energy, and determination on the other, was carried all over the land, and made a profound impression upon the American people. It was amidst these scenes that John Brown of Ossawatomie was prepared, by the murder of his son, for his wild crusade against slavery in Virginia. It was here that the heroic Lyon and Hunter learned to hate that institution. The plains of Kansas were red with the blood of her martyrs to liberty ; her hills and valleys were black with the charred remains of her burned and devastated towns, villages, and cities, attesting alike the heroic constancy of her people to freedom, and the savage THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. 115 barbarity of the slave power. When the convulsions of the great national conflict began to shake the land, Kansas was the rock which rolled back the tide of the slave conspirators. All honor to Kansas. She successfully withstood the slave power, backed by the Federal Government. The struggle was watched by the people everywhere, with the most intense solicitude, and it nerved them to a still firmer determination to resist the encroachment of the slaveholders. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise roused Lincoln from retirement, and stimulated him to the utmost exertion of his powers. He now prepared to enter the arena as the great champion of freedom. He had bided his time. He had waited until the harvest was ripe. With unerring saga- city he realized that the day for the triumph of freedom was at hand. He entered upon the conflict with the deepest con- viction that the perpetuity of the republic required the extinction of slavery. So adopting as his motto, " A house divided against itself cannot stand," he girded himself for the contest. He sought to take with him, bodily, the old whig party of Illinois, into the new organization called the republican party. He was to build up and consolidate the heterogeneous mass which composed the new party. The years from 1854 to 1860, were, on his part, years of constant, active, and unwearied effort. He had, in 1850, declared to his old partner, Stuart, that the slavery question could not be compromised. He was now to become the recognized leader of the anti-slavery party in the Northwest, and in all the valley of the Mississippi. His position in the state of Illinois was central and commanding. He who could lead the republican party of that state and the surrounding states, would be pretty sure to lead that party in the Union. Lincoln was a practical statesman, never attempting the impossible but seeking to do the best practicable under sur- rounding circumstances. If he was sagacious in selecting the time, he was also skillful in the single issue he made. He took his stand with the fathers of the republic, against the extension of slavery. He knew that prohibition in the ter- I 1 6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ritories would result in no more slave states, and no slave territory. And now, when the repeal of the Missouri Com- promise shattered all parties into fragments, and he came forward to build up the free soil party, he threw into the conflict all his strength and vigor, and devoted his life to the struggle. From this time, Lincoln was to guide the whirl- wind and direct the storm. He realized that the conflict was unavoidable and inevitable. The conviction of his duty was deep and sincere. Hence he plead the cause of liberty with an energy, ability, and power, which rapidly gained for him a national reputation. Conscious of the greatness of his cause, inspired by a genuine love of liberty, and animated and made strong by the moral sublimity of the conflict, he solemnly announced his determination to speak for freedom and against slavery, until, in his own words, wherever the Federal Government has power, " the sun shall shine, the rain shall fall, and the wind shall blow, upon no man who goes forth to unrequited toil." It is difficult fully to realize or describe the gravity of the situation or the dignity of his topics. We can do so only by comparing them with great efforts of the orators of the past, and who, even of them, had a theme so grand ? When Demosthenes sought to rouse the Athenians against Philip, the fate of his country hung on the issue, and the result was that great series of orations which are read with admiration to this day. When Cicero exposed and denounced the treason of Catiline, the Roman orator uttered words which yet echo through the Roman forum. When Edmund Burke and Sheridan plead the cause of the millions of India before the House of Lords, on the impeachment of Warren Hast- ings, the people of the world were spectators, and it taxed the graphic power of Macaulay to the utmost to picture the scene, 1 but when Lincoln plead the cause of liberty, not only the freedom of four millions of slaves, but the fate and perpetuity of the Union and the republic hung on the result. His speeches were great battles fought and won. 1. See Warren Hastings, by Macaulay. THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. Whole counties were sometimes revolutionized by one of his great arguments. From 1854 to 1860 the conflict raged, and then the defeated party, beaten at the ballot-box, appealed from the forum of debate to the battlefield of arms. Let us try to tell the story of this prolonged debate. When, late in Sep- tember, 1854, Douglas, after the passage of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, returned to Illinois, he was received with a storm of indignation which would have crushed a man of less power and will. A bold and courageous leader, con- scious of his personal power over his party, he bravely met the storm and sought to allay it. In October, 1854, the State Fair being then in session at Springfield, and there being a great crowd of people from all parts of the state, Douglas went there and made an elaborate and able speech in defense of the repeal. Mr. Lincoln was called upon by all the opponents of this repeal to reply, and he did so with a power which he never surpassed, and which he had never before equalled. All other issues which had divided the people were as chaff, and were scattered to the winds by the intense agitation which arose on the question of extending slavery, not merely into free territory, but into territory which had been declared free by solemn compact. Douglas had a hard and- difficult task in attempting to defend his action in the repeal of this compact. But he spoke with his usual great ability. He had lately come from the discussions of the Senate Chamber, where he had car- ried the measure against the utmost efforts of Chase, Seward, Sumner, and others, and he was somewhat arrogant and overbearing. Lincoln was present and listened to this speech, and at its close it was announced that he would on the following day reply. This reply occupied more than three hours in delivery, and during all that time Lincoln held the vast crowd in the deepest attention. No report of this speech was made, but the arguments and topics were substantially the same as in the speech he delivered at Peoria on Monday, the i6th of October thereafter, and Il8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. which Lincoln wrote out afterwards, it being published in the " Sangamon Journal." As printed it lacks the fire and vehemence of the extemporaneous speech, but as an argu- ment against the extension of slavery it has no equal in the anti-slavery literature of the country. The effect of the Springfield speech upon his hearers was wonderful. Hern- don, his partner, says: "The house (it was spoken in the State House) was as still as death. Lincoln's whole heart was in the subject. He quivered with feeling and emotion." Sometimes his emotions "came near stifling his utterance." Loud and long continued applause greeted his telling points. At the conclusion, every person who had heard Lincoln felt that the speech was unanswerable. The reader who peruses the Peoria speech to-day will so declare. Douglas himself felt that he was crushed. At the close of Lincoln's speech he attempted a reply, but he was excited, angry, loud, and furious, and after a short time closed by saying that he would continue his reply in the evening, but he did not return to the State House, and left the city without resuming his discourse. Lincoln followed Douglas to Peoria. There Douglas spoke for three hours in the afternoon, and Lincoln again followed in the evening and spoke for three hours also. Here, as in Springfield, he carried the audience with him, and Douglas was more disconcerted by the vigor and ability of Lincoln's replies in these two great discussions than on any other occasion of his life. The consciousness of being in the wrong probably contributed to this result. There was something approaching the sublime in this intellectual con- flict. Lincoln was then in the prime of life, of great physical and mental power, and perfectly master of his subject. Douglas felt that he was beaten, and asked Lincoln not to follow or reply to him any more. He said : " Lincoln, you understand this question of prohibiting slavery in the territories better than all the opposition in the Senate of the United States. I cannot make anything by debating it with you. You, Lincoln, have here and at Springfield, given me THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. 119 more trouble than all the opposition in the Senate com- bined." Douglas then appealed to Lincoln's magnanimity and generosity, and proposed that each should go home, and that there should be no more joint discussions, to which Lincoln acceded. 1 There were then no more joint discus- sions, although Lincoln had started out with the purpose of following and replying to Douglas whenever he spoke, and a joint discussion had been arranged for at Lacon. Both went to Lacon, and neither spoke. Lincoln, in the Peoria speech, gave a full history of the slavery question from the organization of the government, tracing the policy of prohibiting it in the territories to the author of the Declaration of Independence. " Thus," said he, " with the author of the Declaration of Independ- ence, the policy of prohibiting slavery in new territory originated. Thus, away back of the constitution, in the pure, fresh, free breath of the Revo- lution, the State of Virginia and the National Congress put that policy into practice. Thus, through sixty odd of the best years of the republic did that policy steadily work to its great and beneficent end. And thus in those five states, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, with their five millions of free, enterprising people, we have before us the rich fruits of this policy." * * The speech is distinguished above all others by its full, ac- curate, and exhaustive knowledge of the history of the legisla- tion relating to slavery. He demonstrates 'that under the policy of prohibition there had been peace, while the repeal of prohibition had brought agitation. He sums up: "Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature, opposition to it in his love of justice. These principles are in eternal antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must ceaselessly follow. Re- peal the Missouri Compromise repeal all compromise repeal the Dec- laration of Independence repeal all past history, you still cannot repeal human nature. It still will be out of the abundance of man's heart that he will declare slavery extension is wrong; and out of the abundance of his mouth he will continue to speak." * * * 1. Such Is the statement, In substance, of W. H. Herndon. See Lamon'a Life of Lincoln, p. 358, and the statement of B. F. Irwin. Lincoln's action seems strange, and I think there must have been other reasons not fully disclosed. I2O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. " Some Yankees in the East are sending emigrants to exclude slav- ery from it, and, so far as I can judge, they expect the question to be de- cided by voting in some way or other. But the Missourians are awake too. They are within a stone's throw of the contested ground. They hold meetings and pass resolutions, in which not the slightest allusion to voting is made. They resolve that slavery already exists in the territory; that more shall go there; that they remaining in Missouri will protect it, and that abolitionists shall be hung or driven away. Through all this, bowie-knives and six-shooters are seen plainly enough, but never a glimpse of the ballot-box, and really what is to be the result of this? Each party within having numerous and determined backers, without, is it not probable that the contest will come to blows and bloodshed? Could there be a more apt invention to bring about a collision and vio- lence on the slavery question, than this Nebraska project? " * * He urges the restoration of the Missouri Compromise. " But," says he, ' ' restore the compromise, and what then ? We thereby restore the national faith, the national confidence, the national feeling of brotherhood. We thereby re-instate the spirit of concession and com- promise that spirit which has never failed us in past perils, and which may be safely trusted for all the future. The South ought to join in doing this. The peace of the Nation is dear to them, as to us; in mem- ories of the past, and hopes for the future, they share as largely as we." But, says he, " they say if you do this you will be stand- ing with the abolitionists. I say stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is rig/it, and part with him when he goes -wrong." He contrasted the position of the founders of the repub- lic towards slavery, with that now assumed, saying : "Thus we see the plain, unmistakable spirit of that early age towards slavery was hostility to the principle, and toleration only by necessity. But now it is to be transformed into a ' sacred right.' Nebraska brings it forth, places it on the high road to extension and perpetuity, and with a pat on its back says to it: ' Go, and God speed you.' Hence- forth it is to be the chief jewel of the nation, the very figure head of the ship of state. Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have been giving the old for the new faith. Nearly eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal ; but now from that beginning we have run down to that other declaration, ' that for some men to enslave others is a sacred right of self government.' " * * "In our greedy chase to make profit of the negro, let us beware lest we cancel and tear to pieces even the white man's charter of freedom." THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. 121 On another occasion Mr. Lincoln said: 1 "Pharaoh's country was cursed with plagues, and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, for striving to retain in bondage a captive people who had already served them more than five hundred years. May like disaster never befall us." How like in senti- ment to the paragraph in his second inaugural address, in which he said : " If God wills that it [the war] continues until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether." When Lincoln made this Peoria speech he was an obscure man. Scarcely heard of out of Illinois, his audience was far inland, and away from the great cities, where reputation and fame are acquired. There were present no reporters of any great metropolitan papers, to take down the speech and spread it the next morning by the thousand, broadcast, on the breakfast tables of the voters. There were no admiring scholars, with wealth and appreciation, to put it in pamphlet form, and scatter it by the hundred thousand. There is a single copy of this speech in an obscure newspaper, and it would be difficult, if not impossible, to duplicate it. Had Charles Sumner made the speech in Faneuil Hall, all New England would, the next morning, have read and admired it. If it had been addressed to the United States Senate by Seward or Chase, it would have appeared the next day in the leading papers of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Chicago. Neverthe- less, from this time on, the fame of the prairie orator spread, and could be no longer hemmed in by state lines. The Congressional election of that year, in Illinois, resulted in the election of four democrats, and five opposi- tion members of Congress, and the State Legislature would 1. In his eulogy of Henry Clay, 1852. 122 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. have been completely revolutionized had there not been a large number of democrats in the State Senate, whose terms of office had not expired. The opponents of the Nebraska bill had in the House of Assembly forty, and the democrats thirty-five. In the Senate there were seventeen elected as democrats, and eight elected as opponents of the Nebraska bill. However, three of those elected two years before as democrats; now repudiated Douglas and his policy, and were ready to act with the opposition, at least so far as to aid in the election to the United States Senate of an anti- Nebraska sen- ator. These were Norman B. Judd, of Chicago, Burton C_ Cook, of Ottawa, and John M. Palmer, afterwards Governor of Illinois. These were all able men, and skillful politicians, and with their votes there would be on joint ballot a majority of two against Douglas. James Shields, the colleague of Douglas in the Senate, and who had been induced by Douglas's great personal influence to vote for the Kansas and Nebraska bill, was a candidate for re-election. Lincoln had led the opposition, and to his efforts the great revolution in the state was largely to be attributed, and he was naturally selected as the candidate for United States senator. It is known that he especially desired the office of senator. In a letter to N. B. Judd, written some years thereafter, he said : " I would rather have a full term in the United States Senate than the Presidency." When the Legislature came together, it was generally expected that Lincoln would be elected senator in place of Shields. On the 8th of February, 1855, the Legislature met in joint session, and Palmer nominated Lyman Trumbull.. Judge Logan nominated Abraham Lincoln. On the first bal- lot Lincoln received forty-five, Shields forty-one, and Trum- bull five votes, and there were some scattering votes. Judd, Cook and Palmer steadily voted for Trumbull, who received other votes, varying in number, until the tenth ballot, when Lincoln urged his friends to vote for Trumbull, who received fifty-one votes, to forty-seven for Joel A. Matteson, and one for Archy Williams. > 1. House Journal, 1855, pp. 345-349. THE STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. 123 This result was accomplished by the utmost personal efforts of Lincoln. When he saw that the friends of Trum- bull were firm, and would not vote for any one else, and that there was danger that Matteson would be elected, he made an appeal to his personal and political friends so earnest that he carried them all, with one exception, over to Trumbull, and elected him. It was a most magnanimous and generous act, and exhibited such an unselfish devotion to principle as to call forth the admiration of all. It strengthened and con- solidated the opposition, and contributed to their success in the following year. It is said that Judge Stephen T. Logan actually shed tears when, at Lincoln's earnest request, he gave up his friend Lincoln and voted for his life-long politi- cal opponent. Owen Love joy was a member of this Legis- lature, and voted for Lincoln as long as there was a probability of his election. Trumbull was a brilliant and able lawyer, then residing in Belleville, in St. Clair County. He had been Secretary of State, and Judge of the Supreme Court of Illinois, and made a most able and distinguished senator. He was, during Lincoln's administration, chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, and a very prominent member of the Senate. CHAPTER VIII. THE ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. THE BLOOMINGTON CONVENTION. PLAT- FORM. WILLIAM H. BISSELL. REPUBLICAN CONVENTION AT PITTSBURGH. AT PHILADELPHIA. NOMINATION OF FREMONT AND DAYTON. DOUGLAS OPPOSES THE LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION. THE DRED SCOTT DECISION. LINCOLN NOMINATED FOR THE SENATE. His SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, JUNE, 1858. LET us now turn back and notice some important events which occurred at Washington. When Congress met in December, 1855, the slavery conflict was raging with increas- ing violence. There was a long struggle for the election of speaker. After sixty days spent in excited and fierce debate and in balloting, Nathaniel P. Banks, of Massachusetts, was elected over Governor Aiken, of South Carolina. In the general breaking up of parties caused by the slavery agita- tion, a powerful section of the democratic party, having strong convictions against slavery, was driven from its ranks. The old whig party divided; a part, made up of the more aged and conservative, went into a new organization, which called itself the American party, the leading principle of which was opposition to the influence of foreign-born citi- zens in American politics; a much larger portion became u free soilers," and went into the republican party. It was obvious that the time had come for the organiza- tion of a new party, on the basis of opposition to the exten- sion of slavery. Into this party went the life, vigor, enthusiasm, and genuine democratic principles of the old 124 ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 125 democracy the democracy of Jefferson. Among its rep- resentatives were Wilmot, the author of the Wilmot proviso, the Blairs, Fremont, Bryant, Bissell, and Trumbull. With them were the old liberty party, the abolitionists, and the anti-slavery whigs. Up to this time the democratic party, with its attractive name and professions, had secured nearly all the foreign-born vote of the country. But a large and intelligent class of Germans, Swedes, and Norwegians, and some Irish, were so hostile to slavery that they were now ready to join any party which should oppose it, and especially its leading principle, that of extension. It was apparent that, if these elements could be combined and consolidated, an organization would be formed having every element of suc- cess. Still there were difficulties, great difficulties, growing out of prejudice of race, former associations, and diversity of opinion, in the way of a cordial union. The new party needed a great leader, an organizer, and at length found such a leader in Abraham Lincoln. He was selected by the instincts of the people, and was, of all others, the representa- tive man of this new organization. Perhaps the greatest difficulty was that of harmonizing the native American whigs with the foreign-born voters. Lincoln had the sagacity to make a simple and single issue, that of hostility to the exten- sion of slavery, and prohibition in all the territories, and to fight the battle on that issue. A triumph upon this issue would be the triumph over slavery, and all else would fol- low. The leaders called a convention to meet at Pittsburgh on the anniversary of Washington's birthday, the 226. of Feb- ruary, 1856. The venerable Francis P. Blair was an active member of the convention. It prepared the way for a national convention to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President. On the 2Qth of May, 1856, a convention of the people of Illinois, who were opposed to the extension of slavery, met Bloomington and organized the republican party. It was made up of elements which had never before acted together, 126 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and which stood for very conflicting opinions. The com- mittee on resolutions found themselves, after hours of discussion, unable to agree, and at last they sent for Lin- coln. He suggested that all could unite on the principles of the Declaration of Independence and hostility to the exten- sion of slavery. " Let us," said he, " in building our new party, let us make our corner-stone the Declaration of Inde- pendence let us build on this rock, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against us." The problem was mastered, and the convention adopted the following: " Resolved ', That we hold, in accordance with the opinions and practices of all the great statesmen of all parties for the first sixty years of the administration of the government, that, under the Constitution, Congress possesses full power to prohibit slavery in the territories; and that while we will maintain all constitutional rights of the South, we also hold that justice, humanity, the principles of freedom, as expressed in our Declaration of Independence and our National Constitution, and the purity and perpetuity of our government require that that power should be exerted, to prevent the extension of slavery into territories here- tofore free." Thus was organized the party which, against the potent influence of Douglas, revolutionized the state of Illinois, and elected Lincoln to the Presidency. Lincoln's speech to this convention has rarely been equalled. " Never," says one of the delegates, "was an audience more completely electrified by human eloquence. Again and again, during the delivery, the audience sprang to their feet, and by long- continued cheers, expressed how deeply the speaker had roused them." It fused the mass of incongruous elements into harmony and union. Delegates were appointed to the national convention, which was to meet in Philadelphia, to nominate candidates for President and Vice-President. The convention then nominated as its candidate for Governor, the gallant soldier and eloquent statesman, Colonel William H. Bissell. He had distinguished himself for his courage on the field of Buena Vista, and elsewhere, in the war against Mexico. Re- turning to his home at Belleville, a grateful people elected ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY him to Congress. At the session of 1850, the Illinois sol- diers who had been in that battle, were assailed by a dis- tinguished member of Congress from Virginia. 1 Bissell, on the 2ist of July, 1850, replied in a speech in which he dis- cussed the slavery question, and defended the Illinois sol- diers with an eloquence and spirit which created a sensation throughout the Union, and which gave him a great personal popularity in the Northwest. For this manly defense he was challenged by Jefferson Davis, and promptly accepted the challenge. They were to fight with rifles. Intelligence of the challenge reached President Taylor, whose daughter Davis had married; he and other friends interfered, and the difficulty was adjusted. In June, 1856, the national convention of the republi- can party met at Philadelphia, and nominated John C. Fre- mont for President, and William L. Dayton for Vice-Presi- dent. The declaration of principles was substantially the same as that adopted at the Bloomington convention, and on which Lincoln and his friends had determined to fight the battle in Illinois. That Mr. Lincoln began to be appre- ciated as the leader of the new party in the Northwest was indicated by his receiving at this convention, on the informal ballot for Vice-President, one hundred and ten votes. The democratic national convention met at Cincinnati, on the second of June, 1856, and on the sixteenth ballot for President, James Buchanan received one hundred and sixty- eight votes, and Douglas one hundred and twenty-one. Buchanan was finally nominated, Douglas being considered unavailable, because of his direct instrumentality in the re- peal of the Missouri Compromise; and the incumbent, Pierce, being abandoned because he had been made unpopular by the outrages upon the free-state settlers in Kansas during his administration. John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, was nominated for Vice-President. The convention, al- though it dared not, or would not, nominate Douglas, indorsed the compromise measures of 1850, and the laws 1. Mr. Sedden. 128 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. organizing Kansas and Nebraska. The Southern whigs, and the "conservative " whigs of the North, sometimes called, in consideration of their wise and venerable looks, the " Sil- ver Greys," nominated Millard Fillmore for President. This convention laid upon the table a resolution declaring that no man should be nominated who was not in favor of pro- hibiting slavery north of 36 30', by Congressional action, whereupon a large number of delegates left the convention, and supported Fremont and Dayton. Then followed one of the most animated, earnest, and, in the free states, most closely contested political campaigns since the organization of the government. Lincoln was constantly speaking. Up to the state elections in October it seemed quite probable that the republicans would succeed, but the democratic party managed to carry, by small major- ities, the close and doubtful states of Pennsylvania and Indi- ana, and the contest was virtually ended. Buchanan received one hundred and seventy-two electoral votes, Fremont one hundred and fourteen, and Fillmore the vote of Maryland. The slaveholders were greatly elated by their triumph in the election of Buchanan, but the republicans, so far from being discouraged, became conscious of their power, nerved themselves for still greater efforts, and began at once to pre- pare for the campaign of 1860. The contest between freedom and slavery in Kansas still went on. The pro-slavery men, by fraud and trickery, and by disfranchising the free-state voters, had formed a consti- tution at Lecompton, which established slavery. The vot- ers in favor of a free state, after seeing the elections repeat- edly carried by non-residents and armed intruders from Mis- souri, refused to take part in the mock elections, and, call- ing a convention of actual settlers, elected delegates to a convention, which met at Topeka, and adopted a free state constitution. This they submitted to the people, and it was almost unanimously adopted. They then proceeded to elect officers under it. This brought the contending par- ties into direct collision, and civil war menaced Kansas. In. ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 1856, Congress appointed an investigating committee, which, after full investigation, reported that every election held under the auspices of the United States officials had been con- trolled, not by actual settlers, but by non-residents from Mis- souri, and that every officer in the territory owed his election to these non-residents. Meanwhile the persons elected by the bonafide settlers, under the Topeka constitution, had been arrested, and the Legislature dispersed, by the regular army of the United States, acting under orders of the President. It was thus that Kansas was to be brought into the Union as a slave state. Douglas had the sagacity to see whither this extreme course of the administration was tending, and the courage and good faith to resist it. When President Buchanan, on the pth of December, 1857, urged Congress to admit Kan- sas under the fraudulent Lecompton constitution into the Union, Douglas at once announced his opposition, and fol- lowed this announcement with an elaborate and able speech against the proposed measure. " Why," said he, " force this constitution down the throats of the people, in opposition to their wishes, and in violation of our pledges ? " * * * " The people want a fair vote, and will never be satisfied without it." * * * " If it is to be forced upon the people, under a submission that is a mockery and an insult, I will resist to the last." Douglas never exhibited more commanding ability, than when he led the opposition, in the United States Senate, to the Lecompton constitution. His opposition so exasperated the slaveholders that they sought to degrade him, by taking from him the position he had long held as chairman of the Committee on Territories. While the Kansas question was pending, the Illinois senator called at the White House on official business. Mr. Buchanan expostulated with him for opposing the administration in its Kansas policy. At length he went so far as to warn Doug- las of the personal consequences. Recalling the fact that Douglas had always been a great admirer of General Jack- son, the President said : " You are an ambitious man, Mr. I3O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Douglas, and there is a brilliant future for you, if you retain the confidence of the democratic party ; if you oppose it, let me remind you of the fate of those who in former times rebelled against it. Remember the fate of Senators Rives and Talmadge, who opposed General Jackson, when he removed the government deposits from the United States Bank. Beware of their fate, Mr. Douglas." " Mr. President," replied Douglas, " General Jackson is dead. Good morning, sir ! " We have seen that the executive and legislative depart- ments of the government had long been under the control of the slave party. The judiciary, over which, in the early days of the republic, had presided the pure and spotless abo- litionist, John Jay, and the great constitutional lawyer and intellectual giant, John Marshall, had become an object of profound respect, even of reverence, to the people. It had been the forum before which the highest forensic discussions had been held, involving the most important questions of private rights and the gravest questions of constitutional power. The great lawyers and statesmen of the country, whose names are most prominent in forensic literature: Pinck- ney, Henry, Emmet, Ogden, Mason, Dexter, Webster, Wirt, Clay, Sargent, and others, had discussed before the Supreme Court, with matchless ability and learning, questions involving state rights and national sovereignty, as well as the law of nations, and of maritime and constitutional law. The peo- ple had learned to regard this court as the most dignified, learned, and august tribunal on earth. The period had now come when this great tribunal was to be prostituted, and our national jurisprudence disgraced, by its decision in the Dred Scott case. Dred Scott, a negro, held as a slave in Missouri, had been voluntarily taken by his master into the free state of Illi- nois, and subsequently to Fort Snelling, in territory north of the line of 36 30', where slavery was prohibited by law. Up to the time of the decision in this case, it had been con- sidered a well settled principle of law, that when a master ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 131 voluntarily brought a slave from a slave state into a state or territory in which slavery was prohibited, that slave became free. The case was fully argued before the Supreme Court in May, 1854. It was for decision at the following term in 1855-6, but the decision was postponed until after the Presi- dential election of 1856. The intense excitement which the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the outrages in Kan- sas had created, would have been greatly increased if the decision had been announced before the election, and it is quite probable that the result of the election would thereby have been changed. The court, through Chief Justice Taney, held that Dred Scott, being descended from an African slave, was not and could not be a citizen of the United States, and therefore could not maintain a suit in the Federal Court. This disposed of the case, but as the point had been made in the argument that Scott was free by the prohibition of the Missouri Compromise, the Chief Justice and a majority of the Court eagerly seized the opportunity, in the interest of slavery, to declare the prohibition uncon- stitutional and void, and the Court proceeded to say that, by virtue of the Constitution, slavery existed in all the territories, and that Congress had no power to prohibit it. Justices McLean and Curtis gave able dissenting opinions. Thus the triumph of slavery was complete. The revolu- tion on the subject was absolute. The government was organized on the basis that slavery was local, tolerated in the states, but prohibited in the territories, and on this prin- ciple "the government had been administered down to the Dred Scott decision." ' It is difficult adequately to describe 1. George Bancroft, In his funeral oration on Lincoln, though a life-long demo- crat, thus characterizes this decision: " The Chief Justice of the United States, with- out any necessity or occasion, volunteered to come to the rescue of the theory of slavery; and from his court there lay no appeal but to the law of humanity and his- tory. Against the Constitution, against the memory of the nation, against a previous decision, against a series of enactments, he decided that the slave is property; that slave property is entitled to no less protection than any other property; that the Con- stitution upholds It In every territory against any act of a local Legislature, and even against Congress itself ; or, AS the President for that term tersely promulgated the saying, 'Kansas is as much a slave state as South Carolina or Georgia; slavery, by virtue of the Constitution, exists in every territory.' " 132 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the astonishment and indignation created by this decision. It everywhere roused the people to a sense of their danger. There was needed but one step further, and a much shorter step than the one taken in this case namely, for the Court to say that the Constitution carried slavery as well into the states as into the territories, and the work would be done, for every state would thus become a slave state. In June, 1858, the Illinois republican state convention met at Springfield, and nominated, with the greatest enthu- siasm and with perfect unanimity, Lincoln as their candidate for senator. The resolution nominating him was carried by acclamation, and that there should be no slip this time, the convention declared: "Abraham Lincoln is our first and only choice for United States Senator." Lincoln's speech to this convention was the platform of the memorable debate between him and Douglas, and is one of the most remarkable in American history. It was earnest and solemn, and gave so clear an exposition of the antago- nism between liberty and slavery, that his words secured the immediate and universal attention of the nation. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Governor Seward, on the 25th of October thereafter, at Rochester, expressed the same idea, and in language, some of which was identical with that used in June by Lincoln. " It is," said he, "an irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces, and it means that the United States will, sooner or later, become either a slaveholding nation, or an entirely free-labor nation." This speech, whose great importance demands its insertion, was as follows: MR. PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE CONVENTION : If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and how to do it. Vfe are now far into the fifth year since a policy was initiated with the avowed object and confident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the operation of that policy, that agitation has not only not ceased, but has constantly augmented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis shall have been reached and passed. " A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 133 free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new North as well as South. Have we no tendency to the latter condition ? Let any one who doubts, carefully contemplate that now almost complete legal combina- tion piece of machinery, so to speak compounded of the Nebraska doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. Let him consider not only what work the machinery is adapted to do, and how well adapted, but also let him study the history of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fail, if he can, to trace, the evidences of design, and concert of action, among its chief architects from the beginning. The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded from more than half the states by state constitutions, and from most of the national territory by Congressional prohibition. Four days later commenced the struggle which ended in repealing that Congressional prohibition. This opened all the national territory to slavery, and was the first point gained. But so far Congress only had acted, and an indorsement by the peo- ple, real or apparent, was indispensable to save the point already gained and give chance for more. This necessity had not been overlooked, but had been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable argument of " squatter sovereignty," otherwise called " sacred right of self-government," which latter phrase, though expressive of the only rightful basis of any government, was so perverted in this attempted use of it as to amount to just this : That if any one man choose to enslave another no third man shall be allowed to object. That article was incorporated into the Nebraska bill itself, in the language which follows: " It being the true intent and meaning of this act not to legislate slavery into any territory or state, nor to exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States." Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of ' ' squatter sovereignty, " and ' ' sacred right of self-government." " But," said the opposition members, " let us amend the bill so as to expressly declare that the people of the territory may exclude slavery." " Not we," said the friends of the measure, and down they voted the amendment. While the Nebraska bill was passing through Congress, a law case, involving the question of a negro's freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily taken him first into a free state, and then into a free 134 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. territory covered by the Congressional prohibition, and held him as a slave for a long time in each, was passing through the United States Circuit Court for the District of Missouri ; and both Nebraska bill, and law suit, were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 1854. The negro's name was "Dred Scott," which name now designates the decis- ion finally rendered in the case. Before the then next presidential elec- tion, the law came to, and was argued in the Supreme Court of the United States ; but the decision of it was deferred until after the election. Still, before the election, Senator Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his opinion whether the people of a territory can constitutionally exclude slavery from their limits, and the latter answers : " That is a question for the Supreme Court." The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, and the endorse- ment, such as it was, secured. That was the second point gained. The endorsement, however, fell short of a clear popular majority, by nearly four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The outgoing President, in his last annual message, as impressively as possible echoed back upon the people the weight and authority of the endorsement. The Supreme Court met again ; did not announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument. The presidential inauguration came, and still no decision of the Court ; but the incoming President, in his inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming decision, whatever ft might be. Then in a few days, came the decision. The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds an early occasion to make a speech at this Capitol, indorsing the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently denouncing all opposition to it. The new President, too, seizes the early occasion of the Silliman letter to indorse and strongly construe that decision, and to express his astonishment that any different view had ever been entertained. At length a squabble springs up between the President and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the mere question of fact, whether the Lecomp- ton constitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas ; and in that quarrel the latter declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or up. I do not understand his declaration, that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be intended by him other than as an apt definition of the policy he would impress upon the public mind the principle for which he declares he has suffered so much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And well may he cling to that principle. If he has any parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That principle is the only shred left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 135 Dred Scott decision, " squatteitfovereignty " squatted out of existence, tumbled down like temporary scaffolding like the mould at the foundry, it served through one blast and fell back into loose sand helped to carry an election, and then was kicked to the winds. His late joint struggle with the republicans, against the Lecompton constitution, involves noth- ing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point the right of the people to make their own constitution upon which he and the republicans have never differed. The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Douglas's " care not" policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of advancement. This was the third point gained. The working points of that machinery are : First, That no negro slave, imported as such from Africa, and no descendant of such slave, can ever be a citizen of any state, in the sense of that term as used in the Constitution of the United States. This point is made in order to deprive the negro, in every possible event, of the benefit of that provision of the United States Constitution, which declares that ' ' citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states." Secondly, That " subject to the Constitution of the United States," neither Congress nor a territorial legislature can exclude slavery from any United States territory. This point is made in order that individual men may fill up the territories with slaves, without danger of losing them as property, and thus to enhance the chances of permanency to the institu- tion through all the future. Thirdly, That whether the holding a negro in actual slavery, in a free state, makes him free, as against the holder, the United States Courts will not decide, but will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave state the negro may be forced into by the master. This point is made, not to be pressed immediately ; but, if acquiesced in for awhile, and apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then to sustain the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master might lawfully do with Dred Scott, in the free state of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with any other one, or one thousand slaves, in Illinois, or in any other free state. Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left of it, is to educate and mould public opinion not to care whether slavery is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly where we now are, and partially, also, whither we are tending. It will throw additional light on the latter, to go back, and run the mind over the string of historical facts already stated. Several things will now appear less dark and mysterious than they did when they 136 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. were transpiring. The people were tq^e left " perfectly free," " subject only to the Constitution. " What the Constitution had to do with it, outsiders could not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an exactly fitted niche, for the Dred Scott decision to 'afterwards come in, and declare the perfect freedom of the people to be just no freedom at all. Why was the amendment expressly declaring the right of the people, voted down ? Plainly enough now. The adoption of it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision. Why was the court decis- ion held up ? Why even a senator's individual opinion withheld, till after the presidential election ? Plainly enough now : the speaking out then would have damaged the perfectly free argument upon which the election was to be carried. Why the outgoing President's felicitation on the indorsement ? Why the delay of a re-argument ? Why the incom- ing President's advance exhortation in favor of the decision ? These things look like the cautious patting and petting of a spirited horse pre- paratory to mounting him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider a fall. And why the hasty after-indorsement of the decision by the President and others ? We cannot absolutely know that all these adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when we see a lot of framed timbers, different por- tions of which we know have been gotten out at different times and places, and by different workmen Stephen, Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance, ' and when we see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly make the frame of a house, or a mill, all the tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and propor- tions of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a piece too many or too few not omitting even scaffolding or, if a single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece in, in such a case, we find it impos- sible not to believe that Stephen, and Franklin, and Roger, and James, all understood one another from the beginning, and all worked upon a common plan or draft, drawn up before the first blow was struck. It should not be overlooked that, by the Nebraska bill, the people of a state as well as territory, were to be left " perfectly free," " subject only to the Constitution." Why mention a state? They were legislat- ing for territories, and not for or about states. Certainly the people of a state are and ought to be subject to the Constitution of the United States; but why is mention of this lugged into this merely territorial law? Why are the people of a territory and the people of a state therein lumped together, and their relation to the Constitution therein treated as being precisely the same? While the opinion of the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott case, and the separate opinions of all the 1. Stephen A. Douglas, Franklin Pierce, Roger B. Taney, and James Buchanan. ORGANIZATION OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY. 137 concurring judges, expressly declaim that the Constitution of the United States neither permits Congress nor a territorial Legislature to exclude slavery from any United States territory, they all omit to declare whether or not the same Constitution permits a state, or the people of a state, to exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omission ; but who can be quite sure, if Mr. McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declara- tion of unlimited power in the people of a state to exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and Mace sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the people of a territory, into the Nebraska bill; I ask who can be quite sure that it would not have been voted down in the one case as it had been in the other ? The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a state over slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the precise idea, and almost the language, too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion, his exact lan- guage is, " except in cases where the power is restrained by the Consti- tution of the United States, the law of the state is supreme over the sub- ject of slavery within its jurisdiction." In what cases the power of the states is so restrained by the United States Constitution, is left an open question, precisely as the same question, as to the restraint on the power of the territories, was left open in the Nebraska act. Put this and that together, and we have another nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with another Supreme Court decision, declaring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a state to exclude slavery from its limits. And this may especially be expected if the doctrine of " care not whether slavery be voted down or voted up," shall gain upon the public mind sufficiently to give promise that such a decision can be maintained when made. Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all the states. Welcome, or unwelcome, such decision is probably com- ing, and will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present political dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We shall lie down, pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the verge of making their state free, and we shall awake to the reality instead, that the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave state. To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty, is the work now before all those who would prevent that consummation. That is what we have to do. How can we best do it? There are those who denounce us openly to their own friends, and yet whisper to us softly, that Senator Douglas is the aptest instrument there is with which to effect that object. They wish us to infer all, from the fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly voted with us on a single point, upon which he and we have never differed. They remind us that he is a great man, and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be 138 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. granted. But " a living dog is better than a dead lion." Judge Doug- las, if not a dead lion for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the advances of slavery ? He don't care anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing the " public heart" to- care nothing about it. A leading Douglas democratic newspaper thinks Douglas's superior talent will be needed to resist the revival of the Afri- can slave trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he really think so ? But if it is, how can he resist it ? For years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of white men to take negro slaves into the new territories. Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy them where they can be bought cheapest ? And unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa than in Virginia. He has done all in his power to reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere right of property; and as- such, how can he oppose the foreign slave trade how can he refuse that trade in that " property " shall be " perfectly free," unless he does it as a protection to the home production ? And as the home producers will probably not ask the protection, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition. Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday that he may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong. But can we, for that reason, run ahead, and infer that he will make any particular change, of which he, himself, has given no intimation? Can we safely base our action upon any such vague inference? Now, as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas's position, question his motives, or do aught that can be person- ally offensive to him. Whenever, if ever, he and we can come together on principle, so that our cause may have assistance from his great ability, I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. But clearly, he is not with us he does not pretend to be he does not promise ever to be. Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and conducted by, its own undoubted friends those whose hands are free, whose hearts are in the work who do care for the result. Two years ago the republicans of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand strong. We did this, under the single impulse of resistance to a common danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought the battle through, under the constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered enemy. Did we brave all then, to falter now ? now, when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but,, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come. CHAPTER IX. THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. DOUGLAS'S RETURN TO ILLINOIS. SPEECHES OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS AT CHICAGO, BLOOMINGTON, AND SPRINGFIELD. LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS COMPARED. THE JOINT DISCUSSIONS AT CHARLESTON. AT FREEPORT. AT ALTON. THE discussions between Lincoln and Douglas, in 1858, were unquestionably, with reference to the importance of the topics discussed, the ability of the speakers, and their influ- ence upon events, the most important in American history. There had been great debates in the old Continental Con- gress, on the subject of independence, and upon other vital questions; great debates in Congress in 1820-21, on the Missouri question. The discussion between Webster and Hayne, and Webster and Calhoun on nullification and the Constitution, were memorable; but the debates in 1858, between Lincoln and Douglas, in historic interest surpassed them all. It is no injustice to others to say that these discussions, and especially the speeches of Lincoln, circulated and read throughout the Union, did more than any other agency to create the public opinion which prepared the way for the overthrow of slavery. The speeches of John Quincy Adams and of Charles Sumner were more learned and scholarly ; those of Lovejoy and Wendell Phillips were more vehement and impassioned; Senators Seward, Hale, Trumbull, and Chase spoke from a more conspicuous forum; but Lincoln's were more philosophical, while as able 139 I4O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and earnest as any, and his manner had a simplicity and directness, a clearness of statement and felicity of illustra- tion, and his language a plainness and Anglo-Saxon strength, better adapted than any other to reach and influence the common people, the mass of the voters. At the time of these discussions, both Lincoln and Douglas were in the full maturity of their powers. Douglas was forty-five, and Lincoln forty-nine years of age. Physi- cally and mentally, they were as unlike as possible. Doug- las was short, not much more than five feet high, with a large head, massive brain, broad shoulders, a wide, deep chest, and features strongly marked. He impressed every one at first sight, as a strong, sturdy, resolute, fearless man. Lincoln's herculean stature has been already described. A stranger who listened to him for five minutes would say: " This is a kind, genial, sincere, genuine man; a man you can trust, plain, straightforward, honest, and true." If this stranger were to hear him make a speech, he would be impressed with his clear good sense, by his wit and humor, by his gen- eral intelligence, and by the simple, homely, but pure and accurate language he used. Douglas was, in his manners, cordial, frank, and hearty. The poorest and humblest found him friendly. In his younger days he had a certain familiarity of manner quite unusual. When he was at the bar, and even after he went on the bench, it was not unusual for him to come down from the bench, or leave his chair at the bar, and take his seat on the knee of a friend, and, with an arm thrown familiarly around the neck of his companion, have a social chat, or a legal or political consultation. 1 Such familiarity had disappeared before 1858. In his long residence at Washington, Douglas had acquired the 1. Such familiarities were not general at the West, as Is shown by an Incident which Illustrates the personal dignity of the great senator from Missouri, Mr. Ben- ton. A distinguished member of Congress, who was a great admirer of Benton, but a man of brusque manners, one day approached and slapped Benton familiarly and rudely on the shoulder. The senator haughtily drew himself up and said: " That, sir, Is a familiarity I never permit my friends, much less a comparative stranger. Sir, It must not be repeated." THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 141 bearing and manners of a perfect gentleman and man of the world. But he was always a fascinating and attractive man, and always and everywhere personally popular. He had been, for years, carefully and thoroughly trained ; on the stump, in Congress, and in the Senate, to meet in debate the ablest speakers in the state and nation. For years he had been accustomed to meet on the floor of the Capitol, the leaders of the old whig and free soil parties. Among them were Webster and Seward, Fessenden and Crittenden, Chase, Trumbull, Hale, and others of nearly equal eminence, and his enthusiastic friends insisted that never, either in single con- flict, or when receiving the assault of the senatorial leaders of a whole party, had he been discomfited. His style was bold, vigorous, and aggressive, and at times even defiant. He was ready, fluent, fertile in resources, familiar with national and party history, severe in denunciation, and he handled with skill nearly all the weapons of debate. His iron will and restless energy, together with great personal magnetism, made him the idol of his friends and party. His long, brilliant, and almost universally successful career, gave him perfect confidence in himself, and at times he was arrogant and overbearing. Lincoln was also a thoroughly trained speaker. He had met successfully, year after year, at the bar, and on the stump, the ablest men of Illinois and the Northwest, includ- ing Lamborn, Stephen T. Logan, John Calhoun, and many others. He had contended in generous emulation with Hardin, Baker, Logan, and Browning, and had very often met Douglas, a conflict with whom he always courted rather than shunned. He had at Peoria, and elsewhere, extorted from Douglas the statement, that in all his discussions at Washington, he had never met an opponent who had given him so much trouble as Lincoln. His speeches, as we read them to-day, show a more familiar knowledge of the slavery question, than those of any other statesman of our country. This is especially true of the Peoria speech, and the Cooper Institute speech. Lincoln was powerful in argument, always 142 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. seizing the strong points, and demonstrating his propositions with a clearness and logic approaching the certainty of mathematics. He had, in wit and humor, a great advantage over Douglas. Douglas's friends loved to call him " the lit- tle giant;" Lincoln was physically and intellectually the big giant. Such were the champions who, in 1858, were to discuss before the voters of Illinois, and with the whole nation as spectators and readers of the discussion, the vital questions relating to slavery. It was not a single debate, but, begin- ning at Chicago, in July, extended late into October, nearly to the time of the November elections. Reporters, repre- senting the great daily newspapers of New York, Chicago, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, were present, and the speeches were reported, printed, and scattered broadcast over the nation : and were so widely read, that it is not too much to say that the whole American people paused to watch the pro- gress of the debates, and hung with intense interest on the words and movements of the champions. ' It was indeed a grand spectacle. Each speaker, while addressing from five to ten thousand people, or as many as could hear any human voice in the open air, was also con- scious that he spoke not to his hearers only, but to hundreds of thousands of readers; conscious that he was speaking, not for a day, or for a political campaign, but for all time and thus stimulated, each rose to the gravity and dignity of the occasion. There was not then, nor is there now, any hall in Illinois large enough to receive the vast crowds which gathered. The groves and prairies alone could furnish adequate space, and so the people gathered under the locusts 1. As an Illustration of this, I Insert a paragraph from a letter of Henry W. Longfellow, to whom a sketch of this debate was sent a short time before his death. The letter Is dated at Cambridge, Feb. 22d, 1881, and he says : " I have read It (the sketch) with Interest and pleasure, particularly that part of It which relates to Mr. Lincoln. I well remember the Impression made upon me by his speeches In this famous political canvass, In 1858, as reported In the papers at the time, and am glad to find It renewed and confirmed by your vivid sketches. I am, my dear Sir, Yours Very Truly, HENIIV W. LONGFELLOW." THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 143 on the public square at Ottawa, on the oak and elm shaded banks of Rock River at Freeport, at Quincy near the Missis- sippi, and elsewhere, to hear these their leaders. The first speech was made by Douglas, Lincoln being present, at Chicago, on the evening of the gth of July, 1858, from the balcony of the old Tremont House ; Dearborn and Lake Streets being completely packed with citizens, and the hotel parlors and rotunda filled with ladies and privileged guests. On the following evening Lincoln replied from the same place, to a crowd equally great. On the i6th of July, Douglas spoke again at Bloomington, Lincoln being present. On the i yth of July, Douglas spoke at the Capitol in Spring- field, and on the evening of the same day Lincoln replied. On the 24th of July, Lincoln addressed a note to Doug- las, proposing arrangements for a series of joint discussions during the canvass. 1 After some correspondence it was agreed that there should be seven joint discussions, that the opening speech should occupy one hour, the reply one hour and a half, and the close a half hour, so that each discussion should occupy three hours. They were to speak at Ottawa, August 2ist ; at Freeport, August 2yth ; at Jonesborough, September i5th ; at Charleston, September i8th ; at Gales- burg, October yth ; at Quincy, October i3th ; and at Alton, October i5th. Douglas was to have the opening and the close of the debate at four of these seven meetings. The disinterested spectator at one of these discussions would, when they began, probably find his sympathy with "the little giant," on the principle that one is apt to sympa- thize with the smaller man in a fight. If so, and he were to remain to the close, he would be likely to change sides before the end, seeing that Lincoln was so fair, so candid, so frank, so courteous, and answered every question so well, 1. CHICAGO, ILL., .Tuljr 24, 1858. How. S. A. DOUGLAS. My Dear Sir : Will It be agreeable to you to make an arrangement for you and myself to divide time and address the same audiences the present canvass. Mr. Judd, who will hand you this, is authorized to receive your answer, and, if agreeable to you, to enter Into the terms of such arrangement. Your obedient servant, A. LINCOLN. Lincoln and Douglas Debates, p. 64. 144 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. while Douglas was at times evasive, at others arrogant, and not always even courteous. There is in one of Lincoln's speeches, made in 1856,' an allusion to Douglas, so beautiful, generous, and eloquent, that I quote it as an indication of the temper in which he carried on these discussions : " Twenty years ago," said he, " Douglas and I first became acquainted. We were both young then he a trifle younger than I. Even then we were both ambitious I, perhaps, quite as much as he. With me the race of ambition has been a failure a flat failure. With him it has been one of splendid success. His name fills the nation, and is not unknown even in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high eminence he has reached. So reached, that the oppressed of my species might have shared with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow." We know, the world knows, that Lin- coln did reach that high, nay, far higher eminence, and that he did reach it in such a way that the " oppressed of his species " shared with him in the elevation. There is no reason to doubt that each of these great men believed, at that time, that he was right. Douglas had that ardor of temperament which would make him believe while in the midst of such a conflict that he was right, and Lin- coln's friends all know that he argued for freedom and against slavery with the most profound conviction that the fate of his country hung on the result. He said to a friend during the canvass: " Sometimes in the excitement of speak- ing I seem to see the end of slavery. I feel that the time is soon coming when the sun shall shine, the rain fall, on no man who shall go forth to unrequited toil." * * " How this will come, when it will come, by whom it will come, I cannot tell but that time will surely come." Lincoln had several advantages over Douglas in this conflict. He had the right side, the side of liberty, the side towards which the tide of popular feeling was setting with 1. See Holland's Life of Lincoln, p. 15S. THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 145 tremendous force. Then he had the better temper, he was always good humored; while Douglas, when hard pressed, was sometimes irritable. Lincoln's wit and humor, his apt stories for illustration were an immense advantage, especially when addressing a popular assembly. Speaking then, for his country, for the principles of the fathers, and for freedom, his eloquence surpassed all his own previous efforts. His lips seemed at times touched by fire from off the very altar of liberty. Patrick Henry had always been his ideal orator, and both Henry and Lincoln were great men by nature, both country-bred and self-educated. Patrick Henry had little of Lincoln's humor, but Lincoln had at times the fire and enthusiasm of him who said : " Give me liberty or give me death." It was liberty that made Henry so eloquent; it was the same theme that made Lincoln so great. Douglas, perhaps, carried away the more popular applause. Lincoln made the deeper, and more lasting impression. Douglas did not disdain an immediate, ad captandum triumph, while Lincoln aimed at permanent conviction. Sometimes, when Lincoln's friends urged him to raise a storm of applause, which he could always do by his happy illustrations and amus- ing stories, he refused, saying: " The occasion is too serious; the issues are too grave. I do not," said he, " seek applause, or to amuse the people, but to convince th'em." It was observed, in the canvass, that while Douglas was greeted with the loudest cheers, when Lincoln closed, the people seemed serious and thoughtful, and could be heard all through the crowds, gravely and anxiously discussing the subjects on which he had been speaking. The echo and the prophecy of this great debate were heard, and inspired hope, in the far-off cotton and rice fields of the South. The toiling and superstitious negroes began to hope for freedom, and in a mysterious way (did the sibylline lips of the Voudou whisper it?), faith was inspired in them that their deliverance was at hand, that their liber- ator was on the earth. In the words of Whittier, they lifted up their prayer: 10 146 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. " We pray de Lord. He gib us signs Dat some day we be free; De Norf winds tell it to de pines, De wild duck to de sea. " We tink it when de church bell ring; We dream it in de dream; De rice bird mean it when he sing; De eagle when he scream." The friends of Douglas, who managed the machinery of the campaign, did it well. A special train of cars, a band of music, a cannon to thunder forth his approach, and a party of ardent and enthusiastic friends accompanied him to cheer and encourage; so that his passage from place to place was like that of a conquering hero. The democratic party, so long dominant in Illinois, were now, from Douglas down, confident, and his partisans full of bluster and brag. They everywhere boasted, and were ready to bet, that their " little giant" would " use up and utterly demolish ' old Abe '. " They were so noisy and demonstrative; they seemed so absolutely sure of success, that many of the republicans, unconscious of the latent power of Lincoln, became alarmed. Douglas had so uni- formly triumphed, and his power over the people was so great, that many were disheartened, and feared the ordeal of a joint discussion, which would certainly expose the weaker man. This feeling was apparent in the editorials of some of the leading republican newspapers. Just before the first joint discussion, which was to take place at Ottawa, there was a large gathering at the Chenery House, then the leading hotel at Springfield. The house was filled with politicians, and so great was the crowd, that large numbers were out of doors, in the street, and on the sidewalk. Lincoln was there, surrounded by his friends, but it is said ' that he looked careworn and weary. He had become conscious that some of his party friends distrusted his ability to meet successfully a man whom, as the demo- 1. By U. W. Beckwltn, of Danville, Vermllllon Co., Illinois. THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 147 crats declared and believed, had never had his equal on the stump. Seeing an old friend from Vermillion County, Lincoln came up, and, shaking hands, inquired the news. His friend replied: "All looks well, our friends are wide awake, but ," he continued, " they are looking forward with some anxiety to these approaching joint discussions with Douglas." A shade passed over Lincoln's face, a sad expression came and instantly passed, and then a blaze of light flashed from his eyes, and his lips quivered. " I saw," said his friend, " that he had penetrated my feelings and fears, and that he knew of the apprehensions of his friends. With his lips com- pressed, and with a manner peculiar to him, half jocular, he said : ' My friend, sit down a minute, and I will tell you a story.' We sat down on the door step leading into the hotel, and he then continued : ' You and I, as we have traveled the circuit together attending court, have often seen two men about to fight. One of them, the big, or the little giant, as the case may be, is noisy, and boastful ; he jumps high in the air, strikes his feet together, smites his fists, brags about what he is going to do, and tries hard to skeer the other man. The other says not a word.' Lincoln's manner became earn- est, and his look firm and resolute. ' The other man says not a word, his arms are at his side, his fists are clenched, his teeth set, his head settled firmly on his shoulders, he saves his breath and strength for the struggle. This man will whip, just as sure as the fight comes off. Good-bye,' said he, ' and remember what I say.' From that moment, I felt as certain of Lincoln's triumph, as after it was won." The joint discussion at Charleston, was on the i8th of September. This was in Lincoln's old circuit, where he was personally known, and popular, but a majority of the people were politically opposed to him. There was a vast throng, eager to witness the contest. Many were in wagons, having taken with them their provisions, and camping out in the groves at night. It was estimated that twenty thousand peo- ple were in attendance. Lincoln, on that day, had the opening and the close. 148 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. This was the fourth joint discussion, and no one who wit- nessed it could ever after doubt Lincoln's ample ability to meet Douglas. The " little giant " and his friends, had learned that there were blows to be received, as well as to be given. The Senator, who had begun the canvass at Ottawa, aggres- sive and overbearing, had learned caution, and that he must husband his resources. Ugly questions had been propounded to him, which it was difficult for him to answer. His action in relation to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, which he was trying to justify, enabled Lincoln to keep him on the defensive. In reply to Douglas's charge against Lincoln, of arousing sectional feeling, and leading a sectional party, the reply was always ready: " It was you, Douglas, that started the great conflagration; it was you that set the dry prairie on fire, by repealing the Missouri Compromise." Douglas's reply to Lincoln at Charleston, was mainly a defense. Lincoln's close was intensely interesting and dra- matic. His logic and arguments were crushing, and Doug- las's evasions were exposed, with a power and clearness that left him utterly discomfited. Republicans saw it, demo- crats realized it, and " a sort of panic seized them, and ran through the crowd of up-turned faces." > Douglas real- ized his defeat, and, as Lincoln's blows fell fast and heavy, he lost his temper. He could not keep his seat, he rose and walked rapidly up and down the platform, behind Lincoln, holding his watch in his hand, and obviously impatient for the call of " time." A spectator says : " He was greatly agi- tated, his long grizzled hair waving in the wind, like the shaggy locks of an enraged lion." It was while Douglas was thus exhibiting to the crowd his eager desire to stop Lincoln, that the latter, holding the audience entranced by his eloquence, was striking his heav- iest blows. The instant the second hand of his watch reached the point at which Lincoln's time was up, Douglas, holding up the watch, called out : " Sit down, Lincoln, sit down. Your time is up." 1. The expression of a spectator. THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 149 Turning to Douglas, Lincoln said calmly : " I will. I will quit. I believe my time is up." " Yes," said a man on the platform, " Douglas has had enough, it is time you let him up." And this spectator expressed the feeling of friend and foe, concerning this battle of the giants. Douglas had declared that certain telling charges made by Senator Trumbull, and indorsed by Lincoln, were false. He did not deny the facts stated by Trumbull, nor attempt by argument to disprove the conclusions which were drawn, but coarsely said that Trumbull had declared and Lincoln indorsed what was false. In reply, Lincoln used this fine illustration, exposing the ad captandum argument : " Why, sir," exclaimed Lincoln, " there is not a statement in Trum- bull's speech that depends upon Trumbull's veracity. Why does he not answer the facts?" * * * * " If," con- tinued he, " you have ever studied geometry, you remember that by a course of reasoning Euclid proves that all the angles in a triangle are equal to two right angles. Euclid has shown how to work it out. Now, if you undertook to disprove that proposition, to show that it was erroneous, would you do it by calling Euclid a liar? That is the way Judge Douglas answers Trumbull." ' The result of this memorable campaign, so far as the voters were concerned, was a drawn battle. Douglas was re-elected to the Senate, but the manly bearing, the vigorous logic, the great ability and love of liberty exhibited by Lincoln in these debates, secured, two years later, his nomination and election to the Presidency. The debates and debaters have passed into history, and the world has pronounced Lincoln the victor ; but it should be remembered that Lincoln spoke for liberty and a young and enthusiastic party, and that Douglas, while a candidate for the Senate, was looking also to the White House, and that, while he kept one eye on Illinois, he had to keep the other on the slaveholders. Thus he was hampered and em- barrassed, but he made a brilliant canvass. It should not be 1. Lincoln and Douglas Debates, p. 160. I5O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. forgotten that the whole power of Buchanan's administra- tion was used to aid in his defeat. The patronage of the Federal Government, in the hands of the unscrupulous Slidell, was used against him. There was something almost heroic in the gallantry with which Douglas threw himself into the contest, and dealt his blows right and left, against the republican party on the one hand, and the Buchanan administration on the other. Douglas's great power as a leader, and his personal popu- larity, are exhibited in the facts that every democratic mem- ber of Congress from Illinois stood by him faithfully, that the Democratic State Convention indorsed him, and that no considerable impression against him could be made by all the power and patronage of the administration. ' There is, on the whole, hardly any greater personal triumph in the history of American politics, than his re-election. No extracts from these debates can do anything like jus- tice to their merits. They were entirely extemporaneous, and the reports which were made and widely circulated in book and pamphlet, while full of striking and beautiful pas- sages, of strong arguments, and keen repartee, are disap- pointing and unsatisfactory to those who had the great pleasure of listening to them. At the discussion at Freeport, Lincoln replied, with per- fect fairness and frankness, to various questions of Douglas; questions skillfully framed to draw out unpopular opinions, and such as should be especially obnoxious to the extreme anti-slavery men. Lincoln answered all without evasion. He then in turn propounded certain questions to Douglas, and among others, questions designed to expose the inconsis- tency of the Senator, in upholding his doctrine of " popular sovereignty," and that part of the Dred Scott decision in which the court declared that the people the " popular sovereigns," had no right to exclude slavery. His second 1. The popular vote stood thus: Lincoln, 126,084; Douglas, 121,940; Buchanan, 5,091. Douglas was elected by the party with a minority vote, because some demo- cratic senators, representing republican districts, held over. THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. interrogatory was: " Can the people of a United States ter- ritory, in any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the United States, exclude slavery from its limits, prior to the formation of a state constitution." It was in reference to this that a friend of Lincoln said: " If Douglas answers in such a way as to give practical force and effect to the Dred Scott decision, he inevitably loses the battle; but he will reply, by declaring the decision an abstract proposition; he will adhere to his doctrine of ' squatter sovereignty/ and declare that a territory may exclude slavery." " If he does that," said Mr. Lincoln, " he can never be President." " But," said the friend, " he may be Senator." " Perhaps," replied Lincoln, "but I am after larger game; the battle of 1860 is worth a hundred of this." It was obviously impossible to reconcile Douglas's posi- tion at Freeport, and elsewhere, that " the people could exclude slavery if they pleased, and that their right to do so was perfect and complete, under the Nebraska bill," with the decision of the Court, that the people of the territory could do nothing of the kind. The Court said that a master had the right, under the Constitution, to take, and hold his slaves, in all the territories. If so, slavery could not be excluded by the people of the territory. Lincoln, in one of those terse, clear sentences, into which he often condensed a whole speech, exposed the absurdity of this. " Douglas holds," said he, " that a thing may lawfully be driven away from a place where it has a lawful right to go." He thus describes his appreciation of the momentous issue: " I do not claim to be unselfish. I do not pretend that I would not like to go to the United States Senate." * * * " But I say to you, that in this mighty issue, it is nothing to the mass of the peo- ple of the nation, whether or not Judge Douglas or myself shall ever be heard of after this night. It may be a trifle to us, but in connection with this mighty issue, upon which, per- haps, hang the destinies of the nation, it is absolutely nothing." At their last joint discussion in October, at Alton, where 152 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Lovejoy, twenty one years before, had been killed because of his fidelity to freedom, Lincoln, in closing the debate, said: "Is slavery wrong ? That is the real issue. That is the issue that will continue in this country when these poor tongues of Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the eternal struggle between these two principles right and wrong throughout the world. They are 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 developes itself. It is the same spirit that says: 'You work, and toil, 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." * * * " On this subject of treating it (slavery) as a wrong, and limiting its spread, let me say a word. Has anything ever threatened the existence of the Union, save and except this very institution of slavery ? What is it that we hold most dear among us ? Our own liberty and prosperity. What has ever threatened our liberty and prosperity, save and except this institution of slavery ? If this is true, how do you propose to improve the condition of things by enlarging slavery ? By spreading it out and making it bigger ? You may have a wen or cancer upon your person, and not be able to cut it out lest you bleed to death; but surely it is not the way to cure it, to engraft it and spread it over your whole body. That is no proper way of treating what you regard as wrong. You see this peaceful way of dealing with it as a wrong restricting the spread of it, and not allowing it to go into new countries, where it has not already existed. That is the peaceful way, the old fashioned way, the way in which the fathers themselves set us the example." CHAPTER X. LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. DOUGLAS RE-ELECTED TO THE SENATE. LINCOLN ASSESSED FOR EX- PENSES OF THE CANVASS. VISIT TO KANSAS. CALLED TO OHIO. SPEAKS AT COLUMBUS AND CINCINNATI. IN THE NEW ENGLAND STATES. SHRINKS FROM THE CANDIDACY. COOPER INSTITUTE SPEECH. NOMINATED FOR PRESIDENT. His ELECTION. THE great intellectual conflict was over. Lincoln, weary but not exhausted, returned to his home at Springfield, and when the returns came in, it appeared that he had won the victory for his cause, his party, and his country. The re- publican state ticket was elected; he had carried a majority of the popular vote, but he was again baffled in obtaining the position of Senator, which he so much desired. A suffi- cient number of Douglas democrats elected two years before from districts now republican, still held over, and inequali- ties in the apportionment enabled Douglas to control a small majority of the Legislature, although defeated in the popular vote. As soon as this became known, a perfect ovation was given to that popular idol. After a little rest, the Senator started for Washington, by way of the Mississippi river. Popular receptions awaited him at St. Louis, at Memphis, and at New Orleans. Taking a steamer to New York, on his arrival in that city, he was welcomed by a great con- course of people, and this welcome was repeated, with the utmost enthusiasm, at Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Wash- ington. Lincoln was resting quietly at his little cottage in Spring- 154 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. field. He had been speaking constantly from July to No- vember, for both he and Douglas, when not engaged irk joint discussion, were speaking elsewhere. He was cheer- ful, and apparently so gratified with the result, that he almost forgot his personal disappointment. It does not appear that the honors lavished upon his rival disturbed his sleeping or waking hours. At the end of the canvass, both Douglas and Lincoln visited Chicago; Douglas was so hoarse that he could scarcely articulate, and it was painful to hear him attempt to speak. Lincoln's voice was clear and vigorous, and it really seemed in better tone than usual. His dark complexion was bronzed by the prairie sun and winds, but his eye was clear, his step firm, and he looked like a trained athlete, ready to enter, rather than one who had closed a conflict. On the 1 6th of November, in reply to a letter of the Chairman of the State Committee relating to the expendi- tures of the canvass, he says: " I have been on expense so long, without earning anything, that I am absolutely without money now to pay for even household expenses. Still, you can put in two hundred and fifty dollars for me towards dis- charging the debt of the committee. I will allow it when we settle the private matter between us." * * " This, too, is exclusive of my ordinary expenses during the cam- paign, all of which, added to my loss of time and business, bears heavily on one no better off than I am." ' He owned at this time the little house and lot on which 1. The letter is as follows: SPRINGFIELD, Nov. 16, 1858. HON. N. B. JITDD My Dear Sir: Tours of the 15th is Just received. I wrote you the same day. As to the pecuniary matter, I am willing to pay according to my ability, but I am the poorest hand living to get others to pay. I have been on expense so long, without earning anything, that I am absolutely without money now for even household expenses. Still, if you can put in two hundred and fifty dollars for me towards discharging the debt of the committee, I will allow it when you and I settle the private matter between us. This, with what I have already paid with an out- standing note of mine, will exceed my subscription of five hundred dollars. This, too, is exclusive of my ordinary expenses during the campaign, all of which being added to my lots of time and business, bears pretty heavily upon one no better off than I am. But as I had the post of honor, it is not for me to be over-nice. Tou are feeling badly, ' and this, too, shall pass away,' never fear. Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN. LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. ICC w J he lived, and a few law-books, and was earning not to exceed three thousand dollars per annum in his profession. He was not then worth over ten or fifteen thousand dollars altogether. One would suppose that the sacrifice of time and money involved in paying his own expenses in the canvass, had fully met his share of the cost, and that the committee would have raised the money they had expended, from the wealthy members of the party in Chicago and elsewhere, rather than, under the circumstances, have called upon their candidate for the Senate. The close of his letter: "You are feeling badly," "and this too shall pass away, never fear," shows that so far from feeling chagrin or depression over his defeat, he had a word of cheer for his friends. In the autumn of 1859 he visited Kansas, and the people of that young commonwealth received him as one who had so eloquently plead their cause should be received. That Lincoln's friends began, during the debates of 1858, seriously to consider him as an available candidate for the Presidency, is well known. Late in the autumn of that year, after the close of the canvass, some of his friends proposed to begin an organization with the view of bringing him before the people for nomination in 1860. Mr. Fell, of Bloomington, Secretary of the Republican State Central Committee, had an interview with him on the subject. 1 Lincoln discouraged the proposition, and said that he was not well enough known. "What," said he, "is the use of talking of me, whilst we have such men as Seward and Chase, and everybody knows them, and scarcely anybody, outside of Illinois, knows me? Besides," said he, "as a matter of justice, is it not due to them?" In reply, his friends urged his great availability, on the ground that he was not obnoxious as a radical, or otherwise. They reminded him that the party was in a minority; that defeated 1. See a full statement of this Interview in the Lincoln Memorial Album, pp. 477- 478. 156 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. in 1856, with Fremont, they would be beaten in 1860 unless a great many new votes could be obtained. These would be repelled by the extreme utterances and votes of Seward and Chase, but on the simple issue of opposing the exten- sion of slavery, an issue with which Lincoln was distinctly identified, a majority could probably be obtained. That, by his debate with Douglas, he, more than any other man in the nation, represented that distinct issue, and that he had no embarrassing record ; that he was personally popular, and . that with him for their candidate, the republican party had a fair chance of success. Nothing came of this conference at that time, but it was not forgotten. In the autumn of 1859, Douglas visited Ohio, and made a canvass for the democratic party. On his appearance, the cry arose at once : " Where is Lincoln, the man who beat him in Illinois? Send for him!" Lincoln was sent for. He came, and spoke with great ability, at Columbus and at Cin- cinnati, and, at the latter place, addressed himself especially to Kentuckians. He said, among other things, that they ought to nominate for President " my distinguished friend, Judge Douglas." "In my opinion it is," says he, "for you to take him or be beaten." A portion of this speech was as follows: " I should not wonder that there are some Kentuckians about this audience; we are close to Kentucky; and whether that be so or not, we are on elevated ground, and by speaking distinctly, I should not wonder if some of the Kentuckians would hear me on the other side of the river. For that purpose I propose to address a portion of what I have to say to the Kentuckians. * * I have told you what we mean to do. I want to know now, when that thing takes place, what you mean to do. I often hear it intimated that you mean to divide the Union whenever a republican, or anything like it, is elected President of the United States. (A voice 'That is so.') ' That is so,' one of them says; I wonder if he is a Kentuckian ? (A voice ' He is a Douglas man.') Well, then, I want to know what you are going to do with your half of it ? Are you going to split the Ohio down through, and push your half off a piece ? Or are you going to keep it right alongside of us outrageous fellows ? Or are you going to build up a wall some way between your country and ours, by which that movable property of yours can't come over here any LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. 1C 7 I more, to the danger of your losing it ? Do you (think you can better your- selves on that subject, by leaving us here under no obligation whatever to return those specimens of your movable property that come hither ? You have divided the Union because we would notido right with you, as you think, upon that subject; when we cease to be) under obligations to do anything for you, how much better off do youf think you will be? Will you make war upon us and kill us all ? Why\ gentlemen, I think you are as gallant and as brave men as live; that yon can fight as bravely in a good cause, man for man, as any other people living; that you have shown yourselves capable of this upon various occasions; but man for man, you are not better than we are, and there are not so many of you as there are of us. You will never make much of a hand at whipping us. If we were fewer in numbers than you, I think that you could whip us; if we were equal it would likely be a drawn battle; but being inferior in num- bers, you will make nothing by attempting to master us." This speech showed how confident he was of success. It defined his position, and added much to his popularity. In December, 1859, the feeling in favor of his nomina- tion for the Presidency had become so general, that he con- sented to permit his friends to take such steps as they deemed expedient to bring him forward as a candidate for the nom- ination. On the 2oth of December, he gave to Mr. Fell that modest paper giving some details of his life, which has already been set forth in the early part of this volume. On Tuesday evening, February 27th, 1860, Mr. Lincoln delivered, in the city of New York, the Cooper Institute speech ; a speech that probably did more to secure his nom- ination, than any other act of his life. He had become widely known as the successful stump-speaker against Doug- las. It was known that he was an able, effective debater, but many supposed that he was a mere declaimer, and suc- cessful stump-speaker only ; that with much coarse humor, he was probably superficial. True, he had beaten Douglas, and by beating Douglas, he had beaten the whole field ; but exactly what manner of man he was, nobody outside of Illi- nois knew. Great curiosity was manifested to hear this West- ern prodigy, this prairie orator, this rough, uncouth, unlearned backwoodsman. . He realized all this, and his Cooper Insti- tute speech, either designedly, or otherwise, was admirably 158 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. adapted to remove prejudice, and create confidence. It was the speech of a statesman. Cooper Institute, an immense hall, was filled to its utmost capacity. Horace Greeley, who, in the New York Tribune, had advised the Illinois republicans not to oppose Douglas in his canvass for the Senate, and who had thus, by implica- tion, opposed Lincoln, now said : " No man has been Wel- comed by such an audience of the intellect and mental cul- ture of our city, since the days of Clay and Webster." On the platform were the most distinguished scholars, jurists, and divines of the city. Bryant, the poet, presided, and introduced the speaker. Never was an audience more surprised, and never more delighted. It was a political argu- ment ; brief, profound, and exhaustive. Instead of rant, declamation, striking and witty points, it was a calm, clear, learned, dignified, and complete exposition of the whole sub- ject ; the speech of a scholar, and showed that he was an accurate and laborious student of history. There is com- pressed into it such an amount of historical learning, stated in the simplest language, as within such a compass, is per- haps unparalleled. The argument demonstrating the right of Congress to prohibit slavery in the territories, and that such was the understanding of "our fathers," who framed the Constitu- tion and organized the government, has never been sur- passed; it never has been, nor can it be, successfully answered. The effort was so dignified, and exhibited so much learning, and such thorough mastery of the subject, that, coming from a source whence this kind of excellence was not expected, it was a surprise and revelation, and, therefore, made the greater impression. He awoke the next morning to find himself famous. He closed his great argument with these words : " Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us to the end dare to do our duty as we under- stand it." The speech was published in full by the New York Tribune and other papers, and scattered all over the Union, and it perfectly satisfied the thoughtful and intellect- LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. 159 oial men of the republican party as to Lincoln's great intel- lectual power and wise moderation, and it prepared the way for his nomination Subsequently, he spoke in Connecticut, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, everywhere making per- sonal friends, and leaving a lasting impression of his great ability. A clergyman of Norwich, Connecticut, who heard him in that city, met him the following day in the cars. Introduc- ing himself, he said: " Your speech last night was the most remarkable I ever heard." " I should like to know," said Lincoln, " what there was you thought so remarkable ?" The clergyman replied: " The clearness of your statements, the unanswerable style of your reasoning, and especially your illustrations, which were romance and pathos, fun and logic, all welded together." ' The presidential election of 1860 now approached. The storm of political excitement, North and South, was raging with intense violence. The democratic convention to nomi- nate candidates was called to meet at Charleston, S. C., in April. Douglas was the popular candidate in the free states, with many strong personal friends in the slave states. The politicians of that party believed, as Lincoln had told them at Cincinnati, that they must take Douglas or be defeated. But the ultra slaveholders, as a class, were bit- terly opposed to him, on account of his opposition to the Lecompton Constitution, and his replies to Lincoln at Free- port, Illinois. Hitherto the North had generally yielded to the more determined leaders among the slaveholders, and many supposed that the friends of Douglas, as those of Benton, Van Buren, and Wright had done in days gone by, would yield, and permit the nomination of some negative man, some compromise candidate. An Illinois republican, a short time before the Charleston convention, said to Colonel Richardson, one of Douglas's efficient friends, and one likely ;to lead his friends in that convention: " Douglas will be sacrificed. As Van Buren was sacri- 1. The Rev. John Sullivan. New York Independent, September 1st, 1864. l6o ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ficed because of his opposition to Texas annexation, so the South will sacrifice Douglas because he opposed Lecompton." " No," replied Richardson, " the South will find Doug- las's friends as firm and determined as they are. We have the majority, and our leader shall not be sacrificed. The South will find they have now to deal with the West, with men as determined as themselves.'" In the Charleston convention was a large party who were secessionists, disunionists, and who desired separation. They meant to push matters to extremes, to divide the democratic party, thereby rendering the success of the republican party certain, and then to make the election of a republican a pretext for the dissolution of the Union. The first thing done after organization was the adoption of a platform. A majority reported resolutions declaring that neither Congress nor a territorial legislature had any power to abolish or prohibit slavery in the territories, " nor to impair or destroy the right of property in slaves by any legislation whatever." This was intended to be, and was, a direct repudiation of Douglas's doctrine of popular sov- ereignty, and his friends knew that they might as well give up the canvass as go before the people with this platform. A minority of the committee, but representing states which held a decided majority of the electoral votes, reported resolutions re-affirming the platform adopted by the national convention at Cincinnati four years before; declaring that " inasmuch as there were differences of opinion in the demo- cratic party as to the powers of a territorial legislature, and as to the powers and duties of Congress under the Constitu- tion over the institution of slavery in the territories, the democratic party would abide by the decrees of the Supreme Court on questions of constitutional law." Butler, of Massa- chusetts, reported the old Cincinnati platform. After voting down Mr. Butler's proposition, the convention adopted the minority report. This was supported by the friends of Douglas. Thereupon L. P. Walker, subsequently the rebel Secre- LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. l6l tary of War, presented the protest of the delegates from Alabama, and these delegates withdrew from the conven- tion. Among these delegates was William L. Yancey, long before a notorious secessionist. The delegates from Missis- sippi, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, Florida, Arkansas, Georgia, and Delaware thereupon also withdrew. The con- vention then resolved that it should require two-thirds of a full convention to nominate. After balloting several times, on each of which ballots Mr. Douglas had a large, but not the two-thirds majority required, the convention adjourned to meet at Baltimore on the i8th of June. The seceding delegates adjourned to meet at Richmond on the second Monday in June. The Baltimore convention met and nominated Stephen A. Douglas for President, and Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Ala- bama, for Vice-President; but on his declining, Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, was substituted. The convention of the seceders met at Richmond, and, adopting the resolu- tions of the majority of the committee, nominated John C. Breckenridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Colonel Joseph Lane, of Oregon, for Vice-President. The disrup- tion of the democratic party was hailed with delight by the infatuated people of Charleston and other parts of the rebel states as the prelude to the breaking up of the Union. The republican convention had been called to meet at Chicago on the i6th of May. On the loth of May, the Illi- nois republican state convention was held at Decatur, in Macon County, to nominate state officers and appoint dele- gates to the national presidential convention. This was not very far from where Lincoln's father had settled and worked a farm in 1830, and where young Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Hanks had split the rails for enclosing the old pioneer's first corn field. On the gth of February preced- ing, Lincoln had written a characteristic letter to Mr. Judd, the chairman of the state central committee, in which he said : " I am not in a position where it would hurt much for me not to be nominated on the national ticket, but I am ii 1 62 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. where it would hurt some for me not to get the Illinois dele- gates." ' Lincoln was present at the Decatur convention, and as he entered the hall he was received with such demonstrations of attachment as left no doubt as to the wishes of Illinois on the question of his nomination. When he was seated, Gen- eral Oglesby announced that an old democrat of Macon County desired to make a contribution to the convention. Immediately some farmers brought into the hall two old fence rails, bearing the inscription : " Abraham Lincoln, the rail candidate for the Presidency in 1860. Two rails from a lot of three thousand, made in 1830, by Thomas Hanks and Abe Lincoln, whose father was the first pioneer of Macon County." The effect of this cannot be described. For fifteen minutes, cheer upon cheer went up from the crowd. Lin- coln was called to the stand, but his rising was the signal for renewed cheering, and this continued until the audience had exhausted itself, and then Mr. Lincoln gave a history of these two rails, and of his life in Macon County. He told the story of his labor in helping to build his father's log cabin, and fencing in a field of corn. This dramatic scene was not planned by politicians, but was the spontaneous action of the old pioneers. The effect it had upon the peo- ple satisfied all present that it was a waste of words to talk in Illinois of any other man than Abraham Lincoln for President. No public man had less of the demagogue than Mr. Lin- coln. He never mentioned his humble life, or his manual labor, for the purpose of getting votes. He knew perfectly 1. " SPBINGFIKLD, ILL., February 9, 1860. " HOK. N. B. JUDD Dear Sir: I am not In a position where tt would hurt much for me not to be nominated on the national ticket; but I am where It would hurt some for me not to get the Illinois delegates. What I expected when I wrote the letter to Messrs. Dole and others Is now happening. Tour discomfited assailants are more bit- ter against me, and they will, for revenge upon me, lay to the Bates egg in the South and the Seward egg In the North, and go far towards squeezing me out In the middle with nothing. Can you not help me a little in this matter In your end of the vine- yard? (I mean this to be private.) Yours as ever, A. LINCOLN." LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. 163 well that it did not follow because a man could split rails, that he would make a good statesman or President. So far from having any feeling of this kind, he realized painfully the defects of his education, and did his utmost to supply the deficiencies. When told that the people were talking of making him President, he said : " They ought to select some one who knows more than I do." But while he did not think any more of himself because he had in early life split rails, he had too much real dignity to lose any self-respect on that account. The committee appointed to select delegates to the na- tional convention, submitted the list of names to him. As illustrating how presidents are nominated, I will add that the committee, and other personal friends of Lincoln, among whom were Judd, David Davis, Swift, Cook, and others, retired from the convention, and, in a grove near by, lay down upon the grass and revised the list of delegates, which they reported to, and which were appointed by, the con- vention. An immense building called the " Wigwam" and capable of holding many thousands of people, had been erected especially for the meeting of the national convention. A full, eager, and enthusiastic representation was present from all the free states, together with representatives from Dela- ware, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia, and some scattering representatives from some of the other slave states ; but the Gulf states were not represented. Indeed, few of the slave states were fully and perfectly represented. On motion of Governor Morgan, chairman of the national executive committee, David Wilmot, author of the Wilmot proviso, was made temporary chairman, and George Ash- mun, of Massachusetts, permanent president. There was not much difficulty about the platform. The convention resolved " that the new dogma that the Constitu- tion carried slavery into all the territories, was a dangerous political heresy, revolutionary in tendency, and subversive of 164 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the peace and harmony of the country ; that the normal condition of all the territories is that of freedom ; that neither Congress, the territorial legislature, nor any individ- ual, could give legal existence to slavery ; that Kansas ought to be immediately admitted as a free state ; that the opening of the slave trade would be a crime against human- ity." It declared also in favor of a homestead law, harbor and river improvements, and the Pacific railroad. The leading candidates for the nomination for President, were William H. Seward, of New York ; Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois ; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio ; Simon Cameron, of Pennsylvania ; and Edward Bates, of Missouri ; but it early became apparent that the contest was between Seward and Lincoln. Mr. Seward had been for many years a leading statesman. Governor of New York, and long its most dis- tinguished senator ; he had brought to the discussions of the great issue between liberty and slavery, a philosophic mind, broad and catholic views, great sagacity, and an ele- vated love of liberty and humanity. Few, if any, had done more to enlighten, create, and consolidate public opinion in the free states. His position had been far more conspicuous than that of Mr. Lincoln. Hence he had been supposed to be more in the way of rivals, and had become the object of more bitter personal and political hostility. The Illinois candidate was principally known, outside of the Northwest, as the competitor of Douglas. Yet the sobri- quet of " honest old Abe, the rail-splitter of Illinois," had extended throughout the free states ; he had no enemies, and was the second choice of nearly all those delegates of whom he was not the first. He was supposed by shrewd politicians to have, and he did possess, those qualities which make an available candidate. Although a resident of the state, he did not attend the convention, but was quietly at his home in Springfield. Few men of that convention realized, or had the faintest foreshadowing of the terrible ordeal of civil war, which was before the candidate whom they should nominate and the LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. 165 people elect. Yet there seems to have been a peculiar pro- priety in Mr. Lincoln's nomination ; and there was here illus- trated that instinctive sagacity, or more truly, providential guidance, which directs a people in a critical emergency to act wisely. Looking back, we now see how wise the selection. The Union was to be assailed ; 'Lincoln was from the national Northwest, which would never surrender its great communi- cations with the ocean, by the Mississippi, or the East. The great principles of the Declaration of Independence were to be assailed by vast armies ; his political platform had ever been that Declaration. Aristocratic power, with the sympa- thy of the kings and nobility of Europe, was to make a gigantic effort to crush liberty and democracy ; it was fit that the great champion of liberty, of a government " of the people, for the people, by the people," should be a man, born on the wild prairie, nurtured in the rude log cabin, and reared amidst the hardships and struggles of humble life. On the first ballot, Mr. Seward received 173^ votes, to 102 for Lincoln ; the others being divided on Messrs. Cam- eron, Chase, Bates, and others. On the second ballot, Mr. Seward received 184, to 181 for Mr. Lincoln. On the third ballot Mr. Lincoln received a majority, and his nomination was then made unanimous. An incident occurred, which, but for the tact and elo- quence of George William Curtis, a delegate from New York, might have proved a serious blunder. Cartter, of Ohio, chairman of the committee, reported the resolutions consti- tuting the platform, and endeavored to put them through under the previous question. Joshua R. Giddings, the old gray-haired veteran anti-slavery leader from the Western Reserve, Ohio, begged Cartter to withdraw the previous ques- tion, so that he might offer an amendment. Cartter refused but on a vote, the previous question was not sustained. The convention was not willing to treat the great Ohio abolition- ist with rudeness, but was obviously afraid of his radicalism. He offered an amendment, embracing that part of the Dec- 1 66 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. laration of Independence, which declares that " all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights," etc. He accompanied his motion with a most earnest and eloquent speech, but the con- vention, by a large majority, rejected the amendment. The venerable old man was grieved and disappointed, and, being the representative man of the abolitionists, it was feared the result would create coolness, or drive away these earnest men from supporting the ticket. Many members of the convention were still very much afraid of abolitionism. The party was far from homogeneous, and there was danger of a rupture. At this crisis, George William Curtis, one of the most scholarly, earnest, and enthusiastic young men in the republic, came forward, and renewed Giddings's amend- ment, slightly altered, and in a speech of ten or fifteen minutes, electrified, and carried with him the convention. " Is this convention prepared," cried he, " to vote down the Declaration of your fathers, the charter of American liberty ? " The speech was impromptu, but vehement and eloquent beyond description. It was received with deafening applause, and he carried with him the convention; the amend- ment was adopted by almost universal acclamation. No speaker ever achieved a more brilliant immediate triumph than young Curtis. It was touching to see old Mr. Giddings as he went up to Curtis, and throwing his arms around his neck, exclaimed : " God bless you, my boy. You have saved the republican party. God bless you." Curtis certainly did save the party from a great blunder, if from nothing worse. On the first day of the convention, the friends of Lincoln discovered that there was an organized body of New York- ers and others in the " Wigwam," who cheered vociferously whenever Seward's name was mentioned, or any allusion was made to him. The New Yorkers did the shouting, Lincoln's friends were modest and quiet. At a meeting of the Illinois delegation at the Tremont, on the evening of the first day, at which Judd, Davis, Cook, LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. 167 and others were present, it was decided, that on the second day, Illinois and the West should be heard. There was then living in Chicago, a man whose voice could drown the roar of Lake Michigan in its wildest fury; nay, it was said that his shout could be heard on a calm day, across that lake; Cook, of Ottawa, knew another man, living on the Illinois River, a Dr. Ames, who had never found his equal in his ability to shout and huzza. He was, however, a democrat. Cook telegraphed to him to come to Chicago by the first train. These two men, with stentorian voices, met some of the Illinois delegation at the Tremont House, and were instructed to organize, each a body of men to cheer and shout, which they speedily did out of the crowds which were in attendance from the Northwest. They were placed on opposite sides of the "Wigwam," and instructed that when Cook took out his white handkerchief, they were to cheer, and not to cease until he returned it to his pocket. Cook was conspicuous on the platform, and, at the first utterance of the name of Lincoln, simultaneously with the wave of Cook's hand- kerchief, there went up such a cheer, such a shout as had never before been heard, and which startled the friends of Seward, as the cry of " Marmion " on Flodden Field " startled the Scottish foe." The New Yorkers tried to follow when the name of Seward was spoken, but, beaten at their own game, their voices were instantly and absolutely drowned by cheers for Lincoln. This was kept up until Lincoln was nominated, amidst a storm of applause never before equalled. Ames was so carried away with his own enthusiasm for Lincoln, that he joined the republican party, and continued to shout for Lincoln during the whole campaign; he was afterwards rewarded with a country post-office. The New York delegation were greatly disappointed and chagrined, especially the immediate personal friends of Thurlow Weed and Mr. Seward. Horace Greeley, while not especially pleased with Lin- coln's nomination (his candidate having been Edward Bates, of Missouri), had telegraphed to his paper, the New York 1 68 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Tribune, at 2 A. M. on the night preceding the day of Lin- coln's nomination : " Seward will be nominated to-morrow." He now rejoiced at the defeat of Weed and Seward, but the New York delegation could not understand how it was done. On the second day Seward had lacked but a very few votes, and their confidence in Weed, who had long and successfully managed the politics and controlled the conventions of the Empire State, was so great, that he had acquired the title of the " Warwick of New York." He was the " King maker." They wondered greatly how the Illinois boys had man- aged to beat the old veteran, and especially when, as many thought, he held the winning cards in his hands. The can- vass for Lincoln had been skillfully conducted, and his personal friends, and especially Mr. Judd, the chairman of the delegation, together with David Davis and others, were entitled to great credit. There was in the New York delegation, an eloquent and jovial member, James W. Nye, afterward Senator from Nevada. He was a great wag ; his wit and humor were well known, and the echo of the laughter caused by his jokes and stories had been heard from the Hudson to Lake Michigan. The Illinois delegation was in session, anxiously considering how the friends of Seward and Weed could be satisfied, so that they would give the ticket their cordial and hearty support. A knock at the door was heard, and the door-keeper announced : " General Nye, of New York. He says he has a message from New York to Illinois." "Admit him instantly," said Judd, the chairman. The General entered. " What can Illinois do for New York? " enquired Judd. " Name it, and if in our power, consider it done." "Well," said Nye, "if you sucker boys will please send an Illinois school-master to Albany to teach Thurlow Weed his political alphabet, we will be greatly obliged." The Illinois delegation appreciated the compliment. While the convention was in session, Lincoln was at his home in Springfield. The proceedings and the result of LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. 169 each ballot were immediately communicated to him by a telegraph wire extending from the "Wigwam." At the time of the second ballot, Lincoln was with some friends in the office of the "Sangamon Journal." Soon a gentleman hastily entered from the telegraph office, bearing a slip of paper, on which his nomination the result of the third ballot was written. He read the paper to himself, and then aloud, and then, without stopping to receive the con- gratulations of his friends, he said : " There is a little woman down at our house who will like to hear this. I'll go down and tell her." The incident speaks eloquently of the affectionate relations between him and his wife. She was far more anxious that he should be President than he him- self was, and her early dream was now to be realized. No words can adequately describe the enthusiasm with which this nomination was received in Chicago, in Illinois, and throughout the Northwest. A man who had been placed on top of the Wigwam to announce to the thousands outside the progress of the balloting, as soon as the secretary read the result of the third ballot shouted to those below: "Fire the salute Lincoln is nominated!" The cannon was fired, and before its reverberations died away a hundred thousand voters of Illinois and the neighboring states were shouting, screaming, and rejoicing at the result. Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, was nominated for Vice-President. The nomination of Lincoln was hailed with intense enthusiasm, not only by the crowds in attendance and the Northwest, but throughout the free states. Everywhere the people were full of zeal for the champion from the West. Never did a party enter upon a canvass with more earnest devotion to principle than the republican party of 1860. Love of country, devotion to liberty, hatred of slavery, pervaded all hearts. A keen sense of the wrongs and outrages inflicted upon the free state men of Kansas, the violence, and in many instances the savage cruelty, by which freedom of speech and liberty of the press had been suppressed in por- tions of the slave states, and strong indignation at the long I7O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. catalogue of crimes of the slaveholders, fired all hearts- Confident of success, and determined to leave nothing, undone to secure it, the republican party entered upon the canvass. This Presidential campaign has had no parallel. The enthusiasm of the people was like a great conflagration, like a prairie fire before a wild tornado. A little more than twenty years had passed since Owen Lovejoy, brother of Elijah Lovejoy, on the bank of the Mississippi, kneeling on the turf not then green over the grave of the brother who had been killed for his fidelity to freedom, had sworn eternal war against slavery. From that time on, he and his associate abolitionists had gone forth preaching their crusade against oppression, with hearts of fire and tongues of lightning, and now the consummation was to be realized of a President elected on the distinct ground of opposition to the extension of slavery. For years the hatred of that institution had been growing and gathering force. Whittier, Bryant, Lowell, Longfellow, and others, had written the lyrics of liberty; the graphic pen of Mrs. Stowe, in " Uncle Tom's Cabin," had painted the cruelties of the overseer and the slaveholder, but the acts of slaveholders themselves did more to promote the growth of anti-slavery than all other causes. The persecutions of abolitionists in the South; the harshness and cruelty attending the execution of the fugitive slave laws; the brutality of Brooks in knocking down, on the floor of the Senate, Charles Sumner, for words spoken in debate; these and many other outrages had fired the hearts* of the people of the free states against this barbarous insti- tution. Beecher, Phillips, Channing, Sumner, and Seward, with their eloquence; Chase, with his logic; Lincoln, with his appeals to the principles of the Declaration of Independ- ence, and to the opinions of the founders of the republic, his clear statements, his apt illustrations, above all, his wise moderation all had swelled the voice of the people, which found expression through the ballot-box, and which declared that slavery should go no further. It was now proclaimed LINCOLN BECOMES PRESIDENT. 171 that " the further spread of slavery should be arrested, and it should be placed where the public mind should rest in the belief of its ultimate extinction." A most remarkable feature of the campaign was the personal canvass made by Douglas. This is almost the only instance in which a presidential candidate has taken the stump in his own behalf. The division in the democratic party must have destroyed any hope on his part of success; yet he made a personal canvass, displaying all the vigor, and spirit, and eloquence, for which he was so distinguished. He spoke in most of the free, and in many of the slave states, and his appeals were against Breckenridge on one side, and Lincoln on the other, as representing sectionalism, while he assumed that he carried the banner of the Union. If the efforts of any one man could have changed the result, his would have changed it, but they were in vain. Lincoln received 180 electoral votes, and a popular vote of 1,866,452. Douglas received 12 electoral votes, and 1,375,157 of the popular vote. Breckenridge received 72 electoral, and a popular vote of 847,953; an d Bell 39 electoral votes, and 590,631 of the popular vote. By the success of Mr. Lin- coln, the executive power of the country passed from the hands of the slaveholders. They had controlled the govern- ment for much the larger portion of the time during which it had existed. CHAPTER XI. LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. BUCHANAN'S WEAKNESS. TRAITORS IN HIS CABINET. EFFORTS TO COMPROMISE. SEVEN STATES SECEDE AND ORGANIZE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT. COUNTING THE ELECTORAL VOTE. LINCOLN STARTS FOR WASHINGTON. His JOURNEY. ASSASSINATION PLOT. ARRIVAL AT THE CAPITAL. ON the yth of November, 1860, it was known throughout the republic, that Lincoln had been elected. Not until the 4th of March could he be inaugurated. Meanwhile the clouds, black and threatening, were gathering at the South. It was evident that mischief was brewing. South Carolina rejoiced over the election of Lincoln, with bonfires and pro- cessions. His election furnished a pretext for rebellion. A conspiracy had existed since the days of nullification, to seize upon the first favorable opportunity to break up the Union. 1 For the four eventful months between Lincoln's election and inauguration, conspirators against the Union would still have control of the government. Buchanan, a weak, old man, was influenced to a great extent by traitors in his cabinet, and conspirators in Congress. A majority of his 1. In October, 1856, a meeting of the governors of slave states was held at Ra- leigh, North Carolina, convened at the instance of Governor Wise, who afterward proclaimed that If Fremont had been elected, he would have marched to Washing- ton at the head of twenty thousand men, and prevented his Inauguration. Mr. Keltt, member of Congress from South Carolina, said In the convention of his state, which adopted the ordinance of secession: "I have been engaged in this movement ever since I entered political life." Mr. Rhett said: " The secession of South Carolina Is not the event of a day. It is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or the non-enforcement of the fugitive slave law. It Is a matter that has been gathering head for thirty yean." 172 LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. 173 Cabinet were open disunionists secessionists, who retained their places, and used their power to disarm and dismantle the ship of state, that it might be surrendered an easy con- quest to those preparing to seize it. Mr. Memminger, of South Carolina, who became the rebel Secretary of the Treasury, boasted that Buchanan being President, the Fede- ral Government would be taken at great disadvantage, and it was necessary to prepare things, so that Lincoln would be for a while powerless. On the 1 2th of December, Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, resigned, because the President refused to reinforce the forts in Charleston harbor. Jeremiah S. Black, who, as Attorney General of Buchanan, had given an opinion that the Federal Government had no power to coerce a seceding state, was his successor. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, the Secretary of the Treasury, and afterwards a general in the rebel army, managed to destroy the credit of the govern, ment, and when, December 10, he resigned, because his "duty to Georgia required it," he left the treasury empty. John B. Floyd, soon to hold the rank of general in the rebel army, was Secretary of War. Before he resigned, he partly disarmed the free states, by transferring the arms in the northern arsenals to the slave states, and he sent the few soldiers belonging to the United States regular army so far away as not to be available, until the conspirators should have time to consummate the revolution. Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy, scattered the navy beyond seas, so that the naval force should be beyond the reach of the government. Such were the bold, unscrupulous acts of the conspirators. Some of them intended to prevent the inauguration of Lincoln, and to surrender the Capitol and the public archives to the insurgents, and it is probable that they would have carried out this design, but for the fact that General Winfield Scott was at the head of the army, and that with him was a small but reliable force, so that an overt act of treason might have been dangerous. But the leaders of the conspiracy went forward in their I 74 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. guilty preparations with impunity. If Buchanan had dis- missed the traitors in his Cabinet, arrested the conspirators at the capital, called to his aid strong and loyal men, and declared like General Jackson: "The Union must be pre- served," it is possible that the conspiracy might have been crushed in its inception. But he was weak, vacillating, and like clay in the hands of Jefferson Davis, Cobb, Toombs, and their associates. The strange spectacle was presented of a government in the hands of conspirators plotting to overthrow it. From the official desks and portfolios of its officers were sent forth their messages of treason. While in Congress, and in the Cabinet, the conspirators were boldly carrying on their schemes for the overthrow of the govern- ment, no attempt was made to interfere with, much less to arrest, open and avowed traitors. I have said that nothing was done ; yet this is not strictly true. The feeble old man in the executive chair did appoint a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer ; declaring that, though secession was wrong, he had no power to prevent it. Meanwhile the conspirators were laboring industriously to make the revolution an accomplished fact before the inaugu- ration of Lincoln, or, if they could not accomplish this, then by plundering the government, securing the forts, ships, and munitions of war, they meant to leave Lincoln with no means at his command wherewith to protect and maintain the government, and put down the rebellion. Some of the democratic party were indignant at the con- duct of the Executive. General Cass, as has been stated, resigned because the President refused to reinforce Fort Moultrie, held by the gallant and faithful Major Anderson. Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, succeeded Floyd as Secretary of War. Edwin M. Stanton, bold, staunch, and true, succeeded Black as Attorney General, and General John A. Dix was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. Stanton, Dix, and Holt were unflinching Union men, and did all in their power to prevent the surrender of the government to the LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. 175 conspirators. They most efficiently aided General Scott in securing the peaceful inauguration of Lincoln. The absence of any real grievance or excuse for rebellion was strongly expressed by Alexander H. Stephens, afterward Vice-President of the Confederate States, in a speech to the Legislature of Georgia, on the i4th of November, 1860. He said : " Mr. Lincoln can do nothing unless he is backed by the power of Congress. The House of Representatives is largely in majority against him. In the Senate he is power- less. There will be a majority of four against him." * * * " Many of us," said he, " have sworn to support the Consti- tution. Can we, for the mere election of a man to the Presi- dency, and that, too, in accordance with the forms of the Constitution, make a point of resistance without becoming the breakers of that same instrument ? " ' Lincoln remained at his home, a deeply anxious yet hope- ful spectator. The whole country was eager to learn his views, and ascertain his intentions. He was reticent as to his policy, but expressed strong hopes of being able to quiet the storm and restore tranquillity. To an inquiry as to what kind of a man Lincoln was, an intimate friend replied : " He has the firmness and determination, without the temper, of Jackson." Those long days, from Novem- ber, 1860, to March, 1861, were perhaps more gloomy than any during the war. Patriots saw conspirators plotting, and traitors plundering the treasury, dispersing the United States soldiers, sending armed ships abroad, stripping arsenals of arms, and with them arming the insurgents. They saw rebels preparing to scuttle the ship of state, and the very conspirators were the chief officers, and the people but pass- engers, with no power to interfere. The people watched, and earnestly prayed that the " ides of March " would come speedily, and bring Lincoln to the helm. In the meanwhile, efforts at pacification and conciliation were made. Committees of the Senate and of the House 1. See McPherson's History of the Rebellion, pp. 20-25, for Stephens' speech In full. 176 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. were raised to consider measures of compromise. But all measures of this character were voted down by the conspira- tors themselves. They wished neither compromise nor guarantees, but separation. A so-called " Peace Conven- tion " met at Washington, to see whether any terms could induce the disaffected to abandon their purposes. There were many who believed that the secession movement was all threat and bluster, made to secure additional guarantees for slavery. But when the most liberal concessions were made in the interests of peace, and were voted down by the most extreme slaveholders and disunionists, it became evident that those who cpntrolled the slave power had delib- erately resolved to force an issue, and go out of the Union. Charles Francis Adams, from the House committee of thirty-three, reported "that no form of adjustment will be satisfactory to the recusant states, which does not incorpor- ate into the Constitution of the United States, an obligation to protect and extend slavery. On this condition, and on this alone, will they consent to withdraw their opposition to the recognition of the constitutional election of the Chief Magistrate. Viewing the matter in this light, it seems unad- visable to attempt to proceed a step further in the way of offering unacceptable propositions." It was clear the con- spirators had resolved on revolution. During these gloomy days, Lincoln was firm and deter- mined. On the question of slavery extension, he was as unyielding as adamant. On the i3th day of December, 1860, he wrote to his friend Washburne, member of Con- gress from Illinois, as follows: " SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Dec. 13, 1860. " HON. E. B. WASHBURNE My Dear Sir: Your long letter received. Prevent as far as possible, any of our friends from demoraliz- ing themselves and our cause, by entertaining propositions for compro- mise of any sort on the slavery extension. There is no possible com- promise upon it, but which puts us under again, and leaves us all our work to do over again. Whether it be a Missouri line, or Eli Thayer's LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. I 77 Popular Sovereignty, it is all the same. Let either be done, and imme- diately filibustering, and extending slavery recommences. On that point hold firm, as with a chain of steel. Yours as ever, "A. LINCOLN." And again, on the 2ist of December, he wrote as follows: " Confidential." "SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Dec 21, 1860. " HON. E. B. WASHBURNE My Dear Sir: Last night I received your letter, giving an account of your interview with General Scott, and for which I thank you. Please present my respects to the General, and tell him confidentially, I shall be obliged to him to be as well prepared as he can to either hold, or retake, the forts, as the case may require, at and after the inauguration. Yours as ever, " A. LINCOLN." ' There was a meeting held at the capital on the night of January 5th, at which Jefferson Davis, Senators Toombs, Iverson, Slidell, Benjamin, Wigfall, and other leading con- spirators were present. They resolved in secret conclave to precipitate secession and disunion as soon as possible, and at the same time resolved that senators and members of the House should remain in their seats at the Capitol as long as possible, to watch and control the action of the Executive, and thwart and defeat any hostile measures proposed. In accordance with concerted plans, some of the sena- tors and members, as the states they represented passed ordinances of secession, retired from the Senate and House of Representatives. Some went forth, breathing war and vengeance, others expressing deep feeling and regret. Nearly all were careful to draw their pay, stationery, and documents, and their mileage home from the treasury of the government which they went forth avowedly to overthrow. There were two honorable exceptions among the representa- tives from the Gulf states Mr. Bouligny, representative from New Orleans, and Andrew J. Hamilton, from Texas. They remained true to the Union. On the evening of the 3d of March, 1861, when the Thirty-sixth Congress was 1. The originals of these letters are In the Washbarne MSS. In possession of the Chicago Historical Society. 12 I 78 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. about to expire, Hamilton, upon bidding farewell to his associates, said: "7" am going home to Texas ; and I shall stand by the old flag as long as there is a shred of it left as big as my hand." In accordance with the programme of the conspirators, South Carolina had adopted the ordinance of secession on the i yth of November, 1860; Mississippi, January 9th, 1861; Georgia, January ipth; Florida, January loth; Alabama, January nth; Louisiana, January 25th, and Texas, February I St. 1 It is obvious that Lincoln had very clear and positive convictions of his duty. The Union and the integrity of the republic must be preserved at all hazards. Whether slavery would survive the impending struggle who could foretell ? He feared immediate emancipation; he believed that gradual and compensated emancipation would be better, and how earnestly he urged this we shall by and by learn. But it would seem that slavery was one of those devils that could only be cast out by " fasting and prayer;" by bloodshed and war. Feeling deeply the responsibility, he asked earnestly and humbly the guidance of Providence, resolved " with malice toward none, and charity for all," to do his duty as God should give him to see his duty, and with this resolu- tion to go forward. While awaiting the course of events at Springfield, the religious perhaps superstitious character of Lincoln's mind was strongly manifested. Newton Bateman, a highly respectable and Christian gentleman, was Superintendent of Public Instruction in Illinois, and his rooms were adjoining those of Lincoln in the Capitol at Springfield. They were associates and friends, and often conversed together in regard to the threatening condition of affairs. There was a remarkable interview between them shortly before the November election. It is quoted here in part, as detailed 1. McPherson's History of the Rebellion, pp. 2 and 3. LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. I 79 by Bateman, 1 not to prove Lincoln's belief or disbelief in any dogma, but as illustrating the tone and character of his mind. He said to Bateman: " I know there is a God, and he hates injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming. I know that his hand is in it. If he has a place and work for me and I think he has I believe I am ready. I am noth- ing, but truth is everything. I know I am right because I know that liberty is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told them that a house divided against itself cannot stand, and Christ and reason say the same, and they will find it so." " Douglas don't care whether slavery is voted up or down, but God cares, and humanity cares, and I care ; and with God's help I shall not fail. I may not see the end ; but it will come, and I shall be vindicated ; and these men will find that they have not read their Bible right." After a pause, he resumed. " Does it not appear strange that men can ignore the moral aspects of this contest ? A revelation could not make it plainer to me that slavery or the government must be destroyed. The future would be some- thing awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on \rtiich I stand " (alluding to the Testament, which he held in his hand). The one who recounts this interview, continues thus : " He referred to his conviction that the day of wrath was at hand, and that he was to be an actor in the terrible struggle which would issue in the overthrow of slavery, though he might not live to see the end. He stated his belief in the duty and privilege, and efficacy of prayer."* These passages are quoted, not to show, as before stated, his belief in any controverted question of theology, but to illustrate the religious character of his mind, his presenti- 1. Holland's Life of Lincoln, p. 237. Herndon says this Interview was "colored." Bateman wrote to the author that, as reported by Holland, " It Is substantially cor- rect." 2. Holland's Life of Lincoln, p. 238. . 180 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. ment of the part he was to act in the great drama, and that he placed his dependence for success on Divine assistance. Mr. Bateman may have made mistakes in the exact words used by Lincoln, but that the substance of what he said is given, there can be no reasonable doubt, and with these statements, his speeches, state-papers, and conduct, from this time to his death, are perfectly consistent. > Time passed on, and the seceding states appointed dele- gates to meet in convention at Montgomery, Alabama. They met on the 4th of February, and organized a provis- ional government, similar in many respects to the Constitu- tion of the United States, under which Jefferson Davis was made President, and Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-Presi- dent. The President of the Confederate States was a man of culture and large experience in public affairs. Born in Ken- tucky, educated at West Point, at the expense of the gov- ernment he sought to overthrow, he entered public life as the follower of Calhoun. He was of an imperious temper, 1. To his friend. Judge Grant Goodrich, he made a statement In regard to nil dependence on God, and his prayer, for assistance, of much the same purport. In thfc connection I quote a paragraph from a paper written by John Hay, one of his private secretaries, and published In Harper's Monthly Magazine, for July, 1865. "It was Just after my election, In 1860," said Mr. Lincoln, " when the news had been coming In thick and fast all day, and there had been a great ' hurrah, boys ! ' so that I was well tired out, and went home to rest, throwing myself upon a lounge In my chamber. Opposite to where I lay, was a bureau with a swinging glass upon it; and looking In that glass, I saw myself reflected nearly at full length ; but my face. I noticed, had two separate and distinct images, the tip of the nose of one being about three Inches from the tip of the other. I was a little bothered, perhaps startled, and got up and looked In the glass, but the illusion vanished. On lying down again, I saw it the second time, plainer, If possible, than before ; and then I noticed that one of the faces was a little paler say five shades than the other. I got up, and the thing melted away, and I went off, and, In the excitement of the hour, forgot all about it nearly, but not quite for the thing would once In a while come up, and give me a pang, as though something uncomfortable had happened. When I went home, I told my wife about it, and a few days after, I tried the experiment again, when, sure enough, the thing came back again ; but I never succeeded in bringing the ghost back after that, though I once tried very Industriously to show it to my wife, who was worried about it some what. She thought it was a sign that I was to be elected to a second term of office, and that the paleness of one of the faces was an omen that I should not see life through the last term." Mr. Lincoln regarded this as an optical Illusion. Mrs. Lincoln's interpretation was a strange coincidence, to say the least, when compared with subsequent events. LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. and of a most intense personal ambition. He favored the repudiation by the state of Mississippi, of the bonds issued by that state, and thus brought deep disgrace upon the American character. He was called to the position of Sec- retary of War, by President Pierce, and in that position he deliberately conducted the affairs of the war department with a view to strengthen the slave states, preparatory to a sepa- ration, and even with a view to war, if it should be neces- sary to secure separation. As the head of the insurgents at Montgomery, he was guilty of opening the bloody tragedy of civil war, by ordering the fire upon Fort Sumter. The character of the man may be inferred from the language he used in a speech on his way from Mississippi to Montgom- ery, to assume the Presidency. " We will carry the war," said he, " where it is easy to advance, where food for the sword and torch awaits our armies in the densely populated cities." Such was the war this man inaugurated and car- ried on until his ignominious capture. How different this from the forbearing, dignified, Christian spirit of magnanimity, which ever characterized the language of the Chief Magis- trate of the Union during the war. The Vice President, Alexander H. Stephens, was a very different character. Intellectually an abler, and morally a far better man, he had vigorously opposed secession, and never heartily approved of it. No man made sounder and stronger arguments than Stephens against secession. In the Georgia convention he said: " Pause, I entreat you, and consider for a moment what reasons you can give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments what reasons you can give to your fellow-sufferers in the calamity that it will bring upon us. What reasons can you give to the nations of the earth to justify it? They will be calm and deliberate judges in the case; and what cause or one overt act can you name or point to, on which to rest the plea of justification. What right has the North assailed? What interest of the South has been invaded ? What justice has been denied ? And what claim, founded in justice and right, has been withheld? Can either of you name one governmental act of wrong, deliberately and 1 82 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. purposely done by the government of Washington, of which the South has a right to complain." * * * " When we of the South demanded the slave trade, or the importa- tion of Africans for the cultivation of our lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years ? When we asked a three-fifth representation in Congress for our slaves, was it not granted ? When we asked and demanded the return of any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, and again ratified and strengthened by the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850?" * * * " Again, gentlemen, look at another act ; when we have asked that more territory should be added, that we might spread the institution of slavery, have they not yielded to our demands in giving us Louisiana, Florida, and Texas, out of which four states have been carved, and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if you by this unwise and impolitic act do not destroy this hope, and perhaps by it lose all, and have your last slave wrenched from you, by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico were, or by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation, which may reasonably be expected to follow ? " * * * * His prophetic declaration that "a decree of universal emancipation " might be reasonably expected, was most remarkable and sagacious. He was by far the ablest of the Southern leaders. On the i5th of February, 1861, the Houses of Congress met in joint session to count and declare the electoral vote. Fears were entertained that, by some fraud or violence, the ceremony might be interrupted, or not performed ; but the schemes of the conspirators were not yet ripe for violence. In accordance with the forms of the Constitution, both Houses of Congress met at 12 M., in the gorgeous hall of the House of Representatives ; the Vice- President, as President of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House, sitting side by side, and the Vice-Prcsident presiding. The crowds of people who thronged to the Capitol, were impressed with the peculiarly solemn character of the pro- ceedings. The deep anxiety of the public mind found expression in the impressive prayer of the chaplain, who invoked the blessing and protection of Almighty God upon 1. McPherson's History of the Rebellion, p. 25. LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. 183 the President elect ; prayed for his safe arrival at the capi- tal and for his peaceful inauguration, and that threatened war might be averted. Vice-President Breckenridge and Senator Douglas, both unsuccessful candidates for the Presidency, were the most conspicuous personages present. On the nth of February, with his family and some per- sonal friends, Lincoln left his home at Springfield for Wash- ington. There is nothing in history more pathetic than the scene when he bade good-bye to his old friends and neigh- bors. Conscious of the difficulties and dangers before him ; difficulties which seemed almost insurmountable, but with a sadness, as though a presentiment that he should return no more was pressing upon him, and with a deep religious trust, which was very characteristic, he paused, as he stepped on the platform of the railroad carriage which was to bear him away, and uttered these beautiful and touching words : " My Friends : No one, not in my position, can realize the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. 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. I go to assume a task more difficult than that which has devolved upon any other man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine blessing which sustained him ; and on the same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support. And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I can- not succeed, but with which success is certain. Again, I bid you an affectionate farewell." As he grasped the hard hand of many an old friend and client, and bade farewell to the old home to which he was never to return, the responses came from many old neigh- bors : "God bless and keep you." "God save you from all traitors," his friends " sorrowing most of all," for the fear " that they should see his face no more." The profound religious feeling which pervades this farewell speech, characterized him to the close of his life. He was sustained by his trust in God, and he earnestly 184 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. solicited the prayers of the people. From the time of his departure from Springfield, until his remains were borne back from the capital of the republic he had saved, hal- lowed forever in the hearts of the people, and deified by the superstitious race he had emancipated he was the object of constant and earnest prayer, at the family altar, and in the places of public worship. From the time when he started forth upon his great mission, and to fulfill his destiny and meet his martyrdom, the hearts of the people went with him. On his way to Washington, he passed through the great states of Indiana, Ohio, New York, New Jersey, and Penn- sylvania, and was everywhere received with demonstrations of loyalty, as the representative of the national govern- ment. He addressed the people at the capitals of these states, and at many of their chief towns and cities. The city of Washington was surrounded by slave terri- tory, and was really within the lines of the insurgents. Balti- more was not only a slaveholding city, but nowhere was the spirit of rebellion more hot and ferocious than among a large class of its people. The lower classes, the material of which mobs are made, were reckless, and ready for any out- rage. From the date of his election to the time of his start for Washington, there had often appeared in the press and elsewhere, vulgar threats and menaces that he should never be inaugurated, nor reach the capital alive. Little atten- tion was paid to these threats, yet some of the President's personal friends, without his knowledge, employed a detect- ive, 1 who sent agents to Baltimore and Washington to inves- tigate. Not only were the personal friends of Lincoln in Illinois uneasy, but the officers of the railroads from Phila- delphia, Baltimore, and Washington, became apprehensive of a plot to destroy the roads, ferry-boats, and bridges, by which communication was carried on between Washington and Philadelphia. The detectives ascertained the existence of a plot to assassinate the President elect, as he passed through Baltimore.* 1. Allan Plnkerton. 2. See " The Spy of the Rebellion," by Allan Pinkerton, pp. 50-80. LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. The first intelligence of this conspiracy was communi- cated to Lincoln at Philadelphia. On the facts being laid before him, he was urged to take the train that night (the zist of February), by which he would reach Washington the next morning, passing through Baltimore earlier than the conspirators expected, and thus avoid the danger. Having already made appointments to meet the citizens of Philadel- phia at, and raise the United States flag over, Independence Hall, on Washington's birthday, the 22nd, and also to meet the Legislature of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg, he declined starting for Washington that night. Finally his friends per- suaded him to allow the detectives and the officers of the railways to arrange for him to return from Harrisburg, and, by special train, to go to Washington the night following the ceremonies at Harrisburg. On the 22nd of February, he visited old Independence Hall, where the Congress of the revolution had adopted the Declaration of Independence. This declaration of princi- ples had always been the bible of his political faith. He honestly and thoroughly believed in it. His speech on that occasion was most eloquent and impressive. He said among other things : "All the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated in, and were given to the world from, this hall. I never had a feeling, politi- cally, that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declara- tion of Independence." * * * * * " It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother-land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Independence, which gave liberty not alone to the people of this country, but I hope to the world, for all future time. It was that which gave promise that, in due time, the weight would be lifted from the shoulders of men. This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be saved upon that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the happiest men in the world, if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful ! But if this country cannot be saved without giving up the principle, I was about to say : ' I would rather be assassinated on the spot, than sur- render it.'" * * * ***** 1 86 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. " I have said nothing but what I am willing to live by, and if it be the pleasure of Almighty God, to die by." The allusion to the assassination was not accidental. The subject had been brought to his attention in such a way that, although he did not feel that there was serious danger, yet he had been assured positively, by a detective, whose veracity his friends vouched for, that a secret conspiracy was organ- ized at a neighboring city, to take his life on his way to the capital. He went to Harrisburg, according to arrangement, met the Legislature, and retired to his room. In the meanwhile, General Scott and Mr. Seward had learned, through other sources, of the existence of the plot to assassinate him, and had despatched Mr. F. W. Seward, a son of Senator Seward, to apprise him of the danger. Information coming to him from both of these sources, each independent of the other, induced him to yield to the wishes of his friends, and antici- pate his journey to Washington. Besides, there had reached him from Baltimore no committee, either of the municipal authorities or of citizens, to tender him the hospitalities, and to extend to him the courtesies of that city, as had been done by every other city through which he had passed. He was persuaded to permit the detective to arrange for his going to Washington that night. The telegraph wires to Baltimore were cut, Harrisburg was isolated, and, taking a special train, he reached Philadel- phia, and driving to the Baltimore depot, found the Wash- ington train waiting his arrival, stepped on board, and passed on without interruption through Baltimore to the national capital. He found, on his arrival at Washington, Senator Seward, Mr. Washburne, and other friends awaiting him. Stepping into a carriage, he was taken to Willard's Hotel, and Washington was soon startled by the news of his arrival. He afterwards declared: " I did not then, nor do I now believe I should have been assassinated, had I gone through Baltimore as first contemplated, but I thought it wise to run LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON. 187 no risk where no risk was necessary." l Such arrangements were made by General Scott and others, as secured his immediate personal safety. His family and personal friends followed and joined him, according to the programme of his journey. 1. See Lossing's Pictorial History of the Rebellion, Vol. 1, p. 279. CHAPTER XII. LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. LINCOLN'S INAUGURATION. His CABINET. DOUGLAS'S PROPHECY. BUTLER PREDICTS END OF SLAVERY. SOUTH CAROLINA THE PRODIGAL SON. DOUGLAS'S RALLYING CRY FOR THE UNION. His DEATH. DIFFICULTIES OF THE PRESIDENT. REBELS BEGIN THE WAR. UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE. DEATH OF ELLSWORTH. GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE RECOGNIZE THE CONFEDERATES AS BELLIGERENTS. NEGROES DECLARED "CONTRABAND." MR. LINCOLN availed himself of the earliest opportunity after his arrival at the capital, and before his inauguration, to express his kindly feelings to the people of Washington and the Southern states. On the 27th of February, when waited upon by the Mayor and Common Council, he assured them, and through them the South, that he had no disposi- tion to treat them in any other way than as neighbors, and that he had no disposition to withhold from them any con- stitutional right. He assured the people that they should have all their rights under the Constitution. " Not grudg- ingly, but fully and fairly." On the 4th of March, 1861, he was inaugurated Presi- dent of the United States. An inauguration so impressive and solemn had not occurred since that of Washington. The ceremonies took place, as usual, on the eastern colonnade of the Capitol. General Scott had gathered a few soldiers of the regular army, and had caused to be organized some militia, to preserve peace, order, and security. Thousands of Northern voters thronged the streets of Washington, only a very few of them conscious of the vol- cano of treason and murder, thinly concealed, around and iSS LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 189 beneath them. The public offices and the departments were full of plotting traitors. Many of the rebel generals Lee, Johnston, Ewell, Hill, Stewart, Magruder, Pemberton, and others, held commissions under the government they-, were about to abandon and betray. Rebel spies were everywhere. The people of Washington were, a large portion of them, in sympathy with the conspirators. None who witnessed it, will ever forget the scene of that inauguration. There was the magnificent eastern front of the Capitol, looking towards the statue of Washington; and there were gathered together the Senate and House of Rep- resentatives, the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Diplo- matic Corps, the high officers of the Army and the Navy, and, outside of the guards, a vast crowd of mingled patriots and traitors. Men looked searchingly into the eyes of every stranger, to discover whether he were a traitor or a friend. Standing in the most conspicuous position, amidst scowl- ing traitors with murder and treason in their hearts, Lincoln was perfectly cool and self-possessed. Near him was President Buchanan, conspicuous with his white neck- tie, bowed as with the consciousness of duties unperformed; there were Chief Justice Taney and his associates, made notorious by the Dred Scott decision ; there was Chase, with his fine and imposing presence; and the venerable Scott, his towering form still unbroken by years; the ever hopeful and philosophic statesman, Seward ; the scholarly Sumner, and blunt Ben Wade, of Ohio. There were also distin- guished governors of states, and throngs of eminent men from every section of the Union. But there was no man more observed than Douglas, the great rival of Lincoln. He had been most marked and thoughtful in his attentions to the President elect; and now his small but sturdy figure, in striking contrast to the towering form of Lincoln, was conspicuous; gracefully extending every courtesy to his suc- cessful competitor.i His bold eye, from which flashed energy 1. The author is here reminded of the following Incident. As Mr. Lincoln removed his bat, before commencing the reading of hie "Inaugural," from the ABRAHAM LINCOLN. . and determination, was eagerly scanning the crowd, not unconscious, it is believed, of the personal danger which encircled the President, and perfectly ready if need be to share it. Lincoln's calmness arose from an entire absence of self-consciousness; he was too fully absorbed in the gravity of the occasion and the importance of the events around and before him, to think of himself. In the open air, and with a voice so clear and distinct that he could be heard by thrice ten thousand men, he read his inaugural address, and on the very verge of civil war, he made a most earnest appeal for peace. This address is so important, and shows so clearly the causelessness of the rebellion, that no apology is offered for the following quota- tions from it: FELLOW CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES: In compliance with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Con- stitution of the United States, to be taken by the President " before he enters upon the execution of his office." ***** Apprehension seems to exist, among the people of the Southern states, that by the accession of a republican administration their property and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has never been any real cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that " I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to inter- fere with the institution of slavery, in the states where it now exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." Those who nominated and elected me did so with a full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and have never recanted them. * * * * I now reiterate those sentiments, and in so doing I only press upon the public attention the most conclusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that the property, peace, and security of no section are to be in anywise endangered by the now incoming administration. * * * I hold, that in contemplation of universal law, and of the Constitu- proxlmlty of the crowd he saw nowhere to place It, and Senator Douglas, by his side, seeing this, Instantly extended his baud and held the President's hat, while he was occupied In reading the address. LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 191 tion, the Union of the states is perpetual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national governments. * * I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitution and the laws, the Union is unbroken, and to the extent of my ability / shall take care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all the states. * * * * As Mr. Lincoln pronounced the foregoing sentence, with clear, firm, and impressive emphasis, a visible sensation ran through the vast audience, and earnest, sober, but hearty cheers were heard. In doing this there need be no bloodshed nor violence: and there shall be none, unless it be forced upon the national authority. The power confided to me will be used to hold, and occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the people anywhere. * * * * ' * Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence, and beyond the reach of each other, but the different parts of our country cannot do this. ********* This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise the constitutional right of amending, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic citizens are desirous of having the national Constitution amended. ***** * * My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry any of you in hot haste to a step which you would never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and on the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it. The new administration will have no immediate power, if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism. Christianity, and a firm reliance on Him, who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our prest ent difficulties. ********* ABRAHAM LINCOLN. No one can ever forget how solemn was his utterance of the following: In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, are the momentous issues of civil war. The government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to -destroy the government, while I have the most solemn one to " preserve, protect, and defend it." I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies; though passion may have strained, it must not break, our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle field 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. Alas ! such appeals were received by the parties to whom they were addressed, with jeers, and ribaldry, and all the maddening passions which riot in blood and war. It was to force only, stern, unflinching, and severe, that the powers and passions of treason would yield. With reverent look and impressive emphasis, he repeated the oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of his country. Douglas, who knew from his personal famil- iarity with the conspirators, better than Lincoln, the dangers that surrounded and were before him, who knew the conspi- rators and their plots, with patriotic magnanimity then grasped the hand of the President, gracefully extended his congratulations, and the assurance that in the dark future he would stand by him, and give to him his utmost aid in upholding the Constitution, and enforcing the laws of his country. Nobly did Douglas redeem that pledge. Here the author pauses a moment, to relate a most sin- gular prophecy in regard to the war, uttered by Douglas, January ist, 1861. Senator Douglas, with his wife, one of the most beautiful and fascinating women in America, and a relative of Mrs. Madison, occupied one of the houses which formed the Minnesota block. LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 193 "On New Year's Day, 1861," says General Stewart, of New York, who tells the story, " I was making a New Year's call on Senator Douglas; after some conversation, I asked him: "'What will be the result, Senator, of the efforts of Jef- ferson Davis and his associates, to divide the Union ? ' " We were," says Stewart, "sitting on the sofa together, when I asked the question. Douglas rose, walked rapidly up and down the room for a moment, and then pausing, he exclaimed, with deep feeling and excitement : " ' The cotton states are making an effort to draw in the border states to their schemes of secession, and I am but too fearful they will succeed. If they do, there will be the most fearful civil war the world has ever seen, lasting for years/ " Pausing a moment, he looked like one inspired, while he proceeded : ' Virginia, over yonder across the Potomac/ pointing towards Arlington, ' will become a charnel-house ; but in the end the Union will triumph. They will try,' he continued, ' to get possession of this capital, to give them prestige abroad, but in that effort they will never succeed ; the North will rise en masse to defend it. But Washington will become a city of hospitals, the churches will be used for the sick and wounded. This house,' he continued, ' the Minnesota block, will be devoted to that purpose before the end of the war.' " Every word of this prediction was literally fulfilled ; nearly all the churches were used for the wounded, and the Minnesota block, and the very room in which this declaration was made, became the 'Douglas Hospital.' ' " What justification is there for all this ? " asked Stewart. " There is no justification," replied Douglas. " I will go as far as the Constitution will permit to maintain their just rights. But," said he, rising to his feet, and raising his arm, " if the Southern states attempt to secede, I am in favor of their having just so many slaves, and just so much slave territory, as they can hold at the point of the bayonet, and no more." 13 194 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The President having been inaugurated, announced his Cabinet as follows : William H. Seward, Secretary of State ; Simon Cameron, Secretary of War ; Salmon P. Chase, Sec- retary of the Treasury ; Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy ; Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior ; Mont- gomery Blair, Postmaster General ; and Edward Bates, Attor- ney General. Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Bates had been his com- petitors for the nomination at the Chicago convention. Dis- regarding the remonstrances of some of his friends, who feared that such a Cabinet would lack harmony, and that some of its members (as the fact turned out) would be seek- ing the Presidency, he is said to have replied : " No, gentlemen, the times are too grave and perilous for ambitious schemes, and personal rivalries. I need the aid of all of these men. They enjoy the confidence of their several states and sections, and they will strengthen the administra- tion." To some of them he made an appeal, saying : "It will require the utmost skill, influence, and sagacity of all of us to save the republic ; let us forget ourselves, and join hands like brothers to save the republic. If we succeed, there will be glory enough for all." Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, had been the Presi- dent's most formidable competitor for the nomination. He was the recognized leader of the republican party in New York, and he had been for many years a leading statesman in the anti-slavery ranks. His able speeches had done much to create and consolidate the party which triumphed in 1860. He was an accomplished scholar, a polished gentleman, familiar with the history of his country, and its foreign pol- icy ; a clear and able writer, familiar with international law, and altogether well adapted to conduct its foreign corre- spondence. He was hopeful and cheerful, an optimist, and believed, or appeared to believe, the rebellion would be short. He was a shrewd politician, and did not forget his friends in the dispensation of patronage. * 1. In the early part of Lincoln's administration, a prominent editor of a German LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 195 Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, had been also a prominent candidate for the Presidency. He was a man of commanding person, fine manly presence, dignified, sedate, and earnest. His mind was comprehensive, logical, and judicial. He was an earnest, determined, consistent, radical abolitionist. His had been the master mind at the Buffalo Convention of 1848, and his pen had framed the Buffalo platform. By his writings, speeches, and forensic arguments, and as Governor of the State of Ohio, and in the United States Senate, acting with the accomplished free-soil senator from Massachusetts, Charles Sumner, he had con- tributed largely to the formation of the republican party. Up to the time when he became Secretary of the Treasury, he had developed no special adaptation to, or knowledge of finance ; but he brought to the duties of that most difficult position, a clear judgment and sound sense. Simon Cameron had been a very successful Pennsylvania politician ; he was of Scotch descent, as his name indicates, with inherent Scotch fire, pluck, energy, and perseverance. He had a marked Scotch face, a keen gray eye, was tall and commanding in form, and had the faculty of never forgetting a friend or an enemy. He was accused of being unscrupu- lous, of giving good offices and fat contracts to his friends. He retired after a short time, to make room for the com- bative, rude, fearless, vigorous, and unflinching Stanton. A man who was justly said to have " organized victory." Montgomery Blair, the Postmaster General, represented the Blair family, one of large political influence, and long connected with national affairs. F. P. Blair, senior, as the editor of the Globe during General Jackson's administration, newspaper published in the West, came to Washington to seek an appointment abroad. With the member of Congress from his district, he visited the " Executive Mansion," and his wishes were stated. The editor had supported Mr. Seward for the nomina- tion as President. Mr. Lincoln Immediately sent a messenger to the Secretary of State, asking him to come to the White House. Mr. Seward soon arrived, and Lin- coln, after a cordial greeting, said : "Seward, here is a gentleman (introducing the editor) who had the good sense to prefer you to me for President. He wants to go abroad, and I want you to find a good place for him.' 1 This Mr. Seward did, and the President Immediately appointed him. 196 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. was one of the ablest and strongest of the able men who sur- rounded that great man. He had been associated with, and was the friend of, Benton, Van Buren, and Silas Wright ; he had seen those friends stricken down by the slave power, and he had learned to hate and distrust the oligarchy of slave- holders, and his counsels and advice, and his able pen, had efficiently aided in building up the party opposed to slavery. Montgomery Blair had argued against the Dred Scott decis- ion. F. P. Blair, Jr., and B. Gratz Brown, had led the anti- slavery men of Missouri, having, after a most gallant contest, carried the city of St. Louis, and the former was now its honored representative in Congress. Edward Bates, the Attorney General, was a fine, digni- fied, scholarly, gentlemanly lawyer of the old school. Gid- eon Welles had been a leading editor in New England, and conducted the affairs of the Navy with great ability. Caleb B. Smith was a prominent politician from Indiana, and had been a colleague of Mr. Lincoln in Congress. On the evening of the 4th of March, when Mr. Lincoln entered the White House, he found a government in ruins. The conspiracy which had been preparing for thirty years, had culminated. Seven states had passed ordinances of secession, and had already organized a rebel government at Montgomery. The leaders in Congress and out of it, had fired the excitable Southern heart, and had infused into the young men a fiery, headlong zeal, and they hurried on, with the greatest rapidity, the work of revolution. North Carolina still hesitated. The people of that staunch old Union state, first voted down a call for a con- vention by a vote of 46,671 for, to 47,333 against, but a subsequent convention, on the 2ist of May, passed an ordi- nance of secession. Nearly all the Federal forts, arsenals, dock-yards, custom houses and post offices, within the terri- tories of the seceded states, had been seized, and were held by the rebels. Large numbers of the officers of the army and the navy deserted, entering the rebel service. Among the most conspicuous in this infamy, was General David E. LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 197 Twiggs, the second officer in rank in the army of the United States, and in January, 1861, commanding the Department of Texas. He had been placed there by Secretary Floyd, because he was known to be in the conspiracy. Secretary Holt, on the i8th of January, ordered that he should turn over his command to Colonel Waite ; but before this order reached Colonel Waite, Twiggs had consummated his trea- son by surrendering to the rebel Ben. McCullough, all the national forces in Texas, numbering twenty-five hundred men, and a large amount of stores and munitions of war. There was little or no struggle in the Gulf states, except- ing in Northern Alabama, against the wild tornado of excite- ment in favor of rebellion, which carried everything before it. In the border states, in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Missouri, there was a contest, and the friends of the Union made a struggle to maintain their position. Ultimately the Union triumphed in Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri ; and the rebels carried the state of Tennessee against a most gallant contest on the part of the Union men of East Tennessee, under the lead of Andrew Johnson, Governor Brownlow, Horace Maynard, and others. They also carried Virginia, which seceded April i7th, and North Carolina, which adopted secession on the 2oth of May. Some of the rebel leaders labored under the delusion, and they most industriously inculcated it among their followers, that there would be no war ; that the North was divided ; that the Northern people would not fight, and that if there was war, a large part of them would oppose coercion, and per- haps fight on the side of the rebellion. ' There was in the tone of a portion of the Northern press, and in the speeches of some of the Northern democrats, much to encourage this 1. Ex-President Pierce, In a letter to Jefferson Davis, dated January 6th, 1860, among other things, said: "If through the madness of Northern abolitionists, that dire calamity (disruption of the Union), must come, the lighting will not be along Mason and Dlxon'a line merely. It will be within our own borders, in our own streets, between the two classes of citizens to whom I have referred. Those who defy law, and scout constitutional obligation, will, If we ever reach the arbitrament of arms, find occupation enough at home ! " Such a letter Is sufficiently significant. 198 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. idea, and some leading republican papers were at least ambig- uous on the subject. There was, however, one prominent man from Massachusetts, who had united with the rebel leaders in the support of Breckenridge, and who sought to dispel this idea ; this was Benjamin F. Butler, who came to Washington, to know of his old political associates what it meant ? " It means," said his Southern friends, " separation, and a Southern Confederacy. We will have our independ- ence, and establish a Southern government, with no discor- dant elements." " Are you prepared for war? "said Butler. " Oh ! there will be no war ; the North will not fight." " The North will fight. The North will send the last man, and expend the last dollar to maintain the government," said Butler. "But," said his Southern friends, "the North can't fight; we have too many allies there." " You have friends," said Butler, " in the North, who will stand by you so long as you fight your battles in the Union ; but the moment you fire on the flag, the Northern people will be a unit against you. And," added Butler, " you may be assured if war conies, slavery ends" Butler, sagacious and true, became satisfied that war was inevitable. With the boldness and directness which has marked his character, he went to Buchanan, and advised the arrest of the commission- ers sent by the seceding states, and their trial for treason. This advice it was as characteristic of Butler to give, as it was of Buchanan to disregard. As an illustration of the prejudice against Lincoln at the South, the following incident is related. Two or three days before the inauguration, on the 4th of March, 1861, and while Lincoln was staying at Willard's Hotel, a distinguished South Carolina lady one of the Howards the widow of a Northern scholar called upon him out of curiosity. She was very proud, aristocratic, and quite conscious that she had in her veins the blood of " all the Howards" and she LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 199 was curious to see a man who had been represented to her as a monster, a mixture of the ape and the tiger. She was shown into the parlor where were Mr. Lincoln, and Senators Seward, Hale, Chase, and other prominent members of Congress. As Mr. Seward, whom she knew, presented her to the President elect, she hissed in his ear : " I am a South Carolinian." Instantly reading her charac- ter, he turned and addressed her with the greatest courtesy, and dignified and gentlemanly politeness. After listening a few moments, astonished to find him so different from what he had been described to her, she said : "Why, Mr. Lincoln, you look, act, and speak like a kind, good-hearted, generous man." " And did you expect to meet a savage ? " said he. " Certainly I did, or even something worse," replied she. " I am glad I have met you," she continued, " and now the best way to preserve peace, is for you to go to Charleston, and show the people what you are, and tell them you have no intention of injuring them." Returning home, she found a party of secessionists, and on entering the room she exclaimed : " I have seen him ! I have seen him !" " Who ? " they inquired. " That terrible monster, Lincoln, and I found him a gen- tleman, and I am going to his first levee after his inaugura- tion." At his first reception, this tall daughter of South Caro- lina, dressing herself in black velvet, with two long white plumes in her hair, repaired to the White House. She was nearly six feet high, with black eyes, and black hair, and, in her velvet and white feathers, she was a very striking and majestic figure. As she approached, the President recog- nized her immediately. " Here I am again," said she, "that South Carolinian." " I am glad to see you," replied he, " and I assure you that the first object of my heart is to preserve peace, and I 2OO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. wish that not only you, but every son and daughter of South Carolina was here, that I might tell them so." Mr. Cameron, Secretary of War, came up, and after some remarks, he said : " South Carolina (which had already seceded), South Carolina is the prodigal son." "Ah! Mr. Secretary," said she, "if South Carolina is the prodigal son, 'Uncle Sam,' our father, ought to divide the inheritance, and let her go ; but they say you are going to make war upon us, is it so ? " " Oh ! come back," said he, " tell South Carolina to come back now, and we will kill the fatted calf." The conduct of Douglas towards the President was most magnanimous and patriotic. They who had been so long such keen and earnest competitors, became now close friends. Such friendship under such circumstances, shows that there was something fine, noble, and chivalrous in both. Conscious of the peril of the republic, Douglas did all in his power to strengthen the man who had beaten him in the race for the Presidency On the 1 5th of April, the President issued his proclama- tion calling for seventy-five thousand soldiers. While he was considering the subject, Douglas called and expressed his approval, regretting only that it was not for two hundred thousand instead of seventy-five thousand, and, on the i8th of April, Douglas wrote the following dispatch, and placed it in the hands of the agents of the associated press, to be sent throughout the country: "April i8th, 1861, Senator Douglas called on the President, and had an interesting conversation on the present condition of the country. The substance of it was, on the part of Mr. Douglas, that while he was unalterably opposed to the administration in all its political issues, he was prepared to fully sustain the President in .the exercise of all his Constitu- tional functions, to preserve the Union, maintain the government, and defend the Federal capital. A firm policy and prompt action was neces- sary. The capital was in danger, and must be defended at all hazards, and at any expense of men and money. He spoke of the present and future without any reference to the past." * 1. The original of this dispatch In Douglas's handwriting was In possession of the late Hon. George Aslnuun, of Massachusetts, who kindly furnished a copy to the author. LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 2OI Douglas took this means to inform the country how he stood, and to exert all the weight of his influence in uniting the people to sustain the Executive in his efforts to suppress the rebellion by force. Not only did he issue this dispatch, but he started for the Northwest, and everywhere, by his public speeches and conversation, sounded the alarm, and rallied the people to support the Government. On the 23d of April, at Columbus, Ohio, he made a speech for the Union, in which he said that the chairman of a committee of seces- sionists had been instructed to tender the command of all he forces in Virginia to General Scott. The reply of the General, said Douglas, was this: " I have served my coun- try more than fifty years, and so long as I live, I shall stand by it, against all assailants, even though my native state, Vir- ginia, be among them." ' Douglas made a speech at Wheeling, Virginia, of the same tenor, and passing on to Springfield, on the 25th of April, spoke to the Legislature and citizens of Illinois at the capital. In this great speech he said, among other things: " So long as there was a hope of a peaceful solution, I prayed and implored for compromise. I have spared no effort for a peaceful solu- tion of these troubles; I have failed, and there is but one thing to do to rally under the flag. * * * The South has no cause of complaint. * * * Shall we obey the laws, or adopt the Mexican system of war on every election. * * * Forget party all remember only your country. * * * The shortest road to peace is the most tremendous preparation for war. * * * It is with a sad heart, and with a grief I have never before experienced, that I have to contemplate this fearful struggle. * * * But it is our duty to protect the government and the flag from every assailant, be he who he may." * 1, If General Lee, who bad been chlef-of-staff to General Scott, and his rebel associates, had followed the example of the Commander In Chief, how much blood- shed and misery might have been prevented. 2. Governor Shelby M. Cullom, then Speaker of the House, who presided at the meeting, says, In a letter to the author: " Douglas spoke with great earnestness and power. Never In all my experience In public life, before or since, have I been so Impressed by a speaker. While he was speaking, a man came Into the ball bearing the American flag. Its appearance caused the wildest excitement, and the great assemblage of legislators and citizens was wrought up to the highest enthusiasm of patriotism by the masterly speech " Douglas told me that " the Union was in terrible peril, and he had come home to irouse the people in favor of t*e Union." 202 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. From Springfield, Douglas came to his home in Chicago, and, at the great " Wigwam," repeated his appeal for the Union. He said that we had gone to the very extreme to prevent war, and the return for all our efforts has been " armies marching on the national capital," a movement to blot the United States from the map of the world. " The election of Lincoln is a mere pretext," the secession move- ment is the result of an enormous conspiracy, existing before the election. " There can be no neutrals in this war only patriots and traitors." Worn with excitement and fatigue, he went to the Tremont House in Chicago, was taken ill, and on the $rd of June thereafter died, at the early age of forty-eight. Senator McDougall, of California, his warm personal and political friend, said in the Senate, speaking of his last speeches: " Before I left home I heard the battle-cry of Douglas resounding over the mountains and valleys of Cali- fornia and far-off Oregon. His words have communicated faith and strength to millions. The last words of the dead Douglas, I have felt to be stronger than the words of multi- tudes of living men." ' The name of Douglas is familiar in Scottish history, as it is in Scottish poetry and romance, but among all the his- toric characters who have borne it, from him of " the bleed- ing heart " down, few, if any, have surpassed in interest Stephen Arnold Douglas.* His death was a great loss to the country, and a severe blow to the President. It recalled the words which Mr. Van Buren, then Senator from New York, had spoken on the death of his great rival, De Witt Clinton: " I, who while Clinton lived, never envied him anything, am now almost 1. Congressional Globe, July 9th, 1861. 2, It fell to the author as the representative In Congress from Chicago, the home of Douglas, to make some remarks in the House of Representatives, on the occasion of his death. He attempted to compare Lincoln and Douglas, and to do justice to both. Neither Mrs. Lincoln nor Mrs. Douglas was pleased with the com- parison. Each expressed to him afterwards her astonishment; the one that any- body could compare Douglas to her husband, and the other, that any one could think for a moment of comparing Lincoln to Douglas! * LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 203 tempted to envy him his grave with its honors." 1 These words might have expressed in part the feelings of Lincoln on the death of Douglas. The states in rebellion, having organized a hostile gov- ernment, with Jefferson Davis as President, and Alexander H. Stephens as Vice-President, Lincoln anxiously surveyed the political horizon, that he might fully understand the difficulties and dangers by which he was surrounded. It should be remembered that although his electoral vote was large, his popular vote was in a minority of nearly one mil- lion. 8 The treasury was empty ; the national credit failing and broken;, the nucleus of a regular army scattered and disarmed ; the officers who had not deserted were strangers ; the old democratic party which had ruled for most of the time for half a century, was largely in sympathy with the insurgents. Lincoln's own party was made up of discordant elements ; neither he nor his party had acquired prestige; nor had the party yet learned to have confidence in its leaders. He had to create an army, to find military skill and leader- ship by experience. In this respect the rebels had great advantage. They had been for years preparing. The Southern people were the more used to firearms and to vio- lence. They had in the beginning a great superiority in their military leaders. The national government had not at the beginning any officers known to the administration, who were equal in skill to Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and Johnston. Mr. Lincoln had to learn by costly experience who could win victories; he could not know by intuition, and in the beginning there were many and humiliating reverses, until merit and skill could be developed and placed at the head of the armies In addition to all this, he entered upon his great work of restoring the integrity of the Union, without sympathy from any of the great powers of Western Europe. Those of 1. See address of William Allen Butler, on Martin Van Buren, p. 39. 2. The popular vote was: For Lincoln, 1.866,452; for Douglas, 1,375,157; for Breck- enrtdge, 847,953; for Bell, 590,631. The three defeated candidates received a majority of 947,289 over Lincoln. 2O4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. them who were not hostile, manifested a cold neutrality, exhibiting towards him and his government no cordial good will, nor extending to him any moral aid. Let us trace the history of his administration, through these days of trial down to his final triumph. His first and great object was to encourage and strengthen the Union sentiment in the border states. If he could hold these states in the Union, the contest would be shortened. There- fore he had delayed his call for troops to the last moment, in the hope that by conciliation he might prevent the seces- sion of the border states. In the language of his inaugural, he left the " momentous issues of civil war " in the hands of the rebels. The war was "forced upon the national authority." On the pth of April, the rebel commissioners, whom the government refused to receive or recognize, left Washington, declaring that " they accepted the gage of battle." > The Confederates had seized the "arsenals, forts, custom-houses, post-offices, ships, and materials of war of the United States," excepting the forts in Charleston Harbor, and were constructing fortifications and placing guns in position to attack even these. While some of the -border states seemed to hesitate, the rebel gov- ernment resolved, for the purpose of arousing sectional feel- ing and prejudice, to bring on at once a conflict of arms. The attack on Fort Sumter was ordered by the rebel authorities on the i ith of April, Major Robert Anderson, in command, was summoned to surrender and refused. He had a feeble garrison of a handful of men, and was encircled with hostile cannon. A peremptory message was sent to him, that unless he surrendered within an hour, the rebel forts would open upon him. He still refused, and the bom- bardment began, and continued for thirty-six hours, when he and his seventy men surrendered. The fall of Sumter and the President's call for troops were the signals for the rally to arms throughout the loyal states. Twenty millions of people, forgetting party divisions 1. McPherson's History of the Rebellion, p. 110. LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 205 and all past differences, rose with one voice of patriotic enthusiam, and laid their fortunes and their lives upon the altar of their country. The proclamation of the President calling for seventy-five thousand men and convening an extra session of Congress to meet on the 4th of July, was followed, in every free state, by the prompt action of the governors, call- ing for volunteers. In every city, town, village, and neighbor- hood, the people rushed to arms, and almost fought for the privilege of marching to the defense of the national capital. Forty-eight hours had not passed after the issue of the proc- lamation, when four regiments had reported to Governor Andrew, at Boston, ready for service. On the lyth, he commissioned B. F. Butler, of Lowell, as their commander. Governor Sprague, of Rhode Island, calling the Legisla- ture of that state together, on the i-jth of July, tendered to the government a thousand infantry, and a battalion of artillery, and placing himself at the head of his troops, started for Washington. The great state of New York, whose population was nearly four millions, through her Legislature, and the action of Governor Morgan, placed her immense resources in the hands of the national Executive. So did Pennsylvania, with its three millions of people, under the lead of Governor Curtin. And Pennsylvania has the honor of having fur- nished the troops that first arrived for the defense of the capital, reaching there on the i8th, just in time to prevent a seizure of the nearly defenceless city. By the 2oth of April, although the quota of Ohio, under the President's call, was only thirteen regiments, seventy-one thousand men had offered their services through Governor Dennison, the Executive of that state. It was the same everywhere. Half a million of men, citizen volunteers, at this call sprang to arms, and begged permission to fight for their country. The enthusiasm pervaded all ranks and classes. Prayers for the Union and the integrity of the nation were heard in every church throughout the free states. State legislatures, municipalities, banks, corpora- 2O6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. tions, and capitalists everywhere offered their money to the government, and subscribed immense sums for the sup- port of the volunteers and their families. Independent military organizations poured in their offers of service. Written pledges were widely circulated and signed, offering to the government the lives and property of the signers to maintain the Union. Great crowds marched through the principal cities, cheering the patriotic, singing national airs, and requiring all to show, from their residences and places of business, the stars and stripes, or " the red, white and blue." The people, through the press, by public meetings, and by resolutions, placed their property and lives at the disposal of the government. Thus at this gloomy period, through the dark clouds of gathering war, uprose the mighty voice of the people to cheer the heart of the President. Onward it came, like the rush of many waters, shouting the words that became so familiar during the war " We are coming, Father Abraham, Six hundred thousand strong." The government was embarrassed by the number of men volunteering for its service. Hundreds of thousands more were offered than could be armed or received. Senators, members of Congress, and other prominent men, went to Washington to beg the government to accept the services of the eager regiments everywhere imploring permission to serve. The volunteer soldier was the popular idol. He was everywhere welcome. Fair hands wove the banners which he carried, and knit the socks and shirts which protected him from the cold; and everywhere they lavished upon him luxuries and comforts to cheer and encourage him. Every one scorned to take pay from the soldier. Colonel Stetson, proprietor of the Astor House Hotel, in New York, replied to General Butler's offer to pay: " The Astor House makes no charge for Massachusetts soldiers." And while the best LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 2O/ hotels were proud to entertain the soldier, whether private or officer, the latch-string of the cabin and farm-house was never drawn in upon him who wore the national blue. Such was the universal enthusiasm of the people for their country's defenders. The feeling of fierce indignation towards those seeking to destroy the government, was greatly increased by the attack of a mob in the streets of Baltimore upon the Sixth Regiment of Massachusetts Volunteers, while passing from one depot to the other on their way to the capital. This attack, on the ipth of April, in which several soldiers were shot, roused the people to the highest pitch of excitement. The secessionists were so strong in that state as to induce the Mayor of Baltimore, and Governor Hicks, a Union man, to protest against troops marching over the soil of Maryland to the defense of the national capital. The rebels burned the bridges on the railroads leading to Washington, and for a time interrupted the passage of troops through Baltimore. The Governor so far humiliated himself, and forgot the dig- nity of his state and nation, as to suggest that the differences between the government and its rebellious citizens should be referred to Lord Lyons, the British Minister. The Secre- tary of State fittingly rebuked this unworthy suggestion; alluding to an incident in the late war with Great Britain, he reminded the Governor of Maryland " that there had been a time when a general of the American Union, with forces designed for the defense of its capital, was not unwelcome anywhere in Maryland;" and he added, "that if all the other nobler sentiments of Maryland had been obliterated, one, at least, it was hoped would remain, and that was, that no domestic contention should be referred to any foreign arbitrament, least of all to that of a European monarchy." While such was the universal feeling of loyal enthusiasm throughout the free states, in the border slave states there was division and fierce conflict. Governor Magoffin, of Ken- tucky, in reply to the President's call, answered: "I say, emphatically, Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked 2O8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. purpose of subduing her sister Southern states." Governor Harris, of Tennessee, said: "Tennessee will not furnish a man for coercion, but fifty thousand for the defense of our Southern brothers." Governor Jackson, of Missouri, refused, saying: " Not one man will Missouri furnish to carry on such an unholy crusade;" and Virginia not only refused, through her governor, to respond, but her convention, then in session, immediately passed an ordinance of secession by a vote of eighty-eight to fifty-five. The Northwest, the home of the President, and the home of Douglas, was, if possible, more emphatic, it could scarcely be more unanimous, than other sections of the free states, in the expression of its determination to maintain the Union at all hazards, and at any cost. The people of the vast country between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains, and north of the Ohio, regarded the Mississippi as peculiarly their river, their great outlet to the sea. Proud and confident in their hardy strength, familiar with the use of arms, they never at any time, for a moment, hesitated in their deter- mination not to permit the erection of a foreign territory between themselves and the Gulf of Mexico. Here were ten millions of the most energetic, determined, self-reliant people on earth; and the idea that anybody should dare to set up any flag other than theirs between them and the ocean, betrayed an audacity they would never tolerate. " Our great river," exclaimed Douglas, indignantly, " has been closed to the commerce of the Northwest." The seceding states, conscious of the strength of this feeling, early passed a law providing for the free navigation of the Mississippi. But the hardy Western pioneers were not dis- posed to accept paper guarantees for permission to " possess, occupy, and enjoy" their own. They would hold the Mis- sissippi with their rifles. When closed upon them, they resolved to open it. They immediately seized upon the im- portant strategic point of Cairo, and from Belmont to Vicksburg and Fort Hudson, round to Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, they never ceased to press the LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 209 enemy, until the great central artery of the republic, and all its vast tributaries from its source to its mouth, were free; and then, marching to the sea, joined their gallant brethren on the Atlantic coast, to aid in the complete overthrow of the rebellion, and the final triumph of liberty and law. It has been stated that the people of the border states had been divided in sentiment, and it was very doubtful for a time, which way they would go ; but the attack upon Fort Sumter, and the call by the President for troops, forced the issue, and the unscrupulous leaders were able to carry Vir- ginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas, into the Confederate organization, against the will of a majority of the people of those states. Virginia, the leading state of the Revolution, the one which, under the leadership of Washington and Madison, had been the most influential in the formation of the national government, the " Old Dominion," as she was called, " the mother of states and of statesmen," had been for years descending from her high position. Her early and Revolutionary history had been one of unequaled brilliancy ; she had largely shaped the policy of the nation, and furnished its leaders. Her early statesmen were anti-slavery men, and if she had relieved her- self of the burden of slavery, she would have held her posi- tion as the leading state of the Union ; but, with this heavy drag, the proud old commonwealth had seen her younger sisters of the republic rapidly overtaking and passing her in the race of progress, and the elements of national greatness. Indeed, she had fallen so low, that her principal source of wealth was from the men, women, and children she raised and sent South to supply the slave markets of the Gulf states. Her leading men had been advocating extreme state rights doctrines, fatal to national unity, and thus sow- ing the seeds of secession. Her politicians had threatened disunion, again and again. Still, when the crisis came, a majority of her people were true ; a large majority of their convention was opposed to secession, and when afterwards, by violence and fraud, the ordinance was passed, the people 14 2IO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. of the Northwest, the mountain region of Virginia, resisted, and determined to stand by the Union. This portion of the state maintained its position with fidelity and heroism, and ultimately established the state of West Virginia. The secession of Virginia added greatly to the danger of Washington, and a bold movement upon it then, in its defenceless condition, would have been successful. Alex- ander H. Stephens, Vice- President of the Confederacy, came to Richmond, and everywhere raised the cry of " on to Washington ! " The state authorities of Virginia did not wait the ratification of the secession ordinance by the peo- ple, to whom it was submitted for adoption or rejection, but immediately joined the Confederacy, commenced hostilities, and organized expeditions for the capture of Harper's Ferry and the Gosport Navy-yard. Senator Mason imme- diately issued an address to the people, declaring that those who could not vote for a separation of Virginia from the United States, <; must leave the state /" Submission, banish- ment, or death was proclaimed to all Union men of the old commonwealth. Nowhere, except in West Virginia, and some small localities, was there resistance to this decree. In the Northwest, the mountain men rallied, organized, resolved to stand by the old flag, and protect themselves under its folds. The secession of Virginia gave to the Confederates a moral and physical power, which imparted to the conflict the proportions of a tremendous civil war. She placed her- self as a barrier between her weaker sisters and the Union, and she held her position with a heroic endurance and cour- age, worthy of a better cause and of her earlier days. Indeed, she kept the Union forces at bay for more t;han four long years, preserving her capital, and yielding only, when the hardy soldiers of the North had marched from the Ohio to the sea, cutting her off and making the struggle hopeless. North Carolina naturally followed Virginia, and, on the 2ist of May, adopted an ordinance of secession. Maryland, from her location between the free states and the national LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 211 capital, occupied a position of the utmost importance. Could she be induced to join the Confederates, their design of seizing the national capital and its archives would be made comparatively easy. Emissaries from the conspirators were busy in her borders during the winter of 1861. But while there were many rebel sympathizers and traitors among her slaveholders, and while many leading families gave in their adhesion to the conspiracy, the mass of the people were loyal. The governor of the state, Thomas H. Hicks, though he yielded for a time to the apparent popu- lar feeling in favor of the Confederates, and greatly embar- rassed the government by his protests against troops marching over Maryland soil to the defense of the capital, was, at heart a loyal man and in the end became a decided and efficient Union leader. He refused, against induce- ments and threats of personal violence, to call the Legisla- ture of the state together, a majority of whom were known to be secessionists, and who would have passed an ordinance of secession. But the man to whom the people of Mary- land are most indebted, who was most influential .in the maintenance of the Union cause at this crisis, and who proved the benefactor of the state in relieving 1 her from the curse of slavery, was the bold, eloquent, and talented Henry Winter Davis. He took his position from the start, for the unconditional maintenance of the Union. The officials of the city of Baltimore were, most of them, secessionists, and its chief of police was a traitor, and was implicated in the plot to assassinate Mr. Lincoln on his way to the capital. On the ipth of April, a mob in the city of Baltimore had attacked the Massachusetts Sixth Regiment, which was quietly passing through to the defense of the capi- tal, and several soldiers and citizens were killed in the affray. The bridges connecting the railways from Pennsylvania and New York with Baltimore, were burned, and for a time, communication by railroad was interrupted. General B. F. Butler, leading the Massachusetts troops, together with the New York Seventh Regiment, was compelled to go around 212 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. by Annapolis and to rebuild the railway to Washington. But one dark, stormy night, General Butler marched into Baltimore, encamped on Federal Hill, and reopened com- munication with the North. The Union men of Maryland rallied ; the leading secessionists fled or were arrested, and from that time, Maryland was a loyal state, giving to the Union the aid of her moral influence, and furnishing many gallant soldiers to fight its battles. What course would be taken by Missouri, the leading state west of the Mississippi ? With a population exceeding a million, she had only 115,000 slaves. Her interests were with the free states, yet she had a governor in direct sym- pathy with the traitors, as were the majority of her state offi- cers. A state convention was called, but an overwhelming majority of Union men had been elected. The truth is, that although the slave power had succeeded in destroying the political power of her great senator, Thomas H. Benton, yet the seeds of opposition to slavery which he had scat- tered, were everywhere springing up in favor of union and liberty. The city of St. Louis, the commercial metropolis of the state, had become a free-soil city ; it had elected Francis P. Blair, Jr., a disciple of Benton, to Congress. The large German population, under the lead of Franz Sigel and others, were for the Union, to a man. To the President's call for troops, the rebel Governor, Claiborne F. Jackson, returned an insulting refusal, but the people, under the lead of Blair, responded. The United States Arsenal at St. Louis was, at this time, under a guard commanded by Captain Nathaniel Lyon, one of the boldest and most energetic officers of the army. He, in connection with Colonels Blair, Sigel, and others, organized volunteer regiments in St. Louis, preparing for a conflict, which they early saw to be inevitable. The arms of the St. Louis Arse- nal were, during the night of the 25th of April, under the direction of Captains Stokes and Lyon, transferred to a steamer and taken to Alton, Illinois, for safety, and were LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 213 soon placed in the hands of the volunteers from that state. On the i gth of April, the President issued a proclama- tion, blockading the ports of the Gulf states, and on the ayth this was extended to North Carolina and Virginia, both of which states had been carried into the vortex of revolution. On the 3d of May, the President called into the service forty-two thousand volunteers and a large increase of the regular army. The navy was thus provided for. In the meanwhile, the insurgents had been active and enterprising. They had boldly seized Harper's Ferry, and the Gosport Navy-yard, near Norfolk, Virginia. Within twenty-four hours after the secession ordinance passed the Virginia Con- vention, they sent forces to capture those places, where were situated very important arsenals of arms and ordnance. Harper's Ferry had long been a national armory, and com- manded the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one of the most important connections of the capital with the West. It was the gate of the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah, and of great importance as a military post. On the i8th of April, it was abandoned by its small garrison, and taken possession of by the insurgents. At about the same time, the Gosport Navy-yard, with two thousand pieces of heavy cannon and various material of war, and its large ships, including the Pennsylvania of one hundred and twenty guns, and the Mer- rimac, afterwards famous for its combat with the Monitor, fell into their hands. Owing to imbecility, or treachery, or both, this navy-yard, with its vast stores and property, esti- mated to be worth from eight to ten millions, was left exposed to seizure and destruction. Meanwhile, troops gathered to the defense of the national capital. Among others, came Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth, with a splendid regiment of picked men, which he had raised from the New York firemen. On the evening of the 23d of May, the Union forces crossed the Potomac and took possession of Arlington Heights, and the hills over- looking Washington and Alexandria. As Colonel Ellsworth 214 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. was returning from pulling down a rebel flag from the Mar- shal House, in Alexandria, he was instantly killed by a shot fired by the keeper of the hotel over which the obnoxious symbol had floated. This young man had accompanied Mr. Lincoln from Illinois to Washington, and was a prottgt of the President. He had introduced the Zouave drill into the United States. He was among the first martyrs of the war, and his death was deeply mourned by the President. His body was taken to the Executive Mansion, and his funeral, being among the first of those who died in defense of the flag, was very impres- sive, touching, and solemn. A gold medal was taken from his body after his death, stained with his heart's blood, and bearing the inscription: "nonsolum nobis sed pro patria" "Not for ourselves alone, but for the country." The secession of Virginia had been followed by the removal of the rebel government to Richmond. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Arkansas had also joined the Confederacy. At last freedom and slavery confronted each other, face to face, in arms. The loyal states at this time, had a population of 22,046,472, and the eleven seced- ing states had a population of 9,103,333, of which 3,521,110 were slaves. The rebel government having been established and its constitution adopted, Alexander H. Stephens, its Vice-Presi- dent, boldly and frankly declared: " Our new government is founded, * * its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests on the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man, that slavery, subordination to the superior race is the natural and normal condition* The Confederate government being based on slavery, and the fact openly avowed that slavery was its corner-stone, how would it be received by Europe? and especially by those great nations England and France, both of which had so often reproached the United States for the existence of 1. McPherBon's History of the Rebellion, p. 103. LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 215 slavery ? These powers and the world were now to be spec- tators of a conflict between an established government, per- fectly free, on one side, and a rebellion organized by a por- tion of its citizens with the avowed purpose to erect upon its ruins a government based upon, and formed to protect and extend, slavery. Surely there was every reason to expect that these powers would rebuke with their indignation the suggestion that they should recognize even as belligerents a government with such a basis, and would, in the most emphatic manner, express their opposition to a rebellion begun and carried on, because the authority rebelled against had opposed the further extension of slavery. But far from doing this, Great Britain and France, act- ing in concert, even before the representatives of President Lincoln's administration had arrived in London and Paris, hastened to recognize the rebels as a belligerent power. This eagerness to encourage rebellion ; this indecent haste to accord belligerent rights to an insurgent power, based on slavery, was justly attributed to a secret hostility on the part of those governments towards the American republic. The United States stood before the world as a long established government, representing order, civilization, and freedom. The Confederates, as a disorganizing rebellion, with no griev- ance, except opposition to the extension of slavery, with no purpose, except to extend and perpetuate slavery; and yet the powers of Western Europe, and especially the aristocracy of England, made haste to hail them as belligerents, and extend to them moral aid and sympathy. The London Times, the organ of the English aristoc- racy, exultingly announced : " The great republic is no more ! Democracy is a rope of sand." The United States, it said, lacked the cohesive power to maintain an empire of such magnitude. At the moment of extremest national peril, when the son of the Western pioneer, whom the people had chosen for their Chief Magistrate, was confronted by the dangers which gathered around his country ; when his great and honest soul 2l6 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. bowed itself to God, and as a simple child, in deepest suppli- cation asked his guidance and blessing ; at this hour, from no crowned head, from no aristocratic ruler abroad, came any word of sympathy ; but those proud rulers could coarsely jest at his uncouth figure, his uncourtly bearing. " The bubble is burst," said they. But the Almighty answered that prayer; he joined the hearts and linked the hands of the American peo- ple and their President together ; and from that hour to his death, the needle does not more quickly respond to the polar influence, than did Lincoln to the highest and God-inspired impulses of a great people a people capable of the highest heroism and the grandest destiny. Very soon the work-shops of England and Scotland were set in motion to prepare the means of sweeping American com- merce from the ocean. The active sympathy of the masses of European populations, and the cold and scarcely concealed hostility of the aristocratic and privileged classes, were early and constantly manifested during the entire struggle. This was, perhaps, not unnatural. In addition to the uneasiness which the rapid growth and commanding position of our country had created, the whole world instinctively felt that the contest was between freedom and slavery, democracy and aristocracy. Could a government, for the people and by the people, maintain itself through this fearful crisis? It was quite evident, from the beginning, that the privileged classes abroad were more than willing to see the great repub- lic broken up, to see it pronounced a failure. The conspir- ators had prepared the way, as far as possible, by their scarcely veiled intrigues, for the recognition of the Confed- eracy. The rebels had a positive, vigorous organization, with agents all over Europe, many of them in the diplomatic service of the United States. They had created a wide-spread prejudice against Mr. Lincoln, representing him as merely an ignorant, vulgar " rail-splitter " of the prairies. Mr. Faulkner, of Virginia, represented our government in France, and Mr. Preston, a slaveholder from Kentucky, in LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 2 I 7 :Spain, both secessionists. It was not long, however, before Mr. Lincoln impressed the leading traits of his character upon our foreign policy. Frankness, straightforward integ- rity, patient forbearance, and unbroken faith in the triumph of the Union and liberty, based upon his trust and confi- dence in the Almighty and the American people, character- ized his foreign policy. This policy was simple and thor- oughly American ; our representatives were instructed to ask nothing but what was clearly right, to avoid difficulty, and to maintain peace, if it could be done consistently with national honor. The record of the diplomatic correspond- ence of the United States during the critical years of this administration, is one of which Americans may justly be proud. Time and events have vindicated the statesmanship by which it was conducted. Mr. Seward, in his instructions to Mr. Adams, on the eve of his departure for the Court of St. James, very clearly laid down the principles which should govern our relations with foreign nations. Mr. Adams was instructed not to listen to any suggestion of compromise between the United States and any of its citizens, under for- eign auspices. He was directed firmly to announce that no foreign government could recognize the rebels as an inde- pendent power, and remain the friends of the United States. Recognition was war. If any foreign power recognized, they might prepare to enter into an alliance also, with the enemies of the republic. He was instructed to represent the whole country, and should he be asked to divide that duty with the representatives of the Confederates, he was directed to return home. The action of the insurgent states was treated as a rebel- lion, purely domestic in its character, and no discussion on the subject with foreign nations would be tolerated. Eng- land did not recognize the Confederates as a nation. She did not choose war ; but short of recognition, alliance, and war, it is difficult to see how she could have done more to encourage and aid the insurgents than she did. When the insurgents raised the flag of rebellion, the 21 8 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. army and navy were scandalized, and the nation disgraced, by large numbers of the officers deserting their flag. Nearly two hundred of the graduates of the military school at West Point deserted, and joined the rebel army. Yet, among the officers born in the seceding states, were patriots and loyalists, faithful and true, and scorning all temptations addressed to their fidelity. Among others, in civil life, Andrew Johnson and Andrew J. Hamilton have been already named, and in the military and naval service were Scott and Thomas, Meade and Farragut, and many others. The names of Jefferson Davis and of his military associates grow dark, in contrast with those of the hero of Lundy's Lane, of the victors at Gettysburg and Nashville, and the blunt, honest, and chivalric sailor, who so gloriously triumphed over traitors at New Orleans and Mobile. Loyalty to a state may palliate, it cannot justify treachery and treason. Unless all moral distinctions are to cease, all good men who honor Scott and George H. Thomas must condemn Twiggs. Honoring David G. Farragut, they must condemn Raphael Semmes. There were, at the time of the breaking out of the rebel- lion, and mostly in the rebel states, nearly four millions of slaves. How should they be treated ? Should the govern- ment, by offering them freedom, make them its active friends, or alienate them by returning them to slavery ? In the light of to-day it is difficult to understand why there should have been hesitation or vacillation in this matter. The transfer of four millions of people in the rebel states to the Union side would have been decisive. In the beginning, the officers of the army, and especially those educated at West Point, were slow in availing them- selves of the aid of the negroes. Some went so far as to return to the rebels their runaway slaves. General Butler did much towards ending this policy. In May, 1861, he was in command at Fortress Monroe. One evening three negroes came into camp, saying that " they had fled from their mas- ter, Colonel Mallory, who was about to set them to work on LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE. 2IQ rebel fortifications." If they had been Colonel Mallory's horses or mules, there could be no question as to what should be done with them. But so strangely deluded were the army officers, that up to that time they had returned fugitive slaves to rebel masters, to work and fight for the rebel cause. Would Butler continue in this folly ? In reply, he said : " These men are contraband of war" This sentence, expressing an obvious truth, was more import- ant than a battle gained. It was a victory in the direction of emancipation, upon which the success of the Union cause was ultimately to depend. He, of course, refused to sur- render them, but set them to work on his own defences. Up to this time the South had fought to maintain slavery, and the government, for fear of offending Kentucky and other border states, would not touch it. Strange as it may seem, a rebel officer had the presumption, under a flag of truce, to demand the return of these negroes under the alleged con- stitutional obligation to return fugitive slaves ! General Butler, of course, refused, saying: " I shall retain the negroes as contraband of war ! You were using them upon your batteries; it is merely a question whether they shall be used for or against us." Other generals of the Union army were very slow in recognizing this obvious truth. General McClellan, on the 26th of May, issued an address to the people of his military district, in which he said: " Not only will we abstain from all interference with your slaves, but we will, on the contrary, with an iron hand crush any attempt at insurrection on their part." CHAPTER XIII. EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. PROMINENT MEMBERS OF 37 CONGRESS. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. VACANT CHAIRS OF PROMINENT REBELS. BAKER'S REPLY TO BRECKENRIDGE. ANDREW JOHNSON. OWEN LOVEJOY. LAW TO FREE THE SLAVES OF REBELS. BULL RUN. FREMONT'S ORDER FREEING SLAVES MODIFIED BY THE PRESIDENT. CAPTURE AND RELEASE OF MASON AND SLIDELL. THE Thirty-seventh Congress convened in an extra and called session, on the 4th of July, 1861. The Thirty-sixth Congress had expired on the 4th of March, without making any provision to meet the impending dangers. It devolved upon this, the Thirty-seventh, to sanction what the President had been compelled to do, and to clothe him with extraordi- nary war powers, and under his lead to call into the field, and to provide for, those vast armies whose campaigns were to extend over half the continent. It was for this Congress to create and maintain that system of finance, which without the aid of foreign loans, carried the republic triumphantly through the most stupendous war of modern times, and which, in the " green-back " currency, still survives. Hannibal Hamlin, Vice-President, presided in the Senate; Galusha A. Grow, of Pennsylvania, was elected Speaker, and Emerson Etheridge, of Tennessee, Clerk of the House. In the Senate, only twenty - three, and in the House twenty - two states were represented. No representa- tives in either appeared from North or South Caro- lina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, or Arkansas. No senators, and only two members of 220 EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. 221 the House, appeared from Virginia. Andrew Johnson, from his mountain home in Tennessee, " faithful among the faith- less," alone represented Tennessee in the Senate, and at the second session, Horace Maynard and Andrew J. Clements appeared, and took their seats in the House. Among the more prominent senators of New England, and men who had already secured a national reputation, were Fessenden and Morrill, of Maine; Hale, of New Hampshire; Sumner and Wilson, of Massachusetts; Collamer and Foot, of Vermont, and Anthony, of Rhode Island. New York was represented by Preston King and Ira Harris. Mr. Hale, from New Hampshire, had been the leader of the old " liberty party." " Solitary and alone " in the United States Senate, by his wit and humor, his readiness and ability, he had maintained his position against the whole senatorial delegation of the slave states, and their numerous allies from the free states. From Vermont came the dignified, urbane, and somewhat formal Solomon Foot; his colleague, Jacob Collamer, was a gentleman of the old school, who had been a member of cabinets, and was one of the wisest jurists and statesmen of our country. Preston King had been the friend and confidant of Martin Van Buren, Silas Wright, and Thomas H. Benton, and a leader at the Buffalo convention; genial, true, and devoted to the principles of democracy. From Pennsylvania there was David Wilmot, who while a member of the House, had introduced the " Wilmot proviso," which connects his name forever with the anti-slavery contest. The senators from Ohio were John Sherman, a brother of General Sherman, and late a distinguished member of the House of Representatives and Chairman of the Committee on Finance, and Benjamin Wade, staunch, rude, earnest, and true. From Illinois, came Lyman Trumbull and Orville H. Browning, both distinguished lawyers and competitors at the bar with Douglas and Lincoln. From Iowa, Senators Grimes and Harlan ; from Wisconsin, Doolittle and Howe ; from Michigan, Bingham and Chandler ; from Indiana, 222 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Jesse D. Bright and Henry S. Lane, the latter of whom had presided over the Philadelphia convention of 1856. The House of Representatives of this memorable Con- gress was composed in the main of men of good sense, respectable abilities, and earnest patriotism. It well repre- sented the intelligence, integrity, and devotion to their country of the American people. The leader of the House, as Chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means, was Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania ; although a man of nearly three score years and ten, he combined with large experience, the vigor and the energy of thirty-five. He was the most sarcastic and witty, as well as the most eccentric member of the House. Respected, and somewhat feared, alike by friend and foe, few desired a second encounter with him in the forensic war of debate. If he did not demolish with an argument or crush with his logic, he could silence with an epigram or a sarcasm. Ready, adroit, and saga- cious, as well as bold and frank, he exerted a large influence upon legislation. He was a bitter and uncompromising party chief, and better adapted to lead an opposition, than to conduct and control a majority. In the New York delegation was Roscoe Conkling, already distinguished for his eloquence and ability, Cnarles B. Sedgwick, Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs, and E. G. Spaulding and Erastus Corning, leading frTembers of the Committee of Ways and Means. From Ohio were Pendleton, Vallandigham, and Cox, leaders of the remnant of the democratic party, and among the republicans was John A. Bingham, one of the most ready and effective debaters on the floor. Schuyler Colfax, from Indiana, a rising member, was then serving his fourth term. He was industrious and genial, with great tact and good sense. Differing from his political opponents, he did not rouse their anger by strong statements, or harsh language, and he was popular on both sides of the House. Illinois was rep- resented by Washburne, Lovejoy, Kellogg, and Arnold, republicans ; while among the friends of Douglas were EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. 223 Richardson, McClernand, Fouke, and Logan, and these generally supported the war measures of the administration. They had followed the lead of Douglas ; and McClernand, Fouke, and Logan entered the Union army, and, especially Logan, did good service as soldiers during the war. But many vacant chairs in the House and the Senate, indicated the extent of the defection, the gravity of the sit- uation, and the magnitude of the impending struggle. The old pro-slavery leaders were absent, some in the rebel gov- ernment set up at Richmond, and others in the field, mar- shalling their troops in arms against their country. The chair of the late senator, now the rebel President, Jefferson Davis, those of the blustering and fiery Bob Toombs, of the accomplished Hunter, of the polished and learned Jew from Louisiana, Judah P. Benjamin, of the haughty and preten- tious Mason, of the crafty and unscrupulous Slidell, and of their compeers, who had been accustomed to domineer over the Senate, were all vacant. The seat of Douglas, the ambitious and able senator from Illinois, had been vacated, not by treason, but by death. Life-long opponents, recalling his last patriotic words spoken at Springfield, and in Chicago, gazed sadly on that unoccu- pied seat, now draped in black. Well had it been for John C. Breckenridge, lately the competitor of Douglas, if his chair also had been made vacant by his early death. But still conspicuous among the senators was the late Vice-Presi- dent, now the senator from Kentucky. His fellow traitors from the slave states had all gone. He alone lingered, shun- ned, and distrusted by all loyal men, and treated with the most freezing and formal courtesy, by his associates. Dark and lowering, he could be daily seen in his carriage always alone driving to the Senate chamber, where his voice and his votes were always given to thwart the war measures of the government. It was obvious that his heart was with his old associates at Richmond. As soon as the session closed, he threw off all disguise, and joined the army of the insur- gents. While at Washington, gloomy, and it may be sor- 224 ABRAHAM LINCOLN rowful, he said : " We can only look with sadness on the melancholy drama that is being enacted." Hostile armies were gathering and confronting each other, and from the dome of the Capitol, on the distant hills beyond Arlington, and on towards Fairfax Court House, could be seen the rebel flag. President Lincoln, in his message to this Congress, calmly reviewed the situation. He called attention to the fact that at his inauguartion the functions of the Federal Government had been suspended in the states of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and Florida. All the national property in these states had been appropriated by the insurgents. They had seized all the forts, arsenals, etc., excepting those on the Florida coast, and Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor, and these were then in a state of siege by the rebel forces. The national arms had been seized, and were in the hands of the hostile armies. A large number of the officers of the United States army and navy, had resigned and taken up arms against their government. He reviewed the facts in relation to Fort Sumter, and showed that by the attack upon it, the insurgents began the conflict of arms, thus forcing upon the country immediate dissolution, or war. No choice remained but to call into action the war powers of the government, and to. resist the force employed for its destruction, by force, for its preservation. The call for troops was made, and the response was most gratifying. Yet no slave state, except Delaware, had given a regiment through state organization. He then reviewed the action of Virginia, including the seiz- ure of the national armory at Harper's Ferry, and the navy- yard at Gosport, near Norfolk. The people of Virginia had permitted the insurrection to make its nest within her borders, and left the government no choice but to deal with it where it found it. He then reviewed the action of the government, the calls for troops, the blockade of the port& in the rebellious states, and the suspension of the habeas corpus. He asked Congress to confer upon him the power to make the conflict short and decisive. He asked to have EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. 225 placed at his disposal four hundred thousand men, and four hundred millions of money. Congress responded promptly to the message of the President, and voted five hundred thousand men, and five hundred millions of dollars, to sup- press the rebellion. As an illustration of those days and debates, let us recall an incident which occurred in the Senate, on the first of August, a few days after the battle of Bull Run. Senator Baker, of Oregon, Lincoln's old friend and competitor, and his successor in Congress from the Springfield district, was making a brilliant and impassioned reply to a speech of Breckenridge. Charles Sumner, speaking of this, and allud- ing to Breckenridge, said : " A senator with treason in his heart, if not on his lips, has just taken his seat." Baker, who had entered the chamber direct from his camp, rose at once to reply. ' His rebuke of the disloyal sentiments of Breckenridge was severe, and in the highest degree dra- matic, and worthy of the best days of that Roman eloquence to which he alluded. " What," said he, " would the senator from Kentucky have? These speeches of his, sown broadcast over the land ; what clear, distinct mean- ing have they ? Are they not intended for disorganization in our very midst ? Are they not intended to destroy our zeal ? Are they not intended to animate our enemies? Sir, are they not words of brilliant, polished treason ; even in the very Capitol of the republic ? What would have been thought, if, in another Capitol, in another republic, in a yet more martial age, a senator as grave, not more eloquent or dig- nified than the senator from Kentucky, yet with the Roman purple flow- ing over his shoulders, had risen in his place, surrounded by all the em- blems of Roman glory, and declared that the cause of the advancing Han- nibal was just, and that Carthage ought to be dealt with in terms of peace? What would have been thought, if after the battle of Cannae, a senator there had risen in his place, and denounced every levy of the Roman peo- ple, every expenditure of its treasure, and every appeal to the old recol- lections, and the old glories ? " There was a silence so profound throughout the Senate and galleries, that a pinfall could have been heard; while every eye was fixed upon Breckenridge. Fessenden ex- 1. Congressional Globe, Dec. tl, 1861. 15 226 ABRAHAM LINCOLN claimed, in deep, low tones: " He would have been hurled from the Tarpeian rock." Baker then resumed: " Sir, a senator, himself learned far more than myself in such lore (Mr. Fessenden), tells me, in a voice I am glad is audible, that ' he would have been hurled from the Tarpeian rock.' It is a grand com- mentary upon the American Constitution, that we permit these words of the senator from Kentucky to be uttered. I ask the senator to recol- lect, too, what, save to send aid and comfort to the enemy, do these pre- dictions amount to ? Every word thus uttered falls as a note of inspira- tion upon every Confederate ear." Baker was the man, brilliant alike as an orator and a soldier, of whom Sumner happily said: " He was the Prince Rupert of debate, and if he had lived, would have become the Prince Rupert of battle." It was he who, on the prairies of Illinois, had contested the palm of eloquence with Lincoln and Douglas, who. had gone to California and pronounced the memorable oration over Senator Brodenck, and who, going thence to Oregon, came to Washington as senator from that state. Andrew Johnson, in reply to Breckenridge, on the 27th of July, quoted the remark: "When traitors become numer- ous enough, treason becomes respectable. Yet," said 'he, " God willing, whether traitors be many or few, as I have heretofore waged war against traitors and treason, I intend to continue to the end." 1 His denunciation of Jefferson Davis was vehement and impassioned. He said: " Davis, a man educated and nurtured by the government, who sucked its pap, who received from it all his military instruc- tion, a man who got all his distinction, civil and military, in the service of the government, beneath its flag, and then without cause, without being deprived of a single right or privilege, the sword he unsheathed in vindication of the stars and stripes in a foreign land, given to him by the hand of a cherishing mother, he stands this day prepared to plunge into her bosom." * Senator Fessenden,Chairman of the Committee on Finance, 1. Congressional Globe, July 27, 1861, p. 291. 2. See Congressional Globe EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. 22 / and the successor of Mr. Chase as Secretary of the Treas- ury, was a very able and learned New England senator. Ever ready, well informed, keen, witty, and sarcastic, as a general debater he had no superior. At this its first session, Congress inaugurated that series of measures against slavery, which, in connection with the action of the President and the victories of the Union sol- diers, resulted in its destruction. Among its members, known distinctly as an abolitionist, was Owen Lovejoy; a man, as has been stated, of powerful frame, strong feelings, and great personal magnetism as a speaker. In February, 1859, during his first term in Congress, in reply to the furi- ous denunciations of the slaveholders, which charged among other things, that he was a " nigger stealer," he indignantly and defiantly exclaimed : "Yes, I do assist fugitives to escape. Proclaim it upon the house- tops; write it upon every leaf that trembles in the forest; make it blaze from the sun at high noon, and shine forth in the radiance of every star that bedecks the firmament of God. Let it echo through all the arches of heaven, and reverberate and bellow through all the deep gorges of hell, where slavecatchers will be very likely to hear it. Owen Lovejoy lives at Princeton, Illinois, and he aids every fugitive that comes to his door and asks it. Thou invisible demon of slavery! Dost thou think to cross my humble threshold, and forbid me to give bread to the hungry and shelter to the homeless? I bid you defiance in the name of God." * -A 1. At the May term, 1842, of the Bureau County Circuit Court, Richard M.Youfc presiding ; Norman H. Purple, Prosecuting Attorney pro tern.; the grand jury returned a " true bill' 1 against Owen Lovejoy (then lately a preacher of the Gospel), for that "a certain negro girl named Agnes, then and there being a fugitive slave, he, the said Lovejoy, knowing her to be such, did harbor, feed, secrete, and clothe," contrary to the statute, etc., and the grand jurors did further present, "that the said Lovejoy, a certain fugitive slave called Nance, did harbor, feed, and aid," contrary to the statute, etc. At the October term, 1842, the Hon. John Dean Cat on, a Justice of the Supreme Court, presiding, the case came up for trial, on the plea of not guilty. Judge Purple, and B. F. Frldley, State's Attorney for the people, and James H. Collins, and Lovejoy in person, for the defense. The trial lasted nearly a week, and Lovejoy and Collins fought the case with a vigor and boldness almost with- out a parallel. The prosecution was urged by the enemies of Lovejoy, with an energy and vlndlctlveness with which Purple and Frldley could have had little sympathy. "When the case was called for trial, a strong pro-slavery man, one of those by whom the Indictment had been procured, said to the State's Attorney : " Fridley, we want you to be sure and convict this preacher, and send him to prison." 228 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. On the 6th of August, a bill introduced by Senator Trumbull, giving freedom to all slaves used by the rebels in carrying on the war became a law. It was vehemently opposed by Breckenridge and other democratic members, as an interference with the rights of the slaveholders, but those who voted for the bill, justified their votes on the ground that in the battle of Bull Run and other engagements, the rebels used their negroes and slaves, not only in construct- ing fortifications, but in battle against the Union forces. Burnett, of Kentucky, declared that the bill would result in a wholesale emancipation of slaves in the states.in rebellion, and some one replied: "If it does, so much the better." Thaddeus Stevens then said : " I warn Southern gentlemen, that if this war continues, there will be a time when it will be declared by this free nation, that every bondman in the South, belonging to a rebel (recollect, I confine it to them), shall be called upon to aid us in war against their masters, and to restore the Union." From the beginning of the contest, the slaves flocked to the Union army, as to a haven of refuge. They believed freedom was to be found within its picket lines and under the shelter of its flag. They were ready to act as guides, to dig, to work, to fight for liberty. The Yankees, as their masters called the Union troops, were believed by them to come as their deliverers from long and cruel bondage. And yet, almost incredible as it may now seem, many officers permitted masters and agents to enter their lines, and carry away by force these fugitive slaves. Many cruelties and outrages were perpetrated by these masters, and in many instances, the colored men who had rendered valuable ser- vice to the Union cause, were permitted to be carried from beneath the flag of the Union back to bondage. Lovejoy was most indignant at this stupid and inhuman 'Prison ! Lovejoy to prison !" replied Frldlcy, " your persecutions will be a damned sight more likely to send him to Congress."' Frldley was right. Lovejoy was acquitted, and very soon after elected to the State Legislature, and then to Congress, where, as all know, he was soon heard by the whole country. EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. 229 treatment, and early in the special session, introduced a reso- lution declaring that it was no part of the duty of the sol- diers of the United States, to capture and return fugitive slaves. This passed the House by a very large majority, the vote being ninety-three to fifty-nine. While the President, by his moderation, was seeking to hold the border states, and while his measures were severely criticized by many extreme abolitionists, he enjoyed, to the fullest extent, the confidence of Lovejoy and other radi- cal members from Illinois. This old and ultra abolitionist perfectly understood and appreciated the motives of the Executive. On the death of Lovejoy, in 1864, Lincoln said: "Throughout my heavy and perplexing responsibilities here (at Washington), to the day of his death, it would scarcely wrong any other to say: he was my most generous friend." ' There were, in the border states, many Union men who desired to maintain the Union, and who wished also, that there should be no interference with slavery. These, with the small band of anti-slavery men in Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri, had rendered efficient aid in preventing those states from seceding. Their representative man in Con- gress was the aged, venerable, and eloquent John J. Critten- den, of Kentucky. He had been the confidential friend and colleague of Clay, and had never faltered in his loyalty to the Union. He had been conspicuous in the Thirty-sixth Congress, in attempting to bring about terms of compromise to prevent the threatened war. On the 1 5th of July, on motion of General John A. McClernand, the House, by a vote of one hundred and twenty-one to five, adopted a resolution pledging itself to vote any amount of money and any number of men which might be necessary, to ensure a speedy and effectual suppression of the rebellion. On the 22d of July, 1861, Mr. Crittenden offered the fol- lowing resolution, defining the object of the war: 1. Letter from Lincoln to John H. Bryant, dated May 30, 1864. 23O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Resolved, That the present deplorable civil war has been forced upon the country by the disunionists of the Southern states, now in revolt against the constitutional government, and in arms around the capital; that, in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not waged, upon our part, in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest, or subjugation, nor purpose of over- throwing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those states; but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several states unimpaired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to cease. " ' This resolution was adopted by the House, there being only two dissenting votes. It served to allay the apprehen- sion of the border states, whose sensitiveness had been excited by the agents and abettors of the rebellion. Congress, after long debate, sanctioned the acts of the President, and, as has been stated, voted more men and money than he had in his message called for. Among the speeches made at this special session, one of the ablest was that of Senator Baker, whose effective reply to Breckenridge has already been noticed. His speech on the resolutions approving the acts of the President, was distinguished for its eloquence, its boldness, and its almost prophetic sagacity. He said: " I am one of those who believe that there may be reverses. I am not quite confident that we shall overrun the Southern states, as we shall have to overrun them, without severe trials of our courage and patience. I believe they are a brave, determined people filled with enthusiasm, false in its purpose as I think, but still one which animates almost all classes of their population. But however that may be, it may be that instead of finding within a year loyal states sending members to Con- gress, and replacing their senators upon this floor, we may have to reduce them to the condition of territories, and send from Massachusetts, or from Illinois, governors to control them." 8 The military situation was substantially as follows: The Union troops held Fortress Monroe and vicinity, and thus guarded Baltimore and the approaches to Washington; a 1. See Congressional Globe, July 22, 1861, p. 223. 2. Congressional Globe, July 10th, 1861, pp. 44-45. EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. 23! force under command of George B. McClellan, was driving the rebels out of West Virginia. The Confederates, under Beauregard, confronted the Union army near Washington, holding a position along Bull Run creek, their right at Manassas, and left at Winchester, under Johnston. The peo- ple of the North, confident, sanguine, and impatient of delay, through an excited press, urged an immediate attack by the Union troops, and the army, under General McDowell, started on the i6th of July, and on the 2ist attacked the enemy. The attack seemed well planned and was at first successful, but re-enforcements under the rebel General Johnston reaching the field at the crisis of the battle, Gen- eral Patterson, of the Union army, neither holding Johnston in check, nor coming up in time, the Union troops were repulsed, a panic seized them, and they fled towards Wash- ington in great confusion. The disaster of Bull Run mortified the national pride, but aroused also the national spirit and courage. The morning following the defeat witnessed dispatches flashing over the wires to every part of the North, authorizing the reception of the eager regiments ready to enter the service and retrieve the results of the battle. The administration and the people, immediately upon learning of this defeat, set themselves vigorously to increase and reorganize the army. Grave and thoughtful men left their private pursuits, organ- ized regiments, and offered them to the government. None were now refused. The popular feeling throughout the loyal states again rose to a height even greater than it did at the time of the attack upon Fort Sumter. Expeditions were organized and sent to the South, and Fort Hatteras was surrendered to the Union troops on the 28th of August. On the 3ist of October, Port Royal came into the possession of the Union army. The rebels were driven out of West Virginia, and General George B. McClel- lan, who had been in command there, and who was believed at the time to possess military ability of a high order, was called to command the armies, again gathering in vast num- 232 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. bers around the capital. In October, General Scott retired on account of age and infirmity, and General McClellan was appointed to the command. When the war began, John C. Fremont was in Paris. He immediately returned home, was appointed a Major General, and given command of the Western Department, embracing Missouri and a part of Kentucky. On the 3oth of August, he issued an order declaring martial law throughout Mis- souri, confiscating the property of rebels, and saying: "Their slaves, if any they have, are hereby declared free men." ' This grave act was done without consulting the Presi- dent, and severely embarrassed the Executive in the efforts he was making to retain Maryland, Kentucky, and other border states, in the Union. It was received with the greatest alarm and consternation by the Union men of these states.* The President, on the 2d of September, wrote to Fremont, saying: "There is great danger. * * The confiscation of property and liberating slaves will alarm our Southern Union friends, and turn them against us, perhaps ruin our fair prospect for Kentucky." He asked Fremont to modify his order so as to conform to the act of Congress lately passed on that subject. General Fremont replied, excusing and justifying his acts, and requesting the President himself to modify the order, which the President did, issuing an order himself, altering that of Fremont so that it should conform to and not " transcend '' the act of Congress. The reason for this modification, and also for his action with reference to the suggestions of the Secretary of War, Cameron, as to arming the negroes, and with reference to the emancipation order of General David Hunter, appear in a letter dated April 4th, 1864, in which he says: " When, early in the war, General Fremont attempted military eman- cipation, I forbade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable 1. McPhersou's History of the Rebellion, p. 246. 2. See Protest of Joseph Holt and other Union men of Kentucky. 3. See McPherson's History of the Rebellion, pp. 246-217. EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. 233 necessity. When, a little later, General Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensable necessity. When, still later, General Hunter attempted military emancipation, I again forbade it, because I did not yet think the indispensable necessity had come. When, in March, and May. and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the border states, to favor compensated emancipation. I believed the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition, and I was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrender- ing the Union, and with it, the Constitution, or of laying strong hands upon the colored element. I chose the latter. In choosing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I was not entirely confident. More than a year of trial now shows no loss by it in our foreign relations, none in our home popular sentiment, none in our white military force, no loss by it anyhow, or anywhere. On the contrary, it shows a gain of quite a hundred and thirty thousand soldiers, seamen, and laborers. These are palpable facts, about which, as facts, there can be no cavilling. W r e have the men; and we could not have had them without the measure," ' The President for a time adhered firmly, and against the earnest remonstrance of many friends, to what was called the border state policy. Military preparations on a large scale were going on. McClellan, who had, on the resignation of General Scott, been appointed commander in chief, had organized an im- mense army, which was encamped around Washington. On the 2ist of October occurred the fight at Ball's Bluff, at which Colonel Baker, the senator from Oregon, fell, pierced by a volley of bullets. In September, 1861, information was communicated to the government that the Legislature of Man-land was to meet, with a view of passing an act of secession. General McClellan was directed to pre- vent this by the arrest of the members. His order to Gen- eral Banks, dated September i2th, 1861, says, among other things : " When they meet on the ijth, you will please have even-thing prepared to arrest the whole party, and be sure that none escape." * * "If successfully carried out, it will go far towards breaking the backbone of the 1. McPherson'a History of the Rebellion Getter to Col. Hodges), p. 336. 234 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. rebellion." * * "I have but one thing to impress upon you, the absolute necessity of secresy and success." This act has been censured as an arbitrary arrest. How- ever arbitrary, it was a military measure of great importance, and in the propriety of which General McClellan fully coin- cided. Governor Hicks said in the Senate of the United States : " I believe that arrests, and arrests alone, saved the state of Maryland from destruction. I approved them then, and I approve them now." On the 8th of November, 1861, Captain Wilkes, in the San Jacinto, intercepted the Trent, a British mail steamer from Havana, with Messrs. Mason and Slidell, late senators, and then rebel agents, on their way to represent the Confed- eracy at the courts of St. James and St. Cloud. He took them prisoners, and bringing them to the United States, they were confined at Fort Warren, in Boston harbor. There were few acts in the life of Lincoln more characteristic, indi- cating a higher and firmer courage and independence,, together with the exercise of a cool, dispassionate judgment, than the release of Mason and Slidell. No act of the Brit- ish Government, since the days of the Revolution, ever excited such an intense feeling of hostility, as her haughty demand for the release of these rebels. The people had already been exasperated by her hasty recognition of the Confederates as belligerents, and the seizure by Captain Wilkes of these emissaries, gratified popular passion and pride. On the first day of the session of Congress, after intelligence of the seizure reached Washington, Lovejoy, by unanimous consent, introduced a resolution of thanks to Captain Wilkes, which, with blind impetuosity, was rushed through under the call of the previous question. The position of the President was rendered still more embarrassing by the hasty and ill-considered action of mem- bers of his Cabinet. The Secretary of the Navy wrote to Wilkes a letter of congratulation on the "great public service" he had rendered in " capturing the rebel emissaries 1. McPherson's History of the Rebellion, p. 153. EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. 235 Mason and Slidell." ! Stanton cheered and applauded the act. The Secretary of State was at first opposed to any concession or the surrender of the prisoners. * The people were ready to rush " pell mell " into a war with England. The Confederates were rejoicing at the capture, as the means of bringing the English navy and armies to their aid. But Lincoln, cool, sagacious, and far-seeing, uninfluenced by resentment, with courage and a confidence in the deliber- ate judgment of the country never exceeded, stepped in front of an exasperated people, told them to pause and " to forbear." "We fought Great Britain," said he, "for doing just what Captain Wilkes has done. If Great Britain pro- tests against this act and demands their release, we must adhere to our principles of 1812. We must give up these prisoners. Besides," said he significantly, "one war at a time." It is scarcely too much to say that his firmness and courage saved the republic from a war with England. Had the President, yielding to popular clamor, accepted the challenge of Great Britain and gone to war, he would have done exactly what the rebels desired, and would have thus made Mason and Slidell incomparably more useful to the Confederates than they were after their surrender, and while hanging around the back doors of the Courts to which they were sent, but at which they were never received. No one can calculate the results which would have followed upon a refusal to surrender these men. The sober second thought of the people recognized the wise statesmanship of the President. The Secretary of State, with his facile pen, made an able argument sustaining the views of the President. No instance in which Lincoln ever 1. Benson J. Losslng, In Lincoln Album, p. 328. 2. See Lincoln andSeward, by Gideon Welles, p. 188. Secretary Welles distinctly says : " Mr. Seward was at the beginning opposed to any Idea of concession, which Involved giving up the emissaries, but yielded at once, and with dexterity, to the per- emptory demand of Great Britain." " The President expressed his doubts of the legality of the capture * * and from the first was willing to make the concession." Lincoln and Seward, by Gideon Welles, pp. 186-188. 236 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. acted from private resentment towards any individual, or nation, can be found. Towards individuals who had injured him, he was ever magnanimous, and often more than just ; and towards nations, no more striking illustration of his dig- nified disregard of personal insult and injustice could be found than that furnished by his conduct towards England at this time. He was not insensible of the personal insults and injuries heaped upon him in England, but he was too great to be to any extent influenced by them. It required nerve and moral courage to stem the tide of popular feeling, but he did not for a moment hesitate. And when the excitement of the hour had passed, his conduct was univer- sally approved. Lovejoy's speech in Congress illustrates the hatred and excitement which the conduct of Great Brit- ain produced. 1 1. Congressional Globe, Second Session Thirty-seventh Congress, p. 833. Lovejoy said: "Every time this Trent affair comes up; every time that an allusion is made to It. * * * * I am made to renew the horrible grief which I suffered when the news of the surrender of Mason and Slldell came. I acknowledge It, I literally wept tears of vexation. I hate it ; and I hate the British government. I have never shared In the traditionary hostility of many of my countrymen against Eng- land. But I now here publicly avow and record my Inextinguishable hatred of that government. I mean to cherish it while I live, and to bequeath It as a legacy to my children when I die. And If I am alive when war with England comes, as sooner or later It must, for we shall never forget this humiliation, and if I can carry a musket In that war, I will carry It. I have three sons, and I mean to charge them, and I do now publicly and solemnly charge them, that if they shall have, at that time, reached the years of manhood and strength, they shall enter Into that war." Senator Hale, of New Hampshire, went so far as to threaten the administration Of Mr. Lincoln. " If," said he, " this administration will not listen to the voice of the people, they will find themselves engulphed In a fire that will consume them like stubble: they will be helpless before a power that will hurl them from their places." See Congressional Globe, 2d Session 37th Congress, January 7, 1862, p. 177. CHAPTER XIV. EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION. PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE. CONDITION OF THE COUNTRY. DEATH OF BAKER. EULOGIES UPON HIM. STANTON, SECRETARY OF WAR. ABOLITION OF SLAVERY IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. PROHIBI- TION IN THE TERRITORIES. EMPLOYMENT OF NEGROES AS SOL- DIERS. EMANCIPATION IN THE BORDER STATES. WHEN Congress met, December 2, 1861, no decisive mil- itary events had occurred, but the great drama of civil war was at hand. Thus far the work had been one of prepar- ation. Nearly two hundred thousand Union troops, under General George B. McClellan, on the banks of the Potomac, confronted a rebel army, then supposed to number about the same, but now known to have been much smaller. The President in his message, congratulated Congress that the patriotism of the people had proved more than equal to the demands made upon it, and that the number of troops ten- dered to the government greatly exceeded the force called for. He had not only been successful in holding Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri in the Union, but those three states, neither of which had in the beginning given, or promised through state organization, a single soldier, had now forty thousand men in the field under the Union flag. In West Virginia, after a severe struggle, the Union had triumphed, and there was no armed rebel force north of the Potomac or east of the Chesapeake, while the cause of the Union was steadily advancing southward. On the slavery question, he said : " I have adhered to the act of Congress freeing persons held to service, used for 237 238 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. insurrectionary purposes." In relation to the emancipation, and arming the negroes, he said : " The maintenance of the integrity of the Union is the primary object of the contest." ****** " The Union must be preserved, and all indispensable means must be employed. We should not be in haste to de- termine that radical and extreme measures, which may reach the loyal, as well as the disloyal, are indispensable." Before proceeding to view in detail the action, during this session, of Congress and the President on the slavery question, let us pause a moment to notice the honors paid in the Senate to the memory of Senator Baker. It will be re- membered that he was killed at Ball's Bluff, on the 2ist of October, while leading his troops against the enemy. When Congress assembled in regular session, the nth of December was fixed as the day on which the funeral orations in his honor should be pronounced in the Senate. The chamber of the Senate was draped in black; the brilliant colors of the national flag, which the war made all worship, were now mingled with the dark, in honor of the dead sol- dier and senator. The floor was crowded with senators, members of the House, governors of states, and distin- guished civil and military officers, among whom Seward and Chase, and the Blairs and Stanton were conspicuous. The galleries were filled by members of the diplomatic corps, ladies, and prominent citizens from all parts of the republic. As soon as Vice-President Hamlin had called the Senate to order, President Lincoln, in deep mourning, slowly entered from the marble room, supported by the senators from Illinois: Trumbull and Browning. Not very long be- fore he had been present among the chief mourners at the funeral in the White House of his prottge", young Ellsworth, shot down in the bloom of youth, and now it was Baker, his old comrade at the bar of Sangamon County; his successor in Congress; he for whom the President's second son, Edward Baker Lincoln, had been named, and to whom he was very warmly attached. EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION. 239 Senator Nesmith, of Oregon, sorrowfully announced the death of Baker, and was followed by McDougall of Califor- nia, in one of the most touching and beautiful speeches ever heard in the Senate. Turning towards Lincoln, aud allud- ing to the dead senator's enthusiastic love of poetry, he said: " Many years since, on the wild plains of the West, in the midst of a starlight night, as we journeyed together, I heard from him the chant of that noble song, ' The Battle of Ivry.' " He loved freedom, if you please, Anglo-Saxon free- dom, for he was of that grand old race." As descriptive of the warlike scenes of every-day occur- rence when Baker left the senatorial forum for the field, McDougall repeated in a voice which created a sensation throughout the Senate: " Hurrah ! the foes are moving. Hark to the mingled din Of fife, and steed, and trump, and drum, and roaring culverin! The fiery duke is pricking fast across St. Andre's plain, With all the hireling chivalry of Guelders and Aimayne. Now by the lips of those ye love, fair gentlemen of France, Charge for the golden lilies! upon them with the lance!" And then comparing Baker at Ball's Bluffs- with Henry of Navarre, McDougall quoted the words: " And if my standard-bearer fall, as fall full well he may, For never saw I promise yet of such a bloody fray Press where ye see my white plume shine, amidst the ranks of war, And be your oriflamme to-day the helmet of Navarre! " It was a most eloquent speech, and as McDougall re- called the old comradeship of Lincoln and Baker, and Browning, and himself in early days as circuit riders in Central Illinois, every heart was touched, and few eyes were dry. Sumner's speech was among the best he ever made. It was perhaps the only occasion upon which he ever cut loose from his manuscript, and gave free scope to the inspiration of the scene and the moment. Senator Browning, the successor of Douglas, followed, 240 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. and his speech was as good as the best. " Baker," said he, " to a greater extent than most men, combined the force and severity of logic, with grace, fancy, and eloquence, filling at the bar, at the same time the character of the astute and profound lawyer, and of the able, eloquent, and successful advocate; and in the Senate, the wise, prudent, and discreet statesman was combined with the chaste, classic, brilliant, and persuasive orator. He was not only a lawyer, an ora- tor, a statesman, and a soldier, but he was also a poet, and at times spoke and acted under high poetic inspiration." The remains of Baker were taken across the continent to California, and he was buried by the side of his friend Broderick, 1 in "The Lone Mountain Cemetery." There on that rocky cliff, by the Bay of San Francisco, looking out upon the Golden Gate and the Pacific, lies the dust of the gallant soldier and eloquent senator. At this session of Con- gress 1 , three of Lincoln's old associates at the bar in Illinois (if Baker had been alive, there would have been four), occu- pied seats in the Senate: Trumbull and Browning from Illinois, and McDougall from California.* There was something very beautiful and touching in the attachment and fidelity of these his old Illinois comrades to Lincoln. They had all been pioneers, frontiersmen, circuit- riders together. They were never so happy as when talking over old times, and recalling the rough experiences of their early lives. Had they met at Washington in calm and peace- ful weather, on sunny days, they would have kept up their party differences as they did at home, but coming together in the midst of the fierce storms of civil war, and in the hour 1. Late a senator from California, and killed In a duel. Baker had pronounced in San Francisco, a funeral oration over bis remains. 2. One evening In the summer of 1863, when the President was living In a cot- tage at the "Soldier's Home," on the heights north of the capital, some one spoke to him of Baker's burial place In the " Lone Mountain Cemetery." The name seemed to kindle his Imagination and touch his heart. He spoke of this " Lone Mountain " on the shore of the Pacific, as a place of repose, and seemed almost to envy Baker Ills place of rest Lincoln then gave a warm and glowing sketch of Baker's eloquence, full of generous admiration, and showing how he had loved this old friend. EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION. 24! of supreme peril, they stood together like a band of brothers. Not one of them would see an old comrade in difficulty or danger, and not help him out. The memory of these old Illinois lawyers and statesmen: Baker, McDougall, Trumbull, Lovejoy, Washburne, Browning, and others, recalls a passage in Webster's reply to Hayne. Speaking of Massachusetts and South Carolina, the great New England orator said: " Shoulder to shoulder they went through the Revolution together; hand in hand they stood around the administra- tion of Washington, and felt his own great arm lean on them for support." So, in the far more difficult administration of Lincoln, these old and trusty comrades of his, whatever their former differences, stood shoulder to shoulder, and hand in hand, around the administration of Lincoln; his strong arm leaned on them for support, and that support was given vigorously and with unwavering loyalty. * On the i4th of January, 1862, Simon Cameron resigned the position of Secretary of War, accepting the place of Minister to Russia. Edwin M. Stanton was appointed his successor. The new secretary soon gave evidence of his great energy, industry, and efficiency as an organizer. In accomplishing great objects he was not very scrupulous about the means of removing obstacles, and was somewhat 1. McDougall, before going to California, had been a prominent lawyer at Jack- sonville and Chicago, and Attorney-General of Illinois. He was the bitter enemy of the Secretary of State, Mr. Se ward having caused some of his California friends to be arrested, and confined In Fort LaFayette. I shall state what was universally known and deeply mourned by all of McDougall' s friends, when I mention that habits of intemperance overclouded the last years of his life. But it could not be said of him that " when the wine was in, the wit was out." Poor McDougall' s wit was always ready, drunk or sober. Coming down from the Senate chamber, after a late executive session In which he had been opposing one of Seward's nominations, he found the rain falling in tor- rents, the night dark and dismal, and his own steps unsteady. As he passed from the Capitol gate towards Pennsylvania Avenue, the senator had to cross a ditch full of filth and water. McDougall, in the darkness, made a misstep, and tumbled in. A police- man ran to his aid, and helping him out, enquired gruffly : " Who are you, any- how ? " " I, I was," said poor Mac, "1,1 was Senator McDougall, when I fell in, now I think," looking at his filthy garments with disgust, "now, I think I, I am Seward." 16 242 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. careless of the forms and restraints of law. Honest and true, and intensely in earnest if he believed a thing was right, he was not likely to be thwarted by any formal obsta- cles which might stand in the way. He was irritable, but placable in temper; sometimes doing acts of injustice, which the more patient and considerate President was obliged to correct, but he himself was ready to repair a wrong when satisfied that one had been committed. At this session, Congress entered upon that series of anti- slavery measures which were to end in the emancipation proclamation, and the amendment of the Constitution pro- hibiting slavery throughout the republic. The forbearance towards slavery and slaveholders, so conspicuous at the beginning of the war, disappeared rapidly before the fierce necessities of the conflict. The House had scarcely completed its organization, when Lovejoy, indignant that loyal negroes should still be sent back to slavery from the camps of the Union army, on the 4th of December introduced a bill making it a penal offence for any officer to return a fugitive slave. Senator Wilson gave early notice of a bill in the Senate foi; the same purpose. The various propositions on the subject finally resulted in the enactment of an additional article of war, forbidding, on pain of dismissal from the service, the arrest of any fugitive, by any officer or person in the military or naval service of the United States. The location of the capital on slave territory had proved one of the most important triumphs ever achieved by the slaveholders. The powerful influence of society, local pub- lic sentiment, fashion, and the local press, in favor of the institution, was ever felt; and its power, from 1800 to 1860, could scarcely be overestimated. Our country had long been reproached and stigmatized by the world, and the character of a pro-slavery despotism over the colored race fixed upon it, by reason of the existence of slavery at the national capital. The friends of liberty had for years chafed and struggled in vain against this malign influence. EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION. 243 Congress had supreme power to legislate for the District of Columbia, and was exclusively responsible for the continued existence of slavery there. Mr. Lincoln, it will be remem- bered, when serving his single term in Congress, had, in December, 1849, introduced a bill for its gradual abolition. The President and his friends thought it quite time this relic of barbarism at the national capital should be destroyed. Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, the confidential friend of the President, on the i5th of December introduced a bill for the immediate emancipation of slaves in the District of Columbia, and the payment to their loyal masters of an average sum of three hundred dollars for each slave thus set free; providing for the appointment of commissioners to assess the sums to be paid each claimant, and appropriating one million of dollars for the purpose. The debates upon this bill involved the whole subject of slavery, the rebellion, the past, present, and future of the country. The bill passed the Senate by yeas twenty nine, nays six. When the bill came up for action in the House, contain- ing as it did an appropriation of money, under the rules, it was necessarily referred to the committee of the whole House. As there was a large number of bills in advance of it on the calendar, its enemies, although in a minority, had hopes of delaying action or defeating it. The struggle to take up the bill came on the loth of April, under the lead of that accomplished, adroit, and bold parliamentarian, Thad- deus Stevens. He moved that the House go into commit- tee, which motion was agreed to, Mr. Dawes of Massachu- setts in the chair. The chairman called the calendar in its order, and on motion of Mr. Stevens every bill was laid aside until the bill for the abolition of slavery in the District was reached. An unsuccessful effort to lay the bill on the table was made by a member from Maryland. F. P. Blair Jr., in an able speech, advocated coloniza- tion in connection with abolition. He said: " It is in the gorgeous region of the American tropics, that our freedmen will find their homes ; among a people without prejudice 244 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. against their color, and to whom they will carry and impart new energy and vigor, in return for the welcome which will greet them, as the pledge of the future protection: and friendship of our great republic; I look with confidence to this movement, as the true and only solution of this question of slavery." ' Mr. Bingham closed an eloquent speech by saying: "One year ago (nth April, 1861) slavery opened its batteries of treason upon Fort Sumter at Charleston; let the anniversary of the crime be signalized by the banishment of slavery from the national capital." " The bill passed the House by ninety-two ayes to thirty- eight noes, and, on the i6th of April, was approved by the President. Lincoln said : " Little did I dream in 1849, when I proposed to abolish slavery at this capital, and could scarcely get a hearing for the proposition, that it would be so soon accomplished." Still less did he anticipate that he as President would be called upon to approve the measure. The territories had long been the battle-fields on which free labor and slavery had struggled for supremacy. The early policy of the government, that of the fathers, was prohibition. The proposition of Jefferson, that slavery should never exist in any territory in the United States, failed only by one vote, caused by the absence of a delegate from New Jersey. The Ordinance of 1787 inaugurated the policy. Slavery was strong enough in 1820 to secure a division by the line of 36 30' of latitude, in what was called the Mis- souri Compromise. In 1854, that compromise was repealed, with the avowed purpose on the part of the slaveholders of carrying slavery into all the territories. Then came the Dred Scott decision, that Congress could not prohibit slavery in the territories, and then followed the hand-to-hand struggle in Kansas. The distinct issue of the exclusion of slavery by Congressional enactment was, in 1860, submitted to the people, and Mr. Lincoln was elected upon the distinct and unequivocal pledge of prohibition. On the 24th of March, 1862, Mr. Arnold, of Illinois, 1. Congressional Globe, 2d Session 37th Congress, pp. 1684-1635. EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION. 245 introduced " a bill to render freedom national, and slavery sectional," and which, after reciting: " To the end that free- dom may be and remain forever the fundamental law of the land in all places whatsoever, so far as it lies in the power, or depends upon the action of the government of the United States to make it so," enacted that slavery, except as a punishment for crime, whereof the party had been duly con- victed, should henceforth cease and be prohibited forever, in all the following places, viz.: First, in all the territories of the United States then existing, or thereafter to be formed or acquired in any way. Second, In all places purchased or acquired with the consent of the United States for forts, magazines, dock-yards, and other needful buildings, and over which the United States have or shall have exclusive legislative jurisdiction. Third, In all vessels on the high seas. Fourth, In all places whatsoever where the national government has exclusive jurisdiction." ' Mr. Cox opposed the bill vehemently, declaring that, in his judgment, it was a bill for the benefit of secession. Mr. Fisher, in an able speech, also opposed the passage of the bill. In conclusion, he appealed to the majority to " let this cup pass from our lips." He said: " We have done nobly; we have done much in behalf of liberty and humanity at this session of Congress. Let us then here call a halt and take our bearings." Finally, as a concession to the more conser- vative members, Mr. Lovejoy offered an amendment strik- ing out all except the prohibition of slavery in the territories, which amendment Mr. Arnold accepted, and on which he demanded the previous question. The bill passed the House, ayes, eighty-five, noes, fifty, was slightly modified in the Senate, and finally passed the House on the ipth of June, prohibiting slavery forever in all the territories of the United States then existing, or that might thereafter be acquired. Thus, the second great step towards the destruction of slavery was taken ; and thus was terminated the great struggle over its existence in the terri- 1. Congressional Globe, 2<1 Session 37th Congress, p. 2042. 246 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. tories, which had agitated the country, with short intervals, from the organization of the republic. Had this act been passed in 1784, when Jefferson substantially proposed it, the terrible war of the slaveholders might not have come. The institution would never have grown to such vast power. Missouri would have had the wealth of Ohio, ano> slavery, driven by moral and economical influences towards the Gulf, would have gradually and peacefully disappeared. 1 Slavery having been abolished at the capital, and pro- hibited in all the territories, the question of arming the freedmen, and of freeing the slaves and organizing and arming them as soldiers that they might fight for their lib- erty and that of their race, pressed more and more upon the government. The first regiment of negro troops raised during the war was organized by General David Hunter, in the spring of 1862, while in command of the Department of the South. Finding himself charged with the duty of holding the coasts of Florida, South Carolina, and Georgia, with inadequate force, and these three states swarming with able bodied negroes, ready to fight for their liberty, he saw no reason why they should not be organized and used as soldiers. On the 9th of July, 1862, Senator Grimes, of Iowa, pro- posed that " there should be no exemption from military service on account of color," and authorized the President to organize negro soldiers. The proposition was vehemently opposed by the border states, and by some of the demo- cratic members of Congress. Senator Garret Davis, of Kentucky, said : " You propose to place arms in the hands of the slaves, or such of them as are able to handle arms, and manumit the whole mass, men, women, and children, and leave them among us. Do you expect us to give our sanction and approval to these things ? No ! No ! We would regard their authors as our worst enemies, and there 1. The New York Tribune of June 20, 1862, speaking of the law, said : "Ills not often that so much of that 'righteousness that exalteth a nation,' Is embodied in a legislative act. Had this act been passed In 1784, when Jefferson proposed something similar, the war In which we are now engaged would never have existed." EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION. 247 is no foreign despotism, that could come to our rescue, that we would not joyfully embrace before we would submit. 1 The proposition authorizing the employment of negroes as soldiers, and conferring freedom on all who should render military service, and on the families of all such as belonged to rebel owners, became a law on the iyth of July, 1862. On this subject Lincoln said : " Negroes, like other people, act from motives. Why should they do anything for us, if we do nothing for them ? If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted by the strongest of motives, even the promise of freedom. And the promise being made must be kept." The opposition to the employment of the negroes as sol- diers, seems now almost inexplicable. That the master's claim to the negro should be set up in the way of the gov- ernment's superior claim to the service of the negro as a sol- dier, seems to us very strange. The government could, for- sooth, take the son from his father for a soldier, but not the slave from the master ! If the slave be considered as prop- erty, the plea of the master is equally absurd. It is con- ceded by all that the government, in case of necessity, could take the horses and animals of loyal or disloyal, and press them into service. And if animals, why not persons held as property? If the negroes were property, they could be taken as such for public use, and if considered as persons, they were like others subject to call for military service. In discussing the many and grave questions growing out of the war, confiscation, and emancipation, wide differences appeared among the friends of the administration. The discussions of these questions in Congress, were earnest, and often intemperate and violent, and the opinions and con- duct of the President were often criticised by his own political friends, with a degree of passion rarely paralleled by the attacks of even political opponents upon the Executive. The President bore these unjust and often unfair attacks with patience, and without resentment. Senator Trumbull, 1. Congressional Globe, 2d Session 37th Congress, 4th Part, p. 3205, July 9 1862. 248 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. from Illinois, on the 27th of June, 1862, made some remarks in relation to him, so just and so appropriate that they will help us to understand his character. He said : " I know enough of honest Abraham Lincoln to know that he will not regard as his truest friends men who play the courtier, and swear that every- thing he does is right. He.sir, is honest enough, and great enough, and tal- ented enough, to know that he is not perfect, and to thank his friends who rally around him in this hour of trial, and honestly suggest to him, when they believe such to be the fact, that some measures that he has adopted may not be the wisest. He will think better of a man who has the can- dor and the honesty to do it, than he will of the sycophant who tells him 'all is right that you do, and you cannot do wrong." Sir, he is no believer in ' the divine right of kings,' or that a chief magistrate can never do wrong. He is a believer in the intelligence of the people, and knowing his own fallibility, is not above listening to their voice." ' There was a very large and earnest party among the President's friends, who urged immediate and universal emancipation. Regarding slavery as the cause of the war, and believing that freedom would bring the negroes to the Union cause, they were impatient of any delay, or consid- eration of the rights of the owners, even when the owners were loyal. Up to this period, as has been observed, Lin- coln had carefully considered the rights, under the Constitu- tion, of the loyal slaveholders of the border states. Nat- urally conservative, he hesitated before adopting the extreme measure of emancipation. But the question was every day becoming more and more pressing. On the 6th of March, 1862, in a special message to Con- gress, he said : " In my judgment, gradual, and not sud- den, emancipation, is better for all." 1 In this message he suggested the adoption of a joint resolution, declaring "that the United States ought to cooperate with any state which may adopt a gradual abolition of slavery, giving to such state pecuniary aid to compensate for the inconvenience, public and private, produced by such change of system."* 1. Congressional Globe, 2d Session 37th Congress, pan 4th., p. 2973. 2. President's Message. McPherson's History of the Rebellion, p. 209. 3. Congressional Globe, 2d Session 37th Congress, pan 2d, p. 1102. EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION. 249 He strongly urged this policy as a means of shortening the war, with all its expenses and evils. He concluded his mess- age by saying : " In full view of my great responsibility to my God, and to my country, I earnestly beg the attention of Congress and the people to the subject." ' On the loth of March, Roscoe Conkling, of New York, moved the adoption by the House, of the resolution which the President had sent to the House with his message.' Thaddeus Stevens said : " I think it 'the President's prop- osition; about the most diluted milk and water gruel proposi- tion that was ever given to the American people." ' Mr. Olin, of New York, on the contrary, said : " It is the mag- nanimous, the great, the god-like policy of the administra- tion." * It was vehemently opposed by the members from the border states, the very states it was intended especially to aid. Hickman, of Pennsylvania, said : " I regard this message as an awful note of warning to those residing in the border states, and as an act of justice and magnanimity to them, which I am sorry to see some of their representa- tives on this floor fail to appreciate."* The resolution was adopted. On the loth of March, 1862, there was a conference between the President and the representatives of the border states, at which the subject was discussed, and the President earnestly urged his plan upon their consideration, but no action followed. On the i2th of July, the President invited the members of Congress from the border states to meet him at the Executive Mansion, and submitted to them an appeal in writing, in which he said : " Believing that you, in the border states, hold more power for good than any other equal number of members, I feel it a duty which I cannot justifiably waive, to make this appeal to you." * * * 1. Congressional Globe, 2d Session 37th Congress, pan 2d. p. 1103. 2. Congressional Globe. 2d Session STtb Congress, pan 2d, p 1154. 3. Congressional Globe. 2d Session STtb Congress, pan 2d, p. 1154. 4. Congressional Globe, 2d Session STtb Congress, pan 2d, p. 1170. 5. Congressional Globe, 2d Session STth Congress, pan 2d, p. 117*. 25O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. " I intend no reproach or complaint when I assure you that in my opinion, if you all had voted for the resolution in the gradual emancipa- tion message of last March, the war would now be substantially ended. And the plan therein proposed is yet one of the most potent and swift means of ending it. Let the states which are in rebellion see definitely and certainly that in no event will the states you represent ever join their proposed confederacy, and they cannot much longer maintain the con- test." * * * " If the war continues long, as it must, if the object be not sooner attained, the institution in your states will be extinguished by mere fric- tion and abrasion, by the mere incidents of the war. It will be gone, and you will have nothing valuable in lieu of it. Much of its value is gone already. How much better for you and for your people to take the step which at once shortens the war and secures substantial compensa- tion for that which is sure to be wholly lost in any other event ! How much better to thus save the money which else we sink forever in the war ! How much better to do it while we can, lest the war ere long, render us pecuniarily unable to do it ! How much better for you as seller, and the nation as buyer, to sell out arid buy out that without which the war could never have been, than to sink both the thing to be sold and the price of it in cutting one another's throats ! " " I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision to eman- cipate gradually." * * * ' ' Upon these considerations I have again begged your attention to the message of March last. Before leaving the Capitol, consider and discuss it among yourselves. You are patriots and statesmen, and as such I pray you consider this proposition, and at the least commend it to the consideration of your states and people. As you would perpetuate popular government for the best people in the world, I beseech you that you do in nowise omit this. Our common country is in great peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to bring a speedy relief. Once relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, its beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated, and its happy future fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand. To you, more than to any others, the privilege is given to assure that happiness and swell that grandeur, and to link your own names therewith forever." ' In his proclamation of the ipth of May, 1862, relating to the proclamation of General Hunter, declaring the slaves in the states of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina free, the President alludes to his proposition to aid the states which should inaugurate emancipation, and says: 1. McPherson'g History of the Rebellion, pp. 213, 214. EFFORTS FOR PEACEFUL EMANCIPATION. 25! " To the people of those states I now earnestly appeal. I do not argue I beseech you to make the argument for yourselves you cannot if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a calm and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if it may be, far above personal and partisan politics. This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting no reproach upon any. It acts not the Phari- see. The change it contemplates would come gently as the dews of heaven, not rending or wrecking anything. Will you not embrace it ? So much good has not been done by one effort, in all past time, as, in the providence of God, it is now your high privilege to do. May the vast future not have to lament that you have neglected it." * It will be remembered that the interview between the President and the members of Congress from the border states, took place on Saturday, the i2th of July. On Sun- day, July 1 3th, two members of Congress from Illinois called upon him at his summer residence at the "Soldier's Home." He conversed freely of his late interview with the border state members, and expressed the deep anxiety he felt that his proposition should be acted upon and accepted by these states. Rarely, if ever, was he known to manifest such great solicitude. In conclusion, addressing Lovejoy, one of his visitors, he said : " Oh, how I wish the border states would accept my proposition. Then," said he, " you, Lovejoy, and you, Arnold, and all of us, would not have lived in vain ! The labor of your life, Lovejoy, would be crowned with success. You would live to see the end of slavery." In his second annual message, the President again urged the proposition of gradual and compensated emancipation, with an earnestness which can scarcely be over-stated. He presented a most able and impressive argument to show that the plan proposed would shorten the war and lessen the expenditure of money and of blood. He concluded a most eloquent appeal to Congress in these words : "The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy pres- ent. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with 1. McPberson's History of the KebeUion, p. 251. 252 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country." "Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We, of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dis- honor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We even we here, hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave we assure freedom to the free honorable alike in what we give and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless." The plan so earnestly and repeatedly pressed by the President resulted in no action. He realized that the time was rapidly approaching, when it would become his duty as Commander in Chief to issue a military proclamation of immediate and unconditional emancipation. CHAPTER XV. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. LINCOLN AND EMANCIPATION. GREELEY DEMANDS IT. THE PEO- PLE PRAY FOR IT. MCCLELLAN'S WARNING. CRITTENDEN'S APPEAL. LOVEJOY'S RESPONSE. THE PROCLAMATION ISSUED. ITS RECEPTION. THE QUESTION OF ITS VALIDITY. THE bestowal of freedom upon the negro race, by mili- tary edict, had long been considered, and was now to be decided upon by the President. The dream of his youth, the aspiration of his life, was to be the liberator of the negro race. ' But in his wish to promote alike the happiness of white and black, he hesitated before the stupendous decree of immediate emancipation. He wished the change to be gradual, as he said in his appeal to the border states, " he wished it to come gently as the dews of heaven, not rend- ing or wrecking anything." The people were watching his action with the most intense solicitude. Every means was used to influence him, alike by those who favored, and those who opposed, emanci- pation. Thousands of earnest men believed that the fate, not only of slavery, but of the republic, depended upon his decision. The anxiety of many found expression in daily prayers, sent up from church, farm-house, and cabin, that God would guide the President to a right conclusion. The friends of freedom across the Atlantic sent messages urg- ing the destruction of slavery. Many of the President's 1. See his Lyceum speech of January 27th, 1837, In which he said : "Towering genius disdains a beaten path. * * It thirsts and burns for dis- tinction, and will seek It by emancipating slaves, or In regions hitherto unex- plored," etc. 253 254 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. friends believed that there could be no permanent peace while slavery existed. " Seize," cried they, " seize the oppor- tunity, and hurl the thunderbolt of emancipation, and shat- ter slavery to atoms, and then the republic will live. Make the issue distinctly between liberty and slavery, and no for- 'eign nation will dare to intervene in behalf of slavery." It was thus that the friends of liberty impeached slavery before the President, and demanded that he should pass sen- tence of death upon it. They declared it the implacable enemy of the republic. " A rebel and a traitor from the beginning, it should be declared an outlaw." " The institu- tion now," said they, " reels and totters to its fall. It has by its own crime placed itself in your power as Commander in Chief. You cannot, if you would, and you ought not, if you could, make with it any terms of compromise. You have abolished it at the national capital, prohibited it in all the territories. You have cut off and made free West Virginia. You have enlisted, and are enlisting, negro soldiers, who have bravely shed their blood for the Union on many a hard fought battle-field. You have pledged your own honor and the national faith, that they and their families shall be for- ever free. That pledge you will sacredly keep. Here then you stand on the threshold of universal emancipation. You will not go back, do not halt, nor hesitate, but strike, and slavery dies." On the 1 9th of August, Horace Greeley published, under his own name, in the New York Tribune, a letter addressed to the President, urging emancipation. With characteristic exaggeration, he headed his long letter of complaint : " The Prayer of Twenty Millions of People!" It was full of errors and mistaken inferences, and written in ignorance of many facts which it was the duty of the President to con- sider. On the 22d of August, the President replied. He made no response to its " erroneous statements of facts," its " false inferences," nor to its " impatient and dictatorial tone," but in a calm, dignified, and kindly spirit, as to " an THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 255 old friend, whose heart he had always supposed to be right," he availed himself of the opportunity to set himself right before the people. The letter was as follows EXECUTIVE MANSION, Washington, Friday, Aug. 22, 1862. Hon. Horace Greeley : DEAR SIR : I have just read yours of the igth instant, addressed to myself, through the New York Tribune. If there be in it any statements or assumptions of fact, which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them. If there be any inferences which I believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue against them. If there be perceptible in it, an impatient and dictatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always sup- posed to be right. As to the policy " I seem to be pursuing," as you say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would save It in the shortest way under the Constitution. The sooner the national authority can be restored, the nearer the Union will be the Union as it was. If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be those who would not save the Union, unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or destroy s-lavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it. And if I could save k by freeing all the slaves, I would do it. And if I could save it by freeing some, and leaving others alone, I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union, and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and shall do more, whenever I believe doing more will help the cause. I shall try to correct errors, when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views, so fast as they shall appear to be true views. I have here stated my purpose, according to my view of official duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish, that all men everywhere could be free. Yours, A. LINCOLN. To this letter Mr. Greeley, on the 24th of July, replied 256 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. through the Tribune, and his tone and spirit may be inferred from a single paragraph: " Do you," said the editor of the paper to the President of the United States, " Do you pro- pose to do this (save the Union) by recognizing, obeying, and enforcing the laws, or by ignoring, disregarding, and, in fact, defying them ? " Such was the insolent language of this " old friend." On the other hand, the Union men of the border states were urging the President not to interfere with slavery, and from the headquarters of the army on the Potomac, General McClellan wrote to him, under date of July yth, warning him by saying that a " declaration of radical views, especially upon slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present armies." To be thus menaced by the general commanding, and noti- fied that the measure he had under consideration would "rapidly destroy the armies in the field," was a very grave matter. There were at this time in Congress two distinguished men, who well represented the two contending parties into which the friends of the Union were divided John J. Crit- tenden, of Kentucky, and Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois. Both were sincere and devoted personal friends of the President. Each enjoyed his confidence, each was honest in his convic- tions, and each, it is believed, would have cheerfully given his life to save the republic. Lovejoy, the ultra-abolition- ist, was one of Lincoln's confidential advisers. Crittenden had been in his earlier days in those days when the Presi- dent was a Henry Clay whig his ideal of a statesman. Lincoln and Crittenden were both natives of Kentucky, old party associates, and life long personal friends. Crittenden a man whom every one loved now old, his locks whitened by more than seventy years, yet still retaining all his physi- cal and mental vigor, had been a distinguished Senator, Governor of his state, and Attorney General of the United States. Now, in his extreme old age, he had accepted a seat in Congress that he might aid in preserving the Union. His tall and venerable form, his white head, which a mem- THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 257 ber ' said " was like a Pharos on the sea to guide our storm- tossed and storm -tattered vessel to its haven," made him a conspicuous figure on the floor of the House. He was a courtly, fascinating, genial gentleman of the old school. He would often relieve the tedium of routine business by stories and anecdotes of western life, and characteristic inci- dents of Clay, "Webster, Calhoun, Benton, and Jackson, with whom he had served many years in public life. Of Love- joy and his relations to the President we have already spoken. When the question of emancipation became the engross- ing topic, the border state members of Congress, with wise sagacity, selected Mr. Crittenden to make on the floor of the House a public appeal to the President that he withhold the proclamation, which they believed would lead to disaster and ruin. None who witnessed can ever forget the eloquent and touching appeal which this venerable statesman and great orator made. He said: " I voted against Mr. Lincoln, and opposed him honestly and sin- cerely; but Mr. Lincoln has won me to his side. There is a niche in the temple of fame, a niche near to Washington, which should be occu- pied by the statue of him who shall save his country. Mr. Lincoln has a mighty destiny. It is for him, if he will, to step into that niche. It is for him to be but a President of the people of the United States, and there will his statue be. But if he chooses to be in these times, a mere sectarian and a party man, that niche will be reserved for some future and better patriot. It is in his power to occupy a place next to Wash- ington the founder and the preserver, side by side. Sir, Mr. Lincoln is no coward. His not doing what the Constitution forbade him to do, and what all our institutions forbade him to do, is no proof of coward- ice."' Lovejoy made an impassioned impromptu reply to Crit- tenden. He said: " There can be no union until slavery is destroyed. * * We may bind with iron bands, but there will be no permanent, substantial Union, and this nation will not be homogeneous, and be one in truth as well as in form, until slavery is destroyed." 1. Cox, of Ohio. 2. Congressional Globe, 2d Session 37th Congress, Part 2, p. 1805. 17 258 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. " The gentleman from Kentucky says he has a niche for Abraham Lincoln. Where is it ?" and Lovejoy turned to Crittenden, who raised his hand and pointed upwards, whereupon Lovejoy resuming said: " He points towards Heaven. But, sir, should the President follow the counsels of that gentleman, and become the defender and perpetuator of human slavery, he should point downward to some dungeon in the temple of Moloch, who feeds on human blood, and is surrounded with fires, where are forged manacles and chains for human limbs; in the crypts and recesses of whose temple woman is scourged, and man tor- tured, and outside the walls are lying dogs gorged with human flesh, as Byron describes them, stretched around Stamboul. That is a suitable place for the statue of one who would defend and perpetuate human slavery. 1 * * "I, too, have a niche for Abraham Lincoln, but it is in freedom's holy fane, and not in the blood-besmeared temple of human bondage; not surrounded by slaves, fetters, and chains, but with the symbols of freedom; not dark with bondage, but radiant with the light of liberty. In that niche he shall stand proudly, nobly, gloriously, with shattered fetters, and broken chains, and slave whips at his feet. If Abraham Lincoln pursues the path evidently pointed out for him in the provi- dence of God, as I believe he will, then he will occupy the proud posi- tion I have indicated. That is a fame worth living for; ay, more, that is a fame worth dying for, though that death led through the blood of Gethsemane, and the agony of the accursed tree. That is a fame which has glory, and honor, and immortality, and eternal life. Let Abraham Lincoln make himself, as I trust he will, the emancipator, the liberator, as he has the opportunity of doing, and his name shall not only be en- rolled in this earthly temple, but it will be traced on the living stones of the temple which rears itself amidst the thrones and hierarchies of heaven, whose top-stone is to be brought in with shouting of ' Grace, grace unto it. ' " * Such were the appeals addressed to the President. One party promised him a niche beside Washington, if he would not issue the proclamation, and the other that " his name should be enrolled in heaven," among the benefactors of the world, if he would issue it. To his personal friends of the Illinois delegation in Con- gress, who conferred with him on the subject, he said that 1. Congressional Globe, 2d Session 37th Congress, Part 2, p. 1818. 2. Congressional Globe, 2d Session 37th Congress, Part 2, p. 1818. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 259 in his letter to Greeley, he meant that he would proclaim freedom to the slaves, just as soon as he felt assured he could do it effectively and that the people would sustain him, and when he felt sure that he would strengthen the Union cause thereby. On the 1 3th of September, a delegation of the clergy of nearly all the religious organizations of Chicago waited upon him at the Executive Mansion, and presented a memorial urging immediate and universal emancipation. For the purpose of drawing out their views, in accordance with his old practice as a lawyer, he started various objections to the policy they urged, he himself stating the arguments against emancipation by proclamation, a rough draft of which he had already made. This he did to see what answer they would make to these objections. After a free and full discussion, he said: " I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and by religious men who are certain they represent the Divine Will. * * * I hope it will not be irreverent in me to say, that if it be probable that God would reveal his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me. * * * If I can learn His will, I will do it. These, however, are not the days of miracles, and I suppose I am not to expect a direct revelation. I must study the plain physical facts of the case, and learn what appears to be wise and right. * * * Do not misunderstand me, because I have mentioned these objections. They indicate the difficulties which have thus far prevented my action in some such way as you desire. I have not decided against a proclamation of emancipation, but hold the matter in advisement. The subject is in my mind by day and by night. What- ever shall appear to be God's will I will do." * What were the feelings of the negroes during these days of suspense ? They knew, many of them, and this knowledge was most widely and mysteriously spread about, that their case was being tried in the mind of the President. Long had they prayed and hoped for freedom. The north star had often guided the panting fugitive to liberty. They saw armies come forth from the North and fight their masters. 1. McPherson's History of the Rebellion, p. 231. 260 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The starry flag they now hoped was to be the emblem of their freedom as well as that of the white man. They had welcomed the Union soldiers with joy, and given them food, and guidance, and aid, to the extent of their limited and humble means. The hundreds of thousands of these slaves, from the Shenandoah and the Arkansas, to the rice swamps of the Carolinas and the cane brakes of Louisiana, believed their day of deliverance was at hand. In the corn and sugar fields, in their cabins, and the fastnesses of swamps and forests, the negro prayed that " Massa Linkum and liberty " would come. Their hopes and prayers were happily expressed by the poet Whittier : " We pray de Lord ; he gib us signs Dat some day we be free ; De Norf wind tell it to de pines, De wild duck to de sea. " We tink it when de church bell ring, We dream it in de dream ; De rice bird mean it when he sing, De eagle when he scream. " De yam will grow, de cotton blow, We'll hab de rice and corn ; Oh nebber you fear if nebber you hear De driver blow his horn ! * * # " Sing on, poor heart ! your chant shall be Our sign of blight or bloom The vala-song of liberty, Or death-rune of our doom." With these considerations and under these influences, as early as July, the President, without consulting the Cabinet, made a draft of the proclamation. In August, he called a special meeting of his Cabinet, and said to them that he had resolved to issue the proclamation, that he had called them together, not to ask their advice, but to lay the matter before them, and he would be glad of any suggestions after they had heard the paper read. After it had been read, there was some discussion. Mr. Blair deprecated the policy, fearing it THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 26 1 would cause the loss of the approaching fall elections. But this had been considered by the President, and it did not at all shake his purpose. Mr. Seward then said: " Mr. Presi- dent, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind consequent upon our repeated reverses is so great, that I fear the effect of so important a step. It may be viewed as the last measure of an exhausted government a cry for help ; the government stretching forth its hands to Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government. Now, while I approve the measure, I sug- gest, sir, that you postpone its issue until you can give it to the country supported by military success, instead of issuing it, as would be the case now, upon the great disasters of war." Mr. Lincoln was impressed by these considerations, and resolved to delay the issuing of the proclamation for the time. These events had been occurring in the darkest days of the summer of 1862, made gloomy by the disastrous cam- paigns of McClellan and Pope. Meanwhile General Lee was marching northwards towards Pennsylvania, and now the President, with that tinge of superstition which ran through his character, " made," as he said, "a solemn vow to God that if Lee was driven back he would issue the proclamation." ' Then came 1. The following Interesting account of the proclamation Is from Carpenter's "Six Months In the White House." "It had got to be," said he, "midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on from bad to worse, until I felt that we had reached the end of our rope on the plan of operations we had been pursuing ; that we had about played our last card, and must change our tactics, or lose the game ! I now determined upon the adoption of the emancipation policy; and, without consultation with, or the knowledge of the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and, after much anxious thought, called a Cabinet meeting upon the subject. This was the last of July, or the first part of the month of August, 1862." (The exact date he did not remember.) " This Cabinet meeting took place, I think, upon a Saturday. All were present, excepting Mr. Blair, the Postmaster-General, who was absent at the opening of the discussion, but came In subsequently. I said to the Cabinet that I had resolved upon this step, and had not called them together to ask their advice, but to lay the subject-matter of a proclamation before them; suggestions as to which would be In order, after they had heard It read. Mr. Lovejoy," said he, " was In error when he Informed you that It excited no comment, excepting on the part of Secretary Seward. Various suggestions were offered. Secretary Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks. Mr. Blair, after he came in, dep- 262 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. news of the battle of Antietam, fought on the tyth of Sep- tember. "I was," said Lincoln, "when news of the battle came, staying at the Soldiers' Home. Here I finished writ- ing the second draft. I came to Washington on Saturday, called the Cabinet together to hear it, and it was published on the following Monday, the 22d of September, 1862." ' It recated the policy, on the ground that It would cost the administration the fall elections. Nothing, however, was offered that I had not already fully anticipated and settled In my own mind, until Secretary Seward spoke. He said In substance: 'Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the expediency of Its Issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind, consequent upon our repeated reverses, Is so great that I fear the effect ot so Important a step. It may be viewed as the. last measure of an exhausted government, a cry for help ; the government stretch- Ing forth Its hands to Ethiopia, Instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her hands to the government.' His Idea," said the President, "was that It would be considered our last shriek, on the retreat." (This was his precise expression.) " ' Now,' contin- ued Mr. Seward, ' while I approve the measure, I suggest, sir, that you postpone Its Issue, until you can give It to the country supported by military success. Instead of Issuing It, as would be the case now, upon the greatest disasters of the war! ' " Mr.* Lincoln continued : " The wisdom of the view of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force. It was an aspect of the case that, In all my thought upon the subject, I had entirely overlooked. The result was that I put the draft of the proclamation aside, as you do your sketch for a picture, waiting for a victory. From time to time I added or changed a line, touching It up here and there, anxiously waiting the progress of events. Well, the next news we had was of Pope's disaster at Bull Run. Things looked darker than ever. Finally, came the week of the battle of Antietam. I determined to watt no longer. The news came, I think, on Wednesday, that the advantage was on our side. I was then staying at the Soldiers' Home (three miles out ot Washington). Here I finished writing the second draft of the preliminary proclamation; came up on Saturday; called the Cabinet together to hear It, and It was published the following Monday." At the final meeting of September 20th, another Interesting Incident occurred In connection with Secretary Seward. The President had written the Important part of the proclamation In these words : "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 FBXK; and the Executive Government of the United States, Including the military and naval authority thereof, will recog- nize the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, In any efforts they may make for their actual freedom." " When I finished reading this paragraph," resumed Mr. Lincoln, " Mr. Seward stopped me, and said, ' I think, Mr. President, that you should insert after the word "recognize,"' "and maintain.'" ' I replied that I had already fully considered the Import of that expression In this connection, but I had not Introduced It, because It was not my way to promise what I was not entirely sure that I could perform, and I was not prepared to say that I thought we were exactly able to ' maintain ' this.' 1 "But," said he, "Seward Insisted that we ought to take this ground; and the words finally went in! " 1. Carpenter's Six Months In the White House, pp. 21-23. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 263 was the act of the President alone. It exhibited far-seeing sagacity, courage, independence, and statesmanship. The words " and maintain," after " recognize," were added at the suggestion of Mr. Seward, and Secretary Chase wrote the concluding paragraph in the final proclamation : " And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, war- ranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." In this paragraph the words " upon military necessity," were inserted by the President. 1 1. The proclamation of September 22, 1862, is in these words: I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America, and Com- mander-ln-Chlef of the army and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and declare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the constitutional relations between the United States and each of the states and the people thereof, In which states that relation Is or may be suspended or dis- turbed. That It is my purpose, upon the next meeting of Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a practical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free acceptance or rejection of all slave states, so called, the people whereof may not then be In rebellion against the United States, and which states may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily adopt, Immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery within their respective limits; and that the effort to colonize persons of African descent with their consent upon this continent or elsewhere, with the previously obtained consent of the governments existing there, will be continued. That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hun- dred 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; and the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such per- sons, or any of them, In any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof respec- tively, shall then be In rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any state, or the people thereof, shall on that day be,, in good faith, represented in the Congress of the United States by members chorea thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such state snail have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such state, and the people thereof, are not in rebellion against the United States. That attention is hereby called to an act of Congress entitled " An act to make an additional article of war," approved March 13, 1862, and which act is in the words and figures following: "Beit enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an additional article of war, for the government of the army of the United States, and shall be obeyed and observed as such. " ARTICLE . All officers or persons In the military or naval service of the United States are prohibited from employing any of the forces under their respective com- mands for the purpose of returning fugitives from service or labor who may have 264 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. The final proclamation was issued on the ist of January, 1863. In obedience to an American custom, the President had been receiving calls on that New Year's day, and for escaped from any persona to whom such service or labor Is claimed to be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by a court-martial of violating this article shall be dismissed from the service. "SBO. 2. And be it further enacted. That this act shall take effect from and after Its passage." Also to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled "An act to suppress Insur- rection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize and confiscate property of rebels, and for other purposes," approved July 17, 1862, and which sections are In the words and figures following: " Sue. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be engaged In rebellion against the government of the United States or who shall In any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping from such persons and taking refuge within the lines of the army; and all slaves captured from such persons or deserted by them, and coming under the control of the government of the United States; and all slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by rebel forces, and afterwards occupied by the forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as slaves. " SBC. 10. Anil be it further enacted, That no slave, escaping Into any state, ter- ritory, or the District of Columbia, from any other state, shall be delivered up, or In any way Impeded or hindered of his liberty, except for crime, or some offence against the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall first make oath that the person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive Is alleged to be due Is his lawful owner, and has not borne arms against the United States In the present rebellion, nor In any way given aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged In the military or naval ser- vice of the United States shall, under any pretence whatever, assume to decide on the validity of the claim of any person to the service or labor of any other person, or sur- render up any such person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed from the ser- vice." And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons engaged In the military and naval service of the United States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their respec- tive spheres of service, the act and sections above recited. And the Executive will In due time recommend that all the citizens of the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the constitutional relation between the United States and their respec- tive states and people, if that relation shall have been suspended or disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the United States, Including the loss of slaves. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LISCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SKWARD, Secretary of State. The final proclamation of January 1, 1863, Is as follows : WHBREAB, on the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, a proclamation was Issued by the President of the United States, containing, among other things, the following, to-wlt: "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; and the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. "That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 265 hours shaking hands. As the paper was brought to him by the Secretary of State to be signed, he said : " Mr. Seward, I have been shaking hands all day, and my right hand is almost paralyzed. If my name ever gets into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the proclamation those who examine designate the states and parts of states, If any, in which the people thereof, respectively, shall then be In rebellion against the United States; and the fact that any state, or the people thereof, shall on that day be In good faith represented In the Congress of the United States, by members chosen thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such states shall have participated, shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such state, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States." Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, by virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-ln-Chlef of the Army and Navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebellion against the authority and govern- ment of the United States, and as a fit and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, do, on this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand lght hundred and sixty-three, and In accordance with my purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first above mentioned, order and designate as the states and parts of states wherein the people thereof, respectively, are this day In rebellion against the United States, the following, to- wlt: Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaqnemlne, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans,) Mississippi, Alabama, Florida. Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia, (except the forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and which excepted parts are for the present left precisely as if this proclamation were not Issued. And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states are, and henceforward shall be, free; and that the Executive government of the United States, Including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and main- tain the freedom of said persons. And I hereby enjoin -upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. And I further declare and make known that such persons, of suitable condition, will be received Into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, posi- tions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of Justice, warranted by the Con- stitution upon military necessity, I Invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington this first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. SKWABD, Secretary qf State. 266 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. the document hereafter, will say : ' He hesitated.' " Then- resting his arm a moment, he turned to the table, took up the pen, and slowly and firmly wrote, Abraham Lincoln. He smiled as, handing the paper to Mr. Seward, he said : " That will do." This edict was the pivotal act of his administration, and may be justly regarded as the great event of the century. Before the sun went down on the memorable 22d of Sep- tember, the contents of this edict had been flashed by the telegraph to every part of the republic. By a large majority of the loyal people of the nation, it was received with thanks to its author, and gratitude to God. Bells rang out their joyous peals over all New England and over New York, over the mountains of Pennsylvania, across the prairies of the West, even to the infant settlements skirting the base of the Rocky Mountains. Great public meetings were held in the cities and towns ; resolutions of approval were passed, and in thousands of churches thanksgiving was rendered. In many places the soldiers received the news with cheers, and salvos of artillery; in others, and especially in some parts of the army commanded by General McClellan, some murmurs of dissatisfaction were heard, 1 but generally the intelligence gave gladness, and an energy and earnestness before unknown. The governors of the loyal states held a meeting at Altoona, on the 24th of September, and sent an address to the President, saying: " We hail with heartfelt gratitude and encouraged hope the proclamation " * When the words of liberty and emancipation reached the negroes, their manhood was roused and many thousands joined the Union army, so that before the close of the war, nearly two hundred thousand were mustered into the service of the United States. 8 1. See General McClellan's orders. 2. McPheraon's History of the Rebellion, p. 232. 8. The original draft of the proclamation was offered for sale at the Sanitary Fair held at Chicago, In the autumn of 1863. It was purchased by Thomas B. Bryan, Esq., and by him presented to the Chicago Historical Society, In whose hall It was burned at the time of the great fire of October, 1871. The following letters will show its history : THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 267 It will be observed that the state of Tennessee was not included in the proclamation. It was omitted in deference to the opinions and wishes of Andrew Johnson, and other Union men of that state. l The Union men of Tennessee themselves changed the constitution of that state, abolishing and prohibiting slavery. Congress, on the isth of December, 1862, by a very large majority, adopted a resolution sanctioning the edict. * A bill was also, on the i4th of December, 1863, introduced into the House, by a member from Illinois, prohibiting the holding, or attempting to hold, as slaves, any persons declared free by the proclamation, or their descendants. * Along the path of the once feeble, obscure, and perse- cuted abolitionists, to this their crowning victory, are to be found the wrecks of many parties, and the names of great WASHINGTON, October 13, 1863. To THE PRESIDENT 3fy Dear Sir : I take the liberty of inclosing to you the cir- cular of the Northicestern Fair fi r the Sanitary Commission, for the benefit and aid of the brave and patriotic soldiers of the Northwest. The ladles engaged In this enterprise will feel honored by your countenance, and grateful for any aid It may be convenient for you to give them. At their suggestion, I ask, that you would send them the original of your procla- mation of freedom, to be disposed of for the benefit of the soldiers, and then depos- ited in the Historical Society of Chicago, where It would ever be regarded as a relic of great Interest. This, or any other aid It may be convenient for you to render, would have peculiar interest as coming from one whom the Northwest holds In the highest honor and respect. Very respectfully yours, ISAAC N. ARNOLD. MANSION, WASHINGTON, October 26, 1863. Ladies having in charge the Northwettern Pair for the Sanitary Commission, Chicago, Illinois : According to the request made In your behalf, the original draft of the emanci- pation proclamation is here inclosed. The formal words at the top, and the conclu- sion, except the signature you perceive, are not In my handwriting. They were writ- ten at the State Department, by whom I know not. The printed part was cut from a copy of the preliminary proclamation, and pasted on merely to save writing. / had some desire to retain thepaper ; but if it shall contribute to the relief or comfort of the soldiers, that will be better. Tour ob't serv't, A. LINCOLN. 1. Such was the statement of the President to the author. 2. Congressional Globe, December 15, 1862. Also McPherson's History of the Rebellion, p. 229. 3. Congressional Globe, 1st Session 38th Congress, part 1, p. 20. Also McPher- son's History of the Rebellion, pp. 229, 230. 268 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. men who had fallen by placing themselves in the way of this great reform. Liberty and justice are mighty things to conjure with, and vain is the power of man when he tries to stay their advance. The timid and over-cautious were startled by the boldness and courage of this act of the Presi- dent, and his opponents, and especially those who sympa- thized with the rebels, hoped to make it the means of the defeat and overthrow of his administration. They did not realize or appreciate the strength of a good cause, and the power of courage in behalf of a great principle. From the day of its promulgation to the final triumph of the Union cause, Lincoln grew stronger and stronger in the confidence of the people, and the tide of victory in the field set more and more in favor of the republic. While congratulations came pouring in upon the Presi- dent from the people of Great Britain, Lincoln rather expected that now the government of good old Mother England would pat him on the head and express its approval. Senator Sumner, whose social relations with many English members of Parliament had been most friendly and cordial, said to the President : " The British government cannot fail to hail your proclamation with fra- ternal congratulations. Great Britain, whose poets and whose orators have long boasted that 'Slaves cannot breathe in England,' will welcome the edict of freedom with expressions of approval and good will ; " yet, when the proclamation reached London, Lord John Russell, in a dispatch to the British minister at Washington, sneered at the paper " as a measure of a very questionable kind," " an act of vengeance on the slave owner." " It professes," said he, with cynical ill-nature, " it does no more than profess, to emancipate slaves, where the United States authorities cannot make emancipation a reality, but emancipates no one where the decree can be carried into effect." ' Yet, without the good 1. Memorial Address of George Bancroft, on Lincoln, pp. SO, 31. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 269 wishes of his lordship, or encouragement from the English government, the United States did make emancipation event- ually a reality, and Lord Russell lived to see the decree of Mr. Lincoln carried into effect to the extent of freeing every slave in the republic. But for this result no thanks to him or to the government of which he was the organ. Was this proclamation valid, and effectual in law to free the negroes ? This question is not now, since the amend- ments to the Constitution of the United States and of the states, abolishing and prohibiting slavery, of very great practical importance. It did result, practically, in the destruction of slavery, and under its operation, as carried into effect by the President and military and naval authori- ties of the United States, slavery ceased. Was it a legal and valid edict under the Constitution and laws of war ? The government of the United States possessed all the powers with reference to the Confederates in rebellion, and who were making war upon the republic, which any nation has with relation to its enemies in war. It had the clear right to treat them as public enemies, according to the laws of war. The emancipation of an enemy's slaves is a bellig- erent right, and it belongs exclusively to the President, as Commander in Chief, to judge whether he will exercise this right. The exercise of the tremendous power of enfranchis- ing the slaves, and thereby weakening the public enemy and strengthening the government, is in accordance with the law of nations, and with the practice of civilized belligerents in modern times. The able and learned lawyer and publicist, Alexander H. Stephens, in the passage already quoted, took it for granted that this power would be exercised by the Federal Govern- ment, and before hostilities commenced he warned the peo- ple of Georgia against it. He knew that in May, 1836, that learned jurist and statesman, John Quincy Adams, had declared on the floor of Congress that the President could legally exercise this power. Mr. Adams had concluded an exhaustive discussion of the question, by saying: " I lay 27O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. this down as the law of nations, that in case of war, the President of the United States and the commander of the army has power to order the universal emancipation of the slaves." ' The right was claimed and exercised by Great Britain, both in the war of the revolution and the war of 1812. Sir Henry Clinton, Lord Dunmore, and Lord Cornwallis all issued proclamations promising liberty to the slaves of the colonies. Jefferson says, in a letter to Dr. Gordon, that under Lord Cornwallis * Virginia lost about thirty thousand slaves. Speaking of the injury to himself, he says: " He (Cornwallis) carried off about thirty slaves." " Had this been done to give them freedom, he would have done right." The English commanders in the war of 1812 invited, by proclamation, the slaves to join them, promising them freedom. The slaves who joined them were liberated and carried away. The United States, when peace was declared, demanded indemnity. The question was referred to the Emperor of Russia as umpire, who decided that indemnity should be paid to the extent to which payment had been stipulated in the treaty of peace, but for such as were not included in the treaty no payment should be made. Justice Miller, of the Supreme Court of the United States, says: " In that struggle (to subdue the rebellion) slavery as a legalized social institution perished." 1 * * " The proclamation of President Lincoln expressed an accomplished fact as to a large portion of the insurrec- tionary districts, when he declared slavery abolished." In the state of Louisiana it has been judicially decided that the sale of a slave after the proclamation of emancipation was void. 4 In the state of Texas it was held by the Supreme Court, in 1868, that the effect of the President's proclama- 1. See Whiting's War Powers. Mr, Adams's speech, pp. 77-79. In that able work of Mr. Whiting will be found a full discussion of the subject. 2. Whiting's War Powers, p. 69. S. The Slaughter House Cases, 16 Wallace Reports, p. 68. 4. See 20th Louisiana Rep., p. 199. THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. 271 tion of January i, 1863, was to liberate the slaves under the national control, that all slaves became free as fast as the nation obtained control, and that, on the final surrender, all slaves embraced in the terms of the edict became free. 1 Judge Lindsey says: " The legal effect of the proclama- tion was eo instanti to liberate all slaves under control of the federal forces." " It was a proper measure, and made effectual by force of arms." Chief Justice Chase says: " Emancipation was confirmed rather than ordained by the amendment prohibiting slavery throughout the Union." 8 The proclamation of emancipation did not change the local law in the insurgent states, it operated on the persons held as slaves; " all persons held as slaves are and hence- forth shall be free." The law sanctioning slavery was not necessarily abrogated, hence the necessity for the amend- ment of the Constitution. 8 The Supreme Court of the United States declared that: " When the armies of freedom found themselves upon the soil of slavery, they (and the President their commander) could do nothing less than free the poor victims whose enforced servitude was the founda- tion of the quarrel." < Let then no impious hand seek to tear from the brow of Lincoln the crown so justly his due, as the emancipator of the negro race in America. 1. See 3lst Texas Rep., p. 504-531, 551, for able opinions of the judges. See also 44th Alabama Rep., p. 71. 2. Chief Justice Chase, In 7 Wall. Rep. 728. . 3. See also North American Review, for December, 1880, A. A. Ferris, and cases cited. 4. Wallace Rep. 16, p. 68. CHAPTER XVI. MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. BATTLES IN THE WEST. FROM BELMONT TO CORINTH. SUCCESSES IN THE SOUTH. FARRAGUT CAPTURES NEW ORLEANS. THE MONITOR. MCCLELLAN AND THE PRESIDENT. POPE'S CAM- PAIGN. MCCLELLAN RE-INSTATED IN COMMAND. THAT a consecutive narrative might be given of the action of Congress and of the Executive, on the all-important question of slavery, up to the period of emancipation, mili- tary movements have been neglected. Everything depended upon the success of the Union armies. Laws and procla- mations, without victories, would amount to little. The President realized this, and on the threshold of the war, his most anxious thought, and most difficult problem, was to find officers who could lead the Union troops to victory. The republic had few soldiers of experience. Scott and Wool had won reputation in the war of 1812, and in Mexico, but were old for active service. Military skill must be developed by costly experience. In his appointments to high command, the President, without regard to party or personal consider- ations, sought for skill and ability. None realized more fully than he, that the success of his administration depended upon the triumph of his armies. Hence, while he appointed Fremont, and Hunter, and McDowell, Banks, and others, from among his political and personal friends, he did not hesitate to give to those who had hitherto acted with the democratic party, such as McClellan, Halleck, Buell, Grant, and others, the very highest positions. The question 272 MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 273 with him was who will lead our troops to the most speedy and decisive. victories ? The general plan of the war seemed to be : first, to blockade the entire coast of the insurgent states ; second, the military occupation of the border slave states, so as to pro- tect and sustain the Union men resident therein ; third, the recovery of the Mississippi River to the Gulf, by which the Confederacy would be divided, and the great outlet of the Northwest to New Orleans and the ocean would be secured; fourth, the destruction of the rebel army in Virginia, and the capture of Richmond, the rebel capital. To accomplish these purposes, and to resist their accomplishment, stupen- dous preparations were made on both sides. In the autumn of 1861, General George B. McClellan had under his command, at Washington and its vicinity, on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio, and at Fortress Monroe, more than two hundred thousand well armed men. General Halleck, who was in command in the West, had a very large army. McClellan was a skillful organizer, and had the power of making himself personally popular, but was slow, very cau- tious, and was never ready. With his magnificent army, greatly exceeding that which confronted him he lay inactive all the fall of 1861, and the winter of 1861-2, into February, permitting the Potomac to be closed by ba'tteries on the western shore, above and below his army, and the rebel flag to be flaunted in his face, and in that of the government, from the Virginia hills overlooking the capital. ' It was the era of brilliant reviews and magnificent mil- itary displays, of parade, festive parties, and junketings. The President was impatient at this inactivity, and again and again urged action on the part of the General. But McClel- lan, having in August, 1861, offended General Scott, by whom he was styled " an ambitious Junior," and caused the 1. " During all this time the Confederate army lay at Centervllle, insolently men- acing Washington. * It never presented an effective strength of over 50,- 000 men." Webb's Peninsular Campaign, p. 26. 18 274 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. old veteran to ask to be placed on the retired list, * was left in command. When urged to action by the President, he always had some plausible excuse for delay. At length the patience of the Executive was exhausted, and, on the 27th of January, 1862, he issued an order that a general move- ment of the land and naval forces should be made, on the 22d of February, against the insurgents. This order has been much criticised. It was addressed to the army and navy generally, but was intended especially for General McClellan and his army. A brief recital of what had been done at the West and elsewhere, will show that, with the exception of the great army of the Potomac, the forces of the republic had been active, energetic, and generally successful. On the 6th of November, 1861, General U. S. Grant, moving from Cairo, attacked Belmont, and destroyed the military stores of the enemy at that place. On the icth of January, 1862, Colonel James A. Garfield attacked and defeated Humphrey Mar- shall, at Middle Creek, Kentucky. On the i8th of January, General George H. Thomas, a true and loyal Virginian, who, like Scott, was faithful to his flag, gained a brilliant victory over the rebel Generals Zollicoffer and Crittenden, at Mill Spring. The Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, having their sources far within the rebel lines, and running to the north and west, empty into the Ohio. To secure these rivers from Union gun-boats, the insurgents had constructed and garri- soned Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland. Flag-officer Foote, one of the most skill- ful and energetic officers of the navy, commanded the Union fleet on the Western rivers. Co-operating with General Grant, they planned an attack on Fort Henry. On the 6th of Feb- ruary, Foote, with his gun-boats, attacked and captured that Fort not waiting for the arrival of Grant, who was approach- ing. Grant and Foote then moved to the attack of Fort 1. The Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series I, Vol. II, Part 3d, Corre- spondence, etc., pp, 4, 5. 6, etc. MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 275 Donelson. On the i6th of February, they invested the fort. After several days hard fighting, the rebel General Buckner sent a flag of truce to General Grant, asking a cessation of hostilities, to settle terms of surrender. Grant replied: " No terms except unconditional surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately on your works." Buckner did not wait the assault, but surrendered at discretion. This victory, and the note of Grant, gave to him the sobriquet of " Unconditional Surrender Grant." Arms, stores, and more than twelve thousand prisoners were captured. This brilliant victory electrified the country, and the President, impatient, and careworn over the long and mysterious delay of the army of the Potomac, looked ten years younger upon the evening of the reception of the inspiring news. General Floyd, late the treacherous Secretary of War under Buchanan, and who had been in command, was con- scious that a man who had plotted treason against the national government while in the Cabinet, deserved punish- ment as a traitor, and fled at night before the surrender. These substantial victories compelled the evacuation by the rebels of Kentucky, and opened Tennessee to the Union forces. Bowling Green, called by the insurgents the Gibral- tar of Kentucky, was, on the isth of February, occupied by General Mitchell of the Union army. On the 24th of February, the Union troops occupied Nashville, the capital of the great state of Tennessee, and, in March thereafter, Andrew Johnson, having been appointed provisional governor, arrived, and the persecuted Unionists of the state gladly rallied around him. In East Tennessee his old home loyalty was general, and the Union flag was hailed with exclamations of joy and gratitude. On the 6th, yth, and 8th of March, was fought the battle of Pea Ridge, and General Halleck telegraphed with exulta- tion: " The Union flag is floating in Arkansas." On the i3th of March, General John Pope, of Illinois, moving down the west bank of the Mississippi, compelled the evacuation of New Madrid, and then laid siege to Island No 10, in the 276 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. - Mississippi, which, on the yth of April, he captured, with provisions, arms, and military stores. Thus the Union forces had been steadily advancing in the valley of the Mississippi. Buell's army was at Nash- ville, and the Confederates saw with dismay Missouri, Ken- tucky, Arkansas, and Tennessee, wrenched from them, and realized that unless the armies of Grant and Buell could be driven back, the whole valley of the Mississippi would be lost. Lee seemed to calculate, with confidence, that all would remain " quiet on the Potomac" as usual, for he sent Beau- regard from his army in Virginia to the West, while the rebel forces west of the Alleghanies were placed under the command of their ablest general, Albert Sidney Johnston. He realized the vast, perhaps decisive importance of the impending conflict in the valley of the Mississippi. In his address to his army, before the battle of Shiloh, he said : " Remember, soldiers, the fair, broad, abounding lands, the happy homes, that will be desolated by your defeat. The eyes and hopes of eight millions of people rest upon you." On the 6th of April, the great armies met on the bank of the Tennessee and fought the terrible and bloody battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburgh Landing. General Grant occupied the southern bank of the river. Buell was approaching from the north. It was the intention of the Confederates to surprise and whip Grant before Buell could come to his support. Before six o'clock, on the morning of April 6th, the rebel columns attacked furiously, and rushing on like a whirlwind, threatened to drive the Union troops into the river. Grant arrived on the field at 8 A. M., and, rallying and re-forming his lines, with unflinching determination, continued the fight. Charge after charge was made by the impetuous and confi- dent Confederates, but they were met with dogged and per- sistent courage. Thus the fight went on during the long day, but the Union troops were gradually forced back towards the river, into a semi-circle, with the river in the rear. The Union General Wallace, and the rebel com- MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 277 '- mander Johnston, with many other brave and distinguished officers on both sides, were killed. The long dreary day closed, with the advantage all on the side of the rebels, and Beauregard at evening announced a complete victory. But with the night Buell arrived with his gallant army, and the morrow brought victory to the Union arms. Grant had exhibited those stubborn, resolute, persistent qualities, which would not know defeat. With the fresh troops of Buell and Lew Wallace, he early the next morning attacked the rebels, drove them from the field, and pursued them towards their intrenchments at Corinth. This, one of the most bloody battles of the war, was fought by troops not many months in the service, but many of whom had been already often in battle. It -was a long, terrible fight, but when the sun went down on the second day, it went down on an army of flying rebels, who had gained an experience of the courage, persistence, and effi- ciency of the soldiers of the West, which they never forgot. On the 3oth of May, the batteries of General Halleck, commanding in the West, opened on the rebel fortifications at Corinth, in the state of Mississippi, and the rebels were driven out, abandoning their fortifications with a vast quan- tity of military stores. Such, in brief, is the eventful story of the armies of the West, during the year 1861 and the earlier part of 1862. Nor were the national forces idle at the extreme South. On the 8th of February, 1862, Roanoke Island, on the coast of North Carolina, was captured by General Burnside and Admiral Goldsborough, with prisoners, arms, and mili- tary stores. On the i4th of March, General Burnside cap- tured Newbern. On the nth of April, General David Hunter captured Fort Pulaski, and on the 25th of April, 1862, Fort Macon was taken. New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi, was early in the war an object of anxious consideration on the part of the President. Having passed his life in the West, know- ing this great river as one who in early manhood had urged 278 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. a boat over its majestic waters, he had seen its thousands of miles of navigable tributary streams, and itself from the Gulf to the far North, covered with steamers, carrying to salt water the vast products of a delta and territory more pro- ductive than that of the Nile. From the beginning, he felt perfectly certain that the hardy Western pioneers would "hew their way to the sea." New Orleans had long been the object of national pride. The victory of General Jackson at that place had always been regarded as one of the most brilliant military achievements on record. This interesting city, over which had floated the lilies of France ; this metro- polis of the Southwest had fallen by the treason of General Twiggs, an unresisting victim, into the toils of the conspira- tors. In the autumn of 1861, an expedition under the command of Captain David G. Farragut, and General B. F. Butler, was organized for its capture. Farragut was a native of Tennessee, a hearty, bluff, honest, downright sailor, full of energy, determination, and ability; with a courage and fer- tility of resources never surpassed. He was one of those men who dare everything, and rarely fail. There is no brighter name than his among the naval heroes of the world. On the 25th of March, 1862, Butler landed his troops on Ship Island, in the Gulf of Mexico, between New Orleans and Mobile. On the lyth of April, Farragut with his fleet arrived in the vicinity of the forts which guarded the approach to the city. After bombarding these forts for several days without reducing them, with the inspiration of genius he determined to run past their guns. The hazard was fearful. Forts St. Philip and Jackson, on opposite sides of the river, mounted over an hundred heavy cannon; besides this, the river was blocked up by sunken hulks, piles, and every obstruction which could be devised. In addition, he would have to encounter thirteen gunboats, the floating ironclad Louisiana, and the ram Manassas. The authorities at New Orleans were confident. " Our only fear," said the city press, " is that the Northern invaders MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 279 will not appear." Farragut soon dissipated these fears. On the night of the 24th of April, amidst a storm of shot and shell, the darkness illuminated by the mingled fires of ships, forts, and burning vessels, he passed Forts Jackson and St. Philip; he crushed through all obstructions; he destroyed the ram and gunboats which opposed him; he steamed past the batteries; he ascended the great river, and laid his broadsides to the proud city of the Southwest. The town of one hundred and fifty thousand people surrendered, and the flag of the Union floated once more over the Crescent City, never again to be removed. For, as was- grimly said by a rebel officer on the fall of Richmond, " It has never been the policy of the Confederates to retake the cities and posts captured by the Union forces." Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, was taken without resistance on the yth of May, Natchez on the i2th, and for a time the Mississippi was opened as far up as Vicksburg. As the President read the report of these various suc- cesses, he could not fail to compare and to contrast them with the inaction of the grand army of the Potomac. Of that army great and sanguine expectations had been formed. It was commanded, as has been stated, by George B. McClel- lan, who at the time of his appointment, in November. 1861, as General in Chief of the armies of the United States, was less than thirty-six years of age. Popular feeling, eager to welcome victories and to reward him with honor, had already called him the " Young Napoleon." The army of the Potomac was regarded as the main army; it was encamped in and around Washington, the source of supplies; when there were not arms for all, this army was first supplied, and if there was a choice, this body of troops had the preference. It is not intended to ques- tion the patriotism or the courage of the General in Chief, nor to suggest a doubt of his loyalty, but he did not dis- guise his hostility to the radicals. He had no sympathy for the abolitionists, and he let them know it. While condemn- ing secession, he had more sympathy for slaveholders than 28O ABRAHAM LINCOLN. for slaves. He criticised freely the radical acts of Congress and the administration, and Jie very soon became the center around which gathered all who opposed the radical meas- ures of the President and of Congress. They flattered the young general, and suggested to him that he could become the great pacificator. This may aid in explaining his strange and mysterious inactivity. It will be remembered that on the zyth of January the President issued an order for active operations. This order contemplated a general advance in concert by all the forces in the field. On the 3ist of January, the President ordered an expedition, the immediate object of which was to seize and occupy a position on the railway southwest of Manassas Junction. McClellan did not move until early in March, and then reached Centreville with his immense army, to find it abandoned, and wooden guns in position on the works behind which the rebels, in far inferior numbers, had remained all the autumn and winter unassailed. But his words, addressed to his army at Fairfax Court House, led the country to hope that he would now make up in energy and celerity his long delay. He said : " The army of the Potomac is now a real army. Magnificent in material, admirable in discipline, excellently equipped and armed. Your commanders are all that I could wish." Such being the case, and with a force more than one hundred and fifty thousand strong, carrying three hundred and fifty pieces of artillery, a brilliant and triumphant cam- paign was confidently looked for. Lincoln had given McClellan his confidence, and was very slow to withdraw it, for he was always noted for the unflinching fidelity with which he stood by those whom he trusted. He had sus- tained this general against a very large majority of the earnest Union men of the nation. The committee on the conduct of the war appointed by Congress, the fiery Secre- tary of War, and many others, had chafed and complained during all the winter of 1861-62 at McClellan's inactivity. He had done a great work in organizing this splendid army, MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 28 1 but he could not be made to lead a bold, aggressive cam- paign. Could this army, on the day it struck its tents around Washington, have been transferred to the command of a rapid, indefatigable, and energetic officer like Sheridan, or to the hero of Atlanta and the " Grand March," or to Thomas, or to the unflinching iron will of Grant, it would have marched into Richmond long before McClellan reached the Chickahominy. Celerity of movement, quick and rapid blows, were impossible with the amount of impedimenta which hampered McClellan's movements. Washington was an attractive place to the gay young officers of this army. Members of Congress were curious to learn what was the camp equipage which required six immense four-horse wagons drawn up before the door of the general, each wagon marked: "Head- quarters of the Army of the Potomac;" and when it was reported that Grant had taken the field with only a spare shirt, a hair brush, and a tooth brush, comparisons were made between Eastern luxury and Western hardihood. During this long inaction on the Potomac, while the forces of the West were capturing Forts Donelson and Henry, and driving the rebels out of Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee, the impatience of the President was not always suppressed. On one occasion he said : " If General Mc- Clellan does not want to use the army for some days, I should like to borrow it and see if it cannot be made to do something." On the 8th of March, the President directed that, Wash- ington being left entirely secure, a movement should begin not later than the i8th of March, and that the General in Chief should be responsible for its commencement as early as that day. Also that the army and navy should cooperate in an immediate effort to capture the rebel batteries on the Potomac. 1 The army did not cooperate, and the batteries were not captured. 1 President's War Order No. 3. See Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, Vol II., p. Ill, p. 58. 282 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. On the 1 2th of March, at a council of war held at Fair- fax Court House, a majority decided to proceed against Richmond by Fortress Monroe. The President acquiesced, although his opinion had been decidedly in favor of a direct march upon Richmond. His acquiescence was upon the con- dition that Washington should be left entirely secure, and the remainder of the force move down the Potomac to Fortress Monroe, or anywhere between Washington and Fortress Monroe, " or at all events to move at once in pur- suit of the enemy by some route." While impatiently following the slow movements of Mc- Clellan, the nation was electrified by news of a conflict upon the water, between the iron clad " Virginia " and the " Moni- tor," which took place on the pth of March, 1862. When Norfolk was shamefully abandoned in the spring of 1861 by the federal officers, among other vessels left in the hands of the enemy was the " Merrimac." Sheathing her sides with iron armor, and changing her name to the " Virginia," on the pth of March she steamed down the James, and attacked and destroyed the United States frigates, " Cumberland " and " Congress." The officers of the " Cumberland " fought until the ship went down with her flags still flying. The " Minnesota," coming to the aid of the " Cumberland," ran aground and lay at the mercy of this terrible iron-clad bat- tery. But just at the time when it seemed that the James, and the Potomac, and Washington itself, was at the mercy of this apparently invulnerable ship, there was seen approach- ing in the distance, a low, turtle-like looking nondescript, which, as she came nearer, was made out to be the iron-clad " Monitor," just built as an experiment by the distinguished engineer, Ericsson. She mounted two eleven inch Dahl- gren guns, carrying one hundred and sixty-eight pound shot. As compared with the "Virginia," she was a David to a Goliath. She boldly and successfully attacked her gigantic enemy, thereby saving the fleet, and perhaps the capital. Whole broadsides were fired at the little " Moni- MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 283 tor," with no more effect than volleys of stones would have had. On the ^rd of April, the President ordered the Secretary of War to direct General McClellan " to commence his for- ward movement from his new base at once." ' On the 5th of April, General McClellan, when near Yorktown, said to the President: " The enemy are in large force along our front, * * * their works formidable," * and adds: "I am of opinion I shall have to fight all the available force of the rebels not far from here." On the other hand, the rebel General Magruder, in his report of July 3rd, says that the whole force with which Yorktown was held, was eleven thousand, and that a portion of his line was held by five thousand men. " That with five thousand men exclusive of the garrisons, we stopped and held in check over one hundred thousand of the enemy. * * * The men slept in the trenches, and under arms, but to my great surprise, he (McClellan) permitted day after day to elapse without any assault." 3 This force detained McClellan from April isttoMay4th. With an army of nearly or quite one hundred thousand men, he set down to a regular siege, and when he was fully ready to open with his great guns, the enemy had left. A vigorous and active commander would not have permitted this handful of men to delay his march. On the nth of April, the President telegraphed to McClellan: "You now have one hundred thousand troops with you, independent of General Wool's command. I think that you had better break the enemy's line at once." * In reply to McClellan's constant applications for re-en- forcements, the President, on the pth of April, wrote him a 1. Official Records of the Rebellion, Series I. VII. p. 3d, p. 65. 2. Official Reports of the Rebellion, S. I. VII. p. 3d, p. 71. 3. This report of Magruder Is corroborated by a letter from General Raines to General Hill, In which he says that when McClellan approached Torktown, Magruder had but 9,300 effective men. See Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, 8. L VII. p. 3d, p. 516. 4. Report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, pp. 319-320. 284 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. very kind and frank letter, in which, among other things, he says: " I suppose the whole force which has gone forward to you, is with you by this time, and if so, I think that it is the precise time for you to strike a blow. By delay, the enemy will relatively gain upon you that is, he will gain faster by fortifications and re-enforcements than you can by re-enforcements alone; and once more let me tell you, it is indispensable to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. You will do me the justice to remember I always insisted that going down the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting near Manassas, was only shifting, not sur- mounting the difficulty. * * * The country will not fail to note and it is now noting that the present hesitation to move upon an intrenched enemy, is but the story of Manas- sas repeated. I beg to assure you I have never written * * * in greater kindness, nor with a fuller purpose to sus- tain you, so far as in my most anxious judgment I con- sistently can. But you must act" ' Yet McClellan, disregarding these urgent and repeated appeals and orders, still remained in front of the works at Yorktown. His "long delay," as Johnston called it, was as inexplicable to the Confederates, as to the administration at Washington. 8 On the 22d of April, General Joseph E. Johnston, writing to Lee, says, " No one but McClellan could have hesitated to attack. " No one can read the official records of the war, as pub- lished by the government, without being impressed by the patience and forbearance of the President. Earnestly, and frequently, and vainly, he urged, entreated, and directed McClellan, again and again, " to strike a blow." The impar- tial judgment of the future will be that Lincoln's forbear- * 1. Report on Conduct of War, p. 1. pp. 321-322. 2. General Johnston, writing to General Robert E. Lee, April 29th, says :"I sus- pect McClellan la waiting for Iron-clad war vessels for James River. They would enable him to reach Richmond three days before us. I cannot account otherwise for this long delay here." * * " Yorktown cannot hold out." See Official Rec- ords of the War of the Rebellion, Sec. 1, Vol. VII, Pt. 3d, p. 473. 3. The same, p. 454. MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 285 ance was continued long after it had " ceased to be a vir- tue." On the 6th of April, the President telegraphed to McClel- lan : " I think you had better break the enemy's line from Yorktown at once." On the pth of April, he said : " I think it the precise time for you to strike a blow. It is indis- pensable for you to strike a blow. You must act." On the ist of May, he asked : " Is anything to be done ? " On the 25th of May, Mr. Lincoln telegraphed McClellan : " I think the time is near at hand when you must either attack Rich- mond, or give up the job, and come to the defense of Wash- ington." On the 2ist of June, McClellan, from his camp on the Chickahominy, addressing the President, asked permission " to lay before your Excellency my views as to the present state of military affairs throughout the whole country." The President replied, with great good nature and some sarcasm: " If it would not divert your time and attention from the army under your command, I should be glad to hear your views on the present state of military affairs throughout the whole country." On the 27th of June, McClellan announced his intention to retreat to the James River, and he had the indiscretion to send to the Secretary of War an insubordinate and insulting dispatch, in which he says : " If I save this army, I tell you plainly, I owe no thanks to you, nor to any one at Washing- ton. You have done your best to destroy this army." Such a dispatch addressed to any government, the head of which was less patient and forbearing than Lincoln, would have resulted in his removal, arrest, and trial. The great army, with its spirit unbroken, at times turning at bay, retreated to Malvern Hill. On the yth of July, while at Harrison's Landing, McClel- lan had the presumption to send to the President a long let- ter of advice upon the general conduct of the administration. This letter is important, as it illustrates the character of the man, and the relations between him and the Executive. 286 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Unfortunately for his usefulness as a soldier, he had per- mitted himself to become the head of a party, and was look- ing to the Presidency, at the hands of those in opposition to the President, and whose nominee he became at the next Presidential election. The high command which Mr. Lincoln had given him ; the crowd of staff-officers and subordinates, by which he was surrounded and flattered ; his personal popularity with his soldiers ; all these had turned his head, and his failures as a leader did not restore his judgment. This young captain of engineers, not thirty-seven years old, who had never seen a day's service in public life, whose studies had been those of a civil and military engineer, and who, by the grace and favor of the President was in command of the army, undertook to enlighten the Executive on the most grave, and novel, and complex questions involved in the civil war. Questions which taxed to the utmost the ablest and most experienced statesmen of the world. This young engineer and railroad president had the presumption to advise and seek to instruct the President and his Cabinet. The tone of the letter was immodest and dictatorial. McClellan said to his commander: " Let neither military dis- aster, political faction, nor foreign war shake your settled purpose to enforce the equal operation of the laws upon the people of every state." Then he tells the Executive how the war must be carried on. " Neither confiscation of property, political executions of persons, territorial organ- ization of states, or forcible abolition of slavery should be contemplated for one moment." And he then intimates, that unless his views as presented, " should be made known and approved, the effort to obtain the requisite forces will be almost hopeless. A declaration of radical views, espe- cially upon slavery, will rapidly disintegrate our present armies." ' The President had a right to expect from the commander of his armies personal fidelity and sympathy, if not loyalty 1. McPherson's History of the Rebellion, pp. 385-386. MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 287 to his administration. General McClellan gave him neither. He was in the hands, and he was the instrument, of those who wished to overthrow the administration, and to go into power upon its ruins. Knowing this, Mr. Lincoln continued him at the head of the armies, and urged him again and again " to strike a blow," to achieve those victories which might have made him President. General McClellan had done nothing then he has done nothing since to justify or excuse the presumption of his conduct. On the 8th of July, 1862, the President visited the camp of General McClellan, and was depressed upon finding that, of the magnificent army with which that general had started to capture Richmond, and with all the re-enforcements which had been sent to it, there were now remaining only eighty- five thousand effective men. There is a touching story in Roman history of the Emperor Augustus calling in vain upon Varus to give him back his legions. The President might well have said to McClellan, at Harrison Landing : " Where are my soldiers, where the patriotic young volun- teers, vainly sacrificed in fruitless battles from Yorktown to Malvern Hill, and the still larger numbers who have per- ished in hospitals, and in the swamps of the Chickahominy ?" " What has been gained by this costly sacrifice ? " The records of the Confederates make it perfectly clear that there were several occasions when the army of the Potomac could have broken through their thin lines and gone into Richmond, but McClellan had not the sagacity to discover it, and if he had known of their weakness, he would probably have hesitated until it was too late. The dis- asters and failures of the great army of McClellan, con- trasted with the brilliant successes at the West, naturally suggested the transfer to the East of some of the officers under whom these successes had been achieved. On the nth of July, 1862, Halleck had been appointed General in Chief, and on the 23d he entered upon his duties as such. General John Pope, son of Nathaniel Pope, United States District Judge of Illinois, in whose courts the Presi- 288 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. dent had for many years practised law, was believed to be one of the most brilliant and rising young officers of the West. He had been successful at Island No. 10, and at New Madrid on the Mississippi. Lincoln knew him and his family well. They had been neighbors, and the President rejoiced in his fame. On the 2jth of June he issued an order, creating the army of Virginia, under the command of General Pope, to consist of the three army corps of Generals Fremont, Banks, and McDowell. Fremont resigned on the ground that Pope was his junior. On the i4th of July, Pope assumed command, and issued an address to his army in which he said: " I have come to you from the West, where we have always seen the backs of our enemies ; from an army whose business it has been to seek an adversary, and beat him when found ; whose policy has been attack and not defense. In but one instance has the enemy been able to- place our Western armies in a defensive attitude. I presume I have been called here to pursue the same system, and to lead you against the enemy. It is my purpose to do so, and that speedily. I am sure you long for an opportunity to win the distinction you are capable of achiev- ing; that opportunity I shall endeavor to give you. In the meantime, I desire you to dismiss certain phrases I am sorry to find in vogue amongst you." " I hear constantly of taking strong positions and holding them of lines of retreat and bases of supplies. Let us discard such ideas. The strongest position a soldier should desire to occupy is one from which he can most easily advance against the enemy. Let us study the probable line of retreat of our opponents, and leave our own to take care of itself. Let us look before us and not behind. Success and glory are in the advance disaster and shame lurk in the rear. Let us act on this under- standing, and it is safe to predict that your banners shall be inscribed with many a glorious deed, and that your names will be dear to your countrymen forever." This indiscreet address, though so full of the ardor of a young, successful, and sanguine soldier, was as bad in taste as mistaken in policy. While it indicated a vigorous policy and a spirited campaign, it naturally created an intense feel- ing of hostility against him among the officers of the army of the Potomac. It aroused local jealousy, and increased MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 289 the prejudice which resulted in the sacrifice of Pope and others. At the close of a brilliant and successful campaign it would have been more excusable. The failure of McClellan's campaign did not in the least dishearten the North, nor shake the determination of the people to crush the rebellion. It created the necessity for still greater efforts. The governors of seventeen states met at Altoona, in Pennsylvania, on the z8th of June, and united in an address to the President, announcing the readiness of the people of their respective states to respond to a call for more soldiers, and their desire for the most vigorous meas- ures for carrying on the war. The President issued a call for three hundred thousand additional volunteers. Pope had but about thirty-eight thousand men. With this small force he was to defend Washington, hold the valley of the Shenandoah, and repel the expected approach of Lee. He was early aware that he had incurred the hos- tility of McClellan, and that he could not rely on the hearty cooperation of that general and his subordinates. Conscious of this, and seeing the fearful odds he was to encounter, he asked to be relieved. This was declined, and there was nothing left for him but to do all that was possible with the force under his .command. Lee and the army of Virginia were nearer Washington than McClellan. General Burn- side had brought his army to Fortress Monroe, ready to cooperate with McClellan. A bold move upon Richmond would keep Lee on the defensive, but such a movement under McClellan judging from the past could scarcely be expected. It was determined to withdraw McClellan's army from the James, and concentrate it with the command of Pope. Pope was active and vigilant, and did all that could be done with the force under his control. On the i4th of August, he was reinforced by General Reno's division of Burnside's army. On the i6th, he captured a letter of General Lee to Stuart, showing that Lee was preparing to mass an overwhelming force in his front, and crush him before he could be re-enforced from the army of the Poto- 19 290 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. mac. He retired on the night of the i8th behind the Rap- pahannock. The presence of the army of McClellan was now imperatively needed, and its absence made Pope's posi- tion critical. Where was it, and why did it not cooperate with Pope ? It made no movement towards Richmond nor towards Pope. Why was this, and who was responsible for Pope's defeat ? Let us examine the orders which were sent to McClellan, and try to determine whether he honestly and in good faith -obeyed these orders, or whether he sullenly disregarded them, and left Pope to be crushed. As early as the 3oth of July, McClellan had been ordered to send away his sick and wounded, and to clear his hospitals, preparatory to moving. This order was repeated August zd. On the jd, he was directed to prepare to withdraw his army to Acquia Creek, a stream that empties into the Potomac, and within support- ing distance of Pope. He remonstrated, delayed obedience, and remained where he was until the 6th. He was then advised that " the order to withdraw would not be rescinded," and it was said to him, with emphasis: " You will be expected to obey it with all possible promptness" On the 6th, he was ordered to send a regiment of cavalry and several batteries to Burnside, who was at Acquia Creek. Instead of obeying promptly, he sent reasons for still fur- ther delay, and said he would " obey as soon as circum- stances would permit it." McClellan did not arrive at Alexandria until August s6th. On the pth, General Halleck telegraphed as follows : " I am of the opinion that the enemy is massing his forces in front of Generals Pope and Burnside, and that he expects to crush them, and move forward to the Potomac. You must send re-enforcements instantly to Acquia Creek. Con- sidering the amount of transportation at your disposal, your delay is not satisfactory. You must move with all possible celerity ! " This was August pth, and yet re-enforcements did not leave Fortress Monroe for Acquia, until the 23d of August ! On the loth, a week after the order was MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 29 1 first given, Halleck again telegraphed : " The enemy is crossing the Rapidan in large force. They are fighting General Pope to-day. There must be no further delay in your movements. That which has already occurred was entirely unexpected, and must be satisfactorily explained." Pope was gallantly fighting against an overwhelming force. Lee was massing troops to crush him and reach Washington, and yet McClellan did not move. On the i2th of August, General Halleck telegraphed : ' ' The Quartermaster General informs me that nearly every available steam vessel in the country is now under your control. Burnside moved nearly thirteen thousand troops to Acquia Creek in less than two days, and his transports were immediately sent back to you. All the vessels in the James River and the Chesapeake Bay were placed at your disposal, and it was supposed that eight or ten thousand of your men could be transported daily. There has been, and is, the most urgent necessity for dispatch, and not a single moment must be lost in getting additional troops in front of Washington." On the 2ist, Halleck again telegraphed to McClellan at Fortress Monroe : " The forces of Burnside and Pope are hard pushed, and require aid as rapidly as you can send it. By all means see that the troops sent have plenty of ammunition," etc. On the evening of August 23d, the reluctant and tardy McClellan at last sailed from Fortress Monroe, arriving at Acquia Creek on the morning of the 24th, and at Alexandria on the 2yth of August ! It would seem that no candid mind can read the corre- spondence between Halleck and McClellan and the Presi- dent, from early August until September, without being convinced that McClellan neglected to obey orders, and that he did so with a knowledge of the dangerous position of Pope. If Porter, or any of McClellan's lieutenants had been in the position of Pope, would he have been left to fight, with the force at his command, the battles of the 27th, 28th, and 2pth of August? It may be asked as it often has been why was not ABRAHAM LINCOLN. McClellan removed ? He was popular with his army. His subordinates were generally his friends. He was the head, and expected candidate of the democratic party for the Presidency. It had been the earnest endeavor of Mr. Lin- coln to unite and combine with the republican party all of the democrats who were loyal to the Union ; the removal of McClellan would be regarded by many as a political move- ment, and for these and other political reasons, his removal was considered unwise. Meanwhile Pope was being driven towards Washington, by Jackson, Longstreet, and Lee himself, and neither Por- ter, nor Franklin, nor any of McClellan's subordinates, came to his aid. Porter, although within the sound of Pope's artillery and the rebel guns, and conscious of his critical position, did not go to his support. He was tried for his disobedience to orders, found guilty, and dismissed from the army. This judgment the President approved. It is not intended to review the trial of Porter. ' His 1. At 12 o'clock, on the 27th of August, Halleck telegraphed to McClellan : "Telegrams from Porter to Burnslde." " Porter Is marching on "Warrenton to re- enforce Pope. " "Porter reports a general battle Imminent. Franklin's corps should move out by forced marches," etc. On the 25th Halleck telegraphed to McClellan : "Not a moment must be lost in pushing as large a force as possible towards Manassas, so as to communicate with Pope before the enemy Is re-enforced." See Report on the Conduct of War, Pt. 1, pp. 459, 461. On the same day he telegraphed again : "There must be no further delay In moving Franklin's corps towards Manassas ; they must go to-morrow morning, ready or not ready. If we delay too long to get ready, there will be no necessity to go at all, for Pope will either be defeated or vic- torious, without our aid. If there Is a want of wagons, the men must carry provis- ions with them till the wagons can come to their relief." At 3 p. M ., on the 29th, Halleck telegraphed to McClellan, In reply to his dispatch of 12 M. : "I want Franklin's corps to go far enough to find out something about the enemy. Perhaps he may get such Information at Anandale as to prevent his going further, otherwise he will push on towards Fairfax. Try to get something from direction of Manassas, either by telegram or through Franklin's scouts. Our people must move more actively, and find out where the enemy is. I am tired of guesses." At 2:40, the President, in his Intense anxiety to know the fate of the army fight- ing against odds, telegraphed to McClellan to know : " What news from direction of Manassas Junction ? What generally ?" At 2:45, General McClellan replied : ' The last news I received from the direction of Manassas, was from stragglers, to the effect that the enemy were evacuating Centrevllle, and retiring towards Thor- MILITARY OPERATIONS IN 1861-1862. 293 conduct has been much discussed. He was found guilty by a court of general officers, composed of men of the highest character. There does not seem to be any room for doubt that he did not give Pope his loyal and hearty support. Some of his apologists have said that this ought not to have been expected ; that it was not in human nature. This depends on the sort of human nature. A true patriot and soldier would have forgotten his grievances, and those of his chief ; would have been at the front in the bat- tle. His duty clearly was to do his utmost to relieve Pope. Few candid men will believe he did this. Suppose McClel- lan had been in the position of Pope are there any who believe Fitz-John Porter would have left him alone " to get out of his scrape ? " Or suppose Porter had been fighting Lee and his whole army, as Pope was, would it have taken McClellan an entire month to come up the Potomac to his relief ? No, McClellan would have joined his favorite lieu- tenant long before the arrival of Longstreet, and Lee would have had to meet the combined armies. If McClellan had been exposed as Pope was, the guns of Porter would have been playing upon the enemy, and not at rest in sullen silence in his camp. On the 2d of September, Pope fell back to the fortifica- tions of Washington. The situation was critical. As Pope retired to Washington, Lee advanced towards Maryland, oughfare Gap. This Is by no means reliable. I am clear that one of two courses should be adopted : First, To concentrate all our available forces to open communi- cation with Pope. Second, To leave Pope to get out of Ms scrape, and at once use all means to make the capital perfectly safe. No middle course will now answer. Tell me what you wish me to do, and I will do all In my power to accomplish It. I wish to know what my orders and authority are. I ask for nothing, but will obey what- ever orders you give. I only ask a prompt decision, that I may at once give the nec- essary orders. It will not do to delay longer " General Halleck telegraphed the following peremptory order, at 7:30, on the 29th: " Tou will Immediately send construction train and guards to repair the railroad to Manassas. Let there be no delay In this. I have just been told that Franklin's corps stopped at Anandale, and that he was this evening at Alexandria. This Is all contrary to my orders. Investigate and report the fact of this disobedience. That corps must push forward as I directed, to protect the railroad, and open communica- tion with Manassas." 2 9 4 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. threatening the capital. The defeat of Pope might have been prevented by the union and co-operation with him of McClel- lan. Two courses of action were discussed in the Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln. One, urged by the friends of McClellan, was to place him in command of all the forces, including the remnants of the army of Virginia; the other, to arrest him and some of his subordinates, and try them for disobedience and insubordination. General Halleck, the Secretary of War, and others, charged him with being responsible for the defeat of Pope, and many in high positions declared that he ought to be shot for his military offences. It was one of the most critical periods of the war. Party spirit was a vio- lent faction in Congress, and as represented by the press, was intemperate. The army was split by cabals, jealousies, and quarrels. This, with defeat and disaster in the field, made the prospect gloomy and perilous, but the President's fortitude and courage did not desert him. Unselfish and firm, he trusted in the people and in God. That firm belief in an overruling Providence, which some called superstition, sustained him in this the darkest hour. McClellan was the representative man of the so-called war democrats. He had the confidence of his officers, and was personally popular with the soldiers. The President yielded to the military necessity, or supposed military neces- sity, and placed him again in command of all the troops, and McClellan assumed the responsibility of defending the capi- tal, and defeating Lee. Indeed, it seems the wisest thing he could have done. The army of the Potomac was demoral- ized, some of it on the verge of mutiny, and the conduct of Franklin and Fitz-John Porter indicates the spirit in which McClellan's lieutenants would have supported any other chief. With Lee and his victorious troops menacing Wash- ington, it was a military necessity; Lincoln, with his usual good sense, saw and yielded to it. CHAPTER XVII. ANTIETAM AND CHANCELLORSVILLE. HARPER'S FERRY CAPTURED. ANTIETAM. MCCLELLAN'S DELAY. RELIEVED OF COMMAND. BURNSIDE APPOINTED HIS SUCCESSOR. FREDERICKSBURG. BURNSIDE RESIGNS. HOOKER SUCCEEDS HIM. LINCOLN'S LETTER TO HOOKER. CHANCELLORSVILLE. LINCOLN now magnanimously gave General McClellan another and a splendid opportunity to achieve success. His command embraced the army of the Potomac, the remains of the army of Pope, and the troops of Burnside, while to these were added the large number of recruits and volun- teers which poured in from the loyal states, so that he had, before November, more than two hundred thousand soldiers under his command. If he had possessed to any extent the elements of a hero, if he could have led a rapid and brilliant campaign, he had now the opportunity, and the people would have eagerly crowned him with the laurels of victory. But as soon as he was settled in his command, he continued to make the old complaints and calls for more troops. He wished those engaged in the defense of Washington sent to him, even if the capital should fall into the hands of the enemy. 1 Colonel Miles and General Julius White, in September, 1862, occupied the picturesque village of Harper's Ferry, with some twelve thousand soldiers. On the nth, McClel- lan asked that these troops be directed to join his army. That order was not given, but it was suggested to him that I. He wished the troops sent to htm, "even if Washington should betaken." * * " That would not bear comparison with a single defeat of tills rmy." Report on Conduct of the War, Ft. 1, p. 39. 295 296 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. he open communication with Harper's Ferry, and that then these troops would be under his command. On the i3th, he knew that Lee's army was divided, and that Jackson had been detached from the main army for the purpose of capturing Harper's Ferry. McClellan by promptness could have saved Harper's Ferry. Swinton, who excuses him when he can, says: " If he had thrown forward his army with the vigor used by Jackson * * * he could have relieved Harper's Ferry, which did not surrender until the i5th." ' Palfrey, in his " Antietam and Fredericksburg," says: " He was not equal to the occasion. He threw away his chance, and a precious opportunity of making a great name passed away."* On the i yth, was fought the bloody battle of Antietam. Of this battle, alluding to McClellan's delay in attacking while Lee's forces were divided, Palfrey says : " He fought his battle one day too late, if not two" " He did very little in the way of compelling the execution of his orders." * A very large portion of his army did not participate in the battle, and Palfrey adds: " It is probable, almost to a point of certainty, that if a great part of the Second and Fifth corps, and all the Sixth, animated by the personal presence of McClellan, had attacked vigorously in the center, and Burnside on the Federal left, * * * the result would have been the practical annihilation of Lee's army! " * McClellan, against the advice of Burnside and others, decided not to renew the attack on the i8th. " It is," says Palfrey, " hardly worth while to state his reasons." Two divisions had joined him. "The fault was in the man. There was force enough at his command either day had he seen fit to use it." 6 By the time that McClellan got ready to renew the attack Lee was gone. On the i8th, the enemy 1. Swlnton'B Army of the Potomac, p. 202. 2. Palfrey's " Antietam and Fredericksburg," p. 41. 3. Palfrey's "Antietam and Fredericksburg," p. 119. 4. Palfrey's 1 ' Antietam and Fredericksburg," pp. 121-122. 5. Palfrey's " Antietam and Fredericksburg," p. 127. ANTIETAM AND CHANCELLORSVILLE. 297 permitted to retire across the Potomac. The Union army slowly followed, occupying Maryland Heights on the 2oth, and Harper's Ferry on the 23d of September. On the 7th of October, Halleck telegraphed to McClellan that "the army must move. The country is becoming very impatient at the want of activity of your army, and we must push it on." The President was also impatient at these slow move- ments of McClellan, and to a friend of the General's who called at the White House, he said, doubtless with the expec- tation that it would be repeated : " McClellan's tardiness reminds me of a man in Illinois, whose attorney was not sufficiently aggressive. The client knew a few law phrases, and finally, after waiting until his patience was exhausted by the non-action of his counsel, he sprang to his feet and exclaimed: 'Why don't you go at him with a fi. fa., demur- rer, a capias, a surrebutter, or a ne exeat, or something; and not stand there like a nudum pactum, or a non est?' " By the 6th of October, the President's impatience of McClellan's long delay induced him to telegraph the General: " The President directs that you cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy or drive him South." McClellan did not obey. On the loth, Stuart, a rebel cavalry officer, crossed the Potomac, went as far as Chambersburg in Pennsylvania, made the circuit of the Federal army, and re-crossed the Potomac without serious loss. This was the second time Confederate cavalry had been permitted to ride entirely around McClellan's army. On the i3th of October, the President made one more effort to induce McClellan to act, by writing him a long and kindly personal letter. 1 1. The letter was as follows : " My Dear Sir: You remember my speaking to you of what I called your over- cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when you assume that you cannot do what the enemy Is constantly doing? Should you not claim to be at least his equal in prow- ess, and act upon the claim? "As I understand, you telegraphed General Halleck that you cannot subsist your army at Winchester, unless the railroad from Harper's Ferry to that point be put in working order. But the enemy does now subsist his army at Winchester, at a distance nearly twice as great from railroad transportation, as you would have to do without the railroad last named. He now wagons from Culpepper Court House, which Is just 298 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Near the end of October McClellan started, and on the 2d of November his army crossed the Potomac. Thus the autumn had gone by, from the battle of Antietam on the 1 7th of September until the 2d of November, before McClellan crossed the Potomac. The President had writ- ten, begged, and entreated McClellan to act. In his letter of October i3th, he says: "I say try. If we never try, we shall never succeed." "We should not operate so as to about twice as far as you would have to do from Harper's Ferry. He Is certainly not more than half as well provided with wagons as you are. I certainly should be pleased foryou to have the advantage of the railroad from Harper's Ferry to Winchester; but it wastes all the remainder of autumn to give it to you, and, In fact, Ignores the question of time which cannot and must not be Ignored. "Again, one of the standard maxims of war, as you know, Is, 'to operate upon the enemy's communications as much as possible without exposing your own.' You seem to act as If this applies against you, but cannot apply In your/aror. Change positions with the enemy, and think you not he would break your communication with Richmond within the next twenty-four hours? You dread his going Into Pennsylvania. But If he does so In full force, he gives up his communication to you absolutely, and you have nothing to do, but to follow and ruin him; if he does so with less than full force, fall upon and beat what Is left behind, all the easier. " Exclusive of the water line, you are now nearer Richmond than the enemy Is, by the route that you can, and he must take. Why can you not reach there before him, unless you admit that he Is more than your equal on a march. His route Is the arc of a circle, while yours is the chord. The roads are as good on yours as on his. " You know I desired, but did not order you, to cross the Potomac below, instead of above the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. The idea was that this would at once menace the enemy's communications, which I would seize, If he would permit. If he should move northward, I would follow him closely, holding his communications. If he should prevent our seizing his communications, and move towards Richmond, I would press closely to him, fight him if a favorable opportunity should present, and at least try to beat him to Richmond on the inside track. I say try; if we never try, we shall never succeed. If he makes a stand at Winchester, moving neither north nor south, I would fight him there, on the idea that if we cannot beat him when he bears the wastage of coming to us, we never can when we bear the wastage of going to him. This proposition is a simple truth, and Is too Important to be lost sight of for a moment. In coming to us, he tenders us an advantage which we should not waive. We should not so operate as to merely drive him away. As we must beat him some- where, or fall finally, we can do it, if at all, easier near to us than far away. If we cannot beat the enemy where he now is, we never can, he again being within the intrenchments of Richmond. " Recurring to the idea of going to Richmond on the Inside track, the facility for supplying from the side away from the enemy, is remarkable, as it were by the differ- ent spokes of a wheel extending from the hub towards the rim , and this, whether you move directly by the chord or on the Inside arc, hugging t tie Blue Ridge more closely. The chord line, as you see, carries you by Aldle, Haymarket, and Frederlcksburg, and you see how turnpikes, railroads, and finally the Potomac, by Acqula Creek, meet you at all points from Washington. The same, only the lines lengthened a little, if you 1 press closer to the Blue Ridge part of the way. The gap through the Blue Ridge, I ANTIETAM AND CHANCELLORSVILLE. 299 merely to drive him (the enemy) away." In a dispatch on the 27th day of October, the President says: " I now ask a distinct answer to the question: "Is it your purpose not to go into action again until the men now being drafted are incorporated in the old regiments?" The patience of Mr. Lincoln was finally exhausted, and, on the 5th of November, he issued an order relieving McClellan, and directing him to turn over the command to General Burnside. Thus ends the military career of George B. McClellan. The judgment of General Palfrey, who served under him, is certainly not too severe. He sums up his military history in these words: " His interminable and inexcusable delays upon the Peninsula afforded great ground for dissatis- faction, and they seemed to say no more to be followed by similar delays upon the Potomac." " He never made his personal presence felt on a battle-field."' McClellan retired to New Jersey, to emerge no more except as the candidate for the Presidency, in 1864, of the party who declared "the war a failure." He contributed to this failure, in so far as it was one considering the means at his command to make it a success more than almost any other man. But he himself was the most conspicuous failure of the war. After all his disasters and delays upon the Pen- insula, the President generously re-instated him in com- mand, and at Antietam and afterwards, he had golden oppor- tunities to redeem his failure. He was retained long after understand to be about the following distances from Harper's Ferry, to-wlt: Vestala, five miles; Gregory's, thirteen; Snicker's, eighteen; Ashby's, twenty-eight; Manas- sas, thirty-eight; Chester, forty-five; and Thornton's, fifty-three. I should think It preferable to take the route nearest the enemy, disabling him to make an Important move without your knowledge, and compelling him to keep bis forces together for dread of you. The gaps would enable you to attack If you should wish. For a great part of the way you would be practically between the enemy and both Washington and Richmond, enabling us to spare you the greatest number of troops from here. "When at length, running for Richmond ahead of him, enable him to move his way; if he does so, turn and attack him In rear. But I think he should be engaged long before such point Is reached. It is all easy If our troops march as well as tbe enemy, and It is unmanly to say they cannot do it. This letter Is In no sense an order. " Yours truly, A. LINCOLN." 1. Report on Conduct of the War, pt. 1, p. 525. 2. Palfrey's "Antietam and Frederlcksburg," p. 133-134. 3OO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. his removal had been demanded by the friends of the Presi- dent. The patience, fidelity, and forbearance of the Presi- dent in his treatment of McClellan, are strikingly illustrated by his correspondence. History will censure him for adher- ing to the General too long rather than for any failure to support him. But McClellan was a courteous gentleman, whose personal character was amiable and respectable. Mr. Lincoln respected his private virtues, and said of him: " With all his failings as a soldier, McClellan is a pleasant and scholarly gentleman. He is an admirable engineer, but," he added, " he seems to have a special talent for a stationary engine" On the Qth of November General Burnside assumed command of the great army. He was a frank and manly soldier, of fine person, and everywhere respected as a gentle- man and an unselfish patriot. He accepted the high posi- tion with diffidence, and with the consciousness that he would scarcely receive the earnest cooperation of the favor- ite generals of McClellan. On the i2th of this month, Generals Halleck and Meigs visited him in his camp, and held a conference on the movements to be made. Halleck and Burnside failed to agree, and the subject was referred to the President. Burnside's plan was to make a feint on Gordonsville, but to concentrate rapidly and attack Fred- ericksburg. The President, in assenting to Burnside's plan as reported by Halleck, said to the General: " He thinks it (the plan) will succeed if you move rapidly; otherwise not." The absolute necessity of rapid movement, and the crossing of the Rappahannock before Lee could concentrate his army and fortify Fredericksburg, were obvious. By some misunderstanding or gross neglect, the pontoons with which to cross the river were not sent forward in time. This delay was fatal in its consequences. Burnside arrived at Falmouth, on the banks of the Rappahannock, on the i9th of November, but the pontoons did not arrive until the 25th. By this delay, all the advantages of surprise were lost; the enemy had time to concentrate his army on the heights over- ANTIETAM AND CHANCELLORSVILLE. 30! looking Fredericksburg, to intrench and prepare to meet the attack. There has been much discussion as to who was responsible for this delay in the arrival of the pontoons. Considering the importance of their being there in time, and that the fate of the movement depended on their presence when needed, it would seem that all were negligent Hal- leek, and Meigs, and Burnside. Each should have known personally that the pontoons were there in time. When, on the 1 3th of December, Burnside attacked Fredericksburg, he found Lee with his army concentrated and occupying a strong position which had been well and skillfully fortified. The assault on these works was gallantly made, but, as might have been anticipated, was repulsed with terrible slaughter. Lee occupied a fortified ridge, the approach to which was swept by artillery. It is difficult to understand why this army should have been ordered across a river like the Rappahannock, and to assault a fortified position so well covered by breast-works and rifle-pits ; or why, when the delay of the pontoons and failure to surprise the enemy rendered success impossible, some flank movement, such as was repeatedly made by Sherman and Grant, should not have been made, thus forcing the enemy to battle on more equal ground. After a fearful loss of life, the troops were withdrawn to Falmouth, and there the two armies confronted each other from the opposite banks of the river. 1 In the campaign of 1862, in the East, the results were on the whole favorable to the rebels. With a much smaller force, they kept the Union army during all the autumn of 1 86 1 and the winter of 1862 in the defences of Washington. They blockaded the Potomac. They had, by the blunders and want of vigor of McClellan, repulsed him from Rich- mond. They had sent Stonewall Jackson like an eagle swooping down through the valley of the Shenandoah, driv- ing Banks across the Potomac, and escaping from Fremont 1. It Is no more than justice to McClellan to say, that he never sacrificed his soldiers by a blunder like this. 3. Spottsylvanla Court House, Va., 374. Spragne, William, raises a regiment for the Union, 205. Springfield, 111., Whig meeting at, 87; State fair of 1854, 117; debate at, 143; meeting of Union men at, 336; arrival of the President's remains at, 438. Stanton, Edwin M., 90; succeeds Black In Buchanan's cabinet, 174; applauds Captain Wilkes's act, 235 ; at ceremo- nies in honor of Baker, 238 ; Secreta- ry of War, 241, 429. Stetson, Col., entertains Massachusetts troops, 206. Stephens, Alexander H., description of Lincoln, 77-78; opposes secession, 175; Vice-President of the Confede- racy, ISO, 203; personal description, 181-182; "onto Washington," 210; utterance on Slavery, 214; on Eman- pation, 269; at the Hampton Roads conference, 399-400. Stevens, Thaddeus, 222, warning to rebel slaveholders, 228; bill for Emancipa- tion In the District of Columbia, 243; on gradual Emancipation, 249; speech on Thirteenth Amendment, 363-365, 417. Stewart, Charles, calls on Douglas, 193. Stiles, Dr. Ezra, 94. Stokes, Captain, transfers arms from St. Louis arsenal, 212. Stone, Dan., 52. Stone River, Tenn., 303. Stowe, Mrs. H. B., 170. Strlngfellow, Gen., In Kansas struggle, 113. Stuart, J. E. B., 289, 297. Stuart, John T., 35; assists Lincoln, 40; partnership with Lincoln, 53 ; elected to Congress, 66, 72. Sullivan, Rev. John, 159. Sumner, Charles, 104; member of the Free Soil party, 105 ; In the Senate, 108, 221; opposes the Nebraska bill, 110; assaulted In Congress, 170; at Lincoln's inauguration. 189; allusion to Breckenridge, 225; eulogy of Ba- ker, 239; expects the approval of Great Britain on the Emancipation Proclamation, 268; closes the debate on the Thirteenth Amendment, 350. 470 INDEX. 851; opposes retaliation, 410-411; fidelity to Lincoln's widow, 440. Sun Tavern, Philadelphia, first Anti- Slavery society organized at, 94. Surratt, Mrs., 434. Swift, Mr., of Illinois, 163. Swlnton, William, 296. Sykes, George, at Gettysburg, 323. TAI.M AIM; K, JAMES, 130. Taney, Roger B., decision in Dred Scott case, 131; at Lincoln's Inauguration, 189; death, 394. Taylor, Col. Dick, 49-50. Taylor, Zachary, in Black Hawk war, 35- 36; candidate for the Presidency, 37, 79, 104; elected, 80, 105; Lincoln seeks an appointment from, 81; in Mexican war, 101. Tecumseh, the, destruction of, 383. Tennessee, ram, 382-383. Tennessee river, 274. 333. Terry, Alfred H., captures Fort Fisher, 418. Thomas, Jesse B., 58, 65. Thomas, George H., at battle of Mill Creek, 274; at Chlckamauga, 832; in command of the army of the Cum- berland, 333; battle of Lookout Moun- tain, 333-334; defeats Hood, 880. Thirteenth Amendment, the, Importance of, 345 ; Joint resolution in Congress, 846; debate la the Senate, 347-351; adopted by the Senate, 351; Arnold's test resolution, 852-353; discussion In the House, 853-356; resolution de- feated, 856; passage urged by the President at next session. 857; de- bate in the House, 359-365 ; passage of the Amendment, 365; ratification by the states, 367-8. Todd, John, 15, 68. Todd, Levi, 68. Todd, Roberts., 68. Toomhs, Robert, 77, 174, 177, 223. Toucey, Isaac, Secretary of the Navy, 173. Treat, Judge. 67, 86. Trent, the, Intercepted by the San Jacin- to, 234. Trumbull, Lyman, 57; elected to Senate, 122-123; 125; 141; 221; 240; attacked In Douglas's speech, 149 ; Introduces bill for freeing slaves used by the Confederates in carrying on the war, 238; on Lincoln, 247-248; the Thir- teenth Amendment, 347-348, 851. Twiggs, David E., 197, 218, 278. VALLANDIQHAM, CLEMENT L., in Con- gress,222; arrest of, 311; defeated for Governor,341; in Democratic conven- tion of 1864, 391. Van Buren, John, 75, 105. Van Buren, Martin, 74, 98, 104, 202, 221. Vlcksburg, Miss., assault on, 302; object- ive point of the campaign in the West, 812-313; military operations in the vicinity of, 313-316; capture of, 817. Voorhees, Daniel W., 359. WADB, BXNJAMIN F., at Lincoln's inau- guration, 189; in the Senate, 221; pro- poses retaliatory measures, 410; 417. Wadsworth, James 8., at battle of Get- tysburg, 319, 820; letter from the President, 415-416. Walte, Carlos A., 197. Walker, L. P., 160, 161. Wallace, Lewis, at battle of Shiloh, 277; delays Early's advance, 376. Wallace, W. H. L.. death at Shiloh, 276- 277. War powers, 309-312. Warren, G. K., at battle of Gettysburg, 322; the Wilderness, 373-374. Washburne, Elihu B., 86, 111; letters from Lincoln, 176-177; meets Lincoln on his arrival at the capital, 186; in Congress, 222, 241 ; accompanies Grant, 316; friendship for Grant, 869- 370. Washington, D. C., capital located at, 97; peace convention at, 176; proximity Of the Confederate forces, 376. Washington, George, 26,94,209, 241, 336, 404, 454. Webster, Daniel, 77, 107, 108, 139, 141, 241,346,349, 351,413. Weed, Thurlow, 167, 168. Weltzel, Godfrey, 425, 427. Welles, Gideon, Secretary of the Navy, 194, 196. Wentworth, John, In Congress, 76. West Point, 218. - INDEX. 471 West Virginia admitted to the Union, 309. White, Julius, 295. Wbltesldes, Gen., 70. Whitney, Ell, 96. Whlttler, John G., 102, 170, 260 Wlgfall, Lewis T., at Washington seces- sion meeting, 177. Wilderness, battle of the, 374. Wilkes, Charles, arrests Mason and 811- dell, 234. Wllmot, David, 101, 105, 125, 163, 221. Wllmot Proviso, the, 101, 102, 106. Wilson, Henry, 105; In the Senate, 221; 242; introduces bill for the Emanci- pation of slaves In District of Colum- bia, 243 ;speeeh on Thirteenth Amend- ment, 348-349. Wilson, James F., 346, 352, 353. Wilson, Robert L., 51, 53. Winchester, Va., 877. Wlnslow, John A., in command of the Kearsarge, 381. Winthrop, Robert C., 76, 77. Wise, Henry A., 101, 172. Wood, Fernando, 363. Woodbrldge, Frederick E., speech on Thirteenth Amendment, 360. Wool, John E., 272, 283. Wright, Horatio G., 376. Wright, Silas, 98, 159, 221. YANCEY, WILLIAM L., In Charleston con- vention, 161. ZOLUC OFFER, F. K., death of, 274.