LINCOLN
COLLECTION

Lincoln
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ABRAHAM LINCOLN

ADDRESS OF
HON. N. P. CHIPMAN
Presiding Justice of the District Court of Appeal
SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA

ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Address of Hon. N. P. Chipman, Presiding Justice of the District Court
of Appeal, At a Banquet given by the Cherry Tree Club
of Sacramento, California
February 22, 1906
Mr. President and Gentlemen : — As I am informed, the
Cherry Tree Club meets once each year to commemorate
the birthday of the Father of his Country. Your club is
composed almost entirely of young men, most of whom were
born since the close of the Civil War, and few, if any, of
you were old enough at that time to have any personal
recollection of the events that marked the most tragic period
in the history of the Republic. I am asked to portray the
character of the man who was not only the central figure
in that Titanic struggle, but whose memory is, and will ever
be, enshrined in the hearts of all liberty-loving people
throughout the habitable globe. May I not hope that you
will bear with me if I shall attempt more than a brief pass
ing tribute to the character of this remarkable man. May I
not be indulged in an endeavor to quicken in your minds
the meaning of that great epoch in our history, while bring
ing to your attention some of the conspicuous characteristics
of the man about whom 1 am to speak, and some of the
events connected with which he will always be the one
prominent personality.
In devotion to his country ; in breadth of statesman
ship ; in exalted character ; in blameless private life, the
name of Abraham Lincoln will grow brighter with the
ages — the synonym of true greatness — the harbinger of that-
period to which we all look, of peace on earth, good will to
man. "In his early days he struck his roots deep down into
the common soil of the earth, and in his latest years his
head towered and shone among the stars !"
Some one has said that the American people are
peculiarly fortunate in the coincidence that they may cele
brate the birthday, in the same month, of two of the most
illustrious men in all the world. It was eminently appro
priate, therefore, that in assembling to honor the memory
of George Washington your thoughts should also turn to the
1

man who preserved to us the Nation so nobly established by
the Fathers of the Revolution.
It is a question whether we get the true perspective of
historical personages through the opinions of contemporane
ous observers. In some respects we probably do not. It is
in the fullness of time that the true value of great public
service and distinguishing traits of personal character can
be rightly and adequately estimated.
And yet there is a certain indefinable sympathy and
feeling of brotherhood existing among contemporaries that
arouse in them; a keener appreciation of what has been accom
plished by one of their number than is possible to kindle
in the hearts of posterity for the deeds of their remote an
cestors. I am trying to convey this meaning : That it is not pos
sible, for example, to portray the life and services of George
Washington at this distance, so as ¦ to reach a personal,
sympathetic chord such as is awakened in our hearts when
contemplating the life and services of Abraham Lincoln, whose
tragic martyrdom touches the tenderest feelings of our natures,
and for whose services and sacrifices we experience a sense
of personal indebtedness and sympathy.
The appropriateness of connecting the name of Lincoln
with that of Washington is attested by the fact that we have
come to associate these two persons, each in his time, as the
two most distinguished leaders in the two great epochs of
American history.
I had thought of comparing the lives and achievements
of these two colossal characters as perhaps a satisfactory
method of performing my task. But a little reflection convinced
me that this would be most incongruous and inadequate.
The personal characteristics of these two men were wholly
unlike ; the conditions confronting them were entirely dis:
similar ; the responsibilities assumed by Washington, though
great, were infinitely less weighty, less complex, and, in their
consequences to mankind, less portentous than those cast upon
the shoulders of Lincoln.
May I ask you then to give me your attention while I
shall endeavor to place before you Lincoln the man and Lincoln
the President as he appeared to me.
With the history of his birth, early life, and subsequent
career as a lawyer, attending to the petty controversies among
his neighbors, I need not speak. There was nothing in this
period to mark him as distinguished above a thousand other
plodding lawyers by whom he was surrounded. He had been
2

in the Legislature, he had been in Congress, and while we now,
looking back, may see in him then some of those characteristics
that distinguished him in after life, they were not so pronounced
as to lead his most intimate friends to predict for him a career
in any sense conspicuous.
And yet in all those years his sturdy common sense ; his
matchless honesty and probity of character ; his sympathy with
the people and his vigorous mental capacity, were gradually
preparing him for his great work, and as gradually centering
public confidence upon him as the type of American leadership
in the great anti-slavery struggle then developing.
Prior to his famous debate with Stephen A. Douglas, Mr.
Lincoln's reputation was scarcely more than local, but that
intellectual combat focalized the Nation's thought upon him
and his nomination at Chicago was both logical as well as a
natural expression of his party's wisdom and foresight. I
was a spectator of that splendid and inspiring scene, when it
seemed as if the pent-up protests and accumulated remon
strances of long years against Southern aggression and arro
gance broke forth in unrestrained and unrestrainable mani
festations, and rang out in one great burst of defiance — at
once a clarion note prophetic of war, and the death knell of
human slavery in America. It was a scene of wild rejoicing,
and unfaltering consecration to an exalted purpose. The
Annunciation of the Nation's Savior was proclaimed at that
hour. The Solid South repudiated the Messiah, but the Loyal
North made him President and crowned him with immortality.
It is now accepted history that the election of Mr. Lincoln
was made the pretext of withdrawal from the LTnion by the
Southern States, and rebellion in arms followed in hot haste.
The interval between his election and inauguration was an
interval of war-like preparations by the South ; of larceny of
the munitions of war, and rape of the fortresses of the Union.
All the arts of the wicked one were used to instil into
the minds of the officers of the army who owed their titles
and distinction to a Nation's generosity, the fatal poison of
love of the State before love of the Nation; and that other
and most destructive fallacy — the right of a State to withdraw
from the Union. So powerful were these seductive influences
that even that Prince of Chivalric Honor — that man of spotless
integrity and high promise, Robert E. Lee, stripped from his
shoulders the insignia of office in the Union army and drew
his word against his country-
Washington City swarmed with traitors; the halls of
Congress rang out with treasonable utterances ; the very foun
tain of loyalty was polluted.

Into this fetid atmosphere, amid these depressing surround
ings; into this awful shadow of rebellion hanging over the
Nation's Capital, the modest son of the Republic came upon a
mission that was to cost him his life ; that was to- drench our
land in fratricidal blood; but that was to witness a Nation
new born.
When he arrived in Washington Mr. Lincoln was as far
from appreciating the strength and value of his personality
as were those around him of realizing fully the momentous
importance of the events he was to control or of understanding
how great was the man who was to lead us to victory.
The oath of office was administered in front of the Capitol
by Chief Justice Taney, who had in effect declared it to be
the judgment of the Supreme Court of the United States that
negro slaves had no rights which a white man was bound to
respect. And singularly enough the man who was soon to
strike the shackles from these same bondsmen, in his Inaugural
Address declared it to be the Republican doctrine, entrenched
in the Constitution, that a slave who escapes from a slave State
into a free State is not thereby made free, but became so
only when voluntarily taken into free terriory. Upon the
question of the right of a State to- secede his argument was
clear, luminous and unanswerable. He declared that "no State
could lawfully get out of the Union," as he expressed it, and
that he would do all in his power to enforce the laws. He
added: "I trust this will not be regarded as a menace, but
only as the declared purpose of the Union that it will constitu
tionally defend and maintain itself. In doing this there need
be no bloodshed or violence, and there shall be none unless it
is forced upon the national authority." We now know that at
that moment plans were being perfected by rebel conspirators
to seize the forts, arsenals and other Government property.
Lincoln's plea for peace, designed to placate the South, had
little effect upon her people, but it turned upon the rebel
leaders the responsibility of beginning hostilities. Lincoln's
voice was sharp and penetrating, with a plaintive intonation,
and his almost pathetic plea must have deeply moved the throng
who hung upon his matchless address. The concluding para
graph will ever stand as one of the most remarkable perorations
ever uttered by man. He said: "I am loath to close. We are
not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though
passions may have strained, it must not break our bonds of
affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every
battle-field and patriot grave to every living heart and hearth
stone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the
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Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better
angels of our nature."
Alas ! As an appeal with a promise of immediate fulfill
ment it fell on many unresponsive ears. As prophecy it now
reads to us as a vision of light from on high, though its realiza
tion came after long years and long after the close of the
most sanguinary strife in modern history.
I cannot hope that your indulgence will permit me to
even sketch all the strenuous and crowded years through which
he passed and the relation he bore to the momentous events
that filled the pages of our Civil War. I shall only here and
there notice them and then only to convey some idea of the
man Lincoln, through some of the more striking features of
his Administration. With characteristic magnanimity and
against the advice of many friends he called to his Cabinet
four men — Seward, Chase, Bates and Cameron — who had been
candidates for the Presidency when Lincoln was chosen. He
refused to believe at such a time that men worthy to serve
as his advisers would be unfaithful to their trust and seek
self-aggrandizement. He said to his friends: "Let us forget
ourselves and join hands, like brothers, to save the Republic.
If we succeed there will be glory enough for all."
Lincoln was inaugurated March 4, 1861, and on March 9th
the Rebel Congress, having previously assembled at Mont
gomery, Alabama, passed a Bill for the organization of an army.
Commissioners were sent to Washington to negotiate a treaty
with the Government. The President would not see them,
but sent them a copy of his Inaugural Address. They remained
until in April, Mr. Lincoln meanwhile giving no sign, and were
then informed by Mr. Seward that they could have no recog
nition from the Government of the United States. Mr. Lincoln
was determined that the overt act for which everybody was
waiting, and about which everybody was talking, should come
from the Rebels. It came when the resolve was taken to pro
vision Major Anderson's gallant company at Fort Sumter.
General Beauregard opened fire on April 12th, and war was
declared by the South, and on April 15th the President called
for 75,000 troops. The North was aflame. Party ties for the
time disappeared — but one sentiment prevailed — that for the
preservation of the Union. Congress was called to assemble
at the Capital on July 4-, 1861. As showing the spirit of the
North, Ohio, whose quota was 13,000, within one week after
the call was issued, offered the services of 70,000 patriots to-
Governor Denison ; and to the call generally more than 500,000
had sprung to arms. 5

Jefferson Davis in his message to the Confederate Congress
had by an artful and insidious argument urged the right of
secession for which the South were bound to fight if necessary.
In his message to the American Congress, which assembled
July 4th, Mr. Lincoln, after recounting the events of the past
two months showing that the Rebels had forced the issue of
war or dissolution of the Union, pointed out with great clear
ness and force the impending consequences of this issue. He
said: "It presents to the whole family of man the question
whether a Constitutional Republic or Democracy — a Govern
ment of the people by the same people — can or cannot maintain
its territorial integrity against domestic foes. It presents the
question whether discontented individuals, too few in numbers
to control administration according to organic law in any case,
can always, upon the pretenses made in this case, or any other
pretenses, or arbitrarily, without any pretense, break up their
Government, and thus practically put an end to free Govern
ment upon the earth. It forces us to ask, 'Is there in all
Republics this inherent and fatal weakness? Must a Govern-
ment, of necessity, be too strong for the liberties of its own
people, or too weak to maintain its own existence?' '
There was no mistaking now the stupendous issue. It
meant not only the possibility of free government in America
but whether it ever could exist anywhere upon the earth. It
meant that the heresy of the right to secede, which Mr. Cal
houn and his school had long taught, should once and for all
time be fought out at the cannon's mouth. Behind it of course
stood the spectre of human slavery, but the great moving
cause was the asserted right of a State to withdraw from the
Union. As this was the crucial issue, and should not be per
mitted to be clouded by pretense of other grounds for rebellion,
I must be permitted to quote another brief paragraph from
Mr. Lincoln's unanswerable argument. "The sophism," he
said, "is that any State of the Union may consistently with
the National Constitution, and therefore lawfully and peace
fully, withdraw from the Union without consent 'of the Union
or any other State. The little disguise, that the supposed right
is to be exercised only for just cause, themselves to be the
judges of its justice, is too thin to merit notice. With rebellion
thus sugar-coated they have been drugging the public mind
of their section for more than thirty years, and until at length
they have brought many good men to a "willingness to take up
arms against the Government, the day after some assemblage
of men has enacted the farcial pretense of taking their State
out of the Union, who would have, could have, been brought
to no such thing the day before."

In the following November occurred the affair of the
British packet-ship Trent. Mason and Slidell, two rebel envoys,
took passage, one for England and the other for France, on
the Trent, their purpose being to induce those great Powers
to recognize the Confederacy as a Nation. Captain Wilkes of
the man-of-war San Jacinto, overhauled the Trent, brought her
to by a shot across her bow, and took off the two envoys and
carried them to Boston, where they were lodged hi Fort Warren.
This event created pronounced appro-ving enthusiasm
throughout the North ; it was looked upon as a defiant reply
to the attitude of the English and the French Governments
towards our Government. The demand of the British Govern
ment that the envoys should be surrendered because they had
been taken from under the British flag and against the protests
of the Commander of the Trent, only inflamed the popular
indignation. Confronted with the danger of war with England
at this critical moment, that recognition of the Confederacy
might follow, resulting possibly in the permanent division of
the States and dissolution of the Union, the people, neverthe
less, stood firm and declared that the envoys should never be
given up. Congress passed a vote of thanks to Captain Wilkes ;
the Secretaries of War and Navy approved his act. Secretary
Seward at first also- opposed any concessions to the British
Government. And now shone out one of Mr. Lincoln's strong
traits of character. From the first he doubted the lawfulness
of the seizure, and the more he reflected the stronger became
his conviction that these emissaries must be given up. Amid
the popular clamor for their retention he stood thoughtful,
anxious, but with calm, determination to act with clue regard
for international law and for the highest interests of our
country. A weak man would have drifted with the strong
current of opinion though it might lead to war with England.
But Mr. Lincoln was not a weak man. His reply to his Cabinet
and to the people was: "Once we fought Great Britain for
doing just what Captain Wilkes has done. If Great Britain
protests against this act and demands their release, we must
adhere to our principles of 1812. We must give up these
prisoners. Besides, one war at a time." It is difficult at
this distance from the war period to realize what courage and
steadfastness were required to stem the popular tide at this
important juncture. Some idea of the strain put upon Mr.
Lincoln's character may come to you when I repeat the decla
ration of Senator John P. Hale of New Hampshire. "If," said
he, "this Administration will not listen to the voice of the
people, they will find themselves engulfed in a fire that will
consume them like stubble ; they will be helpless before a power
7

that will hurl them from their places." The sober judgment
of time has fully vindicated the wisdom of Lincoln's action at
this perilous crisis.
No phase of the Civil War like that of the slavery question
brought out more clearly the strength of Mr. Lincoln's charac
ter or showed in stronger light the dominant thought in his
mind which was the preservation of the Union.
The popular clamor was insistent and strong for the
immediate and unconditional abolition of slavery. General
Fremont in August, 1861, undertook to cut the Gordian knot
with the backing of his sword in Missouri. He issued a
proclamation of confiscation of rebel property, including the
liberation of slaves. Unwilling to rebuke Fremont, Mr. Lincoln,
in his kindly and conciliatory way, so characteristic of him,
wrote a letter asking General Fremont to modify his order and
pointing out the difficulty he was having in the border States
to maintain a loyal spirit. But Fremont was obdurate and
refused, believing, which was true, that the popular feeling
of the North was behind him. Mr. Lincoln was, in September,
1861, compelled to modify Fremont's proclamation and make
it conform to the Act of Congress and the rules of war. Later,
in May, 1862, he was compelled to revoke General Hunter's
proclamation of emancipation in the States of Georgia, Florida
and South Carolina, and in doing so proclaimed "that neither
General Hunter nor any other Commander has been authorized
by the Government of the United States to make proclamations
declaring slaves of any State free." And to settle the matter
he declared that he "reserved to himself the right to determine
whether it should become a necessity indispensable to the main
tenance of the Government to exercise the supposed power of
proclaiming emancipation of the slaves."
Mr. Lincoln's anxiety and embarrassment were greatly
increased by the attitude of General McClellan on this subject,
which brought out the suggestion from the impatient people
that McClellan was more anxious about the rights of the
slave-holders than for the prosecution of the war. Mr. Lincoln
was brutally criticised by political enemies in the North for
going too fast in the direction of the destruction of slavery
and on the other hand by his ardent and indiscreet friends
for his slowness in the same direction.
I* the summer of 1862 Mr. Greeley published an open
letter to the President m the New York Tribune which gave
expression to the prevalent feeling at the North for immediate
emancipation Mr. Lincoln seized upon the opportunity to
reply through the same medium. This letter is a fine example

of Mr. Lincoln's lucidity of expression as it also is of the
frankness and simplicity of his character. I hope you will bear
with me while I read a paragraph or two from this remarka
ble document. "As to the policy 'I seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I
have not meant to leave anyone in doubt. I would save the
Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the Con
stitution. * * * 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 slavery.
"If I could save the Union without, freeing any slaves,
I would do- it; if I could save it by freeing all of the slaves,
I would do it ; and if I could do 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 this Union ; and what I for
bear, I forbear because I do- not believe it would help to
save the Union. * * * I have here stated my purpose
according to my views of official duty, and I intend no modifi
cation of my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every
where could be free."
General Lee had achieved some notable successes and
flushed with victory, crossed the Potomac into- Maryland.
Lincoln was profoundly stirred. No border State had as yet
been invaded and Maryland was loyal. He had been contem
plating Emancipation early in 1862, but hesitated to proclaim
it. This last movement of the Rebel army settled the matter,
and he resolved if Lee was driven back the Proclamation should
issue. Lee's army was driven back into Virginia. South
Mountain and Antietam were fought on the 14th and 17th
of September, 1862. The Rebels were routed, broken in pieces,
and Maryland and Pennsylvania were saved. On the 22nd of
September Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation, which, at the
period of probation, January 1, 1863, was to strike the shackles
from millions of slaves, and which ultimately left not a single
bondsman on American soil. Henceforward the war assumed
a new aspect. It had thus far been waged to save the Union
with or without slavery. Now it was a war for the re-estab
lishment of the Union— the Union without slavery.
In the West, Belmont, Fort Donalson, Shiloh, and Pea
Ridge brought some ray of hope to- the heart of the President,
9

but he was being sorely tried by the vacillation, timidity and
open insubordination of McClellan, and by the failures of the
Generals who succeeded to the command of the splendid Army
of the Potomac. There are no more pathetic pages in American
history than those recounting the struggles of the President
to maintain relations of mutual amity and confidence between
himself and McClellan. If I could trespass upon your patience
by reading from Mr. Lincoln's correspondence at this period,
in his effort to induce McClellan to press the advantage he
had, you would see shining out the strong points in Lincoln's
character, and how with tearful reluctance he was finally
forced to retire McClellan from further military duty. These
were gloomy, depressing days for Lincoln, but amid all dis
couragements he never once faltered in his faith that ultimate
victory would crown our arms.
The year 1863 brought great anxiety to Lincoln and at
times he almost lost hope. Through many portions of the North
secret societies were forming in aid of the rebellious South.
General Burnside had issued his famous order giving notice
that all persons within his lines, including the State of Ohio,
who sho-uld be guilty of acts designed to assist the enemy,
would be arrested as traitors and spies, tried, and, if convicted,
be put to death.
Vallandingham, a prominent politician of that State, imme
diately denounced General Burnside's order and called upon
the people to resist. He was arrested, tried, convicted, by
Military Commission, and sentenced to imprisonment in Fort
Warren. The President changed the penalty to expulsion
through the Union lines into the. Rebel States. The Democrats
demanded his return and nominated him as their candidate
for Governor. To the deputation that visited Washington,
Mr. Lincoln said: "Your own attitude encourages desertion,
resistance to the draft, and the like, because it teaches those
who incline to- desert and to escape the draft, to believe it is
your purpose to protect them," and he added: "Must I shoot
a simple-minded soldier boy who deserts while I must not
touch a hair of the wily agitator who induces him to desert?
I think that, in such a case, to silence the agitator and save
the boy is not only Constitutional, but withal a great mercy."
Vallandingham was defeated at the polls by a Republican
majority of over 100,000.
Depressing as were the early days of 1863 with defeat
after defeat to our arms m the East, the clouds rolled by in
July, when on our Natal day the glorious Fourth was made
memorable and more glorious by the victories of Grant at
Vicksburg and Meade at Gettysburg. 10

Among the many trying experiences of the President none
were more vexatious than the jealousies and bickerings among
the officers of the army — especially the Army of the Potomac.
Even while Grant was successful in pushing his operations
on the Mississippi there were constant efforts to have him
superceded. The reply of Lincoln in this particular case is
one of the many evidences of his characteristic manner of
answering malcontents.
The trial and conviction of Fitz John Porter, one of
General McClellan 's favorites, for his failure to support General
Pope, who was being driven towards Washington by Jackson,
Longstreet and Lee, was one of the tragic episodes illustrating
the gangrene of jealousy and insubordination that was disinte
grating one of the finest armies ever assembled.
When the President placed General Hooker in command
he wrote this gallant officer a most remarkable letter. I can
not read it all to you, but I must read a paragraph. He said :
"I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to infuse
into the army, of criticising their commander and withholding
confidence from him, will now turn upon you. I shall assist
you as far as I can to put it down. Neither you nor Napoleon,
if he were alive again, could get any good out of an army
while such a spirit prevails in it. And now, beware of rash
ness." Knowing fighting Joe Hooker as he did, he repeated:
"Beware of rashness, but with energy and sleepless vigilance,
go forward and give us victories." The answer Hooker gave
at last was Chancellorville, with its appalling story of disaster.
On May 6th a dispatch came from General Hooker's Chief
of Staff stating that the army had safely recrossed the Rappa
hannock. The message was read aloud to Lincoln, who with
his eyes streaming with tears, cried out: "My God! My God!
what will the country say? What will the country say?"
Within an hour and in a pouring rain he and General Halleck
were on their way to the army by Acquia Creek.
Is it strange that he was uplifted by the great victories
of the succeeding July, or that he later found cause for discour
agement at the continued failures of that year to achieve
decisive results in the East and at the increasing spirit of
discontent among the peace-at-any-price patriots and the non-
combatants of the loyal No-rth ?
On July 18, 1864, the President issued a call for 500,000
men. At that time the draft was in force and he was a can
didate for re-election. He was besought by his Republican
friends to postpone the order in view of the strong resistance
to the draft. He was told that he was sacrificing every hope
11

of success at the polls by enforcing this drastic measure for
more troops. His reply was : ' ' What is the Presidency worth
to me, if I have no country?" and no persuasion could drive
him from his firm resolution.
The days were dark to Lincoln in the year 1864. Campaign
slanders were rife as usual, and among them that Mr. Lincoln
would, if defeated at the polls, devote the remainder of his
term to ruin the Government. Mr. Lincoln rarely replied to
such charges, but this touched a very tender and sensitive
spot. In a speech to some serenaders he took the opportunity
to meet these charges : "I am struggling to maintain the
Government, not to overthrow it," he said. "I am struggling
especially to- prevent others from overthrowing it. * * * In
the interval I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the
helm for the next voyage shall start with the best possible
chance to save the ship." Referring to the possible choice of
some one unfriendly to continuing the war, he said: "If they
should deliberately resolve to have immediate peace, even at
the loss of their country and their liberty, I have not the power
or the right to resist them." It was during these dark days
on August 26th that he wrote: "This morning, as for some
days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administra
tion will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so
co-operate with the President-elect as to save the Union between
the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his
election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it after
wards. ' ' He folded this paper so that it could not be read and
requested each member of the Cabinet to sign his name on
the reverse side.
In the end Mr. Lincoln's gloomy forebodings were wholly
dissipated. The Republicans elected 212 Presidential Electors
and the Democrats with McClellan as their champion, and a
platform declaring the war to be a failure, received but 21.
Mr. Lincoln refused to receive the news as evidence of his
personal triumph. He was absolutely dispassionate and imper
sonal in his political relationships and in his official action.
This trait in his character can find but few parallels in history.
An instance occurred upon the death of Chief Justice Taney,
October 12, 1864. Mr. Chase's friends at once named him
for the succession. Those of yon who have read the history
of those days will recall that Mr. Loncoln had little personal
reason for favoring Mr. Chase, who was known to have
intrigued to prevent his nomination <md secure it to himself-
who was known to have spoken contemptuously of Mr. Lincoln
and who sustained a sort of condescending and patronizino-
attitude towards his chief. Mr. Lincoln had strono- reasons
12

for favoring Montgomery Blair. But he put aside every other
consideration and appointed Mr. Chase, believing that he was
the best man for this great office.
When Congress assembled in December, 1864, the doom
of the Confederacy seemed certain. Victorious Grant had been
called to the leadership of all the armies of the Union, and
had fought his way through the wilderness amid frightful
slaughter and was beleaguring Petersburg, with the capture
of Richmond almost, assured in the near future. Sherman had
marched gaily through the heart of the South. Thomas had
broken Hood's army, which Sherman left in his rear. The
notorious destroyer, the Alabama, had been sunk by the
Kearsarge. The Shennandoah, the last of the Rebel privateers,
sailed into Liverpool, and was turned over by the British to
Federal officials. Lieutenant Gushing had, by a matchless and
daring stroke of gallantry, destroyed ihe Rebel ram Albermarle.
Fort "Fisher and Wilmington had fallen and Farragut had
bottled up Mobile Bay to blocade runners. With this hopeful
outloo-k Mr. Lincoln was nevertheless besieged by well-meaning
people in the North to enter upon some sort of negotiations
with the leader of the Rebellion. His message to Congress in
December is a masterful reply to those who entertained a
hope of settlement by a cessation of hostilities except upon
the terms demanded by the leader of the Rebellion. In his
message, Mr. Lincoln said: "He," (referring to Jefferson
Davis, whom he never mentioned by name, I believe, in any
State paper), "would accept nothing short of severance of the
Union — precisely what we will not and cannot give. His
declarations to this effect are explicit and oft-repeated. He
do-es not attempt to deceive us. He affords no excuse to deceive
ourselves. He cannot voluntarily reaccept the Union ; we can
not voluntarily yield it. Between him and us the issue is
distinct, simple and inflexible. It is an issue which can only
be tried by war, and decided by victory."
Notwithstanding these strong convictions, Mr. Lincoln
yielded to the persuasion of the peacemakers and consented
to send Mr. Seward to meet the Confederate Commissioners,
Messrs. Stephens, Campbell and Hunter, on January 31, 1865.
Mr. Davis had appointed them "with a view to secure peace
between the two countries," as he expressed it. Mr. Lincoln
refused to act until the last two words were stricken from the
instructions. Mr. Lincoln's memorandum to Mr. Seward
embraced three indispensable conditions :
First — The restoration of the National authority through
out all the States. Second — No backward step on the slavery
question. Third — No cessation of hostilities short of an end
13

of the war and the disbanding of all forces hostile 'to the
Government. Mr. Lincoln became uneasy at being represented
in so important a matter by any person, and he decided to go
himself. Then followed the famous Hampton Roads Conference.
Although historic, it came to nothing, as he expected. But
it brought out many interesting incidents. One of these illus
trates Mr. Lincoln's ready, wit. Mr. Lincoln took the position
that he co-uld not enter into any agreement with "parties in
arms against the Government." Mr. Hunter, one of the
Commissioners, to the contrary cited precedents "of this char
acter between Charles I of England and the people in arms
against him." Mr. Lincoln replied: "I do not profess to be
posted in history. On all such matters I will turn you over
to- Seward. All I distinctly recollect about the case of Charles I
is, that he lost his head. ' '
The fourth of March was approaching when for the second
time he was to address the people who had freely chosen him
as their leader. The black pall of war that had hovered over
the country for four years was rapidly passing away. The fury
of the Rebellion was fast subsiding into hopeless regrets and
heartburnings. Mr. Lincoln's inaugural address was a short but most
graphic statement of the then situation of our country as
compared with its condition in 1861, at his first inaugural.
One of Mr. Lincoln's biographers has truthfully said that this
speech has taken its place among the most famous of all writ
ten or spoken compositions in the English language. In parts
it has been compared with the lofty portions of the Old
Testament. In it we find exhibited the deep religious spirit
that pervaded the soul of Lincoln. I quote the closing passage :
"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty
scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills
that it continue until all the wealth piled up by the bondman's
two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk,
and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid
by another drawn by the sword, as was said three thousand
years ago, so still must it be said, 'the judgments of the Lord
are true and righteous altogether.' ' Then follows the oft-
quoted passage as exhibiting the great heart of Lincoln : "With
malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the
right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish
the work we are in; to bind up the Nation's wounds; to care
for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and
his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all Nations."
14

The Proclamation of Freedom embraced only slaves held
in States in rebellion ; it did not determine universal freedom
of the slaves throughout the Union. This was accomplished
by the thirteenth amendment. When proposed in 1864, the
House of Representatives refused to pass the joint resolution
by two-thirds majority. Mr. Lincoln insisted that the party
platform on which he was to stand should declare in no uncer
tain terms for emancipation, and so it did. On reassembling in
December, the House reconsidered the matter, and, with the
aid of Democratic votes, to the credit of that party be it said,
the resolution was passed. One after another of the States
not then in rebellion adopted the amendment, but Mr. Lincoln
died before enough States had acted to pass the amendment.
At the conclusion of the vote in the House of Representatives,
there arose an irrepressible outburst of triumphant applause.
Speaker Colfax vainly struggled to resume the regular order
of business, but the house adjourned "in honor of this immortal
and sublime event."
It was decreed that from the day of the second inaugura
tion Mr. Lincoln was to be given less than five weeks to live.
But he was to have the satisfaction of witnessing the crowning
glory of his Administration — the overthrow of rebellion, the re-
establishment of the Union, . and the extirpation of slavery
forever from our fair land. His last clays were filled with
anxious thoughts and with a full comprehension that the termi
nation of the war would bring with it new and profoundly
complex and difficult problems of government, He was now
about to enter upon the great work he foresaw in closing his
second inaugural address — "To finish the work we are in, to
bind up the Nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have
borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all
which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among
ourselves and with all Nations."
He was now about to realize the prophecy of his first
inaugural address when he said. "The mystic chords of
memory, stretching from 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 natures."
God be praised! Although Mr. Lincoln did not live to
see it, the day has come when the better angels of the natures
of all the American people have led them to swell the chorus
of the Union.
Mr. Lincoln, throughout all the rebellion, seemed to bear
upon his own shoulders and in his own heart, all the woes of
his people. I was on duty in the War Department from the
15

winter of 1862-3, and passed and repassed the Executive
Mansion almost daily to the close of the war. It was my
privilege to perform some services directly under his eye and
by his personal instruction. I saw him many, many times after
victories and after defeats ; when important legislation was
passing the crucible of opposition in Congress ; when political
cabals were forming to defeat his re-election ; when passionate
patriots were urging him to push the war with greater vigor;
when conservative half-hearted Republicans were begging him
to desist ; when well meaning but erratic friends were urging
him to compromise on any terms; when a great opposition
party in the North were resolving in National Convention that
the war was a failure ; when riots and revolts threatened to
stop further enlistments ; when the Knights of the Golden
Circle and other secret treasonable organizations were seeking
to undermine loyal sentiment and intimidate loyal men in loyal
States ; when a policy of reprisals was inaugurated in Rebel
prisons to starve Union soldiers to death ; when the long list
of the dead and the dying and the wounded Union soldiers
was laid before him from a hundred battlefields, — and, yet,
amid it all, he stood the one determined, hopeful, courageous
figure ; never doubting, never flinching, never hesitating, but
suffering as no man can know how it is to suffer.
I stood by his side at Gettysburg when he delivered that
marvelously beautiful tribute to the noble dead who lay at
his feet. I saw him when with clear and almost angelic voice
he turned his care-furrowed face toward the sky and uttered
those immortal lines, speaking as one inspired, and as though
in the very presence of the throne of God !
Let me repeat to you the golden words as they fell from
the lips of Lincoln on that solemn occasion:
"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth
on this continent a new Nation, conceived in liberty, and dedi
cated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now
we are engaged in a great Civil War, testing whether that
nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long
endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We
have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting
place for those who here gave their lives that that Nation might
live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot conse
crate, we cannot, hallow this ground. The brave men, living
and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above
our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note
nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget
what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be deci
le

cated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here
have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here
dedicated to the great task remaining before us; that from
these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause
for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that
we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in
vain ; that this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of
freedom ; and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
Here, everywhere, and always, he seemed to me to be
personifying the intense and awful strain of one standing for
a Nation and vicariously bearing its burdens.
I saw him, too, when the Rebel hosts had laid down their
arms ; when the glad tidings of peace were upon every tongue ;
and all the land was filled with rejoicings ; but even yet peace
had not come to him.
The great problems of reconstruction, the labor of building
up a stricken and devastated country, of bringing two great
warring regions into harmonious relations of peace and unity;
of restoring the Fiiion in the hearts of all the people ; all these
questions, this labor, were before him. For the moment he was
overjoyed, for the moment his mind and soul relaxed, but only
for the moment.
Unlike him in almost, every other respect, in this one
characteristic of unbending and unceasing devotion to the
restoration of the Union, absorbed and possessed by the awful
reality of the war and its consequences, I never knew but two
men like him ; one was his faithful and greatest Lieutenant,
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War ; and the other was Joseph
Holt, Judge Advocate-General of the Army.
It was a dreadful hour when the assassin struck down this
hero of heroes. The blow was given in the name of the
rebellion, but it was a blow that even rebellion disowned and
repudiated, for it was a blow portentous of evil to the South.
I am endeavoring, my young friends, to bring before you
something like an adequate picture of the man Lincoln as I
saw him and knew him. I cannot go further into incidents in
his life, so full of dramatic interest; with these indeed you are
familiar, for our histories are filled with them.
The conspicuous and dominant traits of his character and
mind as I would analyze them, were : Sagacity, Firmness,
Modesty, Patience, Magnanimity, Courage, Charity and
Loyalty. Lincoln was a sagacious man; his wisdom was broad,
penetrating, almost, infallibly discriminating. It embraced with
17

it also what we call in animals instinct, in men intuition,
inspiration. He made mistakes in men, though seldom, but
rarely in policies. His messages, correspondence, State papers
and speeches, show a wonderful mental acuteness and discern
ment. Firm as the granite hills where once his judgment was fully
satisfied and his sense of duty fully awakened, no man was
ever more considerate of the opinions of others or more eager
to obtain light from the counsels of those in whom he had
confidence. His patience and forbearance under great trial were so
pronounced and so conspicuous that he was often the victim
of persecution and even vitrification by those who mistook these
sublime traits for pusilanimity. A striking illustration is
found in his generous treatment of McClellan in the face of
gross disrespect shown by him of the President; and, in his
almost paternal kindness towards Horace Greeley, under cir
cumstances that would have warranted the severest measures
towards the one and the absolute withdrawal of all confidence
from the other.
He was as modest as he was magnanimous — indeed, these
two qualities lie in close companionship. An arrogant and
vain man cannot well be magnanimous. The natural kindness
and gentleness of Lincoln's heart brought him into close sympa
thy with the people ; kept him from building up a wall between
him and them, and fostered and developed these two qualities
of modesty and magnanimity into prominent characteristics.
Of his courage that high moral development that distin
guishes a man from a lion — he gave the highest evidence. He
showed it in his emancipation of Southern slaves and putting
hostile arms in their hands and making them soldiers of the
Union ; he showed it in sustaining officers against public clamor
for their removal; and in removing officers whom the public
demanded should be retained ; he showed it in daring to differ
with Congress in the reconstruction of Louisiana and Arkansas,
when sturdy Ben Wade and hot-headed Henry Winter Davis,
both in Congress, appealed to the country in a manifesto that
denounced the President as guilty of dictatorial usurpation:
in a hundred ways he displayed this striking characteristic of
high moral courage.
His charity was as broad as the human race. It was the
charity of the Apostle. Paul — "that envieth not; that vaunteth
not itself; is not puffed up ; thinketh no evil ; beareth all things :
believeth all things; enolureth all things." This striking
feature of his character is seen in the concluding paragraph
18

of his second inaugural address, March 4, 1865, which I have
read to you, where he speaks "with malice towards none, with
charity for all."
But the crowning glory of this man's character, viewing
him only in his relation to the great work before him, was his
deep, intense and all-pervading sentiment of loyalty to the
Union. The one great purpose that possessed his soul was the
desire to preserve the Union. This was manifest always and
everywhere. It ran like a golden thread through all his policies,
through all his messages, through all his addresses, through
all his sincere but futile efforts to effect a peace by compromise.
It was the one thought paramount to all others. So profound
was this feeling that even as late as in August, 1862, and while
he was pressed to issue his proclamation of emancipation, and
only one month before he actually did promulgate it, he would,
had it been necessary, have restored the Union with its Con
stitutional protection over slavery.
The possible success of Rebellion and the dissolution of
the Union were to him the knell of Republican Government
throughout the earth. Rather than this he would see African
slavery fight its way to freedom by the sure though prolonged
processes of moral evolution, and the march of progressive
ideas that must in time have wrought out the problem of
universal manumission.
This is Lincoln as he was manifested to me, and as I still
see him — a grand and noble man. Since the coming of the
Savior of mankind the human race has been blessed by no other
so great a benefactor.
There can be no doubt, there never will arise a doubt in
the ages to come, that ABRAHAM LINCOLN was the most
heroic, the most exalted character in American history.

Note — Having received so many calls for a copy of this
address I have had a limited number reprinted.
San Francisco, Cal. N. P. C.
972 Bush St.
August 7, 1922. 19

H. S. CROCKER CO., INC.
SACRAMENTO, CALIF.

YALE UNIVERSITY