YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

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THE HISTORY

OF

ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

AND

THE OVEHTHROW OE SLAVERY.

By ISAAC N. ARNOLD,
LATE MBMBEB OF CONOEESS PEOM II.I/INOIS.

CHICAGO:
OLABKE & CO., PUBLISHERS.
1866.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1866,
By CLARKE & CO.,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Northern
District of Illinois.

PEINIED AND BOOHD BT OHiCAao TYPE foundry:
THE WESTEEN
Book Mannfaotnimg Comp'y J. CONAHAN,
OHIGAOO. BTEMOIYPIR.

DEDICATION.

TO THE
MEMBERS OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND THE SENATORS

COMPOSINO THE

IHIRTY-SEVENTH AND THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS

U>fITED STATES.

Gentlemen : To you, in commemoration of many friendships which
will be ever cherished, of an association which will ever be held in grateful
recollection, and as an expression of my high appreciation of the
patriotism, constancy, love of liberty, wisdom, and statesmanship, which,
by your legislation and influence, contributed so largely to redeem and
save the Eepublic, L desire respectfully to dedicate this work. It was
your privilege to occupy a responsible position at the most critical period
of our history. Under the lead of the Great Martyr whose work, with
yours, I have on these pages attempted to record, you have rendered
great service to our country. Those vast armies, whose victorious cam
paigns extended over half a continent; that great navy, which has
made the United States " Mistress " at least of the Western " Seas ;"
that system of finance which has carried us, unaided by foreign loans,
through the late stupendous war, were all created and sustained by youi

IV DEDICATION.
But more than all, above all, that ever treasonable, cruel and barbar
ous institution of slavery, has been " overthrown '' by the President,
aided and seconded by you. It was for you to abolish forever, slavery
at the National Capital; to prohibit it throughout all the Territories; to
repeal the Fugitive Slave Laws; to put the sword into the hand of the
slave, that he might achieve liberty for himself, his family, and his race ;
and it was for you to crown all by the Constitutional amendment, abol
ishing and prohibiting slavery throughout the Republic. You stood
close and ever faithful to our great National Leader, during his event
ful administration; and by your aid he was enabled to maintain the
integrity of the Nation; to establish National unity based on universal
liberty. Although many of you did not at first fully understand or appreciate
the great, pure, honest, hng-Tieaded Statesman from the West, yet before
he was so mysteriously removed, you had learned to love, honor, and
respect him. His deeds and yours I have, attempted on these pages to
record. How imperfect the execution of the work, none can more
fully appreciate than the author.
I have quoted from your debates far less than I TOuld have done,
had space permitted. Of many of those from whose speeches my limits
did not permit me to quote, I can only say, that, if what is given shall
direct attention to those rich mines of eloquence and statesmanship to
be found in those volumes of the Gongressional Globe, which contain
the complete records of your speeches and transactions, they who shall
study those volumes will be richly compensated.
In looking over your records, I recall the names of many who left the
forum for the camp and battle-field. Among others there were Logan,
Blair, McClemand, Fouke, Marston, Van Wyok, Divin, McKean,
Curtis, Vandever, Dunn, and Baker, the martyred Senator.
And in running over the old roll-call of the Senate, I miss the
names of the jovial, honest, and true Preston King; of those crave
learned, and able Senators from Vermont, Jacob CoUamer and Solomon
Foote ; and of the genial Kinsley S. Bingham, of Michigan, and Governor
Hicks, the Senator from Maryland, all of whom now sleep in death.
Of the members of the .House who have been thus removed there
were Bailey, of Massachusetts, Gurley, of Ohio, Hanchot, of Wisconsin

DEDICATION. V
Noell, of Missouri; and to these must be added the names of Owen
Lovejoy, the pioneer Abolitionist of Illinois, and the venerable John <f.
Crittenden ; and who of us, that so often hung with delight upon his
fervid eloquence, can ever forget the scholar, and genius of the House,
Henry Winter Davis ?
The work of crushing the rebellion and overthrowing slavery was
consummated, with your assistance, by Abraham Lincoln. Had he
lived, the work of reconstruction and reconciliation might now have been
in good part accomplished. He knew so well how to temper justice with
mercy, " with malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness
in the right as God gave him to see the right, he would have bound up
the Nation's wounds," and achieved and cherished " a just and lasting
peace among ourselves and with all nations." He fell a martyr to liberty,
and his death has thrown heavier, graver responsibilities upon the
American Congress. Tet when I see so many of the old leaders of the
Senate and the House still at their posts, still enjoying the well earned
confidence of the American people, I cannot doubt, but that which
Lincoln began, they will consummate. With prayers for your complete
success, I subscribe myself, Very Eespectfully Yours,
ISAAC N. ARNOLD.

CONTENTS.

PAGE.
Introduction  17

CHAPTER I.
SLAVERY PROM 1788 TO THE COMPROMISE MEASURES OP 1850.
Opinions of the Fathers upon Slavery — Ordinance of 1787 — Early
Abolition Societies — Slavery Abolished in the New England
States, New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey — Cotton and
Slavery — Location of Capital at Washington — Fugitive Slave
Law of 1793 — Admission of Tennessee, Alabama and Missis
sippi, as Slave States — Purchase of Louisiana and Florida — Mis
souri Compromise — Seminole War — Annexation of Texas —
Mexican War — Wilmot Proviso — California — Anti-Slavary Con
vention — Suppression of Right of Petition — John Quincy
Adams — Judge Hoar's Mission — Abolition, Liberty and Free-
Soil Parties — Compromise Measures of 1850  25
CHAPTER n.
REPEAL OP THE MISSOURI' COMPROMISE AND THE STRUGGLE POR
KANSAS.
The Thirty-third Congress — ^Douglas Introduces the Kansas-Ne
braska Bill — Debate upon it in the Senate — Douglas — Chase —
Seward — Sumner — Toombs — Mason — Hunter — Slidell — Houston
— Passage of the Bill — Struggle over its Passage in the House
of Representatives — Benton — Richardson — Campbell-— Wash
burne — Stephens of Georgia — Passage of the Bill through the
House— Struggle Between Free and Slave State Men for Kansas
— General Atchison — John Brown — Lane and Robinson  48

viii CONTENTS.
CHAPTER m.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
FAOB.
Lincoln's Early Life, and Education— His Mother— He Volunteers
for the Black Hawk War— Postmaster— Mode of Keeping Gov
ernment Funds— A Surveyor — Elected to the Legislature —
Studies Law — His Protest Against Slavery — Lincoln at the Bar
—Early Illinois Courts— His Mode of Trying Cases— Accepts a
Challenge— Pleads the Case of the Negro Girl "Nance"— In
Congress — His Bill to Abolish Slavery — His Practice at the
Bar  67
CHAPTER IV.
LINCOLN AND SLAVERY PROM 1854 TO 1858.
Lincoln and Douglas Debate at Springfield, 1855 — At Peoria —
Election of Trumbull to the Senate — Reorganization of Parties
on the Slavery Issue — The Republican Party — Presidential Elec
tion of 1856 — Margaret Garner — Brooks' Assault on Sumner —
Lincoln's Hatred of Slavery — ^Buchanan — Kansas — Lecompton^
Douglas — The Dred Scott Case — Slavery Dominant, and its
Effects upon the Republic  89
CHAPTER V.
LINCOLN PROM 1857 TO 1860 — THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATES.
Lincoln's Nomination for the Senate — His Springfield Speech —
Lincoln Challenges Douglas to Joint Discussion — Douglas
Accepts — The Debate  ,  112
CHAPTER VI.
PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OP 1860 — ELECTION OP LINCOLN, AND CUL
MINATION OP THE CONSPIRACY TO DISSOLVE THE UNION.
The Charleston Convention — Douglas — Secessionists Break up the
Convention — Adjourn to Baltimore and Richmond — Douglas
and Breckinridge Nominated — '' Americans" Nominate Bell and
Everett — The Chicago Convention — The Wigwam — Seward —

CONTENTS. IX
PAGE.
Lincoln — The Nomination — The Canvass — The " Wide-Awakes"
— Position of Parties on the Slavery Question — Lincoln Elected
— Conspiracy to Dissolve the Union — Preparations of the Con
spirators — The North Disarmed  140

CHAPTER vn.
PROGRESS OP THE CONSPIRACY — PROM THE ELECTION OP LINCOLN TO
HIS ARRIVAL AT WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY, 1861.
The Conspiracy Extending — Administration of Buchanan — General
Scott — General Cass — Action of Congress in Winter of 1860-61
— Committee of Thirty-three — Peace Convention — Report of
Adams — Secret Meetings of the Conspirators at the Capitol —
Seven States Secede, and Organize a Provisional Government —
Jefferson Davis — ^Rebellion Without Excuse — Slavery the Cor-
ner-Stone of the Confederacy — Counting Electoral Votes by Con
gress — ^Lincoln Leaves Springfield for Washington — His Journey
— ^Assassination Plot-r-His Arrival  156
CHAPTER vm.
LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE.
Lincoln's Inauguration and Inaugural — Douglas and his Prophecy
— Lincoln's Cabinet — Condition of Affairs on the 4th of March,
1861— Benjamin F. Butler's Position— The " Prodigal Son "  173

CHAPTER IX.
FROM THE 4th OP MARCH TO THE 4tH OP JULY, 1861 — FROM THE IN
AUGURATION OP LINCOLN TO THE MEETING OF CONGRESS.
PAGE.
The Rebels send Commissioners to Washington — Position of the
Border States— The Rebels Begin the War— Attack on Sumter
—Danger of Washington— President's Call for 75,000 Men-
Douglas Supports Lincoln— Uprising of the People— Murder of
Massachusetts Soldiers— Response of Border States to Call for
Troops— The Northwest— Virginia, Tennessee, Maryland— Henry

X CONTENTS. PAGE.
Winter Davis— The Clay Guards— Missouri— Blockade of Seced
ing States— Calls for Additional Troops— Rebels Seize Harper's
Ferry and Gosport Navy Yard— Death of Ellsworth- Great
Britain and France Recognize the Rebels as Belligerents— Lee
and Benedict Arnold— Death of Douglas  186
CHAPTER X.
EXTRA SESSION QP CONGRESS— CIVIL ^POLICY AND MILITARY EVENTS
TO THE CLOSE OP 1861.
Congress — ^President's Message — Action of Congress — Baker's Ee
ply to Breckenridge — Andrew Johnson — Denounces Davis — The
Rebel Leaders — Prominent Senators and Members — Sumner,
Baker, Fessenden and others — ^jStevens, Colfax, Lovejoy and
others — Bill to Confiscate the Property and Free the Slaves of
Rebels — The Army not to Return Fugitive Slaves — Crittenden's
Resolution — Bull Run — McClellan in Command — Fremont —
His Emancipation Order — Letter of Holt — President Modifies
the Order — His Reasons — Cameron's Instruction to Sherman in
South Carohna — Military Movements in the Fall of 1861 —
Death of Lyon— Ball's Bluff— Death of Baker— Behnont— The
Trent Affair — Arrest of the Maryland Legislature  214
CHAPTER XI.
SECOND SESSION THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS — CONGRESS OP 1862.
President's Message — Report of Secretary of War — Modified by
the President — Stanton Succeeds Cameron — Anti-Slavery
Measures — Article of War Prohibiting the Return of Fugitive
Slaves — Slavery Abolished at the Capital — Prohibited in all the
Territories — Negro Soldiers^Military Orders in Regard to
Slaves — Hunter's Negro Regiments in South Carolina — ^Wick-
liffe's Eesolution — Hunter's Eeply — ^Bill to give Freedom to the
Families of Negro Soldiers  244
CHAPTER xn.
CONFISCATION AND EMANCIPATION.
Bill to Confiscate the Property and Emancipate the Slaves of Re
bels — Action of the Senate — Of the House — Speech of Critten
den — Eeply of Lovejoy — Wade, of Ohio — Sedgwick — Passage

CONTENTS. si
f, . . PAGE.
of the Bill — Joint Resolution Explanatory thereof — President's
Message — Elliott's Emancipation Resolution — President's Mes
sage Recommending Gradual and Compensated Emancipation —
Hunter's Order Freeing Slaves in South Carolina, etc — Lincoln
Declares it Unauthorized — His Address to Border State Delega
tion in Congress  272

CHAPTER xm.
THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION.
Emancipation Demanded by the Free States — Letter of Mr. Gree
ley — Lincoln's Reply — Interview with Chicago Clergy — Appeal
of the Friends of Freedom — Mr. Lincoln Reads the Proclama
tion to his Cabinet — Issued on the 22d of September — After the
Battle of Antietam — ^Incidents Connected with it — How Re
ceived  283

CHAPTER XIV.
MILITARY OPERATIONS OP 1862.
Inactivity of McClellan — President's Order for a General Advance
— Active Operations in the West — ^Battle of Middle Creek — Mill
Spring-T-Capture of Forts Henry and Donelson — Mitchell's
March to Bowling Green — Union Troops Occupy Nashville —
Capture of Ronoake Island and Newbern — Pea Ridge — ^New
Madrid — Island Number Ten — Shiloh — Corinth — Capture of
New Orleans  306
CHAPTER XV. I
THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MC CLELLAN — THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST
RICHMOND. ,
The Army of the Potomac — McClellan's Inaction — Plan of the
Campaign — The Monitor and the Merrimac — Yorktown — ^Wil
liamsburg — The Chickahominy — The President Urges Action —
Norfolk Taken — McDowell at Fredericksburg — Stonewall Jack
son's Campaign Down the Valley — Battle of Fair Oaks — Lee in
Command — Mechanicsville — Gaines' Mills, etc — To the James —
Malvern Hill — Harrison's Landing  320

Xll CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XVI.
MILITARY OPERATIONS TO THE CLOSE OP 1862 — ^POPE — MC CLELLAN —
BURNSIDE. PAGE
General Pope Assumes Command of the Army of Virginia — His
Address — Lee Attempts to Overwhelm Him — McClellan Ordered
to Join Pope — His Delay — Ordered to Hasten — He Lingers —
Pope Overwhelmed by Numbers and Driven Back to Washing
ton — Is Relieved — McClellan Again in Command — Lee Crosses
into Maryland — McClellan Pursues — Battles of South Mountain
— Antietam — ^President Visits the Army — Urges McClellan to
Attack — McClellan Delays — He is Relieved of Command — Fail
ure — Burnside — ;Fredericksburg — Movements in the West — Bat
tle of Perryville — Corinth — Vicksburg — Stone River  342
CHAPTER xvn.

THIRD SESSION THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.
President's Message, December, 1862 — Proposal to Aid Missouri in
Emancipation — Bill Authorizing Enrolling Colored Troops —
Enrollment Bill — Debate in Senate and House — Bingham — Cox
— Dunn — Thomas — Senator Wilson — McDougall — Admission of
West Virginia — Debate— Maynard — Stevens — Bingham —
Thomas — Admission of Members from Louisiana — War Powers
of the Government — Arbitrary Arrests — Vallandigham — Lin
coln's Reply to Albany Meeting — Habeas Corpus — Close of
Thirty-seventh Congress — Speaker G row's Valedictory  368

CHAPTER xvm.

THE CAMPAIGNS OP 1863 — VICKSBURG — GETTYSBURG.
Plan of the Campaign — The Opening of the Mississippi — Arkansas
Post — Grant's Campaign Against Vicksburg — Grierson's Raid 
Port Hudson — Chancellorville — Lee Invades Maryland — Meade
— Gettysburg — The Gettysburg Cemetery — Everett's Oration —
Lincoln's Address  393

CONTENTS. Xlll
CHAPTER XIX.
MILITARY OPERATIONS AND EVENTS TO CLOSE OF 1863. PAGE.
Results of Gettysburg Victory — ^Lee's Retreat — Attempt to Recap
ture Fort Donelson — Chattanooga — Chickamauga — Grant As
sumes Command of Ohio, Tennessee, and the Cumberland — Bat
tles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge — Sherman Re
lieves Nashville — Operations Against Charleston — Massacre at
Lawrence — ^The Draft Riots in New York — Negro Soldiers —
Retaliation — Lincoln's Letter to Illinois — Elections of 1863  425
CHAPTER XX.
FIRST SESSION OF THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS — 1863-4.
President's Message — Repeal of Fugitive Slave Laws — Pay of Col
ored Soldiers — Freedom Given to their Families — Constitutional
Amendment Abolishing and Prohibiting Slavery throughout the
Republic — Debates upon it in the Senate and in the House  442
CHAPTER XXI.
RECONSTRUCTION — FEEEDMEN'S BUREAU  CENSURE OP HARRIS AND
LONG.
Reconstruction — Amnesty — Henry Winter Davis' Bill — Question
of Admission of Senators from Arkansas — Freedmen's Bureau —
Speech of Brooks — ^Expulsion of Long — Censure of Harris —
Speech of Winter Davis  470
CHAPTER xxn.
SANITARY AND CHRISTIAN COMMISSIONS — PRESIDENTIAL CONVEN
TIONS IN 1864 — EMANCIPATION IN THE BORDER STATES.
Sanitary and Christian Commissions — Baltimore and Philadelphia
Fairs — The Presidency — Baltimore Convention — Lincoln Nom
inated — Chicago Convention— McClellan Nominated — Chase Re
signs — Fessenden Appointed Secretary — Lincoln's Views upon
Reconstruction — Emancipation in Louisiana, Maryland and Mis
souri  ^^^

xiv CONTENTS.
CHAPTER xxm.
grant's CAMPAIGN OP 1864.
PAGE.
Grant Appointed Lieutenant-General— His Plans— The Military
Situation — Banks' Expedition to Red River — Massacre at Fort
Pillow — Confederate Weakness — The Armies of Grant and Lee
— Battles of the Wilderness — Spottsylvania — Cold Harbor, etc —
Butler's Movement on the James River — Grant Crosses the
James — Movements in the Valley of the Shenandoah — Hunter's
Campaign — ^Petersburg Invested — The Mine Explosion — Sheri
dan in the Shenandoah — His Ride — His Victories  518

CHAPTER XXIV.
Sherman's Atlanta campaign, and grand march to the sea.
Sherman's Advance on Atlanta — Bishop Polk Killed — McPherson
Killed — Sherman takes Atlanta — Correspondence Between Sher
man and Hood, and Sherman and the Mayor of Atlanta — Hood's
Army Marches North, and is Defeated at Nashville^-Sherman's
Grand March to the Sea — He takes Fort McAUister, and Savan
nah — The Alabama — Mobile Captured — The Niagara Falls Con
ference — The Presidential Election  538

CHAPTER XXV.
THE SECOND SESSION OP THE THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS — CONSTITU
TIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING AND PROHIBITING SLAVERY
THROUGHOUT THE REPUBLIC.
The President's Message — Anti-Slavery Measures — A Bust for.
Chief Justice Taney — Salmon P. Chase Appointed Chief Jus
tice — The Constitutional Amendment — Passage of the Joint
Resolution Through Congress — Ratification Thereof by the
States  5fi2

CONTENTS. XV
CHAPTER XXVL
THE THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS — TO ITS CLOSE.
PAGB.
The Freedmen's Bureau Bill — Rebellious States not to Vote in the
Electoral College — Reconstruction — Treatment of Union Pris
oners — Rebel Prisoners — Attack of Brooks upon Butler— His
Vindication by Boutwell and Stevens— Close of the Thirty-
eighth Congress — Valedictory of Speaker Colfax  594
CHAPTER XXVIL
LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION — THE END OP THE WAR.
Fort Fisher — ^Peace Conference — Wilmington and Goldsboro Taken
— ^Rebels Resolve to Arm the Negro — Columbus, S. C, Captured .
— Charleston Falls — Second Inauguration of Lincoln — He Goes
to Grant's Headquarters — Military Conference — Sheridan at Five
Forks — An Assault Along the Whole Line — Petersburg and
Richmond Evacuated — Lee Surrenders to Grant — Johnston Sur
renders to Sherman — All Rebel Armies Surrender — The Presi
dent at Richmond — Returns to Washington — The Grand Review
of the Annies  -  614
CHAPTER xxvm.
COST OP THE WAR — LINCOLN'S "POLICY" — HIS ASSASSINATION-
FUNERAL — THE GRIEF OF THE PEOPLE.
Number of Troops Furnished by the Several States — Cost in Men
and Money of the War — Colored Troops — Lincoln's " Policy" —
His Views of the Powers of Congress Over the Rebellious States
— No Right to Vote in the Electoral College — Loyalty Should be
the Basis of Reconstruction — Lincoln's Views of Negro Suffrage
— Faith Must be Kept with the Negro Race — The Assassination
— Funeral — National Grief.  646
CHAPTER XXIX.
Abraham Lincoln   674

XVI CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XXX.
THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OP THE WAR.
PAGE.
The War Powers of the Qovernment — The Right to Treat the Con
federates as Public Enemies — The Habeas Corpus, Who May
Suspend it — The Right to Emancipate Slaves in Time of War —
To Establish Military Governments Over Rebellious and BelU-
gerent Territory — The Legal Status of Rebellious States — Judi
cial Decisions — May Conditions be Imposed upon Rebellious
States, before being Permitted to Participate in the Government
— And by What Power — Who Must Determine Whether a State
Government is Republican in Form — What has been Settled by
the War   .^  691

INTRODUCTION.

rpHE author of this book was a deeply interested observer, and in an
-¦- humble way as member of Congress from Illinois, an actor during
the administration of Abraham Lincoln ; and he had the honor of
enjoying his friendship, for twenty years previous to his election as
President. This work was begun during his life, and the author was honored and
encouraged to go forward in its preparation by his approval. He trusts
he may without vanity, hope to have contributed something of perma
nent value to the record (hereafter to be fully made up) of the last six
most eventful years.
If he has been able to aid to any extent, the American people to a
better understanding, and to a fuller and more just appreciation of the
moral and intellectual character of Mr. Lincoln, and the means by
which slavery has been overthrown and the slaveholders' rebellion
subdued, he wiU be amply rewarded for the labor bestowed.
In regard to the truthfulness and impartiality of the work, the author
will only say that, while acknowledging frankly that all his convictions
and sympathies have been with the cause of liberty and loyalty, he has
not, consciously, done injustice to any.
The great struggle between liberty and slavery in the United States,
substantially terminated with the martyrdom of Abraham Lin
coln. The blow of the assassin which struck down the great apostle of
freedom, was the last, malignant, expiring effort of slavery. The shot
2 17

18 introduction.
which pierced the heart of Lovejoy at Alton, Illinois, and that which
penetrated the brain of Lincoln, were alike aimed by that institu
tion. The eradication of slavery from the republic was made certain by
the death of the Great Emancipator.
It seems a fit occasion to pause at the end of this great drama, to
look back over the record of the conflict, to recall the leading events
which have marked its history; to do proper honor and justice to the
great actors, and, especially, to trace the life and career of the greatest
hero of the drama, by whose wisdom, fidelity to principle, truth, single
ness of purpose, and boldness, the triumph of freedom has been
accomplished. The experiment of self-government in North America was, up to the
period of the great slaveholders' rebellion, a most wonderful success.
The settlement, growth, advance, union, independence and consolidation
of the United States ; the establishment, by the people, of a represen
tative national government, and the rapid advance of the nation, up to
the period of the civil war, have had no parallel in history. For nearly
ninety years succeeding Independence, the career of the nation was a
rapid course of prosperity and happiness. Freedom, general education,
with security for person and property, developed and stimulated ;in
industry, enterprise and energy, which produced results which outrun
the calculations of all the political economists.
The population of the United States which, at the time of its recog
nition by Great Britain in 1783, was less than three millions, in 1800,
had reached and exceeded thirty millions. Thirteen sparsely settled
states, stretching along the Atlantic coast, multiplied to thirty-three,
bordering all the great inland seas ; and organized society, crossing the
great Father of Waters, found a pathway over the Rocky Mountains,
and planted great states on the golden shores of the Pacific. This vast
territorial area was being welded, connected and entwined together by a
network of innumerable railways, telegraph lines, navigable rivers roads
and canals, into one great national unity. The school-house, the church
the newspaper, the library, the academy, the college and university, fol
lowed close upon the heels of the pioneer, bringing the means of intel
lectual and moral culture to every child. Labor was liberally rewarded ;
the emigrant from every clime was welcomed, — there was food and land

introduction. 19
enough for all. Meanwhile, the nation, respected abroad, its growth a
wonder, — the land of hope and promise to the poor of every clime, —
was looked upon by the friends of liberty and civilization, as demon
strating man's ability, safely, wisely, and judiciously, to administer the
government. But there was one anomaly — one great disease preying
upon the body politic — African slavery. This brought upon this
otherwise happy country, the desolation and suffering of a five years'
bloody civU war.
That has now passed away, and we are entering upon a new era ; a
destiny now dawns upon us of a great continental republic, freed from
slavery, and based upon the grand idea of human liberty; recognizing
God as the common Father, and the universal brotherhood of man.
I shall attempt to write a history of this conflict. There is no sub
limer page in human progress, than that which I humbly attempt to
record : the history of Abraham Lincoln, and the overthrow of
Slavery in the United States. Preliminary and introductory to that
history, I propose to give a rapid sketch of the "irrepressible con
flict" between freedom and slavery, from 1789 down to 1860; the
antagonism between liberty and slavery, so clearly stated by Mr. Lin
coln, in his Springfield speech, of June, 1858: "'A house divided
against itself cannot stand.' I believe this government cannot endure
permanently, half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to
be dissolved, I do not expect the house to fall, but I do expect 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 will rest in the belief that it is in
course of ultimate extinction, or its advocates will push it forward,
until it becomes alike lawful in all the states, old as well as new. North
as well as South."
Slavery was ever the only seriously dangerous cause of division among
the states. The people of our country were essentially one, with a com
mon Anglo-Saxon lineage, a common religion ; one in language, one in
literature, and one in law and history. That portion of earth called the
United States, is well adapted by physical conformation, to be the home
of one national family, and not of many. Remove slavery, and the
people would gravitate into a homogeneous nationality.

20 introduction.
This antagonism, between free and slave labor, produced a great con
flict of ideas, fierce, earnest, and violent; at last in 1861, it became a
tremendous conflict, both of ideas and of arms; a conflict of thoughts
and principles, of laws and constitutional enactments, as well as of vast
armies; a conflict, the magnitude of which has no parallel in past
history. I shall attempt, rapidly, to describe this conflict, as it exhibited itself
in Legislatures, and in the Halls of Congress, in the forums of courts,
through the mighty modern engines of the press, on the stump, in the
great arena of political conventions, and in the pulpit, and among the
people. I shall follow it from the triumph of the slave power in the
admission of the slave state of Missouri, to the triumph of free labor,
in the admission of the free states of California and Oregon. I shall
sketch the desperate and flerce struggle between freedom and slavery for
Kansas; the first clashing there, by the belligerent forces, of the weapons
of material war ; the Sharpe's rifles of New England against the bowie-
knives of the border-rufiians ; the speeches of Beecher, Phillips
and Sumner, against those of Atchison, Toombs and Mason.
I shall attempt to describe the prominent appearance, upon the polit
ical arena, in June, 1858, of Abraham Lincoln, the great leader, who
thereafter was, so far as man could do it, to "guide the whirlwind and
direct the storm." The prominent position of this great statesman of
the West, will require that at this part of the record, I should pause,
and enquire what had been the training and culture of this influential
leader; what his preparation; and what manner of man this was, that
so quietly and so gently, and yet so firmly grasped the helm, and
directed the ship of state in accordance with public sentiment.
I shall describe the early life of Lincoln; his career in Congress,
on the stump, and at the bar. I shall sketch his great intellectual
combat with Douglas in 1858; his wonderful power over the people;
his nomination for, and election to, the presidency.
I shall then enter upon the great object of my work; the history,
executive and legislative, of the administration of Lincoln, and of
the progressive steps which resulted in the overthrow of slavery in tho
United States. I shall narrate how this inexperienced, but vigorous
statesman, with little knowledge of men and cf affairs, guided by a

introduction. 21
constant sense of duty, taking for his political compass and guide the
great principle of the Declaration of Independence, " that all men are
created equal," reposing unwavering faith and confidence in the
people; and, with unshaken fidelity to national union based on freedom,
never for a moment forgetting his responsibility to God; — how this self-
made, self-educated man of the prairies, rising from the humblest posi
tion, simple, pure, humble, but firm, perfectly honest and truthful ; how
he was enabled to guide and control the government through this most
stupendous civil war, to complete success; how he triumphed over all
enemies; how he conquered the fierce rage and rancor of opposing
factions and parties; how he subdued the prejudices of enemies, and
forced the oftimes reluctant respect of other nations; how he organized
and held together all the loyal people of the nation against its foes, and
triumphed over, or healed all rivalries and divisions among his own po
litical friends; composed the quarrels and jealousies of rival generals;
triumphed over all the enemies of his country; securing ever the love
and confidence of the people; crushing the power and machinations
of rebels and traitors; restoring national unity; — and crowned his
glorious hfe by becoming the emancipator and savior of his country.
This grand career, this great drama, of which Lincoln is the leading
spirit, is my theme. I shall trace events through these terrible convul
sions, and truthfully exhibit Lincoln, always calm, sagacious, inflexible,
with a prophetic faith, seeing, hoping for, and comprehending the end
from the beginning. This man, who " with malice towards none, with
charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gave him to see the
right;" this man to whom, under Providence, was given the sublime
mission to save his country, to emancipate a race, and to restore, or
rather reestablish and consolidate unity, based on liberty to all ; this
man, — his deeds, his services, — I shall attempt truthfully to delineate.
I shall also record the deeds of his able and efficient helpers, in the
cabinet, in Congress, in the field, at the head of the press, and in pri
vate life. But the people themselves were above all leaders ; and
it was their energy, and patriotism, and self-denial, which saved the
republic. This young, enthusiastic and energetic people, themselves improvised
armies, the numbers of which had no parallel; their ingenuity, industry

22 introduction.
and invention, supplied arms, subsistence, and the material of war.
By an intelligent knowledge of their resources, and of their country ;
by confidence in themselves, by severe taxation self-imposed, by an un
selfish liberality, which literally placed the men, and the wealth, and the
credit of fhe nation at the disposal of the government, they crushed
this stupendous rebellion. This record of the deeds of this people I shall
attempt to write, and to show that a government "of the people, by the
people, for the people," is the strongest and most efiicient, as well as the
most benign and magnanimous of all governments. It will be seen by
the student, that under the guidance of Lincoln, the nation passed
through the convulsions of this war, and retained intact the old, time-
honored safeguards of individual liberty and security. They have come
out of the contest in the full enjoyment of an independent judiciary,
the Jiabeas corpus, trial by jury, liberty of speech, and freedom of the
press. In tracing these eventful pages, we shall see the American
navy, from a small and comparatively feeble beginning, rise to become,
unquestionably, the most formidable naval power on earth. Our fleets
of iron-clads, gun-boats and vessels of war, surpassing those of Great
Britain, our great rival in maritime power, and so long the mistress
of tha seas.
From a little nucleus of an army of fifteen thousand soldiers, we have
become a military power, counting our trained fighting men by the
million. The battle-fields of these four years of war, to which space
will permit only brief and passing description, in the numbers engaged,
in the sad list of killed and wounded, and in the terrible engines of
destruction used, far surpass Blenheim, Leipsic, and Waterloo, and all the
famous battle-fields of the Old World; and the soldiers and officers en
gaged, (truth compels us to say, on both sides,) exhibited a valor, courage,
endurance, skill and heroism, unsurpassed by any naval or military
conflicts in ancient or modern times.
It will be my duty, faithfully, to write the blackest, as well as the
brightest page in history. The treason, perjury, and conspiracy of the
rebel leaders, who, without one single, real substantial grievance, sought'
to overthrow a government which had been known only by its benefits
fix upon their hearts the guilt of all the sufferings of this war. The
great slaveholders, having long ruled under the forms of the constitution.

introduction. 23
when they saw that their power was likely to depart, refused sub
mission to the legally expressed will of the people, and plunged the
country into civil war. The blackest page of these annals, is that which
records the barbarism and brutality produced by slavery ; the moral
degeneracy of a once noble race of men, becoming so depraved that
their hellish passions developed a cruelty and malignity towards prison
ers, black and white, unknown in the history of civilized nations. It is
slavery alone which can produce men who will murder defenceless pris
oners on the fleld of battle, after resistance has ceased, and starve them
to death, as a means of carrying on war. Of such a race, it is not sur
prising that in their extremity, they should resort to incendiarism, and
murder, and assassination.
The record I write will show the development and gradual growth of
a sense of justice towards the black race, until it terminated in their
emancipation and their recognition as men. The rise and rapid advance
of this long servile race, from the slave to the " contraband," from the
" contraband " to the freedman, and from the freedman to the soldier,
from the soldier to the citizen, vindicating his manhood on the field of
battle, and his claim to citizenship by obedience to law and loyalty to
the fl3g.
This terrible civil war, this baptism of blood, through which the na
tion has passed, has purified and ennobled it. The soldiers of Grant and
Sherman, Thomas and Sheridan, who marched from Cairo t« Savannah,
from the Potomac to New Orleans, will feel that the country is now
doubly dear to them. They have bled for that country ; and not a
family in the land but has given its sacrifice to death, that the Republic
might live. In so glorious and imperial a manner have the American
people fought this great struggle for liberty, so grand is the theatre of
their future, that the imagination does not set bounds to their coming
greatness

ABRAHAM LESTCOIjN,

OYERTHROW OF SLAYERT.

CHAPTEE I.

SLAVERY FROM 1788, TO THE COMPROMISE MEASURES OP 1850.
Opinion op the Fathers upon Slavery — Ordinance of 1787 —
Early Abolition Societies — Slavery Abolished in the
New England States, New York, Pennsylvania, and New
Jersey — Cotton and Slavery — Location op Capital at
Washington — Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 — Admission op
Tennessee, Alabama and Mississippi, as Slave States —
Purchase op Louisiana and Florida — Missouri Compromise
— Seminole War — Annexation op Texas — Mexican War —
Wilmot Proviso — California — Anti-Slavery Convention
— Suppression op Right of Petition — John Quincy Adams —
Judge Hoar's Mission — Abolition, Liberty and Freesoil
Parties — Compromise Measures of 1850.
IT is historically demonstrable that the framers of the
Constitution in shaping that instrument, tolerated the ex
istence of slavery as a temporary evil, which they regarded
as incompatible with the principles of liberty embodied in
the Declaration of Independence, upon which they intended
to base our institutions. They believed that it was in the
course of gradual extinction. It is clear that they never in
tended it should be a permanent institution, much less that
25

26 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
it should extend beyond the limits of the States in which it
then existed. The hostility to slavery was so general, that
it is believed the Fathers would have embodied abolition as a
part ofthe Constitution, had they not supposed it would soon
disappear before the peaceful moral agencies then operating
against it. They confidently hoped that public opinion, ex
pressing itself through the press, the religious organizations,
public discussion, and rendering its final verdict through the
ballot, and securing favorable legislation through State
and Congressional action, would secure universal liberty
" throughout the land to all the inhabitants thereof" G-ene-
ral Washington in a letter to Robert Morris written in 1786,
speaking of slavery, said: "There is not a man living who
wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the
abolition of it." The great leading lawyer and patriot of
Maryland, Luther Martin, advocated the abolition of slavery
in the Federal Convention of 1787; so also did William
Pinckney, in 1789, in the Maryland House of Delegates. The
Ordinance of 1787, by which freedom was forever secured to
the ITorthwest, and to the great States of Ohio and Illinois,
Indiana, Michigan, and Wisconsin, was by far the most
important anti-slavery measure in American history, be
tween the Declaration of Independence and the great Pro
clamation of Emancipation by Abraham Lincoln. Its influ
ence has been decisive, on both the moral and martial con
flict. Without the votes and influence of the great free
Northwest, the offspring of this ordinance, slavery would
have triumphed and carried its sway all over the land. It is
very true that the love of liberty fostered by the free schools
of New England, beginning like a rivulet among her granite
hills, gradually widened and expanded until it became a
mighty stream ; but it was the broad and majestic torrent
from the Northwest, like its own majestic Mississippi, which
gave to the river of freedom, volume, and power, and irresist
ible strength, until it broke down all opposition, and swept
away and overwhelmed all resistance.
The period immediately following the revolution,is full of
evidence that many of the leading men of nearly every State
looked upon slavery with abhorrence, and were impatient for

VIEWS OF EARLY VIRGINIA STATESMEN. 27
its entire abolition. Mr. Iredell of North Carolina, said in
the convention which adopted the Constitution, " when the
entire abolition of slavery takes place, it will be an event
which must be pleasing to every generous mind and to every
friend of human nature." It was with such views, hopes and
expectations on the part of leading statesmen of that day,
that the Constitution was adopted. The Constitution itself
was based on the great idea embodied by Jefferson in the
Declaration of Independence, " that all men are created
equal." This grand idea which Jefferson made the corner stone of
our National Independence, we shall have occasion, bye and
bye to see, was the basis of Mr. Lincoln's political creed, the
key-note. of his administration; the foundation of that polit
ical system which he carried out fully by his Proclamation of
. Emancipation, and the amendment of the Constitution
abolishing and prohibiting slavery forever.
In order that slavery might be brought to an end, pro
vision was made in the Constitution that the slave trade
might be prohibited by Congress after the year 1808.
It ought to be stated in vindication of the early states
men of Virginia, that they appreciated the injustice and
wrong of slavery, and that as early as 1772, the Legislature
of that Commonwealth addressed the King of Great Britian,
exposing the inhumanity of Slavery, and expressing the con
viction that it was opposed to the security and happiness of
the people, and would, in time, endanger their existence.
The King in reply, answered, that " upon pain ofhis highest
displeasure the importation of slaves should not be in any
respect obstructed."
" Pharisaical Britain," said Benjamin Franklin, referring
to the Somerset case, " to pride thyself in setting free a single
slave that happened to land on thy coast, while thy laws
continue a traffic whereby so many thousands are dragged
into a slavery that is entailed on their posterity." *
Mr. Jefferson said during the war, " The way I hope
is preparing under the auspices of Heaven, for a total

* Bancroft's oration upon Lincoln.

28 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
emancipation." No candid historical student but will endorse
the statement that the current of public sentiment, following
the war, and cotemporary with the adoption of the Constitution
was strongly in favor of emancipation ; abolition societies
were formed in many States, at that period, of which the lead
ing statesmen of the day were members. The abolition socie
ty of Pennsylvania was formed in 1774, and enlarged in
1787, and Dr. Benjamin Franklin was made President, Dr.
Bush and other very distinguished men were members.
¦ The abolition society of New York was formed in 1785, of
which that great and pure man, Chief Justice John Jay, was
the first President, and the second was the statesman, soldier
and financier, Alexander Hamilton. Similar societies were
formed in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia and
Delaware. Men of the highest official and social position were
prominent and active members- Memorials and petitions
were sent by them to Congress calling for abolition. Mr.
Jackson a member of Congress from G-eorgia, said : " It is
the fashion of the day to favor the liberty of the slave." At
this period of our history the religious sects often passed reso
lutions denouncing slavery, and Christians almost universally
bore testimony against it as immoral and against the spirit
of the teachings of Christ. The Methodist, the Presbyterian
and the Baptist denominations were especially emphatic in
their denunciations. The sentiment and conviction against
slavery was so general and extended, that it caused the aboli
tion of slavery in a majority of the old thirteen States; and
in the Convention which framed the Constitution of Ken
tucky an effort was made to prohibit slavery which came near
being a success, and which would have prevailed, but for the
powerful influence of the two great slaveholding families of
Breckenridge and Nicholson. The head ofthe Breckenridge
family at that time was the grandfather of John C. Brecken
ridge, the late senator from Kentucky, expelled from the
United States Senate as a traitor. Upon the heads of these
two families, especially, rests the fearful responsibility of that
beautiful State's being cursed with slavery.
In 1777, Vermont formed her Constitution which pro
hibited slavery. It is the tradition that soon after the

ABOLITION IN NEW ENGLAND. 29
revolutionary war, a suit was brought before a Vermont Judge
involving the title to a negro. The plaintiff produced a regular
bill of sale of the negro to himself, and rested his case ; the
Judge then inquired, " How did the man you bought of, ac
quire title ?" A regular bill of sale to him was produced.
" But," said the Judge, " how did this man acquire title ?"
Mr.Attorney, " continued the Judge, addressing the counsel
lor for the plaintiff, " nothing will be regarded as evidence
of title to a rnan by this court, but a bill of sale from Almighty
Cod. Unless you can procure that your case will be
dismissed." It was judicially settled in Massachusetts, that slavery
could not exist under the Constitution of 1780, which declared
" all men are born free and equal." Indeed as early as 1770,
a case was made up by the negroes to test the legality of
slavery — and they obtained a decision in favor of freedom.
Various cases were tried in the courts of that State, and the
decisions were uniformly against the validity of holding
persons as slaves.
Chief Justice Shaw suggests that slavery may have been
abolished in Massachusetts by the Declaration of Independ
ence. However that may be, he says it was clearly abolished
by the first article of her declaration of rights, viz : " all men
are born free and equal, and have certain natural and essen
tial rights — which are the rights of enjoying and defending
their lives and liberties ; that of acquiring, possessing and
protecting property." It is a fact worthy of note that it had
been decided in Massachusetts, two years before the Sum
merset case, that slaves could not exist in that State. The
decision was placed upon the same grounds upon which Lord
Mansfield discharged Summerset.
In New Hampshire, slavery was abolished by the declara
tion of rights in 1784. Rhode Island, provided by law that all
persons bom in that State after March, 1784, should be free.
Connecticut, in 1784, passed a law for gradual abolition.
Pennsylvania, in 1780, passed a law for gradual emancipa
tion. In 1799, New York adopted measures for gradual
emancipation, and New Jersey in 1804.

30 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Slavery was thus rapidly disappearing. Peaceful agencies
would have soon made the republic all free, and saved us
from the late terrible war of the slaveholders, but for the
introduction of new elements. The most important of these
was the invention by Whitney, of the cotton-gin, aud the
vast addition of new and virgin territory adapted to the
growth of cotton by negro labor. The immediate and
enormous profits of cotton growing gave a power to slavery
never before felt. Then immediately arose a gigantic pecu
niary interest which found its gains in slavery. A powerful
cotton and slave aristocracy soon grew up, which in its ar
rogance, in progress of time proclaimed that " cotton is
king." An immense property interest invested in the pro
duction of cotton, owning lands and negroes, was organized
at the South, and soon there arose in sympathy to some ex
tent with it, a powerful cotton manufacturing interest at the
North, and these two were interwoven into the web of the
slave power. It has been said that when Jay negotiated
what is called " Jay's treaty," with England in 1794, he did
not know that cotton was an article of export, so smaJl was
then the quantity of this staple product.
The slaveholders, relatively few in number, now united and
became a compact, active, determined, overbearing, despotic,
unscrupulous power. They became skilful politicians. They
subsidised by money, and secured in their interests by the
rewards of official position, many of the ablest and most
talented men ofthe country. The free States, and especially
the honest, liberty loving masses of the people, absorbed in
material pursuits, engrossed in the labor of subduing the
forests and reclaiming a continent; in building towns, cities,
schools, churches, colleges, canals and railways, were kept
divided, and were ruled by the adroit and skilful .politicians
of the slave States.
From this time a great change, in the sentiment of the
people, as expressed through the press, in churches, and in
the action of the government was manifest, until slavery
dominated over the nation.
The religious organizations, and the voluntary benevolent
associations soon ceased to protest and bear witness against

LOCATION OF THE CAPITAL AT WASHINGTON. 31
slavery, and many of them went so far as to give to the
institution their countenance and support.
Very soon after the adoption of the Constitution, the slave
power — vigilant and sagacious for its security — began to
concentrate and entrench itself Congress, in 1790, accepted
from North Carolina, the territory now forming the State of
Tennessee, upon condition, that that portion of the Ordin
ance of 1787, which secured freedom, should not be applied
to it, and that no regulation should be made by Congress,
which would tend to emancipate slaves. Following this came
in 1796, the admission of Tennessee as a slave State.
The Capital of the Republic was, in 1790, located at Wash
ington, in the District of Columbia, upon territory ceded for
that purpose to the United States by Maryland and Virginia;
and all the slave laws of these two States in a mass were ex
tended over this territory, by which slavery was continued, in
territory over which Congress had exclusive jurisdiction and control.
This was a most important triumph of the slave power.
The Capital, to a considerable extent, gave tone to the
national sentiment and opinion. This location of the Capi
tal on slave territory, secured for slavery the sway of social
influence and fashion. The power of Washington society
and public opinion over the Executive, Judicial, and Legis
lative Departments of the government is felt to this day.
There was ever in it down to the time of the advent of Lin
coln a pro-slavery atmosphere, in which the officials of the
government lived aud moved and had their being. This
atmosphere was never purified, until the thunderbolt of
freedom and emancipation came during the administration
of Abraham Lincoln. This location of the Capital gave to
the aristocratic element the power of social ostracism, to
wards the friends of liberty, which was used for years with
a tyranny and contemptuous pride and arrogance, which
could only be found in an organization of slaveholders to
uphold slavery.
The fugitive slave law of 1798, was passed to enable the
master to follow the fugitive, seeking freedom ; a law which in
the light of to-day would be held by the Supreme Court of
the United States a violation of the Constitution. The

32 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
progress of the slave power was manifested by several
Congressional enactments, designed for its protection.
In 1810, it was enacted by Congress that none but free
white persons should be employed in carrying the mails. It
had been already provided that none but white persons could
be naturalized, or serve in the militia.
In 1802, Georgia ceded to the United States the country
lying between her present Western boundary, and the Mis
sissippi, carefully stipulating that the Ordinance of 1787,
should be extended over it, excepting that clause which pro
hibited slavery. From this cession came the slave State of
Alabama — admitted into the Union in 1819 — and the State
of Jefferson Davis, Mississippi, admitted into the Union in
1817. In 1808, the United States purchased for fifteen millions
of dollars from France, the territory ot Louisiana, where,
at that time, there were 40,000 slaves.
In 1819, the United States purchased of Spain, the territory
of Florida. From Louisiana were carved three slave States —
Louisiana admitted in 1812 — Missouri, in 1821, and
Arkansas, in 1836. Florida was admitted in 1845. Thus
the slave power had secured four new slave States from the
original territory of the United States, viz : Kentucky, Ten
nessee, Alabama and Mississippi; and from new territory pur
chased for its expansion, it had secured four other States,
namely: Louisiana, Missouri, Arkansas and Florida. Not
yet content, but still eager, and grasping power, the slave
holders determined to extend slave territory still further
South, and as the first step, it resolved that Texas should
be annexed. The leading slaveholding statesmen now boldly
declared that Texas would make slavery secure, "it will
give a Gibralter to slavery," said one of them. The slave
power pursued its purpose with sagacity and vigor, striking
down and politically sacrificing every statesman who opposed
its demands ; especially all who threw obstacles in the way
of this measure, which they regarded as vital to slavery.
Martin Van Buren, Thomas H. Benton, and Silas Wright,
were among the more prominent victims sacrificed by the
slaveholders because of their opposition to this scheme. It

THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE. 33
was finally accomplished by Calhoun and Tyler, in 1845, by
joint resolution of both houses of Congress. Thus slavery
had secured nine slave States and eighteen Senators,to pro
tect the institution in what was called the great citadel of
its power, the United States Senate.
The free States saw these vast accessions of political
power in the hands of slaveholders, with uneasiness, and
murmurs loud and deep began to be heard, but the cotton
growing and manufacturing aristocracy rebuked these mur
murs, and cried, peace, peace, to those who agitated for
freedom. They seemed willing that the statesmen of the
slave States should rule the country, if they might go on
uninterrupted in their gains.
A most vigorous and determined effort was made to resist
the encroachments of the slave power, when the attempt was
made to admit Missouri as a slave State. The contest over
this question continued from 1819, to 1821, and was finally
settled by what has been since known as the Missouri com
promise, which was, that Missouri should be admitted into
the Union as a slave State, without restriction, and that all
territory North and West of Missouri, above latitude 36°
30" should be forever free.
The admission of this State was, on many accounts, a
great epoch in the struggle between freedom and slavery.
Both parties on this occasion put forth all their strength.
Both were aroused to the inherent antagonism between each
other. The contest was terminated by a victory of the slave
holders, and by a compromise long considered binding on
both sections. A compromise which Douglas himself de
clared to be a sacred thing which no " ruthless hand would
ever be reckless enough to disturb."
The importance of Missouri was not fully appreciated by
the free States at that time. If Missouri had been introduced
as a free State it would have been decisive of the controversy,
and might have saved the republic from a long and bitter
controversy — perhaps from the great civil war.
As a free State, Missouri would have been the centre of
colonization from which free labor would have passed along
the valleys ofthe Mississippi, the Missouri and the Arkansas,
3

34 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
to the West, and to Northern Texas. As a slave State it
crowded off the current of free labor to the Northwest. By
this success the slaveholders secured the most commanding
position in Central America, and prolonged the power of
slavery for forty years. From that time until 1860, the con
trol of slavery over the Federal Government was paramount.
Free labor triumphed in California, and in Kansas, but by
no aid of the Federal Government, and against its active
influence. From the Missouri struggle down to the Mexican war, the
control of the slave power in the Federal Government was
decided. The slaveholders always possessed a great advantage
in that clause of the Constitution which gave them represen
tation for their slaves. Under this clause a slaveholder own
ing five thousand slaves had a power in Congress, and in the
electoral Colleges for President and Vice President, equal to
that of three thousand freemen. Practically his power was
far greater, because the slaveholders, few in number, bound
together by a common interest, were ever a compact, vigil
ant, and sagacious body. Thus there grew up substantially,
an order of nobility, an aristocracy of slaveholders at the
South. The intellect of that portion of the Union was ab
sorbed in politics, while in the free States it was engaged in
all the varied pursuits of civilization. The mind ofthe free
States was active in inventing labor-saving machinery; it
produced the steam-engine, the cotton-gin ; the electric tele
graph; the reaping machine; it was opening canals ; con
structing railways; rivalling the world in ship building;
creating a National literature ; schools of painting and sculp
ture; and competing successfully with Europe in mechanism,
in the products of skillful labor, in learning, science and the
fine arts. The slave States, althcugh in a minority, largely
monopolized the offices of power, profit, and influence under
the government. They selected their ablest men, and
trained them for, and kept them permanently in public
life ; while at the North a principle of rotation in office, kept
many of its ablest men out of public life, and those who en
tered, held office for so short a period, that their ability to

ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. 35
direct and govern, to make and administer the laws of the
laud,, was greatly lessened.
Thus the slave power, ever watchful, a unit, grasping
power, seized and held the reins of government.
The Capital of the Eepublic under these influences became
a great slave mart. The old Commonwealth of Virginia,
with her stern republican motto, " Sic semper tyrannis," sought
wealth, and found poverty, and barbarism, in breeding
slaves for sale to the cotton States on the Gulf of Mexico.
The whole power, moral, political, and physical of the gov
ernment, was wielded to uphold and maintain slavery.
The Federal Government interfered to prevent emancipa
tion in Cuba. It refused down to 1862, to hold diplomatic
intercourse with Hayti, because it was a Republic of
emancipated slaves.
The United States made war upon the Seminole Indians —
a tribe occupying a portion of Florida, because that tribe
furnished refuge and asylum for escaped slaves. This Semi
nole war has been well described by a regular officer of the
United States Army, as an extensive slave hunt, in which the
United States were the leaders and slave hunters. The ro
mantic hero of that war, Osceola, married a beautiful woman
with some African blood in her veins, and his children and
their mother were seized, carried off, and sold as slaves.
The heroic Chief made a very gallant fight, but was most
perfidiously, shamelessly entrapped and captured,while hold
ing a friendly talk under a flag of truce. This was a sample of
the "chivalry" produced by slavery! Yet such was the lethargy
on the subject, that even such acts of atrocity did not arouse
the American people to the barbarism of slavery.
It has already been stated that the slave power, desiring
Texas, annexed and appropriated it. This was done while
Mexico was yet carrying on war for its reduction. But all
the acquisitions of slave territory already secured were not
sufficient; the slaveholders determined to acquire additional
territory South, for the expansion of their institution. Gov
ernor Wise, of Virginia, announced the purpose ofthe slave
holders in Congress, by declaring " slavery should pour itself
abroad and have no limit but the Southern Ocean."

36 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
This grasping spirit overreached itself, as will presently
be seen. At last it had aroused the too long dormant lion
of freedom. The slaveholders, after exhausting their cun
ning in seeking to provoke Mexico to declare war, sent to
that Republic the unscrupulous and wily Slidell, (late the
emissary of the insurgents to Louis Napoleon,) to provoke
her to an act of hostility. He too failed, and the adminis
tration then marched an army upon Mexican soil, and de
clared war upon Mexico. On the 7th of July, 1845, a pro
clamation was issued by Commander Sloat, declaring that
" California, (then a Mexican province,) now belongs to the
United States."
The war against Mexico was openly proclaimed to be a
war for conquest. The United States wanted California and
other Mexican territory. Mexico refused to sell; war was
then made upon Mexico, weak and unable to resist, and the
territory taken. The gallant and adventurous Fremont
scaled the Rocky Mountains and took possession of that land
of gold. Generals Scott and Taylor marched their armies at
will through Mexico. The pro-slavery administration of
President Polk, desiring to secure by treaty, these acquisi
tions, in 1846 asked an appropriation of two millions with
which to negotiate peace. To this appropriation David Wil
mot, member of Congress from Pennsylvania, offered a pro
viso, known in history as the 'Wilmot proviso, which provided
that it should be " an express and fundamental condition
in the acquisition of any territory from the Republic of Mex
ico by the United States, by virtue of any treaty that may be
negotiated, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys
hereby appropriated, that neither slavery nor involuntary
servitude should ever exist in any part of said territory, ex
cept for crime, whereof the party should first be duly con
victed." This proviso was adopted by the House, but was
not at that session of Congress, brought to a vote in the
Senate. At the next session President Polk asked an appro
priation of three millions for the same purposes, and to this
the Wilmot proviso was again attached in the House, by a
vote of 115 ayes to 106 noes. The proviso was rejected by
the Senate by a vote of 21 ayes to 31 noes. The bill being

DOMINATION OF SLAVERY. 37
returned to the House, was finally, after a furious struggle,
passed without the proviso.
In the negotiations which followed, Mexico, sought to
make it the condition of the cession of territory, that as it
was then free, slavery should be excluded from all territory
thus acquired. The United States' Minister peremptorily
refused to treat on this basis declaring that " if the whole ter
ritory were 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 for a moment, nor even think of communicating the
proposition to Washington."
Such was the animus of the Mexican war, and such the
imperious arrogance of slavery.
New Mexico, and upper and lower California, were ceded
to the United States without restriction, and the slaveholders
were now exultant. They now believed in the indefinite ex
tension of the slave empire. But the days of their supremacy
were drawing to an end ; there is a Divinity that shapes and
moulds the destinies of nations, however men may craftily
plan and arrange them.
It was in 1847, during the Mexican war, that Abraham
Lincoln served for a single term in Congress. He took his
position at once among the anti-slavery members, and voted
as he afterwards said, at least forty times for the Wilmot
proviso. The future great leader of emancipation introduced a bill
to emancipate slaves in the District of Columbia.
The " irrepressible conflict," and the aggressions ofthe slave
power have thus been briefly sketched.
That power had by its control of the Federal Government,
purchased and conquered, annexed and acquired, more ter
ritory for slavery than that embraced in all the thirteen orig
inal States. It had made war and peace in its own interests.
It had controlled all parties. It had dictated to each the
selection of its Presidential candidates, and it had carefully
and stealthily strengthened itself in the Federal Judiciary.
Fealty to slavery was a condition to all appointments under

38 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the Government. Bold, honest, outspoken fidelity to freedom
was fatal to political ambition.
* But these aggressions had aroused the attention and awak
ened the indignation of the free States. A few zealous and
determined men called at Philadelphia, in December, 1833, a
National Anti-Slavery Convention. It was attended by
sixty delegates from ten States. This convention organized
the American Anti-Slavery Society. This was the acorn gei-m
of that oak, the branches of which, in 1860, overshadowed
the land. This and other kindred associations, were the be
ginning of the organization which twenty-seven years there
after, effectively aided in the election of the Illinois back
woods democrat to the Presidency. Lundy, Garrison, Wen
dell Phillips, Owen Lovejoy, Gerrit Smith, Dr. Channing,
Johu Quincy Adams, J. R. Giddings, Henry Ward Beecher,
Cassius M. Clay, were among the pioneers of those, who,
differing as to means and views, yet in various ways sought
to arouse the public mind to the dangerous encroachments
and enormities of the slave power.
Among the most worthy, persistent, and distinguished of
these founders of the anti-slavery organization, was William
Lloyd Garrison. His name should be forever associated with
the emancipation of the slave. His life has been devoted
with unselfish singleness of purpose to this great object.
Consecrating himself to this grand aim he lived to see it
triumph. For more than forty years,through poverty, per
secution and indignity, he gave his pen and his voice with
great intellectual and high moral power to pleading the cause
of the poor, down-trodden, despised African. When the
morning of final triumph dawned, he visited President Lin
coln at the White House, to thank him for the proclamation of
emancipation,and himself received from the lips of that great
man, the thanks of humanity as one of the pioneers in the
great work of emancipation.
The anti-slavery men and abolitionists, frequently encoun
tered mobs and personal violence. Their printing presses
were destroyed, and they themselves persecuted like the early
christians. The newspaper press of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy
was destroyed at Alton, Illinois, and he was murdered

PERSECUTION OF THE ABOLITIONISTS. 39
because he firmly persisted in discussing slavery. This was in
1835, and he was the first martyr in the contest for liberty
and a free press. Pennsylvania Hall, erected for free discus*
sion, was burned by a mob because abolitionists were allowed
to hold meetings there. At Cincinnati, Ohio, a mob destroyed
for the third time the printing press of an anti-slavery paper.
Large pecuniary rewards were offered by Governors of slave
States for the persons of prominent men in the free States,
because of their opposition to slavery.
Governor Wise of Virginia said, "the best way to meet
abolitionists is with powder and cold steeL" He has been
a leader among those who tried the experiment. Verily he
sowed the "wind, and has reaped the whirlwind." The house
of this proud aristocrat has, during the war, been used as a
school house for negro children, taught by a New England
abolitionist. Governor McDuffie, of South Carolina, recom
mended that abolitionists be punished with death without
benefit of clergy. Under the administration of Amos Ken
dall, the United States mails were viplated to suppress the
circulation of anti-slavery documents. Fruitless eflbrts were
made in New York, and in the legislatures of several of the
other free States, to suppress by penal enactments, freedom
of speech and ofthe press on the subject of slavery. These
efforts failed, and seemed only to increase the numbers and
stimulate the zeal of the friends of freedom. Neither mob
violence, nor threats of legal penalties could silence the elo
quent voices, nor stop the pens of the advocates of liberty.
The abolitionists flooded Congress with petitions praying for
the abolition of slavery at the National Capital. These were
suppressed by what was known as '¦^ gag rules," by which it
was declared that petitions on the subject of slavery should
neither be received, read, nor considered by Congress. The
right of petition on this subject was suppressed in the
American Congress from 1886 to 1846.
John Quincy Adams was probably the most cultivated and
best trained statesman our country has produced ; educated
by his father with express reference to public life, he enjoyed
the best advantages both at home and abroad, and had the
beneflt of association with the best intellects of Europe and

40 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
America. His memory was wonderfully ready and retentive,
and he contined to grow in intellect even to advanced years ,
•. and well deserved the name of " the old man eloquent."
With all the courage and persistence with which his noble
father had advocated Independence, he advocated the right
of petition. Commencing in Congress almost alone, he
bravely withstood the violence and denunciation, the threats
and insults of the slaveholders, until gradually he aroused
the people and they rallied to his aid. District after district
gradually sent champions to his side, until finally, in 1845,
the obnoxious gag rules were abolished and the right of peti
tion vindicated. He,not only by his eloquence, courage and
persistencCjtriumphed and secured the right of petition in
Congress, but introduced an amendment of the Constitution
abolishing slavery throughout the United States. This pro
position he submitted on the 25th of February, 1839. The
institution was then far too powerful to be even shaken by
the efforts of any man, however great. It was suffered by
Providence to go on in its course of aggression and imperious
power,until it should dig its own grave and die a suicide by
the very means by which it undertook to overthrow the
Government. In 1835, South Carolina enacted a law providing that co
lored persons coming into her ports, should be imprisoned
during the stay of the vessel in which they came. Many
colored citizens of Massachusetts were thrown into prison
under the provisions of this law. The validity of which law
and the legality of such imprisonment, Massachusetts denied,
and the Governor of that Commonwealth commissioned a
venerable citizen. Judge Hoar, to go to South Carolina,
investigate the facts and institute suits in the Federal Courts
to test the validity of this statute. Judge Hoar was igno
miniously expelled the State, by a mob, countenanced by the
authorities of the State. While in the free States the out
rages and violence of mobs, and the various persecutions to
which the anti-slavery men were subjected, served only to
add to their strength, and encourage their i-apid increase; in
the slave states, liberty of the press and freedom of speech
on the subject of slavery were completely suppressed.

VIRGINIA RESOLUTIONS OF 1798. 41
Anti-slavery men in the slave States could obtain no redress
for any outrage. The slaveholders in the slave States had prac
tically subverted the Constitution and established a despot
ism on its ruins. The bludgeon and the bowie knife were
the ready instruments to suppress the printing press, and
silence the freeman's voice. Civil liberty ceased to exist
there. The old fundamental principles of liberty embodied
in Magna Charta and the Declaration of Independence ceased
to have practical existence. The despotism of the oligarchy
was supreme. Neither at the bar, nor in the pulpit, neither
from the newspaper, the stump, nor from the bench; among
the people, before the courts, nor in the legislative halls,was
the voice of liberty secured by law, permitted to be heard.
Negroes, fugitives from slavery, were scourged, whipped,and
in some cases burned to death. The literature of the English
language, school books, and books upon religion, litera
ture aud painting, were expurgated, aud the generous, manly,
eloquent utterances of liberty, stricken from their pages.
Such was the dark despotism which settled over the land of
Jefferson and Washington. It was against such a power,
represented by an aristocracy of slaveholders, many of whom
were vulgar, gross, licentious, boasting, cruel and treacher
ous, that the free spirit of the North now rose and grappled.
The slaveholders knowing the devotion of the free States
to the Union, and the forbearance of the North, habitually
threatened disunion whenever necessary to carry a point.
Indeed, in the light of to-day, it is clear that a conspiracy
to dissolve the Union as soon as they ceased to govern it, and
establish a slaveholding Confederacy, had long existed at the
South. The impartial historian will find in the celebrated Ken
tucky and Virginia resolutions of 1798 and 1799, the germ
of secession and the rebellion. These resolutions were com
municated to the several State Legislatures, but adopted by
none, and their author, Madison, subsequently explained and
repudiated them. They declared among other things, that,
the States, " as in all other cases of compact among powers
having no common judge, each party has an equal right to

42 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
judge for itself as well of infractions ofthe compact as ofthe
mode and means of redress."
It is not surprising that Wise, of Virginia, and Brecken
ridge, of Kentucky, quoted these resolutions in defence of
their treason. Nor that Calhoun and Hayne brought them
forward in 1^32, as a precedent for nullification, but they
were then crushed by the inflexible will of Jackson, the elo
quence of Clay, the statesmanship of Edward Livingston and
the overwhelming logic of Webster.
Notwithstanding the complete and crushing overthrow,
which this heresy received at the hands of Webster,
in the United States Senate, South Carolina, by a State
Convention, declared her withdrawal from the Union, and
her determination to proceed to organize a separate State
Government. Her Governor announced his paramount allegi
ance to South Carolina. Sp did the traitor Robert E. Lee,
announce his paramount allegiance to Virginia, and drew his
sword against the flag he had sworn to defend. South Caro
lina prepared for an armed collision with the National Gov
ernment. She made the tariff the pretext for her revolu
tionary proceedings. Congress, weakly, under the menace
of impending war, modified the obnoxious tariff, and the
South Carolinians retraced their steps. The modification
of the tariff at that time, and under the circumstances, was
a great error. President Jackson desired to vindicate with
arms and through the judicial tribunals of his country, the
supremacy of the Constitution and the laws. Had this
been done and some of the ringleaders tried and executed
as Jackson wished, possibly the necessity or the occasion of
such vindication through the late terrible civil war might
not have occurred. Jackson sent General Scott with a
naval and military force to Charleston to maintain the Nar
tional authority. The contrast between the course taken by
the iron Jackson in 1832, and the imbecile, if not treacher
ous Buchanan, in 1860, is as striking as the difference in
the two men.
The encroachments of the slaveholders and the subserv-
ence to them of the Whig and Democratic parties, led in
1839, to the formation of a party in direct antagonism to

LIBERTY AND FREE-SOIL PARTIES. 43
slavery, called the abolition party. The seeds of this organi
zation had been scattered by the writings of the fathers of
the revolutionary period; its growth, nurtured by the per
secutions and blood of martyrs to free speech and a free
press; its aims and objects promoted by the teachings of Jef
ferson, Jay, Channing, John Quincy Adams, William Leggett,
Whittier, Horace Mann and many others. This small party,
full of fiery zeal, and ardour, and talent, placed itself in
direct antagonism to the gigantic institution of slavery. It
boldly grappled with a power which at that time held and
had long controlled, the National, and most of the State
Governments; dominated over parties, ruled the churches,
the press, the financial and business interests of the country.
A power whose social influence was despotic, which held
both the sword and the purse of the nation ; which filled
every office from President to the village Postmaster. This
small party, armed with truth and right, met this gigantic
despotism, and in the end triumphed over it. Although the
vote which it polled at the first Presidential election at
which it voted separately, was but a few thousands, yet its
influence upon popular sentiment was felt and rapidly in
creased. At the Presidential election of 1840, its vote had
increased more than ten-fold. The ability, eloquence, and
genius displayed by its publications and the power of its
orators, greatly aided by the encroachments, the cruelties,
and arrogance of the slave power, prepared the way for the
Free Soil party of 1848.
In that year, the whig party having nominated General
Taylor as its candidate, and the democratic party having re
fused to nominate Mr. Van Buren because of his opposition
to the annexation of Texas, and nominating General Cass,
and both parties refusing to take position against the exten
sion of slavery, the liberty party, uniting with the earnest
anti-slavery men of all parties,met at Buffalo in June, 1848.
The whig convention had refused to adopt any platform of
principles ; it had refused to declare itself against the exten
sion of slavery into the territories. The Buffalo convention
nominated Martin Van Buren for President, and Charles
Francis Adams for Vice President. It was attended by

44 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
delegates from all the free States, and from Maryland, the
District of Columbia, Delaware and Virginia. Among its lead
ing members were Salmon P. Chase, Charles Sumner, Benja
min F. Butler, Preston King, Joshua R. Giddings, Charles
Francis Adams, and many others scarcely less distinguished.
This memorable convention gave a great impulse towards
the final triumph of freedom. After reciting the action of
the democratic and whig conventions, the convention de
clared its conviction of the necessity of announcing its inde
pendence of the slave power, and its determination to rescue
the 'Government from its control. The delegates solemnly
resolved to stand on the National platform of freedom against
the sectional platform of slavery — that, while they dis
claimed the power to interfere with slavery in the States, that
Congress had the power and ought to exercise it, of prohib
iting slavery in all the territories of the United States ; that
Congress has no more power to make a slave than to make a
King — no more power to establish slavery,than to establish
monarchy. To the demand for more slave States, and more
slave territory, their answer was, " No more slave State8,and
no slave territory." The convention demanded fi'eedom,
especially for Oregon, California, and New Mexico.
The leaders of this organization embodied ardent enthu
siastic democrats, and liberty loving whigs, filled with zeal
against slavery ; and mingled with them were the personal
friends of President Van Buren, indignant at, and deter
mined to revenge his sacrifice by the slave power. The free
soil party conducted the canvass against the old parties,with
an eloquence of the tongue and pen — with an ability and
energy never surpassed in the history of the Republic. Their
canvass was the romance and poetry of politics, and their
political creed, the religion of patriotism.
John Van Buren brought into this campaign an indignant
personal feeling towards those who " done his father to death,"
and a fiery eloquence, wit, and sarcasm, which rendered him a
great popular favorite, and secured to him the most brilliant
national reputation. John P. Hale, Charles Sumner, Henry
Wilson, S. P. Chase, Cassius M. Clay, Benjamin F. Butler
William C. Bryant, and David Wilmot, and many others,

FREEDOM IN CALIFORNIA. 45
were among the most active and ardent leaders in this con
test. Although the ticket carried no electoral votes, it re
ceived a very large popular support, especially through New
England, New York, and the Northwest, and defeated Gen
eral Cass. There were many anti-slavery whigs who sup
ported General Taylor for the Presidency, among them, the
great statesman of New England, Daniel Webster, and the
great popular leader of New York, William H. Seward, and
he who was to be the instrument in the final overthrow of
slavery, Abraham Lincoln,, of Illinois. The great organ of
public sentiment, the New York Tribune, also gave its sup
port to General Taylor. Meanwhile, the politicians, fearing
the growth of the great free soil party, undertook to settle
the slavery question by the compromise measure of 1850.
The Thirty-first Congress met in December, 1849. The
struggle for, and the resistance to the extension of slavery
continued more and more to agitate the country. The United
States had acquired by the treaty of peace with Mexico, the
immense territory of upper and lower California and New
Mexico. The Wilmot proviso, although it had twice passed
the House of Representatives, had always been rejected by
the Senate. The slave power hoped the great victory it had
achieved by this vast acquisition of territory was secure. But
the straggle still continued. Fourteen free States adopted
resolutions protesting against the enlargement ofthe area of
slavery. The slaveholders deprecating the struggle in Con
gress attempted to fopestall its action by organizing a slave
State in California. Knowing that General Cass and the
party that supported him for the Presidency in 1848, were
committed to non-intervention, and that slaves were already
in California, and beUeving they could organize a State Con
stitution there, which would sustain and secure slavery , emis
saries were despatched to California to get up a State con
vention and adopt a pro-slavery Constitution. After the in
auguration of President Taylor in 1849, Thomas Butler King,
of G-eorgia, a warm advocate of slavery, and in confidential
relations with the administration, went to California and
urged the formation of a State government, pledging to the
movement the support of the administration, and urging the

46 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY. •
measure as a means of preventing a fearful struggle in Con
gress on the slavery question. Mr. King spoke for the whig
administration, and Mr. Gwynn, of Mississippi, afterwards
Senator of that State, spoke to, and for,the democracy, urg
ing the same course. King, after relating the history of the
Wilmot proviso, said: " We cannot 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 contin
ent had feeble hopes of success in the Constitutional Conven
tion of California ; they rather expected to be compelled to
make the fight in Congress on the question of the admission
of that territory as a slave State. There was then no tele
graph spanning the continent, and the mails were slow and
tedious in bringing news from the Pacific to the Atlantic
c^ast. Few more thrilling items from that distant shore were
ever received,than the intelligence that the new Constitution
contained the provision that, " There shall be neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude, otherwise than in punishment of crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." It was the
death knell of slavery. The miners, the laborers of California,
would not tolerate the competition of the aristocratic slave
holder with his gang of slaves, and uniting with those who op
posed slavery from moral principle, they triumphed over the
advocates of slavery and secured the adoption of this Constitu
tion by the people, and the new State with her Constitution se
curing freedom for all, presented herself at the Capital for ad
mission into the Union. To the free laborers from the North,
and especially the miners who had crossed the mountains for
gold, was this unexpected result to be attributed.
The slave power, although it had urged the formation of a
State government, now wheeled about and opposed the ad
mission of California. Had California come as a slave State,
they would have welcomed her, but as a free State, she
should not come in if they could prevent it.
After long debate, Mr. Clay reported a series of measures
known as the Compromise Measures of 1850. These
measures were in substance :

COMPROMISE OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY. 47
1. The admission of California as a free State under her
Constitution. 2. The establishment of Territorial governments for New
Mexico and Utah, without the Wilmot proviso excluding
slavery, and providing for their admission as States into the
Union with or without slavery as the people should decide.
3. The recognition of the claim of Texas to near 90,000
square miles of free soil situated above the line of 36° 30" ; and
the payment to Texas of ten millions for her relinquishment
of New Alexico.
4. The abolition of the slave trade in the District of
Columbia. 5. A new and stringent fugitive slave law, drawn by
Mason of Virginia, avowedly to humiliate the free States, and
by which all the defences of personal liberty on behalf of
the accused were effectually destroyed.
These measures were finally forced through Congress, and
the leadins: politicians of both the great parties declared this
should be a finality, and they drew up a paper and signed it,
pledging each other to oppose any man who would not regard
them as such. The great Senatorial leaders thought now,
that the agitation of the slavery question was forever silenced,
forgetting that the voice of justice and liberty cannot be
silenced.

OHAPTEE II.
HEPEAL OF THE MISSOURI COMPROMISE AND THE STRUGQLE FOR
KANSAS.
The Thirty-third Congress — Douglas Introduces the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill— Debate upon it in the Senate— Douglas
— Chase— Seward— Sumner— Toombs— Mason— Hunter—
Slidell— Houston — Passage op the Bill — Struggle over
ITS Passage in the House op Representatives — Benton —
Richardson— Campbell— Washburne — Stephens of Georgia
— Passage op the Bill through the House — Struggle
between Free and Slave State Men por Kansas — General
Atchison — John Brown — Lane and Robinson.
AS in the territory out of which Kansas and Nebraska
were to be organized, slavery had been, by the Mis
souri Compromise, solemnly prohibited forever ; thus far,
in all the violence of the conflict between free and slave
labor, no hand had been "r,uthless" enough to attack what
was regarded as a sacred compact.
But the contest became more and more bitter. The Thirty-
third Congress convened December, 1853, and its action so
powerfully affected the anti-slavery agitation, by the struggle
over the repeal of the Missouri restriction, that it becomes a
point of departure in the anti-slavery history of the country.
The action of this Congress secured the early triumph of the
anti-slavery, or republican party. When Senator Douglas,
as chairman of the Committee on Territories, in the bill or
ganizing territories, introduced a section, repealing the pro
hibition of slavery, it startled the people of the free States,
Note.— I am. Indebted to the personal recollections of my late colleague, Hon.
E. B. Washburne, for much of the material and language of the sketch of the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
48

T^HIRTY-THIRD CONGRESS ^ 49
like a clap of thunder in a clear sky. Designed to extend
and strengthen slavery, it was a powerful blow towards its
destruction. The struggle in Congress, over this question,
was so important, that it is given with such fullness of detail
as will illustrate the fierceness ofthe conflictaudthe irresistible
power of slavery at that time.
The Presidential election, in 1852, resulting in the election
of Franklin Pierce, practically put an end to the old whig
party. The celebrated compromise measures of 1850, already
spoken of, were fully endorsed by that election, in his eleva
tion to the Presidency. General Scott, who ran as the whig
candidate, only received the votes of four States. It was
then said, boastingly and sneeringly, that the slavery question
was forever settled, and that the abolitionists and agitators
were crushed. The institution, to the shame of the people,
received at that election, a very full and complete recogni
tion. The chivalry of the South, living by the sweat of un
paid toil, pampered by pride and lust, brought to their sup
port all that was low, venal and cowardly, as well as much
of a higher, but timid character.
At the opening of the Thirty-third Congress, December 5,
1853, there were in the Senate fifty-eight members ; some
thirty- eight democrats, seventeen whigs, only three free
soilers, (Sumner, Chase and Hale,) and some four vacancies.
Among the prominent whig senators, were Foote, of Vermont,
Everett, of Massachusetts, Seward and Fish, of New York,
Wade, of Ohio, Toombs, of Georgia, John Bell and Governor
Jones, of Tennessee, Badger, of North Carolina, Judah P.
Benjamin, of Louisiana, John M. Clayton, of Delaware.
Among the democrats, there were Hannibal Hamhn, of
Maine, Mason and Hunter, of Virginia, Clay, of Alabama,
Slidell, of Louisiana, Bright and Pettit, of Indiana, Douglas
and Shields, of Illinois, Cass, of Michigan, Mallory, of
Florida, Rusk and Houston, of Texas, Butler, of South
•Carolina, and Gwin, of California. In the House, out
of two hundred and thirty -three members, one hundred
and fifty-nine were democrats, and seventy-four whigs.
From New England, there were but few members of any
very great distinction. Washburne, of Maine, was serving
4

50 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
his second term as a whig, and Banks came in. for the first
time, as a democrat from Massachusetts. From New York,
there was Cutting, a man of ability, a democrat; Haven, a
whig, of the "Fillmore" school, and Fenton, a democrat,
now the Union Governor of New York. Illinois sent
Douglas and Shields to the Senate. Among the members
of the House were William H. Bissell, Richard Yates, and
Elihu B. Washburne; the two first have since been Governors.'.
From Missouri, the great Benton, after thirty years of service
in the Senate, came into the House to give the country the
benefit of his long experience and profound statesmanship.
On the 4th of January, 1854, Mr. Douglas introduced into
the Senate, what was afterwards known as the Kansas-
Nebraska-bill, accompanied by a special report. On the
16th day of January, Mr. Dixon, a Senator from Kentucky,
gave notice that he would offer an amendment to Mr. Doug
las' bill, repealing, in distinct terms, the Missouri Compro
mise. On the next day, Mr. Sumner gave notice of an
amendment he would offer to the bill of Mr. Douglas, de
claring that nothing in the proposed act should affect the
Missouri Compromise. On the 23d of January, Mr. Douglas
reported a substitute for the original bill, making, instead
of Nebraska Territory, the two Territories of Nebraska and
Kansas. And, he added to this substitute, an amendment to
that part of it declaring that the Constitution and laws of
the United States, which were not locally inapplicable, should
be in full force, with the following exception, which exception
involved more stupendous consequences than were ever
contained in any law of as many lines :
" Except the eighth section of the act preparatory to the
admission of Missouri into the Union, approved March 6,
1820, which was superceded by the principles of the legisla
tion of 1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures, and
is declared inoperative."
This proposition startled the Senate and the people. It
broke down the barriers which, by a sacred compact, had

DOUGLAS. 51
been erected against the extension of slavery, and the waves
of popular indignation were lashed into fury; and the excite
ment continued until it pervaded all the land.
The consideration of the bill was postponed by the Senate
from the 24th to the SOth of January, and made a special
order. During that time, an address was issued to the peo
ple, warning them of the proposed legislation, and criticising
with great force and severity the provisions of Mr. Douglas'
bill. This address was signed by Senators Chase and Sum
ner, by Giddings and Wade, Representatives from Ohio, by
Gerrit Smith, a Representative from New York, and
Alex. DeWitt, a Representative from the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts.
The bill, coming up in the Senate, according to order, the
discussion was opened by a speech from Mr. Douglas. At
this time, this Illinois Senator was the idol of his party and
in the zenith of his popularity, as well as in the prime of his
physical and intellectual power. He was a man of an iron
constitution and a strong and acute intellect. Possessed of
a wonderful memory, without being a scholar, his mind was
well stored with practical and accurate information. He
never forgot anything he had ever read, or seen, or heard ;
and he had that happy faculty of a politician, of always re
membering names and faces. His resources were always at
his command, and he needed little preparation. Of a kind
aud genial disposition, with a frank, open, and cordial man
ner, endowed with remarkable convei-sational powers, bold,
dashing, and somewhat reckless, he had all the qualities
which go to make up a great popular leader, in a degree
equal to any man of American history. As a speaker and
debater, either in the Senate or on the stump, he . had few
equals. He spoke, always, with great fluency and power.
He seized the strong points of his case, and enforced them
with great vigor. Quick and ready to seize the weak points
of his antagonist, he would drive them home with strong
and v/ell-applied blows, never being disposed to yield an ad
vantage which he had once obtained. He brought to the
accomplishment of his object, in the passage of his bill, his

52 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
vast influence, his indomitable -energy and unyiejding de
termination ; and, in the pursuit of his purpose, it could be
said of him that " no danger daunted and no labors tired.'
His speech on the bill was able and eloquent, but bitter,
defiant and abusive.
It is believed that Mr. Douglas lived to see the day, when
he deeply regretted his action on the Nebraska bill ; and the
loyal people of this country, of all parties, will not forget,
that in the early days of our Nation's great trial, without
hesitation, he rallied his friends around the fiag, and threw the
weight of his great influence on the side of the Government,
and against the black-hearted and perfidious traitors who
so wickedly sought its overthrow. The people of this Nation
owe a debt of gratitude to his memory,for his patriotic speech
before the Legislature of Illinois in April, 1861, and' at Chi
cago soon afterwards. Dying in June thereafter, he left
those great utterances as his richest legacies to posterity.
His ashes repose on the bank of the magnificent Lake which
washes the northeastern border of the great State he loved
so well.
Messrs. Seward, Chase, Sumner and Hale led the opposi
tion to the bill. On the 3d of February, Mr. Chase boldly
took up the gauntlet which Mr. Douglas had so defiantlj
thrown down. His speech was one of remarkable eloquence,
power, and logic, and made a profound impression on the
country. He referred to the peaceful state of the nation
when the Congress met, and before the introduction of the bill
of Mr. Douglas ; "but suddenly," said he, "all was changed.
Rolling thunder broke from the cloudless firmament ; the
storm burst forth in fury ; warring winds rushed into con
flict. 'EuruB, Notusque runnt, creberqne procellis,
Afrlous.'
Yes, sir, 'creber procellis Africiis,' the South wind thick
with storm. And now we find ourselves in the midst of
an agitation, the end and issue of which no man can fore
see." But the end, which no man could then foresee has
come, and the eye of that great and early apostle of human
liberty now rests on a free land, and he hears not the clank
of the chains on the limbs of a single slave.

SEWARD. 53
On the 17th of February, Seward spoke, as he always
speaks, ably, temperately, candidly and philosophically. He
saw the near approach of that "irrepressible conflict" be
tween the two opposing powers of freedom and slavery, which
he had predicted. His speech was a historical review of the
whole question, and a calm and eloquent appeal to the
majority to stay its hand. He spoke of the uselessness of all
efforts to stifle the love of freedom and hatred of slavery in
the North. "You may," said he, "drive the slavery ques
tion out of these halls to-day, but it will revisit them to
morrow. You buried the Wilmot proviso, here, in 1850, and
celebrated its obsequies with pomp and revelry, and here it
is again, to-day, stalking through these halls, clad in com
plete armour. "Slavery," he contended, "is an eternal
struggle between conservatism and progress, truth and error,
right and wrong. You may sooner, by act of Congr,es3,
compel the sea to suppress its upheavings, and the round
earth to extinguish its internal fires, than oblige the human
mind to cease its inquirings, and the human heart to desist
from its throbbings." In its last maddened throes, this early,
able, and courageous champion of liberty, was struck down
by the assassin hand of slavery, but has been spared by an
overruling Providence to officially proclaim to his country
and the world, that ^^ slavery exists no more,"
On the 24th of February, Mr. Sumner delivered an ex
haustive and able speech, and it was then a most singular
and novel fact, that when he spoke of a Northern man with
Southern principles, and said, with emphasis, that no. such man
could speak for the North, the report says he was interrupted
by "prolonged applause in the galleries."
Northern Senators, in disregard of the instructions of the
Legislatures of the States they represented, spoke and voted
for the bill. Toombs spoke with more than his accustomed
violence and insolence. "The Government has little to fear
from the abolitionists," he bawled out, "their greatest
achievements have been to raise mobs of fugitives and free
negroes, and incite them to murder and other crimes ; and
their exploits, generally, end in the subornation of perjury to
escape the criminal courts." This man, Toombs, was by

54 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
nature a rebel and a revolutionist ; though of a brutal charac
ter and a turbulent disposition, he was a man of far more
than ordinary talent. He was one of the ablest, as he cer
tainly was one of the worst men in the Senate, who brought
on the rebelhon. When he addressed the Senate, he spoke
with great vehemence, and with the utmost contempt for
those diftering from him. With a well-compacted person,
black eyes, long, bushy, black hair, stentorian voice and ve
hement manner, he did more than any other man, in his
efforts to break up the Union ; going earliest and deepest
into the rebellion, proclaiming himself a traitor in the halls
of the Senate after the secession of Georgia; he very soon be
came more dangerous to the bogus Confederacy than he was
to the cause of the good old Union.
The sleek Jew, Judah P. Benjamin, the polite and wily
man in black, with rounded phrase, and smooth and well
polished, sentences, spoke glittering words in support of vio
lated faith. There was not a more elegant and accomplished
speaker in the Senate than he. Words flowed freely from
his lips, and they were as slippery as oil. Governed by no
principle, except that of making monc}', he was utterly un
scrupulous both in politics and morals. His colleague, John
Slidell, the ablest, the shrewdest, the most subtle and the
most unscrupulous, as well as the richest of all the conspira
tors, spoke but few words. With thin, gray hair, red faced,
round shouldered, he moved quietly about ; distant in man
ner, as well as reserved, precise and elegant in speech.
Mason, of Virginia, author of the fugitive slave law, named
by old Ben Wade "the original copperhead," long before
the term came into vogue as applied to a party, talked in
language of insult and contempt. His whole appearance
was concentrated disdain and hatred of everything in the free
States. He accompanied Slidell abroad, and shared his ad
ventures in getting there. For a time he was a great man
in London, because he was a rebel and a traitor to his coun
try. He swelled in the club houses of Pall Mall, and drank
denunciation to the old United States. Hunter, his colleague,
was cool, able and phlegmatic, dignified in manner, careful
and respectful in language, though ultra in sentiment. He had

HUNTER AND HOUSTON. 55
been long in Congress, in both Houses, and had been Speaker
of the House of Representatives. In everything except
the slavery question, he was a sound, honest, and practi
cal legislator. In the^ rebel Senate, he was a tower of
strength to the Confederacy. When he rebelled, he had
large possessions in lands and negroes and mills in the Pen
insula ; but when he returned to his home, he found his
negroes fled, his mills burned, his farms ravaged; and he
must have been startled, when he beheld around him the
ruin that had been wrought while he was warring upon the
flag of his country.
On the morning of the 3d day of March, at five o'clock, '
the bill finally passed the Senate by a vote of 37 to 14.
Mr. Seward, at a late hour of the night, said to his brother
Senators, "The shifting sands of compromise are passing
from under my feet, and they are now taking hold again
on the Constitution." He said while he would not have
voted for the compromise of 1820, he would not, himself,
have disturbed it. "Through all the darkness and gloom
ofthe present hour," he continued, "bright stars are break
ing that inspire me with hope and excite me to persevere.
They show that the day of- compromise has passed forever,
and that henceforth all great questions between freedom
and slavery shall be decided, as they ought to be, on
their merits."
Among the negatives, were two Southern men, John Bell
and Sam Houston. The opposition of Bell, to the measure,
was weakened by apologies and trimming, and those who
knew him best, were not surprised to find him early in the
rebellion, driven out of Nashville the second year of the.
war. Sam Houston, who proved himself "The noblest
Roman of them all," made the last speech that was made in
the Senate against the bill. It was a calm and temperate
appeal notto disturb the Missouri Compromise, and filled with
forebodings of evil in the event of the success of the measure.
In his peroration, he said "The proud symbol (pointing to
the eagle) above your head, remains enshrouded in black as
if deploring the misfortune that has fallen upon us, or as a
fearful omen of future calamities, which await our Nation in

56 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the event this bill should become a law. Above it, I behold
the majestic figure of Washington, whose presence must for
ever inspire patriotic emotions, and command the admiration
and love of every American heart. By these associations, I
adjure you to regard the contract once made to harmonize
and preserve this Union. Maintain the Missouri Compro
mise! Stir not up agitation! Give us peace!" * * *
"In the discharge of my duty, I have acted fearlessly. The
events of the future are left in the hands of a wise Provi
dence, and, in my opinion, on the decision which we make
upon this question must depend union or disunion."
Prophetic words from patriotic lips ! Sam Houston
was a remarkable man, and the history of his eventful life is
stranger than fiction. No one, who once saw him, particu
larly in his later years, could ever forgot the impression his
presence inspired. He was very tall, straight as an arrow,
and of most symmetrical proportions. His manner was kind
and cordial, but dignified and impressive. He was slow of
speech, but his conversation was fascinating to a remarkable
degree. It was beautiful to behold the deference and
gentleness with which this backwoodsman always treated the
fair sex, therein evincing the highest instincts of a natural
gentleman. When the rebellion broke out, he was the Governor of
Texas ; little has been known of him since, except that he
was true to the old flag to the last; but seeing his country
distracted, discordant, belligerent, and drenched in fraternal
blood, he died of a broken heart.
The bill having now passed the Senate, came to the House,
and the struggle was renewed with increased violence.
The slave power, aided by the administration and demo
cratic Senators of the free States, under the lead of Douglas,
having forced the Kansas-Nebraska bill through the Senate,
the struggle came on in the popular branch of Congress.
The bill came down to the House on the 7th of March and
was taken charge of by Richardson, of Illinois, chairman of
the Committee on Territories, who was the lieutenant of
Douglas in the House. On the 21st of March, there was a
test vote on, referring the bill to the " Committee of theWhole

CONTEST IN THE HOUSE. 57
on the state of the Union," usually regarded as the receptacle
of dead projects in legislation. The bill was referred, by a
vote of 110 to 96. This was a great triumph of the anti-
Nebraska men. But the friends of the bill were determined
to get at it, in some way, and so on the Sth of May, the
skirmishing commenced, which was the prelude to the great
battle that came oft' three days later. Richardson moved to
go into committee, for the purpose of taking up the bill, and
after a long struggle, the motion was carried, and all other
bills were laid aside until the Nebraska bill was reached. On
the next day, it was debated. On the day after, Richardson
moved a resolution to close debate, and resolutely proposed
to put on the screws of the previous question, and gag the
measure through. Flushed with their recent success, strong
in numbers, in talent, and above all, in the righteousness of
their cause, the anti-Nebraska members were ready and even
eager for the contest. Then commenced one of the longest
and most extraordinary sittings ever known in Congressional
annals. The Nebraska men had secured a clear majority, and
evinced a determination to fight their bill through, without
further discussion or consideration. On the other hand, its
opponents were equally determined that they should not do
it. Then began what is called in Congressional phrase,
" fillibustering " by all the dilatory motions known to parlia
mentary law : motions to adjourn, to adjourn over, to lay on
the table, to reconsider, to excuse members from voting, for
a call of the House, and other motions; upon all of which,
piled up, one after another, the ayes and noes were ordered,
preventing any action upon the question. A call of the
House is ordered, the doors of the House are closed, and no
member can get in or out without the leave of the House.
The sergeant-at-arms is sent to arrest the absent members,
who are brought in and arraigned to give their excuses to the
House like truant school boys. Motions to excuse are made,
followed by motions to dispense with further proceedings
under the call, to adjourn, etc., etc., interposed between brief
speeches interjected out of order, and amid cries of "order,"
"order," "order." Time wears on ; the day passes and the

68 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
night passes, and the next day comes, and still the House is
at a dead lock. The Nebraskaites determined still to force
their measure through before an adjournment, while the
other side is equally determined, that no vote shall be taken.
The members are tired, sleepy, haggard, ill-natured, and
they lounge and gape during the incessant calls of the roll.
On the second day, the anti-Nebraska men got fairly or
ganized for their work, and, being on the defensive, were
enabled to let some of their men go but for refresh
ment and sleep, while others stood guard, intrenched be
hind the defences of their scores of motions, piled one
upon the other. But the other side being, as it were, the
attacking party, could not spare a man. Under this arrange
ment, Mr. Benton left the House, and another call being
ordered, he was arrested, brought in and called up before the
Speaker for an excuse. He said, "It was neither on account
of age nor infirmity that I was absent, for I never felt better.
* * * I went away animus revertendi, intending to return,
refreshed 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 yet got to
the tightest place." Though a democrat, Mr. Benton was
indignant at the attempt to violate compacts ; his sagacious
mind saw the dangers which would follow the passage of the
bill, and he resisted, with all the ability and pluck of his best
days. The second night comes, aud Congress has been in
session thirty hours. As an illustration of the endurance of
members, Hon. E. B. Washburne states, that during all this
time, he was never out of the House but once, and took but
one meal, and slept one hour.
The chandeliers flashed their brilliant lights again over
the hall. The clerks were hoarse with the continued roll
call, but it still went on, each party resolved not to
yield. Worn out with hunger, fatigue and watching,
the members became more and more impatient and restless.
At length Richardson realizes the full strength and
determination of the anti-Nebraska men, and proposes
terms of compromise. The universal answer was, " No, you
are too late, we are determined you shall not force a vote on

CONTEST IN THE HOUSE. 59
you^r bill, aud we will make no terms." Many of the slave
holders, who had been out to stimulate their decaying ener
gies, now came into the House, filled with indignation at
having; for the first time in their lives, been so long baulked
m their object. There was renewed tumult and excitement.
Then Alex. H. Stephens, (late rebel Vice-President,) the ablest
man on that side of the House, and the most skilful parlia-
mentalrian and tactician they had, sees the dilemma of
Richardson. The enemies of the bill, realizing their ad
vantage, became jubilant and defiant. Campbell, of Ohio,
small in person, but full of pluck and spirit, saw the ad
vantage and was .not disposed to yield it. As a sort of
general colloquy was going on, Mr. Campbell sought to
make an inquiry, and was interrupted by Mr. Seward, of
G-eorgia, saying, "I call the gentleman to order." (Cries
of " order," from all parts of the House.)
Mr. Campbell, amid much confusion, said, "I shall resist
this measure to the bitter end; I say so, never minding
the gentleman who calls me to order." (Cries of order.)
Mr. Seward: "There are other places, instead of this,
where personal difficulties may be settled." (Members here
crowded around Mr. Campbell — many even on the tops
of the desks.)
Thus far the report of the Congressional Globe. Mr. Camp
bell was in one of the aisles.
After throwing defiance at Campbell, the fire-eaters from
all parts of the House began to rush towards him. It
was a fearful scene ! Edmonson, of Virginia, a man
of powerful build and violent temper, now inflamed by
liquor, was among the foremost coming up, having his
hand upon a bowie knife concealed under his vest. Bocock,
late Speaker of the rebel House, an old member of Con
gress, and opposed to violence, interposed between his
drunken and infuriated colleague and Mr. Campbell. At
this time, Washburne, of Illinois, was on the top of the desk,
determined, at any rate, to see what was going on, and ready
to take a hand in, when a blow should be struck. The surging
crowd, having been brought to a momentary stand, the un
daunted little Campbell again got the floor.

60 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Mr. Campbell — "I tell you, gentlemen, I shall resist this
measure to the bitter end with all my power."
Speaker — "The House will come to order. The sergeant-
at-arms will preserve order." (Members still crowding around
Mr. Campbell.) " The chair calls on lovers of order to preserve
order in the hall."
The sergeant-at-arms, with the Mace of the House, pro
ceeded to compel members to resume their seats and
preserve order.
Speaker — "Those who are disorderly and acting in con
tempt ofthe House" — (cries of "down from the desks.")
Order was now partially restored.
This scene finally wound up by Mr. Richardson's moving to
adjourn, which motion was carried amid great applause from
the anti -Nebraska side. And at twenty-seven minutes to 12
o'clock Friday evening. May 12th, the House adjourned,
having been in continuous session thirty-five hours and
thirty-five minutes. It is to be hoped that such a session
and such scenes will never again be witnessed. This was
the first square stand up fight in the Halls of Congress, be
tween the slave power and dough-faces on one side, and the
independent representatives of a free people on the other, in
which the latter triumphed.
Yet the struggle did not end here, but was destined still
to go on with great bitterness.
Mr. Richardson, having failed to put his bill through under
the previous question, came into the House on the following
Monday, with a modified proposition, looking to closing
debate after four days' discussion. That was finally adopted
after a parliamentary struggle of six hours. This was a
most turbulent session, and was characterized by many
violent scenes.
Under the rules of the House, after general debate on a
bill has been closed in committee, it is open to amend
ment and to what is called the "five minutes debate." Any
member can offer an amendment, and speak five minutes
in support of it, and then any other member, who can get
the floor, can speak five minutes in reply ; and it is speci
ally provided that no bill can be reported to the House as

CONTEST IN THE HOUSE — STEPHENS. 61
long as any member may wish to offer an atuendment. It
was immediately seen by the friends of the bill, that under
this rule, the discussion might be continued indefinitely and
never brought to a vote. Then the keen intellect and
shrewd parliamentary tactics of Stephens were again brought
into requsition. He dug up an old rule of the House, and
gave it a new and plausible construction ; it was to strike
out the enacting clause ofthe bill in committee, and report it to
the House, which would disagree to the action of the com- -
mittee ; that is, the committee would cut the head off the
bill, then send it into the House, when the head would be
voted on again. The only resource was, not to vote in com
mittee, and thus prevent the bill getting out of the committee
into the House by the want of a quorum. But the Nebraska
men were equal to the occasion. They had for chairman of the
Committee of the Whole, the notorious Dr. Olds, of Ohio,
one of the most unscrupulous men in the House, ever ready
to do the bidding of the slaveholders. The motion was for
the committee to rise and report the bill to the House ; and
on that motion only 103 members voted, it taking 119 for a
quorum. The vote, therefore, amounted to nothing. But
what was the astonishment to hear Olds declare the motion
carried, and see him stalk hastily down from the Speaker's
chair amid loud and vociferous cries of "no quorum ! no
quorum !" But that did not deter him from making a false
report to the Speaker. And when the question of order was
raised before the Speaker, that no quorum had voted in com
mittee to report the bill to the House, he coolly replied
" that the Speaker could not take cognizance of what was
done in committee."
And then commenced the long and desperate struggle
over the final passage of the bill. The friends of the measure
had comforted themselves with a resolute and unswerving
majority; but yet, under the rules of the House, formed, not
only to protect the majority, but the minority as well, action
could be indefinitely delayed. To secure the passage of the
bill, at this time, the rules of the House were trampled under
foot, parliamentary law was disregarded, and the rights of
the minority were contemned. Still they resisted and

62 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Struggled on, but to no purpose. At 11 o'clock on the
night of the 22d of May, 1854, after a session of eleven
hours, the bill finally passed by a vote of 113 to 100. The
announcement was received with mingled applause and his
ses, on the floor, and in the galleries. On Capital Hill,
outside, salvos of artillery announced the triumph of the slave
power in Congress, over the cause of justice, honor and free
dom ; but the boom of the cannon awakened echoes in every
valley and on every hill side in the free North.
The details of this struggle must ever be regarded with
great interest by the student of history. It has been given
in detail to show the manner in which the slave power con
trolled Congress. The friends of the measure triumphed
through the power of Executive patronage and the dead
weight of majorities ; but no party ever paid such a price for
success. There never was a more skillful and gallant parlia
mentary fight made, than that made by the opponents of the
bill. Among the Southern men, who took part in this Nebraska
fight, in the House, and who went into the rebellion, the
most prominent is Alexander H. Stephens, late rebel Vice-
President. To say that he is a remarkable man, is to say
only what is known to all persons who know anything of
his history. He sprung from the depths of poverty, and was
educated by charity. Of a frail and feeble constitution, his
mind was always too vigorous and active for his weak body.
He was never married, and lived at home a life of isolation
and solitude, devoting himself to the pursuits of politics and
literature. Under the ordinary height, he was of a very
slender form, and considerably stoop-shouldered. His weight
was less than 100 pounds. His complexion was very sallow.
His arms were of a disproportionate length, and his fingers
long and skinny. He had the blackest and keenest eyes ;
his hair was long, and black, and came down on his forehead
like a school-boy's. His voice was boyish and squeaking,
but he was one of the most interesting and eloquent of
speakers, and he never addressed the House without com
manding universal attention. His speech before the G-eorgia
Legislature against secession, and in reply to Toombs, waa

STEPHENS — BRECKENRIDGE. 63
an effort of masterly ability, eloquence and power ; and
reading it now, in the light of the events that have followed,
it is wonderful to see how his prophecies have become
history. He was a man of kindly heart and irreproachable
private character, all rowdyism and violence being utterly
repugnant to his nature. He went into the rebellion most
reluctantly ; and in order to propitiate a large class of men,
of the same opinion, he was put on the ticket for rebel Vice-
President. Yet he must be regarded as one of the most
guilty of the rebels. He was a man of high character and
great and deserved influence o-v er the public mind. He saw
and proclaimed the wickedness of secession, and, in flnaUy
giving to this monstrous crime the weight of his great name,
he sinned against light and knowledge.
John C. Breckenridge, a member of the old, aristocratic
Breckenridge family, of Kentucky, was in this Congress.
He was then thirty years old, and had commenced life as a
lawyer, in Burlington, Iowa, then a territory. He did not,
however, remain there long, but returned to Kentucky, and
in 1852, ran as the democratic candidate for Congress in the
Lexington District. Young, dashing, popular and eloquent,
he rallied round him the young men of all parties, and after
a most violent and animated contest, he was elected.
The history of this struggle has been given in more
detail, because of its vast bearing on the slaveholders'
rebellion, and as illustrative of the violence and outrage,
denunciation and insolence of the slave power in Congress.
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise shocked the moral
sense of the free States, and it was regarded not only as a
humiliation, but a grogs violation of faith. The passage of
the Kansas -Nebraska bill, repealing it, thoroughly aroused
the people of the North, and it was realized, by the thought
ful, that the final struggle between freedom and slavery ap
proached. The impetuous, arogant Senators from the slave
States, were warned, that with the repeal of this time-honored
compromise, the days of mutual concession and forbearance
would end, and that the grapple between the two opposing
systems would come face to face.

64 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
This repeal of a solemn compact, which had been re
spected for more than thirty years, removed the barrier to
the extension of slavery over a territory, equal in extent
to the entire thirteen original States. The leaders of the
slaveholders determined, immediately to occupy and con
trol it. The people of the free States, defeated and betrayed
at Washington, resolved to prevent it. Douglas, and a large
portion of the democratic party, defended their action on the
subject, by taking the position, that the people of each terri
tory should determine for themselves, whether they would
exclude or protect slavery. T'his doctrine, known as "popu
lar sovereignty" and "squatter sovereignty," became one
of the watch-words of the party. Each section determined
to settle and colonize Kansas, with a view of controlling its
status as a free or slave State. This territory lay directly
west of Missouri, and the direct route to it was across the
borders and up the great river of tha^ State. Conscious of
these advantages. Western Missouri, under the lead of Gen.
Atchison, a Senator, and late Vice-President, organized
secret societies called "Blue Lodges," and", by force, endeavor
ed to seize and hold Kansas. Their organized bands marched
into the territory, made their claims, and, taking with them
their negroes, declared that slavery already existed there, and
that '¦'¦ no protection should be furnished to abolitionists.' By this,
they meant that all abolitionists should be subject to mob or
" Lynch law." In New England, the Northwest and elsewhere
in the free States, "emigrant aid societies" were organized,
with a view to settle Kansas with free labor. Farmers
were furnished with mills, farming implements, domestic
animals, seed, and dwelling houses. School houses and
churches were also supplied to the emigrant. The property
and effects of the emigrant, so furnished, soon began to be
seized by the slave party, on its passage up the Missouri river.
Settlers from the free States were seized and maltreated,
their property destroyed or plundered, and they forcibly turned
back. But possessing New England pluck and persistence,
they turned aside, and, with horses and ox teams, made the
long, weary, overland journey to the disputed territory,
through the free State of Iowa. It Was a struggle as to

STRUGGLE FOR KANSAS. 65
which party should found a State. The slaveholders had
the advantage of close proximity, and, under the lead of
Atchison and Stringfellow, sent their organized bands of
rufiaans, armed with revolvers, bowie knives, slaves and
whiskey, as the material with which to build up the new
commonwealth. It was found to be a bad material. The
free State emigrant, although starting from a distance, often
of several hundred miles, took his family, his farming tools,
the school books of his children, often the school house and
church, ready framed at home ; by and by, he also took his
Sharpe's rifle, which he quickly learned to use with skill.
Under the lead of John Brown, known in Kansas as Ossa-
watomie Brown, Charles Robinson, General Pomeroy, and
Jim Lane, with their associates, they opened farms, planted
settlements, and held them. It involved a weary, and, for a
time, a dreadful struggle. On the side of the slaveholders
were the United States officials, wi+h all the influence of the
Federal government, the State government of the border
State of Missouri, and its militia, ever ready to make raids
into Kansas, for plunder, violence and destruction. The free
State party had the aid of the Northern press, Yankee en
terprise, ingenuity and persistence , and the rough and rude
sense of justice and fair play which characterize the pioneer
of the West. The slave party, through the aid of voters,
imported from Missouri, the Missouri militia, and the Fede
ral administration, held the nominal government, and perpe
trated a series of the most shameless outrages, frauds, ballot
stuffing and violence known in American history, to secure
a Constitution establishing slavery. But the free State men
soon greatly outnumbered their unstable, wandering, plun
dering, whiskey-drinking adversaries. The work of imposing
slavery upon the people was a very difficult one. Slaves,
brought into the country, ran away and found freedom and
security. Territorial Governor after Territorial Gover
nor was appointed by Presidents Pierce and Buchan
an, and was replaced or resigned, finding the task of
imposing slavery upon the people too difficult. Gov
ernor Geary, one of the Governors appointed in the in
terests of slavery, became indignant and disgusted at the
5

66 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
outrages of the slave party, and gives the following picture
of their condition. 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 burn
ing 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 pre
datory bands, while the towns were fortified and garrisoned
by ai-mies of conflicting partizans, excited almost to frenzy,
and determined on mutual extermination." Such was the
struggle in Kansas, upon the slavery question. 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 actual settlers
could be obtained, the free State men ha;d large majorities.
The story of this struggle between fi-eedom, and slavery,
between fraud, violence and outrage on one side, and heroic
firmness, energy and determination on the other , was carried
all over the land, and made a most profound impression upon
the Araerican people. Time, and nature have but lately
healed and covered the scars of this conflict. 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 still red with the blood of her martyrs to liberty; her hills
and valleys were yet 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 ^barbarity of the slave power. When the convul
sions 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 with
stood 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 encroachments of the
slaveholders.

CHAPTEE III.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN
Lincoln's Early Life, and Education — His Mother — He
Volunteers for the Black Hawk "War — Postmaster —
Mode op Keeping Government Funds — A Surveyor —
Elected to the Legislature — Studies Law — His Protest
Against Slavery — Lincoln at the Bar — Early Illinois'
Courts — His Mode op trying Cases — Accepts a Challenge
— Pleads THE Case OF the Negro Girl "Nance" — In Con
gress — His Bill to Abolish Slavery — His Practice at
THE Bar.
THERE was now about to come prominently before the
country, an actor who, hitherto comparatively obscure,
was soon to become the most prominent figure in American
history. Abraham Lincoln was a plain, rough, sturdy pioneer of
the West. The racy product of American soil and American
civilization. No other age, or country, could have produced
his counterpart. No other section of his own country but
the great national Northwest could have produced him. He
was the child of the wilderness; and his early lessons were
received on the puncheon floor of a western log cabin. Self-
made and self-educated; a giant in frame; ungraceful and
awkward in person, but most kind and genial in his disposi
tion; with sentiments as pure, elevated and noble, as were
ever ascribed to the embodiment of the most perfect chivalry,
or the purest Christianity; a profound thinker; reasoning out
his opinions for himself; of great sagacity; of an almost in
stinctive discretion, and good sense; of unblemished private
character; of a truthfulness and honesty which, long before
he attained national celebrity, had earned for himself, among
67

68 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the quick-witted backwoodsmen dressed in deerskin and
Kentucky Jeans, (who, in imitation of an Indian custom,
were in the habit of giving characteristic names,) the
cognomen of "Honest Old Abe.' This man, issuing from
among the class of poor whites, called by the slave-holding
aristocracy, "poor, white trash," now came upon the arena,
and threw all his energies into the contest between Liberty
and Slavery. And he plead the side of freedom -with an
earnestness, a profound conviction, and, at the same time,
with a moderation and discretion, which soon made him a
prominent leader. His language possessed a plainness,
quaintness, directness and clearness of illustration, a rugged,
Anglo-Saxon style, wonderfully adapted to reach the sense
and understanding of the common people. There never
was a time when Lincoln, at the bar, in the log school-house,
court-room or tavern, was not surrounded by a group of ad
miring listeners, to whom his speeches, anecdotes and con
versation had an irresistible attraction. Hence the people,
for miles, attended court and political meetings "to hear Lin
coln." The training of the man, for the great part he was to
act in the drama, was not in the schools; perhaps it was bet
ter: from childhood he had been accustomed to struggle with,
and overcome difficulties; with the basis of perfect truth,
candor, integrity, modesty and sobriety, he acquired self-con
trol, self-reliance, and ability to use promptly a clear judgment
and sound common sense. Noblest son of the Republic, he
was transferred, with no change of manner, from the rude
life of the frontier to the capital.
Here, before entering upon the story of the great civil war,
and the great conflict of ideas which, under his leadership,
was carried to a successful issue; in which liberty, law and
nationality triumphed over slavery, anarchy, and disunion,
let us pause in the nar«p,tion of our great epic, and learn,
from his youth and training, what manner of man this was,
who, was now so modestly, yet so firmly, to grasp the helm,
and conduct the Republic through the stormiest period of
modern history.
Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin, now Larue county,
Kentucky, on the 12th of February, 1809. The place waa

LINCOLN'S EARLY LIFE. 69
about twenty miles south of the Ohio River, the dividing line
between the slave state of Kentucky, and the free states of
Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. His grandfather, who bore the
name of Abraham, was among those hardy pioneers to the
" dark and bloody ground," a descriptive phrase given to Ken
tucky on account of its deep forests and bloody Indian wars,
of which he was a victim. He was shot by an Indian, while
at work in his field, near his log cabin. Thomas Lincoln, the
father of Abraham, was only six years of age when he was
left an orphan. He married Nancy Hanks, a native of Vir
ginia. The father and mother were plain, hard-working,
religious, uneducated people, accustomed to hardship and
toil. His mother died when he was only ten years of age,
but she lived long enough to make a deep and lasting impres
sion upon her son. He ever spoke of her with deep feeling
and grateful affection. He said, with his eyes suffused with
tears, " All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel
mother." Before Abraham was eight years old, the family moved to
Spencer county, Indiana. This change, from a slave to a free
state, was made by the parents of Lincoln, that their children
might live where labor was respected, and where they might
have a fair chance of acquiring a respectable position in
life. It was a long, hard, weary journey; a portion of the
way was through the primeval forests, where they were
obliged to cut a road with the axe. Young Lincoln had lit
tle school education; his mother taught him to read the Bible
and to write; and, perhaps, the first use the motherless boy
made of this acquisition, was to write a letter to an old re
ligious friend of his mother, a traveling preacher of Ken
tucky, begging him to come and perform religious services
over her grave. She had died in 1818, when Abraham was in
his tenth year. Mr. Elkins, the preacher, came; and, one
year after her death, the family and neighbors gathered
around the forest tree, beneath which they had laid her re
mains, and performed such rude, but sincere, impressive
religious services, as are usual among the pioneers of the
frontier. Lincoln's reverence, through life, for religion, his
truthfulness and integrity, had their origin in his mother's

70 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
example and early teaching. Her death, the affection he
bore her, the sad and solemn rites of her burial, were never
obliterated from his mind and heart.
He had, in all,about one year's schooling; but his mother
stimulated his natural love of books, and he read everything
he could find to read in the backwoods, seeking, by every
possible means, to improve himself. He read the Bible, and
committed a large portion of it to memory, Esop's Fables,
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Weem's life of Washington, a
life of Henry Clay, and an odd volume of Burns' Poems.
These books constituted his library, and these he read and
reread, until large portions of them became indelibly fixed
in his memory; thus laying the foundation of a character
that became, in its maturity, the wonder and admiration of
his country. Here, in the far backwoods, he toiled upon the
farm, until he was nineteen years of age. Then he took
charge of a flat-boat and cargo, down the rivers Ohio and
Mississippi, to New Orleans. He had become a tall, athletic
man, having attained the height of six feet four inches.
In readiness to extricate himself from a dilemma, to do
promptly the wisest thing which could be done under the
circumstances in which he might be placed, he was the equal
of any yankee in New England. A gentleman reports that
the first time he ever saw Lincoln, he was " in the Sangamon
river, his trowsers rolled up five feet more or less, trying to
pilot a flat-boat over a mill dam. The boat was so full of
water it was hard to manage. Lincoln got the scow partly
over, bored a hole through the projecting part, and let the
water run out."
In 1830, the Lincoln family removed to a place in Macon
county, Illinois, near Decatur, and it was here that the pow
erful young man performed those wonderful feats in rail-
splitting, in aiding his father to fence his farm, which earned
for him the sobriquet of "the rail-splitter." At this period
of his life, he was a simple, hard working, rough, kindly,
genial, studious laborer, with no bad habits nor vicious tastes,
but striving, always, to improve himself; dressed in the
homely domestic homespun cloth of the country, he was an
ungainly giant, utterly unconscious of the great intellectual

HIS EDUCATION. 71
powers, which were slowly, but surely, growing and maturing
in the silent solitude of his life. A friend of his, sketched
a picture of the future President, at this period of his life,
while pursuing his studies. He is represented as lying on a
trundle-bed, with one leg stretched out, rocking the cradle
containing the child of his hostess, while he, himself is ab
sorbed in the study of English grammar. He pursued his
studies diligently, and whatever he undertook, he thoroughly
mastered. Most of his life, up to the period ofhis majority,
was passed in the solitude of the frontier. With few neigh
bors, and these absorbed in the laborious struggle for sub
sistence, he passed the years of his childhood and youth.
For the rest, as Bancroft says, " from day to day he lived the
life of the American people, walked in its light, reasoned
with its reason , thought, with its power of thought, felt the
beatings of its mighty heart, and so in every way was a child
of nature, a child of the West, and a child of America."
His character and intellect developed slowly. Indeed down
to the period of his death, Abraham Lincoln was, as facts
-will prove, constantly grow%ig in intellectual power, improv
ing and perfecting his moral and religious nature; so that,
when he fell, he was a far more perfect man than at any pre
vious period of his life. Solitude and self-culture and slow
growth are, for minds of high capacity, most favorable to
strong and full development. It is doubtful whether, with
all the teaching of the schools, Abraham Lincoln would have
been better adapted to his great mission, than by the teach
ings of the life and circumstances in which he was reared.
Perhaps, as Byron says :
" Must such minds be nourished in the -wild,
Deep in the unpruned forest, midst the roar
Of cataracts, where nursing nature smiled
On infant Washington."
But his education was, as yet, scarcely begun, and was to
be fashioned by after events the faintest glimmer of which
had not yet dawned upon the simple hearted boy.
In 1832, difficulties between the Sac Indians, under their
Chief, Black Hawk, and the whites, occurred, known as the
Black Hawk war. Volunteers were called for by Governor

72 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Reynolds, of Illinois, and a company was raised in Menard
county and neighborhood. Among the volunteers was Lin
coln. He, and a man by the name of Kirkpatrick, were can
didates for the position of Captain. The mode of election was
for each candidate to take his position by himself, and the
men were directed to arrange themselves in line, with the
one they preferred for their leader. Lincoln's line was three
times as long as Kirkpatrick's, and he was triumphantly
elected. Speaking of this incident, when President, he said
that he was more elated over this, his first triumph, than any
other election in his life. He was very popular among the
volunteers, on account of his great physical strength, and his
ability to tell more and better stories than any other man in
the little army. He served during the campaign, but had
no opportunity of testing his prowess against the Indians.
After the war, he held, for a short time, the office of
Postmaster at New Salem.
On his return from the campaign of the Black Hawk war,
Lincoln being twenty-three years of age, his neighbors
brought him out as a candidate for the Legislature. The
vote given for him by the people of New Salem was unani
mous. There were two candidates for Congress voted for,
and their aggregate vote was 206, Mr. Lincoln received 207.
This unanimous vote showed his personal popularity. The
people of New Salem asked and obtained for him the appoint
ment of Postmaster. He accepted it, because it gave him an
opportunity to read all the newspapers taken in the town. It
was in relation to the funds received by him as Postmaster,
that an incident occurred that gave a striking illustration of
his scrupulous integrity. He had left New Salem, and had
removed to Springfield, and was struggling -with poverty ;
indeed he was so poor that he had difficulty in supplying the
necessaries of life. After his removal to Springfield, and
some years after he had ceased to be Postmaster, a draft was
sent out for collection for the balance, $16.00, of Post-office
money received by him. It was contrary to the regulations
of the Post Office Department for him to pay this balance
until it was drawn for. My informant, Dr. Henry, accom
panied the agent with the draft, to Mr. Lincoln's office where

HIS MODE OF KEEPING GOVERNMENT FUNDS. 73
it was presented for payment. Knowing Lincoln's poverty,
and doubting whether he had the money on hand to meet
the draft, the doctor had accompanied the officer, with the
intention of loaning him the money to pay it.
Upon the drafts being presented, Lincoln asked the officer
to be seated a moment, went to his boarding house, and
directly returned with an old stocking with a quantity of
silver, and copper coin, tied up in it. Untieing the stocking,
he poured the contents upon the table and proceeded to count
the coin. It was in the small silver and copper coin, sixpences,
shillings, quarter dollars, and half dollars and cents, such as the
country people were in the habit of using in those days, in
paying postage. On counting the coin, it was found to be
the exact amount of the draft, and the identical coin which
had been received. Lincoln never used, even temporarily,
any money that was not his. He said he felt that the money
belonged to the Government, and that he had no right to ex
change or use it for any purpose of his own. This evidence
of strict integrity and fidelity to trust was the more striking,
because he had frequently during the period he had held this
money, been compelled to make large discounts upon notes
he had received for fees, and sometimes to borrow money to
pay his small bills.
At this period of his life Lincoln became like Washington,
an accurate, practical surveyor. He commenced reading law
while living at New Salem. Major John T. Stuart encour
aged him, loaned him books, which he carried in his arms to
his home, and there read law part of the time, and practiced
surveying to pay for his board and clothing. In 1834, he was
elected to the Legislature of Illinois and walked to Vandalia,
more than one hundred miles, to take his seat. He was re
elected in 1886. At the session of 1886, he met, as a fellow
member,S. A. Douglas," and these two men, taking opposite
sides, soon became prominent leaders, Lincoln of the whig,
and Douglas of the democratic party of Illinois. Tn 1838,
Mr. Lincoln was again elected to the Legislature, and he re
ceived the vote of his party for Speaker, lacking but one vote
of being elected. In 1840, he was again elected and again

74 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
received the vote of the whig members of the Legislature,
for Speaker.
The popularity of Mr. Lincoln and his position as a leader,
is established by the fact, that he received, aga.in and again,
the votes of his party friends, for Speaker. The legislation
at this period of the history of Illinois, consisted mainly, in
passing acts for the opening of roads, the passage of local bills,
and for the construction of a canal, to connect Lake Michigan
and the Mississippi, by the Illinois river; known as the Illi
nois and Michigan Canal ; the adoption of a general system
of internal ¦ improvements by railroads, and the promotion
of education. In regard to all these measures Lincoln was
an active and influential member. In March, 1837, resolu
tions of an extremely pro-slavery character, were introduced
into the Legislature and carried through by large majorities.
Illinois, at that time, was made up^ largely, of emigrants
from the slave States, filled with the prejudices of that sec
tion, and the feeling against anti-slavery men was violent and
almost universal. Lincoln was one of the two men, who had
the moral courage to put on record, at that period, a protest
against these pro-slavery resolutions. In this protest, he and
his associate, Dan Stone, declared their belief, that slavery
was founded in both injustice and bad policy.
Lincoln had been admitted, in 1837, as an attorney and
counsellor at law, by the Supreme Court of Illinois, but his
duties as a member of the Legislature interfered, materially,
with his practice. Upon his retirement, he devoted himself
with great energy and zeal to his profession.
Illinois was, at this time, divided into several judicial cir
cuits ; each circuit consisting of several counties, and the
Judges of these circuits, meeting together, at the Capital,
constituted the Supreme Court; to which cases were taken,
by appeal, and writ of error. The Judges and leading mem
bers of the bar, generally started together, to " ride the cir
cuit." There were few, and frequently no la-wyers in those
counties, where there was no considerable village or town
and the members ofthe bar, traveled on horseback following
the court, from county to county.

ILLINOIS COURTS. 75
The country was new, sparsely settled, the people hardy,
fearless, honest,but spirited and litigious. The court houses
were generally built of logs, sometimes framed and boarded
up. With a raised desk, behind which sat the Judge ; a
small table for the clerk, and another larger table, sometimes
covered with coarse green cloth, around which sat tho bar.
Rude chairs, or ruder benches, constituted the seats for the
lawyers aud jury. The court room was always crowded.
Here were rehearsed and acted the dramas, the tragedy,
and the comedy of real life; and the court house was always
very attractive to the people of the back-woods. It supplied
the place of a theatre and concert room, and other places of
amusement of older settlements and cities ; hence crowds
always attended the courts, to see the Judges, and hear the
lawyers " plead." A court room in the West, was ever a
popular institution ; the advocates had their partizans, politi
cal and personal, and the merits of each were canvassed in
every cabin and school house, at every house raising, and bee,
and horse-race in the county. The lawyers were stimulated
to the utmost exertion of their powers, not alone, by contro
versy and contention for success, but by the consciousness
that every effort was watched with the greatest eagerness
by friends, rivals, and partizans. At this time the Judges,
who composed the bench of Illinois, were very able men.
Justice McLean, of the Sujpreme Court of the United States,
was the circuit Judge, holding, personally, two terms of the
United States Circuit Court at the Capital in Springfield.
Judge Nathaniel Pope, father of Major General John Pope,
was the district Judge. He was a man of great vigor of
mind and independence of character. Although he had read
a much smaller number of books than Judge McLean, such
was the strength of his reasoning powers, that when the dis
trict and circuit Judges "differed, as was very often the case,
on any question of law, Pope was quite able to hold his own
-with his superior in rank.
On the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, among
the most prominent men were William Wilson, Chief Justice,
Samuel D. Lockwood, Thomas Ford, afterwards Governor,
Sidney Bruce, afterwards Senator of the United States,

76 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY. ,
Stephen A. Douglas, and at a later day Lyman Trumbull,
John Dean Caten, and others. There gathered at an early
day, around the plain pine tables of the frontier court houses
of Illinois, a very remarkable combination of men. Among
them, and immediately a leader, was Stephen A. Douglas,
who had been admitted to the bar in 1884, 0. H. Browning,
late Senator, admitted in 1885, Abraham Lincoln, Lyman
Trumbull, Chairman of the Judiciary Committee and a dis
tinguished member ofthe Senate, admitted in 1837, Richard.
fates, Governor and Senator, admitted in 1838, David Davis,
now Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States.
Besides these, there were E. D. Baker, the eloquent Senator
from Oregon, and the martyr at Ball's Bluff; General John J.
Hardin, who fell upon the bloody field of Buena Vista, Gov
ernor William H. Bissell, whose eloquent vindication of the
bravery of the Illinois Volunteers in the Mexican war,
against the aspersions of the traitor Davis, is still remem
bered in the traditions of great speeches in Congress ; Gen
eral James Shields, Justin Butterfield, Logan, Richardson,
Washburn, Judd, and many others, prominent in the civil
and military history of the country. It was among such men
that Lincoln contended, at the bar and on the stump, and
was trained for the high and solemn duties, which were be
fore him. From 1840 to 1860, his name will be found, as
often as any, in the judicial Reports of Illinois.
The circuit practice, as conducted in Illinois, was admira
bly adapted to educate, develope and bring out, all that a
man had, of intellect and character. Few books could
be obtained upon the circuit, and no large libraries for con
sultation, were to be had anywhere. A case lawyer was help
less in the hands of the intellectual giants which were pro
duced by these Circuit Court contests, where questions must
be argued and settled upon principle and analogy. A few
elementary books were carried about in the saddle bags
along with the very scanty wardrobe of the attornej'; such
as Blackstone, Kent's Commentaries, Chitty's Pleadings and
Starkie's Evidence. These were read and re-read, until the
text was as familiar as the alphabet. By such aids as these
afforded, and the application of principles, all the complex

LINCOLN AT THE BAR. 77
questions which arose, were settled. No better school for in
tellectual training could be found anywhere. Lincoln rapidly
rose to be among the first at the Illinois bar. He continued
his general studies, reading history and English literature,
so far as the few books he could procure would enable hiin.
He mastered Euclid, while traveling the circuit. As a law
yer, he had some very striking peculiarities. First, he
thoroughly mastered every case. In his power of analysis
and clearness of statement, he had no superior, if any equal.
His love of truth, fairness and justice were never, to any ex
tent, perverted by his profession ; consequently, on the wrong
side, he was weak, but on the right side, he was perfectly
irresistible with court and jury. He was always popular with
the bench, the bar, the jury and the spectators. His humor
and power of illustration by apt comparison and story-telling,
his power to ridicule by apt and ludicrous anecdotes were
inexhaustible. " Biding the circuit " involved all sorts of per
sonal adventures. ¦ Hard fare, at miserable country taverns,
sleeping on the floor, and fording streams are among the com
mon everyday incidents. In fording streams, the future
President, was sometimes sent forward as a pioneer. His
extremely long legs enabled him, by removing his pantaloons,
boots and stockings, and taking his coat-tails under his arms,
to ascertain without wetting his garments, where the streams
offered the best fording places, and often to pilot the party,
through streams, that, at first sight, seemed unfordable.
It was the habit of Mr. Lincoln, always in an important
case, to make, mentally, an argument against his side of the
case, and answer it.
His statement of his case as a lawyer, or as a stump
speaker, was generally a demonstration. He had the power
of divesting it of all extraneous circumstances, and stating
simply and clearly the exact issue, the precise turning point
in the discussion.
He was always so unassuming, so modest, and so respect
ful, and yet so dignified in the assertion of a right, that he
disarmed opposition, and nobody, whose opinion had not
already been formed, could listen to Lincoln long, without
wishing his to be the winning side. Indeed he was a great

78 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
favorite on the circuit, and his arrival at court was always
hailed with joy by bench and bar. His inexhaustible store
of anecdotes, his good humor and kind feelings made him,
always most welcome.
It was the universal practice of Mr. Lincoln to aid by his
counsel and advice, the younger members of the bar, iu the
preparation and management of their cases. He never took
a technical advantage, and would, if his opponent was young,
or a stranger, point out to him formal errors in his pleading
or practice. He wished to succeed only on the merits ofhis
case. His manner of conducting jury trials was peculiar:
he was familiar, frequently colloquial ; often, at the summer
term, taking off his coat, and leaning upon the rail of the
jury box, he would single out a leading jury man and addres
sing him, in a conversational tone, would with the utmost
candor and fairness, reason the case. When he perceived
that he had secured the judgment of the one so addressed,
he would then turn to another, and address him in the same
manner, until he was satisfied the jury were with him. But
at times, when thoroughly aroused by injustice, fraud, or false
hood, his denunciation was of crushing severity. There
have been instances in which parties and witnesses, unable to
withstand his exposure and invective, were driven from the
court room.
He was very felicitous in his examination of witnesses. He
generally kept them in good humor with himself, and his
own love of humor and story- telling, led him sometimes,
to ask a witness if he had ever heard a particular story; this
was sure to be a story so apt in its illustration of the point
he was making, that it furnished an argument which the
jury did not forget.
A year or two before his marriage, Mr. Lincoln, was in
duced to accept a challenge to fight a duel with James Shields,
since Senator and General.
Shields was at that time a young, hot-blooded, gallant Irish
barrister, living at Springfield.
A practical joke had been played upon the gallant, and
susceptible young Irishman, by some of the lively, and
thoughtless young ladies of the city, and in allusion to it, a

LINCOLN ACCEPTS CHALLENGE FROM SHIELDS. 79
sarcastic, and witty poem appeared in the Sangamon Journal,
then edited by Simeon Francis ; Shields' hot blood was roused,
and he went at once to Francis, and demanded the name of the
author, otherwise he would hold Francis personally responsi
ble. The poem was in fact written by a young lady. Francis
was not willing to expose the young lady, and yet was without
the courage to meet the fiery Irishman in the field. Remem
bering that Lincoln was a friend of this young lady, he in his
dilemma, sought his advice.
Lincoln, at once, told Francis to say to Shields, that he
might hold him responsible for the poem. Shields imme
diately challenged Lincoln, and he accepted the challenge,
selecting broadswords as the weapons. The place of meeting
was an island in the Mississippi. Arrangements for the meet
ing were completed, and the parties started to go to it, but
through the influence of friends, the matter was arranged.
Lincoln stated afterwards, that he selected broadswords, be
cause his arms were long, and he believed, that without
hurting Shields, he could protect himself
In November, 1842, he married Miss Mary Todd, daughter
of Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. With her he lived
most happily, until he fell, covering her with his blood, when
so fiendishly assassinated by Booth, the wretched instrument
of the slaveholders. He was ever a devoted and most affec
tionate husband and father ; and in all his domestic relations,
indulgent, kind and loving.
At the July term of the Supreme Court, 1841, Mr. Lincoln
brought before it a case involving a discussion of the ordin
ance of 1787, prohibiting slavery in the Northwest territory,
and the Constitution of Illinois prohibiting slavery within
that State. Slaves were held by some of the French settlers
in Illinois, at the time of the adoption of the ordinance of
1787, and the Constitution of the State ; but in violation of
law. A suit was brought and judgment rendered in the Circuit
Court of Tazewell county, upon a note, given for a negro
girl named " Nance." She was represented to have been an
indentured slave or servant, and sold as such; the note was
given for her, and judgment rendered upon it. Mr. Lincoln

80 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
brought the case to the Supreme Court, and made an ex
haustive argument against thejudgment. He took the position
that the note was void; that the girl, " JVance," was free
and could not be the subject of sale. That the girl, residing
in Illinois, was free, by virtue of the ordinance of 1787, and
the Constitution, prohibiting slavery. He argued, that the
presumption of law was, that every person was free, and this
without regard to color ; the record showing, that the note
in question was given for a negro girl, the note was abso
lutely, void. The court sustained these views, and reversed
tbe judgment. It is believed that no attempt has since been
made to sell a human being in the State of Illinois.*
In 1848, there were three prominent gentlemen spoken of
for Congress, in the Springfield district, viz., Colonel E. D. Bar
ker, afterwards Senator from Oregon, John J. Hardin, of Mor
gan county, and Mr. Lincoln. Baker's friends carried the San
gamon county delegates, and appointed Lincoln one of them,
to go to the convention, instructinghim to vote for Baker. He
said, " in trying to get the nomination for Baker, I shall be
' fixed ' a good deal like the fellow who is made groomsman to
the man, who has ' cut him. out,' and is marrying his own gal !' "
General Hardin, however, secured the nomination, and
was elected. In 1844 caine the Presidential contest between
Clay and Polk. From boyhood, Clay had been the political
idol of Mr. Lincoln, and he went into the contest for him
with his whole heart. As the candidate for Presidential elec
tor, he canvassed the State of Illinois, and a portion of Indi
ana, for his favorite. In this canvass, he met Judge Douglas,
and other leading Democrats, and established his position as
one of the ablest political debaters of the country. He was
greatly disappointed and chagrined by the defeat of Mr. Clay.
In 1846, Mr. Lincoln visited Kentucky, to hear Mr. Clay
make a speech upon gradual emancipation. Both the
orator and the subject possessed great interest for him.
With all his modesty and personal kindness, no one ever
doubted the courage of Lincoln. Any number of incidents
illustrating this, could be cited. On one occasion, while Col-
* An imperfect report of this case will be found in 3 Scammon, IU. Heps. p. 7L

LINCOLN IN CONGRESS. 81
bnel Baker was speaking, some rowdies undertook to remove
him fi-om the stand. Baker was speaking directly under a
scuttle, and it turned out that Lincoln was above, listening to
the speech. No sooner were the threats made, and before the
belligerents could reach the stand, the tall, athletic form of
Lincoln descended through the opening and springing to the
side of Baker, exclaimed, " Gentlemen, let us not disgrace
the age and country in which we live ! This is a land where
freedom of speech is guaranteed. Mr. Baker has a right to
speak, and ought to be permitted to do so. I am here to pro
tect him, and no man shall take him from this stand if I can
prevent it."
In 1846, Mr. Lincoln was nominated for Congress, and
" stumped " his district as the candidate of the whig party.
Texas had been annexed; the Mexican war was pending;
the tariff of 1842, had been repealed. These subjects formed
the topics of discussion, especially the annexation of Texas,
in the interests of slavery. Lincoln received more than his
party strength, in his county and district, showing his great
personal popularity, and was elected. He took his seat, in
the Thirtieth Congress, December, 1847, the only whig
member from Hlinois.
Mr. Douglas had, already, run a brilliant career in the
House, and at this same session, took his seat for the first
time, in the Senate. They had met in the Illinois Lcgistature.
Douglas was, ever, the more adroit politician. He was act
ing with a party, strongly in the majority, which he marshaled
and controlled. A reference to the Congressional Globe, of
this period, will show as members of this Congress, John
Quincy Adams, George Ashmun, Caleb B. Smith, John G.
Palfrey, Robert E. Winthrop, Jacob CoUamer, Andrew John
son, Samuel F. Vinton; and also Robert Toombs, Alexander
H. Stephens, Robert Barnwell Rhett, Howell Cobb, promin
ent leaders of the rebellion. In the Senate, were Daniel
Webster, John Davis, John P. Hale, General John A. Dix,
Daniel S. Dickinson, William L. Dayton, Simon Cameron,
Mason and Hunter, from Virginia, John C. Calhoun, John
J. Crittenden, Thomas Corwin, Jefferson Da-ds, Henry
S. Foote, Thomas 'H. Benton, and Lewis Cass.
6

82 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Mr. Lincoln went into Congress, with the reputation of an
able political debater, which reputation he sustained and in
creased. He took a more prominent part in the debates
than is usual for a new member during his first term.
He spoke on the general political questions of the day ; the
Mexican war ; and on several questions regarding the ordin
ary business of legislation. On the 12th of January, 1848,
he made a speech on the President's message and the war,
which established his reputation in Congress as an able de
bater. The speech is clear, direct, argumentative; without
any waste of words, compact, and full of matter.
Mr. Douglas, in their joint debate at Ottawa, charged him
" with taking the side of the common enemy against his own
country," in the Mexican war.
Mr. Lincoln, in reply, said, " I was an old whig, and when
ever the democratic party tried to get me to vote that the \yar
had been righteously begun by the President, I would not do
it. But when they asked for money or land warrants, or any
thing to pay the soldiers, I gave the same vote that Judge
Douglas did. When he conveys the idea, that I withheld sup
plies from the soldiers who were fighting in the Mexican war,
or did anything else to hinder the soldiers, he is, to say the
least, grossly and altogether mistaken, as the records wiU
prove." On the . 20th of June, 1848, General Cass having been
nominated for President, Mr. Lincoln, in an able speech in
support of appropriations for the improvement of Western
harbors and rivers, opposed the election of Cass, and ridiculed
his position on that subject.
He made another speech on the 27th of July, after the
whigs had nominated General Taylor for President, which is
full of ability, keen sarcasm, and is worthy of comparison
with the great efforts which he afterwards made in his debates
upon the slavery question. It was designed as a campaign
document and for that purpose was very effective. He said :
The gentleman from Georgia. (Mr. Iverson,) says, we have deserted all our prin
ciples, and talcen shelter under General Taylor's military coat-tall ; and he seems
to thinlt this is exceedingly degrading. Well, as his faith is, so bo it unto him. But
can he remember no other military coat-tail under which a certain other party
have been sheltering for nearly a quarter of a century 7 Has he no acquaintance

LINCOLN'S SPEECH IN CONGRESS. 83
with the ample military coat-tail of General Jackson 7 Does he not know that his
own party have run the last flve Presidential races under that coat-taii, and that
they are now running the sixth under the same cover 7 Yes, sir, that coat-taii w£is
used, not only for General Jackson himself, but lias been clung to with the grip of
death by every Democratic candidate since. You have never ventured, and dare
not now venture, from under it. Your campaign papers have constantly been
" Old Hickories,' with rude likenesses of the old General upon them > hickory poles
and hickory brooms your never ending emblems ; Mr. Polk, himself, was " Young
Hickory," " Littie Hickory," or something so ; and even now your campaign paper
here is proclaiming that Cass and Butler are of the true " Hickory Stripe." No, sir ;
you dare not give it up. Like a horde of hungry ticks, you have stuck to the taU
of the Hermitage lion to the end of his life, and you are still sticking to it, and
drawing a loathsome sustenance from it after he is dead.
A feUow once advertised that he had made a discovery, by which he could make
a new man out of an old one, and have enough stuff left to make a little yellow
(Jog. Just such a discovery has General Jackson's popularity been to you. You
not only twice made President of hina out of it, "out you have had enough of the
stuff left to make Presidents of several comparatively sraall men since ; and it is
your chief reliance now to make still another.
Mr. Speaker, The gentleman says we have deserted our principles, and turned
Henry Clay out, like an old horse, to rot.
Old horses and military coat-tails, or tails of any sort, are not flgures of speech
such as I would be the flrst to introduce into discussion here ; but as the gentleman
from Georgia has thought flt to introduce them, he and you are welcome to all you
have made, or can make, by them. If you have any more old horses, trot them
out ; any more tails, just cock them, and come atus.
I repeat, I would not introduce this mode of discussion here ; but I wish gentle
men on the other side to understand, that the use of degrading flgures is a game at
which they may not flnd themselves able to take all the winnings. " TVe giveitup."
Aye, you " give it up," and well you may, but from a very different reason from
that which you would have us understand. The poiut — the power to hurt — of all
figures, consists in the truthfulness of their application ; and understanding this,
you may well give it up. They are weapons which hit you, but miss us.
But, in nay 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 dis
cussed yet; I mean the military tail yon 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, 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 lim
ited ; but they drive at it, might and main. He mvaded Canada without resistance
and he ow^vaded it without pursuit. As he did both under orders, I suppose there
was, to him, neither credit in 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, 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.
Perhaps It would be a fair historical compromise to say, if he did not break it, he
did not do anything else jvitli it.
By the way, Mr. Speaker; did you know I am a military hero 7 Yes, sir, in the
days of the Black Hawk war, I fought, bled, and came away. Speaking of General
Cass' career, reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillmau's defeat, but I was
about as near it, as Cass was to Hull's surrender; and, like him, I saw the placo
veiT 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 whortleberries, I guess I surpassed
him in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live flghting Indians, it was
more than I did, but I had a good many bloody struggles with the musquitoes ; and
although I neverfalnted from loss of blood, I can truly say I was often very hungry.

84 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLA-VERY.
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 Presidehcy, 1 protest they shall not
make fun of me, as they have of General Cass, by atteniptlng to write me into a
military hero.
Mr. Speaker, let our democratic friends be comforted with the assurance, that we
are content with our position, content with our company, and content -witli our
candidate; and that, although they, in their generous sympathy, think we ought
to be miserable, we really are not, and now they may dismiss the great anxiety
they have on our account.
They are kind enough to remind us that we have some dissensions In onr ranks ;
I knew we had dissenters, but I did not know, they were trying to get onr candi
date away from us. Have the democrats no dissenters? Is it all union and har
mony in your ranks 7 No bickerjng ? No divisions 7 If there be doubt as to which
of our divisions will get our candidate, is there no doubt as to which ofyour candi
dates will get your party7 I have heard some things from New York; and If they
are true, we might weU say of your party there, as a drunken fellow once said when
he heard the reading of an indictment for hog-stealing. The clerk read on till he
got to, and through the words " did steal, take, and carry away, ten boars, ten sows,
tenshoats, and ten pigs," at which he exclaimed— "Well, by goUy, that is the most
equally divided gang of hogs I ever did hear of." If there is any gang of hogs more
equally divided than the democrats of New York are about this time, I have not
heard of It.
On the adjournment of Congress, Mr, Lincoln took a trip
into New England, and spoke often and earnestly in favor of
General Taylor's election. He also stumped Illinois and
, other parts of the West, with great effect during this Presi
dential canvass. General Taylor's election inspired hopes
that the administration would be, at least, fair and just
towa,rds the North on the slavery question.
At the second session of the Thirty-first Congress, the
most important and significant act of Mr. Lincoln, was
the introduction into the House, of a bill to abolish slavery
in the District of Columbia. The bill provided that no per
son from without the district should be held to slavery within
it, and no person thereafter, born within the district, should
be held to slavery. It provided that officers of the govern
ment, being citizens of slave states, coming into the district
on public business, might bring their slaves temporarily into
the district, and hold them while necessarily engaged in pub
lic business. It provided for the emancipation of all slaves
legally held within the district, at the will ofthe masters, and
that full compensation should be made by the government
and that the act should be subjected to the approval of the
people of the district.

BILL TO ABOLISH SLAVERY . 85
The provisions of this bill have been quoted as evidence
that Mr. Lincoln was not a thoroughly anti-slavery man. So
far from proving this, it establishes the fact that he was such,
and it proves also, that he was a practical statesman, and not
a visionary theorist. He believed slavery was unjust to the
slave, and impolitic for the nation, and he meant to do all in
his power to get rid of it. He prepared his bill with reference
to the condition of public sentiment, at that time, and what
was possible to be accomplished. The bill represents what
he hoped could, by the action of Congress, become a law,
rather than his own abstract views of justice and right. The
result showed that even this bill would not be tolerated by
the slaveholders. Their opposition was so decided and
unanimous, that the bill could not even be brought to a vote.
On the question whether slaves used and lost by the offi
cers of the government while engaged in the Seminole war,
should be paid for, as property, which was raised in the cele-
bratedPachecocase, Mr. Lincoln voted, "no!" He would not
pay for them ; thus refusing to recognize property in slaves,
as against the right of the government to the services of all
citizens, or persons black or white, in time of war.
Mr. Gott, of New York, introduced a resolution instruct
ing the Committee on the District of Columbia, to report a
bill abolishing the slave trade. Mr. Lincoln moved an
amendment, instru --ting the Committee to report a bill to
abolish, not the slave trade, but slavery.
Mr. Lincoln's Congressional term ended March 4th, 1849;
he declined a reelection, and was succeeded by the eloquent
E. D. Baker.
He was a candidate for the appointment of Commissioner
ofthe General Land Office, from President Taylor; for which
place, he was recommended by the whig State Central Com
mittee of Illinois. It was given to Justin Butterfield, a
distinguished lawyer of Chicago.
^Mr. Lincoln was tendered the position of Secretary,
and then of Governor of Oregon ; but fortunately for him,
and the country, providentially, I ought to say, he declined.
There was work for him this side of the Rocky Mountains.
In 1849-50, he was voted for by his party in the Illinois

86 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Legislature, for the Senate ; but the democrats had a large
majority. The vote was a recognition of his position as the
leader of his party.
From Mr. Lincoln's retirement from Congress, in 1849,
until the passage of the Kansas and Nebraska bill, in 1854,
he was engaged in the laborious and succesful practice of
his profession. He rode the circuit, attended the terms of
the Supreme Court, and United States District and Circuit
Courts, and held a leading position at the bar.
Mr. Lincoln was the father of four children, Robert, Ed
ward who died in infancy ; William, the beautiful and most
promising boy, who died at Washington, during his Presi
dency, and Thomas. The oldest and youngest, are living.
Robert, a promising young man, who graduated with dis
tinction at Harvard, Massachusetts, and who served for. a
short time, on the staff' of General Grant. Thomas, the
youngest, is receiving his education at the excellent public
schools in Chicago. The tenderness, affection, and indul
gence of Mr. Lincoln for his family, were conspicuous, even
while burdened with the cares of the Presidency. He was
an indulgent and most affectionate father. The loss of his
son Willie, seemed to make his affection for the youngest a
passion. In the midst of the cares and annoyances of the
Presidency, he was in the daily habit of reading to this child,
a chapter in the Bible. He governed his children by affec
tion. His severest censure was an affectionate reproach.
After the death of William, he seemed to cling, if possible,
still more closely to the others, and it was no unusual thing,
for the visitor at the White House, on the gravest subject,
to find the President, with his young boy, " Taddy," as he
was called, in his arms.
Mr. Lincoln was a good, natural mechanic, and when he
again entered public life, was rapidly acquiring distinction as
a patent lawyer. In the great case of McCormick against
Manny, involving the question of infringement of the patent
of McCormick's celebrated reaper, he was engaged for Manny.
It is a curious fact, that in this case, he was opposed, among
others, by two members of his cabinet, Messrs. Seward and

LINCOLN AGAIN AT THE BAR. 87
Stanton, the latter then practicing law at Pittsburgh, and
Washington, with great distinction. Mr. Lincoln invented,
and patented, an apparatus for lifting steamers over shoals
and bars, in the Western rivers. The curious, may find the
model, made by himself, among the curiosities of the Patent
Office, at the Capital. His practical skill, as a mechanic, his
wonderful power of statement and illustration, his ability to
make the most abstruse point clear to the common mind,
made him almost unequalled as a patent lawyer. He had, at
this period of his life, a very large, and it might have been,
a very lucrative practice, but his fees were, as his brethren
of the law called them, ridiculously small. He lived simply
and respectably, with no expensive tastes or habits, his wants
being few and simple. The -only instance known of his tak
ing a fee, regarded as large, was the charge of five thousand
dollars, to the Illinois Central Railroad, for services, in a very
important case in the Supreme Court. This rich corporation,
¦with a road and branches, running more than seven hundred
miles in the State of Illinois, the case involving questions
of great difficulty, and of vast pecuniary importance to the
corporation, his friends insisted that he should charge a
liberal fee for the very important and valuable services he
rendered. He never, knowingly, accepted a fee to support
fraud, injustice, or wrong; but to the poor, the oppressed,
the weak, his services were ever ready, with or without a fee.
The son of a poor widow, who had, in his early struggles,
befriended Lincoln and rendered him many kind offices, was
indicted for murder; Lincoln, the moment he heard of it,
wrote her a letter volunteering to defend her son. It was
a case where public prejudice was strong against the accused,
and the principal witness swore, that he saw, by the bright
light of the moon, the prisoner give the death-blow. Mr.
Lincoln showed, by reference to the almanac, that there was no
moon on the night in question. The case brought out all his
power, as an advocate. His appeal and arguments were irre
sistible, and he carried the jury and the crowd with him.
When the jury returned a verdict of " noi guilty," the aged
mother fainted in the arms of her son. Such was Lincoln's
grateful return to the poor woman, who had aided him in

88 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
his days of struggle with poverty. In his arguments at the
bar, Mr. Lincoln's style was generally plain and unimpas
sloned, and his professional bearing was so high and honora
ble, that no man ever questioned his truthfulness, or his
honor. No one, who ever watched him for half an hour, in
a hard contested case, would doubt his ability. He had a
clear insight into the human heart; knew jury, witnesses,
parties, attorneys, and how best to address and manage all.
His statement of his case was an argument of itself; his
illustrations, often quaint and homely, yet always clear and
presented with sincerity and earnestness of manner, gener
ally carried conviction. He never misstated evidence, or
law, but met the case squarely and fairly. Such was Mr.
Lincoln at the bar, a fair, honest, able lawyer, on the right
side, always successful — avoiding, carefully, the wrong side,
and when he found himself upon it, either throwing up his
case, or making an effort so weak, that the jury, generally
said, " Lincoln is on the wrong side; he don't try."
The last case which Mr. Lincoln ever tried, was the case
of Jones V. Johnson, tried in the United States Circuit Court
at Chicago, in the Spring of 1860, before the Hon. Thomas
Drummond, District Judge. The case involved the title to
land of great value, which had been formed by accretion, on
the shore of Lake Michigan, by the gradual action of the
lake. It led to an investigation of ancient land marks and
boundaries, old Government surveys, and maps; the loca^
tion of the lake shore when the town of Chicago was first
platted into town lots, etc. It involved the recollections of
the old settlers, and was a case peculiarly fitted for Mr. Lin
coln's powers. The case was tried by Mr. Lincoln, and
Messrs. Wilson & Fuller, and others, for the plaintiff, Jones,
and by Judge B. S. Morris, and the author,for the defendant
Mr. Lincoln obtained a verdict in favor of his client al
though in the previous trials, the result had been the other
way.

CHAPTEE lY.

LINCOLN AND SLAVERY FROM 1854 TO 1858.
Lincoln and Douglas Debate at Springpield, 1855 — At Peo
ria — Election op Trumbull to the Senate — Keorqaniza-
TiON OP Parties on the Slavery Issue — The Kepublican
Party — Presidential Election of 1856 — Margaret G-arneb
— Brooks' Assault on Sumner — Lincoln's Hatred op Slav
ery — Buchanan — Kansas — Lecompton — Douglas — The
I- Dred Scott Case — Slavery Dominant, and Its Eppects
Upon the Republic.
TN 1854, events occurred, which brought into public action
-L all the power and energy of Mr. Lincoln. The repeal ofthe
Missouri Compromise, the struggle for, and outrages in Kan
sas, brought him again prominently before the people of Illi
nois, and from this time, he devoted himself to the conflict
between freedom and slavery, until he was elevated to the
Presidency. The conviction settled upon his mind, that there
could be no peace on the slavery question, until freedom or
slavery should triumph.
Wben Senator Douglas returned to Illinois, after the pas
sage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, he was met by a storm of
indignation, which would have overwhelmed a man of less
power and -will. Like a bold and couragous man, confident of
his power over the people, he met the storm, and sought to
overcome it. At his first attempt to address the people at
Chicago, he was refused a hearing, but he would be, and was
heard. Early in October, the State fair was held at Spring-
fi!eld, and his personal and political friends from all parts of
the State, made it a point to be there, as it was known Doug
las would be present and attempt to vindicate his action.
When it was known that Douglas was to speak, Lincoln was
89

90 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
called upon by those who disapproved of the course of the
Senator, to reply. Douglas spoke to a vast crowd of people,
with his usual great ability. His long experience in debatCj
his confidence in himself, made him somewhat arrogant and
overbearing. Lincoln listened to his speech, and at the close,
it was announced, that he would, on the following day, reply.
Douglas was present at this reply, which occupied more than
three hours'; during all this long period, Lincoln held his
vast audience in close attention. No report of this speech
has been made, but it was undoubtedly one of the greatest
efforts of his life. A by-stander, describing the speaker and
the speech, says. " His whole heart was in the subject. He
quivered with feeling and emotion. The house was as
still as death." The effect of the speech was most magnetic
and powerful ; cheer upon cheer interrupted him. Women
waved their handkerchiefs, men sprung from their seats and
waved their hats, in uncontrollable enthusiasm.
As soon as Lincoln concluded, Douglas sprung to the stand
and said he had been abused, "though in a perfectly courte
ous manner." He spoke until the hour for supper, but with
out his usual success. He said he would continue his re
marks in the evening, but he did not. He was evidently,
unprepared for the tremendous effort of Lincoln, and could
not immediately, recover from it.
Their next place of meeting was at Peoria; Mr. Lincoln fol
lowed Douglas to that place, and challenged the discussion.
On this occasion, as at Springfield, Lincoln replied to Doug
las, in a speech of some three hours length, and carried the
audience, almost unanimously with him. On these two occa
sions, more perhaps than any other in his life, was Douglas
disconcerted by the vigor and power of the reply to him. A
consciousness of being in the wrong may have contributed to
this result. It was perfectly clear, that Lincoln spoke from
the most deep and earnest conviction of right, and his man
ner indicated this. Mr. Lincoln desired to continue the dis
cussion, with the author of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, in other
parts of the State, but Douglas declined.
General Shields, who was the colleague of Douglas in the
Senate, whose term was about to expire, had voted, under

ELECTION OF TRUMBULL TO THE SENATE. 91
the influence of Douglas, for the Kansas-Nebraska bill. He
was a candidate for reele^ion. Mr. Lincoln having been the
leader ofthe whig party, now the leader of all who opposed
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and the Kansas out
rages, was brought prominently forward for the place. The
free soil democrats,whigs, and liberty party men, were united
and carried a majority of the Legislature. Lincoln would
have been elected Senator, as he was the choice of a large
majority of the anti-Nebraska members, so elected; but
among the Senators, who had been elected as democrats, and
who held over, but who would vote for an anti-Nebraska
democrat, for the Senate, were N. B. Judd, B. C. Cook, Pal
mer, (now Major General Palmer,) and Parks. These gentle
men, while appreciating Mr. Lincoln's ability, and his great
services, felt that they could not vote for a whig, and brought
forward Lyman Trumbull, as a candidate. On ascertaining
these facts, seeing danger, that unless prevented by the imme
diate concentration ofthe anti-Nebraska members. Governor
Matteson, a democrat would be elected, Mr. Lincoln, with
the generous magnanimity and unselfish devotion to princi
ple which ever characterized him, withdrew his name as a
candidate; and by earnest, personal appeals, induced his
friends to vote solid for Judge Trumbull, and thus secured
his election. Meanwhile the Thirty-fourth Congress had
been elected and convened in December, 1855. The old
whig party had been dissolved, and out of it had sprung two
parties, calling themselves the American, and the republican
parties. At this Congress, neither party having a majority, a
long struggle ensued for the election of Speaker, which after
sixty days' ballotting, resulted in the election of N. P. Banks,
.of Massachusetts, over ex-Governor Aiken, of South Carolina.
"The slavery question absorbed public attention, and political
contests before the people, centered more and more upon
that question, as the Presidential election of 1856 approached.
The friends of freedom, elevated by the consciousness of
a great cause, animated by the advocacy of great principles,
and a generous love of hberty, conscious of the moral sub
limity of their position, grew more and more confident of
success. The slavery question, had shattered and broken up

92 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the old party organizations. From the fragments of former
parties, there existed the material, which if it could be
united, and brought together, would constitute a powerful
and successful party.
There had been in the great democratic organization, an
earnest and powerful element opposed to slavery; but as that
party had passed more and more into the control of the slave
holders, this element had been driven out. The old whig
party had been broken up ; the party calling itself American,
was not sufficiently broad, national, and catholic to suit the
American people. The time had come, it was believed by
many, for the organization of a new party, which should
embody the vitality, vigor, and the genuine democratic prin
ciples ofthe ancient democracy; a party which earnestly and
heartily believed in the Declaration of Independence; a party
that should combine the best elements of the old parties, and
all the earnest anti-slavery men of the country.
This new organization needed a leader, and found one,
unconciously to itself, and to him, in Abraham Lincoln. He
was selected by the instincts of the masses of the people. In
principle, in character, he was, of all others, the representative
man of this new organization.
The aggressions of the slaveholders, and their outrages in
Kansas, had intensified the feeling of hostility to slavery,
and in that hostility, was to be found a common bond of
union. Hitherto the democratic party, under the attractive name
of democracy, had secured the vote of the foreign born citi
zens of the republic. But a large and intelligent class, in
cluding the Swedes and Norwegians, and a very numerous
body of Germans, and others, when they saw an organiza
tion distinctly hostile to slavery, which, in all its forms they
abhored, placing itself upon the broad principle of liberty,
felt that their true position was in the ranks of this new party.
If this powerful foreign element could be detached from the
democracy, and join the new party now crystalizing it
would contribute very largely towards its early success.
But there were strong prejudices to be overcome between
these foreign born citizens and that portion of the new party
who had been called Americans.

THT REPUBLICAN PARTY. 93
The new party was organized in the Northwest, and thus
the first cordial union between the Americans, and the foreign
born citizens, was established upon the basis of hostility to,
and the restriction of, slavery. The leaders of this new
party called a convention at Pittsburgh, on the 22d of Febru-,
ary, 1856. This convention laid down a platform of broad,
comprehensive principles, and inaugurated the republican
party. F. P. Blair, Sen., was a leading member of this
convention. A convention of the people of Illinois was called at Bloom-
ington, in May, 1856, to appoint delegates to the National
convention which was to meet at Philadelphia in June, to
nominate candidates for President and Vice President. The
free-soil democrats, anti-Nebraska democrats, whigs, Ameri
cans, and liberty men of Illinois, and of all nationalities,
were brought together at this convention, and mainly through
the influence of Mr. Lincoln, united on the broad platform
of the Declaration of Independence, and hostility to the ex
tension of slavery.
Great difficulty was found in laying down a satisfactory
platform of principles; finally, after much controversy and
discussion, -with no satisfactory result, Mr. Lincoln, who was
present, was sent for by the committee on resolutions,and
he solved the difficulty, by suggesting that all could unite
on the principles embodied in the Declaration of Indepen
dence and hostility to the extension of slavery. This sug
gestion was immediately accepted. " Let us," said he, " in
building our new party, plant ourselves on the rock of the
Declaration of Independence," and " the gates of hell, shall
not be able to prevail against us." The convention, there
upon resolved,
" That all men are endowed with the inalienable right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; and that the ob
ject of government is to secure these rights to all persons
within its jurisdiction;" this, and hostility to slavery, and a
determination to resist its further extension, was the sub
stance of the platform adopted. Thus was organized the
party, that revolutionized the democratic State of Ilhnois,

94 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
against the powerful influence of Douglas, and ultimately
elected Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency.
The representatives of this new party from all parts of
the free States, and some of the slave States, met at Phila
delphia, in June, 1856. The great difficulty in regard to
union was again successfully encountered, and overcome,
mainly through the influence of Mr. Lincoln, and his friends
from the Northwest. The platform was substantially the
same as that on which the friends of Mr. Lincoln had de
termined to fight the battle in Illinois. The convention
nominated John C. Frement for President, and William L.
Dayton, for Vice President. It was at this convention, that
Mr. Lincoln, as the leading statesman of the broad, national
Northwest began to be appreciated, and in the informal ballot
for Vice President, he received one hundred and ten votes.
The democratic party met at Cincinnati, on the 2d of June,
and on the first ballot for President, the vote was for James
Buchanan, 135, Franklin Pierce, 122, S. A. Douglas, 33. On
the sixteenth ballot, the vote stood, Buchanan, 168, Douglas,
121. Buchanan was afterwards nominated, Douglas being
considered unavailable, because of his direct connection with
the repeal of the Missouri compromise, and Pierce, because
of the outrages committed upon the free State setlers in
Kansas, under his administration. John C. Breckenridge was
nominated for Vice President.
The convention, although it could not nominate Douglas,
yet " adopted the principles contained in the organic laws, estab
lishing the Territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It also
endorsed the compromise measures of 1850.
By the course of the Southern whigs, in voting for the re
peal of the Missouri compromise, and the subsequent support
by its leaders, of the compromise measures of 1850, that
venerable party was broken up, a large portion of its young
and active men joined the free-soil democrats and liberty
men, in organizing and strengthening the republican party.
A portion of its aged and very respectable members, some
times called " Silver Greys," from their venerable appearance,
made up, what was called an American party, and these
nominated Millard Fillmore for President, and AndreW J.

ELECTION OF EIGHTEEN HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SIX. 95
Donellson, for Vice President. When the convention nomin
ating these gentlemen, laid upon the table, a resolution, de
claring, " That the convention should nominate no man for
President and Vice President, who was not in favor of inter
dicting the introduction of slavery into territory North of
36° 30", by Congressional a'ction;" about fifty delegates
withdrew from the convention, and gave their influence for
Fremont and Dayton.
The republican convention, nominating Fremont and Day
ton, placed itself distinctly and squarely on the great principle
of American freedom so emphatically asserted in the Declar
ation of Independence, and declared, " That with our repub
lican Fathers, we believe it to be a self-evident truth, that
all men are endowed with the inalienable rights of life, lib
erty, and the pursuit of happiness," and that it was the ob
ject of the Federal Government to secure these rights to all
persons, -within its exclusive jurisdiction, and the convention
denied the right of Congress, a territorial Iicgislature, or any
individual, or association of individuals, to give legal exist
ence to slavery in any territory of the United States, and de
clared that it was the right and duty of Congress to prohibit
in the territories, these twin relics of barbarism, poligamy,
and slavery."
Then followed one of the most animated, and closely con
tested political campaigns known in the history of the repub
lie. Up to the time of the October State elections, the suc
cess of the republican party seemed very probable. The
democratic party, however, succeeded in carrying, by small
majorities, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, and this virtually,
settled the contest. Buchanan received 172 electoral votes,
Fremont, 114; and Fillmore, the vote of the State of Mary
land. The republican vote was largely increased, by the out
rages upon Northern feeling, in the offensive and inhuman
enforcement of the fugitive slave law.
Two incidents occurred, during the year, and before the
Presidential election, calculated to inflame the feelings of he
free States, and strikingly illustrative of the character of
slavery and the barbarism produced by it.

96 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
One morning, in January, 1856, two families of slaves
escaped from Kentucky, and flying across the Ohio river,
on the ice, they found refuge in the house of a poor negro.
They were followed, traced, overtaken, and breaking open
the door, a scene burst upon .the eyes of the pursuers,
which exhibits slavery as it was, before the war. In one
corner ofthe room, lay a beautiful child, nearly white, bleed
ing to death, with its throat cut. In an adjoining room, was
the mother of the bleeding child, Margaret Garner, with
two other wounded children, with the bloody knife in her
hand, seeking to take their lives, desiring to kill all her
children rather than they should be taken back to slavery.
They were all arrested, and the living taken back to Ken
tucky — sent South, and all trace of them lost in that hell of
slavery existing in the Gulf States. This mother, who thus
sought liberty for her children in death, was a beautiful mu
latto, twenty-three years of age, of good character ; she said she
had determined tc kill all her children, and then herself,
rather than go back to slavery.
The other incident, to which allusion has been made, was
the attack upon Charles Sumner, Senator from Massachu
setts, by Preston Brooks, a member of Congress from South
Carolina. Mr. Sumner had made an eloquent speech, onthe
Kansas question, exhibiting the barbarism of slavery, and
had spoken, with some severity of Butler, of South Carolina,
a relative of Brooks. Mr. Brooks, with Keitt, and other
abettors, stole into the Senate Chamber, approached Sumner
from behind, whUe seated, writing at his desk, knocked him
to the floor, and continued to beat him, while insensible
until his rage was thoroughly satisfied.
The House of Representatives censured, did not expel
Brooks. He resigned and was reelected without opposition.
His constituents lauded the " chivalric act!" Sumner's real
assassin was slavery ! He has lived to see that assassin after
striking at the life of the Nation, and at last, thoroughly
arousing it — crushed beneath that Nation's manhood and
power. There were, during this canvass, many threats, by leading
men in the slave States, that in case Fremont should be

ll:;coln'£ hostility to slavery increases. 97
elected, the" slave States would secede from the Union. Little
consideration, or attention was given to these threats ; they
were regarded as idle gasconade, only meant to influence
voters. The struggle between freedom and slavery, still went on.
The slaveholders, elated with their triumph in the election of
Buchanan, were now confident of success. The friends of free
dom, so far from being discouraged by Fremont's defeat,
became conscious of their power, and nerved themselves for
still grater efforts. The contest of 1856 being over, they
did notdisband their forces and lay down their arms, but
prepared for success in 1860. Old party issues and parties
disappeared, and slavery extension became the vital issue.
Very few, however, if any, doubted that the contest would
be settled by peaceful agencies, and that the decision of the
ballot box would be acquiesced in, or if not, would be
appealed for new trial to the next election, as was ever the
American custom.
Mr. Lincoln's opposition to slavery, became more and
more intense -with time, and the development of its cruelties.
Writing to a friend in 1855, he said, " I hate to see the poor
creatures hunted down, caught, and carried back to their
stripes and unrequited toil." Seeing, in a steamboat, going
down the Ohio, a dozen slaves shackled together with irons,
he said, " That sight was a continual torment to me, and I
see something like it every time I travel the Ohio, or any
other slave border."
It was in the campaign of 1856, that no longer embarrassed
by party, but standing on the platform of freedom, with
which his whole soul sympathised, he exclaimed, with pro
phetic enthusiasm, "We will, hereafter, speak for freedom,
and against slavery, as long as the Constitution guarantees
free speech; until everywhere, on this wide land, the sun
shall shine, and the rain shall fall, and the wind shall blow
upon no man who goes forth to unrequited toil."
Ah ! how little did Lincoln think, when on the prairies of
Illinois, he uttered that noble sentiment, that in less than
eight years, his voice should utter the potential word of
7

98 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW bP SLAVERY.
" emancipation," from the date of which, thereafter, " no man
should go forth to unrequited toil."
In March, 1857, Mr. Buchanan was inaugurated and organ
ized his cabinet ; Lewis Cass was made Secretary of State,
Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Secretary of the Treasury ; John
B. Floyd, of Virginia, "Secretary of War ; Isaac Toucey, of
Connecticut, Secretary ofthe Navy; Jacob Thompson, of
Mississippi, Secretary of the Interior ; Aaron V. Brown, of
Tennessee, Postmaster General; Jeremiah S. Black, of
Pennsylvania, Attorney General. ^
Tbe contest for the possession of Kansas, between ffeedom
and slavery, still went on. The free-State men, after seeing
Kansas repeatedly invaded by armed men from Missouri, the
polls taken possession of, a legislature elected by non-resid
ents, and the acts of such a Legislature recognized by the
Federal officials, refused to participate in these mock elec
tions, and calling a convention of the actual settlers, the
people elected delegates, which met at Topeka, adopted a
free-State Constitution, submitted it to the people, aud it was
almost unanimously adopted. They then proceeded to elect
officers under it. This brought the contending parties into
direct collision, and civil war menaced Kansas. Congress, in
the winter of 1856, had appointed an investigating Committee
consisting of William A. Howard, of Michigan, John Sher
man, of Ohio, and M. Oliver, of Missouri, which, after full in
vestigation, reported, that every election held under the
auspices of the United States officials, had been controlled,
not by actual settlers, but by residents of Missouri, and
that every officer, in the territory, owed his election to
non-residents. The people's officers, elected under the Topeka Constitu
tion, had been arrested and the Legislature dispersed under
orders of the President, by United States regular troops. In
January, 1858, a body, calling itself the Legislature of Kan
sas, elected by fraud, pretended to submit to a vote of the
people, a Constitution, called from the place where the Legis
lature had met, the Lecompton Constitution. The law by
which this was submitted to a vote, contained a provision
that all votes should be "for the Constitution wi^A slavery;

the lecompton CONSTITUTION. 99
or for the Constitution without slavery;" and yet the Consti
tution itself recognized slavery, and contained a provision
restricting the Legislature from interfering with slavery then
in the territory, before 1864!
The people, by a vote of 10,226, against, to less than 200,
for, this Constitution, expressed their opinion of the trick,
and yet Mr. Buchanan had the shameless effrontery to urge
upon Congress, the admission of Kansas under this Lecomp
ton swindle ! It was by such disgraceful means that the states
men, so called, of the slave States, sought to force slavery
upon Kansas.
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise was fatal to the
supremacy of the slave power, and the attempt to force slav
ery upon Kansas, and surreptitiously to introduce her into
the' Union as a slave State, under the lead of Buchanan,
shattered the democratic party, and contributed largely to
the triumph of the republican or free-soil party of 1860.
Douglas had the sagacity to see whither the extreme course
of the administration was tending, and the courage to resist
it. He led the opposition in the Senate to the Lecompton
Constitution, and thereby atoned to some extent, for his
instrumentality in the overthrow ofthe Missouri Compromise.
He presented, in February, 1858, the remonstrance of the
Governor and State officers elect, of Kansas, elected under
the Topeka Constitutiftu, against its admission under the
Lecompton Constitution. In the debate on this question,
Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, said the people of Kansas had
thrown a majority of over 10,000 votes against this very
Constitution. That the great question through all the Kansas
struggle had been, slavery, or no slavery. The leading idea
of the repeal of the Missouri Compromise was to make Kan
sas a slave State. This was denied by Mr. Douglas, but was
reiterated by Mr. Fessenden.
A passage occurred in this debate between Mr. Fessenden
and Jefferson Davis, of curious interest. Mr. Davis expressed
his concurrence not only with the message of the President,
but his hearty approbation of the high motives that actuated
him when he wrote it. Apparently looking forward to the
separation of States, he held that a Senator, while sitting in

100 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the Senate Chamber, was in the relation of a minister to a
friendly Court, and that the moment he sees the government in
hostility to his own State, his honor, and the honor of his State
compel him to vacate the seat he holds. " I am, said he,
not in the habit of paying lip service to the Union. If
through a life, not now a short one, a large portion of which
has been spent in the public service, I have given no better
proof of my affection for this Union than my declarations,
I have lived to little service indeed. Whatever evil may be
in store for us, I trust I shall be able to turn to the past and
say, that up to the period when I was declining into the
grave, I served a government I loved, and served it with my
whole heart." ^
Mr. Fessenden said, " I have avowed no disunion senti
ments here or elsewhere. Can the Hon. Senator from
Mississippi say as much ?"
Mr. Davis, " Yes."
Mr. Fessenden, " I am glad to hear him say so, as the
newspapers have represented him as making a speech in Mis
sissippi, in which he said he came into Mr. Pierce's cabinet a
disunion man.'"
Although the bill passed the Senate, yet by the determined
and powerful opposition of the republican members, aided
by a few votes which followed Douglas from the democratic
ranks, the measure finally failed.
The opposition of Douglas to their schemes exasperated
the slaveholding Senators, and they sought to degrade him by
removing him from the position which he had long held, of
Chairman of the Committee on territories. This was done
on motion of the infamous Slidell, of Louisiana.
But Douglas never exhibited more commanding ability
than when he led the opposition in the Senate to the Lecomp
ton cheat. The defeat of this scheme was for him a
magnificent Congressional triumph.
Buchanan sent his tool, Slidell, to Illinois to organize a
third party to defeat Douglas in the approaching canvass for
the Senate.
But before approaching the great intellectual combat be
tween the two champions of the Northwest, Lincoln and

THE DRED SCOTT CASE. 101
Douglas, we must mention two or three other important
topics which entered into the discussion referred to, and
constitute a part of the history of the times.
We have seen that the Executive and Legislative Departs
ments of the Government had long been under the control
of the slaveholders. The Judicial Department, over which
had once presided the pure and spotless abolitionist, John
Jay, and the great Constitutional lawyer and intellectual
giant, John Marshall, had become an object of profound
reverence to the people. It had been the arena of the high
est forensic discussions, involving the most important ques
tions of private rights and Constitutional power. The great
advocates of the country, lawyers whose names are classic
in forensic literature, Pinckney, Henry, Emmet, Wirt, Mason,
Dexter, Webster, Clay, Sargent, Ogden, and others, had
there discussed with matchless ability, questions involving
State rights, and National sovereignty and power, as well as
the laws of Nations, and maritime and municipal law. This
court had come to be regarded by the American people as
the most dignified, enlightened, and august tribunal on earth.
The period had now come in which the National Judiciary
was to be prostituted, and American Jurisprudence disgraced
by its efforts to uphold and strengthen slavery.
JDred 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 lying
North of the line of 36° 30", where slavery was prohibited
by law.
Upon the well settled principle of law, a master volun
tarily bringing a slave upon territory where slavery is
prohibited, the slave becomes free. Dred Scott became a
freeman, and he brought suit for his liberty, and the case
went up to the Supreme Court of the United States for final
decision, was argued, and was to have been decided at the
term of 1855.
But a majority of the judges, in view ofthe pending Pre~
idential election, and the intense feeling then existing on the
slavery question, postponed the decision until the next term,
which would be subsequent to the Presidential election.

102 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
That decision, when promulgated, so shocked the moral
sense ofthe people, and was such a palpable violation of law
and decency, that there is little doubt if published before the
election, it would have changed the result.
Thecourt, through Chief Justice Taney, held: First, 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 Cotlrts. This ended
the case. But the point had been made that Scott was free
by operation of the Missouri Prohibition of 1820. The
Chief Justice, and a majority of his associates eagerly seized
the opportunity to pronounce the prohibition of slavery un
constitutional and void; and they went on to say that by vir
tue of the Constitution, slavery existed in all the territories
of the United States, and that Congress could not prohibit it.
Thus the revolution was complete.
The Federal Government was organized upon the princi
ple that slavery was local, confined to State limits, and Con
gress prohibited it in all the theu existing territories.
The Chief Justice, and his associates, now decided that
slavery, by virtue of the Constitution, was legal in all the
territories, and that the right to take and hold slaves in all
the territories, was a right which Congress could not prohibit.
The Chief Justice endeavored to show that colored men
were not included in the Declaration of Independence, under
the language of "all men are created equal, etc.;" but he de
clared that "for more than a century before the date of that
instrument, they had been regarded as beings of an inferior
order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race;
and so far inferior, that " they had no rights which the white man
was bound to respect;" and that the negro might justly and
lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit.
Mr. Justice Curtiss, in his able, dissenting opinion, showed
that so far from this being true, that in the States of New
Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and
North Carolina, negroes had been not only citizens, but elec
tors and voters. Mr. Justice Catron, of Tennessee, dissented
from the opinion of the court that Congress could not legis
late for the territories; he said "More than sixty years have

THE DRED SCOTT CASE. 103
passed away since Congress has exercised power to govern
territories by its legislation directly, or by territorial charters,
subject to repeal; and it is now too late to call in question
that power."
Thus slavery triumphed in every department of the Gov
ernment, and seemed to hold an intrenched and unassailable
position. How does George Bancroft, the life long democrat, but
with a reputation as a historian, which will not permit him
to withhold the truth — when speaking at the grave of Lin
coln, and in the presence of Eternity, characterise this
decision? He says:
The Chief Justice ofthe United States, without any necessity or occasion, volun
teered to come to the rescue of the theory of slavery j and from his court there lay
no appeal but to the law of humanity and history. 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 Constitution upholds it in
every territory against any act of a local Legislature, and even against Congress
liself ; or, as the President for that term tersely promulgated the saying, " Kansas
is as much a slave Statej as Souths Carolina or Georgia; slavery, by virtue of the
Constitution, exists in every territory." *
I have thus hastily and imperfectly, but I hope sugges
tively and truthfully, traced the progress of the slave power
in the republic, from the revolution, down.
At the close of the revolution, it was a fe,eble, tolerated,
local institution. The moral sense and religious convictions,
as well as the political sentiments, genius, principles of the
republic were against it.
But slavery, having in an unfortunate moment, been toler
ated by the framers of the Constitution, under the belief
that it would be but a temporary evil, soon aspired to power
and became the master of the Government. Conscious of
its inherent weakness, it demanded additional territory for
its expansion. First, Louisiana, then Florida, then the re
peal of the Missouri restriction, that it might go North and
West, as well as South; then Texas, then the war on Mexico
for more territory. Up to the period ofthe Dred Scott deci
sion, slavery had generally been successful upon all the issues
made with freedom. It was now perfectly absolute on the
* Bancroft's oration on Lincoln, p. 13 and W.

104 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
bench ofthe Supreme Court, as was painfully illustrated by the
doctrines announced in the Dre.d Scott decision. It controlled
the action of Congress. It directed who should be Presi
dent; and no party had thus far succeeded, which placed
in nomination any man openly hostile to it. The army and
the Navy, with West Point, and the Naval school for its nur
series, were its right and left hand to carry out its purposes.
The control of the National treasure, collected and paid
largely in the free States, was in the hands of slaveholders.
The slaveholder held the purse and the sword; he ruled at
the White House, in Congress, and on the bench of the
Supreme Court; and represented the republic at home and
abroad. The fairest portion of the republic, with the richest soil
and the most genial climate, had been blighted by its curse.
That portion of the Union where slavery existed, was
comparatively poor, sparsely settled, with little thrift or com
fort; with no manufactures, little commerce; very far behind
the free States in culture, arts, and intelligence. Contrasted
with the South, with its rich, natural advantages, was rocky,
cold, bleak, barren New England. Under the influence of
free labor, every valley blooming like a garden, her fields
smiling with abundant harvests, every hill sheltering a thriv
ing village, with every element of comfort; with commerce
whitening every sea ; with a skilled and intelligent labor which
sends its manufactures to the uttermost parts of the earth.
Free labor produces this contrast, and everywhere the
passing stranger reads in every object he sees, that liberty
dwells among the hills and mountains of New England,
while slavery blackens aud desolates the sunny plains of the
South. In the free States were to be fouud everywhere, the
church, the school house, the comfortable home, the news
paper, the library, and everywhere domestic comfort, refine
ment, culture, the arts and taste; christian civilization in its
highest forms. In the South were a few opulent families
living in luxury and ease; families highly educated, refined,
of great social attraction, while the great mass of the white
people were ignorant, idle, and rude; with the great planta^
tion, the slave-huts, squalor, ignorance, brutality. Slavery

^ EFFECTS OF SLAVERY. 105
everywhere, operating as a moral blight; reducing rapidly a
once noble race into barbarism.
The effect of slavery in retarding the material prosperity
of the country, may be strikingly illustrated by the census
tables, and a comparison between the free, and slave States.
Taking for illustration. New York and Virginia. By the
census, the population of Virginia in 1790, was 748,308, and
in 1860, 1,596,318, making the ratio of increase, 113, 32 per
cent. In 1790, New York numbered 340,120, and in 1860,
3,880,735, the ratio of increase being 1,040,99. Thus the
rate of increase in New York, exceeded that of Virginia,
more than nine to one.
In 1790, the population of Virginia, was largely more than
double that of New York.* In 1860, the population of New
York was very largely more than double that of Virginia.
In 1790, Virginia, in population, ranked first of all the
States, and New York the fifth. In 1860, they had reversed
their position, and New York was the first, and Virginia the
fifth. At the same rate of progress, from 1860, to 1900, as
from 1790 to 1860, Virginia retaining slavery, would have
sunk from the first, to the twenty -first State, and would still
continue at each scceeding decade, descending the inclined
plane toward the lowest position of all the States.
Such has been, and still continues to be, the effect of slav-
eiy, in dragging down that once great State from the first,
toward the last in rank in the Union. But if, as in the ab
sence of slavery must have been the case, Virginia had in
creased from 1790 to 1860, in the same ratio as New York,
her population in 1860, would have been 7,789,141, and she
must always have remained the first in rank of all the States.
The census proves that slavery greatly retards the increase
of wealth.
By tables 33 and 36 of the census of 1860, it appears, omit
ting commere, that the products of industry, as given, viz :
of agriculture, manufactures, mines, and fisheries, were that
year, in New York, $606,000,000, cr $156 per capita, and in
Virginia, 120,000,000, or $75 per capita. This shows a total
value of product in New York, more than five times greater
See preliminary census Bep., p. 132.

106 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
than in Virginia, and per capita, more than two to one. In
cluding the earnings of commerce and all business not given
in the census, it will be shown that the value of the pro
ducts and earnings of New York, in 1860, exceeded those of
Virginia, at least seven to one.*
The war taxes of the Republic may be very great, but the
tax of slavery is far greater, and the relief from it, in a few
years, will add much more to the National wealth than the
whole deduction made by the war debt.
The population of the United States would have reached,
in 1860, nearly 40,000,000, and our wealth have been more
than doubled, if slavery had been extinguished in 1790 ; this
is one of the revelations made by the census; whilst in
science, in education, and National power, the advance would
have been still more rapid, and the moral force of our ex
ample and success would have controlled for the benefit of
mankind, the institutions of the world.
Having shown how much the material progress of Vir
ginia, has been retarded by slavery, let us now consider its
effect upon her moral and intellectual development.
The number of newspapers and periodicals in New York,
in lB60, was 542, of which, 365 were political, 56 religious,
63 literary, 58 miscellaneous ; and the number of copies cir
culated in 1860, was 320,930,884.
The number in Virginia, was 139; of which, 117 were
political, 13 religious, 3 literary, 6 miscellaneous; andthe
number of copies circulated in 1860, was 26,772,568. Thus
the annual circulation of the press in New York, was twelve
times as great as that of Virginia.
The number of public schools in Virginia, in 1850, was
2,937, teachers 3,005, pupils 67,438, colleges, academies, etc.,
pupils 10,326, attending school during the year, as returned
by families, 109,775; native white adults of the State who
cannot read or write, 75,868.
Public libraries, 54; volumes, 88,462; value of churches,
2,902,220. By table 165, compendium of census, the per cent-
age of native free population in Virginia, over 20 years of age
* Most of these calculations are taken from an able pamphlet ofthe Hon. Saxierl
J 'Walker.

EFFECTS OF SLAVERY, 107
who cannot read or write, is 19.90, andin New York, 1.87; in
North Carolina, 30.34; in Maryland, 11.10; in Massachusetts,
32, or less than one-third of one per cent. In New England
the per centage of native whites who cannot read or write is
0.42, or less than one-half of one per cent.; and in the
Southern States 20.30, or 50 to 1, in favor of New England.
But if we take the whole adult population of Virginia, in
cluding whites, free blacks and slaves, 42.05 per cent., or
nearly one-half cannot read or write, and in North Carolina,
more than one-half cannot read or write. We have seen by
the above official tables of the census of 1850, that New
York, compared with Virginia, had nearly ten times as many
pupils at schools, colleges and academies, twenty times as
many books in libraries, and largely more than seven times
the value of churches; while the ratio of native white adults
who cannot read or write, was more than 10 to 1, in Virginia,
compared wdth New York. We have seen also, that in North
Carolina, nearly one-third of the native white adults, and in
Virginia, nearty one-fifth cannot read or write, aud iu New
England, 1 in every 400; in New York, 1 in every 131; in
the South and Southwest, 1 in every 42 of the native white
adults. The comparison of other free and slave States would
exhibit the same results.
Let us compare for a moment, the two great Western
States, Hlinois, a free State, and Missouri, until the rebellion,
a sla-ve holding State.
The Comparison will furnish just results in regard to the
effects of slavery, for while Missouri has increased since 1810,
in wealth and population, much more rapidly than any of
the slave States, there are several free States whose relative
advance has exceeded Illinois. The rapid growth of Mis
souri is owing to her immense area, her fertile soil, her
mighty rivers (the Mississippi and Missouri,) her central and
commanding position, and to the fact, that she had so small
a number of slaves to the square mile, as well as to the free
population. The population of Illinois, in 1810, was 12,282, and in 1860,
1,711,951; the ratio of increase from 1810 to 1860, being
13,838.70. (Ts-ble, Census I860,) The population of Mis-

108 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
souri, in 1810, was 20,845, and in 1860, 1,182,012; the ratio
of increase from 1810 to 1860, being 5,570.48. (Ib.) The
rank of Missouri, in 1810, was, 22, and of Illinois, 23. The
rank of Missouri in 1860, was 8, and of Illinois, 4.
The area of Missouri,is 67,380 square miles, beine the 4th
in rank, as to area, of all the States. The area of Illinois is
65,405 square miles, ranking the 10th. Missouri, then has
11,875 more square miles than Illinois. This excess is greater
by 749 square miles than the aggregate area of Massachusetts,
Delaware, and Rhode Island, containing in 1860, a popular
tion of 1,517,902. The population of Missouri per square
mile in 1810, exceeded that of Illinois .08; but, in 1860, the
population of Missouri per square mile, was 17.54, ranking
the 22d, and that of Illinois, 30.90, ranking the 13th. Illi
nois, with her ratio to the square mile, and the area of Mis
souri, would have had in 1860, a population of 2,082,042;
and Missouri, with her ratio and the area of Illinois, would
have had in 1860, a population of 971,803, making a differ
ence in favor of Illinois, of 1,110,239, instead of 529,939.
The absolute increase of population of Illinois per square
mile, from 1850 to 1860, was 15.54, and of Missouri, 7.43,
Illinois, ranking the 6th, in this ratio, and Missouri, the
14th. These facts prove the vast advantages which Missouri
possessed in her larger area, as compared with Illinois.
But Missouri, in 1810, we have seen, had nearly double
the population of Illinois. Now, reversing their numbers in
1810, the ratio of increase of each remaining the same, the
population of Illinois, in 1860, would have been 2,906,014,
and of Missouri, 696,983. If we bring the greater area of
Missouri as an element into this calculation, the population
of Illinois in 1860, would have exceeded that of Missouri,
more than two millions and a half.
By census table 36, the cash value of the farms of Illinois,
in 1860, was $432,531,072, and of Missouri, $230,632,126,
making a difference in favor of Illinois, of $201,898,946,
which is the loss which Missouri has sustained by slavery in
the single item of the value of her farm lands. Abolish
slavery there, and the value of the farm lands of Missouri
would soon equal those of IlHnois, and augment the wealth

EFFECTS OF SLAVERY. 109
of the farmers of Missouri, over two hundred millions of
dollars. But these farm lands of Missouri embrace only
19,984,809 acres, (table 36,) leaving unoccupied 23,138,391
acres. The difference between the value of the unoccupied
lands of Missouri and Illinois, is six dollars per acre, at which
rate the increased value of the unoccupied lands of Missouri,
in the absence of slavery, is $148,830,346, Thus it appears,
that the loss to Missouri, in the value of her lands, caused by
slavery, is $340,729,292. If we add to this diminished value
of town and city property in Missouri, from the same cause,
the total loss in that State in the value of real estate, exceeds
$400,000,000, which is nearly twenty times the value of her
slaves. By table 35, the increase in the value of real and personal
property of Illinois, from 1850 to 1860, was $715,595,276,
being 457.93 per cent, and Missouri, $363,966,691, being
265.18 per cent. At the same ratio of increase from 1860 to
1870, the total wealth of Illinois, would be $3,993,000,000,
and of Missouri, $1,329,000,000, the difference being $2,664,-
000,000, caused by slavery, which is more than twice the
value of all the slaves in the Union, at the beginning of the
slaveholder's war.
These comparisons could be extended to all the free, and
lately slave States, with the same results.
Virginia was a considerable colony when Pennsylvania
was occupied exclusively by Indian tribes.
In 1790, the population of Virginia exceeded that of Penn
sylvania, 313,925, yet in 1860, Pennsylvania exceeded Vir
ginia, 1,308,797. The ratio of increase in Virginia, being
from 1790 to 1860, 113.32 per cent, and in Pennsylvania,
during the same period, 569.03 per cent.
The effects of slavery upon morals and civilization will be
strikingly illustrated by the barbarities and cruelties of the
great civil war, upon a description of which I must soon
enter. When it is remembered that there were nearly four
millions of people among whom marriage had no legal ex
istence, the family relation no legal recognition, where it
was a penal offence to teach a negro child to read the Holy
Bible; where the chastity ofthe colored woman was without

110 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
protection, where a negro could not be a witness in a court
of Justice, the reflecting mind will be able to form a correct
estimate of the moral condition of both blacks and whites
growing out of this institution of slavery.
While idleness, ignorance, license, and the exercise of
unrestrained, and irresponsible power growing out of slavery
produced its legitimate effects, demoralization, licentiousness,
and vice of all kinds, and rapidly reduced a noble rax;e of
men, capable of the sublime heroism, and self-denial of the
Revolution, to that of a semi-barbarous condition, there
were many exceptions, and localities, where the institution
was patriarchal in its character, and where the high moral
character of the masters, with leisure, means, and taste for
intellectual culture, produced a high order of men.
There were localities at the South where existed the most
attractive and charming illustrations of social culture and re
finement. There were families who regarded their position
as masters, as responsible trusts; who felt themselves respon
sible to God for the moral and physical well-being of their
dependants. There were to be found many philanthropists
and noble women in the slave States, who devoted themselves
to the moral culture and well-being of their servants, with a
philantliropy as devoted and self-sacrificing as any that sent
the missionary to christianize heathen in foreign lands.
There also, were very many specimens of that genial hos
pitality, that kindness, grace, and refinement, which gave to
social life, at the South, its proverbial charm.
But these were becoming more and more exceptional, as
the degeneracy, and profligacy, resulting from slavery
extended. It is not in human nature to be born, reared, and live with
a race, over which is exercised, unrestricted, irresponsible
power, subsisting upon its unrequited toil, pampered by
idleness, and license, without moral degradation.
Especially did slavery unfit the people of the South for
the administration of Republican Government. It under
mined the purity, simplicity and virtue which must ever be
the basis of a successful Republic.

BPFECTg OF SLAVERY. Ill
The slaveholders, as a class, were tyrants, and loving to
erercise power themselves, disregarded the rights of others,
and the restraints of law. As a class, the slaveholders would
gladly have changed the Government to that of an aristocracy
or monarchy, so that it would have secured slavery. They
verified the truth stated by Mr. Lincoln in his letter, dated
April, 1859, to the republicans of Boston, who celebrated
Jefferson's birth-day. He said:
This is a world,of compensation, and he who would be no slave, must consent to
liave no slave. Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves,
and under a just God, cannot long retain it.
The degeneracy of the slaveholders, was exhibited but too
often and too sadly, during the war. As a class, with many
honorable exceptions, they were cruel, treacherous, and
barbarous. Now that slavery is extinct, the true manhood of the South
¦will again arise, and regain its former position; we shall
again see worthy successors of Washington, Madison, and
Jefferson, in Virginia, and the South, who will arise and help
to rear, shape, and preserve that vast Continental Republic
of justice, intelligence and virtue, which is now to arise.
But it is time to return to the sketch of that universal agi
tation of the slavery question which produced the slavehold
er's rebellion, and in which this institution was to die, as
the result of the war brought on by itself, and by which it
sought to strengthen and perpetuate its power.

OHAPTEE Y.

LINCOLN FROM 1857 TO 1860 — THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS
DEBATES.
Lincoln's Nomination por the Senate — His Springpield
Speech — He challenges Douglas to Joint Discussion —
Douglas Accepts — The Debate — The Meeting at Freeport
—Speech at Columbus — At Cincinnati — At Cooper Institute
— The " Rail-Splitter."
PERHAPS, the man to whom Abraham Lincoln was more
indebted for his greatness and his fame, than any other,
was his great political rival, Stephen A. Douglas. Mr. Lin
coln said, on one occasion, in 1856, of Mr. Douglas, " Twen
ty-two years ago, Judge Douglas and I, first became ac
quainted; we were both young then — he a trifie 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 it is not unknown
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 , T would rather
stand on that eminence, than wear the richest crown that
ever pressed a monarch's brow." These great men, alike
self-made, self-educated, coming early in life to Illinois, soon
became leaders, each of his party. Lincoln had contended
for supremacy, in generous emulation with Hardin, Baker,
Browning, Logan, and Trumbull. Douglas had had keen
rivals in Breese, Shields, Young, McClernand, and others;
but in 1857, each was confessedly, the leader of his party in
Illinois. No two men were ever more unlike. Physically
and mentally, they were contrasts. Lincoln was the real,
112

S. a. DOUGLAS. 113
literal, physical giant; Douglas was "the Little Giant," in
person, but a real giant in intellect, as has already been stated.
Douglas was bold, unflinching, impetuous, denunciatory, and
determined ; possessing in an eminent degree, those qualities
which create personal popularity; and he was ever the idol
of his friends. His iron will, indomitable energy, firm faith
in himself and his cause, united with frank, genial, magnetic
manners ; familiar, accessible and generous, made him alto
gether one of the strongest men in the Nation. These two
men, as has been stated, were members of the Illinois
Legislature together, as early as 1836.
Douglas had distinguished himself as an able debater and
controversialist, in Illinois, in the House of Representatives,
and in the Senate of the United States. His position on the
slavery question had not been consistent. He had voted for the
Wilmot proviso, and to extend the Missouri compromise line
across Texas. He finally settled down upon the position of
"popular sovereignty," or "squatter sovereignty" as it was
called; that is, that the people of each territory should settle
the slavery question for themselves. It being, as he declared,
his true intent and meaning, " not to legislate slavery into any
State or territory, 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." As already stated, he
had reported and carried through Congress, the bill to repeal
the Missouri Compromise. When Mr. Buchanan's adminis
tration became a party to the conspiracy to force Kansas to
become a slave State, Douglas was faithful to this principle,
and defended the right of the people, to decide freely and
fairly, the question for themselves. This brought him in col
lision with Buchanan and the slave power, and the slave
leaders in the Senate sought to degrade him, by removing
him from the Chairmanship of the Committee on Territories.
He aided effectually in defeating the scheme to force a pro-
slavery Constitution upon Kansas.
His Senatorial term was drawing near its close, and in
July, 1858, he came home to enter upon the canvass, for
reelection. In June, 1858, the Republican State Convention

114 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
met at Springfield, and nominated, with perfect unanimity,
and amidst the greatest enthusiasm, Abraham Lincoln, as
their candidate for the Senate. The speech which Mr. Lin
coln made on that occasion, brief as it is, is one of the
most reraarkable in American History. He gave so clear an
exposition of the antagonism, and the " irrepressible conflict "
between liberty and slavery, that his words immediately
seized the attention of the whole Nation, and became histori
cal. Up to that time his position on the slavery question,
had not entirely satisfied the radical anti-slavery men of
Northern Illinois. But when that philosophic speech was
pronounced, one of the most radical men present exclaimed,
" Lincoln is right in principle, if he is not quite up to us in
details;" the man who plants himself on a great principle,
will soon be right on all details. Governor Seward, after
wards, at Rochester, New York, October 25th, 1868, ex
pressed the same idea, in words which have also become
memorable. " 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 an entirely slave-
holding Nation, or an entirely free labor Nation." The
speech of Mr. Lincoln is the text of the great debate between
himself and Douglas, and its importance demands its
insertion :

Me. PEESiDENT, AND GENTLEMEN OK THE CONVENTION: If we could flrst know
where we are, and whither we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and
how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since a policy was initiated with
the avowed object, and confident promise of putting an end to slavery 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 free. I do not
expect the Union to be dissolved— I do not expect the house to fall — but I do ex
pect 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
combluation — piece of machinery, so to speak— compounded of tlie 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 his
tory of its construction, and trace, if he can, or rather fall. If he can, to trace the
evidences of design, and concert of action, ainong its chief architects, from the
beginning.

LINCOLN'S SPRINGFIELD SPEECH, JUNE, 1858. 115
The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded llrom more than half the States by
State Constitutions, and from most of the National territory by Congressional pro
hibition. Four days later, commenced the struggle which ended in repealing that
Congressional prohibition. This opened all the National territory to slavery, aud
was the flrst point gained.
But, so far. Congress only had acted ; and an indorsement by the people, 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 ofit
as to amount to just this : That if any one man choose to enslave anotiier, no tMrd
man shall be aUowed to object. That argument 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
thereft-om ; 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 Uni
ted States." Then opened the roar of loose declamation in favor of " Squatter Sove
reignty," and " sacred right of self-government." "But," said opposition members,
" let us amend the biU so as to expressly declare that the people ofthe 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
flrst into a free S ate and then into a free 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, 1864. The negro's
name was " Dred Scott," which name now designates the decision finally made in
the case. Before the then next Presidential election, the law case came to, and was
argued in the Supreme Court of the United States ; but the decision of it was de
ferred 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
vpinion 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 endorsement, such as it
was, secured. That was the second point gained. The indorsement, 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 Indorsement. The Supreme Court met again ; did
not announce their decision, but ordered a re-argument. The Presidential inaugu
ration came, and stUl no decision of the court; but the incoming President in his
inaugural address, fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forthcoming
decision, whatever it might be. Then in a few days, came the decision.
The reputed author of the Nebraska bill flnds au early occasion to make a speech
at this capital indorsing the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently denouncing all
opposition to it. The new President, too, seizes the .early occasion of the Sil
liman letter to indorse and strongly construe that decision, and to express his
astonishment that any difl'erent 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 ot fact, whether the Lecompton Constitution
was or was not, in any just sense, made by the people of Kansas ; and in that quar
rel the latter delares that aU he wants is a fair vote for the people, and that he
cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up. I do not understand his de
claration that he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted up, to be in
tended by him other than as an apt definition of the policy he would Impress upon
the ])ublic mind— the principle for which he declares he has suflTered so much,
and Is ready to sufl'er to the end. And weU may he cling to that principle. If he

116 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
has any parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That principle is the only shred
left of his original Nebraska doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision, " squatter
sovereignty" squatted out of existence, tumbled down Uke temporary scaflToIding—
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 latejoint
struggle with the republicans, against the Lecomptlon Constitution, involves
nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That struggle was made on a point—
the right of the people to make their o-nm Constitution — upon which he and the
republicans have never difl-ered.
The several points of the Dred Scott decision, in connection with Senator Doug
las' "care not" policy, constitute the piece of machinery, in its present state of ad
vancement. 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 shaU be entitled to
all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States."
Secondly, That " subject to the Constitution of the United States," neither Con
gress nor a Territorial Legislature can exclude slavery from any United States ter
ritory. This point is made in order that-indi-vidual 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 institution through aU 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 wlU 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 ac
quiesced in for awhile, and apparently indorsed by the people at an election, then
to su.stain 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, at least Northern pub
lic opinion, not to care whether slavery is voted down or voted ujd. 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 were transpiring. The people were to be
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 ex
actly 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 amend
ment expressly declaring the right of the people, voted down ? Plainly euougli
now : the adoptionof it would have spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision.
Why was the court decision held up? "Why even a Senator s individual opinion
withheld, till after the Presidential election ? Plainly enough now : the speaking
out tlien would have damaged the perfectly free argument upon which the election
Avas to be carried. Why the outgoing President's felicitation on the indorsement ?
Why the delay of a re-argument? -Why the incoming President's advance exhor
tation in favor of the decision ? These things look like the cautious patting and
petting of a spirited horse preparatory 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 exact adaptations are the result of pre
concert. But when wc see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we
know have been gotten out at difl'erent times and places and by difFereJit work
men—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,
'Stephen A. Douglas, Franklin Pierce, Roger B. Taney, and James Buchanan.

LINCOLN'S SPRINGFIELD SPEECH, JUNE, 1868. 117
all the tenons aud mortices exactly fltting, and all the lengths and proportions of
the dilTerent pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, aud not a piece too
many or too few — not omitting even scafi-oldlng — or, if a single piece be lacking,
we see the place in the frame exactly fltted and prepared yet to bring such piece
in — In such a case, we flnd it impossible 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 flrst 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 Constitu
tion." Why mention a State? They were legislating 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 concur
ring Judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the United States neither
permits Congress nor a Territorial Legislature to exclude slavery from any United
States Territory, they aU omit to declare whether or not the same Constitution per
mits a State, or the people of a State, to exclude it. Possibly, this is a mere omis
sion ; but who can be quite sure, if Mr. McLean or Curtis had sought to get into the
opinion a declaration of unlimited power in the people of a State to exclude slav
ery from their limits. Just as Chase and Mace sought to get such declaration, iu be
half 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 ca.se as it had been in the
other ? The nearest approach to the point of declaring the power of a Sl^ate over
.slavery, is made by Judge Nelson. He approaches it more than once, using the pre
cise idea, and almost the language, too, of the Nebraska act. On one occasion, his
exact language is, " except in cases where the power is restrained by the Constitu
tion of the United States, the law of the State is supreme over the subject of slav
ery within its jurisdiction." In what cases the -goyter 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, de
claring that the Constitution of the United States does not permit a Slate 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 aU that slavery now lacks of being alike lawful in all tlie
States. Welcome, or unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, 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 in
stead, that the Supreme Court has made lUinois a slave State. To meet and over
throw 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 efi'ect
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 difl-ered. They remind us that he
is a great man, and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let this be granted.
But "a living dog is better than a dead lion." Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion
for this work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can he oppose the ad
vances of slavery? He dont care anything about it. His avowed mission is im
pressing the " public heart " to eare nothing abotit ii. A leading Douglas democratic
newspaper thinks Douglas' superior talent wiU be needed to resist the revival of
the African slave trade. Does Douglas believe an efl'ort to revive that trade is ap
proaching ? He has not said so. Does he really think so ? But if it is, how can he

118 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
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 tlian 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 aa
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 liolds, we know, that a man may rightfuUy 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 wil! 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' position, question his motives, or do aught that can be personally
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 inter
posed no adventitious obstacle. But clearly, he is not now with us — he does not
pretend to be — ho 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 hun
dred thousand strong. We did this under the single Impulse of resistance to a com
mon danger, with every external circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant,
and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed aud 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 fall. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes
delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.
There is a tone of solemnity and deep apprehension in this
speech of Lincoln. After describing in words so clear and
simple that none could misunderstand, the conspiracy to ex
tend slavery to all the States, he says: " We shall lie down,
pleasantly dreaming that the people of Missouri are on the
eve of making that a free State, 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 of all who would prevent that
consummation. This is what we have to do."
To this work his life was henceforth devoted. He brought
to the tremendous struggle, physical strength and endur
ance almost superhumah; an intellect trained to present
and discuss political questions to the comprehension of the
American mind, and with a success never equalled by any
other American orator or statesman.
In allusion to the disposition manifested outside of Illinois,
and especially by the New York Tribune,to sustain Douglas, he
said, " our cause must be entrusted to, and conducted by, its

LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT SPRINGFIELD, JUNE, 1868. 119
own undoubted friends; those whose hands are free, and
whose hearts are in the work. We ' do care ' for the result,
alluding to Douglas' statement, that he " did not care whether
slavery was voted up or voted down."
He concludes in the language of hopeful prophesy. " We
shall not fail, wise counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay
it, but sooner or later, victory is sure to come,"
Such was the high philosophic appreciation by Lincoln, of
the conflict then pending before the American people. The
first battle was to be the intellectual combat between him
and Senator Douglas; a contest made in the watchful, anxious
view of all the people of the Union. Liberty against slavery
was the clearly defined issue. The Senatorial debate between
Webster and Hayne, is historical; that involved questions
of Constitutional construction, State rights, and theories of
Government. The contest between Lincoln and Douglas involved the
triumph of freedom in Kansas, and in the Union. It was not
a single debate, but extended through a whole campaign.
The great political parties throughout the country, paused to
watch its progress, and looked with eager solicitude upon
every movement of the champions.
Mr. Douglas arrived at Chicago, from Washington, on the
9th of July, and was recieved with the most enthusiastic
demonstrations by his friends. He addressed himself to re
ply to Mr. Lincoln's Springfield speech. Lincoln was present
and heard the speech of Douglas, and replied to it the even
ing afterward. On the 16th of July, Mr. Douglas spoke at
Bloomington, and Mr. Lincoln was present. Douglas again
addressed the people at Springfield, on the 17th of July, to
which Mr. Lincoln replied in the evening. Thereupon Mr.
Lincoln addressed to Mr. Douglas the following note,
challenging him to the joint debate: Chicago, July 24th, 1868.
Hon. S. A. DO0QI.AS,
My Dear Sir,- WUl it be agreeable to you to make an arrangement to divide time,
and address the same audience, during the present canvass 7 etc. Mr. Judd Is
authorized to receive your answer, and if agreeable to you, to enter into the terms
of such agreement, etc. Your ob't serv't, A. LINCOLN.

120 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The challenge was accepted, and it was arranged that
there should be seven joint debates; each champion alter
nately opening and closing the discussion ; the opening speech
to occupy one hour, the reply one hour and a half, and the
close a half hour, so that each debate should occupy three hours.
They were to speak at Ottawa, August 21st; Freeport, Au
gust 27th; Jonesboro, September 15th; Charleston, Septem
ber 18th; Galesburg, October 7th; Quincy, October 13th;
Alton, October 16th. These debates, held in different sec
tions of the State, and in the open air, called together vast
crowds of people. There was every motive to stimulate the
champions to the exertion of thefr utmost power. Each en
tertained a sincere conviction, that in the principles he advo
cated was involved the safety, and perhaps the life of the
Republic. The debates, with one exception, were conducted
-with the dignity and courtesy which were becoming the
occasion. The Senatrrship was the immediate personal prize for the
victor, and in the future, the Presidency, for which Douglas
had been long an aspirant. They discussed all the great polit
ical questions of the day, but each felt instinctively, that the
vital question, the question of questions, was slavery. The
question of slavery in the territories, the Dred Scott decision,
the fugitive slave law, the opinions of the Fathers, above all
the meaning of the Declaration of Independence enumerating
the inalienable rights of man, were the topics of discussion.
Douglas wen t through this canvass with the manner and bearing
of a conquering hero. There was something grand, exciting,
and magnetic, in the boldness with which he threw himself into
the discussion, and dealt his blows right and left against the
republican party on one side, and the administration of Bu
chanan, which sought his defeat, on the other. Buchanan
sought, by the use of Executive patronage and power, to de
feat Douglas. He succeeded in seducing a few, but the mass
of the party stood firmly by the Senator. Douglas and his
friends were most liberal in their expenditures. He had his
special trains of cars, his bands of music, his processions
with banners and cannon, and all the paraphanalia of a great
leader. Lincoln on the contrary, conducted the canvass in a

THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 121
plain, simple, frugal unostentatious manner. Some idea of
the simplicity of the man and his manners, may be gathered
from a remark he made at the close of the debates, in which
he said to a friend, " I don't believe I have expended in this
canvass one cent less than five hundred dollars in cash."
Senator Douglas was at this time, undoubtedly the leading
debater in the United States Senate. For years he had been
accustomed to meet the trained leaders of the Nation in
Congress; and never, either in single combat, or receiving
the fire of a whole party, had he been discomfited. His style
was bold, defiant, aggressive, vigorous. He was fertile in
resources, terrible in denunciation, familiar with political his
tory, and handled with readiness and facility, all the contro
versial weapons of debate; of indomitable physical and moral
courage, and unquestionably the most formidable man in the
Nation on the stump. The friends of Lincoln were not with
out anxiety when the challenge for a campaign on the stump
was given and accepted. Lincoln was candid, cool, truthful,
logical, philosophical; never betrayed into an unfair state
ment. The criticism upon him as a lawyer, was verified and
illustrated in these debates. " On the right side of a case,
Lincoln is an overwhelming giant, on the wrong side, his sense
, of justice and'right, makes him weak." Douglas' ardour al
ways made him, for the time, believe that the side he adopted
was right. Lincoln argued the side of freedom with the
most profound conviction that its triumph was necessary to
the existence of his country. It was wonderful, how strongly
in these discussions, as in all the acts of his public life, he
impressed the people with his fairness, honesty, and truth
fulness; every hearer in the vast crowds which thronged to
these discussions, whatever his political views, went away
with the conviction, " Lincoln believes what he says, he is
candid, he would not mistate a fact, or take an unfair
advantage to secure a triumph."
He had one advantage over Douglas, he was always good-
humoured; he had always an apt and happy story for illus
tration, and while Douglas was sometimes irritable, Lincoln
never lost his temper. Douglas carried away the most popular
applause, but Lincoln made the deeper and more lasting

122 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
impression. Douglas did not disdain an immediate, ad cap
tandum triumph, while Lincoln aimed at permanent convic
tion. Douglas addressed prejudice, and especially the
prejudice against the negro, with an adroitness and power
never surpassed.
Lincoln stated his propositions, and sustained them with
the fullest histoiical knowledge and illustration, and .with
irresistible logic. Douglas, owing to the favorable and unfair
apportionment of the Senators and Representatives in the
State Legislature, secured a majority, and obtained the Sena-
torship ; although a majority of the popular vote was recorded
against him. These debates made Douglas, Senator, and
Lincoln, President.
At the close of these debates, and of the canvass, the cham
pions visited the city -of Chicago, at about the same time.
Lincoln was in perfect health, his face bronzed by the prai
rie suns, but looking and moving like a trained athlete. His
voice was clearer, stronger, and better than when he began
the canvass. Douglas was physically, much broken. He was
so hoarse that he could scarcely articulate, and was entirely
unintelligible in an ordinary tone. Few men living could
have gone through these open air discussions without break
ing down, and few could have recovered from them so soon.
Douglas' speedy recovery, exhibited his wonderful vigor and
elasticity. The most prominent feature of Mr. Lincoln's speeches in
this canvass is his constant reference to the Declaration of
Independence. Mr. Douglas knew that in Illinois, at that
time there was a deep seated, nearly universal prejudice
against the negro. He sought continually, to use that pre
judice against Mr. Lincoln; sometimes most unfairly misre
presenting him to be in favor of social, as well as political
equality, between the races.
The points made by Lincoln in these debates, were:
First, That the country could not permanently endure
half slave and half free, and that slavery was wrong in itself.
Second, He attacked the popular sovereignty doctrine of
Douglas. His clear, simple statement ofit, was its crushing

THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 123
refutation. He said it meant simply, " if one man choose to
enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to object."
Third, He announced and endeavored to prove the exist
ence of a conspiracy to perpetuate and nationalize slavery,
and that the Kansas-Nebraska bill, and Dred Scott decisions,
were essential parts of this scheme. ,
The point to which he most often recurred, was the defence
of the Declaration of Independence, establishing as the
very basis of our government, the inalienable rigjits of man;
planting himself on the great principles of the Declaration,
which received alike the homage of his heart and the sanc
tion of his intellect. This devotion to the grand idea of
man's liberty and equality is the key note of the debate.
In his speech at Chicago, July 10th, 1858, in reply to
Douglas,, for the purpose of showing that all men were
included in the " Declaration of Independence," he says :
We have besides these men descended by blood from our ancestors— among us,
perhaps half our people, who are not descendants at all of these men ; they are
men who have come from Europe, Gerinan, Irish, French, and Scandinavian —
men that have come from Europe themselves, or whose ancestors have come
hither and settled here, flnding themselves our equals in all things. If they look
back through this history to trace their connection with those days by blood, they
flnd they have none, they cannot carry themselves back into that glorious epoch
and make themselves feel that they are part of us ; that when they look through
that old Declaration of Independence, they find that those old men say that, " We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal," and then they
feel that that moral sentiment taught in that day, evidences their relation to those
men ; — that it is the father of all moral principle lu them, and they have a right
to claim it as though they were blood of the blood, and fiesh of the fiesh, of the
men who wrote that Declaration, and so they are. That is the electric cord in that
Declaration that Unks the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, tha.t
win link those patriotic hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in the minds
of men throughout the world.
Again he said at Springfield, July 17th, 1858, in reply to
Douglas :
I adhere to the Declaration of Independence. If Judge Douglas and his friends
are not wllUng to stand by it, let them come up and amend it. Let them make it
read that all men are created equal, except negroes. Let us have it decided, whether
the Declaration oflndependence, in this blessed year of 1858, shall be thus amended.
In his construction of the Declaration last year, he said it only meant that Ameri
cans in America, were equal to Englishmen in England. Then when I pointed out
to him that by that rule he excludes the Germans, tlie Irish, the Portuguese, and all
the other people who have come amongst us since the Revolution, he reconstructs
his construction. In his last speech he teUs us it meant Europeans. I press him a lit
tle further, and ask if it meant to include the Russians in Asia ? or does he mean to
excludethatvastpopulation from theprinciples of the Declaration of Independence?
I expect ere long he wUl introduce another amendment to his definition. He Is

124 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
not at all particular. He is satisfied with anything which does not endanger the
nationalizing of negro slavery. It may draw white men down, but it must not lift
negroes up. Who shall say, " I am the superior, and you are the Inferior? "
My declarations npon this subject of negro slavery may be misrepresented, but
cannot be misunderstood. I have said that I do not understand the Declaration to
mean that all men were created equal in aU respects. They are not our equal in
color ; but I suppose that it does mean to declare that aU men are equal in some
respects; they are equal in their right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness." ,
Certainly the negro is not our equal in color— perhaps not in many other re
spects ; still, in the right to put into his mouth the bread that his own hands have
earned, he is the equal of every other man, white or black. In pointing out that
more has been given you, you cannot be justified in taking away the Uttle which
has been given him. All I ask forthe negro is, that if you do not like him, let him
alone. If God gave him but little, that little let him enjoy.
Again in August, at Ottawa, he said :
I hold that there is no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to aU
the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence, the right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to
these as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas, he is not my equal in many
respects — certainly not in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment.
But in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of anybody else, which his own
hand earns, he is my equal and the equal of Judge Douglas, aud the equal of every
Uving man.

At Galesburg, October, 1868, he said :

The Judge has alluded to the Declaration of Independence, and insisted that ne
groes are not Included in that Declaration ; and that it is a slander upon the fram
ers of that Instrument, to suppose that negroes were meant therein; and he asks
you : " Is it possible to believe that Mr. Jefferson, who penned the immortal paper,
could have supposed himself applying the language of that instrument to the ne
gro race, and yet held a portion of that race in slavery 7 Would he not at once have
freed them?" I only have to remark upon this part of the Judge's speech, and that
briefiy, that I believe the entire records of the world, from the date of the Declara
tion of Independence up to within three years ago, may be searched in vain for
one single affirmation, from one single man, that the negro was not included in
the Declaration of Independence; I think I may defy Judge Douglas to show that
he ever said so, that Washington ever said so, that any President ever said so, that
any member of Congress ever said so, or that any living man upon the whole earth
ever said so, until the necessities of the present policy of the Democratic party, in
regard to slavery, had to invent that affirmation. And I will remind Judge Doug
las and this audience, that while Mr. Jefferson was the owner of slaves, as undoubt
edly he was, in speaking upon this very subject, he used the strong language that
" he trembled for his country when he remembered that God was Just;" and I will
oflTer the highest premium in my power to Judge Douglas if he wiU show that he,
in all his life, ever uttered a sentiment at all akin to that of Jefferson.
I have said once before, and I will repeat it now, that Mr. Clay, when he was once
answering an objection to the Colonization Society, that it had a tendency to the
ultimate emancipation of the slaves, said that " those who would repress all ten
dencies to liberty and ultimate emancipation must do more than put down the
benevolent efforts of the Colonization Society — they must go back to the era of our
liberty and independence, and muzzle the cannon that thunders its annual joyous
return— they must blot out the moral lights around us — they must penetrate the
human soul, and eradicate the Ught of reason and the love of liberty !" and I do
think— 1 repeat, though I said it on a former occasion— that Judge Douglas, and

THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 125
whoever like him teaches that the negro has no share, humble though it may be.
In the Declaration of Independence, is going back to the era of our liberty aud in
dependence, and, so far as in him lies, muzzling the cannon that thunders its an
nual joyous return; that he is blowing out the moral lights around us, when he
contends that whoever wants slaves has a right to hold them ; that he is penetrat
ing, so far as lies in his power, the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason
and the love of liberty, when he is lu every possible way preparing the public
mind, by his vast influence for making the institution of slavery perpetual and
national. »
At Alton, October 15th, 1858, he said :
At Galesburg the other day, I said in answer to Judge Douglas, that three years
ago there never had been a man, so far as I knew or believed, in the whole world,
who had said that the Declaration of Independence did not include negroes in the
term " aU men." I reassert it to-day. I assert that Judge Douglas, and all his
friends, may search the whole records of the country, and it will be a matter of
great astonishment to me if they shall be able to find that one human being three
years ago, had ever uttered the astounding sentiment that the term " all men " in
the Declaration did not include the negro. Do not let me be misunderstood. I
know that more than three years ago, there were men who, finding this assertion
constantly in the way of their schemes to bring about the ascendency and perpetua
tion of slavery, denied the truth of iL I know that Mr. Calhoun, and all the politi
cians of his school, denied the truth of the Declaration. I know that it ran along
in the mouth of some Southern men for a period of years, ending at last in that
shameful though rather forcible declaration of Pettit, of Indiana, upon the floor of
the United States Senate, that the Declaration of Independence was in that respect
" a self-evident lie," rather than a self-evident truth. But I say, with a perfect
knowledge of aU this hawking at the Declaration without directly attacking it,
that three years ago, there never had lived a man who had ventured to assail it in
the sneaking way of pretending to believe it, and then asserting it did not include
the negro. I believe the first man who ever said it, was Chief Justice Taney, In
the Dred Scott case, and the next to him was our friend, Stephen A. Douglas. And-
now it has become the catch-word of the entire party. I would like to call upon his
friends everywhere, to consider how they have come in so short a time to view thfe
matter in a way so entirely different from their former belief ? — to ask whether
they are not being bome along by an irresistible current — whither, they know not ?
But, perhaps, the noblest and sublimest utterance in all
these protracted debates, were the words he uttered at Alton
" 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.
Theyare 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 fhe 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.
It required some nerve in Lincoln, in a State where the
prejudice against the negro was so strong that the people

126 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
would neither let him vote nor testify, nor serve on a jury,
to stand up and proclaim the right of the negro to all the
rights in the Declaration of Independence. Mr. Lincoln
stated, " that up to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
he had lived in the hope that slavery was in the course of
ultimate extinction :"

The adoption of the Constitution and its attendant history led the people to be
Ueve so ; and that such was the belief of the framers of the Constitution itself.
Why did those old men, about the time of the adoption of the Constitution, de
cree that slavery should not go into the new territory, where it had not already
gone? Why declare that within twenty years the African slave trade, by which
slaves are supplied, might, be cut off by Congress? Why were all these acts? I
might enumerate more of these acts— but enough. What were they but a clear
indication that the framers of the Constitution intended and expected the ultimate
extinction of that institution ? And now, when I say, as I said in my speech that
Judge Douglas has quoted from, when I say that I think the opponents of slavery
wlU resist the farther spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest
¦with the belief that it is in course of ultimate extinction, I only mean to say, that
they wlU place it where the founders of this Government originally placed it.
He thus describes his appreciation of the momentous issue :
I do not claim, gentlemen, to be unselflsh ; I do not pretend that I would not like
to go to the United States Senate ; I make no such hypocritical pretence ; but I do
say to you that in this mighty issue, it is nothing to the mass of the people of the
Nation, whether or not Judge Douglas or myself shall ever be heard of, after this
night; it may hea trifle to either of us, but in connection with this mighty
question, upon which hang the destinies of the Nation, perhaps, it is absolutely
nothing. Judge Douglas, in the speech at Bloomington, July 16th,
1858, indicated the style in which he desired to conduct the
debate :

The Republican Convention, when it assembled at Springfleld, did me and the
country the honor of indicating the man who was to be their standard-bearer, and
the embodiment of their principles, in this State. I owe them my gratitude for
thus making up a direct issue between Mr. Lincoln and myself. I shaU have no
controversies of a personal character with Mr. Lincoln. I have known him well
for a quarter of a century. I have known him, as you all know him, a kind-
hearted, amiable gentleman, a, right good fellow, a worthy citizen, of eminent
ability as a la-wyer, and I have no doubt, sufflcient ability to make a good Senator.
The question, then, for you to decide is, whether his principles are more in accord
ance with the genius of our free institutions, the peace and harmony of the Repub
lic, than those which I advocate. He tells you, in his speech made at Springfleld,
before the convention which gave him his unanimous nomination, that:
" A house divided against itself cannot stand." " I believe this Government
cannot endure permanently, half slave and half free." " 1 do not expect the Union
to be dissolved— I don't expect the house to fall— but I do expect It wlU cease to
be divided. It wUl become aU one thing or all the other."

THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 127
Mr. Lincoln in his speech at Quincy, indicated the gravity
of the great drama :
He, Douglas, said, too, " that he should not concern himself with Trumbull any
more, but thereafter he should hold Lincoln responsible for the slanders upon him."
When I met him at Charleston after that, although I think that I should not have
noticed the subject if he had not said he would hold me responsible for it, I spread
out before him the statements of the evidence that Judge Trumbull had used, and
I asked Judge Douglas, piece by piece, to put his finger upon one piece of all that
evidence that he would say was a forgery ! When I went through with each and
every piece. Judge Douglas did not dare then to say that any piece of it was a for
gery. So it seems that there are some things that Judge Douglas dares to do, and
some that he dares not to do.
A voice — " It's the same thing with you." ,
Mr. Lincoln — Yes, sir, it's the same thing with me. I do dare to say " forgery,"
when it's true, and I don't dare to say " forgery," when it's false. Now, I will say
here, to this audience, and to Judge Douglas, I have not dared to say he committed
a forgery, and I never shall until I know it; but I did dare to say —Just to suggest
to the Judge — that a forgery had been committed, which by his own showing, had
been traced to him and two of his friends. I dared to suggest to him that he had
expressly promised in one of his public speeches to investigate that matter, and I
dared to suggest to him that there was an implied promise that when he investi
gated it he would make known the result. I dared to suggest to the Judge that he
could not expect to be quite clear of suspicion of that fraud, for since the time that
promise was made, he had been with those friends, and had not kept his promise
in regard to the investigation and the report upon it. I am not a very daring man,
but I dared that much, Judge, and I am not much scared about it yet. When the
Judge says he would' nt have believed of Abraham Lincoln that he would have
made such an attempt as that, he reminds me of the fact that he entered upon this
canvass with the purpose to treat me courteously ; that touched me somewhat. It
sets me to thinking.
I was aware, when it was first agreed that Judge Douglas and I were to have
these seven joint discussions, that they were the successive acts of a drama— per
haps I should say, to be enacted not merely in the face of audiences like this, but
in the fkce of the nation, and to some extent, by my relation to him, and not from
anything in myself, in the face of the world; and I am anxious that they should
be conducted with dignity and in good temper, which would be beflting the vast
audience before which it was conducted.
But when Judge Douglas got home from Washington and made his first speech
In Chicago, the evening afterward I made some sort of a reply to it. His second
speech was made at Bloomington, in which he commented upon my speech at
Chicago, and said that I had used language ingeniously contrived to conceal my
intentions, or words to that efiTect. Now, I understand that this is an imputation
upon my veracity and my candor. I do not know what the Judge understood by
It, but in our flrst discussion at Ottawa, he led oflT by charging a bargain, somewhat
corrupt in its character, upon Trumbull and myiself; that we had entered into a
bargain, one of the terms of which was that Trumbull was to abolitionize the old
democratic party, and I, (Lincoln,) was to abolitionize the old whig party ; — I pre
tending to be as good an old line whig as ever. Judge Douglas may not understand
that he implicated my truthfulness and honor, when he said I was doing one thing
and pretending another; and I misunderstood him if he thought he was treating
me in a dignified way, as a man of honor and truth, as he now claims he was
disposed to treat me.
Even after that time, at Galesburg, when he brings forward an extract from a
speech raade at Chicago, and an extract from a speech made at Charleston, to prove
that I was trying to play a double part— that I was trying to cheat the public, and
get votes upon one set of principles at one place, and upon another set of princi
ples at another place. I do not understand but what he impeaches my honor, my
veracity, and my candor, and because he does this, I do not understand that I am
bound, if I see a trathful ground for it, to keep my hands ofT of him. As soon as T

128 '. LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
learned that Judge Douglas was disposed to treat me in this way, I signified in one
of my speeches, that I should be driven to draw upon whatever of humble resources
I might have — to adopt a new course with him. I was not entirely sure that I
should be able to hold my own with him, but I at least had the purpose made to do
as well as I could upon him ; and now I say that I will not be the flrst to cry "hold."
I think it originated with the Judge, and when he quits, I probably will. But I
shall not ask any favors at all. He asks me, or he asks the audience, if I wish to
pu.sh this matter to the point of personal difficulty ? I tell him, no. He did not
make a mistake, in one of his early speeches, when he called me an amiable man,
though perhaps he did when he called me an " intelligent " man. It really hurts
me very much to suppose that I have wronged anybody on earth. I again tell him,
no ! I very much prefer, when this canvass shall be over, however it may result,
that we at least part without any bitter recollections of personal difficulties.
These discussions were generally grave, but Lincoln could
not at all times refrain from humour. In his speech at
Springfield, July 17th, 1858, he said:
Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown. All the anxious politicians of his
party, or who have been of his party for years past, have been looking upon him
as certainly, at no distant day, to be the President of the United States. They have
seen in his round, jolly, fruitful face, post-offices, land-offices, marshalships, and cab
inet appointments, chargeships, foreign missions , and sprouting out in wonderful
exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by their greedy hands. And as thej' have been
gazing upon this attractive picture so long, they cannot, in the little distraction that
has taken place in the party, bring themselves to give up the charming hope, but
with greedier anxiety they rush about him, sustain him, and give him marches,
triumphal entries, and receptions beyond what, even in the days of his highest
prosperity, they could have brought about iu his favor.
On the contrary, nobody has ever expected me to be President. In my poor, lean,
lank face, nobody has ever seen that any cabbages were sprouting out. These are
disadvantages, all taken together, that the republicans labor under. JVe have to
flght this battle upon principle alone. I am, in a certain sense, made the standard-
bearer in behalf of the republicans. I was made so merely because there had to be
some one so placed — I being in nowise preferable to any other one of the tweuty-
flve— perhaps a hundred, we have in the republican ranks. Then I wish it to be
distinctly understood and borne lu mind, that we have to fight this battle without
many — perhaps without any — of the external aids which are brought to bear
against us. So I hope those with whom I am surrounded have principle enough to
nerve themselves for the task, and leave nothing undone that can be faiily done,
to bring about the right result.
After Senator Douglas left Washington, his movements were made known by the
public prints ; he tarried a considerable time in the city of New York ; and it was
heralded that, like another Napoleon, he was lying by and framing the plan of his
campaign. I think I have been able to see what are the material points of that plan. They
were not very numerous. The flrst is "popular sovereignty." The second and
third are attacks upon my speech made on the I6thof June. Out of these three
points — drawing within the range of popular sovereignty the question of the Le
compton Constitution —he makes his principal assault. Upon these his .successive
speeches are substantially one and the same. On this matter of popular sove
reignty I wish to be a little careful. Auxiliary to these main points, to be sure,
are their thunderings of cannon, their marching and music, their fizzle-gigs, and
flre- works ; but I will not waste time with them. They are but the little trappings
of the campaign.
Coming to the substance — the first point — "popular sovereignty," is to be la
belled upon the cars in which he travels ; put upon the hacks he rides in ; to be
flaunted upon the arches he passes under, and the banners which wave over him.
It is to be dished up in as many varieties as a French cook can i reduce soups from
potatoes.

THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 129
Lincoln again expresses his -views of the importance of the
slavery question :
Although I have ever been opposed to slavery, so far I rested In the hope and
beUef that it waa in the course of ultimate extinction. I might have been mis
taken ; but I had believed, aud now believe, that the whole public mind, that is,
the mind of the great majority, had rested in that beUef up to the repeal of the
Missouri Compromise. But upon that event, I became convinced that either I had
been resting in a delusion, or the institution was beiug placed on a new basis— a
basis for making it perpetual, national, and universal. Subsequent events have
greatly confirmed me in that belief. I believe that bill to be the beginning of a
conspiracy for that purpose. So believing, I have since then considered that ques
tion a paramount one. So beUeving, I think the public mind will never rest tUl
the power of Congress to restrict the spread of it shaU be again acknowledged and
exercised on the one hand, or on the other, all resistance be entirely crushed out.
I have expressed that opinion, and I entertain it to-night. It is denied that there
Is any tendency to the nationalization of slavery in these States.
Mr. Brooks, of South Carolina, in one of his speeches, when they were presenting
him canes, silver plate, gold pitchers and the Uke, for assaulting Senator Sumner,
distinctly affirmed his opinion that when this Constitution was formed, it was the
beUef of no man that slavery would last to the present day.
He thus speaks of the Dred Scott decision, and Douglas'
reverence for it :
And I remind him of another piece of history on the question of respect for Judi
cial decisions, and it Is a piece of Illinois history, belonging to a time when the
large party to which Judge Douglas belonged, were displeased with a decision of
the Supreme Com-t of nUnois, because they had decided that a Governor could not
remove a Secretary of State. You will find the wliole story in Ford's History of
minois, and I know that Judge Douglas will not deny that he was then in favor
of overslaughing that decision by the mode of adding five new Judges, so as to vote
down the four old ones. Not only so, but it ended iu the Judge's siUing dawn mi thai,
very bench as one of the five new Judges, to break down thefowr old ones. It was in this
way precisely that he got his title of Judge. Now, when the Judge tells me that
men appointed. conditionaUy to sit as members of a court, wUl have to be catechis
ed beforehand npon some subject, I say, " You know, Judge ; you have tried it."
-When he says a court of this kind -will lose the confldence of aU men, wiU be
prostituted and disgraced by such a proceeding, I say, " You know best. Judge ;
yon have been through the mlU." But I cannot shake Judge Douglas' teeth loose
from the Dred Scott decision. Like some obstinate animal, (I mean no disrespect,)
that will hang ou when he has once got his teeth flxed, you may cut off- a leg, or
you may tear away an arm, stUI he wiU not relax his hold. . And so I may point
out to the Judge, and say that he is bespattered all over, from the beginning of his
political life to the present time, with attacks upon judicial decisions— I may cut
off- Umb after limb of his public record, and strive to wrench him from a single
dictum ofthe court— yet I cannot divert him from it. He hangs to the last to the
Dred Scott decision. These things show there is a purpose strong as death and
eternity, for which he adheres to this decision, and for which he wiU adhere to all
other decisions of the same court.
A Hibernian — " Give us something beside Drid Scott."
Mr. Lincoln — ^Yes ; no doubt you want to hear something that don't hurt.

Judge Douglas Is going back to the era of our Revolution, and to the extent of
his ability, muzzling the cannon which thunders its annual Joyous return. When
he Invites any people, wlUing to have slavery, to estabUsh it, he is blowing out the
moral lights around us. When he says he " cares not whether slavery is voted
do-nm or voted up"— that It iss a saores" rlvht. of self-govern roo'-t ' - '-

130 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
judgment, penetrating the human soul, and eradicating the light of reason and
the love of liberty in this American people. And now I wUl only say, that when
by all these means and appliances. Judge Douglas shall succeed in bringing public
sentiment to an exact accordance with his own views —when these vast assemb
lages shall echo back aU these sentiments- when theyshaU come to repeat his
-views and to avow his principles, and to say all that he says on these mighty ques
tions — then it needs only the formality of the second Dred Scott decision, which
he endorses in advance, to make slavery alike lawful in all the States, old as well
as new. North as well as South.
My friends, that ends the chapter. Judge Douglas can take his half hour.
A good specimen of Judge Douglas' boldness and dogmat
ism was exhibited at Freeport, August 27, 1858. Douglas
persisted in calling the Republicans "Black Bepublicans"
although the crowd called out and insisted again and again
that he should say "'White Bepublicans" — "no epithets." It
must be admitted Douglas was insulting, and the crowd re
sented it. He was in the very strongest Republican district,
and there were ten to one of the crowd Republican, and yet
Douglas persisted in calling them "Black;" at length he
said: Now, there are a great many Black Bepublicans of you who do not know this
thing was done. (" -White, white, and great clamor.") I wish to remind you that
while Mr. Lincoln was speaking, there was not a Democrat vulgar and blackguard
enough to Interrupt him. But I know that the shoe is pinching you. I am
clinching Lincoln now, and you are scared to death for the result. I have seen
this thing before. I have seen men make appointments for Joint discussions, and
the moment their man has been heard, try to interrupt and prevent a fair hearing
of the other side. I have seen your mobs before, and deny yonr wrath. (Tremen
dous applause.) My friends, do not cheer, for I need my whtxle time.
I have been put to severe tests. I have stood by my principles in fair weather
and in foul, in the sunshine and in the rain. I have defended the great principles
of self-government here among you when Northern sentiment ran in a- torrent
against me, and I have defended that same great principle when Southern senti
ment came down like an avalanche upon me. I was not afraid of any test they put
tome. I knew I was right — I knew my principles were sound — I knew that the
people would see in the end that I had done right, and I knew that the God of
Heaven would smile upon me if I was faithful in the performance of my duty.
At Alton, October 16th, 1868, Lincoln said, speaking of
slavery :
On this subject of treating it as a wrong, and limiting Its spread, let me say a
word. Has anything ever threatened the existence of this Union save and except
this very institution of slavery? What is it thatwehol(l most dear amongst us ?
Our own liberty and prosperity. What has ever threatened our liberty and pros
perity 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
Itout 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 no way to
cure it, to engraft it and spread it over your whole body. That Is no proper way
of treating what you regard a 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-
lashioned way, the way in which the fathers themselves set us the exaraple.

THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 131
At the meeting at Freeport, August 27, 1858, occurred
one of those passages which brings out the traits and charac
teristics of the champions. Mr. Lincoln, after alluding to
some questions propounded to him by Senator Douglas, at
Ottawa, said :
I now propose that I will answer any of the Interrogatories, upon condition that
he will answer questions frora me, not exceeding the same number, to which I
give him an opportunity to respond. The Judge remains silent; I now say that I
win answer his interrogatories, whether he answer mine or not, and that after I
have done so, I shall propound mine to him.
I have supposed myself, since the organizatiton of the Republican party at
Bloomington, in May, 1856, bound as a party man by the platforms of the party,
then, and since. If, in any interrogatories which I shaU answer, I go beyond the
scope of what is within these platforms, it will be perceived that no one is
responsible but myself.
Having said thus much, I will take up the Judge's interrogatories, as I flnd them
printed in the Chicago Times, and answer them seriatim. In order that there may
be no mistake about it, I have copied the interrogatories in writing, and also my
answers to thera. The flrst one of these interrogatories is In these words :
Question 1.—I desire to know whether Lincoln to-day stands, as he did in 1854, In
fiivor of the unconditional repeal of the Fugitive Slave Law ?
Anstoer. — I do not now, nor ever did, stand in favor of the unconditional repeal
of the Fugitive Slave Law.
Q.i. — I desire hira to answer whether he stands pledged to-day, as he did In
1854, against the admission of any more slave States into the Union, even if the
people want them ?
A. — I do not now, nor ever did, stand pledged against the admission of any more
slave States into the Union.
Q. s.—I want to know, whether he stands pledged against the admission of a new
State into the Union, with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see
flt to make?
A. — I do not stand pledged against the admission of a new State Into the Union,
¦with such a Constitution as the people of that State may see flt to make.
C. i.— Iwant to know whether he stands to-day pledged to the abolition of
slavery in the District of Columbia ?
A.— I do not stand to-day pledged to the abolition of slavery in the District of
Columbia. Q. 5.— I desire him to answer whether he stands pledged to the prohibition of the
slave trade between the difl'erent States 7
A.— I do not stand pledged to the prohibition of the slave trade between the
difi'erent States.
Q. «.— I desire to know whether he stands pledged to prohibit slavery in all the
Territories of the United States, North as weU as South of tlie Missouri Compromise
line? ^.— I am impliedly, if not expressly, pledged to a belief in the right and duty of
Congress to prohibit slavery In all the United States' Territories.
Q. 7.— I desire him to answer, whether he is opposed to -the acquisition of any
new territory, unless slavery is flrst prohibited therein ?
..1.— I am not generally opposed to honest acquisition of territory; and, in any
given case, I would or would not oppose such acquisition, according as I might
think such acquisition would or would not aggravate the slavery question among
ourselves. Now my friends, it wUl be perceived upon an examination of these questions
and answers, that so fiir, I have only answered that I was not pledged to this, that,
or the other.

182 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The Judge has not framed his Interrogatories to ask me anything more than this,
and I have answered in strict accordance with the interrogatories- aud have
answered truly, that I am not pledged at all upon any of the points to which I have
answered. But I am not disposed to hang upon the exact form of his interroga
tory. I am rather disposed to take up, at least sorae of these questions, and state
what I really think upon them.
The fourth one is in regard to the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia.
In relation to that, I have my mind very distinctly made up. I should be very
glad to see slavery abolished in the District of Columbia. I believe that Congress
possesses the constitutional power to aboUsh it. Yet, as a member of Congress, I
should not, with my present views, be in favor of endeavoring to abolish slavery In
the District of Columbia, unless it should be npon these conditions : First, That
the abolition should be gradual ; Second, That It should be on a vote of the majority
of qualifled voters in the District ; and Third, That compensation should be made
to unwilUng owners. With these three conditions, I confess I wonld be exceed
ingly glad to see Congress abolish slavery in the District of Columhia, and, in the
language of Henry Clay, " sweep from our Capital that foul blot upon our nation."
1 now proceed to propound to the Judge the interrogatories, so far as I have framed
them. I will bring forward a new instalment when I get them ready. I wlU bring
now only four. The first one is —
1. If the people of Kansas shaU, by means entirely unobjectionable in all other
respects, adopt a State Constitution and ask admission into the Union under it
before they have the requisite number of inhabitants, according to the English
hiU— some ninety-three thousand— wiU you vote to admit them?
2. Can the people of a Uuited States Territory, 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 ?
S. If the Supreme Court of the United States shall decide that States cannot
exclude slavery from their limits, are you in favor of acquiescing in, adopting and
following such decision as a rule of political action?
4. Are you in favor of acquiring additional territory, In disregard of how such
•acquisition may afl'ect the nation on the slavery question?
It will be observed that the answers of Mr. Lincoln are
full, fair and candid, and it is just to state, that these answers
were not satisfactory to the radical anti-slavery men whom
he addressed, and he knew they would not be.
To the first question, Mr. Douglas said :
In reference to Kansas, it Is my opinion that, as she has population enough to
constitute a slave State, she has people enough for a free State.
I hold it to be a sacred rule of universal application, to require a Territory to
contain the requisite population for a member of Congress, before it is admitted
as a State into the Union !
To the second question, Douglas replied :
It matters not what way the Supreme Court may hereafter decide, as to the
abstract question whether slavery may or may not go into a Territory under the
Constitution, the people have the lawful means to Introduce It, or exclude it as they
please, for the reason that slavery cannot exist a day, or au hour, anywhere, unless
it Is supported by local police regulations. Those police regulations can only be
established by the local legislature, and if the people are opposed to slavei-y, they
win elect representatives to that body, who will, by unfriendly legislation, effect
ually prevent the Introduction of it Into their midst. If, on the contrary, they are

THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. 133
fbr It, their legislation -wlU favor Its extension. Hence, no matter what the deci
sion of the Supreme Court may be on that abstract question, still the right of the
people to make a slave Territory or a teee Territory Is perfect and complete under
the Nebraska biU.
It was in regard to this question that a friend of Mr. Lin
coln said : " If Douglas answers in such a way, as to give
practical force and effect to the 'Dred Scott' decision, he in
evitably loses the battle, but he will therefore reply, by de
claring 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 is not known positively whether Mr. Lincoln then looked
forward to the possibility of his being a candidate for the
Presidency; it is not improbable that byhis rare sagacity, and
knowledge of public sentiment he already saw, in the rivalry
of prominent leaders, his own nomination. However this may
have been, he believed that the elevation of Douglas to the
Executive chair, with his avowed sentiments, would be dan
gerous to liberty, and sought by every legitimate means to '
damage his prospects.
To the third question, Mr. Douglas said :
The third question which Mr. Lincoln presented Is, if the Supreme Court of the
United States shaU decide that a State of this Union cannot exclude slavery from
its own limits, wiU I submit to It 7 I am amazed that Lincoln should ask such a
question. He casts au iraputation upon the Supreme Court of the United States by suppos
ing that they would violate the Constitution of the United States. I teU him that
such a thing is not possible. It would be an act of moral treason that no man ou
the bench could ever descend to. Mr. Lincoln, himself, would never, in his partisan
feelings, so lax forget what was right, as to be guilty of such an act.
This, however, from Mr. Douglas, was an evasion, not an
answer. To the fourth question, whether he "was in favor of ac
quiring additional territory in disregard as to how such
acquisition may affect the slavery question," he replied :
with our natural Increase, gro-wing with a rapidity unkno-sra in any other part
of the globe, with the tide of emigration that is fleeing from despotism lu the old
world, to seek refuge In onr own, there Is a constant torrent pouring into this

134 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
country that requires more land— more territory upon which to settle, and just as
fiist as our interests and our destiny require additional territory In tbe North, in
the South, or on the Islands of the Ocean, I am for It, and when we acquire it, wiU
leave the people, according to the Nebraska blU, free to do as they please on the
subject of slavery, and every other question.
It was impossible to reconcile Douglas' position at Free-
port, that slavery could be rightfully excluded from a Terri
tory by legislation, and the "Dred Scott" decision, which
decided that a slaveholder had a legal right to take his slaves
into all the territories.
Mr. Lincoln exposed this in one of his terse, clear sen
tences, when he said " it was declaring that a thing may be
laivfully driven away from a place, where it has a lawful right
to go." These debates, and the debaters, have passed into history.
The world has pronounced Mr. Lincoln the victor, but it
should be remembered, in justice to Douglas, that Lincoln
spoke for liberty and against the extension of slavery ; he
was the organ of a new and vigorous party, and he knew he
was right. Douglas was a candidate for the Presidency as
well as Senator, and must keep one eye on the slaveholders,
and the other on the citizens of Illinois. This hampered
and embarrassed him, yet he made a brilliant canvass.
An immense vote was cast — for Mr. Lincoln, 126,084;
for Mr. Douglas, 121,940; and 5,091 were given for the Bu
chanan ticket, which was run to defeat Douglas.
Owing to the fact that several Democratic senators held
over in districts which gave Republican majorities, and the
inequality of the apportionment, it ha-dng been made on the
basis of the population of 1850, Mr. Douglas was reelected.
These debates were published at the time in the leading
newspapers throughout the Union. The manly bearing, the
vigorous logic, the straight-forward honesty and earnest sin
cerity, as well as the intellectual power manifested by Mr.
Lincoln in these discussions, made a deep impression upon
the people. So well satisfied was the Republican party with
the efforts of its champion, that these debates, including the
speeches of Douglas and Lincoln, were published, without
alteration, as a campaign document, and scattered everywhere
throughout the Union.

LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT COLUMBUS. 135
At the close of the canvass, Mr. Lincoli resumed the
practice of his profession. His fame as a lawyer and a
statesman had extended throughout the West, and he was
called by professional engagements, not only into every part
of Illinois, but into Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri and Ohio.
In 1859, he visited Kansas, and the grateful people of that
young State received him as one who had eloquently plead
their cause.
In the autumn of 1859, Douglas visited and stumped Ohio.
The fame of Lincoln had extended there, and he was sent
for to come to that State and reply. He went, and spoke at
Columbus and Cincinnati.
A few extracts are given from his speech at Columbus :
The American people, on the flrst day of January, 1864, found the African slave
trade prohibited by a law of Congress. In a majority of the States of this Union,
they found African slavery, or any other sort of slavery, prohibited by State
Constitutions. They also found a law existing, supposed to be valid, by which
slavery was excluded from almost all the territory the United States then owned.
This was the condition of the country, with reference to the institution of slavery,
on the first of January, 1854. A few days after that, a biU was introduced into
Congress, which ran through its regular course In the two branches of the National
Legislature, and finally passed into a law in the month of May, by which the act
of Congress prohibiting slavery from going into the Territories of the United
States was repealed. In connection with the law Itself, and, in fact, in the terms
of the law, the then existing prohibition was not only repealed, but there was a
declaration qf a purpose on the part of Congress never thereafter to exercise any
power that they might have, real or supposed, to prohibit the extension or spread
of slavery. This was a very great change ; for the law thus repealed was of raore
than thirty years' standing. FpUowing rapidly upon the heels of this action of
Congress, a decision of the Supreme Court Is made, by which it is declared that
Congress, if It desires to prohibit the spread of slavery into the Territories, has no
Constitutional power to do so. Not only so, but that decision lays down principles
which, if pushed to their logical conclusion — I say pushed to their logical conclu
sion—would decide that the Constitutions of free States, forbidding slavery, are
themselves unconstitutional. Mark me, I do not say the Judge said this, and let
no man say I affirm the Judge used these words ; but I only say it is my opinion
that what he did say, if pressed to its logical conclusion, wUl inevitably result
thus. Looking at these things, the Republican party, as I understand its principles
and policy, believe that there is great danger of the institution of slav.pry being
spread out and extended, until it is ultimately made alike la-wf ul in all the States
of this Union; so beUeving, to prevent that incidental and ultimate consumma
tion, is the original and chief purpose of the RepubUcan organization. I say chief
purpose of the Republican organization ; for it is certainly true that if the National
House shall fall into the hands of the Republicans, they wUl have to attend to aU
Ae other matters of National House-keeping, as well as this.
Of the Ordinance of 1787, he said :
Not only did that Ordinance prevail, but it was constantly looked to whenever a
rtep was taken by a new Territory to become a State. Congress always turned
their attention to It, and in all their movements upon that subject, they traced

136 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
their course by that Ordinance of '87. When they admitted new States, they ad
vertised thera of this Ordinance as a part of the legislation of the country. They
did so because they had traced the ordinance of '87 throughout the history of this
country. Begin with the men of the Revolution, and go down for sixty entire
years, and until the last scrap of that Territory comes into the Union in the form
of the State of Wisconsin, everything was made to conform with the Ordinance of
'87, excluding slavery from that vast extent of country.
At Cincinnati, Lincoln addressed himself to Kentuckians
among others. He said :
It has occurred to me here to-night, thatif I ever do shoot over the Hue at the
people ou the other side of the line into a slave State, and purpose to do so, keep
ing my skin safe, that I have now about the best chance I shaU ever have. I
should not wonder that there are some Kentuckians about this audience ; we are
close to Kentucky; aud 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 reason I propose to address a portion
of what I have to say to the Kentuckians.
I say, then. In the first place, to the Kentuckians, that I am what they call, as I
understand it, a " Black RepubUcan." I think slavery is wrong, morally andpoUt-
loaUy. I desire that it should be no further spread in these United States, and I
should not object if it should gradually terminate in the whole Union. While I
say this for myself, I say to you Kentuckians, that I understand you difl-er radi
caUy with me upon this proposition ; that you believe slavery is a good thing ; that
slavery is right ; that it ought to be extended and perpetuated in this Union. Now,
there being this broad difference between us, I do not pretend in addressing myself
to you Kentuckians, to attempt proselyting you ; that would be a vain effort. I do
not enter upon it. I only propose to try to show you that you ought to nominate
for the next Presidency, at Charleston, my distinguished friend. Judge Douglas.
In all that there is a difference between you and him, I Understand he is sincerely
for you, and more -wisely for you, than you are for yourselves.
It is my opinion that it is for you to take him or be defeated ; and that if you do
take him you may be beaten. You will surely be beaten if you do not take him.
We, theHepublicans and others, forming the opposition of the country, intend to
" stand by our guns," to be patient and firm, and In the long run to beat you
whether you take him or not. We know that before we fairly beat you, we have
to beat you both together. We know that you are aU of a " feather," and that we
have to beat you altogether, and we expect to do it. We don't Intend to be very
impatient about it. We mean to be as deliberate and calm about it as it is possi
ble to be, but as firm and resolved as it is possible for raen to be. When we do. as
we say, beat you, you perhaps want to know what we will do with you.
I win tell you, so far as I ara authorized to speak for the opposition, what we mean
to do with you. We mean to treat you, as near as we possibly can, as Washington,
JeflTersou, and Madison, treated you. We mean to leave you alone, and in no way
to interfere with your Institution; to abide by all and every compromise of the
Constitution, and, in a word, coming back to the original proposition, to treat you,
so far as degenerated men (If we have degenerated,) may, according to the examples
of those noble fathers —Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. We mean to remem
ber that you are as good as we; that there is no difference between us other than
the difference of circumstances. We mean to recognize and bear in mind always
that you have as good hearts In your bosoms as other people, or as we claim to
have, and treat you accordingly. We mean to marry your girls when we have a
chance— the white ones I mean, and I have the honor to inform you that I once
did have a chance In that way.
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 di
vide the Union whenever a republican or anything like it. Is elected President of
the United States. (A voice— "That is so.") "That isSo,"one of themsays- I

CINCINNATI SPEECH. 137
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 vour half of it? Aro you going to
spUt the Ohio down through, and push yonr 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 yom- country and ours, by which that movable property
of yours can't come over here any more, to the danger>of your losing it? Do you
think you can better yourselves on that subject, by leaving us here under no obU
gation whatever to return those specimens of your movable property that come
hither? You have divided the Union because we would not do right with you, as
you think, upon that subject; when we cease to be under obligations to do any
thing for you, how much better ofl- do you think you will be 7 WUl you make war
upon ns and kUl us all? "Why, gentlemen, 1 think you are as gallant and as brave
men as live ; that you can fight as bravely iu 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 wiU never make much of a hand at whipping
us. If we were fewer In nurabers than you, I think that yon could whip us ; if we
were equal it would likely be a drawn battle ; but being inferior j,ji nurabers, you
wlU make nothing by attempting to master us.
The most elaborate and carefully prepared speech, ever
made by Mr. Lincoln, was that delivered by him at the
Cooper Institute, in the city of New York, on Tuesday
evening, February 29th, 1860.
This was Mr. Lincoln's first appearance in that city. The
large hall was crowded to hear this Western statesman, then
chiefly kno-wn as the successful competitor of Douglas.
Bryant, the poet, presided; if any came to hear noisy
declamation or verbiage, they must have been disappointed.
There is not a more learned, exhaustive, logical speech in
political literature. It has not a superfluous word.
He took for the text of his speech, these words of Senator
Douglas, uttered at Columbus, Ohio, the previous autumn.
" Our fathers when they framed the Govemment under which
we Uve, understood this question just as well, and even better than
we do now."
Conceding that this was true, Mr. Lincoln proceeded to
enquire, " what was the understanding those fathers had of the
mestion mentioned?" (Slavery.)
He first answers, who were " our fathers who framed ihe
Government." He snowed that the thirty-nine men who framed the
Constitution were " our fathers,"
" What is the question which these fathers understood just
as well, if not better than we do now?"

13.8 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Itis this: "Does the Constitution forbid our Federal
Government to control as to slavery in our Federal territories?"
He then went into a full historical argument on the subject,
presenting every recorded act of the Fathers upon the ques
tion. His argument demonstrating the right of Congress to
prohibit slavery in the territories, never has been, and never
can be answered.
He closed this great speech, which made a profound im
pression upon the thoughtful men of New York, with these
memorable words. " Let us have faith ihat right makes might,
and in that faith let us to the end, dare to do our duty, as we
understand it,"
This effort was so dignified in manner, and style, it exhib
ited such logic, and learning, and was in every way so dif
ferent from what was expected, that the orator from the
prairies awoke the next morning to find himself famous.
This speech was very widely circulated and read, and pre
pared the minds of the people for his nomination for the
Presidency. As the Presidential election of 1860, approached, Mr. Lin
coln's name was more and more frequently mentioned in
connection with that position. The prominent candidates,
however, continued to be Senators Seward and Cameron, and
Governor Chase. Mr. Lincoln, outside of Illinois, was regarded
only as a possible compramise candidate.
On the loth of May, 1860, a Republican State Convention
was held at Decatur, in Macon county, Illinois, to nomin
ate State officers, and appoint delegates to the National
Presidential Convention, which was to meet in Chicago, in
June. As Mr. Lincoln entered the hall where the convention was
in session, he was received with such marked demonstration
as left no doubt, about his being the choice of Illinois, for
the Presidency. Soon after he was seated, General 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, ihe
rail candidate for the Presidency in 1860. Two rails from a lot

THE RAIL SPLITTER OF ILLINOIS. 139
of 3,000, made in 1830, by Thomas Hanks and Abe Lincoln,
whose father was ilie flrst pioneer of Macon county."
The effect of this cannot be described. For fifteen minutes,
cheers upon cheers went up from the crowd. Lincoln 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 ofthese two rails,
and of his Hfe 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 people, 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
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 his
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.

OHAPTEE YI.

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1860 — ELECTION OF LINCOLN, AND
CULMINATION OF THE CONSPIRACY TO DISSOLVE THE UNION.
The Charleston Convention — Douglas — Secessionists Break
UP THE Convention — Adjourn to Baltimore — and Rich
mond — Douglas — and Breckinridge Nominated — "Ameri
cans" Nominate Bell and Everett — The Chicago Conven
tion — The Wig-Wam — Seward — Lincoln — The Nomination
— The Canvass — The " Wide-Awakes " — Position of Parties
on the Slavery Question — Lincoln Elected — Conspiracy
to Dissolve the Union — Preparations op the Conspirators
— The North Disarmed.
PRIOR to the meeting of the Democratic National Con
vention, which met at Charleston, South Carolina, in
April, 1860, it was ob-^ous that a storm was gathering which
threatened the rupture of that old and powerful organization.
Douglas was the popular candidate for President in the free
States, and had many strong personal friends in the slave
States. But the ultra slaveholders as a class, were bitterly
hostile to him on account of his course on the Lecompton
question. They determined to break up the convention
rather than permit his nomination. Hitherto in conventions,
the North had yielded to the more positive and determined
leaders among the slaveholders, and many supposed the
friends of Douglas would yield, and that a nomination of
some negative man would be forced upon the convention
upon whom the party would harmonize. But two powei-fal
elements prevented this.
The friends of Douglas who had been inspired by him with
a will as determined as that of his enemies, having a majority,
resolved that their leader should not be sacrificed as Van
140

CHARLESTON CONVENTION. 141
Buren, Benton, and other leaders had been, who had offended
the slaveholders. •
The other element was composed of the secessionists and
traitors, who did not desire Union, but were determined
to push matters to extremes, to divide the democratic party,
thereby secure the success of the republican party, and then
to make that success the pretext for secession. A convention
composed of these elements with such purposes, could not
harmonize. The committee upon resolutions to which the subject ofthe
platform was referred, made three reports. The majority
reported resolutions declaring, among other things, that
" Congress had no power to abolish or prohibit slavery in the
territories; nor had the territorial Legislature any power to
abolish or prohibit slavery in the territories; * * * nor to
impafr or destroy the right of property in slaves by any
legislation whatever."
This was intended as a direct repudiation pf Mr. Douglas'
doctrine of popular sovereignty, and his friends knew that
they might as well give up the canvass at the start, as to go
before the people on this platform. A minority of the com
mittee, but representing a decided majority of the electoral
votes, reported resolutions re-affirming the old platform
adopted at Cincinnati, in 1856; with some additional resolu
tions designed to conciliate the slave States, and declaring
that "inasmuch as there were differences of opinion in
the democratic party as to the powers of a territorial Legis
lature, and as to the powers and duties of Congress under the
Constitution, 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."
When it is remembered that the Dred Scott decision had
been pronounced, giving to the slaveholders all that they
claimed, one would suppose that this resolution would have
been deemed satisfactory. And it would have been, if the slave
holders had really desired harmony, but a majority of them
meant disunion. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, one
of the committee, reported the Cincinnati platform without
addition. After voting down Mr. Butler's proposition, the

142 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHRQ-W OF SLAVERY.
convention adopted the minority report, which contained the
Ciiicinnati platform with the additions.
Thereupon, L. P. Walker, subsequently the rebel Secretary
of War, presented the protest of the delegates from Alabama,
and those delegates withdrew from the convention.
Among these delegates was William L. Yancey, long be
fore a notorious secessionist. The delegates from Mississippi,
Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, Florida, and Arkansas,
Georgia, and Delaware, thereupon also withdrew. The con
vention thereupon resolved that it should require two-thirds
of a full convention to nominate, and then, after balloting
several times, on each of which ballots Mr. Douglas had a
large, but not, under the rule, a two-thirds majority, the
convention adjourned to meet at Baltimore, on the 18th 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 seceders' convention at Richmond, adopting the reso
lutions of the majority ofthe committee, nominated John C.
Breckinridge, of Kentucky, for President, and Colonel Joseph
Lane, of Oregon, for Vice President.
The disruption 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 Constitutional Union (American) party nominated
John Bell, for President, and Edward Everett, for Vice
President. On the 16th of May, 1860, the Republican Convention met
at Chicago, to nominate candidates for President and Vice
President. An immense building called the " Wigwam,"
capable of holding many thousands of people, had been
specially erected for the meeting. Full, and eager, and en
thusiastic delegations were there from all the free States, and
representatives were present from Delaware, Maryland,
Kentucky, Missouri, and Virginia, and some scattering

CHICAGO CONVENTION. 143
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 Com
mittee, David Wilmot, author of the Wimot Proviso, was
made temporary Chairman, and George Ashmun, of
Massachusetts, permanent President.
Theirplatform of principles was adopted without difficulty.
They resolved to maintain the principles of the Declaration
of Independence, declared their fidelity to the Union; their
abhorrence of all schemes of disunion ; denounced all who
threatened disunion as an avowal of contemplated treason,
which it was the duty of the people sternly to rebuke and
forever silence.
The convention also resolved: "that the new dogma that
the Constitution carried slavery into all the territories, was a
dangerous political heresy, revolutionary in tendency, and
subversive of 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
individual 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." They declared also in favor of a homestead law. Har
bor and River improvements, and the Pacific Railroad.
The leading candidates for the nomination for President,
were Wilham 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 ofthe
great issue between liberty and slavery, a philosophic mind,
broad and catholic views, great sagacity, and an elevated 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

144 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLA^VERY.
more in the way of rivals, and had become the object of more
bitter personal and political hostility than Mr. Lincoln. The
Illinois candidate was principally known outside of the North
west, as the competitor of Douglas. Yet the sobriquet of
"honest old Abe," "the rail-splitter of Illinois," had ex
tended throughout the free States; he had no enemies, and
was the second choice of nearly all the delegates of which
he was not the first choice. He was supposed by the 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
foreshadowings of the terrible ordeal of civil war, which was
before the candidate which they should nominate and the
people elect. Yet there seems to have been a peculiar pro
priety in Mr. Lincoln's nomination; and there was here
illustrated, that instinctive sagacity, or more truly, providen-
vidential guidance, which directs a people in a critical emerg
ency, to act wisely.
Looking back, we now see how -wise the selection. The
Union was to be assailed ; Lincoln was from the National N orth-
west, which would never surrender its great communications
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 sympathy 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, nur
tured in the rude log cabin, and reared amidst the hardships
and struggles of humble life.
On the first ballot, Mr. Seward received 173J votes to 102
for Lincoln, the others being divided on Messrs. Cameron,
Chase, Bates, and others. On the second, Mr. Seward re
ceived 184 votes to 181 for Mr. Lincoln. On the third, Mr.

LINCOLN'S NOMINATION. 145
Lincoln received a majority, and his nomination was then
made unanimous.* While the balloting was in progress,
* Did Lincoln anticipate this nomination?
In March 1860, Mr. Lincoln spent several days at Chicago, engaged in the United
States Court in the trial of the case of Johnson v. Jones, During the trial. Judge Drum
mond, Mr. Lincoln, and the members of the bar engaged in the case, were dining
together, at the table of one of the counsel, who was a warm personal and political
friend of Mr. Lincoln. Others of the counsel present were equally warm friends of
Judge Douglas, who was then the most prominent candidate tor the Presidency
before the people.
¦When the cloth was removed the host said " gentlemen, please fill your glasses
for a toast, which, differing as we do politically, I ara sure all present will heartily
respond to." "May Illinois furnish ihe next President!" The friends of Douglas
drank to him, and the rest of us to Lincoln.
So far as the author knows, the flrst nomination in any newspaper of Mr. Lincoln
for the Presidency was made on the Sth day of October 1859, by the Aurora Beacon,
published at Aurora, Kane county, Illinois, and then ably edited by John 'W. Bay,
Esq. In the Beacon for October 6th, 1859, under the caption of " Th,e calmness of the re
publicans," Mr. Lincoln was named. Incidentally, ainong some half dozen others,
as the possible man for their candidate for 1859.
In the Issue of the same paper of November 10th, 1859, the nomination took defi
nite shape under the caption, " TJiey say Old Abe is the man." Among other passages
occur the foUoHdng, iu that article :
" Illinois has rather waited for others to move, than to move herself, because her
man is one of her own citizens, and she trusted that the people of other Sta tes,
would do, with a/ better grace, what she is particularly desirous of having done.
She waits to second, what she would be the first to move in, were the great man a
citizen of any other State. * * It is a settled question we believe that the West
must have the next President, never having had a man in the office, but one
month. It is also settled, that there must be a candidate who can carry the most
doubtful States. Now Illinois, if any, is one of those states. No one doubts that
Douglas can poU the largest vote here, of any raan, unless It be Abe LiNOOiiN, and
no one doubts that what Lincoln did under all the disadvantages, of 1858, he could
do easily under the better auspices of 1860. And it would be peculiarly a glory. If
on the very ground where Lincoln was cheated out of his election, (as Senator) there
he should be run again, and should have the glory of defeating Douglas, should he
be the opponent. He wiU thus fight neither with great nor small, but only with the
King of the democratic host. Lincoln has every element of popularity and success,
and he has one which will give him peculiar prominence over Douglas, and that
is his integrity to the great principles which this State, and all the free States are
determined shall cut a figure in the next election. Freedom v. Slavery. We are in
no hurry to bring out Mr. Lincoln. He will be thought of in time by all that will
need him, if he be the man. But if he shaU become the nominnee of the republi
can hosts, we shaU count it a Joy to hoist his name at our ¦mast head, and to hang the
banner on the outer wall of our city and country."
The same paper in its issue of December I5th 1859, under the caption, " TTto is the
strongest man?". after discussing the claims of Mr. Lincoln at length as against
Mr. Seward and others, concludes with these truthful and prophetic words:
"And we cannot help thinking how, like a shadow of a great rock in a weary
land, such a President will seem, as Abraham Lincoln will make. He -will, in his
principles and measures, o'er Buchanan, like an eagle soar. Disunion will flnd hun
as South Carolina found old Jackson. Tlie slave trade will find him a Wllberforce
The army wUl be used for defence, not ofl-ence.
With Lincoln for President, and Cameron, or Reed, or even Thad. Stevens as
Vice President, the ticket would sweep the 'States, as Von Tromp the seas. This Is
he whom we consider the strongest man, and for whom we would a<lmire to do
10

146 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Mr. Lincoln was sitting in the office of the State Journal, at
Springfield. A telegraph wire had been extended to the
Wigwam, and the result of every ballot was immediately
telegraphed to Springfield.
Soon after the result of the second ballot had been an
nounced, a gentleman entered the office of the State Journal,
and handed a slip of paper to Mr. Lincoln, on which was his
nomination, the result of third ballot. He read the paper in
silence, and then announcing the result, he said, amidst the
shouts of those persons present, " There is a little woman
down at our house, would like to hear this — I'll go, down
and tell her."
No words can adequately describe the enthusiasm by which
this nomination was received in Chicago, Illinois, and
throughout the Northwest. A man who had been placed on
the top of the Wigwam, to announce to the thousands out
side, the progress of the balloting, as soon as the Secretary
read the result of the third ballot, shouted to those be
low, "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 over the result. Hanni
bal Hamlin, of Maine, was nominated for Vice President.
The nomination of Lincoln was hailed with intense enthusi
asm, not only by the crowds in attendence, and the North
west, but this soon extended throughout all 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 repub
lican 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 cru
elty, by which freedom of speech and liberty of the press had
been suppressed in portions of the slave States, and indigna
tion at the long catalogue of crimes of the slaveholders, fired
loyal service, should he be the choice of the convention.- We are glad Douglas is
recovering his health, and we think he will yet live to attend tho levee of President
Lincoln.

CANVASS OF 1860. 147
all hearts with enthusiasm and zeaL Confident of success,
and determined to leave nothing undone to secure it, the
republican party entered upon the canvass. The great Metro
politan press of Nevr York, the 'Tribune, the Times, and the
Post, circulated everywhere, inciting and urging the people
to effort. The leading statesmen of all sections, the Senators
and members of Congress, Governors of States, the most
eloquent speakers, took the stump for " Lincoln and Liberty,"
and immense crowds at vast out-door meetings hung with
¦wrapt attention on the stirring speeches of the orators. Every
where throughout the free States, speeches, newspapers,
pamphlets, and documents were scattered, urging the people
to resist the encroachments of the slave power.
One of the most efficient agencies, and one characteristic
of the people and the times, by which the canvass of 1860
was carried on, was an organization of the young men known
as the " Wide Awakes." This embodied nearly all the young
men of the party, with a semi- military organization, but
without arms, wearing glazed caps and capes, and at night
carrying torchlights, and ready at all times for work. Turn
ing out at political meetings, escorting speakers to and from
the places of speaking, singing patriotic and campaign songs,
circulating documents and canvassing votes. In October,
1860, there was a vast gathering of the people of the North
west at Chicago, to hear Governor Seward and other distin
guished speakers, and in the evening, 10,000 Wide Awakes
marched in procession with their torches. The following
extract from a speech delivered to them, will illustrate the
spirit of the campaign and the organization :
Gentlemen, Wide-Awakes of the Northwest! Peace hath her -victories no less
reno-wned than war. In the great victory of liberty about to be consummated by
the election of Abraham Lincoln, your organization, of which 1 see around me,
so magnificent and brilliant an array, is contributing ¦a, most important part.
Among many features which give to this Presidential contest, a peculiar and ex
traordinary interest, none are more signiflcant than the organization ofthe Wide-
Awakes, Your vast association numbering more than half a million, extending
from Maine to Minnesota, and penetrating every section of the P.^public where
free labor is honored, embodies for efiicient action, the zeal, enthusiasm, and energy
of the young men of our country. * * *
The object of your association is to aid in securing our success at the polls. You
have adopted as your motto these words of Jefl'erson, " Vigilance," eternal "xyigU.
ance is the price of libeHy." Jefl-ersor meant that those who would preserve their
liberties, must be " WideAwakes."

148 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Our political opponents have charged you with being a miUtary organization in
disguise. Let not their hearts be troubled. It Is doubtless true that the Wide- A wake
organization embodies much of the strength of our citizen soldiers, and it is true
that they would rally as soon to crush domestic treason, as to repel foreign invasion.
But your arms are peaceful ; not warlike. Your torches are to Ught the fireeman's
pathway to the baUot box, not to the battle-field. Our weapons are baUots not
bullets. It is our adversaries who use the weapons of violence and fraud. They used the
bowie-knife of the border-rufiians in Kansas. Their's is the "Lynch-law," and the
mob violence which silences the freeman's tongue and shuts the patrloPs mouth.
They suppress the liberty of speech and the freedom of the press. They threaten to
destroy the Union if we take from them the power of prostituting it to the extension
of slavery. They knock down Senators for uttering disagreeable truths. They
threaten to hang Northern members of Congress, like Hale, and Lovejoy — on the
nearest tree. It is the slave party which has introduced a " reign of terror," in a
large portion of the South. Against all this, we interpose the peaceful agencies of
the printing press, the common school, the sermon, the lecture, the railroad, the
telegraph, and above all the free, honest ballot.
This peaceful moral confiict, where reason is free to combat wrong and error. Is
the "irrepressible conflict" of the great Senator of New York, (Mr. Seward,) who "is
our guest to-day."
The Democratic Convention, as we have stated, had met
at Charleston, South Carolina, in April, 1860 and had split
into two parts upon the slavery question. After vainly
wrangling over a platform, the delegates from the slave States
seceded and organized a separate convention. The Conven
tion itself adjourned to Baltimore, and nominated Stephen
A. Douglas for President, and the seceding delegates met at
Richmond, Virginia, on the llth of June, and nominated
John C. Breckinridge.
It is now clear that a considerable portion of the seceding
delegates had already entered into the conspiracy to destroy
the Union. Hence, they desired and promoted the rupture
of the Democratic party, and the election of Mr. Lincoln, as
an excuse or pretext for promoting their obj-ects.
W. L. Yancey, of Alabama, a leading secessionist, and
others, subsequently prominent in the military and civil ser
vice of the rebellion, were active leaders in the measures
which broke up the convention. The Chicago Convention,
while it resolved that Congress ought to prohibit slavery in
the territories, distinctly disclaimed any intention to interfere
with it in the States. The existence of the conspiracy to
destroy the Union, and the participation in that conspiracy
by those who procured the nomination of Breckinridge, is
established by the fact, that although it was obvious that by
their secession from the Charleston Convention and the

PLATFORM OF THE PARTIES. 149
nomination of two candidates, Mr. Lincoln's election was
rendered morally certain, yet, to place this beyond a doubt,
• the same organization ran two tickets in the free States,
where the great mass of the Democratic party supported
Douglas, and the opposition to him was scattering. Thus the
Breckinridge leaders deliberately and intentionally secured
Lincoln's election.
The great subject in controversy, among the three leading
parties, was slavery.
1st. The Republican party held that slavery was morally
wrong and a great political evil ; that it could exist only by
virtue of positive local law; and that Congress rightfully
could, and ought to prohibit it in all the territories.
2d. The party supporting Breckinridge held that slavery
was morally right; and that it legally existed in all the ter
ritories, and that neither Congress nor the people of a terri
tory could prohibit it, or interfere with it outside of State
lines ; and that so long as a territory remained such, slavery
had legal existence, and was entitled to protection under the
Constitution. 3d. The Douglas party were indifferent whether slavery
was "voted up or down," but insisted that the people of each
territory should decide for themselves whether they would
tolerate and protect, or exclude slavery.
One of the most noticeable features of this contest was the
personal canvass made by Douglas. He entered upon it with
all the vigor and spirit for which he was so distinguished.
He spoke in most of the free and many of the slave States..
Mr. Lincoln received large majorities in nearly all the free
States. He 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. Breckinridge received 72
electoral, and a popular vote of 847,953; and Bell 39 electo
ral votes, and 570,631 of the popular vote. By the success
of Mr. Lincoln, the executive power of the country passed
from the hands of slave-holders. They had controlled the
government for much the larger portion of the time during
which it had existed.

150 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Each decennial census, each new apportionment of mem
bers of Congress, in spite of the advantage of the represen
tation of their negroes, had witnessed the gradual passage of '
political power into the free States. Against this result the
slave aristocracy, conscious of their weakness and the wrong
of the institution, struggled in vain. The laws of Nature
and of God are not more inexorable in their operation than
the law that in the race for power, freedom and free labor
should outstrip slavery and slave labor. Convinced of this
by the logic of the census figures, yet resolved not to yield
power, determined not to give up slavery, either to man or
God, the slave-holders had deliberately determined, by force
and violence, by any means necessary, to extend slavery over
all the territories ; to seize and appropriate Cuba; to concfuer
and annex Mexico; aud thus secure the means of extending
the area of slavery, of controlling the government, and ulti
mately, to make the States all slave States; or, failing in these
plans, to dissolve the Union, and to establish a government
based upon slavery. There had long existed at the South an
organized conspiracy to accomplish these purposes. They
wanted more negroes ; and they sought to repeal, and practi
cally disregarded and evaded the law prohibiting the African
slave trade. Cargoes of Africans were imported into the
cotton States, and, although by law it was piracy, there were
no prosecutions therefor.
To an intelligent understanding of the events preceding
the rebellion, and during its progress, the existence of this
wide spread, thoroughly organized, secret conspiracy must be
understood. A secret organization, known as the " Order
of the Lone Star," was well known previous to, and at the
time of the annexation of Texas. Its ostensible, and one of
its real objects was the acquisition of Cuba. It finally
merged into a secret band of confederates, extending through
several States, with the destinct and definite purpose of
overthrowing the Federal Government in the slave States,
and establishing a confederacy based upon slavery. The
election of Mr. Lincoln was a triumph, in a direct contest,
between the slave aristocracy and democracy; between the
friends of slavery and those who regarded it as a great moral,

Lincoln's platform. 151
social and political evil, and who meant to exclude it by
prohibition, from all the territories, and to use all legal and
constitutional means to restrain and weaken its power. It
was essentially a contest between democracy and aristocracy ;
between the civilization of free labor and the barbairism of
slavery. In the light of to-day, it is clear that the leaders of
the slave party plunged the country into -vyar, believing they
could, thereby, save the institution from the destruction
threatened by the rapid and irresistible growth of the free
States. Nineteen centuries ago, upon the mountains of Judea,, the
great principle upon which our Republic was formed, the
common Father and the universal brotherhood of man, was
taught by the Son of God. This great, christian principle',
the germ of liberty regulated by law, after contending
against all forms of civil and religious despotism through so
many centuries, was distinctly and authoritatively announced
by the Fathers of the Republic, on the 4th of July, 1776,
when they proclaimed, in the Declaration of Independence,
" that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed
by their Creator with certain inalienable rights," and that
"among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Thomas Jefferson, the Virginia democrat, in the conception
of that instrument, struck the key-note of christian liberty.
He announced a principle antagonistic to human slavery;
and in making it the basis, the corner-stone of our politi
cal structure, hastened the "irrepressible conflict," which
triumphed at the ballot-box in 1860.
Mr. Lincoln had ever, in all his public addresses, in his
debates with Douglas, made that declaration his platform;
and he, in his personal and political character, illustrated its
grand ideas. He honestly and heartily believed in it. The
slave power instinctively felt that the end of slavery was a
mere question of time Rather than yield, the slave aristoc
racy determined to "take up" the sword, and hence the ter
rible civil war. Slavery was the rebel, and the government,
in the end, could do no less than make it an outlaw.
It was apparent that there was a party in nearly all the
slave-holding States who hated the Union, and sighed for a

162 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
purely slave-holding confederacy. These men had for years
denounced the Declaration of Independence. They were
proud and aristocratic, accustomed to rule negroes at home,
and to govern Congress. Jefferson Davis declared, in 1858,
that in the event of the election of an abolition president,
Mississippi must seek her safety outside of the Union.
The proud, overbearing aristocracy of the slave States,
grown wealthy by the labor of slaves, accustomed to power,
ridiculed labor, and affected great contempt for Lincoln as a
laborer. They were the men who regarded the free, moral,
intelligent laborers of the free States as the "mudsills" of
society. They affected to believe the condition of four mill
ions of slaves, without education, without marriage, without
family, without a home, and holding chastity, life, children,
everything,at the will of a licentious overseer and master, was
a better system than the educated, happy, moral, free-labor
democracies of the North, with their free schools, and
churches, and families of industry, thrift, intelligence and
domestic virtue. Such men scorned the idea of submitting
tobe governed by this "mudsill," this "plebian," as they
called Abraham Lincoln. They rejoiced in his election, as
furnishing an opportunity for disunion, aud as a means of
creating a public sentiment which would enable them to pre
cipitate secession. Hence his election was hailed in many
slaves States with acclamations. Immediately, when the re
sult was known, the leading: traitors sent dispatches from
one slave State to another, encouraging and threatening re
bellion. The Charleston Mercury said the news of Mr. Lin
coln's election was hailed with long continued cheers for
the Southern Confederacy. Military organizations were
rapidly formed in nearly all the slave States. There was
scarcely a hamlet in the cotton States that had not its squad
of mounted men or infantry. In cities, towns and villages,
they were drilling every night, and preparing for war. De
spatches were sent from Virginia and other States to South
Carolina, tendering volunteer soldiers and arms. It was
exjected that South Carolina would take the lead, and many
towns and cities sent messages, breathing the same spirit as

PLANS OF THE OONSPIRATOrS. 153
that of Governor Perry, of Florida, to Governor Gist, of
South Carolina: "Florida is with the gallant Palmetto
Flag." On the 25th of October, a meeting had been held at the
house of Senator Hammond, of South Carolina, at which the
Congressional delegation of that State, Governor Gist and
ex-Speaker Orr were present: it was resolved that South
Carolina should secede, in the event of Mr. Lincoln's elec
tion. Meetings, in furtherance of the object, were held in
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and other slave States. In
November, South Carolina authorized the immediate enroll
ment of 10,000 volunteers. In the same month Georgia
appropriated one million of dollars to arm and equip that
State. Conventions, preparatory to the adoption of ordi
nances of secession, were called in South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi and Virginia.
For years the fatal heresy had been taught by southern
men, that the citizen owed his primary allegiance to his
State, and not to the nation ; disregarding that clause in the
Constitution of the United States which declares that the
Constitution and laws, made in pursuance thereof, are the
supreme law of the land, anything in tte laws and constitu-
-tion of any State to the contrary notwithstanding.* John C.
Calhoun had prostituted his great talents to the inculcation
of this heresy. Hence, many honest people were deceived,
and, forgetting they were citizens of the Republic, only re
membered they were South Carolinians and Virginians.
This carried into the rebellion many honest and well-meaning
persons. Calhoun, who had so industriously sown the seed and nur
tured the plant of secession, said, in 1812, to Commodore
Charles Stewart :
It is through our aflSUation -with this (the Democratic) party in the middle and
and westem States, that we hold power. But when we cease thus to control the
« In 1865, a prominent citizen of South Carolina, coming to Washington to beg
pardon for his treason, said to a meraber of the Cabinet:
"We went to war for two objects: First, To establish ttie perpetuity of Slavery;
Second, To establish the position that a State is superior to the United States.' '
In other words, the slave-holders went to war to perpetuate a great wrong, and
to establish that apart is greater than the whole.

154 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
nation, through a disjointed Democracy, or any material obstacle in that party,
which shall tend to throw us out of the rule and control, we shaU then resort to a
dissolution of the Union.
On the 7th of November, 1860, it was known throughout
the Republic that Lincoln was elected. He could not be
inaugurated until the 4th of March following. Por these
four eventful months the conspirators had control of the
Federal government. Buchanan, a weak, imbecile, if not a
treacherous, old man, was President, and he was completely
controlled by the traitors in his Cabinet and the conspirators
in the Senate. Mr. Memminger, of South Carolina, afterwards
the rebel Secretary of the Treasury, stated that "Buchanan
being President, the Federal government would be taken at
great disadvantage, and that they had prepared things so
that Lincoln would, for a while, be powerless." Buchanan's
cabinet was (a majority of them) a cabinet of conspirators,
industriously laboring to disarm and dismantle the ship of
state, that they might surrender it an easy conquest to the
traitors preparing to seize it. Howell Cobb, of Georgia,
afterwards a rebel general, was Secretary of the Treasury,
and managed to shake the credit of the nation, and leave
the treasury empty.
Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, afterwards a rebel, was
Secretary of the Interior; as a member of Buchanan's cab
inet, hearing that the Union garrison, starving at Fort Sump
ter was to be supplied with provisions, he traitorously sent a
dispatch to Charleston, advising his co-conspirators ofthe fact,
so that the flag of his country might be fired upon, and the
garrison of the government of which he was a cabinet
officer, might be starved into surrender. This chivalric son
of the South says :
I sent a despatch to Judge Longstreet, that the Star of the West was coming with
re-enforcements. The State troops were then put on their guard, and when the
Star of the West arrived, she received a warm reception from booming cannon, and
soon beat a retreat.
John B. Floyd (the same who, at Fort Donelson, >vas so
conscious of his guilt, that he dared not, as a rebel general,
surrender to General Grant), was Secretary of War. It was
important to the Confederates that the slave States should be

THE NORTH DISARMED. 155
armed, and the free States disarmed; and that the little reg
ular army of the United States should be sent so far away as
not to be in reach of the government until the conspiracy
had accomplished the revolution they had designed. Hence,
Floyd, as Secretary of War, ordered 115,000 muskets, from
the Springfield and Watervliet manufactories and arsenals,
to be sent to the arsenals in the slave States. He also sent a
vast number of cannon, mortars, ammunition and munitions
of war tc the South. He took care, not only that Southern
arsenals should be stocked with vast supplies of arms and
other munitions of war, but that the garrisons of Southern
forts and arsenals should be so weakened that no effectual
resistance could be made to the local militia's seizing them.
The valuable Arsenal of Fayetteville, North Carolina, was
garrisoned by one company of troops; Fort Moultrie, in
Charleston harbor, by eighty men; Key-West, the key to
the Gulf of Mexico, by one company; while the United
States Mint at New Orleans, the Custom Houses at New Or
leans, Charleston, Mobile, and Savannah, were entirely
unguarded. Such were the bold and unscrupulous acts of the conspira
tors. It was the intention of some of them to prevent the
inauguration of Lincoln ; to prepare the way to surrender
'the capitol and archives to the rebels; and this purpose would
have been accomplished, but for the vigilant eye of the
venerable hero, General Scott.

CHAPTEE YII.

PROGRESS OF THE CONSPIRACY— FROM THE ELECTION OF LINCOLN
TO HIS ARRIVAL AT WASHINGTON, FEBRUARY 1861.
The Conspiracy Extending — Administration of Buchanan —
General Scott — G-eneral Cass — Action op Congress in
Winter op 1860-61 — Committee op Thirty-Three — Peace
Convention — Eeport op Adams — Secret Meetings op Con
spirators AT THE Capitol — Seven States Secede, and Or
ganize A Provisional Government — Jefferson Davis — Re
bellion Without Excuse — Slavery, the Corner-Stone op the
Confederacy — Counting Electoral Votes by Congress —
Lincoln Leaves Springpield por Washington — His Journey
— Assassination Plot — His Arrival.
WHILE the organization and proportions of this widely
extended conspiracy were boldly and defiantly exhib
ited, and daily becoming more and more formidable, the at
tention of the whole country was fixed upon President
Buchanan. Would he, like Jackson in 1832, declare " by
the Eternal, the Union shall be preserved ! " Would he pre
pare to meet force by force ? Would he send the veteran
Scott to South Carolina, and elsewhere, to protect National
property, execute the laws, and maintain national suprema
cy? Scott had pointed out the danger, and urged and im
plored that vigorous means might be taken to maintain the
national authority.
Buchanan, either traitorously, or through weakness, which,
in its results, was equivalent to treason, took no steps to main
tain the Union, but was wax, or clay, in the hands of Messrs.
Davis, Howell Cobb, Thompson, Floyd, and their associates.
He even went so far as to promise the Confederates that no
reenforcements should be sent to the garrisons in Southern
156

TREASON IN THE CABINET OF BUCHANAN. 157
forts. .With this assurance, the leaders of the conspiracy
went forward in their guilty preparations with impunity. It
is probable that, with a loyal, energetic President like Jack
son, -with the aid of -Scott, the conspiracy might have been
crushed in its inception.
There was, in the border States, a clear majority for the
Union, and, in the gulf States, a considerable portion of the
people were opposed to secession ; but, receiving no aid, no
encouragement, and no protection from the executive or his
subordinates; seeing the cabinet, and nearly all Federal
office-holders in the slave States actively promoting disunion,
unchecked and unrebuked, and the secessionists everywhere
open, bold and defiant, the Union men yielded to the threats
and terror of the active, energetic, unscrupulous conspirators,
and made little resistance to the current of popular excitement
which was sweeping on towards civil war.
The candid world will ever hold the administration of
Buchanan responsible for this neglect to crush the rebellion
in its beginning.
Floyd, having finished the work of treason as Secretary of
War, fled South, to meet the applause of the conspirators for
his perfidy, and to exchange the portfolio of War Secretary
of the Republic, for a commission in the rebel army.
Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, more infamous, if possible,
than even Floyd, did the same for the navy that Floyd did
for the army. He scattered the vessels of war beyond seas,
and placed the naval force out of the reach of the government.
It appears, from an official report made to Congress, that
it was in the power of the Secretary of the Navy to have
stationed a naval force, adequate to the protection of all the
rights and property of the government, at exposed points;
but instead of doing so, the Secretary sent the vessels of war
abroad, without justification or excuse. A committee of
Congress also found him guilty of accepting resignations of
officers of the navy who were in arms against their flag,
and of others who sought thus to dispose of their com
missions under the United States, to accept service from its
enemy.*
~*See report of Secretary of Navy, July, 1861 and report of Naval Committee.

158 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Thus the right arm of the government was despoiled of
its weapons — the army and navy. The treasury was plun
dered, and the national credit shaken, for the benefit, and in
aid of the purposes of treason. But for the resolute energy
of General Scott, the purpose of the conspirators' to prevent
the inauguration of Lincoln, and to obtain possession of the
capitol and its archives, would have succeeded.
As early as October, 1860, General Scott warned President
Buchanan of the danger that the conspirators would seize
Forts Jackson and St. Phillip, guarding the entrance to the
Mississippi,' (which Admiral Farragut, subsequently, sd gal
lantly retook), and which were then without garrison ; Forts
McRea and Pickens, in Pensacola Harbor, with an inefficient
garrison ; Fort Pulaski, Georgia, without a garrison ; Forts
Moultrie and Sumpter, Charleston, the latter without a garri
son, and the former with only eighty men ; Fortress Monroe
without a sufficient garrison. He also recommended that all
should be so garrisoned, as to render an attempt to take
them by surprise, hopeless. He closed his timely and patri
otic letter with the declaration that, " with the army faith
ful to its allegiance, and the navy probably equally so ; and
with a Federal Executive, for the next twelve months, of firm
ness and moderation, there is good reason to hope that the
danger from secession may be made to pass away, without
one conflict of arms, one execution, or one arrest for treason."
The honest old hero could not conceive that treason had en
tered the very highest departments of government, and that
the heads of the army and navy were, at that moment, from
their oflicial desks, conspiring for the overthrow of the gov
ernment. The officers of the army and navy had been, many
of them, seduced from their allegiance, and were ready to
desert their flag.
On the 14th of December, General Cass, a patriot, resigned
the office of Secretary of State, because the President refused
to reeuforce the forts in the harbor of Charleston. Scott
urged the Secretary of War to warn the garrisons against
surprise. His warnings and importunities to garrison the
forts were again repeated; but traitors in the Cabinet and
dotage and weakness, approaching imbecility, or treason, in

THE REBELLION DELIBERATELY PLANNED. 159
the Executive, prevented any attention being paid to his
earnest and repeated applications. Time verified, and more
than realized, his predictions. That which he so confidently
exi.-^cted to find, and the absence of which he could scarcely
conceive, fldelity io the flag in the army and navy, was, to a
lamentable extent, wanting. The treachery in the Cabinet
extended largely among officers born at the South, both in
the army and na-vy. All the fortresses and forts named,
were seized by the rebels, except Fortress Monroe.
The rebellion was not the result of impulse, but, as has
been previously stated, a deliberately planned movement. In
October, 1856, a meeting of the governors of slave States
was held at Raleigh, North Carolina, convened at the instance
of Governor Wise, who afterwards proclaimed, that if
Fremont had been elected, he would have marched to
Washington, at the head of 20,000 men, and prevented his
inauguration. Mr. Keitt, 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 years."
The Provisional Governor of South Carolina, Mr. Perry,
appointed by President Johnson, said, in a pubhc speech, in
July, 1865 :
We were, at the tune of secession, the most prosperous, free and happy people on
the ace of the earth. The sun had never shone on a nation or empire whose fu
ture was raore bright and glorious. But the public raind had, unfortunately, been
prepared, in the southern States for thirty years past for an effort at disunion.
The people had been induced to believe that disunion would be a great blessing,
and that it m ight come without war and bloodshed ! The leading politicians, a t the
South were anxiously waiting for some plausible pretext for seceding from the
Union. ****************
The so-called "righis of the South" were In no possible danger from Mr. Lincoln,
even had he been disposed to interfere with them. There was, at that lime, a ma
jority of twenty-seven in the House of Representatives, politically opposed tohim.
There was a majority, in the Senate, of six against him. A majority of the Su
preme Court were opposed to the principles of the Republican party. Lincoln was.
therefore, in a minority in both houses of Congress, and on the bench of the Su
preme Court; and a large majority of the people had supported others for the
presidency. He was powerless to injure the slave Stutts.

160 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence of the exist
ence of a wide-spread, long planned conspiracy tp dissolve
the Union, evidence which could be accumulated to almost
any extent, the people of the North were slow to believe that
those who threatened, were really in earnest; equally slow to
believe the leaders were unappeasable, and, being them
selves unwilling to resort to force, they were ready to yield
almost everything to secure harmony. The conspirators, and
those who were made to sympathize with alleged Southern
wrongs, were misled and encouraged by the idea, too gen
erally expressed by Northern democratic politicians, and the
democratic press, that the South was right, and really suf
fered real wrongs; and that the South had a right to se
cede, and should be met by conciliation, concession and
compromise. Mr. Johnson, a prominent politician of central New Tork,
said, at a State convention held at Albany, on the 31st of
January, 1861 : " The will of a large portion of the citizens
of this State is against any armed coercion to restore the
Union by ci-vil war. If Congress and our States cannot win
back our southern brethren, let us, at least, part as friends."
Leading democrats proclaimed : Union by compromise,
or peaceable separation.
Some of the conspirators were led to believe, from the ex
pressions of the press and politicians, that either there would
be no attempt at coercion, or, if there should be, the
Democrats would be found on the side ofthe seceding States.
At the opening of the second session of the Thirty-sixth
Congress, President Buchanan said, in substance, that while
no State had a right to secede, the Federal Government could
not coerce a sovereign State. He told the conspirators they
had no right to secede, but if they did, he could not prevent
it. This was all they wanted. They were bold, unscrupu
lous, determined men, with well defined purposes. Bucha
nan urged that the Union was not to be preserved by force,
but by compromise. In other words we had no government.
The Union was an association, to exist as long as the States
found it agreeable. The Government, according to Bucha
nan, was mere moral suasion — without authority. Had he

THE COMMITTEE OF THIRTY-THREE. 161
announced with dignity, decision, and power, that the Gov
ernment was the majesty of authority, armed with power,
and in its right hand the sword to compel obedience, he could
have enforced submission, and maintained National author
ity. His message greatly encouraged and emboldened the
conspirators. It was referred by the House, to' a Select
Committee of one from each State, of which Mr. Corwifi, of
Ohio, was Chairman, to report measures of pacification. But
Mr. Iverson, Senator from Georgia, expressed the animus of
the conspirators, when he exclaimed : " Gentlemen talk of
concession, the repeal of personal liberty bills ! Repeal them
all to-morrow, and you cannot stop the revolution. There
will be no war!" said he.
Ben. Wade, Senator from Ohio, staunch, fearless, blunt,
and honest, in the face of the conspirators aud compromisers,
said : " We will prohibit slavery from invading another inch
of the free soil of the United States. I will stand by this
principle. We pretend to no right to interfere with your
' institution ' in your States, but we beat you on the plainest
and most palpable principle ever presented to the American
people, and now we tell you plainly, our candidate shall be
inaugurated, and shall administer the Government."
A committee of thirteen in the Senate had been raised to
report measures of pacification. This committee, and Mr.
Corwin's committee of thirty-three in the House, reported
and discussed various propositions of compromise. Many of
these propositions offered by way of concession by Northern
members, were voted down by the conspirators. It was clear
they did not wish compromise measures to succeed. They
so conducted matters as to throw odium on the North, and
consolidate and unite public sentiment at the South in favor
of secession.
To avert the threatening dangers, the " Peace Convention,"
was called at Washington. This was a convention of dele
gates from neariy all the free States, and several of the slave
States, to consult and see on what terms the disaffected, and
traitorous, could be induced to abandon their purposes.
There were, as we have seen, many at the North who believed
the secession movement was only a " strike " for additional
11

162- LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
guarantees for slavery. It had become a settled custom of
the slaveholders, whenever they wished to carry a point, to
.threaten to dissolve the Union. They had demanded Loui
siana, and it had been purchased for them; Florida, and it
was obtained ; Texas, and it was annexed ; a more stringent
and humiliating fugitive slave law, and it was passed; the
repeal of the Missouri Compromise, and it was repealed;
the Dred Scott decision, and it was decided that a negro had
" no rights." Thus, they had become arrogant, because their
demands, backed by threats, had been so long yielded to.
Many believed that by adding new concessions, the slave
power might be pacified. But, when liberal concessions were
voted down by the conspirators themselves, it became evident
that they had deliberately 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 adjust
ment will be satisfactory to the recusant States, which does
not incorporate into the Constitution of the United States,
an obligation to protect and extend slavery. On this condi
tion, 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 unadvisable to attempt to proceed a step further in
the way of offering unacceptable propositions." It was clear
the conspirators had resolved on revolution.
While these movements of the traitors were going on in
the cotton States, and State after State was passing ordin
ances of secession, the conspirations at Washington, held
their secret meetings, and leading Senators and members,
acting in concert with traitors in the Cabinet, so managed as
to thwart all the movements of General Scott, and to paralize
the action of such few faithful officers as sought to preserve
the Union.
• There was a meeting held at the Capital on the night of
January 5th, at which Jefterson 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, that Senators and merabers of the House

HAMILTON OP TEXAS. 163
should remain in their seats at the Capitol, as long as possi
ble, to watch and control the action of the Executive, and
thwart, and defeat any hostile Ineasure proposed.
In accordance with concerted plans, some of the Senators
and members, as the States they represented passed ordin
ances of secession, retired from the Senate and House of
Representatives. Some went forth breathing war and ven
geance, 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,
they went home avowedly to overthrow.
There were two honorable exceptions among the represen
tatives 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 about to expire, Hamilton, when bidding
farewell to his associates said, " 1 am going home io Texas, and
I shall stand by the old flag, as long as there is a shred ofit left as
big as my hand."
Nobly, bravely, has he redeemed that pledge. He stood
by the flag through all the perils of the war, and as Provincial
Governor of Texas, he has aided in the restoration of that
Union to which he was ever steadfast and true.
The absence of declaratory laws by Congress, had been
much relied upon by Mr. Buchanan's Attorney General, Mr.
Black, in his labored argument to show that the Executive
had no power to coerce States.
In accordance with the programme of the conspirators,
South Carolina, had adopted the ordinance of secession, on
the 17t.h of November, 1860; Mississippi, January 9th, 1861;
Georgia, January 19th; Florida, January 10th; Alabama,
January llth; Louisiana, January 25th, and Texas,
February 1st.*
These seven seceding States, appointed delegates to meet
in convention, at Montgomery, Alabama. They met on the
4th of February, and organized a Provisional Government,
?Mcpherson's History, p. 2 and 3.

164 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
similar in many respects, to the Constitution of the United
States; under which Jefferson Davis was made President,
and Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President.
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 Govern
ment he sought to overthrow, he entered public life as the
follower of Calhoun. He was of an imperious temper, and
of a most intense personal ambition. He favored the repu
diation 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 Secretary 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 separation, and
for war, if necessary, 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
Sumpter. The character of the man may be inferred from
the language he used in a speech on his way from Mississippi
to Montgomery, to assume the Presidency. " We will carry
the war," said he, " where it is easy to advance, where food
for the sword and torch await our armies in the densely
populated cities." Such was. the war this man inaugurated
and carried on until his ignominious capture. How different
this from the forbearing, dignified, christian spirit of magna
nimity which ever characterized the language of the Cliief
Magistrate of the Union during the war.
Davis used the language of the iucendiary and conspirator,
while Lincoln was ever the dignified and scrupulous Chief
Magistrate. With him, it was always, " with malice towards
none, with charity for all, -with firmness in the right as God
gives us to see the right," that he discharged his duty.
The atrocities of the war, the treatment of prisoners, the
the massacre of Negro soldiers, and the catalogue of barbari-
1ies down to the fiend-like assassination of Lincoln, were but
¦ the exhibition of the same spirit, which, on the very thresh-
hold indicated the torch, and the densely populated Northern
ci^es as its food.

BUCHANAN'S CABINET. 165
The spirit of Davis thus announced, in the beginning of
the war, was the spirit of the slaveholder, and characterized
the leaders of the slaveholders rebellion.
The well-meaning and ignorant masses of the people in
the seceding States, were deceived. Upon the heads of their
leaders and teachers is the guilt, and upon the institution
which produced such men, be the infamy.
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 it.
Meanwhile, the conspirators having tied up the hands of
the Executive by obtaining a promise from him not to rein
force the feeble garrisons in the Southern forts, and having
adroitly secured the written opinion of his Attorney General
endorsed by the official declaration ofthe President, that he had
no power to coerce a State, adopted the most efficient means
to carry out their purposes. The President was constantly
watched by the conspirators and their agents, that he might
not be induced to change his mind. A portion of his cabinet
and some of his political friends chafed under the course he
had adopted. General Cass, as has been stated, resigned the
position of Secretary of State, because he refused to reinforce
Fort Moultrie, held by the gallant and faithful Major Ander
son, \^ho had been assigned by Scott, to command that
important position.
On the 10th of December, Howell Cobb resigned his posi-
sition of Secretary of the Treasury, because, as he alleged,
" his duty to Georgia required it." He was succeeded first
by Philip F. Thomas, a devoted Unionist, from Maryland,
and afterwards by General Dix:, of New York.
On the 26th of January, John B. Floyd resigned the posi
tion of Secretary of War, because Buchanan would not
withdraw the few troops, there were left in the National forts
of South Carolina. He was succeeded by the true and loyal
Joseph Holt, of Kentucky.
On the 17th of December, Attorney General Black resigned
the position of Attorney General, and was succeeded by Edwin
M. Stanton. Stanton, Dix, and Holt, were unflinching Union

166 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
men, and did what they could to prevent the surrender ofthe
Government to the conspirators. They most efficiently aided
General Scott in securing the peaceful inauguration of
President Lincoln.
The strange spectacle was presented, that while the conspi
rators were boldly, and with little disguise, hatching their
schemes of breaking up the Government, in the Senate and
in the House, at the War and Navy Departments, and in the
very •cabinet of the Executive, no attempt was made to inter
fere with, much less arrest the known, open and avowed
traitors. All that the feeble man in the Executive Chair did,
was to appoint a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer; and
declare, that though secession was wrong, he had no power
to prevent it. The conspirators labored industriously to
make the revolution an accomplished fact before the inaugu
ration of Mr. Lincoln. They were active in plundering the
Government, securing the forts, ordinance, arms and all ma
terial of war, and arming themselves, so that if Lincoln
should be inaugurated, he would have no immediate means
of coercion.
The absence of any grievance or excuse for the rebellion,
will be apparent from two or three facts.
The slaveholders and their friends, had at that time, a
working majority in both Houses of Congress; and they had
controlled both Congress and the Executive, and dictated the
policy of the Government for more than forty years. This
truth is very strikingly presented by Alexander H. Stephens,
the ablest among the conspirators, in a speech made on the
14th of November, 1860, when opposing secession before the
Legislature of Georgia. 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
powerless. There will be a majority of foul against hira. * * *
" Many of us,' ' said he, " have sworn to support the Constitution. Can we, for the
mere election of a man to the Presidency, and that too, in accordance with the
forras of the Constitution, make a point of resistance without becoming the
breakers of that same instrument ?''
The same mau afterwards, frankly and distinctly announced
that slavery, the security of slavery, was the object of the
revolution, and that that institution should be the " corner
stone " of the Confederate Governraent.

THE GLOOMY WINTER OF 1861. 167
While these various movements were going on, Lincoln
remained at his home in Springfield, Illinois, a deeply anx
ious, yet hopeful spectator. The greatest solicitude was man
ifested North and South, to learn his views, and ascertain hia
policy. In November, he visited Chicago, and expressed to
his friends, the deepest concern in regard to the movements
of South Carolina, and other States, threatening revolution.
The impression he made upon all who approached him was,
that he was direct, truthful, and sincere, with a heart full of
good nature and kindness, yielding to his friends in all mat
ters, except those which involved principle, but upon such
questions, inflexibly firm. He expressed strong hopes, that
notwithstanding the intense excitement, he might be able to
quiet the storm, and restore tranquility without war. To an
inquiry made to one of his intimate friends, as to what kind
of a man is Lincoln ? the reply was, " He has the firmness,
without the temper of Jackson."
No one will ever forget the dark and threatening aspect
of affairs which lowered upon the country during the winter
of 1860-61. What a horrid nightmare were the long days of
that winter, in which patriots could see conspirators plotting,
traitors plundering the treasury, dispersing the soldiers of the
Republic, and sending its armed ships abroad, and already
stripping the arsenals ; the dark and awful tornado coming,
and the rebels preparing to scuttle the ship of State, after hav
ing plundered her of money and arms, and these very conspira
tors her chief officers, and the people passengers, with no
power to interfere ! How anxiously the people watched and
waited, how earnestly they prayed for the 4th of March, none
will ever forget. All eyes were turned to Lincoln as to the
only man who could save his country from the clutches of the
conspirators. That was a strange spectacle — an hour of awful suspense,
the 15th of February, 1861, when the electoral votes were
counted in joint session of both houses of Congress. Breck
inridge, the Vice President, presided. Fears were enter
tained that by some fraud or violence, the ceremony would
be interrupted or not performed. But the schemes of the
conspirators were not yet ripe for violence. In pursuance of

168 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the Constitution and the forms of established law, both houses
of Congress met at 12 M., in the gorgeous hall ofthe House
of Representatives. In such joint session, the Vice President
and Speaker, sit side by side, the Vice President presiding.
The Chaplain of the House, as well as the crowds of people
who had thronged to the Capitol, seemed impressed with the
peculiarly solemn character of the proceedings. He invoked
God's blessing and protection upon the President elect,
prayed for his safe arrival at the Capital, and that he might
be peaceably inaugurated ; (thus exhibiting the anxiety of the
public mind upon the subject.)
The two most conspicuous personages present, were the
Vice President, Breckinridge, and 'Douglas; both unsuccess
ful candidates for the Presidency. Breckinridge received
seventy-two electoral votes, and Douglas only twelve, although
he was second to Lincoln only, in the popular vote.
On the llth of February, Mr. Lincoln left his home at
Springfield for Washington.
His journey to the Capital was all the way through crowds
of anxious, religious, and patriotic men, everywhere in
voking upon him, the blessing, the guidance, and protection
of Almighty God.
How deeply he himself felt, and how oppressively he real
ized the weighty responsibilities resting upon him, appears
from the beautiful and touching speech he made to his im
mediate friends and neighbors from the platform of the rail-
car, when about to start, and bidding good-by to that home
to which he was destined never again to return alive. There
is not a more touching and sublime speech in our language
than this. Said he :

My Fribnus : 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 quar
ter of a century. Here my children were born, aud here one of them lies buried.
I know not how soon- 1 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 woulii 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 ou the same Almighty Being I place my reli
ance for support. And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that
Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is
certain. Again, I bid you all an affectionate farewell.

LINCOLN ON HIS WAY TO WASHINGTON. 16,9
The deep, religious feeling which pervades this speech,
marked him to the close of his life. All through his troubles
he earnestly solicited the prayers of the people, and they
were his. From the time of his departure from Springfield,
until he was borne back from the Capital which he had saved,
— hallowed forever in the hearts of a people who6i he had
delivered, and Deified by a race which he had emancipated, —
he was the object of earnest prayer at the family altar, and
in the house of public worship, from Maine and Minnesota
to the Ohio and the mountains of Tennessee; from the great
lakes to the ocean bounds of the Republic, Every loyal
heart asked God's blessing upon "Honest Old Abe."
As he went forth upon his mission to fill his grand destiny,
and to his final martyrdom, every where the hearts of the
people went out to meet him. Their feelings found expres
sion in the mottoes inscribed upon the banners under \^ich
he was to pass : " We will pray for you." " God bless you !"
"God aid you!" "God help you to save the Republic."
On one of the draped banners, which followed him to
his grave in Springfield, was a motto which truthfully
expressed the sentiment of the whole American People :
He left us, borne up by our prayers ;
He returns, embalmed In our tears.
He passed through the great States of Indiana, Ohio,
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, on his way to
the Capital.
From the date of the election, to the time when Mr. Lin
coln left Springfield for Washington, there had appeared,
through the press, and by other channels, vulgar threats and
menaces that he should never reach the Capital alive. Little
attention was paid to them ; yet some of Mr. Lincoln's per
sonal friends in Illinois, without his knowledge, employed a
detective, and sent him to Washington and Baltimore to
investigate. This detective ascertained the existence of a
plot to assassinate the President elect, as he passed through
Baltimore. The first intelligence Mr. Lincoln had of this was
at Philadelphia. After the ceremonies of the day, he was
called to the room of Mr. Judd, a devoted friend, who had

170 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
accompanied him from Illinois, aud the facts laid before bim.
He was urged to start at once for Washington, taking the
train that night, by which he would reach the Capital early
the following morning; and thus he would pass through
Baltimore in the night, and two days earlier than the con
spirators anticipated, and so avoid the danger. He had ap
pointments to meet the citizens of Philadelphia at Inde
pendence Hall, and the Legislature of Pennsylvania at Har
risburg. He therefore declined starting for Washington that
night, but was finally persuaded to allow his friends to ar
range for him to return to Philadelphia, and go to Washing
ton the evening after the ceremonies at Harrisburg. On the
next day, the 22d of February, Mr. Lincoln visited the old
Independence Hall, where the Congress of the Revolution
adopted, amidst the most solemn deliberation and grave de
bate, the Declaration of Independence. This had ever been
the Bible of Mr. Lincoln's political faith. However others
might differ, he believed, with his whole heart, in the Decla
ration of Independence. It was to him no tissue of " glitter
ing generalities," but he gave to it an honest, hearty homage
and reverence. He made the following speech on the
occasion. He said:

AU the political sentiments I entertain have been drawn, so far as I have been
able to draw them, from the sentiments which originated iu, and were given to the
world from this hall. I never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring frora the
sentiraents embodied lu the Declaration of Independence.
It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the mother
land, but that .lentiment 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 Inde
pendence. Now, my friends, can this couutry 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 tlie spot, than surrender it." *****
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 there was serious danger, yet he had
just been assured positively, by a detective, whose veracity

PLOT TO ASSASSINATE LINCOLN AT BALTIMORE. 171
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 roora. Meanwhile, Gen
eral Scott and Mr. Seward had learned, through other sources,
the existence of the plot to assassinate him, and had de
spatched Mr. F. W. Seward, a son of Senator Seward, to
apprise him of the danger.
Information coming to him from both these sources, each
independent of the other, induced him to yield to the wishes
of his friends, and anticipate his journey to Washington.
Besides, from Baltimore there had reached him no commit
tee, 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 city through which he
had passed. He was persuaded to permit the detective to
arrange for his going to Washington that night. The tele
graph wires to Baltimore were cut; and, with one friend,
wearing, not a Scotch cap, (as alleged by the daily press), but
a felt hat, which some friend had presented to him, he ar
rived at Philadelphia, drove to the Baltimore depot, and the
next morning the Capital was startled by the announcement
of his arrival.
Mr. Lincoln, long 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 no risk, where no risk was necessary."*
Those who review the facts, in regard to the conspiracy, in
the light of his subsequent assassination, can entertain no
doubt, either of the existence of the plot, the fiendish de
termination of the conspirators, nor that many prominent
rebels were knowing and consenting to it. A letter is in ex
istence, from the Governor of a border slave State, written
before that date, and in reply to an application for arms, ask
ing whether they would be used " to kill Lincoln and his
men?"t * stated to the author by Mr. Lincoln, from whom the foregoing facts, lu regard
to the assassination plot, were obtained.
t It is due to this Governor, to say, that he was subsequently a devoted Unionist,
and explained this letter, by stating it to have been a, joke.

172 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
General Scott, Joseph Holt, Secretary of War, Edwin M
Stanton Attorney General, and others, had made such ar
rangements as secured his immediate safety. General Sum
ner, then colonel; General Hunter, then major in the regular
army, and other devoted and watchful friends, were around
him. So many of his supporters, from the free States, followed him,
that a large body of citizens could have been immediately
organized as soldiers, if necessary.

OHAPTEE YIII.

LINCOLN IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

Lincoln's Inauguration and Inaugural — Douglas and his
Prophecy — Lincoln's Cabinet — Condition op Affairs on
THE 4th op March, 1861 — Benjamin F. Butler's Position —
The " Prodigal Son."
MR. Lincoln availed himself of the earliest opportunity,
after his arrival at the Capital, 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 of Washington, 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 consti
tutional right. He assured the people that they should have
all their rights under the Constitution. " Not grudgingly,
but fully and fairly."
On the 4th of March, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugu
rated President of the United States. An inauguration, so
impressive and solemn as this, had not occurred since that of
Washington. The ceremonies took place, as usual, at and 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 Wash
ington, only a very few of them conscious of the volcano of
treason and murder, thinly concealed, around them. The
public offices and the departments were full of plotting trai
tors. Many of the rebel generals, including Lee, the John
stons, Ewell, Hill, Stewart, Magruder, Pemberton, and others,
173

' 174 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
held commissions under the government they were about to
abandon and betray. 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. Oh the magnificent eastern front of the Cap
itol, surrounded by the Senate and House of Representatives,
the Judges of the Supreme Court, the Diplomatic Corps, the
high officers ofthe Army and the Navy, a vast crowd outside
of the guards ; a crowd of mingled patriots and traitors ; men
looking searchingly into the eyes of every stranger, to dis
cover whether he gazed on a traitor or a friend. Standing
in the most conspicuous position, amidst scowling traitors,
with murder and treason in their hearts, Lincoln was per
fectly cool and determined. Near him was President Bu
chanan, with his white neck-tie, seemingly bowed down with
the consciousness of duties unperformed ; there were Chief
Justice Taney and his associates, who had disgraced Ameri
can jurisprudence by the Dred Scott decision ; there was
Chase with his fine and imposing presence ; and the vener
able Scott, his towering form still unbroken by years ; the
ever hopeful and philosophical statesman Seward; the
scholarly, uncompromising Sumner; blunt Ben. Wade.
There were distinguished governors of states, and throngs of
eminent men from everj' section of the Union. But there
was no man more observed than the great rival of Mr. Lin
coln, — Douglas. 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 cour
tesy to Ms successful competitor.* His bold eye, from which
flashed energy and determination, was eagerly scanning the
crowd, not unconscious it is believed, ofthe personal danger
which encircled the President, and perfectly ready to share
it with him. Lincoln's calmness arose from an entire absence
of self-consciousness ; he was too fully absorbed with the grav-
* The author is here reminded of the following incident: As Mr. Lincoln
removed his hat, before commencing the reading of his "Inaugural" — from the
proximity of the crowd, he saw nowhere to place it; aud Mr. Douglas, by his side,
seeing this, instantly extended his hand and held the President's hat while he was
occupied in reading the address.

Lincoln's inaugural 175
ity of the occasion, and the importance of the events around
and before him, to think of himself
With a voice so clear and distinct that he could be heard
by thrice ten thousand men, he read his inaugural address.
This address is so important, and shows so clearly the
causelessness of the rebellion, that no apology is offered for
the following quotations from it :
" Fellow Citizens op 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
the Constitution 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 no-w addresses you. I do but quote from one of
those speeches when I declare that "I have no purpose, directly or in
directly, to interfere 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 declara
tions, and have never recanted them. *****
" I now reiterate those sentiments, and, in doing so, 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
tion, theUnion ofthe 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 I shall take
care, as the Constitution itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the latns
of Ahe Union he 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 from men, who hear boldly expressed a clear duty — but

I'llS LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
one involving grave and perhaps perilous consequences were
given. He went on :
" 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 ob
jects, there will be no invasion, no using of force against or among the
people anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in any inte
rior locality shall be so great and universal as to prevent competent
resident citizens from holding the Federal offices, there will be no at
tempt to force obnoxious strangers among the people for that object.
While the strict legal right may exist in the government, to enforce
the exercise of these offices, the attempt to do so would be so irritating,
and so nearly impracticable, withal, I deem it better to forego — for the
time — the use of such offices. ******
" Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We cannot remove our
respective sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall be
tween 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 it, or their revolution
ary 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 not 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 precipe
itate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance
on Him, who has neyer yet forsaken this favored land, are still compe
tent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulties. * * *

LINCOLN'S INAUGURAL. 177
" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow countrymen, and not in mine,
are the momentous issues of civil war. The government will not
assail vou.
" You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors.
You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government,
while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and
defend it.
"I am loth 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 it will be by the better angels of our nature."
In his own peculiarly clear and simple manner, he vindi
cates himself and his party from all cause of apprehension on
the part of the slaveholding States. He assures the people
" that the property, peace, and security of no section, are to
be in anywise endangered by the incoming administration."
In clear, but most moderate and inoffensive language, he
firmly announced his intention to fulfil the sworn duties of
his office, by taking care that the laws of the Union shall be
executed in all the states. There will be no bloodshed or
violence unless it be forced upon the National authority.
His closing appeal against civil war, was most pathetic ;
and, as he uttered the solemn words, for the first time during
the delivery, his voice faltered with emotion. He said :
" 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.
Tou have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy the Government,
while /shall have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend, it.
' I am loth to close,' said he pathetically. We are not enemies, but friends.
'We must not he enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not
break our bonds of affeoti6n.
" The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-fiel^i 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."
12

178-, LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
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
fvrce only, stern, unflinching power and severity, that the
powers and passions of treason alone would yield.
With reverent look and impressive emphasis, he then re
peated the oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu
tion of his country. Douglas, who knew from his personal
familiarity with the conspirators, better than Lincoln, the
dangers that surrounded and were before him, who knew the
conspirators and their plots, with patriotic magnamity, which
in love of country, fo..'got self — then grasped the hand of
the President, gracefully expressed his congratulations, and
the author has reason to believe, expressed the assurance
that in the dark future he would stand by him, and give to
him his utmost aid in upholding the Constitution, and enforc
ing the laws of his country. Nobly did Douglas redeem that
pledge. Here the author pauses a moment, to relate a most singu
lar prophecy, in regard to the war, uttered by Douglas, Jan
uary 1st, 1861. On that day, in reply to a gentleman,* mak
ing a New Year's call, and who inquired, " what will be the
result of the eflbrts of Jefferson Davis, and his associates, to
divide the Union ?" " Rising, and looking," says my inform
ant, "like one inspired, Douglas replied:" "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 succeed, there will be the most terrible
civil war the world has ever seen, lasting for years." Paus
ing a moment, he exclaimed, "Virginia will become a char-
nel house, but the end will be the triumph of the Union
cause. One of their first efforts will be to take possession
of this Capital to give them prestige abroad, but they will
never succeed in taking it — the North will rise en masse
to defend it— but Wasshington will become a city of hospi
tals — the churches will be used for the sick and wounded —
even this house, (Minnesota block, afterwards, and during
the war, the Douglas Hospital^ may be devoted to that
• General Charles Stewart, of New York.

DOUGLAS' PROPHESY. 179
purpose before the end ofthe war." The friend to whom this
was said, inquired, "What justification for all this?" Doug
las replied, " There is no justification, nor any pretense of
any — if they will remain in the Union, I will go as far as
the Constitution will permit, to maintain their just rights,
and I do not doubt a majority of Congress would do the
same. But," said he, again rising on his feet, and extending
his arm, " if the Southern States attempt to secede from
this Union, without further cause, I am in favor of their hav
ing just so many slaves, and just so much slave territory, as
they can hold at the point of the bayonet, and no m-ore."
The President, having been inaugurated, announced his
Cabinet as follows : William H. Seward, Secretary of State ;
Simon Cameron, Secretary of War; Salmon P. Chase, Secre
tary of the Treasury; Gideon Welles, Secretary ofthe Navy;
Caleb B. Smith, Secretary of the Interior; Montgomery
Blair, Postmaster General, and Edward Bates, Attorney
General. Four of this Cabinet, viz :, Messrs. Seward, Chase, Came
ron, and Bates, were candidates for the nomination for the
Presidency at the Chicago Convention. Mr. Seward, the
Secretary of State, was Mr. Lincoln's most formidable com
petitor; on the first ballot, receiving the highest number of
votes given to any one. He had been among the most dis
tinguished of the great men of New York. He had been the
recoguized leader of the republican party, and had advocated
with great ability, very radical anti-slavery measures. He
had by his speeches and influence, done as much, perhaps
more than any other man, to create and consolidate the pop
ular judgment and feeling which triumphed in 1860. He was
an accomplished scholar and a polished gentleman, familiar
with the history of his country and its foreign policy, and
admirably adapted to conduct its foreign correspondence.
His mind was philosophic and didactic. He always took a
cheerful and hopeful view of affairs, never anticipated evil —
believed the rebellion would last " sixty days." He was a
shrewd politician, and did not, in the distribution of patron
age, forget the " Seward men." On going into the Cabinet
he became conservative, and his influence since has been
always against extreme -views.

180 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Saimon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury, had been also
a prominent candidate for the Presidency. He was a man of
commanding person, and fine manly presence, dignified, se
date, 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 plat
form. 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 contributed
largely to the formation of the republican party. Up to the
time he became Secretary of the Treasury, he had developed
DO 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 Scutch 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, nor 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. A family of large political influence, and long
connected with National affairs. F. P. Blair, Sen., as the
editor of the Globe, during General Jackson's administration,
was one of the ablest and strongest of the able men who sur
rounded that great man. He had 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 slaveholders,
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 de
cision. F. P. Blair, Jr., and B. Gratz Brown, had led the

Lincoln's cabinet. 181
anti-slavery men of Missouri, and had, stfter 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, dignified,
scholarly, gentlemanly lawyer of the old school.
i- -Gideon Wells had been a leading editor in New England,
and has conducted the affairs ofthe 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, Mr. Lincoln entered
the White House, as the National Executive. He found a
Government in ruins.
The conspiracy which had been preparing for thirty years,
had culminated. Seven States had passed ordinances of seces
sion, and had already organized a rebel Government at Mont
gomery. 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. They ordained
rebellion, and christened treason, secession. South Carolina,
as already stated, having long waited for an occasion, took
the lead, and had eagerly seized the pretext of the election
of Mr. Lincoln, and on the 17th of November, 1860, passed
unanimously, an ordinance of secession.
Georgia, against the remonstrances of Alexander H. Ste
phens, and others of her statesmen, followed, on the 19th of
December, by a vote of 208 against 89. Ordinances of seces
sion had been adopted by Mississippi, Florida, Alabama,
Louisiana, and Texas.
North Carolina still hesitated. The people of that staunch
old Union State, first voted down a call for a convention, by
a vote of 46,671 for, to 47,333, against, but a subsequent con
vention, on the 21st of May, passed an ordinance of secession.
Nearly all the Federal forts, arsenals, dock-yards, custom
houses and post offices within the territories 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; Twiggs, the second

182 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
officer in rank, in the army of the United States, and in Janu
ary, 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 18th of Jan
uary, ordered that he should turn over his command to Col
onel Waite; but before this order reached Colonel Waite,
Twiggs had consummated his treason 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.
Strange as it may seem, the resignations of many officers
were received and accepted, and the traitors instead of being
arrested, were suffered to pass over to the insurgents. The civil
officers of the United States were not permitted to exercise
their functions in the seceded States under penalty of imprison
ment and death. All property of the National Government
was seized and appropriated to the rebellion. Debts due to
the Government and to individuals in the loyal States, and
the property of Union men, were confiscated.
There was little or no struggle in the Gulf States, except
ing in Northern Alabama, against the wild tornado of
excitement in favor of rebellion, which carried everything
before it.
In the border States, in Maryland, Virginia, North Caro
lina, 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, Ken
tucky, 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 17th, and
North Carolina, which adopted secession on the 20th of Mav.
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 if there was
war, a large part of them would oppose coercion, and

B. F. butler's POSITION. 183
perhaps 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
idea, and some leading republican papers were at least am
biguous on the subject. There was, however, one prominent
man from Massachusetts, who had united with the rebel
leaders in support of Breckinridge, who sought to dispel this
idea. This was Benjamin F. Butler, who carae to Washington,
to know of his old political associates what it raeant ? " It
means," said his Southern friends, " separation, and a
Southern Confederacy. We will have our independence,
and establish a Southern Government, with no discordant
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 comes, slavery ends." Butler, sagacious and
true, became satisfied that war was inevitable. With the
boldness and directness which has ever marked his charac
ter, he went to Buchanan, and advised the arrest of the com
missioners sent by the seceding states, and their trial for
treason. This advice was as characteristic of Butler to give,
as of Buchanan to disregard.
During the last months ofBuchanan's administration, there
was a struggle between the conspirators in his cabinet, and
the honest men — ^Dix, who had replaced Cobb as Secretary of
*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 fighting will not be along
Mason and Dixon's Hue merely. It will be iviihin our oum 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,
flnd occupation enough at home !" Such a letter is sufficiently signiflcant.

184 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the Treasury; Holt, who had replaced Floyd, as Secretary of
War; and Stanton, who had replaced Black as Attorney Gen
eral ; Black having been called to the department of State,
on the indignant retirement of Gen. Cass from that position,
when Buchanan refused to reinforce Anderson at Moultrie.
When Lincoln entered upon his duties as President, such
had been the misrepresentation of the speakers and press in '
the Southern States, that the people regarded him as a savage
monster, in form and in character. The following incidents
will illustrate this feeling.
A distinguished South Carolina lady, the widow of a
Northern scholar, proud, aristocratic, and conscious of " tlie
blood of all ihe Howards," and to whom Lincoln had been rep
resented as a demon, half ape and half tiger, the very devil
himself — called upon him at Willard's Hotel, just before his
inauguration. The President elect came into the parlor ac
companied by senators Hale, Seward, and others, prominent
members of Congress. As she approached, (she was
nearly as tall as the President,) she hissed in his ear, " South
Carolinian !" He turned and addressed her with the greatest
courtesy and gentlemanly politeness. After listening to him
a few moments, astonished, she said to hira :
" Mr. Lincoln, you look, act, and speak like a huraane, kind
and benevolent man !" He replied, "Did you take me for a
savage, madam ?"
" Certainly, I did," said she. Such was the impression
his genial, benevolent nature made upon her, that she said
to him, " Mr. Lincoln, the best way for you to preserve peace
is to go to Charleston, and show the people what you are, and
tell them you have no intention of injuring them." She went
home, and entering a room, where were assembled a partyof se
cessionists from South Carolina,Georgia and Alabama, exclaim
ed as she entered, " I have seen him ! I have seen him !"
" Who ?" enquired they. " That terrible monster, Lincoln,
and what is more, I am going to his first levee." The evening
of the reception arrived, and dressing herself in a black velvet
dress, with two long white plumes in her hair, this tall daughter
of South Carolina repaired to the White House. Being
nearly six feet high, with black hair, black eyes, a Calhoun

THE PRODIGAL SON. 185
or Cataline face, (as her friends called it,) in her velvet robes,
with her long, white plumes, she was a very striking and
majestic figure. As she approached the President, he
recognized her instantly. "Here I am again," said she,
" that South Carolinian." " I am glad to see you," said he,
" and I assure you that the first object of my heart is to pre
serve peace, and I -wish every son and daughter of South
Carolina were here, that I might tell them so." Meeting
Mr. Cameron, Secretary of War, " South Carolina is the
" Prodigal Son," aaid he. She replied instantly, "Ah, Mr.
Secretary, but " The father divided the inheritance and let
him go, but they say youare goingto make war on Carolina."
In the light of to-day how aptly Mr. Cameron might have
replied, that the " Prodigal son, after having spent his portion
in riotous living, would arise, and go to his father;" and he
might have prophecied, that when the seceding States " had
spent all, and there should arise a mighty famine in the
land, "they would be compelled to say, "We will arise and go
unto our father and say, Father, we have sinned against Heaven
and before thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy
son, make us as one of thy hired servants." The
parable has been literally fulfilled. The people of the South
after spending their all in the war, came to Washington and
said to the President, " We are no more worthy to be called
thy sons, make us as hired servants." But the President,
with a wisdom as yet very questionable, when the rebel states
were yet "a great way off, had compassion on them, and
ran out to meet them, and fell on their neck and kissed thera,
and he brought forth the best robe and put it on thera, and
rings on their hands and shoes on their feet, and killed the
fatted calf"
" But Massachusetts, the elder son and the elder brothers
were not pleased with this, and doubting the sincerity of
their repentance, and like the elder brother .of the " Prod
igal son," complained and were angry. Is it yet time for
Liberty to reply to Massachusetts, " son, thou art ever with
me, and all that I have, is thine — it was meet that we should
make merry and be glad, for these, thy erring brothers were
dead, and are alive again — they were lost and are found."

OHAPTEE IX

FROM THE 4TH OF MARCH TO THE 4TH OF JULY, 1861— FROM THE
INAUGURATION OF LINCOLN TO THE MEETING OF CONGRESS.
The Kebels send Commissioners to Washington — Position of
THE Border States — The Kebels Begin the War — Attack
ON Sumter — Danger of Washington — President's' Call por
75,000 Men — Douglas Supports Lincoln — Uprising op the
People — Murder op Massachusetts Soldiers — Response op
Border States to Call por Teqops — The North-west — Vir
ginia, Tennessee, Maryland — Henry Winter Davis — The
Clay Guards — Missouri, Blockade of Seceding States —
Calls for Additional Troops — Rebels Seize Harper's Fer
ry and GrospoRT Navy- Yard — Death op Ellsworth — Great
Britain and France Recognize the Rebels as Belligerents
— Lee and Benedict Arnold — Death op Douglas.
ON the 12th of March the Confederate authorities commis
sioned John Forsyth, M. J. Crawford and A. B. Roman,
Commissioners to the United States, with a view, as they
said, to a speedy adjustment of all questions growing out of
the political separation.
Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, declined to. receive them;
denied that the Confederate States had, in law, or in fact,
withdrawn from the Union ; denied that they could do so, ex
cept through a National Convention, assembled under the
provisions of the Constitution. On the 9th of April the
Commissioners withdrew from Washington, after addressing
a letter to the Secretary of State, saying that they, on behalf
of the rebel Government, accepted the gage of battle, etc.
And yet, aftfer the receipt of this letter, such was the unparal
leled forbearance ofthe Government,that these Commissioners
186

POSITION OF AFFAIRS, MARCH, 1861. 187
were not arrested, but permitted quietly to withdraw,
with the open avowal of going home to wage war !
On the 18th of March, General Braxton Bragg, command
ing insurgent forces in Florida, issued an order, forbidding
the citizens of the Confederate States from furnishing sup
plies to the Navy of the United States.
At this period, in March, even Mr. Douglas had not fully
made up his mind, in favor of coercing the seceding States,
into submission. Prominent Democrats in the free States,
openly advocated the joining of Northern States to the Con
federacy." Such was the undecided condition of public sen
timent, in the free States in March ; and as yet the Govern
ment of Mr. Lincoln had taken no bold, decided action, clear
ly indicating its policy. Meanwhile the Confederate author
ities had siezed, as has been stated, with few exceptions, all
the arsenals, forts, custom-houses, post-offices, ships, ordi
nance and material of war, belonging to the United States,
and within the seceding States ; and this, notwithstanding
that General Dix, Secretary of the Treasury, had i ssued an
order,directing that "If any man attempts to haul down
the Araerican flag, shoot him on the spot."
No position of greater difficulty can be conceived, than
that of President Lincoln, in the spring of 1861. Congress
had adjourned, without making any provision for the ap
proaching crisis. The office of Secretary of War, for eight
years previous to Mr. Lincoln's administration, had been
conducted by Jefferson Davis and John B. Floyd, by whom
a collision with the Federal Governraent had been anticipat
ed. As we have already seen, they had strengthened the
South at the expense of the North. They had arraed the
South by robbing the Northern national armories, and scat
tered beyond immediate recall, our little army and navy.
Besides this, they, and especially Davis, had driven out of the
service of the Array as far as possible, every raan who was
not a States'-rights, pro-slavery man.
The North was politically divided ; a powerful political
party, from long association, was in sympathy with the se
ceding States. This party had just come out of a violent
contest against the party which had elected Lincoln. The

188 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
border slave states were neariy equally divided in numbers,
and while the quiet, better educated and more conservative
were for the Union, the young, reckless, and hot-headed were
for secession.
While South Carolina and some of the other cotton States
were substantially a unit for secession, in other slave States
there was a strong majority opposed to it. To arouse sec
tional feeling and prejudice, and sepure co-operation and
unanimity, it was deemed necessary to precipitate measures
and bring on a conflict of arms. It was generally said, that
the first blood shed would bring all the slave States to the aid
of the belligerent State. As before stated, there was a strong
party in the North opposed to coercion. Had fhe President
assumed the initiative, and comraenced the war, while it
would have united the slave States against him, it is not at
all clear but it would have alienated a large portion of the
Democrats of the North. Mr. Lincoln fully appreciated these
difficulties, and these facts explain tnuch that he did, and
omitted to do, for which many of his friends censured him
in the earlier stages of the rebellion. He sought to hold
Virginia, Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.
The rebel leaders made the most strenuous efforts to in
duce the above named States to join the Slave Confederacy,
butthe discreet and judicious forbearance of the President,
to some extent foiled their efforts, and he succeeded in hold
ing Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri from joining the
rebels. As has been stated, the people of the border States were
divided in sentiment, and it was very doubtful, for a tirae,
which way they would go. The House of Representatives
of Kentucky, on the 22d of January, resolved by a vote of
87 to 6, to resist the invasion of the South at all hazards.
The Legislature adopted a resolution directing Governor
Magoffin, of that State, by proclamation, to order Confed
erate troops off Kentucky soil. Magoffin vetoed this, but it
was passed over his veto.
In the beginning of Mr. Lincoln's administration he acted
on the defensive, while the rebels, from the first, assuraed a
bold, defiant tone. The Confederate Government immedi-

ATTACK ON SUMTER. 189
ately after it was established, raised troops, borrowed eight
millions of money, and offered letters of marque to all who
might choose to prey upon the rich commerce of the United
States. The rebel Secretary of War, Walker, in a grandil
oquent speech, prophecied that, before the 1st of May, the
Confederate fiag should float over the dome of the old Cap
itol, and it might, eventually, float over Faneuil Hall, itself !
Tt was determined to bring on a collision, by an attack on
Fort Sumter. This was designed raore especially and directly
to carry the ordinance of secession through the convention of
Virginia. To fire the Southern inflammable heart and raise a
whirlwind of fury, which would sweep every thing before
it, was the reason Davis and his co-conspirators opened the
war. On the llth of April, General Beauregard demanded of
Major Anderson the surrender of Fort Sumter. The Major
refused. On the night of the same day, Beauregard wrote
to Anderson, under instructions from the authorities at
Montgomery, that if he " would state the time at which he
would evacuate Fort Sumter, and agree, that in the mean
time he would not use his guns against the Confederates,
unless theirs should be employed against Sumter, the
Confederates would abstain frora opening fire upon him."
At half past two, on the morning of the 12th, Anderson
replied, he would evacuate the fort by noon of the 15th. At
half past three he was notified, in reply, that the rebels would
open their batteries, in an hour from that time. Their bat
teries were opened, accordingly, and after a bombardment
of thirty-three hours, which the little garrison endured and
rephed to with heroic courage, (their provisions and ammu
nition having been exhausted) Anderson agreed to evacuate
the Fort. He retired from it on Sunday raorning.
It is clear the rebels sought a collision, in pursuance of
their avowed policy of rousing and inciting the South. The
attack on Sumter immediately precipitated the political ele
ments, and the people ranged themselves for, or against the
Union. The Capital was in a most critical condition. Full of Se
cessionists, the roads leading to the North obstructed, and

"190 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the city in a condition of siege. The mails, in every direc
tion, were stopped, and the telegraph wires cut by the insur
gents. The National forces, which were approaching Wash
ington were obstructed ; the war and navy departraents were
filled with spies, and probably, the White House itself. In
this condition of things, it was not deeraed safe to issue or
ders through the ordinary channels, because every thing sent
in that way, reached the enemy. Special and private mes
sengers were sent North, who pursued a circuitous route to
the northern cities and governors of loyal States, calling on
them to hasten troops to the rescue of the Capital. A com
pany of personal friends was organized, M'ho guarded the
White House, the Long Bridge crossing the Potomac, and
the Arsenals, and probably saved the life of the President,
and the Government from overthrow.
On the 15th of April, President Lincoln issued his
proclamation, calling for 75,000 men.
This preclaraation was prepared on Sunday. Before its
issue, and while the President was considering the subject,
he was visited by Senator Douglas, who expressed his full
approval of this call, only regretting that it was not for 200,-
000 raen instead of the number called for.
The following dispatch was written by Senator Douglas,
and given to the agent of the Associated Press, and sent to
every portion of the North :
"April 18, 1861, Senator Douglas, called on the Presi
dent, 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 pre
pared to fully sustain the President, in the exercise of all his
Constitutional functions, to preserve the Union, maintain the
Government, and defend the Federal Capital. A firm policy
and prompt action was necessary. The Capital was in dan
ger, 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." *
• The original of this dispatch In Douglas' hand writing is now In possession of
Hon. George Ashmun, of Massachusetts, who kindly fumished a copy.

DOUGLAS SUSTAINS THE PRESIDENT. 191
Thus Douglas lent the influence of his name, with his party
and the country, in aid of .this decisive step, towards suppres-
ing the rebellion by force. He soon after returned to
Illinois, and at Springfield and Chicago, made speeches sus
taining the policy of the President, and declaring, that now,
there could be but two parties, " patriots and traitors."
The speech of Douglas, at Chicago, was made in the im
mense building called the " Wigwam," built for, and used by
the National Convention which nominated Lincoln for the
Presidency. Since the day of that nomination, no such crowd
had gathered there, as assembled to hear Douglas. He
said we had gone to the very extreme of magnanimity.
The return for all which had been done, was war, armies
marching on the Capital — a movement to blot the United
States from the map of the globe. " The election of Lin
coln," said he, " is a mere pretext," the secession raoveraent
is the result of an enorraous conspiracy, formed by the lead
ers of the Southern Confederacy, before the election of Lin
coln. " There can be no neutrals in this war — only 'patriots
or traitors."
There were those in the border States who deprecated this
call, and who expressed the belief that this act precipitated
war, and that continued forbearance would have brought on
a reaction at the South, which would have resulted in a
restoration ofthe Union. They who indulged in such dreams
little knew the spirit of the conspirators. Had this call been
delayed, even a few hours, or had there been less promptness
in responding to it, the President would have been assassin
ated, or he would have been a fugitive or a prisoner, and the
rebel flag would have waved over the Capitol, and Jefferson
Davis would have issued his Proclamations from the White
House. Mr. Lincoln pursued the policy of conciliation,
in the vain hope of peace, to the very verge of National
destruction. 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,
and all past diff'erences, rose with one voice of patriotic en
thusiasm, and laid their hearts and hands, their fortunes and

192 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
their lives upon the altar of their country. The Proclama
tion of the President calling for 75,000 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, calling for volunteers. In every city, town, vil
lage, and neighborhood, the people rushed to arms, and the
strife was, who should have the privilege of marching to the
defense of the National Capital. Forty-eight hours had not
passed after the issue of the Proclamation at Washington,
before four regiments had reported to Gbverner Andrews,
at Boston, ready for service. On the 17th, he comraissioned
B. F. Butler, of Lowell, as their coramander.
Governor Sprague, of Rhode Island, calling the Legisla
ture of that State together, on the 17th, tendered to the Gov
ernment, a thousand infantry, and a battallion 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 Gov
ernor 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 furnished the troops,
that first arrived for the defense of the Capital, reaching
there on the 18th, just in time to prevent the seizure of the
nearly defenceless city.
By the 20th of April, although the quota of Ohio, under
the President's call, was only thirteen regiments, 71,000 raen
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, Mu
nicipalities, Banks, Corporations, and Capitalists everywhere
offered their money to the Government, and subscribed im •
mense sums for the support of the volunteers and their fami
lies. Independent military organizations poured in their

THE UPRISING OF THE PEOPLE. 193
offers of service. Written pledges were widely circulated
and signed, .offering to the Government the lives and pro
perty 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, froih 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.
At this gloomy period, through the dark clouds of .gather
ing 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 influence the Government to accept the ser
vices ofthe eager regiments, everywhere imploring permission
to serve.
The volunteer soldier was the popular idol. He was every
where welcome. Fair hands wove the banners which he car
ried, and knit the socks and shirts which protected him from
the cold; and everywhere they lavished upon him every
luxury, and comfort, which could 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 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.
13

194 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
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 regi
ment of Massachusetts volunteers, while passing from one
depot to the other, on their way to the Capital. This attack
on the 19th of Aprilj in which several soldiers were shot
down, 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. They 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 differ
ences between the Government and its rebellious citizens,
should be referred to Lord Lyons, the British Minister. The
Secretary of State fittingly rebuked this unworthy sugges
tion; 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
unwelcorae anywhere in Maryland;" and he added, "that
if all the other noble sentiments of Maryland had been ob
literated, 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, em
phatically, Kentucky will furnish no troops for the wicked
purpose of subduing her sister Southern States." Governor
Harris, of Tennessee, said: "Tennessee will not furnish a
man for coercion, but 50,000 for the defense of our Southern
brothers." Governor Jackson, of Missouri, refused, saying,
" not one man will Missouri furnish to carry on such an un
holy crusade;" and Virginia, not only refused through her

ACTION OF THE NORTHWEST. 196
Governor, to respond, but her Convention then in session,
immediately passed an ordinance of secession, by a vote of
88 to 55.
The Northwest, the home of the President, and the horae
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 deterraination to maintain the Union
at all hazards, and at any cost. The people of the vast
country between the AUeghanies and the Rocky Mountains,
and North ofthe 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 determin
ation, in no event, to permit the erection of a foreign terri
tory between themselves and the Gulf of Mexico. Here
were ten millions of the most energetic, determined, self-
reliant people on earth, who had overcome difficulties, and
surmounted obstacles; and the idea that anybody should
dare to set up any fiag, other than their's between thera and
the ocean, was a degree of audacity they would never toler
ate. " 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 perraission to " possess,
occupy and enjoy " their own. They would hold the Missis
sippi, with their rifies. When closed upon them, they re
solved to open it, and they did open it. They imraediately
seized upon the important strategetic point of Cairo, and
from Belmont to Vicksburg and Fort Hudson, round to
Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, they never
ceased to press the 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.

196 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
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
Sumpter, 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 Washing
ton and Madison had been the most influential in the formar
tion of the National Government, the " Old Dominion," as
she was usually called, the " Mother of States and of states
men," had been for years, descending from her high position.
Her early and Revolutionary history had been of unequalled
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 herself of the burden
of slavery, she would have held her position as the leading
State of the Union; but, with this heavy drag, the proud
Old Commonwealth had seen her younger sisters of the Re
public rapidly overtaking and passing her in the race of pro
gress, 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' doc
trines, fatal to National Unity, and thus sowing 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 of the Northwest,
the mountain region of Virginia, resisted, and determined to
stand by the Union. This portion of the State raaintained
its position with fidelity and heroisra, and ultimately estab
lished the State of West Virginia.
Although Virginia, in January, 1861, voted a million of
dollars for defensive purposes, yet as late as April 4th, the
Convention, by a vote of eighty-nine to forty-five, voted down

ACTION OF VIRGINIA. 197
an ordinance of secession. But the Union men in the Con
vention, under various appliances, the promises, threats, and
violence used, yielded one after another, until, under the ex
citement growing out of the attack upon Fort Sumter and
the President's call to arms, the ordinance of secession was
forced through. Before this could be done, however, a mob
was raised at Richmond by the conspirators and a Com
mittee appointed to wait upon certain Union men in the
Convention, and advise them that they must either vote for
secession, absent themselves, or be hung. 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.
Alexander 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 ratifica
tion of the secession ordinance by the people, to whom it
was submitted for adoption or rejection, but immediately
joined the Confederacy, commenced hostilities, and organ
ized expeditions for the capture of Harper's Ferry and the
Gosport Navy-yard. Senator Mason immediately 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 Slate !" Submission, banishment, or death was
proclaimed to all Union men of the Old Commonwealth.
No where, 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 herself
as a barrier between her weaker sisters and the Union, and
she held her position, with a heroic endurance and courage,
worthy of a better cause and of her earlier days. Indeed,
she kept the Union forces at bay for more than four long
years, preserving her Capital, and yielding only, when
the hardy soldiers of the North had marched from the

198 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Cumberland to the sea, cutting her off and making the struggle
hopeless. North Carolina, naturally followed Virginia, and on the
21st of May, adopted by a unanimous vote an ordinance of
secession, and her Governor, Ellis, called for an enroUraent
of 30,000 men.
Tennessee, was the daughter of North Carolina, yet her
people were widely divided in sentiment and sympathy; East
Tennessee, embracing the mountains of the Curaberland
range, and the Western slopes of the AUeghanies, where
there were few slaves, and peopled by a brave, hardy, and
loyal race, were devoted to the Union. In the West, a ma
jority of the people were in sympathy with those seeking to
overthrow the Government. The Governor, Isham G. Har
ris, was an active conspirator, aud in full accord with the
enemies pf the Union. General Pillow, on the organization
of the rebel Government, hastened to Montgomery, and ten
dered it 50,000 volunteers from Tennessee. On the 9th of
February, the people voted down secession by 65,000 ma
jority! The Union men of that State, under the lead of
Andrew Johnson, Horace Maynardj Governor Brownlow,
and their associates, determined to raaintain the Union. But
the loyal people of Tennesseee were isolated from the free
States, unapproachable from the East, except across Virginia,
and over the AUeghanies; and from the North separated by
the semi-rebellious State of Kentucky. Under these circum
stances, it was difficult for Mr. Lincoln to furnish them aid
and succor. The State was nearly surrounded by secession
influences; the State Government was in the hands of trai
tors to the Union, and in June following, by means of fraud,
violence, intimidation, and falsehood, an apparent majority
was obtained in favor of secession. East Tennessee, however,
still indignantly rejected secession, and her sons made a
gallant fight for the Union.
Maryland, from her location between the free States and
the National Capital, occupied a position of the utmost im
portance. Could she be induced to join the Confederates
their design of siezing the National Capital and its archives
would be made comparatively easy. Emissaries from the

ACTION OP MARYLAND. 199
conspirators were busy in her borders during the winter of
1861. But while there were many rebel sympathizers and
traitors among her slave-holders, and raany 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 popular
feeling in favor of the Confederates, and greatly embarrassed
the Government by his protests against troops marching over
Maryland soil to the defence of the Capital, was, at heart, a
loyal man, and in the end became a decided and efficient
Union leader. He refused, against inducements and threats
of personal violence, to call the Legislature of the State to
gether, 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 Maryland are most indebted,
and who was most influential in the maintenance of the
Union cause, at this crisis, and who proved the benefactor of
the State in relieving 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 19th of April, a mob in the city of Baltimore, had
attacked the Massachusetts Sixth regiment, while quietly
passing through to the defense of the Capital, 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.
Gen. B. F. Butler, leading the Massachusetts troops, to
gether with the New York Seventh Regiment, were compel
led to go around by Annapolis, and to rebuild the railway to
Washington. But one dark, stormy night, General Butler
marched into Baltimore, encamped on Federal Hill, and re ¦
opened communication with the North. The Union men of
Maryland rallied; the leading Secessionists fled, or were

200 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
arrested ; and, from that time, Maryland was a loyal State,
lending to the Union the aid of her moral influence, and fur
nishing many gallant soldiers to flght its battles.
On the 18th of April, the day before the massacre of the
Massachusetts soldiers by the Baltimore mob, intelligence
reached Washington of a plot, on the part of the secession
ists in that city, aided by Virginia, to rise, fire the city, seize
as prisoners the President and his Cabinet, and all officials
present, take possession of the Government archives, and
thus realize the prophecy ofthe rebel Secretary of War, Walk
er, that the flag of the Confederates should float over the
dome of the Capitol before the first of May.
There were, at that time, but few troops in Washington, and
the means of defense were very inadequate. Soldiers were
hurrying to its defense from Pennsylvania, New York and
New England, but a part of the plan was the burning of the
bridges of the railways, and the interruption of communi
cation betweei; Baltimore and the North, and this part waa
successfully executed.
When intelligence of this plot was received at Washing
ton, there were several hundred gentlemen of high personal
character and social position in the city. They immediately
met, organized, took an oath of fidelity to the Union, elected
Cassius M. Clay of Kentucky, and General James H. Lane of
Kansas their leaders, were armed by the War "Department,
and, for several days, acted as guards. The party under
Lane took up their quarters in the East room of the White
House, and the others guarded the city. Arms were placed
in the Capitol, it was provisioned for a short seige, and it was
prepared to be used in case of necessity as a citadel. Be
hind its massive marble walls it was believed that the Presi
dent and the officials, and Government archives, might find
safety, until the loyal people of the North, rallying to the
rescue, should reach the Capital.
But Butler soon opened communications ; the New York
7th reached the Capital, and then there were troops enough
to make the execution of the plot raadness ; and it was con
sequently abandoned. Meanwhile Fortress Monroe, Annap
olis and Baltimore, were occupied by Federal troops, and all

ACTION OF MISSOURI. 201
danger of an immediate attack ofthe insurgents, disappeared.
What course would Missouri, the leading State west of the
Mississippi take ? 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 sympathy with
the traitors, and so were the majority of her State officers. 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 he had scattered, were everywhere
springing up in favor of Union and Liberty. The city of
St. Louis, the Commercial Metropolis of the State, had be
come a free-soil city; it had elected Francis P. Blair, Jun., a
disciple of Benton to Congress. The large German popu
lation, under the lead of Franz Siegel and others, were for
the Union, to a man.
To the President's call for troops, the rebel Governor Clai-
burn F. Jackson, returned an insulting refusal, but the peo»
pie 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, Siegel, and others, organ
ized volunteer regiraents in St. Louis, preparing for a con
flict, which they early saw to be inevitable. The arms of
the St. Louis Arsenal, were, during the night of the 25th of
April, under the direction of Captains Stokes and Lyon,
transferred to a stearaer and taken to Alton, Illinois, for
safety, and were soon placed in the hands of the Volunteers
from that State.
Governor Jackson had gathered several hundred men
whom he called &" State Guard" but whom he intended
should be drilled and prepared as rebel soldiers, and with
whora he intended to seize the United States arras and the
Arsenal. But his design was thwarted by Captains Stokes
and Lyon. Lyon then, on the 6th of May, followed up his
success in saving the arms, by marching with about six thou
sand men to camp Jackson, where the " State Guards" were

202 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
encamped, and surrounded and took them prisoners. He
captured twenty cannon, 1,200 new rifies, several chests of
muskets, and a large quantity of amunition, most of which
the "State Guard" under direction of Governor Jackson, had
stolen from the United States arsenals.
On the 19th of April, the President issued a proclamation,
blockading the ports of the Gulf States, and on the 27th of
April, this was extended to North Carolina and Virginia,
both of which states had been carried into the vortex of rev
olution. On the 3d of May, the President called into the
service 42,034 volunteers, for three years, and provided for
an addition of over 20,000 men to the regular army.
Meanwhile the insurgents had been active and eiiterpris-
ing. They had boldly seized Harper's Ferry, and the Gos
port Navy Yard, near Norfolk, Virginia. Within twenty-
four hours after the Secession ordinance passed the Virginia
Convention, they sent forces to capture those places where
were very important arsenals of arms and ordinance. Har
per's Ferry had long been a National Armoi'y, and comraand
ed the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, one of the most im
portant connections of the Capital with the Great West. It
was the gate to the beautiful valley of the Shenandoah, aud
of great importance as a military post. On the 18th 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 2,000 pieces of heavy cannon and various
material of war, and large ships, including the Pennsylvania
of 120 guns, and the Merrimac, 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, estimated to be worth from eight to
ten millions, was left exposed to seizure and destruction.
When it was too late. Commodore Paulding was sent to re
lieve the imbecile, if not treacherous, McCauley, and be
lieving that he could not defend the Yard and property, he
set fire to the ships, attempted to destroy the ordinance, and
commit to the flames the Yard and every thing of value con
nected with it. The fire was only partially successful, and a

DEATH OF ELLSWORTH. 203
very large amount of the property fell into the nands of the
rebels. Meanwhile troops gathered to the defense of the National
Capital. Among others, eame Colonel Elmer E. Ellsworth,
with a splendid regiment which he had raised, picked men
from the New York firemen.
On the evening of the 23rd of May, the Union forces
crossed the Potomac, took possession of Arlington Heights
and the hills overlooking Washington and Alexandria.
As Colonel Ellsworth was returning frora taking down a
rebel fiag from the Marshall House in Alexandria, he was in
stantly 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 Illi
nois to Washington, and was a protege of the President. He
had introduced the Zouave drill into the United States. He
was araong the first raartyrs of the war, and his death was
deeply mourned by the President. His body was taken to
the Executive Mansion, and his funeral, being the first of
those who died in defense of the flag, was very impressive,
touching and solemn. He was, almost, the first soldier ever
slain in the United States, in civil war. A gold raedal was
taken from his body after his death, stained with his hearts'
blood, with the inscription "non solem nobis, sed pro patria,"
"Not for rayself, but for ray country."
The secession of Virginia had been followed by the re
moval of the rebel Government to Richmond. Virginia,
North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas had joined the
Confederacy. Thus eleven States, through State organiza
tions, had withdrawn, and sought to divide the Republic.
At last Freedom and Slavery confronted each other, face
to face, with arms in their hands. The loyal States at this
time, had a population of 22,046,472, and the eleven seced
ing States had a population of 9,103,338, of which 3,521,110
were slaves.
The Vice President of the Confederate States, in his speech
at Milledgeville, Georgia, frankly said : " This {African Slav
ery,) was the immediate cause of the late rupture, and pres
ent revolution. Jefferson in his forecast had anticipated this.

204 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
as the rock upon which the old Union would split ! He was
right; what was conjecture with hira is now a realized fact,
&c, ***** * Our new Government
is founded upon exactly the opposite idea; its foundations are
laid, iis corner stone rests upon the great truth, thai the Negro is not
equal io the white man ; that Slavery, subordination to the su
perior race is his natural and normal condition. This, our new
Government, is the first in the history of the world, based
upon this great physical, philosophical and moral truth."
The Confederate Government being based on slavery — this
being openly avowed as its corner-stone, how would it be re
ceived in Europe, especially by those great nations. Great
Britain and France, which had so often reproached the Unit
ed States for the existence of slavery ? These great nations
and all the world, were now to be spectators of a conflict be
tween an established Government, perfectly free, and a con
spiracy and rebellion, by a portion of its citizens, avowedly
to erect upon its ruins, a governraent based on human slav
ery. Surely there was every reason to expect these powers
would indignantly rebuke any suggestion that they should
recognize a Governraent with such a basis, and that they
would, in the most emphatic manner express their disapprov
al of a rebellion against an existing government, for such
a cause. Yet the Governments of Great Britain and France, acting
in concert, even before the representatives of the new Ad
ministration arrived at London and Paris, recognized the
rebels as a belligerent power. This strange readiness to en
courage rebellion, this eagerness to accord belligerent rights
to a disorganizing power based on human slavery, was gen
erally and justly attributed to a secret hostility, on the part
of the .governing classes of Europe, toward the American
Republic. The United States stood before the world, as the
Representative of freedom, democracy, civilization, order and
regular government. The rebels, as a disorganizing rebel
lion based on slavery and barbarism ; and yet, the crowned
heads and the aristocracy made haste to hail it as a belligerent.
The London Times, the great organ of the British Aristoc
racy, joyously announced that, " The great Republic is no

GREAT BRITAIN AND EUROPE. 205
more! Democracy is a rope of sand!" The United States,
it said, lacked the cohesive power to maintain an Empire of
such magnitude.
Disintegration was, already, exultingly proclaimed to be
an accomplished fact, and no power, it was alleged, existed
in the Federal Government to unite the fragments of the dis
solved Republic.
At the moment of extremest National peril, when the son of
the western pioneer whom the people had chosen for their Chief
Magistrate, appalled by the dangers which gathered around his
country, when his great and honest soul, bowed itself to God,
and as a simple child, and in deepest supplication asked His
blessing, and guidance; at this hour, from no crowned head,
from no aristocratic ruler abroad, came any word of symya-
thy ; but those proud rulers could jest at his uncouth figure,
his uncourtly bearing. "The bubble is burst," said they.
The Almighty answered that prayer; He joined the hearts
and hnked the hands of the American people and their Pres
ident together ; and from that hour, to his death, the needle
does not raore 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
commerce from the ocean.
The active sympathy of the masses of European popula
tions, and the cold and scarcely concealed hostility of the ar
istocratic and privileged classes, were early and constantly
manifested during the entire struggle. This was, perhaps,
not unnatural. In addition to the uneasiness which the rap
id growth and commanding position of our country had ere
ated, 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, main
tain itself through this fearful crisis ? It was quite evident,
trom the beginning, that the privileged classes abroad were
more than willing to see the great Republic broken up, to
see it pronounced a failure. Mr. Buchanan had left our

206 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
foreign relations in a very deplorable condition ; the Union
had few, if any, able and deterrained representatives abroad.
The conspirators had prepared the way, as far as possible,
by their intrigues, scarcely veiled, for the recognition of the
Confederacy. The rebels had a positive, vigorous organiza
tion with agents all over Europe, many of them in the dip
lomatic 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 frora Kentucky, in
Spain, both secessionists. It was not long, however, before
Mr. Lincoln irapressed the leading traits of his character
upon our foreign policy. Frankness, open, straightforward
integrity, patient forbearance, and unbroken faith in the tri
umph of the Union and liberty, based on 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 -sdndicated the statesraanship
by which it was conducted. Mr. Seward, in his instructions
to Mr. Adams, on the eve of his departur^e 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 coraproraise be
tween the United States and any of its citizens, under foreign
auspices. He was directed firmly to announce that no foreign
Governraent could recognize the rebels as an independent
power, and reraain the friends of the United States. Recog
nition 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

FOREIGN POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES. 207
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. England
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. On the fioor ofthe British Parliament, a
member exulted in the secession of the slaveholders, as " The
bursting of the bubble. Republic."
We have seen that slavery brought on the attempted revo
lution. To secure that institution, the aristocracy of the
South, the slaveholders, seceded from the Union and drew
the sword, declaring to the world their determination to
make this their peeuliar institution, the corner-stone of their
empire. The Confederacy had secured the cooperation of eleven
States; and it had active aid and sympathy frora Maryland,
Kentucky, and Missouri, while the Union cause had effective
and numerous friends in Tennessee, and a large majority in
that part of Virginia, since organized into the State of West
Virginia. There were, at this time, and raostly in the rebel States,
nearly four millions slaves. How should they be treated?
Should the Governraent, 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 realize
why there should have been any hesitation or vacillation on
this question. The transfer of four millions of people, living
in the seceding States, frora the rebel to the Union side,
would be decisive. But many of the Union men of Missouri,
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Maryland, were slaveholders. The
Constitution had been generally held as recognizing and pro
tecting slavery. By precedent, long established usage, and
generally conceded Constitutional obligation, negroes were
to be returned by Federal officers, on demand, to their claim
ants. The power of the Federal authority under the control
of slaveholders, had been long used to return fugitive slaves.

208 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The National Judiciary, the army, and the navy, had been
the instruraents, by which the institution of slavery was up
held. The claim of the master to his slave, had been pro
tected by extraordinary guaranties unknown to any other
species of property, and the right to this species of property
had grown to be considered a sacred thing. No " rude hand"
must touch it! Abolition and abolitionists were "vulgar
fanatics," reckless of Constitutional obligations; slaveholders
were gentlemen. For years the Military Academy at West
Point, and the Naval School, at Annapolis, had been under
pro-slavery influences. For eight years iramediately preced
ing the revolt, Jefferson Davis and John B. Floyd, as Secre
taries of War, had controlled the army, weeding out those
who did not agree with thera in their peculiar views of State
rights and slavery. When the insurgents raised the flag of
rebellion, the army and navy were scandalized, and the Na
tion disgraced by large numbers of the officers deserting
their flag. Nearly two hundred of the graduates of the Mili
tary School at West Point, deserted and joined the rebel
army. From Robert E. Lee, down to the contemptible Bu
chanan, who the day before his treason, carae to Mr. Lincoln
and said, " If all others desert you, I will stand by you,*
there is a catalogue of naraes, which will forever disgrace
the annals of the old regular army. The narae of Benedict
Arnold, long so conspicuous alike for his treason and his
personal courage,has been overshadowed by the cloud of de
serters, who turned their swords against the flag they had
sworn to defend, and against the country which had adopted
and educated them.
Among these deserters, the man destined to attain the
most conspicuous position in the rebel army, was Robert E.
Lee. It is important in the interest of truth, that history
should do him justice; that his conduct should be rightly
appreciated by the American people, and the world. He bore
one of the proudest revolutionary naraes, and had intermar
ried with a family, which, by its connection with Washing
ton, has always commanded the love and honor of our
country. He had received from his country, grateful for the
*Thls statement the author received from Mr. Lincoln himself.

ROBERT E. LEE. 209
services of his ancestors, the best education her National
Military School could give. By accepting such education at
her hands, he had dedicated his life to her railitary service.
He became the petted soldier, the favorite of his loyal com
mander-in-Chief, and the staff of his years. General Scott
loved and trusted him; and by his confidential relations to
the Lieutenant General, Lee was in possession of all his plans
and purposes. Suddenly, on the eve of a rebel war, he de
serted his flag, betrayed his Chief, and within two days after
his resignation was accepted, he was found in^the rebel ser
vice, soon to receive a high coramand. How does his treason
corapare -with that of Benedict Arnold ? Each deserted his
flag; each was treacherous to his Chief, by whom he was
honored and loved; each drew his sword against his country
and his old faithful comrades. Lee was as much beloved and
honored by Scott, as Benedict Arnold was by Washington.
Arnold sought to betray a stronghold into the enemies'
hands. Lee took into the rebel councils, full knowledge of
Scott's plans, and a minute and accurate knowledge of the
railitary establishment of his country. He had been gener
ously educated by his country, and his life was doubly pledged
to her service ; Arnold was a volunteer, and complained of
personal grievances. Lee had the countenance of many trai
tors, to keep hira company ; Arnold's infamy, thanks be to
God ! was solitary and alone. It cannot be pleaded in exten
uation of Lee's treason, that he followed Virginia into seces
sion. He deserted before the secession ordinance of his na
tive State had been adopted by the people, and he was one
of those, who led Virginia into rebellion. Lee's letter of
resignation bears date April 20th, and the people of Virginia
did not vote on the ordinance of secession until the 23d of
May.* To the infamy, justly attaching to him as a deserter
frora his flag, and a traitor to his country, the stern logic of
truth compels us to add, that he shares with Jefferson Davis,
the blacker colors of at least not preventing such fearful in
humanity, and cool calculating cruelty, as finds no parallel
in the conduct of Arnold, nor in any act of the earlier
American history, before the manhood of the South lost its
real chivalry, in the barbarities of the slave system.
* L»»'s appointment In the rebel service hears date April 22d.
14

210 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
During a long and bloody war, Davis and Lee saw, with
out interference, their corarades and fellow soldiers of the
days before their fall, raurdered by thousands, while prison
ers of war. With their residences at Richraond, one as Pres
ident and dictator, and the other as Coraraander of the
armies in Virginia, the dark and horrid records of Libby,
and Belle Isle, and Andersonville, could not have been un
known to them. Those sickening details of slow murder,
starvation and suffering, at which huraanity shudders, it
would be well, for the sake of our common raanhood, to con-
sigti to oblivion, but that they exemplify how some of the
best blood of the South could, under the influence of the
slave system, be converted into the brutal barbarians, by
whom such outrages were perpetrated ! The saddest spec
tacle of this fearful war is not the desolated field, the burning
city, the homeless family, nor the bloody battle-scene, with
its bleeding mutilated sufferers, patient, noble, sublime in
their agony; nor is it the hospitals of sick, wounded, and
dying; nor is it even those great prison-fields, where faraine,
and thirst, and heat, and vitiated air, and nakedness, and
vermin, and every loathsome disease, joined with brutal
guards, combined to reduce gallant, brave, heroic men to
insanity, to imbecihty, to idiocy, and to death. No! the
the saddest picture of all, is to see educated, refined Southern
gentleraen , the boasted " chivalry " of the slaveholding section,
suffering, tolerating these barbarities as an instrumentality
of war to reduce the power of their enemies !
. This is indeed, the saddest spectacle of the war. For this
the South has been purged with fire. Passing through this
agony, the slave States have come out of it, freed, emanci
pated, disenthralled, and regenerated. The noble manhood
of the South will be restored. On the dark clouds, which
still envelope the Southern section of the Union, the bow of
promise appears. That bow rests upon liberty.
To return to Robert E. Lee. The personal misfortunes of
such a man, the romance of his bravery as a soldier the
charm of his personal manners, will not excuse the historian
from recording the truth; that this man, gallant soldier as he
was, had no loyalty to his flag, no regard for his oath, no

lee's treason. 211
fidelity nor gratitude to his country, or his Chief; no human
ity, nor good fellowship towards his corarades, to induce him
to interfere to prevent their extermination by fearful cruelties
while prisoners of war. He must go down to posterity as
a deserter and a traitor.
There were Southern loyahsts true and faithful, scorning
all temptations addressed to their fidelity. Among others, in
civil life, Were Andrew Johnson, and Andrew J. Harailton;
in war, the glorious naraes of Generals Scott, George H.
Thomas, Geo. G. Meade, and Admiral David G. Farragut.
How do the names of Lee and Davis grow black jn con
trast with that of the hero of Lundy's Lane, of Gettysburg,
and of Nashville, and the blunt, but honest sailor, who so
nobly and gloriously triumphed over traitors at New Orleans
and Mobile.
Shall we so teach our children? Shall we thus make up
the record ? or are all moral distinctions to cease? Is treason
odious? Shall truth, fidelity, and patriotism continue to be
honored, and falsehood, perjury, and treachery scorned? Or
is there no distinction between Andrew Johnson and Jefl'er
son Davis; between General Scott and General Twiggs;
between George H. Thomas and Robert E. Lee; between
David G. Farragut and Raphael Semmes ?
The forraer were faithful, the latter faithless ; the former
kept their oaths, the latter broke them; the former shed their
blood in heroic defense of their flag, and the latter deserted,
and then made war upon it.
Somebody will be held responsible for the suff'ering of this
terrible war. Unrepentant rebels and traitors are consistent
in holding the Federal Government responsible. Loyal raen
cannot be consistent, in honoring Scott, Thomas, and
Farragut, without conderaning Twiggs, Lee, and Davis.
Of the officers who remained, a few were only half loyal.
How -would such men — the Government seeking to hold the
slave States of Kentucky, Maryland and Missouri — treat
the negroes?
The solution of this question was practically made, and
the difficulties surrounding it, cut away by the clear, bold,

212 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
and direct mind of General Benjamin F. Butler, of Massa
chusetts. He had been a pro-slavery Breckinridge democrat
When his political friends at the South drew the sword, he,
-without hesitation, drew his for his country, and against
them ; and he was the first to lead a brigade to the defense
of Washington.
In May, General Butler found himself in command at
Fortress Monroe. One evening three negroes came into his
camp, saying, " they had fled from their master, Colonel Mal
lory, who was about to set them to work on rebel fortifica
tions!". 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 the folly?
He uttered the words, " These men are contraband of ivar!"
This sentence, expressing an ob-vious truth, was more im
portant than a battle- gained. It was a victory in the direction
of emancipation, upon which the success of the Union cause
was ultiraately to depend. He, of course, refused to surren
der them, but set them at work on his own defenses. Up to
this time, the South had fought to raaintain 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 Constitutional
obligation to return fugitive slaves. General Butler, of
course, refused, saying, " I shall retain the negroes as contra
band of war! You are 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, ou 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."

DEATH OF DOUGLAS. 213
Early in June, the administration and the country, sus
tained a great loss in the death of Douglas. He died at
Chicago, on the 3d; his death, hastened by the zeal and en
ergy he exerted to aid and strengthen the Government to
meet the dangers surrounding it.
Mr. Lincoln was deeply grieved by the death of his great
rival, who had become one of his most valued advisers.
Douglas had caused the repeal of the Missouri Compromise,
and thereby precipitated the conflict between freedom and
slavery; but for this repeal, probably the resort to arms
might have been delayed for a generation; possibly by the
influence of moral and peaceful agencies prevented ; but as
has been stated, he did all in his power to redeem the past,
by gi-^ing all his influence to the Government when the
conflict came. The moment the flag of the insurgents was
raised, he tried to hush the voice of party strife, and rallied
his friends to the support of his country. He died at a mo
ment when he had the opportunity and the disposition to
have rendered the greatest service to his country. Had he
lived, his energetic, determined, positive character would
have continued him a leader, and there would have been
no voice louder, raore emphatic than his, demanding prompt,
vigorous, and decisive measures. The Nation will not forget
him, and Illinois will cherish his memory, and as the early
opponent, and later, the friend of Lincoln, his name will
live as long as Lake Michigan shall roll her blue waves upon
the shore where rest his remains.

C H APTER X.

EXTRA SESSION OP CONGRESS — CIVIL POLICY AND MILITARY
EVENTS TO THE CLOSE OF 1861.
Congress — ^^President's Message — Action op Congress — Ba
ker's Reply to Breckenridge — Andrew Johnson — Denoun
ces Davis — The Rebel Leaders — Prominent Senators, and
Members — Sumner, Baker, Fessenden and Others — Ste
phens, Colfax, Lovejoy and others — Bill to Confiscate
THE Property and Free the Slaves of Rebels — The Army
NOT to Return Fugitive Slaves — Crittenden's Resolution
— Bull Run — McClellan in Command — Freemont — His
Emancipation Order — Letter of Holt — President Mod
ifies THE Order — His Reasons — Cameron's Instruction to
Sherman in S. C. — Military Movements in the Fall of 1861
— Death op Lyon — Ball's Bluff — Death op Baker — Bel
mont — The Trent Affair — Arrest op the Maryland
Legislature.
npHE special session of the 37th Congress met at the Capital
-»- on fhe Fourth of July, agreeably to the call of the Pres
ident. Hannibal Hamlin, Vice President, presided over the
Sehate, Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania was elected
Speaker of the House, and Emerson Etheridge of Tennessee,
Clerk. In the Senate, twenty-three States, and in the House twen
ty-two States were represented. There were forty Senators,
and one hundred and fifty-four Representatives, on the first
day of the session. No Representatives appeared from Vir
ginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Al
abama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, or Arkansas. An
drew Johnson, " faithful among the faithless," represented
Tennessee in the Senate, and Horace Maynard and Andrew
214

EXTRA SESSION OF CONGRESS. 215
J . Clements appeared and took their seats at the second ses
sion, in the House. Among the more prominent Senators
of New England, who had already secured a National rep
utation, were Fessenden and Morrill of Maine, Hale and
Clark of New Hampshire, Sumner and Wilson of Massachu
setts, CoUamer and Foote 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. Frora Verraont, the dignified, urbane,
and soraewhat formal, Solomon Foote ; his colleague was
Jacob CoUamer, a gentleman of the old school who had been
a raember of Cabinets, and was one of the wisest j urists and
Statesmen of our Country. Preston King had been the
friend and confidant of Silas Wright and Thomas H. Benton,
and a leader at the Buffalo Convention ; genial, true and de
voted to the principles of democracy as enunciated in the
Declaration of Independence. From Pennsylvania, was Da
vid Wilmot, who, while a member of the House, introduced
the "Wilmot Proviso," which connects forever his name,
with the Anti-Slavery contest.
From Ohio, John Sherman, a brother of General Sher
man, and late a distingi,iished Speaker of the House of Rep
resentatives and Chairman ofthe Committee on Finance;
and Benjamin Wade, staunch, rude, earnest and true.
From Illinois, Lyman Trumbull and 0. 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 Mich
igan, Bingham and Chandler; from Indiana, Jesse D.
Bright and Henry S. Lane; the latter of whom had presided
over the Philadelphia Convention of 1856.
But many vacant chairs in these council chambers, im
pressed the spectator with the magnitude of the impending
struggle. The old Chiefs of slavery were absent; some at

216 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Richmond, others in arms against their country. The chair
of their leader, Davis ; that of the blustering Toombs ; the
accomplished, cautious Hunter ; the polished Benjamin ; the
haughty, pretentious Mason; the crafty, unscrupulous Slidell,
and their compeers, were all vacant. The seat ofthe "Little
Giant" of Illinois, the ambitious but true patriot, Douglas, was
vacant — not, thank God, from treason, but by death. Life
long opponents gazed sadly upon his unoccupied seat.
Well had it been for the fame of Breckenridge if his chair
had been made vacant by early death. But still conspicuous
among the Senators of this Congress, was the late Vice Pres
ident, now the Senator from Kentucky. As the representative
of one of the historic families of that State, no young man
of the Nation, until 1860, had prouder prospects.
Entering into the conspiracy to divide the Union, he first
permitted, as a preliminary step, his name to be used at
Charleston, for the Presidency, to divide the Democratic
party. He came to the United States Senate in July 1861,
with no loyalty to the Union. He had on the 25th of April
preceding, denounced the call of the President for troops,
and advised, that in the event of the failure to arrest what
he called coercion, Kentucky should unite with the South.
He entered the Senate with the avowed deterraination to ar
rest, if possible, the efforts of the Administration to protect
and maintain the Government by force. He had now few
friends or sympathizers in Washington, and was regarded
with distrust by his loyal associates. Dark and gloomy, he
could be daily seen, without companions, wending his way to
the Senate Charaber, where his voice and his votes were con
stantly exerted to thwart the raeasures inti-oduced for main
taining the authority of the Constitution. He soon came to
be looked upon as a spy as well as a traitor. It was obvious
that his heart was with his old associates at Richmond.
As soon as the special session closed, he threw off all dis
guise, entered the Secession Camp, and joined his fortunes
with the insurgents.
, President Lincoln, in his message to this Congress, calmly
re-dews the situation. He calls attention to the fact that at
his inauguration, the functions of the Federal Government

president's MESSAGE. 217
had been suspended in the States of Georgia, South Caro-'
Una, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Florida.
All the National property, in these States had been appro
priated by the insurgents. They had seized all the forts, ar
senals, &c., except those on the Florida coast, and Fort
Sumter in Charleston harbor, and these were then iu a state of
siege by the rebel forces. The National arms had been seiz
ed and were in the hands of hostile armies. Large numbers
of officers of the United States Army, and Navy, had resign
ed and taken up arms against their Government. He review
ed 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 iraraediate dissolution or war.
No choice was left but to call into action ihe war powers of the
Govemment, and to resist the force eraployed for its destruc
tion, 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, in
cluding the seizure 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 reviews the ac
tion of the Government, the calls for troops, the blockade of
the ports in the rebellious States, and the suspension of the
writ of habeas corpus. He asked Congress to confer upon hira
the power to make the conflict short and decisive. He asked
to have placed at his disposal, 400,000 men, and 400 millions
of money. Alluding to the . desire of the people to furnish
the men and money necessary to raaintain the Union, he said,
" the people will save their Government, if the Government
itself will do its part only indifferently well."
He calls attention to the fact, that ours is a Government
of the people, and they appreciate it; that while large num
bers of the officers of the army and navy had proved " false
to the hand which had pamj)ered them, not one common
soldier or common sailor is known to have deserted his flag."
It is worthy of note, that the President in this, his first

218 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OE SLAVERY.
message, as in so many of his speeches and State papers, calls
attention to the great fundamental principle of our Govern
ment, the eiiuality of all. He quotes the clause in the Decla
ration of Independence, that " all men are created equal," and
contrasted it with the aristocratic features of the Government,
sought to be created on its ruins. Those who knew Mr. Lin
coln best, knew that he looked, confidently, to the ultimate
extinction of slavery. It is clear, that in accordance with his
cautious character,' he hoped to destroy it by gradual emanci
pation. From the beginning, he watched andgladly used every
means whicli his prudent and scrupulous raind recognized as
right and proper, to hasten its ultimate overthrow.
Congress responded promptly to the call of the President,
and voted 600,000 men, and 500 millions of dollars to
suppress the insurrection.
At this meraorable session. Congress coramenced a series
of measures, which, in connection with the action of Presi
dent Lincoln aud the victories of the Union arms, resulted
in the downfall of African slavery.
On the 4th of December, 1861, a resolution introduced by
Senator Trumbull, unanimously passed the Senate, " That
John C. Breckenridge, the traitor, be, and he hereby is, ex
pelled." Some ofthe debates of this session, were of exceed
ing interest. Among the most dramatic was a debate between
Breckenridge, of Kentucky, and Colonel Baker, of Oregon.
Breckenridge received from the fiery and eloquent Senator,
a terrible rebuke for his treachery.
Baker, iu a speech made on the 1st day of August, in reply
to the treasonable utterances of Breckenridge, said :
" What would the Senator from Kentucky, have? These speeches of
his, sown hroadcast over the land, what clear distinct meaning 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 Capital of the Republic?" [Here there
¦were such manifestations of applause in the galleries, as were with
difficulty suppressed.] •
Mr. Baker resumed, and turning directly to Mr. Brecken
ridge, enquired:

baker's reply to BRECKINRIDGE. 219
" What would have been thought, if, in another Capital, in another
Republic, in a yet more martial age, a Senator as grave, not more elo
quent or dignified than the Senator from Kentucky, yet with the Ro
man purple flowing over his shoulders, had risen in his place, sur
rounded by all the illustrations of Roman glory, and declared that the
cause of advancing Hannibal 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 de
nounced every levy of the Roman people, every expenditure of its trea
sure, and every appeal to the old recollections and the old glories?"
There was a silence so profound throughout the Senate aud
galleries, that a pinfall could have been heard, while every
eye was fixed upon Breckenridge. Fessenden exclaimed, in
deep low tones, " he would have been hurled from the
Tarpean Rock 1"
Baker resumed:
" Sir, a Senator, himself learned far more than myself, in such lore,
^Mr. Fessenden) tells me, in a voice that I am glad is audible, that
' he would have been hurled from the Tarpean Rock.' It is a grand
commentary upon the American Constitution, that we permit these
fvords of the Senator from Kentucky, to be uttered. I ask the Senator
to recollect, too, what, save to send aid and comfort to the enemy, do
these predictions amount to? Every word thus uttered, falls as a note
of inspiration upon every Confederate ear. Every sound thus uttered,
is a word, (and falling from his lips, a mighty word) of kindling and
triumph to a foe that determines to advance."
This was that Baker, brilliant alike as an orator and a sol
dier, who, on the prairies of Illinois, had contested the palra
of eloquence and popular favor with Lincoln and Douglas;
he, who had gone to California, and pronounced the raemor-
able funeral oration over the murdered Broderick, assassin
ated because, as he said, " he was opposed to the extension
of slavery and a corrupt administration." Going thence to
Oregon, he came to Washington as its Senator. After a
short and brilliant career in the Senate, he fell, pierced with
nine bullets at Ball's Bluff, one of the early martyrs of the
war, because, as he said, " a United States Senator must not
retreat."

220 LINCOLN AND TJIE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
In conspicuous contrast with Breckenridge, stood Andrew
Johnson, of Tennessee. Born in the humblest statioii, without
the advantages of education, a man before he learned to read,
yet his vigorous intellect and indomitable will soon raised
him to distinction. In the winter of 1860-61, while all
around him seemed treacherous and faithless, he stood firm,
" faithful among the faithless." Confidence in his supposed
firm integrity and unswerving patriotism were such, that a
party with which he became associated only because it was
identified with the cause of his country, generously offered
him the second office in its gift.
On the 2d day of March, 1861, in reply to Senator Lane,
of Oregon, Johnson, turning to the party of conspirators,
who still lingered in the Senate, exclaimed, " who is it, that
has fired on our flag? Who has given instructions to take
our arsenals and dock-yards, to sack mints, and steal custom
houses? Those who have done this, have they not been
guilty of treason? Show me who has been engaged in these
conspiracies, who has fired on our fiag," said he, turning to
wards the rebel Senators, "Who telegraphed to take our
forts, dock-yards, mints, and armories? Show me who did
this, and I will show you a traitor."
This sentiment was received with applause by the galleries,
crowded with Union men, Ihen present in Washington to
witness the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Clingman
called for the clearing of the galleries, but it was not insisted
on. " If individuals were pointed out to rae," Johnson contin
ued, " who were engaged in nightly conspiracies, in secret con
claves, issuing orders, directing the capture of our forts, and
the taking of our custom houses, I would show you the trai
tors; and that being done, the persons pointed out, coming
within the purview and scope of the Constitution, were I Pres
ident, I would have done as Jefferson did with Aaron Burr —
I would have arrested them, I would have caused them to be
tried for treason, and if found guilty, by the Eternal God, I
would execute them!" Such was the temper of Johnson, in
1861. He took his seat, the crowds in the galleries tried to
repress their feelings, but they could not restrain themselves.
First, a faint cheer from the ladies' gallery, then the clapping
of a pair of fair hands — then one general, universal cheer, and

ANDREW JOHNSON. 221
then three cheers for the Union, and three more for Andrew
Johnson, shook the dome of the Senate Chamber.
Johnson had zealously supported Breckenridge for Presi
dent, and yet, when his treason was developed, he did not
hesitate one moment, in denouncing the traitor.
On the 27th of July, in a speech in reply to Breckenridge,
after quoting a remark, that " when traitors become numer
ous enough, treason becomes respectable." Yet, said he,
" God being willing, whether traitors be many or few, as I
have hitherto waged war against traitors and treason, I
intend to continue it to the end."
His denunciation of Jefferson Davis was vehement and
severe. He said, " Davis — a man educated and nurtured by
the Government, who sucked its pap, who received from it
all his military instruction, a man who got all his distinction,
civil and military, in the service of this Government, beneath
its flag, and then -without cause, without being deprived of a
single right or privilege — the sword he unsheathed in vindi
cation 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."
Conspicuous among the body of able Senators frora New
England, was Charles Sumner, with a reputation as an orator,
a scholar, a philanthropist, extending beyond his own country.
He was recognized as worthy to represent the best and nob
lest, the most cultivated and purest manhood of Massachu
setts. In intellect worthy to fill the place of Everett; in
purity and learning, the worthy disciple of John Quincy
Adams ; in singleness of purpose, in devotion to the broadest
humanity and liberty for all, he was a worthy representative
of those, who first taught the great Christian principle of the
V common Father and the Universal brotherhood of man. He
had experienced in his own person, the cowardly brutality
and barbarism, the legitimate offspring of slavery. The same
spirit which starved to death Union prisoners at Anderson
ville, had sought to assassinate Sumner in the Senate Cham-
bei". The bludgeon of Brooks and the pistol of Booth, were
alike aimed by slavery. Providence directed that the life of
Lincoln should be crowned by the death of a martyr, but

222 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY. ^
had preserved Sumner to aid Lincoln in the great work of
the emancipation of a race.
The speeches of Sumner, up to this time, had one defect,
they were overloaded with learning. The great thought was
too often concealed under many quotations. In the earnest
ness and gravity of the discussions during the war, this fault
disappeared. His speeches, during the four years of Mr.
Lincoln's , administration, illustrate our history, while
influential in moulding and guiding public opinion.
Among the more conservative of the New England Senar-
tors, was Jacob CoUamer, of Vermont. He had held the
position of Judge of the Supreme Court of that State, and
had been Postmaster General under President Taylor. Dis
tinguished for solid comraon sense, minutely familiar with
his country's history and its laws, conscientious and self-
poised, he exerted a commanding influence, and was alway.i
listened to with profound respect.
Senator Fessenden, Chairman of the Committee on Fi
nance, and the successor of Mr. Chase, as Secretary of th«
Treasury, was another very able and learned New England
Senator. Ever ready, ever well informed, keen, witty and
sarcastic; as a general debater he had no superior. He was
one of the most practical and careful statesmen in the Senate.
The House of Representatives of this memorable Congress,
was composed generally, of men of good sense, respectable
abilities,^ and of earnest patriotism, rather than of shining
parts and high distinction. It represented and reflected the
intelligence, integrity and patriotism of the American peo
ple. This Congress early realized, that it had two great du
ties towards which all its energies should be directed. These
were to maintain the integrity of the Union, by subduing the
rebellion, and extirpating its cause — African slavery.
The leader of the House, Chairman of the Comraittee of
Ways and Means, Thaddeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania, united
the wisdora of three score years and ten, with the vigor and
energy of twenty-five. He was the raost sarcastic, and witty,
as well as the most eccentric member of the House. He waa
respected alike by friend and foe, aud none desired a second
encounter with him on the floor of the House. If he could

STEVENS, COLFAX, MORRILL AND, DAWES. 223
not deraolish with an arguraent, he could annihilate with an
epigrara or a sarcasm. Ready, adroit, and sagacious, as wel'.
as bold and frank, he exerted a large influence upon tho
House and the country. He was bitter and uncompromising,
rather adapted to the position of leader of the opposition,
than to conduct and control the majority.
The most rising man in the House, was Schuyler Colfax, of
Indiana, then in his fourth term, destined to be the Speaker
of the House of Representatives during the Thirty-eighth
and Thirty-ninth Congresses. Nature had given him an un
tiring capacity for work, quicksighted tact, much coramon
sense, great frankness, and greater kindliness. Often diff'er-
ing from his political opponents, he never roused their anger
by too strong statements, or too harsh an utterance; while
those who knew him most, loved him best. Starting in life
at the lowest point of a printing office, then an editor and
publisher, he gave up business, after twenty years trial for
politics, and became the representative man of his State. He
has constantly improved since he entered Congress. Never
an extreme radical in his views, yet he never wavers from his
ideas of truth. Politics is now his profession, and no man
better understands its secrets than Schuyler Colfax. As a
parliamentarian, he had no superior in the House, and is
one of the most rising statesmen of the West.
Justin S. MorriU, of Vermont, the author of the Morrill
tariff, was one of the most laborious men in Congress. Not
brilliant, but so well inforraed, with such a fund of practical
knowledge on the subjects of taxation, tariffs, and finance,
that he was a raost useful member, and his influence upon all
these subjects was very great.
Henry L. Davies, of Massachusetts, occupied the important
position of Chairman of the Committee on Elections. He
was a man so perfectly just and fair; so candid and impartial,
that he always comraanded the respect of all parties. He had
all the information and accurate knowledge of the New Eng
land gent eman. His State and section ever found in hira a
most able and eloquent defender. His colleague, B. F.
Thomas, represented the Quincy district. He was a fine
scholar, and a very able man, but too much of a lawyer for a

224 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
statesman. He was cramped by technicalities, and became
too conservative for Massachusetts, and retired.
In the delegation from New York, were Roscoe Conklin,
an able debater, and Abraham B. Olin, a leading meraber of
the Committee on Military Affairs; Charles B. Sedgwick,
Chairman of the Committee on Naval Affairs ; E. G. Spauld
ing, a leading member of the Committee of Ways and
Means ; and Reuben E. Fenton, subsequently Governor of
that State, and Erastus Corning, the President of the New
York Central Railroad.
In the delegation from Pennsylvania, were Judge W. D.
Kelly, an able debater, and an extreme radical ; John Hick
man, James H. Campbell, Hendricks B. Wright, Edward
McPherson, John Covode, James K. Morehead, and the
Speaker, Mr. Grow.
Frora Ohio, were Pendleton, Vallandighara, and Cox,
leaders of the opposition, and James M. Ashley, and John A.
Bingham, the latter one of the most ready, eloquent, and
effective debaters in the House.
From the State of Illinois, as supporters of the President,
were Washburne, Lovejoy, Kellogg, and Arnold. Among
those who had supported Douglas, were Richardson, McCler
nand, and Logan. The two latter retiring after the special
session and going into the army, became distinguished in the
field. Among the members from Wisconsin, was John F. Pot
ter, a radical abolitionist, and a resolute, true man. During
the Thirty-sixth Congress, he accepted a challenge from
Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia, but Pryor did not choose to
fight the member from Wisconsin.
Among the members known as anti-slavery men, the most
widely distinguished, perhaps, was Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois.
He was the brother of that Lovejoy, who fell a martyr to
freedom and the liberty of the Press, at Alton, Illinois,
twenty-five years before. After the death of his brother,
1 kneeling upon his grave, he swore eternal hostility to slavery,
and solemnly dedicated himself to the anti-slavery cause.
He was a man of powerful frame, strong feelii^gs, great per
sonal magnetic power, and one of the most effective stump

OWEN LOVEJOY. 225
speakers in the United States. As early as 1838, he aided in
the organization of the Liberty party. He was by profession,
a preacher of the Gospel, but he now went forth among the
people, and with a tongue of fire, and a vehemence and pas
sionate energy that ever carried the masses with him, spoke
and preached against slavery. In the log school houses, the
churches, on the open prairies, and in the groves of the West,
he preached his crusade against slavery. His party grew and
increased with each election. He was sent, first to the Illi
nois Legislature, and then to Congress, and there, while
slavery yet held control, he did not hesitate to beard the lion
in his den. He had seen the rise and growth of the anti-
slavery cause, from the time when its friends were mocked,
mobbed, outraged, and every way abused, until increasing and
gro-wing, it had become a power in tbe land; had elected a
President, and now held control of both Houses of Congress.
In February 1859, during his first term in Congress, in re
ply to the furious denunciations of the slave holders, charg
ing, among other things, upon the floor of Congress, that he
was a "negro stealer" he indignantly and defiantly exclaimed ;
' ' Yes, I do assist fugitive slaves 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 Grod. Let it echo through all
the arches of heaven, and reverberate and bellow through all the deep
gorges of hell, where slave catchers 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 houseless ? I bid you defiance in the
name of Grod."
The first great measure of this Congress, looking to the
slave question, was a bill reported by Senator Trumbull,
Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to confiscate all prop
erty, and free all slaves used for insurrectionary purposes.
Mr. Breckinridge vehemently opposed the bill, and stated
that it was one of a series of measures which would amount
to the " loosening of all bonds."
15

226 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Senators justified their vote for the bill, on the ground,
that in the battle of Bull Run, fought on Sunday, July 21,
the rebels had used the negroes and slaves in battle against
the Union army. The bill passed the Senate by thirty-three
to six. In the House of Representatives Mr. Burnett, of
Kentucky, a member who joined the rebel army, iramediate
ly after the adjournment of Congress, declared that the bill
would amount to a wholesale emancipation of the slaves in
the rebellious States. Mr. Cox of Ohio, opposed the bill.
Thaddeus Stevens, Chairman of the committee of Ways and
Means, ably advocated it. He 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 bond
man 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.''
On the third of August the bill passed. It is a reraark
able fact, how reluctantly members touched slavery, and in
dicates how slowly the public mind came to the conclusion
that the surest way to destroy the rebellion, was to destroy
slavery. Sorae of the best and raost patriotic men in
Congress, voted against this bill ; among them Messrs. Bai
ley, Crittenden, Diven, Haight, Hale, Odell, McPherson, Rol
lins and others.
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 thera, to come as
their dehverers from long and cruel bondage. And yet, al
most incredible as it raay 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-yice to the
Union cause, were permitted to be carried from beneath the
flag of the Union back to bondage.

SLAVERY IN THE BORDER STATES. 227
Lovejoy was raost indignant at this stupid and inhuman
treatment, and early in the special session, introduced a res
olution 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 the very large majority of
ayes ninety three, nays fifty nine.
In the Senate, Mr. Powell of Kentucky, proposed to amend
the Army Bill, by providing that no part of the army should
be employed "in subjugating or holding, as a conquered
province, any sovereign State, or in freeing any slave." The
amendment was rejected. Senators from the slave holding
States were advised that slavery would not survive, in any
State, the march of Union armies.
There were, in the border States, many Union men who
desired to maintain the Union, and wished, also, that there
raight be no interference with the institution of slavery.
These raen, -with the small band of anti-slavery men in
Maryland, Kentucky and Missouri had rendered efficient aid
in preventing those States from seceding. Their representa
tive man in Congress was the aged, venerable, and eloquent
John J. Crittenden of Kentucky. He had been the confi
dential friend and colleague of Clay, and had never faltered
in his loyalty to the Union. He had been conspicuous iu
the session of the Thirty-sixth Congress, in attempting
to bring about terms of compromise, to prevent the
threatened war.
On the 15th of July, on motion of General John A. Mc
Clernand, 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 :
^^ 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 feel
ing of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the

228 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
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 overthrowing or interfering with the rights or estab
hshed institutions of those States ; but to defend and maintain the su
premacy 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."
It was adopted by the House, there being only two dissent
ing votes. It served to allay the apprehensions of the bor
der States, whose sensitiveness had been excited by the agents
and abettors of the rebellion.
The special session of Congress, confined its action to
measures connected with the war, and did comparatively lit
tle in the way of general legislation. After long debate, it
sanctioned the acts of President Lincoln, and voted more
than all the men and means he had called for to suppress the
insurrection. Its anti-slavery action was confined to a rebuke
of the army officers, for returning fugitive slaves ; and the
agitation and passage of the bill, confiscating the property,
and freeing slaves employed to aid in the rebellion. This
became a law on the 6th of August, and was the first in that
series of measures, which resulted in the language of Breck
inridge, in "loosening all bonds."
But the discussions which occurred on the floor of tho
Capitol, contributed largely, to the formation of that public
sentiment, which resulted in the final overthrow of slavery
by the President's Proclamation of Emancipation. The way
was being prepared.
One of the most meraorable speeches of this session, dis
tinguished alike for its eloquence, boldness and sagacity, was
that of Senator Baker, on a resolution approving the acts of
President Lincoln, in calling out men, in raising an army,
suspending the writ of Habeas Corpu,s, and other acts to
suppress the insurrection. He said :
" As a personal and political friend of the President, I approve of
every measure of his administration, in relation to the troubles of the
country. I propose to ratify whatever needs ratification. I propose
to render my clear and distinct approval, not only of the measure, but

SENATOR BAKER. 229
of the motive which prompted it. I propose to lend the whole power
of the country — arms, men, money, and place them in his hands, with
authority, ahnost unlimited, until the conclusion of this struggle. He
has asked Ibr $400,000,000. We propose to give hun $500,000,000
He has asked for four hundred thousand men. We propose to give
him half a million, and for my part, if, as I do not apprehend, the
emergency should still be greater, I will cheerfully add a cipher to
either of these figures.
"But, sir, while I do that, I desire by my word and my vote, to have
it clearly iinderstood, that I do that as a measure of war. As I had
occasion to say in a very early discussion of this question, I want sud
den, bold, forward, determined war. I do not think any body can
conduct one of that kind, as well as a dictator. But, as a Senator, I
deem it my duty to look forward to returning peace. I do not beUeve
it will be longer than next February.
" Till danger's troubled night is o'er.
And the star of peace returns." '
Whether that peace shall be conquered at Richmond, or Montgom
ery, or New Orleans, or in the wilds of Texas, I do not presume to
say; but I do know, if I may use so bold a word, that the determined
aggregated power of the whole people of this country — all its treasure,
all its arms, all its blood, all its enthusiasm kindled, concentrated,
poured out, in one mass of living valor, upon any foe, will conquer.
"1 believe, with most gentlemen, that the Union sentiment will yet
prevail in the Southern States. Bayonets are sharp remedies, but they
are very powerful. 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 our patience. I believe they are a brave, determined
people, filled with enthusiasm, false in its purposes, 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 Congress, and replacing their Senators
upon this floor, we may have to reduce them to the condition of terri
tories, and send from Massachusetts, or from Illinois, Governors to con-
trof them. It may he ; and sir, if need come, I am one of those who
would be willing to do it. I would do that ; I would risk, even the
stigma of being despotic and oppressive, rather than risk the perpetu
ity ofthe Union of these States. I repeat, and with that repetition I
close. Fight the war through ; accomplish a peace ; make it so per
fect and so permanent, that a boy may preserve it ; and when you have
done that, you have no more need for a standing army."

230 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The right of the President to increase the regular Array,
and to suspend the Habeas Corpus were gravely questioned.
Indeed, so far as relates to the right to increase the regular
Army, Mr. Lincoln himself, regarded it as an act called out
by imperious necessity, and requiring the sanction of Con
gress to legalize. Mr. Sherman of Ohio, said :
" I believe that the President had the right, and that it was his duty
to issue the Proclamation of April last. I believe he had a right; it
¦was a part of the power of suppressing an insurrection, to blockade the
ports of the States, or any of them. I do not believe the President of
the United States, has the power to suspend the writ oi Habeas Corpus,
because that power is expressly given by the Constitution to Con
gress and to Congress alone ; and therefore I cannot vote for either
of the last three propositions — the fourth, the fifth or the sixth.
Still, I approve of the action of the President. I believe the President
did right. He did precisely what I would have done if I had been in
his place ; no more, no less ; but I cannot, here, in my place as a Sen
ator under oath, declare that what he did, was legal. I may say it was
proper, and was justified by the necessity of the case ; but, I cannot,
here, in my place, under oath, declare that it was strictly legal, and in
consonance with the provisions of the Constitution. I shall, therefore,
be compelled to vote against the resolution."
Congress by large majorities, both in the Senate, and in
the House legalized and approved, of all the acts, proclara
ations and orders of the President, respecting the Array and
Navy, and calling out the militia and enrolling volunteers.*
There had, up to July, already gathered to the standard of
the Union, many more men than the number mentioned in
the President's call. These troops held Fortress Monroe and
vicinity ; garrisoned Baltimore, guarded the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad and other roads leading to the Capital, besides
which, there were at Washington some 30,000 troops. A
force under General George B. McClellan were driving \he
rebels out of West Virginia. The insurgents, under Beaure
gard, confronted the troops near the Capital, with an equal,
if not superior force, holding a position along Bull Run
Creek ; their right resting on Manassas, and their left at
*Aot of August 5, 1861.

BULL RUN. 231
Winchester, under General Johnston. It was determined to
attack this force, and the Union army under General Mc
Dowell, left its camps near the Potomac on the 16th of July,
and attacked the enemy on the 21st. The attack was skill
fully planned, and was at first successful, until reinforcements
under Johnson arriving opportunely, at the crisis of the bat
tie, saved the insurgents from a defeat, and enabled them to
repulse the Union troops and drive them back from the base
of the Blue Ridge, to the defences of Washington. There
never was a more mortifying defeat than that sustained by
the National forces at Bull Run. It took the people com-
pletelj' Isy surprise. They, and the Union soldiers had not
appreciated the strength and magnitude of the rebellion,
nor the fierce vigor with which the rebels would fight.
With this battle, commenced the exhibition of those, fe
rocious cruelties and barbarities, which, to a great extent,
characterized the insurgents during the war. There was a
hatred and ferocity on the part of the rebels towards the
Union soldiers, scarcely paralleled, and which was in striking
contrast to the conciliatory feelings of the loyalists towards
the rebels. The latter robbed and mutilated the dead upon
the battle field, and wore the bones of the fallen as personal
ornaments. These things it were well to forget, except that
they illustrate the barbarism produced by slavery, and there
fore, the truth of history demands their record. The slave
holders have ceased to exist, because slavery has been des
troyed, but as a beacon and a warning, the real character of
the men produced by this institution, should be truthfully de
scribed. The public mind was learning to recognize the re
bellion as slavery in arms. It was advancing towards that
position in which slavery was to be attacked directly. But
yet, the Country, the Army and the President hesitated.
Much has been said by the Press, about this battle being
forced upon the military authorities by the President, who,
it was asserted, had been influenced by popular clamor and
the cry of "On to Richmond." It was said that General
Scott was forced to fight this battle before he was ready. It
is true, the cry of "On to Richmond" was very general, but
it is known, that when General Johnston had escaped from

232 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
General Patterson, and was marching to join Beauregard,
President Lincoln suggested to General Scott, the propriety
of delaying until Patterson's corps could co-operate -with the
Union army at Centreville. General Cameron, Secretary of
War, returned from the field on Saturday before the battle,
and urged the sending of re-inforcements ; and five regiments
were started towards Bull Run but did not reach there in
time to participate in the engagement.
The disaster of Bull Run, mortified the National vanity
and pride, but aroused also the National spirit and courage.
The morning following the defeat, witnessed dispatches flash
ing 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 they learned of the loss of this
battle, set themselves vigorously to increase and re-organ
ize the army. Grave and thoughtful men left their private
pursuits and organized regiraents, and offered them to the
Government. None were now refused.
The popular feeling through the loyal States again rose to
an extent even greater and deeper than that which followed
the attack upon Fort Sumter.
Perhaps there is no more striking and curious exhibition
of it, than was shown in the devices and inscriptions upon
the. envelopes of letters passing through the post-office, among
the masses ofthe people and the soldiers. Every envelope
had engraved upon it, in rude wood-cuts or steel, some patri
otic emblem, motto, or the head of some popular leader or
General. The heads most frequently thus honored, at this
time, were those of Washington, Scott, Lincoln, Lyon, Ells
worth, Douglas, McClellan, Anderson, Foote, Grant, Fre
mont, Rosecrans and Dix. The Flag, the Eagle, the Nation
al Arms, Liberty, the Temple of Freedom, the Capitol, and
Mt. Vernon, were among the emblems engraved. Mottoes
expressing devotion to the Union, to liberty, to loyalty, were
almost universally printed on the envelopes : such as "Lib
erty or death ;" " Liberty and Union;" " We have beat our
last retreat ;" " Victory or death ;" " Death to Traitors ;"
" Strike till the last armed foe expires ;" " One people and

POPULAR FEELING AFTER BULL RUN. 233
one Governraent frora ocean to ocean, frora the Lakes to the
Gulf;" Remember Ellsworth;" "Not a star shall fall ;" " Our
hearts are with the heroes who defend our glorious flag;" "Fear
not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great
reward;" "Death to Slavery;" "Down with the slave-holders;"
" We are coming, Father Abraham,
Six hundred thousand more !"
These, and hundreds of others gave expression to the deep
and all pervading feelings of the people.
Expeditions were organized and sent to the south, and Fort
Hatteras was surrendered to the Union troops on the 28th
August. On the 31st of October Port Royal came into possess
ion of the Union army. The rebels were driven out of West
Virginia, and General George B. McCleUan, who had been in
command there, and who was believed at the time, to pos
sess military ability of a high order, was called to command
the armies again gathering in vast numbers around the Cap
ital. In October, General Scott retired on account of age and
infirmity, and General McClellan was appointed to the com
mand. The policy governing the Administration as announc
ed on the close ofthe special session of Congress by the Secre
tary of War, was to receive all fugitive slaves, as well from loyal
as disloyal masters, and employ them in the service of the
United States, under such ' organizations" and in such " occu
pations" as might be most convenient. The troops, however,
were not permitted to interfere with the servants of peaceful
citizens, nor were they to be permitted to encourage such
servants to leave their masters, nor was the army to prevent
the voluntary return of slaves. Slavery was still tenderly
treated. The superstitious regard for it, which pervaded the
Nation, as if the Union was in some mysterious way, bound
up with the institution, still lingered. The question was not,
as in stern war, how can most destruction be dealt to the slave
holder, as the enemy of the Country? but rather, how can
the country carry on war, and do the institution the least
harm ? But war is a stern and rapid teacher, and these long
cherished notions, were fast disappearing before the roar of
rebel guns and the flash of rebel swords.

234 LINCOLN AND THE OVBRTHRCW OF SLAVERY.
John C. Fremont was abroad, at Paris, at the breaking
out of the rebellion. This ardent soldier, whose adventures,
in tracing a route across the Continent for the Pacific Rail
way, had given him the name ofthe "Path-finder," had long
been the object of romantic admiration, on the part of. the
American people. He had been the candidate of the Repub
licans for the Presidenc}' in 1856, and he was, for a time, a
popular idol among a large portion of the people. He has
tened home and offered his sword to the Government. He
was immediately appointed a Major General, and given
command of the Western Department, embracing Missouri
and a part of Kentucky. On the 31st of August, he issued
an order declaring martial law throughout the State of Mis
souri, and declaring that the property, real and personal, of
all persons in that State, who should take up arms against
the United States, or who should be proved to have taken an
active part with their enemies in the field, "is declared con
fiscated to the public use, and iheir slaves, if any they have, are
hereby declared free."
At this time, the contest in Kentucky, between the traitors
and Unionists, was of doubtful result. The order went far
beyond the act of Congress, which, up to this time, freed
such slaves only as were used for insurrectionary purposes,
or in aid of the rebellion. It was not in accordance with the
instructions of the Secretary of War. It was clearly compe
tent for the President, under the war power, and independent
of the act of Congress, to issue such an order ; but he was
not prepared as yet to take such a step, aud it was more
proper, when taken, that it should emanate from the Presi
dent, as the Commander-in-Chief, than from a subordinate,
and apply, generally, throughout the States in rebellion. The
order, however, was hailed with enthusiastic delight by im
pulsive and ardent patriots throughout the Union. Even
the New York Herald approved it. But it tended seriously
to embarrass the Executive, in his eftbrts to retain Maryland
and Kentucky in the Union. The spirit in which it was re
ceived in Kentucky, appears frora a letter of Hon. Joseph
Holt to the President. After pointing out the violation of
the act of Congress, he says :

JOSEPH HOLT TO THE PRESIDENT. 235
" You may judge of the alarm and condemnation with which the
Union loving citizens of Kentucky have received this proclamation.
The hope is earnestly indulged by them, as it is by myself, that this
paper was issued under the pressure of military necessity, which Gen
eral Fremont believed justified the step; but that in the pauticulars
specified, it has not your approbation, and will not be enforced in dero
gation of law. The magnitude of the interest at stake, and my ex
treme desire that by no misapprehension ofyour sentiments or purpos
es, shall the power and fervor of the loyalty of Kentucky be at this
moment abated or chilled, must be my apology for the frankness with
which I have addressed you, and for the request I venture to make,
of an expression of your views upon the points of General Fremont's
proclamation, on which I have commented.
The President, after mature deliberation, requested Gen
eral Fremont to modify this order ; but on the General's ex
pressing a preference that the President should himself do
so, Mr. Lincoln issued an order, modifying the proclamation
of Fremont so far as to make it conform to the act of
Congress. Even this modification subjected the President to rauch
censure ; but his own explanation of his modification of this
order contains a complete vindication of his conduct. He

"When, early in the war. General 1 remont attempted military emancipation, I
forbade it, because I did not think it au indispensable necessity. When a little
later. General Cameron, then Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks,
I objected,beoause 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, 1 made earnest, and successive appeals to the border States, to
favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity for mili
tary 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 surrendering the Union, and with it the Constitution,
or of laying strong hands upon tlie colored element. I chose the latter. In choos
ing it, I hoped for greater gain than loss, but of this I was not entirely confident.
More than a year of trial now shows ho loss by it in our foreign relations, none
in our home popular sentiment, none in our white railitary 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 caviling. We have the men, and we could not
have had them without the measure.
And now, let any Union man who complains of this measure, test himse-;f by
-writing down in one line, that he is for subduing the rebellion by force of arms ;
and iu the next, that he is for taking these one hundred and thirty thousand men
from the Union side, and placing them where they would be best for the measuije
he condemns. If he cannot face his case so stated, it is only because he cannot
face the truth.

236 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
I add a word which was not in the verbal conversation. In teUing this tale, I
attempt no compliment to my own sagacity. I claim not to have controUed
events, but confess plainly, that events have controlled me. Now, at the end of
three years' struggle, the Nation's condition is not what either party or any man
desired or expected. God alone can claim it. -Whither it is tending seems plain.
If God now wiUs the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North,
as well as you of the South, shaU pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong,
impartial history will flnd therein new causes to attest and revere-the Justice and
goodness of God.
From this time, strenuous efforts werfe being constantly
made to induce the President to abandon what was called
the "border State policy," and to proclaim universal eman
cipation of all the slaves, and also to arm and employ them
as soldiers against the rebellion.
A step towards this policy, and another step towards
emancipation was taken October 14, 1861, by the orders
issued by General Cameron, as Secretary of War, to Gen
eral Sherman, then about to assurae command in South
Carolina. The following extract shows its character :
You will however, in general, avail yourself of the services of any persons,
whether fugitives from labor or not, who may offer themselves to the National Gov
ernment. You will employ such persons in such services as they may be fitted for,
either as ordinary employees, or, if. "special" [the word special InterUned by
President Lincoln, and in his own handwriting,] circumstances seem to require
it, in any other capacity, with such organization in squads, companies or other
wise, as you may deem most beneficial to the service. [" This however not to
mean a general arming of them for military service."*] You will assure all loyal
masters, that Congress will provide just compensation to them for the loss of the
services of the persons so employed. And you will assure all persons held to
involuntary labor, who may be thus received into the service of the Government,
that they will, under no circumstances, be again reduced to their former condi
tion, unless at the expiration of their respective terms of service, they freely
choose to return to the service of their former masters.
It is beUeved that the course thus indicated, will best secure the substantial
rights of loyal masters, and the proper benefits to the United States, of the
services of all disposed to support the Government, while it will avoid all inter
ference with the social systems or local institutions of every State, beyond that
wbich insurrection makes unavoidable, and which a restoration of peaceful
relations to the Union under the Constitution, will immediately remove.f
This was the first authority conferred upon any commander
to avail himself of the services of fugitives from labor, and
authorizing their organization into "squads, companies or
otherwise, as might be most beneficial to the service."
* This sentence interlined by the President.
¦jTaken from the original draft, with the President's Interlineation, In possession
3f Mr. Cameron.

ARMINa NEGROES AS SOLDIERS. 237
It was the inauguration of the policy of arming the colored
men, and was a most memorable event in the progress of
that history, which placed nearly two hundred thousand
colored men in the service of the United States. The sensi
tiveness of the public mind appears by the peculiar terms of
the order, and especially by the words interlined by President
Lincoln, qualifying the order, and disclaiming the idea that
this was to "mean a general arming of them for military
service." It undoubtedly was the meaning and intention of
the Secretary of War, except for such qualification, that there
should be a general arming for military service, as private
orders were given by General Cameron to General Sherman,
to take with hira to South Carolina ten thousand extra
muskets. The execution of this order necessarily involved
emancipation. It was submitted to the President, and re
ceived his careful consideration and deliberate sanction, and
it was peculiarly appropriate that as the rebellion had its
origin in South Carolina, the policy of emancipation should
be inaugurated there.
In the meantime, what had been the progress of the Union
arms? The disastrous battle of Bull Run occurred on the
2l8t of July. The administration, as has been stated, mani
fested the utmost vigor in reorganizing and enlarging the
arraies. It now adopted the policy of placing at the head of the
armies, young, ambitious and active men, and those who
fully possessed the confidence of the people.
On the 25th of July, General Fremont had assumed com
raand of the Department of the West. General N. P. Banks
reached Harpers' Ferry, relieving General Patterson, by
whose tardy raovements. General Johnson was enabled to
reinforce Beauregard on the battle-field of Bull Run, and
snatch victory from McDowell ; and on that day, General
George B. McClellan assumed command ofthe Army ofthe
Potomac. The command in West Virginia was given to General
Rosecrans, who had gained distinguished reputation at Rich
Mountain. For the next ensuing three months, the greatest activity
prevailed, in organizing the Army of the Potomac. In the

238 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Autumn, it had reached fully 200,000 men. Previous to the
arrival of General Fremont in Missouri, the Union force
had, under the gallant leadership of Generals Lyon and
Sigel, greatly aided by the boldness, activity and prompt de
cision of Colonel Frank P. Blair, Jr., maintained the ascend-
- , ency of the Union cause, and driven the rebels far towards
the Southwest. The heroic Lyon fell at the battle of Wilson's
Creek, while bravely leading a charge, and his loss to the
Union cause was irreparable. More than any other, at that
early day, he seems to have appreciated the magnitude ofthe
rebellion. His action in Missouri was, frora the first, prompt
and bold. Modest, brave, rapid and decided, he left few
equals. He ought to have been better supported. General
Franz Sigel, a gallant German soldier, rallied the Germans
of St. Louis, organised them into regiments, and rendered
efficient service in maintaining in Missouri the Union
supremacy. It will be remembered that citizens of Illinois, scarcely
waiting the action of the Government, had, on the opening
of hostilities, promptly seized and held the very important
strategic point of Cairo. This is the terraination of the
Illinois Central Railroad, at the confluence of the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers, and is the key to the navigation of both.
Such occupation was not too soon. Here began to be con
centrated a very considerable force, and here came, very
soon, the regiments of Colonels U. S. Grant, John A. Mc
Clernand, Palmer, B. M. Prentiss, Richard J. Oglesby,
Paine, Wallace and others, whose names emblazon the
records of Illinois. Commodore A. H. Foot, in August,
assumed command of the naval forces being organized on
the Western waters. The insurgent General Sterling Price,
Governor Jackson, and Ben. McCullough, of Texas, were
very actively engaged in movements to overrun and hold
Missouri. On the 12th of September, Price attacked, with
overwhelming numbers, the heroic Colonel Mulligan at Lex
ington, and notwithstanding a most gallant defense, com
pelled his surrender. As Fremont, in command in Missouri,
was pursuing Price with a confident belief of overtaking and
crushing him, he was, on the 2d day of November, relieved

BALLS BLUFF. 239
of his command. General Fremont was the victira of in
discreet friends, df military jealousy, and political opposition.
General Hunter, who temporarily relieved him, withdrew
from the further pursuit of Price, in accordance with
suggestions or orders from Washington.
On the 29th of August, General Butler, acting in conjunc
tion with a naval force under Commodore Stringham, cap
tured and took possession of the forts at Cape Hatteras,
taking near seven hundred prisoners, guns, and a large
araount of material of war.
General McClellan had organized, armed and drilled the
iramense army which had gathered around Washington;
but as time passed on, and this great force remained inactive,
shut up in the defenses of the Capital, the Potomac closed,
and the rebel fiag in view from the National Capitol, great
impatience was felt at the inactivity of this army. Sensible
men early perceived, that while in men, material of war and
resources, we were greatly superior to the rebels, this inac
tivity was exhausting our resources, and that under it the
Union cause was losing prestige ; and the National spirit
chafed and fretted against the humiliating spectacle of an
army, 200,000 strong, permitting itself tc be shut up, and
almost in a state of siege.
On the 21st of October, occurred the sad butchery of Ball's
Bluff; evidently a blunder and a sacrifice, for which McClel
lan was responsible. At this battle fell the eloquent and
brave Senator from Oregon, Colonel Baker. In the light of
subsequent events, it is most clear that this blunder phould
have caused the removal of McClellan. Had the President
then relieved hira, and could he have found a Grant, a Sheri
dan or a Sherman, to have placed in command, what myriads
of lives might have been saved ! But McClellan had enjoyed
the confidence of Scott, and Mr. Lincoln having given him
his confidence, was very slow to withdraw it.
If he had remembered that McClellan had been a favorite
01 Jefferson Davis, while the latter was Secretary of War —
that he had been sent by hira to the Crimea, to learn, from
the Armies of France, Great Britain and Russia, how tc
fight, and that his early political associations had been witt

,240 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the leaders of the rebellion and their sympathizers in the
North — he would, perhaps, have been more slow in yielding
his confidence, and more prompt in relieving him from
command. On the 16th of November, a force under Generals Grant
and McClernand, advanced from Cairo to Belmont, attacked
the rebel camp under General Cheatham, captured twelve
guns, burned the camp, and took many prisoners. The gun
boats Tyler .and Lexington accompanied the expedition, and
rendered efficient aid.
A few months after this battle, there came to Washington
a fine, intelligent, young man, of pleasing address and manly
bearing, who had lost his right arm at Belmont. He carae
highly recommended to ask the position of assistant com
missary of subsistence, with the rank of captain. The Se
cretary of War, owing to some misapprehension, treated him
with some rudeness, whereupon the Member of Congress by
whom he was presented took him to the President. Upon
his being introduced, Mr. Lincoln, glancing at the eloquent,
empty sleeve, said : "My friend, can you write." "0 yes,"
said the young soldier, "here is some of ray writing." Look
ing at it, Mr. Lincoln instantly directed his appointraent.
"It is little I can do for you, to repay you for the loss of that
arm,' said he, "but I gladly do this." No wounded soldier
ever approached Mr. Lincoln but he was received with the
greatest kindness and friendship.
On the 10th of November, General Halleck assumed
command of the Department of the West.
On the 8th of November, Commodore Wilkes, in the San
Jacinto, intercepted the Trent, a British mail stearaer frora
Havana, with Messrs. Mason and Slidell, late Senators, and
then rebel agents ou their way to represent the Confederacy 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.
The impulse of the people, already indignant at the con
duct of Great Britain, exasperated by her early recognition
of the rebels as belligerents, was to adopt, and take the con
sequences of an act which gratified popular passion and pride.

THE TRENT AFFAIR. 241
Congress was in session, and the House of Representatives,
on motion of Lovejoy, immediately adopted a resolution of
thanks to Captain Wilkes. Fortunately, the President and
Secretary of State were cool and reticent, and did not yield
to the passion of the day. Great Britain demanded their
release. The President and Secretary carefully examined
the precedents.
Were Mason and Slidell "contraband of war?" If so,
was the method of their capture justifiable ? Resistance to
the right of search had been one chief cause of the war with
Great Britain in 1812. "One war at a time," said Mr.
Lincoln. Mr. Seward concluded the argument of one of the ablest
and most remarkable State papers of modern times in these
words : " If I decide this case in favor of my own Govern
ment, I must disavow its most cherished principles, and
reverse and forever abandon its essential policy. The country
cannot afford the sacrifice. If I maintain those principles,
and "adhere to that policy, I must surrender the case itself"
The rebel emissaries were cheerfully surrendered to Great
Britain. Had President Lincoln, yielding to popular clamor, accept
ed the challenge of Great Britain and gone to war, he would
have done exactly what the rebels desired, and thus made
Messrs. Mason and Slidell incomparably more useful to the
insurgents than they were able to be by hanging around the
courts to which they were accredited. The sober second
thought of the public cheerfully acquiesced in the course
which their judgments approved.
The Confederate Government had relied with great confi
dence on its earfy recognition by the great powers of Europe,
and the immediate concession to them of belligerent rights,
encouraged them in this expectation. The leaders of the re
bellion had been, to a great extent, the governing power at
Washington, and there is no doubt, had received before the
war opened, the encouragement of the representatives of
European Kingdoms. The Confederates, therefore, rather
rejoiced in the seizure of Slidell and Mason, believing it
would bring on a war with Great Britain, and their „owd
16

242 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
recognition. But Mr. Lincoln, with the sagacity which marked
his career as a statesman, determined that so long as there
was no recognition of the rebels as a nation, not to bring
on a war. " One war at a time," said he.
It is known that Lord Palraerston, and it is believed that
several other of the British Statesmen, desired to fight the
United States in regard to the Trent affair. It is known that
France would have followed Great Britian in recognizing
the Confederacy. A war with France and England, and with
the rebels at the same time, would have taxed the power and
resolution of the loyal people of the Uuited States to the
utmost. But it would have inspired an energy and an earn-
nestness, that was long wanting in the conduct of the war
on our " Southern brethren."
The failure of Mr. Buchanan's administration to arrest per
sons known to be plotting treason, has caused some merabers
of that administration to be regarded as particeps criminis in
the civil war which followed. Mr. Lincoln's administration
was slow in making such arrests; but as its absolute neces
sity became clearly apparent, the writ of habeas corpus was
suspended, the power was executed.
George P. Kane, Chief of Police of Baltimore, the Mayor
and Police Commissioners of that city, the Mayor of Wash
ington, and many others were arrested; but more important
than all, was the arrest of the Legislature of Maryland.
The majority of the Legislature of Maryland were seces
sionists. The Executive, and a majority of people, were for
the Union. Several of the insurgent States had been pre
cipitated into hostilities by the Legislature passing acts or
Ordinances of secession. ^
In September, 1861, the Secretary of War received infor
mation that the insurgents in Maryland, were to procure the
passage by the Legislature of that State, of an act of seces
sion, and he issued an order to General McClellan to prevent
it, by the arrest of all, or any part of the merabers thereof
Directions were issued by General McClellan to General
Banks, to execute this order. In his instructions, dated
Septeraber 12th, General McClellan says:

ARREST OF MARYLAND LEGISLATURE. 248
Some four or five of the chief men In the afl-air are to be arrested to-day. -When
they meet on the 17th, you wUl please have everything prepared to arrest the
whole party, and be sure that none escape. * * If successfully carried out, It will
go far towards b^'eoMng the back-bone of the rebellion. * * I have/ but one thing to
impress upon you ; the absolute necessity of secresy and success.
The order was successfully executed; the meeting of the
Legislature broken up, and Maryland saved from a civil war
among her own citizens.
This act has been censured as an arbitrary arrest. How
ever arbitrary, it was a nece^ssary measure, and in the
propriety of which General McClellan fully coincided.
Governor Hicks, said in the Senate of United States, " I
beheve that arrests, and arrests alone, saved the State of
Maryland from destruction. I approved them then, and I
approve them now."

OHAPTEE XI,

SECOND SESSION, THIRTY-SE-VENTH CONGRESS — CONGRESS OF 1862.
President's Message — Eeport op Secretary op War — Modi
fied BY THE President — Stanton succeeds Cameron —
Anti-Slavery Measures — Article op War Prohibiting the
Return op Fugitive Slaves — Slavery Abolished at the
Capital — Prohibited in all the Territories — Negro
Soldiers — Military Orders in Eegard to Slaves — Hun
ter's Negro Eegiments in South Carolina — Wicklippe's
EESoLurioN — Hunter's Eeply — Bill to Give Freedom to
THE Families op Negro Soldiers.
CONGRESS assembled at its regular session, December 2d,
1861, and found tfie grand drama of rebellion fully
opened and developed. Two hundred thousand Union troops
on the banks of the Potomac, confronted a rebel army then
supposed to be of equal numbers, but now known to have
been far less. The magnitude of the American rebellion,
and the principles involved, had attracted the attention of
the world, which was watching with deep interest the pro
gress of events. The common people, the lovers of liberty
and free institutions, were hopeful, yet anxious for the issue.
Those who had no faith in man's capacity for self-govern
ment, those whose interests were in making firm and per
manent old dynasties, were already exulting over the failure
of the American Repubhc, as " another bubble burst," an
other fruitless effort at self-government. Meanwhile, the
issue between freedom and slavery began to be more sharply
defined. The forbearance of the Governraent on the subject of
slavery, was cited by rebel emissaries in Europe, as evidence
244

condition of affairs DECEMBER, 1861. 245
that the issue was not freedom against slavery, but empire
and subjugation against independence and self-government.
It was obvious that sound statesmanship, as it regarded
our cause both at home and abroad, required a more vigor
ous policy. It became every day more clear that slavery was
not only the cause of the war, but, as treated thus far, an
element of great strength, and a bond of union to the rebel
States. The neglect of the government to strike decisive and
fatal blows at this institution, especially to those who did not
know and appreciate the condition of affairs in Maryland
and Kentucky, was inexplicable, and had encouraged the ene
mies, and paralyzed the friends of the republic abroad. The
friends of the administration impatiently asked, if the time
had not arrived for raaking war directly upon slavery ? They
insisted that this source of strength to the rebels could be
made a source of weakness; that the raillions of colored
people were the friends of the Republic, and could be made
to aid its cause against their masters. The period was criti.
cal. Bull Run and Ball's Bluff were unavenged, and the
great army under McClellan had as yet done nothing to give
confidence to the country. The Confederates were striving
to secure recognition abroad. Mason and Slidell, were in
Fort Warren as prisoners taken from beneath the folds of
the British flag, and England, backed by France, would make
the refusal to surrender thera, a cause of war.
Such was the condition in which Congress asserabled, and
received the President's raessage, in Lfeceraber, 1861.
This raessage has fewer of the characteristics of Mr. Lin
coln, than any other of his State papers. The truth is, he
was feeling his way, revolving the slavery question, and was
scarcely yet ready to announce a settled policy on that
subject. He congratulates Congress that the patriotism of
the people had proved equal to the occasion, and that the
number of troops tendered, greatly exceeded the force called
for. He calls the attention of Congress to the fact, that Mary
land, Kentucky, and Missouri, neither of which at his first
call for troops in April, had proraised a single soldier, had,
at the date of the message,, not less than 40,000 men in the

246 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
field under the Union flag; and that in West Virginia, the
Union men, after a severe struggle, were masters of the
country. He announced the retirement of General Scott,
and stated that public sentiment and the recommendation
of the Lieutenant General, and Executive confidence, had all
indicated Geineral McClellan as the raan upon whom to place
the command.
He said that the insurgents at the beginning, confidently
claimed a strong support from North of Mason and Dixon's
line, and that the friends of the Union were not free from ap
prehension on the point. But this was sobn settled, the
people of the free States were united for the Union. Of the
slave States, little Delaware was right from the first. Mary
land was made to seem against the Union. The soldiers of
the Republic, were assaulted, bridges were burned, and rail
roads torn up within her limits, and the Government had
been at one tirae, for several days without the ability to
bring a single regiraent over her soil to the Capital. Now
all this was changed. She had already given seven regiments
to the Union cause, and none to the enemy. Kentucky, for
sometime in doubt, was now, decidedly, and he hoped, un
changeably, on the side of the Union. Missouri was com
paratively quiet, and" he believed could not be again
overcome by the insurrectionists.
Upon the policy on the slavery question, he said, "I have
adhered to the act of Congress, confiscating property, and
freeing persons held to service, used for insurrectionary
purposes." On the subject of emancipating and arming ne
groes, he said, " The Union must be preserved, and all in
dispensable raeans raust be used, but he deprecated haste in
the use of extreme measures, which might reach the loyal,
as well as disloyal."
It is worthy of notice as illustrative of his views of the
condition of the insurgent States, and the pouKr of Congress
over them in time of war, that he recommends the establish
ment by act of Congress, of courts in the insurgent States,
when brought under the control of the National Government
in which civil rights might be adjudicated.
This is his language on that subject;

president's message. 247
" I have been urgently solicited to establish hy military power, courts
to administer summary justice in such cases. I have thus far declined
to do this, because I have heen unwilling to go beyond the pressure of
necessity in the unusual exercise of power. But the power of Congress
I suppose, is equal to the anomalous condition, and therefore I refer the
¦whole matter to Congress with the hope that a plan may be devised for
the administration of justice in all such parts of the insurgent States
as may be under the control of this Government."*
The courts were to be temporary, but, the recommendation
is conclusive, that he recognized fully, the right of Congresii
to legislate for the insurgent States, while in a condition of
war, and before they were restored to their proper relations
to the Union.
He reviewed at some length, the condition of affairs, the
advantages ofour democratic institutions; and expressed his
deep con-victions that the fate of free government was in
volved in the contest. " The struggle," said he, " of to-day,
is not altogether for to-day. It is for a vast future also."
Mr. Cameron's report, as Secretary of War, was a very
important paper. After reciting the operations of the army,
he states that under the call for 75,000 men, made by the
President, and under the call for 500,000 volunteers for
three years, authorized by act of Congress in July, there had
been raised an army of 600,000 men.
His report, as originally prepared, ably discussed and
strongly recomraended the arraing and emancipation of the
slaves of the seceding States. This part of the report was
not submitted to the President until it was in print. When
it was then brought to the knowledge of Mr. Lincoln, he
expressed surprise and some displeasure, that a member of
his Cabinet should have prepared and printed such a report,
without first submitting it to hira, and he caused the report
to be modified. A portion of this report is here presented
as a very clear and able presentation of the great question
which was then agitating the public mind :
" It has become a grave question for determination, what shall be
done with the slaves abandoned by their owners on the advance of our
* Message of December 3d, 186L MoPherson's Political History, p. 132.

248 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
troops into Sputhern territory, as in the Beaufort District of South
Carolina. The whole white population therein is six thousand, while
the number of negroes exceeds thirty-two thousand. The panic which
drove their masters in wild confusion from their homes, leaves them in
undisputed possession of the soil. Shall they, armed by their masters,
be placed in the field to fight against, or shall their labor be continually
employed in producing the means for supporting the armies of the
rebellion ?
" It was the boast of the leader of the rebellion, while he yet had a
seat in the Senate of the United States, that the Southern States would
be comparatively safe and free from the burdens of war, if it should be
brought on by the contemplated rebellion, and , that boast was accom
panied by the savage threat that 'Northern towns and cities would
become the victims of rapine and military spoil,' and that 'Northern
men should smell Southern gunpowder and feel Southern steel.' No
one doubts the disposition of the rebels to carry that threat into execu
tion. The wealth of Northern towns and cities, the produce of North
ern farms. Northern workshops and manufactories, would certainly be
seized, destroyed, or appropriated .as military spoil. No property in the
North would be spared from the hands of the rebels, and their rapine
would be defended under the laws of war. While the loyal States thua
have all their property and possessions at stake, are the insurgent rebels
to carry on warfare against the Government in peace and security to
their own property?
"Eeason, and justice, and self-preservation, forbid that such should
be the policy of this Government, but demand, on the contrary, that,
being forced by traitors and rebels to the extremity of war, all the
rights and powers of war should be exercised to bring it to a speedy
end. " Those who make war against the Government, justly forfeit all
rights of property, privilege or security derived from the Constitution
and laws against which they are in armed rebellion ; and as the labor
and service of their slaves constitute the chief property of the rebels
such property should share the common fate of war, to which they
have devoted the property of loyal citizens.
"As has been said, the right to deprive the rebels of their property
in slaves and slave labor, is as clear and absolute, as the right to take
forage from the field, or cotton from the warehouse, or powder and
arms from the magazine. To leave the enemy in the possession of such
property as forage and cotton, and military stores, and the means of
constantly reproducing them, would be madness. It is, therefore mad
ness to leave them in peaceful and secure possession of slave property

CAMERON'S REPORT. 249
more valuable and efficient to them for war, than forage, cotton, and
military stores. -Such policy would be National suicide. What to do
with that species of property, is- a question that time and choumstances
will solve, and need not be anticipated further than to repeat that they
cannot be held by the Government as slaves. It would be useless to
keep them as prisonei's of war ; and self preservation, the highest duty
of a government,- or of individuals, demands that they should be dis
posed of, or employed in the most effective manner, that will tend most
speedily to suppress the insurrection, and restore the authority of the
Government. If it shall be found that the men who have been held
by the rebels as slaves, are capable of- bearing arms, and performing
efficient military service, it ^s the right, and may become the duty of
the Government to arm and equip them, and employ their services
against the rebels, under proper military regulation, discipline and
command. " But in whatever manner they may be used by the Government, it
is plain that, once liberated by the rebellious act of their masters, they
should never again be restored to bondage. By the master's treason
and rebellion, he forfeits all right to the labor and service of his slave ;
and the slave of the rebellious master, by his service to the Government,
becomes justly entitled to freedom and protection.
I " The disposition to be made of the slaves of rebels, after the close
of the war, can be safely left to the wisdom of Congress. "The repre
sentatives of the people will unquestionably secure to the loyal slave
holders every right to which they are entitled under the Constitution."
The foregoing gives the substance of Mr. Cameron's ar
gument. By direction of the President, that part of it in
regard to emancipation and the arming of freedmen, was so
modified as to read as follows :
" It is already a grave question what shall be done with those slaves
who were abandoned by their owners on the advance of our troops into
Southern territory, as at Beaufort District, in South Carolina. The
number left within our control at that point is very considerable, and
similar cases will probably occur. What shall be done with them ?
Can we affijrd to send them forward to their masters, to be by them
armed against us, or used in producing support to sustain the i^bellion ?
Their labor may be useful to us ; withheld from the enemy it lessens
his military resources, and withholding them has no tendency to induce
the horrors of insurrection, even in the rebel communities. They con
stitute a military resource, and being suoh, that they^^hould not be

250 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
turned over to the enemy, is too plain to discuss. Why deprive him
of supplies by a blockade, and voluntarily give him men to produce
them ?
" The disposition to be made of the slaves of rebels, after the close
of the war, can be saffely left to the wisdom and patriotism of Congress.
The representatives of the people will unquestionably secure to the
loyal slaveholders every right to which they are entitled under the
Constitution qf the country-" ^
On the 14th of January, 1862, Simon Caraeron resigned
the position of Secretary of War, and Edwin M. Stanton
was appointed his successor. This appointment of a man
who had held a position in the Cabinet of Buchanan was at
first a matter of some surprise to the Republican friends of
the President.
The President was recommended to make this appoint
ment by Senator Wade, of Ohio, John A. Bingham, of the
House, and other radical members of Congress. The Presi
dent himself thought it expedient to give the appointment
to a war democrat if a suitable man could be found. It was
believed Stanton would be for vigorous fighting. Senator
Wade saiM: "If the democrats think they have gained any
thing by the appointment of Stanton, as Secretary of War,
they will learn their mistake ; they will find they have caught
'a tartar.' Stanton (in his own rough phrase) is for fight
in earnest."
, The new Secretary soon gave proof of his great energy,
his wonderful industry, and his power as an organizer. He
was always a belligerent, looking at great ends, not very
scrupulous about the means of removing the obstacles which
stood in his path, and somewhat careless of the forms and
restraints of law. Honest and true, and intensely in earnest:
if a thing was right in itself, he would cut through, ortreak
over all formal obstacles which stood in his way. His tem
per was irritable, but placable. There were many instances
of cruel^ injustice, which the more patient and just Mr. Lin
coln was compelled to correct, but he himself was ready to
repair a wrong when convinced he had coramitted one. He
acted with the radicals in Congress more, it is believed

ACTION OF CONGRESS. 251
because they were in earnest, than on account of sympathy
with their principles. He hated the slaveholding traitors
more than he loved liberty.
This, the first regular session of the Thirty-seventh Con
gress, made large advances towards the entire abolition of
slavery. Its measures were justly characterized by a Senator
as looking to ?universal abolition. By its legislation and its
grand debates, this Congress prepared the way for the great
edict of emancipation issued by Abrahara Lincoln. The
great anti-slavery raeasures which will hand down this Con
gress to immortality, were — First, The abolition of slavery
at the National Capitol. Second, The prohibition of slavery
in all the Territories. Third, The setting free the slaves of
rebels. Fourth, Giving legal authority to employ colored men,
as soldiers, thus converting slaves into patriotic Union sold
iers. Fifth, The enactment of an additional article of war,
prohibiting any officer or person in the military or naval
ser-^dce, under pain of dismissal, frora aiding in the arrest
of any fugitive slave.
These great measures were carried after long discussion,
and able and full debate. The truth of history, and j ustice
to great principles, and those who advocate them, require
that the world should know the history of these measures
whichhavechanged the character of the republic for all time
to come.
The delays and inactivity of the army, and dissatisfaction
with its movements, resulted in the creation by Congress, on
the 18th and 19th of December, of the Joint Committee on
the conduct of the war. This committee was composed of
Senators Wade, Chandler, and Andrew Johnson, of Tennes
see, on the part of the Senate ; on Mr. Johnson being ap
pointed Military Governor of Tennessee, Mr. Wright, of
Indiana, was appointed in his place; and Messrs. Gooch,
Covode, Julian and Odell, of the House.
Many of the army officers had disregarded the act of Con
gress giving freedom to all slaves employed to aid the rebels.
Rebels and rebel officers, under fiags of truce, continued to
enter the Union lines, and Union officers had been guilty of
surrendering to them colored men who had fled to their

252 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
camps, bringing most valuable information. This was, how
ever, far from being a universal practice. General Curtiss,
of Iowa, in command in Arkansas, ordered immediate eman
cipation of all slaves who had been at work for the Confede
racy by consent of their masters. So did General Hunter in
South Carolina, and he continued to do this until his general
order of the 9th of May, 1862, declaring free all slaves in his
department, consisting of South Carohna, Georgia and
Florida. 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 for 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 ofthe most important triumphs ever achieved by the slave
holders. The powerful influence of society, local public
sentiment, fashion, and the local press, in favor of the insti
tution, was ever felt; and its power, from 1800 to 1860,
could scarcely be over-estimated. 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 infiuence. Con
gress 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 ser-ving his single term in Congress, had intro
duced a bill for its gradual abolition. The President and
the friends of the Union and of liberty, at the opening of
this Congress, thought it quite time this relic of barbarism
at the National Capital should be destroyed. On the 4th of

ABOLITION OF SLAVERY AT THE CAPITAL. 253
December, Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, introduced a
resolution that the Committee on the Judiciary be directed
to consider the expediency of abolishing slavery in the
District of Columbia, with compensation to loyal owners.
On the 15th of Deceraber, he introduced a bill for the
iraraediate emancipation of slaves, and the payment to their
loyal owners of an average sum of $300, and 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. Mr. Da-vis of Kentucky, made a very remarkable
prediction to the Senate and the country, saying, "If you
should liberate the slaves in the rebellious States, the mo
ment you re-organize ihe white inhabitants of these States, as States
of the Union, they would reduce these slaves again to a state
of slavery, or they would expel thera, or hunt them like wild
beasts arrd exterminate them." Such was the humane senti
ment of the exponent of slavery ! And yet, recent events
indicate that there was too much of truth in it.
Senator WiUey of West Virginia, opposed the bill as a
part of a series of measures already initiated, looking to the
universal abolition of slavery by Congress.
In the midst of this grave debate invoMng their liberty,
many of the more intelligent colored men thronged to the
galleries of the Senate, and listened, while Senators urged
reasons for and against setting them free. Eager, anxious
and hopeful, this impressible race could not suppress the ex
hibition ofthe intense solicitude they felt in the result. Their
dark faces lighted up and saddened with the varying pro
gress of the debate. Senator Davis could not appreciate
their feelings, and he called attention to, and seemed him
self astonished at their audacity. " I saw," said he, "a few
days ago, several negroes thronging the open door, listening
to the debate on this Subject, and I suppose in a few months,
they -will be crowding white ladies out of the galleries !"
Some Senators desired to couple with emancipation, colo
nization of the colored races. Others objected to paying the

254 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
masters for the slaves, and insisted that if money was to be
paid, it ought to be fairly divided between the master and the
slave, on an equitable adjustment of wages for labor, and an
equivalent rendered by the master. Mr. Sumner closed an
eloquent speech in favor of the bill by saying, " Slavery -will
give way to freedora, but the good work will proceed. What
God and Nature decree, rebellion cannot arrest. And as the
whole wide-spread tyranny begins to tremble, then, above
the din of battle, sounding frora the sea, and echoing along
the land, above even the exultations of victory on well fought
fields, will ascend the voices of gladness and benediction,
swelling from generous hearts, wherever civilization bears
sway, to commemorate a sacred triumph, whose trophies in
stead of tattered banners, will be ransomed slaves."
The bill passed the Senate by yeas, twenty-nine, nays,
six. When the bill came up for action in the House, containing
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 nuraber of bills in advance of it on
the calender, its enemies, although in a minority, had hopes
of delaying action or defeating it.
The struggle to take up the bill came on the 10th of April,
under the lead of that accomplished, adroit, and bold parli
amentarian, Thaddeus Stevens. He moved that the House go
into committee, which motion was agreed to, Mr. Dawes of
Massachusetts, in the Chair. The Chairman called the cal
ender 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 colonization
in connection with abolition. He said : "It is in the gorge
ous region of the American tropics, that our freedmen will
find their homes ; among a people without prejudice against
their color, and to whom they will carry and impart new en
ergy and vigor, in retum 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 move-

DEBATE ON ABOLITION AT THE NATIONAL CAPITAL. 255
ment, as the true and only solution of this question of
slavery."* The venerable John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, opposed
the passage of the bill. He expressed fears that its passage
would strengthen the apprehension that Congress would in
terfere with slavery in the States, to the fear of which he at
tributed the war. He opposed it also, because it was a link
in the chain of universal emancipation.
He was replied to by Mr. Bingham of Ohio, a gentleman
of vehement, irapassioned eloquence, and of an acute and dis
criminating mind. On the subject of human rights, he was
always ardent and full of enthusiasm in favor of freedom.
After alluding to the faot that none denied the constitutional
power of Congress to abolish slavery, he considered the ques^
tion of expediency. Speaking in reply to Mr. Crittenden
concerning a quotation made by the venerable member from
Kentucky, from Magna Charta, he said :
" That great charter which the Barons wrung from the trembling,
unwilKng hands of their King six centuries ago, and which the histo
rian of the English Constitution declares to be " the keystone of En
glish hberty," only provided in the section which the gentleman cited,
that "no freeman shall be taken or imprisoned, or disseized or outlawed,
or banished, or anyways injured, nor will we pass upon him nor send
him, unless by legal judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land."
— Magna Charta, sec, 45.'\
" That provision, sir, only protected from unjust seizure, imprison
ment, disseizin, outlawry, and banishment, those fortunate enough to be
known as preemen ; it secured no privileges to vassals or slaves. Sir,
our Constitution, the new Magna Charta, which the gentleman aptly
says is the greatest provision for the rights of mankind and for the ameli
oration of their condition, rejects in its bill of rights, the restrictive
word " freeman," and adopts in its stead, the more comprehensive words
"no person," thus giving its protection to all, whether born free or bond.
The provision ofour Constitution is ' No person shall be deprived of life,
or liberty, or property, without due process of law.' This clear recog
nition of the rights of all was a new gospel to mankind, something un- ,
?Cong. Globe, 2d Sess. 37 Cong., p. 1834— p. 1636.
tl7 Vol. Cong. Globe, p. 1638, 2d sess. 37 Cong.

256 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
known to men of the thirteenth century, who then demanded and re
ceived for themselves, the acknowledgment of their rights as freemen.
The Barons of England demanded the security of law for themselves ;
the patriots of America proclaimed the security and protection of law
for all. The later and nobler revelation to our fathers was, that all
men are equal before the law. No matter upon what spot of the earth's
surface they were born; no matter whether an Asiatic or African,
a European, or an American sun first burned upon them ; no matter
whether citizens or strangers ; no matter whether rich or poor ; no mat
ter whether wise or simple ; no matter whether strong or weak ; this
new magna charta to mankind declares the rights of all to life, and lib
erty and property are equal before the law ; that no person by virtue
of the American Constitution, by the majesty of American law, shall
be deprived of life, or liberty, or property, without due process of law.
Unhappily, for about sixty years, this provision of the Constitution
here upon the hearthstone of the Eepublic, where the jurisdiction of the
Government of the United States is exclusive, without State limitation,
and subject to no restraint other than that imposed by the letter and
spirit of the Constitution, thia sacred guarantee of life and liberty and
property to all, has been wantonly ignored and disregarded as to a large
class of our natural born citizens."
In the course of the debate, he eulogised the State of
Massachusetts as follows :
* " The old Bay State, true to her sacred, her immortal traditions,
recollecting that her soil is holy ground, marked with the footprints of
the apostles and martyrs of civil and religious liberty, has held to her
ancient faith that rights, even political rights are inseparable from man
hood and citizenship, and in no wise dependent upon complexion, or the
accident of birth. I trust in God, whatever States may falter, Massa
chusetts may continue in the ancient ways forever more. Taxation
without representation, once stirred the American people hke the blast
of a trumpet; rather than submit to it, they proclaimed resistance
unto death. In the purer and better days of the Eepublic, taxation
only with representation, was the very sign under which the Jefferso
nian Democracy were wont to conquer."
He then proclaims the identity of Christianity and
-Democracy: *Cong. Globe, 2d sess, 37 Cong, p. 1639.

SPEECH OF JOHN A. BINGHAM. 257
" They found out and adopted a wiser, juster and better policy, than
pagan ever knew. They learned it from the simple but profound teach
ings of Him who went about doing good ; who was no respecter of per
sons, who made the distant land of his nativity forever sacred to man
kind, and whose intense holiness shed majesty over the manger and the
straw, and took from the cross its shame and reproach. By His great
apostle, came to men and nations the new message, declaring the true
God, to whom the pagan inscribed unknown upon His altar ; that God
who made the world, and giveth to all life and breath, and hath made
of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth.
From this new message to men, has sprung, the new and better civil
ization of to-day. What was your declaration at Philadelphia on the
4th of July 1776, that ' All men are created equal,' but a reiteration
of the great truth announced by the apostle of the Nazarene ? What
but this is the sublime principle of your Constitution, the equality of
all men before the law ? To-day we deliberate whether we shall make
good, by legislation, this vital principle of the Constitution, here, in
the Capital of the Eepublic'
Crittenden had said " The time was unpropitious." " Sir,"
said Mr, Bingham, " I think no time is unpropitious for an
act of siraple justice."
Bingham closed his eloquent speech by saying : " One
year ago (llth April 1861) slavery opened its batteries of
treason upon Fort Surater at Charleston ; let the anniversary
of the crime be signalized by the banishment of slavery from
the National Capital." ^
Said Riddle of Ohio :
" The result of this war is freedom to all. Every day of its contin
uance, every delay, every dragging moment, makes this end the more
inevitable. Every step on slave soil, every battle fought, no matter
with what temporary result, every musket fired, every sword brandish
ed, every soldier that suffers, and every heart that mourns, but makes
this result the more absolute. Our early disasters. Bull Eun and Ball's
Bluff, the death of Lyon and the removal of Fremont, shall all bear
rich fruits ; and the breeze that mournfully lifts the flag of the drown
ed Cumberland, where the bitter salt sea quenched the noblest hearts
that ever burned with American heroism, shall yet bear to earth's ends,
the legend of a continent made free ! * * * * *
" It is most fitting that while the army marches to the restoration of
the National power over the form of fallen slavery, and tramps its' life
17

258 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
out, that the solemn lustration of the Nation's Capital should be per-
. formed by our hands ; that these fetters should dissolve in our breath,
so that when our country again confronts her sister nations, though her
feet should still be ensanguined with the mingled blood of her filial and
parricidal children, she may present her countenance in cloudless, though
saddened beauty, purged of its hideous deformity, by her own uncon
strained hand.
" Make haste to complete this great act, and it shall proclaim itself to
the waiting and oppressed of the earth, as the realized gospel of dehv
erance. The yellow waves of the Potomac in their downward flow to
the sea, shall whisper in liquid murmurs to the great sleeper on its
banks, that the city that bears his name, is now worthy of it.''
Wickliffe of Kentucky, venerable in years, but fiery and
vehement in temper, moved to amend the bill by striking
out the provision prohibiting the exclusion of witnesses on
account of color ; he said : " I do hope the friends of the
bill will not so far outrage the laws of the District, as to
authorize slaves or free negroes to be witnesses !"
Stevens, in reply, expressed the hope that the committee
would not so far " continue an outrage as not to allow any
man of credit whether white or black, to be a witness."
Mr. Vallandigham vehemently opposed the bill, declaring
truly there were not ten men in the Thirty-sixth Congress,
who would have voted for the abolition of slavery in the
District. The slaveholders, by their rebellion had produced
the charige. After various amendments, and long continued
struggle to defeat the bill by parliamentary tactics, on motion
of Mr. Stevens, the previous question was sustained, and the
bill passed by a vote of 92 ayes to 38 noes. This bill was
approved by the President, and became a law on the 16th
day of April. Its passage was hailed with joy throughout
the Union, and the colored men themselves met in their
churches, and offered their gratitude to Almighty God for
liberty. A distinguished officer of the old United States array
states that years before the rebellion, he had been much
among the slaves, and that in passing their cabins at night,
when they supposed no white man was near, his attention

SLAVERY PROHIBITED IN THE TERRITORIES. 259
had been often arrested by hearing earnest prayers; and
going nearer, he heard men and women praying to God for
their liberty. Such was the impression which the earnest
ness and faith of these poor creatures made upon him, that
he declares, that fi-om that time, he never doubted but sooner
or later, the slaves would be freed.
The territories had long been the battle-fields on which
free labor and slavery had struggled for supremacy. Tke
early policy of the Governraent, that of the fathers, was
prohibition. The proposition of Jefferson, that slavery should
never exist in any territory of the United States failed only by
one vote, caused by the absence of the delegate from New
Jersey. The ordinance of 1787 inaugurated the policy.
Slavei-y was strong enough in 1820 to secure a division by
an isothermal line of 36° 30' of latitude, embodied in what was
called the Missouri 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 pro
hibit slavery in the Territories, and then the hand-to-hand
struggle in Kansas followed. The distinct issue of the ex
clusion of slavery by Congressional enactment was, in 1860,
submitted to the people, and Mr. Lincoln was elected upon
the distinct and unequivocal pledge to the policy of
prohibition. On the 24th of March, 1862, Mr. Arnold, of Illinois, intro
duced " a Bill to render freedom national, and slavery sec
tional," and which, after reciting " To the end that freedom
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, it was enacted that slavery, except as a
punishment of crime, whereof the party had been duly con
victed, should henceforth cease and be prohibited forever, in
all the following places, viz. : 1st, In all the Territories of the
United States then existing, or thereafter to be formed or
acquired in any way. 2d, In all places purchased or acquired
with the consent of the United States for forts, raagazines.

260 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
dock-yards and other needful buildings, and over which the
United States have or shall have exclusive legislative juris
diction. 3d, In all vessels on the high seas. 4th, 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 and
Jeff. Davis.
Mr. Fisher, in an able speech, 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 conservative members,
Mr. Lovejoy offered an araendraent, striking out all except
the prohibition of slavery in the Territories, and on which
he demanded the previous question, and the bill passed
the House, ayes eighty -five, noes fifty. The bill was
slightly modified in the Senate, and finally passed the House
on the 19th of June, prohibiting slavery forever in all the
Territories of the United States now existing, or that might
hereafter be acquired. Thus, the second great step towards
the destruction of slavery was taken ; and closing the great
struggle over slavery in the Territories, which had agitated
the country, with short intervals, since the organization of
the Republic under the Constitution. Had this act been
passed in 1784, when Jefferson proposed one substantially
like it, the terrible war of the slaveholders would never have
come upon the Republic. The institution would never have
grown to such vast power. Missouri would have had the
wealth and position of Ohio, and slavery, driven by raoral
and econoraical influences towards the Gulf, -would have
gradually and peacefully disappeared.
We have seen that the Secretary of War, on the 14th of
Septeraber, 1861, instructed General Sherman to avail him
self of the service of any persons, whether fugitives from
* See Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-seventh Congress, 2042.

NEGRO SOLDIERS. <- 261
labor or not, who might offer themselves to the National Gov
ernment, aild he was instructed to employ them in such service
as they might be best fitted for ; aud that he might organize
them into squads, companies or otherwise, as he might deem
most beneficial to the ser-vice. This was qualified by the
President, so as not to mean "a general arming for military
service." It will be remembered that a portion of the report of Mr.
Cameron, as Secretary of War, recommending the general
arraing of the slaves, made December 1, 1861, was stricken
out by order of the President. The public sentiment had
not at that time, in his judgment, advanced far enough to
warrant this measure. Indeed, whether the Government
should avail itself of the ready and willing services of citizens
and slaves of African descent, was, strangely enough in the
light of the present, a question which agitated the public
mind in the early stages of the rebellion. Many very loyal
and sincere men hesitated, and some opposed it. We have
seen that at first, colored men escaping to the Union lines,
though bringing with them most important intelligence, and
strong arms and brave and loyal hearts, found there no wel
come, but, on the contrary, were repelled ; and in some in
stances, rebel masters were permitted to hunt loyal fugitive
slaves within fhe Union lines, and within Union camps.
General Halleck issued an order, November 20, 1861, pro
hibiting fugitive slaves from being admitted within the lines
of his army, a*nd expelling those who had already taken
refuge there.* On the 2d of February, 1862, he repeated the
order that no fugitive slaves should be admitted within the
lines or camps, except by special order of the Coraraanding
General. General Buell, on the 6th of March, 1862, declared: "It
has corae to my knowledge, that slaves sometimes make
their way improperly into our lines, and, in some instances,
they may be enticed there, but I think the number has been
raagnified by report. Several applications have been made
to me by persons whose servants have been found in our
camps, and in every instance that I know of, the master has
recovered his servant, and taken him away."
* Mcpherson's Hist., p. 248-250.

262 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Even gallant General Hooker, on the 26th of March, was
capable of issuing an or^er authorizing slave masters to
search for fugitive slaves through all the camps of his
coramand. He said: "Messrs. Nally, Gray, Dumraington,
Dent, Adams, Speake, Price, Posey and Cobey, citizens of
Maryland, have negroes supposed to be with some of the
regiraents of this division. The brigadier general com
manding, directs that they may be permitted to visit all the
camps of his command in search of their property, and if
found, that they be allowed to take possession of the same
without any interference whatever. Should any obstacle be
thrown in their way by any officer or soldier, in the division,
they will be at once reported by the regimental commanders
to these headquarters."
On the contrary. General Doubleday, on the 8th of April,
1862, directed that all negroes coming into the lines of any
of the camps or forts of his command, should be treated as
persons, and not as property; 'and declaring that under no
circumstances has the commander of a camp or a fort the
power of surrendering a person claimed as a fugitive slave.
The article of war recently enacted by Congress prohibits it.
This General expressed the opinion that the fugitives
brought much valuable information, which could not be ob
tained from any other source, and were most valuable as
scouts, guides and spies;
General T. Williams, ou the 5th of June, 1862, ordered
that all fugitives, negroes in his camps should be turned out
beyond his lines of guards and sentinels. Colonel Paine, of
Wisconsin, refused to obey this order, as violating the new
article of war, and for this offence he was placed under
arrest. It is difficult to realize the tyranny which slavery had es
tablished over the minds of the people, even of the free
States. The foregoing orders, perhaps, furnish as striking
illustration of it as any fact in history. That there should
ever have been any hesitation in welcoming loyal colored
men, and transferring them from aiding the rebels, to the
Union side, is indeed very strange. The prejudice that so
long held the minds of the people to the sacred rights of

NEGRO SOLDIERS. 263
slaveholding, and in which these orders against fugitive
slaves were conceived, began to disappear in the smoke of
battle. The first regiment of negro troops raised during the war,
was raised and organized by General Da-nd Hunter, in the
Spring of 1862, while in command in the Department of the
South. He had been a graduate at West Poiut, and was
educated as a pro-slavery man, but like the gallant Lyon,
serving in Kansas during the period the effort was made to
force slavery upon that territory, the outrages of the slave
holders converted him into a radical abolitionist. Finding
hiraself charged with the duty of holding the coast of Florida,
South Carolina and Georgia, with very inadequate force, and
the Governraent being at that time unable to furnish raore,
seeing the three States of his coraraand swarraing with able-
bodied negroes, all loyal Union men, ready to fight for their
libertj', he saw no reason why they should not be organized
into soldiers. He accordingly proceeded vigorously in the
.work of organizing and drilling these negroes, and reporting
his proceedings to the Secretary of War received no response.
Meanwhile the facts were spread through the land, and came
to the ears of Mr. Wickliffe — a fierce pro-slavery member of
Congress from Kentucky.
The border States were particularly sensitive on the sub
ject of fugitive slaves and colored citizens being used as
soldiers, and on the 9th of June, 1862, on raotion of Mr.
Wickliffe, of Kentucky, the House adopted the following
resolution: " Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to inform this
House — 1st, If General Hunter, of the Department of South Carohna,
has organized a regiment of South Carolina volunteers for the defence
of the Union, composed of black men_(fugitive slaves,) and appointed
th.i colonel and other officers to command them. 2d, Was he author
ized by the Department to organize and muster into the army of the
United States, as soldiers, its fugitive or captured slaves ? 3d, Has he
been furnished -(vith clothing, uniforms, etc., for such force ? 4th, Has
he been furnished by order of the Department of War with arms to be
placed in the hands of these slaves ? 5th, To report any orders given
said Hunter, and correspondence between him and the Department."

264 LINCOLN AND' THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
This resolution was forwarded by the Secretary of War
to Hunter, with a request for an immediate reply. In
response to this, General Hunter made the following reply :
"Sir: — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a communica
tion from the Adjutant General of the Army, dated June 18, 1862,
requesting me to furnish you with the information necessary to answer
certain resolutions introduced in the House of Eepresentatives, June
9, 1862, on motion of Hon. Mr. Wickliffe, of Kentucky, — the sub
stance being to inquire : — 1st, Whether I had organized or was organ
izing a regiment of 'fugitive slaves' in this Department. 2d, Whe
ther any authority had been given to me from the War Department
for such organization. Sd, Whether I had been furnished by order
of the War Department with clothing, uniforms and equipments, etc.,
for such a force.
" To the first question, therefore, I reply that no regiment of ' fugi
tive slaves ' has been, or is being, organized in this Department. There
is, however, a fine regiment of persons, whose late masters are 'fugitive
rebels' — men who, everywhere fly before the appearance of the Na
tional flag, leaving their servants behind them to shift as best they can
for themselves. So far, indeed, are the loyal persons composing this'
regiment from seeking to avoid the presence of their late owners, that
they are now, one and all, working with remarkable industry to place
themselves in a position to go in full and effective pursuit of their
fugacious and traitorous proprietors.
" To the second question, I have the honor to answer that the instruc
tions given to Brigadier General W. T.Sherman, by Hon. Simon Cameron,
kte Secretary of War, and turned over to me by succession, for my
guidance, do distinctly authorize me to employ alMoyal persons offering
their services in defence of the Union, and for the suppression of this
rebellion, in any manner I might see fit, or that the circumstances
might call for. There, is no restriction as to the character or color of
the persons to be employed, or the nature of the employment, whether
civil or military, in which their services should be used. I conclude,
therefore; that I have been authorized to enlist 'fugitive slaves' as
soldiers, could any such be found in this Department. No such charac
ters, however, have yet appeared within view of our most advanced
pickets — the loyal slaves everywhere remaining on their plantations to
welcome us, aid us, and supply us with food, .labor and information. It
is the masters who have, in every instance, been the 'fugitives,' running
away from loyal sla.ves as well as loyal soldiers, and whom we have only
partially been able to see, chiefly their heads over ramparts, or, rifle

hunter's reply to WICKLIFFE. 265
in hand, dodging behind trees in the extreme distance. In the absence
of any 'fugitive master law,' the deserted slaves would be wholly with
out remedy, had not the crime of treason given them the right to pur
sue, capture and bring back those persons, of whose protection they
have been thus suddenly bereft.
"To the third interrogatory, it is my painful duty to reply that 1
never have received any specific authority for issues of clothing, uni
form, arms, equipments, etc., to th« troops in question — my general
instructions from Mr. Cameron to employ them in any manner I might
find necessary and the military exigencies of the Department and the
country, being my only, but, in my judgment, sufficient justification.
Neither have I had any specific authority for supplying these persons
with shovels, spades and pickaxes, when employing them as laborers,
nor with boats and oars when using them as lightermen, but these are
not points included in Mr. Wickliffe's resolution. To me, it seemed
that liberty to employ men in one particular capacity, implied with it,
liberty, also, to supply them with the necessary tools; and, acting upon
this faith, I have clothed, equipped and armed the only loyal regiment
yet raised in South Carolina.
'' I must say, in vindication of my own conduct, that had it not been
for the many other diversified and imperative claims on my time and
attention, a much more satisfactory result might have been hoped for,
and that in place of only one, as at present, at least five or six well
drilled, brave and thoroughly acclimated regiments should by this time
have been added to the loyal forces of the Union. The experiment of
arming the blacks, so far as I have made it, has been a complete and
marvellous success. They are sober, docile, attentive and enthusiastic,
displaying great natural capacity for acquiring the duties of the soldier.
They are eager beyond all things to take the field and be led into ac
tion ; and it is the unanimous opinion of the officers who have had
charge of them, that, in the peculiarities of this climate and country,
they will prove invaluable auxiliaries, fully equal to the similar regi
ments so long and successfully used by the British authorities in the
West India Islands.
"In conclusion, I will say it is my hope — there appearing no possi
bility of other reinforcements owing to the exigencies of the campaign
in the Peninsula — to have organized by the end of next Fall, and to
be able to present to the Government, from forty-eight to fifty thousand
of these hardy and devoted soldiers."
The grim Secretary read this reply with great satisfaction,
and hurried it down to Congress, and its reception there fur
nished one ofthe most amusing and interesting scenes which

266 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
ever occurred in a grave, deliberative body. The irascible
Kentuckian foamed with rage, while shouts of laughter
greeted the reading of the reply from all parts of the House.
Hunter's successful movement in organizing colored soldiers,
and this sarcastic reply, settled the question -that negroes
should have the privilege of fighting for the Union and their
own liberty.
For this act of common sense. General Hunter was
outlawed by the Confederates.
On the 9th of July, 1862, Senator Grimes, of Iowa,
moved to amend the bill providing for the calling out of the
mihtia, by providing ; "that there should be no exemption
from military service on account of color ; that when the mili
tia should be called into service, the President should have full
power and authority to organize them according to race or
color." Senator Carlisle, of West Virginia, declared that the negro
constituted no part of the militia of his State.
Preston King, of New York, moved to amend the amend
ment of Mr. Grimes, by providing, that the President should
be authorized to receive into the service of the United States
for any war service for which they might be found compe
tent, persons of African descent; clothing the President with
full power to enroll and organize them and to feed, and pay
them such compensation as they might agree to receive, and
that when any man or boy of African descent, should render
such service, he, his mother, and wife and children, should
forever thereafter be free." Mr. Grimes accepted this
amendment. Mr. Fessenden, the distinguished Senator from Maine, in
the discussion of this bill, said:
" I tell the President from my place here as a Senator, and I tell the
generals of our army, they must reverse their practices and their course
of proceeding on this subject. * * * j advise it, here from my
place — treat your enemies as enemies, as the worst of enemies, and
avail yourselves like men, of every power which God has placed in your
hands, to accomplish your purpose, within the rules of civilized
warfare."

EMPLOYMENT OF NEGRO SOLDIERS. 267
The ever faithful Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, said:
" The Senator from Delaware, as he is accustomed to do, speaks boldly
and decidedly. He asks if American soldiers will fight, if we organize
colored men for military purposes. Did not American soldiers fight at
Bunker Hill with negroes in the ranks, one of whom shot down Major
Pitcairn as he mounted the works ? Did not American soldiers fight at
Eed Bank, with a black regiment from your own State sir? (Addressing
Senator Anthony, of Ehode Island, then in the Chair.) Did they not fight
on the battle-field of Ehode Island, with that black regiment, one of the
best and bravest that ever trod the soil of this continent? Did not
American soldiers fight at Fort Griswold with black men ? Did they
not fight with black men in almost every battle-field of the Eevolution ?
Did not the men of Kentucky and Tennessee, standing on the lines ,of
New Orleans, under the eye of Andrew Jackson, fight with colored
battallions whom he had summoned to the field, and whom he thanked
publicly, for their gallantry in hurling back a British foe ? It is all
talk, idle talk, to say that the volunteers who are fighting the battles of
this country, are governed by any such narrow prejudice or bigotry.
These prejudices are the results of the teachings of demagogues and
politicians, who have for years, undertaken to delude and deceive the
American people, and to demean and degrade them."
Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, said :
" In my own State, I have no doubt that there are from eighty to a
hundred thousand slaves, that belong to disloyal men. You propose to
place arms in the hands of the men and boys, or such of them as are
able to handle arms, and to manumit the whole mass, men, women,
and children, and leave them among us. Do you expect us to give our
sanction and our approval to these things? No, no! We would regard
their authors as our worst enemies ; and there is no foreign despotism
that could come to our rescue, that we would not joyously embrace, be
fore we would submit to any such condition of things as that. But
before we had invoked this foreign despotism, we would arm every man
and boy that we have in the land, and we would meet you in a death
struggle, to overthrow together, such an oppression and our oppressors."
The wise, sedate, and conservative Mr. CoUamer said:
" I never could understand, and do not now understand why the
Government of the United States has not the right to the use of every

268 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
man in it, black or white, for its defense; and every horse, every particle
of property, every dollar in money of every man in it. * * *
The second section of the amendment provides, that when any man or
boy of African descent, who, by the laws of any State, owes service or
labor to any person, who, during the present rebellion, has borne arms
against the United States, or adhered to their enemies, by giving them
aid or comfort, shall render to the United States any such service as is
provided in the preceding section, he, his mother, and his wife and
children, shall forever thereafter, be free, any law or usage to the con
trary notwithstanding. I have a word to say about that. I am con
strained to say, whether it is to the honor or dishonor of my country,
that, in the land of slavery, no male slave has a child ; none is known as
father to a child; no slave has a wife, marriage being repudiated in the
slave system. This is the condition of things; and wonderful as it may
be, we are told that that is a Christian institution!"
Mr. Ten Eyck, a republican Senator frora New Jersey,
moved to strike out the words " military and naval," before
" service," fearful of offending the sensitiveness of the public,
in regard to employing negroes iu the military service. Hon
est Preston King said, " we may as well meet this question
directly, and that he had done talking in such a manner as
to avoid giving oftence to our enemies in this matter." He
related an incident, "that, in March, 1861, the Captain of
the watch at the Capitol, desired permission to omit hoisting
the National flag over the Senate chamber, because it hurt
the feelings of some people to look at it!"
John Sherman, of Ohio, raoved that the provisions, giving
freedom to the slave and his family, as a reward for railitary
service, should apply to those only, who are owned by rebel
masters! He said:
" When we take the slave of a loyal man and make him work for us,
I do not for that reason, wish to deprive the master entirely of what he
regards as his property, or what is regarded by local law as his property.
If we inflict injury on him by taking his property and using it for the
time being, we certainly should not in addition to that, deprive him of
his property altogether. The slave is in no worse condition than he was
before, and I think it would be grossly unjust and improper now, or at
any time, to deprive the owner of a slave of the legal right to the

NEGRO SOLDIERS. 269
service of his slave, if he is a loyal and true man, and has done his duty
in the emergency. I certainly would not vote for such a proposition."
Mr. King, in reply said :
" When we take a slave to serve the country in this emergency, my own
opinion is, that he should be made free, whether he belongs to a rebel
or not. I should like to have a division on this amendment, so as to
have an opportunity to record my vote upon it. It is so plain a
proposition, that it does not need any discussion."
Mr. Browning, of Illinois, moved to amend so that the
mother, wife, and children of the slave fighting for the
country, should be free, only in those cases where they were
owned by rebels. This proposition received in the United
States Senate, 17 votes. Rough and blunt Jaraes Lane,
Senator from Kansas, said :
" After this war is over, a soldier, perhaps covered with scars,
his mother, wife and children around him, having escaped, or their
masters escaped from them, are in Washington City. I say that the
Government that would restore that mother, that wife and those chil
dren to slavery, after that father and husband has been covered with
wounds in defence of the country, deserves to be damned. God himself
would turn his face against a Government that would commit a crime
like that. Let me tell the Senator from Illinois, the bill provides that
if the mother, wife and children, belong to a loyal person, he is to get
remuneration from the Government, as the Senator or I would for our
property. I deny that this Government cannot take the slaves of the
loyal and disloyal, and that they are estopped from making any use of
them that they choose for the suppression of this rebellion ; and having
made use of them, I say it would be a crime before God to returp them
to slavery." Senators Sherman, and Browning, and all who voted
for these araendraents, have lived, I think, to blush for these
votes, and wish that the record could be obliterated.
Senator Howard, of Michigan, said :
" I do not care how lowly, how humble, how degraded a negro may
be, if he takes his musket or any other implement of war, and risks

270 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
his life to defend me, my countrymen, my family, my Government, my
property, my liberties, my rights, against any foe, foreign or domestic,
it is my duty under God, it is my duty as a man, as a lover of justice,
to see to it that he shall be free."
Senator Wilson called attention to the fact, that while
thousands of negroes would have gladly sought refuge in the
lines of our armies, and labored for low wages, they were
repelled; and that thousands and thousands of the young
men of New England, and the North, had been broken do-wn
by the labor of the spade in ditching and entrenching, which
labor the fugitive slave would gladly have relieved them
from. The bill finally passed, giving freedora to all who should
perform military service, but restricting liberty to the families
of such only as belonged to rebel masters.
The bill passed the House on the 16th of July, 1862, and
on the 17th, it received the sanction of the President, and
became a law. <
The measure thus sanctioned by Congress was the inaugur
ation of a systera which resulted in bringing into the service
of the United States, 186,057 soldiers, nearly two hundred
thousand! The loss by wounds, disease, and all causes, of
the negro soldiers during the war, was sixty-eight thousand
one hundred and seventy-eight. This was the contribution of
the negro towards the preservation of the Union, and the
acquisition of liberty for his race !
The good, faithful, and just Lincoln said, in this connection :
" Negroes, like other people, act upon motives. Why should they do
anything for us, if we will 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 heing made must he kept."
The.' job' of saving the Nation, was a great National one, and let none
be slighted who bore an honorable part in it. There are some negroes
living who can remember, and the children of some who are dead, who
will not forget, that some black men with steady eye and well poised
bayonet, helped mankind to save liberty in America."

EMPLOYMENT OF NEGRO SOLDIERS. 271
This measure was as iraportant and effective in aiding in
the overthrow of slaverj', as in crushing armed resistance to
the Union. To the accomplishment of both of these great
objects, the President was anxiously but cautiously looking.
Measures were imraediately taken to enroll negro soldiers as
well in the rebel territory, as in the border and free States,
and this wms a powerful agency in redeeraing Maryland,
Missouri, and Tennessee, frora the curse of slavery.

OHAPTEE XII.

CONFISCATION AND EMANCIPATION.
Bill to Confiscate the Property and Emancipate the Slaves
OP Eebels — Action op, the Senate — Or the House — Speech
OF Crittenden — Eeply op Lovejoy — Wade, op Ohio —
Sedgwick — Passage op the Bill — Joint Eesolution Ex
planatory THEREOF — President's Message — Elliott's Eman
cipation Eesolution — President's Message Recommending
Gradual and Compensated Emancipation — Hunter's Order
Freeing Slaves in South Carolina, etc. — Lincoln Declares
it Unauthorized — His Address to Border State Delegation
in Congress.
ON the 16th of July, 1861, Senator Pomeroy, introduced a
bill into the Senate, " To suppress the slaveholder's rebel
lion." This bill abolished slavery in the seceding states. It was
a measure too bold and decided for that session, but time and
war soon effected, what this bill sought to accomplish. Va
rious propositions were introduced at the regular session for
the purpose of giving freedom to the slaves of rebels.
Senator Trumbull, Chairman of the Ju'diciary Committee,
on the 5th of December, introduced a bill which provided,
that the slaves of persons who should take up arms against
the United States, or in any manner aid or abet the rebellion,
should be discharged from service and labor, and become
forever free, any law to the contrary notwithstanding. The
measure was zealously advocated by Senators Morrill, Sum
ner, Wade, Wilmot, and others, and opposed by Senators
Davis, Powell, Wiley and others. Finally, after a long dis
cussion, ithe bill and the various amendments were referred
to a committee of nine, with instructions to report as early
as possible. This committee, through its Chairman, Mr.
272

confiscation and emancipation. 273
Clark, of New Hampshire, reported a substitute for the vari
ous bills and araendraents which had been introduced. This
substitute provided, in substance — First, That at any tirae
after the passage of the act, the President might issue his
proclamation, proclaiming the slaves of persons found thirty
days after the issuing of the proclamation in arms against
the Governraent, free, any law or custora to the contrary not
withstanding — Second, That no slave escaping from his
master should be given up, unless the claimant should estab
lish by proof that he had given no aid to the rebellion, and.
Third, That the President should be authorized to employ
persons of African descent for the suppression of the rebellion.
This last clause illustrates the strength of the still lingering
influence of slavery, as though a law of Congress was neces
sary to enable the President to employ persons of African rfe-
scent to suppress the rebellion ! The whole people, black as
well as white, were subject to the call of the President for
the preservation of the Government.
Strange that any should dream that the master's claim to
service, and especially a rebel raaster's claim, could stand in
the way of the Government's claim for service as a soldier.
The Government could, forsooth, take the son from the
father, but not the slave from the master! If the persons
held to service were property, the Government could take it
for the public and use it for its self preservation. If persons,
then they were subject to call for military services.
Various propositions to effect purposes of confiscation and
emancipation, were introduced into the House. The subject
was debated in various forms during the Winter and Spring
of 1862, and finally, on the 8th of April, the whole subject
was referred to a Select Comraittee of nine, to report on the
various propositions pending.
Perhaps one of the most interesting passages in the whole
debate was that which occurred between Mr. Crittenden, the
grey haired, venerable member from Kentucky, and Mr.
Lovejoy, of Illinois. Crittenden was the head of a leading
and influential slaveholding family of his State, and had
been the successor of Henry Clay, as the leader of the old
Whig party of Kentucky, An able and eloquent man, his
18

274 LINCOLN and THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
influence was great in his own State, and considerable
throughout the Union. In a great speech raade on the 23d
of April, in opposition to the confiscation bill, 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 this 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 choose to be, in these times, a
mere sectarian and a party man, thai niche will be reserved for some
future and better patriot. It is in his power to occupy a place next to
Washington — 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 of our institutions forbade him to do, is no
proof of his cowardice."
This Speech of Mr. Crittenden, was regarded as an appeal
from the ablest, and raost influential border State raan, to
Mr. Lincoln, to stay his hand; to withhold the proclamation
of Emancipation, and save the imperiled institution of slavery.
The border State men were ready to crown him the peer
of Washington, if he would save slavery. Lovejoy, who
knew Mr. Lincoln well, and appreciated him, replied :
" The gentleman from Kentucky, says, he has a niche for Abraham
Lincoln. Where is it? He points upwards. But sir. should the Pres
ident 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 tortured, and outside the walls, are lying, dogs gorged with
human flesh, as Byron describes them, stretched around Stamboul.
' That ' said he, is a suitable place for the statue of one who would
defend and perpetuate slavery.
" Sir, the friends of American slavery need not beslime the President
with their praise. He is an anti-slavery man 1 He hates human bond
age. The gentleman says he did not vote for him. Why did not the
gentleman remind the House that he did vote for a man now among tha
rebels? I did vote for the occupant of the Executive Chair, and labored

lovejoy's reply to CRITTENDEN. 275
for his election, as I never labored for that of any other man If the
gentleman wants to sustain the President in his administration in its
stormy and perilous voyage, why did he not vote for his wise and patri
otic message, hailed and approved, so far as I know, by the whole
country, except slaveholders ? I voted cordially for that message. Ex
treme men, as they are called, voted for that message. On saying as I
have said, slavery must perish, I do not mean that it must perish at
once necessarily. Nor while I say that the slaves can take care of them
selves, and that they should be let alone, do I mean to ^ireclude the idea
of colonization that is not compulsory. The message of the President,
therefore, presented ground where all might stand, the conservative
and radical, and with common purpose and combined effort, put forth
their exertions for the beneficent object of universal emancipation, ac
companied by colonization, if just to the slave, and best for the country.
Why did not the gentleman vote for it? I yield to no one in my honest
belief in the pure patriotism of the President. I believe in these
respects, he stands by the side of Washington.
"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 slave fetters and chains, but with the symbols of free
dom; not dark with bondage, but radiant with the light of liberty. In
that niche he shall stand proudly, nobly, gloriously, with shattered fet
ters and broken chains, and slave whips beneath 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; aye, 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 that temple which rears itself amid the thrones and hierarchies of
Heaven, whose top stone is to be brought in with shouting of grace,
grace, unto it.
" It is said that Wilberforce went up to the judgment seat with the
broken chains of eight hundred thousand emancipated slaves. And it
is not too much to believe that the slave liberated by the beneficent
power of the President, should, in that future world, next to the God
that made him, and the Savior -who redeemed him, thank the benefac
tor who released him from the thraldom of slavery, and allowed him to
learn the pathway to Heaven in the light of that volume which had to

276 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF. SLAVERY.
him, been a sealed book. This is a fame worthy the aspirations of the
noblest nature. But the soul recoils from the accursed and bloody fame
to which the gentleman would consign the President aa the champion
of human bondage, • and the preserver and perpetuator of American
slavery." Dark would his fame be ! darker stlU
His Immortality of 111.
These two speeches, from the champions of slavery and
freedom, were read to Mr. Lincoln, in his library at the
White House, a roora to which he soraetiraes retired. He
was moved by the picture which Lovejoy drew. The tre-
• mendous responsibilities growing out of the slavery question;
how he ought to treat those sons of " unrequited toil," were
questions, sinking deeper and deeper into his heart. With
a purpose firmly to follow the path of duty, as God gave
him to see his duty, he earnestly sought the divine guidance.
The Select Committee, to which the subject was referred,
by Mr. Elliott, reported two bills : " a bill to confiscate the pro
perty of rebels," etc., and '.'a bill to free from servitude, the
slaves of rebels engaged in abetting the existing rebellion
against the United States." The latter bill declares a forfeiture
of all claims to service by an armed rebel to the persons known
as slaves, and makes them free. It declares that the fact that
a claimant had been in arms against the United States in the
rebellion, should be a good defence to any claim of service
set up by him. It required every claimant to establish
affirmatively, not only his claim to the service, but his own
loyalty. The passage of this bill was earnestly and ably pressed by
Elliott, of Massachusetts, and Noell, of Missouri. This earn
est patriot from the slave State of Missouri, urged the passage
of the bill in the following terras:
" But it is the weakness of cowards, or sympathy for murderous
traitors, that now while they confront us at all points with arms in
their hands, and shoot down our fathers, sons, husbands, lovers and
friends, that now lifts up weak hands in helpless horror and raise
querulous voices in feeble wails and cries for mercy to the rebels.
Mercy now, is treason, rape, arson, an infraction of the whole deca
logue ; and I suspect the brain or heart of him who now speaks of

CONFISCATION AND EMANCIPATION. 277
forbearance towards them. But the legislation which we are now to
enact, is to be enforced when the rebel is disarmed,- and lies bound and
helpless in our prison, to receive, in unquestioning silence, the blow we
now lift over him. Do not talk to me of the danger of stimulating his
hatred, or of aggravating his hostility by threatened severity ; he has
been at his murderous work for a twelvemonth. Do not talk to me of
making him desperate ; but we may with profit contemplate his changed
fortune and temper, when subdued and abject, he awaits in chains, our
utterance of his doom. We can deal with the rebels in only two ways ;
collectively in States, and severally as individuals.
" I would free the slave of every man and woman engaged in this
rebellion. The guilt of the master should inure at least to the benefit
of the slave, and from this huge crime should spring a greater
beneficence." Mr. Sedgwick, of New Tork, said :
" As the purpose of this war is to perpetuate slavery, and as this in
stitution is the cause of the war, we will break it down, destroy and
overthrow the institution. I am for destroying this hostile institution
in every State that has made war upon the Government, and if we have
military strength enough to reduce them to possession, I propose to
leave not one slave in the wake of our advancing armies — not one !"
The bills passed the House on the 26th of May, and on
the 23d of June, were taken up for consideration in the-
Senate. Finally, the Senate adopted its own bill as a substi
tute, and passed it. On the 3d of July, the House took up
the confiscation bill as amended by the Senate, and refused
to concur in the Senate amendment, and a conference com
mittee was appointed. This committee reported a bill com
bining confiscation and emancipation in one bill. It provided
that all slaves of persons who should give aid and comfort to
the rebellion, who should take refuge within the lines of the
army; all slaves captured from rebels, or deserted by rebels
and being under the control of the Government, and all
slaves of rebels found or being within places 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 and not again held as slaves; that fugitive slaves
should not be surrendered to persons who had given aid and
comfort to the rebellion ; that no person engaged in the mill-

278 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
tary or naval service should surrender fugitive slaves on pain
of being dismissed from the service, and that the President
should be authorized to employ persons of African descent
to suppress the rebellion, and that he might organize and
use them in such manner as he might deem best for the pub
lic welfare. The report was accepted, and the bill, on the
17th of July, 1862, received the approval of the President,
and became a law. This approval of the President, however,
was not obtained until a joint resolution had been adopted
by Congress, as follows :
" That the provisions of the third clause of the fifth section of 'An
Act to suppress insurrection, to punish treason and rebellion, to seize
and confiscate the property of rebels, and for other purposes,' shall be
so construed as not to apply to any act or acts done prior to the pas
sage thereof; nor to include any member of a State Legislature, or
judge of any State court who has not, in accepting or entering upon
his office taken an oath to support the Constitution of the so-called
Confederate States of America ; nor shall any punishment or proceed
ings under said act be so construed as to work a forfeiture of the real
estate of the oft'ender, beyond his natural life."
•
This law has been justly characterized as the first great
act of emancipation. Its importance has not been fully ap-
. predated. How comprehensive its terms. It declares that
every slave claimed or held by a rebel should be freed. There
were comparatively few slaves other than those claimed by
rebels. It declares that every slave who should fiee to, or
take refuge within the army, should be free. The army
was to carry liberty to every man who came under the flag.
The President, on the day of the approval of this bill, sent
to Congress a message, in which he stated that he considered
the confiscation act, and the joint resolution explanatory of
said act, as being substantially one, and he therefore approved
and signed both. He also coraraunicated to Congress the
draft of a message stating his objections to the bill, without
the explanatory resolutions. This act, on the part of Mr.
Lincoln, was one of the same frank and open character
which always marked his intercourse with Congress. It is
known, however, that he subsequently modified his views of
the Dowers of Congress upon the subject of confiscation, and

EMANCIPATION. 279
it is believed that a year later he would have signed the bill
without the joint resolution explanatory thereof.
While Congress had been discussing the great questions of
emancipation and confiscation, the President had been most
carefully considering the same subjects.
The following resolution and action of the popular branch
of the National Legislature, as well as the debates in both
Houses of Congress, exhibit the rapid progress of public
sentiment on the subject of slavery. On the 2d of Decem
ber, 1861, Mr. Elliott offered a resolution :
"Resolved, 1. That in behalf of the people of these States, we do
again solemnly declare that the war in which we are engaged against
the insurgent bodies now in arms against the Government, has for its
object the suppression of such rebellion, and the reestablishment of the
rightful authority of the National Constitution and laws over the
entire extent of our common country. 2. That while we disclaim all
power under the Constitution to interfere by ordinary legislation with
the institutions of the several States, yet the war now existing must be
conducted according to the usages and rights of military service, and
that during its continuance, the recognized authority of the maxim
that the safety of the State is the highest law, subordinates rights of
property, and dominates over civil relations. 3. That, therefore, we
do hereby declare that, in our judgment, the President of the United
States, as the commander-in-chief of our army, and the officers in com
mand under him, have the right to emancipate all persons held as
slaves in any military district in a state of insurrection against the
National Government, and that we respectfully advise that such order
of emancipation be issued wherever the same will avail to weaken the
power of the rebels in arms., or to strengthen the military power of the
loyal forces."
Which resolution, after being amended so as to insert
after the word " slaves," the words " held by rebels," was,
on the 17th, referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
The varied and excited discussions, bills, and numerous re
solutions on the subject of emancipation, have been already
alluded to. It was obvious that as the war vs^as being waged
by the insurgent States to maintain slavery, and secure for
it security, if slavery could be destroyed, and emancipation

280 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
accomplished, the object and end of the war would be
defeated, and the war itself cease. Besides, so long as
slavery was unassailed, it was a source of strength to the
rebels, but with emancipation and freedom, the black popu
lation would ''flock to the National standard, a!nd render
it efficient aid.
It is very interesting to trace the gradual advance of opin
ion on the part of President Lincoln, which finally resulted
in the settled conviction of the absolute necessity of emanci
pation. He entered upon the Presidency, a thorough, radi
cal, anti-slavery man. He believed in the irreconcilable
antagonism between free and slave labor. But with
these convictions, no man had a higher reverence for
law; and he was by nature cautious, and a conservative
reformer. He did not understand that the Presidency
conferred upon hira an unrestricted right to act upon
his anti-slavery feelings. No raan ever entered upon the
Presidency with a more firm determination that his adminis
tration should be strictly constitutional. He deprecated
violent or su(iden changes. Inspired by these views, on the
6th day of March, 1862, he sent the following message to Con
gress, recommending compensated and gradual emancipation.
Said he :
" I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by your honorable
bodies, which shall be substantially as follows :
" Mesolved, That the United States ought to co-operate with any State which may
adopt gradual abolishment of slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid, to be
used by such State in its discretion, to compensate for the inconvenience, pubUo
and private, produced by such change of system."
" If, said he, the proposition contained -in the resolution does not
meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the end ; but if it
does command such approval, I deem it of importance, that the States and
people immediately interested, should be at once distinctly notified of
the fact, so that they may begin to consider whether to accept or reject
it. The Federal Government would find its highest interest in such
a measure, as one of the most efficient means of self-preservation. The
leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the hope that this Gov
ernment will ultimately be forced to acknowledge the independence of
some part of the disaffected region, and that all the slave States
north of such part will then say, ' the Union for which we have

EMANCIPATION MESSAGE. 281
Struggled being already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern
section.' To deprive them of this hope, substantially ends the rebel
lion ; and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them of it,
as to all the States initiating it. The point is not that all the States
tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, initiate emancipation;
but that, while the offer is equally made to all, the more North
ern shall, by such initiation, make it certain to the more Southern, that
in no event will the former ever join the latter in their proposed Con
federacy. I say ' initiation,' because, in my judgment, gradual, and
not sudden emancipation is better for all. In the mere financial or
pecuniary view, any member of Congress, with the census tables and
treasury reports before him, can readily see for himself, how very soon
the current expenditures of this war would purchase, at fair valuation,
all the slaves in any named State. Such a proposition, on the part of
the General Government, sets up no claim of a right by Federal au
thority to interfere with slavery within State limits, referring, as it
does, the absolute control of the subject iu each case, to the State and
its people immediately interested. It is proposed as a matter of
perfectly free choice with them.
"In the annual message last December, I thought fit to say 'the
Union must be preserved ; and hence all indispensable means must be
employed.' I said this, not hastily, but deliberately. War has been
made, and continues to be an indispensable means to this end. A prac
tical re-acknowledgment of the National authority would render the war
unnecessary, and it would at once cease. If, however, resistance con
tinues, the war must continue ; and it is impossible to foresee all the
incidents which may attend, and all the ruin whjch may follow it.
tuch as may seem indispensable or may obviously promise great
efficiency towards ending the struggle, must, and will come.
" The proposition now made, though an offer only, I hope it may be
esteemed no offence to ask whether the pecuniary consideration tender
ed would not be of more value to the States, and private persons con
cerned than are the institution and property in it, in the present aspect
of affairs ?
" While it is true that the adoption of the proposed resolution would
be merely initiatory, and not, within itself a practical measure, it is re
commended in the hope, that it would soon lead to important practical
results. 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.
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

282 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Mr. Lincoln was agitating the alternative of immediate
and unconditional emancipation, by his own proclamation,
or gradual and compensated emancipation as proposed in the
foregoing message. He deterrained to submit the subject to
Congress and the border slave States, with the sincere hope,
that the latter would be accepted.

OHAPTEE XIII.

THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION.
Emancipation Demanded by the Loyal States— Letter of Mr.
Greeley — Lincoln's Reply— Interview with Chicago Clergy
— Appeal op the Friends op Freedom — Mr. Lincoln Reads
THE Proclamation to his Cabinet — Issued on the 22d Septem
ber — Apter the Battle op Antietam — Incidents Connected
-with it — How Received.
TT is clear, from several paragraphs in the President's mes-
-*- sage, and it is known from other sources, that the slavery
question occupied Mr. Lincoln's most anxious thoughts, and
that he was considering the subject of emancipation under
military authority, and as a military necessity. He alludes to
a paragraph in his annual message which declared " that the
Union must be preserved, and hence all indispensable means
must be employed. I said this not hastily but deliberately.
If resistance continues, the war must continue; and it is
impossible io foresee all the incidents which may attend it.
Such as may seem indispensable or may obviously promise
great efficiency toward ending the struggle must and will come."
In these somewhat ambiguous paragraphs we now know
that he alluded to the great proclamation of emancipation.
It is cleaT that he considered this great question primarily,
as it affected the success of the struggle in which the Nation
was engaged to suppress the rebellion. If it was a proper
and apt measure to effect that end, he^might rightfully adopt
it, not otherwise, however much he might desire universal
freedora. He himself says, "when, in March, May and
July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the
border States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed
283

284 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the indispensable necessity for military emancipation and
arming the blacks would come, unless averted by that meas
ure. They declined the proposition, and I was, in my best
judgment, driven to the alternative of either surrendering
the Union, or issuing the emancipation proclamation."
He honestly believed "gradual and not immediate emanci
pation would be better for all."
The message proposing compensated emancipation was
proraptly followed by a resolution of Congress, declaring
" That the United States ought to cooperate with any State
which raay adopt gradual emancipation of slavery, giving to
such State pecuniary aid." On the 9th of May, 1862, Gen
eral David Hunter, whose zealous efforts to organize negro
soldiers has already been noticed, issued an order declaring
all the slaves within the States of South Carolina, Georgia
and Florida, which composed his district, "forever free."
This order came while Mr. Lincoln was hiraself consider
ing the subject of emancipation by his own proclamation,
and in the midst of his efforts to bring about gradual, and
compensated emancipation in tbe border States, and without
any knowledge on his part of the General's intention to issue
it. He, therefore, immediately issued a proclamation de
claring that such order was unauthorized. He recites the
resolution of Congress, proposing cooperation and pecuniary
aid to any State which might adopt gradual emancipation, '
and declared that he reserved to himself, under his responsi
bility, the exercise of the power of emancipating slaves as a
war measure, and which he could not feel justified in leaving
to any subordinate in the field. He goes on to &&y, the re
solution here referred to was adopted by a large majority in
both branches of Congress, and now stands an authentic,
definite and solemn proposal of the Nation to the States
and people most interested in the subject matter. He then
made this solemn and earnest appeal :
•
"To the people of these States, how, I earnestly appeal I do not
argue ; I beseech you to make the argument for yourselves. You can
not, if you would, be blind to the signs of the times. I beg of you a
solemn and enlarged consideration of them, ranging, if it may be, far
above partisan and personal politics.

LINCOLN'S APPEAL TO THE BORDER STATES. 285
"This proposal makes common cause for a common object, casting
no reproaches upon any one. It acts not the Pharisee. 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 any 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."
In addition to the raessage sent to Congress, Mr. Lincoln
invited an interview with the Congressional delegations of
Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Virginia and Delaware. In
this interview, the President urged the adoption of the plan
of compensated emancipation, but received little encourage
ment from the representatives of the border slave States.
It is well known to the President's iraraediate friends that
he had nearly reached the conclusion, that if the proposition
for gradual or compensated emancipation should be rejected
by the border States, that military necessity would require
him to proclaim emancipation. "I believed," said he after
wards, " the indispensable necessity for military emancipa^
tion and arming the blacks would corae, unless averted by
gradual and corapensated emancipation." How urgently he
pressed the subject, appears from his proclamation in regard
to General Hunter's order, and in his interview with the
border State members.
In July, 1862, the President called the delegates from the
border slave States again together, and again made to them
his earnest and solemn appeal to accept gradual compensated
emancipation. This appeal, submitted to them in writing, is
full of earnest expostulation, arguraent and entreaty. Viewed
in the light of subsequent events, it is full of sagacity, and
the most wise statesmanship. Compare this great State
paper with the reply and conduct of the distinguished men
whom he addressed, and learn to appreciate the statesman.
After advising thera that, in his best judgraent, the represent
atives of the border States held more power for good than
any other equal number of merabers, he said that he intend
ed no reproach, but he assured them, that in his opinion,
if they had all voted for the resolution in the gradual
emancipation message of March, the war would have been
substantially ended. He went ou to say that —

286 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
" The plan proposed is one of the most potent and swift measures of
ending the war. 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 contest. But you cannot divest them of their hope to ultimately
have you with them, so long as you show a determination to perpetuate
the institution within your own State. Beat them at elections as you
have overwhelmingly done, and, nothing daunted, they still claim you
as their own. You and I know what the lever of their power is.
Break that lever before their faces, and they can shake you no more
forever. "Most of you have treated me with kindness and consideration, and
I trust you will not now think I improperly touch what is exclusively
your own, when, for the sake of the whole country, I ask, 'Can
you, for your States, do better than to take the course I urge ?'
Discarding ^Mrac<i,7io and maxims adapted to more manageable times,
and looking only to the unprecedentedly stern facts of our case, can
you do better in any possible event ? You prefer that the constitu
tional relations of the States to the Nation shall be practically restored,
without disturbance of the institution ; and if this were done, my
whole duty in this respect under the Constitution, and my oath of office
would be performed. But it is not done, and we are trying to accomp
lish it by war. The incidents of the war cannot be avoided. 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 friction 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 and 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 1
"I do not speak of emancipation at once, but of a decision, at once, to
emancipate gradually. Room in South America for colonization can
be obtained cheaply and in abundance, and where numbers shall be
large enough to be company and encouragement for one another the
freed people will not be so reluctant to go.

LINCOLN'S APPEAL TO THE BORDER STATES. 287
" I am pressed with a difficulty not yet mentioned, one which
threatens division among those, who, united, are none too strong. An
instance of it is known to you. General Hunter is an honest man. He
was, and I .hope is still my friend. I valued him none the less for his
agreeing with me in the general wish that all men everywhere could be
freed. He proclaimed all men free within certain States, and I repudi
ated the proclamation. He expected more good and less harm from
the measure than I could believe would follow. Yet, in repudiating it,
I gave dissatisfaction, if not offence, to many, whose support the country
cannot afford to lose. And this is not the end of it. The pressure in
this direction is still upon me and is increasing. By conceding what I
now ask, you can relieve me, and much more, can relieve the country
in this important point.
" 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 per
petuate 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."
This appeal was received by some with apathy, caviling
and opposition ; by a few with sympathy. But no action —
no efficient action ; nothing practical was done, on the part
of the border slave States. No ! slavery had so entwined
itself in the social fabric that nothing but the violence, force,
and fire of war could tear it away. The communities would
not yet voluntarily relinquish it.
The intense feeling of Mr. Lincoln on this subject was
expressed by him to two members of Congress, old friends,
frora Illinois, (Owen Lovejoy and the Author,) who called
upon him Sunday evening, July 13th, at his Sumraer resid
ence at the "Soldiers' Home." He conversed freely with
them of his late interview with the border State members.
"Oh," said he in conclusion, "if the border States would

288 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
accept my proposition ! Then," said he, "you Lovejoy and
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." Such was his
passionate desire that slavery might end. The President,
in his message, again pressed the subject upon the considera
tion of Congress; but his closing remarks indicate the
advance of his mind towards the necessity of universal and
immediate emancipation. He says, "In giving freedom to
the slave, we assure freedom to the free, honorable alike in
what we give and what we preserve. * * * Other means
may succeed ; this could not fail. The way is plain, peace
ful, generous, just; a way which, if followed, the world will
forever applaud, and God must forever bless."
Meanwhile, the public sentiment in the North was growing
stronger and more intense, demanding of the President, im
mediate, and unconditional emancipation. A large party in
the loyal States had all along insisted that the most direct
way of crushing the rebellion, was to crush slavery. They
insisted that the commander-in-chief, by proclaiming liberty,
would bring hundreds and thousands of colored men to the
ranks of the Union armies. It was insisted that to accept
the distinct issue tendered by the slaveholders between
liberty and slavery, would bring a raoral power to the sup
port of the Government, which would be felt both at home
and abroad. The Republican press of the loyal States, with
some exceptions, earnestly and importunately deraanded
that the President, availing himself of the occasion and pro
visions of the confiscation act, should proclaim instant libera
tion to every slave belonging to a rebel raaster. The more
violent of the press and of the Republican partisans de
nounced the President for his remissness. The distinguished
editor of the New York Tribune, whose writings had con
tributed as rauch, if not more than those of any other man
towards the formation of the Republican party, and the elec
tion of Mr. Lincoln, addressed the President under his owu
name in the Tribune, urging emancipation, and reraonstrating
severely for the failure of Mr. Lincoln to adopt a more
vigorous and determined policy.

Lincoln's reply to grbeley. 289
This letter was published on the 19th of August, and on
the 22d, Mr. Lincoln issued frora the Executive Mansion a
reply. This answer, frank, open, generous and conscientious,
unfolded to the people the motives which controlled his con
duct. Mr. Lincoln was criticised for replying to the latter,
as an act wanting in dignity. But this being a government
of the people, he as their President, wished them fully to
understand his motives. He said :
" 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
slave, I would do it ; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I
would do it, and if I could save it by freeing some, and leaving others
alone, I would do it."
He was not yet quite prepared to issue a proclamation
fraught -with such momentous consequences ; yet his mind
was anxiously revolving the subject ; he discussed it with all
from whom he supposed he could obtain new suggestions or
arguments, or from whom he could learn the drift of public
opinion. He would often make suggestions, and argue the
case against emancipation to obtain the views of others.
To personal friends of the Illinois delegation in Congress,
who conferred with him on the subject, he said that, in his
letter to Mr. Greeley, he meant that he would proclaim free
dora to the slave just as soon as he felt assured he could do
it effectively; that the people would stand by him, and that,
by doing so, he could strengthen the Union cause. He was
assured by them in reply, that the people would stand by
him, and that they were impatient for it.
On the 13th of September, 1862, he received a delegation
of the clergy of nearly all the religious denominations of
Chicago, who waited upon him with a meraorial, urging
immediate emancipation.
For the purpose of fully eliciting their views, he started
objections to the policy they urged, and in a'ccordance with
his old practice at the bar, he made an argument against his
own views, and against the policy he had nearly or quite
concluded to pursue. After a full conference and free dis
cussion, the President said, |' I have not decided against a
19

290 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
proclamation of liberty to the slaves, but hold the matter
under advisement; and I can assure you the matter is on my
mind by day and by night, raore than any other. Whatever
shall appear to be God's will, I will do."
While this momentous question was thus agitating tho
mind of the President, involving the existence of slavery in
North Araerica, while the civilized world was watching with
interest the result, the intiense feeling and anxiety on the
subject, found expression in daily prayers, sent up frora
church, cottage, and cabin, all through the loyal North, be
seeching the great God to guide the President to the right
conclusion. Thousands believed that the fate not only of
African slavery, but also of the Republic hung upon the
issue. The friends of freedom from Europe, from France,
Italy, Germany and Great Britain, sent messages to their
friends on this side of the water, saying that recognition aud
intervention were imminent, and that the best and most effi
cient means of prevention, was to raake the distinct issue
with slavery. Some of our representatives at foreign Courts,
advised the Secretary of State, that there was danger of in
tervention by foreign Governments, and that such danger
could be best averted by emancipation.
The friends of the Union abroad had become somewhat
indifferent. The organs of the rebellion in Europe, repre
sented everywhere, that it was a mere struggle for empire,
involving, no great principle. The policy of several of the
military coraraanders towards the slaves, the concessions
constantly made to the border slave States, disgusted raany
ardent friends of liberty at home and abroad : as a remedy
for this, the friends of the Union and liberty urged that the
President should proclaim " freedom throughout the land to
all the inhabitants thereof."
What, meanwhile, was the action and feelings of the
negroes? They had long prayed for, hoped for freedom.
The North star had often guided the panting fugitive to
liberty. Armies had come to the slave from the free States,
fighting their masters. The starry flag they now believed was
to be the erablem of their liberty, as well as that of the white
man. The Union soldiers had been always welcomed by the

EMANCIPATION. 291
negro. Food, guidance, information, succor and aid, to the
extent of his limited and humble means were never sought
from him in vain.
The millions of slaves from the Shenandoah to the rice
swamps of Carolina, and the cane-brakes of Louisiana, be
lieved that their day of Jubilee approached. In the fast
nesses of swamps and forests, the long enslaved and down
trodden negro prayed for " Massa Linkum," and liberty. Their
hopes and prayers for freedom have been happily expressed
by the poet Whittier from whom I quote :
We pray de Lord; he gib us signs
Dat some day we be free ;
De Norf wind tell It to de pines,
De wUd 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 wlU grow, de cotton blow,
We'll hab de rice an' com:
Oh nebber you fear if nebber you hear
De driver blow his horn !
Sing on, poor hearts ! your chant shaU be
Our sign of blight or bloom —
TJie vala-song of liberty.
Or death-rune of our doom !
Mr. Lincoln still seemed to hesitate; and the friends of
emancipation renewed their efforts. They reminded the Pres
ident of his own enunciation of the great truth, that free
dom and slavery could not permanently exist together, and
that our country would become "all free or all slave;" a
truth that had been verified by the war which slavery was
now waging. " Immortalize your Presidency," said they, " by
yourself speaking the word which shall make it all free; slav
ery having brought on the war, it is fit it should die by the
laws of war." It was urged that slavery before God and the
world, stood responsible for all the calamities which the Re
public was now suffering; every dollar expended, every suf
fering endured, every drop of blood spilled, every wound,
and every death ou the battle-field, and in hospital, is the
penalty, the American people are paying for the existence
and toleration of slavery. As slavery now stood before the

292 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
world as a rebel and a traitor, the President was urged to de
clare it an outlaw under the Constitution and laws. He was
rerainded that there never had been a day since the existence
of the Republic, when slavery was loyal to the Constitution
and the Union. To day an open enemy striking at the heart
of the Nation, as it had always heretofore been a secret,
stealthy traitor, undermining the Constitution, and sapping
the foundation of our hberties. His attention was called to
the moral and material desolation caused by this institution ;
the extent to which it had retarded National growth, and
retained in brutal ignorance, and reduced toward barbarism,
the people of some of the fairest sections of our country, and
a once noble race of men. The aggressions of the slave
power were recalled to his mind. Before the war it had
caused in one half of the Union, the destruction of liberty
of speech and freedom of the press ; its attempts to suppress
the right of petition, its perfidious repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, the story of its barbarous outrages in Kansas
were recounted; he was reminded that slavery had, previous
to 1860, revolutionized the Government, nullifying the great
principles of magna charta and the Declaration of Independ
ence, on which the Republic was based. Slavery was charged
with all the treasure and blood-shed of the terrible war then
pending. It had already dug the graves of the half raillion
citizens, patriots, and rebels sacrificed in the struggle. " Pity
and relieve," urged they, "the victims of unrequited toil."
In the name of the dead, which slavery had caused to be
slaughtered, in the name of the country which it had deso
lated, in the name of the Constitution, which it had sought
to overthrow, in the name of liberty with which it was in
compatible, in the narae of God, whose justice it defied, he
was urged to decree the final abolition of slavery. " Seize
the thunderbolt of liberty," cried the advocates of emancipa
tion, " and shatter slavery to atoms."
It was thus that the friends of freedom impeached slavery
before Abraham Lincoln, and deraanded that he should pass
sentence of death upon it. It was affirmed that there could
be no permanent peace while slavery lived. A truce there
might be, but peace, never. " The implacable enemy of lib-

EMANCIPATION. 293
erty and the Republic," they said to him, " now reels and
staggers to its fall. It has by its own crime, placed itself
in your power as military Commander-in-Chief. You cannot,
if you would, and you ought not if you could, make any
terms of permanent compromise with slavery. You have
abolished it at the National Capital. You have prohibited it
in all the territories. You will cause to be hung as a pirate,
any man participating in the slave trade. You have carved
off and made free West Virginia, from the slaveholding Old
Dominion. You have enlisted and are enlisting negro sol
diers, and they have carried your banner bravely in many a
hard fought battle-field. You have pledged your faith to
God, and to them, that they and their families shall be for
ever free. That promise having been made, none doubt you
will sacredly keep. Here then we stand on the threshold of
universal emancipation ! You cannot retreat, and should not
halt. Let slavery die!"
Why withhold the blow that shall strike down the cause
of all this desolation, suffering and bloodshed? Why not let
the suicide of slavery be consummated? "Annihilate," said
they, " all rebel slaveholders by the emancipation of all
slaves!" Mr. Lincoln listened, not unmoved to such appeals, and
seeking prayerfully the guidance of Almighty God, the
proclamation of eraancipation was prepared; it had been in
fact, prepared in July, 1862. Late in that month, or early
in August, Mr. Lincoln, in his own mind, and without con
sulting his Cabinet, resolved to issue the emancipation edicts
and prepared a draft of the proclamation. He then called a
meeting of his Cabinet, which at that time consisted of Seward,
Stanton, Chase, Welles, Blair, Smith, and Bates. The Presi-,
dent said to them, he had resolved upon his course, and he
had called them together, not to ask their advice on this sub
ject, but to lay the Proclamation before them. After it had
been read, there was some discussion in the Cabinet. Mr.
Blair expressed the fear that it would cause the loss of the
fall elections. This did not at all shake the President's
determination to issue it. Mr. Seward said:

294 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
" 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 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 greatest disasters of the 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
Suramer of 1862, made gloomy by the disastrous campaigns
of McClellan and Pope.
We know that Mr. Lincoln now only waited for success to
the National arms, pledging his vows to God, that with the
next shouts of victory, should go forth the edict of liberty to
the captive!
Immediately after the battle of Antietam, and just before the
issuing of the proclamation, the President said to his Cabi
net: "The time for the annunciation of the emancipation
policy can no longer be delayed. Public sentiment will sus
tain it. Many of my warmest friends and supporters demand
it; and I have made a solemn vow to God thai 1 will do it." He
said to a friend, " I raade a solemn vow before God, that if
General Lee was driven back from Pennsylvania, I would
crown the result by the proclamation of freedom to the
slaves." The concluding words of the paper: "and upon
this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted
by the Constitution, (and upon railitary necessity,) I invoke
the considerate judgraent of mankind and the gracious favor
of Almighty God," were written by Secretary Chase, except
the words "upon military necessity," which were added by
Mr. Lincoln. We know that Mr. Lincoln regarded the pro
clamation as the central pivot act of his administration, and
the world has characterized it, as the great event of the
nineteenth century.

PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 295
Thus as an act, of almost divine inspiration, was sent forth
this great State paper — an act which will live forever in his
tory as one of those great events which measure the advance
of the world. The historian will rank it alongside with the
acquisition of magna charta and the Declaration of Independence.*
*The following statement of the hlstoi-y of the issuing of the proclamation is made
by F. B. Carpenter, Esq., the artist who perpetuated upon canvass, the scene of the
flrst reading of the proclamation by Mr. Lincoln, to his Cabinet. Mr. Carpenter
spent several weeks at the White House, and became a favorite of the President.
I wUl only add, what is not at all necessary by way of corroboration, that the same
statement in substance, was made by Mr. Lincoln to other friends.
Mr. Lincoln said, " It had got to be midsummer, 1862. Things had gone on from
bad to worse, uutU 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 poUcy ; and without consultation with, or the knowledge of,
the Cabinet, I prepared the original draft of the proclamation, and, after much
an.xious thought, caUed a Cabinet meeting upon the subject. This was the last of
July, or the first part of August, 1882, [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. * * * Various suggestions were offered. Secretary
Chase wished the language stronger in reference to the arming of the blacks. Mr.
Blair, after he came in, deprecated the policy, on the ground that it would cost
the administration the Fall elections. Nothing, however, was ofl'ered that I
had not already fully anticipated in my own mind, until Secretary Seward
spoke. Said he, ' Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but I question the
expediency of its issue at this juncture. The depression of the public mind, con
sequent upon our repeated reverses, is so great, that I fear the efl-eot 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.' His idea was, that it
would be considered one last shriek on the retreat. ' Now,' continued 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.' The wi.sdom of the
view of the Secretary of State struck me with very great force. It was an aspect
of the case that, in aU my thought upon the subject, 1 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 enlarged a line,
touching it up here and there, 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 ofthe battle of Antietam, and I determined to wait 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 of Washington.) Here I fin Ished
writing the second draft of the preliminary proclamation ; came up one Saturday,
called the Cabinet together to hear It, and it was published the following Monday."
But Mr. Lincoln, always reticent, as to his deepest sources of feeling, did not teU
the young artist that which he learnt from a member of the Cabinet.
" Mr. Chase told me, that at the Cabinet meeting immediately after the battle of
Antietam, and just prior to the issue of the September proclamation, the President
entered upon the business before them, by saying that the time for the annuncia
tion of the emancipation policy conld no longer ba delayed. Public sentiment, he
thought, would sustain it, many of his warmest friends and supporters demanded

296 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
It is indeed the magna charta of the negro race. Just men
everywhere recognized it as a great act of humanity and
justice. As a matter of State policy, its wisdom was speedily
vindicated. The following is the Proclamation of September 2M, 1862:
" I, Abraham Lincoln, President ofthe United States of America,
and Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy thereof, do hereby pro
claim and declare, that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be prose
cuted for the object of practically restoring the Constitutional relation
between the United States, and each of the States, and the people
thereof, in which States that relation is or may be suspended or
disturbed. " 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 peo
ple whereof may not then be in rebellion against the United States, and
which States may then have voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may volun
tarily 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 thous
and eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves, witiiin
any State, or designated part of a State, ihe people whereof, shall then
be in rehellion against the United States, shall he then, thenceforward,
AND FOREVER PREE; 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, 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 State shall have participated, shall, in the absence
it, ' and he had promised his Ood thai he would do ii.' The last part of this was uttered
in a low tone, and appeared to be heard by no one but Secretary Chase, who was
sitting near him. He asked the President if he correctly understood him? Mr.
Lincoln repUed, ' I made a sqlemn vow before God, that if General Lee was driven
back from Pennsylvania, I would crown the result by the declaration of freedom
to the slaves.' "

emancipation PROCLAMATION. 297
of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence,
that such State, and the people thereof, are not then 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 13th, 1862,
and which act is in the words and figures following :
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives qf the United States of Ame
rica in Congress assembled, That hereafter the following shall be promulgated as an
additional article of war for the governmeni of the army of the United States, and
shaU be obeyed and observed as such :
Article.— AU officers or persons in the mlUtary 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
escaped from any persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to be due ; and
any oflicer who shall be found guilty by court-martial of violating this article shall
be dlsmlssd from the service.
Sec. 2. And be U further enacted. That this act shaU take effect from and after its
passage. " Also, to the ninth and tenth sections of an act entitled ' An Act to
Suppress Insurrection, to Punish Treason and Rebellion, to seize and
Confiscate Property of Rebels, and for other Purposes,' approved July
16, 1862, and which sections are in the words and figures following:
Sec. 9. And be it further enacted. That all slaves of persons who shall hereafter be
engaged in rebeUion against the Govemment 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 ofthe 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 aU slaves of such persons found on [or] being within any place occupied by
rebel forces and afterward occupied by forces of the United States, shall be deemed
captives of war, and shaU be forever free of their servitude, and not again held as
slaves. Sec. 10. And be it further enacted. That no slave escaping into any State, Territory,
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 ofl-ence against
the laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall flrst make oath that the
person to whom the labor or service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his law-
ftil owner, and has not borne arms against the United States in the present rebel
lion, nor in any way given aid aud comfort thereto ; and no person engaged iu the
military or naval service 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 surrender up any such person to the claimant, on pain of
being dismissed from the service.
" 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 en
force, within their respective spheres of service, the act and sections
above recited.
" And the Executive will in due time recommend that all citizens of
the United States who shall have remained loyal thereto throughout the
rebellion, shall (upon the restoration of the Constitutional relation be
tween the United States and their respective States and people.

298 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
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 afiixed.
' DoUi* at the city of Washington, this twenty-second day of Sep
tember, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
[l S.] and sixty-two, and of the Independence of the United States
the eighty-seventh.
" ABRAHAM LINCOLN."
" By the President:
" William H. Seward, Secretary of State."
On the 1st of January thereafter, the final proclamation
was issued in these words :
" Whereas, 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 wit:
" 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, designate the States, and parts of States, if any, in which
the people thereof, respectively, shall then be iu rebellion against the
United States; and the fact that any State, or tbe 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 evi
dence 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-in-Chief of
the army and navy of the United States, in time of actual armed rebel
lion against the authority of, and Government of the United States, and

THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 299
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 eight
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 re
bellion against the United States, the following, to wit : Arkansas, Texas,
Louisiana, (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefl'erson,
St. John, St, Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne,
Lafourche, St. Marie, 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 desig
nated as West Virginia, and also the counties of Berkeley, Accomac,
Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, Princess Anne, and Norfolk, in
cluding the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth,) and which excepted
parts are for the present left precisely, as if this proclamation were uot
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 maintain the
freedom of said persons.
" And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free, to ab
stain from all violence, unless in necessary self defence; and I recom
mend 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 suita
ble condition, will be received into the armed service of the United
States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man
vessels of all sorts in said service.
" And upon this act, sincerely believed to he an act ofjusf/ice, warranted
hy the Constitution upon military necessity, 1 iuvolce the considerate
judgment of manMnd, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."
" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my name, and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed.
" Done at the city of Washington, this first day of January, in tho
[l. S.] year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
and of the Independence of the United States, the eighty-seventh.
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
" By the President,
" William H. Seward, Secretary of State."

300 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The states enumerated are ten, and the number of slaves
made free by this edict, exceed three millions ! Is there any
act in history, which in its grandeur and sublimity can be
ranked above, or compared with this? *
This immortal State paper gave effect to the deepest,
strongest desire of the soul of its author — that slavery
should be no more.
From its promulgation will be forever dated, the overthrow
of slavery in the Republic, and Lincoln's name must justly
go upon the record as the author of that overthrow.
The proclamation expressed the intense, enthusiastic, sub
lime devotion to liberty, which then pervaded the public
mind. In it, Lincoln gave practical application to the
great pripciple of right, embodied in the Declaration of
Independence. Before the sun went down on the memorable 22d of Sep
tember, the proclamation had been flashed by the telegraph, to
* The original draft of the proclamation Is now In the possession of Thomas B,
Bryan, Usq., a citizen of Chicago. It was purchased by him, at the Northwestern
Fair for the Sanitary Commission, held at Chicago, In the Autumn of 1863. The
foUowing notes will show how it came to the Fair : Washington, October 13, 1863.
2b the President,
My Dear Sir: 1 take the liberty of enclosing to you the circular of the North
western Fair for the Sanitary Commission, for the benefit and aid of the brave and
patriotic soldiers of the Northwest. The ladies engaged in this enterprise, wUl 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 de
posited in the Historical Society of Chicago, where it would ever be regarded as a
reUc of great interest. This, or any other aid it may be convenient for you to ren
der, would have pecuUar interest as coming from one whom the Northwest holds
in the highest honor and respect. Very respectfliUy, yours,
ISAAC N. ARNOLD.
Executive Mansion, Washington, October 26, 1863.
I/ADIES having in CHARGE THE NOKTHWESTBBN
Fair fob the Sanitary Commission, Chicago, lUinois,
According to the request made in Tyour behalf, the origiual draft of the
emancipation proclamation, is herewith enclosed. The formal words at the top,
and the conclusion, except the signature you perceive, are not in my handwriting.
They were written 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. I had some desire to retain the paper; but ¦if it shall contribute to the
rttixf ar amnfort of the soldiers, that wiM be better. Your ob't serv't.
A. LINCOLN

THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. ¦ 301
every portion of tbe Eepublic. It was hailed by a large mar
jority of the loyal men of the N"ation, with gratitude to God;
bells rang out their joyous peals from all N"ew England, New
Tork, along the mountains of Pennsylvania, over the broad
prairies of the West, and to the infant settlements skirting
the base of the Rocky Mountains. Public meetings were
held; resolutions of approval adopted, and in thousands of
churches, public thanksgiving was rendered for the great
event. In many portions of the army, the proclamation was
received with cheers, and salvos of artillery; in others, and
especially that coraraanded by Greneral McClellan, some mur
murs of dissatisfaction were heard; but the effect generally,
was inspiriting. Elevated by its sublime sentiments, new
vows were pledged to the country and to liberty; and the eU'
thusiasm of a very large portion of the people was stimulated
to the highest point.
The war now assumed an energy, vitality, and earnestness
unknown before. Erom this time on, it meant universal
liberty. On the 24th of September, there was a meeting of the Gov
ernors of the loyal States, held at Altoona, Pennsylvania,
and in an address to the President, they said, '' We hail with
heartfelt gratitude and encouraged hope, the proclamation of
the President, issued on the 22d inst., declaring emancipa
ted from their bondage, all persons held to service or labor,
as slaves in the rebel States, where rebellion shall last until
the first of January next ensuing." *
" Now," said Mr. Lincoln, " we have got the harpoon fairly
into the monster slavery, we must take care that in his
extremity, he does not shipwreck the country."
The soldiers who now fiocked to the Union standard, were
like the Roundheads of Cromwell, strong in a great princi
ple ; and they never doubted success. When the words lib
erty and emancipation were thus sounded through the land,
they aroused the manhood of the long enslaved African, and
thousands upon thousands joined the Union cause, until be
fore the close of the war, nearly two hundred thousand, as
has been already stated, were mustered into tl e Union army
• vide McPherson, p. 232.

302 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The black man from this time, became not only a soldier, but
a fellow soldier.
Congress, not less emphatically than the people, endorsed
the proclamation.
On the 15th of December, 1862, on motion of Mr. Ees-
senden, of Maine, the House, by a very large majority of
votes, " Resolved, That the proclamation of the President of the United
States, of the date of the 22d of September, 1862, is warranted by the
Constitution; that the policy of emancipation, aa indicated in that
proclamation, is well adapted to hasten the restoration of peace, was
well chosen as a war measure, and is an exercise of power, with
proper regard for the rights of the States, and the prosperity of free
Government." The principle of justice to the colored man, and liberty to
all, theretofore advocated by a party long stigmatized as
abolitionists, a name which had ceased to be a term of re
proach, had advanced until the proclamation was justly
regarded as heralding its final and complete triumph.
Along the pathway of the once feeble, obscure, and con
temned abolitionist, to final victory, can be traced the
wrecks of many parties, many ecclesiastical organizations',
and many great names of those who had fallen by placing
themselves in the way of its progress. Truth and justice,
righ* and liberty be mighty things to conjure with, and vain
is the power of man when he tries to stop their advance.
The timid and over cautious were startled by the boldness
of the measure, and the opponents of the administration and
those who sympathized with secession, hoped to make this
act the means of the political defeat of the administration.
They under-estimated the strength of a great cause, and the
power of boldness in behalf of a great principle. From
this day down to its final triumph, the Union was crowned
with victory and success. Meanwhile, addresses of Qongrat-
ulation and sympathy poured in from the peoples of Euro
pean Kingdoms. By presenting the National struggle as a
clearly defined contestbetween liberty and slavery, the attitude
of Europe towards the United States was changed. The Gov
ernraent of no intelligent people, could now afford to intervene

THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 303
in behalf of slavery. And yet, when this proclamation
reached England, Lord Russell, in a dispatch to Lord Lyons,
the British Minister at Washington, sneered at the paper,
" as a measure of a very questionable kind;" an act of veng
eance on the slave owner; " It professes " said he, " to eman
cipate slaves, where the United States cannot make emanci
pation a reality, but emancipates no one where the decree
can be carried into effect."
But perhaps to his Lordships' regret, the United States
did make emancipation a reality, and did carry the procla
mation into effect, to the extent of freeing every slave in the
Republic. It will be observed that the proclamation did not include
the great State of Tennessee. It is known that it was omitted
in deference to thejudgment of Andrew Johnson, and other
distinguished Union men of that State.* A year had not
elapsed before many of them regretted the omission, and the
Unionists of Tennessee, ere long vindicated the wisdom of
President Lincoln, by providing a remedy for the omission
in adopting a new Constitution abolishing and prohibiting
slavery, f
• Such was the statement of Mr. Lincoln to the author.
t A letter, of which the following is a copy, was placed in the hands of Mr.
Johnson, early in August, 1866 : Chicago, August 1, 1866.
7b ihe Honorable Andrew Johnson, President of the United States:
Sir : I am preparing a History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery
In the United States. There are some circumstances connected with the Emanci
pation Proclamation of President Lincoln, about which, before the book comes
from the press, I should be glad to be advised by you.
I understood Mr. Lincoln to say, that Tennessee was not Included in the procla
mation, because you and other earnest Union men of Tennessee, in whose patriot-
Ism, loyalty and devotion to freedom, he had the greatest confidence, thought It
would,at the time, embarrass the Union cause in that .State; but that before a
year had gone by, such was the change in public sentiment, that you, and other
Union raen in Tennessee, expressed regret that Tennessee had not been included
in the proclamation ; but, he added, they have remedied the mistake, if it was
one, by abolishing and prohibiting slavery in their new State Constitution of Ten
nessee. This was the substance of what 1 understood Mr. Lincoln to say. I do not
feel at liberty, however, to make the statement as a part of the history of tlie great
event without submitting it to you, and respectfully asking your recollection
upon the subject.
Congratulating you upon the restoration of Tennessee to the Union, as a free
State, and expressing the hope, that during your administration. National unity,
based on liberty and Justice to all, may be completely restored,
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
I. N. ARNOLD.
No reply having been received to this letter, the author concludes that Mr.
Johnson does not suggest any alteration in the statement.

304 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Facts have already been stated, indicating the deep religi
ous solemnity of feeling under which Mr. Lincoln issued this
proclamation. Another circumstance may be stated, illus
trating alike a religious feeling approaching superstition, as
well as the characteristic playfulness of the President. A
friend on one occasion, reminded him that he had given the
pen with which the preclaraation was signed, to Senator
Sumner. " Yes;" said the President, " I had proraised Sum
ner the pen. On New Years' day, (the 1st of January, 1863,)
the final proclamation was all ready to be signed and sent to
the press, except that some blanks of portions of the State
of Louisiana, which were to be excepted were to be filled up.
I went down to the parlor and held a very crowded recep
tion. During the time I was receiving calls, the information
which would enable me to fill up these blanks was furnished
me, and I left the drawing room and hastened up stairs to
sign and send to the associated press, the proclamation. As
I took up a pen to sign the paper, my hand and arra trem
bled and shook. so violently, that I could not write. I could
not for a moment, control my arm. I paused, and a super
stitious feeling came over me which raade rae hesitate. (No
wonder the hand ofthe President shook when about to seize
and hurl this thunderbolt of war !) In a moment I remem
bered that I had been shaking hands for hours, with several
hundred people, and hence a very simple explanation of the
trembling and shaking of my arra. With a laugh at my own
superstitious thought, I signed and sent off the paper. Sum
ner soon after calling for the pen, out of half a dozen on my
table, I gave him the one I had most probably used."*
In this connection, it may not be out of place to add, that
it was during this year that Edward Bates, the Attorney
General, gave an elaborate opinion, establishing the conclu
sion, that free colored persons born in the United States,
were citizens. After a very learned examination, he came
* Mr. Carpenter, in his " Six Months at the White House," says , " Mr. Lincoln said
to Mr. Seward, who was present, ' I have been shaking hands all day, and my right
arm is nearly 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 proclama
tion, aU who examine the document hereafter, wiU say, ' He hesitated.' He then
turned to the table, took up the pen, and slowly and firmly wrote Abraeau
Lincoln. He looked up, smiled, and said, " That will do."

THE PROCLAMATION OF EMANCIPATION. 305
to the conclusion that " all free persons, without distinction
of race or color, if native born, are citizens." This conclu
sion was a very great revolution from the dogmas of the
Dred Scott opinions. He made the distinction between in
herent civil rights of citizens, and political privileges of cer
tain classes. All citizens, male or female, white or black,
are entitled to equal protection by the law; but only those
designated enjoy the political privilege of voting.
20

OHAPTEE XIV.

MILITARY OPERATIONS OF 1862.
Inactivity op McClellan — President's Order for a General
Advance — Active Operations in the West — Battle op
Middle Creek — Mill Spring — Capture op Forts Henry and
Donelson — Mitchell's March to Bowling Green — Union
Troops Occupy Nashville — Capture op Roanoke Island and
Newbern — Pea Ridge — New Madrid — Island Number Ten
— Shiloh — Corinth — Capture op New Orleans.
IN order that a consecutive narration of the series of raeas
ures adopted by Congress and the Executive, upon the
all-important question of slavery, might be given, down to
the period of emancipation, military moveraents in their
chronological order have been omitted. We now return to
take up the history of these events, which, though more at
tractive perhaps to the general reader, are less important
than a clear and accurate understanding of the progress of
ideas and their embodiment in the forras of law.
It was not until late in 1861, that the country fully appre
ciated, or was at all prepared for the stupendous war
impending. The work of 1861 was that of preparation. By the 1st of
December, the whole number of men mustered into the
army had reached nearly or quite 640,000.* The leading
features of the 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. Third,
The recovery of the Mississippi River to the Gulf, by which
the Confederacy would be divided, and the great outlet of
the Northwest be secured. Fourth, The destruction of the
rebel army in Virginia, and the conquest of Richmond, the
rebel Capital. To accomplish these great purposes, and to
* Report of the Secretary of War, December, 1861.
306

the inactivity of m'olbllan. 307
resist such accomplishment, the most stupendous military
prepairations were made onboth sides. General McClellan had,
in the Autumn of 1861, under his iraraediate coramand
at Washington and vicinity, and on the Baltimore and Ohio
Railroad, and at Fortress Monroe, more than 200,000 well
appointed, well arraed and well disciplined men. This army
was called the Army of the Potomac. General Buell had,
in Kentucky, more than 100,000 men. The rebel force
opposed to General McClellan, was estimated at 175,000
men, but it is now known to have been less, and occupied
positions at Yorktown and Fredericksburg ; the main body
fortified at Centreville, the left wing extending to Leesburg,
with detachments at Winchester and Martinsburg.
General McClellan had, as commander-in-chief, control
over Halleck, commander of the Department of the West,
Buell, commanding in Kentucky, Burnside, in North Caro
lina, and W. T. Sherman, in South Carolina.
The inactivity of General McClellan in the Autumn and
Winter of 1861-2, was a source of dissatisfaction and com
plaint on the part of the people and Congress, and uneasi
ness on the part ofthe President. He had under his immediate
command, the largest and best equipped and appointed army
of the United States. The weather during all that Autumn
and Winter, into February, was the finest possible ; clear
and dry, and the roads in good order, and yet with his vast
army, he permitted the Potomac to be blockaded by shore
batteries at Acquia Creek and elsewhere ; and the rebel flag
to be raised and flaunted in his face and that of the Nation,
from the hills which overlook Washington, and within sight
of the dome of the Capitol. But even this did not provoke
the extremely cautious, "Young Napoleon," as General Mc
Clellan was called, to make any vigorous efforts to dislodge
the rebels and drive them away. ¦ This was the era of mag
nificent reviews, brilliant parades, showy uniforms and festive
parties. Impatient of the inactivity of the army under General
McClellan, the President, after seeing the Summer and the
Autumn pass slowly away, on the 27th of January, issued
the following order :

308 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF s SLAVERY.
"Executive Mansion, January 27, 1862.
"President's General War Order, No. 1.
"Ordered that the 22d day of February, 1862, be the day for a gen
eral movement of the land and naval forces of the United States against
the insurgent forces. That especially —
" The Army at and about Fortress Monroe.
"The Army of the Potomac.
"The Army of Western Virginia.
"The Army near Mumfordsville, Kentucky.
" The Army and Flotilla at Cairo.
"And a Naval force in the Gulf of Mexico, be ready for a movement
on that day.
" That all other forces, both land and naval, with their respective
commanders, obey existing orders for the time, and be ready to obey
additional orders, when duly given.
"That the Heads of Departments, and especially the Secretaries of
War and of the Navy, with all their subordinates, and the General-in-
Chief, with all other commanders and subordinates of land and naval
forces, wUl severally be held to their strict and full responsibilities for
the prompt execution of this order. "ABRAHAM LINCOLN."
While the Army of the Potomac was chafing under its
constrained idleness, the Western troops, far less perfectly
armed and appointed, and which had been compelled to take
the refuse arms from the East, were constantly marching and
fighting. On the 6th of November, General Grant, moving
from Cairo, attacked and took possession of Belmont, and
destroyed the military stores, belonging to the enemy, at
that place. This was the beginning of the brilliant military
career of the Lieutenant General.
Colonel Garfield, of Ohio, on the 10th of January, defeated
Humphrey Marshall at Middle Creek, near Paintsville,
Kentucky. On the 19th of January, General George H. Thomas, the
loyal Virginia soldier, gained the brilliant victory over the
rebel General ZoUikoffer, at Mill Spring. Zollikoffer was
killed in this battle, fighting with a valor worthy of a better
cause. These inspiriting successes did not entirely dissipate
the gloom which prevailed, growing out of the mysterious
inaction of the Grand Army of the Potomac.

CAPTURE OF FORTS HENRY AND DONELSON. 309
The rebel lines in Tennessee and Kentucky were penetrat
ed by the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. These rivers
running northerly empty into the Ohio. To secure these
rivers against the approach of gun-boats, which the sagacity
of Fremont had early caused to be constructed for the Missis
sippi and its tributaries, the insurgents had constructed
Fort Henry on the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson on the
Cumberland. Flag ofiicer Foote, one of the most brave, energetic, skill
ful Christian olficers who ever trod the deck of a gunboat,
commanded the fleet on the Western rivers. General Grant
and the Comraodore cooperating, in January, planned an at
tack on Fort Henry. Foote, on the 6th of Febiuary, with
his gunboats, attacked and captured Fort Henry, before the
land force under Grant reached the fort.
General Grant immediately moved to the attack of Fort
Donelson, and with the gunboats of Commodore Foote, in
vested the fort on the 16th of February. After several days
of hard fighting, a fiag of truce was sent to General Grant,
by General Buckner, in command of the fort, asking for an
armistice for the purpose of settling terras of surrender.
General Grant replied : " No terms except unconditional and
immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move
immediately on your works." The garrison did not wait the
attack, but surrendered at discretion. General Buckner, and
about 15,000 troops, and 20,000 stand of arms, were surren
dered to General Grant. This victory, and the note of Gene
ral Grant to Buckner, gave to " U. S. Grant," the popular
name of " unconditional surrender Grant."
This magnificent success, electrified the country, and A'r.
Lincoln, whose face had become care-worn and anxious,
looked ten years younger, the evening of the reception of the
news. Congress was jubilant.
On the next day, the 17th, a member of Congress opened
his speech, with the expression, " twenty millions of people,
are to day rejoicing over a great victory, the raost brilliant
of the war."
General Floyd, who had command, and who was the
treacherous Secretary of War, under President Buchanan,

310 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
conscious of his extreme guilt, did not dare to surrender
but escaped during the night before the surrender.
The capture of Henry and Donelson, were important and
substantial successes, both as it respects the men and mate
rial of war taken, and positions secured. They inspired the
drooping spirits of the people. These brilliant successes, ac
complished over physical obstacles, far greater than any
which would hav6 irapeded the march of the army of the
Potomac, induced comparisons between the Western officers
and those of the East.
The successes of Thomas, Foote, and Grant, compelled
the evacuation of Kentucky by the rebels, and opened Ten
nessee to the Union forces. Columbus was necessarily evac
uated by the insurgents.
The fall of Fort Donelson was followed by the immediate
evacuation of Bowling Green, by the rebels. General
Mitchell, of General Buell's army, by a forced march, reached
that place on the 15th of February. An extract from the
address which he issued to his soldiers, will illustrate the res
olution, vigor, activity and heroism of the Western soldiers
in their winter campaigns in the Valley of the Mississippi,
and cannot but force a contrast with the continued idleness,
(excused by McClellan, on account of bad roads,) of the brave
army of the Potomac :
" Soldiers of the Third Division ! Tou have executed a march of forty
miles in twenty-eight hours and a half. The fallen timber and other
obstructions, opposed by the enemy to your movements, have been swept
from your path. The fire of your artillery and the bursting of your
shells announced your arrival. Surprised, and ignorant of the force
that had thus precipitated itself upon them, they fled in consternation.
" In the night-time, over a frozen, rocky, precipitous pathway, down
rude steps for fifty feet, you have passed the advanced guard, cavalry
and infantry, and before the dawn of day, you have entered in triumph
a position of extraordinary strength, which by your enemy, was
proudly denominated the Gibralter of Kentucky.
" With your own hands, through deep mud and in drenching rains, and
up rocky pathways next to impassable, and across a footpath of your own
constructing, built upon the ruins ofthe railway bridge, destroyed for their

NASHVILLE OCCUPIED BY UNION TROOPS. 311
protection, by a retreating and panic stricken foe, you have transported
upon your own shoulders, your luggage and camp equipage."
On the 24th of February, the Union troops, without oppo
sition, took possession of Nashville, the Capital of the great
State of Tennessee. With the Capital, there fell into the
hands of the Union troops, an immense amount of stores and
provisions. On the 12th of March, Senator Andrew Johnson, having
been appointed provisional Governor of Tennessee, arrived
at Nashville, and entered upon his duties.
It will be remembered that the Union sentiment in Ten
nessee, was always strong. In the mountains of East Ten
nessee, there were few slaves, and loyalty to the Union was
general, and fidelity strong. The Union soldiers were received
with acclamations of joy and gratitude
On the 8th of February, Roanoke Island, on the coast of
North Carolina, with all its defences, was captured by an ex
pedition under coraraand of General Burnside, and Admiral
Goldsborough; 2,000 prisoners, 40 guns, and 3,000 small arms
were the results of this victory.
On the 14th of March, General Burnside captured New
bern, with 46 heavy guns, and a large amount of stores.
On the llth of April General David Hunter captured Fort
Pulaski with 47 guns, and a large quantity of military stores.
On the 25th of April, the army and the naval forces cap
tured Fort Macon, which commanded Beaufort Harbor,
with the fort , the army capturing four hundred prisoners.
One of the most important results of these captures, was
depriving the rebels of a large number of negroes, who
everywhere, whenever the Union flag made its appearance,
flocked to it, as the slave flees from bondage to liberty.
On the 6th, 7th and Stk of March, was fought the battle
of Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, Generals Curtis and Sigel,
commanding. Curtis and Sigel having driven Price out of Missouri, and
pursued him into Arkansas, General Halleck, with some ex
ultation, on the 18th of February, telegraphed to Secretary
Stanton, " that the Union flag is floating in Arkansas."

312 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
General Van Dorn reenforced Price, and concentrated the
rebel forces, consisting of the Missouri troops under Price,
the Arkansas and Louisiana troops, under General Ben-
McCullough, and a body of Choctaw, Cherokee, and Chick
asaw Indians, under Generals Pike and Mcintosh. General
Sigel was in advance, and was first attacked by the Confed
erates, in overwhelming numbers. With great ability and
success, he brought off his command and formed a junction
with General Davis, fighting and retreating with admirable
skill. On the 7th of March, the rebels attacked the Union forces ;
the battle raged furiously during the whole day, with severe
loss on both sides. On this day, McCullough and Mcintosh,
and other prominent rebel officers were killed; but the rebels
had the advantage over the right wing of General Curtis,
while his left wing was victorious. On the 8th, the third day.
General Sigel displayed consummate ability in massing his
men, and in the use of artillery, and after terrible slaughter,
the rebels were completely routed, and left the field in dis
order. On this battle-field, after the battle, were found
many Union soldiers tomahawked, scalped, and shamefully
mutilated. On the 13th of March, General John Pope, moving down
the west bank of the Mississippi, succeeded in compelling the
evacuation of New Madrid, and with the town, there fell into
his hands 33 pieces of artillery, and an immense amount of
military stores. General Pope, aided by the gunboats, then
vigorously prosecuted the siege of Island No. 10.
On the night of the-lst of April, an exploit, with scarcely
a parallel for its audacity and success, was performed by
Colonel Roberts, of the Forty-second Illinois. Under cover
of darkness, he landed on the Kentucky side, and spiked the
guns of the upper fort, coraraanding the river, and retired
vrithout injury.
Island No. 10, was taken by General Pope on the 7th of
April. With it, he captured 5,000 prisoners, over 100 heavy
siege guns, 24 field pieces, small arms, military stores, mate
rial and provisions in large quantities. The position was one
of great strength, and with its fall, the insurgents lost the
control of the Mississippi Valley in that vicinity.

OPERATIONS IN THE WEST — SHILOH. 313
These successes produced astonishment among the insur
gents of the Southwest. They saw Missouri, Kentucky,
Arkansas, and Tennessee wrested from them. They began to
realize the gigantic contest in which they were engaged.
Buell's army was concentrated at Nashville, and the rebel
lines of defence from the Mississippi to the mountains, was
broken through and swept away.
The rebels now made the most vigorous efforts to raise
troops to repel the arraies of Grant and Buel.
Beauregard was detached from the insurgent army in Vir
ginia, and sent to the West, and the whole of the forces placed
under command of General Albert Sidney Johnson. The de
feat of this army of Johnson, would open the whole Southwest
to the Union flag. The Confederates appreciated the import
ance of the impending conflict, and used every effort to
gather a force adequate to repel the approaching and victo
rious legions of the Northwest. The address of General
Johnson, to his soldiers issued from his fortified camp, at
Corinth, April 3d, indicates that he regarded the contest as
little less than decisive :
" Remember, soldiers," said he, " the precious stake involved —
remember the dependence of your mothers, your wives, your sisters,
your children, on the result — remember 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."
The great armies met on the 6th of April, and fought the
battle of Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing. The rebel army was
comraanded by Generals Johnson and Beauregard, and the
Union army was under Grant and Buell. It was the purpose
of Beauregard to attack and defeat Grant, before Buell, who
had been ordered by Halleck to join Grant, should come up.
Hence Beauregard advanced toward Grant with great rapid
ity, while Buell was somewhat tardy in marching to Grant.
Before six o'clock, on the morning of the 6th of April, the
rebel columns were in motion and attacked Grant's left, and
coming on like a whirlwind, before 8 o'clock, captured Gen
eral Prentiss, and 2,000 prisoners. This division was very

314 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
nearly surprised; and before they made any considerable
resistance, were taken prisoners. The battle was sternly con
tested by Hurlbut's, McClernand's, and Sherman's divisions.
The division of General W. H. L. Wallace occupied an ex
posed position, and upon this was hurled the weight of the
rebel attack. Four difterent charges were made upon this
gallant division, but each time, under their cool and brave
leader, they repelled the enemy. But the gallant Wallace
was mortally wounded, and the whole of the Union army
was forced reluctantly, doggedly fighting, back into a com
paratively small space near the river. They had lost many
guns, and thousands had been taken prisoners. At this
juncture, there was a pause on the part of the assailants,
a pause at a moment when a vigorous and determined attack
possibly might have driven the Union soldiers in confusion,
into the river; but this pause of the rebels, allowed the Union
soldiers time to rally, and perhaps saved them from destruc
tion. Colonel Webster, General Grant's Chief of artillery,
by his direction, collected the field batteries, and skillfully
massed them in a commanding position to receive the assault
the rebels were preparing to make.
This artillery, with such infantry as could be gathered, re
ceived the expected assault with a terrific and destructive
fire. Besides this, as the rebel column advanced, two gun
boats raked the rebel column with the tremendous guns they
carried. This fire staggered the enemy, and prolonged the
contest until night brought relief, and towards evening, the
long expected column of Buell began to appear.
Beauregard, at the close of the day's fight, however, an
nounced a complete victory, with the death of General Albert
Sydney Johnson. But on the following morning, Grant
early assumed the offensive, and the enemy were forced back,
until, after fighting until 5 o'clock in the afternoon, they
were routed and put to flight.
The first long dreary day of this battle closed with the
advantages all with the rebels. Night brought Buell and
his gallant army, and the morrow, victory. Here was most
strikingly exhibited the stubborn, persistent, resolute charac
ter of Grant, which never knew defeat, but which often

SHILOH. 315
brought success out of apparent defeat. The shattered rebel
army retreated into their strong works at Corinth.
Sad incidents illustrating the character of civil war occurred
on this field.
Two regiments from Kentucky, fighting on opposite sides,
met on this bloody field. A Union soldier wounded and
captured'a rebel soldier — his own brother. Resuming his
fire, at a man hiding behind a tree, the wounded prisoner
exclaimed, "Don't fire there. Bob, that is Father !"
Into a Union field hospital, was brought a rebel soldier,
mortally wounded. He found there, in his attendant, a
Union soldier — a brother, detailed as a nurse, and died in
his arms. Such is rebellion and civil war!
This battle was fought on the Union side by troops com
paratively new. There was a lack of concert and mutual sup
port, but it effectually tested the stamina and manliness of
the belligerents. It was a long, terrible, hand- to hand, two
day's fight ; beginning at early dawn, and continuing until
night; but when the sun went down on Shiloh onthe second
day, it went down on an army of fieeing rebels, the arrogance
of which had been tamed, and their dream of invincibility,
and contempt of Northern soldiers so long instilled into the
people of the South, gone forever ! From that bloody day,
no rebel soldier despised the courage, the persistence, the
manliness or the marksmanship of his adversary.
The Union array, when attacked, was not protected in its
front by earthworks. It is not too much to say, that one
year later in the war, no army of Grant or Sherman could
have been found by the enemy in the condition their army
was in on the first day of the battle of Shiloh.
Meanwhile, General Halleck, who had, as has been stated,
succeeded General Hunter, in comraand of the West, left
St. Louis, and assumed comraand in the field. On the 22d
of April, General Pope, with his division of alraost 25,000
men, arrived at Pittsburg Landing from New Madrid. The
army of Halleck now consisted of the army of General
Grant, forming the right wing, General Buell's the left, and
General Pope's the centre. On the 3d of May, this army of
General Halleck numbered 108,000 men, and was within

316 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
eight miles of Corinth. This place is in the northeast corner
of Mississippi, ninety miles east of Memphis, on the Missis
sippi River, and on the line of the great railroad between
Memphis and Charleston, South Carolina, where the Mobile
and Ohio Railroad, running north and south, crosses the
great east and west line between the Mississippi and the
Atlantic. General Grant was given the position of second in com
mand, and General Thomas was assigned to the command of
the right wing. The forces of Beauregard had been increas
ed by the concentration of troops from Mississippi and Loui-
. siana, including General Lovell, from near New Orleans.
He had fled from the metropolis of the Southwest previous
to its capture by the gallant Farragut and General Butler.
By these additions, the Confederate force was largely in
creased, although it did not equal the army under General
Halleck. General Halleck now proceeded, by gradual advances, to the
investment and siege of Corinth. Although he commanded
a victorious army, elated and confident from a career of
almost uninterrupted success, he took the utmost care to pre
vent a general engagement. For more than a month, he
issued his daily order to crowd up to the enemy, " but to
avoid a general engagement." His ardent and eager subordi
nates, anxious to reach the enemy, begged permission to at
tack, but were refused. By this course, Corinth was taken,
but the rebel army escaped.
On the 80th of May, the heavy batteries of Halleck opened
upon Corinth, and the Confederates were driven' out. The
enemy fied hastily, destroying immense quantities of stores,
provisions and materiel of war. The line of fortifications
thus abandoned, was fifteen miles long, with batteries com
manding every road and assailable point. The Union troops
pursued for some distance the retreating rebels, and made
some captures, but they had all the territory which they
could hold. The failure on the part of Halleck to attack
and assault the eneray, enabled Beauregard to escape, and
transfer his forces to positions of need at the East.

CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 317
While the armies of the West had fought all the way from
niinois, down the Valley of the Mississippi, from Cairo to
Corinth, capturing Forts Henry and Donelson, New Madrid,
Island No. 10, and Nashville; while they had fought
the battles of Belmont, Mill Spring, Pea Ridge, and the
great battle of Shiloh ; had rescued and reclaimed from the
enemy Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Northem Arkan
sas, and were holding points of Mississippi and Alabama,
where was the Army of the Potomac and what had it done ?
Where were its trophies, where the prisoners, guns, forts it
had captured, and the States it had subjugated ? Is it not
now clear, that if General McClellan had been equally active,
and had done as much fighting and with equal success as the
armies which operated at the West, the rebellion would have
been crushed and the Confederate States subjugated in 1862 ?
But General McClellan never adopted the tactics of Grant,
of attacking every assailable point of the rebellion at the
same time ; but he so managed, while in supreme command,
that the rebels, being on the inner and shorter line of defense,
could transfer their troops from point to point wherever
most needed.
The city of New Orleans, at the raouth of the Mississippi,
was early the object of the anxious consideration of President
Lincoln. Having passed his life in the great Valley of the
West — knowing it as one who had in early life, as a flat-
boatman, urged his boat over its majestic waters — he had
lived to see it, and its thousands of miles of tributary streams,
covered with steamers, carrying to tidewater, the vast agri
cultural products of a delta raore productive than that of the
Nile. He fully sympathized with the declaration of the gal
lant Illinois soldier who declared that the hardy Western
settler, turning his plough-share into the sword, would "Hew
his way io ihe sea !" No place in the Union had been more
associated with National pride than the city of New Orleans.
The victory of General Jackson at that place had always been
justly regarded as one of the most brilliant military achieve
ments on record. This city, over which the lilies of France
had floated, was the metropolis of the vast Southwest. By

318 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the treason of Twiggs, it had fallen an unresisting victim
into the toils of the traitors. Lincoln early determined to
restore this city, to the National governraent.
In the Autumn of 1861, a great expedition, under the
command of Captain Farragut and General B. F. Butler,
was organized. To Captain Farragut has been assigned,
by the comraon consent of his gallant and able comrades,
the first position among the naval heroes of the war. A
native of Tennessee, he is a hearty, bluff, honest, downright
sailor, who knows no such word as fail. Full of resources,
confident in hiraself and in those he knew how to comraand,
he is one of those men who command success. General
Butler's forces landed at Ship Island in December, 1861, and
January, 1862.
Captain Farragut sailed with his fleet to attack the forts
on the 3d Of February. After bombarding Forts St. Philip
and Jackson, which guarded the mouth of the Mississippi,
for six days without reducing them, with the inspiration of
genius, he determined to pass these forts, and sail up the
Mississippi. The difficulty, and the apparent temerity of this
will appear, when it is recollected that the Forts St. Philip
and Jackson mounted 126 guns, many of them of very heavy
caliber ; that the river was obstructed by sunken hulks and
an iron chain of immense strength was stretched across the
channel ; that he would encounter thirteen gun-boats, in ad
dition to the powerful iron-clad battery Louisiana. The au
thorities of New Orleans were perfectly confident. " Our
only fear," said the city press, " is that the Northern invaders
may not appear." If they had known Farragut, they would
not have expressed any such apprehension. If they did in
fact entertain such fears, he soon relieved them. On the 24th
of April, amidst a storm of shot and shell, the night illumin
ated by the mingled fires of ships, and forts, and burning
vessels, he passed Forts Jackson and St. Philip ; he crushed
through the boom, he destroyed the rams and gun-boats sent
down to oppose him, and steaming past the batteries, he
ascended the majestic Mississippi, and squared his yards, and
opened his broadsides upon the proud city of the Southweat.

CAPTURE OF NEW ORLEANS. 319
The city of 150,000 surrendered, and the stars and stripes
once more floated over the Custom-House, Post-Office and
other public buildings of the crescent city. The flag never
again to be hauled down from that position, for, as it was
grimly said by a Confederate General on the fall of Rich
mond, "it had never been the policy of the rebels to retake
the cities and posts captured by the Union forces."

CHAPTEE XY.

THE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL McCLELLAN— THE CAMPAIGN
AGAINST RICHMOND
The Army op the Potomac — McClellan's Inaction — Plan op
the Campaign — The Monitor and the Merrimac — Yorktown
— Williamsburg — The Chickahominy — The President urges
¦Action — Norfolk Taken — McDowell at Frederioksburp —
Stonewall Jackson's Campaign Down the Valley — Battle
OP Fair Oaks — Lee in Command — Mechanicsville — Gaine's
Mills, etc. — To the James — Malvern Hill — Harrison's'
Landing.
TT will be remembered, that the President, on the 27th of
-*- January, 1862, had issued an order that active operations,
and a general advance of all the armies should begin on the
22d of February. That order contemplated active move
ments, and in concert, by all the forces in the field. Lincoln
appreciated and anticipated the common-sense views subse
quently acted upon by Grant, of attacking the enemy at all
points at the same time.
On the 31st of January, he had ordered that all the dispos
able forces should be organized into an expedition for the
iraraediate object of seizing and occupying a point on the
railroad southwest of Manassas Junction.
Early in March, McClellan, with his splendid army,
marched on Centerville, to find it evacuated, and wooden
guns in position on the works, behind which the rebels had
so long remained unassailed. Addressing his vast array at
Fairfax Court House, the young general said : " The Army
of the Potomac is now a real army. Magnificent in material,
admirable in discipline and instruction, excellently equipped
and armed, your commanders are all that I could wish." The
320

MC CLELLAN. 821
last division of the Confederates left Centreville on the 9th
of March. On the 10th, McClellan started for the already
abandoned position. The army of McClellan was over 100,-
000 strong, with 350 pieces of artillery. Great dissatisfaction
had prevailed throughout the country at the long continued
inactivity and tardy movements of this General. President
Lincoln was very slow to -withdraw his confidence when it
had been once given, and was noted for the unflinching
fidelity with which he stood by those in whom he trusted.
He had long stood by McClellan, and sustained hira against
a very large majority of the most earnest Union men of the
Nation. The Committee on the Conduct of the War, the
stern and fiery War Secretary, Mr. Stanton, and many
others chafed and struggled during the long Winter of 1862,
against McClellan's inactivity. They were not satisfied, and
the confidence of the President began to be seriously shaken.
It is clear that McClellan was a good organizer. He was an
admirable engineer, and he had perforraed the great work
of organizing and drilling a magnificent army — an army
equal to any which had ever met an enemy. Could that
magnificent array, at the moment it struck its tents around
Washington, have been transferred to the command of the
impetuous,, rapid, indefatigable, elastic Sheridan, or to the
brilliant hero of Atlanta and " the grand march," or the im
perturbable, unfiinching, iron will of Grant, it would have
marched into Richmond long before McClellan reached the
Chickahominy. It is now but too clear that McClellan
lacked the energy, decision and boldness for aggressive
movements. It is not clear but that his inactivity was, to
some extent attributable to an indisposition to inflict great
injury upon the rebels ; and it is believed that he indulged
the hope of a restoration of the Union by a show of power,
rather than by the exercise of it in inflicting hard blows.
Celerity forraed no part in the military movements of
McClellan. The Prince de Join ville, attached to his staff
during his campaign, has made a criticism upon the Ameri
can character, which was as true of General McClellan, as it
was mistaken in regard to the American people. "I here
21

322 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
point out," says he, " a characteristic trait of the American
people — delay."
General McClellan and his army were always encumbered
with the most enormous quantity of luggage. In the Winter
of 1862, members of Congress and others were astonished to
see drawn up before the door of the young general, six im
mense four-horse wagons, marked "Head -quarters of the
Army of the Potomac," They knew little of military affairs,
but were curious to learn what was the camp equipage which
required twenty -four horses to draw, and subsequently,
observed the difference, and drew comparisons, when they
learned that Grant started on his wonderful campaign against
Vicksburg with a clean shirt and a tooth-brush.
During the long Winter of inacti'vjr of 1862, the impatience
of Mr. Lincoln at McClellan's inactivity became at times un
endurable. On one occasion, he said to one of his military
friends, who was also a friend of McClellan, " If General
McClellan does not want to wse the army for some days, I
should like to borrow ii, and see if it cannot be made io do
something." The political and personal associations of the General were
with those who, in political stations, and in the army, had
been most friendly with the South, and some of whom
professed to believe that the Union could not be preserved
by coercion.
General McClellan had estimated the number of troops
necessary to be left to defend the Capital at 35,000, and 23,000
for the Potomac, Baltimore and Annapolis. The President
had long before urged upon the General the raising of the
blockade of the Potomac, and an early movement on land
towards Richmond.
On the Sth of March, the President directed that Wash
ington should be left entirely secure, and that any movement
to be made should begin as early as the 18th of March, and
that the General-in-Chief should be held responsible that it
was as early as that day. It was also ordered that the array
and navy cooperate in an immediate effort to capture the ene
my's batteries upon the Potomac, between Washington and
the Chesapeake Bay.

THE MERRIMAC AND MONITOR. 323
A council of war was held at Fairfax Court House, March
12th, at which it was decided to proceed against Richmond by
Fortress Monroe. The President expressed his acquiescence
in this plan, although his opinion had been very decidedly in
favor of a direct march upon Richmond; this acquiescence,
however, was upon the condition "that Washington should be
left entirely secure, and the remainder of the force should
move down the Potomac to Fortress Monroe, or anywhere
between Washington and Fortress Monroe, or at all events io
move ai once in pursuit of ihe enemy by some route." Such was
the impatient language of the President, inspired by the long
delay of the Array of the Potomac. He had directed a divi
sion of the Army of the Potomac into four army corps.
On the 9th of March, the heart of the Nation was thrilled
by the intelligence of the encounter between the iron-clad
Merrimac, and the United States vessels of war, lying near
Fortress Monroe. The rebels had taken possession of the
Merrimac at Norfolk, when that post was shamefully aband
oned in the Spring of 1861. They had covered her sides
with iron armor, and naming her the Virginia, she now steamed
down the James River, and attacked and destroyed the frigates
Cumberland and Congress. The Cumberland was most bravely
fought at anchor, until she went down, with her flag still
flying, and for days it could be seen marking the spot
where was sunk as brave a ship, which was as gallantly fought
as ever was vessel commanded by a Nelson or a Perry. The
Minnesota, in coming to the aid of the Cumberland and Con
gress, ran aground, and lay at the mercy of this terrible iron
clad battery. But just at this time, there came up the Bay,
a low turtle-like looking nondescript, which was soon announc
ed as the iron-clad Monitor, an experiment built by the dis
tinguished engineer, Ericsson. This vessel mounted two
11-inch Dahlgren guns, carrying 168 pound shot. She at
tacked successfully the iron -clad Virginia, and saved the
fleet. Whole broadsides were fired upon the little Monitor,
by her gigantic corapetitor, with no more effect than a volley
of stones. The result of this contest revolutionized naval
warfare. The wonderftil success of the Monitor caused the

324 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
construction of those fleets of iron-clads, which, it is beheved,
render the American na^Ty, for defensive purposes, superior
to any in the world.
On the 13th of March, McClellan telegraphed to the Sec
retary of War, that a council of the commanders of array
corps had "unanimously agreed upon a plan of operations "
which General McDowell would unfold to him. The im
patient Stanton replied characteristically " whatever plan has
been agreed UTpon, proceed to execute, without losing an hour for
my approval."
The following is a statement of the plan agreed upon by
the commanders at Fairfax Court House, and referred to by
General McClellan :
" I. That the enemy having retreated from Manassas to Gordons-
ville, behind the Rappahannock and Rapidan, it is the opinion of the
generals commanding army corps, that the operations to be carried on
will be best undertaken from Old Point Comfort, between the Tork and
James rivers ; Provided,
" 1st, That the enemy's vessel Merrimac can be'neutralized.
" 2d, That the means of transportation sufficient for an immediate
transfer of the force to its new base can be ready at Washington and
Alexandria to move down the Potomac, and
" 3d, That a naval auxiliary force can be had to silence, or aid in
silencing, the enemy's batteries on the Tork River.
" 4th, That the force to be left to cover Washington shall be such
as to give an entire feeling of security for its safety from menace.
(Unanimous.) " II. If the foregoing can not be, the army should then be moved
against the enemy, behind the Rappahannock, at the earliest possible
moment, add the means for reconstructing bridges, repairing railroads
and stocking them with materials, sufficient for supplying the army,
should at once be collected for both the Orange and Alexandria and
Acquia and Richmond Railroads. (Unanimous.)
" Note. — That with the forts on the right bank of the Potomac fully
garrisoned, and those on the left bank occupied, a covering force in
front of the Virginia line of 25,000 men would suffice. (Keys,
Heintzelman and McDowell.) A total of 40,000 men for the defense
of the city would suffice." (Sumner.)

LINCOLN ACQUIESCES IN MC CLBLLAN'S PLAN. 325
This plan was submitted to Mr. Lincoln, and acquiesced
in by him, and the following despatch sent to the General :
" The President having considered the plan of operations agreed upon
by yourself, and the commanders of army corps, makes no objection to
the same, but gives the following directions as to its execution :
" 1st, Leave such force at Manassas Junction as shall make it entirely
certain that the enemy shall not re-possess himself of that position and
line of communication.
" 2d, Leave Washington entirely secure.
" 3d, Move the remainder of the force down the Potomac, choosing
a new base at Fortress Monroe, or anywhere between here and there,
or at all events, move such remainder of the army at once in pursuit
of the enemy by some route."*
The number of troops-composing the Army of the Potomac
at this time was 158,419.t
General Wadsworth, who was in command of Washington,
reported only 20,000 men then fit for duty in his department ;
and a council of military officers reported this number
insufficient for the defense of the Capital.
The Army of the Potomac embarked for Fortress Monroe,
and arrived on the 23d of March, and on the 4th of April
started up the Peninsula, between the York and the
James Rivers, towards Richmond. At Yorktown, the army
of McClellan encountered the eneray fortified, with a force
coraparatively small, not to exceed 11,000, as we now know
from official sources, and only 5,000 of these in the lines in
front of McClellan. J Such a force, a vigorous and determined
commander would not have permitted to delay his march ;
but this handful of men stopped McClellan from the Ist of
April to the 4th of May. He sat down before Yorktown as
to a regular siege. He planted batteries, and sought by
regular approaches, to reduce the position. While here, and
preparing for a regular siege, he complained that he had not
men enough, and asked for reenforcements ! Bj the time
he was ready to open his batteries, the very day his great
siege guns were to be opened, the rebels left. They remained
* Report on Conduct of the War, Part I, p. 52.
t Report on Conduct of the War, Part I, p. 315.
X See report of Confederate General Magruder, May 3, 1862.

326 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
just as long as they could remain -with impunity. They
knew exactly when he was going to open fire, and left. The
pohcy of the rebels was to delay the Union army as long as
possible, to give time for the concentration of their forces at
Richmond, and to prepare defenses. The retreating troops
made a stand at Williamsburg, where they had strong works.
Here the rebels made a vigorous attack upon the advance
of the Union forces, and held them in check ; but without
waiting for McClellan to come up, or even for orders, Heintz
elman and Hooker brought up their troops to the attack,
and Hancock getting possession of a portion of the rebel
works, they were forced to retreat, leaving their dead and
wounded in the hands of the Union army.
The delay at Yorktown was of the utraost importaace to
the insurgents. Magruder, in his general orders of April
4th, said: "Every hour we hold out, brings us reenforce
ments." Yet, McClellan, not-withstanding his overwhelming
numbers, would not permit an assault. That this delay was
very unsatisfactory to the President, appears from a dispatch
from him to McClellan, dated April 6th :
" Tours of 11, A. M., to-day, received. The Secretary of War in
forms me that the forwarding of transportation, ammunition, and Wood
bury's brigade, under your orders, is not, and will not be interfered
with. Tou now have over 100,000 troops with you, independent of
General Wool's command. I think you had better break the enemy's
line from Yorktown to Warwick River at once. They will probably
use time as advantageously as you can. "*
The dispatches of President Lincoln to the various military
commanders exhibit great sagacity and natural military skill
and judgment.
The delay at Yorktown, though not necessarily fatal to
McClellan's campaign, rendered success more difficult. Jeffer
son Davis was rapidly concentrating forces at Richraond.
McClellan was constantly coraplaining, and asking for reen
forcements. Finally on the 9th of April, the President wrote
to him the foUowing frank, kind and ingenuous letter
* Report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, p. 319-20.

MC CLELLAN'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. 327
" Tour despatches, complaining that you are not properly sustained,
while they do not offend me, do pain me very much.
" Blenker's division was withdrawn from you before you left here,
and you know the pressure under which I did it, and, as I thought, ac
quiesced in it — certainly not without reluctance. After you left, I
ascertained that less than twenty thousand unorganized men, without
a single field battery, were all you designed to be left for the defense of
Washington and Manassas Junction, and part of this even, was to go
to General Hooker's old position. General Bank's corps, once designed
for Manassas Junction, was diverted and tied up on the line of Win
chester and Strasburg, and could not leave it, without again exposing
the Upper Potomac, and the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. This pre
sented, or would present, when Sumner and McDo-yrell should be gone,
a great temptation to the enemy to turn back from the Rappahannock,
and sack Washington. My imphcit order that Washington should, by
the judgment of all the Commanders of army corps, be left entirely se
cure, had been neglected. It was precisely this that drove me to detain
McDowell. " I do not forget that I was satisfied with your arrangement to leave
Banks at Manassas Junction ; but when that arrangement was broken
up, and nothing was substituted for it, of course I was constrained to
to substitute something for it myself. And allow me to ask, do you
really think I should permit the line from Richmond, via Manassas
Junction to this city to be entirely open, except what resistance could
be presented by less than twenty thousand unorganized troops ? This
is a question which the country will not allow me to' evade.
" There is a curious mystery about the number of troops now vrith
you. When I telegraphed you on the Gth, saying you had over a hun
dred thousand men with you, I had just obtained from the Secretary of
War, a statement taken, as he said, from your own returns, making one
hundred and eight thousand then with you and en route to you. Tou
now say, you will have but eighty-five thousand, when all en route to
you shall have reached you. How can the discrepancy of twenty-three
thousand be accounted for?
" As to General Wool's command, I understand it is doing for you
precisely what a like number of your own would have to do, if that
command was away.
" I suppose the whole force which has gone forward to you, is with
you by this time;. and if so, I think it is the precise time for you to
strike a blow. By delay, the enemy will relatively gain upon you — that

828 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Ut, he will gain faster by fortifications and reenforcements than you can
by reenforcements alone. And once more, let me tell you,ifis indispensa
ble to you that you strike a blow. I am powerless to help this. Tou
will do me the justice to remember, I always insisted that going down
the bay in search of a field, instead of fighting at or near Manassas,
was only shifting and not surmounting a difficulty; that we would find
the same enemy, and the same, or equal intrenchments at either place.
The country will not fail to note — is now noting, that the present hesi
tation to move upon an intrenched enemy, is but the story of 'Manassas
repeated. " I beg to assure you, that I have never written you, or spoken to
you, in greater kindness of feeling than now, nor with a fuller purpose
to sustain you, so far aa, in my most anxious judgment I consistently
can. But you must act. " Tours, very truly,
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."*
Meanwhile, General Franklin's division had, at the special
request of General McClellan, on the 10th of April, been
sent to him, and on the SOth of April, General McClellan's
force amounted to 130,378, of which 112,392, were effective.f
On the last of April, there came from McClellan, while
still before Yorktown, a call for ParrottGuns, to which the
President, whose patience and proverbial good nature and
indulgence were well nigh exhausted, said, on the first of
May, "Your call for Parrott guns from Washington, alarms
me — chiefly because it argues indefinite procrastination. Is
anything to be done?" f
On the 7th, President Lincoln arrived at Fortress Monroe,
and urged a movement on Norfolk, which was successfully-
made. The celebrated Merrimac was now abandoned by thg
rebels, and blown up ; all the forts and fortifications defend
ing York river, were also abandoned. The blockade of the
James was raised as far as Drury's Bluff, and an iramense
amount of heavy ordnance and ammunition fell into the
hands of the National forces. These works and this material
* Report on the Conduct of the War, Part I, p. 321-2.
t Report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, p. 18, army of the Potomac
t Report on the Conduct of the War, p. 18 and 19.

MO OLBLLAN'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. 329
were abandoned by the Confederates to enable them to con
centrate all their forces for the defense of Richmond. The
troops in and about Norfolk, nearly 18,000 in number, under
General Huger, were hurried to the defense of the rebel
Capital. While the President and Secretary of War were
at Fortress Monroe, they received a note from General Mc
Clellan, dated May 9th, asking permission to reorganize the
army corps, and for authority to relieve incompetent com
manders of army corps, and complaining of his Generals.
To this Secretary Stanton replied, " You may temporarily ,
suspend that organization in the army now under your imr
mediate comraand, and adopt any you see fit, until further
orders." The President, on the same day wrote the following
kind and friendly letter to General McClellan :
" I have just assisted the Secretary of War in framing the part of a
despatch to you relating to army corps, which despatch, of course, will
have reached you long before this will. I wish to say a few words to
you privately on this subject. I ordered the army corps organization,
not only on the unanimous opinion of the twelve Generals whom you
had selected and assigned as Generals of divisions, but also on the una
nimous opinion of every military man I could get an opinion from, your
self only excepted, and every modern military book. Of course, I did
not, on my own judgment, pretend to understand the subject. I now
think it indispensable for you to know how your struggle against it, is
received in quarters which we cannot entirely disregard. It is looked
upon as merely an efl'ort to pamper one or two pets, and to persecute
and degrade their supposed rivals. I have had no word from Sumner,
Heintzelman, or Keyes — the Commanders ofthese corps are, of course,
the three highest officers with you ; but I am constantly told that you
have no consultation or communication with them; that you consult
and communicate with nobody but General Fitz John Porter, and perhaps
General FrankUn. I do not say these complaints are true or just; but at
all events, it is proper you should know of their existence. Do the
Commanders of corps disobey your orders in anything?
" When you relieved General Hamilton of his command the other
day, you thereby lost the confidence of at least, one of your best friends
in the Senate. And here let me say, not as applicable to you personally,
that Senators and Representatives speak of me in their places as they
please, without question, and that officers of the army must cease

330 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
addressing insulting letters to them for taking no greater liberty with
them. " But to return. Are you strong enough — are you strong enough
even with my help — to set your foot upon the necks of Sumner, Heint
zelman, and Keyes, all at once? This is a practical, and very serious
question to you.
" The success of your army, and the cause of the country are the
same, and of course, I only desire the good of the cause."
The allusion to insulting letters addressed to Senators by .
officers, was called forth by the fact, that officers, under
McClellan, had written insulting and threatening letters to
Senators, who had, in their places, criticised the General and
and his army movements. Mr. Lincoln always bore such
attacks upon himself with dignity and forbearance.
On the 17th of May, General McDowell was ordered, on
being joined by General Shields' division, while he continued
to cover Washington, to move upon Richmond by the gene
ral route of the Fredericksburg and Richmond railroad, and
to cooperate with the forces under General McClellan ; to
establish communication between his left and McClellan's
right, -who was then threatening the rebel Capital, from the
line of the Pamunky and York rivers.
There were then three bodies of Union troops in Virginia,
North of McClellan's. McDowell's at Fredericksburg, Fre
mont's in the Mountains, and Banks' at Strasburg. Had these
forces been under one able, sagacious chief, their union and
cooperation would have made them irresistible against any
force which could have been sent against them. They unfor
tunately were under different heads, and each received orders
from the Secretary of War. The daring and active Stonewall
Jackson was despatched up the valley of the Shenandoah, to
prevent McDowell from uniting with McClellan, to create, if
possible, a panic at Washington, and prevent all reinforce
ments being forwarded to McClellan. Stonewall Jackson, in a
series of brilliant movements, more than accomplished his pur
pose. First, he attacked Banks, and drove him, fightjng desper
ately, back to Winchester, and thence across the Potomac.
This, and the retreat ofsome troops on the Manassas Gap Rail
road, did create a panic at Washington. Secretary Stanton

JACKSON IN THE VALLEY OF THE SHENANDOAH. 331
telegraphed on the 26th of May to the Governors of Northern
States, in language indicating apprehension. To the Gover
nor of Massachusetts, he said, " intelligence from various
quarters, leaves no doubt that the eneray, in great force, are
marching on Washington. You will please organize and for
ward all the militia and volunteer force in your State." To
other Governors of loyal States, he sent urgent messages for
troops. Stimulated by the telegrams of the War Secretary,
the Governors of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania,
Rhode Island, Ohio, and other States, issued stirring appeals
for volunteers, to which there was then, as at all times, a
ready response by the people.
Thus far, the movements of Jackson had been successful,
beyond his expectations. He had caused orders to be issued
to McDowell, countermanding his advance on Richmond,
and junction with McClellan. He had driven Banks across
the Potomac, and created such apprehension at Washington,
as effectually prevented reinforceraents being sent to the
army before Richraond. He had obtained a considerable
araount of railitary stores and supplies.
Could he now raake good his escape ? There were abund
ant troops to overwhelm and crush him, if they could be con
centrated, and catch him. Fremont, the far famed " Path
finder " of the Rocky Mountains, was coming down upon
him from the North. The troops of McDowell were seeking
to strike him in the left flank, and still another small force was
in his front, to destroy the bridges over which alone, he must
escape. The nimble footed Jackson knew his danger, he knew
the country, and besides, there was little or no concert
among his assailants.
Jackson passed through Strasburg on the 1st of June, just
in time to escape Fremont on one side, and the force of
McDowell on the other. The columns of their two pursuing
armies met, but Jackson had got through. He still retreated,
fighting and burning bridges after him until he reached a
strong position at Cross Keys ; here he halted and turned at
bay. Here he fought Fremont on the Sth of June. In the
meantime, Colonel Carroll and General Tyler, had been

332 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
ordered to strike the line of Jackson's retreat, destroy his train
which was in advance, and burn the bridges over which he
must pass. They came up in time, but failed to destroy the
bridges, and Jackson escaped. The failure to capture and
destroy Jackson, was caused by want of cooperation and con
cert. This brilliant campaign of Jackson was of iramense im
portance to the Confederates, and possibly saved Richraond.
One can scarcely fail to contrast the ineffectual movements
against him with the brilliant campaign of Sheridan against
Early, in 1864. But Sheridan did not have Stonewall
Jackson to contend with.
Returning to the army of the Potomac, in the neighbor
hood of Richmond, we find it on the 15th of May, concen
trating at the White House, the point where the railroad
from West Point, on York river, to Richraond, crosses the
Pamunky. On the 25th of May, Mr. Lincoln telegraphed to McClel
lan : " I think the time is near when you must either attack
Richmond, or give up the job and come to the defence of
Washington." *
On the 26th of May, a portion of the corps of General
Keyes, was ordered across the Chickahominy, and was fol
lowed by the corps of Heintzelman. The corps of Sumner,
Porter, and Franklin, remained on the left bank, without
the means of crossing. The vigilant rebel commander saw
the blunder, and instantly profited by it. The Union troops
were attacked in force by the rebels, with the hope of cutting
them off before they could be supported by the army on the
other side of the river. Although Casey's division was driven
back in some disorder, yet being supported by Heintzelman,
they held the rebels in check until General Sumner suc
ceeded in crossing and attacking the rebels vigorously iu fiank,
which stopped their advance, and a gallant bayonet charge,
led by the aged but stout and resolute Sumner in person, drove
them back beyond Fair Oaks station. Suraner saved the day.
Had the remaining troops been brought over, a great victory
would have been secured. If, instead of Sumner's fifteen
thousand, fifty thousand had been thrown across, the result
* Report on the Conduct of the War, Part I, p. 330.

MO CLELLAN'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. 333 *
might have been a decisive victory. If fifteen thousand re
pulsed the enemy, fifty thousand would probably have se
cured Richmond. Indeed, the Prince de Joinville, on the
personal staff of General McClellan said, " It was not until
7 P. M., that the idea of securing all the bridges -without
delay, and causing the whole army to cross at day-break to
the right bank of the Chickahominy, was entertained. It
was now too late; four hours had been lost, and the opportu
nity, that moment so fleeting in war as in other circumstances,
had gone."
It was on this field that Prince de Joinville, admiring a bed
of beautiful Virginia roses, and plucking one, recoiled -with his
hand covered with blood; beneath the fragrant flowers had
crept a wounded soldier, seeking their slight shelter from the
burning-sun, to bleed and die!
The river rose during the night and following day, and
Swept away the bridges. This left the troops of Sumner,
Heintzelman, and Keys, on one side, and those of Porter and
Franklin, on the other. The next day, the rebels renewed
the attack, throwing upon that portion of the Union army all
their then available force ; but after a severe battle, were re
pulsed with great slaughter and driven back upon Richmond,
to which they fled, carrying consternation. It was expected
naturally, that the victorious troops would follow up their
success, and attack the rebel Capital.
One half of the Union army had beaten the rebels. Jack
son was returning frora the Valley from which, as we have
stated, he had escaped from all the efforts of I'remont and
McDowell, to close in upon him. General McClellan had
remained on the left bank of the Chickahominy. On the
ne?;t day, June 2d, General Heintzelman sent a reconnoiter
ing party under Hooker, within four miles of Richmond, and
met no enemy; but though informed of this fact, McClellan ,
ordered the force to fall back to its old position. Then followed
weeks of inactivity on the part of McClellan.
Beauregard and Bragg had evacuated Corinth with a
large force, and their soldiers, it was known as many of
them as could be spared, would fly to the defense of Rich
mond. Mr. Lincoln, conscious of all this, telegraphs to

334 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
McClellan, " the time is near when you must attack Rich
mond, or give up the job." But there was no attack. On
the 5th of June, McClellan calls for more troops. Five new
regiments, and McCall's division of McDowell's corps are
sent to him. And yet, on the 12th of June, induced by a
simple request from McDowell that McCall's division, which
had been detached from his corps, might be so placed as to
be in a position to join his other forces as they came do-wn
from Fredericksburg, McClellan said to the President, " If
I cannot fully control all his (McDowell's) troops, I want
•none of them, but would prefer to fight the battle with what
I have, and let others be responsible for the result." Such
was the querulous impatience, and ill teraper of McClel
lan, when the President was doing his utmost to send hira
troops. On the llth, he says, he has information that
Beauregard had arrived, and that troops were to follow him.
General Johnston, of the rebel army, having been wounded
at Fair Oaks, General Robert E. Lee, after ha-ring acted for
sometime as Chief of staff to Jefferson Davis, was assigned
to the command. Meantime McClellan telegraphs to the Presi
dent and Secretary of War, of rain, of bad roads, of mud — but
of no advance. On the 21st of June, from his carap on the
Chickahorainy, General McClellan again telegraphs to Pres
ident Lincoln, that he should like to have perraission " by
letter or telegraph, to lay before your Excellency, my views as to the
present state of military affairs throughout ihe whole country." Lin
coln replies with much good nature, and a little irony, " If it
would not divert too much of your time and attention from
the army under your immediate comraand, I should be glad
to hear your views on the present state of railitary affairs
throughout the whole country." For nearly a month. Gene
ral McClellan had been talking of a great battle, but he
mad.e no advance, always waiting to be attacked. He had
divided his army, it being separated by the Chickahominy.
It was at this time that the rebel General committed
the blunder of uncovering Richmond in such a way, that
had General McClellan had the boldness to have struck
directly for that city, he would have found it an easy con-

MC CLELLAN'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. 335
quest. Jackson was returning from the North with his
victorious forces, and Lee supposed McClellan was with his
main army North of the Chickahominy. The rebel Generals
A. P. Hill, D. H. Hill, and Longstreet, were ordered with
between thirty and forty thousand men, to cross the Chicka
hominy above the right of the Union lines, and form a junc
tion with Jackson. This left between McClellan's army and
Richmond, only Huger's and Magruder's divisions, and some
detached troops, numbering in all, not to exceed twenty-five
thousand men. Lee's army, after crossing the river, was in
a position that it could not again unite ; and if McClellan,
with his whole force had marched upon Richmond, he would
have crushed Huger and Magruder, before the forces sent
across could have come to their rescue.'''
General McClellan seemed to believe that Jackson was in
strong force at Gordonsville, but about the 25th of June, he
became convinced that this enterprising leader was about to
assail him. Jackson had been gathering a force with which to
attack McClellan's right and centre. Why, when Jackson was
far away in pursuit ofBanks, before reinforcements had arrived
at Richmond, did not McClellan attack? Why wait until
Jackson returned and attacked him?
The President, on the 26th of June, in reply to a complain
ing telegram from McClellan, in which that General sought
in advance to throw the responsibility of apprehended defeat
on others, said : f
" Tour three despatches of yesterday in relation to the affair, ending
with the statement that you completely succeeded in making your point,
are very gratifying.
" The lat€r one of 6.15 P. M., suggesting the probability of your
being overwhelmed by two hundred thousand, and talking of where the
responsibility will belong, pains me very much. I give you all I can,
and aet on the presumption that you will do the best you can with what
you have, while you continue, ungenerously I think, to assume, that I
could give you more if I would. I have omitted, and shall omit no
opportunity to send you reenforcements, whenever I possibly can.
* Swinton, in hie " Army of the Potomac," the apologist for McClellan, while he
admits that this movement ought to have been made, says it was too bold for
that General.
t Report on the Conduct of the War, p. 338-fl.

336 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
" P. S. General Pope thinks if you fall back, it would be much better
toward Tork River, than toward the James. As Pope now has charge
of the Capital, please confer with him through the telegraph."
"A. LINCOLN."
The Hills, and Longstreet marched out of Richmond to
cooperate with Jackson, and McCall was vigorously attacked
at Mechanicsville. The position of McCall was a strong one,
with a deep creek in the Union front. Hill not waiting for
a junction with Jackson, attacked with great vigor, and was
defeated with severe loss.
It seems that McClellan before this attack, had been anti
cipating a retreat, for he says in his report, that "imore than a
week previous," that is on the 18th, he had prepared for a
retreat to the James, and sent supplies to that river. The
attack at Mechanicsville, clearly indicated the purpose of Lee
to crush the right of the army of the Potomac. It has been
suggested by able military critics, that the leader of that army
¦might have adopted with success, either of two expedi
ents ; he might have brought over his left wing, and thus
strengthened his right and secured a victory ; or he might
have withdrawn his right across the Chickahominy. He did
not, however, attempt a concentration of his army, but left his
right, consisting of about thirty thousand, to withstand the
whole rebel force, and to fight the bloody battle of Cold
Harbor, or Gaines' Mill, on the 27th of June, when Porter's
command, aft'er maintaining its position for a long day, and
repeatedly repulsing and driving back the eneray, was finally
as night approached, driven back by superior numbers and
fresh troops. But what threatened to be a rout was pre-
-vented by the gallantry of Meagher's and French's brigades,
which came up at evening and checked the rebel advance.
While the forces of Porter, weary and exhausted with the
long struggle, were giving way, and pressed with nuraberSj
the retreat was likely soon to become a rout, a shout an
nounced the presence of the gallant Irishman, and his fight
ing brigade, the General leading in his shirt sleeves. They
came on with a rush and the fugitives stopped and re
formed; the rebels were checked and driven back. The
presence of these troops two hours, or one hour earlier.

MO CLELLAN'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. 337
might perhaps have given Porter a victory. As it was he had
inflicted greater loss on the rebels than he received. Union
loss was 4,000, rebel 9,500.
On the evening of that day, McClellan announced to his
corps commanders, his intention to retreat to James river.
It was no longer a question of taking Richmond, but of sav
ing his own army as he thought. While on this retreat, and
while his gallant army was struggling across the White Oak
swamp, McClellan telegraphed to the Secretary of War, " If
I save this army, I tell you plainly, I owe no thanks to you,
nor to any one at Washington. You have done your best io
destroy ihis army."
Such a message, so insolent and false, so mutinous and
insubordinate, would, if addressed to any other Government
than that of which the forbearing Lincoln was the head, have
insured his arrest and trial.
But Mr. Lincoln, with a forbearance which many thought
had long "ceased to be a virtue," sent the following reply:*
" Save your army at all events. Will send reenforcements as fast as
we can. Of course they cannot reach you to-day, to-morrow, or next
day. I have not said you were ungenerous for saying you needed
reenforcements. I thought you were ungenerous in assuming that I
did not send them as fast as I could. I feel any misfortune to you and
your army quite as keenly as you feel it yourself. If you have had a
drawn bat4Je or a repulse, it is the price we pay for the enemy not being
in Washington. We protected Washington, and the enemy concentrated
on you. Had we stripped Washington, he would have been upon us
before the troops sent could have got to you. Less than a week ago, you
notified us that reenforcem'ients were leaving Richmond to come in
front of us. It is the nature of the case, and neither you nor the
Government is to blame. Please tell at once the present condition or
aspect of things."
The great army, -with its spirit unbroken, retreated
doggedly — at times turning at bay, and repulsing the
attacking columns of the rebels.
Lee had indeed been victorious, but at a heavy loss. Up
to the retreat of McClellan, the rebels' loss, in killed and
wounded, exceeded 10,000, while the Union loss did not
*Beport on Conduct of War, Part I, p. 340.
22

338 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
nearly reach that number. He had destroyed McClellan's
communications with York River, but Lee was now, on the
evening of the retreat of theUnion army, in a position
which, if known to McClellan, and he had possessed the
vigor and enterprise necessary for the required move
ment would have made the capture of Richmond morally
certain. Two-thirds of Lee's army was north of the Chicka
hominy, and McClellan's army was between it and Rich
mond. Had McClellan with his whole aj-my struck at
Richmond, it could not have resisted for a day. Magruder
who was in comraand of the forces left at Richmond, says :
" I considered the situation of our army as extremely critical and
perilous. The larger portion was on the other side of the Chicka
hominy. The bridges were destroyed. * * * There were but
25,000 men between his (McClellan's) army of 100,000 and Richmond.
Had McClellan massed his whole force iu column and advanced against
any point of our line, its momentum would have insured success and
the occupation of our works."
But retreat was ordered, and the army was fighting its
way to the James under Sumner. On the 29th, the rear
guard, under the brave Sumner, repulsed a rebel attack
in the bloody battle of Savage Station, and on the SOth, at
Glendale. The stubborn heroism of the army, under Heintz
elman, Hooker, Kearney and Porter, repelled the enemy
whenever it turned at bay, and continually suggests the in
quiry, that with such an army, why retreat at all ? Fighting
and marching for seven weary days and nights ; stifled with
dust, faint with hunger and thirst and heat, yet never turn
ing its face to the foe without driving him back ; alas, how
much less of suffering and of death, if that proud and gallant
army had been led directly and boldly upon Richmond !
On the 30th of June, Heintzelman raet a large force of
the rebels, under coraraand of Hill. They were again re
pulsed with terrible slaughter, and General Lee sent all his
disposable troops to reenforce Hill. They were driven back,
and the Union force following up their success, raised the
cry of " On to Richmond !" A rebel officer describing the

MC CLELLAN'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND.
scene which followed, says, " everything seemed lost. Regi
ments and brigades broke and fled ; batteries dashed to the
rear in headlong flight."
Orders were given to Jackson to cover the retreat, and
directions were sent to Richmond to get the public property
ready for removal. But this success was not followed up,
and the Union army resumed its raarch towards the Jaraes.
The troops reached the vicinity of James River on the Ist
of July, and were massed on Malvern Hill. Here was high,
open table land, a mile and a-half long by three-quarters of
a mile -wide, crossed by several roads. Porter's corps held
the left, Heintzelman and Suraner the center, and Keys the
right. The left flank was protected by the gun-boats on
James River. Here, after their terrible march through the
White Oak Swamp, the gallant Array of the Potoraac, with
spirit yet unbroken, and with the ability yet to conquer, pre
pared to meet the whole rebel force. As the weary troops
lay down to rest that night upon Malvern Hill, after five days
of incessant fighting and marching, they knew the strength
of their position and felt the ability yet to go into Richmond.
They looked for the morning, to -wipe out the mortification
of their retreat. With the morning came most fierce and.
persistent attacks upon this position; charge after charge was
repulsed. The whole field was strewn with rebel dead and
wounded. After being brought up again and again to the
assault, and as often driven back with fearful slaughter, the
rebels retired.
The next morning, the rebel army was in no condition to
¦withstand an attack. General Trimble, of the rebel array,
says : " at dawn the next morning, I found the whole array
in the utmost disorder." An attack by the unbroken Union
forces would inevitably have defeated it. But when the rebel
army awoke, and looked up that hill from which they had
been so often repulsed, the grim batteries and gleaming
muskets, and glorious banners had disappeared. The Union
general had retreated from victory which seemed to invite
his approach. McClellan had turned his back on victory
and Richmond.

340 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Many high-spirited officers like Kearney, and gallant
soldiers begged permission to follow the discomfited Con
federates into Richmond. McClellan, so far from following
up this success, retired to Harrison's Landing, and thus
ingloriously closed the Peninsular Campaign.
The faults of this campaign have been settled by the judg
ment of the brave officers and soldiers who took part in it,
and have ceased to be the subject of partisan controversy.
No troops ever fought bettor than the Army of the Potomac.
No troops were ever worse handled by a commanding
general. The fatal errors of McClellan were — First, A month un
necessarily wasted at Yorkto-wn. Second, A tardy pursuit
after the success at Williamsburg, in a battle fought without
his knowledge and against his -wishes. Third, Long delay
and hesitation at the Chickahominy — failure to strike when
Jackson was away, and before reenforcements arrived. And
yet, in spite of these faults, victory, and the capture of Rich
mond was often within the reach of a bold, decided move
ment, and especially at Fair Oaks, and at Malvern Hill.
Indeed the seven days' battles show that the rebels could
not, at any time, have withstood a vigorous and persistent
Eittack by the entire Army of the Potomac. The Union loss
in the campaign was 15,249 ; the rebel loss, 19,000.
At Harrison's Landing, McClellan encamped, and began
calling for reenforcements. He wanted 50,000 men ; on the
3d of July, " 100,000 men, rather more, than less." To these
calls, the President patiently replied :
" I understand your position as stated in your letter, and by General
Marcy. To reenforce you so as to enable you to resume the offensive
within a month or even six weeks, is impossible. In addition to that
arrived and now arriving from the Potomac (about 10,000 men, I sup
pose,) and about 10,000 I hope you will have from Burnside very
soon, and about 5,000 from Hunter a little later, I do not see how I
can send you another man within a month. Under these circumstances,
the defensive, for the present, must be your only care. Save the army
first, where you are, ifyou can; and secondly, by removal, ifyou must.
Tou, on the ground, must be the judge as to which you will attempt,
and of the means for effecting it. I but give it as my opinion, that

MC CLELLAN'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND. 341
with the aid of the gun-boats and the reenforcements mentioned above,
you can hold your present position ; provided, and so long as you can
keep the James River open below you. If you are not tolerably con
fident you can keep the James River open, you had better remove as
soon as possible. I do not remember that you have expressed any ap
prehension as to the danger of ha-ring your communication cut on the
river below you, yet I do not suppose it can have escaped yottr
attention. "A. LINCOLN."
" P. S. — If at any time you feel able to take the offensive, you are
not restrained from doing so."*
The postscript must have been read with a grim smile
by those war-w^orn veterans, Sumner, Kearney, Heintzelman
and others. Lincoln's keen sense of the ridiculous could
not have overlooked the irony of the words — "If at any
time you feel able to take the offensive, you are noi restrained
from doing so."
This whole campaign illustrates Lincoln's patience, for
bearance, fidelity to, and kindness for, McClellan. His mis
fortunes, disastrous as they were to the country, did not in
duce the President to abandon him. Indeed it was a very
difficult and painful thing for him ever to give up a person
in misfortune, even when those misfortunes resulted from a
man's own misconduct.

* K8.ymoud's life and State papers of Lincoln, p. 295-8.

OHAPTEE XYI.

MILITARY OPERATIONS TO THE CLOSE OF 1862— POPE— McCLEL
LAN— BURNSIDE.
General Pope Assumes Command of the Army op Virginia —
His Address — Lee Attempts to Overwhelm Him — McClel
lan Ordered to Join Pope — His Delay — Ordered to Hast
en — He Lingers — Pope Overwhelmed by Numbers and
Driven Back to Washington — Is Relieved — McClellan
again in Command — Lee Crosses into Maryland — McClellan
Pursues — Battles of South Mountain — Antietam — Presi
dent Visits the Army — Urges McClellan to Attack—
McClellan Delays — He is Relieved op Command — Failure
— Burnside — Fredericksburg — Movements in the West
— Battle op Perryville — Corinth — Vicksburg — Stone
River.
A T this period, while at Harrison's Landing, Major Gene-
-^ ral McClellan found time to write and dispatch to
President Lincoln, a long letter of advice upon the general
conduct of the administration, civil and military.
The President seemed to think there was plenty of practi
cal work for the General to do in his own camp, and on the
8th of July, he visited the camp on the James. He found
there, an army of 86,000 effective men. The great discrep
ancy between the sum of losses of the army of the Potomac,
and its present aud aggregate number, was accounted for
by the statement of McClellan on the 13th of July, that
38,000 -were absent on leave by authority!
The successes at the West, as contrasted -vrith the failures
at the East, failures attributable not to a difference in the sol
diers theraselves, but to a-difference in leadership, suggested
whether by transferring to the East, sorae of those successful
342

POPE ASSUMES command OF THE ARMY OF VIRGINIA. 343
Western Generals, better results might not follow the unsur
passed fighting of the army of the Potomac. Halleck, on
the llth of July, had been called to the position of General-
in-Chief, and' returning to Washington, entered upon his
duties on the 23d of July.
General John Pope, the son of Judge Nathaniel Pope,
District Judge of Illinois in whose courts President Lincoln
had long practiced law, was one of the most brilliant and
rising young officers of the West. He had evinced great
generalship at Island No. 10, and at New Madrid. Mr. Lin
coln of course knew Pope well, and rejoiced in his fame, and
he was also a favorite of General Halleck. lie was called to
Washington, and arrived about the 20th of June.
The President ha-ving seen the disastrous consequences of
having too many generals, and the lack of unity of purpose
and of concert between the forces of Banks, Fremont and
McDowell, resolved to consolidate the Departraents of the
Shenandoah, the Mountain Department of Fremont, and the
Department of the Rappahannock ; and in pursuance of this
determination, on the 27th of June, he issued an order
creating the Army of Virginia, under command of General
Pope ; the army of General Fremont, to constitute the First
Army Corps, the army of General Banks, the Second, and
•ihat of General McDowell, the Third. Thereupon General
Fremont asked to be relieved, on the ground, that as General
Pope was his junior in rank he could not consistently with
his honor serve under him, and his request was granted.
On the- 14th of July, General Pope assumed coramand
and issued" an address to his array. In this address 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 presumfe 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 achieving; that opportunity I shall endeavor to give you. In the
meantime, I desire you to dismiss certain phrases I am sorry to find
much in vosnie amongst you.

344 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
"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 pro
bable 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 advan'ce — disaster and shame lurk in the rear. Let us act on
this understanding, 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 address was spirited and full of the ardor of a young,
successful and sanguine soldier; but indiscreet, very, and
when we remember that it was issued on his assuraing cora
mand of the troops whose leaders he thus publicly reproached,
was as bad in taste, as it was mistaken in policy. While it
gave indications of a raore vigorous policy, which was
exceedingly gratifying to the people, it was calculated to
create, and did create, an intense feeling against him among
the officers of the array of the Potoraac, and to sorae extent
of the army of Virginia. It intensified the feeling, which
finally resulted in the offense by McClellan and Fitz John
Porter and some of their subordinates, of permitting Pope to
be sacrificed -without rendering him effective aid.
The failure of the Peninsula carapaign did not in the least
dishearten the courage of the North, nor shake the firm deter
mination of the people to crush the rebellion. The Governors
of seventeen States on the 28th of June, united in an address
to the President, announcing the readiness of the people of
their respective States to respond to a call for more troops,
and their wish for the most prorapt and vigorous raeasures.
The President immediately issued a call for 300,000 additional
soldiers. Pope desired, if McClellan was compelled to retreat,
that it should be towards the North, that he might directly co
operate with him. He had but about 38,000 men; with these,
he was to defend Washington, hold the Valley of the Shenan
doah, and repel the expected approach of Lee. He felt the
inadequacy of his force, and asked to be relieved, unwilling
to risk his reputation against the fearful odds he perceived
he was to encounter; and being early made conscious that
he could not have the hearty cooperation of McClellan and

pope's CAMPAIGN. 345
his friends. The authorities decAned to relieve him, and
he set out to do the best he could with the force at his
command. What was to be done with the army of the Potomac? It
had been visited by the President, and was visited by Gene
ral Halleck. General Burnside had brought his successful
force to Fortress Monroe, ready to cooperate with McClellan.
It was determined after careful consideration to withdraw the
armj- of the Potomac from the James, and concentrate it
with the command of General Pope. It is not my purpose to
follow in detail, the movements, skirmishes, and battles of
General Pope. By cavalry raids, he undertook to destroy the
railroads towards Richmond, and to hold the fords of the
Rapidan and other streams, that the approaching army under
Jackson and Lee must cross. He was vigilant and active, and
did as much -with the force under his command, as could be
done. On the 14th of August, he was reenforced by General
Reno's division of General. Burnside's command. On the
16th, General Pope captured a letter from General Lee, to
General Stuart, showing that the purpose of Lee was to mass
an overwhelming force in his front, and crush him before
he could be reenforced by the army of the Potoraac. Know
ing by the tardy movements of McClellan that he would re
ceive no immediate aid from him. Pope retired on the night
of the 18th, behind the Rappahannock. The presence of the
army of the Potomac was now essential, and its absence
made Pope's position critical. Why was it not at hand ?
On the 30th of July, McClellan had been ordered to send
away his sick and wounded to clear his hospitals preparatory
to moving. This order was repeated on the 2d of August.
On the 3d of August, he was directed to take immediate
measures for withdrawing his army to Acquia Creek; against
.this he remonstrated, and delayed, until on the 6th he was
advised that " the order will not be rescinded," and it was
emphatically said to him, "you will be expected to obey it
with all possible promptness."
Previous to the 4th of August, he had been ordered to pre
pare for a prompt withdrawal to Acquia Creek — a stream
which empties into the Potomac, within supporting distance
to Pope. On the 6th, he -was ordered to send a regiment of

346 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY
cavalry and several battenes of artillery to Burnside, at Ac
quia. Instead of promptly obeying, he sent reasons for delay,
and said he would " obey as soon as circumstances would
permit." On the 9th, 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.
" Tou must send reenforcements instantly to Acquia Creek.
" Considering the amount of transportation at your disposal, your
delay is not satisfactory. Tou must move with all possible celerity."
This was August 9th, and yet reenforcements did not leave
Fortress Monroe for Acquia, until the 23d of August ! On
the 10th, a week after the order was first given, Halleck
again telegraphed:
" The enemy is crossing the Rapidan in large force. They are fighting
General Pope to-day. There must he no further delay in your move
ments. That which has already occtirred 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 12th 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 13,000 troops to Aquia 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 trans
ported 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 21st, 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. Come yourself as soon as you can. By
aU means see that the troops sent have plenty of ammunition, ete."

POPE'S CAMPAIGN. 347
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 27th of August!
Meanwhile, Pope had not sufficient force to hold the fords
and banks of the Rappahannock. His line was so extended
that it was necessarily very weak. He called for reenforce
ments which should have been with him long before from
the army of the Potomac; but McClellan and his army, had
lingered on the James. The Commander of the army of the
Potomac had received the order to move his sick and
wounded on the 1st of August. On the 3d, he was ordered
to prepare to move his army; but it was not until the 23d,
that his troops began to leave Fortress] Monroe, and he did
not reach Alexandria in person until the 27th of August. It
is scarcely possible for a candid mind to read the correspond
ence between the President and General Halleck on the one
side, and General McClellan on the other, from the time of
the President's visit to Harrison's Landing, until McClellan
arrived at Alexandria, without coming to the conclusion that
it was the deliberate purpose of McClellan so to delay his
movements that Pope should be left to his fate. It is clear
that he did not obey orders, and that Pope's defeat was the
result. On the 10th, General Halleck informed McClellan that
" the enemy are crossing the Rapidan. They are fighting
General Pope to-day. Let not a moment's time be lost."
When McClellan reached Acquia on the 24th, Pope who had
been defending the line of the Rappahannock for nearly a
week against the whole rebel army, found that Lee was turn
ing his right,and his rear and communications were threat
ened, and thus he was compelled to fall back from the Rappa
hannock. On the 27th of August as we have seen General Mc
Clellan himself arrived at Alexandria, and was immediately
ordered " to take entire direction of the sending out of troops
from Alexandria." Those which arrived before McClellan,
under the leadership of Heintzelman and Hooker, had already
marched to the relief of Pope, and were doing gfeod service.
After the arrival of McClellan, no troops of the army of the

348 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Potomac did join General Pope. He was fighting desperately
against superior numbers and being driven towards Wash
ington. McClellan was within sound of the enemy's guns;
he knew that his comrades were being driven towards the
Capital, yet not a soldier reached the scene of confiict from
Alexandria after McClellan's arrival. While he was thus
loitering at Alexandria within sound of the enemy's guns,
the following were the orders he disobeyed. It will be seen
that he was informed of Pope's position, of the emergency,
and that Pope wished reenforcements sent to Gainesville.
He was ordered to move out Franklin's Corps by forced
marches. This order was given on the 27th. On the even
ing of the 29th, Franklin's corps was at Anandale, seven miles
from Alexandria, and Franklin himself at the latter place !
In the meantime Pope's forces were fighting bloody battles
on the 27th, 28th, and 29th, and were to fight again the 30th,
without the aid of Franklin.
At 12 M. on the 27th, Halleck telegraphed to McCleUan : *
" Telegrams from General !lforter to General Burnside just received,
say that . Banks is at Fayetteville, McDowell, Sigel and Ricketts near
Warrenton, Reno on his right, Porter is marching on Warrenton, to re
enforce Pope. Nothing said of Heintzelman. Porter reports a general
battle imminent. Franklin's corps should move out by forced marches,
carrying three or four days provisions, and to be supplied as far as
possible by railroad."
At 1.50 P. M., General Halleck telegraphed to McClellan:
" I think Sumner's corps should come to Alexandria. The enemy
has appeared at Leesburg, and the Commanding officer at Edward's
Ferry, asks for cavalry. Have you any to spare him ? The enemy seems
to be trying to turn Pope's right. Is there no way of communicating
with him?
On the morning of the 28th Halleck telegraphed to
Franklin :
" On parting with General McClellan about 2 o'clock this morning,
it was understood that you were to move with your corps to-day, towards
Manassas Juhction, to drive the enemy from the railroad. I have just
, * See Report of the Committee on the Conduct of the War, p. 32, 33, Si.

pope's CAMPAIGN. 349
learned that the General has not returned to Alexandria. If you have
not received his order, act on this." «¦
At 3.30, he telegraphed to McClellan :
" Not a moment must be lost in pushing aa large a force as possible
towards Manassas, so as to communicate with Pope before the enemy is
reenforced." *
And at 8.40 P. M., he telegraphed:
" 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 wUl either be defeated or victorious without our aid. If there is
a want of wagons, the men must carry provisions 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 despatch of 12 M. :
" I want Franklin's corps to go far enough to find put something
about the enemy. Perhaps he may get such information at Anandale,
as to prevent his going further, otherwise he will push on towards Fair
fax. Try to get something from direction of Manassas, either by tele
gram or through Frankhn'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 fighting against odds, telegraphed to McClel
lan 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 Centreville, and
retiring towards Thoroughfare Gap. This is by no means reliable. I am
clear that one of two courses should be adopted : Pir.?t, To concentrate
all our available forces to open communication with Pope. Second, To
LEAVE Pope to get out op his 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
« Report on the Conduct of the War, Part I, p. 459, 46L

350 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
accomplish it. I wish to know what my orders aud authority are. I ask
for nothing, but will obey whatever orders you give, I only ask a
prompt decision, that I may at once give the necessary orders. It
wUl not do to delay longer."
How perfectly clear from all the telegrams, that McClellan
had long since determined " to leave Pope to get out of his
scrape !" The President, suppressing his indignation, look
ing only to the safety of the Capital and the army, and con
scious of the cabal araong sorae of the officers of the Army
of the Potomac sent the following reply:
*' Tours of to-day just received. I think your first alternative, tor-
wit : ' to concentrate all our available forces to open communication with
Pope,' is the right one. But I wish not to control. That I now leave
to General Halleck, aided by your counsels."
General Halleck telegraphed the folio-wing peremptory
order, at 7.50 P. M. on the 29th.
" Tou will immediately send construction train and guards to repair
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 in Alexandria. This is all contrary to my orders. Investigate
and report the fact of this disobedience. That corps must push for
ward, as I directed, to protect the railroad, and open our communication
¦with Manassas."
McClellan replied that he was responsible for the failure
of Franklin to advance ; that it was not safe for Franklin to
go beyond Anandale ! At 7.15, Franklin sends a dispatch
to McClellan, dated Anandale, giving rumors of a battle -with
Pope, and saying that "Pope is said to be short of provisions."
At 5 A. M., on the 30th, from a hard fought battle-field,
General Pope sent the following telegram to Halleck :
" I think you had best send Franklin's, Cox's and Sturges' regiments
to Centerville, as also forage and subsistence. I received a note this
morning from General Franklin, written by order of General McClellan,
saying that wagons and cars would be loaded and sent to Fairfax Station,
as soon as I would send a cavalry escort to Alexandria to bring them

pope's CAMPAIGN. 361
out. Such a request, when Alexandria is full of troops and we fight
ing the enemy, needs no comment. Will you have these supplies sent
without the least delay to Centerville ?"*
General Halleck, on the 30th, at 9.40, telegraphed to
McClellan :
" I am by no means satisfied with General Franklin's march of yes
terday, considering the circumstances of the case. He was very wrong
in stopping at Anandale. Moreover, I learned last night that the
quartermaster's department could have given him plenty of transporta
tion if he had applied for it, at any time since his arrival at Alexan
dria. He knew the importance of opening communication with General
Pope's army, and should have acted more promptly."-|-
At 11 A. M. on the 30th, McClellan telegraphed that
"Franklin and Sumner are instructed to join Pope as soon
as possible." How long had Halleck been trying in vain to
get them forward ? At 12.20, Halleck said to McClellan,
speaking of the expected arrival at Alexandria of General
Couch, "send the troops where the fighting ib." At .2.15,
Halleck telegraphed to McClellan that " Franklin and Sum
ner's corps should be pushed forward with all possible dis
patch ; they must use their legs and make forced marches.
Time now is everything." Had it been any less important
during the 27th, 28th and 29th, through the long and anxious
hours of each day, the most urgent dispatches and commands
had been sent to McClellan only to be continually disregard
ed, and "to leave Pope to get out of his scrape." On the
31st of August, Pope telegraphed to Halleck from Centre
ville, that his troops were all there and in position,
"though much used up and worn out. I think it would
have been greatly better, if Suraner and Franklin had been
here three or four days ago." But for McClellan, they would
have been there. "But," says the plucky Pope, "you may
rely upon my giving the enemy as desperate a fight as I can.
I shall fight this army as long as a man will stand up to the
work." On the 2d of September, General Pope received orders
to fall back to the defences of Washington. Thus, the Army
of Virginia with that portion of the Army of the Potomac
* See Report on Conduct of the War, Part I, p. 35.
t See Report on Conduct of the War. Part I, p. 35-6.

362 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
which came up the river in advance of McClellan, and were
permitted to join Pope, was defeated, and compelled to re
treat to the fortifications of Washington. These battles cost
much patriotic blood ; among those who fell, was the gallant,
impetuous Phil. Kearney, the bravest of the brave. He lost
an arm in Mexico ; but with his bridle between his teeth and
sword in his left hand, he was accustomed to lead his troops
into the thickest of every fight.
But the army contested every inch of ground, and main
tained the contest -with a gallantry and heroism, which, had
it been supported by McClellan, and the troops under his
command, would have given it a glorious victory. If reen
forced with the 40,000 men, which were at Alexandria, and
within reach, it would have whipped Lee ; but it would have
been a victory which would have covered Pope, and not
McClellan, with laurels. The conduct of General McClel
lan, in failing to send troops to the relief of Pope, the posi
tive disobedience on the field by Fitz John Porter of the or
ders of General Pope, a disobedience for which he was tried
by a board of general officers, found guilty and cashiered,
clearly shows that there was among some of the officers of
the Army of the Potoraac, a cabal and a conspiracy against
Pope. This cabal, and others of the officers of the Army
of the Potoraac, who honestly distrusted Pope, and
believed that the troops of McClellan would not fight
so well under any other leader, all claraored against Pope, and
demanded that McClellan should be restored to the head of
all the forces. It was a very critical period. As Pope retired
to Washington, Lee advanced towards Maryland.
Two courses were suggested and discussed in the Cabinet
of Mr. Lincoln. One was to place McClellan in command
of all the forces, including both the Army of Virginia and of
the Potomac, and the other to arrest and try him and some of
his subordinates, for disobedience and insubordination. Gen
eral Halleck and the Secretary of War charged him with dis
obedience of orders, and with being responsible for the dis
asters under Pope ; and they were clearly right. It was
stated by at least one member of the Cabinet, that McClellan
deserved death for his repeated disobedience of orders, and
failure to reenforce Pope. He and Fitz John Porter must

pope's CAMPAIGN. 353
go down to posterity, as responsible for the sacrifice of Pope
and his army. The President said to Pope, when he
came to Washington, that he had no fault to find with him ;
he had faithfully perforraed his duty ; yet yielding to the real
or supposed necessities of the hour, he relieved hira of his
command, and placed the person most responsible for his
disasters again at the head of the army.
On the the trial of Fitz John Porter for disobedience, his
guilt was clearly established, and the evidence of the com
plicity of his superior, McClellan, was scarcely less clear.
General McClellan was never placed on trial, because the
Government, with a knowledge of the facts gave him a new
command, and the gallant Army of the Potomac fought and
won the battle of Antietam, and this, to some extent,
condoned his great offense.
Iramediately after General Pope and his army fell back
upon Washington, General Lee proceeded towards the Poto
mac, north of the Capital, with the obvious purpose of cross
ing into Maryland. He expected to meet a cordial reception
in that State, from the slaveholders ; and if the Baltimore
and Ohio Railroad could be severed, and Baltimore cap
tured, Washington itself would probably fall. It has already
been stated that McClellan was placed at the head of the
array which was to contend with Lee. On his arrival at
Alexandria, from the Peninsula, his command had been
limited to the defenses of Washington. General McClellan
had now with him the Army of the Potomac, and the rem
nants of the army of Pope, the forces of Burnside, and his
numbers were increased by the fresh troops which again
poured in from the loyal States. Immediately after McClellan
left the Capital, his despatches were of the same character as
those he sent during his Richmond campaign — a constant
exaggeration of the force of the enemy, constant calls for
more troops, and the same tardiness in going forward. He
wished the troops at Washington sent to him, "even if
Washington should be taken : that would not bear com
parison with the ruin and disaster which would fpUow a
single defeat of this army."*
* Report on the Conduct of the War, Part I, p. 39.
23

364 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
On the llth of September, General McClellan asked that
Colonel Miles, who held with some 12,000 troops, the import
ant position of Harper's Ferry, should be ordered to join his
army. This order was not given ; but it was suggested to
General McClellan to open communication with Harper's
Ferry, when that force would be under his coramand. On
the 14th of September, the battle of South Mountain
was fought by General Burnside and General Franklin. The
rebels were repulsed, and driven back to Sharpsburg.
The picturesque village of Harper's Ferry lies on the banks
of the Potoraac and the Shenandoah, in the valley formed
by Maryland Heights — a high, rocky mountain, lying on the
Maryland side of the Potomac, and Louden Heights, consti
tuting the Virginia side. Between Louden Heights and
Harper's Ferry, the Shenandoah has cut its way through the
rocks into the Potomac. The lower ridge, lying between
the Potomac and the Shenandoah, is called Bolivar Heights.
An air line frora the Maryland Heights to Louden Heights
would be perhaps two miles long. Maryland Heights over
top the others, and command the position. The post was
held by Colonel Miles with more that 12,000 men, and pro
perly posted on Maryland Heights, the position could have
been held against a greatly superior force, and been main
tained by Miles until relieved. But Colonel Ford abandoned
Maryland Heights, and in consequence, the whole garrison
were compelled to surrender to Jackson on the 15th of
August. McClellan, by promptness, could have saved Harper's
Ferry. Swinton, who excuses McClellan when he can, says:
"If he had thrown forward his array with the vigor used by
Jackson in his advance on Harper's Ferry, the passes of the
South Mountain would have been carried before the evening
of the 13th, at which time they were feebly guarded * *
he might the next raorning have fallen upon the rear of
McLaws, at Maryland Heights, and relieved Harper's Ferry,
which did not surrender until the morning of the 15th.*
On the 17th was fought the bloody battle of Antietam. At
daylight, the battle was opened by "fighting Joe Hooker"
• See Swinton's Army of the Potomac, p. 202.

BATTLE OF ANTIETAM. 355
commanding the right of McClellan's army. He drove the
enemy back, and gained important advantages. General
Hooker, while gallantly leading his troops, was severely
wounded and borne from the field, when the comraand ofthe
right wing devolved upon General Sumner. General Mans
field had been killed, and the Union troops heavily pressed
and forced back, but, when assisted by the force brought up
by Sumner, they checked the enemy, and held their position.
General Burnside commanded the left, and at 10, A. M.,
had been ordered to attack and carry the stone bridge across
Antietam Creek, which was in his front, and to cross and
attack the enemy beyond. Burnside met with a most obstin
ate resistance ; and it was not until half-past one that the
bridge was carried, and by the time Burnside's whole force
was acros8,the enemy had brought from the right wing rein
forcements, and occupied the elevated ground beyond. He
was then ordered to take the heights coraraanding Sharps
burg, which was done after a desperate resistance. But the
enemy massing their force in front of Burnside, forced him
back from some of the ground he had taken, and he sent to
McClellan for reenforceraents, but was told he could have
none, although the centre, under comraand of Fitz John
Porter, did not participate in the action at all. General
McClellan was with this large corps, which remained inac
tive during the terrible day. The battle closed at dark
with advantage to the Union troops, but without decisive
results. General Sumner says "the troops were sent into
the action in driblets ; if General McClellan had authorized
me to march 40,000 men on the left fiank of the enemy, we
could not have failed to throw their right back in front of
Burnside, Franklin and Porter's corps ; and as it was, we
went in, division after division.* If he could have executed
the raoveraent he desired, Sumner was clearly of the opinion
that the escape of the enemy would have been impossible.
The following day, neither array renewed the attack. Gen
eral Burnside urged that the attack should be renewed at
daylight, the day after the battle. General Franklin also
• See Sumner's testimony before Committee on Conduct of the War.

356 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
expressed the opinion that the attack should be renewed, and
felt confident of success.
On the 18th, the enemy were permitted to abandon their
position, and, without molestation, retired across the Potomac
into Virginia. The Union army slowly followed, occupying
Maryland Heights on the 20th, and Harper's Ferry on the
23d. The losses in the battles of South Mountain and
Antietam were very severe. General McClellan reporting
thera, in killed and wounded, at 14,794, and expressed the
opinion that the enemy lost at least double that number in
this Maryland campaign.
He called again for reenforcements, and announced his de
termination to fortify Maryland Heights. On the 27th, he
asked that everything available in Washington might be
sent to reenforce his army. On the 7th of October, there
having been no movement by McClellan, Halleck renewed
the old complaint of inacti-vity :
" 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 enemy
are falling back towards Richmond; we must follow them and seek to
punish them. There is a decided want of legs in our troops.
The fault was not in the troops, but in the leader. Halleck
continued :
" They have too much immobility, and we must try to remedy the
defect. A reduction of baggage and baggage trains -will effect some
thing ; but the real difficulty is, they are not sufficiently exercised in
marching ; they lie still in camp too long. After a hard march, one
day is time enough to rest ; lying still beyond that time does not rest
the men. If we compare the average distances marched per month by
our troops for the last year with that of the rebels, or with European
armies in the field, we will see why our troops march no. better. They
are not sufficiently exercised to make them good and efficient soldiers."
Early in October, the President visited the army. The
battle of Antietam had been fought on the 17th of Septem
ber, and after it, no blow had been struck upon the enemy,
and the anxious President -visited McClellan to try and find

MC CLELLAN URGED TO GIVE BATTLE. 357
out the difficulty. On his return, the following order was
sent to the commander :
" I am instructed to telegraph you as follows: The President directs
that you cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy, or drive him
south. Tour army must move now while the roads are good. If you
cross the river between the enemy and Washington, and cover the
latter by your line of operations, you can be reenforced with 30,000
men. - If you move up the Valley of the Shenandoah, not more than
12,000 or 15,000 can be sent to you.
" The President advises the interior line between Washington and
the enemy, but does not order it. He is very desirous that your army
move as soon as possible. Tou will immediately report what line you
adopt, and where you intend to cross the river ; also to what point the
reenforcements are to be sent. It is necessary that the plan of your
operations be positively determined on before orders are given for
building bridges, or repairing railroads.
" I am directed to add that the Secretary of War and the General-
in-Chief fully concur with the President in these instructions.*
"H. W. HALLECK, GeneraUn- Chief."
This order was prepared by the President himself, and
commanded McClellan to "give battle." How often had this
order been repeated in vain ? and it was equally vain now.
He says in reply, that " several corps could not be in readiness
to move for three days."
On the 10th of October, the rebel General Stuart amused
himself by crossing the Potomac, and making the entire
circuit of McClellan's army, and recrossing the river into
Virginia. General McClellan excused this on the grounds
of the deficiency of his cavalry, and the want of horses. To
this the President replied, through Halleck, that if McClellan
would give the enemy more to do south of the Potomac, he
would have less time for raids north of it."
On the 13th of October, the President made one more
effort to induce McClellan to "give battle." He wrote to him
the following kind letter :
"My Bear Sir: — Tou remember my speaking to you of what I
called your over-cautiousness. Are you not over-cautious when you
* Report on the Conduct of the War, Part X, p. 614-16.

358 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
assume that you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing ? Should
yon not claim to be at least his equal in prowess, 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 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 for you to have the advantage of the
railroad from Harper's Ferry to Winchester; but it wastes all the re
mainder 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.' Tou seem to act as if this applies against you
but cannot apply in your favor. Change positions with the enemy, and
think you not he would break your communication with Richmond
within the next twenty-four hours ? Tou dread his going into Pennsyl
vania. But if he does so in full force, he gives up his communications
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.
" Tou know I desired but did not order you, to cross the Potomac
below, instead of above the Shenandoah and Blue Ridge. My 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 tryj 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 wast
age of coming to us, we never can when we bear the wastage of going

LINCOLN'S LETTER TO MC CLELLAN. 369
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 advant
age which we should not waive. We should not so operate as to
merely drive him away. As we must beat him somewhere, or fail
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 entrenchments 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 re
markable, as it were by the different 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 the Blue Ridge more closely. The
chord line, as you see, carries you by Aldie, Haymarket and Fredericks
burg, and you see how turnpikes, railroads, and finally the Potomac, by
Acquia Creek, meet you at all points from Washington. The same,
only the lines lengthened a little, if you press closer to the Blue Ridge
part of the way. The gaps through the Blue Ridge, I understand to
be about the following distances from Harper's Ferry, to wit : Vestals,
five miles; Gregory's, thirteen ; Snicker's, eighteen; Ashby's, twenty-
eight; Manassas, 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 knowl
edge, and compelling him to keep his 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 num
ber of troops from here. When at length, running for Richmond
ahead of him, enable him to move this way; if he does so, turn and at
tack 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 the
enemy, and it is unmanly to say they cannot do it. This letter is
in no sense an order. " Tours truly, "A. LINCOLN."
General McClellan's aggregate force at this time was
304,609 ; present and fit for duty, 207,096. The President
urged McClellan "to try." "If we never try," said he,
" we shall never succeed."* It had been charged that Mc
Clellan did not move for want of supplies. The subject was
referred by the Secretary of War to General Halleck, who
•Report on Conduct of War, Part I, p. 624-525.

360 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
reported that General McClellan's requisitions had been im
mediately filled, and that his army had been better supplied
than the troops operating in the West. He also stated that,
on the Ist of October, he had ordered McClellan to cross
the Potoraac and give battle. On the 6th, his orders were
peremptory. On the 25th of October, McClellan sends a report of Col
onel Williams, stating that his horses had sore tongues, lame
ness, sore backs, etc., and the horses which are sound, are
absolutely broken drown from fatigue and want of fiesh.
To this, the President replies irapatiently :
" I have just read your despatch about sore tongue and fatigued
horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army
have done since the battle of Antietam, that fatigues anything."*
And in a succeeding despatch of the 27th, the President

" And now I ask a distinct answer to the question : Is it your purpose
not to go into action again until the men now being drafted in the
States are incorporated in the old regiments ?" f
At last, the raoveraent of the array across the Potoraac
began on the 26th of October, and was not concluded until
the 3d of November — four weeks from the date of the
order, and six weeks after the battle of Antietam ! On
the 5th of November, the patience of the country long
since exhausted, that of the President gave way, and he
issued the order relieving McClellan of coramand, and
directing hira to turn it over to General Burnside.
Thus ingloriously ends the railitary career of George B.
McClellan. With an array which, in nurabers, equipments,
arms, esprit, pluck and endurance, was never surpassed, unless
possibly by the veterans of Grant and Sherman ; with the
finest opportunities for winning fame and serving his country
ever presented, he retired to New Jersey, no more to emerge,
except as the partizan candidate for the Presidency of the
* Report on the Conduct of the War, Part I, p. 547-553.
t Report on the Conduct of the War, Part I, p. 525. As to number of troops, see
page 631

CLOSE OF MCOLELLAN'S CAREER. ' 361
party which declared "the war a failure," and a majority of
which opposed its vigorous prosecution. He hiraself was the
most conspicuous failure of the war. He wrote more des
patches, and General Grant fewer, than any other general of
the war. The burden of those written by McClellan was
a constant call for reenforcements, exaggerated and extrava
gant statements of the force of the enemy, and declarations
of what he was going to do. Grant rarely called for reen
forcements, never expressed apprehensions of. the enemy,
and when he spoke of himself, it was never to profess what
he intended to do, but to state in the most simple and modest
language, and in the fewest possible words, what had been
done. McClellan comraanded the grand army of the Potomac for
over fifteen months ; he rarely attacked, and the successes won
by his gallant and able subordinates, he never followed up,
to secure decided results, although opportunities of the most
favorable character attended hira from Yorktown to Malvern
Hill. He often -withheld his array frora attack ; and after all
his disasters, fortune, through the kindness of the President,
offered him still an opportunity at Antietara, to redeera his
failure. I have dwelt upon his campaigns, and lingered
over the correspondence between him and the President,
because in 1864 he was the opposing candidate for the
presidency to Mr. Lincoln, and because I wished to exhibit
truthfally, clearly and fully, the patience, the faithfulness and
generosity with which he was supported by Mr. Lincoln. Mr.
Lincolnnever failed todofuU justice to his political opponents.
He sustained McClellan until it was demonstrated by repeat
ed trials and failures, by repeated neglect on the part of the
General to obey orders, that to retain him longer at the head
of the army, was to endanger the cause of the Union. I
venture the prediction that when the prejudices and partial
ities ofthe day shall have passed away, history will censure Mr.
Lincoln for adhering to McClellan too long, rather than for a
'failure to support and stand by him. What were the motives
which controlled McClellan — what considerations withheld
him from obeying the President's urgent, repeated, ever con
tinuing entreaties and orders to attack the eneray, it is diffi
cult to define. His eneraies have suggested every motive.

362 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
even secret treason, complicity with the rebels and personal
cowardice. These in my judgraent do him great injustice ;
still he was ever to a greater or less extent in political sympa
thy with those who declared it wrong to coerce the South,
and who always reiterated that the seceded States could never
be subjugated, and that the Union could not be restored by
the means which Mr. Lincoln used. It is more charitable,
probably more true, to say that he failed from a constitution
al inability to meet the responsibility of a great crisis by
prompt and decided action. He was always looking to the
rear, and there was ever some insurmountable obstacle, or
overwhelming numbers in his front. " With all his failings,"
said Mr. Lincoln, " McClellan was a pleasant and scholarly
gentleman. He added: "He was an adrairable engineer,
but he had a special talent for a stationary engine."
On the Sth of November, General A. E. Burnside, by order
of the President, assuraed coraraand of the array. He was a
frank ahd manly soldier, offine personal appearance, and every
where respected as a Christian gentleman, and a patriot.
He accepted the position with diffidence. On the 9th, he for
warded to Washington his plan of proposed operations.
On the 12th, General Halleck and General Meigs visited his
camp at Warrenton, and held a conference with him upon
the moveraents to be made. General Burnside stated that
his plan was to concentrate the army in the neighborhood of
Warrenton, to make a raoveraent across the Rappahannock as
a feint, thus to lead the enemy to believe his object was Gor
donsville, and then to make a rapid movement of the whole
army to Fredericksburg. He desired to have provisions,
forage, and pontoons sent to Falmouth, opposite Fredericks-
burgh to enable his army to cross the Rappahannock. An
order was immediately sent by Halleck to General Wood
bury at Washington, to call on the Quartermaster General
for trans portation for pontoons to Aquia Creek. This order
was received by Woodbury on the 13th of November. On
General Halleck's return on the 14th, he had an interview with
the President, in which Mr. Lincoln consented to Burnside's
plans, and Halleck telegraphed to him to go ahead. There
seems to have been sorae misunderstanding between Halleck

FREDERICKSBURG. 363
and Burnside, in regard to who was to see that the pontoons
should reach Falmouth, opposite Fredericksburg in time.
Burnside started for Fredericksburg ou the 16th, and reach
ing the river opposite that city on the 19th, found the pon
toons were not there, and they did not arrive for sometime,
so that he was not ready to cross before the 10th of Decem
ber. By this delay, all the advantage of a surprise was lost,
and the enemy had tirae to concentrate their forces upon the
heights overlooking Fredericksburg, and to entrench. There
was much discussion at the time, in regard to the question
as to who was in fault for the failure of the pontoons to reach
there in time. Upon this point, after full examination, these
facts are proved: Generals Halleck and Meigs, as well as
Burnside, knew of the movement, and of the importance of
the pontoons being at Fredericksburg in time. Each of them
it would seem ought to have known personally, that they
were there. Neither should have depended upon the other.
Each did depend, to some extent, upon the other, or on
subordinates, and there was neglect.
When such vast results are dependent upon things
being done promptly, no person connected with the transac
tion should trust to another. At the bar, no good lawyer,
when about to enter upon a trial, involving the life of a hu
man being, ever leaves the main witness to be examined by
his clerk or assistant; he sees and knows personally what
the important evidence is. So, a great Comraander, a great
General in the position of Burnside, Halleck and Meigs, and
with their knowledge of the possible fate of a great expedition
depending on the arrival of pontoons at a particular date,
should not have depended upon any other, but each should
have known personally, that the thing was done.
On the llth and 12th of December, General Burnside's
army crossed, and on the 13th, attacked the enemy; Hooker
under Sumner, commanding the centre, and General Franklin
the left. General Burnside's plan was, that Franklin should
turn the enemy's right, while thfr heights of Fredericksburg
should be carried by assault. General Meade, under Frank
lin, carried a portion of the enemy's works on the right, but
not being supported, was compelled to fall back. Franklin was

364 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
blamed by Burnside; but he alleged ambiguous orders, and
that he did not understand thera. The raain assault upon the
heights of Fredericksburg, although raost gallantly made,
was repulsed with terrible slaughter. The works, and posi
tion of the enemy were too strong. It was a sad, and bloody
day for the brave men, who had driven the enemy frora the
field at Antietam. It is difficult now to understand why the
army should be led across a stream hke the Rappahannock,
and up to the assault of works, which the delay in the arrival
of the pontoons had given Lee full time to construct. Why
should not a flank movement have been made; such as was
made again and again by Sherman and Grant, and thus force
the enemy to deliver battle upon more equal ground? The
position of Lee was very strong; he occupied a fortified ridge,
the approach to which was swept by artillery. After holding
the position in the town until the 15th, in the evening the
army was withdrawn to Falmouth; and the morning of the
16th, saw General Burnside's army on the North bank, with
a loss in killed, wounded, and missing, of about 12,321 !
The armies of Burnside and Lee, now confronted each
other on the banks of the Rappahannock. In reviewing the
campaign of 1862, in the East, the result was upon the whole,
favorable to the rebels. With a smaller force than the Union
array, they had kept the army of the Potomac, all the Autumn
and Winter of 1861-2, in the defences of Washington. They
had blockaded the Potomac. They had, by the blunders and
want of -vigor in McClellan, repulsed him frora Richmond.
They had sent Jackson, swooping like an eagle, through the
Valley of the Shenandoah, driving Banks across the Potoraa.c,
and then escaping from Fremont and McDowell. They had
frightened McClellan away from Richmond, without ever
once defeating his combined army; but on the contrary, his
troops often defeated the rebels; yet the fruits of victory
McClellan would never seize, but always, after knocking
down the enemy, would call for reenforceraents, or run away
frora him.
Then came the spirited and hard fought campaign of Pope,
when, had McClellan obeyed orders, the armies of Burnside,
Pope, and McClellan, would have been consolidated on the

CLOSE OF CAMPAIGN OF 1862. 365
.¦field of Manassas, and crushed the smaller force of Lee;
"but McClellan's disobedience, and Fitz John Porter's treach
ery, led to the retreat on Washington.* Then carae the rebel
march into Maryland, and the battle of Antietam, which
ought to have been a crushing defeat of the rebels, but which
was upon the whole, an undecisive victory. Lee's 12,000 pris
oners captured by Jackson at Harper's Ferry, was an offset
or equivalent for his losses at South Mountain and Antietam.
Then followed the long delays of McClellan — his removal —
Burnside's campaign — closed by the slaughter of Fredericks
burg. Such is the sad and gloomy picture of the war on the
Atlantic in 1862.
Let us return to the West, where, as Pope said boastingly
but truthfully, " the Union armies had been accustomed to
see the backs of their enemy." This narrative is designed
to exhibit the spirit of contending principles, and to fol
low the raovements of armies, so far only as is incidental
and necessary to exhibit the final triumph of freedom, and
therefore, does not go ftiUy into the details of the vast and
varied raovements west of the mountains.
The evacuation of Corinth by Beauregard, led to the separ
ation of the arraies of Grant and Buell. Grant advanced
towards the South, to take and hold the military positions
along the banks of the Mississippi, preparatory to the great
work which he was destined to accoraplish of reclaiming and
opening the Mississippi. He was to lead the sons of the
Northwest, who were " to hew their way to the sea."
Buell was to move towards Chattanooga, and attempt the
too long delayed work of relieving the loyal people of East
Tennessee. These people occupying the mountains, had few
slaves, and were passionately devoted to the Union. Never
were a people more cruelly persecuted, than the devoted
Unionists of this mountain region. Conscripted into rebel
armies, driven from their homes, their houses burned, their
property, destroyed, families outraged, they fled to the caves
of the mountains, and organizing small bands, maintained a
brave but unequal conflict for the flag they loved.
* " Had the army of the Potomac arrived a few days earlier, the rebel army would
have been easily defeated." Halleck's Report, November, 1862.

366 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Buell moved to the vicinity of Chattanooga, but he was
forced back, and the rebels, under Bragg, entered Kentucky,
and occupied Frankfort the Capital, Lexington, and other
important positions. On the 18th of September, Bragg issued
a proclamation, calling upon Kentucky to rally to his support.
On the 4th of October, a " Provisional Government " was pro
clairaed by the rebels at Frankfort. Louisville and Cincin
nati were threatened and fortified. On the 6th of October,
Buell's troops reached Springfield, sixty miles from Louis
ville. On the 8th of October, was fought the battle of Perry
ville. A portion of Buell's array, under McCook, was at
tacked unexpectedly, and thrown into confusion, and retreated.
Crittenden's forces coming up in the evening, the forces of
Bragg retired. He succeeded in escaping with large supplies.
Buell, on the 25th of Ocober, by order of the President, was
superceded by General Rosecrans.
Previous to this, on the 26th of September, General Rose
crans was in command at Corinth. On the 4th of October,
he was attacked by Price, on the right, and Van Dorn, on
the left. For a moment, the attack of Van Dorn was so se
vere that the division of Davis fell back, but Rosecrans, in
person rallying his men, and leading the Fifty-sixth Illinois
to a bold bayonet charge, drove back and scattered the ene
my with great havoc ; other forces participating, the whole
force of Van Dorn was repulsed with a loss of near 5,000
killed and wounded, and 2,265 prisoners, Rosecrans' whole
loss did not exceed 2,357.
The stronghold of Vicksburg, strong by nature, and forti
fied with all the skill of the ablest engineers, was, as yet, an
insurmountable obstacle to the coraplete recovery of the
Mississippi. A raoveraent against it was defeated by the
disgraceful surrender of Holly Springs, by Colonel Murphy
on the 20th of Deceraber, by which a vast araount of stores
and supplies fell into the hands of the enemy.
Generals Sherman and McClernand organized a raove
raent against Vicksburg, from Memphis and Cairo, which
sailed on the 20th of December, and which arrived at Milli-
kens Bend on the 24th, and destroyed a portion ofthe Vicks
burg and Texas Railroad. On the 27th, the troops disem
barked on the plantation of the late General Albert Sidney

VICTORY OF STONE RIVER. 367
Johnson, on the Tazoo River. They met the active and effi
cient cooperation of a gunboat fleet, under command of
Comraodore Ellett.
On the 29th, a general and gallant assault was made upon
the defenses in the rear of Vicksburg, in which General F. P.
Blair particularly distinguised himself, but the place was too
strong, and too well defended ; and the assault, though gal
lantly made, was repulsed with severe loss. The forces of
General Sherman retired to Milliken's Bend, and went into
camp at the beginning of the year 1863.
The results in the West, subsequent to May, 1862, were
much less decisive for the Union cause than the brilliant
record of the Fall, Winter and Spring of 1861-2. The cam
paign of 1862, was Jiowever crowned with the victory of
Rosecrans over General Joseph E. Johnston, at Stone River.
In December, the rebel army was concentrated at Mur-
freesboro, and the Union army at Nashville. Johnston sup
posing the Union army would go into winter quarters at
Nashville, detached his cavalry under Forrest, to cut the rail
road in Grant's rear, and another body under Morgan, to go
into Kentucky. Rosecrans determined to iraprove this op
portunity to strike the eneray. On the 26th, he began to
move upon the enemy. On the Slst, McCook, who had the
right of Rosecrans' army, was attacked by a heavy force on
his entire line. He was driven back by overwhelming num
bers, and his force retreated with a loss of many prisoners
Rosecrans massed his artillery, and prepared for an attack
on his left and centre by the rebels, sending Generals Negley
and Rosseau, to the aid of McCook. This checked the rebel
advance. As they were coming up the second time, Rose
crans, opened upon them his newly planted batteries, and af
ter a short conflict, they turned and fled in confusion, leaving
immense numbers of dead and wounded on the field. The
rebels renewed the attack later in thfe day, and were again
repulsed. On the 4th of January, Johnston retreated from Murfrees-
boro. The Union loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners,
was 11,578, and the rebel loss, 14,560.

OHAPTEE XYII.

THIRD SESSION THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.
President's Message Dec, 1862 — Proposal to Aid Missouri
IN Emancipation — Bill Authorizing Enrolling Colored
Troops — Enrollment Bill — Debate in Senate .and House —
Bingham — Cox — Dunn — Thomas — Senator Wilson — Mc
Dougall — Admission op West Virginia — Debate — May
nard — Stephens — Bingham — Thomas^— Admission op Mem
bers prom Louisiana — War Powers op the Government —
Arbitrary Arrests — Vallandigham — Lincoln's Reply to
Albany Meeting — Habeas Corpus — Close op Thirty-sev
enth Congress — Speaker Gtrow's Validictory.
THE action of the drama calls us again from the field of war
to the forura of Congress ; from the conflict of arms to the
conflict of principles in the National council, and before the
people. The tyranny over mind, which two centuries of slavery
had riveted, was being broken, and the loyal people ofthe Na
tion had learned in the school of war, clearly to see that the
unity of the Nation, with a homogeneous people, was a neces
sity to its grand destiny; and to secure that unity, slavery
must be removed. Whatever the purposes of the administra
tion at the beginning, the inexorable logic of war was driv
ing it to abolition. The Republic was based upon man's
equality before the law. Slavery was an anomaly, inconsistent
with the principles upon which the government was founded,
and must either yield itself or overturn the Governraent. The
war was a natural and perhaps inevitable conflict between the
systems of free and slave labor. These truths gradually be
came more and more the settled convictions of the American
people, and resulted in the proclamation of emancipation. The
effect of this proclamation abroad, was sharply to define the is
sue between an established Government fighting for liberty,
368

president's message, 1863: 369
and a rebellion inaugurated to maintain and secure slavery.
The emissaries of the insurgents abroad were disarmed by thia
act; from the hour of its promulgation, the danger of foreign
recognition and foreign intervention ceased to exist. The
response of the people of Europe, in hearty, genuine sympa
thy, was such as to prevent intervention by those of their
rulers who wished success to the rebel cause.
The President in his annual raessage, calls attention to the
success ofthe financial measures, which under the able lead of
Mr. Chase, had been sanctioned by Congress. Large issues '
of Treasury notes had been made, and these had been de
clared by law, receivable for loans and internal duties, and
made a legal tender in payment of all debts; and this made
them a universal and very welcome and popular currency.
The President recommended the passage of a law authoriz
ing banking associations; the Government to furnish the
notes for circulation on the deposit in the Treasury of the
United States, of Government bonds as security. The bill au
thorized the conversion of existing State banks into National
banking associations.
The leading feature of the message, was that which treated
the great questions of emancipation, and the necessity of
National unity. The President announced to Congress, that
on the 22d of September, he had issued a preliminary procla
mation announcing his intention to proclaim freedom to the
slave, and communicated a copy of the paper.
In accordance with the second paragraph of the proclama
tion, in language, which for Statesman like vie-ws, and clear
ness of statement, will compare favorably with any State
paper in American annals, he recalled to the attention of
Congress, th« proposition of " compensated emancipation."
He said : *
" A Nation may be said to consist of its territory, its people and its
laws. The territory is the only part which is of certain durability.
' One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the
earth abideth forever.' It is of the first importance to duly consider and
estimate this ever-enduring part. That portion of the earth's surface
which is owned and inhabited by the people of the United States, is well
* McPherson, p. 220.
24

370 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
adapted to be the home of one National family; and it is not well
adapted for two or more. Its vast extent and its variety of climate and
productions, are of advantage, in this age for one people, whatever they
might have been in former ages. Steam, telegraphs, and intelligence,
have brought these to be an advantageous combination for one united

e.

peopll " There is no line, straight or crooked, suitable for a National boundary
upon which to divide. Trace through from East to West, upon the line
between the free and ^ave country, and we shall find a little more than
one-third of its length are rivers easy to be crossed, and populated, or
soon to be populated, thickly upon both sides, -while nearly all its re
maining length are merely surveyor's lines, over which people may walk
back and forth, without any consciousness of their presence. No part
of this line can be made any more difficult to pass, by writing it down
on paper or or parchment as a National boundary. * * *
" But there is another difficulty. The great interior region bounded
east by the AUeghanies, north by the British dominions, west by the
Rocky mountains, and south by the line along which the culture of
corn and cotton meets, and which includes part of Virginia, part of
Tennessee, all of Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wieonsin, Ilh
nois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Minnesota, and the Territories of Dakota,
Nebraska, and part of Colorado, already has above ten millions of peo
ple, and will have fifty millions within fifty years, if not prevented by
any political folly or mistake. It contains more than one-third of the
country owned by the United States — certainly more than one million
square miles. Once half as populous as Massachusetts already is, it
would have more than seventy-five millions of people. A glance at the
map shows that, territorially speaking, it is the great body of the Re
public. The other parts are but marginal borders to it, the magnificent
region sloping West from the Rocky mountains to the Pacific, being
the deepest, and also the richest in undeveloped resources. In the pro
duction of provisions, grains, grasses, and all which proceed from them,
this great interior region is naturally one of the most important in the
world. Ascertain from the statistics, the small proportion of the region
which has as yet been brought into cultivation, and also the large and
rapidly increasing amount of its products, and we shall be overwhelmed
with the magnitude of the prospect presented. And yet this region has
no seacoast, touches no ecean anywhere. As part of one nation, its peo
ple, now find, and may forever find their way to Europe by New Fork
to South America and Africa by New Orleans, and to Asia by Sas
Francisco. But separate our common country into two nations, as de
signed by the present rebellion, and every man of this great interior
region is thereby cut oif from some one or more of these outlets; not

president's message, 1863. 371
perhaps by a physical barrier, but by embarrassing and onerous trade
regulations." The absolute necessity of the Union to the Northwest, the
vast grain growing region, was never more strikingly pre
sented. The President as the leading mind of the Mississippi
Valley, spoke its convictions and. sentiraeuts, when he thus
presented the irapossibility of disunion. He knew that the
great West, with one hand clasped the East, and with the
other, would if necessary, grasp the South, and hold the
Union together forever.
The President went on to say :
" And this is true wherever a dividing or boundary line may be fixed.
Place it between the now free and slave country, or place it south of
Kentucky, or north of the Ohio, and still the truth remains, that none
south of it can trade to any port or place north of it, and none north
of it can trade to any port or place south of it except upon terms dic
tated by a Government foreign to them. These outlets, east, west, and
south, are indispensable to the well being of the people inhabiting, and
to inhabit this vast interior region. Which of the three may be the
best, is no proper question. All are better than either; and all of
right, belong to that people and to their successors forever. True to
themselves, they will not ask where a line of separation shall be, but
will vow rather that there shall be no such line. Nor are the marginal
regions less interested in these communications to and through them, to
the great outside world. They too, and each of them, must have access
to this Egypt of the west, without paying toll at the crossing of any
National boundary.
" Our national strife springs not from our permanent part; not from
the land we inhabit; not from our national homestead. There is no
possible severing of this, but would multiply and not mitigate evils
among us. In all its adaptations and aptitudes it demands Union and
abhors separation". In fact, it would ere long force re-union, however
much of blood and treasure the separation might have cost. Our strife
pertains to ourselves — to the passing generations of men; and it can,
without convulsion, be hushed forever with the passing of one
generation." And thereupon the President suggested to Congress the
adoption of amendments of the Constitution, providing

372 LINCOLN ANjD THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
compensation to every State, wherein slavery then existing,
should abolish it before the year 1900. These proposed
amendments would operate only in those States in which slav
ery had not been abolished by the proclamation. The amend
ments proposed compensation to loyal owners, whose slaves
had been freed by the operations and chances of war. In urg
ing these amendments upon Congress, the President declared
the now generally conceded truth, that "without slavery,
the rebellion could never have existed ; without slavery it
eould not continue." He closes a most earnest appeal for
the system of compensated emancipation in these memorable
words :
" Fellow citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and
this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No per
sonal 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." *
In pursuance of the recommendation of the President, a
bill passed the House of Representatives, appropriating ten
millions to compensate the owners of slaves in Missouri, on
condition that that State should emancipate all her slaves,
within one year from January, 1863.
In the Senate, the bill was so amended as to appropriate
twenty millions in United States bonds, for compensation to
the owners of slaves, provided that State should adopt a valid
and Constitutional law for gradual or iraraediate eraancipa
tion of all slaves in Missouri, and the exclusion of slavery
frora that State forever thereafter. Such a law to be passed
within twelve months, and to pro-vide that slavery should
forever cease on some day not later than the 4th of July, 1876.
• MoPherson's History, p. 224.

BILL TO AID EMANCIPATION IN MISSOURI. 373
Senator Howard, of Michigan, in urging the passage of this
bill, said :
" Eighteen hundred and seventy-six, will be a great epoch in the history
of this Nation as I trust, if the people are true to themselves, true to
their own interests, to that tutelary Constitution under which we have
lived and prospered for eighty years past. I shall expect, if I shall have
the good fortune to survive until that day, to see the Constitution in ita
vigor amd purity restored, and the Union restored, and to see not one
foot of slave soil within the territorial limits of the United States, t
hope sir, to live to see that day."
The bill as amended, came back to the House, and was com
mitted to a select Comraittee, and was not again considered
by the House. On the 15th of December, 1862, the House,
by a vote of 78 to 52, adopted resolutions sanctioning the
proclamation of freedom and declaring it to have been
warranted by the Constitution, and well adapted to hasten
peace, and well chosen as a war measure.
The Secretary of War, Mr. Stanton, in his annual report,
expressed the opinion that the power of the rebels rested upon
their peculiar system of labor, which enabled them, by the
eraployraent of slaves on the plantations, to support the raas
ters while devoting themselves to the war. He expressed the
opinion that it was the duty of the Governraent to strike
down the systera of slavery, and turn against the rebels its
productive power; that, by striking down the system of com
pulsory labor, the rebellion would die of itself The Presi
dent, as we have seen, had already done this, and Congress
had sanctioned it.
In January, a bill passed the House, authorizing the Pres
ident to enrol into the land and naval service such number
of volunteers of African descent as he might deera useful to
suppress the rebellion, for such term as he might prescribe,
not to exceed five years. The bill provided that the slaves
of loyal citizens frora that portion of the Union not included
in the proclamation of emancipation, should not be received
into the armed service, nor should there be recruiting offices
opened in either of the States of Delaware, Maryland, West
Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, or Missouri, without consent

374 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
of the Governors of those States. In the Senate, the bill was
referred to the Committee on Military Affairs, who reported
it back, recommending that it do not pass, on the ground
that the President already had the power proposed to be con
ferred by the bill. Up to January 1863, the vast armies of
the Republic, had been raised by volunteering, stimulated by
patriotism, and aided also by Government and local bounties.
Under the first call for 75,000 men, there had been fur
nished 93,000 and a fraction. Under the act of July, 1861,
authorizing 500,000, there had been furnished 671,419 three
years men. Under the call of July, 1862, there was furnished
430,201, and under the call of August 4th, 1862, 87,558 men.
In addition to these, were the accessions to the regular
army, and men who volunteered for shorter periods. In
January, 1863, as the magnitude and duration of the war
became fully developed, the conviction becarae general, that
the efficiency of the railitary power would be increased by
placing at the control of the Government, the entire military
force of the nation. Thus far, the ranks had been filled by
the patriotic and generous, while many of the selfish, although
enjoying all the benefits ofthe Government, shirked ignobly
from raaking any sacrifices for its preservation. It was felt
to be nothing but justice, that all who enjoyed the blessings
of the Government, and who were fit for military service,
should be made to contribute to its maintenance.
In January 1863, Senator Wilson, the able and efficient
Chairman of the Mihtary Committee ofthe Senate, reported a
bill providing that all able bodied male citizens ofthe United
Sates, and those of foreign birth, who had declared their in
tentions to become citizens, between the ages of eighteen and
forty-five, should constitute the National forces, and be liable
to military duty at the call of the President. From such call
were exempted, as the bill finally passed, the Vice President
the Judges, Heads of " Departments of the Governraent, and
the Governors of the several States ; also the only son liable
to military service of a widow dependent upon his labor for
support; also the only son of an aged or infirm parent or
parents, dependent upon his labor for support; also where
there are two or more sons of aged or infirra parents subject

THE ENROLLMENT BILL. 375
to draft, the father, or if he be dead, the mother may elect
which son shall be exempt; also the only brother of children
not twelve years old,^ having neither father nor mother de
pendent upon his labor for support; also the father of mother
less children under twelve years of age, dependent upon his
labor for support; also where there are a father and sons in the
same faraily and household, and two of them are in the mili
tary service of the United States as non-commissioned offi
cers, musicians or privates, the residue of such family ; pro
vided that no person who has been convicted of any felony
shall be enrolled or permitted to serve in said forces. It di
vided the force into two classes : First, Those between twenty
and thirty-five, and all unmarried persons above thirty-five
^nd under forty-five: Second, All others liable to military
duty. It divided the country into districts, in each of which,
an enrollment board was established. The persons enrolled,
were made subjectrto be called into the military service at any
time for two years from July 1st, 1868, and continue in ser-
¦vice for three years. A drafted person was allowed to furnish
an acceptable substitute, or on payment of $300, be discharged
fi'om further liability under that draft. Persons drafted failing
to report, were to be considered deserters. All persons drafted
were to be assigned by the President to railitary duty in such
corps, regiments, or branches of the service as the exigencies
of the service may require." *
This act passed March, 3d, 1863. Nearly one year earlier,
in April 1862, the Confederate Congress had passed a con
scription bill, placing at the service of the President of the
Confederate States for three years, unless the war should
sooner cease, "all white men between 18, and 45 years of
age." Senator Wilson, Chairman of the Comraittee on Military
Affairs, urged the passage of the bill on these grounds : f
" The old regiments hardly average now, more than four hundred men
in the field fit for the stern duties of war. Many who rallied at the call of
their country, and who followed its flag with unswerving devotion, now
sleep in bloody graves, or linger in hospitals, or, bending beneath disease

MoPherson's Hist., p. 115-116.
Encyclopedia, 1863, p. 278.

376 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
and wounds, can no longer fill the ranks of our legions in camp or on the
battle-field. If we mean to maintain the supremacy of the Constitution
and the laws, if we mean to preserve the unity of the Republic, if we
mean that America shall live and have a position and name among the
nations, we must fill the broken and thinned ranks of our wasted
battalions. " The issue is now clearly presented to the country for the acceptance
or rejection of the American people — an inglorious peace, with a dis
membered Union and a broken Nation on the one hand, or war, fought'
out until the rebellion is crushed beneath its iron heel. Patriotism as
well as freedom, humanity and religion, accepts the bloody issues of war,
rather than peace purchased with the dismemberment of the Republic,
and the death of the Nation.
" If we accept peace, disunion, death, then we may speedily summon
home again our armies; if we accept war, until the flag ofthe Republic
waves over every foot of our united country, then we must see to it that
the ranks of our armies, broken by toil, disease, and death, are filled
again with the health and vigor of life. To fill the thinned ranks of our
battalions, we must again call upon the people. The immense numbers
already summoned to the field, the scarcity and high rewards of labor,
press upon all of us, the conviction that the ranks of our wasted regi
ments cannot be filled again by the old system of volunteering. If vo
lunteers will not respond to the call of the country, then we must resort
to the involuntary system."
It will be observed that by the provisions of this law, all
able bodied citizens, black as well as white, were liable to be
enrolled into the service of the United States. This bill com
ing down to the House after the middle of February, and
Congress expiring on the 4th of March, the opposition
entertained strong hopes of defeating its passage.
Mr. Olin, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs,
u;:ging the early passage of the bill, said:
" It is the first time in the history of the Republic that Congress has
been called upon to exercise that power given by the Constitution, 'to
raise and support armies,' in the true and proper sense of the grant.
Heretofore the soldiers of the Republic have voluntarily entered the ser
vice, or have done so in pursuance of a call made upon the Governors
of the several States, either voluntarily or by constraint of State laws.
This ia the first attempted exercise of that great power, more thxin all

THE ENROLLMENT BILL. 377
others, the index of our Nationality, to compel all our citizens to devote
their lives to sustain, defend, and perpetuate the life ofthe Republic."*
Mr. Bingham of Ohio, said, in reply to those who opposed
the bill because it gave the power to Provost Marshals to ar
rest those opposing the enrollment and draft, and alluding to.
the arrest of a person in Ohio :
" I remember well, Mr. Speaker — ^who does not remember ? that
about the time that arrest was made in Ohio, for seven long days, a
battle raged before Richmond. During that protracted struggle, while
that field of conflict was covered with the thick darkness of bat
tle and the shadow of death, and in all the loyal homes of our people,
hands were raised in silent prayer for the Republic and its defenders,
a cry came up from the banks of the York and the James rivers,
' Help ! help ! help ! brothers of the free North and 'West, or we perish,
and our banner of glory and of beauty goes down before the armed
legions of treason." In response to that call, the people rushed to the
conflict, from the hills of New England to the golden sands of Califor
nia, fiUing the continent with their shout,
' We are coming, we are coming,
Six hundred thousand more ;
" It was in the presence of this sublime uprising of the freemen
of this land, for the defense of their homes and country, and the res
cue from an unequal struggle of your gallant army, that a partizan in
Ohio, it is said, dared to outrage and disgrace humanity by saying to
his neighbors, ' stop brother Democrats, stay at home and vote ; and let
the army of the Union perish.' It is said that man was arrested by
order of the President."f
Mr. Cox moved to insert "white" so as to hmit the bill to
white citizens. This was rejected.
Mr. Sargent of California, urging the passage of the bill
said: " It must be admitted that the successful raising of armies by the
rebels has been accomplished by the conscription principle. By no
other could they have kept full half a million men in arms, — so large a
proportion of their available population. As we must fight,
we must begin to fight upon efi'eotive principles. We must gird
* Vol. il. Congressional Globe, p. 1214.
t Vol. 47 Congressional Globe, page 1229.

378 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
up the loins of the nation for a conclusive struggle. The en
emy have mad« their last effi)rt. It is now with them a question of
endurance. If they can keep us at bay until our present enlisted men
are discharged which the expiration of their short term of enlistment,
and their allies in the North can defeat the re-filling of our armies,
.they have gained their purposes, and the Union is dissolved."*
Mr. Dunn of Indiana, said:
" A draft is the cheapest, fairest and best mode of raising troops.
It is to be regretted this mode was not adopted at first. Then all would
have shared alike in the perils and glories of war. Every family would
have been represented in the field, and every soldier would have had
sympathy and support from his friends at home. The passage of this
bill will give evidence to the rebels that the nation is summoning all its
energies to the conflict, and it will be proof to foreign nations that we
are preparing to meet promptly any intermeddling in our domestic
strife. The government has a right in war, to command the services of
its citizens, whom it protects, in war as well as in peace. We as legis
lators, must not shrink from the discharge of our high responsibility.
This Congress will be memorable in the annals of our country and the
history of the world. ' The fiery trials through which we are passing
will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.' If we
cannot ' escape history,' let us make our record right, and display that
patriotism, wisdom and energy which history cannot fail to commend."
Judge Thomas of Massachusetts, a gentleman of the high
est and purest character, and of conservative associations,
as much in sympathy with the opposition as withthe Admin
istration, thus rebuked the democratic party for its efforts to
discourage volunteering :
"But, sir, it is a fact not to be disputed, that for the last six or nine
months a whole party, a strong party, has deliberately entered into a
combination to discourage, to prevent, and so far as in it lay, to prohibit
the volunteering of the people of the country as soldiers in our army.
Members of that party have gone from house to house, from town to
town, and from city to city, urging their brethren not to enlist
in the armies of the nation, and giving them all sorts of reasons for
that advice. One of these reasons is, that it was an abolition war ;
that it was ' a war for the nigger,' as the slang phrase is.
* VoL 47 Congressional Globe, page 1220.

THE ENROLLMENT BILL. 379
" Mr. Speaker, this is a terrible bill ; terrible in the powers it con
fers upon the executive, terrible in the duty and the burden it imposes
upon the citizen. I meet the suggestion by one as obvious and cogent,
and that is that the exigency is a terrible one and calls for all the pow
ers -with which the Government is invested. Some of the features of
the bill, my judgment condemns, unhesitatingly condemns.
"I do not rest the power of Congress to pass this bill upon the pro
visions of the Constitution in relation to the militia. I put it upon the
simple and clear provision which gives to Congress the power to raise and
support armies, and upon the absence of any provision of the Consti
tution which limits or restricts that power. 'In the nature of things
there can be no such limitation. I repeat what at an early day I as
serted upon this floor, that there is not a human being within the ter-
tory of the United States, black or white, bond or free, whom this
Government is not capable of taking in its right hand and using for its
military services whenever the defense of the country requires, and of
this Congress alone must judge. The question of use is a question of
policy only. :):********
" They, the people, will submit to it. In view of the infinite interests
at stake in this great controversy ; in the solemn conviction that there
is to-day no hope of peace except in disintegration ; that as a nation we
must conquer in arms, or perish, they will meet and respond to this im
perative call of duty. Such is my hope and trust. Go firmly to the people
and present to them the issue. They will understand the terrible ex
igency in which the country is placed, and they will be true to that
country, if you show clearly to their comprehension, the length and
breadth, and height and depth, of that exigency. Mr. Speaker, the
issue must be met at all hazards. If the people will not support you,
if they will not do this highest act of duty, the days of this republic
are numbered, and the end is nigh. Satisfy them that you mean to be
true to the Constitution, and the Union, and they will be true to you."*
The bill was vehemently opposedby Messrs. Wickliffe, Voor
hees, Vallandigham andthe leading democrats in Congress.
Perhaps there was nothing finer in the debate in the Sen
ate on the Enrollment Bill, than the rebuke given by Senator
McDougal of California to a senator by the name of Turpie,
appearing for a short time from Indiana. Turpie, in a tur
bid and violent speech against the bill, undertook to use the
great name of Douglas, as one who would, if living have op
posed the raeasure. McDougal of California, who was a
* Congressional Globe, 3d session, 37th Congress, page 1289.

380 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
scholar, a democrat, and a life-long personal and political
friend of Douglas, indignantly replied :
" The Senate waa organized for consultation. There was an academy
once established, I think on the western coast of Asia Minor, by a great
wise old Greek, and he allowed no one to enter into the inner temple
until he had been silent for seven years, if I remember the legend
rightly. I think, thinking is better than talking.
" I wish to say in reply to the Senator from Indiana particularly, that
I somewhat represent the North-west from whence he comes, (Mc
Dougal had spent many years in Illinois) I more particularly repre
sent the late senator from Illinois whose name he has used, who was
my friend and companion in boyhood days. The sentiments and opin
ions he has expressed are not the sentiments and opinions that have been
expressed by Mr. Douglas."*
Senator Wilson said :
" The Senator from Indiana assumes to speak for the brave men
who are fighting under the flag of the country in the land of the re
bellion. Sir, that Senator is not commissioned to speak for the men
who are fighting the battles of their country. That Senator is enti
tled to speak for the men of his State who are now quailing beneath
the withering scorn and stinging rebukes of the gallant men who have
made the battle-fields of Kentucky and Tennessee immortal. The
Senator has the brazen effrontery to tell the Senate and the country
that our brave soldiers in the field, whose ranks are thinned by the
storms of battle and the diseases of camps, will oppose this measure
to fill their broken and wasted ranks."f
Senator Kennedy, a type of a class of wealthy men, edu
cated in the interests of slavery, and blinded to its de
moralizing tendencies, said in reply :
" Sir, perhaps this is the last time I shall ever address the Senate.
My political career is nearly ended ; and if it were not in bad taste,
I might say that I thank my God for it. I regret that I stand in
the midst of the ruins of the Republic. I deplore that I can see no
hope from the black, gloomy cloud of convulsion and ruin by which
we are surrounded. I claim no particular honor or fame for the part
I have acted here in my humble sphere for six years past.
" I think you understand me when I say that I have no heart in
* Vol. 47, Congressional Globe, page 1370.
t Congressional Globe, 3d session, 37th Congress, pt^e 1370.

ADMISSION OF WEST VIRGINIA. 381
this contest ; I speak to-night as a stricken down man, without either
hope or prospect for the future, under the legislation which has
marked this Congress for the last two months — a regular organized
catalogue, if I may be allowed to call it so, of laws to maintain a
purpose and a policy — you will do nothing to restore a fraternal Union."*
It was repeatedly charged in this debate that theProclam-
mation of Emancipation had a tendency to prevent enlist
ments, and to demoralize the army.
Senator Grimes of Iowa, said : " The proclamation came
to us in Iowa while canvassing the State, and it was hailed
by the loyal men of all parties as one of the most efficient
means of putting down the rebellion. " The soldiers of
Iowa,'' said he, " have hailed it with acclamation." It was at
this session that the question whether Congress would assent
to the forraation of a new State carved off from Virginia,
came before Congress for decision.
Sora-e forty counties,' a portion of the commonwealth of
Virginia, situated south of the Ohio, and in the north-east of
the State, refused to recognize the Ordinance of Secession,
and sent delegates to a convention which met at Wheeling,
on the llth of June 1861. This convention organized, and
took an oath "to support the Constitution of the United
States, and the laws made in pursuance thereof, as the su
preme law of the land, anything in the ordinance of seces
sion adopted by the Richmond Convention to the contrary
not-withstanding." The convention proceeded to declare vacant, the offices of
those adhering to the rebel government, and to organize a
State Government, and elected two Senators to represent
Virginia in the Senate of the United States. These Senators,
Messrs. Willey and Carlisle, were admitted to the seats va
cated by Mason and Hunter, the former of whom represented
the confederate power in London, and the latter was a
member of Jefferson Davis' cabinet.
Ohio under the energetic lead of Governor Dennison had
been very prompt to send troops to aid the loyal men of
north-western Virginia in defending themselves against the
forces which Virginia sent to crush this loyal insurrection.
? Congressional Globe, 3d session, 37th Congress, page 1374. '

382 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY,
The convention in August proceeded to pass an ordinance,
establishing a proposed new State called Kanawha. A con
stitutional convention was called and assembled on the 26th
of November, and adopted a constitution for the proposed
new State. This constitution was approved by an almost
unanimons vote of the people upon whom it waste operate.
Thus far the proceedings had been nominally for the State
of Virginia. A legislature was elected, consisting of
members from that part of the Old Dominion, now recognized
as West Virginia, and some few counties on the Potomac,
and within the lines of the Union Array. The legislature
met on the 1st of May, 1862, and assuraing to speak for Vir
ginia, gave its assent to the formation of the new State. This
assent, together with an official copy of the constitution which
had been adopted, was forwarded to Congress. The Senate
had so far recognized the legislature referred to, as to admit
the Senators elected by them. So also merabers of the House
of Representatives elected under -writs of election issued by
Governor Pierpont, the new governor, were adraitted to the
House of Representatives.
Early in December a bill for the admission of West Vir
ginia having passed the Senate at the 2d session of this Con
gress, the question came before the House whether it would
assent to the formation of the new State, and recognize it
as one of the States in the Union. Mr. Colfax, of Indi
ana, took the lead, in earnestly advocating the admission of
the new State. He said :
' ' I say then that not only the two legislative branches of the govern
ment, but that the President of the United States, and the various
members of the Cabinet, have, without dissent and without protest, as
far as I have heard by any one up to this day, recognized Governor
Pierpont and the Wheeling legislature as the rightful authority in Vir
ginia, and it therefore seems to be a settled and concluded question ;
and the consent of this Legislature to the division of the state, is suffi
cient to bring it within the purview of the constitution. I confess
also that I shall welcome it now with peculiar pleasure when I see that her
people have provided for the utter extinction of slavery, and when she
comes here knocking at our door, with the tiara of freedom upon her
brow." *
» Vol. 47, Congressional Globe, part 1, page 43.

ADMISSION OF WEST VIRGINIA. 383
Mr. Olin justified the people of West Virginia as follows :
" It was simply a movement of the people without any of the forms
of law, when the formation of a State government was attempted by the
people of West Virginia. I do not complain ofit, much less condemn
it ; it was a matter of necessity ; I applaud them for it ; but it was in
every sense, as against the State of Virginia a revolutionary movement,
justifiable only by the necessity of the case, and because of the aban
donment of every principle of law, duty and obligation, which ought to
have bound these secessionists to the Union. The people of Western
Virginia were justified by that great "higher law" of self protection,
and fidelity to the Union. *****
" In the other branch of Congress they admitted, as the representa
tives of the State of Virginia, two Senators elected by the Legislature
assembled at WheeUng. We have recognized their acts as those of a
defacto Government of that State. Perhaps it was a necessity. I ad
mit that it was so. I had hoped and still cling to that hope, that the
old State of Virginia, with the glorious memories which clustered
around her in former years, will yet be an honored member of the
Union, clothed, and in her right mind." *
Others opposed the division of the State, and among them
the venerable Crittenden of Kentucky. They appealed to the
raeraories of the past, and begged that Virginia might re
main as she came, from the great hands that formed her, with
her boundaries extending frora tide water to the Ohio.
Mr. Maynard, one of those loyal raen frora East Ten-ies-
see, who reraained true to the fiag said : f
•'' I found there in that mountain region, one of the loveliest portions
of the United States. I found there a people, loyal and devoted to
your flag, desiring to be formed into a State by themselves, with power
to manage their own local and domestic affairs. They spoke with feel
ing, and with deep entreaty upon this subject. They said as their Rep
resentatives have said here, that if you bind them, or, which is the same
thing, keep them bound to the dead carcass that lies floating many a
rood on the eastern side of the Blue Ridge, their fate for long, long
years, if not for generations and ages, is sealed. They begged that
they might be disenthralled, and that they might be permitted to go
forward in that career of prosperity for which their habits, and the pe
culiar position of their country fit them. I cannot turn a deaf ear to
* Vol. 47 Congressional Globe, part 1, page 45 and 46.
1 3d session, 87th Congress, page 46j;

384 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
their appeal. Nor do I regard it of grave importance, that in some fu
ture event, in the reconstruction of this country and the suppression of
this rebellion, and the re-establishment ofthe authority of our Govern
ment, the pride of Old Virginia may be wounded by seeing her moun
tain sons set up as a rival commonwealth. Virginia, in common with
the other rebellious regions, has earned it all. She has only herself to
thank for her future." *
The venerable Thaddeus Stevens voted for the bill on these
grounds :
" I do not desire to be understood as being deluded by the idea that
we are admitting this State in pursuance of any provision of the Con
stitution. I find no such provision that justifies it, and the argument
in favor of the constitutionality of it, is one got up by those who either
honestly entertain, I think, an erroneous opinion, or who desire to j.us-
tify by a forced construction, an act which they have pre-determined to
do. By the Constitution, a State may be divided by the consent of the
Legislature thereof, and by the consent of Congress admitting the new
State into the Union."j"
" Now, sir, it is but mockery, in my judgment, to tell me that the
Legislature of Virginia has ever consented to this division. There are two
hundred thousand out of a million and a quarter of people, who have
participated in this preceding. They have held a convention, and
they have elected a Legislature in pursuance of a decree of that con
vention. Before all this was done, the State had a regular organization,
a constitution under which that corporation acted. By a convention of
a large majority of the people of that State, they changed their consti
tution, and changed their relations to the Federal Government from
that of one of its members to that of secession from it. Now I need
not be told that that is treason. I know it. And it is treason in
all the individuals who participated in it. But so far as the State munici
pality or corporation was concerned, it was a valid act, and governed
the State. Our Government does not act upon the State. The State
as a separate and distinct body, was the State of a majority of the
people of Virginia whether rebel or loyal, whether convicts or free
men. The majority of the people of Virginia, was the State of
Virginia, although individuals had committed treason.
" Now, then, how has that State ever given its consent to this divis
ion ? A highly respectable, but very small number of the citizens
* Gongressional Globe, 3d session, 37th Congress, page 49.
t Congressional Globe, 3d session, 37th Congress, page 50-51.

ADMISSION OF WEST VIRGINIA. 386
of Virginia, — the people of West Virginia — assembled together, dis
approved of the acts of the State of Virginia, and with the utmost self-
complacency, called themselves Virginia. Now, is it not ridiculous ? Is
not the very statement of the facts a ludicrous thing to look upon — al
though a very respectable gentleman, Governor Pierpont, was elected
by them Governor of Virginia. He is a most excellent man, and I
wish he were the Governor elected by the whole people of Virginia.
The State of Virginia, therefore has never given its consent to this
separation of the State."
Mr. Bingham closed the debate. He said : *
" I hold sir, that the Legislature assembled at Wheeling, then, is the
legal Legislature of the State ; that it had power to assent to this divis
ion of the State of Virginia, and that it is wholly immaterial to us
whether a majority of the' counties of that State refused by reason of
their treason, to co-operate in the election of delegates and Senators to
that Legislature. On the subject of granting the admission of the
proposed State, to which that body has assented, it is enough for me
to know that there is a sufficient humber of loyal men within the limits,
of the proposed State, to maintain the machinery of a State govern
ment, and entitle them to Federal representation. That is the only rule
heretofore recognized by Congress, in the matter of admitting new
States duly organized.
" Under this bill, it is provided that no person born in that State after
the 4th of July next, shall be a slave ; that all persons held in slavery
within the limits of that State under the age of ten years, shall be free
at the age of twenty-one, and all over ten and under twenty-one, at the
age of twenty-five years.
" If I could not give liberty to-day to all the slaves in Virginia, I
consider it my duty to give liberty ultimately, as this bill does, to nine-
tenths of the slaves within that State, and to forbid the increase of
slavery therein in the great hereafter."
The bill passed by a large majority. West Virginia com
plied with its conditions, and, on the 4th day of April, 1863,
the President issued his proclamation, proclaiming that the
conditions of the law had been complied with, and that
West Virginia according to the provisions of the act of Con
gress, was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with
the original States. The State by its Legislature abolished
Vol. 47 Congressional Globe, part 1, page 58.
26

LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
andprohibited slavery before the adoption ofthe constitutional
araendraent prohibiting it throughout the United States.
The admission to Congress of members tclected from seced
ing states, became a grave question for consideration at this
session. One or two members from Eastern Tennessee, and
Andrew Johnson, senator from that State continued to hold
the seats to which they had been elected.
After the capture of l^ew Orleans by Admiral Farragut,
and under the vigorous and wise administration of General
Butler, more than 60,000 persons enrolled theraselves as cit
izens of the United States and took the oath of allegiance.
The President appointed a Military Governor of the area
embraced within the boundaries of Louisiana. He exercised
the civil functions of Governor of that»state.
This Provisional or Military Governor, directed an elec
tion for members of Congress under provisions of the old
State Constitution, to be held in the two districts of the
city of New Orleans, on the 3d of December 1862. Mr.
Flanders in one district received 2,370 -^otes, and MicbaeF
Hahn in the other received 2,799, and all others 2,818. Mes
srs. Flanders and Hahn received certificates of election from
the Military Governor. The elections were held in exact
conformity with the laws of Louisiana. On the grave ques
tion, since so much discussed, as to what were the rights of
the Executive, and of Congress, in regard to the reconstruction
of a seceded State, Mr. Voorhees, a leading democratic mem
ber of Congress from Indiana said : *
" I regard it as setting a precedent for future action which will be ex
ceedingly important in its bearing on the destiny of this Government.
In other words, I regard it as surrendering to the Executive, the
branch ofthe Government to which we belong. In my judgraent, the
Executive has already usurped the judicial department of this Gov
ernment by the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. It lacks but
the sanction of such a report as the committee has made in this case,
to surrender up the legislative department also to the executive. I have
no doubt that this House will do it. Step by step, executive encroach
ment has come upon this country with a rapidity, the like of which

Vol. 47 Congressional Globe, page 834.

ADMISSION OF MEMBERS FROM LOUISIANA. 387
is unknown to history ; the like of which has never been seen in any
country calling itself free.
" Understand this principle. If the Southern Confederacy is a for
eign power, an independent nationality to-day, and you have conquered
back the territory of Louisiana, you may then substitute a new system
of laws in the place of the laws of that State. You may then sup
plant her civil institutions by institutions made anew for her by the
proper authority of this Government — not by the executive — ^but by the
legislative branch of the Government, assisted by the Executive simply
to the extent of signing his name to the bills of legislation. If the
chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means (Mr. Stevens) is cor
rect ; if the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Conway) is correct, and this
assumed power in the South is a power of the earth, and stands to-day
upon equal terms of nationality with ourselves, and we conquer back
State by State its territory by the power of arms, then we may govern
them independently of their local laws. But if the theory we have
been proceeding upon here that this Union is unbroken ; that no
States have sundered the bonds that bind us together ; that no suc
cessful disunion has yet taken place, — if that theory is still to prevail
in these halls, then this thing cannot be done. You are as much bound
to uphold the laws of Louisiana in all their extent and in all their parts,
as you are to uphold the laws of Pennsylvania or New York, or any
other State whose civil policy has not been disturbed."
Mr. Noell of Missouri, said ;
" The civil authorities there, having abdicated, became a treasonable
body, and omitting to perform their functions, it was necessary that
the United States should substitute some authority there for the purpose
of supplying the performance of those functions, absolutely necessary
for the people."
Mr. Bingham said :
" If the people of Louisiana had, under an act of their o)vn Legis
lature, and by duly constituting officers of an existing State govern
ment, organized under the Federal Constitution, held this election, I
could not doubt that such election was the lawful act of the loyal people.
But, sir, there is no organized constitutional State government in
Louisiana, nor was this election held under the law or by the officers
of such government of Louisiana, nor under a law of Congress. I
therefore repeat my proposition : representatives can be elected to the
Federal Legislature, only in pursuance of an act of the State Legisla-

388 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
ture, or of an act of the Federal Congress. I wish to enquire when
there has been any decision under the Government of the United
States, legislative or executive or judicial to the contrary ?" *
Judge Thomas of Massachusetts said :
" It is not contested in the report of the committee, or in
the arguments of the members of the Committee of Elections,
who did not sign the report, that the persons who are elected to
this House are loyal men. It is not contested that they were elected
by loyal citizens of Louisiana. It is not contested that they were elected
without military dictation or control. There is nothing developed in
the report or in the arguments presented to the House, to show that
there was any military dictation or control, or influence in the election.
What are the relations which these electors and the persons who
claim these seats, hold, at this moment to the Government of the United
States? They are citizens of the United States, subject to all the
duties imposed by the Constitution and laws of the United States. They
are subject to taxation. They are subject to military service. Some
four thousand of loyal residents of New Orleans are already engaged
in the military service of the Government.
" Now, Mr. Speaker, before the act of secession, these men had all
the political rights that are corelative to their political duties. They
had the right of representation, which, from the earliest history of
this Government, has been indissolubly connected with the right of
taxation. Subject in war or peace to all the duties and burdens of the
Government, they are entitled to the corresponding rights and privi
leges that Government had conferred upon them, unless in some legal
way deprived of them. The state of Louisiana exists. Its functions
may be in abeyance. All the powers of the State exist, and all that
is necessary, is simply that the machinery of the State shall be put in
motion. The State itself is like Milton's angels, which,
' Vital in every part
Cannot but by annihilating die." '

Judge Thomas concluded an earnest appeal in behalf of
the admission of the members elect, in these words : f
" The distinguished gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Voorhees) who
first spoke upon this subject, averred that there was great danger from
* Vol. 47, Congressional Globe, 3d session, 37th Congress, page 1014.
t Congressional Globe, 3d session, 37th Congress, page 1016.

ADMISSION OF MEMBERS FROM LOUISIANA. 389
the admission of these claimants, and in like cases, that the executive
authority of this Government would finally prevail over the rights and
powers of this House. The answer to all such suggestions, is to be
found in the fidelity of this House to its rights, to its powers and to its
duties, and without suoh fidelity there can be no safety. It is in all
cases the, first and final and only judge ofthe qualifications, elections,
and returns of its members, and so long as it holds that power in its
right hand, and exercises it discreetly, firmly, fearlessly, we need have
no fear of the Executive.
" I put this case then, upon two or three plain grounds. I put it
upon the ground that these men who are asking seats in this House,
are loyal citizens of the United States ; that they have been elected by
the loyal citizens of the United States ; that they have been elected at
an election which was free ; that they were elected by numbers which
compared with other elections, indicate that the people in the districts
were in the movement, and that it was had in entire good faith.
" But if on the other hand you expect — as it seems to us every ra
tional man must expect — to reconstruct the Government with the sym
pathy, co-operation, and aid of the loyal men of these States, then I ask
in the name of prudence and of justice, not to shut the door of this
House against them. Do not, I beseech you, teach them the terrible
lesson that your powers are effective to destroy but not to redeem ; to
crush but not to save. Meet them at the threshold ; welcome and bless
them, as they seek once more the shelter of the old homestead."
Michael Hahn, one of the Representatives elect, closed a
very effective speech, which secured the personal good will
of the House in favor of his admission, in these words:
" And even, sir, within the limits of the dreary and desolated region
of the rebellion itself, despair, which has already taken hold of the peo
ple, will gain additional power and strength, at the reception of the news
that Louisiana sends a message of peace, good-will, and hearty fellowship
to the Union. This intelligence will sound more joyfully to patriot ears
than all the oft repeated tidings of ' Union victories.' And of all vic
tories, this will be the most glorious, useful and solid, for it speaks of
reorganization, soon to become the great and difficult problem with which
our statesmen will have to familiarize themselves. And when this shall
have commenced, we will be able to realize that God, in his infinite
mercy has looked down upon our misfortunes, and in a spirit of paternal

390 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
love and pity, has addressed us in the language ascribed to him by our
own gifted Longfellow :
1 am weary of your qnarrels.
Weary of your wars and bloodshed,
Weary of your prayers for vengeance.
Of your wranglings atid dissensions.
All your strength is in your Union,
All your danger Is in discord,
Therefore, be at peace, henceforward,
And as brothers live together.
" Mr. Speaker, Louisiana — ever loyal honorable Louisiana — seeks
no greater blessing in the future, than to remain a part of this great
and glorious Union. She has stood by you in the darkest hours of the
rebellion; and she intends ever to stand by you. Sir, raise your eyes to
the gorgeous ceilings which ornament this Hall, and look upon her fair
and lovely escutcheon. Carefully read the patriotic words which sur
round her affectionate pelican family, and you will find there inscribed,
'¦Justice, Union, Confidence.' Those words have with us no idle mean
ing; and would to God that other members of this Union could properly
appreciate our motto, our motives and our position!
" Reject the Representatives of Louisiana to-day, disfranchize her,
-withhold her dearest and most cherished right as a State under the Con
stitution; but if you do that, let not that lovely escutcheon look down
upon you with solemn mockery, but remove it from your sight, and tear
from yonder glorious emblem of our country's greatness, our bright and
shining star.
" Mr. Speaker, instead of diminishing those stars in number, and in
stead of curtailing the fair proportions of this Union, we in Louisiana,
are in favor of adding to the number and brilliancy of those stars, and
of standing by and maintaining this Union under all circumstances in
its integrity, so that all American citizens can proudly and truthfully
proclaim in the poetic language of Byron :
Par as the eye can reach, the billows roam;
Survey our empire, and behold our home.
These are'our realms, no limit to their sway,
, Our flag, the scepter all who meet, obey.*
After an able argument from Mr. Dawes, the Chairman of
the Coramittee on Elections, the House by a vote of 92 to 44,
adraitted the raembers, and they beiug sworn took their seats.
The great civil war, the necessity of self-preservation on
the part of the Government, called into exercise a class of
* Vol. 47, Congressional Globe, p. 1032.

THE WAR POWERS OF THE GOVERNMENT. 391
powers called war powers ; powers dormant until the exigency
arose demanding their exercise, and of the existence of which,
many of the statesmen of the Republic had been unconscious.
The first exercise of these powers was induced by the imper
ative necessity of self-preservation, and at first without any
very clearly defined conception of their extent and bounda
ries. The American people educated to a full appreciation
of the value of the securities of liberty embodied in English
Magna Charta, and still more perfectly in the Constitution
ofthe United States, were ever jealous of the exercise of
extraordinary powers. The great safeguards of English and
. American liberty, freedom of the press, liberty of speech,
personal security protected by the writ of habeas corpus; an
independent Judiciary, a speedy and fair trial by jury, the
old time honored principle of English and American law,
that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or property,
but by due and impartial process of law and the judgraent
of bis peers ; these fundaraental principles of a free Govern
ment, were revered as sacred, and no people were ever more
watchful or jealous of enoroachments upon them. How far a
State of war modified or suspended these great principles,
¦ became early the subject of earnest debate and controversy.
The rebels for themselves, and their sympathizers -for them,
claimed all their Constitutional rights as citizens of the United
States while in arms as rebels and public eneraies, to over
throw the Constitution. They clairaed that while waging
war against the United States, they should be treated as
possessing at the same tirae all the rights of belligerents and
of citizens. We have seen rebel officers claiming under a flag
of truce, the return of fugitive slaves, under a provision of
the Constitution of the United States.
Such claims were too absurd to be debatable. Mr. Lin
coln came to the exercise of these war powers of the Consti
tution necessary to maintain the Government, slowly, cau
tiously, and "reluctantly. He was reluctant to proclaim mar
tial law, even when conspirators were plotting treason, his
own deposition from the office of President, and the over
throw of the Constitution. He suffered the rebels, Breckin
ridge, Burnett and others, at the special session of July, 1861,

392 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
to talk and plot treason in Congress, and go over and join
the rebel armies without arrest. But the safety of the Re
public finally compelled him to exercise these war powers.
He saved Maryland to the Union, and prevented a civil war
there, as conceded by Governor Hicks, by causing General
McClellan to arrest the Maryland Legislature. He arrested
persons known to hold criminal intercourse with the enemy.
He caused the writ of habeas corpus to be suspended, and
declared martial law.
This right to suspend the writ of habeas corpus is conferred
by the Constitution. It is a dangerous power, but the exer
cise of it, is confined to dangerous times. It can be sus
pended, only " when in (iases of rebellion or invasion, the
public safety may require it." Who may decide when the
public safety may require it? There is no doubt Congress
has this power. Does the Executive also possess it? The ex
igency and necessity for the exercise of it, may arise when
Congress is not in session. The discussions in Congress, in
the press, and before judicial tribunals, may be regarded as
settling the point, that the President may rightfully exercise
this power, and that Congress may in its discretion, direct
and control the exercise of it.
The subject of arrests for political offences, was the occa
sion of continued attack upon the administration, by the op
position in Congress during the years 1861-2, and 3. The
case of Vallandigham was widely discussed. He was a raem
ber of Congress from Ohio, bold, able and aggressive. He
was arrested by order of General Burnside, for the utterance
of alleged treasonable language, and discouraging volunteer
ing for the army, and thereby aiding and abetting the enemy.
His counsel applied to Judge Leavett, United States District
Judge of Ohio, for a writ of Habeas Corpus, which was refused.
It is worthy of reraark, that both the General who ordered
the arrest, and the Judge who refused tbe writ were demo
crats. He was tried before a Court Martial, and sentenced
to imprisonment during the war. Meetings were held in
several places, and resolutions passed denouncing the arrest
as an infringement of the rights of the citizen. The most

ARBITRARY ARRESTS. 393
imposing of these meetings, was the one held at Albany, under
the auspices of Governor Seymour, and presided over by
Erastus Corning, a prominent Democratic member of Con
gress. The proceedings of this meeting were laid before
the President, and he deemed thera of sufficient importance
to make to them an elaborate reply.
President Lincoln thus stated the necessity of preventive
arrests :
" Of how httle value the Constitutional provisions I have quoted will
be rendered, if arrests shall never be made untU defined crimes shall
have been committed, may be illustrated by a few notable examples.
General John C. Breckinridge, General Robert E. Lee, General Joseph
E. Johnston, General John B. Magruder, General William B. Preston,
General Simon B. Buckner, and Commodore Franklin Buchanan, now
occupying the very highest places in the rebel war service, were all
within the power of the Government since the rebellion began, and were
nearly as well known to bc traitors then as now. Unquestionably, if we
had seized and held them, the insurgent cause would be much weaker.
But no one of them had then committed any crime defined in the law
Every one of them, if arrested, would have been discharged on Habeas
Corpus, were the writ allowed to operate. In view of these and similar
cases, I think the time not unlikely to come, when I shall be blamed
for having made too few arrests, rather than too many.
" By the third resolution, the meeting indicate their opinion, that
military arrests may be Constitutional in localities where rebellion actu-
tually exists, but that such arrests are unconstitutional, in localities
where rebellion or insurrection does not actually exist. They insist that
such arrests shall not be made ' outside of the line of necessary miUtary
occupation, and the scenes of insurrection.' Inasmuch, however, as the
Constitution itself, makes no such distinction, I am unable to believe
that there is any such Constitutional distinction. I concede that the
class of arrests complained of, can be Constitutional only when in cases
of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require them; and I in
sist^ that in such cases, they are Constitutional wherever the public
safety does require them; as well in places to which they may prevent
the rebelhon extending, as in those where it may be already prevailing;
as well where they may restrain mischievous interference with the rais
ing and supplying of armies to suppress the rebellion, as where the re
bellion may actually be ; as well where they may restrain the enticing
men out of the army, as where they would prevent mutiny in the army;

394 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
equally Constitutional at all places where they will conduce tb the public
safety, as against the dangers of rebellion or invasion." *
He puts the case very strongly of preventing men from
inducing desertion. He says:
" Must I shoot a simple minded soldier boy who deserts, while I must
not touch a hair of a wily agitator who induces him to desert ? This is
none the less injurious when effected by getting a father, a brother, or
friend into a public meeting, and there working on his feelings till he is
persuaded to write the soldier boy that he is fighting iu a bad cause, for
a wicked administration of a contemptible Government, too weak to
arrest and punish him if he shall 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." j"
He concludes a very able defence of his course, by saying,
that in his own discretion he did not know whether he would
have caused the arrest of Vallandigham; but while he would
not shift the responsibility, he yet held that the Commander
in the field, was the better judge of the necessity of the
arrest. To a delegation from Ohio, urging the release of Vallan-
dighajn, Mr. Lincoln said:
" The earnestness with which you insist that persons can only, in times
of rebellion be lawfully dealt^ with, in accordance with the rules for
criminal trials and punishments in times of peace, induces me to add a
word to what I said on that point in the Albany response. You claim
that men may, if they choose, embarrass those whose duty it is to combat
a giant rebellion, and then be dealt with only in turn, as if there were
no rebellion. The Constitution itself, rejects this view. The military
arrests and detentions which have been made, including those of Mr.
Vallandigham, which are not different in principle from the other, have
been iot prevention and not for punishment; as injunctions to stay in
jury; as proceedings to keep the peace — and hence, like proceedings
in such cases and for like reasons, they have not been accompanied with
indictments or trials by juries, nor in a single case, by any punishment
whatever, beyond what is purely incidental to the prevention." t
* MoPherson's History, p. 165.
t MoPherson's History, p. 168.
X McPherson's History, p. 171.

CLOSE OF THE THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. 395
After a very full and learned discussion, both in the Senate
and the House, a bill became a law, on the 3d of March,
1863, authorizing the President, whenever, during the exist
ing rebellion, in his judgraent, the public safety raight re
quire it, to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, throughout the
United States, or any part thereof The bill further provided
that the orders issued by the President, or under his authority,
made at any time during the rebellion, should be a defense
to any action civil or criminal, for any search, arrest, or
imprisonment under such order, or under colol- of any law of
Congress. The Thirty-seventh Cone:ress, most of the merabers of the
lower House of which, had been elected on the sarae ticket
with Mr. Lincoln, drew to its close. It had been generally,
in close syrapathy with him during its existence. It had, un
hesitatingly conferred upon him all the power asked for, to
enable him to crush the rebellion. It never withheld any
grant of men or money. It placed at the disposal of the Ex
ecutive, the resources of the country. In this connection, it
is due to the truth of history to say, that in regard to the
mode of raising troops, and the money to pay them, it fol
lowed the suggestions of the President, Secretary Chase, and
the Secretaries of War and the Navy, rather than originated
measures. Upon the great question of the manner in which the war
was conducted. Congress was impatient. It chafed under the
long delays and slow and indecisive movements of McClellan.
Upon the engrossing subject of slavery, it reflected the feel
ings ofthe loyal masses ofthe American people. It early in
dicated its disposition to confiscate the property, and free the
slaves of rebels. In abolishing slavery at the National Capital,
and prohibiting it in all the territories, it prepared the way for
the proclamation of freedom. A majority acted upon the
profound conviction that through the death of slavery would
come the regeneration and restoration of the Republic. It
encoureged and directed the employment of colored soldiers,
and held out as a reward for their valor, the liberty of
themselves and their race.

396 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The Pacific Railroad and the Homestead bills were among
the great measures of this Congress, not directly connected
with the war.
Mr. Speaker Grow, in adjourning this Congress sine die,
took occasion, briefly to re-riew the eventful days of its life.
He said:
" We met as legislators of the Republic, on the threshhold of its most
important era. Its sunshine of almost half a century was for the first
time darkened with clouds. Grim-visaged war stalked through the land,
which it has since drenched with blood.
" While grappling in a death struggle with this hydra-headed monster
of civil discord, you have by your labors, contributed not a little to the
advancement of the industrial interests, and promotion of the greatness
and glory of the country. Few Congresses, if any, will hold a prouder
position in its future. Though we separate with darkness lowering over
the horizon, behind the clouds is the sun still shining. It seems to be
a part of the plans of divine Providence, that every marked advance in
civilization, must begin amid the carnage of the battle-field. Over the
Marathons and through the Thermopylaes of the world's history, liberty
has hewn out her victories, and the race has marched on to higher and
nobler destinies.
" As the lightnings of Heaven rend and destroy, only to purify and
invigorate, so freedom's cannon furrows the fields of decaying empires,
and seeds them anew with human gore, from which springs a more vig
orous race, to guard the hopes and cherish the rights of mankind. The
boom of cannon on the plains of Lexington shook a continent, and bore
an obscure militia Colonel from the shades of Mt. Vernon to the highest
pinnacle of earthy glory, to stand forever on that proud pedestal, peer
less among men ; while it called Stark from his granite hills, Putnam from
his plow, and Greene from his blacksmith's forge, to immortal fame.
" The iron hail beating on the walls of Sumter, again shakes a con
tinent, and the genius of history is recording the names of those born
not die. The country's martyrs in this hour of its trial will hve forever.
Their tombs will be the hearts of the great and good of all time ; their
monuments the granite hills of a nation rejoicing in freedom. Whether
the night of our adversity is to be long or short, there can be no doubt
of the final dawn of a glorious day ; for such is the physical geography
of the continent, that between the Gulf and the Lakes, there can be
but one Nationality. No matter what changes may be wrought in its
social organization, its territorial limits will continue the same. The

VALEDICTORY OF SPEAKER GROW. 397
traditions of the past and the hopes of the future, have orystalized in
the American heart the fixed resolve of ' one Union, one country, and
one destiny,' from ocean to ocean. No human power can change that
destiny, any more than it can stay the tide of the Father of waters as it
rolls from the mountains to the sea :
Freedom's battle once begun.
Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son,
Though baffled oft, is ever won.
" Better one war, though it cost countless lives and untold treasure,
than a dismembered Union, with its endless border conflicts, and final
anarchy and ruin. If the people between the Gulf and the Lakes can
not live together in peace as one Nation, they certainly cannot as two.
This war then, must in the nature of things, be prosecuted till the last
armed rebel is subdued, and the flag of our fathers is respected on every
foot of American soil." *

• Congressional Globe, 3d Sess. S7 Congress, vol. 47,p. 1552-3.

OHAPTEE XVIII.

THE CAMPAIGNS OF 1863— VICKSBtTKG— GETTYSBURG.
Plan of the Campaign — The opening of the Mississippi —
Arkansas Post — Grant's Campaign against Vicksburg —
Grierson's Raid — Port Hudson — Chancellorville — Lee
invades Maryland — Meade — Gettysburg — The Gettys
burg Cemetery — Everett's Oration — Lincoln's Address.
AGAIN the drama shifts to the fields of contending armies,
and we now approach the turning point in the great Civil
War. Up to 1863, although there had been vast expendi
tures of treasure and of blood, and great successes had been
obtained and progress made, yet there had been such severe
repulses and grievous disasters experienced by the Union
armies, that the hopes of the insurgents of final success were
still confident. All the great victories in the West and South
West, had not opened the Mississippi. In the East, the dis
astrous campaigns of McClellan and Pope had been followed
by the fearfully costly repulse at Fredericksburg.
It is worthy of profound refiection, that not until the
President had proclaimed emancipation, and written liberty
upon our banners, were those banners crowned with decisive
success. The proclamation issued January 1863, was the
day from which success became a certainty. It was well
known to those intimate with Mr. Lincoln, that he regard
ed the opening of the Mississippi, as the blow which would
make certain the ultiraate triumph of the Union arms. Like
the great soldier, General Sherraan, he regarded the
possession of the IV^ississippi river, as the possession of Amer
ica. So long as the insurgents held this great water com
munication, they were not and could not be subjugated.
398

NATIONAL UNITY. 399
Those familiar with the President knew, that to gain pos
session of this river, had, from the beginning, received his
most careful consideration.
The campaigns in the West — the movements against forts
Henry and Donelson had been planned by hira, and he was
determined that another season should not pass without the
rebel States being cut in two by the Union army, and the
Mississippi cleared of every hostile, flag. We have seen how
comprehensive the view he had taken of the physical neces
sity of the Union, as expressed in his annual message in De
cember 1862, when he declared that the territory of the Unit
ed States was adapted to be the home of " one National fam
ily, and no more." He often dwelt upon these views, and
declared that as between the great Lakes and the Gulf there
were no natural boundaries; but on the contrary, the config
uration of the country rendered disunion impracticable. The
na-rigable streams, from the imperial Hudson to the continen
tal Mississippi ran from North to South. Such, too were the
ranges of the mountains. These considerations made Na
tional unity, "manifest destiny." These causes made unity
so convenient, nay, so necessary, that it would be impossible
to separate the North from the South. Civilization and its
wants and necessities had riveted what nature had united.
Railroads, and canals, and post roads, the electric telegraph
-with its connecting wires had doubly bound our wide terri
tory together.
That irapartial history which shall be written when all the
partialities and prejudices of the day have passed away, will
record without disparageraent to other sections, that the Union
was saved by the North West. The great river ofthe republic
with its State erabracing arras, tributaries extending to New
York,Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi,
Indiana, Illinois, andWi8Consin,onthe one side, 'and Minnes
ota, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas
on the other, were strong enough to hold the Union together.
The North West never for one raoraent faltered in the
struggle. In the dark hours- of the contest had the Presi
dent or the North West faltered, all would have been lost.
The rain which falls upon that great basin south of the

100 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Lakes, and between the western slope of the AUegha
nies and the Rocky mountains, in extent an Empire, finds its
way by tributaries numerous and vast, into the great Father
of Waters, and through its channels to the Gulf, and by the
Gulf to the Sea. Through these vast natural channels which
God created, and thereby made unity a necessity, the North
west would follow with travel and trade, not under treaty,
but by indefeasible right, freely, under the same flag. Woe
to those who should seek to erect barriers or throw obstacles
in the way.
With these views the President and his military advisers
planned the carapaign of 1863. To open the Mississippi by
taking Vicksburg, was the great objective point of the cam
paign. Mr. Lincoln, during every period of the war, was
fully possessed of every important movement. He knew ful
ly the condition of every army, and had a most intelligent
appreciation of the difficulties to be encountered, and the
chances of success. His roora was ever full of raaps and
plans ; and he marked upon thera every movement, and no
subordinate was at all times so completely the master of the
situation, as the Commander in Chief. Mr. Lincoln selected
General Grant to lead what he raeant should be, and what
was, the decisive carapaign in the West. There were those
who at that time charged General Grant -with habits of in
toxication, and sought to shake the confidence of the
President in him. " If Grant is a drunkard," said he, in
reply, "1 wish sorae of ray other generals would learn where
he buys his liquor."
As the year opened, the President had settled upon two
great objective points in his plans of the carapaign. First
as stated to get complete possession of the Mississippi
river and open its navigation, and thus utilize the capture
of New Orleans, cutting off" the rebel communication with the
trans-Mississippi department, and severing the so-called Con
federacy, into two parts. Second, to destroy the iirmy of
Virginia, and sieze upon the rebel Capital. Let us first fol
low the standard of Grant in his most difficult enterprise
against Vicksburg. General John A. McClernand of Illinois
had, in a written communication, early suggested the Miss-

GRANTS CAMPAIGN AGAINST VICKSBURG. 401
issippi campaign, including the capture of Vicksburg, and
urged it upon the Government. He had had repeated personal
interviews with the President onthe subject, and Mr. Lincoln
frilly appreciated his views, and seconded his purposes.
In January 1863, the army of the Mississippi, under the
commands of Generals McClernand and Sherman, acting in
conjunction with the fleet under command of Rear Admiral
Porter, captured Arkansas Post. This was a brilliant open
ing of the campaign, and the fruits of the victory were 7,000
prisoners, 8,000 stand of arras, and a large amount of can
non, ordinance and stores. On the 18th of January, Gen
eral Grant went up White River, and held a consulta
tion with Admiral Porter and Generals McClernand and-
Sherraan. On the 2d of February, General Grant arrived in the vi
cinity of Vicksburg, and assumed comraand in person. The
attack under General Sherraan in 1862, had demonstrated the
strength of the defensive works of Vicksburg on the North.
To get his array below the city, and in its rear was the irarae
diate obj ect of General Grant. Various means were resorted to.
An attempt was renewed to cut a new channel across the
bend in front of Vicksburg. This proved a failure. The
vicinity of this stronghold, above the city, in its rear, and
upon the Louisiana shore was a net work of bayous, lakes,
ponds, and old channels of strearas. General Grant spent
several weeks, in trying to cut and clear out a channel, by
which he could with the fleet and transports, pass around
Vicksburg. Sorae effort was raade to cut an opening through
the Yazoo pass on the east side of the Mississippi. In these
efforts, even the persistent Grant was baffled.
A most daring attempt was made in February by Colonel
Charles E. Ellet, in the wooden steamer. Queen of the West,
fitted up as a ram and protected by cotton bales, to destroy
the rebel stearaer City of Vicksburg, and to run the batteries
of the city. He succeeded in striking, but not fatally, the
rebel stearaer, and demonstrated the practicability of run
ning the batteries by transports. The Queen of the West
went down the river, capturing boats and supplies ; entering
26

402 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Red river, she continued her successes, until on her return,
she ran aground and was abandoned by her gallant and en
terprising commander. Meanwhile, the persistent and inde
fatigable Grant was exploring every pass, bayou, lake and
water course, with a view of finding a passage below
Vicksburg, so as to approach it from the ridge in the
rear. After being often baffled, but never disheartened. General
Grant commenced preparations for running his transports
and the gunboat fleet below the frowning batteries of Vicks
burg. A large fleet of iron-clad gunboats and transports
were prepared, protected as far as possible by cotton bales,
hay, railroad iron, timber and chains. The night of the 16th
of April was selected for the attempt. Everything was
in readiness before dark. The plan was that the iron dads
should pass down in single file — with intervals between
them, and when opposite the batteries, should engage them
and then that under cover of smoke,the transports should
endeavor to pass.
The countrv had been growing impatient of the long de
lays at Vicksburg.* The cutting of the canals and the
* For a description of the scene which followed, and the brilliant and rapid pro
gress of Grant, to the complete Investment and flnal capture of Vicksburg, I am
much Indebted to Mr. Washburne, at present the oldest member of the House of
Representatives, who was ever the staunch and true friend and defender of Gen
eral Grant, from the time he left his home at Galena, Illinois, to aid In the organ
ization of the Illinois Volunteers, until he fought his wav up to the position of
Lieutenat General of the armies of the United States, and until he received the
final capitulation of Lee. See Washburne's speech in Congress, February 1, 1864,
volume 50, Congressional Globe, page 427, from which I make the following
extracts :
"It was my good fortune tobe with General Grant, and with that noble army,
every man of whom is a hero, at the commencement of the expedition which cul
minated in the taking of Vicksburg. ' We all know how ill at ease the public mind
was, last winter pending General Grant's operations on the lower Mississippi.
The expedition by Grenada, the opening of the canal, the opening of the bayous
had not succeeded. The country saw all the attempts to flank that stronghold like
ly to prove abortive, and there was great anxiety. But with unshakeu confidence
in himself. General Grant pursued the even tenor of his way, and with entii-e re
liance upon the success in the plan finally adopted, and which could not be under
taken until the river and bayous should sufiiciently recede to enable him to move.
Then, sir, was seen that bold and daring conception which I say is without parallel
In all military history. It was to send his army and his transportation by land on
the Louisiana side from Milliken's Bend to a point below Vicksburg, and then run
the frowning batteries of that rebel Gibraltar, with Its hundreds of guns, with his
transports, aud thus enable him to cross the river below Vicksburg, and get on to

grant's CAMPAIGN AGAINST VICKSBURG. 403
opening of the bayous, had proved failures. All the atterapts
thus far to flank the stronghold, seemed likely to prove abor
tive, and great anxiety existed in the public mind. After all
these failures. Grant, with a persistence which has marked
his whole career, conceived a plan without parallel in military
history for its boldness and daring. This was to march his
army and send his transportation by land on the Louisiana
side of the Mississippi, from Milliken's Bend to a point be
low Vicksburg, and then to run the bristling batteries of
that rebel Gibraltar, exposed to its hundreds of heavy guns,
with his transports and then to cross the Mississippi below
Vicksburg, and Returning, attack that city in the rear.
The crews of the frail Mississippi steamers used as trans
ports, conscious of the hazardous service, with one exception,
refused to go. Volunteers were called for by General Grant,
and no sooner was the call made, than from the noble army

the Mississippi side. The country was startled at the success which attended the
running of those batteries by the frail Mississippi steamboats used as transports
and the rebels stood aghast when they saw seven or eight transports and all of
Porter's gunboats below Vicksburg.
" And that which must ever be regarded by the historian as the most extraordi
nary feature of this campaign is the astounding fact that when General Grant
landed in the State of Mississippi, andmade his campaign in the enemy's country,
he had a smaller force than the enemy. There he was in the enemy's country, cut
oflTiu a measure from his supplies, with a great river in his rear, and in one of the
most defensible of countries through which he had to pass. To his Indomitable
courage and energy, to his unparalleled celerity of movement, striking the enemy
In detail, and beating him on every field. Is the country indebted to those wonder
ful successes of that compaign which have not only challenged the gratitude and
admiration of our own countrymen, but the admiration of the best military men
of all nations. My colleague, Mr. Famsworth, has well said that General Grant is
no " carpet knight." If gentlemen could know him as I know him, and as his sol
diers know him, they would not be so reluctant about conferring this honor. If
they could have seen him as I saw him on that expedition ; if they could have
witnessed his terrible earnestness, his devotion to duty, his care, his vigilance, aud
his unchallenged courage, I think their opposition to this bill would give way.
" When he left his headquarters at ' Smith's Plantation' below Vicksburg, to
enter on the great campaign, he did not take with him the trappings and para
phernalia so common to military men. As all depended upon quickness of move
ment, and as it was important to be encumbered with as little baggage as possible,
he set an example to all under him. He took with him neither a horse, nor an or
derly, nor a servant, a camp-chest, an overcoat, nor a blanket, nor even a clean
shirt. His entire baggage for six days— I was with hira at that time— was a tooth
brush. He fared like the commonest soldier in his command, partaking of his ra
tions, and sleeping upon the ground, with no covering excepting the canopy of
heaven. How could such a soldier fail to Ifisplre confldence in an army, and to
lead it to victory and to glory ? Confer upon him the rank contemplated by this
bill, and you excite the enthusiasm of all your armies, and all yonr sdldiers wlU
be eager to follow his victorious banners."

404 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
of the west, pilots, engineers, firemen and deck-hands oflTered
themselves for the dangerous adventure in such numbers,
that it becarae necessary to select those needed from the crowd
of volunteers, by lot. Such was the generous emulation
among the soldiers to participate in the dangerous service,
that one Illinois boy who had drawn the coveted privilege of
exposing his life was offered one hundred dollars in green
backs for his chance ; but he refused to take it, and held his
post of honor.
Ten o'clock at night was the hour at which the fleet was
to start. At that hour the camps of the Union array were
hushed into silence, watching -with intense anxiety the result.
All was obscurity and silence in front of the city. Soon an
indistinct, shadowy mass was seen, dimly, noiselessly floating
down the river. It was the flag-ship, the iron clad Benton.
It passed on into the darkness, and another, and another
followed, until ten black masses, looking like spectral steam
ers, came out of the darkness, passed by, and disappeared
down the river. No sound disturbed the stillness. Every
eye was fixed on the space in front of the city. Every ear
intent, expecting every moment to see the gleam and fiash
of powder and fire, and hear the thunders of cannon. For
three-quarters of an hour the silence was unbroken, when
first came a sharp line of light from the extreme right of the
batteries, and in an instant after the whole length of the bluffs
was one blaze of fire, and roll of crashing thunder. The
light exhibited the fieet squarely in front of the city ; and
imraediately its heavy guns were heard in reply, firing directly
upon the city. Clouds of smoke enveloped the gunboats,
and then the transports putting on full steam, plunged down
the river. The batteries were passed in an hour and a
quarter; and although some of the transports were injured
and one set on fire, no person on either of the transports was
killed ; and General Grant immediately prepared and sent
the remaining transports. Meanwhile, the army marched
around and struck the river below Vicksburg, nearly oppo
site Grand Gulf. This was a strong position on the east bank
of the Mississippi, below the mouth of the Big Black. It
was hoped that Admiral Porter with the gunboats could re-

grant's CAMPAIGN AGAINST VICKSBURG. 405
duce the batteries at Grand Gulf, after which the troops
would be taken over in the transports, and carry the place
by assault. But after nearly five hours bombardment, Admi
ral Porter drew off his fleet. Grant after consulting with
Porter adopted a new expedient : this was to march his troops
three miles below Grand Gulf, and after night the transports
were to run these batteries, as they had done those of Vicks
burg. When darkness came Porter renewed the attack
with his gunboats ; and amidst the thunder and smoke of
this attack, the transports went safely by, and reaching the
3amp8 below, as they approached, cheered the soldiers by
responding " all's well" to their anxious inquiries. In the
morning they were in readiness to transfer the army to the
long coveted position below Vicksburg.
Early the next morning, General Grant on the Benton, led
the way to a landing for his eager army. Going ashore at
Bruinsburg, he found faithful and intelligent negroes to guide
him in the important movements which were now to be
made. Instantly the debarkation of the troops comraenced,
and the line of march was taken up towards Port Gibson. Be
fore two o'clock the next morning. May 1, 1863, the eneray
was encountered, and the battle of Port Gibson -was fought,
the first of the series of battles and victories resulting in the
investment and capture of Vicksburg. The attitude of Grant
was certainly a bold one. He was in the enemy's country,
a fortified city above him, a fortified city below him, a large
army gathering under Johnson to assail him and relieve
Vicksburg, -with another large array to protect and garrison
its fortifications. Celerity was of the highest iraportance.
No better troops ever met an enemy than those he command
ed ; and he was most ably seconded by Sherman, McClern
and, McPherson, Logan, Blair, Osterhaus and others.
To the indomitable will, energy and activity of Grant,
striking the enemy in detail, beating him in every field, giv
ing him no time for concentration, is the country indebted
for these wonderful successes, which have not been surpassed
by any achievement in military history. General Grant seem
ed fully conscious that success in this, the boldest movement
of the war, depended upon striking quick and rapid blo-ws,

406 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
and hence he himself set the example of taking no baggage.
He took neither horse nor servant, nor camp chest, nor over
coat, nor blanket ; his entire personal baggage, according to
Washburne, who accorapanied him. during the six eventful
and decisive days from his landing, was a tooth brush. During
this time, his fare was the common soldier's rations, his bed
the ground, with no covering but the sky.
The victory at Port Gibson was so important that General
Grant issued a general order thanking his soldiers, and in a
few spirited words advised them that raore difficulties and
privations were before them, but calling upon them to endure
them manfully. " Other battles," said he, " are to be fought;
let us fight thera bravely. A grateful country will rejoice at
our success, and history will record it with immortal honor."
Moving rapidly to the North, General Grant interposed his
forces between the army of Johnston seeking to relieve Vicks
burg, and the garrison under Peraberton, seeking a junction
with Johnston. Then followed the rapid raarches, brilliant
with gallant charges aud deeds of heroic valor, winning vic
tories in quick succession, at Raymond on the 12th, at Jack
son, the Capital of Mississippi, onthe 14th, at Baker's Creek
and Champion Hills on the 16th, and at the Big Black river on
the 17th, and finally closing with driving the enemy into his
works at Vicksburg, and with the aid of Admiral Porter and
the gunboats, completely investing the city. And now, on
the 19th of May, Grant and his army were before the strong
hold. Jefferson Davis, conscious of the importance of this
position had implored every man who could do so, to march
to Vicksburg. General Grant now determined to take
fhe city by assault. On the 22d of May, the attack was
most gallantly made. The assaulting columns moved prompt
ly and steadily upon the rebei works, and stood for hours
under a withering fire, and failed only because the position
could not be taken by storm.
Then with tireless energy, with sleepless vigilance night
and day, with battery and rifle, with trench and mine, the
army made its approaches, until the enemy, worn out with
fatigue, exhausted of food and amunition, and driven to des
pair, finally laid down their arms.

grant's campaign against vicksburg. 407
On the '3d of July, General Grant received a communicar
tion from LieutenanI; General Peraberton commanding the
rebel forces, proposing an armistice, and commissioners to
arrange terms of capitulation The correspondence resulted
in the surrender of the city and garrison of Vicksburg on
the 4th of July 1863. This capture and the preceding bat
tles, resulted in a loss to the rebels of 37,000 taken prisoners,
including 15 general officers, 10,000 killed and wounded, and
ammunition for 60,000 men.
Thus, perseverence, skill and valor triumphed. The strong
hold of the Mississippi was taken. No language can describe
the tumultuous joy which thrilled the hearts of the gallant
men who had won this great prize. The exultation of the
army is illustrated in the glowing language of the young and
brave McPherson, in his congratulatory address issued on the
4th of July.
" The achievements of this hour," said he, " will give a
new meaning to this memorable day ; and Vicksburg will
heighten the glow in the patriot's heart which kindles at the
mention of Bunker Hill and Yorktown. The dawn of a con
quered peace is breaking before you. The plaudits of an
admiring world will hail you wherever you go."
President Lincoln fully comprehended what he terraed
" tbe alraost unappreciable services" of Grant in the captmre
of Vicksburg. He wrote to him the following letter, which
illustrates the generous feelings of his heart :
" My Dear General : I do not remember that you and I
ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful acknow
ledgment for the almost inestimable service you have done
the country. I wish to say a word further. When you first
reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should do
what you finally did, march the troops across the neck, run
the batteries with the transports, and thus go below ; and I
never had any faith except a general hope, that you knew
better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like
could succeed. When you got below and took Port
Gibson, Grand Gulf and vicinity, I thought you should go
down the river and join General Banks ; and when you turn
ed northward, east of the Big Black, I thought it was a mis-

408 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
take. I now wish to make the personal acknowledgment,
that you was right and I was wrong."
No military enterprise recorded in history presented
greater difficulties to be overcome, none the success of which
was ever more fatal to an enemy, nor is there any which ex
hibits in ahigher degree, courage, endurance, military skill,
bold conception, fertility of resource and rapidity of execu
tion, than that which triumphed in the fall of Vicksburg.
Take it altogether it was perhaps the most brilliant operation
of the war, and establishes the reputation of Grant, as one
of the greatest military leaders of any age.
Bold, dashing and meritorious cavalry raids constitute one
of the most romantic features of the war. In the beginning
the Confederate cavalry was probably superior to the Nation
al. The exploits of Stewart, Ashby and others, recall the
names of Lee and Marion, of the revolution. But as the
war progressed, the Union cavalry ultimately became superi
or to the rebel. The names of Sheridan, of Kilpatrick, Wil
son, Custer, Dahlgren, Grierson, Farnsworth, Straight, Aver-
ill, Pleasanton and others, and their daring raids, furnish
attractive material for the romance and adventure of the war.
I select one exploit, that of Grierson's raid, among others,
illustrating this portion of the civil war. No better cavalry
was ever organized than that formed of the bold riders of
the prairies. No more dashing soldier than Benjasmin H.
Grierson, and no raore hardy and enduring horsemen than
he comraanded, could be found on either side, during the
civil war. To facilitate the operations of Grant around
Vicksburg, and distract the attention of the eneray, it was
decided to raake a cavalry march in the rear of that place,
and destroy the railroad communications, and prevent
reinforcements. Colonel Grierson of Illinois, commanding the first Cavalry
Brigade, had before sought permission to make a raid through
Mississippi, and had failed to obtain the approval of Grant ;
but early in April, he was instructed to prepare for the ex
pedition. He was at La Grange, in Tennessee, fifty miles
east of Memphis. With three regiments of cavalry about

grierson's raid. 409
1,700 men, two of them from Illinois, and one from Iowa, he
started to march through the Confederacy. He had rivers
to swim, swamps to cross, a hostile country full of military
posts to pass through. Sixteen days of such marching and
fighting as brought him to Baton Rogue on the Gulf of Mex
ico, 800 miles distant, have perhaps never before been per
formed. During this period the men were for the larger part
of the time in the saddle. Their exhausted horses were con
stantly exchanged for the blooded aniraals found in the sta^
bles of the plantations of Mississippi. The rebels who fol
lowed, discovering that they burned the bridges behind them,
saw that they were bound for the gulf. Cavalry was sent
from every direction to close in upon and destroy them.
With a skill, and strategy, and bravery rarely equaled, they
eluded the force that was too strong, and fought and crushed
the force that was not too strong to fight. Fording and
swimming rivers, exploring dark, interminable forests,
through vast swamps and marshes, with no guide but the
corapass, and the ever faithful negro, they held on their way.
At Pearl river, the coramand barely escaped. It was known
that -the river was too high to be forded. The bridge must
be reached and the troops cross, or they would be lost. Large
rebel forces were in their rear and fiank, and rebel scouts had
gone forward to destroy the bridge. Delay was fatal ; and
Grierson snatching a few hours rest, after a march of more
than sixty miles on Monday, the 22d of April, with the dawn
of day, directed the bugle to sound the advance of the weary
and well nigh exhausted men. Then it became a race for
freedom and life, against capture and death. Spurring for
ward, they fiew on hke the wind. Across the bridge only
was safety. It was a fearful race, but their blooded animals
held out, and on they sped. Soon they heard the roar of the
swollen waters, and saw men at work tearing up the planks.
The bugle sounded the charge, and on they went at the top
of their speed, and charged upon the rebel force at the bank
of the river. The bridge destroyers were scattered like chaflT,
the bridge rescued, and the command was across in safety !

410 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
During this wonderful ride, they destroyed fbr many miles
three railroads, burned nine important bridges, destroyed lo
comotives and hundreds of cars, broke up and scattered three
rebel camps, destroyed more than four millions of confeder
ate government property, brought in 1,200 captured horses
besides those broken down and abandoned, and five hundred
negroes. The latter were of greatest value as guides, and
welcomed the Natioijal blue and the fiag, as that of their de
liverers. The enemy made the most strenuous efforts to sur
round and capture thera. Thirteen hundred cavalry were
dispatched to intercept them from Mobile ; a thousand from
Port Hudson ; many from Pearl river, and two thousand from
Columbia, were sent to cut them off, besides infantry,
who were marching from all points. This raid will ever re
main, a most attractive theme for the poet and the orator. It
has scarcely a parallel for successful hardihood and endur
ance. In July 1863, John Morgan, a Kentucky guerrilla, atterapt
ed, with 4,000 raen and 10 pieces of artillery, to raake a raid
through Indiana and Ohio, and to eraulatc the success of
Grierson. He was a bold and active leader. He succeeded
in crossin,g the Ohio, in cutting some railroads, and doing
other damage ; but the final result, after a dispersion of his
force, and a desperate effort on his part to escape by recross
ing the Ohio, was thus announced by Colonel Shackleford,
under date of July 26th : "By the blessing of Almighty
God, I have succeeded in capturing General John Morgan,
Colonel Chike, and the remainder of the coraraand, amount
ing to about 400 prisoners."
A land force under General Banks who had succeeded
General Butler in the comraand of the Department of the
Gulf, in conjunction with the fieef of the indomitable Far
ragut, on the Sth of May invested Port Hudson. Several
most gallant assaults were made, in which the colored sol
diers behaved with a heroism and persistence rivaling those
of their white associates. The negroes fought to vindicate
their right to their lately acquired freedom. As they charged
bravely up to the strong fortifications.

capture of PORT HUDSON. ill
" Now," the flag-sergeant cried,
Though death and hell hetide,
Let the whole nation see
If we are fit to be
Free in this land.
Hundreds on hundreds fell,
Oh, to the living few.
Soldiers be just and true ;
Hail them as comrades tried.
Fight with them side by side;
Never in field or tent
Scom the hlacTc regiment."
On the 9th of July, on receipt of the news of the surren
der of Vicksburg, the garrison of Port Hudson, number
ing over 5,000 men and 50 pieces of artillery, surrendered
to General Banks. And now, the Mississippi was once
more clear. The soldiers of the Northwest had hewn their
way to the Gulf. " Thanks to the Northwest, but not to the
Northwest alone. Three hundred miles up, they met New
England, Empire, Keystone and Jersey, hewing their way
right and left. The sunny South, too, jotted down their part
in history, in black and white." * Frora the land of snow to
the laud of fiowefs, the whole length of the Mississippi was
once more beneath the old fiag.
From the decisive successes in the Valley of the Missis
sippi, we raust return to record another great diaster in Vir
ginia. The repulse at Fredericksburg was followed by a
change of commanders; the modest, faithful, but in that
most sad movement at Fredericksburg, unfortunate Burn
side, gave place to the dashing, fighting Joe Hooker; and
yet Chancellorville was scarcely less disastrous than
Fredericksburg. On the 28th of January, General Burnside at his own re
quest was relieved, and the vast army ofthe Potomac trans--
ferred to General Joseph Hooker. General Burnside in
general orders, gracefully asked his army to " give to the
* See Mr. Lincoln's letter to the lUlnols Convention.— McPherson, p. 335-6.

412 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
brave and skillful Gencal who has long been identified with
your organization, and who is now to command you, your
ftll and cordial support." Hooker entered upon his position
with sanguine hopes of decisive success. He said to his sol
diers, " with the blessing of God, we will contribute some
thing to the renown of our arms, and the success of our
cause!." The same order which relieved Burnside and as
signed Hooker to the command, relieved Sumner and Frank
lin from comraand of the right and left divisions of the army
of the Potomac.
Three months were passed in preparation, by General
Hooker, and he then expressed the opinion that no army in
the world could ^withstand the Army of the Potomac in its
condition at that tirae. On the 27th of April, he pushed three
divisions of his array North, to Kelley's Ford, twenty-five
miles above Fredericksburg ; by the 30th of April, he had
reached Chancellorville, five or six miles Northwest of that
place. The other divisions had crossed and joined him, leav
ing General Sedgwick with one division opposite Fredericks
burg. On the 2d of May, the left wing of Lee's army, under
the gallant Stonewell Jackson, made a sudden and fierce attack
upon the Eleventh Corps, and drove in the Union right.
By the bright moonlight which followed, the eneray were
driven back. ?
On Sunday, the 3d of May, the conflict was renewed at
5 A. M., and raged with fearful violence, until near noon.
General Hooker gradually contracted his lines; his head
quarters were moved from the Chancellorville House, and
the house itself burned by a shell frora the enemy. During
Sunday afternoon, Lee attempted several tiraes to force the
lines of Hooker, but failed. Meanwhile, General Sedgwick
had been ordered on Saturday to cross the Rappahannock,
march by a plank road towards Chancellorville, and connect
with Hooker's right.
General Sedgwick moving out towards Hooker, about five
o'clock Sunday afternoon, encountered the enemy. Remain
ing in line of battle during the night, on the morning of the
fourth, he was attacked in strong force by Lee. Being pressed
by nearly the whole rebel army, he made a most brave fight.

CHANCELLORVILLE. 413
gradually falling back towards Banks' Ford. The fight lasted
until nine P. M., with the severe loss to General Sedgwick
of nearly 4,000 men. On Monday night he crossed the river
in good order. While these operations were going on. Gen
eral Hooker was strengthening his position. On Tuesday pre
parations were made to recross the Rappahannock, and by
Wednesday, this was successfully effected. The loss of the
Union army in this movement was between 11,000 and
12,000 men killed and wounded, besides a large number of
prisoners. The loss of the rebels was less; but among
the casualties was the mortal wound received by Stonewall
Jackson, the most accomplished soldier in the rebel army.
It was in the nature of Mr. Lincoln to do full justice to his
eneraies. The heroism of Stonewall Jackson, rebel as he was,
touched him, and he said to one who spoke kindly of him,*
" I honor you for your generosity to one who, though con
tending against us in a guilty cause, was nevertheless, a
gallant man. Let us forget his sins over his fresh-made
grave." The failure of this movement was, obviously from want of
cooperation. Mr. Stanton, the Secretary of War, on the 8th
of May, after a visit to the army, says, " that not more than
one- third of General Hooker's force was engaged."
Lee now assuraed the offensive, and advancing again into
the Valley of the Shenandoah, crossed into Maryland. The
movement of Lee began on the 8d of June. It was his pur
pose to strike a decisive blow; for this object, an array of at
least 100,000 men had been collected, and the old rebel chiefs
with the exception of Jackson, once more came down the
Valley ; Longstreet, Ewell and the Hills, deterrained to
invade Pennsylvania and the North.
Hooker penetrated the object of Lee, and marching on
an interior line, covered Washington, and kept his army
ready to strike the enemy with effect. In view of the threat
ening aspect of affairs. President Lincoln on the 15th of
June, issued a call for 100,000 militia to serve for six months.
New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, West Virginia and
Ohio, quickly responded to this call. Defensive works were
* Colonel J. W. Forney, of the Washington Chronicle

414 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
constructed at Baltimore and Harrisburg; and such was the
alarra, that even in Philadelphia, valuables were sent further
North. On the 28th of June, General Lee, having entered Penn
sylvania, occupied Chambersburg. Learning that Hooker's
army had crossed the Potomac, and was advancing North
ward, he gave orders for the concentration of his forces at
Gettysburg. On the 27th, General Hooker, in consequence
of a refusal by Halleck to order the troops at Harper's Ferry
to join him, asked to be relieved, and Halleck gladly issued
the order by which he was relieved, and the command of the
army transferred to General Meade. On that day, the head
quarters of the Union army were at Frederick city, and that
of the slaveholders army was at Hagerstown. The Union
force being thus interposed between the rebels, and Baltimore
and Washington. On the SOth, General Meade issued
an address to his army, in which he pointed out the im
portant issue involved in the approaching confiict. " Homes,
firesides and domestic altars are involved. The army has
fought well heretofore; it is believed it will fight more
desperately and bravely than ever."
On Wednesday General Reynolds of the First Corps,
marching directly through the town of Gettysburg, came
unexpectedly upon the enemy. The heroic General Wads
worth, who had left his princely estate on the banks of the
Genessee, in western New York, (estates upon which it is
said he could ride for nearly fifty miles upon his own lands,)
a volunteer for liberty and Union, led the advance; the divi
sion of General Doubleday, one of the subordinates of An
derson at Fort Sumter followed, and formed on the left, with
Robinson on the right. On discovering the enemy in force,
Reynolds sent word to Howard to hasten up the Eleventh;
that Eleventh, that since Chancellorsville was in disgrace; a
disgrace that must now be wiped out.
The advance encountered a heavy force of the enemy, and
was forced back, but retired in good order. The enemy
rashly pressing too far, on the centre, the left closed in upon
them, and took many prisoners. As General Reynolds was
pressing up to the front, lie was killed by a sharpshooter. At
1 P. M., the gallant Howard riding in advance of his corps,

GETTYSBURG. 415
reached the field and assumed command, leaving his corps in
charge of the gallant young soldier and eloquent German
orator, Carl Schurz. The death of Reynolds left Doubleday
in command of the First Corps. At half past two, from the
heights of Cemetery Hill, could be seen the long line of rebel
grey backs under Ewell, the faraous brigade which Stone
wall Jackson had so often led to victory, as they advanced.
The}' were raet by a fire so sharp, as to cause them to fall
back. Twice the rebels were repulsed, but being reenforced,
the remnants of the First Corps were ordered back to the
town. In moving, the left of the Eleventh was exposed, and
a heavy rebel advance corapelled it to fall back in some
confusion. The enemy pursued and took possession of the
town, while the two corps took possession of the Western
slope of the hill.
While the Union troops were being driven by superior
numbers through the town, a rapid and general charge raight
possibly have destroyed these two corps; but it was not
made, and their commander, the one arraed hero Howard,
posted them on a commanding eminence south of the town
called Cemetery Hill, and prepared for the shock. When the
Hne of grey again advanced, it met a shower of balls and
shells which arrested its progress. It had been a fearful
and bloody fight; one single brigade, which under Wadsworth
held the left, going into battle with 1,820 men, came out, with
only 700.
Thus ended the first day's conflict. Each army was being
concentrated as rapidly as possible. Howard had seized and
occupied Cemetery Hill south, and a little east of the village.
To the right of it, the hills extended to Rocky creek, and
across this was Wolf Hill ; while to the left, the hills ex
tended south, and bending a /little west to the Round Top.
The Union army was posted on these hills, in shape like a
crescent, with its center on Cemetery Hill, and its left extend
ing to Round Top, and its right to Rock Creek. It had the
advantage of position, and was so placed that the wings and
centre could readily support each other.
At dark on Wednesday evening, the Third and Twelfth
corps came in and were posted, the former on the ridge ex
tending south and to the left of Ceraetery Hill, and the lat-

4l6 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
ter on the same ridge as it curved to the right. The Third
came up during Wednesday night, andthe Fifth at 10 o'clock
Thursday morning. At 11 o'clock at night General Meade
arrived upon the field and placed the troops in order of bat
tle. Howard with the llth, what was left of the 1st and the
2d under the gallant Hancock, constituted the centre. The
12th under Slocum held the right. The 3d under Sickles,
and the 5th, after its arrival, were placed on the extreme
left. The Union army w^as so compact, that troops could be
readily removed from either wing to the other, or to the cen
tre, as they might be needed. General Meade had his head
quarters on the ridge, in the rear of the cemetery, and more
than one hundred guns bristled along the crest of these hills
fronting the enemy, and were confronted by one hundred and
fifty guns of the rebels. An effort was made to induce
Meade to assume the offensive and attack on Thursday morn
ing, pouring his whole army on the rebel centre, and smash
ing through dividing it into two parts; but Meade wisely pre
ferred to await the attack in his strong position. Thus the
bright July raorning wore away, and no raoveraent of impor
tance was made until near the middle of the afternoon.
Lee had ordered a general attack by Longstreet on the
Union left and centre, to be followed by Hill. While pre
parations were being made in the rebel army for this move
ment. Sickles sent Berdan's regiment of sharp shooters into
the woods in his front, and they advancing a mile, descried
the grey-backs moving large masses to turn the Union left.
Longstreet was bringing his whole corps, nearly a third of
the slave holder's army, to precipitate it upon the Union left.
Sickles immediately moved out and occupied another ridge,
which he thought a more commanding position than the one
in which he had been placed, but which did not connect with
the main force. His left rested upon Round Top hill. On
came the rebels, and both armies opened with artillery. Then
came the wild yell, and the charge of the grey backs is met by
a storm of grape and cannister, their line is shattered and
sent whirling back ; directly another line debouches from
the forest, and another and weightier charge is approaching.
General Warren, who as chief of stafi^ is watching tke fight,

GETTYSBURG 417
sends for reinforcements. Sedgwick and the fighting Sixth
are not yet available. Sickles holds on desperately ; aid after
aid is dispatched for help ; but from the clouds of smoke and
flame it is seen that Sickles is being pushed back. He fi
nally yields so far as to occupy his first position, and the 5th
corps comes to his support, and the brigades winding down
among the rocks to the front brace up his lines, and like a
rock turn back the assaulting columns. Longstreet is re
pulsed, and now Anderson moves upon the Union centre.
With massed columns, and the well known yell with which
the rebels ever charge they come swarming on. Hancock
repels the assault. Sickles, severely wounded is borne from
the front, and Birney the abolitionist, assumes command.
The confiict in the centre rages fiercely. Hancock is
wounded in the thigh, and Gibbon in the shoulder. The
First and Second wavered ; the rebels pressed to the muzzle
of the batteries, shot down the artillery horses, and the fight
was hand to hand, when the banners of the welcorae Sixth
corps under the brave Sedgwick came up. Although wearied
•with a march of 32 miles in 17 hours, they hurried forward
¦with shouts to the rescue and the enemy were hurled back,
repulsed — destroyed. The right had been weakened to sus
tain the left and centre ; and now Ewell made a dash upon
Slocum on the extreme right. For a short time the attack
was most ferocious ; but a part of the Sixth and sorae of the
First came again at the critical moment, and the enemy, al
though they had succeeded in taking some positions held by
Slocum, were finally driven back, andthe day closed withthe
rebels repulsed from every part of the field. It had been a
bloody day. Sickles' and Hancock's corps had been badly
shattered ; both these coraraanders wounded, — Sickles with a
leg shot off. For railes, every house and barn was filled with
the wounded and the dying. Thursday had gone and yet
the result was not decided. Friday came, and Northern per
sistence was to crown with victory the three days struggle.
Early in the morning a file of soldiers marched slowly to
the rear, bearing tenderly upon a stretcher the heroic Sick
les ; — yesterday leading his corps with the dash and spirit
for which he was ever distinguished ; to-day, -with his right
27

418 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
leg amputated, grave and stoical, his cap drawn over his face,
and a cigar in his mouth. The enemy opened at daylight
with artillery. At dawn General Slocum made an attack
on Ewell ; he comraanded it will be reraerabered Stonewall
Jackson's raen, and the fight was maintained with equal spirit
on both sides, Slocum being aided by Sykes' division of the
3d corps and Humphreys. Ewell's forces were at length
driven back, and at 11 o'clock, a. m., there was a lull and
quiet on the bloody field.
It has been stated that the key to the Union position was
Cemetery Hill. Lee determined to make a desperate ef
fort to get possession of this hill. With this purpose he con
centrated upon that hill the concentric fire of more than 100
guns, ranged in a half circle. The lull had continued until
near 1. p. m. Meade, Howard, and other leaders were watch
ing for the attack, when at 1 o'clock, the thunder of an hundred
heavy guns burst upon the position. It was held by the
llth and 12th corps. The storm came suddenly. Soldiers
and officers worn with battle and seeking rest were scattered
upon the grass. Many were struck as they lay; some died
with cigars in their mouths, some at their dinners on the
crest of the hill, and some with letters and photographs of
friends in their hands, taking a last fond look before the battle
which all knew was to be decisive, and fatal to many. Horses
were- shot down as they stood quietly waiting for the riders
to mount. The air in an instant was filled with missiles and
splinters ; the earth and rocks torn up and shattered, filled
the air with clouds of dust ; the branches of trees were torn
off, and the grave stones and monuments scattered in wild
confusion. Within five minutes after the terrific rain of death
began, the hill was cleared in all its unsheltered places of
every living thing. All but the dead sought shelter. For au
hour and a half, this terrible concentrated fire on Ceraetery
Hill was continued, and was replied to with equal -vigor by
the batteries on the ridge and range of hills. After the can
nonade had continued about three hours. General Howard
slackened his fire to allow his guns to cooh It was supposed
by the enemy that our batteries were silenced, and that the
time for an irresistible charge had come. The divisions of

GETTYSBURG. 419
Virginians under General Picket, led the advance supported
by large bodies of other troops. As the leading col
umns of the advance emerged from the woods and be^
came fully exposed to the Union fire, it wavered. But
Picket's brigades did not falter; although they were ex
posed to the terrific fire of grape, canister and shell
from at least forty guns, with a bravery worthy of old
Virginia, they still held on their way steady and firm, clos
ing up their ranks as their comrades were cut down. They
crossed the Eramettsburg road, and approach the raasses of
infantry. General Gibbon, now in coramand of the Second
corps, bare headed, walks along his line, shouting, " hold
your fire, boys, they are not near enough yet." Still they
came on, and with fixed bayonets sweep up to the rifle pits.
" Now fire I" thundered Gibbon. A blaze of death all along
the line of the Second corps followed ; down go the rebels,
but the survivors do not yet falter ; they charge on the pits,
— on they press, up to the muzzles of the artillery ; but here
they are met with such storms of grape and canister, that
the survivors throw down their arms and surrender, rather
than run the gauntlet of the retreat. Three thousand
prisoners were taken. The result is thus stated by General
Meade in a dispatch dated at 8.30. P. M. :
" The enemy opened at one o'clock, P. M. from about one hundred
and fifty guns. They concentrated upon my left cenire, continuing
without intermission for about three hours, at the expiration of which
time they assaulted my left centre twice, being upon hoth occasions
handsomely repulsed with severe loss to them, leaving in our hands
nearly th^e thousand prisoners."*
When the repulse was complete, whole companies and
regiments threw down their arms and surrendered, to avoid
the terrific fire to which they were exposed. The battle was
over. The array of the Potomac had again vindicated its
bravery and its endurance. As General Meade rode proudly
yet sadly over the bloody field, a band passing, struck up
« Hail to the Chief."
• Military and Naval History of the RebelUon, page 404. Vide Meade's Report.

, 420 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The next morning was as sweet, fresh, and balmy as though
the storm of death had not beea sweeping for three long days
over these quiet, pastoral Pennsylvania hills and valleys.
Alas! must the historian forever, to the last period of
recorded time, recount these terrible scenes of slaughter
suffering and death !
Lee was in no condition to renew the attack. His ammu
nition was short, the spiritof his army broken, and yet Meade
made no vigorous pursuit. The rebel loss was 14,000 prison ers,
and probably 25,000 in killed, wounded and missing. The
Union loss was about 23,000 in all. Few battles in ancient or
modern times have been raore severely contested; few where
greater nurabers were engaged, and where there was a greater
loss of life; none where raore heroic valor was displayed on
both sides. Had Sheridan, or Grant, or McPherson, cora
raanded in place of Meade, it is believed Lee's array would
never have recrossed the Potomac.
We have seen with how grateful a heart Lincoln returned
tljanks to Grant and his brave officers and soldiers in the
West. He received the intelligence of the victory of the
army of the Potomac with emotions not less warm. On the
4th of July, he issued the following announcement:
" The President of the United States announces to the country, that
the news from the army of the Potomac, up to ten o'clock P. M., of the
3d, is such as to cover the army with the highest honor — to promise
great success to the cause of the Union — and to claim the condolence
of all for the many gallant fallen; and that for this, he especially desires
that on this day, ' He whose will, not ours, should ever be done,' be
everywhere remembered and reverenced with the profoundest
gratitude." *
Mr. Lincoln had been made devotional, reverential, hum
ble, by the great events in which he lived; and his State
papers, his letters and addresses indicate raore and more
even to the day of his death, a consciousness of the Divine
Government. On the evening of the 4th of July, the popular exultation
over these successes found expression in a serenade to the
» Military and Naval History of the War, p 605.

GETTYSBURG. 421
President. Mr. Lincoln said : " I do most sincerely thank
Almighty God for the occasion of this call;" and evermind-
fiil of the principles of the Declaration of Independence,
which were the basis of his political creed, he said : " How
long ago is it? Eighty odd years since on the 4th of July, for
the first time in the history of the world, a Nation by its
Representatives, assembled and declared as a self-evident
truth, that all men are created equal : That was the birth day
of the United States of America." He then alluded to the
other extraordinary events in American history which had
occurred on the 4th of July — the death of Jefferson and,
Adams on that day, and said : " And now at this last 4th of
July just passed, we have a gigantic rebellion, at the bottom
of which, is an effort to overthrow the principle that all men
are created equal. We have the surrender of a most important
position; and an array on that very day." And then he al
luded proudly and gratefully to the battles in Pennsylvania,
on the 1st, 2d, and 3d of July, as the victory over the cohorts
of those who opposed the Declaration of Independence.
On the 15th of July, the President issued his proclamation,
breathing throughout a spirit of grateful reverence to God,
of supreme love of country, and of liberty, and sympathy
with the afflicted and the suffering. He said :
" It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplications and
prayers of an afflicted people, and to vouchsafe to the army and the navy
of the United States, victories on the land and on the sea, bo signal
and so effective, as to furnish reasonable ground for augmented confi
dence, that the Union of these States will be maintained, their Consti
tution preserved, and their peace and prosperity permanently restored.
But these victories have been accorded not without sacrifice of life,
hmb, health and liberty, incurred by brave, loyal and patriotic citizens.
Domestic affliction, in every part of the country, follows in the train of
these fearful bereavements. It is meet and right to recognize and con
fess tho presence of the Almighty Father, and the power of Hia hand,
equalJy in these triumphs and these sorrows." *
He then invited the people to assemble on the 4th of
August, for thanksgiving, praise and prayer, and to render
• Military and Naval History, p. 408. ,

422 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
homage to the Divine Majestj', for the wonderful things He
has done in the Nation's behalf; and he called upon the peo
ple to invoke His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which had
produced, and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebel
lion ; to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the
councils of the Government with wisdom, and to -visit with
tender care and consolation, those who, through the vicissi
tudes of battles and sieges have been brought to suflfer in
mind, bpdy or estate, and finally to lead the whole Nation
through the paths of repentance and subraission to the Divine
Will, to unity and fraternal peace.
With these most important victories East and West, a
load was lifted from the troubled heart of the President. The
form bowed and almost broken with anxiety, once more
was erect; his eye grew visibly brighter, and his whole aspect
became again hopeful. But it is not proper to suppress the
fact that he was greatly chagrined that Meade permitted Lee
and his army again to escape across the Potomac*.
In the Autumn of this year of battles, the State of Penn
sylvania purchased ground adjoining the Cemetery at Gettys
burg — a part of the battle-field, and consecrated it as a Na
tional burying ground for the gallant soldiers who fell in the
great battles there fought. On the 19th, of November, this
ground was dedicated to its pious purpose, with solemn and
impressive ceremonies. The President, raembers of the
Cabinet, Governors of States, and a brilliant assemblage of
officers, soldiers and citizens, gathered to witness the pro
ceedings. Edward Everett, the venerable statesman, and
world renowned scholar and orator was selected as the most
suitable person to pronounce the oration. It was worthy of
the occasion, the therae, andof New England's most polished
and graceful speaker. President Lincoln while on his way
•Mr. Carpenter States in his "Six Months at the White House page 219," That
the President in reply to an enquiry, whether he had ever thought that better
management on the part of the commanding General might have terminated the
war, replied, " Yes, at Malvern HIU where McClellan failed to command an imme
diate advance upon Richmond ; at Chancellorville when Hooker failed to re-en
force Sedgwick, after hearing his cannon upon the extreme right ; and at Gettys
burg, when Meade failed to attack Lee in his retreat at the bend of the Potomac:"
"But" he added, "I do not know that I could have given any different order
if I had been there, 'stc."

LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG. 423
from the Capital to the battle-field, was notified that he
would be expected to make some reraarks. Retiring a short
tirae, he prepared the following address, which for appro
priateness, comprehension, grasp of thought, brevity, beauty,
the sublime in sentiment and expression, has scarcely its
equal in English or American literature.
When Everett had concluded his oration, the tall, homely
form of Lincoln rose; simple, rude, majestic, unconscious of
himself, he slowly adjusted his spectacles, and drew from his
pocket a manuscript and comraenced reading. Before the
first sentence, commencing "Four score and seven years
ago" was completed, the words arrested attention, and in
stantly the magnetic infiuence of a grand idea uttered by
a sympathetic nature pervaded the vast assembly:
" Four score and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth
on this continent, a new Nation, conceived in liberty, and
dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
" 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 battle-field 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
consecrate — 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 dedicated 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 de
votion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not
have died in vain; that this Nation, under God, shall have a

424 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
new birth of freedora; and that Governraent of the people,
by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the
eartL" *
These twenty lines contain more than many a volume.
There is nothing finer in Fisher Ames' oration on the death
of Washington, nor in the masterly address of Daniel Web
ster, in laying the corner stone of the Bunker Hill Monu
ment. There, above the remains of those who died that
the Nation might live, he renewed the high resolve that the
dead should not have died in vain; that this Nation, under
God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that a Govern
ment " of the people, hy ihe people, and for the people, shall not
perish from the earth."
Everett's oration was a polished specimen of consumraate
oratorical skill. It was perfectly committed to memory, and
pronounced without a note. Yet it was so cold, artistic, and
secured such admiration for the orator, as to make the audi
ence at times, forget even the dead, to admire his well turned
periods, but it did not deeply touch the heart.
When Mr. Lincoln uttered the words " the world will little
note nor long remember what we say here, but it can never
forget what they did here," he seemed so absorbed in the he
roic sacrifices of the soldiers, as to utterly forget himself, but
his hearers were fully conscious that he was the greatest actor
in all the drama, and that he was uttering words which would
hve as long as the language. The raagnetisra of those who
heard him, extended to the vast crowds beyond the reach of
his voice, and tears, and sobs, and cheers, spoke the emotions
which deeply moved the assemblage, with grand, patriotic,
heroic thoughts, the sublime in action and sentiment.
Closing, he turned to Mr. Everett and congratulating him
on his success ; the orator gracefully replied : " Ah ! Mr. Lin
coln, how gladly I would exchange all my hundred pages, to
have been the author of your twenty lines."
• Copied from the orlglnaL

OHAPTEE XIX.

MILITARY OPERATIONS AND EVENTS TO CLOSE OP 1863.
Results of Gettysburg Victory — Lee's Retreat — Attempt to
Recapture Fort Donelson — Chattanooga — Chickamauga —
GrRANT assumes COMMAND OE OhIO, TENNESSEE, AND THE
Cumberland — Battles of Lookout Mountain and Mission
ary Ridge — Sherman Relieves Nashville — Operations
AGAINST Charleston — Massacre at Lawrence — The Draft
Riots in New York — Negro Soldiers — Retaliation — ^Lin
coln's Letter to Illinois — Elections of 1863.
THE battle of Gettysburg was in its results one of the
most decisive of the war. The slaveholder's army elated
by their victory at Chancellorville, invaded Maryland
and Pennsylvania, with the most lively hopes of transferring
the war to the soil ofthe free States. They were as they
boasted, about to water their horses in the Susquehanna
and the Delaware. The rich granaries and the prolific pas
tures of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, were now about to
afford them abundant supplies. The vast stores, the wealth
and the plunder of the great Northern cities, were passing
vividly before the gloating imaginations of the soldiers of
the invaders.
The savage threats made by Jefferson Davis at Stevenson,
Alabama, on his way to Montgomery to assume the Presi
dency of the confederacy* when he said : " We will carry
the war where it is easy to advance, — where food for the
sword and torch wait our army in the densely populated
cities," were now, they believed, about to be realized. This
proud and arrogant host was met on the hills of Gettys
burg and hurled back, never again in force to cross the
border. * Qreely's American Conflict, vol. 1, page 415.
425

426 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The losses on both sides were very severe ; the entire Union
loss was 2,884 killed, 13,790 wounded and 6,643 missing.
Total 23,267. The slaveholder's army lost much more
heavily. 4,500 dead, were buried by theUnion troops, 26,500
of their wounded troops were taken, besides 18,621 prisoners.
Total 44,621.
The three day's fighting at Gettysburg had nearly exhaust
ed the ammunition of Lee. His troops began to withdraw
on Saturday, July 4th, and at dark Saturday night, the re
mains of his army were nearly all in motion, retiring by
South Mountain and Waterloo Gap. He reached Hagers
town on Monday. On Tuesday his advance had gone six
miles south of that place. General Meade lost by inacti-vity
a grand opportunity of annihilating the army of Lee. He
did not start himself in pursuit of Lee until after the sixth ;
and, as he says, on the 12th of July, he was again in front
of the enemy, but no immediate attack was made. General
Halleck justly says : " Instead of attacking Lee in this po
sition, with the swollen waters of the Potomac in his rear,
without any means of crossing his artillery, and when a de
feat must have caused the surrender of his entire army, he
was allowed to construct a pontoon bridge, with lumber col
lected frora canal boats and the ruins of wooden houses."*
" The 13th," says Meade, "was occupied in reconnoisance
of the enemy's position and preparations for an attack ; but
on advancing on the morning of the 14th, it was ascertained
that he had retired the night previous by Falling Waters, and
the ford at Williamsport." Some prisoners were taken, but
the pursuit was not vigorous enough to be at all decisive.
July 14th, General Meade telegraphed to General Halleck
that " the enemy are all across the Potoraac."
When this dispatch was read to the President, he could
not entirely restrain his irapatience. He said : " It seems as
though General Meade, like others, was satisfied in driving
the rebel army across the Potomac. Is not the south side as
much our country as the other ?" But then he immediately
added in substance, "Meade has fought a great battle and won
• See Halleck's Report, 1862.

movements op ROSECRANS. 427
a great victory for the country, and perhaps there are reasons
for his delays unknown to us."
Lee retired to the Rapidan, and the Union army took po
sition on the line of the Rappahannock.
The two decisive events of 1863, the fall of Vicksburg and
the victory of Gettysburg, have been more fully described
than is consistent with the general plan of this work in re
gard to military operations, because those events marked the
triumphs of the Union cause in the East, and in the West.
Let us now return to that mountainous middle country,
where love of the Union and the old flag was tested by suf
fering and persecution never surpassed in any land — Middle
Tennessee. General Rosecrans, after the battle of Stone River near
Murfeesboro', encamped near the latter place. On the 3d
of February, the rebels under Wheeler, Forrest and Wharton,
invested Fort Donelson, held by Colonel Harding of Illinois,
and demanded its surrender. Although having only a single
regiment, he had not the least idea of surrender, but gallan-t-
ly defended the post against repeated assaults of greatly su
perior numbers, and finally beat off the assailants with a loss
to them, equal to his whole command. General Rosecrans
did not comraence a forward raoveraent, until the 25th of
June. His long delay, his failure to attack Bragg while it
was supposed he had weakened his array to aid Vicksburg had
not been satisfactory, either to Halleck or the Secretary of
War. By a series of skilful movements, he then corapelled
the rebel coramander Bragg, to retreat across the Cumber
land mountains upon Chattanooga, which was strongly
fortified. On the 16th of August, he was again in mo
tion, and advanced across the Cumberland mountains,
Chattanooga being the objective point. The army suc
cessfully crossed the Tennessee in the face of the enemy.
By skilful maneuvering and marches, and occupying the
gaps of the mountains, he compelled the evacuation of
Chattanooga. Meanwhile, General Burnside, who had
been sent to the West, had occupied without any serious re
sistance. East Tennessee.
On the 23d of September, the llth and 12th army , corps

428 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
under General Hooker, were detached from the array of the
Potoraac, and sent to Tennessee, Longstreet's corps having
been sent to Bragg previous to this tirae. It was discovered
that Bragg's army had been increased also, by the prisoners
taken and paroled by Grant at Vicksburg, thus shamefully
violating their faith on the part of the chiefs of the slave
holders rebellion.
On the 19th of September was comraenced the battle of
Chickamauga. The right of the Union army under Mc
Cook, the centre under Crittenden, and the left under that
most adrairable soldier, faithful patriot and true gentleman.
General George H. Thomas. The rebels first attacked the
left, and were repulsed. Then the centre, which after yield
ing for a short time was reenforced, and maintained its
ground. The battle ceased at night, and both armies slept
upon their arms. The morning dawned to see the battle fu
riously renewed upon the Union left and centre. Owing to
a misapprehension of orders, a gap was left in the Union
lines through which the rebels poured. Piercing the line,
the Union right, and right centre were cut off and driven
back, and the indomitable Thomas was left to breast the tide
of battle against the whole rebel army. The right aud cen
tre were broken, and fled in confusion to Chattanooga, carry
ing along Generals McCook, Crittenden and Rosecrans him
self. His Chief of Staff, General Garfield joined Thomas,
who still held his position immovable against the as
saults made upon him. Gradually his lines assumed
a crescent form ; placing his back against the mountains,
and with his flanks protected by the spurs of the rocky hills,
like a lion at bay, he withstood the terrible onsets of the
enemy. Finally in the afternoon, a gap was found by which
the foe could reach his rear, and Longstreet's legions began
to pour through.
Fortunately, at this critical moment. General Gordon Gran
ger who had marched to the sound of the cannon, came upon
the field, and on Thomas pointing out the gap to him, he
rapidly threw upon the columns of Longstreet, Steedman's
brigade of cavalry. Swift was the charge, and terrible was
the confiict , but the enemy was broken and the gap seized.

GRANT ARRIVES AND ASSUMES COMMAND. 429
Two of Longstreet's divisions still confronted the gap, deter
mined to carry the pass. A Union battery of six guns played
into the gorge, up which they marched, carrying death into
their ranks ; still they charged nearly up to the mouth ofthe
cannon ; but grape, canister and musketry swept them
away. At sunset, they made their last charge. The Union
soldiers had exhausted their ammunition; but with cold
steel they charged Longstreet's veterans, scattered them, and
the confiict was over, the victory won. At night, the enemy
fell back, leaving Thomas -victorious, with all the honors of
this hard fought field. The enemy did not renew the attack,
and he joined the right and centre at Chattanooga. The loss
of the enemy, as stated in the rebel papers, was 18,000. The
Union loss was about 16,351.
On the 19th of October General Grant arrived at Louis-
-ville and assumed command of the Departments of Tennes
see, the Cumberland and Ohio ; thus securing co-operation,
the want of which was obvious ; General Sherman assumed
command ofthe Department ofthe Cumberland, and Thomas
that of the Tennessee.
When Thomas followed Rosecrans to Chattanooga after
the desperate fight at Chickamauga, the rebels advanced and
occupied the passes and heights of Lookout mountain, and
Missionary Ridge, and substantially invested Chattanooga.
Longstreet was sent to drive Burnside out of East Tennes
see. Supplies for the Union army were now obtained with the
greatest difficulty. The troops were on half rations, and ten
thousand aniraals were lost for want of forage. Rosecrans
had been relieved, and fears were entertained that Thomas
might feel compelled to fall back frora the most important
position of Chattanooga ; but Grant on the 18th of October,
telegraphed to him to hold the place at all hazards, and that
he would be there as soon as possible. The brave and loyal
Virginian replied : " I -will hold the town until we starve."
Grant arrived on the 22d and losing no tirae, the next morn
ing with Thomas made a reconnoisance of the situation,
with a view of driving the enemy out of the overlooking
mountains, and regaining the use of the river as a means of
supply.- He had around him his tried and faithful lieuten-

430 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
ants, — those with whom he had been accustomed to march
to victory. Sherman was there, sagacious, energetic, rapid,
persistent. Thomas, of the army ofthe Cumberland, a dig
nified soldier, worthy of Virginia in her earlier, prouder
days, before her honor had been tarnished with slave breed
ing. Sheridan, the most impetuous, indefatigable, uncon
querable soldier of the war ; as a cavalry officer equal to
Murat, and not inferior to Marshall McDonald upon a
charge ; and there was Hooker, as a fighting division or corps
comraander, without a superior East or West ; and there too
were Howard and Blair, and raany others. With these, and
their gallant subordinates, Grant determined to obtain pos
session of the river, and to storm and carry the rocky bights
of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.
On the morning of the 24th of November, 8,000 men were
placed on the south side of the Tennessee river, fortified in
rifle trenches. By 12 M. the whole of Sherman's forces
crossed ; and by 3 o'clock P. M. the northern extremity of
Missionary Ridge was in possession of the soldiers. Hooker
scaled the western slope of Lookout Mountain, drove the
enemy from his rifle pits, capturing many prisoners, following
the enemy, when he and his troops emerged in sight on the
Northern extremity of Lookout Mountain. Carlin was ordered
to form ajunction with him. On the morning of the 25th,
Hooker took possession of the Mountain top and then swept
across the Chattanooga valley in pursuit of the enemy. Sher
man's and Thomas' soldiers fought with the greatest steadi
ness, charging up the mountains overcoming all resistance,
and by 12 at night Lookout Mountain, Chattanooga Valley and
Missionary Ridge were in possession of the Union army, and
the divisions of Bragg were in full retreat. A large number
of guns, small arms, and many prisoners were captured.
Thomas pursued the enemy, fought him again at Ringgold,
beat him, and drove him to Tunnel Hill, twenty miles from
Chattanooga. Meanwhile Burnside was at Knoxville, be
sieged by Longstreet; and Sherman with his worn and
weary soldiers were dispatched by forced marches to his relief.
His approach on the 3d of December, sent Longstreet retreat
ing towards Virginia, and thus closed, gloriously, tri-

OPERATIONS AGAINST CHARLESTON. 431
umphantly, the Campaign in Tennessee. The battle of
Chattanooga, the storming of Lookout Mountain and Mission
ary Ridge in which the Union troops stormed and carried
peaks above the clouds, was perhaps the raost draraatic scene
of the war. Tbe losses ofthe Union array in these battles,
was 757 killed, 4,529 wounded, and only 330 missing. The
rebel loss in killed and wounded did not exceed the Union ;
but the slaveholders lost in prisoners 6,242, forty pieces of
artillery, and 700 stand of arms.
The relief of the cruelly persecuted loyal Tennesseans,
was peculiarly grateful to the heart of the President. On
the receipt of information that the insurgents were driven
out, he issued a proclamation appointing a day of public
thanksgiving, praise, and gratitude to Almighty God for this
great advancement of the National cause.
From the attack upon, and surrender of Fort Sumter which
commenced the war, the people and the President had been
extremely anxious to recapture this fort, and to take the city
of Charleston, long the nest of nullification, secession and
treason. Various military and naval attacks had been made,
but it had been very strongly fortified in the beginning by
Beauregard, and these fortifications strengthened frora time
to time. It was blockaded, besieged and bombarded, but
successfully resisted all attacks made upon it.
On the 18th of July 1868, another, and more formidable
attack was made under General Gilmore, coraraanding the
land, and Admiral Dahlgren the naval forces. A most gal
lant assault on Fort Wagner was made. The troops, includ
ing the 54th Massachusetts colored regiment led by the de
voted and chivalric Colonel Shaw, went forward rapidly
and in silence, until they were within two hundred yards
of the work, when the men of the 54th, with a furious yell,
rushed up the glacis, closely followed by the other regiments.
The enemy poured into their ranks a furious fire of grape,
canister, and musketry. The negroes however, bravely
rushed forward, and many of them crossed the ditch and
gained the parapet. They were forced back, leaving one-
third of their number, including their brave young colonel,
dead upon the field. Instances of unsurpassed heroism were

432 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
exhibited by these colored soldiers. A son of Fred Douglas,
an eloquent charapion of his race, a color bearer of the reg
iment, was brought to the hospital, with his right arm shat
tered, and with the colors in his left, declaring " the stars
never touched the earth." Other regiments and brigades
carae on, gained the fort, held it for sorae time, but were
finally repulsed with great loss.
Gilmore then proceeded to bombard Fort Wagner, Sum
ter and Charleston. On the 7th of Septeraber, Fort Wagner
and Battery Gregg were evacuated, and Fort Surater was
nearly battered down. The Union forces however, did not
then succeed in capturing Fort Sumter, nor in compelling
the surrender of Charleston.
In August 1863, the whole nation was horror stricken, by an
attack and massacre by the rebels under a monster by the name
of Quantrell, bearing the commission of Jefferson Davis con
stituting him a colonel in the Confederate service, upon the
city of Lawrence, Kansas. The citizens were massacred in
cold blood, the city plundered and burned, including several
churches, to which the inhuman wretches had a special
aversion. Two hundred and five citizens were murdered,
and property destroyed estimated to be of the value of two
millions of dollars. The city had been settled by emigrants
from New England ; its people were distinguished for their
morality, intelligence, love of liberty and hatred of slavery,
and therefore the more an object of vengeance to the chiefs of
the slaveholder's rebellion. Hence the raotive of this
infamous outrage.
The final results of the years' operations, were as decisive
and important as any perhaps which ever attended any com
bination of military and naval movements, where the theatre
of operations was so vast.
Under the law of March 3d, 1868, providing for an enroll
ment of the military forces of the United States, the enroll
ment was completed, and in June, a draft for 300,000 men
was ordered by the President. Time was however given to
each State to fill up its quota, and thus prevent a resort to
drafting. There was great pride and emulation among the
different towns, cities, and states, as to which should make

RIOTS IN NEW YORK. 433
up its quota of troops first; and, especially, that the quota
of each should be filled -without a resort to the draft.
Hence, large local bounties were offered, and much the larger
portion of the troopa called for were obtained without the
draft. All who were opposed to the war, and who sympathized
with the rebels, availed themseves of the draft, to excite pre
judice against, and opposition to, the administration. Every
means were resorted to by this party to oppose enlistments,
and stir up if possible, violent resistance to the draft. Among
the most active of these agents was Vallandigham. The par
triotism and loyalty of the people, however, was in raost
parts of the country too strong to be seduced, and no forra-
idable opposition to the execution of the law raanifested
itself, except in the city of New York. Here there was a
larger number of rebel sympathizers and Southern emigrants,
and the emissaries of the rebellion succeeded in creating a
formidable opposition to the law.
Orders were given to proceed with the draft on the llth
of July. The first day's proceedings passed off quietly; but
on Monday the 13th, the business was arrested by a violent
and excited mob, which broke into, and burned the building
in which the Marshal's office was situated. Then refusing to
perrait the firemen to extinguish the fire, the whole contigu
ous block was consumed. The Superintendent of Police was
attacked and beaten nearly to death. The troops, and many
of the State militia were absent in Pennsylvania to aid in re
sisting Lee's invasion; and it was found difficult to raise a
force to suppress the riot. It was joined by the worst and
most degraded elements of that great city, and raarched frora
street to street, murdering, pillaging, and burning. The ani
mus of the rioters, was hatred of the negro, and its especial
purpose was to murder and rob negroes and abolitionists.
The infuriated mob attacked the colored half-orphan Asylum,
a charitable institution, which furnished a home for seven or
eight hundred colored children. With inhuraan yells, and
a spirit which can find its parallel only among the fiends of
the most cruel and inhuraan plantations in the Gulf States,
the mob abused and scattered the children, set fire to the
28

434 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
building itself, and, maddened with crime, caught and hung
every negro they could find. In one instance, a negro was
first hung, and then a fire kindled beneath him, the heat of
which restored the poor sufferer to consciousness, while the
smoke stifled him. The police did their duty manfully, but
were overpowered. Governor Seymour was in New York at
the time, and addressed these rioters in the Park, and mildly
urged thera to forbearance. The remedy needed was cold
steel and musket balls, rather than civil words. On the 14th
of July, he issued a proclamation calling upon all persons
engaged in the riot to disperse. This produced as little effect
as his speech, and the second day was as bad,or worse than
the first. The militia were recalled from Pennsylvania; other
troops were sent to New York, and the riots were suppressed.
The design of the rebel emissaries who stirred up the riot,
was to create a formidable diversion in favor of the rebel
armies. It did cause the weakening of the army of Meade,
by the withdrawal of ' troops, and enabled Da-ris to send
Longstreet to reenforce Bragg, in Tennessee. There was
also a riot in Boston, but it was so promptly met, as to gain
no considerable head. There is no doubt that the rebel in
cendiaries fomented and urged on the riots of New York,
and hoped by violence to make a strong diversion in the free
States in favor of the insurgents. They so far succeeded as
to raise a mob, which rioted in violence and plunder from
Monday until Thursday, and gave to the rebel sympathizing
citizens of that city, a taste of anarchy. They discovered
that a mob once in motion, was as likely to destroy friend or
neutral, as foe.
The American people are a law abiding people, and no
rash counsels could succeed in stirring up violent resistance
to law, outside the purlieus of a great city. To the American
citizen, the ballot and not the bullet is the remedy for politi
cal evils and wrongs. If defeated to day at the ballot-box,
he appeal^ to the next election, and trusts to reason and
intelligence to bring a majority to his side.
We have already traced the gradual progress of public
opinion and Executive policy, in the eraployraent of the ne
groes as soldiers. General Hunter, at Hilton Head, and

NEGRO SOLDIERS 435
General Bittler, at New Orleans had organized them into regi
ments, drilled, and prepared them for active service. Con
gress and the Executive had not only sanctioned, but
encouraged such eraployraent. When the States were called
on to furnish their quotas of troops under'the several calls,
and learned that negroes would be credited, vigorous means
were taken by Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York, and
other States to recruit free colored men. In furtherance of the
policy of placing as many negroes as possible in the service,
General Thomas, Adjutant General ofthe United States, vis
ited the Southwest, charged with the organization of colored
troops ; and from this time, the number rapidly increased.
Large numbers were recruited in Tennessee, Mississippi,
Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland,
and the District of Columbia. By November, 1863, there had
already been organized and were in active service, over 50,000
colored men, besides nearly an equal nuraber employed as la
borers, teamsters, etc. Stimulated by the proclamation of
emancipation, the negroes flocked in crowds into the Union
army to secure the freedom of their race.
Emancipation now becariie the clear, open, and avowed
policy of the administration. How would these colored
soldiers be treated, if taken prisoners by the rebels ?
The issue of the emancipation proclamation by President
Lincoln, and the employment of negroes as soldiers, had
created deep anxiety and excitement in the rebellious States.
It was at first proposed by the rebel press and Congress, to
make slaves of all free negroes, to put to death all slaves
found in arms, and to punish their officers with death.
Finally, the subject was referred by the Confederate Congress
to their President, Davis.
Jefferson Davis, by proclamation, announced that the
colored troops and their white officers, if captured, would
not be treated as prisoners of war, but would be turned over
for punishment by State authority. The question became a
practical one, when raerabers of the gallant Fifty-fourth Mas
sachusetts colored troops, in their brave, but unsuccessful
assault on Fort Wagner, at Charleston, fell into the hands
of the rebels as prisoners of war. From the threats which

436 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
had been made as to their treatment, and the treatment of
other negro soldiers taken prisoners by the rebels, Mr. Lin
coln felt it his duty on the 10th of July, 1863, to issue the
following order:
" It is the duty^of every Government to give protection to its citizens,
of whatever class, color, or condition, and especially to those who are
duly organized as soldiers in the public service. The law of Nations
and the usages and customs of war as carried on by civilized powers,
permit no distinction as to color, in the treatment of prisoners of war as
public enemies. To sell or enslave any captured person on account of
his color, and for no offense against the laws of war, is a relapse into
barbarism, and a crime against the civilization of the age.
" The Government of the United States will give the same protection
to all its soldiers; and if the enemy shall sell or enslave any one because
of his color, the offense shall be punished by retaliation upon the ene
my's prisoners in our possession. It is therefore ordered, that for every
soldier of the United States, killed in violation of the laws of war, a
rebel soldier shall be executed; and for every one enslaved by the enemy,
or sold into slavery, a rebel soldier shall be placed at hard labor on public
works, and continued at such labor, until the other shall be released,
and receive the treatment due to a prisoner of war." *
In this connection, what Mr. Lincoln said at Baltimore,
April 18th, 1864, may appropriately be quoted as expressive
of his views :
"At the commencement of the war, it was doubtful whether black
men would be used as soldiers or not. The matter was examined into
very carefully, and after mature deliberation, the whole question, resting
as it were with myself, in my judgment, I decided that they should.
I was responsible for the act to the American people, to a Christian
world, to the future historian, and above all to my God, to whom I
shall have one day to render an account of my stewardship. I would
now say that in my opinion, the black soldier should have the same
protection as the white soldier, and he shall have it." f
General Grant, with the directness of the soldier, pursued
the same course. In a communication addressed to General
Lee, dated October 29th, 1864, he said:
* McPherson, p. 280.
t McPherson, p . 180.

CONDITION OF THE CONFEDERATES. 437
" I shall always regret the necessity of retaliating for -wrongs done
our soldiers; but regard it my duty to protect all persons received into
the army of the United States, regardless of color or Nationality. When
acknowledged soldiers of the Government are captured, they must be
treated as prisoners of war, or such treatment as they receive, will be
inflicted upon an equal number of prisoners held by us.
" In answer to the question at the conclusion of your letter, I have
to*^tate, that all prisoners of war falling into my hands, shall receive
the kindest treatment possible, consistent with securing them, unless I
have good authority for believing any number of our men are being
treated otherwise. Then, painful as it may be to me, I shall inflict like
treatment on an equal number of Confederate prisoners." *
The power of the slaveholding Confederacy grew weak
under the blows infiicted at Gettysburg, at Arkansas Post,
at Port Hudson, at Vicksburg and Chattanooga ; and near
the close of 1863, their Congress in its desperation, enacted
a law declaring every raan between the ages of eighteen and
fifty-five to be in the military service for the war. Thus,
every man between those ages becarae subject to the articles
of war, to railitary discipline and penalties, and on failure to
report for duty within a certain time, became liable to the
penalty of death as a deserter. This measure indicated the
desperate fortunes, and the approaching dissolution of the
Confederacy. Desertion, absenteeism and straggling, un4er
such raeans of filling their army, prevailed to such an extent,
that the rebel Secretary of War reported that the effective
force of their army was not more than one-half or two-thirds
of the men, whose names appeared on the muster rolls.
Depreciation of their currency, and the loss of credit, par
alyzed the Confederate cause. The paper raoney issued by
the Richmond Government, depreciated so as to be worth
only five or six cents on the dollar. • The credit of the Gov
ernment was gone, and the agriculturists refused to sell their
products for Confederate notes. The destruction of their army
for lack of supplies was inevitable, and the Confederates were
compelled to seize and impress all the food and supplies
necessary to carry on the war. These embarrassments were
enhanced by the wearing out of the Southern railways, and
* McPherson, p. 05,

438 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
railway stock. They could not procure an adequate supply
of iron and skilled labor, to repair and renew the stock and
tracks. The failure of the crops, and the desolation of war
produced great suffering and want araong the people.
Meanwhile, the confidence of the loyal raen of the United
States in Abrahara Lincoln and his adrainistration, was be
coming deep and pervading. His success in the field, his
continued triumph over the most formidable financial diffi
culties, the great ability and success with which our foreign
relations were managed, and above all, the raoral power
arising frora Mr. Lincoln's open, unequivocal position in
favor of universal justice and liberty, had secured the favor
of the great masses of the loyal people. Abraham Lincoln
had gradually secured the respect, love, and veneration of
nearly all, by his integrity, his unselfishness, his simplicity, his
wisdom, and his love of justice and right. Their verdict
through the ballot box, in the autumn of 1868, was every
where favorable. The President in his letter to a mass
meeting of the Union men of Illinois, held in September,
1863, explained, in his own frank, clear, and masterly manner,
the condition of the country, and the policy he was pursuing.
To these old friends and neighbors he said:
" There are those who are dissatisfied with me. To such I would
say : You desire peace, and you blame me that we do not have it. But
how can we obtain it ? There are but three conceivable ways : First,
to suppress the rebellion by force of arms. This I am trying to do.
Are you for it? If you are, so far we are agreed. If you are not for
it, a second way is to give up the Union. I am against this. Are you
for it? If you are, you should say so plainly. If you are not for /orce,
nor yet for dissolution, there only remains some imaginable compromise,
" I do not believe that any compromise embracing the maintenance
of the Union is now possible. All that I learn leads to a directly op
posite belief. The strength ofthe rebellion is its military, its army. That
army dominates all the country and all the people within its range.
Any offer of terms made by any man or men, within that range, in op
position to that army, is simply nothing for the present; because such
man or men have no power whatever to enforce their side of a
compromise, if one were made with them."

LINCOLN'S LETTER TO THE ILLINOIS CONVENTION. 439
He thus vindicates his policy in regard to the negro, and
emancipation :
" But to be plain. You are dissatisfied with me about the negro.
Quite likely there is a difference of opinion between you and myself
upon that subject. I certainly wish that all men could be free, while
you, I suppose do not. Yet I have neither adopted, nor proposed any
measure, which is not consistent, with even your view, provided that
you are. for the Union. I suggested compensated emancipation ; to
which you rephed you wished not to he taxed to buy negroes. But I
had not asked you to be taxed to buy negroes, except in such way as to
save you from greater taxation to save the Union exclusively by other
means. You dislike the emancipation proclamation, and perhaps would
have it retracted. You say it is unconstitutional. I think differently.
I think the Constitution invests its Commander-in-Chief with the law
of war, in time of war. The most that can be said, if so much, is, that
slaves are property. Is there, has there ever been any question, that by
the law of war, property, both of enemies and friends, may be taken
when needed ? And is it not needed whenever it helps us, and hurts
the enemy? Armies the world over, destroy enemies' property when
they cannot use it; and even destroy their own to keep it from the en
emy. Civilized belligerents do all in their power to help themselves or
hurt the enemy, except a few things regarded as barbarous or cruel.
Among the exceptions are the massacre of vanquished foes and non-
combatants, male and female. But the proclamation, as law, either is
vaHd or is not valid. If it is not valid, it needs no retraction. If it is
valid, it cannot be retracted, any more than the dead can be brought to
life. Some of you profess to think its retraction would operate favor
ably for the Union. Why better after the retraction than before the
issue ? There was more than a year and a half of trial to suppress the
rebellion before the proclamation was issued, the last one hundred days
of which, passed under an explicit notice that it was coming, unless
averted by those in revolt returning to their allegiance. The war
has certainly progressed as favorably for us since the issue of the
Proclamation as before."
He then states that the Emancipation preclaraation, and
the employment of negro troops had been the hea-riest blows
given to the rebel cause, and that at least one of the successes
of the Union army could not have been achieved without the
aid of the black soldiers.

440 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
He concluded this admirable paper as follows :
" You say that you will not fight to free negroes. ' Some of them,'
said he with severe reproach, " seem willing to fight for you; but no
matter. Fight you, then, exclusively, to save the Union ? I issued the
Proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the Union. Whenever you
shall have conquered all resistance to the Union, if I shall urge you to
continue fighting, it will be an apt time, then, for you to declare you
will not fight to free negroes. I thought that, in your struggle for the
Union to whatever extent the negroes should cease helping the enemy,
to that extent it weakened the enemy in his resistance to you. Do you
think differently? I- thought whatever negroes can be got to do as
soldiers, leaves just so much less for white soldiers to do in saving the
Union. Does it appear otherwise to you? But negroes, like other peo
ple, act upon motives. Why should they do anything for us, if we will
do nothing for them ? If they stake their lives for us, they must be
prompted by the strongest motive, even the promise of freedom. And
the promise, heing made, must he kept.
" The signs look better. The ' Father of Waters ' again goes unvexed
to the sea. Thanks to the great Northwest for it, nor yet wholly to
them. Three hundred miles up, they met New England, Empire, Key
stone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The army South,
too, in more colors than one also lent a helping hand. On the spot, their
part of the history was jotted down in black and white. The job was a
great National one, and let none be slighted who bore an honorable part
in it. And while those who have cleared the great river may well be
proud, even that is not all. It is hard to say that anything has been
more bravely and well done than at Antietam, Mnrfreesboro, Gettysburg,
and on many fields of less note. Nor must Uncle Sam's web-feet
be forgotten. At all the watery margins, they have been present, not
only on the deep sea, the broad bay and the rapid river, but also up the
narrow and muddy bayou and wherever the ground was a, little damp,
they have been and made their tracks. Thanks to all. For the great
Republic — for the principle it lives by, and keeps ahve — for man's vast
future, thanks to all.
" Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope it -«'ill come soon
and come to stay; and so come as to be worth the keeping in all future
time. It will then have been proved that among freemen there can he
no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet, and that they who
take such appeal are sure to lose their case and pay the cost. And there
will be some black men who can remember, that with silent tongue, and
clenched teeth and steady eye, and well poised bayonet, they have helped

Lincoln's letter to the Illinois convention. 441
mankind on to this great consummation, while I fear there will be some
white ones unable to forget that with malignant heart and deceitful
speech, they have striven to hinder it.
" Still let us not be over sanguine of a speedy, final triumph. Let us
be quite sober. Let us diligently apply the means, never doubting that
a just God, in His own good time, will give us the rightful result." *
Every State in which elections were held, except New Jer
sey, gave majorities for the administration. In Ohio, Vallan
digham, who had been nominated for Governor, was defeated
by a majority in favor of the Union candidate of nearly
one hundred thousand votes.
It was under these hopeful circumstances, that the first
session of the Thirty-eighth Congress assembled, and the
year 1863, closed.
« McPherson, p. 336-6.

OHAPTEE XX.

FIRST SESSION OF 38TH CONGRESS,— 1863-4.
President's Message — Repeal of Fugitive Slave Laws — Pay
op Colored Soldiers— Freedom given to their Fami
lies — Constitutional Amendment Abolishing and Prohibit
ing Slavery throughout the Republic — Debates upon it
IN the Senate and in the House.
ON the meeting of the 38th Congress, December 7th, 1863,
Schuyler Colfax of Indiana, was elected speaker, Edward
McPherson of Pennsylvania clerk, and Dr. Channing a rad
ical abolitionist, a nephew of the great anti-slavery writer.
Dr. William E. Channing, was elected Chaplain ofthe House.
¦There were elected to the Senate and returned to the
House, constituting the 88th Congress, several new raera
bers of very distinguished ability. Among others were Gov
ernor E. D. Morgan of New York, elected to the Senate in
place of Preston King ; Reverdy Johnson, long at the head
of the bar of his State, and a leading statesman of Mary
land in place of Kennedy.
From Missouri, was elected to the Senate the brilliant lead
er of the anti-slavery party of that State, B- Gratz Brown.
From California came the staunch Union man, and able de
bater John Conness, in place of Latham. From Minnesota,
Governor Alexander Ramsey in place of Rice.
To the House of Representatives were elected, James W.
Patterson a learned scholar and college professor from New
Harapshire, and Frederick W. Woodbridge an able lawyer
from Vermont.
Frora Massachusetts George S, BouiweU,\ate Governor of that
State, and an able, earnest, and radical anti-slavery man, also
John D. Baldwin, a very distinguished editor and journalist.
442

president's message. 443
From Rhode Island, Thomas A. Jenckes a very prominent
lawyer. From Connecticut Messrs. Deming and Brandegee.
Among the new members from New York were Henry G.
Stebbins, an able financier; John V. L. Pruyn, John A.
Griswold, C. F. Hiilburd, Francis Kernan, Freeman Clark,
and John Ganson. Among those from Pennsylvania were
John M. Broomall, Glenni W. Schofield and Thomas Wil
liams. From Maryland were the brilliant orator Henry
Winter Davis, and A. J. Creswell. From Ohio, General
¦ Robert C. Schenck, Rufus A. Spaulding, and General
James A. Garfield. From Kentucky were Anderson, Yea-
man, Green Clay Smith, and Brutus J. Clay. There were
also among many other able new members, G. S. Orth from
Indiana, John A. Kasson from Iowa, and General John F.
Farnsworth frora Illinois.
The President's message, comraenced by expressing the
profoundest gratitude to God, for health, abundant harvests,
and the improved condition of National affairs. The efforts
to involve the Republic in foreign wars in aid of the rebel
lion, had failed. He announced that the operations of the
treasury had been successfully conducted. The' National
banking law had proved a valuable support to the National
credit. All demands upon the Treasury, including the pay
of the army and navy had been promptly met. The burdens
of taxation, and others incident to a great war had been most
cheerfully borne by the people. The receipts for the fiscal
year had been $901,125,674.86. The expenditures |895,796,-
630.65. He stated that the naval force of the United States
at that time consisted of five hundred and eighty-eight ves
sels, completed and in the course of construction, and of
these, seventy-five were iron-clad or armored steamers.
The President then proceeded to contrast the present con
dition of the country with what it was at the opening of
Congress, a year previous. Then, the war had lasted nearly
twenty months, and there had been many confiicts on land
and sea, with varying results. The rebellion had been press
ed back into narrower limits, but the tone of public feeling
indicated uneasiness, and amid much that was cold and men
acing from abroad, the kindest words were uttered in accents

444 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROWOP SLAVERY.
of pity that we were too blind to surrender a hopeless cause.
Our commerce was suffering greatly by armed vessels built
upon and furnished from foreign shores, and we were threat
ened with such additions as would sweep our trade from the
sea, and raise the blockade.
The proclamation of emancipation came in January — with
the announcement that colored men would be received into
the military service. The policy of emancipation and the
employment of black soldiers gave to the future a new as
pect, about which hope, and fear, and doubt contended in un
certain conflict. It had all the while been deemed possible
that the necessity of emancipation as a railitary measure
might come. It came, and was followed by dark and doubt
ful days. " Eleven months" said the President, "having now
passed, we are permitted to take another revie-w^. The rebel
borders are pressed still further back, and by the complete
opening of the Mississippi, the country dominated by the re
bellion is di-vrided into distinct parts, with no practical com-
muiiication between them. Tennessee and Arkansas have
been substantially cleared of insurgent control, and influen
tial citizens in each, owners of slaves and advocates of slav
ery at the beginning of the rebellion, now declare openly for
emancipation in their respective States. Of those States not
included in the Emancipation Proclamation, Maryland and
Missouri, neither of which three years ago would tolerate
any restraint upon the extension of slavery into new territo
ries, only dispute now as to the best mode of removing it
within their own limits.
Of those who were slaves at the beginning ofthe rebellion,
full one hundred thousand are now in the United States mil
itary service aboutone-half of whichnumber actually bear arms
in the ranks, thus giving the double advantage of taking so
much labor from the insurgent cause, and supplying the
places which otherwise must be filled with so many white
men. So far as tested, it is difficult to say they are not as
good soldiers as any. No servile insurrection, or tendency
to violence or cruelty, has marked the measure of emanci
pation and arming the blacks. These measures have been
much discussed in foreign countries, and contemporary -with

president's MESSAGE — RECONSTRUCTION. 445
such discussion, the tone of public sentiment there is much
improved. At home, the sarae measures have been fully
discussed, supported, criticised, and denounced, and the an
nual elections following are highly encouraging to those
whose official duty it is to bear the country through this great
trial. Thus, we have the new reckoning. The crisis which
threatened to divide the friends of the Union is past."*
The near approach, as Mr. Lincoln now hoped, of the pe
riod when the rebellion would be suppressed, led hira to
study the difficult problem of reconstruction. Upon this
subject he said :
" Looking now to the present and future, and with reference to the re
sumption of the National authority within the states wherein that author
ity has been suspended, I have thought fit to issue a proclamation, a
copy of which is herewith transmitted. On examination of this pro
clamation, it -ffill appear, as is believed, that nothing will be attempted
beyond what is amply justified by the Constitution. True, the form of
an oath is given, but no man is coerced to take it. The man is only
promised a pardon in case he voluntarily takes the oath. The Consti
tution authorizes the Executive to grant or withhold the pardon at his
own absolute discretion ; and this includes the power to grant it on
such terms as is fully established by judicial and other authorities.
" It is also proffered that if, in any of the States named, a State Gov
ernment shall in the mode prescribed set up a State government, it shall
be recognized and guaranteed by the United States, and that under it the
State shall on constitutional conditions, be protected against invasion
and domestic violence. The constitutional obligation of the United
States to guarantee to every state in the Union, a republican form of
government and to protect the State in the cases stated, is explicit and
full. But why tender the benefits of this provision only to a State
government set up in this particular way ? This section of the consti
tution contemplates a case wherein the element within a State favor
able to republican government in the Union, may be too feeble for
an opposite and hostile element external to, or even within the State ;
and such are precisely the cases with which we are now dealing.
" An attempt to guarantee and protect a revived State government,
constructed in whole or in prepondering part, from the very element
against whose hostility and violence it is to be protected, is simply ab
surd. There must be a test by which to separate the opposing element,
• McPherson, page 1*7

446 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
so as to build only from the sound ; and that test is a sufficiently liberal
one, which accepts as sound, whoever will make a sworn recantation of
his former unsoundness.
" But if it be proper to require as a test of admission to the political
body, an oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the United States,
and to the Union under it, why not also to the laws and proclam
ations in regard to slavery ? Those laws and proclamations were en
acted and put forth for the purpose of aiding in the suppression of the
rebellion. To give them their fullest effect, there had to be a pledge
for their maintenance. In my judgment they have aided and will fur
ther aid the cause for which they were intended. To now abandon
them would be not only to relinquish a lever of power, but would also
be a cruel and an astounding breach of faith."*
Mr. Lincoln never overlooked the pledge of the national
faith to the colored men, made by the Executive and Con
gress, to maintain their freedom. To abandon the "freedmen
to their late masters, would, in his judgment be an astound
ing breach of that faith." " I raay add," said he, " that while
I remain in ray present position, I shall not attempt to mod
ify or retract the Emancipation Proclamation, nor shall I re
turn to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that
proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress." He closes
this able state paper by saying :
" Our chief care must still be directed to the army and the navy,f
who have thus far borne their harder part so nobly and well, and it
may be esteemed fortunate that in giving the greatest efficiency to these
indispensable arms, we do also honorably recognize the gallant men from
commander to sentinel, who compose them, and to whom, more than to
others the world must stand indebted for the home of freedom, disen
thralled, regenerated, enlarged and perpetuated."
At the period of the opening of the 38th Congress, the
conviction had become almost universal among the loyal
people that slavery must die that the republic might live. To
this end. Congress went to work vigorously and earnestlj', to
aid the President in the great work of emancipation, and ex
tirpation ofthe cause ofthe rebellion; to remove from the Stat
ute Book, every relic of this barbarous institution, and to
* McPherion, page 148.
t McPherson, page 147.

REPEAL OP THE FUaiTIVE SLAVE LAWS. 447
crown the whole by a Constitutional Amendment, abolishing
and prohibiting slavery forever.
There still remained upon the Statute Book several laws en
acted to secure and strengthen slavery, among tiiese and
the most disgraceful statute ever enacted by the Ameri
can Congress, was the fugitive slave law of 1850, introduced
by the haughty traitor and iraperious slave holder Mason, as
a humiliation to the free states. An arrogant and defiant
party, controlled by slave holders, in their pride of power,
had forced this bill through Congress. All the power of the
Federal Government had been used for its enforcement,
against the resistance of the manly and generous sentiments
of the people. It had been a most efficient raeans of arous
ing popular feeling against slavery.
In the House of Representatives, iramediately after the
announcement of the standing coraraittees by the Speaker,
on the 14th of December 1863, Mr. Stevens of Pennsylvania,
introduced a bill to repeal the Fugitive Slave act of 1850,
and the act of 1783. Mr. Ashley on the same day introduced
a bill to repeal the fugitive slave law of 1783, and the act
amendatory thereof, of 1850. Other bills, having for their
object the same purpose were introduced. These bills were
referred to the committee on the judiciary. Bills for the
same purpose had been introduced into the Senate in 1861,
by Senator Howe of Wisconsin ; in 1862 by Senator Wilmot
of Pennsylvania, and by Senator Wilson of Massachusetts.
Onthe Sth of February 1864, Senator Sumner introduced
a bill to repeal all laws for the rendition of fugitive slaves.
Ou motion of Senator Sherman, the act of 1783 was except
ed from the repeal.
In the House of Representatives, Mr. Morris, from the Ju
diciary Committee reported " A bill to repeal the fugitive
slave law of 1850, and all acts and parts of acts for the ren
dition of fugitive slaves." When, on the 13th of June, the
bill came up for discussion, its passage was urged on the
ground, that when the republic was struggling for life against
the slaveholders rebellion, when one hundred thousand black
men were fighting for the flag, and not one voluntarily
against it, every law for the maiotenance of slavery should

448 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
be repealed. The bill passed the House by a very large ma
jority. It passed the Senate on the 28d, and received the ap
proval of Mr. Lincoln on the 28th of June 1864.
Thus passed away forever this relic of barbarism. A law
which by its inhuman provisions, its violations of the great
principles of English and American justice as secured by
Magna Charta and the common law, and still more perfectly
the Constitution of the United States, and the cruelty and in
humanity which marked its execution, had done more to
arouse hatred of slavery than almost any other agency.
In discussing a bill providing that colored soldiers should
receive the same pay and bounty as white, full testimony in
addition to that contained in the President's message was
borne to their merits as soldiers, and it was established that
the negroes when organized as troops were industrious and
obedient ; that they made the best scouts, knowing the coun
try well, and that in every particular they performed their
duty faithfully ; and why should they not ? ' They fought for
the elevation and emancipation of their race, as well as for
our country. The bill after much discussion finally became
a law. In the debate upon the bill to make free the wives and
children of colored soldiers. Senator Johnson made these very
remarkable statements in regard to the morality and Chris
tianity of slavery. It will be reraerabered that Senator John
son represented the slave State of Maryland ; himself a
slaveholder, speaking of what he personally knew to be
true — his testimony proving as will be seen that the family
relation was not recognized among four millions of human
beings living in this Christian land ! That among the colored
people, the raothers had no husbands, and the children no
legal fathers; and not only this, but that as to slavery in Mary
land where the institution existed perhaps in its raildest forra,
there was many a slave in South Carolina and the Gulf
States, who might well claim to have a wife, perhaps wives
and children in the State of Maryland. Let the Christian
world remember that the slaveholders rebellion was designed
to establish, secure, and perpetuate this institution ! For
this cause men violated oaths and deserted their flag, and yet
prayed for the blessing of Almighty God !

REVERDY JOHNSON'S SPEECH. 449
In this work the author has honestly endeavored not so much
to make, (in the language of Vice President Johnson) " trea
son odious," as to raake its cause (slavery) odious. He has
sought to impress the American people with the unchristian
and barbarous character of the institution, and to show that
its tendency has been to debase and degrade the noble type
of white men, which inhabit the lately rebellious slave States.
His justification will be found, he thinks, in the following
statements of the eminent senator frora Maryland. He says :
" I doubt very much if any member of the Senate is more anxious
to have the country composed of free men and free women than I am.
I understand the bUl to provide that upon the enlistment as a soldier of any
man of African descent, his wife and children are at once to be free.
No provision is made to compensate the owner of the wife and chil
dren if they happen to be slaves, and it of course only applies to such
wives and children as are slaves, those who are to be set free, and not
those who are now free.
" The bill provides that a slave enlisted anywhere, no matter where
he may be, whether he be within Maryland or out of Maryland, whether
he be within any other of the loyal States or out of the loyal States al
together, is at once to work the emancipation of his wife and his children.
He may be in South Carolina ; and many a slave in South Carolina, I
am sorry to say it, can well claim, to have a wife and perhaps wives and
chUdren, within the limits of Maryland. It is one of the vices, and
the horrible vices of the institution, one that has shocked me from in
fancy to the present hour, the whole marital relation is disregarded.
They are made to be practically and by education, forgetful or igno
rant of that relation. When I say they are educated, I mean to say
they are kept in absolute ignorance, and out of that, immorality of ev
ery description arises, and among the other immoralities is that the
connubial relation does not exist."*
The war thus made to perpetuate slavery, he hoped through
the justice of God would strike down the institution forever.
He said:
" The men who were here preaching their treason from the?ie desks,
telegraphing from these desks — I saw it, though I was not a member,
and my heart burned within me — for their minions, or the deluded
* Vol. 50 Congressional Globe, 38th Congress, page 396.
29

450 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
masses at home, to sieze upon the public property of the United States,
its forts, its means, its treasure, its material of war, and who were
seeking to seduce from their allegiance officers of the army and navy
of the United States ; they have done it ; and they were told that sucb
would be the result. They did not believe it. They believed that your
representatives would not have the firmness to try £he wager of battle.
They believed, I have heard them say so, that a southern regiment
could march without resistance, successfully from Washington to Bos
ton, and challenge for themselves independence in Faneuil Hall. Sad
delusion ! Gross ignorance of the character of your people ! You
were free and you knew its value. You are free, and you are brave
because you are free ; and as I have told them over and over again,
let the day come when in their madness they should throw down the
gage of battle to the free States of the Union, and the day of their
domestic institution will have ended. They have done it. I have said
it was, as against them, retributive justice. Hoping and believing that
their effort will be fruitless, that their treason will fail in its object, that
the authority of the government will be sustained, and the Union be
preserved, I thank God that as a compensation for the blood, the trea
sure and the agony which have been brought into our households, and
into yours, it has stricken now and forever this institution from its place
among our states."
Thus spoke a loyal Senator, though a southern slaveholder.
On the 3d of February 1863, Mr. Sherraan, the distin
guished Senator from Ohio, announced his conversion to
emancipation. He said :
" I believe that the employment of negro slaves in the Southern States
will result in emancipation in all those States, and as the amendment
of the Senator from Massachusetts proposes to employ negro slaves in
the army and navy, and to invite them by bounties, by high pay, by
uniform, by all the inducements now held out to our own soldiers and
sailors, the result will be universal emancipation in this country.*
* * *****
" The most eloquent, the most gifted, the wise, the learned, each and
all of the great names that have adorned American history in conven
tion and in either House of Congress, have expended their eloquence
their learning, all the artillery of excited debate on the slavery question
as it effected a single slave or an unpopulated territory. It devolves
upon MS now to pass upon a guarantee, a pledge, which, if made, honor
and public faith will never hereafter allow the Nation to withdraw ¦ a
• Volume 50, Congressional Globe, page 438.

SENATOR Sherman's speech. 451
pledge, which if redeemed, will directly emancipate a majority of the
slaves in this country, and in its logical consequences, within a short
time, will make every human being within our limits free, unless he for
feits his freedom by his crime.
" The race whose military service we require, has yielded forced labor,
unrequited toil to ours, for generations. If we induce them to incur
the risk of death and wounds in war, upon the promise of emancipa
tion, and do not redeem that promise, we ».&& perfidy to wrong. The
soldier who has worn our uniform, and served under our flag, must not
hereafter labor as a slave. Nor would it be tolerable that his wife, his
mother, or his child should be the property of another. The instinct
ive feehng of every man of generous impulse would revolt at such a
spectacle. The guarantee of freedom for himself, his mother, his wife
and his chUd, is the inevitable incident of the employment of a slave
as a soldier. If you have not the power, or do not mean to emanci
pate him, and those with whom he is connected by domestic ties, then
in the name of God and humanity, do not employ him as a soldier.
Let him in his servitude at least, be free from the danger incident to
a free man. If I had doubts about the power to emancipate the slave
for military service, I certainly would not vote to employ him as a
soldier. '*
After an elaborate and exhaustive review of the action of
the United States and other nations in regard to the eraploy
ment of slaves he said :
" I have thus Mr. President, perhaps at the risk of being wearisome,
shown that in ancient and in modern times, by all civilized nations, by
our own country and by our enemies in all of our wars, negro soldiers,
both free and slave, have been used in the military service, and in every
case where slaves have been so used, they have been secured their lib
erty. It would be an intolerable injustice to which no people would
ever submit ; to serve in the military service without securing that
greatest of boons. My answer then, to the main question, whether
the employment of negroes, free or slave, is justified by the laws of
war, is, that by the practice of all nations it is justified." * * *
" I believe the war has been protracted so long, because we have
feared, through prejudice, and probably on account of old party rela
tions, to exercise the great powers that are invested in us. I believe
that from the beginning, when the rebels assumed the position of en
emies, we should have armed against them the whole negro population
* Volume 50, Congressional Globe, page 439

452 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
of their country. They need not tell me that if we arm the negroes,
they will arm them. They cannot arm their negroes unless they prom
ise them their freedom. If they promise them their freedom, their
whole confederacy crumbles into dust. Their whole confederacy is
built, as Mr. Stephens said, on the idea that man should own property
in man ; that the negro is inferior and must be held subordinate to the
white race ; that he must be held a slave. * * *
" To all the slaves in all the rebel States, I would secure freedom to
the last man, woman and child. I never would allow the men who have
rebelled against the best government God ever gave to man, to own a
slave, or, I was about to say, to own any other property. They are
outcasts. They have rebelled. Their rebellion was causeless. I have
no pity for them in all the suffering that may be heaped upon them, in
their own generation. For those men who domineered in this Senate,
who domineered in the other House, who converted our political bodies
into arenas for the defense of slavery, for those men who when fairly
beaten in a political contest, took up arms to overthrow the Govern
ment, I have not the slightest sympathy or respect. They are not only
enemies but they are traitors, and I will enforce against them not only
the laws of war, but the municipal laws of our own country as to
treason.* * * *
" On the subject of emancipation, I am ready now to go as far as any
one. Like all others, I hesitated at first, becatise I could not see the ef
fect ofthe general project of emancipation. I think the time has now
arrived, when we must meet this question of emancipation boldly and
fearlessly. There is no other way. Slavery is destioyed, not by your
act, sir, or mine, but by the act of this rebellion. I think, therefore,
the better way would be to wipe out all that is left of the whole trouble,
the dead and buried and wounded of this system of slavery. It is
obnoxious to every manly and generous sentiment. The idea that one
man may hold property in the life of another, may sell him like cattle,
is obnoxious to the common sentiment of all. Now, when the power ia
in our hands, when these rebels have broken down the barriers of the
Constitution, when they must be treated by the laws of war, when we
dictate those laws, not the President, let us by law meet this question
of emancipation boldly and fearlessly. I am prepared to do it, and to
vote to-day, to-morrow, or any day for a broad and general system of
emancipation." "I"
On the 8th of March, the young and brilliant Senator from
» Vol. 50 Congressional Globe, page 444.
t Vol. 60, Congressional Globe, page 446.

SENATOR brown's SPEECH, 453
Missouri, who had °led the eraancipation raoveraent in that
State, made a most able and philosophic speech in favor of
universal emancipation. He said :
" The supremest truth of our time is this : that it is a revolution in
whose whirls we are eddying, and with whose currents we have to
contend ; a revolution the grandest ever yet essayed by man, and des
tined to give its watchword to other lands and people ; a revolution in all
its great outlines of enkindled faith, of continued development, of over
turned thralldoms, of liberated hope. The strata of this nation's
sediment, coldness, and oppression has been broken through. Human
nature once more, by the grace of God, has become volcanic and erup
tive, and the precious truths of freedom and fraternity, are swelling
up from their deep foundations, away below the defacements of men.
It is a revolution full of promise.* * * *
" There are striking indications that point out, if they do not deter
mine the ending. There are vaguely outlined groupings, that shape
themselves into more definite forms as they are scrutinized. Especial
ly are there three great central ideas, raying forth into the darkness
of the future their broad beams of light, and illuminating the paths
that are to be trodden by this people in their " marching on" — three
impending necessities as it were, distinct, yet related, which may be set
forth a&fi,rst, a realization and establishment in truth, and not merely
in name, of absolute freedom policies throughout the whole land ; second,
the building up from its sure foundation, of a nationality that shall
represent the asjpirations of the whole people for a democratic unity ;
and third, the conforming of our Government in its administration as
in its recognitions, to those divine truths that go to constitute and in
spire a devout Christian State holding itself, " as ever in the
great Taskmaster's eye."f * * *
" Without doubt, the abolition of slavery throughout all the states
of this Union by general statute, such as now proposed, must be in
itial measure to any freedom policies reposing on national authority as
their guarantee ; for until the slave code shall be thus canceled in fact,
no constitutional amendment covering that ground will ever be had.
" The second marked characteristic in the great progress which is
swelling forward, overturning old modes of thought, conscripting con
stitutions, amd remodeling the functions of government in an enkin
dled nationality. Out of the very burning and fire froth of sectional
ism, springs the ideal of a true nation. J
* Vol. 51, Congressional Globe, page 985-986.
t Vol. 51, Congressional Globe, page 986.
tVol. 81, Congressional Globe, page 987.

454 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
" The lowly must be exalted, the depressed raised up, the ignorant
educated, the slave freed, the chattle humanized, and a democratic
equality before the laws, obtained for all men. The people must have
fraternity, as well as solidity only.
" The third and completing symbol of the outcome of these times,
will be found to indicate the instauration here of Christian Govern
ment, founded upon, in dwelling with, and springing oiit of the di
vine justices — Government recognizing that in the affairs of nations,
as in those of individuals, there is one equality that comes of the
equality of creation, there is one right avenger on compromises, which
is the supreme right, there is one law which must ever be, as it ever
has been, a higher law. And they are to become practice, not merely
theory. These are earnest days in the life experiences of our people,
and in this Senate, as abroad throughout the land, the most impor
tant fact around and about you is not always your law of yesterday,
or your tax of to-morrow, or your conscription of the month hence;
it is not the vote here nor the battle yonder ; but it is the spirit
of this nation that upholds these things, and out of which they
flow — the spirit which buoys you Senators, into this upper air, with
out which, or false to which, you will sink ag empty collapsed bladders.
These grand, old mother words of justice, and truth, and brother
hood, begin to have meaning anew, kindled up in them by the light
that is breaking out around. The nation is putting on its Puritanism.
Thanksgivings appoint themselves unitedly. Days of supplication are
become somewhat more than holidays. The bowing down has ceased
to be a mockery, in the presence of the multitudinous remembered
dead ; and even they who heretofore have been accounted most indif
ferent, begin to hold to a realizing conviction that God does direct
the affairs of nations by His special providences. The scoffers have
had their generation, and we have returned upon a period of faith.
*******
It was a declaration that led up to much thought, and was signifi
cant of much which has since transpired, that this Nation could not
endure ' half free and half slave,' that one or the other would be
supreme. * * *
" Lastly, in taking an initiative, and proposing an act of direct abo
lition, I do so in the name of the great State which has honored me
with a seat in this Senate, jind which, although still a slave State under
the local law, will be proud and grateful to receive emancipation at the
hands of the Federal Government. Missouri, which was consecrated
to slavery more than forty years ago by a National Congress, comes
this day, and asks a National Congress to right that wrong, and

SENATOR brown's SPEECH. 455
confer upon her, freedom, as the only sure guarantee of Republican
institutions." There had been various other miscellaneous acts of Con
gress hostile to slavery enacted by the 37th and 38th Congress.
Among others a joint resolution for the discharge from ar
rest and imprisonment of all persons confined as fugitives
from labor in the Washington jail. The National Capital
had long been disgraced by a place of confinement of fugi
tives, comparable only to the Bastile of Paris, or the dun
geons of Venice. A set of officials, speculators in huraan
beings, and raen who made gain by preying upon human lib
erty, had grown up, and their business had legitimately con
verted them into fiends — hyenas in human shape. These
men had seized, and confined negroes, persons tainted to any
extent with African blood, and whether bond or free, had
sold them into slavery.
The laws of procedure were so amended, that no witness
should be excluded in the courts of the United States on ac
count of color. A law was also passed prohibiting the coast
wise slave trade, and declaring that no human being should
be transported as property, in any vessel within the jurisdic
tion of the United States. A law was also enacted, declaring
that color should be no longer a disqualification in carrying
the United States mails.
These measures, and the still more important ones of tJie
Executive, including the great Emancipation Proclamation,
all looking to the coraplete overthrow of slavery, were to be
consummated and completed by an amendment of the organic
law, the Constitution of the United States, abolishing and
prohibiting slavery forever. Towards this end, everything had
been tending. Towards this great, this radical change, to
wards this complete triumph ofthe Declaration of Independ
ence as interpreted by Mr. Lincoln, everything had been pro
gressing. This great moral revolution, the result of a free
press, free speech, ci-rilization, Christianity and the war, was
now to be completed. Perhaps there is uo raore striking illus
tration of the growth of public sentiment and the conviction
* Congressional Globe, First Session, Thirty-eighth Congiess, p. 988 90.

456 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
of the loyal, sound judging common sense of the people, than
is found in the letter of the practical soldier. General Grant,
written at Vicksburg in August, 1863. He said:
" 1 never was an abolitionist, nor even what could be called anti-
slaveiy; but I try to judge fairly and honestly; and it became patent
to my mind early in the rebellion, that the North and South could never
live at peace -with each other, except as one Nation and that without
slavery." *
On the 14th of Deceraber, 1863, as soon as the Speaker
had announced the Standing Coraraittees of the House, in
regular order of business, he proceeded to call the States for
resolutions. As Ohio the first State organized under the
great freedom Ordinance of 1787, was called, one of her repre
sentatives, James M. Ashley, introduced a joint Resolu
tion, submitting to the States, a proposition to amend the
Constitution by abolishing and prohibiting slavery.
When Iowa was called, James M. Wilson, Chairman of
the Committee on the Judiciary, introduced a joint Resolution
providing for the subraission to the States, of an amendment
to the Constitution, in these words : *
" Sec 1. Slavery being incompatible with a free Government, is
forever prohibited in the United States ; and involuntary servitude,
shall be permitted only as a punishment for crime.
'¦' S^EC. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce the foregoing section
of this article by appropriate legislation."
Other propositions to effect the same object were intro
duced. In the Senate. Mr. Henderson, of Missouri, and
Suraner, of Massachusetts, introduced sirailar propositions,
which were referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.
On the 10th of February, 1864, Mr. TrumbuU reported the
joint resolution of Mr. Henderson, amended so as to read as
follows :
•• That the following article be proposed to the legislatures ofthe sev
eral States, as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States,
• MoPherson's Political History. Note on page 571. The letter as published, Is
erroneously dated August, 1882. The original is August, 1863.
* Wilson's Auti-slavery Measures of Congress, p. 250.

SENATOR TRUMBULL'S SPEECH. _ 457
which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures shall be valid,
to all intents and purposes as a part of the said Constitution; namely:
" Art. 13, Sec. 1. Neither slavery, nor involuntary servitude except
as a punishment for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to
their jurisdiction.
"Sec. 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by
appropriate legislation." *
On the 28th of March, the Senate proceeded to consider
the question, and the debate was opened by Mr. Trumbull,
Chairman of the Judiciary Comraittee. He sketched with
great clearness and force, the struggle between freedom and
slavery for the last seventy years, and showed how slavery
was at the bottora of all our difficulties. He said : f
" If these halls have resounded from our earliest recollections with
the strifes and contests of sections, ending sometimes in blood, it was
slavery which ahnost always occasioned them. No superficial observer,
even, of our history North or South, or of any party, can doubt that
slavery lies at the bottom of our present troubles. Our fathers who
made the Constitution regarded it as an evil, and looked forward to its
early extinction. They felt the inconsistency of their position, while
proclaiming the equal rights of all to life, liberty, and happiness, they
denied liberty, happiness, and life itself to a whole race, except in sub
ordination to them. It was impossible in the nature of things, that a
Government based on such antagonistic principles could permanently
and peacefully endure, nor did its founders expect it would. They
looked forward to the not distant, nor as they supposed, uncertain period,
when slavery should be abolished, and the Government become in fact
what they made it in name, one securing the blessings of liberty to all.
The history of the last seventy years has proved that the founders of the
Repubhc were mistaken in their expectations; and slavery, so far from
gradually disappearing as they had anticipated, had so strengthened
itself, that in 1860, its advocates demanded the control of the JSTation in
its interests, failing in which, they attempted its overthrow. This at
tempt brought into hostile collision the slaveholding aristocracy, who
made the right to live by the toil of others the chief article of their
faith, and the free laboring masses of the North, who believed in the
right of every man to eat the bread his own hands had earned."
• Wilson's Anti-glavery Measures, p. 253.
t Congressional Globe, Vol. 51 p. 1313.

458 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
He then reviewed the action of Congress and of the Execu
tive, on the subject of slavery during the war, and closed the
review by showing that the only way of ridding the country
forever of slavery so that it never could be resuscitated either
by State or Congressional action, was by a Constitutional
amendment prohibiting it forever everywhere within the
United States. His practical mind then discussed the pro
bability of the adoption of the araendraent, and on this point,
carae to this conclusion :
" I think, then, it is reasonable to suppose, that if this proposed
amendment passes Congress, it will within a year receive the ratification
of the requisite number of States to make it a part of the Constitution.
That accomplished, and we are forever freed of this troublesome ques
tion. We accomplish then, what the statesmen of this country have
been struggling to accomplish for years. We take this question entirely
away from the politics of the country. We relieve Congress of sectional
strife, and what is better than all, we restore to a whole race, that free
dom which is theirs by the gift of God, but which we for generations
have wickedly denied them." *
Trumbull was foUowed by Wilson, of Massachusetts. He
commenced by quoting from the great apostle of free speech
and the right of petition, John Quincy Adams. "Our
country," said Adams, " began its existence by the universal
emancipation of man." He proceeded to point out, in
eloquent terms, the cause of the war : f
'' Why is it, Mr. President, that this magnificent continental Repub
lic is now rent, torn, dissevered by civil war? Why is it that the land
resounds with the measured tread of a million of armed men ? Why is
it that our bright waters are stained, and our green fields reddened with
fraternal blood ? Why is it that the young men of America in the pride
and bloom of early manhood, are summoned from homes, from the
mothers who bore them, from the wives and sisters who love them, to
the fields of bloody strife ? Why is it that millions of the men and the
women of Christian America are sorrowing with aching hearts and tear
ful eyes for the absent, the loved and the lost? Why is it that the heart
of loyal America throbs heavUy, oppressed with anxiety and gloom for
the future of the country ?
* Congressional Globe, Vol. 52, p. 1314.
t Congressional Globe, Vol. 52, p. 1320.

SENATOR WILSON'S SPEECH, 459
" Sir, this gigantic crime against the peace, the unity and the life of
the Nation, is to make eternal the hateful dominion of man over the
souls and bodies of his fellow men. These sacrifices of property, of
health and of life, these appalling sorrows and agonies now upon us, are
all the merciless inflictions of slavery, in its gigantic effort to found its
empire, and make its hateful power forever dominant in Christian Ame
rica. Yes, slavery is the conspirator that conceived and organized this
mighty conspiracy against the unity and existence of the Republic.
Slavery is the traitor that madly plunged the Nation into the fire and
blood and darkness of civil war. Slavery is the criminal, whose hands
are dripping with the blood of our murdered sons. Yes sir, slavery is
the conspirator, the traitor, the criminal that is reddening the sods of
Christian America with the blood of fathers and husbands, sons and
brothers, and bathing them with the bitter tears of mothers, wives and
sisters. ******
" The imperishable records of the Republic will bear to future ages
the amplest evidence that slavery has ever been hostile to the spirit of
her free institutions. Planted in America by the commercial and colo
nial policy of the British Empire, fostered by British legislation, pro
tected by British Kings and Queens, Lords, Judges and Prelates, slav
ery, from the day it entered the harbor of Jamestown, to the dawn of
the Revolution, was an alien in America, an enemy to law and order,
liberty and progress. The pages of our colonial history bear to us the
amplest testimony that our fathers saw its malign influence, and pro
tested against the slave trade and the slave extending policy of the
British Government. ******
" Sir, under the new Constitution framed to secure the blessings of
liberty, slavery strode into the chambers of legislation, the halls of jus
tice, the mansions of the Executive, and with menaces in the one hand
and bribes in the other, it awed the timid and seduced the weak.
Marching on from conquest to conquest, crushing where it could not
awe, seduce, or corrupt, slavery saw institutions of learning, benevo
lence, and religion, political organizations and public men, aye, and the
people too, bend before it and acknowledge its iron rule. Seizing on the
needed acquisitions of Louisiana and of Florida, to extend its bounda
ries, consolidate its power and enlarge its sway, slavery crossed the Mis
sissippi, and there established its barbarous dominion agaiust the too
feeble resistance of a not yet conquered people.* Controlling absolutely
the pohcy of the South, swaying the pohcy of the nation, impressing
itself upon the legislation, the sentiments, and opinions of the North,
• Congressional Globe, Vol. 51, p. 1320.

460 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
slavery moved on to assured dominion. Under its aggressive advances,
emancipation societies, organized by the men of the revolutionary era,
in the first bright ardor of secured liberty, one by one disappeared; —
presses and churches forgot to remember those in bonds as bound with
them, and recreant sons disowned the sentiments, opinions and princi
ples of a glorious ancestry. And slavery, in the pride of power pro
claimed itself in the Halls of Congress through its apostles and champ
ions, its Calhouns and McDuffy's, ' a positive good,' ' the only stable
basis of Republican institutions.' ' the corner stone of the Republican
edifice.' " *
He rapidly sketched the anti- slavery legislation of Con
gress, and the action of the Executive, and thus aUuded to
the Proclamation of Emancipation :
" On the 1st day of January, 1863, the President of the United
States, ' invoking the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gra
cious favor of Almighty God,' redeemed this solemn pledge of the 22d
of September, which the recording angel had registered. On that day
the irreversible decree was sent forth to master and slave, to earth and
heaven. By this exercise of the war powers of the Government, all
persons held as slaves in any State or part thereof in rebellion, were
declared to be, ' then, thenceforward and forever free,' and the Execu
tive, the military and naval authorities were pledged to recognize and
maintain the freedom of such persons. This complete, absolute, and
final decree of emancipation in rebel States, born of military necessity,
proclaimed by the Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, is the
settled and irrepealable law of the Republic, to be observed, obeyed, and
enforced, by army and navy, and by the irreversible voice of the Nation.
The enforcement of this proclamation will give peace and order, freedom
and unity to a now distracted country; the failure to enforce it will
bring with it, discord and anarchy, a dissevered Union and a broken
Nation. ********
" Slavery in America, though upheld by interests, customs and usages,
trenched about by inhuman statutes, and hedged around by passionate,
vehement and unreasoning prejudice, is fast crumbling to atoms beneath
the blows rained upon it by a liberty loving and patriotic people. Bnt
let anti-slavery men Hsten to no truce, to no compromise, to no cry for
mercy. Let them now be as inflexible as justice, as inexorable as destiny.
Whenever and wherever a blow can be dealt at the vitals of the retreat
ing fiend, let that blow be struck in the name of the bleeding Nation
• Congressional Globe, Vol. 51, p. 1320.

SENATOR WILSON'S SPEECH. 461
and of the ' dumb toiling millions bound and sold.' A truce with slav
ery is a defeat for the Nation. A compromise with slavery is a present
of disaster and dishonor, and a future of anarchy and blood. Mercy to
slavery, is a crime against liberty. The death of slavery is the annihi
lation of the rebellion, the unity of the Republic, the Hfe of the Nation,
the harmonious development of republican institutions, the repose,
culture, and renown of the people.* *****
" Engraving on every rood of the vast territories of the Republic, on
the magnificent forests and prairies, valleys and mountains, in the central
regions of the continent, in letters of light, ' slavery shall be forever
prohibited,' — obliterating slavery and annulHng the slave code in the
Capital of the Nation — decreeing under the war powers more than three
million bondmen in the rebel States, ' thenceforward and forever free' —
proclaiming the emancipation of the slave by the fiat of the Nation the
instant he writes his name on the muster roll of the defenders of the
RepubHc, has riven and shivered the slave system into broken and dis
membered fragments ; and that huge and ghastly system now lies pros
trate in the convulsive throes of dissolution. National legislation, Ex
ecutive action, judicial decision may stUl further wound and weaken,
degrade and humiliate the now impotent system that once in the pride
of power, gave law to Republican America."}"
" But, sir, the crowning act in this series of acts, for the restriction
and extinction of slavery in America, is this proposed amendment to
the Constitution, prohibiting the existence of slavery forevermore in the
Republic of the United States. If this amendment shall be incorporated
by the will of the Nation into the Constitution of the United States, it
will obliterate the last lingering vestiges of the slave system; its chat-
telizing, degrading, and bloody codes; its dark, maHgnant, barbarizing
Spirit ; all it was and is, everything connected with it, or pertaining to
it, from the face of the Nation it has scarred -with moral desolation,
from the bosom of the country it has reddened with the blood, and
strewn with the graves of patriotism. The incorporation of this amend
ment into the organic law of the Nation, will make impossible forever
more, the reappearing of the discarded slave system, and the returning
of the despotism of the slavemaster's domination.
The debate was continued on the SOth of March, by a vio
lent speech of Senator Davis of Kentucky, against the amend
ment; and on the 31st, by a still more violent speech by Mr.
* Congressional Globe, Vol. 51, p. 1328-24.
t Congressional Globe, Vol. 51, p. 1324.

462 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Saulsbury, in opposition. New Hampshire was heard in
reply through the eloquent voice of Senator Clark, in favor of
the resolutions. Then the young State of Wisconsin, spoke
through Senator Howe, for the araendraent.
On the 5th of April, a raeraorable speech in favor of the
araendraent was made by Reverdy Johnson, Senator from
Maryland. A Senator frora a State just throwing off the
burden of slavery; a lawyer of great eminence; an old and
experienced statesman; the cotemporary and associate of
Webster, Clay, and Calhoun. His speech attracted marked
attention in the Senate and throughout the country. He
comraenced by calling attention to the opinions in regard to
slavery entertained by those who accoraplished the Revolution.
On this point he says : *
" There was a period in our own time when there was but one opinion
upon the question of right, or almost but one opinion upon that ques
tion. The men who fought through the Revolution, those who survived
its peril and shared in its glory, and who were called to the Convention
by which the Constitution of the United States was drafted and recom
mended to the adoption of the American people, almost without excep
tion, thought that slavery was not only an evil, to any people among'
whom it might exist, but that it was an evil of the highest character,
which it was the duty of all christian people if possible, to remove,
because it was a sin as well as an evU.
" I think the history of those times will bear me out in the statement,
that if the men by whom that Constitution was framed, and the people
by whom it was adopted, had anticipated the times in which we live,
they would have provided by constitutional enactment, that that evil and
that sin should at some comparatively unremote day be removed. With
out recurring to authority, the writings public or private of the men of
that day, it is suificient for my purpose to state what the facts will jus
tify me in saying, that every man of them who largely shared in the
dangers of the revolutionary struggle, and who largely participated in
the deliberations of the Convention by which the Constitution was
adopted, earnestly desired, not only upon grounds of political economy
not only upon reasons material in their character, but upon grounds
of morality and religion, that sooner or later the institution should
terminate." * Congressional Globe, Vol. 51, p. 1419.

REVERDY JOHNSON'S SPEECH, 463
He thus expresses his emphatic concurrence with Jefferson,
in regard to the injustice of slavery : *
" I concurred, and concur still, in the judgment of the great apostle
of American liberty, the author of that Declaration which is to live
through all time as the Magna Charta of human rights, that in a con
test between the slave to throw off his thralldom, and the master who
holds him to it, the God of justice could take no part in favor of the
latter. And as I have said to the Senate already, and alluded to it on
a former occasion, my opinion upon the institution is not now for the
first time announced."
He charges that the election of Mr. Lincoln, so far from
being the cause of the rebellion, was hailed with joy by the
conspirators, as furnishiag an occasion for the execution of
their long concocted conspiracy: f
" The present incumbent ofthe Presidential Chair, was elected, elected
by a sectional vote, and the moment the news reached Charleston where
some of the leading conspirators were, and here in this Chamber
where others were to be found, it was hailed not with regret but with
delight. Why? Because, as they thought, it would enable them to
drive the South to madness, by appealing to the danger in which such
an event involved this institution, which the people were made to believe
was so essential to their power and to their happiness, and that will be
repeated over and over again, just as long as the institution is suffered
to remain. Terminate it, and the wit of man will, as I think, be unable
to devise any other topic upon which we can be involved in a fratricidal
strife. God and nature, judging by the history of the past, intend us
to be one. Our unity is written in the mountains and rivers in which
we all have an interest. The very difference of climate render each
important to the other and alike important. That mighty horde which
from time to time have gone from the Atlantic, imbued with all the
principles of human freedom which animated their fathers in running
the perils of the mighty deep, and seeking liberty here, are now there,
and as they have said, they will continue to say, until time shall be no
more: ' We mean that the Government in future shall be as in the past,
one, an example of human freedom for the light and example of the
world, and illustrating in the blessings and the happiness it confers, the
truth ofthe principles incorporated into the Declaration oflndependence
that life and liberty are man's inalienable right.' "
*' Congressional Globe, Vol. 51, p. 1420.
t Congressional Globe, Vol. 51, p. 1424.

464 LINCOLN AND TIIE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The young and prosperous free-soil State of Iowa, through
her distinguished Senator, Harlan, was next heard in favor
of the amendment. Mr. Harlan had been a rainister of the
Methodist Episcopal Church; and he discussed with great
ability, the violation of morals and Christianity gi-owing out
of slavery. He showed that the prohibition of the marital
relation was a necessary incident of slavery as it existed in
raost of the slave States. The abrogation of the conjugal
relation among four millions of human beings ought never to
be permitted by a Christian people. Slavery abrogated prac
tically the parental relation; it rendered the slave incapable
of acquiring or holding property; its tendency was, to reduce
him mentally and moraUy to the condition of the beast.
Mr. Saulsbury of Delaware, advocated slavery as a divine
institution. Then came a characteristic speech from the
old anti-slavery leader John P. Hale. He said, "the
day he and many others had long wished for, hoped for,
striven for, had come. The Nation was now to comraence
a new life." He called attention to the contrast between the
grandeur and sublimity of the truths embraced in the Declar
ation of Independence, and the degradation and infamy
involved in the practical disregard by the Nation, of these
truths. Senator McDougal of California, upon whom did not fall
the mantle of the martyred Broderick, but who in his better
days was a fine scholar and dialectician, misrepresented the
Pacific coast by opposing the amendment.
Senator Henderson of Missouri, announced in clear lang
uage, the issue to be, " the Union without slavery, or the ac
knowledgment of the Southern Confederacy." He announced
at the same time, that he was a slaveholder; " but," said he,
" we cannot save the institution if we would, and we ought
not if we could." He closed by expressing the hope that the
abolition of slavery would be the means of bringing about
a lasting peace, upon which National freedom could be built
upon National strength, and that from this era, we might
date a more perfect National unity.
The Senators from Kentucky opposed vehemently the
amendment.

DEBATE ON THE CONSITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 465
Charles Sumner on behalf of Massachusetts, and of the
friends of the amendment, closed the great debate. He
showed clearly that slavery fouud no warrant for its exist
ence in the Constitution, and that it existed in defiance of its
principles. Tet he would prohibit it by express enactment.
He brought to the discussion his rich stores of historical
knowledge — the writings of the poets, historians, and etates-
men of the past. He declared that the amendment would
be the cap-stone upon the sublime structure of American
liberty. On the 8th of April, the araendraent was adopted in the
Senate by ayes 38, noes 6. Those voting in the negative were
Davis and Powell of Kentucky, McDougal of California,
Hendricks of Indiana, and Saulsbury and Riddle of Dela
ware. Let us now pass to the consideration of the amend
ment in the popular branch of Congress.
We have seen, that in the House of Representatives, early
in the session, propositions for amending the Constitution,
abolishing and prohibiting slavery were introduced. On the
15th oP February, 1864, on motion of Mr. Arnold of Illinois,
the House adopted the following resolution :
" Resolved, That the Constitution should be so amended, as to abolish
slavery in the United States wherever it now exists, and to prohibit its
existence in every part thereof, forever." *
This, it is believed, was the first resolution ever adopted in
Congress in favor of the entire abolition of slavery. Although
it passed by a decided majority, it was doubtful whether the
amendment offered, could obtain the two-thirds vote required
by the Constitution for its passage.
The very decided vote in its favor in the Senate, the pres
sure of a constantly increasing public sentiment demanding
its passage, it was hoped would carry it through. The Pres
ident used all the means in his power to secure its success.
He personally urged all on whom he could exert an infiuence,
to vote for it. The discussion upon the proposition began on
the 81st of May, and it was not finally brought to a vote until
the 15th of June. It was opposed by Messrs. Plolman of
* Congressional Globe, Vol. 50, p. 659. -
30

466 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Indiana, Pruyn and Fernando Wood of New York, Ross of
Illinois, Mallory of Kentucky, and Cox and Pendleton of
Ohio, and by nearly all the deraocratic raembers of the House.
It was earnestly advocated by Wilson of Iowa, Messrs.
Arnold, Farnsworth and Ingersoll of Ilhnois, Higby of
California, KeUy of Pennsylvania, and many others.
In favor of its passage it was said : *
" Slavery to-day is an open enemy, striking at the heart of the Re
public. It is the soul, and body, and spirit of the rebellion. It is slavery
which marshals yonder rebel hosts which confront the patriot armies
pf Grant and Sherman. It is the savage spirit of this barbarous insti
tution which starves the Union prisoners at Richmond, which assassinates
them at Fort Pillow, which murders the wounded on the field of battle,
and which fills up the catalogue of wrong and outrage which mark the
conduct of the rebels during this war. In view of all the long catalogue
of wrongs which slavery has inflicted upon the country, I demand to
day of the Congress of the United States the death of African slavery.
We can have no permanent peace while slavery lives. It now reels and
staggers towards its last death struggle. Let us strike the monster this
last decisive blow.
" The Thirty-seventh Congress will live in history as the Congress
which prohibited slavery in all the territories of the Union, and abolished
it at the National Capitol. The President of the United States will be
remembered as the author of the Proclamation of Emancipation, as the
liberator of a race, the apostle of freedoci, the great emancipator of his
country. The Thirty-eighth Congress, if we pass this joint resolution,
will live in history as that which consummated the great work of freeing
a continent from the curse of human bondage. Never since the day
when John Adams plead for the Declaration of Independence, has so
important a question been submitted to an American Congress, as that
upon which you are now about to vote. The signing of the immortal
Declaration is a familiar picture in every log cabin and home, all over
the land. Pass this resolution and the grand spectacle of this vote
which knocks off the fetters of a whole race, will make this scene
immortal. " Live a century, nay a thousand years, and no such opportunity to
do a great deed for humanity, for liberty, for peace and for your country
will ever again present itself. Pass this joint resolution and you win a
victory over wrong and injustice, lasting as eternity. The whole world
• Congressional Globe, Vol. 53, p. 2988-89.

DEBATE ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 467
will rise up to do you honor. Every lover of liberty in Germany, France,
Italy, Great Britain, the world, will rise up and call you blessed. The
gallant soldiers in the field who are giving their lives for liberty and
Union will call down upon you the blessings of heaven. Let the light
nings of God, (fit instruments for the glorious message,) transmit to the
toiling and struggling soldiers of Sherman, and Hunter, and Butler, and
Grant, the thrilling words ' slavery abolished forever,' and their joyous
shouts wil. strike terror into the ranks of the rebels and traitors fighting
for tyranny and bondage. The thousands of wounded in the hospitals
around this Capital, would hail the intelligence as a battle fought, and
a great victory won.
" This Constitutional amendment has passed the Senate, long regarded
as the citidel of the slave power; how strange if it should fail in the
popular branch of Congress ! The people and the States are eager and
impatient to ratify it. WUl those who claim to represent the ancient
democracy refuse to give the people an opportunity to vote upon it? Is
this your confidence in the loyal masses? The passage of this resolution
will strike the rebellion at the heart. I appeal to border State men and
democrats of the free States; look over your country; see the bloody
footsteps of slavery. See the ruin and desolation which it has brought
upon our once happy land; and I ask, why stay the hand now ready to
strike down to death, the cause of all these evils ? why seek to prolong
the life, to restore to vigor, the institution of slavery, now needing but
this last act to doom it to everlasting death and damnation ? Gentle
men may flatter themselves with the hope of a restoration of the slave
power in this country. ' The Union as it was ! ' It is a dream never
again to be realized. The America ofthe past, is gone forever! A new
nation is to be born from the agony through which the people are now
passing. This new nation is to be wholly free. Liberty, equality before
the law, is to be the great corner stone. Much yet remains to be done
to secure this. Many a battle on the field has yet to be fought and won
against the mighty power which fights for slavery, the barbarous system
of the past. Many a battle has yet to be won on the higher sphere of
moral conflict. While our gallant soldiers are subduing the rebels in the
field, let us second their efforts by sweeping from the statute book
every stay, and prop, and shield of human slavery, the scourge of our
country, and let us crown all by incorporating into our organic law, the
law of universal liberty. For myself, I mean to fight this cause of the
war, this cursed cause of all the expenditure of blood and treasure,
from which my country is now suffering, this institution which has filled
our whole land with desolation, sorrow, and anguish. I mean to fight
it, until neither on statute book nor the Constitution, shall there be left

468 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
a single sentence or word which can be construed to sanction the stu
pendous wrong. Let us now, to-day, in the name of liberty, justice,
and of God, consummate this grand revolution. Let us to-day, make our
country, our whole country ' the home of the free.'
" I conclude in the language of the President : ' 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. ' "
Mr. Pendleton of Ohio, in a closing speech, rallied the de
mocratic party against the amendment. The vote was nine
ty-three in favor of the araendraent, sixty-five against it —
not voting, twenty-three. Not having a majority of two-
thirds, the resolution failed. The democratic party voted
nearly solid against it. Messrs. Bailey of Pennsylvania, Col
onel Cobb of Wisconsin, Griswold and Odell of Nev/- Tork,
were exceptions.
Before the vote was announced, James M. Ashley of Ohio,
changed his vote from the affirmative to the negative, for the
purpose of entering a motion to reconsider. The subject
went over to the next session. Meanwhile, the adoption of
the amendment, and the longer existence of slavery passed
into an issue to be decided at the approaching Presidential
election. During the struggle on the Constitutional araendraent, the
President manifested the utmost anxiety that it should pass.
On the 1st of January, 1864, he received his friends, and
many congratulations were expressed, on account of the im
proved prospects of the country. The decisive victories in
the West, and the successes in the East, gave a more buoyant
tone to all visiting the White House. One of the most de
voted friends of Mr. Lincoln calling upon him, after exchang
ing congratulations over the progress of the Union armies
during the past year, said :
" I hope Mr. President, one year from to-day I may have the pleasure
of congratulating you on the consummation of three events which seem
now very probable. ' What are they? ' said Mr. Lincoln.
" First, That the rebellion may be completely crushed. Second, That
slavery may be entirely destroyed, and prohibited forever throughout

THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 469
the Union. Third, That Abraham Lincoln may have been triumphantly
reelected President of the United States.
" I would be very glad ' said Mr. Lincoln, with a twinkle in his eye.
' I think I would compromise, by obtaining the first two propositions.' "
A democratic raember had a brother mortally wounded at
Chancellorsville. Mr. Lincoln's kindness to him while in the
hospital at Washington, visiting him, and relieving every
want, won the heart of the Congressman, and sometime after
wards, he expressed his gratitude so warmly, that the Presi
dent during the debate in the House on the Constitutional
araendraent, and while the result was doubtful, at a reception,
said to the raeraber, " your brother died to save the Republic
from death by the slaveholders rebeUion. I wish you could see
it to be your duty to vote for the Constitutional amendment
ending slavery."
No selfish consideration was suggested ; but the appeal to
duty coraing from the President to an honest and grateful
heart, was successful. Party ties were broken, and the vote
given for the amendment.

CHAPTEE XXI.

EECONSTRUCTION— FREEDMEN'S BUREAU— CENSURE OP HARRIS
AND LONG.
Reconstruction — Amnesty — Henry Winter Davis' Bill —
Question or Admission op Senators from Arkansas — Freed
men's Bureau — Speech op Brooks — Expulsion op Long —
Censure oe Harris — Speech op Winter Davis.
THE subject of reconstruction had been presented to Con
gress by the President in his annual Message of December
1863. He said that looking to the present and the future,
with reference t« a resumption of the National authority
within the States wherein that authority had been suspend
ed, he had thought fit to issue a proclamation in which he
thought nothing was attempted but what was justified by the
Constitution. This proclamation proffered a full pardon,
with the restoration of all rights of property except as to
slaves, and when the rights of third persons had intervened,
on condition of an oath of fidelity to the Constitution of the
United States, and support to all acts of Congress passed
during the rebellion on the subject of slavery, and also the
Proclamation of Eraancipation.* From the persons to whom
this offer of pardon was extended, were excepted, all officers
of the Confederate Government, all who left judicial stations
under the United States to aid the rebeUion, military and
naval officers of the rebel government above the rank of col
onel in the army and lieutenant in the navy, and all who had
been engaged in treating white or colored persons otherwise
than as prisoners of war.
* Thus it will be seen, that from the beginning, Mr. Lincoln determli.ed that re
construction should have for its basis universal freedom.
470

reconstruction. 471
In this proclamation Mr. Lincoln manifested his fixed de
termination that slavery should cease in the reconstructed
Union, and that the faith ofthe Nation pledged to the colored
race should be fully and scrupulously kept. Fidelity, — fidel
ity to the freedmen, breathed through every paper Mr. Lin
coln ever issued on the subject. In regard to the reorganiza
tion of States he said : " In some States, the eleraents for
resuraption seems ready for action, but remain inactive for
the want of a plan of action. By the proclamation, a plan
is presented which the people are assured will not be rejected
by the Executive." The plan suggested was, that when one
tenth of the voters in any State who had voted in 1860, should
take the required oath, and organize and reestablish a State
government which should be republican in form, and no
wise contravening said oath, it would be recognized by the
Executive as the government of the State. He further sug
gested that in constituting a loyal State governraent, the
naraes and boundaries of the old States raight be properly
and conveniently retained. This would avoid inconvenience
and confusion.
Does not such a suggestion negative the idea that the State
as such still existed, as a State in the 'Union, and a component
pari of the Government, and could of itself resurae its forraer
relations to the Union ? He added, in presenting the subject
to Congress, " to avoid raisunderstanding, that in saying re
construction will be accepted, if presented in a specified way
— is not saying it would be rejected if presented in any other
way." There was a wide difference of opinion among the friends
of the President in regard to the Amnesty Proclamation.
In the midst of the fierce passions and animosities growing
out of the war, many thought the terms much too favorable
to the rebels. But the conviction of the President was clear
that when there was sincere repentance manifested by action,
it was the duty of the Executive to pardon. He said, " when
a man is sincerely penitent for his misdeeds, and gives
satisfactory evidence of it, he can safely be pardoned."
It is known that he was very anxiously seeking the resto
ration of some one, or more of the seceded States. He

472 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
earnestly desired to make a beginning in this direction. He
desired a model for the seceded states to follow, and he looked
impatiently for the day when a slave and rebeUious State
might return as a free and loyal raeraber of the Union.
The mode of governing the rebellious States, and the
manner of their resuming their former relations to the gov
ernment, had been the subject of discussion in Congress in
1861 and 1862, but no definite action was taken. The Pres
ident's Message on the subject was, on the 15th of December
1868, referred to a select committee, of which Henry Win
ter Davis was Chairman. In the discussion on the subject
of reconstruction at this session of Congress, began those
differences of opinion which have since been promoted by bad
temper, intemperate and violent language, and ambition, and
have finaUy resulted in the alienation which has grown into
open hostility between Congress and the Executive duriug
the administration of Mr. Johnson.
. As has been stated the relations of the rebel States to the
National Government, and in what way they should be gov
erned during the period which should intervene before their
restoration to their former relations, and the manner in which
those relations should be restored, early became a subject of
anxious consideration by the thoughtful statesmen of the re
public. As early as December 1861, Senator Harlan intro
duced a bill to establish a provisional government in the re
bellious States. Mr. Sumner, in February 1862, introduced
a series of resolutions declaratory of his views ofthe relations
between the United States and the territory thus " usurped
by pretended governments without legal or constitutional
rights." Various bills were reported to the House, and in
troduced into the Senate, to estabUsh provisional governments
over the territory in rebellion. No final action was had upon
these measures. They were generally regarded as premature,
aud it was thought that while in the condition of war, rail
itary governments were perhaps the most convenient form in
which proper governmental control could be exercised. The
President, under the military power had appointed provis
ional governors in North Carolina, Louisiana, Tennessee and
Arkansas.

reconstruction. 473
In December 1863, Mr. Stevens of Pennsylvania proposed
the forraation of a select committee to which should be re
ferred so much of the President's message as relates to th«
treatment of the rebeUious States. Henry Winter Da-vis,
the brilliant orator and bold leader of the Union party in
Maryland, moved to amend the resolution providing for a
select committee, to which should be referred so much of the
President's Message as relates to the duty of the United
States to guarantee a republican forra of government to the
several States, which committee should report the bills neces
sary to prepare to carry into execution that guarantee. The
resolution as amended by Mr. Davis passed, and the commit
tee was raised, and the mover Mr. Davis as has been stated,
was made chairman.
On the 15th of February 1864, the committee reported " a
bill to guarantee a republican form of government to certain
States whose governments have been overthrown." The bill
among other things, authorized the appointment by the Pres
ident of a Provisional Governor. It provided that as soon
as military resistance should be overcome, the white male
citizens should be enrolled, and conventions to frame new
constitutions should be called. No person who had exercised
any civil, military, state, or confederate office during the
rebellion, or who had voluntarily borne arms against the
United States, should vote, or be eligible as a delegate to such
convention. The constitutional conventions were required
to insert provisions providing : "1st, that no person who had
held office under the rebeUious government, state or confed
erate except railitary officers under the grade of colonel,
should vote for, or be eligible for a meraber of the legislature
or Governor. 2d, slavery should be forever prohibited, and
freedom secured to all ; and 3d, all state and confederate
debts created in aid of the rebeUion should be repudiated."
This bill was earnestly advocated as a bill to restore ci-ril
government in States where no governments recognized by
the United States existed. The suppression of the rebellion
and the overthrow of hostile governments existing in the
rebel States would leave the territory which had been waging
war against the United States, without any civil government
which Congress could recognize. It was the clear duty of

474 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Congress to inaugurate a government, republican in form,
and to prescribe such conditions as would give security in
the future. The bill alter much discussion passed both
Houses of Congress, but being presented to the President
less than one hour before the adjournment it was not signed
by him, he desiring time to consider the very grave questions
raised by the act. On the 8th of July, he issued a preclara
ation calling attention to the provisions of the bill as a plan
for restoration, which, while not approving, to the exclusion
of others, and as infiexibly coraraitting hiraself to this single
plan, yet hepresentedlt as worthy of consideration, and ex
pressed his willingness to give it the Executive sanction
and aid ; and he announced that as soon as military resist
ance should be overcome in any State, and the people suffi
ciently returned to their obedience to the Constitution and
laws of the United States, he would proceed to appoint a mil
itary governor with instructions to proceed according to the
provisions of the bill.* His great objection to the bill was
that it abrogated the proceedings by which free State govern
ments had already been organized in Arkansas and Louisi
ana, and would require that the people of those States should
begin again, and all that had been done in these States was as
nothing. He was extremely anxious that some of the seceding
States should as soon as possible be again recognized and repre
sented in Congress, — believing that such an example would ex
ert a powerful infiuence upon the others. Had the existing free
State governments of Louisiana, and Arkansas been recog
nized and sanctioned by the bUl, his principal objection to it
would have been removed. The failure of Mr. Lincoln to
sign this bill regulating the subject of reconstruction, called
forth from Senator Wade of Ohio, and Henry Winter Davis,
a paper severely censuring him for the omission ; a paper
written with distinguished ability, but with a temper too per
sonal for the discussion of a question so grave. Had Mr.
Lincoln lived, no serious evil would have resulted from his
failure to sign the bill referred to. I feel fully warranted
from his whole administration, frora the tone of his procla
mation on the subject of this bill, from his uniformly kind,
» McPherson, page 318-319.

RECONSTRUCTION. 475
courteous and respectful treatment of Congress, and frora
the fact that there was really no serious difference of opinion
between hira and Congress, in saying that there would have
been no division between Congress and hiraself on this subject.
Since Mr. Lincoln's death, all who have appreciated the
great national misfortune resulting from the separation of
President -lohnson frora the raen who elected him Vice Pres
ident, and his estrangement from Congress, must deeply re
gret that this bill, or some bill embodying the views of Con
gress, did not becorae a law before the accession of Mr. John
son to the Presidency.
The subject of reconstruction, and the views of Mr. Lin
coln upon the subject, were still further disussed in the Sen
ate on the presentation of the credentials of Messrs Fishback
and Baxter, claiming to be Senators elect from the State of
Arkansas. On the 18th of June 1864 a joint resolution for
the recognition of the free State government of Arkansas
was considered. Mr. Sumner said : *
" William M. Fishback, a citizen of Arkansas, appears be
fore the Senate of the United States, and claims membership therein.
He asserts that he has been duly chosen to fill the unexpired term of
Senator Sebastian, who was expelled in 1861 for complicity with the
rebellion, and he produces a certificate purporting to be signed by the
Governor of Arkansas.
" Shall this claimant be admitted to a seat in the Senate ? Such is
the immediate question. But I have said that there are other ques
tions, of the most far reaching character, which must be considered
now and here ; for they all enter into the present case. If we now
admit the present claimant, we must also now admit that other claim
ant who has presented himself with like credentials, as a colleague. The
question is not, therefore, shall Arkansas have one vote in this Senate ?
but shall it have two ?
" Therefore, sir, I repeat, the decision ofthe question now before us
rules all the questions which can arise upon the representation of Ar
kansas in the Congress of the United States, and also the other ques
tion of the participation of Arkansas in the election of President and
Vice President for the term of four years next ensuing. The impor
tance of such a subject cannot be exaggerated."
• Congressional Globe, 1st session 38th Congress, page 289a

476 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The power of the President upon the question of institut
ing governments in the Rebel States, is that which he pos
sesses as Commander-in-chief of the army. This is provis
ional and temporary. Permanent civil governraent to last be
yond the war, with the right of representation in Congress,
and in the electoral college, cannot, Mr. Suraner contended,
be initiated by the President. The National safety as well
as the theory of our governraent requires that it should be
exercised by the law making power of the republic.
What were Mr. Lincoln's views on the subject? He ap
pointed military governors, and most earnestly desired the
early restoration of the rebel States. But his proclamation
by its very terms necessarily implied the action of Congress
in the restoration of a State to the Union. Upon this question
Mr. Sumner said :
" There is first the positive declaration that ' whether members sent
to Congress from any State shall be admitted to seats rests constitution
ally, exclusively with the respective Houses, and not to any extent with
the Executive.' But the language of the proclamation and of the ac
companying message plainly assumes that the rebel States have lost
their original character as States of the Union.* Thus in one place the
President says that ' loyal State Governments have for a long time been
subverted.' But if subverted, they are no longer States. In another
place he proposes ' to re-inaugurate loyal State Governments.' But a
proposition to re-inaugurate, implies a new start. In another place he
proposes to reestabhsh a State Government which shall be Republican.'
But we do not reestablish a Government which continues to exist. In
another place he proposes to ' set up ' a State Government in the mode
prescribed. But whatever requires to be set up is evidently down. In
another place he seeks to guarantee and protect a ' revived State Gov
ernment.' But we revive only what is dead, or at least faint. There is
still another place, where the President evidently looks to the possibility
of a change of name, boundary, subdivision, constitution, and general
code of laws in the restored State. These are his identical words : ' And
it is suggested as not improper that in constructing a loyal State Gov
ernment in a State, the name of the State, the boundary, the subdi
visions, the constitution, and the general code of laws, as before the re
bellion, be maintained.' Thus the President does not insist that even
the name and boundary of a State shall be preserved. He contents
* Encyclopedia of 1864, p. 312-13.

RECONSTRUCTION. 477
himself with suggesting that it will not be < improper ' to preserve them
' in constructing a loyal State Government.' " *
The Senate finally adopted the following important
resolution on the subject :
" Resolved, That a Stale pretending to secede from the Union, and
battling against the National Government to maintain this pretension,
must be regarded as a rebel State, subject to military occupation, and
without title to representation on this fioor until it has been re-admitted
by a vote of both Houses of Congress; and the Senate will decline to
entertain any apphcation from any such rebel State until after such vote
of both Houses of Congress." "j"
The condition of the Freedmen, thoge who had by the oper
ations of the war, the various acts of Congress, and the Eman
cipation Proclamation been emancipated and made free,
early attracted the attention of the humane and the patriotic.
Having been bondraen, they had acquired no property. Edu
cation had been prohibited to thera, the fruits of their indus
try had been appropriated by their raasters, and thus a whole
race hitherto incapable of holding property, homeless, and
with Uttle education, must, in the midst of civil war, and
among a people exasperated against them, learn to take care
of themselves. It was obvious that they needed kindly aid,
guidance, assistance. The benevolent, religious and patriotic
of the loyal states were ready to aid, and voluntary associa
tions did aid them with food, clothing, schools, religious
instruction and books. But as they were the wards of the
Republic, and their able bodied men were largely in the army
fighting its battles, it was felt that the Governraent itself
should aid and protect them. Mr. EUiot of Massachusetts,
in January, 1864, reported a bill providing for the estabUsh
ment of a Bureau of Emancipation. He, and its other friends
eloquently urged its passage. After full discussion the bill
passed the House. Going to the Senate, it was amended and
modified, and coraing back again to the House, was postponed
to the next session.
It was during the discussion in the House on this biU on
the 19th of February, 1864, that James Brooks, a democratic
* Encyclodia of 1861, p. 314.
t Congressional Globe, First Session Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 2898.

478 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
member of Congress frora the city of New York, in a speech
of great vigor and coraprehensiveness, startled his demoratic
brethren by announcing the death of salvery ! The speech
was remarkable, as showing the progress of events and of
public sentiment on the slavery question. Mr. Brooks had
long been the editor of the New York Express; he v,^a8 a
gentleman of fine culture, a conservative whig in the days of
the whig party, and a bitter opponent of abolition. But he
yielded to the logic of events.*
" Sir," said he, " the abolition of slavery is a fixed fact, a
fact accomplished. I must accept it. I cannot close my eyes
upon it, any more than upon the sun, or upon the sunshine,
the tornado or the storra. What is written is written; and I
must be blind if I did not s ee that slavery is abolished. I
cannot help it, I cannot avoid it. Massachusetts has ordained
it, and the country accepts."
The eloquent gentleraan exaggerated the power and influ
ence which Massachusetts had secured by her free schools
and her cultivated intellect when he exclairaed, " Massachu
setts is the leading power in this land. Whatever she decrees
is in all probability to be law. She exercises the same control
over this vast country which stretches from the Passama-
quady to the Bio Grande, and frora the Bio Grande to the
Pacific, that was exercised by imperial Rome on the little
Tiber, from the Pillars of Hercules to the Euphrates and the
Tigris. Boston, her Capital, is well called the " hub " of our
universe: * * * and emancipation is a Massachusetts
thunderbolt. " And I know the spirit of Massachusetts. I
know her inexorable, unappeasable, demoniac energy. I
know that what she decrees, she will execute." But although
Mr. Brooks announced the death of slavery, it still lived in
Kentucky, and elsewhere, although it was in a dying condi
tion. Mr. Brooks was admonished by a member from the
West, " that in the days of Cromwell, it was supposed that
monarchy was dead in England, yet but a few years passed,
and Charles H, sat upon the throne of his ancestors, and
monarchy was in full sway. " God_ save the country," said
he, " from the return of the slave Kings. Therefore let us
• Congressional Globe, First Session Thirty-eighth Congress, Part I, p, 761.

GARFIELD REBUKES LONG. 479
take security for the future by amending the Constitution,
abolishing slavery, and prohibiting it forever."
One of the most interesting debates of this eventful session
arose on the motion made by Schuyler Colfax, the Speaker
of the House, for the expulsion of Alexander Long, a mera
ber of Congress frora Ohio, for words spoken in debate.
Long was a red faced, portly gentleraan, of violent secession
sympathies, and a disciple of Yallandighara. He raade a
speech disapproving the war, prophesying disaster and de
feat, and despotisra, and declaring himself in favor of recog
nizing the Confederates as a Nation ! General Garfield, his
impulsive, generous, patriotic colleague, the same, who, al
though a Baptist preacher, had volunteered in the war and
served with courage, and ability in the field, and had distin
guished himself particularly as Chief of General Rosecrans'
staff at Chickaraauga, imraediately on Long's taking his seat,
rose and, asked " that a white fiag might be placed between
bis colleague and himself." He then recalled an incident
of the war occurring on the field, in which under the folds
of a white fiag he had approached a party of Confederates,
aud extending his hand to one, said to him that he respected
him as a brave raan, though disloyal, and a traitor. " I be
held," said he, " a brave and honest soul." " So of my col
league; I honor his bravery, his candor and his frankness."
" But now," he continued. " take away the flag of truce, and
I will go back within the Union lines and speak of what he
has done." Then in a voice of eloquence which thrilled the
gaUeries and the HaU, he exclairaed:
" Now, when hundreds of thousands of brave souls have have gone up
to God under the shadow of the flag, and when thousands more, maimed
and shattered in the contest, are sadly awaiting the deliverance of death;
now, when three years of terrific warfare have raged over us, when our
armies have pushed the rebellion back over mountains and rivers and
crowded it into narrow limits, until a wall of fire girds it; now, when
the uplifted hand of a majestic people is about to let fall the lightning
of its conquering power upon the rebellion; now, in the quiet of this
Hall, hatched in the lowest depths of'a similar dark treason, there rises
a Benedict Arnold and proposes to surrender us all up, body and spirit,
the nation and the flag, its genius and its honor, now and forever, to

480 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the accursed traitors to our country. And that proposition comes —
God forgive and pity my beloved State! — it comes from a citizen of the
honored and loyal Commonwealth of Ohio.
" I implore you, brethren in this House, not to believe that many
births ever gave pangs to my mother State, such as she suffered when
that traitor was born. I beg you not to believe that on the soil of
that State another such growth has ever deformed the face of
nature and darkened the light of God's day. [An audible whisper,
' Vallandigham.'] " But ah, I am reminded that there are other such. My zeal and
love for Ohio have carried me too far. I retract. I remember that only
a few days since a political convention met at the capital of my State,
and almost decided to select from just such material a Representative
for the democratic party in the coming contest; and to-day, what claim to
be a majority of the democracy of that State, declare that they were
cheated, or they would have made that choice. I therefore sadly take
back the boast I first uttered in behalf of my native State. * * *
" For the first time in the history of this contest, it is proposed in
this Hall, to give up the struggle, to abandon the war, and let treason
run riot through the land! I will, if I can, dismiss feeling from my
heart, and try to consider only the logic of the speech to which we have
just listened. *********
" Suppose the policy of the gentleman were adopted to-day. Let the
order go forth; sound the ' recall' on your bugles, and let it ring from
Texas to the far Atlantic, and tell the armies to come back. Call the
victorious legions back over the battle-fields of blood, forever now dis
graced. Call them back over the territory they have conquered and
redeemed. Call them back, and let the minions of secession chase them
with derision and jeers as they come. And then tell them that that man
across the aisle, from the free State of Ohio, gave birth to the monstrous
proposition. *********
" Almost in the moment of final victory the recall is sounded by a
craven people. Every man who would sanction such a sentiment deserves
to be a slave.''
On the foUowing day, the Speaker, Mr. Colfax, calling
Mr. Dawes of Massachusetts to the Chair, introduced a res
olution for the expulsion of Long, for the reason that he
had " declared himself in favor of recognizing the inde
pendence and the nationality of the so-caUed confederacy,
now in arms against the United States, thereby givihg aid,

EXPULSION OP LONG. 481
countenance and encourageraent to persons engaged in
arraed hostility to the United States."
Colfax was a man of fervid eloquence, of great personal
kindness, and an alraost universal popular favorite.
He stated that he offered the resolution in perforraance of
a high public duty ; a duty which he owed not only to his
constituents at home, but to the thousands who were in the
tented fields, meeting in deadly confiict the armies of the
confederacy, and exposing their lives for the imperiled Union.
He said -vrith great force, that if the sentiment uttered by the
meraber from Ohio was to go unrebuked, then the republic
would have no right to coraplain of any foreign government
which should recognize the independence of the confederacy.
"You should," said he, "if such expressions are tolerated,
stop shooting deserters from the Union army, for they had
not turned their backs upon the flag, any more infiuentially
than he who rises in his place in Congress, and declares in
favor of recognizing the confederacy as one ofthe nations of
the earth."
Mr. Cox, an adroit, ready debater from Ohio, opposed the
resolution. Taking pains most emphaticaUy to disavow on
the part of himself and colleagues, the sentiments of Long,
he plead for the freedora of discussion. Harris of Maryland
said :
" I am a peace man, a radical peace man, and I am for peace by the
recognition of the confederacy. I am for acquiescense in the doctrine
of secession. I thought I was alone ; but now, thank God ! there is
another soul saved. I am glad to have such able aid."
He went on to say :
" The South asked you to let them go in peace. But no, you said
you would bring them into subjection. That is not done yet, and God
Almighty grant that it may never be. I hope that you may never
subjugate the South."
Washburne of Illinois, indignant at the expression of such
sentiraents, immediately called hira to order; the words were
taken down by the clerk and made the basis of a motion by
31

482 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Washburne to expel Harris, upon which motion the vote was
81 ayes to 58 noes ; not being two-thirds the motion failed.
General Schenck imraediately introduced a raotion declaring
Harris to be an " unworthy member" and severely censuring
him, which passed by a vote of 98 to 18, many of the dem
ocrats voting for it.
Perhaps the most impressive speech in favor of the reso-
Ition was raade by the fiery, irapetuous, yet elegant and clas
sic Henry Winter Davis. He always coraraanded the full
attention of the House and galleries, and on this occasion
the raembers gathered around him, and the usually noisy
House of Representatives was hushed into complete silence.
He said :*
" The question which we are bound as gentlemen and as legislators
to determine is, whether a gentleman, acknowledged to be respectable,
believed to be sincere, entertaining and avowing purposes which do not
differ from those of the chief of the rebel confederacy, or of the men
in armed array beyond the Potomac, bent on ejecting us from this Hall,
is the fit companion of gentlemen here, a fit depository of his constit
uent's vote, a safe person to be entrusted here with the secrets of the
United States, a worthy guardian of the existence of the Republic ?
Are we to be seriously told that the freedom of speech screens a traitor
because he puts his treasonable purposes in words ? Does the Consti
tution secure the righ( of our avowed enemies to vote in this Hall ?
May a mau impudently declare that his purpose here is so to vote as
to promote the success of the rebellion, to embarrass and paralyze the
Government in its suppression, to secure its triumph and our over
throw, to bring the armed enemy to Washington, or arrest our army
lest it exterminate that enemy : then why do not the Congress at
Richmond adjourn to Washington, push us from our stools, and by par
liamentary tactics under the Constitution, arrest the wheels of Govern
ment ? You could not expel them ! Sir, that picture is history, recent
history. In 1860, that side of the House swarmed with the avowed
enemies of the Republic. One after one as their stars dropped from
the firmanent of the Union, they went out ; some with tears in their
eyes over the miseries they werp about to inflict; some of them with
exultation over the coming calamities ; some of them with contempt
uous bitterness to the members in the Hall ; some staid behind to do
the traitor's business in the disguise of honest legislators in both
Houses as long as they dared. One disgraced the Senate for one long
* Congressional Globe, 1st Sess. 38 Congress, p. 1550.

SPEECH OP HENRY WINTER DAVIS. 483
session after armed men were soaking their native soil with their blood,
and now he is in the ranks of our enemies.
'•Suppose that in the French Assembly, when the life of France was at
stake, as the life of this Nation is now at stake, and when heroic men
were struggling to maintain it, some one had arisen and proposed to call
back the Bourbons, and place the reins of Government in their hands
— how long would he have remained a member of that body ? Sup
pose that the day before the battle of Culloden, or the day after
the battle of Preston Pans, some Jacobite had arisen in the House of
Commons of England, and declared himself of the opinion that the
pretender could not be expelled without the extermination of the Jaco
bites, and that therefore they should place him on the throne of Eng
land ! Do you think the traditional liberty of speech in England would
have saved him from summary expulsion ? Do you think there is any
law in England that could have stood between him, and, not expulsion,
but death ? Would not the act have been considered a crime, and the
declaration of it in Parliament have been considered but an aggravation
of the crime, demanding his expulsion ? Would not the vote of that
body have been instantaneous, and his execution swiftet than that vote ?
" Are we to be told here that men are to rise in this Hall, when the
guns of the impending battle will echo in our ears, when we only sit
here because we have one hundred and fifty thousand bayonets between
us and the enemy ; when Washington is a great camp, the center of
thirty miles of fortifications stretching around us for our protection ;
are we to be told that here, within this citadel of the Nation, an enemy
may beckon with his hand to the armed foe, assuring him of friends
within the people's Hall, at the very center of power, and we cannot
expel him ?"
There are few if any finer things than the following illus
tration of the freedom of opinion, and its limitations :
" Surely, sir, opinion is the life of our nation. It is the measure of
every right, the guarantee of every privilege, the protection of every
blessing. It is opinion which creates our rulers. It is opinion that
nerves or palsies their arms. It is opinion which casts down the proud
and elevates the humble. Its fluctuations are the rise and fall of par
ties ; its currents bear the nation on to prosperity or ruin. Its free
play is the condition of its purity. It is like the ocean, whose tides
rise' and fall day by day at the fickle bidding of the moon ; yet it is the
great scientific level from which every height is measured — the horizon
to which astronomers refer the motion of the stars. But, like the
ocean, it has depths whose eternal stillness is the condition of its

484 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
stability. Those depths of opinion are not free, and it is they that are
touched by the words which have so moved the House. Men must
not commit treason and say its guilt is a matter of opinion, and its pun
ishment a violation of its freedom. Men cannot swear to maintaia
the integrity of the nation, and avow their intention to destroy
it, and cover that double crime by the freedom of speech. That
is to break up the fountains of the great deep on which all govern
ment is borne, and to pour its flood in revolutionary ruin over the land.
To punish that is not a violation of the freedom of opinion or its ex
pression. It is to protect its normal ebb and flow, its free and healthy
fluctuations, that we desire to relieve it from the approbrium of being
confounded with the declarations of treasonable purposes here, in the
high and solemn assemblage of the Union."
Then in a voice that thriUed through the Representative
Hall, and which brought the leaping pulse, and the deep
breath of emotion, he exclaimed:
" When a Denjocrat shall darken the White House and the land ;
when a democratic majority here shall proclaim that freedom of speech
secures impunity to treason, and declare recognition better than exter
mination of traitors ; when McClellan and Fitz John Porter shall have
again brought the rebgl armies within sight of Washington city, and
the successor of James Buchanan shall withdraw our armies from the
unconstitutional invasion of Virginia to the north of the Potomac ;
when exultant rebels shall sweep over the fortifications, and their bomb
shells shall crash against the dome of the Capitol; when thousands
throughout Pennsylvania shall seek refuge on the shores of Lake Erie
from the rebel invasion, cheered and welcomed by the opponents of ex
termination; when Vallandigham shall be Governor of Ohio, and
Bright Governor of Indiana, and Woodward Governor of Pennsylva
nia, and Seymour Governor of Connecticut, and Wall Governor of New
Jersey, and the gentleman from New York city sit in Seymour's seat,
and thus, possessed of power over the great centre of the country, they
shall do what they attempted in vain before in the midst of rebel tri
umphs — to array the authorities of the States against those of the
United States ; to oppose the militia to the army of the United States ;
to invoke the habeas corpus to discharge confined traitors ; to deny to
the Government the benefit of the laws of war, lest it exterminate ita
enemies; when the Democrats, as in the fall of 1862, shall again with
more permanent success, persuade the people of the country that the war
should not be waged till the integrity of the territory of the Union is
restored, cost what it might, but that such a war riolatcs the spirit of

SPEECH OF HENRY WINTER DAVIS. 485
free institutions, which those who advocate it wish to overthrow, it
should stop, for the benefit of the Democratic party, somewhere this
side of absolute triumph, lest there be no room for a compromise ; when
gentlemen of that party in New York shall again, as in November 1862,
hold illegal and criminal negotiations with Lord Lyons, and avow their
purposes to him, the representative of a foreign and unfriendly power,
and urge him to arrange the time of proffering mediation with a view
to their possession of power and their preparation of the minds of the
public to receive suggestions from abroad ; and when mediation shall
appear by the event, to be the first step toward foreign intervention,
swiftly and surely followed by foreign armed enemies upon our shores
to join the domestic enemies ; when the war in the cars shall begin,
which was menaced at the outbreak of the rebelhon, and the friends of
Seymour shall make the streets of New York run with blood, on the eve
of another Gettysburg less damaging to their hopes ; when the people,
exhausted by taxation, weary of sacrifices, drained of blood, betrayed
by their rulers, deluded by demagogues, into believing that peace is the
way to Union, and submission the path to victory, shall throw down
their arms before the advancing foe ; when vast chasms across every
State shall make apparent to every eye, when too late to remedy it, that
division from the South is inauguration of anarchy at the North, and
that peace without Union is the end of the Republic — then the inde
pendence of the South will be an accomplished fact, and gentlemen
may, without treason to the dead republic, rise in this migratory House,
wherever it may then be in America, and declare themselves for recog
nizing their masters at the South, rather than exterminating them !
Until that day, in the name of the American nation ; in the name of
every house in the land where there is one dead for the holy cause ; in
the name of those who stand before us in the ranks of battle ; in the
name of the liberty our ancestors have confided to us, I devote to eter
nal execration the name of him who shall propose to destroy this
blessed land, rather than its enemies.
But until that time arrive it is the judgment of the American peo
ple there shall be no compromise ; that ruin to ourselves or ruin to the
Southern rebels are the only alternatives. It is only by resolutions of
this kind that nations can rise above great dangers and overcome them
in crisis like this. It was only by turning France into a camp, resolved
that Europe might exterminate, but should not subjugate her, that
France is the leading empire of Europe to-day. It is by such a re
solve that the American people coercing a reluctant Government to
draw the sword, and stake the National existence on the integrity of the
Republic, are now anything but the fragments of a nation before the
rid, the scorn and hiss of every petty tyrant. It is because the people

486 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY,
of the United States, rising to the height of the occasion, dedicated
this generation to the sword, and pouring out the blood of their chil
dren as of no account, and avowing before high Heaven that there
should be no end to this conflict but ruin absolute, or absolute triumph,
that we now are what we are ; that the banner of the Republic still
pointing onward, floats proudly in the face of the enemy, that vast re
gions are reduced to obedience to the laws, and that a great host in armed
array now presses with steady step into the dark regions of the rebel
lion. It is only by the earnest and abiding resolution of the people,
that whatever shall be our fate, it shall be grand as the American na^
tion, worthy of that Republic which first trod the path of Empire, and
made no peace but under the banners of victory, that the American
people will survive in history.
" And that will save us. We shall succeed and not fail. I have an
abiding confidence in the firmness, the patience, the endurance of the
American people ; and, having resolved to stand in history on the great
resolve to accept of nothing but victory or ruin, victory is ours. And
if with such heroic resolve we fall, we fall with honor, and transmit the
name of liberty committed to our keeping, untarnished, to go down to
future generations. The historian of our decline and fall, contemplat
ing the ruins of the last great Republic, and drawing from its fate les
sons of wisdom on the waywardness of men, shall drop a tear as he re
cords with sorrow the vain heroism of that people who dedicated and
sacrificed themselves to the cause of freedom, and by their example will
keep alive its worship in the hearts of men, till happier generations
shall learn to walk in her paths. Yes, sir, if we must fall, let our last
hours be stained by no weakness. If we must fail, let us stand amid
the crash of the falHng Repubhc, and be buried in its ruins, so that his
tory may take note that men lived in the middle of the nineteenth cen
tury worthy of a better fate, but chastised by God for the sins of our
forefathers. Let the ruins of the Republic remain to testify to the lat
est generations our greatness and our heroism. And let Liberty, crown-
less and childless, sit upon these ruins, crying aloud in a sad wail to
the nations of the world, " I nursed and brought up children, and they
have rebelled against me."
Mr. Pendleton of Ohio, closed the debate on the demo
cratic side ofthe House. He was a gentleman offine culture,
of graceful manners, and, as the candidate of his party for
Yice President, in 1864, one of the most popular young men
of his party. His speech in reply to Winter Davis was very

SPEECH OF PENDLETON. 487
able. He said, aUuding to the freedom of debate in the
British Parliament : *
" I had intended to go back to those splendid demonstrations of Eng
lish liberty which occurred at the time of our Revolution. I had in
tended to recall to you the words of Lord Chatham uttered time and
again in the British Parliament against the then pending war in Ame
rica. The inexorable hour rule bids me be brief In January, 1776,
he said :
" ' The gentleman tells us America is obstinate, America is almost in
open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. Three million
people so dead to all the feelings of hberty as voluntarily to submit to
be slaves, would have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest.'
" And Mr. Burke, in 1781, after the surrender of Yorktown had
secured the defeat of the British in America, exclaimed :
" ' The noble lord said the war was not disgraceful; it was only un
fortunate. For my part I must continue to call it disgraceful, not un
fortunate. I consider them all alike, victories and defeats; towns taken
and towns evacuated; new generals appointed and old generals recalled;
they are all alike calamities; they all spur us on to this fatal business.
Victories give us hopes; defeats make us desperate; and both instigate
us to go on.' * * * * ' Give us back our force nor protract this
burdensome, disgraceful, for it is not an unfortunate war.'
" And yet, were they censured ? Did the ' first gentleman of England'
leave the Speaker's chair to move a vote of censure or expulsion ?
" But why go so far back? Within this year, in the French Chamber,
Thiers, returning after twelve years of exile from office and honors,
raised his voice for the liberty of France : ' Give us a free press ; give
us free ballot; give us free debate in these halls — these are the essen
tials of free government — and I will be a grateful and obedient subject
of the empire. If you will not, I warn you, that as the Dauphin did
not succeed Louis XVI, as the Duke of Reichstadt did not succeed the
great Napoleon, as the sons of Louis Philippe are now in exile, so neither
will this imperial Prince succeed to the throne of his father and per
petuate the dynasty of the second Napoleon.' And when, in the same
debate. Count Morny, the President, rudely assailed a speaker who ut
tered like sentiments, and a Councilor of State followed it up by the
use of the word ' traitor,' the indignant members with one accord rose
* Congressional Globe, First Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 1586-87.

488 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
in their places and with irresistible authority demanded that the inso
lent menial of despotic power should recall and apologize for the
offensive word. '
" And shall it be said that in the American Congress there is less free
dom of debate than in England under the house of Hanover, or in
France, when she hes a helpless victim, scarce palpitating, in the grasp
of a Bonaparte?
•' The gentleman from Maryland, [Mr. Davis,] told us last night, in
terms of eloquence which I cannot emulate, that when Lord Chathaiii,
aged, feeble, wrapped in flannel and sufl'ering from disease, came resting
upon the arm of his still greater son, to address for the last time the
British House of Lords, and to die upon the floor, he came to speak
against the dismemberment of the British empire. It is true, and what
did he say? ' I told you this war would be disastrous; I predicted its
consequences; I told you you could not conquer America; I begged
you to conciliate America; you would not heed my advice. You have
exhausted the country; you have sacrificed its men; you have wasted
its treasures; you have driven these colonies to declare their independ
ence ; you have driven them into the arms of our ancient and hated
enemy, and now, without striking a blow, without firing a shot, cowardly
under difficulties as you were truculent in success, you propose to yield
through fear to France what you have refused as justice to America."
Did it not occur to the gentleman from Maryland that possibly at a
future day when the history of that civil strife shall have been repro
duced in this land, another Chatham may come to this House and hurl
against those who are now in power these bitter denunciations because
they have shown themselves unable to make an honorable peace, even
as they have been unable to make a victorious war ?
" The gentleman from Maryland paid a splendid tribute to the' power
of public opinion. He compared it to the sea, whose tidal waves obey
the fickle bidding of the moon, and roll and swell and sway with rest
less and resistless force, and yet constitute the level from which all
height is measured. ' But, like the ocean,' said he, ' it has depths whose
eternal stillness is the condition of its stability. Those depths of opinion
are not free.' Did he forget what
 " Woo'd the slimy bottom of the deep
And mocked the dead bones which lay scattered by ?"
ijt*******
" What sights of ugly death within mine eyes !
Methought I saw a thousand fearful wrecks ! "
********
" All scattered in the bottom of the sea."

SPEECH OF PENDLETON. 489
" Sir, if there be depths of public opinion where eternal stillness
reigns, there gather, even as festering death lies in those ocean depths,
the decaying forms of truth, and right, and freedom. Eternal motion
is the condition of their purity. Did he think this resolution would for
one instant retard its progress ? Did he not know that the surging
waves wotdd wash away every trace of its existence ? Did he suppose
this puny effort woidd avail him ? The rocks of the eternal hills alone
can stay the waves of the ever roUing sea. Nothing but the principles
of truth and right can stay the onward progress of pubhc opinion in
this our country as it swells and sways and surges in this mad tempest
of passion, and seeks to find a secure resting place."
Before the vote was taken, the resolution was modified so
as to raake it a resolution of censure, instead of expulsion,
and in that shape it passed by a large majority. Long and
Harris certainly deserved the severest censure of the House,
and the failure to expel them, shows how jealously the Ame-
merican Congress guarded the freedom of debate.
The victories of liberty had been achieved by freedom of
speech, and liberty of the press. These are the agencies by
which the friends of freedom in the old world and in the new,
have combated arbitrary power. By free speech and a free
press, the free States were prepared to resist and subjugate
the slave power. The slaveholders ever feared these great
principles of American liberty. They suppressed by violence,
free discussion in the slave States. The slaveholders' rebel
lion was an appeal from the rostrum and the ballot box to
the sword. Freedom of discussion and slavery could not
exist together. The slaveholders instinctively felt this; hence
they suppressed by a mob, the free press of Cassius M. Clay,
and murdered Lovejoy at Alton. They attempted to sup
press free debate in the Capitol, in the persons of John
Quincy Adaras, Giddings and Charles Sumner. The Repub
lican party have ever been jealous of all encroachments upon
freedom of debate. It came into power with " free speech, free
press and free soil" inscribed upon its banners. Mr. Lincoln
tolerated the extremest liberty of the press, even during the
war. It was during this session of Congress, that the pioneer
abolitionist of Illinois, Owen Lovejoy died. He was deeply

490 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
raourned by his associates in Congress, and by the people,
but by none raore than by Mr. Lincoln ; although in raany
respects they were very unlike, yet there was a warm personal
attachment between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Lovejoy. Mr.
Lovejoy, though an extreme radical and ultra abolitionist,
early appreciated the President, and always had full confi
dence in his anti-slavery policy. He defended the President
from the attacks made upon him by some of the impatient
anti-slavery men of the country who did not know Mr. Lin
coln as he did. Only a few days before his death, Mr.
Lovejoy, in writing to a friend, said: *
" I have known something of the facts inside during his, (Lincoln's)
administration, and I know that he has been just as radical as any of
his Cabinet. * * * It is manifest that the great mass of the Union
ists prefer him for reelection; and it seems to me certain that the
providence of God during another term will grind slavery to powder."
Mr. Lincoln fully reciprocated the friendship of Mr.
Lovejoy. In a letter written soon after his death, he said:
" My personal acquaintance with him, (Lovejoy,) commenced only
about ten years ago, since when it has been quite intimate; and every
step in it has been one of increasing respect and esteem, ending with
his life, in no less affection on my part. It can be truly said of him,
that, while he was personally ambitious, he bravely endured the obscu
rity which the unpopularity of principles imposed, and never accepted
official honors until those honors were ready to admit his principles
with him. Throughout my heavy and perplexing responsibilities here,
to the day of his death, it would scarcely wrong any other, to say he
was my most generous friend. Let him have the marble monument,
along with the well-assured and more endearing one in the hearts of
those who love liberty unselfishly for all men." f
The vast railitary operations which were being carrid on,
over a territory, continental in its raagnitude, and with forces
upon land and water, unparallelled for their extent, required
expenditures so vast, as to call forth the predictions of the
financiers of the old world, that the republic would break
* Letter to WiUiam Lloyd Garrison, dated February 22d, 1864.
t See letter of Mr. Lincoln to John H. Bryant, dated May 30th, 1864.

THE FINANCES. 491
down under the pecuniary burdens iraposed. But the people
with the sarae patriotic zeal which sent into the Union array
during the war, nearly two raillions of raen, placed their
property at the disposal of the Governraent.
The revenues of the country, were increased by taxation,
self-imposed, seven fold during the war. The popular loans,
diffused through all the people, amounted to twenty seven
hundred and fifty millions of dollars.
To meet the accruing interest upon the public debt, and to
defray expenses, the tariff of duties on imports was largely
increased ; and the system of internal revenue by taxation,
BO amended as greatly to increase the revenues of the
Government. It was at the first session of the Thirty-eighth Congress,
that the Bureau of National currency was created, and Hugh
McCuUoch, a distinguished banker of Indiana was placed
by President Lincoln at the head of it.
The Bureau of Military Justice was established, and Joseph
Holt, a distinguished Unionist of Kentucky placed at its
head.

OHAPTEE XXII.

SANITARY AND CHRISTIAN COMMISSIONS— PRESIDENTIAL CON
VENTIONS IN 1864^EMANCIPATION IN THE BORDER STATES.
Sanitary and Christian Commissions— Baltimore and Phil
adelphia Fairs — The Presidency — Baltimore Convention —
Lincoln Nominated — Chicago Convention—McClellan Nomi
nated — Chase Resigns — Fessenden appointed Secretary —
Lincoln's Views upon Reconstruction — Emancipation in
Louisiana, Maryland and Missouri.
EARLY in the war, there had been organized a sanitary
commission of intelligent, humane, christian gentlemen,
who undertook the special duty, in conjunction with the regular
medical officers of the army, of looking after and improving
the sanitary condition of the soldier. Dr. B ellows of New York,
a sincere and earnest christian, whose idea of Christianity
consisted in doing good to others, of broad and generous
patriotism, was one of the leading minds in organizing this
efficient help to the Government, and was raade President of
the United States Sanitary Coraraission.
Everything which could contribute to the raaintenance and
preservation of the health of the array, its wholesome food,
the corafort and hygiene of its caraps; its hospitals, clothing and
medical stores, received the constant, careful and enlighten
ed consideration of the Commission. Voluntary associations
to aid this work were organized in every section of the loyal
States, and the whole people with generous liberality, placed
in the hands of this Commission and in the hands of a kin
dred association called the Christian Commission, money,
medicines, food, clothing, delicacies, wine, nurses, books, sec
ular and reUgious instruction, and everything which could
contribute to the welfare and relieve thewants of the soldiers ;
492

THE SANITARY' AND CHRISTIAN COMMISSION. 493
limited only by the extent to which they could be usefully and
judiciously used. Sanitary stores, surgeons and kind nurses,
following the soldiers to every battle-field, where the wounded
were raost tenderly cared for and nursed, and the dying soothed
and their last messages carefally transmitted to family and
friends. By these raeans they robbed the battle-field of half ita
horrors, and every soldier felt that kindness, skill and care
would constantly attend him, and would leave nothing un
done to relieve his sufferings, to restore him to health ; and
if it was his fate to die for his country, his last hours would
be soothed by affection and christian sympathy. No appeal
was ever made by these organizations for money or aid,
which was not proraptly responded to by the American peo
ple. Contributions from the mite of the widow and humble
day laborer, the pittance of the child, to the products of the
farm, and the shop, and the jewels and the gold of the rich,
flowed in so lavishly that many millions were contributed
during the war.
The Christian Commission expended more than six mil
Uons two hundred and fifty thousand dollars of these gener
ous contributions, and sent five thousand clergymen, select
ed from the best and ablest in the land, to the camps and bat
tlefields of this war. The Sanitary Commission had seven
thousand societies, and through an unpaid board of directors
distributed of these most patriotic offerings, fifteen millions
of dollars in supphes and money.
"When the telegraph fiashed over the land news of a battle,
the ablest and most skillful surgeons hastened to the battle
field, to give their brethren of the array the utraost of
their skill and experience. The most practical and useful,
as well as the gentlest and most refined of women, those of
tiie highest culture, and social position, left homes of luxury
and ease to minister as nurses to the wounded and the sick.
The minister of God was ever present to soothe and cheer
those who suffered, to pronounce the blessing of God upon
hira who sacrificed life to his country, and Uberty.
In furtherance of these objects, a series of great fairs was
inaugurated at Chicago, and extended to Philadelphia, New
York, Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, andthe chief

494 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
cities and towns of the Union. The North "Western Fair,
held at Chicago in the fall of 1863,* was a striking illustra
tion of what may be done by the energies of a free people in
a cause which appeals to their hearts and judgments.
The spontaneous uprisings of the people to aid the cause
of the Union, by aiding the soldier and relieving his suffer
ings, were scarcely less impressive than that uprising of the
people, by which, when the President asked for 75,000 vol
unteer soldiers, they urged his acceptance of half a mil
lion. The women of the country were the most active, effi
cient agents in these benevolent enterprises. "With an organ
izing power, almost equal to that which organized arraies,
with a tireless energy which knew no rest or cessation, raany
noble women consecrated their time and their lives, to these
noble purposes.f The inspiration of a holy purpose, drew
together all ranks and classes of the people, and infused into
all the subUme resolve to leave nothing undone for the woun
ded, suffering soldier.
Party, sect, creed, and social distinctions raelted away be
fore the holy infiuence of these purposes, and all, rich and
poor, laborer and raillionaire. Catholic and Protestant, laid
their gifts and contributions upon the altar of patriotism.
Here was indeed a universal brotherhood. From the Presi
dent to the day laborer, all united to honor, to relieve, to
cheer the brave and sacrificing soldier. These Sanitary and
Christian Coraraissions were the inspiration of religion and
patriotisra, and were the fairest flowers of Christian civiliza^
tion. Their spirit was the spirit of Florence Nightingale
pervading the women of a nation.
In April 1864, a grand fair for the benefit of the Sanitary
Commission, was held at Baltimore. Mr. Lincoln, accom
panied by a party of friends attended. He had not visited
Baltimore since his hurried, unannounced, and unrecognized
passage through that city on his way to the National Capi
tal. Then, had his presence been known, the city would
* It was to this fair that Mr. Lincoln donated the original of the Emamolpatlon
Proclamation, which brought into its treasury several thousand dollars.
t I would gladly name those most active and prominent in these movements
but I fear the list would be too large, and if selections were made, where could I
stop 7

LINCOLN AT THE BALTIMORE PAIR. 495
have become the scene of violence, tumult, and murder.
Three years before, the Massachusetts Sixth, marching in
good order quietly through its streets at the call of the Re
public, and in obedience to its laws, had been brutally and
murderously assailed by a secession mob, instigated by slave
holders. Three years before, and these slaveholders, with
all their savage and brutal passions aroused, held a reign of
terror in'this fair city of refinement, culture, and art. Now,
Mr. Lincoln was called to this city to witness the masses of
its people, its honest free laborers, with its noblest and best
of manhood, its highest in culture and social position, no
longer controlled by slaveholders, but with a spirit an
generous as patriotic, pouring into the treasury, for the relief
of the Union soldiers, their offerings. The success of the
Union cause, and the triumph of liberty, were no longer
doubtful, and the whole loyal population of the city turned
out to welcorae and to cheer him as the preserver of the Re
public. But cordial as. was his reception by the white peo
ple, the reception given him by the negroes, more deeply
touched his heart. He was their Emancipatm-. Slavery was
practically abolished in Maryland, and was about to be for
ever prohibited by Constitutional law. These warm-hearted,
impulsive children of the South, impressible and enthusiastic,
had gathered about the depot in thousands, awaiting his ar
rival. Old and young, men tnd women, in all costumes,
some bare headed and half clad, children led by mothers,
and old grey headed men and women leaning on the arms of
sons and daughters, were there to welcome their deliver
er. When the cars- arrived, and they could see his tall
form, his earnest, genial, benevolent face, they cheered,
shouted, prayed, wept, with an enthusiasra which none but a
crowd of negroes could exhibit. They gathered around hira,
tried to touch him, to kiss his hands, followed his carriage ;
exclaiming " God bless you, God bless you, Massa Linkum."
A crowd of thousands of these grateful people followed him
thus for a mile to his lodgings — aU the way filling the air
with their cries of gratitude and deUght, and proclaiming
hira their savior and their deUverer. He was deeply affected
by these spontaneous deraonstrations.

496 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
At the fair, the President made a speech peculiarly Lin-
colnian. He could not but contrast the condition of Baltimore,
AprU, 1864, with what it was in the Spring of 1861. On this
subject, he said:
" Calling it to mind that we are in Baltimore, we cannot fail to note
that the world moves. (Applause.) Looking upon the many people I
see assembled here, to serve as they best may the soldiers of the Union,
it occurs to me that three years ago those soldiers could not pass
through Baltimore. I would say blessings upon the men who have
wrought these changes, and' the ladies who have assisted them. (Ap
plause.) This change which has taken place in Baltimore, is part only
of a far wider change that is taking place all over the country. "When
the war commenced three years ago, no one expected that it would last
this long, and no one supposed that the institution of slavery, would be
materially affected by it. But here we are. (Applause.) The war is
not yet ended, and slavery has been very materially affected, or inter
fered with. (Loud applause.) So true is it that ' man proposes, and
God disposes.' "
The following quaint and characteristic remarks upon
liberty, were received with unbounded applause :
" The world is in want of a good definition of the word liberty. We
all declare ourselves to be for liberty, but we do not all mean the same
thing. Some mean that a man can do as he pleases with himself and
his property. (Applause.) "With others, it means, that some men can
do as they please with other men, and other men's labor. Each of these
things are called liberty, although they are entirely different. To give
an illustration : A shepherd drives the woJ£ from the throat of his
sheep when attacked by him, aud the sheep of course thanks the shep
herd for the preservation of his life; but the wolf denounces him as
despoiling the sheep of his liberty, especially if it be a black sheep.
(Applause.) This same difference of opinion prevails among some of
the people of the North. But the people of Maryland have recently
been doing something to properly define the meaning of the word, and
I thank them from the bottom of my heart for what they have done
and are doing." * (Applause.)
• McPherson's History ofthe Rebellion, p. 280.81.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OP 1864. 497
t
A few weeks later, Mr. Lincoln attended a great fair in aid
of the same object at Philadelphia. Here he made a speech
in which he said:
" "When is the war to end? I do not wish to name a day when it will
end, lest the end should not come at the given time. "We accepted war
and did not begin it. We accepted it for an object, and when that
object is accomplished, the war will end; and I hope to God, it will
never end until that object is accomplished. "W^e are going through
with our task, so far as I am concerned, if it takes us three years
longer. * * * I am almost tempted to hazard a prediction : It is
that Grant is this evening in a positiom from which he can never be
dislodged until Richmond is taken."
In the midst of the convulsions of civil war, a President
was to be elected. Before entering upon those grand cam
paigns of Grant, and Sherman, and Sheridan, which ter
minated the war, crushing the slaveholder's rebellion, and
establishing National Union based on universal freedom, I
-will describe briefiy the political movements which led to the
re-nomination and election of Mr. Lincoln.
As. the year of the Presidential election came, although
the progress of the war indicated the final triuraph of the
Union cause, yet the nation felt the drafts which had been.
made upon its resources. Call after call for men to' fill up-
the wasted armies of the Republic had been issued. Draft
after draft had been made. Taxation, voluntarily imposed
had been borne and increased until nearly every article of
necessity, as well as of luxury, was burdened with the war
tax ; meanwhile the nation was rolling up a debt stupendous
and fearful in its magnitude, and no immediate end of these
burdens seemed at hand. The people could not see the end
of their sacrifices. Many disasters had befallen the arms of
the Republic. There was an active, hostile, political organi
zation, eager to obtain power, always ready to seize upon the
faults and errors of the administration; and besides, there
were many ambitious men of the Union party, who, with
their friends, honestly believed that the best interests of the
country required a change of administration. There were
candidates for the Presidency, among the Generals whom
32

498 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
Mr. Lincoln had felt it his duty to reUeve from command,
and even in his own Cabinet were aspirants for the Presi
dency. The attention ofthe world was directed to this election,
occurring in the midst of such a tremendous civil war, as the
most fearful test to which our institutions could be subjected.
There was abroad in the land party organizations, some of
them of a secret character, which bold and ambitious men
might use for dangerous purposes. All close observers are
aware that the passions, and prejudices, and convictions
of men in time of war, and especially of civil war, become
strongly excited and are difficult to control, and that men often
throw off at such periods the restraints of law and of raoral
right, and are easily led to adopt any means to secure their
ends. "While politicians, and a majority of both Houses of Con
gress, and the great leaders of the Metropolitan press, early
in 1864, were not favorable to the reelection of Mr. Lincoln,
it was equaUy clear that the great mass of the people, with
that instinctive good sense which characterized thera through
out the war, were in favor of continuing him in the Execu
tive chair. The people knew Mr. Lincoln, they compre
hended and appreciated his greatness long before the politi
cians. Thev never for a raoraent doubted his perfect honesty,
his entire devotion to his country; they knew his unselfish
ness, and felt that their treasure, their liberties, and their
laws, everything, would be safe in his hands. To use his own
homely illustration, " they thought it unwise to swap horses
while fording a stream." The people said " we will not
change pilots in the midst of the storm." Mr. Chase, the able
and distinguished Secretary of the Treasury, was more than
wiUing to be the Union candidate, but when Ohio, his own
State, through its legislature, passed resolutions in favor of
Mr. Lincoln, he yielded gracefully to the voice of the people
and withdrew from the canvass.
The truth was, the rainds of the people were fixed upon
the great contest for National existence, and the overthrow
of slavery, and were irapatient of controversies araong Union
leaders. The opposition to Mr. Lincoln, talented, eloquent,
zealous and active, and supported by many of the leading

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OP 1864. 499
newspapers of the country, scarcely produced a ripple on the
wave of public sentiment, which rolled on in favor of Mr.
Lincoln's reelection. The Republican Convention of New
Hampshire, in January, 1864, declared Mr. Lincoln to be the
people's choice for the Presidency. Connecticut, New Jersey,
and Pennsylvania followed ; Maryland, Minnesota, Kansas,
California, Indiana and Illinois did the same. It became ob
vious that the masses of the people and the soldiers, loved
and fully trusted the President. They knew that his hands
were clean, and his heart was honest and pure. They knew
there was no bribe large enough, no temptation of wealth or
power, which could seduce his integrity. Hence their instinc
tive sagacity settled the Presidential question, and the
politicians and editors soon acquiesced.
The National Convention was called to meet at Baltimore
on the 8th of June A great effort was made by the oppon
ents of Mr. Lincoln to postpone the Convention, but these
efforts failed.*

* The following letter, will show the spirit in which the friends of Mr. Lincoln
met this effort:
" Jb the Editors of the Evening Post:
" I have received a printed circular to which several distinguished names are
attached, urging the postponement of the National Convention.
•' Believing that such postponement wonld be most unwise and dangerous to the
loyal cause, I ask the privilege, through the columns of the Evening Post, very
briefly to give my reasons for such belief.
" I concur most fully with the gentlemen who signed the paper referred to, that
It is very important that all parties friendly to the Government should be united
In support of a single candidate (for President,) and that when a selection shall be
made it shall be acquiesced In by all sections of the country, and all branches of
the loyal party.
" I am perfectly convinced that the best means of securing a result so essential
to snocess, is an early Convention, and that nothing would be more Ukely to prevent
such union than its postponement.
" The postponement would be the signal for the organization of the friends of the
various aspirants for the Presidency, and for the most earnest and zealous canvass
of the claims, merits, and demerits of those candidates.
" If the time should be changed to September, we should see the most violent
controversy within the Union ranks known in the history of politics.
" Is such a controversy desirable, and shall we encourage aiid stimulate it by
postponing the convention ?
" I think I am fully warranted In stating that up to this time there has been no
considerable difference of opinion among the people on the Presidental question.
It is a most signiflcant fact that, notwithstanding the efforts made in this city and
elsewhere in behalf of prominent and able men in military and civil life ; notwith-
Btanding a thoroughly organized, able, ardent, and zealous opposition to President
Lincoln here, embodyinggreat abilities and abundant means ; with the co-operation
of some of the great leading newspapers of the Union, and with the aid ot some
of the distinguished names of trusted national leaders attached to your petition;

500 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
A movement in behalf of General Fremont was attempted
at Cleveland, Ohio, in May, 1864, when he received the
nomination for the Presidency, from a Convention caUing
itself radical, but it was so ob-riously without popular sup
port that Fremont retired before the election, and his friends
yet all this has produced no perceptible effect upon public opinion. The minds of
the people are flxed upon the great contest for National existence, and are impa-
patlent of quarrels and controversies among ourselves. The opposition to the
President in our own party, talented, eloquent, zealous, and active as it is, has
scarcely produced a ripple on the wave of public sentiment which is so strongly
running in favor of Mr. Lincoln's re-election.
" There Is uo organization among the triends of the President, they are doing
nothing; but this action of the people is spontaneous, unprompted, eamest, and
sincere. State after State holds its convention, appoints its delegates, and without
a dissenting voice, instructs them to vote for Mr. Lincoln. This popularity of the
President, this unanimity of the people, is confined to no section, but East as well
as West, middle State and border State, they all speak one voice, ' Let us have
Lincoln for our candidate.' Do I exaggerate? Maine speaks for him on the At
lantic, and her voice is echoed by California from the Paciflc, New Hampshire and
Kansas, Connecticut and Minnesota, Wisconsin and West Virginia, and now comes
the great State of Pennsylvania, seconding Maryland ; one after another, aU de
clare for the re-election of the President. Is it not wiser to recogrdze and accept
this great feet than to struggle against it?
" The truth is, the masses of the people, and the soldiers everywhere, trust and
love the President. They know his hands are clean and his heart is honest and
pure. They know that the devil has no bribe big enough, no temptation of wealth
or power, which can seduce the integrity of Abraham Lincoln.
"Hence the people— the brave, honest, self-denying people— the people who
have furnished the men, and who are ready to pay the taxes necessary to crush
the rebellion, and who are determined to establish National unity based on lib
erty— they are more wise, less factious, and more disinterested than the politi
cians. Their instinctive sagacity and good sense have already settled the Presi
dential question. It cannot be unsettled without a convulsion which wiU endanger
the Union cause. A postponement of the Convention would not prevent Mr.
Lincoln's re-nomination ; it might possibly endanger his election.
" Acquiescence, union, and harmony wiU follow the June Convention. Delay en
courages faction, controversy, and division. I say harmony will follow the June
Convention. I say this because I believe General Fremont and his friends are loyal
to liberty and will not endanger its triumph by dividing the friends of freedom,
I say this because I believe the radical Germans who support Fremont, who have
done so much in this contest to sustain free institutions, cannot be induced by
their enthusiasm lor a man, to desert or endanger the triumph of their principles.
" The hour is critical. We approach the very crisis of our fate as a Nation. With
union and harmony, our success is certain.
" The Presidential election rapidly approaches. We cannot divert attention from
it by postponing the Convention. We cannot safely change our leaders in the
midst of the storm raging around us.
" The people have no time for the discussions which must precede and follow
such a change.
" I repeat, we cannot safely or wisely change our leader in the midst of the great
events which will not wait for conventions. Such is the Instinctive, nearly univer
sal judgment of the people. Let, then, the Convention meet a id ratify the choice
which the people have already so clearly indicated.
" I am, very truly and respectfully yours,
" ISAAC N. ARNOLD,
'Waahington, May 1, 186J,."

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1864, 501
generally supported Mr. Lincoln. An attempt was made to
bring out General Grant as a candidate, but the people felt
that he was more useful at the head ofthe armies; and Gen
eral Grant, with the good sense which has ever marked his
career, and the fidelity and integrity which is equally charac
teristic, gave no countenance to the raoveraent, but refused
to be made the means of dividing the great Union party.*
The National Union Convention met at Baltimore on the
8th of June, and was organized by electing as temporary
Chairman, Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge of Kentucky, a stern
old Presbyterian Unionist, and its permanent President was
Ex-Governor "William Dennison of Ohio, one of that band
of patriotic Governors of the loyal States, who did so much
to strengthen the hands of the President in maintaining the
Government, and prosecuting the war. The Convention em
bodied in its platforra an endorsement of the administration
of Mr. Lincoln. It pledged the Union party to aid the Gov
ernment to the utmost, in quelling the rebellion by force of
arms — 'approved the avowed determination of the Govern
ment to accept no terms of coraproraise with the rebels
except unconditional surrender, and called upon the adminis
tration to prosecute the war with all possible vigor. It re
solved that slavery was the cause, and still constituted the
strength of the rebellion, and as it was hostile to Republican
Government, that justice and National safety demanded its
complete extirpation from the RepubUc; and while approving
the anti-slavery acts of Congress and the Proclamation of
Eraancipation by which a death blow was aimed at this gi
gantic evil, the Convention declared in favor of the amend
ment of the Constitution, which should terminate and forever
prohibjt slavery within the limits of the Republic. The Con
vention also resolved, that it approved the eraployraent as
Union soldiers of men heretofore held in slavery; and that
all men employed in the arraies, without regard to color,
« Mr. Lincoln said to a. friend in regard to the attempt made to bring General
Grant into the field as a candidate for President; "If Grant could be more useful
In putting down the rebellion, as President, I would be content. He is pledged to
onr policy of emancipation, and the employment of negro soldiers ; and if thia
jjolicy is carried out. It won't make much difference who is president." It was
evident Mr. Lincoln's heart was fixed upon the result of the war, and not on
himself.

502 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
should receive the full protection of the laws of war; and
that any violation of these laws should meet with prompt
redress; that the thanks of the Araerican people were due
to the soldiers and sailors of the army and navy, and that
the Nation owes to those who survive, ample and permanent
provision; and that the raeraories of those who have fallen,
should be ever held in grateful reraembrance. That the Na
tional faith pledged to the rederaption of the public debt
must be kept inviolate, and for that purpose, economy and
rigid responsibility in the public expenditures, and a vigorous
and just systera of taxation were recommended. The Conven
tion also declared its approval of the position taken by the
Governraent, that the people of the United States could never
regard with indifference the attempt of any European power
to overthrow by force, or supplant by fraud the institutions of
any Republican Governraent oa this continent.
Abrahara Lincoln was unaniraously norainated for Presi
dent, and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, for Vice President.
Vice President Hamlin, an able man, of unbleraished integ
rity — ever true and faithful, and entirely unexceptionable,
was dropped, and Johnson, from motives of policy, was norain
ated in his place. Johnson's heroic devotion to the Union
cause, his fidelity to the Union when so raany proved false,
his bold denunciation of treason and traitors in the Senate,
had secured him the admiration of the people of the North.
But it is believed that if the New England delegates had been
unanimously and earnestly in favor of re-norainating Mr.
Haralin, he would have received the noraination. The op
position to him, was based on no public ground, or objection
of personal fitness, but arose frora the jealousies of several
politicians, and from the conviction that it was wiser to take
what was called a war Democrat, for Vice President.
Mr. Lincoln gratefuUy accepted the nomination, and ex
pressed his approval of the platform or declaration of prin
ciples of the Convention ; especially did he emphasize his
cordial approval of the comraittal of the party to the great
Constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery forever
throughout the nation.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OP 1864. 503
Such an amendment he declared to be a fitting and neces
sary conclusion to the final success of the Union cause. He
said, with his usual modesty, " I view this call to a second
term, in no wise more flattering to myself, than as an expres
sion of the public judgment, that I may better finish a diffi
cult work, in which I have labored frora the first, than could
any one less severely schooled to the task." Thus the vigor
ous prosecution of the war, without coraproraise, to the cora
plete suppression of the rebellion, and the utter extirpation
of slavery, becarae the great issues of the Presidential
campaign. Although first called to meet on the 4th of July, the Dem
ocratic Convention met at Chicago on the 20th of August,
to which time it had been postponed, and was presided over
by Ex-Governor Horatio Seymour of New Tork. General
McClellan was norainated for the Presidency, and George H.
Pendleton of Ohio for Vice President. Clement C. Vallan
digham having returned North from the rebel lines to which
he had been sent, was an active and prominent member,
and Chairman of the Comraittee on Resolutions. Val
landigham, whose sentence by a Military Court, of im
prisonraent during the war, had been kindly raodified by the
President, so that his sentence was that he should be sent -with
in the rebel lines, to remain during the war, returned to Ohio,
by way of Canada, and immediately became more prominent
than ever as a leader of his party. On being interrogated
one day, as to whether the Government would re-arrest Val
landighara, Mr. Lincoln said he had not been officially in
forraed ofhis return, but he added "I ara inclined to think
his poUtical friends in the North will find him as troublesome
and as much of an elephant on their hands, if he has re
turned, as he has ever been to the Administration. Perhaps
the best way to treat him," he added, jocosely, " would be
to do as the man did who had been annoyed with a very
troublesome wife, and who has been relieved by her abscond
ing, and who by no means desired her return, and vrho there
fore advertises one cent reward for her return. The Govern
ment had perhaps better advertise one cent reward for the
arrest and return to his place of confinement, of Clement
L. Vallandigham."

504 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The second resolution in the platforra of the Chicago
Convention was in these words :
" Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense
of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore the
Union by the experiment of war, during which, under the pretence of
military necessity, or war power higher than the Constitution, the Con
stitution itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty
and private rights alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of
the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty and the pub
lic welfare demand that immediate efforts he made for a cessation of
hostilities with a view to an ultimate Convention of the States, or other
peaceable means, to the end that at the earliest practicable moment, peace
may be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States."*
Thus, this great party, in the raidst of war, did " explicitly
declare," that after four years of failure to restore the Union
by the experiraent of war, " immediate efforts should he made for
a cessation of hostilities, with a view to a Convention, or other
peaceable raeans, to the end that at the earliest practicable
moment peace might be restored on the basis of the federal
Union of the States."
The passage of this resolution, destroyed utterly any pros
pect which the party raay have had of being successful. It
drove frora its support, thousands of war Democrats. The
spirit of the resolution was rebuked in the able, and in some
parts patriotic letter of General McClellan accepting the
nomination. He said :
" The Union must be preserved at all hazards. I could not look in
the face of my gallant comrades of the Army and the Na-vy who have
survived so many bloody battles, and tell them that their labors and
the sacrifices of so many of our slain and wounded brethren had been
in vain, that we had abandoned that Union for which we have so often
perilled our lives. A vast majority of the people, whether in the Army
and Navy or at home, would, as I would, hail with unbounded joy the
permanent restoration of peace, on the basis of the Union under the
Constitution, without the effusion of another drop of blood, but no
peace can be permanent without Union."
Thus the issues were distinctly made up, to be submitted
• Annual Cyclopedia, 1864, page 793.

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OP 1864. 505
to the people at the ballot-box. The Union Republican party
were for the most vigorous prosecution of the war to the
oomplete suppression of the rebeUion ; declaring that no
terms of peace should be offered except based upon the un
conditional surrender of the rebels ; that justice and National
safety required the utter and complete extirpation of slavery,
the cause of the war, and approving the President's proclam
ation. The great Union party declared itself in favor of the
Constitutional Araendraent which should terrainate and for
ever prohibit slavery throughout the Republic. The Derao
cratic party declared the war " a failure" and that peace
should be iramediately sought through a " National Conven-
tion,"or other feasible raeans.
Such were the raoraentous issues submitted to the decision
of the American people. Then followed one of the most ex
citing political canvasses ever made in the United States.
The people wanted peace, but they believed peace was to
corae through successful war. They looked for the sun of
peace to rise as it did ere long, from some great battle field in
Virginia; a battle field on which the hosts ofthe slaveholding
chiefs would be scattered and overthrown. They believed
the path to peace was through Richmond, and that its pleni
potentiaries were not Vallandigham, nor Seymour, nor
"Wood; but Grant a'nd Sherman and Sheridan, and Farragut.
Such a peace as they would negotiate, would give to the
Araerican people, a restored Union, universal liberty, and a
continental republic. It would make in fact as in name, one
people, and one nation, a territory extending from sunrise to
sundown; from the land where water never thaws, to the
clime where it never freezes. The people felt that they had
in Mr. Lincoln, a Chief Magistrate of clean hands and pure
patriotic heart. Unpolished and somewhat rude he might
be, but under his rough exterior, they saw the true diamond ;
the hero, and the Christian statesman.
Early in July 1864, Mr. Chase resigned the position of
Secretary of the Treasury. He had been as has been stated,
a very distinguished Senator, an able Secretary, and as a
leader in the great anti-slavery movement, was as faithful to
liberty, as the needle to the pole. But he had the fatilt of

606 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
most great men, he was ambitious ; he wished to he Presi
dent, and while holding a position in the Cabinet of Mr. Lin
coln, permitted his friends to seek his elevation over that of
him in whose political faraily he occupied a relation so con
fidential. He perraitted his subordinates to seek his eleva
tion over that of his chief. He used the power which Mr.
Lincoln gave him, to place in office his own friends and par
tizans, and those partizans used that power to try to pull
Mr. Lincoln down and set Mr. Chase up. But the President,
while he was conscious of this on the part of the friends of
the able Secretary, was himself so great and so magnani
mous, that subsequently when a vacancy occurred in the
great office of Chief Justice, he did not hesitate to ap
point Mr. Chase to that high position, because he believed
him the best fitted for it. This flaw in the diamond, this
blemish upon the character of the Chief Justice, I would
not mention, were it not necessary to state the truth, to bring
out the great elevation and magnaminity of the President.
For this reason I dare not withhold the facts.
During the canvass for nomination and election, Mr. Lin
coln never used his power nor patronage to secure his nom
ination or election.* Indeed such was his scrupulous delicacy
on this subject, that Preston King was sent to "Washington
on one occasion, by the New Tork politicians, to enquire of
Mr. Lincoln, as King said, " whether Mr. Lincoln supported
the Administration, and the ticket nominated at Baltimore ?"
William Pitt Fessenden, Chairman of the committee on
Finance, of the Senate, was appointed the successor of Mr.
* The following note, written in behalf of a friend in Illinois, to an office-holder
who was charged with using his power against his friend, will illustrate his views-
" Executive Mansion, Washington, July 4th, 1864,
" To  Esa.
"Dear Sir: Complaint is made to pie that you are using your oflicial power to
defeat Mr.  's nomination to Congress. I am well satisfled with Mr.  aa a
member of Congress, and I do not know that the man who might supplant him
would be as satisfactory But the correct principle I think is, that all our friends
BhonlA ba,ve absolute freedom ot choice among our friends. My wish therefore is,
that you will do Just as you think flt with your own suffrage in the case, and not
constrain any of your subordinates to other than he thinks flt with his. This is
precisely the rule I inculcated and adhered to on my part, when a certain other
nomination now recently made, was being canvassed for. Yours, very truly,
" A. LINCOLN."
The closing paragraph refers to hia own nomination for the Presidency.

RECONSTRUCTION. 507
Chase. He was reluctant to accept the appointment. Mr.
Lincoln playfully said to him that if he did not accept, he
would send hira a prisoner to Fort Lafayette. He was an
honest, straight forward Tankee, with hard common sense,
and during his brief service as Secretary, discharged the
duties of the place with fidelity and admirable abiUty.
"We have already seen that the President had inaugurated
measures looking towards the restoration of the seceded
States to tbeir "proper practical relations to the Union."
Upon this subject Mr. Lincoln has been both misunderstood
and misrepresented. There was early manifested a division
of opinion araong his friends on the question of the effect of
secession and the war. He held that no act of secession or
war could absolve the citizen of any State frora his allegi-
¦ance to the Republic. He held that the war constituted the
rebel States public enemies, and that as a republican govern
ment had been overthrown in the rebellious States, it was
the duty ofthe United States to restore republican govern
ments in those States, and guarantee the existence thereof
in each of them.
He said in his last carefully considered speech on thia
subject, made on the llth of April 1865 :
'•I have been shown a letter on this subject, supposed to be an able
one, in which the writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed
to be definitely fixed upon the question whether the seceded States, so
called, are in the Union or out of it. It would perhaps add astonish
ment to his regret, were he to learn that since I have fouqd professed
Union men endeavoring to answer that question, I have purposely for
borne any public expression upon it. As appears to me that question
has not been, nor yet is a practically material one ; and that any dis
cussion of it, while it thus remains practically immaterial, could have
no effect other than the mischievous one of dividing our friends. As
yet, whatever it may become, that question is bad as the basis of a con
troversy, and good for nothing at all — a mere pernicious abstraction.
We all agree that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper
practical relation with the Union, and that the sole object of tho gov
ernment, civil and military, in regard to these States, is to again get
them into their proper practical relation. I believe that it is not only
possible, but in fact easier to do this without deciding or even consider
ing whether those States have ever been out of the Union, than with

508 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial
whether they had been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts neces
sary to restore the proper practical relations between these States and
the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion
whether, in doing the acts, he brought the States from without into the
Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out
of it." *
In the same speech he states his deliberate views of what
ought to be done :
" "W^e simply must begin with, and mould from disorganized and dis
cordant elements. Nor is it a small additional embarrassment that we,
the loyal people, differ among ourselves as to the mode, manner, and
measure of reconstruction. As a general rule, I abstain from reading
the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that
to which I cannot properly offer an answer. In spite of this precau
tion, however, it comes to my knowledge that I am much censured for
some supposed agency in setting up and seeking to sustain the new
State government of Louisiana. In this I have done just so much and
no more than the public knows. In the Annual Message of December
1863, and the accompanying Proclamation, I presented a plan of re
construction, as the phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by any
State, would be acceptable to and sustained by the executive gov
ernment of the'Nation. I distinctly stated that this was not the only
plan which might possibly be acceptable, and I also distinctly protested
that the Executive claim,ed no right to say when or how members should
be admitted to seats in Congress from such States."
Mr. Lincoln always, as in this speech distinctly disclaimed
any. right "to say when or /loio members of Congress should be
admitted to seats in Congress from these States." This he al
ways declared was a question for Congress — for the law-mak
ing power. " When" and "how" merabers of Congress
should be adraitted to seats frora the rebel States, I distinctly
protested the Executive claimed no right to determine."
Congress was to decide, not siraply as to qualifications
and elections of members — but " when" and " how" mera
bers should be admitted from these States. " When" it
would be proper and safe to admit merabers from rebel
* Raymond's Life and State Papers of Lincoln, page 686.

RECONSTRUCTION. 509
states ; and "how" to admit them was not, in the delib
erate judgment of Mr. Lincoln a question for the Executive,
but for Congress and the law raaking power. Not, let it be
observed, a question for each House to decide ; but a question
for Congress — that is, both houses acting as the law making
power of the Government. A member of his Cabinet, he
says, suggested that he omit the protest against his own
power in regard to the admission of merabers of Congress,
but he would not. Mr. Lincoln's suggestion in regard to the
convenience of preserving the original boundaries and
naraes of States, has already been adverted to,
A careful review of Mr. Lincoln's whole course on the sub
ject of reconstruction in Louisiana, Arkansas, and Tennes
see, and his -views as expressed in all his messages and speech
es, will demonstrate that he claimed nothing but the right to
govern the rebel States as Comraander-in-chief during the
war, and to initiate proceedings for the reconstruction of civ
il government, but that the question of deciding "whether"
a state which had been in rebellion was in a condition to send
members to Congres and participate in the Government, waa
a question for the law-making power. ^
As we have already seen, Mr. Lincoln was anxious for the
return of the seceded States. He was anxious that they
should return clothed with fi-eedom, and in their "right
minds " and with the devils of slavery cast out. Louisiana
seemed to be raost favorably situated to take the lead and fur
nish a precedent for the others. Underthe vigorous govern
raent of Butler, and the raore conciliatory adrainistration of
Banks, the cause of eraancipation and loyalty going hand
in hand, had grown and strengthened. One of the most
active friends of emancipation was Michael Hahn, elected
raember of Congress from that State. On his return from
Washington on the 14th of November 1863, fresh from the
inspiration of Mr. Lincoln's views, he made a speech strongly
advocating a convention, and emancipation. He said :
" As soon as the Union lines are extended to embrace a few more
parishes, which can be done at any time, we should reorganize our
State government, and place ourselves completely in hne with the loyal

510 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
States -of the Union. There is no reason why we should not all unite
in this great movement, and put an end to the stigma of disloyalty
which still rests upon the fair fame of our noble State. The whole
country looks to us for inimediate action in this matter. The President
feels a deep interest in it, and with that tender regard for the rights of
the people, which distinguishes his administration, is anxious to give
you the selection of your own civil officers.''
In a letter to General Banks dated August 5th 1863, urg
ing emancipation under a new constitution, Mr. Lincoln said,
" If Louisiana shall send members of Congress, their admis
sion to seats will depend, as you know, upon the respective
Houses, and not upon the President. While I very well
know what I would be glad for Louisiana to do, it is quite
a different thing for me to assume direction of the raatter.
I would be glad for her to raake a new constitution, recog
nizing the Emancipation Proclamation, and adopting eman
cipation in those parts ofthe State, to which the Proclamation
does not apply."
In a letter to General Banks dated December 26, 1863, Mr.
Lincoln said : " I wish you to take the case as you find it,
and give us a free State re-organization of Louisiana in the
shortest possible tirae." On the llth of January, 1864,
General Banks issued his proclamation caUing for the elec
tion of State officers. Michael Hahn was nominated for
Governor upon the platform of freedora. He and the Free
State ticket, were elected, and these officers were on the
4th of March 1864 instaUed in office. On the 18th of March,
Mr. Lincoln wrote to the Governor elect the following
letter-of congratulation :
" I congratulate you on having fixed your name in history as the
first Free State Governor of Louisiana. Now you are about to have
a convention, which among other things, will probably define the
elective franchise. I barely suggest, fbr your private consideration,
whether some of the colored people may not be let in, as, for instance,
the very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in
our ranks. They would probably help in some trying time to come, to
keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom. But it is only a
suggestion, not to the public,' but to you alone."

EMANCIPATION IN TENNESSEE. 511
General Banks and Governor Hahn issued proclaraations
calling an election for delegates to a State Convention for the
revision and araendraent of the State Constitution. The elec-
tiontook place on the 28th of March. Out of one hundred and
fifty delegates to which the whole State was entitled, ninety-
eight were elected. The convention raet at New Orleans on
the 6th of April, and on the llth of May, by a vote of seventy,
to sixteen, it adopted a clause of the New Constitution by
which slavery was prohibited forever in that State.
The constitution was on the 5th of Septeraber 1864, sub
mitted to a vote of the people, and adopted by a vote of 6,836
to 1,566. An election was held and officers elected under
the New Constitution. The Legislature elected Senators to
the United States Senate, and Presidential electors. Butas
Congress did not admit the members and Senators elect for
Louisiana, the Presidential votes of the State in 1864, were
not counted.
It will be remembered that Andrew Johnson was on the
3d of March 1862, appointed Provisional Governor of Ten
nessee by the President. It will also be reraerabered that
Mr. Lincoln was induced by Mr. Johnson and others, not to
include the State of Tennessee in the Preclaraation of Eraan
cipation. The provisional Governor was authorized to exer
cise " such powers as might be necessary and proper, to en
able the loyal people of Tennessee to present such a republi
can form of government as will entitle the State to the
guarantee of the United States thereof.
A convention ofthe Union people of Tennessee was called
by the Provisional Governor, and met on the 8th of Janu-
uary 1865, at the Capital in Nashville. The convention pro
posed among other things, the following most important
change in the constitution of the State :
" Section 1. That slavery and involuntary servitude, except as a pun
ishment of crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted,
are hereby forever abolished and prohibited throughout the State.
" Sec. 2. The Legislature shall make no law recognizing property in
man."

512 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
On the 26th day of January 1865, Governor Andrew John
son issued his proclamation, reciting the proceedings of the
Convention — by which certain amendments to the Constitu
tion were passed, and submitted to the people for ratification
or rejection, providing for a vote of the loyal people of Ten
nessee and those only upon the amendment. Governor
Johnson earnestly recommended the loyal people to come
forward aud ratify and confirm the action of said Convention:
" Strike down," said he, " at one blow, the institution of
slavery — remove the disturbing element from your midst,
and by united action restore the State to its ancient moorings
again, and you may confidently expect the speedy return of
peace, happiness and prosperity."
The election was held on the 22d of February 1865, and
on the 26th of February, the Governor announced by pro
clamation that Tennessee had adopted the proposed amend
ments, and that she had by her own voluntary act, become a
free State. " By this one solemn act at the ballot box," said
he, " the shackles have been stricken from the limbs of two
hundred and seventy-five thousand slaves in the state. The
unjust distinction in society fostered by an arrogant aristoc
racy, based upon human bondage, has been overthrown, and
our whole social system reconstructed on the basis of honest
industry and personal worth."
He then in eloquent terms, pointed out the future great
ness of that State, based upon free labor and intelUgence.
In this great revolution in Tennessee, Andrew Johnson, Wil
liam G. Brownlow, Horace Maynard and Jaraes S. Fowler
were among the prominent leaders.
To the bold leadership, and the unrivalled eloquence of
Henry Winter Davis, is Maryland largely indebted for her
position as a free State. He inaugurated the movement and
led it forward to final success. He had able and eloquent
assistants, among whom were Creswell and Thomas, Webster
and Bond, but he was their acknowledged and natural leader.
The emancipation movement was organized early in 1863 ;
from that time until its triumph, Davis, was ubiquitous, and
* See House Doc. No. 55, 1st Sess, 39th Congress, containing a history of recon
struction In Tennessee.

EMANCIPATION IN MARYLAND, 513
with a voice of eloquence, such only as liberty can inspire,
and with a pen which scattered " thoughts that breathe," and
" words that burn," he traversed the State, pleading for uni
versal eraancipation. In the beginning his foUowers were
few, but they constantly and rapidly increased until they
revolutionized the State.
Maryland had turned a deaf ear to the earnest entreaties
of Lincoln in favor of gradual and compensated eraancipa^
tion. This new movement, had the President's earnest sym
pathy, and his active cooperation. It would accomplish raore
suramarily than he had proposed, the great end of abolition.
At the election of 1863, the emancipation party, had elected
a majority ofthe Legislature. In January, 1864, a resolution
was adopted, declaring that the true interests of Maryland
demand that the policy of emancipation should be immedi
ately inaugurated, and that the Legislature would submit to
the people a call for a convention. A bill, calling a conven
tion, was accordingly passed. The people by a majority of
more than 12,000 voted in favor of the convention. Dele
gates were elected of which sixty-one were in favor of, and
thirty-five opposed to emancipation.
The Constitution framed by this convention contained two
most important changes.
Article 4, provided, " That, the Constitution of the United States,
and the laws made in pursuance thereof, being the supreme law of the
land, every citizen of this State owes a paramount allegiance to the
Constitution and Grovernment of the United States, and is not bound by
any law or ordinance of this State in ^contravention or subversion thereof."
Article 23, provided, " That hereafter, in this State, there shall be
neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of
crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted; and all persons
held to service or labor as slaves are hereby declared free." '•'
Thus, the organic law of the State was made expressly to
declare that the citizen owed paramount allegiance to the
Republic, and not to a local division of it. This destroyed
the gf-rm of secession — the other article extirpated slavery.
•Appleton's Encyclopedia, 1864.
33

614 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
This constitution was submitted to the vote of the people on
the 12th and 13th of October, 1864.
During the canvass, Mr. Lincoln addressed a letter to the
people of Maryland, earnestly urging the adoption of this
Constitution, and reiterating his often expressed desire that
all raen should be free.
The Constitution was adopted bj^ a raajority of the people,
and Maryland, an old patriotic and noble State, of Revolu
tionary farae, took her position among the free States. This
result was most gratifying to the loyal people of the United
States, and to none more so, than to the President. He re
garded it as more iraportant than a battle gained; indeed
he thought it decisive of the war.
At the close of the struggle, on the bright autumnal evening
of the 19th of October, 1864, a crowd of joyous Marylanders
came with music, banners, and exulting cheers, to the
White House to exchange congratulations with the President
on the result. He said to them, among other things, " raost
heartily do I congratulate you, and Maryland, and the Nation,
upon this event ! I regret that it did not occur two years
sooner, which I am sure would have saved to the Nation more
money than would have met all the private loss incident to
the measure. But it has come at last, and I sincerely hope
its friends raay fully realize all their anticipations of good
frora it, and that its opponents may, by its effects, be
agreeably and profitably disappointed."
The seeds of emancipation in Missouri had been sown by
Benton, the Blairs, B. Gratz Brown, and others.
At the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presi
dency, the city of St. Louis was a free-soil city, and elected
as its Representative to Congress, F. P. Blair, Jr., who was
then the bold and unfiinching, leader of the anti-slavery party
of Missouri. The energy with which he had carried on the
confiict against the slaveholders, had raade him an object of
peculiar interest throughout the free States, and no young
man in the Republic was regarded as having brighter politi
cal prospects. On the opening of the Thirty-seventh Con
gress, he was largely supported for Speaker. He was a great
favorite with Mr. Lincoln, who had watched with deep inter-

EMANCIPATION IN MISSOURI. 515
est and gratification the gallant and successful fight he had
made against slaveholders in Missouri. His services to the
anti-slavery cause, and his most efficient services to the
country in thwarting the schemes of the conspirators in tak
ing Missouri " out of the Union," as they termed secession,
endeared hira to Mr. Lincoln, who stood by him and the Blair
family, long after they becarae unpopular, with a tenacity
and firraness which would not give them up, until the Union
party, speaking through its National Convention, constrained
the retirement of Montgomery -Blair frora his Cabinet.
St. Louis, and some other portions of Missouri, were
largely settled by intelligent and liberty loving Germans
who carae frora Europe with intense hostility to slavery in
every form. They rendered powerful aid to the emancipa
tion raoveraent. The brief administration of Fremont in
Missouri contributed to the same result.
A convention was held in this State in 1863, which decided
in favor of gradual, instead of iraraediate emancipation. This
was not satisfactory to the people. The car of progress, in fa
vor of universal liberty, was now under full headway, and the
radicals who constituted a majority of the loyal people de
manded immediate and unconditional eraancipation. They de
manded a new convention, and an election to determine
whether one should be held, was had on the Sth of Noveraber,
1864. The people decided by the overwhelraing majority of
37,793, in a vote of 89,215, in favor of a convention, and
three-fourths of the members elected were of the radical
anti-slavery party.
The convention met on the 6th of January, 1865, at St.
Louis, and on the llth, the following ordinance was reported:
" Be it ordained hy the people of the State of Missouri in convention
assembled. That hereafter in this State, there shall be neither slavery
nor involuntary servitude, except in punishment of crime, whereof the
party shall have been duly convicted, and all persons held to service or
labor as slaves, are hereby declared free."
After debate, the ordinance was adopted by a vote of 69
ayes, to noes 4, an i then the following proceedings took
place.

516 . LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The convention paused in its business ; the Rev. Dr. Elliott,
a distinguished follower of Dr. Channing, was called forward,
and, amidst a stillness and awe which ever accompanies the
highest example ofthe moral sublime, the whole con-vention
and the crowded audience rising, with grateful and reverent
hearts, he offered, in accents broken by emotion, the following
prayer to Almighty God :
" Most merciful God, before whom we aire aU equal, we look up to
Thee who hast declared Thyself our Father, and our helper, and our
strong defense, to thank Thee that Thou art no respecter of persons;
to thank Thee that Thou didst send Jesus Christ into the world to re
deem the world from sin, and that He was the friend to the poor; that
He came to break the manacles of the slaves, that the oppressed might
go free. We thank Thee that this day the people of this State have
had grace given them to do as they would be done by. We pray that
Thy blessings may rest upon the proceedings of this convention; that
no evil may come to this State from the wrong position of those who do
not agree with the action of to-day; but that we, all of us, may be
united to sustain this which is the law of the land. We pray 0 G-od,
but our hearts are too full to express our thanksgiving. Thanks be to
God for this day ; that hght has now come out from darkness ; that all
things are now promising a future of peace and quietness to our dis
tracted State. Grant that this voice may go over the whole land until
the Ordinance of Emancipation, is made perfect throughout the States.
We ask it through the name of our dear Lord and Eedeemer. Amen."
The inteUigence of the passage of this ordinance created
the wildest enthusiasm throughout the State. When the
news reached the Capital at Jefferson City, the Legislature
being in session, such was the joy that all business was ira
mediately suspended; the State House and city were illumin
ated — speeches were made, patriotic songs were sung  not
omitting " John Brown." Thus, amidst prayer, thanksgiv-
ging, praise, bonfires, illurainations and music, slavery died,
and liberty reigned through the great central State of the
Mississippi valley.
Maryland, and Missouri, by their own act, through the
voice and votes of their own citizens, became regenerated
and disenthralled, and ready to enter the lists in generous

END OF SLAVERY IN THE BORDER STATES. 517
emulation with the brotherhood of free States. All felt that
the action of these States was decisive of the fate of slavery,
and of the rebellion.
When to them were added, the States of Tennessee, Ark
ansas, and Louisiana, each by its own citizens, abolishing
slavery, and preparing to becorae members of that higher,
nobler National unity, based on liberty to all, the President
saw, the dawn of that brighter day, when peace and harmony,
unity and liberty should prevail throughout the Republic.
Kentucky yet withstood the advancing tide of Christian civil
ization. Like a dark rock in the ocean, with freedom to the
North of her, freedom to the South of her, and freedom to
the West of her, she yet clung to slavery.

OHAPTEE XXIII,

GRANT'S CAMPAIGN OF 1864.
Grant appointed Lieutenant-General — His Plans — The Mil
itary Situation — Bank's Expedition to Ked River — Mas
sacre AT Fort Pillow — Confederate weakness — The Ar
mies of Grant and Lee — Battles of the Wilderness —
Spottsylvania — Cold Harbor, &c — Butler's Movement on
James River — Grant crosses the James — Movements in the
Valley ot the Shenandoah — Hunter's Campaign — Peters
burg Invested — The Mine Explosion — Sheridan in the
Shenandoah — His Ride — His Victories.
IT IS necessary again to return to the fields of war. March
es, battles, carnages, suffering, desolation and death were
again to be encountered in their utmost horror before the
end of the draraa. But the grand result was no longer doubt
ful. The intelligent observer felt that slavery was dooraed,
and the unity of the Republic, upon the basis of freedom,
was now only a question of time. We have seen that the cam
paign of 1863 had been crowned with the fall of Vicksburg
and Port Hudson, and the victory of Gettysburg. Still Lee
was permitted to recover from his defeat, and re-occupy his
former lines.
Imraediately on the opening of the 1st session of the 38th
Congress, the ever-faithful Washburne, desirous that the great
military mind which had crushed the enemy in the center
should take the coraraanding position a,t the head of all the
armies of the Republic, introduced and carried through the
bill, creating the office of Lieutenant General. The Presi
dent on the 22d of February cordially approved the act, and
sent the noraination of U. S. Grant as Lieutenant General
to the Senate for confirmation. On the 3d of March the
618

GRANT APPOINTED LIEUTENANT GENERAL. 519
nomination was confirmed. General Grant was at the time
in command in the Valley of the Mississippi. The President
immediately requested his presence at Washington. Up to
this time, during the war, General Grant had not visited the
Capital. He was personally unknown to the President, the
Secretary of War, and raost of the raerabers of Congress.
The appointment found hira at his post of duty, and with a
modesty in regard to hiraself, and a generosity towards his
raost trusted Lieutenant, General Sherraan, beautiful as rare,
he expressed the opinion that Sherman was more entitled to
the position than hiraself. He arrived at Washington on the
Sth of March, and in the evening attended a levee at the
White House, which he entered unannounced, and alraost a
stranger. He was instantly recognized by the President, and
the Western Soldier never received a raore cordial welcorae.
As soon as it was known that Grant was present, the pres
sure of the crowd was difficult to withstand By the aid of
Secretary Seward, he sheltered himself behind a sofa, but
the crowd was so eager to see the hero of Vicksburg, that
by the persuasion of the Secretary he was induced to mount
the sofa, that the irrepressible desire to see him might be
gratified. He remarked to the President when parting,
" this has been rather the warmest campaign I have witnessed
during the war." On the following day the President in
person presented hira his coraraission, and said to him :
" General Grant : The Nation's appreciation of what you have
done,-and its rehance upon you for what remains to be done in the ex
isting great struggle, are now presented with this commission, consti
tuting you Lieutenant General in the Army of the United States.
With this high honor, devolves upon you also, a corresponding respon
sibility. As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sus
tain you. I scarcely need to add, that with what I here speak for the
nation, goes my own hearty personal concurrence.
To which General Grant made this reply :
" Mr. President : I accept the commission with gratitude for the
high honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have
fought on so many fields for our common country, it will be my earnest
endeavor not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight

520 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
of the responsibilities now devolving on me, and I know that if they are
met, it will be due to those armies, and above all to the favor of
that Providence which leads both Nations and men."
After visiting the array of the Potomac he returned to
Washington, and after an interview with the President and
Secretary of War in regard to his plans, prepared to leave
for the West. Mrs. Lincoln sharing in the universal grati
tude and admiration felt for hira, and desirous of showing
hira sorae attention, invited him to meet a briUiant party of
citizens and military, at dinner that evening. He received
the invitation at the close of this iraportant interview with
the President. The General said, " Mrs. Lincoln must ex
cuse me. I must be in Tennessee at a given tirae." " But
we can't excuse you," said the President. " Mrs. Lincoln's
dinner without you, would be Hamlet with Hamlet left out."
" I appreciate the honor Mrs. Lincoln would do me," said
the General, " but time is very iraportant now, — and really
— Mr. Lincoln, I have had enough of this show business."
This was a remark Mr. Lincoln could well appreciate and
with which he could fully sympathize. General Grant went
to the West without waiting for the dinner.
General Sherraan, on the recoramendation of General
Grant, was assigned to the command of the railitary divis
ion of Mississippi, coraposed of the departraents ofthe Ohio,
the Cumberland, the Tennessee, and the Arkansas. Gen
eral J. B. McPherson was assigned to the coraraand of the
departraent and Array of the Tennessee.
General Grant on the 17th of March assumed command
of the armies of the United States, and announced that his
headquarters would be in the field, and until further orders,
with the Army of the Potomac. From this tirae there was
unity of purpose, — each army cooperating and acting under
one far-seeing executive head. From this tirae on, there was
energy in attack, rapidity in pursuit, and everywhere a fit
man, in the fittest place for him. Grant had the very great
advantage of having subordinates who enjoyed his most per
fect confidence, and who reposed the raost perfect faith in
him. Henceforth rivalries and jealousies were, to a great

grant's plans. 521
extent, banished from the armies of the Republic. Nothing
had given Mr. Lincoln raore anxiety and trouble than the ri
valries and quarrels among Generals. Froni the time that
Grant assumed command as Lieutenant General, this annoy
ance to a great extent ceased. " Let us crush the rebellion"
was now the feeling. Sherman must be regarded as Grant's
right arm.
The plan of General Grant's campaign is thus simply and
clearly stated by himself.
" From an early period in the rebellion, I had been impressed with
the idea that action and continuous operations of all the troops that
could be brought into the field, regardless of season and weather, were
necessary to a speedy termination of the war. The resources of the
enemy and his numerical strength were far inferior to ours ; but as an
offset to this, we had a vast territory with a population hostile to the
government, to garrison, and long lines of river and railroad commu
nications to protect, to enable us to supply the operating armies.
" The armies in the East and West acted independently and without
concert, like a balky team, no two ever pulling together; enabhng the
enemy to use to a great advantage his interior lines of communication
for transporting troops from east to west, re-enforcing the army most
vigorously pressed, and to furlough large numbers, during seasons of
inactivity on our part, to go to their homes and do the work of pro
ducing for the support of their armies. It was a question, whether our
numerical strength and resources were not more than balanced by these
disadvantages and the enemy's superior position.
" From the first I was firm in the conviction that no peace could be
had that would be stable and conducive to the happiness of the people,
both North and South, until the military power of the rebellion was
entirely broken. I therefore determined, first, to use the greatest
number of troops practicable against the armed force of the enemy ;
preventing him from using the same force at different seasons against
first one and then another of our armies, and the possibility of repose
for refitting and producing necessary supplies for carrying on resistance.
Second, to hammer continuously against the armed force of the enemy
and his resources, until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there
should be nothing left to him but an equal submission with the loyal
section of our common country to the Constitution and laws of the
land."

522 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
What was the railitary situation when Grant assumed
command ?
1. The army of the Potomac, under General Meade, on
the north bank of the Rapidan, confronted the army of North
ern Virginia under General Lee, occupying the south bank
of the Rapidan. General Burnside with the 9th corps joined
the army of the Potomac on the 9th day of May 1864.
2. The army of the James, under Major General Butler,
had its headquarters at Fortress Monroe.
3'. The army of the Shenandoah,was under General Sigel,
with headquarters at Winchester.
4. General Sherraan's coraraand consisted of the army of
the Cumberland, under General Thomas ; the array of the
Tennessee under General McPherson ; the array of the Ohio,
under General Soofield ; — in all about 100,000 men, and 254
guns. The aggregate national force of all arms was 970,710.
The following constituted the chief divisions of the forces,
which, with sraaller detachments, made up the aggregate :
Department of Washington  42,124
Army of the Potomac  120,384
Department of Virginia and North Carolina  59,130
Department of the South  18,169
Department of Arkansas  23,666
Department of the Gulf.  61,865
Department of Tennessee  74,170
Department of Missouri  ,  15,775
Department of the Northwest  5,296
Department of Kansas  4,798
Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi  476
Department of the Cumberland  119,948
Department of the Ohio  35,416
Northern Department  9,546
Department of West Virginia  80,782
Department of the East  2,828
Department of the Susquehanna  2,970
Middle Department  5,627
Ninth Army Corps  20,780
653,750*
• • Report of the Secretary of War, p. 5 and 6, 1885.

MASSACRE OF FORT PILLOW. 523
The campaign of 1864, opened with a movement of Gene
ral Banks against General Kirby Sraith on Red River. A
large array left New Orleans, with which were io cooperate
troops from Arkansas, under General Steele, and others
under General A. J. Smith, with a large naval force under
Admiral Porter. General Banks reached Alexandria on the
20th of March, 1864. It is proper to say that this expedition
of General Banks was planned previous to General Grant's ap
pointment to command. As General Banks' forces advanced
towards Shreveport, a series of disasters occurred that ended
in the failure of the expedition, with heavy loss of men and
material. While this expedition was in progress, and in the
absence of troops from the Mississippi, several raids were
made by the rebel General Forrest.
On the 12th of April an attack was made upon Fort Pillow,
by Morgan and Chalmers. This Fort is about seventy miles
above Memphis on the Mississippi River. Its garrison con
sisted of about 600 men, of which nearly one-half were co
lored troops, under comraand of Major L. F. Booth. The
attack was made in the morning, and the garrison gallantly
held the Fort until the afternoon. Then the rebels, while
sending a flag of truce, treacherously took advantage of it
to get possession of a ravine, frora which they could, with
comparative safety, make a rush into the Fort. Immediately
the flag was -withdrawn, the rebels made a rush, and suc
ceeded in getting into the Fort, and raised the cry of " no
guarter." The Union troops threw down their arras and
sought to escape by running down the bank. The scene
which followed, the facts of which were abundantly proved
before a committee of investigation ordered by Congress,
constitutes one of those black pages in the history of the
slaveholder's rebelUon, and illustrates the barbarism of
slavery. " The rebels," say the comraittee, " coramenced an indis
criminate slaughter — sparing neither age nor sex, white or
black, soldier or civilian. The officers and men seemed to
vie with each other in the devilish work. Men, women, and
children were deliberately shot down and hacked to pieces
with sabres. Children under ten years of age were murdered.

624 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
These fiends, nurtured to their work by the barbarities of
the slave system, entered the hospitals and assassinated the
sick, incapable of offering resistance, or escape. Everywhere
was heard 'no quarter' — 'kill the damned niggers.' Men
were nailed to the floors and sides of buildings, and then the
buildings set on fire ! "
These facts, and others equally atrocious are deliberately
stated by a committee of Congress who visited Fort Pillow
and examined witnesses. The rebel repori;s seek to extenuate
the atrocities, by declaring that the Fort was taken by storm,
and that no quarter was given on either side — and that the
rebels were exasperated by finding their slaves in arms
against them. It was in reference to this raassacre, and other
barbarities perpetrated by the rebels, that Mr. Lincoln, at the
Baltimore fair, declared that " retribution" should be had.
The campaign in Virginia opened on the 4th of May. By
a simultaneous movement the array of the Potoraac crossed
the Rapidan, and the army of the James took possession of
City Point. The Rapidan was crossed without resistance,
and the raoveraent upon City Point took the eneray by
surprise. The whole country looked upon this carapaign with the
greatest solicitude. It was felt that it would be decisive.
Three long, bloody years of indecisive fighting in Virginia
and Maryland had gone, and now when Grant reached the
camp, he found the two veteran and highly tempered armies,
grimly and proudly confronting each other. These armies
were not so disproportionate in strength ; but Grant had this
decisive advantage. The resources of the Confederates, both
in men and material, were well nigh exhausted. The rebel
recruits, as Grant said, " were made up of old raen and boys.
They robbed the school house and the grave to fill up their
ranks." The measures introduced and the laws passed by the Con
federate Congress, indicated the extremity to which they were
reduced. In January 1864, the Congress at Richmond enacted
a law, that each person exempted from the draft, should devote
himself and the labor he controUed to the production of
provisions and supplies. That these should be contributed

\
REBELS PROPOSE TO ARM THEIR SLAVES. 525
for the use of the army; besides the tithes required by law,
an additional tenth of all the bacon and pork produced; and
the supplies should be sold for the army and the famihes of
soldiers, at prices to be fixed by Congress.
Mr. Bro-wn of Mississippi, proposed strengthening the
slaveholders army, by declaring that every white male person
residing in the Confederate States, and capable of bearing
arms, should be in the military service. He proposed to take
all ; to make but one inquiry, " is he capable of bearing arms."
The Confederates were reduced to such extremity that in
February, the proposition was discussed of the employment
of free negroes and slaves in their armies.
There also began to appear some indications of a wish for
peace on the part of the Confederates. Mr. Leach of North
Carolina, said in the Confederate Congress, " I ara for peace,
on the basis of the independence of the South, if it can be
obtained, but, if not, I ara for peace on the best terms we
can get, short of subjugation," and others sympathized in
these views.
A bill passed the Confederate Congress authorizing the
employment of slaves as soldiers. It was upon' the discus
sion of this bill, that Mr. Hunter of Virginia made these
significant statements and adraissions :
" When we lefl the old Government we thought we had got rid for
ever of the slavery agitation ; but, to my surprise, I find that this (the
Confederate) Government assumes the power to arm the slaves, which
involves also the power of emancipation. This proposition, would be
regarded as a confession of rdespair. If we are right in passing this
measure, we were wrong in denying to the old Government the right to
interfere with slavery and to emancipate slaves. If we offer the slaves
their freedom as a boon, we confess that we are insincere and hypo
critical in saying slavery was the best state for the negroes themselves.
I believe that the arming and emancipating the slaves will be an
abandonment of the contest."
He then said:
" To arm the negroes is to give them freedom. When they come out
scarred from this conflict, they must be free.

526 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
Thus the necessities of the war, brought the United States
and the rebels to a common ground, that of arming and
emancipating the negroes.
There was no apparent diminution in the railitary resources
of the North. Men swarraed in Northern towns and cities,
and labor, though coraraanding high wages, could be readily
obtained. Each army was in high spirits. Each could look
upon the long lists of victories inscribed upon its battle-flags,
and receive inspiration from the achievements of the past.
While Lee and his army could look back with pride to the
days when they drove McClellan to the shelter of his gun
boats, and crushed Pope with overwhelming nurabers — to
the days when Burnside, with his deciraated ranks, was
driven back across the Rappahannock; while they could re
caU Chancellorville with its fearful slaughter, and recount
the story of raany a briUiant dash and charge; on the other
hand, the Union army could recall with heroic pride their
splendid fighting during all McClellan's campaign — the
bloody day of Malvern Hill, the victories of South Mountain
and Antietam, and the glorious three days fight and splendid
triumph of Gettysburg. Each of these two armies had a
proud record. Nearly everywhere outside of Virginia, the
Union troops had been victorious. Every one felt that the
army of Northern Virginia carried upon its standards the
fate ofthe Confederacy, and now there carae frora the Valley
of the Mississippi, the briUiant, and hitherto invincible hero
of the Northwest, to test his genius and his fortunes against
the great leader of the rebellion. Mr. Lincoln sent forth
Grant upon this struggle, which all knew would be desperate,
and hoped would be decisive, with strong confidence in his
success; his last words to him were, " and now with a brave
army and a just cause, may God sustain you."
The crisis evidently approached, and both armies nerved
themselves for the struggle which was believed would be de
cisive. The army of the Potomac was under the immediate
command of Meade, who, although not a brilliant, was a
safe, a prudent, and a good soldier. It consisted at this time
of three corps. The second under General Hancock ; the

ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 527
Fifth, commanded by General Warren, and the Sixth, under
General Sedgwick.
Hancock was one of Nature's noblemen. Physically, the
model of a hero. He had that fine, martial bearing ; that
personal gallantry and raagnetisra, which raade hira the idol
of his troops. Hancock's appearance upon the field, never
failed to rally a broken coluran, and he could lead his raen
into the very jaws of death.
Warren possessed a rapid, clear, fine intellect; quick in
his perceptions, with great capacity for work, full of energy
and activity — he was a raost valuable aid.
Sedgwick was a most able, experienced, reliable, steadfast
soldier ; perfectly certain to do his whole duty wherever
placed. Under these were a host of able and experienced
soldiers, whose names will live in history. Among them
were Griffin, and Ricketts and Ayres, and Crawford, and
Wadsworth, and Hayes, and Birney, and Wri'ght, andShaler,
and Getty, and Barlow, and many others.
The Union cavalry had become equal to any in the world.
It was underthe coraraand of Major General Philip H. Sher
idan, who was, take hira altogether, the finest cavalry officer
produced by the war, — ^perhaps he has never had a superior
in any age
The troops of Grant at midnight on the 3d of March began
their movement, and before the sun went down on the 4th,
the whole army was across the Rapidan. Lee boldly deter
mined to strike Grant on the fiank before he got through the
wilderness which skirted the river, and before he emerged
into the open country. Early on the 5th, Warren and the
Confederates met and engaged, and the fight raged furiously
all day; the whole army being brought into the fight as fast
as the different corps could be brought to the field. By six
o'clock the morning of the 6th, Burnside led his corps into
action ; some of his troops having a distance of thirty miles
to march, crossing both the Rappahannock and the Rapidan
rivers. Such was the patriotic ardor with which this consci
entious soldier, regardless of his former rank, supported the
Lieutenant General. All day long of the 6th, the battle of
the Wilderness raged with unabated fury, until the darkness

528 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
of the night, added to the obscurity and gloom of the tan
gled wilderness, put an end to the confiict. On the morning
of the 7th it was found that the enemy had fallen back with
in his intrenched lines. Araong the losses of this fearfu.
battle was Major General Wadsworth, whose generous patri
otism, indomitable courage, and high personal character
left no superior. The battles of the Wilderness were more
a trial of strength and endurance, than of maneuvering. In
the glooray depths of these forests there fell raany a
hero who had no spectator or chronicler of his heroism.
On the 7th, General Grant comraenced to move by the right
fiank of the eneray towards Spotsylvania Court House. Lee
being apprised of the raovement, and having the shorter line,
reached there first. On the 9th, Sheridan started on a raid
against the rebel line of communications with Richmond.
The two armies spent the 9th 10th, and llth in maneuvering,
entrenching and fighting without decisive results. It was on
the llth that Grant sent the dispatch to Washington, in
which, after speaking of the terrible six days fighting, lie
said " our losses have been 'heavy as well as those of the en
emy, and I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all
suramer." On the morning of the 12th a general assault was
made upon the enemy in position. Hancock carried a portion
of their works, capturing raost of Johnson's division of
Ewell's corps, and twenty pieces of artiUery, but the resis
tance frora the second line was so obstinate that the advan
tage did not prove a success. Frora the 12th to the 21st ho
decisive battle was fought, but there was constant maneuver
ing and fighting. On the night of the 21st, another fiank
movement by the Union army towards the North Anna was
begun. The enemy having the shorter line and being in pos
session of the main roads reached there first. An idea of
the terrible fighting in this campaign raay be gathered frora
the fact stated by General Meade, that the killed, wounded
and missing, from the 5th to the 12th of May were 29,410.
The kind hearted President, who never for a moment forgot
the soldiers, saw the lines of ambulances raoving from the
Potomac to the numerous hospitals at Washington — ambu
lances miles in length, and as they moved slowly and sadly

butler's operations. 529
forward big carriage could often be seen driving along the
line, with Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln, speaking kind, cheering
words, and endeavoring to supply their every want and need.
During these days of terrible battle and slaughter, the face
of the President was grave, and thoughtful. On one occa
sion, after one of these fearfully expensive battles he said :
" This sacrifice of life is dreadful, but the Almighty has not
forsaken me, nor the country, and we shall surely succeed."
The terrible destruction and waste by battle of the army,
made it necessary to reinforce continually. Washington
was stripped of troops to send to the army of the Potomac.
Fortunately on the 21st of April, the Governors of Ohio,
Indiana, Hlinois and Iowa, in view ofthe opening campaigns,
tendered to the President 100,000 men for one hundred days.
These were raised, went into forts and garrisons, and re
lieved the veterans, who were sent to Grant, and many of
these hundred day men were also sent to the front and did
good service there.
General Sheridan on the 25th joined the arii^y of the Poto-
tomac, from the raid qn which he started from Spotsylvania,
having destroyed the depots at Beaver Dara and Ashland ,
trains of cars, supplies, railroad tracks, and retaken 400
prisoners on their way to Richraond ; defeated the rebel caval
ry at Tellow Tavern and carried a portion of the first line
of the defensive works around Richraond.
On the Sth General Butler occupied without opposition,
City Point and Berrauda Hundred, General Gilmore hav
ing on the 4th of May joined him -with the 10th corps. On
the 9th Gen eral Butler telegraphed to" the Secretary of War:
" Headquarters, near Bermuda Landing, May 9th, 1864.
" Our operations may be summed up in a few words. With 1,700
cavalry we have advanced np the Peninsula, forced the Chickahominy,
and have safely brought them to our present position. These were col
ored cavalry, and are now holding our advance pickets towards Rich
mond. General Kautz with three thousand cavalry from Suffolk, on
the same day with our movement up James river, forced the Blackwater,
burned the railroad bridge at Stony Creek below Petersburg, cutting in
two Beauregard's force at that point.
" We have landed here, entrenched ourselves, destroyed many miles
34

630 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
of railroad, and got a position which with proper supplies .we can hold
out against the whole of Lee's army. I have ordered up the supplies.
" Beauregard with a large portion of his force was left south by the
cutting of the railroads by Kautz. That portion which reached Pet
ersburg under Hill I have whipped to-day, killing and wounding many,
and taking many prisoners, after a severe and well contested fight.
" General Grant will not be troubled with any further re-enforcements
to Lee from Beauregard's force.
"Benjamin F. Butler
" Major Geuerdl,
"To E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War.
On the 16th the enemy attacked Butler, and he was forced
back into his intrenchments between the forks of the James
and Apporaatox, and the eneray intrenching in his front,
thus covered these railroads and the city. His army
therefore, though in a secure position, was held at bay and
prevented from operating against Richmond. Butler being
as General Grant says " sealed up," the re-enforcements
brought from the South by Beauregard were sent to co
operate with Lee's army against the army of the Potomac.
The position at Bermuda Hundred being easy to defend.
General Grant ordered General W. F. Smith to join the
forces north of the James. On the 26th Grant made an
other movement to turn the enemy's position by his right
flank. On the 29th and 30th there was skirmishing and
fighting. On the first of June an attack was raade at Coal
Harbor, by which the enemy's first line was carried and held.
They made repeated attempts to recover their line, but
were repulsed with great loss. On the 3d another terrific but
unavailing assault was made upon the rebels, but which was
repulsed with very severe loss to the Union army. Grant
thereupon after'surveying the whole ground, determined to
move his army to the South of the James. General Grant
says the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North
Anna, and Coal Harbor, bloody and terrific as they were on
our side, were even more damaging to the eneray, and so
crippled hira as to make him wary ever after of taking the
offensive. His loss in men were probably not so great as
ours, owing to the fact that we were, save in the Wilderness,

operations in THE SHENANDOAH. 531
almost invariably the attacking party, and when he did at
tack it was in the open field. These long months of battles
tested the endurance and manhood of the two armies, and
both stood to it like heroes. Resolute purpose, and unfiinch
ing courage were never raore strikingly exhibited. Lee had
warded off Grant's blows and he was now to cross the James,
Richmond was still secure, but the inflexible Grant had no
more idea of failure — no more doubt of final success, than
when he turned his boats down the Mississippi to run the
frowning batteries of Vicksburg. ' On the 10th of June an
attempt was made by Butler with a force of infantry under
General Gilmore, and of cavalry under General Kautz to cap
ture Petersburg and destroy the railroads and bridges across
the Appomattox. The cavalry under General Kautz carried
the works on the South side of Petersburg, and penetrated
well in towards the town, but were forced to retire. Gilmore
finding the works strong returned without attempting an as
sault. Thereupon General Grant sent General Smith to re
new the attempt to capture Petersburg before the enemy
could reinforce the place.
Meanwhile General Sigel moved up the Shenandoah Val
ley, forming ajunction with General Crook, and on the 15th
met the enemy at New Market, and after a severe engage
ment, and a gallant resistance on our part, was compelled to
return across Cedar Creek. General David Hunter relieved
General Sigel, with instructions to go up the VaUey to Char-
lottsville and Lynchburg if possible, living on the country.
He was instructed to destroy the railroads and canal beyond
the possibility of repairs for weeks. Then Hunter was
directed to find his way back to his original base, and join the
army of the Potoraac from about Gordonsville. Hunter,
with great energy started up the Valley, and on the 5th of
June he ^met the rebels at Piedmont, and after a battle of
ten hours defeated and routed thera, capturing upon the field
1,500 men, three pieces of artillery, and 300 stands of small
arms. From thence, forming a junction with Crook and
Averill he marched on Lynchburg, which he reached and in
vested on the 16th of June. Up to this tirae his campaign
had been a complete success, and but for the difficulty of
taking through a hostile country andover so long a march,

532 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
sufficient ordnance stores, he would have captured
Lynchburg. As it was, he went further up the Valley than any
force which preceded or followed him, and he rendered great
service in destroying the enemies supplies and manufactures.
To meet the threatening movement of Hunter, Lee sent a
large force from Richmond, which reached Lynchburg about
the same time with Hunter, who was compeUed, for want of
ammunition to retire. His want of ammunition compeUed
his retreat by way of Kanawha. This placed the troops of
Hunter in a position that they could not cover Washington.
Availing himself of the exposed condition of the Capital, the
enemy sent large detachments from their army at Richraond,
which with the troops already in the Valley under Early and
Breckinridge, raoved down the Shenandoah, threatening Bal
timore and Washington. Their advance was checked at Mon
ocacy by the Union troops under General Lew. Wallace and
a part of the Sixth corps under General Ricketts. Still the
enemy continued to advance until they raet the intrench-
raents about Washington. In the neighborhood they plun
dered and burned, destroying araong other things the
fine country house near Silver Springs, of Montgomery Blair,
Postmaster General. But they were met by the 6th corps
under General Wright, a part of the Sth corps under Gil
more, and the 12th corps under General Eraery. By these
forces the eneray was driven back and retreated, hardly press
ed by General Wright.
Returning to the army of the Potomac ; on the 15th, Gen
eral Grant visited Bermuda Hundred, and instructed General
Butler to send General Smith, with all the troops he could
spare to take possession of Petersburg, while he would return
to the North side of the James, hasten fh^ crossing ofthe army
of the Potomac, and throw it forward to Petersburg as rapid
ly as possible. Grant left with the confident expectation that
Sraith would go into Petersburg that night. Smith's left con
fronted the enemy's pickets before day-light, but did not get
ready to assault his lines until near sundown. Then he car
ried the Unes upon the Apporaatox for two and a half miles,
capturing 15 pieces of artillery and 300 prisoners. There
were no other works between his troops and Petersburg.
The night was calm, the moon shining brightly. Hancock

PETERSBURG INVESTED. 533
coming up with two divisions, reached Smith just after dark,
and offered the aid of his troops, waiving his rank, as he liat-
urally supposed Smith best knew the ground, and what to
do. No further assault was made. In the morning Grant
arrived, but in the raeantirae the enemy had reached Peters
burg in force. Had Sheridan commanded in place of Smith,
the Union flag would no doubt have been found waving over
Petersburg. However, the lines of the enemy were attacked,
artiUery and prisoners taken, and he was driven into an
interior line, which was held; and now commenced the
long, bloody siege of Petersburg.
This city is twenty-two miles south from Richmond, and
protected the coraraunications by which the rebel Capital
was supplied. It might possibly have been captured by a
vigorous assault on the morning of the 16th of June. Every
hour's delay, however, enabled the Confederates to strengthen
their lines, and these soon became too strong to be carried
by assault. General Grant gradually extended his lines south,
-with a view of cutting the railroads by which Lee's array
and the Capital were supplied.
In front of General Burnside was an angle in the enemy's
lines, covered by a Fort, from which his line was not more
than one hundred and fifty yards distant. Burnside conceived
the design, and formed the resolve of mining the Fort, and
the plan, although suspected by the enemy was successfully
accomplished without discovery. General Grant took advant
age of the weakening of the rebel lines, caused by their send
ing troops north of the James to repel an attack, to explode
the mine. On the evening of the 30th of July, between 4 and
5 o'clock, the mine was sprung, blowing up a battery and the
greater part of a regiment. The advance of the assaulting
column formed of the Ninth Corps, iraraediately took posses
sion ofthe crater made by the explosion, and the Confederate
line for some distance to the right and left of it. Nothing
now was in. the way to prevent a march directly into Peters
burg. Had there been cooperation and an iraraediate advance,
Petersburg, would have been taken. Not being properly
supported the column failed to advance; and taking shelter
for a while in the crater, thus giving time for the enemy to

584 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
rally, the Union forces were ultiraately forced back with great
slaughter. Fifteen hundred raen in grey and blue, found
their graves within the crater formed by the explosion.*
On the 7th of August, General Sheridan was placed in
comraand of the Departraent of Washington and the She
nandoah, and the array under his coraraand was strengthened.
The rebel array under Early was encamped on the west bank
of the Opequon Creek, and the Union army under Sheridan
in front of Berryville. So disastrous would have been a de
feat to the Union cause, laying open to the enemy, Maryland
and Pennsylvania, and the Baltiraore and Ohio Railroad,
that General Grant hesitated in allowing the irapetuous, con
fident, and yet careful Sheridan to make an attack. On the
15th of September, Grant visited Sheridan, and became so
well satisfied of his ability to whip the enemy, that he says,
" I saw there were but two words of instructions necessary :
'Goin!"'t Early on the morning of the 19th of September, Sheridan
attacked Early, and after a bloody battle lasting until 5 P. M.,
he defeated hira, capturing several thousand prisoners, and
five pices of artillery. He pursued Early to the passes of the
Blue Ridge Mountains, and destroying the Virginia Central
Railroad, returned and took position behind Cedar Creek,
near Strasburg. In raarching back General Sheridan says,
"the whole country from the Blue Ridge to the North
Mountain has been made entirely untenable for a rebel
army." Early having been reenforced, again returned to the VaUey,
and on the 9th of October, there was an encounter between
his and Sheridan's Cavalry in which the rebels were defeated
withthe loss of eleven pieces of artillery and 350 prisoners.
On the morning of the 19th of October, Early, under cover
of darkness and fog, crossed the mountains, surprised (in the
absence of Sheridan,) and turned the left fiank of his army,
*" For some cause, the assaulting column failed to advance promptly to the ridge
beyond. Had they done this, there is every reason to believe that Petersburg would
have fallen. Thvis terminated In disaster what promised to be the most successful
assault of the campaign." — Gra'nt's Report, p, U.
t Grant's Report, p. 17.

SHERIDAN IN THE SHENANDOAH. 535
capturing batteries which enfiladed the whole Union Une,
The Union troops fell back with heavy loss and in confusion;
but were finally rallied between Middletown and Newtown.
At this juncture, Sheridan, who had been at Winchester and
there heard the hea-vy firing, came forward at full speed,
and arrived upon the field.* His presence inspired his
troops with fresh courage and enthusiasm. Passing rapidly
along the line where his soldiers could see him, his presence
was equal to a reenforment of thousands of troops. He ar
ranged his lines just in tirae to repulse a heavy attack ofthe
enemy. Imraediately assuming the offensive, he attacked
with great vigor, defeating the enemy with great slaughter,
retaking the guns and prisoners captured by Early, and cap
turing most of his artillery. The wreck of Early's army es
caped during the night. Thus ended the war in the Valley
of the Shenandoah. ' No further attempt to menace Washing
ton and Baltiraore, nor to invade the North through this
valley was ever afterwards made.
* This ride of Sheridan to the fleld was the occasion of an ode, certainly one
of the most spirited of the war, written by Thomas Buchanan Bead, from which I
extract the following : SHERIDAN'S RIDE.
Up from the South at break of day.
Bringing to Winchester fresh dismay,
The affrighted air with a shudder bore,
Like a Herald in haste to the Chieftain's door.
The terrible grumble and rumble and roar,
Telling the battle was on once more,
And Sheridan twenty miles away !
* » *
But there is a road from Winchester town,
A good, broad highway leading down j
And there, through the flush of morning light,
A steed, as black as the steeds of night.
Was seen to pass as with eagle's flight —
As if he knew the terrible need.
He stretched away with his utmost speed ;
Hills rose and fell—
But his heart was gay.
With Sheridan fifteen miles away.
Stm sprung from those swift hoofs, thundering south,
< The dust, like the smoke from the cannon's mouth,
Or the traU of a comet, sweeping faster and faster.
Foreboding to traitor^ the doora of disaster:
The heart of the steed and the heart of the master
Were beating like prisoners assaulting their walls,
Impatient to be where the battle-fleld calls ;
Every nerve of the charger was strained to full play,
With Sheridan only ten miles away.

536 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
General Grant pressed the enemy in Petersburg. He
graduaUy extended his lines south and west, seeking to cut
the railroads from that direction. On the 29th of Septeraber,
Major General Ord landed north of the James, and captured
Fort Harrison and fifteen pieces of artillery. During the
autumn, the vast armies of Grant and Lee, lay opposite each
other in their lines around Petersburg, with frequent skir
mishes and often severe battles, but with no decisive results.
Cavalry raids and other raeans for interrupting the enemy's
lines of communications and such deraonstrations as would
prevent the rebels frora detaching his forces to any other
point, constituted the principal operations of the array of
General Grant.
The enemy's resources were being rapidly exhausted. The
loyal States were filling up a call made by the President on
tinder his spuming feet the road
Like an arrowy Alpine River flowed.
And the landscape sped away behind
Like an ocean flying before the wind ;
And the steed like a bark fed with furnace ire,
Swept on with his wild eyes full of flre.
But lo ! he is nearing his heart's desire —
He is snufllng the smoke of the roaring fray,
With Sheridan only flve miles away.
The flrst that the General saw were the groups
Of stragglers, and then the retreating troops ;
What was done— what to do— a glance told him both.
Then striking his spurs with a terrible oath
He dashed down the Une 'mid a storm of huzzas
And the wave of retreat checked its course there, because
The sight of the master compelled it to pause.
With foam and with dust the black charger was gray;
By the flash of his eye and his red nostrils' play
He seemed to the whole great army to say,
I have brought you Sheridan all the way
From Winchester down to save the day.
Hurrah ! hurrah for Sheridan !
Hurrah ! hurrah for horse and man I
And when their statues are placed on high
Under the dome of the Union sky.
The American soldier's Temple of Fame-
There with the glorious General's name.
Be it said In letters both bold and bright
Here is the steed that saved the day!
By carrying Sheridan into the flght
From Winchester twenty miles away.

GRANT URGES THE FILLING UP THE RANKS. 537
the 18th of July, for 500,000 men. General Grant, on the
13th of September, 1864, telegraphed to the Secretary of
War: " We ought to have the whole number of men called for by the Pres
ident, in the shortest possible time. Prompt action in filling up our
armies wiU have more effect upon the enemy than a victory over them.
They profess to beheve the draft cannot be enforced. Let them be
undeceived."

OHAPTEE XXIY,

SHERMAN'S ATLANTA CAMPAIGN, AND GRAND MARCH TO THE SEA.
Sherman's advance on Atlanta — Bishop Polk killed — Mc
Pherson KILLED — Sherman takes Atlanta — Correspondence
BETWEEN Sherman and Hood, and Sherman and the Mayor
OF Atlanta — Hood's army marches North, and is defeat
ed AT Nashville — Sherman's grand march to the Sea —
He takes Fort McAllister, and Savannah — The Alabama
-—Mobile captured — The Niagara Falls Conference — ^The
Presidential Election.
GENERAL William T. Sherraan began his brilliant cam
paign against Atlanta in the middle of May 1864. To reach
that objective point he was corapelled to pass from the north to
the centre of the great State of Georgia, forcing his difficult
path " through raountain defiles and across great rivers, over
coming or turning formidable entrenched positions defended
by a veteran army, coraraanded by a cautious and skillful cora
mander. The campaign opened on the 6th of May, and on
the 2d of September, the Union forces, entered Atlanta."
General Sherraan, in his own nervous language, describes
his carapaign in his Field Order No. 68, dated Atlanta,
September 8th 1864 :
" On the 1st of May our armies were lying in garrison, seemingly
quiet, from Knoxville to Huntsville, and our enemy lay behind his
rocky-faced barrier at Dalton, proud, defiant and exulting. He had
had time since Christmas, to recover from his discomfiture on the Mis
sion Kidge, with his ranks filled, and a new Commander-in-chief, second
to none in the Confederacy in reputation for skill, sagacity and extreme
popularity. All at once our armies assumed life and action, and appear
ed before Dalton. Threatening Eocky Face, we threw ourselves upon
Keseoa, and the Rebel army only escaped by the rapidity of his retreat,
538

SHERMAN'S CAMPAIGN AGAINST ATLANTA. 539
aided by the numerous roads with which he was famihar, and which
were strange to us. Again he took post in Allatoona, but we gave him
no rest, and by our circuit towards Dallas, and subsequent movement
to Acworth, we gained the Allatoona Pass. Then fnllnwed the event
ful battles about Kenesaw and the escape af the enemy across the Chat
tahoochee river The crossing of the Chattahoochee, and breaking of
the Augusta road was most handsomely executed by us, and will be
studied as an example in the art of war. At this stage of our game,
our enemies became dissatisfied with their old and skillful commander,
and selected one more rash and bold. New tactics were adopted. Hood
first, boldly and rapidly on the 20th of July, feh on our right at Peach
Tree Creek, and lost. Again on the 22d he struck our extreme left,
and was severely punished ; and finally on the 28th, he repeated
the attempt on our right, and that time must have become satisfied, for
since that date, he has remained on the defensive. We slowly and
gradually drew our lines about Atlanta, feeling for the railroad which
supplied the rebel army, and made Atlanta a place of importance.
" We must concede to our enemy that he met these efi'orts pati
ently and skillfully, but at last he made the mistake we had waited for
so long, and sent his cavalry to our rear, far beyond the reach of re
call. Instantly our cavalry was on his only remaining road, and we fol
lowed quietly -srith our principal army, and Atlanta fell into our pos
session as the fruit of well concerted measures, backed by a brave and
confident army." *
In one of those bloody battles which were of constant oc
currence between Sherman and Johnston, which took place
on the 14tli of May on Pine Mountain near Kenesaw Moun
tain, the rebel General (Bishop) Polk was killed. When the
Union troops took possession of the field they found upon a
stake stuck in the ground a paper attached, on which was
written " Here General Polk was killed by a Yankee shell."
General Sherman, after first unsuccessfully assaulting the
enemy's position at Kenesaw, turned it, compelling Johnston
to abandon it and retreat behind the Chattahoochee. Here
Sherman rested until !he 17th of July, when he resumed op
erations, and drove the eneray back to Atlanta. At this
place the rebel General Hood succeeded General Johnston,
and assuming the offensive-defensive, made several severe
attacks upon Sherman near Atlanta.!
• Report of Secretary of War, 1865.
t Sherman's Report, 1865.

540 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
On the 22d of July in an attack by Hood, the brave and
accomplished McPherson was killed. General Sherman de
scribed hira as " a noble youth of striking personal appear
ance, of the Ligbeet professional capacity, and with a heart
abounding in kindness that drew to him the affections of all
men." General John A. Logan succeeded McPherson, and
ably comraanded the array of the Tennessee, through this
desperate battle, and until he was superceded by Major Gen
eral Howard, on the 26th of July. In these fierce attacks
the rebels were repulsed with great slaughter.
General Sherraan finding it impossible entirely to invest
Atlanta, moved his forces by the enemy's left fiank upon the
Montgomery and Macon roads, to draw the enemy from his
fortifications.* He describes the operation as that of " rais
ing the siege of Atlanta, taking the field with our main force,
and using it against the communications of Atlanta, instead
of against its entrenchments." The movements compelled
Hood to evacuate Atlanta, and on the 2d of September,
Sherman entered that city. For severe fighting and brilliant
and successful maneuvering, there is nothing finer in the
whole war than this campaign and capture of Atlanta. Sher
man was seconded by a body of able and reliable subordi
nates, among the most distinguished of whom were McPher
son, Thomas, Hooker, Howard, Scofield and Logan, and by
an army that could proudly say they were never defeated.f
The aggregate loss in killed, wounded, and missing in the
whole campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta, including cav
alry, has been estimated to exceed 30,000, and the loss of the
rebels considerably exceeded 40,000.
President Lincoln, in a General order of thanks to Sher
man and the gallant officers and soldiers of his command,
dated on the day of the capture of Atlanta, justly character
izes these marches, battles and sieges which signalized this
campaign, as "faraous in the annals of war." Atlanta was
a raost important railroad center. It had been deemed by
the Confederates perfectly secure, aud here was the location
of very valuable manufactories of ordnance and other
material.

* Grant's Report, 1865.
t Appleton's Bncypclopedla, 1864, page 87.

SHERMAN AT ATLANTA. 541
General Sherman decided that the imperious exigencies of
war, especially when considered with reference to his base of
supplies, required that Atlanta should be occupied exclusively
for military purposes. Therefore he issued an order on the
6th of September, directing that " all farailies living in At
lanta, the male representatives of which are in the service of
the Confederate States, or who have gone South, will leave
the city within five days. All citizens from the North, not
connected with the military service, were also directed to
leave within the same period." General Hood protested
against this removal, stating " this measure transcends in
studied and ingenious cruelty, all acts ever before brought
to my attention in the dark history of war." To this Gen
eral Sherman raade a reply, defending the act, as follows :
" Tou style the measure proposed, unprecedented, and appeal to the
dark history of war for a parallel as an act of ' studied ingenious cruel
ty.' It is not unprecedented, for Greneral Johnston himself, very wisely
and properly removed the families all the way from Dalton down, and I
see no reason why Atlanta should be excepted. Nor is it necessary to
appeal to the dark history of war, when recent and modern examples
are so handy. You yourself burned dwelling houses along your para
pet, and I have seen to-day, fifty houses that you have rendered unin
habitable because they stood in the way of your forts and men. You de
fended Atlanta on a line so close to the town, that every cannon shot,
and many musket shots from our line of entrenchments that overshot
their mark, went into the habitations of women and children. General
Hardee did the same at Jonesboro, and General Johnston did the same
last summer at Jackson, Mississippi. I have not accused you of heart
less cruelty, but merely instance those cases of very recent occurrence,
and could go on and enumerate hundreds of others, and challenge any
fair man- to judge which of us has the heart of pity for the families of
brave people. I say, it is a kindness to those families of Atlanta to
remove them now at once from scenes to which women and children
should not be exposed ; and the ' brave people' should scorn to commit
their wives and children to the rude barbarians who thus, as yon say,
violate the laws of war, as illustrated in the pages of its dark history.
in the name of common sense I ask you not to appeal to a just God in
such a sacrilegious manner — you, who, in the midst of peace and pros
perity, have plunged a nation into civil war, ' dark and cruel war;' who
dared and badgered us to battle, insulted our flag, seized our arsenals

542 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
and forts that were left in the honorable custody of a peaceful Ord
nance Sergeant, seized and made prisoners of war the very garrisons
sent to protect your people against negroes and Indians, long before
any overt act was committed by the — to you — 'hateful Lincoln Gov
ernment,' tried to force Kentucky and Missouri into the rebellion in
spite of themselves, falsified the vote of Louisiana, turned loose your
privateers to plunder unarmed ships, expelled Union families by the
thousand, burned their houses, and declared by an act of Congress, the
confiscation of all debts due Northern men, for goods had, and received.
Talk thus to me who have seen these things, and will this day make aa
much sacrifice for the peace and honor of the South as the best born
southerner among you ! If we must be enemies, let us be men, and
fight it out as we propose to-day, and not deal in such hypocritical
'appeals to God and humanity. God will judge me in good time, and
He will pronounce whether it be more humane to fight with a town full of
women, and the families of a ' brave people,' at our backs, or to remove
them in time, to places of safety among their own friends and people."
In reply to an appeal from the Mayor of Atlanta, asking
him to revoke his order. General Sherman said :
" Headquarters Military Division of the Mississippi, )
"In the Field, V
"Atlanta, Ga., Sept. 10, 1864. j
" Gentlemen : I have your letter of the llth, in the nature of a
petition to revoke my orders removing all the inhabitants from Atlanta.
I have read it carefully and give full credit to your statements of the
distress that will be occasioned by it, and yet shall not revoke my order,
simply because my orders are not designed to meet the humanities of
the case, but to prepare for the future struggles in which millions, yea
hundreds of millions of good people out side of Atlanta have a deep
interest. We must have peace, not only at Atlanta, but in all America.
To secure this we must stop the war that desolates our once happy and
favored country. To stop war we must defeat the rebel armies that are
arrayed against the laws and Constitution, which all must respect and
obey. To defeat these armies, we must prepare the way to reach them
in their recesses, provided with the arms and instruments which
enable us to accomplish our purpose. Now I know the vindictive
nature of our enemy, and that we may have many years of military
operations from this quarter, and therefore deem it wise and prudent to
prepare in time. The use of Atlanta for war-like purposes, is incon
sistent with its character as a home for families. There will be no man-

SHERMAN TO THE AUTHORITIES OP ATLANTA. 543
ufactures, commerce or agriculture here for the maintenance of fam
ilies, and sooner or later want will compel the inhabitants to go. Why
not go now, when all the arrangements are completed for the transfer,
instead of waiting till the plunging shot of contending armies will re
new the scenes of the past month ? Of course I do not apprehend any
such thing at this moment; but you do not suppose that this army will
be here till the war is over. I cannot discuss the subject with you fair
ly, because I cannot impart to you what I propose to do ; but I assert,
that my military plans make it nesessary for the inhabitants to go away,
and I can only renew my offer of services to make their exodus in any
direction as easy and comfortable as possible.
" You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cru
elty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war on our coun
try, deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I
know I had no hand in making this war, and I know I will make more
sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have
peace and a division of our country. If the United States submits to
a division now, it will not stop, but will go on till we reap the fate
of Mexico, which is eternal war. The United States does and must
assert its authority wherever it has power ; if it relaxes one bit to'
pressure, it is gone, and I know that such is not the national feeling.
This feeling assumes various shapes, but always comes back to that of
Union. Once admit the union; once more acknowledge the authority
of the National Government, and instead of devoting your houses and
streets and rOads to the dread uses of war, I, and this army, become at
once your protectors and supporters, shielding you from danger, let it
come from whatever quarter it may.
" I know that a few individuals cannot resist a torrent of error and
passion, such as has swept the South into rebellion ; but you can point
out, so that we may know those who desire a Government, and those
who insist on war and its desolation.
You might as well appeal against the thunder storm, as against these
terrible hardships of war. They are inevitable, and the only way the
people'-of Atlanta can hope once more to live in peace and quiet at
home, is to stop this war, which can alone be done by admitting that it
began in error and is perpetuated in pride. We don't want your ne
groes, or your homes or your land, or anything -you have; but we do
want, and will have a just obedience to the laws of the United States.
That we will have, and if it involves the destruction of your improve
ments, we cannot help it. You have heretofore read public sentiment
in your newspapers that live by falsehood and excitement; and the
quicker you seek for truth in other quarters, the better for you. I re-

544 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
peat then, that by the original compact of government, the United
States had certain rights in Georgia, which have never been relinquish
ed, and never will be; that the South began war by seizing forts, arse
nals, mints, custom-houses, &c., &e., long before Mr. Lincoln was in
stalled, and before the South had one jot or tittle of provocation. I
myself have seen in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee and Mississippi,
hundreds and thousands of women and children fleeing from your armies
.and desperadoes, hungry, and with bleeding feet. In Memphis, Vicks
burg and Mississippi, we fed thousands upon thousands of families of
rebel soldiers left on our hands, and whom we could not see starve.
Now, that war comes home to you, you feel very different ; you depre
cate its horrors, but did not feel them when you sent car loads of sol
diers and ammunition, and moulded shell and shot to carry war into
Kentucky, and Tennessee, and desolate the homes of hundreds and
thousands of good people, who only asked to live in peace- at their own
homes and under the government of their inheritance.
" But these comparisons are idle. I want peace, and believe it can
only be reached through Union and war ; and I will ever conduct war
purely with a view to perfect an early success.
" But my dear sir, when that peace does come, you may call on me
for anything. Then will I share with you the last cracker, and watch
with you to shield your home and families against danger from every
quarter. Now, you must go, and take -with you the old and feeble, feed
and nurse them, and build for them in more quiet places, proper hab
itations to shield them against the weather until the mad passions of
men cool down, and allow the Union and peace, once more to settle
upon your old homes at Atlanta." *
This letter is written with great vigor and truth, and it is
inserted at length, to show that General Sherman wrote as
well as he fought. Indeed, if there are others among the
Union Generals, who might contest -vrith Sherman for superi
ority in the use of the sword, his superiority in the use of the
pen would be generaUy conceded. *
Meanwhile Hood, under orders direct from Richraond, un
dertook a movement to the north. Moving far to the right
of Atlanta, he struck the railroad and moved north. Gen
eral Sherraan therefore proposed td General Grant to aban
don and destroy Atlanta, and all the roads leading to it, and
make a bold march through the enemy's country to the sea.
• Appleton's Bnoyolopedia 1864, page 9L

SHERMAN PROPOSES TO "SMASH THINGS." 545
General Grant evidently at first thought the conception a
hazardous one, as well he might ; and he said to Sherman :
" If there is any other way to get at Hood's army, I would
prefer that ; but I must trust to your own judgment."
On the llth of October, Grant telegraphed to Sherman as
follows : '
"City Point, Va., October 11, 1864,-11. a. m.
" Your despatch of October 10th received. Does it not look as if Hood
was going to attempt the invasion of Middle Tennessee, using the Mo
bile and Ohio, and Memphis and Charleston roads to supply his base on
the Tennessee river, about Florence or Decatur ? If he does this he
ought to be met and prevented from getting North of the Tennessee
river. Ifyou were to cut loose, I do not believe you would meet Hood's
army but would be bushwacked by all the old men, little boys, and such
railroad guards as are still left at home. Hood would probably strike
for Nashville, thinking that by going north, he could inflict greater
damage upon us, than we could upon the rebels by going south. If
there is any way of getting at Hood's army, I would prefer that; but I
must trust to your own judgment. I find I shall not be able to send a
force from here to act with you on Savannah. Your movements there
fore will be independent of mine ; at least until the fall of Richmond
takes place. I am afraid Thomas, with such lines of road as be has to
protect, could not prevent Hood from going north. With Wilson turned
loose, with all your cavalry, you will find the rebels put much more on
the defensive than heretofore. " U. 8. GRANT, Lieut, Gen'l.
"Major Gen. W. T. Sherman."
On the llth of October, Sherman telegraphed from Kings
ton, Georgia, to Grant as foUows :
Hood moved his army from Palmetto Station across by Dallas and
Cedartown, and is now on the Coosa River, south of Rome. He threw
one Corps on my road to Acworth, and I was forced to follow. I hold
Atlanta with the Twentieth Corps, and have strong detachments along
my hne. This reduces my active force to a comparatively small army
We cannot remain here on the defensive. With the 25,000 men, and
the bold cavalry he has, he can constantly break my roads. I would
infinitely prefer to make a wreck of the road and of the country from
Chattanooga to Atlanta, including the latter city-send back all my
wounded and worthless, and with my effective army, move through

646 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Georgia, smashing things, to the sea. Hood may turn into Tennessee
and Kentucky, but I believe he will be forced to follow me. Instead of
my being on the defensive, I would be on the offensive ; instead of
guessing at what he means to do, he would have to guess at my plans.
The difference in war is full twenty-five per cent. I can make Savan
nah, Charleston, or the mouth of the Chattahoochee. Answer quick,
as I know we will not have the telegraph long."
" W. T. SHERMAN, Major General,
" Lieutenant General Grant."
To which General Grant on the same day replied as
follows :
" Your despatch of to-day received. If you are satisfied the trip to
the sea coast can be made, holding the line of the Tennessee River
firmly, you may make it, destroying all the railroad south of Dalton or
Chattanooga, as you think best," " U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General,
" Major General W. T. Sherman." *
It was at first designed to hold Atlanta; and marching
through to the coast, to leave garrisons on the railroads lead
ing east and west, and thus eft'ectually cut the Confederacy
in twain, as had been done by Grant in getting possession of
the Mississippi. But Sherman's coraraunications were so
long, that Sherman said. Hood with 25,000 men and the bold
cavalry he had could constantly break his roads. He, (Sher
man,) would prefer to send back all his wounded and
worthless, and with his effective army, "move through Georgia,
smashing things to ihe sea,"
Before foUowing this adventurous march, let us see what
were the fortunes of Hood who moved to the north.
General Thoraas, furnishes the foUowing description of
this campaign : f
" I found myself confronted by the army which under General J. E.
Johnston, had skillfully resisted the advance of the whole active army
of the military Division ofthe Mississippi, from Dalton to the Chattahoo
chee, reenforced by a well equipped and enthusiastic cavalry command of
over 12,000 men, led by one of the boldest and most successful cavalry
» Grant's Rei>ort, p. 24.
t Report of the Secretary of War, p. 9.

, THOMAS PREPARES TO MEET HOOD. 547
commanders in the rebel army. My information from all sources con
firmed the reported strength of Hood's army to be from 40 to 45,000 in
fantry, and from 12 to 15,000 cavalry. My effective force at this time,
consisted of the Fourth Corps, about 12,000 under Major General D. S.
Stanley, the Twenty-third Corps, about 10,000, under Major General
Schofield, Hatcher's Division of cavalry about 4,000, Croxton's brigade,
25,000, and Capron's brigade of about 1,200. The balance of my force
was distributed along the railroad, and posted at Mnrfreesboro, Stevenson,
Bridgeport, Huntsville, Decatur, and Chattanooga, to keep open our com
munications, and hold the posts above named, if attacked, until they could
be reenforced; as up to this time it was impossible to determine which
course Hood would take; advance on Nashville or turn towards Huntsville.
Under these circumstances, it was manifestly best to act on the defensive
mitil sufficiently reenforced to justify taking the offensive. On the 12th
of November, communication with General Sherman was severed, the last
despatch from him leaving Cartersville, Georgia, at 2.25 P. M., on that
date. He had started on his great expedition from Atlanta to the
seaboard, leaving me to guard Tennessee, or to pursue the enemy if he
followed the Commanding General's column. It was therefore, with
considerable anxiety that we watched the force at Florence, to dis
cover what course they would pursue with regard to General Sherman's
movements, determining thereby whether the troops under my command,
numbering less than half those under Hood, were to act on the defen
sive in Tennessee, or take the offensive in Alabama."
Reenforcements were hastened to Thomas, and among
other troops sent forward, were two divisions of veteran in
fantry, under General A. J. Smith. On the 20th of Novem
ber, General Schofield's main force was withdrawn from in
front of Columbia, and on the morning of the 30th, a posi
tion was taken at Franklin. Here followed a most fierce and
bloody battle between the arraies of Hood and Schofield.
General Thomas, in his report of this battle, says :
" The enemy followed closely after General Schofield's rear guard in the
retreat to Franklin, and upon coming up with the main force, formed rap
idly and advanced to assault our works, repeating attack after attack dur
ing the entire afternoon, and as late as 10 P. M., his efforts to break our
lines were continued. General Schofield's position was excellently chosen
with both flanks resting on the river, and his men firmly held their ground
against an overwhelming enemy, who was repulsed in every assault,
along the whole line. Our loss as given by General Schofield in his

548 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
report transmitted herewith, (and to which I respectfully refer,) is 189
killed, 1,033 wounded and 1,104 missing, making an aggregate of 2,326.
We captured and sent to Nashville, 702 prisoners, including one general
officer and thirty-three stands of colors. Major General D. S. Stanly,
commanding the Fourth Corps, was severely wounded at Franklin,
while engaged in rallying a portion of his command which had been
temporarily overpowered by an overwhelming attack of the enemy. At
the time of the battle, the enemy's loss was known to be severe, and
was estimated at 5,000. The exact figures were only obtained, however,
on the re-occupation of Franklin, by our forces after the battles of
December 15th and 16th, at Brentwood Hills near Nashville, and are
given as follows: Buried upon the field, 1,750; disabled and placed in
hospitals at Franklin, 3,800; which, with the 702 prisoners already re
ported, makes an aggregate loss of 6,252, among whom were six gene
ral officers killed, six wounded and one captured. The important results
of this signal victory cannot be too highly appreciated; for it not on-ly
seriously checked the enemy's advance, and gave General Schofield
time to remove his troops and all his property to Nashville, but it
also caused deep depression among the men of Hood's army, making
them doubly cautious in their subsequent movements." *
Schofield, by direction of Thomas, retired to NashviUe, in
front of which, a line of battle was formed on the 1st of De
cember. Hood's army made its appearance on the 2d of
December. The intense cold weather delayed operations
until the 14th, when the weather having become less severe,
General Thomas issued orders for an attack on Hood's army
to be raade on the 15th. At an early hour the next morning,
the hardy veteran soldiers of Thomas and Schofield 'moved
to the attack. All day long the fight was fiercely continued;
when night came, Thoraas had captured 16 pieces of artillery,
1,200 prisoners, and a large number of small arms. The
enemy had everywhere been forced' back with heavy loss.
The troops had fought with steadiness and courage. The
whole coramand bivouacked in line of battle during the
night on the ground occupied at dark, while preparations
were made to renew the battle at an early hour on the mor
row. At early dawn the next morning, the battle was re
newed. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon, the enemy's strong
position on Overton's Hill was assaulted by the Fourth Corps.
• Report of the Secretary of War, 1865.

BATTLE OF NASHVILLE. 549
General Smith's and Scofield's command moved against the
enemy's works iu their respective fronts, carrying all before
them, frequently breaking his lines in a dozen places, and
capturing all his artillery and thousands of prisoners, among
the latter, foiir general officers."* The Confederates broke and
fled in confusion, over the tops of Brentwood HiUs, pursued
by the exulting Union troops. Meanwhile, General Wil
son's cavalry dismounted, and attacked siraultaneously, with
Schofield and Smith. The fiying rebels were pursued several
miles, until darkness rendered the further chase impracticable.
During the two days battle, there were captured 4,462
prisoners, including 287 officers, 53 pieces of artillery, and
thousands of small arms.f
The Confederate army thus defeated, had been considered
next to the army of Lee, the most forraidable rebel force
which had been organized during the war. It had been ably
commanded by Bragg, Johnston, and Hood, and on many
bloody fields had estabUshed the courage of the soldiers and
the ability of the leaders. It was pursued from Nashville to
the Tennessee by Thomas' main army, and by detachments,
many miles further; but this proud army never again ap
peared in the field as an army organization. Fragments of
it were finally gathered up, and under Johnson, laid down
their arms to Sherman in the Spring of 1865, at the final
surrender of Johnston.
The brilliant Atlanta carapaign of Sherraan was in the
plans of Grant and his Lieutenant, prelirainary. Another
important step was yet to be made before the union of the
grand arraies of the East and the West, by the joint and co
operative raoveraents of which, Richraond was to be taken,
and the arraies of Lee and Johnston captured. " When,"
said Sherraan, " I plant this array at Goldsboro, Lee must
leave Virginia, or he will be defeated beyond hope of
recovery." Jefferson Da-ris, on the 22d of September, 1864, prophe
sied that Sherman's army, then in the heart of his Confeder
acy, would meet " the fate of the army of the French Empire,
• Thomas' Report.
t Secretary of War's Report, p. 12.

550 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
in the retreat from Moscow; our cavalry and our people,"
said he, " will harrass and destroy his array as did the Cossacks
that of Napoleon; and the Yankee General, like him, will
escape with only a body guard."
Little did this arrogant boaster then dream this " Tankee
General," at whora he proudly sneered, would raarch ai
pleasure through his Confederacy ; and that before his with
drawal, he himself would be first a fugitive and then a captive,
and his erapire crumbled into ruins !
As Hood marched to the North, Sherman foUowed as
far as Kenesaw Mountain. At the pass of Allatoona,
through which ran t'ne railway forming Sherraan's corarau
nications frora which he had not yet cut loose, there was an
immense depot of provisions; a milUon and a half of rations.
This pass was protected by a fort manned by 1,500 men. On
the morning of the 5th of October, General Sherman was
on the summit of Kenesaw, watching this pass, when the
faint sound of distant artillery and the puffs of white smoke
told him that this important position .was assailed. The gar
rison was furiously attacked by 6,000 rebels. Sherman from
the top of Kenesaw, signalled the commander at Allatoona
to hold out to the last, promising relief. When the answer
ing signal informed hira that General Corse was there and
in command, Sherman, exclaimed, " I know Corse ; as long as
he lives the Allatoona pass is safe! " And so indeed it was;
for although he was severely wounded early in the day, and
although the rebels charged again and again, yet he held out,
and beat off the attack with great slaughter of the rebels,
and held the post until succor arrived.
Sherman having seen Hood far on towards Tennessee,
turned his back upon him, leaving hira for Thomas to dis
pose of, and prepared to .start on his perilous march to the
sea. He divided his army into two parts, the right and loft
wings; the right, consisting of the Fifteenth and Seven
teenth Corps, under Major General 0. 0. Howard, and the
left, consisting of the Fourteenth and Twentieth Corps, under
Major General H. W. Slocum. General Kilpatrick com
manded the cavalry. The aggregate force numbered between
sixty and seventy thousand picked men. Probably no superior

SHERMAN STARTS FOR THE SEA. 551
body of soldiers, officers and men, was ever organized.
They had faith in theraselves, and in their leader.
Frora Atlanta to the sea, there ran two nearly parallel liues
of raUway; one leading to Charleston, South CaroUna, and
the other to Savannah, Georgia. The road to Charleston from
Atlanta, was 308 miles long, while that to Savannah was
293 miles. On the llth of November, Sherman telegraphed
from Kingston to Chattanooga, " all is well," then ordered
the wires to be cut and started for the ocean. He would
probably be heard from next from the sea coast.
On the evening of the 15th of November, the torch was
applied to the raachine shops, store houses, and depot build
ings of Atlanta. The band of the Thirty-third Massachu
setts was playing the air " John Brown's soul is marching on"
by the light of the blazing buildings of this city, which, next
to Richmond, had been considered the most iraportant strong
hold of the slaveholding Confederacy. The array marched
eastward towards Macon, the cavalry covering its flanks. As
it advanced, it destroyed the railroads, and everything which
could be of value to the Confederates. Sherman reached and
occupied Milledgeville, the Capital of Georgia, without any
serious opposition. By skillful raaneouvres, he deceived the
enemy as to his real purpose, and induced thera to concen
trate far away frora his line of march, so that he reached
Savannah without difficulty or loss.
Savannah was held by General Hardee, with 15,000 troops.
The City was invested, and scouts sent down the river to find
the fleet, which was known to be on the coast, watching for
Sherman's arrival. The fleet was found, and the news ex
pressed to the North that Sherman had got through and all
was well. To open coraraunication between his army and the
fleet, it was necessary for Sherman to capture Fort McAllister
which commanded the approaches from the sea. On the 13th
of December, a column under the gallant General Hazen,
attacked and carried the fort by assault. The communica
tions with the fleet were opened; General Sherman went
immediately on board, and sent his first despatch to the
Secretary of War, announcing his complete success. The
investment of Savannah now proceeded so rapidly, that by

052 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
the 20th, Hardee was compelled to save the garrison by flight.
He burned the rebel iron clads, and such stores and material,
as in his rapid flight he was able to destroy, and on the 21st
of December, Sherman entered the city, and on the 22d, he
sent to President Lincoln the following despatch :
" I beg to present to you as a Christmas gift, the City of Savannah,
with 150 guns, plenty of ammunition, and about 25,000 bales of
cotton." Thus ended Sherman's grand march to the sea! This
inarch is already a part of the romance of history. With
the steady, resistless force of the glacier; with the over
whelming power of the avalanche, Sherman descended from
the North, crushing everything in his path frora the moun
tains to the sea. Then, turning again towards the North,
that, grand Northwestern army, cooperating with the long
tried veterans of Grant, crushed the fragments of the rebellion
between the opposing forces.
Five weeks from the time he left Atlanta, with a total loss
of less than 1,500 men, he marched through the great State
of Geo.rgia, called the " Empire State of the South," occu
pying its capital, destroying its railroads, and now rested his
victorious soldiers in its chief city. It is not recorded that
the haughty Toombs, Iverson, and other slaveholders who
were accustomed to exhibit the arrogance and swagger of
the slave overseer in Congress, were heard of by Sherman in
his easy march through their State. Sherman appropriated
and destroyed the corn and forage for thirty miles on either
side of a line from Atlanta to Savannah, and also " all the
sweet potatoes, cattle, hogs, sheep, and poultry, and carried
away more than ten thousand horses and mules, as well as a
vast number of their slaves." The belt of country through
which Sherman marched, was full of negroes, and the Gene
ral invited all the able bodied men to join the column, and he
took especial pleasure in teUing them they were free; that
Massa Lincoln had given them their liberty, and that they
could go where they pleased.*
* Sherman's Report. 'Vide Nichols' Story of the Great March, p. 61, and 82.

THE ALABAMA AND THE KEARSAROE. 553
The negroes already understood that the Proclamation of
Emancipation had made them free. They regarded the ad
vent of the " Yankee," as the fulfiUment of the millenial
prophesies. " The day of Jubilee," the hope and prayer of a
life tirae, had come. They had the most perfect trust and
confidence in their deliverers. One day, a woraan -with a
child in her arras was working her way araong the tearas,
crowds of cattle, and horseraen. An officer called kindly to
her: " Where are you going auntie?" She looked up with a
hopeful, beseeching look and replied, " Ise gwine whar youse
gwine, raassa." *
The colored people manifested a forgiving spirit towards
their late masters, and a docile, obedient spirit towards those
who set thera free. One of thera said to Sherraan " we don't
wish to do anything wrong. We know you carae here to set
us free, and we expect you to tell us what to do. Some of
these masters have treated us shamefully ; whipped, impris
oned, and sold us about, but we don't wish tobe revenged on
thera. The Bible says we must forgive our enemies. They
have been our eneraies ,and we forgive them. Thank God
we are slaves no longer !" *
Nothing occurred during the war which more incensed the
the American people, than the ravages upon their commerce
by the English built cruisers, sailing under the rebel fiag.
By avoiding all armed antagonists, they roaraed the sea with
impunity, robbing and destroying American merchantmen,
and finding refuge and protection, and very often supplies, in
neutral ports, and especially in those of Great Britain. The
inost destructive of these cruisers were the the Alabama,
Florida andi the Georgia, Early in June, 1864, the, J.fa;6ama,
after a successful cruise among the Araerican Merchant ships
of the South Atlantic, returned to Northern waters and put into
Cherbourg, France. The -Kearsar^e, Captain John A. Winslo-vv
commanding, imraediately sailed for Cherbourg. On the 15th
of June, Captain Seraraes of the Alabama, knowing escape was
impossible, with characteristic bravado, sent a note to Cap
tain Winslow, asking him not to depart until the two vessels
* Nichols' Grand March
* Nichols' Story of the Great March, page 108.

654 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
could meet, and expressing a desire to fight the Kearsarge !
Winslow had come for the purpose, had been long in pursuit
of the Alabama, and had no intention of aUowing the Ala
bama to escape, as Semmes very well knew. The Alabama
having prepared herself at leisure for the confiict, on the 19th
of June came out of the harbor. She was foUowed by the
English Steam Yacht Deerhound, to act as her tender, and
to be ready to receive her officers in case of disaster. The
Alabama opened at long range, to which the Kearsarge made
no reply, but steaming directly for the Alabama, sought close
quarters. In a short time the Alabama hung out a white
flag, and Winslow reserved his fire, but the Alabama again
opening her fire, she received another broadside. She was
then abandoned by her commander. The Deerhound picked
up Semmes and his oflicers and steamed off with thera, Wins
low and his crew, too busy in picking up the drowning crew
of the Alabama, to prevent her. The Alabama in a few mo
ments went down, even before all the wounded could be
' saved. Semmes, conscious of the danger to which his irregular
proceedings after his surrender would subject him in case of
capture, got on board the Deerhound, which immediately
steamed for the friendly port of Southampton, Great Britain.
This fight was so near the French coast that thousands of
spectators on the shore witnessed the triumph of the Ameri
can fiag, and the speedy sinking of the English-rebel ship.
The Florida was captured by Captain H. Collins of the
Wachusett on the 6th of October, in the Bay of San Salva
dor, Brazil. She was brought to Hampton Roads and acci-"
dentally sunk. The Georgia was captured by the Niagara,
on the 15th of August.
Admiral Farragut was, in the summer of 1864, in comraand
of the squadron off Mobile ; and late in July received an ad
dition of four raonitors to his fleet. The principal entrance
to Mobile Bay was defended by Forts Gained and Morgan.
There were also Fort Powell, a water battery, and earth
works. Inside were Confederate iron-clads. On the 5th of
August, Admiral Farragut made his preparations for attack.
In order to obtain an unobstructed view, and to give his

FARRAGUT AT MOBILE. 555
orders with clearness, he ascended to the main-top of his fiag-
ship the Hartford, and moved forward to the attack. The
conflict was most furious and terrific. One of the monitors,
the Tecumseh, commanded by the brave Craven, struck a tor
pedo, and sunk, carrying down her gallant commander and
nearly all onboard. Still the indomitable Farragut steamed
in and passed the forts. The rebel fleet was destroyed or dis
abled, except the iron-clad ram Tennessee. This boldly bore
down upon the flag-ship, the Hartford. The fleet was di
rected to run her down. The Hartford was the third ship
which struck her; but as the Tennessee shifted her helm, the
blow was a glancing one, and as she rasped along side of Far-
ragut's ship, he poured iu a whole broadside of nine inch solid
shot, "within ten feet of her casement."* The Hartford
was again approaching, when the Tennessee struck her
colors. She was undoubtedly the strongest vessel ever
constructed by the Confederates, and she was most gal
lantly fought. The victory of Farragut over the fleet was
followed by the surrender of Forts Gaines and Powell. Fort
Morgan still held out, but on being invested by General
Granger, on the 23d, this last of the rebel defenses of Mobile,
unconditionally surrendered. This brief review of the mil
itary operations of 1864, which has been given, exhibits the
progress of the Union arms. The heavy, continuous pound
ing of Grant upon the armies under Lee, the sledge-hammer,
crushing blows he gave, the brilliant raarches and victories
of Sherman, the rapid, dashing triumphs of Sheridan, and
the successes of the Navy, culminating with this characteristic
exploit of Farragut, gave joy and confidence to the loyal
people throughout the republic. It was a significant fact
that the President had for some time issued official an
nouncements of victory " to the friends of Union and Lib
erty." * In his judgmentthese were becoming more and more
identical. Proclamations of thanksgiving and gratitude to
God were issued, the President was buoyant with hope, aud
obviously encouraged in the belief of an early termination of
the war. In foUowing the grand miUtary campaigns of 1864,
• Vide Farragut's Report.
* President's Proclamation of May 4, 1864.

656 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
some important events in connection with the President and
the war, have been omitted. It was during the sumraer of
1864, and before the victories we have raentioned had relieved
the anxiety of the people, that Mr. Lincoln was induced by
Mr. Greeley to have sorae correspondence with Confederate
agents in Canada. The Confederates were represented by
Messrs. C. C. Clay of Alabama, James B. Holcombe of Vir
ginia, and George N. Saunders. These eramissaries were
there for purposes, and raoveraents, sorae of which were
of a character entirely outside of the legitimate operations
of war.
Expeditions to rob and plunder banks, over the border, to
fire Northern cities, have been clearly traced to them, and
there is evidence tending to connect them with crimes of a
still graver, and darker character. By some raeans, they suc
ceeded in creating the irapression upon that good, but some
what credulous and sometiraes indiscreet raan, Horace Greeley,
that these agents were deserving of attention, and that it
would be wise to confer with thera. He wrote to the Presi
dent on the 7th of July, a letter in which he said : *
" I venture to remind you that our bleeding, bankrupt, almost dying
country also longs for peace — shudders at the prospect of fresh con
scriptions, of further wholesale devastations; and of new rivers of
human blood. * * * "I fear Mr. President, you do not realize
how intently the people desire any peace, consistent with tbe National
integrity and honor, and how joyously they would hail its achievement
and bless its authors."
He begged and entreated Mr. Lincoln to extend safe con
duct to the rebel eraissaries, then at Niagara, that they might
exhibit their credentials and submit their ultimatum. Mr.
Lincoln believed at that time, that the best means of obtain
ing peace, was by destroying the rebel armies. That Grant,
and Sherman, Sheridan and Farragut, were doing more to
bring it about, than could be accomplished by any negotia
tions to which he was thus so urgently entreated. He doubted
whether these agents had any authority; but Mr. Greeley was
a prominent political friend, a man of the purest and most
* Raymond s Life of Lincoln, etc., p. 672-3.

NIAGARA FALLS CONFERENCE. 557
patriotic purposes, and Mr. Lincoln, thought he would con
vince him of his own desire for peace, and expose what he
believed to be the deceptive character of these agents. He
therefore in reply to Mr. Greeley, said :
" If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any propo
sition of Jefferson Davis, in writing, for peace, embracing the restoration
of the Union, and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it embraces;
say to him he may come to me with you."
In another letter the President said, " I not only intend a
sincere effort for peace, but ihat you shall be a personal witness
ihat ii is made."
Mr. Greeley, on the 13th of July, wrote again to the
President, saying:
" I have now information on which I can rely, that two persons, duly
commissioned and empowered to negotiate for peace, are at this moment
not far from Niagara Falls, in Canada, and are desirous of conferring
¦with yourself, or with such persons as you may appoint and empower to
treat with them."
He then gave their names, etc. It turned out that Mr.
Greeley had been entirely deceived. That the rebel agents in
Canada had no authority whatever to treat for peace. Mr.
Greeley, on the 18th of July, says: "I have communicated
with the gentlemen in question and do noi find them so em
powered as J was previously assured." But he seems to be
unconcious of the deception practised upon him, and still
desirous that that they should be permitted to visit Washing
ton under the President's safe conduct. Mr. Lincoln, des
patched his private Secretary, Major Hay, to New York, with
the following note : " Executive Mansion, July 18, 1864.
" To whom it may concern :
" Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the in
tegrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which
comes by and with the authority that can control the armies now at war
against the United States, will be received and considered by the Exec-
i utive Government of the United States, and will be mefrby liberal terms
on other substantial, and collateral points, and the bearer or bearers
thereof, shall have safe conduct both ways.
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

558 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Mr. Greeley was authorized by Mr. Lincoln in his letter of
July 9th, to tender the Confederate agents safe conduct, only
upon the condition that they professed to have a proposition of
Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the restoration
of the Union, and abandonment of slavery. But it seems he
did not communicate this to the rebel agents. Mr. Greeley
was entrapped, and did not discover it. Mr. Lincoln, feeling
the injustice which a partial publication of this correspond
ence did to him, and to the country, asked Mr. Greeley to
permit the whole correspondence to be published, omitting
certain passages in Mr. Greeley's letters which were calcu
lated in his judgment, to injure and depress the country.
Mr. Greeley decUned, unless the whole was pubUshed, and
Mr. Lincoln with characteristic magnanimity, subraitted in
silence to the injustice, writing the foUowing letter to Mr.
Rayraond: *
"Executive Mansion, Washington, August 15, 1864. "
"Hon. Henry J. Raymond:
" My Dear Sir: — I have proposed to Mr. Greeley that the Niagara
correspondence be published, suppressing only the parts of his letters
over which the red pencil is drawn in the copy, which I herewith send.
He declines giving his consent to the publication of his letters, unless
these parts be published with the rest. I have concluded that it is bet
ter for me to submit for the time, to the consequences of the false posi
tion in which I consider he has placed me, than to subject the country
to the consequences of publishing these discouraging and injurious
parts. I send you this, and the accompanying copy, not for publication,
but merely to explain to you, and that you may preserve Ihem until
their proper time shall come." " Yours truly,
"ABRAHAM LINCOLN."
The rebels, under John Morgan, made a desperate raid
into Kentucky, and although checked and defeated by Gen
eral Burb ridge at Cynthiana, received so much encourageraent
and syrapathy frora the citizens, that Mr. Lincoln felt com
pelled to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus, and declare
martial law in that State.
• Raymond's Life of Lincoln, p, 5S7.  - 

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1864. 559
The Presidential election approached, coining now in the
midst of a civil war, which wrapt the whole country, and
aroused everywhere the raost intense and violent passions;
it was felt that it was a fearful ordeal through which the
country must pass. The Confederates stUl held their Capital;
three great rebel armies stiU held the field; the public debt
was steadily and rapidly increasing. Under the pressure of
an imperative miUtary necessity, the administration had used
its Constitutional right of suspending the Habeas Corpus, the
great safeguard of civil liberty; aad dealt with individuals
deemed dangerous, with a severity as absolute as the most
energetic governments of Europe had been accustomed to do
in tirae of war. Taxes were increasing; the President or
dered new drafts to fill up the ranks of the decimated
armies. But yet victory, a restored Union, and universal
liberty, began to be clearly visible as the results. The demo
cratic party availed itself of every means to secure popular
favor and success at the elections. It was in the midst
of the confiict, when the administration was straining every
nerve to crush the rebellion, that the Democratic National
Convention had raet at Chicago, and declared the war a fail
ure, and deraanded that iraraediate efforts be made for a
cessation of hostilities, etc. The foUowing is the iraportant
resolution upon which the election turned.
" Resolved, That this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense
of American people, that a-iter four years of failure to restore the Union
hy the experiment of war, during which, under the pretense of military
necessity, or war power, higher than the Constitution, the Constitution
itself has been disregarded in every part, and public liberty and private
right alike trodden down, and the material prosperity of the country
essentially impaired; justice, humanity, hberty, and the public welfare
deniand that immediate efforts he made for a cessation of hostil
ities, with a view to an ultimate Convention of the States or other peace
able m^eans, to the end ihat, at the earliest practicable moment peace may
be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States." *
The Union War party joyfully accepted the issue thus
boldly tendered. With this frank avowal, they did not doubt
• Raymond's Life of Lincoln, p. 592.

560 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
the result, and they prosecuted the canvass -with energy and
confldence. Whether the war should go on with vigor, to
the complete and final overthrow of slavery and the rebellion,
or whether hostilities should cease, was the condition of the
canvass. With this great and overshadowing issue, the peo
ple cared little for the wrangling over the petty questions
which arise in a Presidential canvass.
The President sought no disguise that the war was now
"for liberty and 'Union." He said during the canvass to
a citizen of the West, in substance : " There are now in the
service of the Uuited States nearly two hundred thousand
colored men, most of them under arms. The Democratic
strategy demands that these forces be disbanded, and that the
masters be conciliated by restoring them to slavery. The
black men who now fight for us, and who assist Union pris
oners to escape, are to be converted into our enemies in the
vain hope of gaining the good will of their masters." " Take"
said he, " 200,000 men from our side, and put them in the
battle-field or corn-field against us, and we would be corapelled
to abandon the war. There are men base enough to propose
to me to return to slavery our black warriors of Port Hudson
and Olustee, and thus win the respect of the masters they
fought!" " Should I do so?" said he, with indignation glow
ing in every feature, " I should deserve to be daraned in tirae
and in eternity. Come what may," said he, " I will keep my
faith with the black man. Freedora has given us 200,000 men
raised on Southern soil. It will give us more. No human
power can subdue this rebellion without the eraancipation
policy. / will abide the issue." He did abide the issue, and the
glorious cause of liberty, blessed by God, and sustained by the
people, triuraphed. The victories of Sheridan and Sherman,
Farragut and Grant re-acted upon the people, and sweUed
the majority by which Lincoln was reelected.. He received
all the electoral votes given, except those of three States,
New Jersey, Delaware and Kentucky. His majority on the
popular vote was more than 400,000, a larger raajority than
was ever before given for any Presidential candidate. Those
who feared the ordeal of a popular election in the raidst of
the passions of civil war, were corapelled to acknowledge

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1864. 561
the calraness, the wisdom and dignity with which the Ameri
can people passed through this crisis. They came out of it
stronger, raore resolute, and raore united than ever before.
An observing world was compelled to acknowledge this
people capable of self governraent.
At a late hour on the night of the election, Mr. Lincoln
was serenaded, and in response, said :
" I am thankful to God for this approval of the people. But while
deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my
own heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I
do not impugn the motives of any one opposed to me. It is not in my
nature to triumph over any one, but I give thanks to Almighty God for
this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and
the rights of humanity."
36

CHAPTER XX T.

THE SECOND SESSION OF THE 38TH CONGRESS— CONSTITUTIONAL
ARJENDMENT ABOLISHING AND PROHIBITING SLAVERY THROUGH
OUT THE REPUBLIC.
The President's Message — Anti-Slavery measures — A Bust
FOR Chief Justice Taney — Salmon P. Chase appointed
Chief Justice — -The Constitutional Amendment — Passage
OF THE joint RESOLUTION THROUGH CONGRESS — RATIFICATION
THEREOF BY THE STATES.
WE now come to the Second Session of the 38th Congress,
and the last Annual Message of President Lincoln.
Congress had never before during his administration, opened
under such happy auspices. Victories in the East and in the
West, and increasing and accumulating evidence of the ex
haustion of the Confederacy, indicated the early triumph of
the Union cause. Mr. Lincoln had just been re-elected by a
majority unprecedented; thereby staraping upon his admin
istration the approval of the people.
The Emancipation Proclamation, the eraployraent of negro
soldiers, and the Constitutional Araendraent prohibiting slav
ery, had been distinctly presented to the people, aud had re
ceived their emphatic approval. It was under these cheer
ing circumstances that in Deceraber 1864, Congress met and
received frora Abraham Lincoln his last Annual Message.
He commenced this pecuUarly interesting State paper, by ex
pressing the " profoundest gratitude to Almighty God." The
careful student of Mr. Lincoln's State papers, and other
writings will observe a constantly increasing religious senti-
ment||fxhibiting itself Especially is this discernible after
the death of his idolized son Willie, in February, 1862.
562

president's message, 1864. 563

After reviewing the relations of the United States with
other nations, he announced the opening of the ports of
Norfolk, Fernandina, and Pensacola. Then aUuding to the
Arguelles case, in which a slave-trader seeking asylum in the
United States had been surrendered to Spain, he said : "For
myself I have no doubt of the power and duty of the Exec
utive under the laws of nations to exclude enemies of the
human race from an asylum in the United States. If Con
gress should think that proceedings in such case lack the au
thority of law, or ought to be further regulated by it, I re
comraend that provision be made for effectually preventing
foreign slave traders from acquiring doraicil and facilities for,
their crirainal occupation in this country.
He then called attention to the circurastances which had
induced him to give notice to the Government of Great Bri
tain, of the termination of the treaty stipulation of 1817,
which had liraited the number of armed vessels on the Great
Lakes. " In view of the insecurity of life in the region adjacent to the Can
ada border by recent assaults and depredations committed by inimical
and desperate persons who are harbored there, it has been thought
proper to give notice that after the expiration of six months, the period
conditionally stipulated in the existing arrangements with Great Britain
the United States must hold themselves at liberty to increase their
naval armament upon the Lakes, if they shall find that proceeding nec
essary. The condition of the border will necessarily come into consid
eration in connection with the question of continuing or modifying the
rights of transit from Canada through the United States, as well as the
regulation of imports, which were temporarily estabUshed by the Reci
procity Treaty of the 5th of June, 1854."
He then proceeds to speak of the very iraportant subject'
of finance, andthe receipts and expenditures of Governraent.
He

" The legislation of the last session of Congress has beneficially ef
fected the revenue. Although sufficient time has not yet elapsed to ex
perience the full effect of several of the provisions of the acts of Con-
gross imposing increased taxation, the receipts during the year from all
sources, upon the basis of warrants signed by the Secretary of the

564 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Treasury, including loans and the balance in the treasury, on the 1st
day of July, 1863, were $1,394,796,007 62, and the aggregate disburse
ments upon the same basis were $1,298,056,191 89, leaving a balance
in the treasury, as shown by warrants, of $96,739,905 73. Deduct
from these amounts the amount of the principle of the pubhc debt re
deemed, and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and the ac
tual cash operations of the treasury were receipts, $884,076,646.77,
disbursements $865,234,087.86, which leaves a cash balanqe in the
treasury of $18,842,558.71. Of the receipts, there were derived from
customs, $102,316,152.99 ; from lands, $588,333.29 ; from direct tax
es, $575,648,96; from internal revenues, $109,741,134.10; from mis
cellaneous sources, $47,511,448.10; and from loans applied to actual
expenditures, including former balance, $623,443,929.13. There were
disbursed, for the civil service, $27,505,579.46 ; for pensions and In
dians, $7,517,930.97 ; forthe War Department, $60,791,842.97; for
the Navy Department, $85,733,292.97 ; for interest of the public debt,
$52,685,421.69. Making an aggregate of $865,234,087.86 and leav
ing a balance in the treasury of $18,842,558.71, as before stated."
Of the public debt he says :
"The public debt from the 1st day of July last, as appears from the
books of the Treasury, amounted to one billion, seven hundred and
forty million, six hundred and ninety thousand, four hundred and eighty-
nine dollars, and forty-nine cents. Probably should the war continue
for another year, that amount may be increased by not far from five
hundred millions. Held as it is, for the most part by our own people,
it has become a substantial branch of National, though private prop
erty. For obvious reasons the more nearly this property can be dis
tributed among all the people the better. To favor such general dis
tribution, greater inducements to become owners, perhaps might with
good effect and without injury, be presented to persons with limited
means. With this view I suggest whether it might not be both expe
dient and competent for Congress to provide that a limited amount of
some future issue of public securities might not be held, by any hona-
fide purchaser, exempt from taxation, and of seizure from debt, under
such restrictions and limitations as might be necessary to guard against
abuse of so important a privilege. This would enable prudent persons
to set aside a small annuity against a possible day of want. Privileges
hke these would render the possession of such securities to the amount
hmited, most desirable to any person of small means who might be able
to save enough for the purpose. The great advantage of citizens being

president's message, 1864. 565
creditors as well as debtors with relation to the public debt, is obvious.
Men readily perceive that they cannot be much oppressed by a debt
which they owe to themselves. The public debt on the 1st day of
July last, although somewhat exceeding the estimate of the Secretary
of the Treasury made to Congress at the commencement of last ses
sion, falls short of the estimate of that officer made in the preceding
December, as to its probable amount at the beginning of this year, by
the sum of $3,995,079.33. This fact exhibits a satisfactory condition
and conduct of the operations of the treasury."
Of the National Banking System, the great financial
measure of Mr. Chase, he says :
" The national banking system is proving to be acceptable to capital
ists and to the people. On the 25th day of November, five hundred
and eighty-four national banks had been organized, a considerable
number of which were conversions from State banks. Changes
from the State system to the national system are rapidly taking place, and
it is hoped that very soon there will be in the United States no banks of
issue not authorized by Congress, and no bank-note circulation not se
cured by the Government. That the Government and the people will
derive general benefits from this change in the banking system of the
country, can hardly be questioned. The national system will create a
reliable and permanent influence in support of the national credit, and
protect the people against losses in the use of paper money. Whether
or not any further legislation is advisable for the suppression of State
bank issues, it will be for Congress to determine. It seems quite clear
that the Treasury cannot be satisfactorily conducted, unless the Gov
ernment can exercise a restraining power over the bank-note circulation
of the country.
Referring to the report of the Secretary of War, for the
details of the operations of the Army and of the Navy, he

" The report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a comprehen
sive and satisfactory exhibit of the affairs of that department and of
the naval service. It is a subject of congratulation and laudable pride
to our countrymen, that a navy of such proportions has been organized
in so brief a period, and conducted with so much efficiency and suc
cess. The general exhibit of the navy, including vessels under con
struction on the 1st of December, 1864, shows a total of 671 vessels,

566 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
carrying 4,610 guns, and 510,396 tons, being an actual increase during
the year over and above all losses by shipwreck or in battle, of 83 ves
sels, 167 guns, and 42,427 tons. The total number of men at this
time in the naval service, including officers, is about 51,000. There
have been captured by the navy during the year 324 vessels, and the
whole number of naval captures since hostilities commenced is 1,379,
of which 267 are steamers."
After alluding to the rapid sale and settlement of the pub
lic lands, notwithstanding the war, and the rapid progress
of the great Pacific railway, he comes to the all-absorbing
subject of the war. He says :
" The war continues. Since the last annual message, all the import-
a,nt Hnes and positions then occupied by our forces have been main
tained, and our armies have steadily advanced, thus liberating the
regions left in the rear ; so that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and
parts of other States, have again produced reasonably fair crops.
" The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the year
is General Sherman's attempted march of three hundred miles, directly
through an insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of our
relative strength, that our General-in Chief should feel able to con
front and hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet to
detach a well-appointed large army to move on such an expedition.
The result not yet being known, conjecture in regard to it cannot
here be indulged."
Of the progress towards reconstruction, " moulding so
ciety for durability in the Union," as he terras it in his own
most significant phraseology, he says " although these move
ments are short of complete success, it is much in the right
direction that 12,000 citizens in the States of Arkansas and
Louisiana have organized loyal state Governments, with free
constitutions, and are earnestly sti'uggling to maintain and
administer them. The movements in the same direction,
more extensive, though less definite in Missouri, Kentucky
and Tennessee, should not be overlooked. " But Maryland,"
he says, exultingly, " presents an example of complete suc
cess. Maryland is secure to liberty and Union for all
the future. The genius of rebellion will no more claim Mary-
land; Uke another foul spirit being driven out, it may seek
to tear her, but it will w'oo her no more."

president's message, 1864. 667
Upon the pending question of the proposed constitutional
amendment abolishing slavery, the question of all others of
overshadowing importance, he says :
" At the last session of Congress, a proposed amendment of the con
stitution, abolishing slavery throughout the United States, passed the
Senate, but failed for the lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in the
House of Representatives. Although the present is the same Con
gress, and nearly the same members, and without questioning the wisdom
or patriotism of those who stood in opposition, I venture to recommend
the reconsideration and passage of the measure at the present session.
Of course the abstract question is not changed, but an intervening
election shows almost certainly that the next Congress will pass the
measure, if this does not. Hence there is only a question of time as
to when the proposed amendment will go to the States for their action,
and as it is to go at all events, may we not agree that the sooner the
better ? It is not claimed that the election has imposed a duty on mem
bers to change their views or their votes, any further than as an addi
tional element to be considered. Their judgment may be affected by
it. It is the voice of the people now for the first time heard upon the
question In a great national crisis like ours, unanimity of action among
those seeking a common end is very desirable — almost indispensable ;
and yet no approach to such unanimity is attainable unless some defer
ence shall be paid to the will of the majority. In this case the com
mon end is the maintenance of the Union, and among the means to
secure that end, such will, through the election, is most clearly declared
in favor of such constitutional amendment. The most reliable indica
tion of public purpose in this country is derived through our popular
elections. Judging by the recent canvass and its results, the purpose
of the people within the loyal States to maintain the integrity of the
Union, was never more firm or more nearly unanimous than now. The
extraordinary calmness and good order with which the millions of vot
ers met and mingled at the polls, gives strong assurance of this. Not
only all those who supported the Union ticket (so called,) but a great
majority of the opposing party also, may be fairly claimed to entertain
and to be actuated by the same purpose. It is an unanswerable argu
ment to this effect that no candidate for any office whatever, high or
low, has ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving up
the Union. There has been much impugning of motives, and much
heated controversy as to the proper means and best mode of advancing
the Union cause; but in the distinct issue of Union or no Union, the
politicians have shown their instinctive knowledge that there is no diver-

668 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
sity among the people. In affording the people a fair opportunity of
showing one to another, and to the world, their firmness and unan
imity of purpose, the election has been of vast value to the Union
cause." Upon the question of how far the Republic had been ex
hausted by the war in men and resources, he makes the fol
io-wing interesting and striking statements :
" The election has exhibited another fact, not less valuable to be
known — the fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most im
portant branch of the national resources— that of Uving men. While
it is melancholy to refiect that the war has filled so many graves, and
caused mourning to so many hearts, it is some rehef to know that,
compared with the surviving, the fallen brave have been so few. While
corps and divisions and regiments have formed and fought and dwin
dled and gone out of existence, a great majority of the men who com
posed them are still living. The same is true of the naval service.
The election returns prove this. So many voters could not else be
found. The States regularly holding elections, both now and four years
ago — to wit : California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,
Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota,
Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon,
Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermant, West Virginia, and Wisconsin
— cast 3,982,011 votes now, against 3,870,222 cast then; showing an
aggregate now of 3.982,011, to which is to be added 33,762 cast now
in the new States of Kansas and Nevada, which States did not vote in
I860 ; thus swelling the aggregate to 4,015,773, and the net increase,
during the three and a half years of war, to 145,551. A table is ap
pended, showing particulars. To this again should be added the numbers
of all soldiers in the field belonging to Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and California, who by the
laws of those States could not vote away from their homes, and which
number cannot be less than 90,000. Nor yet is this all. The number
in organized Territories is triple now what it was four years ago, while
thousands, white and black, join us as the national arms press back the
insurgent lines. So much is shown affirmatively and negatively by the
election. It is not material to inquire how the increase has been pro
duced, or to show that it would have been greater but for the war,
which is probably true. The important fact remains demonstrated that
we have more men now than we had when the war began ; that we are
not exhausted, nor in process of exhaustion ; that we are gaining

president's message. 569
strength, and may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely. This
as to men. Comparative Vote, 1860 and 1864.
1860. 1864.
Kentucky  148,216 91,300
Maine  97,918 115,141
Maryland.....  92,502 ' 72,703
Massachusetts  169,533 175,487
Michigan  154,747 162,412
Minnesota  34,799 42,534
Missouri  165,538 90,000
NewHampshhe  65,953 69,111
New Jersey  121,125 128,680
New York  675,156 730,661
Ohio  442,441 470,745
Oregon  14,410 f 14,410
Pennsylvania  476 442 572,697
Rhode Island  19,931 22,187
Vermont  42,844 55,811
West Virginia  46,195 33,874
Wisconsin  152,180 148,513
Total  3,870,222 3,982,011
Kansas  17,234
Nevada  16,528 33,762
Total  4,015,713
Material resources are now more complete and abundant than ever.
The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we believe, in
exhaustible. The public purpose to re-establish and maintain the
national authority is unchanged, and, as we believe unchangeable."
He then goes on to say that the issue with the rebel lead
ers could only be decided by war, and victory. Negotiation
was useless. On this point he said :
" On careful consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to
me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result
in any good. He would accept of nothing short of the severance of
the Union. His declarations to this effect are explicit and oft repeated.
He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to
deceive ourselves.
^ • Nearly. t Estimated.

570 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
We cannot voluntarily yield it. Between him and us the issue is dis
tinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by
war, and decided by victory. If we yield, we are beaten. If the South
ern people fail him, heis beaten. Either way, it would be the victory
and defeat following war. What is true, however, of him who heads
the insurgent cause, is not necessarily true of those who follow. Al-
thougli he cannot reaccept the Union, they can. Some of them we
know already desire peace and reunion. The number of such may in
crease. They can at any moment have peace, simply by laying down
their arms and submitting to the national authority under the Consti
tution. After so much the Government could not, if it would, main
tain war against them. The loyal people would not sustain or allow it.
If questions should remain,, we would adjust them by the peaceful
means of legislation, conference, courts, and votes, operating only in
constitutional and lawful channels. Some certain and other possible
questions are, and would be beyond the executive power to adjust — as,
for instance, the admission of members into Congress, and whatever
might require the appropriation of money. The executive power it
self would be greatly diminished by the cessation of actual war. Par
dons and remissions of forfeiture, however, would still be within the
executive control. In what spirit and temper this control would be
exercised, can be fairly judged of by the past. A year ago general
pardon and amnesty upon specified terms, were offered to all except
certain designated classes, and it was at the same time made known that
the excepted classes were still within contemplation of special clemency.
During the year many availed themselves of the general provision, and
many more would, only that the signs of bad faith in some led to such
precautionary measures as rendered the practical process less easy and
certain. During the same time, also, special pardons have been granted
to individuals of excepted classes, and no voluntary application has
been denied.
" Thus practically the door has been for a full year open to all, except
Buch as were not in condition to make free choice — that is such as were
in custody or under constraint. It is still so open to all ; but the time
may come, probably will come, when public duty shall demand that it
be closed, and that in lieu more vigorous measures than heretofore shall
be adopted."
He closes this wise and statesman-like message, in the
following memorable words; words the more they are pon
dered by the Araerican people, in the light of the present.

THE president's MESSAGE. 671
the more deep will be the regret that this great and good
man, was not permitted himself to finish the work of
restoring the Union. " In presenting " says he, " the aban
donment of armed resistance to the National authority on
the part of the insurgents, as the only indispensable condition
on the part of the Governraent to peace, I retract nothing
heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made
a year ago, that while I remain in my present position, I shall
noi attempt to retract or modify ihe Emancipation Proclamation ;
nor shall I retum io slavery any person who is free by the terms
of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress."
Rather than do this he would retire from the office of
President. " If the people " said he, " should by whatever mode or
means, make it an Executive duty to reenslave such persons,
another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it.
In stating a single condition of peace, I raean siraply to say,
that the war will cease on the part of the Governraent,
whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who
began it."
This session of Congress went forward with the work of
remo-ring from the Statute book, all laws which had been
passed for the support and maintenance of slavery, and creat
ing disabilities on the part of the negro race. A law was
enacted providing that no person should thereafter be dis
qualified from carrying the United States' mails on account
of color. At this session, the law finally passed and received
the prompt approval of the President, giving freedom to the
families of colored soldiers.
Senator Wilson, Chairman of the Committee on Military
Affairs, speaking of the resolution, said: " The committee
have three times reported the substance of this resolution.
It simply provides that the wives and children of soldiers of
the Republic shall be made free. The needs of the country
have placed weapons in the hands of the slaves. They are
to-day in the trenches before Richraond and Petersburg, and
on the shores of the Carolinas; and they keep watch and
ward over the Mississippi from Cairo, to the Gulf, They
are everywhere doing their duty bravely and well. Butler

672 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
and Banks, Meade and Burnside, Warren, Hancock, and
Grant have all borne testimony to their fidelity, their cour
age, and their services. It is estimated that from 75,000 to
100,000 persons, -wives and children of these soldiers, are
held in slavery. It is a burning sharae to the country ; it is
an indecency to the Araerican people, to hold the wives and
children in slavery, of men who are perilling their lives for
the country." The joint resolution making free the wives
and children of colored soldiers, passed the House on the
22d of February, 1865.
Senator Trumbull, Chairman of the Committee on the
Judiciary, of the Senate, on the 23d of February, moved to
proceed to the consideration of the bill, which had been re
ported from that coramittee, providinsc for a bust of the late
Chief Justice Taney to be placed in the Supreme Court
roora. Mr. Suraner objected that an eraancipated country
should make a bust to the author of the Dred Scott decision.
Senator Trumbull said: "He (Taney,) was a great, and
learned, and an able man, and he trusted the Senate would
take up and pass the bill.*
Mr. Sumner in reply, said :
• The Senator from Illinois says that this idea ot a bust is not to be hooted down
Let me tell that Senator that the name of Taney is to be hooted down the page of
history. Judgment is beginning now; and an emancipated country will fasten
upon him the stigma which he deserves. The Senator says that he for twenty-five
years administered justice. He administered justice at last wickedly, and degraded
the judiciary of the country, and degraded the age.
Ml. Johnson. I cannot fail to express my astonishment at the course of the
honorable Senator from Massachusetts, which he thinks it, I suppose, his duty to
pursue. Sir, it the times iu which -we are living are honestly and truly recorded
by the historian, I think the honorable member from Massachusetts will be very
happy if he stands as pure and as high upon the historic page as the learned judge
who is now no more.
The honorable member seems to suppose that the decision in the Dred Scott case
was a decision of the Chief Justice alone. It was not so. In that decision a majority
of the court concurred. Whether that decision is right or not, permit me to say to
the honorable member there are men belonging Jto the profession at least his
equals, who think it to have been right; but whether right or wrong, those who
knew the moral character of the Chief Justice as well as I did, would blush to say
that his name is to be execrated among men. Sir, the decisions of that learned
Jurist are now quoted with approbation everywhere, and there is not a judge upon
the bench now, three or four of them having been selected by the present incum
bent of the Presidential ofBce, who will not say at once that a brighter intellect
never adorned the judicial station. But it is a matter of history. Every Judge who
has been at the head of that tribunal has his bust placed in that court room. Does
the honorable member wish to have It unknown in future times that there was
* Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 1012-13.

SPEECH OP SUMNER. 673
such a Chief Justice? I suppose he does; I presume he does; and why? Because
he differed with him. If so, to be consistent,, he will be compelled to wish that
two-thirds of the profession in the United States, and two-thirds of tlie country,
should be forgotten in all after time, for I am sure I am not mistaken in supposing
that at least that number will be found in opposition to the peculiar opinions of
the honorable member from Massachusetts. *****
Mr. Sumner. I objected to this Joint resolution some days ago, when it was re
ported by the Senator ftom lUinois, [Mr. TR-aMBtrLi,,] aud he was disposed to hurry
It at once upon the Senate, to the exclusion of important business. I objected to it
again to-day, but it was from no indisposition to discuss it.
I know well the trivial apology which may be made for this proposition, and the
Senator from Maryland [Mr. Johnson,] has already shown something of the hardi
hood with which it may be defended. But in the performance of pubUc duty I am
Indifferent to both.
" The apology is too obvious. ' Nothing but good of the dead.' This is a familiar
saying, which, to a certain extent, may be acknowledged. But it is entirely inap
plicable when statues and busts are proposed in honor of the dead. Thpn, at least,
truth must prevail.
" If a man ha.s done evil during life he must not be complimented in marble.
And if indiscreetly it is proposed to decree such a signal honor, then the evil he
has done must be exposed ; nor shall any false delicacy seal my lips. It is not
enough that he held high place, that he enjoyed worldly honors, or was endowed
with inteUectual gifts. ""Who wickedly is wise, or madly brave,
Is but the more a fool, the more a knave.
" -What is the office of Chief Justice, if it has been used to betray Human Rights ?
The crime is great according to the positon of tlie criminal.
" If you were asked, sir, to mention the incident of our history previous to the
rebellion which was in aU respects most worthy of condemnation, most calculated
to cause the blush of shame, and most deadly in its consequences, I do not doubt
that you would say the Dred Scott decision, and especially the wicked opinion of
the Chief Justice on that occasion. I say this with pain. I do not seek this debate.
But when a proposition is made to honor the author of tills wickedness with a
commemorative bust at the expense of the country, I am obliged to speak plainly.
" I am not aware that the English judges who decided contrary to Liberty in the
case of ship-money, and thus sustained the king in those pretensions which ended
in civil war, have ever been commemorated in marble. I am not aware that Jef
freys, Chief Justice and ChanceUor of England, famous for his talents as for his
crimes, has found any niche in Westminster Hall. No, sir. They have been left to
the Judgment of history, and there I Insist that Taney shall be left in sympathetic
companionship. Each was the tool of unjust power. But the power which Taney
served, was none other than that Slave Power which has Involved the country in
war. " I speak what cannot be denied when I declare that the opinion of the Chief
Justice in the case of Dred Scott, was more thoroughly abominable than anything
of the kind in the history of courts. Judicial baseness reached its lowest point on
that occasion. You have not forgotten that terrible decision where a most
unrighteous judgment was sustained by a falsification of history. * « *
" Sir, it is not flt, it is not decent, that such a person should be commemorated by
a vote of Congress ; especiaUy at this time when liberty is at last recognized. If
you have money to appropriate in this way, let it be in honor of the defenders of
liberty now gathered to their fathers. There was John Quincy Adams. There also
Tvas Joshua R. Giddings. Let their busts be placed in the court room, ifyou please,
where with marble lips they can plead always for human rights, and teach. Judge,
and advocate, the glory and the beauty of Justice. Then will you do something
not entirely unworthy of a regenerated land ; something which will be an example
for future times; something which will help to fix the standard of history.
" I know that In the court room there are busts of the other Chief Justices. Very
well. So in the haU of the doges, at Venice, there are pictures of all who fllled that

574 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
high office in unbroken succession with the exception of Marino Faliero, who,
although as venerable from years as Taney, was deemed unworthy of a place in
that line. Where his picture should have been, there was a vacant space which
testified always to the Justice of the republic. Let such a vacant space in our court
room testify to the Justice of our Republic. Let It speak in warning to aU who
would betray liberty.
Senator Hale said, " I am not willing to pass an appropri
ation, to do honor to the Dred Scott decision, nor to its
author." He said:
" The Supreme Court of the United States was at that time the thrall of slavery,
just as much so as Gurth, the son of Beowulph, and Wamboa, son of Witless, that
had a ring about their necks by which they were marked ' born thrall of Cedric, of
Rotherwood.' The Supreme Court, the thrall of slavery, did not think it prudent
to publish the decision which they made at December term, 1855, and for what rea
son? There was a Presidential election coming on in the fall of 1856 ; and If the
decision had been made at the sitting of 1855, and the public had known it; if the
decision which was afterward proclaimed in 1857, had been declared in 1855, or the
eariy part of 1856, the sage of Wheatland would now be an ei-Senator instead of
an ex-President. The Supreme Court kept back the decision.
Senator Wilson said, " I have no heart to follow any raan
to the grave with reproaches, nor to dishonor his name, or
defame his memory. But I am impelled by an imperative
sense of duty to vote against the resolution to perpetuate
in marble, the features of the Judge who pronounced the
Dred Scott decision, the greatest crime in the judicial annals
of the Republic." He said:
" You may, sir, erect statues to him ; yon may pass resolutions, you may pro
nounce eulogies ; but the future, the coming future, grand and great, of emanci
pated, disenthralled, and regenerated America, will place him just where it wlU
places others who were recreant to liberty and humanity. That future will declare
that he nurtured the spirit of slavery, strengthened its power, enthroned it, hedged
it around with judicial authority, till it, in the pride and arrogance of its power,
raised its hand against the Nation, aud rushed headlong into the fire and blood of
clvU war."
The Senate adjourned without bringing the resolution to a
direct vote, and the friends of Chief Justice Taney did not
bring the subject again to the attention of the Senate.
Justice Taney died October 12th, 1864, and there was great
interest felt by the people, and much speculation in the pub
lic press, in regard to his successor. The office of Chief
Justice, is only second in dignity to that of President, and
considering its tenure scarcely, if at all, inferior to the Pres
idency in iraportance. Indeed looking to the raoraentous
legal and Constitutional questions likely to grow out of the

CHASE APPOINTED CHIEF JUSTICE. 575
war, the office of Chief Justice, was the most important in
the Government. Those who did not thoroughly know the
raagnaniraity, and high sense of duty which governed Mr.
Lincoln, could not believe he would nominate Mr. Chase for
that position. RecaUing what was termed the want of fidelity
to his Chief on the part of Secretary Chase, in permitting his
friends to seek his noraination for the Presidency over Mr.
Lincoln, while continuing to hold a place in his Cabinet, and
the circurastances connected with his resignation of the office
of Secretary, they were quite sure Mr. Chase would not be
Chief Justice. But this opinion did injustice to Mr. Lincoln.
It is known that nothwithstanding all the infiuence brought
in favor of others for this high position, Mr. Lincoln
never hesitated a raoment in his determination to appoint
Mr. Chase. He believed him the most fit man for the station,
and he said: "We have stood together in the time of trial,
and I should despise rayself if I allowed personal differences,
to affect my judgment of his fitness for the office of Chief
Justice." The appointment of Salmon P. Chase as Chief
Justice of the United States was promptly sent to the Senate^
on the meeting of Congress, and as promptly confirmed.
Nothing perhaps more strikingly illustrates the revolution
in opinion, and in the Government, than this change in the
Supreme Court. Taney was the representative of slavery;
Chase had long been the champion of liberty. Taney's dy
nasty on the bench will ever mark the period of the supreme
rule of slavery in the Republic, as that of Chase; the advent
of universal freedom. The author of the Dred Scott decision
gave place to the author of the great argument for freedom
in the Van Zant case. In that case, Mr Chase said to
the then Chief Justice, " Execrandus qui non favet libertaii."
" He who will not favor liberty, shall be accursed." A maxim,
of which there has been no more striking illustration than
that furnished by the posthumous farae of Chief Justice Taney.
The gravity of the usuaUy sober proceedings of the House,
was reUeved by an amusing episode, occurring between Cox
of Ohio, and Washburne ofllUnois, during the discussion of
the Freedmen's Bureau bill. Mr. Cox made a curious and
sarcastic speech upon what he called "miscegenation," charging

576 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the Republican party with being in favor of' the amalgama
tion of the black and white races; and'in this speech he was
especially severe and contemptuous upon the negro. Wash
burn immediately foUowed him, and for the purpose of show
ing the inconsistency of the member frora Ohio, read the
foUowing extracts, corapliraentary to the negro frora a Uvely
and clever book written by Mr. Cox, and entitled " The
Buckeye Abroad." *
" We shall not probably have the pleasure at next Congress of hearing my friend
from Ohio rehearse this speeeh here, because I think, in the Ught of the recent
elections in Ohio, and particularly In the district of the honorable gentlemen, I
can say to him In the language of Watts, and in the spirit of the utmost kindness,
' You living man, come view the ground
Where you must shortly lie.'
" I desire to show the House what the gentleman from Ohio has written iu regard
to the 'African,' in a book entitled 'A Buckeye Abroad; or Wanderings in Europe
and in the Orient.' By S. S. Cox. He is describing St. Peter's, and says : ' In the mean
time seraphic musio from the Pope's select choir ravishes the ear, while the incense
titUlates the nose. Soon there arises in the chamber of theatrical glitter'— "What?—
' a plain unquestioned African ! [laughter,] and he utters the sermon in facile La-
tinity, with graceful manlier. His dark hands gestured harmoniously with the
rotund periods, and his swart visage beamed with a, high order of intelligence.'
[Laughter.] What was he ? Let the gentleman from Ohio answer : ' He was an
Abyssinian. What a commentary was here upon our American prejudices! The
head of the great Catholic Church surrounded by the ripest scholars of the age,
listening to the eloquence' — of whom ? — * of the despised negro ; and thereby illus
trating to the world"— what 7— ' thereby illustrating to the world the common bond
of brotherheod which binds the human race.' [Roars of laughter.]
" But the gentleman goes on to say : ' I confess that, at first, it seemed to me a
sort of theatrical mummery, not being familiar with such admixtures of society.'
That was the first impression of my young and festive friend from Ohio as he wan
dered through the gilded corriders of St. Peter's. (Laughter.] ' But,' lie says, ' on refiec
tion, I discerned in it the same infiuence' which, during the dark ages, conferred
such inestimable blessings on mankind. History records that from the time of the
re-yival of lettera, the influence of the Church of Rome had been generally favor
able to science, to civilization, and to good government. Why?' Why, asks my
friend from Ohio, is the Church of Bome so favorable to science, to civilization,
and to good government? Let the gentleman answer: ' Because her system held
then, as it holds now, all distinctions of caste as odious.' [Great laughter.] 'She
regards no man, bond or free, white or black, as disqualified for the priesthood.
This doctrine has, as Macauley develops in his introductory chapters to his English
history, mitigated many of the worst evils of society; for where race tyrannized
over race, or baron over villein, Catholicism came between them and created an
aristocracy altogether Independent of race or feudalism, compelling even the here
ditary master to kneel before the spiritual tribunal of the hereditary bondman
The childhood of Europe was passed under the guardianship of priestly teachers ;
who taught, as the scene in the Sistlne chaper of an Ethiop addressing the proud
rulers of Catholic Christendom teaches, .that no distinction is regarded at Rome,
save that which divides the priest from the people.
" ' The sermon of the Abyssinian '—that is, of this colored person, this Roman
citizen of ' African descent '— ' in beautiful print was distributed at the door. I
* See Congressional Globe, First Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 713.

WASHBURNE AND COX. 577
bring one home as a trophy and a souvenir of a great truth which Americans are
prone to deny or contemn.' [Laughter.]
" Now, I ask my friend from Ohio if he has still got that trophy and souvenir to
bring into this Hall ?
" Mr. Cox. If the gentleman will allow me to reply I will do so.
" Mr. Washbubnk, of Illinois. 1 believe I have never in my life refused to yield
to my friend from Ohio, but he refused to yield to me when he had the fioor Just
now, and as, of course, I always Uke to be equal with him In politeness, I must
decline to yield now."
Mr. Lincoln had strong hopes, that the constitutional
araendraent aboUshing and prohibiting slavery throughout
the Republic, might now, at the 2d session of the 38th Con
gress be passed, notwithstanding it had failed at the previous
session. Hence, as we have seen, he earnestly in his mes
sage urged the measure upon Congress. The fact that the
people had by such a decided majority declared in favor
of this raeasure, strengthened the hope that it might now
obtain the requisite constitutional raajority of two-thirds. It
will be reraerabered that the resolution had passed the Sen
ate, with only six negative votes, and that a motion to recon
sider was pending in the House^ when the first sessson of
this Congress adjourned.
On the 6th of January 1865, Mr. Ashley, of Ohio, who
had entered the motion to reconsider, called it up and made
an able speech in its favor.*
Mr. Orth, of Indiana, spoke earnestly in favor of the res
olution. Messrs. Townsend of New Tork, Holman, Cra
vens and Voorhees of Indiana, spoke against it.
Mr. Voorhees said : f
" Such an act shotild not be consummated amid the fiery passions and vehement
hates engendered by civil war It should be the work of calmness and of peace. It
is to last for all time. There is an idea of perpetuity attached to constitutions and
constitutional amendments which does not belong to ordinary acts of Legislation.
They should therefore be the work of unclouded wisdom, and not spring from the
wrath and smoke of the battle-field. If we have spent a large portion of our time
here since the war commenced in repealing or revising or amending our hasty and
crude legislation, it should admonish us to refrain €rom laying a rude and Inno
vating hand on the Constitution Itself. When the sky shall again be clear over our
heads, a peaceful sun illuminating the land, and our great household of States all
at home in harmony once more, then will be the time to coulsder what changes,
If any, this generation desires to make on the work of Washington, Madison, and
the revered sages of our antiquity."
Mr. Kasson of Iowa, spoke very ably in favor ofthe amend
ment. After replying to the arguments of Mr. Mallory and
* Congressional Globe, Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 141.
t Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, page 138.
37

578 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
other members of the Kentucky delegation against the res
olution. He said:*
" I appeal from that old Kentucky to that young giant Kentucky that is now ris
ing in its place and representing the purer democracy of our fathers. That young
giant springing like Minerva full" armed from the front of Jove, which took action in
Its Legislature on Friday last in the spirit of this amendment, and which has an
eloquent exponent upon this fioor, [Mr. Yeaman,] from whom we have heard once
on this question. I appeal to that young Kentucky, infused with the life of the
tunes, capable oS' appreciating the spirit of events, competent to understand the
necessity of a modification of our institutions which is required by the times, and
by circumstances. And to that Kentucky I submit the argument which I render
here, for it will meet me on tlie terms and premises, and logic which I have sought
humbly to submit to gentlemen on that side of thp House to-day. * * *
" One of its effects as stated to me yesterday on competent authority was that
one of the ' institutions' subordinate to the institution of slavery had been called
into play against some soldiers of our Army who had been taken prisoners and es
caped. It is well known that it is a recognized business in parts of the South to
keep and train blood-hounds for the recovery of fugitive slaves. I speak of it as a
fact well known and not denied by anybody. My information is this, that four
union soldiers recently escaped from one of the rebel camps were pursued by the
aid of that subordinate institution and overtaken. A ring was formed about them
and the blood-hounds were let in on these four soldiers, who were torn to pieces
amid the jeers and shouts of the rabble which encircled them ! Tell me that it IS
my duty to act in any way for the protection of that Institution ! Let gentlemen
go home to their constituents if they will, and say that they voted for the perpetu
ation of an institution capable of effects of that kind, one which denies the consti-
tutioual rights of our citizens in the South, suppresses the freedom of speech and
of the press, throws types into the rivers when they do not print its will, and vio
lates more clauses of the Constitution than were violated even by the rebels when
they commenced this war, and which.has, in effect, been in chronic and constant
rebellion against the provisions of our natiohal Constitution for the last twenty
years. *********** *
" I had rather stand solitary, with my name recorded for this amendment, with
the hope of justice twenty years hence, than to have all the honors which could be
heaped upon me by any political party in opposition to this doctrine. You cannot
resist the tide of modern civilization. It commenced with our Revolution, and it
will fiow on until unforseen obstacles shall block up its course. It was sustained
by the spirit of Washington, and Madison aud Jefferson, who denounced this in
stitution ; it was strengthened by Prance, when that great empire then flourished
with the liberal genius of a republic, pronounced a decree for the entire abolition
of slavery throughout her then extended colonial dominions. Thence it passed to
England, and, although a bitter enemy of Prance, and disliking everything fa
vored by the French people, yet after twenty years ot contest under the leader
ship ot men whose names stand high— none higher— on the roll of English history
or of fame, freedom became a fixed fact throughout all the dominions of Great
Britain. Subsequently it even permeated the arbitrary despotism of Russia, and
now. by a decree of the imperial Government, seven million serfs are set free and
restored to the natural rights of mankind."
Fernando Wood of New York, opposed the resolution, as
did many others who .sympathized with him politicaUy.
Mr. Farnsworth of Illinois, an early radical abolitionist,
one of the band of men which had under the lead of Love
joy, built up the Liberty party in IlUnois andthe north-west,
¦« Congressional Globe, 2d session, 38th Congress, page 198.

DEBATE ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 579
spoke strongly in favor of the araendraent. Perhaps the
ablest speech against the resolution was raade by Mr. Pen
dleton, the leader of the Deraocratic party in the House, and
late its candidate for the Vice Presidency. He denied the
constitutional power of Congress to pass the amendment.
After ingeniously arguing the constitutional question he
closed with the foUowing eulogy upon the Constitution " as
it is." *
" This Constitution demands the highest admiration of my intellect. It has re
ceived the profound homage of my heart. The oath which I have taken commands
me to perform that duty which my intellect and my heart impose upon me ;
and I intend, through evU and through good report, through whatever storm of
popular disfavor, to stand by it as I understand it, even to the end. I love my
whole country. South as well as North ; and it is because I love it that no act of mine
shall retard the restoration of peace or the reconstruction of that Union which
made it all my country. I am a Northern man ; I have their prejudices; I love my
section; I love its people; I love its institutions ; I am jealous of Its honor; and
no act of mine shaU stain the lustre of the fame of its good faith. I am a citizen of
Ohio. It was the home of my fathers, and it is the home of my children ; and I
will stand by this Constitution because I wish to preserve forever the rights and
dignities of my State, and maintain forever the liberties of its citizens.
" I am not influenced, therefore, by any peculiar love for the people of the South;
by any peculiar regard for their institutions. I stand unmoved by the con
siderations which have been addressed to us. It is nothing to me that gentlemen
from slaveholding States approve this amendment ; .it is nothing to me that the
tide of the popular sentiment runs in favor of it ; it is nothing to me that we of
Northern States who believe as I do, stand alone, if alone we must stand. I in
tend to do my duty as I understand It, and I am prepared for the consequences be
they what they may."
Mr. Jenkes of Rhode Island said :
"But in this contest slavery commenced the flght ; it [chose its own battle-fleld;
It has fought its battle, and it is dead. In the course of our victorious march, that
battle-fleld has come into our possession , and the corpse of our dead enemy is up
on it. Let us bury it quickly, and with as little ceremony as possible, that the foul
odor of its rotting carcass may no longer offend us and the world."
Mr. Woodbridge of Vermont, denying property in raan
said: t " Coming from the Green Mountain State, where the mountain brooks leap
from rock to rock, In the full play of freedom ; where the winds of heaven sing
the song of freedom among the trees upon her mountain tops, and where a good
old judge, fifty years ago, said to a claimant who claimed and presented a bill of
sale for a slave, " Show me a bill of sale from God Almighty, and your title will be
recognized,' it is not necessary for me to say that in my Judgment there can be no
property in man."
" It will end iu the triumph of the Union ; it will end iu the honor of the glori
ous old flag, so thatit shall float again over every inch of the soil of the Union ;
but not alone because of Lincoln, not alone because ot Farragut, not because of
Sherman, not because of Grant, but because of God. Slavery has been tried at the
* Congressional Globe, 2d Sess. 38 Congress, p. 224-5.
¦f Congressional Globe, 2d session S8th Congress, p. 243-4.

580 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
bar of Omnipotence and been found wanting. Its history is not written In the
history of the nineteenth century. When we eome to the great and ;final victory
it wUl not be a victory alone, sir, but It will be a change of front of the universe.
Sir, It wlU open to the oppressed people of Europe renewed hope of freedom for
themselves and their children.
" The a,doptlon of this amendment will be beneficial to the South. Sir, I know
that this war will end ; and I entreat gentlemen upon the other side of the House
to act with us in putting down, by constitutional means, the cause of this great and
dlrefnl calamity. The war will end victoriously for us ; but I want this resolution
to pass, and then, when it does end, the beautiful statue of the goddess of Liberty
which BOW crowns the majestic dome above our heads may look north and south
east and west, upon a free nation, untarnished by ought inconsistent with free
dom-redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled by the genius of universal
emancipation." Mr. Thayer, representing faithfuUy the State of Pennsyl
vania, appropriately called the Keystone State, in reply to
Pendleton and his eloquent expression of attachraent to his
native State, and his oraission to express his higher allegi
ance to the Republic said : *
" Sir, I reverence the gentleman's affection and allegiance to his native Stata ; I
entertain the highest respect toward him for cherishing those feelings. But, sir, I
would have been glad to have seen his great talents directed to maintain not only
the glory of his native State, but also the sovereignty and perpetuity of this
great brotherhood of States, the glory of this great American nation, now
receiving its baptism of blood and fire. I should have preferred, sir, in a great
crisis like the present, to Usten not to such partisan and sectional cries as
' Long live Ohio !' or ' Long live Massachusetts !' or ' Long live Pennsylvania !'
but to that nobler, better shout which now bursts like the roar of the ocean from
hundreds of thousands of brave men, as they hurl themselves upon the common
enemy of the Americau people. ' Long live the nation !' Long Uve the United
States of America^one and inseparable !' "
One of the ablest and raost eloquent speeches in favor of
the araendraent was raade by Mr. Rollins of Missouri. He
said " The rebeUion instigated and carried on by slavehold
ers, has been the death-kneU of the institution./ * He said
•'I am a believer in the Declaration of Independence wherein it is asserted that
' all men are created equal.' I believe that when it says ' all men' it means every
man who was created in the 'image of his Maker' and walks on God's foot-stool,
without regard to race, color, or any other accidental circumstance by which he
may be surrounded. I know that astute politicians, crafty and ambitions men, in
various periods of the republic have tried to draw a distinction between this nian
aud that man, because he happened to have a different colored skin ; that the Dec
laration was applicable alone to white men, and not to the black mau the red
man, or any other than the white man. That the word ' all' meant a part, not
'all! But, sir, I believe that that general clause in the Declaration oflnde
pendence was meant by the immortal man who penned it, and the immortal men
who signed it,, and by a large majority of the great men of that day North and
South, to assert the great principle, founded in the rights of mau, founded in rea^
son and in strict accordance to the law of morality aud of the Divine will that ' aU
menare created equal,' without distinction of race or of color. And although our
* Congressional Globe 2d Session, 38th Congress, page 246.
"Congressional Globe, 2d session, 38th Congress, page 258-260.

DEBATE ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 581
ancestors felled to apply the principle, although they were derelict in duty in liv
ing up to the great enunciation of principles which they made to the world and
mankind, it is uo proof to my mind that they did not mean exactly what I say
they meant in the expression to which I have referred. *' '* * *
" An anti-slavery man in sentiment, and yet, heretofore a large owner of slaves
myself— not now, however— not exactly with my consent, but with or without my
consent. The convention which recently assembled in my State, 1 learned from
a telegram a morning or two ago, had adopted an amendment to our present State
constitution for the immediate emancipation of all the slaves in the State,. I am
no longer the owner of a slave, and I thank God for it. If the giving up of my
slaves without complaint shall be a contribution upon my part to promote the pub
lic good, to uphold the Constitution of the United States, to restore peace and pre
serve this Union, if I had owned a thousand slaves, they would most cheerfiUly have
been given up. I say with all my.heart, let them go, but let them not go without a
sense of feeling and a proper regard on my part for the '.future of themselves and
their offspring !"
Of the power of the slaveholders in ruling the Republic,
he used the following language :
" Sir, the pecuUar friends of slavery have controlled the government for much
the greater part of the time since its establishment ; and but for their own wick
edness and folly might have saved the institution, and h.id their fuU share in Its
managementfor many years to come. If they have lost the political control, aU are
blameless save themselves !
' But yesterday, the word of Csesar might
Have stood against the world ; now lies he there,
With none so poor as to do him reverence.'
Of the necessity to abolish slavery, to secure permanent
peace, he said : *
" We never can have an entire peace in this country as long as the institution of
slavery remains as one of the recognized institutions of the country. It occurs to
me that tlie surest way to obtain peace is to dispose ofthe institution now. From
whatever cause, whether it be from Northem Intermeddling— if you so call it ; and
there has been far too much of this — or from Southern arrogance and dictation and
agitation, whether from one cause or the other, or both, slavery wil) always be a
disturbing element ! There will be no peace, there will be no perfect Union in this
country until some way or other we shall have disposed of It. You cannot get
over moral convictions. And so long as the General Goverpment is connected
with slavery or associated with it in any way, the great tide of emigration that will
flow into the South, carrying new ideas of human rights, this institution will be a
disturbing element, and we will have a continued agitation until, in some way or
other, this question is disposed of. I have therefore brought myself up to the'point
We may as weU unsheath the sword and cut the Gordian knot I"
Of Mr. Lincoln's proposition for compensated eraancipa
tion, he said :
"And, sir, if ever a set of people made a mistake ou earth. It was the menol
Kentucky, by whom I was somewhat governed myself when three years ago they
rejected the offer of the President of the United States, who, wiser than we were,
seeing the difiioulties before us, but seeing the bow of promise set in the sky, and
knowing what was to come, proposed to us to sweep the institution of slavery from
• Congressional Globe 2d session, 38th Congress, page 260-1.

582 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the border States, offering the assistance of the United States to aid in compen
sating the loyal men of those States for their losses in labor ahd property. I say
that the unwisest of all acts, so far as the border States were concerned, was the
rejection of this liberal offer on the part of the Executive of the United States. I
voted for the proposition at first ; and then most unwisely changed my ground,
showing the versatility ofthe man, and would perhaps, if it had come to a final
vote, have opposed it, because my constituents were likely to be offended by the
passage of such a law. They arc now convinced, when their slaves are gone aud
their pockets are empty, tliat I was right in the flrst place, and they were wrong. 1
have read in the papers of this morning that the Legislature of Kentucky, after
electing that distinguished and able man, James Guthrie, to the Senate of the
United States, have passed a resolution in favor of the emancipation, ' urtlh the
consent qf the owners, and with compensation."
Of the first introduction of slavery into the country he
said: " Mr. Speaker, I regret that the action of our ancestors in reference to slavery in
flicted this evil upon us. And when I speak of our .ancestors, I mean those of
Plymoth rock and those of James river. And while iu this house and in the other
end ol this Capitol, I have heard attacks on the pilgrim fathers, and while I saw
lately, a disreputable statement concerning the early settlers of Virginia, yet I
have no sympathy with the spirit which prompts such efforts. Doubtless there
were bad men as well as honest and good men among the original settlers of both
the northern and the southern sections of our country. Through the promptings
of cupidity and avarice, slave'ry was first established in this countrj-. Could our
ancestors who countenanced this Institution in its establishment, witness the
scenes of the present time, they would doubtless feel that they committed an un
pardonable sin. And for this sin the North and the South are equally responsible
The people of both sections were engaged in this infamous trafiie, and we are this
day gathering the fruits of their iniquity. It is thus that
' Even handed Justice
Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chaUce
To our own lips;'
or, as the same great master expresses It —
' That we but teach
Bloody instructions which, being taught, retum
To plague the inventor." '
Speaking of Kentucky he said :
" I again, Mr. Speaker, refer to the State of Kentucky, she was admitted In
to the Union iu 1799. She is the oldest daughter in the family of States. She was
the first that was .admitted after the adoption of the Federal Constitution. The
great men of Kentucky of that day, proud and venerable names, advocated the
propriety of a system of gradual emancipation. Will my friend from the Maysville
district, [Mr, Wadsworth,] will my friend from the Louisville district [Mr. Mal-
IjOby,] will any of my friends who oppose this amendment declare that it would
not have been a great boon if the original constitution of Kentucky had disposed
of slavery forever 1 Will my very excellent friend [Mr. Clay] say that it would
not have been better for his distinguished and venerable fatiier, who was a
member of the convention wliich framed the first Constitution of Kentucky would
it not have been better for his immediate ancestors, to have met firmly the ques
tion at that day, and thus relieved the State from slavery, and the people of tliat
noble Commonwealth of the terrible sorrows which have since fallen upon them ?'
Of the eficcts of slavery upon Missouri, he eloquently said .
" I come now to speak a word in reference to my own State of Missouri. She
came into the Union as it were in the midst of a revolution. For tlie purpose only

DEBATE ON THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 583
of having a few thousand slaves there, the whole continent shook with the agita
tion of this Missouri question. We were fighting for the privilege of holding a few
slaves in bondage In that great State. We forgot the paramount good in this mis
erable struggle. Does my friend [Mr. Hall,] from the district adjoining the one
which I represent, does any man upon this floor tell me that it would not have
been better for Missouri at once, in 1820 to have passed an ordinance for the grad
ual or immediate emancipation of her slaves, driving the institution beyond her
boundaries ? If there is such a man he is not as enlightened on the subject to-day
as I am : he has not learned as much as I have done.
" Why, sir, what is Missouri to-day, and what would she have been had there
been incorporated at that time with her organic law, an ordinance' declaring the
Institution of slavery forever abolished within her limits ? We would have been
as Ohio, and Illinois and Iowa. We would have been rid of this curse which is
ever reappearing, the curse of Slavery, the raw head and bloody bones, and we would
have been clear of all these troubles. We would have had no bands of guerrillas
watering the soil of our State with the blood of our peaceful citizens. We would
have had no armed bodies of men stationed in all our borders to keep the peace.
Look at Illinois, Just across the Fatiier of Waters. She came into the Union in
1818, two years befdre Missouri, and with less population, fewer mineral resources,
not so manj^ rivers, no better facilities for commerce, yet she has four thousand
miles of railroad, while Missouri has only twelve hundred. Illinois has a prosper
ous, happy and peaceful population of two million, while we have only half thl^
number, and our people are leaving in every direction, seeking homes in the terri
tories, in the distant mountains, in South America, in Mexico, iu Illinois, flying
away from the horrble spectre of this infernal rebellion. Why is this ? I know of
but one real, substantial, specific reason, aud that is that the framers of the Mis
souri constitution allowed slavery to remain, while Illinois was made forever free
by the ordinance of 17S7, penned by Thomas Jefferson, a son of Virginia, and by
which Virginia ceded an empire within itself (the Northwestern Territory) to the
United States. '
" I have been looking up for light from above, aud I begin to see it streaking
along the horizon, however it may be with other gentlemen in tills hall."
He then indulged in the following predictions of the future:
"When the poor and humble farmers and mechanics of the. States of Alabama and
Mississippi shall have left the bloody trials in which they are now engaged to tear
down this temple of human liberty ; when they will return perhaps to their deso
lated homes ; when they shaU look once more upon and hug to their bosoms the
wives and children whom they love, in poverty and in rags ; when they will go,
.perhaps without an arm, or without an eye, or without a leg, and in poverty to
those who are dependent upon them for support in life, taught by experience, they
will ask the question of themselves, ' -Why all this ? What have we been flghting
for ?' Thev will bring to mind the sweet memories of otiier days. They will re
member the peaceful and happy home which they were induced to leave, and
which they enjoyed under the benign influences of wholesome and liberal laws
passed here, and they wiU inquire ' By what sophistry, by what appeal, by what
force, by what maddening influence is it that we have been Induced to enter into
this terrible rebellion ? Not to promote any Interest of wife and children, but to
destroy all the blessings vouchsafed to us and to them by a free government and
equitable laws ;' and they will further ask, ' Who has been the author of my mis-
fprtunes, and the ruin of my family, my all?' Sir, they will point to those who
hold the power at Richmond ; they will direct their vengeance against them ; and
Davis and his traitorous crew, as I have said upon a former occasion, .will, like
AetsBon of old, be tn the end destroyed by their own friends."

He concluded by saying ;

" Let ours be the ' bright particular star' next to the star that led the shepherds
to Bethlehem, which shall lead the downtrodden and oppressed of all the world into

684 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
an harbor of peace, security and happiness. And let us, kneeling around the altar,
all thank God, that although we have had our trials, we have saved our country ;
that although we have been guilty of sins, we have wiped them out, and that we at
length stand up a great and powerful people, honored by all the earth, ' redeemed,
regenerated, and disenthralled by the genius of universal emancipation.' [Loud
applause on the floor and In the galleries, which was checked by. the Speaker.]
The foregoing speech made by a raan who had been a
large slaveholder, held the House and the crowded galleries
in the most profound attention. Few more effective speech
es have ever been made in the Halls of Congress.
Mr. Garfield of Ohio, traced in a graphic manner the his
tory of the slave power — its former arrogance, and its present
prostration : *
"¦Whodoesnotrememberthat thirty years ago, a short period in the life of a
nation, but little could be said with impunity in these Halls on the subject of slav
ery ? How well do gentlemen here remember the history of that distinguished pre
decessor of mine, Joshua R. Giddings, lately gone to his rest, who, with his forlorn
hope of faithful men took his life in his hands, and in the name of justice protested
against the great crime, and who stood bravely in his place until his white locks,
Uke the plume of Henry of Navarre, marked where the battle of freedom raged
fiercest. We can hardly realize that this is the same people, and these the same
Halls, where now scarcely a man can be found who wi^ venture to do more than
felter out an apology for slavery, protesting at the same time that he has no love
for the dying tyrant. None, I believe, but that man of more than supernal bold
ness from the city of New York, [Mr. Fernando Wood] has ventured this session
to raise his voice in favor of slavery for its own sake. He still sees in its features
the reflection of divinity and beauty, and only he. ' How art thou fallen from
heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning ! How art thou cut down to the ground,
whichdldst weaken the nations!' Many mighty men have been slain by thee;
many proud ones have humbled themselves at thy feet ! AU along the coast of
the political sea they lie like stranded wrecks, broken on the headlands of free
dom. How lately did its advocates with impious boldness maintain it as God's
cwn, to be venerated and cherished as divine. It was another and higher form of
civilization. It was the holy evangel of America, dispensing its blessings to the
wilderness of the west. In Its mad arrogance It lifted its hand to strike down the
fabric of the Union, and since that fatal day it has been a ' fugitive and a vaga
bond upon the earth ;' and like the spirit that Jesus cast out,, it has since then
been ' seeking rest and finding none.' It has sought in aU the corners of the Re
public to flnd some hiding place in which to shelter itself from the death it has so
richly earned. It sought an asylum in the untrodden territories in the West, but
with a whip of scorpians, indignant freedom drove it hence. I do not believe u
loyal man can now be found that would consent that it should again enter them.
It has no hopes of harbor there. It found no protection or favor in the hearts or
consciences of the freemen of the Republic, and has fied from its last hope of safe
ty to the shield of the Constitution. We propose to follow it there and hurl it as
Satan was exiled from heaven.'
And now, after these long discussions, rose the still tall
and scarcely bent forra of the venerable leader of the
House, Thaddeus Stevens, to close the debate on this great
* Congressional Globe 2d session, 38th Congress, page 263.

STEVENS' SPEECH. 585
measure. Instantly the raembers of the House gathered
around him, filling the seats and aisles, and every available
spot near the " old man eloquent." Intelligence was sent to
the Senate that Thad. Stevens was speaking on the Consti
tutional Amendment, and directly many of the Senators
came in, and Justices of the Supreme Court, to hear the ven
erable anti-slavery leader speak on the measure that was to
consummate the labors of forty years with coraplete success.
As soon as Senators and raerabers could get their places,
the House and crowded galleries were hushed info deepest
silence. He said: *
f " * «¦ * ¦" From my earliest youth I was taught to read the Declaration of
Independence and to revere its sublime principles. As I advancecjL in life and be
came somewhat enabled to consult the writings of the great men of antiquity, I
found In aU their works which have survived the ravages of time, and come
down to the present generation, one unanimous denunciation of tyranny and of
Slavery, and eulogy of Uberty. Homer, ^schylus the great Greek tragedian,
Cicero, Hesiod, Virgil, Tacitus, and Sallust, in Immortal language, all denounced
slavery as a thing which took away half the man, and degraded human beings,
and sang peans in the noblest strains to the goddess of liberty. And my hatred
of this infernal Institution and my love for liberty were further infiamed, as I saw
the inspired teachings of Socrates and the divine inspirations of Jesus.
" Being fixed in these principles, immovably and immutably, I took my stand
among my fellow-citizens, and on all occasions, whether in public or in private, in
season, and, if there could be such a time, out of season, I never hesitated to express
those ideas and sentiments, and when 1 went first into public assemblies, forty
years ago, I uttered this language. I have done it amid the pelting aud hooting of
mobs, but I never quailed before the Infernal spirit, and I hope I never shrank from
the responsibiUty of my language.
****** * * « ****
" -When, fifteen years ago, I was honored with a seat In this body, it was danger
ous to talk against this institution, a danger ¦vvhich gentlemen now here will never
be able to appreciate. Some of us, however, have experienced it ; my friend from
Illinois on my right [Mr. Washburne] has. And yet, sir, I did not hesitate, in the
midst of bowie-knives and revolvers, and howling demons upon the other side of
the House, to stand here and denounce this infamous institution in language which
possibly now, on looking at it, I might deem intemperate, but which I then deemed
necessary to rouse the public attention and cast odium upon the worst institu
tion upon earth, one which is a disgrace to man and would be an annoyance to
the Infernal spirits.
***** * * ******
" Perhaps I ought not to occupy so much time, aud I will only say one word
further. So far as the appeals of the learned gentleman [Mr. Pendleton] are con
cerned, his pathetic winding up, I will be willing to take my chance, when we all
molder in. the dust. He may have his epitaph written, if it be truly written, 'Here
rests the ablest and most pertinacious defender of slavery and opponent of lib
erty ;' and 1 will be satisfied if my epitaph shall be written thus: 'Here lies one
who never rose to any eminence, and who only courted the low ambjtioii to have
it said that he had striven to ameliorate the condition ofthe poor, the lowly, the
downtrodden of every race and language and color. [Applause.]
" I shall be content with such a eulogy on his lofty tomb, and such an InscriptloD
on my humble grave, to trust our memories to the judgment of other ages."

* Congressional Globe, 2d session, 38th Congress, page 265-6.

586 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The spectacle presented during the delivery of the above
speech was deeply impressive. The Diplomatic circle was
crowded, the House was filled, the galleries were packed
with distinguished citizens frora every section, the fioor and
lobbies of the HaU itself, were filled with distinguished sol
diers and civilians who gathered to hear the debate, and who
now listened to the Pennsylvania statesman, as he narrated
the progress of the anti-slavery cause from its feeble begin
ning, down to its now near approaching and final triumph.
As the vote was taken on the final passage of the Joint Reso
lution, the most intense anxiety was felt in regard to the re
sult. No one knew with certainty what would be that result.
Whether a suflicient number of Democratic votes could be
obtained to secure its passage was uncertain. As the clerk
called the roll, there was perfect silence ; no sound except
that made by a hundred pencils quickly marking the ayes
and noes as the members responded. When the call was
finished it was found there were 119 ayes, and 56 nays : two-
thirds of the members having voted for the resolution it was
adopted.* * The following is a list of the ayes and noes, on the passage of the Resolution,
taken from the Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 531.
YEAS— Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Arnold, Ashley. Bailey, Augus
tus G. Baldwin, John D. Baldwin, Baxter, Beaman, Blane, Blair, Blow, Boutwell,
Boyd, Brandegee, Broomal, William G. Brown, Ambrose W. Clark, Freeman
Clarlie, Cobb, Goffrotli, Cole, Colfax, Creswell, Henry Winter Davis, Thomas T.
Davis, Dawes, Deming, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, Eckley, Eliot, English,
Farnsworth, Frank, Ganson, Garfield, Goocii, Grinnell, Griswold, Hale, Herrick,
Higby, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, John H. Hubbard, Hnlburd,
Hutcliins, Ingersoll, Jenckes, Julian, Kasson, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, Orlando '
Kellogg, King, Knox, Littlejohn, Loan, Lougyear, Marvin, McAllister, McBride,
McClung, Mclndoe, Samuel F. Miller, Moortiead, Morrill, Daniel Morris, Amos
Myers, Leonard Myers, Nelson, Norton, Odell, Charles O'Neill, Orth, Patterson,
Perham, Pike, Pomeroy, Price, Radford, William H. Randall, Alexander H. Bice,
John H. Rice, Edward H. Rollins, James S. Rollins, Schenck, Scofield, Shannon,
Sloan, Smith, Smithers, Spalding, Starr, John B. Steele, Stevens, Thayer, Thomas,
Tracy, Upson, Van Valkenburgh, Elihu B. Washburne, William B. Washburne,
Webster, Whaley, Wheeler, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, Windom, Woodbridge,
Worthington, and Yeaman — 119.
NAYS— Messrs. James C. Allen, WlUiam'J. Allen, Ancona, Bliss, Brooks, James
S. Brown, Chanler, Clay, Cox, Cravens, Dawson, Denison, Eden, Edgerton, Eldridge,
Finck, Grider, Hall, Harding, Harrington, Benjamin G. Harris, Charles M. Harris,
Holman, Philip Johnson, William Johnson, Kalbfieisch, Kernan, Knapp, Law,
Long, Mallory, WUliam H. Miller, James R. Morris, Morrison, Noble, John O'Neill,
Pendleton, Perry, Pruyn, Samuel J. Randall, Robinson, Boss, Scott, William Q.
Stee.e, Stiles, Strouse, Stuart, Sweat, Townsend, ;Wadsworth, Ward, Chilton A.
White, Joseph W. White, Winfield, Benjamin Wood, and Fernando Wood— 56.
NOT VOTING!— Messrs. Lazear, Le Blond, Marcy, McDowell, McKlnney,
Middleton, Rogers, and Voorhees— 8,

PASSAGE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 587
When the name of English, a democrat frora Connecticut
was called and he answered aye, there was great applause in
the House and galleries ; so it was when Ganson, Herrick,
Nelson, Odell, Radford, and Steele, democrats from New
York, were called and they voted aye.
When the Speaker made the formal annunciation, "The
Constitutional majority of two-thirds having voted in the
affirmative, the joint resolution is passed, " it was received
with an uncontrollable outburst of enthusiasra. The Repub
lican raembers, regardless of the rules, instantly sprang to
their feet, and applauded with cheers ; the example was fol
lowed by the spectators in the galleries, who waved their
hats, and the ladies their handkerchiefs, and cheers and con
gratulations continued for many minutes. FinaUy Mr. Inger-
sall of Illinois, representing the district of Owen Lovejoy, in
honor as he said of the sublime event, moved that the
House adjourn. The motion was carried, but before the
members left their seats the roar of artiUery announced to
the people of Washington, that the araendraent had passed
Congress. The personal friends of Mr. Lincoln, hastening
to the White House, exchanged congratulations with him on
the auspicious result. The passage of the resolution was
not unexpected to him, and it filled his heart with joy. He
saw in it the complete consuraraation of his own great work,
the Eraancipation Proclamation. As the leader in the
overthrow of slavery, he had seen his proclamation sanc
tioned by an emphatic majority of the people at the Presi
dential election, and now the Constitutional majority of two-
thirds in both Houses of Congress had voted to subrait to the
people the Constitutional amendment, which would finish
the "job,"
In the evening, a vast crowd of enthusiastic and rejoicing
friends, marched with music to the White House, publicly
to congratulate the President on the passage of the resolu
tion. Mr, Lincoln addressing the crowd said: " The occa
sion is one for congratulation to the country and the whole
world." He informed them that Illinois had already ratified
the amendment, and that it had already been ratified by one

588 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
branch of the Maryland Legislature ; but he was proud that
Illinois had been the State first to act.
The joint resolution was inadvertently presented to the
President, and signed by him. But he suggested that the
action of Congress was perfect of itself, and did not need the
the signature of the Executive to render it valid. Judge
TrumbuU presented a resolution, reciting that the amend
ment proposed by Congress respecting the extinction of
slavery, having been inadvertently presented to the Presi
dent for his approval, it was declared that such approval was
unnecessary to give effect to the action of Congress; was
inconsistent with the former practice in reference to all
araendraents to the Constitution heretofore adopted, and be
ing inadvertently done should not constitute a precedent for
the future.*
Senator Trumbull in his speech on the subject reviewed
all the precedents, and showed that no araendraent of the
Constitution ever adopted by the people, had ever been pre
sented to the President for his approval; and that the point
having been raade before the Suprerae Court, that without
such approval the araendraent was invalid, the Supreme
Court had held such approval unnecessary ; the Chief Justice
declaring the opinion of the court, saying: "The negative
of the President applies only to the ordinary cases of legis
lation. He has nothing to do with the proposition or adop
tion of araendraents to the Constitution." The Senate
adopted the resolution of Senator TrurabuU without a divi
sion. f The question may therefore be considered as settled
by the precedents and the concurrence of all Departraents of
the Government.
The friends of universal liberty throughout the Republic,
regarded the passage of the joint resolution through Con
gress, as equivalent to the adoption of the amendment. The
people having sanctioned it at the Presidential election, and
two-thirds of both branches of Congress having voted for
it, it was not doubted three-fourths of the States, through
their Legislatures, would ratify it. The passage of the
* Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 629.
t Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 63L

PASSAGE OF THE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. 589
resolution through Congress was therefore celebrated as the
triuraph of freedora, and the final " overthrow of slavery "
throughout the Republic. The question was discussed
whether the adoption of the araendraent by three-fourths of
the States represented in Congress, and who, while the other
States were public eneraies, constituted the United States,
would be a compliance with the Constitution. It was decided
by the House of Representatives, that a Constitutional quo-
ram of the House, was a majority of the members duly
elected to the House. It was contended that a majority of
three-fourths of the United States, meant three-fourths of the
States recognized as States ofthe Union; those whose Repre
sentatives and Senators constituted Congress and the law
making power. That States whose people were public enemies
and who were in open war seeking to overthrow the Constitu
tion, could not, while occupying such an attitude, be entitled
to vote on an amendment to the Constitution, which they were
seeking to destroy. As more than three-fourths of all the
States ratified the amendment, the question never became a
practical one.
When in June, 1858, at his home in Springfield, Abrar
ham Lincoln startled the people by the announcement, " I
believe this Nation cannot endure permanently, half slave
and half free," and when in concluding that very remark
able speech, with the prophetic voice, the uplifted eye, the
inspired mien of a seer, he exclairaed, " We shall not fail if
we stand firra, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may acceler
ate, or mistakes delay, but sooner or later the rictory is sure
to come;" he looked to long years of poUtical controversy;
he expected a severe struggle and a final triumph through
the use of all the agencies by which public opinion is influ
enced and formed; and he anticipated the final triumph
through the ballot-box. By a raind which ever sought for
truth, which followed it through all the processes of reason
ing, with instinctive sagacity he foresaw the struggle, and the
triuraph of freedom. But he did not foresee, unless in those
mysterious dim shadows, which sometimes startle, by half
revealing the future, his own elevation to the Presidency; he

690 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
did not foresee that he should be chosen by God an,d the peo
ple, to lead on to tha;); victory which he then felt was sure to
come ; that he should speak the word which should emanci
pate a race, and free his country. Nor did he foresee, that a
martyr's death should crown a life, which was so consecrated
to duty, a life which was to be thenceforth so filled with
unselfish, untiring devotion to country and to liberty, that
his example will be everlasting, growing brighter with years;
forever to inspire the patriot, and give courage to those who
labor, and struggle, and die, for the poor, and the oppressed;
until in all the world, there shall be left no slave to be freed,
no oppressor to be overthrown.
This great revolution, corapleted by the adoption of the
Constitutional amendment has been sketched, in these pages,
very imperfectly; how far the poor description has lagged
behind the subUme action of the drama, none can better ap
preciate than the author.
The visible steps in legislation and governmental action,
by which the Republic was led up to final and universal
emancipation, have been outUned. Some of those steps, and
the raost important were : First, The army was prohibited
from returning to rebel raasters, fugitive slaves : Second, The
eraployraent of fugitive slaves as laborers in the army was
sanctioned: Third, The passage of a law confiscating and
conferring freedom upon slaves used for insurrectionary
purposes : Fourth, The abolition of slavery at the National
Capital : Fifth, The prohibition of slavery in all the territo
ries : Sixth, A law giving freedora to all who should ser-<^e as
soldiers in the array or in the navy : Seventh, A law emanci
pating the slaves of rebels: Eighth, And raost iraportant of
all, the great Preclaraation of Emancipation; emancipating
the slaves in the rebellious States: Ninth, A law emancipat
ing the farailies of all those who should serve in the army or
navy of the United States : Tenth, The repeal of the fugi
tive slave code: Eleventh, The Constitutional amendment
abolishing and prohibiting slavery throughout the Republic.
The responsibility, the honor of carrjdng these measures
through, and sustaining them, justly belongs to the Repub
lican party. This is the record on the slavery question to

ANTI-SLAVERY MEASURES. 591
which that party proudly turns. AU of these measures were
opposed by the Democratic party as a party. Individuals of
that party voted for some of the measures, but such votes
were few and scattering. On the passage of the bill to pro
hibit slavery in the territories, the Democrats in the House
of Representatives gave fifty negative votes against eighty-
five ayes given by the Republicans. Upon the bill to repeal
the fugitive slave laws the vote in the House was ayes ninety,
noes sixty-two; all the noes, with two or three exceptions
from the border States, given by democrats. The bill to
aboUsh slavery in the District of Columbia, passed the Senate,
ayes twenty-nine, noes fourteen ; and it passed the House,
ayes ninety-two, noes thirty-nine. The negative votes were
given by democrats. The Constitutional amendment abolish
ing and prohibiting slavery passed the House, ayes (119) one
hundred and nineteen, noes fifty-seven, (67,) the negatives all
democrats. Such is the record.
In addition to the anti-slavery measures above enumerated,
others relatively of minor iraportance have been adopted.
The Statutes of the United States have been purged of all
laws made to maintain and secure slavery. The law exclud
ing negroes from the witness stand, and laws creating various
disabilities have been annulled. The great civil rights bill,
designed especiaUy to secure eqiiality before the law, although
vetoed by President Johnson, has been passed over his veto,
by the Fortieth Congress. Yet the great work is not entirely
finished ; some relics of the barbarous institution still linger
in the Constitution and upon the statute book. These with
the prejudices which have grown up with the institution will
rapidly disappear.
The formal adoption of the Constitutional amendment by
the States, rapidly followed its passage through Congress.
The resolution, as we have seen, passed Congre^ss on the 31st
day of January, A. D. 1865.
Illinois, as was fit, being the home of Lincoln, and under
his inspiration, took the lead in ratifying the amendment.
Not a day elapsed before it was ratified by both branches of
the Legislature, and the result telegraphed to Mr. Lincoln.
Then came Rhode Island, on the 2d of February, and on

692 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the same day Michigan, and then regenerated Maryland on
the 3d; keeping pace with her, was New York and West
Virginia. Then came on the 7th, Maine on the East, and
Kansas on the West; and on the 8th, Massachusetts and
Pennsylvania; and on the 9th, Old Virginia, through her few
loyal legislators; then on the 10th, Ohio, and redeemed Mis
souri; on the 16th, young Nevada, and Indiana, and Louisi
ana, and then Minnesota, on the Sth and 23d. Then foUowed
Wisconsin, Vermont, Tennessee, Arkansas, Connecticut,
New Hampshire, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina,
Georgia, Oregon, CaUfornia, Florida, New Jersey, and Iowa,
in the order in which they are named. Thirty-two States in
all, have filed with the Secretary of State, official evidence
of their ratification of the amendment. Kentucky, Delaware,
Mississippi, and Texas have as yet, failed to ratify.
It must have been a proud moment, when WiUiam H.
Seward as Secretary of State, on the 18th day of Deceraber,
1865, officially proclaimed the ratification of the amendment,
and certified that the same " has become to all intents and
purposes, valid, as a part of the Constitution, of the United
States.* Who could have anticipated' when Mr. Sewai-d, in
* The following correspondence gives in a, semi-official form the dates of the
ratification : . Washington, July 23, 1866.
Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State,
My Dear Sir: « « * May I trouble yon to furnish me the dates, at which the
several States adopted the Constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery forever
throughout the Republic, and a copy of your official certificate or proclamation,
announcing suoh ratification by the requisite number of States. I cannot forbear
congratulating you on the part you have taken in this great revolution. Few have
had the felicity of living to witness such glorious results from their labors. How
few could have anticipated when you began your anti-slavery labors, that you
would live to officially proclaim that " slavery is no more,"
Very Eespectfully Yours,
ISAAC N. ARNOLD.
Depakment op State, Washington, August 22, 1866.
Isaac N. Arnold, Esq.,
Sir : Your letter of the 23d ultimo, asking to be furnished the dates at which the
several States adopted the amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery,
etc., was duly received; but owing to the exigencies of public business in this
Department, it has not been convenient to answer it until now.
The dates of ratification by the several States, up to this time, are as follows :
IlUnois, February 1st, 1865; Rhode Island, February 2d, 1865: Michigan, February
2d, 1865; Maryland, February 1st and Sd, 1865; New York, February 2d and 3d, 1S65:
West Virginia, February 3d, 1865 ; Maine, February 7th, 1865 ; Kansas, February 7th,
1865; Massachusetts, February Sth, 1865; Pennsylvania, February Sth, 1865; Vir^
ginia. February 9th, 1865; Ohio, February 10th, 1865; Missouri, February lOth, 1865;

THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY. 593
1849, entered the Senate of the United States as the anti-
slavery leader, that he would live, officially to proclaim ihe
overthrow of slavery by Constitutional araendraent throughout
the Republic ?
Nevada, February 16th, 1865; Indiana, February 16th, 1865; Louisiana, PebruarY
17th, 1865; Minnesota, February 8th and 23d, 1865; Wisconsin, March 1st, 1865; Ver
mont, March 9th, 1865 ; Tennessee, April, Sth and 7th, 1865 ; Arkansas, AprU 20th,
1865; Connecticut, May Sth, 1865; New Hampshire, July 1st, 1865; South Carolina,
November 13th, 1865 ; Alabama, December 2d, 1865 ; North Carolina, December 4th,
1865; Georgia, December 9th, 1865; Oregon, December llth, 1865 ; California, Decem
ber 20th, 1865; Florida, December 28th, 1865; New Jersey, January 23d, 1866; Iowa,
January 24th, 1866.
I transmit a copy of the certificate of ratiflcation, agreeably to your request.
Thanking you for the congratulations with which you conclude your letter,
I am. Your O^bedient Servant,
WILLIAM H. SEWARD.
February 4th, 1865. The Delegates from certain Territories obtained permission
to enter this paper npon the Journal of the House :
House of Kepbesentatives, Washington, February 1, 1865.
Representing Territories which must soon become States, as Delegates deprived
of the inestimable privilege of voting in this House, and feeling a deep Interest In
the proposition to amend the Federal Constitution, forever prohibiting slavery
within the jurisdiction of the United States, demanded alike by the exigencies of
the times, the voice of the loyal people, and by our efforts in the field to suppress
a rebellion inaugurated and sustamed for the purpose of perpetuating slavery, we
cannot do less than state that the measure meets our unqualified approbation.
H. P. BENNET, Colorado. J. B. S. TODD, Dacotah.
J. F. KINNEY, Utah. W. H. WALLACE, Idaho.
S. G. DAILY, Nebraska. FRANCISCO PEREA, New MexiX.
CHARLES D. POSTON, Arixma.
38

OHAPTEE XXTI

THE THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS— TO ITS CLOSE.
The Freedmen's Bureau Bill — Rebellious States not to vote
IN the Electoral College — Reconstruction — Treatment of
Union Prisoners — Rebel Prisoners — Attaciv of Brooks
upon Butler — His vindication by Boutwell and Stephens —
Close of the Thirty-eighth Congress — Valedictory of
Speaker Colfax.
AT this, the second session of the Thirty-eighth Congress,
was finally passed the act creating the Freedraen's Bu
reau. It encountered rauch opposition ; its friends differed
so widely in regard to its provisions, that its details were
finaUy settled by a conference coraraittee. Mr. Sumner, in
the Senate, and Mr. Elliot, in the House, were its very zealous
and earnest advocates. Mr. Sumner said " Emancipation is
not enough. You must see to it, that it is not evaded or
nullified ; and you must see to it especially, that the new
made freedmen are protected in thos" rights which are now
assured to them, and that they are saved from the prevailing
caste which menaces slavery under some new alias;" and
this he declared was the object of the bUl creating the Freed
men's Bureau. The freedmen now rejoicing in recovered
rights, must for a while be, in the language of Mr. Lincoln,
" the VMrds of the nation," and protected from the tradi
tional harshness and cruelty to which for generations they
have been exposed. " The Government must be to them a
shield." After several ineffectual attempts to agree upon a bill which
should be satisfactory to both Houses of Congress, a com
mittee of conference, consisting of Messrs. Wilson Harlan
and WiUey, of the Senate, and Messrs. Schenck, BoutweU
594

PASSAGE OF THE FREEDMEN'S BtRBAU BILL. 595
and Rollins of the House, agreed upon a bill embracing,
substantiaUy, the following provisions :
It established in the War Department, to continue during
the war, and for one year thereafter, " A Bureau of Refugees,
Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands," to which was to be sub
mitted the supervision of all abandoned lands, and the con^
trol of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen, frora
rebel States, or any territory included within the operations
of the array. The Bureau was to be under the control of
a commissioner to be appointed by the President, with the
consent of the Senate.
The Secretary of War was authorized to direct the issue
of provisions, clothing, and fuel, as he raight deera needful
for the iraraediate and temporary shelter and supply of des
titute and suffering refugees and freedmen and their families.
The President was authorized to appoint, with the advice and
consent of the Senate, one assistant coraraissioner for each
of the States in insurrection, to aid in the execution of the
provisions of the act. The commission was authorized to set
apart, under the direction of the President, for the use of
loyal refugees and freedmen, such tracts of land within
the insurrectionary States, as had been abandoned by rebel
owners, or to which the United States had acquired title by
confiscation, sale, or otherwise, not to exceed forty acres to
every raale refugee or freedman, with the privilege of
purchasing the same.
This bill passed both Houses of Congress, and received the
approval of the President. Mr. Lincoln selected to execute
the law, as the head of the Freedmen's Bureau, Major Gen
eral 0. 0. Howard, a man uniting the experience of one of the
most brilliant soldiers of the war, great practical ability and
good sense as an executive officer, with a christian life and
character, and an earnest, sincere philanthropy, which com
manded universal respect; no better appointment could
have been made.
Congress, before the day for counting and declaring the
electoral vote, passed a joint resolution, reciting " that the
inhabitants aud local authorities of the eleven seceding States,
having rebelled against the United States, and having con
tinued in a state of armed rebellion for more than three years.

596 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
and being in a state of arraed rebellion on the Sth of No
veraber, 1864 (the day of the Presidential election,) there
fore, ' resolved, that the States naraed were not entitled to
representation in the electoral college for the choice of Pres
ident and Vice President of the United States." ' This joint
resolution was presented to the President, and signed by
him ; but, on the Sth of February, he sent to Congress a mes
sage, stating that the resolution had been signed by the
Executive, in deference to the views of Congress, implied in its
passage and presentation to him. He added, however, this
stateraent especially iraportant as expressive of his views upon-
the subject of reconstruction: "The two Houses of Con
gress, convened under the twelfth article of the constitution,
have complete power to exclude frora counting all electoral
votes deeraed by thera to be illegal, and it is not corapetent
for the Executive to defeat or obstruct that power by a veto,
as would be the case if his action were at all essential in the
raatter. He disclairaed all right of the Executive to inter
fere in any way, in the raatter of canvassing or counting
electoral votes, &c." *
On the Sth of February, 1865, both Houses of Congress
convened in the Hall of the House of Representatives,
the President of the Senate presiding, for the purpose of
opening and counting the votes for President and Vice Pres
ident. The whole nuraber of votes given was two hundred
and twenty-three, of which Abrahara Lincoln received two
hundred and twelve, and George B. McClellan received
twenty-one, for the office of President ; aud Andrew John
son and George H. Pendleton, respectively, received the
sarae number for Vice President, and, thereupon, Abra
ham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson, having received the
majority of the whole nuraber of the electoral votes for
President and Vice President, were declared duly elected.
The subject of reconstruction carae again before Congress,
in various forras, at this session. The " Bill to guarantee to
certain States whose governments have been usurped or over
thrown, a republican form of government," was again con
sidered, January 16th, 1865.
• McPherson's History, p. S79.

RECONSTRUCTION IN CONGRESS. 597
Mr. Elliot moved a substitute for the bUl, providing that
the States declared to be in rebeUion shall not be permitted
to resurae their political relations with the Governraent of
the United States, until they shall have adopted a State con
stitution, forever prohibiting involuntary servitude, and guar
anteeing to all persons, freedom and equality of rights
before the law,*
Mr. Wilson of Iowa, proposed to amend by providing that
Senators and Representatives should- not be received frora
the rebellious States, until by act, or joint resolution of Con
gress, approved by the President, or passed, notwithstanding
his objections, such State shall havo been first declared to
have organized a just local government, republican in form.
Mr. Arnold of Illinois, offered an araendnent, which was
accepted, abolishing and prohibiting slavery in all the terri
tory in rebellion against the United States, f
Mr. Kelley of Pennsylvania, proposed to araend the bill
by proriding that all colored raale citizens in the rebeUious
States, who could read the Constitution of the United States
should be enrolled as voters. In support of this araendraent
he said : J
" The organized war power of the rebellion is on the eve of overthrow. It be
longs to us to govern the territory we have conquered, and the question of recon
struction presses itself upon our attention : and our legislation in this behalf will,
though it comprises no specific provisions on the subject, determine whether guer
rilla war shall harrass communities for long years, or be suppressed in a brief time
by punishment administered through courts aud law, to marauders for the crimes
they may comrait under the name of partisan warfare. At the close of an Inter
national war, the wronged but victorious party may Justly make two claims ; in
demnity for the past, and security for the future ; indemnity for the past in money
or in territory; security for the future by new treaties, the establishment of new
boundaries, or the cession of military power and the territory upon which it
dwells. Indemnity for the past we cannot hope to obtain. When we shall have
punished the conspirators who Involved the country in this sanguinary war, and
pardoned the dupes and victims who have arrayed themselves or been forced to do
battle under their fiag, we shall but have repossessed our ancient territory, re
established the boundaries of our country, restored to our flag and Constitution
their supremacy over territory which was ours but which the insurgents meant
to dismember and possess. The other demand we may and must successfully
make. Security for the future Is accessible to us, and we must demand it ; and to
obtain it with amplest guaranties requires the adoption of no new idea, the making
of no experiment, the entering upon no sea of political speculation. ? « ' •
* Congressional Globe, 2d session, 38th Congress, page 281.
t Congressional Globe, 2d session, 38th Congress, page 284.
t Congressional Globe, 2d session, 38th Congress, page 281-288.

598 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY..
" Let ns meet the question fairly. Do our institutions rest on complexional dif
ferences? Can we cement and perpetuate them by surrendering the patriots of
theinsurgentdistrict, shorn of aU political power, into the hands of the traitors
whom we propose to propitiate by such a sacrifice of faith and honor? Did God
ordain our country for a single race of men ? Is there reason why the intelligent,
wealthy, loyal man of color shall stand apart abased, on election day, while his ig
norant, in temperate, vicious, and disloyal white neighbor par iclpates in making
laws for his government ? What is the logic that denies to a son the right to vote
with or against his father, because it has pleased Heaven that he should partake
more largely of his mother's than ofthe father s complexion ? And is it not known
to all of us that well nigh forty per cent, of the colored people of the south are chil
dren of white fathers, who, after we subjugate them, will, with professions of loy
alty only lip deep, enjoy the right of suffrage in the reconstructed States ? ShaU
he, though black as ebony be his skin, who, by patient industry, obedience to the
laws, and unvarying good habits, has accumulated property on which he cheer
fully pays taxes, be denied the right of a voice in the government of a State to
whose support and welfare he thus contributes; while the idle, reckless, thriftless
man of fairer complexion shall vote away his earnings and trifle with his life or
Interests as a juror? Shall the brave man who has periled life, and mayhap lost
limb, who has endured the dangers of the march, the camp, and the bivouac in de
fense of our Constitution and laws, be denied their protection, whUe the traitors in
the conquest of whom he assisted, enjoy those rights, and use them aS instruments
for his oppression and degradation."
He raakes the following quotations from the testimony of
Colonel Hanks :
" I knew a family of flve who were freed by the voluntary enlistment of one of
the boys. He entered tbe ranks for the avowed purpose of freeing his family. His
name was Moore ; he was owned by the Messrs. Leeds, iron founders ; they resided
within one of the parishes excepted in the Proclamation of Emancipation. He
was the flrst man to fall at Pascagoula. Upon starting he said to his family, ' I
know I shall fall, but you will be free.'
" A negro soldier demanded his children at my hands. I wanted to test his affec
tion. I said ' they had a good home.' He said, ' Lieutenant, I want to send my
children to school; my wife is not allowed to see them; I am in yonr service ; I
wear military clothes ; I have been in three battles ; I was in the assault at Port
Hudson ; I want my children ; they are my flesh and blood.'
" The grave, long years hence, wiU close over those who to the last day of their
life would, were it in their power, overthrow the Government or revenge their
supposed wrongs upon those who aided in sustaining it. The truly loyal white
men of the insurrectionary districts need the sympathy and political support of
all the loyal people among whom they dwell, and unless we give it to them, we
place them as abjectly at the feet of those who are now in arms against us, as we
do the negro whom their oppressors so despise. 1 cannot conceive how the Ameri
can Congress could write a page of history that would so disgrace it in the eyes of
all posterity as by consenting to close this war by surrendering to the unbridled
lust and power of the conquered traitors of the South, those who, tiirough blood,
terror, and anguish, have been our friends, true to our principles and our welfare.
To purchase peace by such heartless meanness and so gigantic a barter of principle,
would be unparalleled in baseness in the history of mankind.
*************
" We are to shape the future. We cannot escape the duty. And ' conciliation,
compromise, and concession,' are not the methods we are to use. These alas ! have
been abundantly tried, and their result has been agitation, strife, war, and desola
tion. No man has the right to compromise justice; it is immutable; and He whose
law it is never fails to avenge its compromise or violation. Ours is not the work
of construction, it is that of reconstruction ; not that of creation but of regenera
tion ; and, as 1 have shown the principle of the life we are to shape glares on us

RECONSTRUCTION IN CONGRESS. 599
lighting our pathway, from every page of history written by our Revolutionary
Fathers. Would we see the issue of ' compromise, concession, and conciliation ?
Sir, we behold it in the blazing home, the charred roof-tree ; the desolate hearthslde,
the surging tide of fratricidal war, and the green mounds beneath which sleep half
a mUllon of the bravest and best loved of our men."
Winter Davis made the following prediction of the results
which would follow a failure to pass the bill:*
" If this bUl do not become a law, when Congress again meets, at our doors,
clamorous and dictatorial, wiU be sixty-flve Representatives from the States now
In rebellion, and twenty-two Senators claiming admission, and, upon the theory
of the honorable gentleman, entitled to admission beyond the power of argument
to resist it; for peace will have been restored, there wUl be no armed power but
that of the United States ; there will be quiet, and votes wiU be poUed under the
existing laws of the State, in the gentleman's view. Are you ready to accept that
consequence? For if they come to the door of the House they will cross the thresh
old of the House, and any gentleman who does not know that, or who is so weak
or so wild as to suppose that any declaratory resolution adopted by both Houses as
a condition precedent can stop that flood, had better put his puny hands across the
flood of the flowing Mississippi and say that it shaU not enter the Gulf of Mexlcow"
Mr. Dawes of Massachusetts, said :f
" My only purpose is to Impress upon this House the very conclusion which finds
sanction in the last section of this biU, namely, that no form can be prescribed, no
law laid down here, no unbending iron rule flxed by the central Government, for
the governing of that people, or prescribing the method in which they shall make
their organic law. Each of them shall work out that problem for itself and in its
own way. That form and system which is best adapted to Louisiana and Arkansas
Is quite different from that which is ultimately to be adopted in South Carolina
and Georgia. These are a people unlike In their habits aud pursuits, in their no
tions. In their loyalty or disloyalty, whichever it may be. In each one of theso
States the condition of things and feelings is unique, and flnds no counterpart In
any other. In the States more particularly under consideration, the people are
struggling to rise from chaos into the form of Republican organic law. The others
to which I have alluded, are still wandering in the wilderness of treason and rebel
lion, and rolling as a sweet morsel under their tongue the sin which has brought
all this calamity npon us."
The bill was finally laid upon the table by ayes 80,
noes 65. J
The question of the admission of Senators and members
from Louisiana, Arkansas, and Virginia, was much discussed
in both Houses of Congress at this session, but no final vote
was taken.
The public mind had been painfuUy impressed with the
statements of the barbarities infiicted upon Union prisoners
by the Confederate authorities. The exchange of prisoners
* Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 969.
t Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 937.
X Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, page 1002.

600 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
had been interrupted, really and mainly because the rebel
authorities refused to exchange colored Union soldiers, and
refused to treat them as prisoners of war. The story of the
treatment of Union prisoners at Libby prison and Belle Isle
at Richmond, at Andersonville, Selma, and other places, and
the massacre at Fort Pillow, filled the whole land with hor
ror. The Comraittee on the Conduct of the war, were di
rected by Congress, to investigate, and their report confirmed
the conviction that the raost unparalleled cruelties had been
inflicted upon the Union prisoners. It was estabUshed that
at Andersonville, in 1864, there were 35,000 Union prisoners
confined in a field of some thirty acres, and that 30,000 of
thera were without shelter, or even shade ; crowded together,
sleeping upon the ground without blankets, and many of
them partiaUy naked. Their rations scarcely adequate to
sustain life, and of a quality that approaching starvation,
alone, could induce men to eat. Added to inadequacy and
unwholesomeness of food, resulting in a condition nearly ap
proaching starvation, want of shelter, and clothing, and the
crowding of vast nurabers into a sraall space, was the raost
brutal and inhuraan treatment by the guard ; often shooting
down unarmed men apparently for amusement.* In the
Senate, on the 16th of January, 1865, Senator Wade offered
a resolution, that all Confederate prisoners, both officers and
men, should receive the same rations, the sarae clothing, and
be subject to the same treatment in every respect, as Federal
prisoners of war in the power of the rebels.
Senator Lane, of Indiana, urging the adoption of the reso
lution, stated that there were about 45,000 Union prisoners
in rebel prisons, and that the Governraent held about double
that number of rebel prisoners. He stated in substance, that
most of these 45,000 had been reduced by starvation to utter
helplessness. Those of them who escape the slow torture of
death by starvation, return emaciated and feeble, and unfit
for service. We, as christians, feed, clothe, and provide for
the rebel prisoners in our hands. Those we return to them,
• See testimony on the trial of Wertz. Report of the Committee on Conduct of
the war. See appeal to the President by oflicers confined at Charleston, dated
August 1864; also Report of Sanitary Commission.

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS BY THE REBELS. 601
we send in a condition of greater efficiency than when cap
tured. " They are fed and fattened upon Government ra
tions. We receive in return skeletons, shocking to human
ity." "It is time," said he, "we resorted to a systera of
strict retaliation, raarked by justice in every feature."
Senator Wade said :*
" Sir, I have no doubt ou investigation of this subject, that it Is a deliberate pur
pose of theirs to destroy every prisoner that comes into their hands. They do not
Intend that he shall be returned to us in such a condition that he can ever again
take the field. Their Inhuman treatment is probably owing more to this con
sideration than to mere feelings of malice. It is a system of savage policy, and it
has had a most powerful effect on our army. Of the thousands of prisoners we
have had in their hands, scarcely one of them is ever returned to us in such a con
dition that he can take the fleld again ; while on the other side the prisoners that
come into our possession are treated precisely the same as our own soldiers are, and
they go back refreshed, recuperated, and ready to take the fleld against us, every
man of them. I have no doubt that a, prompt and stern resort to this measure of
retaliation wiU have as beneflcial an effect as the measure to which I have referred
had in the case to which it was appUed."
In regard to the exchange of prisoners. Senator Harlan
said :t
" I would rejoice to see every prisoner of ours held by the rebels released at once,
but when I know that the release of a Union prisoner by the rebels requires the
relea.se of a rebel prisoner by our Government, and that he wlU be at once thrown
Into strongly fortifled works, and that you will be compelled to recruit three other
soldiers to unite with our returning prisoner to make the combat equal j that four
Uves are to be put tn jeopardy to recapture thf rebel whom we have released, I
cannot criticise the Secretary of War if he should refuse to exchange prisoners
from this time forward until the close of the war, even if a fair exchange could be
secured ; but I apprehend there are very few Senators here who believe that a fair
exchange can be effected. They so analyze all prisoners that they hold of ours, as
to release those whose terms of service have expired or are about to expire. Their
soldiers are mustered in practically during the war. Every southern citizen able
to boar arms is enrolled as a soldier during the continuance of the war. Then
when we release a rebel prisoner we put him into their army during the continu
ance of the war, while in nine cases out of ten, probably, the soldier received by
us in return will be at once well fed and mustered out of service. In addition to
this, we know from the facts that have been developed by the Committee on the
Conduct of the War, that they do not return to us ablebodled men, but only
exchange the sick and dilapidated for those that are ablebodled and vigorous."
Senator Suraner said :f
" The resolution of the committee sets forth what we all too painfully know, that
our prisoners— I quote now from the words of the resolution— have been sub
jected to treatirent unexampled for cruelty in the history of civilized war, and
finding its parallels only in the conduct of savage tribes; a treatment resulting it
the death of multitudes by the slow but designed, process of starvation, and bj

* Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 364.
t Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 365.
i Congressional Glrbe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 38L

/
602 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
raortal diseases occasioned by insuflicient and unhealthy food, by wanton expo
sure of their persons to the inclemency of the weather, and by deliberate assassina
tion of innocent and unoffending men ; and the murder in cold blood, of prisoners
after surrender.' "
Sumner went on to say, " that the rule of retaliation could
not be acted upon by our Governraent. We could enter into
no such competition in barbarity." " We cannot," says he,
" be cruel or barbarous, or savage, because the rebels, whora
we are now meeting in warfare, are cruel, barbarous and
savage." He quotes Dr. Leiber, as saying: "If we fight
with Indians, who slowly roast their prisoners, we cannot
slowly roast in turn the Indians whom we may capture."
The northern people wUl not treat captured southerners, as
our sons are treated by them. God be thanked, you could
not do it, and if you could, how it would brutalize our
people."* Mr. Lincoln, when these reports of barbarities came to
him, and were authenticated, was deeply moved; but when
urged to retaliate in kind, he said, " I never can, 1 can never
starve men like that."
Why is it, that Mr. Lincoln, and the northern people, never
could carry on retaliation in kind ? Why is it, that the rebel
authorities could be guilty of cruelties, paraUeled alone by
the Spanish treatment ofthe Indians, and by the Inquisition?
Will not the calm, just historian of the future truthfully say,
this barbarity was the result of the brutalizing infiuence of
slavery ?
Senator Cowan said, " I think it would be irapossible to
procure in the Araerican array, an officer, or a soldier either,
who would stand by and see a raan starve; I do not believe
it possible. A file of our soldiers might shoot a man in re
taliation, but our soldiers would not infiict a slow and terrible
torture." Senator Howard read frora the report of the Coramittee
of Investigatiorijf to show, that the barbarities were resorted
to " for the inhuman purpose of destroying the lives of our
men by the slow process of starvation. After producing
some of the evidence on the subject, he said : J
* Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 382.
t Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 386-7.
% Congression Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 188.

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS BY THE REBELS. 603
"Sir, the barbarities committed upon our men at Andersonville are absolutely
indescribable. Human language Is impotent to bring home to the heart and the
soul of a man the horrors of those scenes. Artists have been compelled to resort
to something more expressive than human language, and painting aud engraving
have been called in to aid in conveying to the mind the full idea of the brutalities
practiced by the rebel authorities upon our soldiers. Out of those thlrty-flve thou
sand, I presume not more than one-half, if as many, still survive to tell the tale of
their sufferings ; and the testimony is as clear as the noon day sun that these bar
barities were deliberately practiced upon our men for the double purpose of crip
pling and reducing our armed force and of striking terror into the Northern popu
lation in order to prevent enlistments. There does not remain ground for a doubt
that the Rebel Government designedly resorted to the slow process of torture and
death by starvation, and to freezing and starving united, operating minute by
minute, hour by hour, day hy day, week by week, and month by month, until the
man became a living skeleton and an idiot, no longer able to recognize his wife,
his children, or his friends; no longer of any value either to himself or his country;
and this for the purpose of weakening our miUtary arm and deterring our people
from prosecuting the war.
" Sir, I ask any man of humanity, any man who feels a respect for his country,
does it not become us to punish these barbarities, and to punish them In the only
way that is left us ? which is, the original and actual offenders having made their es
cape or not being in our power, to seize upon their countrymen, prisoners in onr
hends, and subject them to the same severities practiced against us. I know, sir, that
the heart of a generous man naturally revolts at the practice of retaliation. I am not
a stranger, I trust, to the ordinary feelings of humanity : but when the voice of my
own countrymen cries to me from the dungeons of Libby, and from the putrid
pools of Anderson viUe ahd implores me to interpose whatever power I may possess
to deter the rebels from the infliction of such cruelties on them, I cannot, and, so
help me GSod, I will not shut my ears to their cries. *******
" Sir, the history of the world, certainly the history of the civilized world, pre
sents no parallel to the brutalities committed by the rebels. Bead the story of,
Dartmoor prison, you find nothing to be compared with them. Read the story of
the Black Hole of Calcutta, yon find nothing there. Read the story of the ancient
British hulks. In which twenty thousand French prisoners were kept in close con
finement for three or four years off the coast of England, in spaces not more than
four and a halt feet high between decks, and you wlU find nothing there to be com
pared with these cruelties. In the whole history of modern el villzed, war, these
crimes stand out in hideous prominence.
The cautious and careful Senator Foster, of Connecticut,
said, that he "was astonished that any intelligent raan
should express a doubt whether our prisoners in the hands
of rebels, ft-ora the first day of the war, had been treated
barbarously, inhuraanly, and that this treatraent continues
to the present tirae." He said, "who are our opponents ?
They are a band of insurgents, robbers, traitors, malefactors
on land, and pirates on the deep; and because such men de
scend to what would disgrace savages in the treatment of
prisoners, not disgracing any ISTational name, for they have
no National name to disgrace, shall we, who are citizens of
the United States of America, each man feeUng that he has
a part of the ISTational honor to sustain, do that which
disgraces thera? 'So, Mr. President, no, no." *
* Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thlrty-elgth Congress, p. 411-12.

604 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Senator Hendricks, of Indiana, who opposed the resolution,
said, " I do not doubt now, that there have been cruelties,
not justified by the usages of christian warfare, inflicted upon
our prisoners in the South." *
Senator Reverdy Johnson, opposing the resolution, said :
" What I want, therefore, is such a systera of exchange as
may put an end to these cruelties in the future,' leaving the
past where it is ; leaving the Rebel Government, if they have
resorted to the enormities stated in this resolution, as I hme
no doubt they have, to the judgment of the civilized world,
' which will pronounce a judgraent of infamy to all concerned
in them."t
Senator Wade, in speaking of the influence of slavery
upon the people, said : %
" I know something about these Southern people. Habituated to slavery, with
their hearts entirely hardened to the misfortunes and hardships of man in the per
son of the poor slave, they have forgotten that he is human and that they owe him
any respect ; and this hardening process did not stop with the slave, but the poor
white man in the South is treated even at a greater distance and regarded as occu
pying a lower position of degradation than the negro. They do not care anything
about the private soldiers. They would as lief we starved their private soldiers to
death as not, unless they wanted them returned to fill up their armies. They place
them side by side with the negro whose fate they care nothing for. It is not the
poor private soldier that I want to see subjected to these pnnisliments, because he
is not responsible for this treatment, and because these accursed, hardened aristo
crats look with as much composure on his fate as some here look on the fate of our
soldiers in their barbarous hands. They care nothing for him ; they have lost aU
feelings of humanity for those whom they consider the mere plebeian trash,
whether black or white. But when you touch the chivalry, of whom their oflicers
are composed, when you subject them to Ignominious labor in the trenches, or put
them on the same treatment which they deal out to our soldiers, my word for It
their hearts will be reached aud a remedy will soon be attained. * * * *
" Is there nothing that will degrade a man? May he not steep himself in crime
so deep that it is damnation and contamination to communicate with him? If so,
is not Jeff. Davis that man ? Before Almighty God, if war has brought suffering,
dishonor, and death upon our people, Davis and his associates are responsible for
It; audit a common murderer ought to die once for the crime of murder, Jeff.
Davis' death ought to be multipled a hundred thousand fold. Not only that, but
think of the meanness that attaches to his crime. I was here when Jeff. Davis and
company walked up to your desk, sir, and raised their hands to God, and swore to
maintain the Constitution of the United States, and I was here when that oath
was forgotten and they raised their accursed arm against this Republic, and, with
all the power that they had acquired from it, turned about to destroy that
very Constitution which they had before sworn to maintain. Is perjury no dis
grace ? And does not an honest, just man lose confidence in his fellow-man when
he finds him steeped in perjury? * * * Sir, his touch was contamination,
and communication with him was dishonor. He had perjured his soul before God,
and his arm was attainted and reeking with the blood of the bravest aud best ol
the population of the United States."
* Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 412.
t Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 454.
X Congressional Globe, Second Session Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 495.

TREATMENT OF PRISONERS BY THE REBELS. 605
Senator Chandler, of Michigan, said : *
" I saw the other day a Captain who has just returned from a seventeen months'
Imprisonment in a Southern prison, a gentleman from Michigan, and he told me
that he was Informed by the Superintendent of their prison that it was their policy,
their flxed policy, that no prisoner who remained three months in a rebel prison
should ever be fit to enter the United States army after his exchange and return
home. If this was the barbarism of a single Individual who happened to have a
number of onr prisoners in his charge, perhaps it would not be proper for ns to adopt
retaliation as a policy ; but it has been proved over and over again that this is the
policy of the rebels in the conduct of the war, their settled policy, their policy
everywhere in every State, with every prisoner."
Senator Sprague, of Rhode Island, said : f
" Early in the history of this war it was my privilege to have intimate and near
friends connected with the army. It was my good fortune to be with them npon
the battle-field. I saw many of them wounded, others struck down. The patriotic
people of my State demanded of me that their remains should be returned to the
State; that the ground of that State should be hallowed by their bones and re
mains ; that their history should be a part of the State. In obedience to that de
mand I traveled with a proper escort to endeavor to secure their bodies ; and what
did I flnd ? I found that the friends whom I had left wounded upon the bat
tle-field had been murdered after we had left. I found the dead that we were
obUged to leave upon the battle-field with their faces downward as a mark of indig
nity. I found the heads of the bravest and best of my companions severed from
their bodies to be used as drinking cups by Southern rebels. Of the remains of
some of the best, most InteUigent, and bravest officers that ever served any cause,
I found but the portion left from a bonfire. « * * This treatment has been
practiced by the rebels upon Union soldiers to bring about the very result that has
been brought about, and that is, an exchange of prisoners."
Senator Saulsbury, of Delaware, suggested that the best
measure for the relief of the suffering Federal prisoners was
" peace." To induce peace, by the recognition of the Con
federacy, was doubtless one of the motives inducing the
rebel authorities to perpetrate these cruelties. He said : %
" It Is peace, sir, that this country wants. Give us peace, and no Federal soldiers
WiU ever again rot in Confederate bastlles or prisons, or starve in Confederate pens.
Give ns peace, and the mother whose aching heart and streaming eyes you now
witness will bless you for your deed. Give ns peace, and Instead of these acts of
barbarism of which we hear, your land shall again bloom and blossom as the rose,
Sir, In the place of retaliatory measures, in the stead of resorting to acts of cruelty
to meet acts of cruelty, and to prevent tjjem in the future, I propose that your
commissioners meet, and I invoke you, if this be the honest aim of the President
of the United States, lend him your wlUing and cordial aid ; and then, sir, you
will have no need for retaliation ; then, sir, your soldiers no longer wUl be starved
or murdered or ill treated, but they shall return to their homes long left, to cheer
their famiUes,. to rejoice again that peace blesses the land, and that their country
does not require any further sacrifice of life or blood upon their part."

• Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 496.
+ Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 516.
X Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 520.

LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The resolution was amended so as not tj require retalia
tion in kind, but the Executive and railitary authorities*
were directed to retaliate upon the prisoners of the eneray
in such manner, according to the laws and usages of war, as
should deter him from the perpetration in future of cruel
and barbarous treatment of our soldiers. N'o act of retalia
tion, under this resolution, was ever inflicted upon any rebel
prisoner. I have quoted from these debates on thtf subject
of the treatment of prisoners of war, for the purpose of
showing that in the highest deliberative body of the country
the truth of the charges of barbarity and cruelty raade
against the rebel authorities, was not disputed, except as to
the extent of those cruelties ; and, also, to show by the evi
dence produced in such debates, what sort of enemies slave
holders are, and by what agencies they carried on the war
to maintain slavery ; and, also, for the purpose, by placing
on record the truth, to raake slaveholding odious.
It was after the facts in regard to the barbarities practiced
upon Union prisoners had been established, and proclairaed
throughout the civilized world, that for the purpose of en
deavoring to neutralize, or lessen the odium growing out of
such a system, that rebel agents and syrapathizers in Eng
land raised a fund for the purpose, as alleged, of relieving
the wants of rebel prisoners in the hands of the Govern
ment. These prisoners were notoriously better clothed, and
fed, and cared for, than while soldiers in the rebel service.
Lord Wharncliffe had been induced to become the agent
of the parties raising this fund, and he asked, through Mr.
Adams, representing the United States in Great Britain, that
perraission be granted to an agent to visit the military
prisons within the Northern States, and minister to the com
fort of the Confederate prisoners. Mr. Adaras communi
cated this request to Mr. Seward, who instructed Mr. Adaras
to inform Lord Wharncliffe that the application was disal
lowed. The Secretary said in his reply "that the United
States had ample means for the support of prisoners, as well
as for every other contingency of the war," and that the
insurgents were suffering no privations that appeal for relief
* Congressional Olobe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 621.

brooks' charges against BUTLER. 607
to charity, either at home or abroad. In reply to a letter of
Lord Wharncliffe, published in the London Times, in which
he charged that Confederate prisoners in the hands of the
Governraent were suffering unusual privations, Goldwin
Smith, who had lately returned from a visit to the United
States, during which he had visited the ca,mp where rebel
prisoners were detained, published a letter, in which he
bears testimony that the rebel prisoners were treated with
the utmost liberality and kindness. He expressed his belief
that the sentiment of the people at the ISTorth was strongly
as possible in favor of a humane and generous treatment of
prisoners, both as a matter of duty and as an instruraent of
ultimate reconciliation, and this, notwithstanding they have
" the proof before their eyes that their own soldiers are
treated with the greatest barbarity in Southern prisons."
One of the most exciting debates of this session arose out
of a charge made by Mr. Brooks, of IJfew York, against
General B. F. Butler, of Massachusetts, charging hira, while
in comraand at B'ew Orleans, with being a "gold robber."
General Butler addressed a note of inquiry to Mr. Brooks,
which the latter brought to the attention of the House as a
question of privilege, upon the ground that it was a chal
lenge, or a note prelirainary to a challenge. Mr. Boutwell
raised the poiut of order, that the letter was no breach of
privilege, and the Speaker sustained the point of order, from
which decision Mr. Brooks appealed. * He said : " With no
desire to enter into an epistolary correspondence with
General Butler, whose literary talents I well estiraate, and
which, if not altogether Chesterfieldian, have nevertheless
the vigor and nerve of Junius." " I choose to answer hira
here, when I raade the reraarks of which he is supposed to
complain." Mr. Ingersoll, of Illinois, desired that Mr. Brooks would
explain to the House what reasons he had for calling General
Butler a " gold robber."
Brooks replied : " That is what I want to do, but I cannot
do it in discussing a question of order." Mr. Ingersoll,
thereupon, moved to suspend the rules so as to allow Mr.
?Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 376.

608 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Brooks to proceed. The motion was agreed to, and Mr.
Brooks proceeded, reiterating the charge.
The House adjourned, Mr. Stevens holding the floor. The
next morning he yielded to Mr. Boutwell, who was the
immediate representative in Congress of General Butler.
After some prelirainary remarks, Mr. Boutwell said : *
" Now, Mr. Speaker, I come to the testimony in reference to the 850,000 transac
tion in New Orleans. I ask the attention ot the gentleman from New York to one
point, because, when I have presented the evidence, I shall put to him a question
on my own responsibility as a member of this House, as a Representative of a dis
trict, as a citizen of this country, interested somewhat in the reputation of a man
who is already historical, and who, since the administration of Hastings in India,
has had a larger command and greater interests of the country placed in his hands
than almost any other person, and I shall expect a definite and distinct answer to
that question ; and therefore I put him on his guard at this early moment. The
question I shall put to him is, (asking the Clerk first to read the extract from the
gentleman's speech which was contained in General Butler's letter,) whether he
reaffirms the statement which he made or whether he retracts it? And according
to the course which he takes shall be mine as to some observations which I wiU
then submit."
He then read evidence, showing that Sraith, the clairaant
of the $50,000 in gold allowed to have been robbed of him
by General Butler, was an enemy of his country, and the
firm of which he was a meraber were agents for the Con
federate loan. He then read the order of General Butler,
creating a military coraraission, consisting of General Shep-
ley, W. IN". Mercer, and Thomas J. Durant, to inquire
whether the specie in question was the property of the Con
federate States, or had been used in any way to aid the Con
federate States. He then read the evidence taken before
such commission, on both sides, and after argument of
counsel. The commission decided that, " With regard to
the $50,000, the coraraission think there is ground for deten
tion until the proper department at Washington can be
heard from." This award was made June 17th, 1862, and
on the 2d of July thereafter General Butler reports the facts
to the Secretary of the Treasury, f
He read other correspondence with the Secretary of War,
aud the counsel of Smith, and then added :
" In the first place, there Is no element of the crime of robbery in this transac
tion from the beginning to the end. The seizure was made by a public officer, a
mUltary commander, iu pursuance of what he beUeved theu to be his duty, ajid
• Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 394.
t Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 395.

brooks' CHARGES AGAINST BUTLER. 609
what I believe a jury of his countrymen anywhere, on the evidence, would find to
have been his duty under the circumstances in which he was placed. He submitted
the whole question of the right of property, as far as it could be submitted, to a
military commission, and he followed the decree, or award made by that commis
sion, aud within fifteen days reported the facts to the Government, and from tliat
day to tills he has always'been ready and responsible. He has again and again
solicited the Department to take the money and assume the responsibility— either
to take it as belonging to the Government, or pay it over to Samuel Smith & Co.,
and reUeve him."
Mr. BoutweU then, after reading the charge raade by Mr.
Brooks, demanded whether he reaffirms the charge, or re
tracts it ? and closed by stating, " I yield the fioor for a
reply." Mr. Brooks said : " When the gentleman concludes I shall
be happy to make reply. The introduction of his remarks
shows that he is not entitled to courtesy."
" Mr. Botjtweli.. I understand, then, that the gentleman is neither prepared at
this moment to reaffirm the statement made in that speech, nor to retract It. Ou
this evidence, conclusive as to the falsity of the charge, the gentleman from New
York stands sUent, and wUl neither reaffirm the declaration that he has made to
this House and to the country, that Major General Butler of the army is a gold
robber, nor wlU he, upon this evidence, retract It. Has it made no impression upon
him ? Does he not comprehend it ? Does he yet persist in allowing that declaration
made in his speech to stand upon the record? If he has a name to live, does not
the dread of posterity inspire him to do justice to a servant of the country? Is he
still silent ? Has he no voice to reaffirm what he has declared, or Is he yet destitute,
shall I say of manliness, to admit that he was mistaken?"
Mr. Brooks, in reply, araong other things, said : *
" No man, Mr. Speaker, did more, or, I might say, as much, to excite and arouse
the feelings of this country, and to bring about that hostility which led to the clash
of arms as Major General Butler. Belonging to the Democratic party, and the most
ultra of that party, he was ever flrst and foremost iu stimulating and encouraging
that hostility and invective which would lead to excitement and to war- and when
ever the Democratic party was disposed to compromise or make concessions in any
way which would lead to pacification, he was the last of all to yield, and the first
and foremost to bring about that collision of opinion which would lead to this
clash of arms. And yet I, who am of the school of Clay, and of Massachusetts'
own Webster, trained in obedience to the Constitution and laws, never even
responsible for any of the errors of the Democratic party, hardly connected with
that party except so far as it chose to honor me here with Its sympathy aud its
votes, elected here upon the fioor of this House in opposition to the machinery of that
party ; I am denounced by the Representative of this General Butler as a man
more disposed to welcome a rebel uniform of gray than the blue uniform of a
soldier of the United States !
" Sir, in the Charleston Convention, which led to the rupture of the Democratic
partv and the election of Lincoln, if Butler himself had been the paid agent of
Jeff. Davis and of the conspirators to destroy this Union, he could not have acted a
more efficient or a more fatal part in sundering and dividing that party and bring
ing about this collision than he did as a delegate from Massachusetts to that con
vention. I never voted in my life for Jefferson Davis, while Major General Butler
• Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 397.
39

610 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
voted fifty-seven times in the Charleston Convention for this same Jefferson Davis,
to make him President of the United States. Compare my record then, then, with
his. Compare my past with his. A sagacious man, like General Butler, a man of
talent and power and capacity, must have known very well, while he was thus
acting in the Charleston Convention, where all that action would lead; thatit
would lead to a disruption of the party of the Democracy, and in that disruption
to a triumph of the Republican party. *******
" The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts was pleased to say that since the
record of Hastings in India no man had had so wide and so extensive a command
as Major General Butler. The honorable gentleman from Massachusetts will permit
me to say that I think that was a most unfortunate aUuslon. The history of Hast
ings in India is in a good degree the history of Major General Butler at New Or
leans and throughout all those regions on the Mississippi. I will not recall that
history ; but I will recall the fact that years afterward the proudest and the loftiest
spirits in the British Parliament, from Burke onward, arraigned Hastings for his
conduct in India as I have arraigned Butler here ; and as others hereafter wlU
arraign him on the floor ol^ this House, for his conduct in New Orleans and else
where. And, sir the history of Butler will, I venture to predict, be the fate of
Pastings ; supported by a ministry, though but feebly aud partially supported,
yet recorded in history as a plunderer and a robber, and bequeathing to posterity
a name immortal for that plunder and robbery alone."
Mr. Stevens in conclusion, among other things, said : *
"The evidence has done great justice and great favor to Major General Butler,
for, sir, there is not a candid man, there is not an honest man in this House who
will dare to say that that evidence is not a complete and perfect vindication of
Major General Butler from all the charges made against him by the gentleman
from New York ; it not only vindicates him, but shows him to have, in all his acts
and in all his correspondence, acted, not only like au honest man and faithful
officer, but like a gentleman and a well educated man. The whole of the corres
pondence would do credit not only to his heart but to his great ability and his
scholarship and his professional learning. And I will say here that, so far as pro
fessional learning goes, I was long ago struck with his correspondence with the
gentieman who was sent down there by the Qovernment, Mr. Reverdy Johnsop,
General Butler showed more ability, more knowledge of the law of nations, and
was more correct in his positions than that gentleman ; and if General Butler's
doctrine had prevailed, 8800,000 in gold, which was seized by him, would have been
kept from supplying the rebel armies, to which it was applied, when turned over,
under the advice of the eminent counsel to whom I refer."
Of the great public services rendered by Butler, he said :
" The gentleman says that General Butler has done no service to his country.
Service to his country ! If it Is true that he helped to kill the Democratic party,
he did a great deal of service to the country. [Laughter.] I do not know that fact.
That tooli place before secession, and is, therefore, a little further back than I
choose to go. But if he was wrong tlien, the gentleman from New York has been
going wrong ever since and getting worse ail the time, while General Butler has
been getting better and better, and is now au excellent man. I wish to God they
would all reform in the same way. [Laughter.] Did he not corae on in the midst
of peril and seize Baltimore, which others had failed to do ? Did he not go to New
Orleans and seize It, and administer its affairs better, and to the greater satisfac
tion of every loyal man, than has been done since, although I do not draw com
parisons ? Talk about that being a paraUel with the administration of Warren
Hastings ! All that I have to say is this : Warren Hastings was made Imraortal by
the talents of the counsel who prosecuted him. He was acquitted, as the public
, * Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth, Congress, p. 400.

CLOSE OF THE THIRTY-EIGHTH CONGRESS. 611
will acquit General Butler. The only difference is that there has been no pure and
upright and manly eloquence in this prosecution, to immortalize General Butler
as in the case of Warren Hastings."
He thus speaks of John Brown :
" He also talks about John Brown. The gentleman well knows that that class of
people to whom he referred were very few in the United States. None of the Re-
]^ublican party belonged to that class. But, sir, I will state the difference between
John Brown and the gentleman from New York. While I have not a word to say
in extenuation of the conduct of John Brown, nor anything to say against his
sentence, yet, sir, there are times in the history of men when there are such great
evUs that the motives of some men who attempt, although in an irregular tnanner,
to eradicate those evils, wiU overshadow aU the irregularities in the eye of pos
terity, although we here at the moment cannot forget or forgive them. There are
times, sir, when posterity will look beyond tlie inimediate step to see where a man
proposed to land, what were his intentions and his motives, and they will judge
according to the ulterior design. Now, sir, the motive of John Brown —honest, up
right, but mistaken in his means — no mau who loves freedom can help applaud
ing, although none of us would justify the means. But upon tlie principle which
I have mentioned, when the gentleman from New York and myself will be mol-
dering in the dust and forgotten, or only unpleasantly remembered, the memory
of John Brown, I will venture to predict, will grow brighter and brighter through
coming ages ; and the State of Virginia Itself, by its own freemen and its own
freedmen, will, within the lives of some ^now present, raise a monument to his
memory upon the very place where his gallows stood."
ifothing could be more complete and conclusive than this
vindication of General Butler, so far as regards the transac
tion in question. The charge has- never since been repeated.
The Thirty-eighth Congress drew towards its close. It
had done its duty. Differing with the Executive on points
of administration, as many of its merabers did, yet it had
faithfully sustained him in carrying on the war. It had
placed in his hands, with perfect confidence, the vast re
sources of the country. It had voted increased taxes to
maintain the N'ational credit. It had amended the EnroU
raent Law to give it raore efficiency. It had obliterated for
ever from the National Statute Book the barbarous slave code.
More than all, and above all, it had passed the constitutional
amendment, prohibiting and aboUshing slavery forever.
The records of this Congress, and those of the Thirty-
seventh, are full of the wisest statesmanship and eloquent
expressions of the noblest sentiments of patriotism and
huraanity. These records will long be consulted, for the
story of the forensic confiict between liberty and slavery.
That confiict is there recorded in the speeches, votes, and
legislation, during this, the most eventful period of Araeri
can history. He who in the future would fully comprehend

612 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
that history, raust study it in these eloquent discussions.
The Thirty-eighth Congress ended, and passed into history,
with the following valedictory of Schuyler Colfax, Speaker
of the House :*
" Gentlemen of the House of Representatives, the parting hour has come ; and
yonder clock, which ' takes no note of time but from its loss,' will soon announce
that the Congress of which we are members has passed into history. Honored by
your votes with this responsible position, I have faithfully striven to perform its
always complex aud often perplexing duties without partisan bias and with the
sincerest impartiality. Whether I have realized the true ideal of a just presiding
officer, aiding, on the one hand, the advance of the public business, with the re
sponsibility of which the majority is charged, and, on the other hand, aUowing no
trespass on the parliamentary rights of the minority, must'be left for others to de
cide. But looking back now over the entire Congress, I cannot remembor a single
word addressed to you which ' dying I would wish to blot.'
" On this day, which by spontaneous consent is being observed wherever our flag
floats as a day of national -rejoicing, with the roar of cannon greeting the rising
sun on the rock-bound coast of Maine, echoed and re-echoed by answering volleys
from city to city, and from mountain peak to mountain peak, tiU from the Golden
Gate it dies away far out on the calm Pacific, we mingle our congratulations with
those of the freemen we represent over the victories for the Union that have made
the winter just closing so warm with joy and hope. With them we rejoice that
the national standard, which our revolutionary fathers unfurled over the land, but
which rebellion sought to strike down and destroy, waves as undisputed at this
glad hour over the cradle of secession at Charleston as over the cradle of liberty at
Faneuil Hill, and that the whole firmament is aflame with the briUiant glow of
triumphs for that cause so dear to every patriot heart. We have but recently
commemorated the birthday of the Father of his Country, and renewed our pledge
to each other that the nation he founded should not 'be sundered by the sword of
treason. And the good news that assures the salvation of the Republic is doubly
joyous, because It tells us that the prayers of the past four years have not been un
answered, and that the priceless blood of our brave defenders, so freely offered and
so profusely spilt, has not been shed in vain. We turn, too, to-day, with a prouder
joy than ever before to that banner, brilliant with stars from the heavens and
radiant with glories from the earth, which from Bunker Hill to Yorktown, from
Lundy's Lane to New Orleans, and from the darker hours of the rebellion in the
past, to Savannah, aud Fort Sumter, and Cliarleston, and Columbia, and Fort
Fisher, and Wilmington In the present, has ever symbolized our unity and our
national life, as we see inscribed on it ineffaceably that now doubly noble
inscription, ' Liberty and Union, now and forever, one aud inseparable.'
" But, in this hour of gladness I cannot forget the obligations, paramount and
undying, we owe to our heroic defenders >on every battle-fleld upon the land, and
every wave-rocked monitor and frigate upon the sea. Inspired by the sublimest
spirit of self-sacriflce, they have realized a mUlion-fold the historic fable of Curtius
as they have offered to close up, with their own bodies, if need be, the yawning
chasm that imperiled the Republic. For you and me, and for their country, they
have turned their backs on the delights of home, and severed the tenderest of ties
to brave death in a thousand forms; to confront with unblanched cheek the
tempest of shot, and shell, and flame ; to storm frowning batteries and bristling
intrenchments ; to bleed, to suffer, and to die. As we look from this Capitol Hill
over the nation there are crushed and broken hearts in every hamlet ; there kre
wounded soldiers, mangled with rebel bullets, in every hospital ; there are patriot
graves in every church yard ; there are bleaching bones on every battle-fleld. It
is the lofty and unfaltering heroism of the honored living, and the even more
honored dead, that has taken us from every valley of disaster and defeat and
• Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, pp. 1423-4.

VALEDICTORY OF SPEAKER COLFAX. 613
pla.ced our feet on the sun-crowned heights of victory. The granite shalt may
commemorate their deeds. Our American Valhalla may be crowded with the
statues of our heroes. But our debt of gratitude to them can never be paid while
time shall last and the history of a rescued nation shall endure.
" If my voice, from this Representative Hall, could be heard throughout tho
land, I would adjure all who love the Republic to preserve this obligation evei
fresh in grateful hearts. The dead, who have fallen in these stmggles to prevent
an alien fiag from waving over the ashes of Washington, or over the graves where
sleep the great and patriotic rivals of the last generation, the hero of New Orleans
and the Illustrious Commoner of Kentucky, cannot return to us. On Shiloh's
plain and Carolina's sandy shores, before Richmond, and above the clouds at
Lookout Mountain, the patriot martyrs of constitutional liberty sleep in their
bloody shrouds till the morning of resurrection. But the living are left behind.
And if the Sacred Record appropriately commends the poor, who are ever with us,
to our benefactions and regards, may I not remind you that the widow and the
fatherless, the maimed and the wounded, the diseased and the suffering, whose
anguish springs from this great contest, have claims on all of us, heightened im
measurably by the sacred cause for which they have given so much? Thus, and
thus alone, by pouring the oU of consolation into the wounds that wicked treason
ha« made, can we prove our devotion to our fatherland and our affectionate
gratitude toward its defenders.
" And, rejoicing over the bow of promise we already see arching the storm-cloud
of war, giving assurance that no deluge ot secession shall again overwhelm or
endanger our nation, we can join, with heart and soul, sincerely and trustingly, iu
the poet's prayer : ' Now Father, lay thy healing hand
In mercy on our stricken land ;
Lead all its wanderers to the fold,
And be their Shepherd, as of old.
' So ShaU our nation's song ascend
To thee, our Ruler, Father, Friend;
WhUe heaven's wide arch resounds again
With ' Peace on earth, good wiU to men.' '
" We go hence -with our official labors ended, to the Senate Chamber and the
portico of the Capitol, there, with the statue of the Goddess of Liberty looking
down for the first time from her lofty pedestal on such a scene, to witness and
participate In the inauguration of the Elect of the American people.
" And now, thanking you most truly for the approbation of my official conduct
which you have recorded on your Journals, I declare the House of Representatives
of theThirty-eighth Congress of the United States adjourned sine die."

Note.— The foUowing incident is so characteristic of Speaker Colfax, and so well
Illustrates that goodness of heart, and sweetness of disposition, for which he is
distinguished, that, although perhaps out of place here, I cannot omit it. The last
days of this session were, as such days always are, full of cares and perplexities,
everything and everybody hurried, and impatient, yet through all, Colfax retained
his amiability. On the last night of the Session, when going into .the Speaker's
Room, I saw a basket ;of most beautiful fiowers, marked : "lilrs. O., with the kind
regards of Mr. Colfax." This lady was the wife of an officer of the House, who was
very ill. This kind consideration, that did not forget the wife of a subordinate
even iuthat last hurried night of the Session, shows an unselfish heart somewhat
too rare among poUticians.

OHAPTEE XXYII.
LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION— THE END OF THE WAR.
Port Fisher — Peace Conference — Wilmington and G-oldsboro
TAKEN — Eebels resolve to arm the Negro — Columbus, S. C,
CAPTURED — Charleston Falls — Second inauguration of
Lincoln — He goes to Grant's headquarters — Military
Conference — Sheridan at Five Forks — An assault along
the whole line — Petersburg and Richmond evacuated —
Lee surrenders to Gran'j.' — Johnston surrenders to Sher
man — All rebel armies surrender — The President at
Richmond — Returns to Washington — The grand review of
the armies
THE arraies of the Republic were not idle during tlie winter
of 1864-5. Indeed, sorae of thera had progressed so far
South as to raake the winter the raost favorable period for a
campaign. At Christmas, as has been stated, Sherman, with
his confident, victorious army, was at Savannah. The rem
nants of Hood's discomfited and broken columns had been
driven towards the Gulf by the well-organized, and tri
umphant army of Thomas. Grant, with the Grand Army
of the Potomac, was tightening his grasp around Petersburg
and Richraond, holding Lee with all his force, and ready to
take advantage of any diminution of troops in his front.
The railitary operations of 1865 began with an expedition
by a land and naval force corabined, to reduce Fort Fisher,
situated near the mouth of Cape Fear River, and which
comraanded the approach to Wilmington, N'orth Carolina.
This port had been a principal place of blockade running,
and foreign trade, by the rebels during the war. After the
614

CAPTURE OP FORT FISHER. 615
fall of Savannah, it became the principal gate through which
supplies from abroad could be passed to the Confederates.
The almost invulnerable works of the fort, were strongly
garrisoned, for the eneray appreciated the importance of hold
ing this position ; nevertheless, General Grant determined
to reduce it. On the 13th of December a force of about
6,500 men, under General Butler, started from Fortress
Monroe, to operate in conjunction with the naval force under
Admiral Porter against Fort Fisher.
Qn the 24th of December, Admiral Porter attacked the
fort, without waiting for the arrival of the land forces ; but,
after a bombardraent of five hours duration, the Adrairal
withdrew his fleet. During the following night, General
Butler's forces arrived, and on the 25th about 2,200 of the
men were landed. The attack by the naval force was re
newed. General Weitzel, who had the immediate comraand
of the force on shore, captured two batteries, and some
prisoners; but, after a careful examination of the ground
and defences, he reported against the expediency of attempt
ing to carry the place by assault. In the evening General
Butler ordered the trooops to reembark, and notified
Admiral Porter that he should sail for Harapton Roads.
General Grant, the administration, and the public, Were
greatly disappointed at the result of this expedition. But
there was not a hearty cooperation between the land and
naval force.
It was not usual for Grant to abandon an object deemed
important, until it was accomplished. Learning that the
fieet was still off Fort Fisher, he advised Adrairal Por
ter to hold on, and that he would raake another attempt
to take the place. He selected General A. H. Terry to com
raand the expedition, and about 1,500 men were added to
those who made the former attempt. The expedition
reached its destination on the evening of the 12th. The troops
disembarked on the 13th of January; on the 16th the fort
was assaulted, and after several hours' desperate fighting was
captured with its garrison and armament. The Union force
soon acquired entire control of Cape Fear River. For this
gallant exploit. General Terry was made a Major General.

616 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
At the request of General Grant, Butler was reUeved from
command, and Major General Ord assigned to the depart
ment of Virginia and If orth Carolina. *
During the winter of 1865, there were unofficial, and un
authorized movements looking towards peace. Before Mr.
Blair's visit to Richmond, an earnest friend of peace — honest,
perhaps, but mistaken — approached Mr. Lincoln, and said
in substance : " Assuming that Grant is baffled and delayed
in his efforts to take Richraond, will it not be better to accept
peace on favorable terms than to prolong the war ? Have
not nearly four years of war demonstrated that, as against a
divided If orth, a united South can make a successful de
fence ? The South is a unit, made so, it is conceded, by
despotic power. We of the N'orth cannot afford to secure
unity by giving up our constitutional^ government ; we can
not secure unity without despotism." The rebels, said
this advocate for peace, " will fill up their exhausted armies
by 300,000 negroes ; these negroes, under the training and
discipline of white officers, and with freedom as their
reward, will fight for them. The Union arraies will be very
greatly reduced next year by the expiration of the terra of
service of many of the raen. How will you fill up the
ranks ? The people are divided ; one-third or raore, as the
elections show, are positively aud unalterably against the
war ; one-third or toore positively and unalterably for carry
ing it on until the rebellion is thoroughly subjugated ; the
remainder of the people — when the clouds gather black and
threatening again, when another draft comes, and increased
taxation, the peace men, and the tiraid, facile, doubtful raen,
will go over to the opposition and raake it a raajority. You
can now secure any terras you please, by granting to the
rebels recognition. You can fix your own boundary. You
can hold all within your lines — the Mississippi River, and
all west of it, and Louisiana. You can retain Maryland,
West Virginia, and Tennessee. Take this — make peace.
*When the intelligence of the capture of Fort Fisher reached Washington,
General Butler was being examined by the committee on the conduct of the war.
In regard to the failure of his expedition. When the news was announced,
" Thank God for that," exclaimed he.

BLAIRS' VISIT TO RICHMOND. 617
Is not this as much territory, which was formerly slave terri
tory, as the Republic can digest and assimilate to freedora at
once ? Make this a horaogeneous country — ^make it free,
and then iraprove and develop the raighty empire you have
left. If you succeed in subduing the entire territory in re
bellion, can the nation assimilate it, and ¦ make it homo
geneous? Are the people in the Gulf States sufficiently
intelligent to make freedom a blessing? You can people,
educate, and bring up to the capability of self-government
the territory you have within your lines, but taking it all —
with its people accustomed to slavery, with the ignorance and
vice resulting therefrom, is it clear that it is worth the blood
and treasure it raay cost ?"
The President was unmoved by these representations.
His reply was brief, and emphatic : " There are," said he,
"just two indispensable conditions to peace — national unity,
and national liberty. The national authority must be restored
through all the States, and I will never recede from the posi
tion I have taken on the slavery question."* "The people,"
said he, " have the courage, self-denial, the persistence, to
go through, and before another year goes by, it is reasonably
certain, we shall bring all the rebel territory within our lines.
We are neither exhausted, nor in process of exhaustion.
We are really stronger than when we began the war. The
purpose of the people to raaintain the integrity of the
Republic has never been shaken."
Mr. Lincoln justly regarded the Noveraber election as
deciding that there should be no peace without union ; no
peace until the supreraacy of the national authority should
be everywhere recognized ; no peace without liberty to all.
For the purpose of learning the views of the Confederate
leaders, F. P. Blair, sen., a private citizen, but a raan of
large political experience, and great infiuence, with raany
family and personal friends among the rebels, on the 28th
day of December, 1864, obtained from the President per
mission to pass through the railitary lines South, and return.
The President was informed that he intended to use the pass
as a means of getting to Richraond, but no authority to
¦^See Mr. Lincoln's instructions to Mr. Seward, when sent to meet Stephens and
Hunter at Fortress Monroe.

618 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
speak or act for the Government was conferred upon him.
On his return he brought Mr. Lincoln a letter from Jefferson
Davis, addressed to hiraself, the contents of which he had
been authorized by Davis to communicate to the President,
in which Davis stated he was now, as he always had been,
wiUing to send coramissioners, or receive them, and " to
enter into a conference with a view to secure peace to the
' two countries. ' " Thereupon the President addressed a note to
Mr. Blair, dated January 18th, 1865, in which, after stating
that he had read the note of Davis, he said he had been, was
now, and should continue, ready to receive any agent whom
Davis, or other infiuential person resisting the national au
thority might informaUy send to hira with a view of secur
ing peace to the people of " our common country." This note
was delivered by Mr. Blair to Jefferson Davis. The visit of
Mr. Blair resulted in the appointraent by Davis of Alexander
H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and John A. Carapbell, to con
fer with the President on the subject of peace, on the basis
of his letter to Mr. Blair. When their arrival at the carap
of General Grant was announced. Secretary Seward was
charged by the President with representing the Governraent
at the proposed informal conference. With the frankness
which was characteristic of Mr. Lincoln, he instructed Mr.
Seward to make known to Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and
Campbell that three things were indispensable, to wit :
1. The restoration of the national authority throughout
all the States.
2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on
the slavery question, frora the position assumed thereon in
the late annual message to Congress, and in preceding
documents. 3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war,
and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government.
He was further' instructed to inforra them that all pro
positions of theirs not inconsistent with the above, would be
considered and passed upon, in a spirit of sincere liberality.
He was further instructed ". to hear and report, but not to
consummate anything."
However, before any conference was had, the President
joined Secretary Seward at Fortress Monroe ; and on the 3d

CONFERENCE AT HAMPTON ROADS. 619
of February, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell carae
on board the stearaer of the President, and had an interriew
of several hours with hira.
The conditions as contained in the President's instructions
to Mr. Seward were stated and insisted upon. Those condi
tions, it will be observed, contained an explicit stateraent
that the Executive would not recede frora the Eraancipation
Proclamation, nor from any of the positions which he had
taken in regard to the abolition of slavery. The agents of
Davis were also informed, that Congress had by a constitu
tional majority, adopted the joint resolution, submitting to
the States the proposition to abolish slavery throughout the
Union, and that there was every reason to believe it would
be adopted by three-fourths of the States, so as to become a
part of the constitution. The rebel agents earnestly desired
a temporary cessation of hostilities, and a postponement of
the questions, but to this the President would not listen. So
far from this, Mr. Lincoln said to General Grant : " Let
nothing that is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your
military movements or plans.' The conference ended
without result.*
* Mr. Stephens is stated by a Georgia paper, to have repeated the following char
acteristic anecdote, as having occurred during the interview : " The three Southem
gentlemen met Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, aud after some preliminary remarks,
the subject of peace was opened. Mr. Stephens, well aware that one who asks
much may get more than he who confesses to humhle wishes at the outset, urged
the claims of his section with that skill and address for which the Northern
papers have given him credit. Mr. Lincoln, holding the vantage-ground of con
scious power, was, however, perfectly frank, and submitted his views almost In
the form of an agreement.
1. * * « « Davis had on this occasion, as on that of Mr. Stephen's visit to Wash
ington, made it a condition that no conference should be had, unless his rank as
commander or President should first be recognized. Mr. Lincoln declared that the
only ground on which he could rest the justice of war— either with his own people
or with foreign powers— was that it was not a war for conquest, for that the States
had never been separated from the Union. Consequently, he could not recognize
another government inside of the one of which he alone was President; nor
admit the separate independence of States, that were yet a part of the Union.
' That,' said he, ' would be doing what you have so long 'asked Europe to do in
vain, and be resigning the only thing the armies of the Union have been fighting
for.' " Mr. Hunter made a long reply to this, Insisting that the recognition of Davis'
power to make a treaty was the first and indispensable step to peace, aud referred
to the correspondence between King Charles I. and his Parliament, as a trust
worthy precedent of a constitutional ruler treating with rebels. Mr. Lincoln's
face then wore that Indiscrlbable expression which generally preceded his hardest
hits, and lie remarked: 'Upon questions of history I must refer you to Mi..
Seward, for he is posted in such things, and I don't pretend to be bright. My only
distinct recollection of the matter is, that Charles lost his head.' That settled Mr.
Hunter for a while."

620 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY,
It appears from a statement of Mr. Hunter, one of the
persons appointed by Davis to represent the Confederacy
at this conference, that Mr. Lincoln was very explicit upon
a most important point in regard to reconstruction as it is
called. Mr. Hunter, before the rebellion, had been Speaker
of the House of Representatives, Senator of the United
States, and was one of the ablest men of the Confederates.
In a carefully prepared speech made at Richraond on his
return from the peace conference, he said: " Whenever
we go into the United States as a conquered people, we
give up the laws of the United States, and must take
such as they choose to make for us ; and we go in without
representation in making those laws; for," said he, "Mr.
Lincoln told us, told me, that while we could send Represen
tatives to the Yankee Congress, yet it rested with that Con
gress to say whether they would adrait them or not."* If
Mr. Hunter tells the truth, here is , another expression of
opinion by Mr. Lincoln, directly upon the point that it rested
with Congress exclusively to determine whether Representa^
tives from the rebellious States should be admitted. This
statement, made directly after the conference, upon a point
upon which Mr. Hunter would naturally feel peculiarly
solicitous, may be regarded as entitled to consideration ;
especiaUy, as it is in harmony with the stateraents and
positions of Mr. Lincoln upon other occasions.
Mr. Lincoln, raight now well feel confident of early, and
decisive success. Grant held the forces of Lee so that they
could not safely leave their fortifications. Thomas, with a
victorious army, was in the West; Sherman, with his invin
cible army in the South, and it only remained for the com
prehensive mind of Grant, after destroying some additional
outposts, to close in, and crush the waning miUtary power of ,
the rebels. The array of Hood, having been defeated and
nearly destroyed, General Grant directed General Thoraas
to send General Schofield, with his corps to the East; it
was proraptly sent, reaching Washington on the 23d of
February, and was immediately dispatched to North Caro
lina. That State was now constituted a military Departraent,
*Thls speech will oe found quoted In Appleton's Encyclopedia of 1865, p. 191.

THE REBELS RESOLVE TO ARM THE NEGROES. 621
and General Schofield assigned to its command, and placed
under the orders of General Sherraan. General Schofield, in
cooperation with the fleet of Admiral Porter, proceeded to
reduce Wilmington. The Union troops followed, and entered
that city on the morning of the 22d of January, the enemy
having retreated towards Goldsboro.
In this extremity, General Lee was, on the 2d of February,
appointed to the command of all the armies of the Con
federacy. The rebel authorities, in their desperate fortunes,
now resolved to call upon the poor, despised negro for aid.
Freedora was now offered to him if he would fight for his
master. Mr. Benjamin, the Secretary of State of the Con
federacy, in a public meeting after the peace conference at
Hampton Roads, said the Confederates had 680,000 black
men, and he expressed his regret that they had not been
called into the field. He continued : " Let us now say to every
negro who wishes to go into the ranks on condition of being
free, "go and fight — you are free.' My own negroes
have been to me and said, ' master set us free and we'll fight
for you.' " He continued: "You must make up your minds to
try this, or see your army withdrawn from before your town.
* * * I know not where white men can be found."
General Lee had long before recommended this policy,
and declared that the war could be carried on only by the
employment of negro soldiers. On the 16th of February,
the Legislature of Virginia passed resolutions authorizing
and consenting that such number of able bodied slaves might
be enlisted into the military service, as might be deemed
necessary. A bill was passed in the Confederate Congress,
authorizing the employment of slaves, but it came too late
to be of serrice, if, indeed, it ever could have availed.
Sherman, on the Ist of February, started his army from
Savannah. A broad track of desolation, sweeping along the
great lines of railroads, marked his path. On the 17th, he
captured Columbia, South Carolina ; thence, he moved on
Goldsboro, North Carolina, by Fayetteville, reaching the
latter city on the 12th of March, and opening communica
tions with General Schofield. On the 25th of February, Gen
eral Joe Johnston was appointed, by Jefferson Davis, to

622 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
command the army of the Tennessee, and all the troops of
South CaroUna, Georgia, and Florida.
On the 15th of March, Sherraan resuraed his march upon
Goldsboro, and after a severe fight at Averysboro, corapelled
the eneray to retreat. On the 18th, the corabined forces of
the eneray under Johnston, attacked Sherraan's advance at
BentonvUle, capturing three guns and driving it back upon
the main body, but on the night of the 21st, they retreated.
Sherman's forces now united with those of Generals Terry
and Schofield. Among the raost iraportant fruits of the cam
paign of Sherman into South Carolina, none were more
gratifying than the fall of Charleston. The march of Sher
man to Columbia, compelled its evacuation, which took
place on the night of the 17th, and it was occupied by the
Union troops on the 18th of February. The Union fiag had
been lowered at Sumter, the 14tli of April, 1861. For nearly
four years, this proud city had successfully resisted all attacks
upon it, but was forced at last to yield to the array of Sher
man, which had marched unchecked half across the Republic,
frora North to South, and from West to East. It was now
occupied and held by colored troops, many of them recruited
from South Carolina. Here, as elsewhere throughout the
slave States, the Union soldiers were received by the negroes
with acclamations of delight. They followed the National
flag through the streets singing :
" Ye's long been a'comln, .
Ye's long been a'comln, etc,
Por to take de land.
" And now ye's a'comln.
And now ye's a'comln, etc.,
For to rule de land."
While the Union arraies were everywhere raarching
on frora victory to victory, let us return to the Capital, to
witness the second inauguration of him, who was the central
figure of the vast and complicated machinery now raoving
forward with irresistible force to crush into one common
grave, slavery and rebelUon.
On the night of the 3d of March, 1865, as is usual on the
last night of the session, the President, with his Cabinet, waa

Lincoln's dispatch to grant. 623
at his room in the Capitol, to receive the numerous acts which
always pass Congress during the last hurried hours of the
session. The Thirty-eighth Congress, on the 3d of March,
continued its session from 7 o'clock in the evening until 8,
A. M., on the morning of the 4th. It was a stormy night,
and while the President was thus waiting, exchanging con
gratulations with Senators and members, there came to the
Secretary of War, a telegrara frora General Grant, announc
ing that Lee had at last sought an interview with him for the
purpose of trying to arrange terms of peace. We now know
from Lee's testiraony taken before a secret coramittee of the
Rebel Congress, that he had for a considerable time before
this, lost hope in the success of the rebellion. Lee had ad
vised General Grant that he was clothed with authority to
act. The dispatch was handed to the President, and after
reading it, and refiecting for a few moraents, he wrote the
following reply, which was submitted to his Cabinet then
present. It was then signed by the Secretary of War, and
telegraphed to General Grant :
" Washington, March 3, 1865 — 12 p.m.
" Lieutenant General Grant :
" The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have
no conference with General Lee, unless it he for the capitulation of
G-eneral Lee's army, or on some minor and purely military matter. He
instucts me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon
any political question. Such questions the President holds in his own
hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions.
Meantime you are to press to the utmost your military advantages.
"EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of 'War."
The morning of the 4th of March was still cloudy and
stormy, but as the hour of 12 approached, the rain ceased,
the clouds disappeared, and the bright, genial sun came
forth in all its splendor. Crowds of the best and noisiest of
the land, those who had given their time, their means, and
their best exertions to the country in civil and military ser
vice, had gathered to the Capital to witness the second inau
guration of a man now the most beloved and revered of all
in the land. As the procession started for the Capitol, a

624 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
brilliant star made its appearance in the sky, and the incident
was regarded by many, as an omen of peace. The two
Houses of the Thirty-eighth Congress adjourned sine die, at
12 o'clock. A special session of the Senate, had been con
vened, and Andrew Johnson, at that hour appeared, took
the oath of office and became Vice President, and the pre
siding officer of that most dignified body in America, the
Senate ofthe United States. There were then present, beside
the members of both Houses of Congress, the Judges of the
Supreme Court in their official robes, the Diplomatic Corps,
brilUant in the Court costumes of the respective nations they
represented. A crowd of distinguished officers of the army
and navy in full uniform ; prominent citizens, scholars, states
men, bishops, clergy, governors, judges, editors, from all
parts of the Union, on the floor of the Senate. The galleries
were full of ladies, and citizens, especially of soldiers, who
had come in from the hospitals and camps about Washing
ton, to witness the inauguration of their beloved Chief. The
Vice President was regarded with especial interest. His en
trance into the Senate chamber, recalled the bold and patri
otic words he had, from his seat in the Senate, hurled against
the leading traitors ; words, the utterance of which had made
him Vice President. He was greeted with cheers; cheers
which his appearance and words soon silenced into astonish
raent and hurailiation. At 12.30, followed by the brilliant
asserably frora the Senate charaber, the President was con
ducted to the eastern portico of the Capitol, again to take
the official oath of office, and pronounce his inaugural. A
vast crowd met him, but very different from that which
greeted hira on his first inauguration. Now a crowd of citi
zens and soldiers, who would wilUngly die for their Chief
Magistrate, thronged the area in front of the Capitol. It was
touching to see the long lines of invalid and wounded soldiers
in the National blue, some on crutches, sorae who had lost
an arm, many pale from unhealed wounds, who had sought
permission to witness the scene. As the President reached
the platform, and his tall form, high above his associates, was
recognized, cheers and shouts of welcome filled the air ; and
not until he raised his arm in token that he would speak,
could they be hushed. He paused a moment, and looking

Lincoln's second inauguration. 625
over the brilliant scene, still hesitated. What thronging
raeraories passed through his mind ! Here, four years ago,
he had stood on this colonnade, pleading earnestly with hia
" dissatisfied feUow countrymen," for peace, but they would
not heed hira! He had there soleranly told thera that,
in their hands, and not in his, was the raoraentous issue of
civil war. He had told thera they could have no conflict,
without being theraselves " the aggressors ;" and even while
he was pleading for peace, they took up the sword, and he
was compeUed to "accept war." Now, four long, weary
years of wretched, desolating, cruel war, had passed ; those
who made that war, were everywhere being overthrown ;
that cruel institution, which had caused the war, had been
destroyed, and the dawn of peace was already brightening
the sky behind tbe clouds of the storra !
Chief Justice Chase adrainistered the oath. Then with a
clear, but at times a saddened voice, President Lincoln
pronounced this his second — his last
inaugural.
" Fellow-Countrymen : — At this second appearing to take
the oath of the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an
extended address than there was at the first. Then a state
ment somewhat in detail of a course to be pursued, seemed
very fitting and proper. Now, at the expiration of four
years, during which public declarations have been constantly
called forth on every point and phase of the great contest
which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies
of the nation, Uttle that is new could be presented.
"The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly
depends, is as well known to the public as to rayself, and it
is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all.
With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it
is ventured." On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all
thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war.
All dreaded it, all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural
address was being delivered from this place, devoted alto
gether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents
40

626 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
were in the city, seeking to destroy it with war — seeking to
dissolve the Union and divide the effects by negotiation.
Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make
war rather than let the Nation survive, and the other would
accept war rather than let it perish, and the war came. One-
eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not dis
tributed generally over the Uhion, but localized in the South
ern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and
powerful interest. All knew that this interest was soraehow
the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend
this interest, was the object for which the insurgents would
rend the Union by war, while the Governraent clairaed no
right to do raore than to restrict the territorial enlargeraent
ofit. " Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the
duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated
that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before
the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier
triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.
" Both read the sarae Bible and pray to the sarae God, and
each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange
that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in
-wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces,
but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayer of
both could not be answered. That of neither has been
answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes. Woe
unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that
offenses come, but woe to that man by whora the offense
coraeth. If we shall suppose that American slavery ia one
ofthese offenses which, in the providence of God, must needs
come, but which having continued through His appointed
time He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both
North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by
whom the offense came, shall we discern there any departure
from those Divine attributes which the believers in a living
God always ascribe to Him ? Fondly do we hope, fervently
do we praj', that this mighty scourge of war raay speedily
pass away. Yet if God wills that it continue until all the
wealth piled by the bondsraan's two hundred and fifty years

' LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURAL 627
of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn
with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so, still
it must be said, that, the judgments of the Lord are true and
righteous altogether.
" With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firm
ness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish
the work we are in, to bind up the Nation's wounds, to care
for him- whd shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and
his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
Since the days of Christ's Sermon on the Mount, where is
the speech of Magistrate, Prince, or Ruler, which can com
pare with this ? May we not, without irreverence, say that
the passage comraencing: " Fondly do we hope — fervently
do we pray — that this mighty scourge of war may speedily
pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the
wealth piled by the bondsraen'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
with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so
still it must be said that the judgraents of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether," is worthy of that Holy Book,
which daily he read, and frora which, during his long days
of trial, he had drawn inspiration and guidance ? Where
else, but frora the teachings of the Son of God, could he
have drawn that Christian charity which pervades that last
sentence, in which he so unconseipusly describes his own
moral nature: "with malice towards none, with charity for all,
with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us
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 araong ourselves, and with
all nations." No State paper, in Araerican annals, not even
Washington's farewell address, has made a deeper irapression
upon the people.
Coraing down frora the Capitol after its deUevery, aud
meeting Dr. Channing, the chaplain of the House, he said :

628 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
" Mr. Lincoln's inaugural is the finest State paper in all his
tory." A distinguished statesman and jurist, frora New
York, after hearing the inaugural, said to a friend of the
President frora Illinois : " As Washington's narae grows
brighter with tirae, so it will be with Lincoln's. A century
frora to-day that Inaugural will be read as one of the raost
sublirae utterances ever spoken by man. As Washington's
is the great name of the revolution, so will be Lincoln's of
the civil war; and Lincoln will perhaps occupy a higher
position in history than Washington." "Yes," was the
reply, " if he crushes the rebellion ; yes, if he overthrows
slavery ; yes, because the events with which he has had to
do, affect thirty millions of people, instead of three."
This inaugural, in its solemn recognition of the justice of
Alraighty God reminds us of the grand old words of the
Hebrew prophets. When this paper crossed the Atlantic,
there, as here, it received the most profound attention. The
leading statesmen of the continent, the leading minds of
Great Britain and France, through the press, and in Parlia
ment, found no words adequate to express their admiration.
There was one feature of this inauguration entirely new ;
it was attended by a vast crowd of freedmen. From Wash
ington and Baltimore, from the country about, in Maryland
and Virginia, they gathered by thousands to witness the in
auguration of him whora they called thdr President, their
benefactor. Lincoln possessed those qualities, and had ren
dered such services, that, if he had Uved in the days of
raythology, he would have been placed among the gods. A
majority of the negro race now regard him as Divine, and it
is doubtful if they will ever be able to see him simply as a
man. When the clouds broke away, and the sun carae out
in its brilliancy on inauguration day — especially when a star
appeared at raid-day, these siraple, excitable, strongly relio-i-
ous and superstitious people, saw in these natural exhibitions
the palpable interposition of God.
The only change raade in the Cabinet, was one raade
necessary by the retirement of Mr. Fessenden, who re
signed to take his seat in the Senate. On the sixth of March
Hugh McCuUoch, of Indiana, was appointed Secretary of

CONFERENCE AT GRANT'S HEADQUARTERS. 629
the Treasury. Jaraes Speed, of Kentucky, had been, in
1864, appointed Attorney-General in place of Edward
Bates, who had resigned. The appointment of Mr. McCul-
loch, from Indiana," led to the resignation of Mr. Usher,
who had succeeded Caleb Smith, of Indiana, as Secretary of
the Interior. He resigned, to take effect on the 15th of May,
and James Harlan, Senator from Iowa, was appointed his
successor. And now Mr. Lincoln's whole heart was with the move
ments of the armies, which he confidently hoped would be
decisive. He was conscious that the end approached, and
deterrained to spend sorae tirae at the headquarters of
General Grant, near Petersburg.
On the 27th of March, 1865, the President, as Commander-
in-Chief, met his leading and most trusted generals then in
the field, at the headquarters of General Grant, at City
Point, to arrange the final raovements against Lee and John
ston. An artist has worthily depicted the scene of the meet
ing of the President and his Cabinet, when he read to them
his Proclamation of Emancipation. This meeting, at Grant's
headquarters, yet awaits the pencil which shall picture this
scene, second in interest only to that. There was the tower
ing form of Lincoln, his rugged face which had been so
deeply furrowed with care and anxiety, now radiant with
hope and confidence. There was the short, sturdy, resolute
form of the hero of Vicksburg, so firm and iron-like ; every
feature of. his face, and every attitude and movement, so
quiet, yet each expressive of inflexible will, and never-falter
ing determination "to fight it out on this line." There, too,
was the tall forra of Sherman, with his broad, intellectual
forehead, his nervous restlessness, his sharply outlined face,
bronzed by that magniflcent carapaign from Chattanooga to
Atlanta — from Atlanta to the sea — and now fresh from
the conquest of Georgia and South CaroUna. There, too,
was Meade, the hero of Gettysburg, the ever faithful
Lieutenant of Grant, in the terrible campaign, now, after
all its bloody conflicts, to be crowned with coraplete success.
There, too, was the smaU, sinewy form of Sheridan, the
embodiment of fiery energy, and restless activity ; and there

630 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
was Ord, ever a gallant and indefatigable soldier. Here the
plans of these great leaders were aU discussed and perfected,
and each went forth to execute his assigned part, in the
general, corabined raoveraent against the foe.
A general movement of the forces around Richmond had
been decided upon. It began on the 29th, and ten days'
marching and fighting finished the campaign. The rel^ftls,
however, on the 25th, raade one last effort to break through
the lines of Grant; they assaulted and took Fort Steadraan,
and a part of the line to the right and left of it, but soon the
reserves were brought up, and the eneray was driven back
with a heavy loss in killed and wounded, and 900 prisoners.
General Grant says : " I had spent days of anxiety lest each
raorning should bring the report that the enemy had re
treated the night before. I was firmly convinced that Sher
man's crossing the Roanoke would be the signal for Lee to
leave. With Johnston and hira corabined, a long, tedious,
and expensive campaign, consuming most of the summer,
might becorae necessary." This, Grant now determined to
prevent. To effect this object, he sent Sheridan with the
cavalry far to the left, foUowed by Warren with the Fifth
Corps, and Humphreys with the Second. Troops were
drawn from the James, to occupy the lines around Peters
burg, and take the place of those which Jbllowed Sheridan
to the left. The cavalry advanced and occupied Dinwiddie
Court House. The line of entrenchments around Rich
mond and Petersburg extended near forty railes. Grant had
resolved to turn Lee's right, and, if possible, interpose a force
between him and escape ; and if Lee should so weaken his
lines by sending troops to our extreme left, as to make it
practicable, assault and carry the works in his front. When
Sheridan reached Dinwiddie Court House, he was, according
to the original design, to cut loose, and start on an expedi
tion against the South-side, and Danville Railroads. But
on the night of the 29th, Grant modified his plan in this
respect, and wrote to Sheridan : " I now feel like ending the
matter, if it is possible to do so, before going back. * *
In the raorning, therefore, push round the eneray, and get
on his right-rear. We will act altogether as one army here,

SHERIDAN AT FIVE FORKS. 631
until it is seen what can be done with the enemy." But
Lee had discovered the raoveraent, and perceiving how fatal
to him would be its success, he struggled to interpose a
shield, to ward off the attack of the eager and earnest Sheri
dan. If Sheridan turned his right, got in his rear, and cut
the railroads, his army was lost. And yet with a line of
works frora north-east of Richmond, extending across the
James, and to the south-east of Petersburg, a distance of
thirty-five miles to be guarded; a watchful and powerful
army along this front ready to spring forward and seize any
weak point, it was difficult for him to detach any very large
force to meet the assault of Sheridan. A storm interposing,
retarded the approach of the Union infantry and artillery
sent to support Sheridan, and gave Lee time to concentrate
his force. He anticipated the attack, and made an irapetu
ous assault upon Warren, but it was finally repulsed, with
a severe loss to Lee.
Sheridan appreciating the vital importance of seizing Five
Forks, the centre of five roads, and situated about four miles
west of Lee's entrenched line, and the key to the position
which he was struggUng to hold, he deterrained to secure
the point. On the 31st of March, while with a portion of
his force, he occupied the attention of the enemy, with an
other he moved rapidly to Five Forks, and seized the posi
tion. The rebel comraander sent a force too strong to be
resisted, and drove out the cavalry of Sheridan, compelling
him to return again to Dinwiddie Court House. Here,
pressed by superior numbers, Sheridan dismounted his
troops and placed them behind a slight breast-work, and
repulsed an attack of infantry. Reenforcements were
ordered to join Sheridan as rapidly as possible. This officer
now, as soon as reUeved, imraediately renewed the atterapt
to get possession of the iraportant position of Five Forks.
Towards this point Lee was concentrating all the force he
could spare. Sheridan, at the h'cad of the cavalry, again
pushed forward and drove hira within his works at the point
of the converging roads. Meanwhile the Fifth Corps had
joined him. While holding the front, he made a feint as
though to turn the rebel right, while he ordered Warren to

632 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
fall with full force on their left. While Warren executed
this order with great personal heroisra, capturing raen and
guns, the cavalry charged full on the rebel right and front,
and the result of this brilliant affair was the capture of 5,000
prisoners, and many guns !
At early dawn on Sunday morning, the 2d of April, Grant
ordered an assault upon the weakened lines in front of
Petersburg. This was raade along the whole line frora the
banks of the Apporaattox to Hatcher's Run, by Parke, Wright
and Ord. The line was everywhere carried, and then away
beyond Hatcher's Run — away to the extrerae left — the Union
troops carried everything before them, and the rebel forces
were everywhere in full retreat. During the fierce cannon
ade of that Saturday night, Lee ordered Longstreet, whose
forces had held the lines north of the James, to come to his
relief at Petersburg. The bells of Richraond tolled, and
the drura s beat, caUing railitia, citizens, clerks, everybody
who could carry arras, to raan the lines frora which Long-
street's troops were retiring. Then in that ill-fated city —
 " The beat of the alarming drum
Boused up the soldier, ere the morning star.
While thronged the citizens, with terror dumb.
Or whispering, with white lips, the foe, they come ! they come I
" And there was mounting in hot haste, the steed.
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car
Went pouring forward, with Impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming " —
not " in the ranks of war," but — io escape.
At eleven A. M. of that Sunday, Lee sent a dispatch to
Jefferson Davis, which he received in church, saying Peters
burg and Richraond could no longer be held. And now
the coraraander of the Confederate array strained every
nerve to escape ; but Grant had deterrained then and there
to " make an end of it," and pressed on with all possible
rigor. Sheridan, with his cavalry, and the Fifth Corps,
under Warren, were far to the southwest, already blocking
the path of escape south of the Appomattox. Crossing to
the north side, Lee struck westerly towards Amelia Court
House. All that night the remains of the once proud and
valiant array of Northern Virginia, which had fought and

THE PURSUIT OF LEE. 633
struggle^ with a heroisra worthy of a nobler cause, pressed
forward, and by morning were sixteen railes from Peters
burg. In the early dawn of Monday, April 3d, the skirmish
line of Grant's array advanced, and soon discovered that
Petersburg had been evacuated. At the sarae tirae the
troops north of the James discovered Richmond to be on
fire, and General Weitzel sent forward a cavalry party,
which entered the city, and once raore. restored the star-
spangled banner over the capital. But not for Richraond
did the iron will of Grant turn aside for a single moment
from his fixed determination to destroy the army of Lee.
He pressed the pursuit with all his energy, and Lee now
struggled painfully to escape. During the 3d, Lee reached
Amelia Court House, on the Danville Road, thirty-eight
miles west of Richmond. There he expected to find a depot
of rations for his nearly faraished army ; they had by mis
take been forwarded to Richmond, and consumed in the con-
fiagration of that city. Here, in consequence, he was com
pelled to reraain until the 5th, to obtain food, and this gave
time to the indefatigable Sheridan, with his cavalry, to strike
the Danville Railroad at Jetersville, seven miles to the
southwest of Araelia Court House. Late in the afternoon
of the 5th, Meade, with the Second and Fifth Corps, came
up with Sheridan. Lee was still at Amelia Court House.
On the night of the 5th the rebel commander made another
raove with the hope of reaching Farmville, west twenty-five
railes ; there he hoped to cross the Appomattox, destroy the
bridge, and fly to the mountains. Meanwhile the army of
the James, under Ord, came down, and a light coluran in
advance met the head of Lee's column near Farraville, which
its coraraander. General Reed, heroically attacked, and by
such attack detained. Reed was killed, sacrificing himself
and his sraall coramand to secure the capture of Lee's army.
This delay enabled General Ord to come up, upon which the
rebels entrenched. In the afternoon, Sheridan again struck
the enemy, capturing sixteen pieces of artillery, 400 wagons,
and detained the rebel force until the Sixth Corps could
reach him, when a general attack was made, resulting in the

634 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
capture of 6,000 prisoners, including EweU, and many gen
eral officers. The next day, the 7th, the pursuit was re
newed, and it was ascertained that Lee had succeeded in
crossing to the north side of the Appomattox; but so close
was the pursuit, that the retreating array was prevented from
destroying the bridge, and the pursuing column foUowed on
its heels. The escape of the rebel army was now hopeless.
It was between the Appomattox and the Jaraes, exhausted
of suppUes, its cavalry and draught horses starving, and the
raen by thousands falling out of the ranks, frora hunger and
fatigue. Grant seeing, as he says, that Lee's chance of escape was
utterly hopeless, raaguanimously addressed him a note, sug
gesting the hopelessness of further resistance, and stating
that he felt it his duty to shift from himself the responsibility
of further effusion of blood, by asking a surrender. Lee
replied on the same day, the 7th, stating that he too desired
to avoid useless effusion of blood, and asked what terms
would be offered on condition of surrender.
Grant replied, on the 8th, that, " Peace being ray great
desire, there is but one condition I would insist upon, and
that is the men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified
for taking up arras against the Government of the United
States until properly exchanged."
The pursuit, however, was not relaxed. Early in the
morning of the 8th, Meade followed Lee north of the Appo
mattox, while the tireless Sheridan, with all the cavalry,
pushed straight for Appomattox Station, followed by General
Ord's command, aud the Fifth Corps. He reached there
late in the evening, drove out the rebels, and captured
twenty-five pieces of artillery, and four trains of cars loaded
with supplies for Lee's army.
The chase was up. At midnight Grant received frora Lee
the following note :* « April 8, 1865.
" G-ENERAL : I received at a late hour your note of to-day. In mine
of yesterday I did not intend to propose the surrender of the army of
Northern Virginia, hut to ask the terms of your proposition. To be
» Grant's Report, p. 41.

lee's SURRENDER. 635
frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen to call for the surrender
of this army, but as the restoration of peace should he the sole object
of all, I desired to know whether your proposals would lead to that
end. I cannot, therefore, meet you with a view to surrender the army
of Northern Viaginia, but as far as your proposal may affect the Con
federate States forces under my command, and tend to the restoration
of peace, I should be pleased to meet you at ten A. M. to-morrow, on
the old stage road to Richmond, between the picket lines of the two
armies.

Lieutenant General U. S. Grant."

" R. E. LEE, General.

Its disingenuousness under the narae of " frankness," will
not be seriously conderaned when the extremity to which he
and his " lost cause" of slavery were reduced, are remem
bered. He did not deceive Grant, but that comraander
scorned to take, advantage of its dissiraulation to exact
harder terms, but in accordance with his instructions from
the Secretary of War, replied as follows : " April 9, 1865.
" General : Tour note of yesterday is received. I have no au
thority to treat on the subject of peace; the meeting proposed for ten
A. M. to-day could lead to no good. I will state, however. General,
that I am equally anxious for peace with yourself, and the whole North
entertains the same feeling. The terms upon which peace can be had
are well understood. By the South laying down their arms they will
hasten that most desirable event, save thousands of human lives, and
hundreds of millions of property not yet destroyed. Seriously hoping
that all our difficulties may be settled without the loss of another life, I
subscribe myself, &c., "U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General.
« General R. E. Lee."
On the 9th the eneray raade a desperate attempt to break
through the lines of Sheridan, but as the infantry of General
Ord came into view, the utter hopelessness of the attempt
was perceived, and a white flag was seht, asking a suspen
sion of hostilities, pending a negotiation for a surrender.
General Lee asked an interview in accordance with Grant's
note, to arrange the terms of surrender. The interview was

636 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
held at Appomattox Court House, and the terms of surrender
agreed upon in writing as follows : "=
" Appomattox Court House, Va., April 9, 1865.
" General : In accordance with the substance of my letter to you
of the Sth instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the army of
Northern Virginia on the following terms, to wit : Rolls of all the
officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an
officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer
or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual
paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United
States until properly exchanged ; and each company or regimental com
mander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms,
artillery, and public property to be parked and stacked, and turned
over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not
embrace the side-arms of the officers nor their private horses or bag
gage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his
home, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they
observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.
" U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant General.
" General R. E. Lee."
" Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, )
" April 9, 1865. I
" General : I received your letter of this date, containing the terms
of the surrender of the army of Northern Virginia, as proposed by
you. As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your
letter of the Sth instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate
the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect.
" R. E. LEE, General.
" Lieutenant General U. S. Grant."
These terras were very liberal, raagnanimous, generous.
Grant's conduct was in the highest degree delicate, towards
an enemy, that certainly, as a soldier in the field, had earned
his respect.
The stipulation in the surrender, providing that " each
officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to
be disturbed by United States authority, so long as they ob
serve their paroles, and the laws in force where they may
* Grant's Report, p. 42.

lee's SURRENDER. 637
reside," gave much dissatisfaction to the army, and to the
country. There were many officers embraced in the surren
der who had deserted their fiag to join in the rebellion ;
some who had never gone through the form of resignation.
The Union soldiers remembered that their comrades had
been shot for desertion. General Picket, of the rebel array,
had hung the Union men of North Carolina for that fidelity
to their country, which he termed treason. He and his asso
ciates were now perraitted to return home unpunished, un
molested. Tet this dissatisfaction was in a measure lost in
the universal joy and acclaraation which greeted the surren
der of Lee. It was difficult to exact severe terras of men in
the condition of the Confederates. With the heavy burden
of slavery to fight for, their heroism and persistence could
not fail to secure respect. Lee's position, with all his faults,
was indeed pathetic, when he was seen taking his farewell,
and saying to his gallant soldiers : " Men, we have fought
through the war together, I have done the best I could for
you." It was not in the heart of a generous foe to exact
severe terms. His raisfortunes alraost disarmed justice.
The meeting of the rank and file, as well as the officers of
the two armies, after the surrender, was raost cordial. They
had learned to respect each other as soldiers. They now
fraternized like long separated and estranged brothers. The
Confederates were without shoes — in rags and tatters — worn
and exhausted vrith terrible raarches, constant fighting, hun
gry, and utterly wretched. The Union soldiers grasped the
hands of their late enemies, made them their guests, divided
their rations, supplied them with clothing, and so far as pos
sible relieved every want, and then even dirided with them
the money in their possession, to enable thera to reach their
horaes. At this tirae the Confederates appreciated, and
were most grateful for the generosity with which, from the
Lieutenant General down, they were treated. They would
then have joyfully accepted from the Government any terms
which left them their lives, and their reraaining property.
The surrender of Lee was regarded by the other rebel
coraraanders as fatal to the rebellion, and they rapidly
followed his exaraple.

638 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
On the 5th of April, Grant directed Sherman to push for
ward frora where he then was, and " let us see," said he,
" if we cannot finish the job, with Lee's and Johnston's
arraies. * * * Rebel arraies now are the only strategic
points to strike at."'" On the receipt of this order Sherman
moved against Johnston, who retreated rapidly through
Raleigh. This, the capital of North Carolina, Sherman
occupied on the 13th of April. On the following day, news
of the surrender of Lee, reached General Sherraan at Sraith-
field. On the 14th a correspondence was opened between
Sherraan and Johnston, which resulted, on the 18th, in an
agreeraent for the suspension of hostiUties, and a raeraoran-
dura, for a basis of peace, subject to the approval of the
President. That raeraorandura provided in substance :
1. That the contending armies should remain in statu quo until
after forty-eight hours' notice should be given by either commanding
general to the other.
2. The Confederate armies to be disbanded.
" 3. The recognition by the Executive of the United States of the
several State Governments on their officers and legislatures taking the
oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, and where
conflicting State Governments have resulted from the war, the legiti
macy of all shall be sumbitted to the Supreme Court of the United
States. " 4. The reestablishment of all Federal Courts in the several States,
with powers as defined by the Constitution and laws of Congress.
" 5. The people and inhabitants of all States to be guaranteed, as
£ir as the Executive can, their political right and franchise, as well as
their rights of person and property, as defined by the Constitution of
the United States, and of States respectively.
" 6. The executive authority of the Government of the United
States not to disturb any of the people by reason of the late war so
long as they live in peace and quiet, abstain from acts of armed
hcstility, and obey laws in existence at any place of their residence.
" 7. In general terms, war to cease, a general amnesty, so far as the
executive power of the United States can command, or on condition of
disbandment of the Confederate armies, and the distribution of arms
• Grant's Report, p. 40.

SHERMAN'S AGREEMENT WITH JOHNSTON DISAPPROVED. 639
ani resumption of peaceful pursuits by officers and men, as hitherto
composing the said armies, not being fully empowered by our respec
tive principals to fulfil these terms, we individually and officially pledge
ourselves to promptly obtain necessary authority and to carry out the
above programme. " W. T. SHERMAN, Major General,
" Commanding the Army of the United States in North Carolina.
"J. E. JOHNSTON, General,
" Commanding Confederate States Army in North Carolina.
This basis of agreeraent was proraptly repudiated by the
President, every member of the Cabinet concurring. Indeed,
the country was astounded, that General Sherman could
have been induced to submit such propositions to the Presi
dent for consideration. The Secretary of War, immediately
sent to General Grant, the following statement and order :
" War Department, Washington, April 21, 1865.
" General : The memorandum or basis agreed upon between Gene
ral Sherman and General Johnston, having been submitted to the Pres
ident, they are disapproved. You will give notice of the disapproval
to General Sherman, and direct him to resume hostilities at the earliest
moment. " The instructions given to you by the late President, Abraham Lin
coln, on the 3d of March, by my telegraph of that date addressed to
you, express subtantially the views of President Andrew Johnson, and
will be observed by General Sherman. A copy is herewith appended.
" The President desires that you proceed immediately to the
headquarters of General Sherman and direct operations against the
enemy. Yours truly,
" EDWIN, M. STANTON, Secretary of War.
" To Lieutenant General Grant."
The following is a copy of the President's instructions :
" War Department, Washington, March 3, 1865.
" To Lieutenant-General Grant :
" The President directs me to say to you that he wishes you to have
no conference with General Lee, unless it be for the capitulation of
General Lee's army, or some minor and purely military matter. He
wishes me to say that you are not to decide, discuss, or confer upon
any political question. Such questions the President holds in his own

640 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
hands, and will submit them to no military conferences or conventions.
Meantime you are to press to your utmost your military advantages.
" EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War."
The Secretary of War issued the following stateraent :
" This proceeding of General Sherman was disapproved for the
following, among other reasons :
"1. It was an exercise of authority not vested in General Sherman,
and on its face shows that both he and Johnston knew that he (Sherman)
had no authority to enter into suoh arrangement.
" 2. It was a practical acknowledgment of the Rebel Government.
" 3. It undertook to reestablish the Rebel State Governments that
had been overthrown at the sacrifice of many thousand loyal lives and
an immense treasure, and placed arms and munitions of war in the
hands of the rebels at their respective Capitals, which might' be used
as soon as the armies of the United States were disbanded, and used
to conquer and subdue the loyal States.
" 4. By the restoration of the rebel authority in their respective
States, they would be enabled to reestablish slavery.
" 5. It might furnish a ground of responsibility by the Federal Gov
ernment to pay the rebel debt, and certainly subjects loyal citizens of
the Rebel States to the debt contracted by the rebels in the name
of the State.
" 6. It puts in dispute the existence of loyal State Governments
and the new State of Western Virginia, which had been recognized by
every department of the United States Government.
" 7. It practically abolished the confiscation laws, and relieved rebels
of every degree who had slaughtered our people, from all pains and
penalties for their crimes.
" 8. It gave terms that had been deliberately, repeatedly, and
solemnly rejected by President Lincoln, and better terms than the rebels
had ever asked in their most prosperous condition.
" 9. It formed no basis of true and lasting peace, but relieved the
rebels from the pressure of our victories, and left them in a condition
to renew their effort to overthrow the United States Government, and
subdue the loyal States, whenever their strength was recruited and an
opportunity should offer."
Sherman's career, up to the tirae of this negotiation with
Johnston, had been illustrious. He had rendered such signal

REBEL FORCES EVERYWHERE SURRENDER. ¦ 641
services to his country, he had added such honor to her arms,
that he had earned the right to her most favorable construc
tion to every act, and an indignant negative to any suggestion
of improper motive.
Stanton, in expressing the disapproval of the Executive to
the terms extended to Johnston, was emphatic, and decided,
but not more so than was the general judgment of the
country. On the morning of the 24th, General Grant arrived at the
camp of General Sherman, and communicated the disap
proval of the President,- to the terms which had been agreed
upon. Notice was imraediately given of the termination of
the truce, and a deraand was made by Sherman, for the sur
render by Johnston, of bis army on the same terms as were
given to Lee. A meeting between Sherman and Johnston,
was held on the 26th, which resulted in the surrender and
disbandment of Johnston's- army upon substantially the
terms given to Lee.
The surrender of the other rebel forces quickly followed.
General Howell Cobb surrendered to General Wilson, at
Macon, Georgia, on the 20th of April. On the 14th of April,
General Dick Taylor surrendered all the forces east of the
Mississippi to General Canby. On the 26th of May, General
Kirby Smith surrendered his entire command to General
Canby. With this last surrender, there was left no organized
rebel forces anywhere within the territory of the United
States. On the llth of May, Jefferson Davis, flying in disguise
towards the sea, was captured at Irwinsville, Georgia.
The President, as has been stated, remained at City Point
after the conference of the military leaders, to witness the
execution of the plans then determined upon. As the oper
ations against Lee's army progressed, he telegraphed to the
Secretary of War, and through him to the exulting people
of the loyal States, the joyous news ofthe briUiant successes
of the army.
On the morning of the 4th of April, the Union troops
took possession of the burning Capital of the Confederacy,
and extinguished the fire, caused by the reckless carelessness
41

642 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
of the rebels. Among the first to enter Richraond, were the
colored troops of General Weitzel's coraraand. They marched
into the city, singing their favorite song of " John Brown."
With drums beating, flags waving, bands playing, the Union
column passed up the streets, fianked with the raging fire,
and then, stacking arms, they went to work with a will to
save Richmond, from this conflagration. Fully one-third of
this beautiful city was burned by a fire comraenced by the
Confederates setting fire to tobacco warehouses. Government
foundries, and other property to prevent its falling into the
hands of the Union array. On the day of its capture, Pres
ident Lincoln, with his youngest son, Adrairal Porter, and a
few attendants, visited the city. His coming was unan
nounced, and he walked, leading his little boy by the hand,
frora the landing to the headquarters of General Weitzel,
just vacated by Jefferson Davis The news of his arrival
spread through the city, and imraediately the exulting ne
groes from all quarters came running to see their deliverer.
Their enthusiasm was uncontrollable. They danced, sung,
shouted, cried with joy. Their delight Was mingled with
gratitude; thanks to God, and to Lincoln, were mingled
together in such a way as would have been deemed very
irreverent, did not their earhestness, their sincerity, and their
ignorance excuse thera. Mr. Lincoln held a brief reception
at the General's headquarters ; drove about the city, and at
6 P. M., returned to City Point. On Thursday, he again
visited Richmond, accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln, Vice
President Johnson, and several Senators. On this occa
sion he was visited by prominent citizens of Richmond,
anxious to know what would be the policy of the Qc(N-
ernment towards thera. Without coraraitting himself to
anythiug specific, he easily satisfied thera that his course
would be generous, forgiving, and raagnaniraous. In
one of these interviews, I have reason to believe the
President stated his views of the necessity of National
Union substantially as set forth in his first Inaugural Address
and more fully in his Message of December, 1862. It will
be reraerabered that in that raessage, he said : " That portion
of the earth's surface which is owned and inhabited by the

THE UNITED STATES MUST CONSTITUTE ONE FAMILY. 643
people of the United States, is well adapted to be the home
of one National family ; and it is not well adapted for two or
more.

5))K

Our fathers had organized this " national faraily " under
the Constitution, and it became his especial duty, as Presi
dent, to maintain and perpetuate it. This duty he had en
deavored faithfully to discharge. The patriotism of the loyal
people embraced every portion of the Republic. Their
pride had long dwelt upon the idea of a vast Republic
"whose dorainion shall be also frora the one sea to the
other, and from the flood unto the world's end."t
The loyal people had fought the war through, because
they would not give up this idea. The vast extent of the
country and its future greatness and glory had long been to
him a source of national pride. Virginians raust learn to
substitute in their affections the Nation for the State : they
need not love Virginia less, but they must love the RepubUc
more. The people have overcorae the rebellion, not only
because it was their duty under the Constitution, but also
because they wanted the aid of the insurgent States to enable
them to realize their great destiny. The South is an essential
part of, and must help to build up, the great Republic.
In reply to a suggestion frora the Virginians, that it was
difficult to love a country so vast, and that patriotisra was
always strongest araong a people inhabiting a country with a
small territory, as iUustrated by the Scotch and the Swiss,
where every person identifies his own home with his country,
and the difficulty of embracing in one's affections, a whole
continent, the pride and glory of the Roraan citizen in
the Roman Erapire was recaUed. But perhaps a better
answer to this raay be found in Mr. Lincoln's raessage before
referred to, in which he says, speaking of our whole country,
"Its vast extent, and its variety of climate and productions,
are of advantage, in this age, for one people, whatever they
might have been in forraer ages. Steara, telegraphs, and
inteUigence have brought these to be an advantageous com
bination for one united people." The continent is "our
* Annual Message of December, 1862.,
1 72 Psalm, V. 8.

644 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
national homestead." This, in aU "its adaptations and apti
tudes, demands union and abhors separation." Now that
slavery is eradicated, we shall soon cease to quarrel, and
become a homogeneous people. Virginia will again become
a leading, possibly, the leading S^ate, and before twenty
years, she will thank Mr. Lincoln for the Emancipation
Proclamation. Mr. Lincoln returned to Washington on the 9th of April.
He had scarcely reached the White House before the news
of Lee's surrender reached him. No language can ade
quately describe the patriotic joy and deep gratitude to
Almighty God which filled the heart of the President and
the people. All the usual manifestations of delight, illumi
nations, processions, with banners and music were given;
but beneath all these outward manifestations, there was a deep,
solemn, religious feeling, that God had given us these great
victories, and th&,t He had in His Providence a great future
for our country.
The last battle had been fought, the last victory won, the
Union triumph was complete, the rebeUion utterly crushed,
and slavery overthrown ; and now, though not in -order in
point of time, let us, before dismissing from these pages the
Grand Army of the Republic, anticipate that final review of
the troops of Grant and Sherman before they, having fin
ished their work, retired to their homes among the people.
This review was an event full of moral sublimity. The
bronzed and scarred veterans, who had survived the battle
fields of four years of active war, the hardy frames of those
who had marched and fought their way from New England,
and tbe Northwest, to New Orleans and Charleston; those
who had withstood and repelled the terrific charges of .the
rebels at Gettysburg ; those who had fought beneath, and
above the clouds at Lookout Mountain ; who had taken
Vicksburg, Atlanta, New Orleans, Savannah, Mobile, Peters
burg, and Richmond ; whose campaigns extended over half
a continent ; the triumphal entry of these heroes into the
National Capital of the Republic which they had saved and
redeemed, was deeply impressive. Triumphal arches, gar
lands, wreaths of flowers, evergreens, marked their pathway.

REVIEW OF THE ARMIES. 645
President and Cabinet, Governors and Senators, ladies,
children, citizens, all united to express the nation's gratitude
to those by whose heroism it had been saved.
But, there was one great shadow over the otherwise bril
liant speetacle. Lincoln, their great hearted chief, he whora
all loved fondly to call their " Father Abrahara ;" he whose
heart had been ever with thera in the carap, and on the
march, in the storm of battle, and in the hospital ; he had
been murdered, stung to death, by the fang of the expiring
serpent which these soldiers had crushed. There were
many thousands of these gallant men in blue, as they filed
past the White House, whose weather-beatfen faces were wet
with tears of manly grief. How gladly, joyfully would they
have given their lives to save his.
And now these grand armies were disbanded, and hastened
to the horaes which they had voluntarily left, to be wel
comed by family and friends, and cheered and cherished for
life by the thanks of a grateful people.

CHAPTEE XXYIII.

COST OP THE WAR — LINCOLN'S "POLICY," — HIS ASSASSINATION
funeral— THE GRIEF OF THE PEOPLE.

Number of troops furnished by the several States — Cost in
men and money of the war — Colored troops — Lincoln's
" POLICY " — His views of the powers of Congress over the
REBELLIOUS STATES — No RIGHT TO VOTE IN THE ELECTORAL COL
LEGE — Loyalty should be the basis of reconstruction —
Lincoln's views of negro suffrage — Faith must be kept
WITH the negro „ RACE — ^ThE ASSASSINATION — FunERAL —
National grief.
THE military power of the rebellion was now crushed.
Looking over the Republic from North to South, from
East to West, it is difficult to realize fully the iraraense cost
of this slaveholders' war. A great price, a terrible retribu
tion had been visited upon the people, for the existence of
slavery. Perhaps it is not extravagant to say, in the lan
guage of Mr. Lincoln's second inaugural, that " the war had
continued, until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil had been sunk,
and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash had been
paid by another drawn with the sword."
With the war, the cause of the war disappeared. Some
few dry statistics and considerations, will aid in the realiza
tion of the magnitude of the conflict. The population of the
twenty-three loyal States, and which, duriug the war, con
stituted the United States, was 22,046,472. This includes Mis
souri, Kentucky, and Maryland, which furnished soldiers for
the arraies on both sides, and which had a population of
646

COST OF THE WAR. 647
3,025,745 ; and, also, California and Oregon, on the Pacific,
and so distant from the scene of confiict, that they contri
buted comparatively few men, leaving a population from
which the soldiers were raainly taken, at 18,588,268. The
population of the eleven seceding States was 9,103,333.
The war was raainly fought by Araerican citizens, although
there were sorae German and Irish regiments, and many of
Irish, German, Norwegian, and other nationaUties, in the
ranks of the regiments raade up raainly of American birth.
There was no large accession to the population by emigra
tion during the war. The number of emigrants in 1860 was
153,000, and it decreased during the first two years of the
war ; and the increase in 1863 and 1864 was to fill up the
vacancies in the ranks of laborers. The emigrant was not
enrolled, nor drafted into the railitary service. The whole
nuraber of Union soldiers raustered into service during the
war, was 2,690,401 — fourteen and a half per cent, of the
whole population.* The number of deaths in battle, and
* The following table shows the number of troops furnished by each State, as
reported.to Congress by the War Department : Aggregate
statea. Aggregate. redu'd to 3
yr*B Btan'd.
Maine  71,745 56,595
New Hanipshlre  34,605 30,827
Vermont  35,256 29,052
Massachusetts  151,785 123844
Rhode Island  23,711 17,878
Connecticut  57,270 50,514
NewYorli  455,568 380,980
New Jersey  79,511 55,785
Pennsylvania  366,326 267,558
Delaware  13,651 10,303
Maryland  49,730 40,692
West Virginia  30,003 27,853
District of Columbia  16,872 11,606
Ohio  317,133 239,976
Indiana  '.  195,147 152,283
Illinois  258,217 212,694
Michigan  90,119 80,865
Wisconsin  96,118 78,985
Minnesota  f.  25,034 19,675
Iowa  75,860 68,182
Missouri  ,  108,773 86,192
Kentucky  78,540 70,348
 20,097 18,654

Total  2,653,662 2,129,041

648 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
from wounds, was 96,089; frora disease, 184,331; total,
280,420, or about ten and a half per cent. This is accord-
iii.g to the records of the War Departraent. The actual
number is a little higher. Fifty-seven Generals died during
the war; thirty-seven of thera in battle or frora wounds;
twenty from disease. The cost of the war to the United
States was $3,098,233,078. The States expended in bounties,
&c., as -estimated by committee of Congress, $500,000,000,
The call for troops made by the President in all amounted
to 2,042,748, and the numbered obtained was 2,690,401. *
The whole number of colored troops enlisted into the
railitary service during the war, was 178,975, and the losses
these troops sustained during that period by sickness,
wounds, killed in battle, and other casualties incident to war,
was 68,178. The aggregate of colored population in the
United States in 1860, was 4,449,201, of which 3,950,531
were slaves, f Under all the circumstances, the colored race
fiirnished a fair proportion of soldiers.
It is certain, considering the desperate and despo'tic means
resorted to by the Confederates to fiU up the armies of the
rebellion, that a much larger proportion of the people were
forced into the miUtary service, in the rebel, than in the
loyal States. The number of rebel troops finally surren
dered, was in round numbers, 175,000. The number of
*The foUowing table shows the date of the Jseveral calls for troops by the Presi
dent, the number required at each call, the period of service, and the number
obtained. The table is compiled from data in the War Department :
Date of Number Perloda of Numbers
call. ^ called for. service. obtatned,
April 16, 1861  75,000 3 mos 93,326
May and July, 1861  582,748 3 years 714,231
May and June, 1862  3 mos 15,007
July 2, 1862  300,000 3 years 431,958
August 4, 1862  300,000 9 mos 87,588
June 15, 1863  100,000 6 " 16,361
October 17, 1863  300,000 3 yearsi
February 1, 1864  200,000 3 " J ^^'*^
March 14, 1864  200,000 3 " 284,021
April 23, 1864  85,000 100 days 83,652
July 18, 1864  500,000 l,2&3yrs 384,882
December 19, 1864  300,000 l,2&3yrs 204.568
Total  2,942,748 2,690,401
280,420 died in battle or hospital ; 22,281 officers resigned; privates not aUowed to
resign. >
tCensiis of 1860, p. 595.

RESULTS OF THE WAR. 649
prisoners in the hands of the National authorities, during
the last year of the war, was 98,802. These were all sent to
their horaes by the United States.
The theatre of war was in the rebellious States. Their
cities were' besieged and captured ; their territory desolated,
and their people suffered all the evils of war at their own
homes. The heroism of the Confederates was worthy of
men who fought for liberty instead of slavery. The defence
of Richmond required four years of fighting, and in all
700,000 men, before it was captured. In what raodern war,
has any fortress, city, or capital, made a defense more heroic,
and persistent ?
This gigantic contest has beeu carried through to final
success by a people previously absorbed in trade, and agri
culture, and charged to have been enervated by wealth and
prosperity. The American people, great in the war, were
greater in their forbearance in the hour of victory. The
supremacy of the law, of the civil power, had never been
disregarded. The Republic comes out of the confiict with
no security of civil liberty encroached upon, none of the
guaranties of Magna Charta, and the Constitution broken
down. No military coraraander ever dreamed of sub
verting the supreme civil authority. The greatest captain
of the war, rebuked those who urged him to be a candidate
for the Presidency against Lincoln. All, military men not
less than civilians, have recognized in the law and the Con
stitution, the sovereign of the Union. Even when the assas
sin struck down the Chief Magistrate, and it was known
that conspirators were at the capital, seeking to destroy the
high officials, the raachinery of the Governraent went on
without a jar ; the Constitution and the laws \pere still
supreme. The people exhibited as much moderation and
humanity, as courage and persistence. The hour of vic
tory, under the inspiration of Lincoln, was not the hour of
vengeance, but of forgiveness. The war carried on by the
Republic against slavery and rebelUon, was a Christian war,
conducted upon principles of Christian civilization.
It is this combination of raartial and civic virtues, which
inspire hopes that the people will be equal to the great duties

650 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF S^LAVERY.
yet before them, and by the exhibition of which they have
compeUed their recognition by the candid world, as one of
the great peoples of modern times.
And now carae the grave and difficult work of building up
the shattered fragments of the RepubUc ; the broken columns
of the temple raust be reconstructed, with their foundations
resting firraly upon liberty. To this work of reconstruction
Mr. Lincoln now addressed hiraself He was no theorist,
but a practical statesman, looking ever to the wisest raeans,
to secure the end. In justice to hira, it raust ever be borne
in mind that he lived less than ten days after the surrender
of Lee ; not long enough to construct a policy. Much has
been said in regard to his views on this subject, by his suc
cessor, and those who follow him. They have attempted to
shield the " Johnson policy " so eraphatically conderaned by
the loyal people of the United States, under the great narae
of Lincoln.
Let us see what are the facts. The efforts of Mr. Lincoln
to restore certain rebellious States to their forraer relations
to the Union, were raade in the midst of war, when he was
seeking, by every possible means, to detach those States frora
the rebellion, and was anxious to secure the raoral infiuence
of the return to the Union of a former slaveholding and re
bellious State, emancipated and loyal. He had not tirae
before his death to develope any settled policy in regard to
what securities and guarantees the safety of the Republic
might require, before restoring to power, those who had
sought its overthrow. Philosophers and thinkers had specu
lated and written upon the subject, but Mr. Lincoln, as a
statesraan, a man of affairs, had not committed himself, be
cause the subject had but just come before hira as a practical
question, at the tirae of his death. Yet it is interesting and
instructive^to learn his views as far as developed^ and the
indications of what_bj^ policy would have_been nad he Uved;
and at the hazard of repetition, I will recall his acts and
declarations heretofore mentioned in this volurae, and add
such others as are within my knowledge, that the people
may have before them the means of forming an intelligent
judgraent on the subject.

LINCOLN'S " POLICY." 651
It will be conceded, that emancipation, the freedom of the
colored race, was an indispensable condition to any plan of
reconstruction which he would countenance. This was de
clared repeatedly iu his raessages, and in his instructions to
Mr. Seward before the conference at Harapton Roads. Let
us recall what he did and what he said, indicative of his
opinions of the status or condition of the rebelUous States,
the powers of the Executive and Congress over them, and
the wisest means by which they could be restored to their
former relations.
Early in the conflict, he appointed Military or Provisional
Governors over the rebellious States. In his first Annual
Message of December, 1861, he recommended that Congess
provide by law for the establishraent of courts " for the ad
ministration of justice in all such parts of the insurgent
States and Territories as may be under the control of the
Governraent, whether by voluntary return to its allegiance
and order, or by the power of our arras." * He said to Con
gress, that he had been unwilling to go beyond the pressure
of necessity in the unusual exercise of power, " but the
powers of Congress, I suppose are adequate to the anomalous
condition." He thus recommended Congress to legislate and
make laws for the government of such portion of the insur
gent States and Territories as raight be under the control of
the Government. In his Proclamation offering amnesty on
certain conditions, and suggesting the mode of organizing
loyal State Governments in the insurgent States, where the
rebel State and Confederate Governments de facto had been
overthrown and expelled, dated Deceraber 8, 1863, he says :
" It is suggested as not iraproper, that in constructing a loyal
State Governraent in any State, the narae of the State, the
boundary, the subdivision, the Constitution and the general
code of laws, as before the rebellion, be raaintained, subject
'to necessary modifications," etc. f
Referring in his Message to this recommendation, he says
of it : " The suggestion, as to maintaining the poUtical frame
work of the States, on what is called reconstruction, is made
• See Message of December, 1861.
t See Message and copy of Proclamation, December. 1863.

652 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
in the hope that it will do good, without danger of harra. It
will save labor and avoid confusion."
It will be observed that this suggestion in regard to the
maintenence ofthe boundaries and names ofthe old States, is put
exclusively upon the ground of convenience. As the hostile
government was expelled by the military power frora the
seceding and belligerent States, and the territory which had
been in rebeUion was brought under National control, Mr.
Lincoln, as President and Coramander-in-Chief, governed
that territory. It has been seen that, as eariy as his first an
nual Message, " unwilling to go beyond the pressure of neces
sity, in the unusual exercise of power," he asked Congress
to relieve him by passing laws establishing courts in such
conquered territory.
Immediately after the rebel power was subjugated and
overthrown in any portion of the belligerent territory, Mr.
Lincoln recognized it as his duty, as the Executive, to pre
serve the peace, punish crime, prevent anarchy, and see that
justice was done to all. This he did first through the mili
tary power, then, he appointed Provisional Governors, who,
as the Union sentiment developed itself, initiated proceedings
to organize civil Government under the direction of the Ex
ecutive, as in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The
civil Government thus organized, was always treated by Mr.
Lincoln as a permissive, subordinate Government, until it
should be sanctioned by Congress. The rebel State Govern
ments he regarded as public enemies to be overthrown, and
an entirely new Governraent, Republican in form, was to be
estabUshed in place of them. In initiatory steps to organize
new, loyal, RepubUcan State Governments in place of those
e:!jpelled and overthrown, he, as the Executive, prescribed the
quaUfications of voters, and required, that all participating
in the preliminary proceedings, should be loyal to the Union,
and should support the acts of Congress, and the Preclaraa
tion emancipating the slaves. Mr. Lincoln always treated
these proceedings, as preliminary, and as requiring the action
of Congress, before the new State Government would be
entitled to resume its forraer relations, and be entitled to

LINCOLN'S " POLICY." 653
representation in Congress and to vote in the electoral
college. The evidence of this will be more fully presented here
after. Without going more into detail, it may be asserted
without fear of successful contradiction, that Mr. Lincoln, as
President, treated the Confederates as public enemies ; that
not only were all the acts ofthe Confederate Government so
called, but thpse also of the State Governments of the States
in rebellion, regarded and treated by him as void, and
these organizations were to be subjugated and overthrown ;
and the territory from which they were expelled by arms,
was to be governed for the time being by martial law ; but
he was always anxious to bring back such territory, freed
from the curse of slavery, to its " proper practical relations
to the Union." In a letter to General Banks in regard to
Louisiana, the President said : " If Louisiana sends members
to Congress, their admission to their seats will depend, as
you know upon the respective Houses of Congress and not
upon the Executive."
In his Proclamation of July 8, 1864, Mr. Lincoln presented
the bill which had passed Congress, and which for reasons
therein stated he did not sign, " as a very proper plan (of re-
constructioli,) for the loyal people of any State, choosing to
adopt it," and announcing his intention under certain
circumstances, to adopt and execute the plan therein set
forth. * This bill, it will be remembered, was that of Henry
Wintfer Davis, reported frora the Reconstruction Committee of
the House, and the provisions of which have been heretofore
given. Afte'V the conference at Hampton Roads, one of the rebel
Commissioners, Mr. Hunter, formerly a Senator of the United
States, and before the rebellion, a man of high personal
character, in giring a semi-official statement of these nego
tiations, said : " whenever we go into the Union as a con
quered people, we give up ihe laws of the United States, and must
take such as ihey choose io make for us, and we go in without repre
sentation in making those laws : far Mr. Lincoln told us, told me,
* Proclamation of July 8, 1884.

654 , LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
that while we could send Representatives to the Yankee Con
gress, yet it rested with that Congress to say, whether they
would receive thera or not." *
The Confederates came under the National authority as a
" conquered people," they submitted without terras, except as
to the personal security of those who surrendered to Grant
and Sherraan. This speech of Mr. Hunter establishes that
they carae with knowledge that they raust take such laws' as
the Government they had sought to overthrow should pre
scribe ; and " that they must come in without Representation
in making those laws;" and that Mr. Lincoln notified them
that it would be for Congress to determine whether their
Representatives would be received. This is in strict accord
ance with the statements contained in Mr. Lincoln's carefully
prepared speech, made on the evening ofthe llth of April, 1865.
In that speech he said, alluding to his Annual Message of
1863 : " I distinctly protested that the Executive clairaed no
right to say when or whether, raembers should be admitted to
seats in Congress from such States." A member of the Cabi
net, (understood to be Mr. Seward,) said, he " suggested that
I should omit the protest against my own power in regard to
the admission of members of Congress," but he would not,
and did not omit it. These stateraents establish the fact, that
in his judgraent, whether the people of a State which had
been in rebeUion, were in a condition to be represented in
Congress, and take part in the Governraent, and upon what
terras they should be represented, was a question for the
deterraination of Congress.
Upon the vital- question, when States, whose people had
been in rebellion, would be entitled to vote in the Electoral
College, a right correlative with the right of representation
in Congress, Mr. Lincoln was equally explicit. He said in a
Message, dated February 8, 1865 : " The Joint Resolution
declaring certain States not cntitied to representation in the
Electoral College etc.," has been signed by the Executive.
But he went on to say, that to the two Houses of Congress
belonged exclusively the right " to exclude frora counting
» The Speech of Mr. Hunter, making this report, wlU be found In Appleton's
Encyclopedia for 1865, p. 191.

Lincoln's "policy." 655"
all electoral votes deeraed by them to be illegal." This reso
lution has been set forth in these pages,.and it excluded from
the Electoral College of 1864, the votes of the eleven States
in rebeUion.
Mr. Lincoln concurred with Congress, that they ought not
to vote, for he signed the joint resolution, but he at the same
time declared Congress to have exclusive jujdsdiction over
the subject. *
I will now proceed to exhibit Mr. Lincoln's views upon
another most important practical question, in regard to re
construction — namely, upon what basis should the recon
structed States be built ? Should loyalty be the basis of
reconstruction ? Should the foundation of the reconstructed
States be the Union men, or the disloyal ? In all his eftbrts
to reconstruct, Mr. Lincoln built upon the loyal Union men,
excluding certain classes of disloyal both from voting and
holding office. In his raessage of Deceraber, 1863, he says :
" There must be a test, so as to build only frora the sound."
He further says : " An atterapt to guarantee a revived State
Government, constructed in whole, or in preponderating part
from the very element, against whose hostiUty and violence
it is to be protected, is simply absurd." f And so, in all his
¦ building, he made loyal men, union raen, the foundation of
political power; pardoned rebels, and sincerely repentant
rebels, who took the aranesty oath, might vote, none others.
He appointed none but Union men to office. He took none
of his prorisional Governors from the rebel ranks. No man
* The following is the message referred to : "To the Honorable the Senate
AND House of Representatives : The joint resolution entitled, ' Joint resolution
declaring certain States not entitled to representation in the Electoral College,'
has been signed by the Executive, in deference to the view of Congress implied in
its passage and presentation to him. In his own view, however, the two Houses
of Congress, convened under the twelfth article of the Constitution, have complete
power to exclude from counting aU electoral votes deemed by them to be illegal ;
and it is not competent for the Executive to defeat or obstruct that power by a
veto, as would be the case if his action were at all essential in the matter. He dis-
clajms all right of the Executive to Interfere In any way in the matter of can
vassing or counting electoral votes ; and he also disclaims that, by signing said re
solution, he has expressed any opinion on the recitals of the preamble, or any
judgment of his own upon the subject of the resolution. "ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
" Executive Mansion, February Sth, 1865."
From the Cimgressloual Globe, Second Session, Thirty-eighth Congress, p. 711.
t Message ot 1863.

656 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
ever received office frora him, who could not take the " Iron
clad oath," He did not say: " Bebels must talce the back seais,"
but he placed loyal men in the front seats.
Mr. Lincoln was all kindness, generosity, and magnan
imity, to sincerely repentant rebels ; he harbored no thought
of vengeance, but to the brave, persecuted, cruelly abused
Union men of the rebellious States, his heart yearned with
affection. Those who, in tiraes of trial, had stood firra, and
maintained their integrity, , these were the men, to be en
trusted with power, and clothed with authority in the rebel
lious States. These were the men he ever sought for to fill
all places of honor, emolument, and power. Such was the
" reconstruction policy" of Abraham Lincoln.
What were his views as to the position the loyal negro
should occupy, in the reconstructed Republic ? He desired
that "the intelUgent, and those who have fought gaUantly
in our ranks of the colored men," should have the privilege
of voting. ''=
In his last speech, before quoted frora, made April 11,
speaking of negro suffrage, he says : " I would myself pre
fer that suffrage were now conferred upon the very intelli
gent, and on those who served our cause as soldiers." The
foUowiug extract frora a letter to General Wadsworth is in -
harmony with the foregoing : " I cannot see if universal
amnesty is granted, how, under the circumstances, I can
avoid exacting in return, universal suftrage, or at least
suffrage ou the basis of intelUgence aud military service."
**<¦<¦ Regarding it a religious duty, as the nation's guar
dian of these people who have so heroically vindicated their
manhood on the battle-field, when in assisting to save the
life of the Republic, they have demonstrated in blood their
right to the ballot, which is but the humane protection of
the flag they have so fearlessly defended." f
* Letter to Governor Hahn, March 12, 1864.
t The following is an extract from the Wadsworth letter. I have never seen the
authenticity of this letter denied, and it bears internal evidence of being genuine :
" New York, September 25.
" The Southern Advocate, of September 12, publislies the following extracts from
the late President Lincoln's letter to General Wadswoi-th, who fell at the battle of
the Wilderness. The letter, which is of a private character, is to be sent to General
Wadsworth's family. It shows that Mr. Lincoln, who desired the bestowal of the

LINCOLN'S " POLICY." 657
There is further evidence that Mr. Lincoln, had he lived,
would have endeavored to secure suffrage to colored men, at
least to the intelUgent, and to those who had exposed their
lives for their country by serving in the Union army.
I venture to place on record the opinion, based in part
upon evidence which I cannot now make public, that had he
lived, Mr. Lincoln's policy would have embraced general, not
universal amnesty and negro suffrage.* From this general
amnesty he would, I believe, have excepted certain leaders of
the rebellion whose condiict had been pecuUarly and
flagrantly criminal, and " all who had been engaged in any
way in raaltreating colored persons, or white persons in
charge of such, otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war."t

elective franchise npon the blacks, was also at an early day in favor of granting
universal amnesty. Mr. Lincoln says :
" ' You desire to know, in the event of our complete success in the fleld, the
same being followed by a loyal and cheerful submission on the part of the South,
if universal amnesty should not be accompanied with universal suffrage. Now,
since you know my private Inclinations as to what terms should be granted
to the South, in the contingency mentioned, I will here add that, if our success
should thus be realized, foUowed by such desired results, I cannot see, if universal
amnesty is granted, how, under the circumstances, I can avoid exacting in return
universal suffrage, or, at least, suffrage on the basis of intelligence and military
service. How to better the condition of the colored race has long been a study which
has attracted my serious and careful attention ; hence I think I am clear and de
cided as to what course I shall pursue in the premises, regarding it as a religious
duty, as the nation's guardian of these people who have so heroically vindicated
their manhood on the battle fleld, where, in assisting to save the life of the Repub
lic, they have demonstrated their right to the ballot, which is but the humane
protection of the flag they have so fearlessly defended.' "
« The following note from the Hon. Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War,
during the last two vears of Mr. Lincoln's administration, will indicate a portion
' of the evidence on this subject ; " New Yore, November 13, 1868.
" My Dear Sir : In a speech here before the election, I stated that at the time of Mr.
Lincoln's death, a printed paper was under consideration in the Cabinet providing
ways and means for restoring State Government in Virginia. In that paper it was
stated that all loyal men, white or black, were to be called upon to vote in holding a
state Convention, while all rebels were to be excluded. I said that I could not
alfirra that Mr. Lincoln had definitively adopted that policy with respect to black
suffrage, but that I knew his mind was tending to it, and that I was morally cer
tain he would have finally adhered to it. After Mr. Johnson's accession, all the
provisions of the paper were incorporated in the Presidential Proclamation respect
ing the re-organlzation of State Governments, with the single exception of this
one making aU loyal men voters, whether white or black. * * * « »
" Yours, vei-y truly,
" CHARLES A. DANA.
"Hon. Isaac N. Arnold."
fSee President Lincoln's Amnesty Proclamation of December 8, 1863.
42

658 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
There was no point in regard to which Mr. Lincoln was
raore sensitive, nothing about which he was more deter
mined than that the National faith, pledged to the negro, that
his liberty, his person, and his property should be protected,
should be scrupulously kept. Let us recall sorae of his words
on this subject.
When, as Coramander-in-Chief, he declared the slaves of
the rebel States free, he accompanied the decree with the
pledge " that the Executive Government of the United States,
including the military and naval authorities thereof, will
recognize and maintain their freedom." In his Message of
December 8, 1863, after referring to the Eraancipation Prec
laraation, and the laws of Congress, giving freedom to
colored persons, and authorizing their eraployraent as sol
diers, he says : " These laws and proclaraations were enacted
and put forth for the purpose of aiding in the suppression of
the rebellion. To give thera their fuUest effect, there had to
be a pledge for their raaintenance. In ray judgraent, they
have aided, and will further aid the cause for which they
were intended. To now abandon thera, would be not only
to relinquish a lever of power, but would also be a cruel and
astounding breach of faith." Therefore, he insisted that all re
pentant rebels, before amnesty was extended to them, should
swear to support these very laws and proclaraations ; aud he
solemnly declared that he never would return to slavery any
person who had been made free by that proclamation or by
those laws. " Negroes," said he, in his letter to the lUinois
Convention, "like other people, act upon motives. Why
should they do anything for us, if we will do nothing for
thera. If they stake their lives for us, they must be prompted
by the strongest raotives, even by the promise of freedom.
And the promise being raade, raust be kept." Mr. Lincoln
was a man of great evenness of temper, rarely excited to
anger; personal abuse and indignity did not disturb him
but wrong, injustice, and bad faith raade him indignant.
When, therefore, sorae one suggested to him that he raio-ht
placate the rebel raasters and secure peace, by an abandon
ment of the freedraen, he indignantly exclairaed, " Should I
do so, I should deserve to be damned in time, and in eternity."

LINCOLN'S " POLICY." 659
These declarations might be extended indefinitely. But
there are enough ; the great heart of Lincoln was above the
prejudice of color, and when he saw a black soldier, with
a brave, loyal heart, raairaed, with an arra or a leg shot off
in battle, his heart yearned towards him ali the more, be
cause he was of a despised race. Had he lived, no rebel out
rage would have been coramitted with impunity upon a
Union soldier, however black his skin; no hurable school
house for freedraen's children would have been burned by
mobs of former slaveholders ; no churches where colored
people asserabled to thank God for sending them their great
Liberator, " Father Abraham," would have been burned by
pardoned rebels. The army would have been used, if neces
sary, for the protection of loyal men, without regard to
color, and the Republic would have been made the loyal
man's safe and secure " Castle." Such would have been " the
policy " of Abraham Lincoln. Let those who havfe broken
faith with the negro, and been treacherous to the loyal, never
insult the memory of Lincoln, by endeavoring to screen such
perfidy under his honored name. For the rest, we know
how hard it was for him to punish, how ready to forgive, but
there was one offense he never would forgive, the violation
of the Nation's faith to the negro.
As the fortunes of the Confederates becarae raore dark
and gloomy, there were those among them disposed to resort
to measures still more black and desperate. Indeed, after
the Presidential election of 1864, at which the people had so
emphatically declared their deterraination " to prosecute the
war with the utraost possible vigor to the complete suppres
sion of the rebellion," a reckless and fiendish desperation,
on the part of the slaveholders, became raanifest. Dark and
mysterious hints, and intiraations of scheraes, so infernal in
their character as to be regarded as utterly incredible by the
loyal people, were brought to light. The people of the
United States have ever been esteemed a bold, manly race,
scorning treachery, cruelty, and all the malignant practices
of some of the more weak and cowardly races. There pre
vaUed a general love of "fair play;" and arson, and assas
sination were unknown in the Araerican history, and were

660 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
regarded as so antagonistic to American character, that
nearly all refused to believe any citizen of the United States
could be found, base enough to perpetrate these cowardly
criraes. When, therefore, threats of the conflagration of
cities, the spread of disease and pestilence by sending into
crowded towns pestilential poison, and assassination, were
heard, and conspiracies to effect these objects were discovered,
the charges were repudiated as incredible ; and it was believed
that no Araerican could be found sufficiently infernal to cora
mit this class of criraes. But the result proved that those
who thus reasoned, did not appreciate the deraoralization
and degeneration produced by slavery. In the autumn of
1864, HoweU Cobb Kennedy, alias Robert C. Kennedy, and
others, undertook, at the instance of the Confederates, to
execute a plan of wholesale arson and murder, by setting fire
to hotels and places of public resort, crowded with unsus
pecting guests, including women and children, in the city of
New York. A-man by the narae of Beall, holding a cora
raission from the rebel authorities at Richmond, acting with
others, officers of the army of the insurgents, was guilty of
attempting to throw trains of cars, filled with peaceable citi
zens, off the track. For these and other offenses, these raen
were tried, found guilty, and sentenced to be hung.* A party,
bearing commissions from the insurgent government, on the
12th of October, 1864, crept in disguise across the Canadian
frontier, into the peaceful vUlage of St. Albans, in Vermont,
robbed the banks and murdered sorae of the citizens.
The raen guilty of these outrages were now to climaac
their crimes, and to fix forever upon the "lost cause" of
Slavery and RebelUon, the infamy of assassinating the purest,
kindest, most forgiving ruler in all history; a magistrate,
capable of the sublime, the Godlike prayer, if they had given
hira time to pray, "Father, forgive them, for they know not
what they do."
It has already been stated that Mr. Lincoln returned from
City Point to Washington, on the evening of the 9th of
April. From this tirae untU the 14th were memorable days.
*See Trial and Sentence of Beall and Kennedy. MoPherson's Pol. History pp.
652,553.

LINCOLN'S LAST DAY. ' 661
The surrender of the rebel armies followed each other in
rapid succession ; and the joy of the people was inexpressible.
The whole country — every city, town, village, neighborhood,
. — every house was gay with the Union flag, now worshiped
by every loyal heart. Every house was illurainated, bells
were rung, salutes fired, and every raanifestation of joy and
gratitude to God. Mr. Lincoln was full of hope and happi
ness. The clouds were everywhere breaking away, and four
years of sunny peace and cornparative quiet, of happiness,
of the consciousness of great dutiesi well and successfully
discharged, were rising before hira. On the raorning of the
14th of April, his son Robert, just returned frora witnessing, as
an aid on the staff of Gen. Grant, the surrender of Lee,
breakfasted with the President. It was a happy hour the
father thus passed with his son, listening to details of the
event. After breakfast he spent nearly an hour with Speaker
Colfax, conversing in regard to the future, and explaining
how he hoped to heal the wounds of the war, and build up
on a sure foundation the Great Republic. Then he received
and exchanged congratulations with a party ofhis old Illinois
fi'iends. Between 11 and 12 o'clock, tbere was a Cabinet
meeting, attended by Gen. Grant, at which all reraarked the
hopefuland joyous spirit of the President; and all bear testi
mony, that in this hour of rictory, he had no thought of
vengeance ; but his raind was dwelUng upon the best raeans
of winning back to sincere loyalty, those who had been
making war upon the country. After the Cabinet meeting,
he drove out with Mrs. Lincoln, expressing a preference to
ride without other company, evidently with a heart full of
joy, wishing to comraune alone with her whose life had been
made anxious by his great duties. He conversed now of
happier days. Said he to Mrs. Lincoln, " We have had a hard
time together since we carae to Washington, but now the
war is over, and with God's blessing upon us, we raay hope
for four years of happiness, and then we will go back to
Illinois, and pass the remainder of our lives in peace.'
In the early evening he had another interview with Col
fax, and George Ashmun, who had presided at the Chicago
Convention, which nominated him for the Presidency. In

662 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the midst of the rejoicings at the capital, it had been an
nounced by the press, that the President and General Grant
would attend Ford's Theatre that evening. General Grant
had an engagement which prevented hira from attending,
and Mr. Lincoln, although reluctant on that occasion to at
tend, was persuaded to go, that the people raight not be dis
appointed. Mr. Colfax walked frora the parlor to the door
with the President, and at the door bade hira " Good-bye,"
declining his invitation to accorapany him to the theatre.
Mr. Colfax says : *
(I * * * jjy mind has since been tortured with regrets that 1
had not accompanied him. If the knife which the assassin had in
tended for Grant had not been wasted, as it possibly wonld not have
been, on one of so much less importance in our national affairs, per
chance a sudden backward look at that eventful instant might have
saved that life, so incalculably precious to wife and children and coun
try ; or, failing in that, might have hindered or prevented the escape
of his murderer. The willingness of any man to endanger his life for
another's is so much doubted that I scarcely dare to say how willingly
I would have risked my own to preserve his, of such priceless value to
us all. But if you can realize that it is sweet to die for one's country,
as so many scores of thousands, from every State and county and ham
let have proved in the years that are past, you can imagine the conso
lation there would he to any one, even in his expiring hours, to feel
that he had saved the land from a funeral gloom which, but a few days
ago, settled down upon it from ocean to ocean and from capitol to
cahin, at the loss of one for whom even a hecatomb of victims could
not atone."
Mr. and Mrs. Lincoln and party reached the theatre at
about nine o'clock, and found it crowded to its utmost
capacity. He was received, as he always was, with th(5 raost
enthusiastic greetings. In the raidst of the play, a pistol
shot was heard, and a raan, with a bloody dagger in his
hand, leaped from the President's box to the stage, exclaim
ing : "Sic semper tyrannis"—" The South is avenged" — and
then ran behind the scenes. The President had been shot
• See his speech at Chicago, April 30, 1865.

THE ASSASSINATION. 663
from behind, and the assassin had escaped. Major Rath-
bone, whp had accorapanied the President, seized the assas
sin as he rushed past him, but the murderer, cutting him
severely in his arm with his dagger, broke from hira. The
President fell forward as he was shot, into the arms of his
wife, and on the arrival of the surgeons, it was found the
ball had entered the brain, creating a mortal wound. He
was insensible from the beginning, and lingering until a few
minutes past seven, on the morning of the 15th, expired.
The rebel leaders had used the hand of a miserable, half-
crazed play-actor, by the narae of John Wilkes Booth, to
assassinate the Chief Magistrate of the nation, which their
swords could not overthrow. Booth did not live to betray
the men who set him on ; had he lived, a man who could
commit an act so cowardly, would have been likely to have
betrayed his employers ; but the exulting words of the fiend,
as jje leaped upon the stage, betrayed the source from which
he derived his helUsh inspiration. Alas, that Virginia's
proud old motto should have been thus desecrated !
On the sarae night the Secretary of State, who was con
fined to his house by severe injuries, received, by being
thrown from his carriage, was attacked in his bed, terribly
cut, and stabbed, and his life was saved only by the heroic
eftbrts of his sons and daughter, and an assistant nurse,
whose name was Robinson. Mr. Frederick Seward, his son,
in atterapting to prevent the entrance of the ruffian into his
father's sick roora, was struck by a pistol on the head, and
his skull fractured, and he rendered insensible. The assas
sin of Mr. Seward was an accomplice of Booth, who went
by the narae of Payne, but whose real narae was Powell ;
and he had been a Confederate soldier.
Booth, in atterapting to escape, was shot on the 21st of
April, by a soldier naraed Boston Corbett. Sorae of his ac
complices were arrested, tried, and hung. But all of these
were but the wretched tools of the conspirators. It yet re
mains uncertain whether the conspirators themselves will
ever in this world be dragged to light and punishraent.
Andrew Johnson, the Vice President, was inaugurated as
President on the morning of Mr. Lincoln's death. After
wards, and after investigation, he issued a proclamation,

/
664 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
reciting that it appeared from evidence in the Bureau of
Military Justice, that the murder of Abrahara Lincoln,
and the atterapted assassination of Mr. Seward, had been
proc ired by Jefferson Davis, and others ; and, in behalf of
the Government, he offered one hundred thousand dollars
reward for their capture. *
Whether Jefferson Davis, and the other leading rebels
named in the proclamation are really guilty, or whether, if
guilty, there is sufficient evidence to establish that guilt, as
no trial has yet been had, I will express no opinion. That
his assassination was the subject of frequent reraark among
the slaveholders and rebel leaders, is well known.
Mr. Lincoln had often been threatened with assassination,
and his friends had long felt great anxiety on the subject,
but they were never able to induce him to take precautions.
He walked to and frora the War, Navy, State, and Treasury
Departraents at all hours, unattended; drove or rod© on
•The foUowing Is a copy of the Proclamation :
"BY THE PBESIDENT OE THE tTNITED STATES OP AMBBIOA!
"A PROCLAMATION.
" Whereas, It appears from evidence in the Bureau of MiUtary Justice that the
atrocious murder of the late President, Abraham Lincoln, and the attempted as
sassination of the Honorable WUliam H. Seward, Secretary of State, were incited,
concerted, and procured by and between Jefferson Davis, late of Richmond, Vir
ginia, aild Jacob Thompson, Clement C. Clay, Beverly Tucker, George N. Saunders,
William C. Cleary, and other rebels and traitors against the Government of the
United States, harbored in Canada :
"Now, therefore, to the end that justice may be done, I, Andrew Johnson, Presi
dent of the United States, do offer and promise for the arrest of said persons, or
either of thum, wittiln the limits of the United States, so that they can be brought
to trial, the following rewards :
" One Hundred Thousand Dollars for the arrest of Jefferson Davis.
" Twenty-five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of Clement C. Clay.
" Twenty-five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of Jacob Thompson, late of Mis
sissippi. " Twenty-five Thousand Dollars for the arrest of George N. Saunders.
" Twenty-five Thousand DoUars for the arrest of Beverly Tucker.
" Ten Thousand DoUars for the arrest of William C. Cleary, late clerk of dement
C. Clay.
" The Provost Marshal General of the United States is directed to cause a de
scription of said persons, with notice of the above rewards, to be published.
" In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the
United States to be afiixed.
" Done at the city of Washington, this second day of May, In the year of our
. Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence
^ '¦' of the United States of America the eighty-fifth. " ANDREW JOHNSON.
" By the President :
" W. HUNTEB, Acting Seoretary qf^Me."

THE ASSASSINATION. 665
horseback to his summer residence at the Soldiers' Home
often at night and alone. Mr. Colfax, in the speech at
Chicago, already quoted from, makes the following statement
on this subject :
" No one could ever convince the President that he was in danger
of violent death. Judging others by himself, he could not realize that
any one could seek his blood. Or he may have believed, as Napoleon
wrote to Jerome, that no public man could effectually shield himself
from the danger of assassination. Easier of access to the pubhc at
large than had been any of his predecessors ; admitting his bitterest
enemies to his reception-room alone ; restive under the cavalry escort
which Secretary Stanton insisted should accompany him last summer
in his daily journeys between the White House and his summer resi
dence at the Soldiers' Home, several miles from "Washington, at a
time, too, aa since ascertained in the details of this long-organized plot
discovered since his death, when it was intended to gag and handcuff
him and to carry him to the rebel capital as a hostage for their recogni
tion ; sometimes escaping from their escort by anticipating their
usual hour of attendance ; walking about the grounds unattended ; he
could not be persuaded that he run any risk whatever. Being at City
Point after the evacuation of Kichmond, he determined to go thither,
not from idle curosity, but to see if he could not do something to stop
the effusion of blood and hasten the peace for which he longed. The
ever-watchful Secretary of War, hearing of it, implored him by tele
graph not to go, and warned him that some lurking assassin might take
his life. But armed with his good intentions — alas ! how feeble a
shield they proved against the death-blow afterwards — he went, walk
ing fearlessly and carelessly through the streets, met and conferred with
a rebel leader who had remained there, and when he returned to City
Point, telegraphed to his faithful friend and constitutional adviser, who
till then had feared as we all did at that time for his life :
" ' I received your despatch last night, went to Richmond this morn
ing, and have just returned.
"'ABRAHAM LINCOLN.'
" When I told him, on that last night, how uneasy all had been at
his going, he replied, pleasantly and with a smile, (I quote his exact
words,) ' Why, if any one else had been President and gone to Rich
mond, I would have been alarmed too ; but I was not scared about
myself a bit.'
" If any of you have ever been at Washington, you will remember
the foot-path hned and embowered with trees leading from the back

666 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
door of the War Department to the White House. One night, and
but recently too, when, in his anxiety for news from the army, he had
been with the Secretary in the telegraph office of the Department, he
was about starting home at a late hour by this short route, Mr. Stanton
stopped him and said, ' You ought not to go that way; it is dangerous
for you even in the daytime, but worse at night.' Mr. Lincoln re
plied, ' I don't believe there's any danger there, day or night.' Mr.
Stanton responded solemnly, ' Well, Mr. President, you shall not be
killed returning that dark way from my Department while I am in it ;
you must let me take you round by the avenue in my carriage.' And
Mr. Lincoln, joking the Secretary on his imperious military orders and
his needless alarm on his account, as he called it, entered his carriage
and was driven by the well-lighted avenue to the White, House."
The terrible news of the death of Lincoln, was on the
morning of the 15th borne by telegraph to every portion of
the Republic. Coraing, as it did, in the midst of universal
joy, no language can picture the horror and the grief of the
American people on its reception. A whole people were in
tears. Persons who had not heard the news, coraing into crowded
cities were struck with the strange aspect ofthe people. All
business was suspended, gloom, sadness, grief, sat upon every
face. Strangers who had never seen the good President,
woraen, and children, and strong raen, wept. The fiag,
which had everywhere, frora every spire and raast-head,
roof, and tree, and public building, been fioating in glorious
triumph, was now lowered ; as the hours of that dreary 15th
of April passed on, the people, by a comraon impulse, each
family by itself, commenced dressing their houses and the
public buildings in mourning, and before night the whole
nation was shrouded in black.
There were no classes of people in the Republic whose
grief was more demonstrative than that of the soldiers and
the freedmen. The vast arraies, not yet disbanded, looked
upon Lincoln as their father. They knew his heart had fol
lowed thera in all their campaigns and marches and battles.
Grief and vengeance filled their hearts. But the poor negroes
everywhere wept and sobbed over a loss which they instinct
ively felt was to thera irreparable. On the Sunday following

THE FUNERAL OF LINCOLN. 667
hia death, the whole people gathered to their places of public
worship and mingled their tears together over a bereavement
which every one felt like the loss of a father or a brother.
The remains of the President were taken to the White
House. On the 17th, on Monday, a raeeting of the raerabers
of Congress then in Washington, was held at the Capitol, to
make arrangements for the funeral. This meeting named a
committee of one meraber frora each State and Territory, and
the whole Congressional delegation frora Illinois, as a Con
gressional Committee, to attend the remains of Mr. Lincoln
to their final resting place in Illinois. Senator Sumner and
others desired that his body should be placed under the
dome of the Capitol, at Washington. It was stated that a
vault had been prepared there for the remains of General
Washington, but had never been used, because the Wash
ington family and Virginia desired that his body should
remain in the family vault at Mt. Vernon. It was said it
would be peculiarly appropriate for the remains of Lincoln
to be deposited under the dome of the Capitol of the Repub
lic he had saved and redeeraed. The faraily of Mr. Lincoln
would, I have reason to believe, consented to this, but Gov
ernor Oglesby, Senator Yates, and others frora Illinois, were
very urgent that his reraains should be taken to his old horae
at Springfield, and it was finally so decided.
The funeral took place on Wednesday, the 19th. The
serrices were held in the East Roora. It was a bright,
genial day — typical of the kind and genial nature of him
whom a nation was so deeply raourning.
This was the third funeral which had taken place at the
White House during its occupation by the faraily of Mr.
Lincoln. First, that of Colonel Ellsworth, at which the
President was araong the most grieved of the mourners,
teen that of his son, Willie, and now the President hiraself.
The funeral services were very soleran and touching.
They were attended by Mr. Lincoln's successor, the Cabinet,
the Chief Justice and his Associates, the Senators and Mem
bers of Corigiess, General Grant and Admiral Farragut, and
a long list of military and naval officers, the Diplomatic

LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
Corps, the Governors of the States, a large body of clergy,
and distinguished citizens from every portion of the Republic.
After the cereraonies at the White House, the body was
taken to the Capitol, and placed in the Rotunda, beneath
the Statue of Liberty, and guarded by sad and weeping
soldiers. The coffin was covered with a profusion of sweet
spring flowers, the face was exposed to sight, and thousands
carae to take a last look before the procession should start
for its destination on the far-off prairies. His features were,
as in life, gentle, placid and kind. They seeraed, even in
death, to express the Godlike sentiraents he had uttered from
the steps of the Capitol on the day of his inauguration. As
they looked upon that face, all felt that the rebels had killed
their best friend.
While these rites were going on at the Capital, funeral
services were had everywhere throughout the land. The
whole Nation suspended business, and every tongue and
every pen was speaking Of the Nation's loss, and of him of
whom every heart was full.
The remains of the President, and those of his beloved
son, Willie Lincoln, were then taken to the depot, and placed
in the funeral car, prepared to receive thera.
Non-coinraissioned officers of the Veteran Reserve Corps
were detailed, to act as a body-guard, to attend the reraains
to their last resting place. It was arranged that Major
Generals of the army should attend the body, and keep
guard continually, so that at all times, during the journey, the
coffin should be under their special guardianship. It was
ordered that the body, with those who foUowed it, the guard
and attendants, frora the Capital, to the old horae of the
President at Springfield, Illinois, should take nearly the
sarae route Mr. Lincoln had taken, when he came from
Illinois to assume the Presidency, thus giving the people an
opportunity to show their respect and reverence. The
funeral procession left Washington on Friday, the 21st, and
was to stop at Baltiraore, Harrisburg, Philadelphia, New
York, Albany, Buffalo, Cleveland, Colurabus, Indianapolis,
Chicago; thence to Springfield. Thus, traversing the States

THE FUNERAL OP LINCOLN. 669
of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois.
And now this long pilgriraage of sorrow, traversing half
the continent, began. The people of every State, city,
town, and hamlet, came with uncovered heads, with streaming
eyes, with their offerings of wreaths and flowers, to witness
the passing train. It is impossible to describe the scenes.
Minute guns, the tolling of bells, music, requiems, dirges,
military and civic displays, draped flags,- black, covering
every public building and private house, everywhere indi
cated the pious desire of the people to do honor to the dead.
Two thousand miles, along which every house was draped in
black, and frora which, everywhere, hung the national colors
in mourning. The funeral cereraonies at Baltiraore, were
peculiarly irapressive. Nowhere were the manifestations of
grief more universal ; but the sorrow of the negroes, who
thronged the streets in thousands, and hung like a dark
fringe upon the long procession, was especiaUy impressive.
Their ooarse, homely features were convulsed with a grief
which they could not control. Their emotional natures
were excited by the scene, and by each other, until sobs and
cries, and tears rolling down their black faces, told how
deeply they felt their loss. As the train passed slowly
through the city of York, Pennsylvania, it paused, and there
came, with mournful music, a procession of young ladies
with a wreath of flowers which was laid reverently upon the
coffin, and then, with no words, but the eloquence of deep
silence, the train passed slowly on; and thence on to Har
risburg ; and thence to Philadelphia, where the remains were
to lay in state in the old Independence Hall. A half mil
lion of people were in the streets, to do honor to all that was
left of him, who, in that same HaU four years before, had
declared that he would sooner die, sooner be assassinated, than
give up the principles of the Declaration of Independence.
He had been assassinated because he would not give them up.
All felt, when the reraains were placed in that historic Hall,
surrounded by the memories of the great men of the past,
whose portraits, from the walls, looked down upon the scene,
that a peer of the best and greatest of the revoluntionary

670 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
worthies was now added to the list of those who had served
the Republic. The floral decorations of the Hall were pecu
liarly beautiful. An immense cross, terminated by an anchor,
made of white camelias, stood at the head of the coffin ; circular
wreaths, anchors, crosses, and pure white flowers, everywhere
contrasted with evergreens. The head of the coffin was placed
near the old bell, now broken and preserved as a relic, which
rang out the joyous peal which announced the passage of
the Declaration of Independence. There it stood, bearing,
conspicuously, the words, "Proclaim liberty throughout the land
to all ihe inhabitants thereof." Lincoln had done this. And,
because he had thus proclaimed, the slaveholders had
murdered him !
During Saturday night of the 22nd, and the Sunday follow
ing, bands of music were stationed in the belfry of the Hall,
and played solemn dirges and hyrans over the departed.
The procession reached New York on the 24th, and re
mained until Tuesday, the 25th. The whole city was draped
in mourning; on the day of the procession, its great thorough
fare, Broadway, was absolutely full, from the Battery to Central
Park. Milesof flags hung out, all draped in black; each house
hung with dark embleras frora roof to pavement; mottoes
everywhere expressive of the most profound sorrow and rever
ence. Among the incidents here, was the visit to the remains,
by the venerable and now broken frame of the aged soldier,
General Scott, who carae to look his last upon the features
of the President whose first inauguration he had aided ta
secure. As the train passed up along the banks of the Hudson
towards Albany, through all the towns and villages of thia
interesting region, every possible deraonstration of grief and
respect was raanifested. In one of the towns near the High
lands, a tableaux of touching beauty had been arranged. As
the train slowly approached the place, just aa the sun was
sinking behind the Catskills, it was discovered that thou
sands of the country people had gathered around an open
space, near the banks of the river. This space was carpeted
and draped with fiags, and as the train carae still nearer, slow,
sad, plaintive rausic was heard, and a beautiful lady, repre
senting the Goddess of Liberty, was seen kneeling over the

THE FUNERAL OF LINCOLN. 671
grave of Lincoln, holding the drooping flag draped with
mourning. The funeral train passed slowly by, the band play
ing a solemn dirge, the setting -sun breaking through gor
geous clouds, Ut up the scene. It was a most impressive
spectacle. Then on to Albany — thence through the great State of
New York to Buffalo, and then again across Pennsylvania 
thence to Cleveland, Colurabus, and Indianapolis — and thence
to lUinois, reaching Chicago on the first of May. Here every
man had personally known Mr. Lincoln ; here he had tried
his causes, here he had made his speeches to juries, and
arguments to courts. Here everybody had heard his politi
cal speeches, and here he had been nominated for the Pres
idency. Here were his old neighbors and friends, and yet,
mourning him deeply and heartily, as did all, it scarcely could
surpass the grief which had been raanifested all the way frora
the National Capital.
The body was placed in the Rotunda of the Court House,
and this edifice and every other public or private building in
the city, were draped with flags, and with embleras of mourn
ing. The Court House was decorated with wreaths of flow
ers, and everywhere were mottoes, expressive of the univer
sal grief and reverence. Over the north door of the Court
House, was the motto, " The altar of freedom has bome no
nobler sacrifice" Over the south door, " Illinois clasps to her
bosom, her slain hut glorified son,"
The funeral train reached the Capital of Illinois on the 3d
of May. The Romans were accustoraed to decree a triuraph
to their returning heroes. What Roraan triumph can be
compared to the return of the remains of Lincoln from
Washington to Springfield? The body was taken to the
State House, and the covering reraoved frora the face so that
his old friends and neighbors might look once more upon the
features of Lincoln. His remains had been so perfectly em
balmed that the expression was still natural and life-like.
Here was seen among others, that touching motto :
" He left us bome up by our prayers,
• He returns embalmed In our tears."

672 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
The corpse was taken to Oak Ridge Cemetery, and there,
araong bis old friends and neighbors, his clients and constit
uents, with the nation — the world — for his raourners, was
he buried.
The funeral oration was pronounced by Bishop Sirapson.
The following extracts will indicate its tone and spirit :
" Near the capital of this large and growing State of Illinois, in the
midst of this beautiful grove, and at the open njouth of the vault
which has just received the remains of our fallen chieftain, we gather
to pay a tribute of respect and to drop the tears of sorrow around the
ashes of the mighty dead. A little more than four years ago, he left
his plain and quiet home in yonder city, receiving the parting words of
the concourse of friends who in the midst of the dropping of the gentle
shower gathered around him. *******
" Here are gathered around his tomb the representatives of the army
and navy, senators, judges, governors, and officers of all the branches
of the government. Here, too, are members of civic processions, with
men and women from the humblest as well as the highest occupations.
Here and there, too, are tears, as sincere and warm as any that drop,
which come from the eyes of those whose kindred and whose race have
been freed from their chains by him whom they mourn as their deliverer.
More persons have gazed on the face of the departed than ever looked
upon the face of any other departed man. More races have looked on
the procession for sixteen hundred miles or more — by night and by
day — by sunlight, dawn, twilight, and by torchlight, than ever before
watched the progress of a procession.
**'* * * * * * * * * *
" If you ask me on what mental characteristic his greatness rested, I
answer, on a quick and ready perception of facts ; on a memory unusu
ally tenacious and retentive ; and on a logical turn of mind, which fol
lowed sternly and unwaveringly every link in the chain of thought ou
every subject which he was called to investigate. I think there have
been minds more broad in their character, more comprehensive in their
scope, but I doubt if ever there has been a man who could follow, step
by step, with more logical power, the points he desired to illustrate.
He gained this power by the close study of geometry, and by a deter
mination to perceive the truth in all its relations and simplicity, and,
when found, to utter it.
***********
" But the great act of the mighty chieftain, on which his fa'ine shall
rest long after his frame shall moulder away, is that of giving freedom

BISHOP SIMPSON'S FUNERAL ORATION. 673
to a race. We have all been taught to revere the sacred characters.
Among them, Moses stands preeminently high. He received the law
from Grod, and his name is honored among the hosts of Heaven. Was
not his greatest act the delivering of three millions of his kindred out
of bondage ? Yet we may assert that Abraham Lincoln, by his proc
lamation, liberated more enslaved people than ever Moses set free, and
those not of his kindred or his race. Such a power, or such an
opportunity, God has seldom given to man. *****
" As a ruler, I doubt if any President has ever shown such trust in
Grod, or in public documents so frequently referred to Divine aid. Often
did he remark to friends and to delegations, that his hope for our
success rested in his conviction that God would bless our efforts, because
we were trying to do right. To the address of a large religious body,
he replied, ' Thanks be unto God, who, in our national trials, giveth
us the churches.' To A minister who said he hoped the Lord was on
our sicle, he replied that it gave him no concern whether the Lord was
on our side or not, for, he added, ' I know the Lord is always on the
side of right,' and, with deep feeling, added, ' But God is my witness
that it is my constant anxiety and prayer that both myself and this
nation should be on the Lord's side.'
***********
" Chieftain ! farewell ! The nation mourns thee. Mothers shall teach
thy name to their lisping children. The youth of our land shall emu
late thy rirtues. Statesmen 'shall study thy record and learn lessons of
wisdom. Mute though thy lips be, yet they still speak. Hushed is
thy voice, but its echoes of liberty are ringing through the world, and
the sons of bondage listen with joy. Prisoned thou art in death, and
yet thou art marching abroad, and chains and manacles are bursting at
thy touch. Thou didst fell not for thyself. The assassin had no hate
for thee. Our hearts were aimed at, our national life was sought. We
crown thee as our martyr — and humanity enthrones thee as her
triumphant son. Hero, martyr, friend, farewell !"
43

OHAPTEE ,XXIX.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
THOSE who shall have read these pages thus far, have
already obtained better means of forming a correct judg
ment of Mr. Lincoln than from any atterapt at word paint
ing. He was a man difficult to describ^ and one who can
be best understood and appreciated as portrayed by his own
speeches, writings and conduct.
Physically, he was a tall, spare man, six feet and four inches
in height. He stooped, leaning ibrward. as he walked. He
was very athletic, with long, sinewy arms, large, bony hands,
and of great physical power. Many anecdotes of his strength
are given which show that it was equal to that of two or
three ordinary raen. He lifted with ease five or six hundred
pounds. His legs and arras were disproportionately long, as
compared with his body ; and when he walked, he swung
his arms to and fro more than most raen. When seated, he
did not seera much taller than ordinary men. In his move
ments, there was no grace, but an impression of awkward
strength and vigor. He was naturally diffident, and even to
the day of his death, when in crowds, and not speaking or
acting, and conscious of being observed, he seemed to shrink
with bashfulness. When he spoke, or listened, this appear
ance left him, and he indicated no self-consciousness. His
forehead was high, his hair very dark, nearly black, and
rather stiff and coarse ; his eye-brows were heavy, his eyes
dark-grey, very expressive and varied ; now sparkling with
humor and fun, and then deeply sad and melancholy ; flash
ing with indignation at injustice or wrong, and then kind,
genial, droll, dreamy ; always changing with his moods. His
nose was large, clearly defined ami well shaped ; cheek-bones
674

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 675
high and projecting. His mouth firm. He was easily cari
catured — but difficult to represent as he was in marble or
on canvass. The best bust of him is that of Volk, which
was modeled from life in May, 1860, while he was attending
court at Chicago. Among the best portraits, in the judgraent
of his faraily and intiraate friends, is that of Carpenter,
in the picture of the Reading of the Proclamation of
Emancipation before the Cabinet.
He would be instantly recognized as belonging to that type
of tall, thin, large boned men, produced in the northern por
tion of the Valley of the Mississippi, and exhibiting its pecu
liar characteristics in a most marked degree in IlUnois,
Kentucky and Tennessee. In any crowd in the United
States, he would have been readily pointed out as a Western
man. His stature, figure, manner, voice and accent, indi
cated that he was of the Northwest. His manners were
always cordial, familiar, genial; always perfectly self-pos
sessed, he raade everyone feel at horae, and no one ap
proached hira without being irapressed with his kindly, frank
nature, his clear, good sense, and his transparent truthfulness
and integrity. There is raore or less of expression and
character in handwriting. Lincoln's was plain, simple, clear,
and legible, as that of Washington, but unlike that of
Washington, it was without ornament.
In endeavoring to state those qualities which gave him
success and greatness, one of the most important, it seems to
me, was a combination of a supreme love of truth, and a
wonderful capacity to ascertain and find it. Mentally, he
had a perfect eye for truth. His mental vision was clear and
accurate : he saw things as they were. I mean that every
thing presented to his mind for investigation, he saw divested
of every extraneous circumstance, every coloring, association
or accident which could mislead. This gave him at the bar
a wonderful sagacity which seeraed almost instinctive, in
sifting the true from the false, in ascertaining facts; and so
it was in all things through life. He ever sought the real,
the true, and the right. He was exact, carefully accurate in
aU his statements. He analyzed well ; he saw and presented
what lawyers cal. the very gist of every question, divested of

676 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
all unimportant or accidental relations, so that his statement
was a demonstation. At the bar, his statement of Ms case, or
of a question of law, waa so clear, that most persons were
surprised that there should be any controversy about it. His
reasoning powers were keen and logical, and moved forward
to a demonstration with the precision of mathematics. What
has been said implies that he possessed not only a sound
judgment, which brought him to correct conclusions, but
that he was able to present questions so as to bring others to
the same result. *
His memory was strong, ready, and tenacious. His read
ing was liraited in extent, but his memory was so ready, and
so retentive, that in history, poetry, and general literature,
no one ever reraarked any deficiency. As an illustration of
the power of his raemory, I recoUect to have once called at
the White House, late in his Presidency, and introducing to
him a Swede, and a Norwegian ; he immediately repeated a
poera of eight or ten verses, describing Scandinavian scenery.
and old Norse legends. In reply to the expression of their
delight, he said, that he had read and adraired the poem
several years before, and it had entirely gone from him, but
seeing thera recalled it.
The two books which he read most were the Bible and
Shakespeare. With these he was very familiar, reading and
studying thera habitually, and constantly. He had great fond
ness for poetry, and eloquence, and his taste and judgraent in
each was exquisite. Shakespeare was his favorite poet. Burns,
stood next. Holmes' beautiful poem, " The Last Leaf," was
with him a great favorite. The following-verse he regarded
as equal to anything in the language ;
" The mossy marbles rest
On the Ups that he has pressed
In their bloom.
And the names he loved to hear,
Have been carved for many a year.
On the tomb." *
He made a speech at a Burns' Festival, in which he spoke at
length of Burns' poems; illustrating what he said by many
* Carpenter's Six Months at the White House, p. 69.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 677
qilotatioils, which was listened to with the greatest pleasure,
but it was unfortunately never reported. He was extremely
fond of ballads, and simple, sad, and plaintive music.
He was a most admirable reader. He read and recited
from the Bible and Shakespeare, with great simplicity, but
remarkable expression and effect. Often when going to and
from the army, on the steamers and in his carriage, he took
a copy of Shakespeare with hiin, and not unfrequently read
aloud to his associates. After conversing upon public affairs,
he would take • up his Shakespeare, and addressing his com
panions, remark, " What do you say now to a scene from
Macbeth, or Hamlet," and then he would read aloud, scene
after scene, never seeming to tire of th^ enjoyment. On the
last Sunday of his Ufe, as he was coming up the Potomac,
from his visit to City Point and Richraond, he read many
extracts frora Shakspeare. Araong other things, he read,
with an accent and feeling whicti no one who heard him will
ever forget, extracts from Macbeth, and among others, the
foUowing : * * " Duncan is in his grave ;
After Ufe's fitful fever, he sleeps well.
Treason has done his worst ; nor steel, nor poison,
Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing
Can touch bim farther."
After "treason" had "done his worst," the friends who
heard hira on that occasion, reraerabered that he read that
passage over twice, and with an absorbed and pecuUar raan
ner. Did he feel a raysterious presentiraent of his approaching
fete? His conversation was suggestive, original, instructive, a.nd
playful; and by its genial huraor, fascinating and attractive
beyond comparison. Mirthfulness and sadness, were strongly
corabined in hira. His mirth was exuberant, it sparkled in
jest, story, and anecdote; and the next moment those pecu-
Uary sad, pathetic, melancholy eyes, showed a man " familiar
with sorrow, and acquainted with grief" I have listened for
hours at his table, and elsewhere, when he has been sur
rounded by statesraen, raUitary leaders, and other great men
of the Nation, and I but repeat the universaUy concurring

678 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
verdict of aU, in stating that as a conversationalist, he had
no equal. One raight raeet in corapany with him, the most
distinguished men, of various pursuits and professions, but
after listening for two or three hours, on separating, it was
what Lincoln said, that would be reraerabered. His ideas,
and his illustrations were those that would not be forgotten.
Men often called upon hira for the pleasure of listening to
hira. I have heard the reply to an invitation to attend the
theatre, " No, I am going up to the White House — I would
rather hear Lincoln talk for half an hour, than attend the
best theatre in the country."
As a public speaker, without any attempt at oratorical dis
play, I think he was the most eftective of any man of his
day. When he spoke, every body listened. It was always
obrious, before he corapleted two sentences, that he had
soraething to say, and it was sure to be soraething original,
soraething diff'erent frora anything any one had heard from
others, or had read. He irapressed the hearer at once, as
an earnest, sincere raan, who believed what he said. To-day,
there are raore of the sayings of Lincoln, repeated by the
people, more expressions, sentences, and extracts from his
writings and speeches, farailiar as " household words," than
frora those of any other Araerican.
Next to the Bible, and Shakspeare, there is no other source
so prolific of these faraiUar phrases and expressions as his
writings and speeches. Soraebody has said, " I care not who
makes the laws, if I may write the ballads of a nation." The
words of Lincoln have done more in the last six years to
raould and fashion the American character than those of any
other raan, and their infiuence has been all for good; for truth,
right, justice, and liberty. Great as has been Lincoln's ser
vices to the people, as their President, I think his influence
derived from his words and his example in moulding the
future National character, in favor of justice, right, liberty,
truth, and real, sincere, unostentatious reverence for God, is
scarcely less important. The Republic of the future, the
raatured National character, will be raore influenced by
Abrahara Lincoln, than by any other raan. This is evidence
of the greatness of the man, intellectually, and still more,

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 679
morally. In this power of irapressing hiraself upon the
people, he contrasts with many other distinguished men in
our history.
A few quotations from Webster live in the every day
language of the people. Little of Clay survives ; not much
of Calhoun, and who can quote, off hand, two sentences from
Douglas ? But you hear Lincoln's words, not only in every
cabin and caucus, but at every school house, high school and
college, and by every farraer, as he tells you story after story
of Lincoln's, and all to the point, hitting the nail on the
head every time, and driving home the arguraent. Mr.
Lincoln was not a scholar, but where is there 'a speech raore
exhaustive in argument than his Cooper Institute speech ?
Where anything more full of pathos than his speech to his neigh
bors at Springfield, when he bade thera farewell, on starting
for the Capital ? Where anything more eloquent than his
appeal for Peace and Union, in his first Inaugural Address,
or than his defence of the Declaration of Independence in
the Douglas debates ? Where is the equal ot his speech at
Gettysburg ? Where is a more conclusive arguraent than in
his letter to the Albany meeting, on arrests? What is
better than his letter to the Illinois State Convention ; and
that to Hodges of Kentucky, in explanation of his anti-
slavery policy ? Where is there any thing equal in simple
grandeur of thought, and sentiment, to his last Inaugural ?
From all of these, and raany others, from his every day
talks, are extracts on the tongues of the people, as familiar,
and nearly as much reverenced, as texts from the Bible; and
these are shaping the national character.
"Though dead, he yet speaketh."
As a public speaker, if exceUence is measured by effect,
he had no superior. His manner was generally earnest,
often playful ; sometimes, but this was rare, he was veheraent
and irapassioned. There have been a few instances, at the bar
and on the sturap, when, wrought up to indignation by some
great personal wrong, or an aggravated case of fraud, or
injustice, or when speaking of the fearful wrongs and injustice

LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF (SLAVERY.
- of slavery, he has spoken in a strain of impassioned vehemence
. which carried everything before him.
Generally, he addressed the reason and judgment, and the
effect was lasting. He spoke exteraporaneously, but with
more or less preparation. He had the faculty of repeating,
without reading it, a discourse or speech whichhe had prepared
and written out. His great speech, on opening the carapaign
in Illinois, June, 1858, was carefuUy written out, but so natur
ally spoken that few suspected thatit was not extemporaneous.
In his style, manner of presenting facts, and way of putting
things to the people, he was more like Franklin than any
other American. His illustrations, by anecdote and story,
were not unlike the author of Poor Richard.
Another source of his great inteUectual power, was the
thorough, exhaustive investigation he gave to every subject.
Take, for illustration, his Cooper Institute speech. Hundreds
of able and intelligent men have spoken on the same subject,
as was treated by him in that speech, yet, they will all be
forgotten and his wUl survive, because his is absolutely per
fect — forthe purpose for which it was designed. Nothing
can be added to it.
Mr. Lincoln, however, required time, thoroughly to investi
gate, before he came to his conclusions, and the movements
of his mind were not rapid, but when he reached his conclu
sions he believed in them, and adhered to thera with great
firmness and tenacity. When called upon to decide quickly
upon a new subject, or a new point, he often erred, and waa
ever ready to change when satisfied he was wrong.
It was the union, in Mr. Lincoln, of the capacity clearly
to see the truth, and au innate love of truth, and justice,
and right in his heart, that constituted his character, and
made him so great. He never demoralized his intellectual
or moral nature, either by doing wrong, that good might
come, or by advocating error, because it was popular.
Although, as a statesraan, erainently practical, and looking
to the possible good of to-day, he ever kept in raind the
absolute truth, and absolute right towards which he always
aimed.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 681
Mr. Lincoln was an unselfish raan. He never sought his
own advanceraent at the expense of others. He was a just
man. He never tried to pull others down, that he might
rise. He disarmed rivalry and envy by his rare generosity.
He was erainently a tender-hearted, kind and humane raan.
These traits were illustrated all through his life. He loved
to pardon ; he was averse to punish. It was difficult for
him to deny the request of a child, a woman, or of any who
were weak and suffering. Pages of incidents might be
quoted, showing his ever thoughtful kindness, gratitudcj .
and appreciation of the soldiers. The foUowing letter is
Selected from many on this subject :
" Executive Mansion, Washington, November 21, 1864.
" Dear Madam : I have been shown in the files of the War De
partment a statement of the Adjutant General of Massachusetts, that
you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field
of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine
which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so over
whelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation
that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I
pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your be
reavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and
lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a
sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
" Yours, very sincerely and respectfully,
"ABBAliAM LINCOLN.
" To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts."
One suraraer's day, in walking along the shaded path
whicla,leads from the White House to the War Department,
I saw-'the taU forra of the President seated on the grass
under a tree, with a wounded soldier sitting by his side. He
had a bundle of papers in his hand. The soldier had raet
him in the path, and recognizing hira, had asked his aid.
Mr. Lincoln sat down upon the grass, investigated the case,
and sent the soldier away rejoicing.
His charity, in the best sense of that word, was pervading.
When others railed, he railed not again. No bitter words,
no denunciation can be found in his writings or speeches.

682 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Literally in his heart there was " malice towards none, and
charity for all."
Mr. Lincoln was by nature a gentleman. No man can
point, in all his life time, to anything mean, sraall, tricky,
dishonest, or false ; on the contrary, he was ever open,
manly, just, sincere, and true. That characteristic attributed
to him by Mr. HoUand, in his raost excellent biography, of
coarse story telling, and which he deeras it necessary to pal
liate and apologise for, did not exist. I assert, that ray in-
. tercourse with him was constant for many years before he
went to Washington, and there I saw hira daily, during the
greater part of his Presidency, and although his stories and
anecdotes were racy, witty, and pointed, beyond all corapari
son with others, yet I never heard one of a character to need
palliation or excuse. *
It raay interest the people who did not visit Washing
ton during his Presidency, to know in what sort of a room
Mr. Lincoln lived, and transacted business during his admin
istration. His reception roora was on the second fioor, on
the south side of the White House, and the second apart
ment from the southeast corner. The corner room was oc
cupied by Mr. Nicolay, his private secretary ; next to this
was the President's reception room. It was a room perhaps
thirty by twenty feet. In the middle, on the west side, was a
large marble fire place, with old-fashioned brass andirons,
and a large, high, brass fender. The windows looked to the
south, upon the lawn and shrubbery on the south front of
the White House, taking in the unfinished Washington
* Mr. Carpenter, in his " Six months at the White House," aUuding to this mat
ter, says : " It is but simple justice to his memory that I should state, that during
the entire period of my stay in Washington, after witnessing his intercourse with
nearly all classes of men, embracing governors, senators, members of Congress,
officers of the army, and intimate friends, I cannot recollect to have heard him
relate a circumstance to any one of them, which would ,have been out of place ut
tered in a ladies' drawing-room. Aud this testimony is not unsupported by that
of others, well entitled to consideration. Dr, Stone, his family physician, came lu
one day to see my studies. Sitting in front of that of the President— with whom
he did not sympathise politically— he remarked, with much feeling, 'It is the pro
vince of a physician to probe deeply the Interior lives of men ; and I afllrm that
Mr. Lincoln is the purest hearted man with whom I ever came in contact.' Secre
tary Seward, who of the Cabinet officers was probably most Intimate with the
President, expressed the same sentiment in still stronger language. He once said
to the Rev. Dr. Bellows : ' Mr. Lincoln is the best man I ever knew !' "

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 683
Monument, the Potoraac, Alexandria, and down the beauti
ful river towards Mount Vernon. Across the Potoraac was
Arlington Heights. The view from these windows was
altogether very beautiful.
The furniture of this room consisted of a long oak table,
covered with cloth, and oak chairs. This table stood in the
centre of the roora, and was the table around which the
Cabinet sat, at Cabinet raeetings, and is faithfuUy painted in
Carpenter's picture of the Eraancipation Preclaraation. At
the end of the table near the window was a large writing
table, and desk, with pigeon holes, for papers such as are
common in lawyers' officers. In front of this, in a large
arm chair, Mr. Lincoln usually sat. Behind his chair, and
against the west wall of the room, was another writing desk
high enough to write upon when standing, and upon the top
of this were a few books, consisting generaUy of the Statutes
of the United States, a Bible, a copy of Shakespeare, and
Whiting's War Powers. There was a sort of bureau, with
wooden doors, with pigeon holes for papers, standing be
tween the windows. Here the President kept such papers
as he wished readUy to refer to. There were two plain
sofas in the roora. Generally two or three raap frames, from
which hung military raaps, on which the movements of the
armies were continually traced and followed. The only pic
ture in the roora was an old engraving of Jackson, which
hung over the fire-place ; late iu his administration was
added a fine photograph of John Bright. Two doors opened
into this roora, one frora Mr. Nicolay's, the secretary, and
the other from the great hall where the crowd usually
waited. A bell cord hung within reach of his hand, while
he sat at his desk. There was an ante-roora adjoining this,
plainly furnished, but the crowd usually pressed to the hall,
from which an entrance might be directly had to the Presi
dent's room. A messenger stood at the door, and took in
the cards and names of visitors.
Here, in this room, raore plainly furnished than many law
and business offices, plainer than the offices of the heads of
Bureaus in the Executive Departments, Mr. Lincoln spent
the days of his Presidency. Here he received everybody,

684 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
from the Lieutenant General and Chief Justice^ down to the
private soldier, and humblest citizen. Custom had estab
lished certain rules of precedence, fixing the order in which
officials should be received. The members of the Cabinet,
and the high officers of the army, were, of course, received
always promptly. Senators and members of Congress, who
are usually charged with the presentation of all petitions and
recomraendations for appointments, and who are expected to
right every wrong, and correct every evil each one of their
respective constituents raay be suffering, or imagine himself
to be suffering, have an immense amount of business with
the Executive. I have often seen as many as ten or fifteen
Senators, and twenty or thirty members of the House, in the
hall, waiting their turn to see the President. They would
go to the ante-room, or up to the hall, in front of the recep
tion room, and await their turns. First, the Vice President,
if present, and then the Speaker of the House, and then
Senators and members of the House in the order of their
arrival, and the presentation of their cards. Frequently
Senators and members would go to the White House as
early as eight or nine in the raorning to secure precedence,
and an early interview. While they waited, the loud, ring
ing laugh of Mr. Lincoln, in which he was sure to be joined
by all inside, but which was rather provoking to those outside
was often heard by the waiting and irapatient crowd. Here;
frora early raorning to late at night, Mr. Lincoln sat, listened
and decided; patient, just, considerate, hopeful. All the
people came to him as to a father. He was more accessibld
than any of the leading merabers of his Cabinet; rauch
more so than Mr. Seward, shut up in the State Department,
writing his volurainous dispatches ; far raore so than Mr.
Stanton, indefatigable, stern, abrupt, but ever honest and
faithful. Mr. Lincoln saw everybody ; governors, senators,
congressmen, officers, ministers, bankers, all classes of peo
ple ; all approached him with confidence, from the highest
to the lowest ; but this incessant labor, and fearful responsi
bility, told upon his vigorous frame. He left Illinois for the
Capital, with a frarae of iron, and nerves of steel. His old
friends, who knew hira in Illinois, as a man who knew not

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS^ 685
what illness was, who knew him ever genial and sparkling
with fun, as fhe months ofthe war passed slowly on, saw the
wrinkles on his forehead deepened into furrows; and the laugh
of old days became, sometimes almost hollow ; it did not
now always corae from the heart, as in former years ; anxiety,
responsibiUty, care, thought, wore upon even his giant
frame, and his nerves of steel became at times irritable.
For more than four years, he had no respite, no holidays.
When others fled away from' tbe dust and heat of the Capi
tal, he must stay ; he would not leave the helm, until the
danger was past.
Mrs. Lincoln watched his care-worn face with the anxiety
Qf an affectionate wife, and sometiraes took him from his
labors almost in spite of himself; she urged him to ride,
and to go to the theatre, to divert his mind from his
engrossing cares.
Let us for a moment try to appreciate the greatness of his
work and his services. He was the Coraraander-in-Chief,
during the war, of the largest army and navy in the world ;
and this army and navy was created during his administra
tion, and its officers were sought out and appointed by him.
The operations of the treasury were vast beyond all previous
conceptions of the ability of the country to sustain ; • and yet
when he entered upon the Presidency, he found an empty
treasury, no credit, no army, no navy, the officers all stran
gers, many deserting, more in syrapathy with the rebels. Con
gress divided, and public sentiment unformed. The party
which elected him was in a minority. The old Democratic
party, which had ruled the country for half a century, hostile ta
him, and by long political association, in sympathy with the
i^iflurgent States. His own party, new, made up of discord
ant elements and not yet consolidated, unaccustomed to rule,
and neither his party nor himself possessing any prestige. He
entered the White House, the object of personal prejudice to a
pajorityof the people, andof contempt to a powerful minority.
And yet t am satisfied from the statement of the conversation
of Mr. Lincoln with Mr. Bateman, quoted hereafter, and from
Yiarious other reasons, that he hiraself more fully appreciated
the terrible conflict before him than any man in the Nation, and

LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
that even then he hoped and expected to be the Liberator of
the slaves. He did not yet clearly perceive the manner in
which it was to be done, but he believed it would be done,
and that God wOuld guide him.
In four years, this raan crushed the raost stupendous rebel
lion, supported by arraies raore vast, and resources greater
than ever before undertook to overthrow any Governraent.
He held together against warring factions, his own great
party ; and strengthened it by securing the confidence, and
bringing to his aid a large proportion of all other parties.
He was reelected alraost by acclaraation, and he led the peo
ple, step by step, up to emancipation, and saw his work
crowned by the Constitutional amendment, eradicating
slavery forever from the Republic. Didthisman lack firraness?
Study the boldness of the act of emancipation. See with
what fidelity he stood by his proclamation.
In his Message of 1863, he said, " I will never retract the
proclamation, nor return to slavery any person made free by
it." In 1864, he said, "if it should ever be made a duty of
the Executive to return to slavery any person made free by
the proclamation or the acts of Congress, sorae other person,
not I, raust execute the law."
When hints of peace were suggested, as obtainable by
giving over the negro race again to bondage, he repelled it
with indignation. When the rebel Vice President Stephens,
at Fortress Monroe, terapted hira to give up the freedmen,
and seek the glory of a foreign war, in which the Union and
Confederate soldiers might join, neither party sacrificing its
honor, he was inflexible ; he would die, sooner than break the
faith pledged to the negro.
Mr. Lincoln did not enter with reluctance upon the plan
of emancipation, and in this statement I ara corroborated by
Lovejoy, and Suraner, and raany others. If he did not act
raore promptly, it was because he knew he must not go
faster than the people. Men have questioned the firmness,
boldness, and will of Mr. Lincoln. He had no vanity in the
exhibition of power, but he quietly acted, when he felt it his
duty so to do, with a boldness and firraness never surpassed.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 687
Wliat bolder act than the surrender of Mason and Slidell,
against the resolution of Congress, and alraost universal
popular claraor, without consulting the Senate, or taking
advice frora his Cabinet? The reraoval of McClellan, and
Butler; the mbdificatipn of the orders of Freraont, and
Hunter, were acts of a bold, decided character. Mr. Lincoln
acted for hiraself, taking personally the responsibUity of
deciding the great questions of his administration.
He was the most democratic of all the Presidents. Per
sonaUy, he was horaely, plain, without pretension, and with
out ostentation. He believed in the people, and had faith in
their good irapulses. He ever addressed himself to their
reason, and not to their prejudices. His language was siraple,
sometiraes quaint, never sacrificing expression to elegance.
When he spoke to the people, it was as though he said to
them, " come, let us reason together." There cannot be found
in all his speeches, or writings, a single vulgar expression,
nor an appeal to any low sentiraent or prejudice. He had
nothing of the demagogue. He never himself aUuded to his
humble origin except to express regret for the deficiencies of
his education. He always treated the people in such a way,
that they knew that he respected them, believed them honest,
capable of judging correctly and disposed to do right.
The following incident, related by Mr. Deming, Member
of Congress from Connecticut, illustrates the religion which
governed his daUy Ufe : On one occasion, Mr. Lincoln said,
"I have never united myself to any church, because I found
difficulty in giving ray assent, without raental reservation, to
the long and complicated statements of Christian doctrine,
which characterize their articles of belief and confessions of
faith. When any church will inscribe over its altar, as its sole
qualification for raerabership, the Saviour's condensed state
ment of the substance of both law and gospel: 'Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul,
and with aU thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that
church shaU I join with aU ray heart and soul."*
One day, when one of his friends was denouncing his
political enemies, "Hold on," said Mr. Lincoln, "Remember
* See Demlng's Eulogy on Lincoln, p. 42.

688 * LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
what St. Paul says, ' and now abideth faith, hope, charity,
these three ; but ihe greatest of these is charity.' "
From the day of his learing Springfield to assume the
duties of the Presidency, when he so impressively asked his
friends and neighbors to invoke for him the guidance and
wisdom of God, to the evening of Ms death, he seemed ever
to live and act in the consciousness of his responsibility to
that God, and with the trusting faith of a child, he leaned con
fidingly upon His Alraighty Arra. He was risited during
his administration by raany Christian delegations, represent
ing the various reUgious denorainations of the Republic, and
it is known that he was relieved and coraforted in his great
work by the knowledge that the Christian world were pray
ing for his success. Sorae one said to him, one day, " no man
was ever so reraerabered in the prayers ofthe people, especially
those who pray ' not to be heard of raen,' as you are."
He replied, " I have been a good deal helped by just that
thought." The support which Mr. Lincoln received during his ad
rainistration from the religious organizations, and the sym
pathy and confidence between the great bpdy of Christians
and the President, was a source of iraraense strength and
power to him.
I know of nothing revealing more of the true character of
Mr. Lincoln, his conscientiousness, his views of the slavery
question, his sagacity and his full appreciation of the awful
trial through which the country and he had to pass, than the
following incident stated by Mr. Bateman, Superintendent
of Public Instruction for Illinois.
On one occasion, in the Auturan of 1860, after conversing
with Mr. Bateman at sorae length, on the, to him, strange
conduct of Christian raen and rainisters of the Gospel
supporting slavery, he said :
" ' I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I
see the storm coming, and 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 nothing, 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

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 689
have told them that a house divided against itself cannot stand ; and
Christ and Eeason 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 oome, and I shall be vindi
cated ; and these men will find that they have not read their Bibles
right.' " Much of this was uttered as if he was speaking to himself, and
with a sad, earnest solemnity of manner impossible to be described.
After a pause, he resumed : ' Does n't it appear strange that men can
ignore the moral aspect of this contest ? A revelation could not make
it plainer to me that slavery or the Government must be destroyed. The
future would be something awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on
which I stand, (alluding to the- Testament which he still held in his
hand,) especially with the knowledge of how these ministers are going
to vote. It seems aa if God had borne with this thing (slavery) until
the very teachers of religion had come to defend it from the Bible, and
to claim for it a divine character and sanction ; and now the cup of
iniquity is full, and the vials of wrath will be poured out.' After this
the conversation was continued for a long time. Everything he said
was of a peculiarly deep, tender and religious tone, and all was tinged
with a touching melancholy. He repeatedly referred tb 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."
The place Mr. Lincoln will occupy in history, will be
higher than any which he held while living. His Eraanci
pation Proclamation is the most iraportant historical event of
the nineteenth century. Its infiuence will not be liraited by
time, nor bounded by locality. It will ever be treated by
the historian as one of the great land-raarks of human
progress. He has been compared and contrasted with three great per-
sonages in history, who were assassinated, — with Csesar, with
WiUiam of Orange, and with Henry the IV. of France. He
was a nobler type of man than either, as he was the product
of a higher and more Christian civilization.
The two men, whose preeminence in American history
wiU not hereafter be questioned, are Washington and Lincoln.
Tiincoln was as pure as Washington, as raodest, as just, as
44

690 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
patriotic ; less passionate by nature, more of a democrat,
with raore faith in the people, and raore hopeful of the
future. Washington will be the representative man of the
era of Independe];ice ; and Lincoln, that of universal liberty.
The cardinal ideas of Lincoln's policy, were national
Unity and Liberty. That the portion of the earth called
the United States should continue the home of one national
family, recognizing the brotherhood of raan, was his grand
aim. This great family, with a continent for a homestead,
un iversal liberty, restrained and guided by intelUgence and
Christianity, was his sublime ideal of the future. For this
he lived, and for this he died.

CHAPTEE XXX,

the constitutional history of the war.
The War Powers of the Government — The right to treat
the Confederates as Public Enemies — The Habeas Corpus,
who may suspend it — The Right to Emancipate Slaves in
time op War — To estalish Military Governments over
Rebellious and Belligerent Territory — The Legal Status
op Rebellious States — Judicial Decisions — ^May Conditions
BE Imposed upon Rebellious States, before being permitted
to participate in the Government — And by what Power —
Who must Determine whether a State Government is
Republican in Form — What has been settled by the War.
I PROPOSE in this, the concluding chapter, to give a
history of the Constitution during the war. During the
rebeUion, a great party condensed into a single, short sen
tence its creed and its policy : "The Union as it was, and ihe
Constitution as it is." To this it was replied, the America of
the past is gone forever; a new nation has been born
through the agony of the great ciril war. The theories and
the institution which produced that war, have been over
thrown, and their roots are being eradicated. Changes in the
consfruction of the Constitution ; in the development of its
long dormant and scarcely suspected war powers, andaraend-
ments to the Constitution itself, have produced changes
which alraost araount to a revolution. The attention of the
people has,been so absorbed by the stirring scenes of the con
flict, by the hopes which elated, and the fears which depressed
them, that they have scarcely noticed, in the presence of
these more stirring events, this revolution. A revolution as
important in its results as the defeat of hostUe armies, or the
overthrow of armed rebellion.
Great civil wars have almost always produced great changes.
691

692 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
When they have secured liberty and justice; when they
have exalted the sentiment of national honor; and when, in
any large degree, they have promoted the public welfare,
then the results which they have produced, are more import
ant, raore paramount, more permanent, and more worthy
of adrairation than the most renowned of victories. War, in
itself, is but a record of suffering, heightened often, it is true,
by the display of the highest rirtue and capacity, but chiefiy
interesting from its results ; and as the means to accoraplish
great ends. The raost valuable lessons in history are
derived, not from mere military operations, but frora the
conffict of the great ideas and principles which underlie all
great wars. In the great and *sad tragedy of our civil war,
crowded, as it has been, with scenes of the raost intense
interest, nothing is raore iraportant than the great political
revolution which it has accomplished. The two great ideas
' which the Union armies represented, were Nationality and
Liberty. At the South, it was Slavery and the State. Na
tional Unity and Universal Freedom have triumphed ; and,
with their triumph, there has been a great change of opinion
in respect to the war powers of the Governraent under the
Constitution, including the powers of the President and
Congress, on the subject of rebellion, slavery, treason, and
war. The history of these changes, the Constitutional history
of ihe war, is worthy of the profound study of all enlightened
statesmen and thinkers, of all who trust in and admire, or
who fear the progress of popular government.
It is, doubtless, too early to write this part of the history
of the great conflict. The atmosphere is not yet clear of
the clouds of the contest, and the billows of contending
opinion have not yet entirely subsided. I propose to note
some of the changes, and thereby aid those who, in cooler
and calmer days, shall make up the record.
Let us go back, and see what was the condition of public
opinion, which in our country raakes the law, preceding the
war, on the subjects suggested, and corapare it with the
present, and the great changes will be obvious and striking.
The best evidence of public opinion upon the construction
of the Constitution in regard to slavery. State rights, the

PUBLIC opinion BEFORE THE WAR. 693
National Government, and the war powers under the Constitu
tion, is to be found in the platforms of the great political
parties, in the raessages and action of the Executive, and the
action of the several departments of the Government, the
speeches of leading statesraen, and resolutions of public
meetings. The platform of the Republican party, on which President
Lincoln was elected, contained this resolution :
" Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States ;
and especially the right of each State to order and control its own do
mestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential
to the balance of power on which ther perfection and endurance ofour
political fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed
force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext,
as among the gravest crimes."
Democratic resolutions, beginning in 1840, and continuing
to 1860, were repetitions of the following :
" Resolved, That Congress has no power under the Constitution to
interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the several
States," etc.
The ancient and long established doctrine of the Demo
cratic party in relation to slavery was expressed in the Oincivr
nati Platform in 1856, as follows: "That Congress has no
pmeer under the Constitution to interfere with, or control ihe domestic
institutions of the several States, and that all such States are the
sole and proper judges of everything appertaining to their
affairs not prohibited by the Constitution."
The Attorney General of the United States, Judge Black,
in an official opinion dated November 20, 1860, (being about
two weeks after Mr. Lincoln's election, and presented to the
Cabinet of President Buchanan,) declares in substance, that
war raade by Congress upon a seceding State would dissolve
the Union, and thus legaUze secession. His words are :
" If it be true that war cannot be declared, nor a system of geheral
hostilities carried on by the central Government against a State, (as he

694 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
had previously attempted to show,) then it seems to follow that an
attempt to do so would be ipso facto an expulsion of such State from the
Union; being treated as an alien and an enemy, she would be compelled
to act accordingly. Arid if Congress shall break up the present Union
by unconstitutionally putting strife and enmity between difi'erent sec
tions of the country, instead of the domestic tranquility which the
Constitution was meant to insure, will not all the States he absolved from
their Federal obligations ? Is any portion of th^ people hound to
contribute their money or their blood to carry on a contest like that P "
President Buchanan, in his Message of December 3, 1860,
says :
" The question fairly stated is : Has the Constitution delegated to
Congress the right to coerce a State into submission, which is attempt
ing to withdraw, or has actually withdrawn from the Confederacy ? If
answered in the affirmative it must be upon the principle that power
has been conferred upon Congress to declare . or to make war upon a
State. After much serious reflection, I have arrived at the conclusion
that no such power has been delegated to Congress or to any other
department of the Eederal Government. * sjj * * *
Without descending to particulars, it may be safely asserted that the
power to make war against a State is at variance with the whole spirit
of the Constitution. * * * * Congress possesses many
means of preserving it, (the Union,) by conciliation, but the sword was
not placed in their hands to preserve it by force."
It was resolved by Congress in 1861, by a nearly unani
mous vote ; " That neither the Federal Governraent nor the
people, or the Governments of -the non-slaveholding States
have the right to legislate upon or interfere with slavery in
any of the slaveholding States of the Union."
On the 14th of January, 1861, Mr. Corwin, Chairman of
a Select Committee of thirty-three, reported a series of prop
ositions to the House of Representatives, the flrst of
which was adopted in the forra of a Joint Resolution by a
vote of 137 to 53, in the House, and was subsequently
passed by the Senate, contained the following :
" Resolved, That it is the duty of the Federal Government to enforce
the Federal laws, protect the Federal property and preserve the Union
of these States.

PUBLIC OPINION BEFORE THE WAR. 695
" Reioh/ed, That we recognize slavery as now existing in fifteen of
the United States by the usages and laws of those States, and we recog
nize no authority legally or otherwise, outside of a State where it so
exists, to interfere with slaves or slavery in such States, in disregard of
the rights of their owners or the peace of society."
The foUowing resolutions passed the United States House
of Representatives, February llth, 1861, 116 yeas, 4 nays:
" Resolved, That neither the Federal Government nor the people,
nor Governments of the non-slaveholding States have a purpose or a
Constitutional right to legislate upon or interfere with slavery in any of
the States of the Union.
" Resolved, That those persons in the North who do not subscribe to
the foregoing propositions are too insignificant in numbers and influence
to excite the serious attention or alarm of any portion of the people of
the Republic ; and that the increase of their numbers and influence
does not keep pace with the increase of the aggregate population of the
Union." On the 28th of February, 1861, a Joint Resolution was
passed, 133 to 65, providing for an araendraent of the
Constitution, as follows :
" Art. 12. No amendment shall be made to the Constitution which
shall authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or to interfere
within any State, with the domestic institutions thereof, including that
of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said State."
Abraham Lincoln, in his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1861,
says : " I have no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere
with the institution of slavery in the States where it exists.
I believe Ihave no lawful right to do so, and I have no incUnation
to do so."
President Lincoln again says in his Inaugural Address of
March 4th, 1861 : "I understand a proposed amendment to
the Constitution, which amendment, however, I have not
seen, has passed Congress, to the effect that the Federal Gov
ernment shall never interfere with ihe domestic institutions of ihe
States including thai of persons held io service. To avoid mis
construction of whatl have said, I depart frora ray purpose
not to speak of particular araendraents so far as to say that,

b% LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
holding such a provision now to be implied Constiiuiional law, I
have no objection to its being made express and irrevocable."
' I have already in this volurae detailed the action of the
miUtary leaders early in the war, in regard to slavery. They
were very slow, as we have seen, to assert belligerent rights
against the slaveholders. For a tirae they would not permit
any interference with slaves or slavery; and the strange,
almost incredible spectacle was presented, of the Nation's
attempting to carry on war against the slaveholding Confed
eracy, refusing to accept the loyal services of a very con
siderable portion of the people of the Confederacy be-^ause
they were black, and for a time, raany officers of the urray,
not only refused to accept such service, but actually used the
Federal army to return loyal men to the rebel authorities, to
be used in strengthening the power of the insurgents.
After actual war had been comraenced by the insurgents,
after the Confederate Government had been established, Mr.
Seward, Secretary of State, on the 10th of April, 1861, thus
writes to Charles F. Adaras, our Minister to England : *
" For these reasons he (the President) would not be disposed to re
ject a cardinal dogma of theirs (the secessionists), namely : that the
Federal Govemment could not reduce the seceding States to obedience hy
conquest, even though he were disposed to question that proposition.
But in fact the President wiUingly adopts it as true. Only an imperial
or despotic Government could subjugate thoroughly disafiected and in
surrectionary members of the State. This Federal Republican system
is, of all forms of Government, the very one which is m^st unfitted for
such a labor. Happily, however, this is only an imaginary defect.
The system has within itself adequate, peaceful, and recuperative forces.
Firmness on the part of the Government in maintaining and preserving
the public institutions and property, and in executing the laws where
amthority can he exercised without waging war, combined with such
measures of justice, moderation and forbearance as will disarm reason
ing opposition, will be sufficient to secure the public safety, until re
turning reflection, concurring with the fearful experience of social evils,
the inevitable fruits of faction, shall bring the recreant members cheer
fuUy back into the family, which, after all, must prove their best and
• Diplomatic Correspondence of 1S61.

PUBUC OPINION BEFORE THE WAR. 697
happiest, as it undeniably is, their most natural home. The Constitu
tion of the United States provides for that return, by authorizing Con
gress, on application to be made by a certain majority of States, to
assemble a National Gonventien, in which the organic law can, if need-
fid, he revised so as to remove all real obstacles to a reunion so suitable
to the habits of tbe people, and so eminently conducive to the common
safety and welfare. Keeping that remedy steadily in view, the Presi
dent, on one hand, will not sufier the Federal authority to fall into
abeyance ; nor will he, on the other, aggravate existing evils by attempts
at coercion, which must assume the form of direct war against any of
the revolutionary States. If, while he is pursuing this course, com
mended as it is by prudence and by patriotism, the scourge of civil
war, for the first time in our history, must fall upon our country during
the term of his administration, that calamity will then have come,
through the agency, not of the Government, but of those who shall
have chosen to be its armed, open, and irreconcilable enemies ; and he
will not suffer himself to doubt that, when the value of the imperilled
Union shall be brought in that fearful manner home to the business
and bosoms of the American people, they will, with an unanimity that
shall vindicate their wisdom and their virtue, rise up and save it."
The Secretary of State writes to Mr. Adaras, February
17th, 1862, as foUows :
" To proclaim the crusade (against slavery) is unnecessary ; and it
wonld even be inexpedient, because it would deprive us of the needful
and legitimate support of the friends of the Union who are opposed to
slavery, but who prefer union with slavery, to disunion without slavery.
Does France or does Great Britain want to see a social revolution here,
with all its horrors, . hke the slave revolution in St. Domingo ? Are
these powers sure that the country, or the world, is ripe for such a rev
olution, so that it must certainly be successful? What if, in inau
gurating such a revolution, slavery, protesting against ferocity and
inhumanity, should prove the victor ? " *
*It is a tact worthy of note, that Mr. Seward, earlylln 1862, deprecating emanci
pation as " a crusade " against slavery, asks : " Does France or does Great Britain
want to see a social revolution here, with all its horrors, Uke the slave revolution ol
St. Domingo." Emancipation came, through President Lincoln, within less than
a year from the date of Mr. Seward's letter, but to the credit of the long-abused
negro race, let it he remembered, that it produced no " horrors," no outrages upon
the part of the freedmen, upon their late masters. Mr. Lincoln, in proclaimmg
emancipation, had enjoined "npon the people so declared free, to abstain from
all violence (see p. 299) except in self-defense." This admonition of their benefac-
tor they have scrupulously observed. Compare the conduct of the two classes, the

698 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Mr. Seward writes to Mr. Adaras, July 5th, 1862 : *
" It is a satisfaction to know that a copy of my dispatch 260, has
been received and read to Earl Kussell. The subject it presents is one
of momentous import. It seems as if the extreme advocates of African
slavery and its most vehement opponents were acting in concert together
to precipitate a servile war — the former hy making the most desperate
attempts to overthrow the Federal Union; the latter hy demanding an
edict of universal emancipation as a lawful and necessary, if not, as
they say, the only legitimate way of saving the Union."
Mr. Seward, writing to Mr. Adams on a prerious occasion,

" The rights ofthe States, and the condition of every human being in
them, will remain precisely the same, whether the revolution shall succeed
or whether it shall fail. In one case the States would be federally con
nected with the new Confederacy ; in the other, they would, as now,
be members of the United States, but their constitutions and laws,
customs, habits and institutions in either case will remain the same."
The People's Convention, which raet in Fanueil Hall, Bos
ton, in October, 1862, and which contained araong its
members, Joel Parker, Professor of Law at Cambridge, and
B. F. Thoraas, an ex-judge of the Suprerae Court of
Massachusetts, passed the following resolutions :
" Resolved, That we deeply regret that the President of the United
States at this time, forgetful of his obligations to the whole country as
the constitutional head of the Govemment, and yielding to unwise coun
sels, should have declared in his Proclamation of September 22d, 1862,
his determination to adopt hereafter, in the prosecution of our deplo
rable civil war, the policy of a party which the House of Eepresenta
tives, by the resolutions of February llth, 1861, unanimously declared
to be too insignificant in numbers and influence to excite the serious
attention or alarm of any portion of the people of the Eepublic.
" Resolved, That in the name of civihzed humanity, we respectfully
hut earnestly protest against the Emancipation Proclamation of the
freedmen aud their rebel masters, towards each other since the day of the eman
cipation of the former; and which has been guilty of the most violence, the
greater number of outrages, and "horrors'!" Let Memphis and New Orleans
answer. ?Diplomatic Correspondence, Part 1, p. 124. By the time this dispatch reached
Mr. Adams, Mr. Lincoln had written the Proclamation of Emancipation.^

THE RIGHT TO EMANCIPATE SLAVES DENIED. 699
President of the United States, both on the ground of its unconstitu
tionality and inexpediency.'^ *
In a publication issued in November, 1862, one of the ex-
judges of the Suprerae Court of the United States, B. R.
Curtis, denied that the President of the United States had
the power, under the Constitution, to eraancipate the slaves
in the rebellious States. He denied the right of the Com
mander-in-Chief of. our army to raake railitary arrests, ex
cept within the lines of his military operations in the field.
He held that the local laws of the rebel States, which regu
lated their domestic relations, were still valid as against the
mUitary power of the United States, even after the inhabi
tants of such States had become public enemies, and, there
fore, that they were not superseded by the laws of war. He
denied that offences not declared as such by statutes of the
United States, could be lawfully punished in time of war by
military or other tribunals, thus repudiating the operation
of the laws of war in the insurgent States as applicable to a
time of actual hostilities. He denied the right of the Presi
dent to suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus, or to extend
martial law over the country in time of war.
The Monthly Law Reporter, the leading law journal of New
England, pubUshed in June, 1862, an article denying the
right of Congress to pass laws to conflscate the property, or
to eraancipate the slaves of the pubUc eneray, (Vol. XXIV.,
No. vm.,) and asserted the doctrine that in the punishment
of treason only, the life estate of the traitor could be taken
from him.
The article asserted "that when a Government is no
longer able to protect its citizens, it has no right to demand
that they should obey its laws." It took the ground that
"Congress should not legislate, during the rebeUion, in
such manner as to bind those persons who were within the
district frora which our authority was excluded by the
rebels." "The sound constitutional principle," says this
learned journal, "which is the result of the authorities,
seems to be this : where a usurping power has seized upon
"^ese and similar resolutions, adopted by very worthy and ^^"^"^s^ed clU-
zens, ought to silence those who charge Mr. Linpoln with bemg stow m Issuing the
Emancipation Proclamation.

700 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the Governraent and excluded the rightful authority from
the exercise of its functions, it raay claira the obedience of
the district throughout which its power extends. If, in obe
dience to the comraand of this power, the inhabitants take
up arras against their lawful sovereign, they are not liable to
the pains and penalties of treason. The power which actu
ally governs raay be safely served in arms by those whom it
protects." It also asserted that, unless in exceptional cases,
it was settled law " that the private property of enemy's
subjects upon land is not liable to seizure ; and that even the
right of conquest includes the confiscation of the public prop
erty only of the conquered State ; " and that there was no dis
tinction to be taken between a rebellion and a public war in
the application of this rule. " Hence it is apparent," says
this journal, " that by the rules which govern the relations
of belligerents to each other, the confiscation of the real
property of the rebels is irapossible." The miUtary power
to emancipate slaves was also denied.
It seems to have been the deliberate opinion of President
Buchanan, and of most of his original Cabinet, that while
the States had no right to secede, yet it would be a violation
of the Constitution to prevent secession by coercion.
The advocates of extreme State rights, under the lead of
Calhoun, had, in 1833, claimed the right of nullification,
but this claim was so corapletely overthrown by Webster in
his great speeches in reply to Hayne and Calhoun, and was
so emphatically repudiated by President Jackson, Edward
Livingston, atid the leading statesmen of that day, that it
for a while had found little encourageraent.* As the Gov
ernment had passed more and raore into the hands of slave
holders, we have seen to what an alarraing extent it had
been sanctioned throughout the country.
*It is known that General Jackson always 'regretted that he did not cause the
arrest, trial, and if convicted, execution of Calhoun. I have Information, upon
which I am authorized to state that Henry Clay, who Introduced, and by his per
sonal Influence and eloquence, carried through the Compromise Tariff of 1833, In
after years expressed regret that he had done so. He expressed the opinion that It
would have been better for the country, if the issue had been left to be decided be
tween the National Government and the authorities of South Carolina^— between
President Jackson aud Calhoun. This opinion of Mr. Clay, expressed some years
before the slaveholders' rebellion, has often been repeated during the war— many
believing that the conviction and sentence of Calhoun, as a traitor, might have
saved the Republic from the late rebelUon.

THE RIGHT TO SUBJUGATE STATES DENIED. 701
Even Mr. Seward had said " thai the Federal Govemment
could not reduce ihe seceding States to obedience by conquest. That
only an imperial or despotic government could subjugate thoroughly
disaffected and insurrectionary members of the State. That the
federal republican systera of ours is, of all forms of govern
ment, the very one which is mosi unfitted for such a labor. That
President Lincoln would not, on one hand, suffer the Federal
authority to fall into abeyance, nor would he, on the other,
aggravate existing evils by •atterapts at coercion which
must assume the form of direct war against any of the
revolutionary States."
The prevalence of these opinions which extended to some
of the officers of the army, and even to members of the
Cabinet themselves, greatly embarrassed the Government in
carrying on the war, and for a time irapaired materially its
power. The right to emancipate the slaves of the enemy, to con
fiseate his property, real and personal, to conderan rebels for
freason for acts done under authority of the Rebel Govern
ment, and the power of the Governraent, to enrol into its
miUtary serrice all its citizens, on the ground that the claim
of a rebel master to service could not stand in the way of the
claim of the governraent to military service of all who could
bear arras, were all denied, not only by the insurgents, but
by their friends in the loyal States, and by a considerable
number of persons whose opinions were raisled by the
sophistry of the press in the interests of the rebellion.
The Governraent was greatly erabarrassed at first by the
claim set up by the rebels and their friends, that they were
entitled to be treated as citizens. That although making
war against the RepubUc, they were still citizens, and could
be dealt with only according to the forras ofthe Constitution
and laws as administered in time of peace. They themselves
claimed to be under no restraints except those imposed by
the laws of war, but the Government, they contended, raust
take care not to violate the Constitution and the civil law.
In reply, it was charged that the rebels were beUigerents,
and the Government had the right to treat them as such ;
not only as pubUc enemies, but as rebels— citizens violating
the laws of their country.

702 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
Mr. Lincoln says, in his admirable reply to the Albany
meeting :
II «»******** Under cover of 'Uberty of speech,' 'liberty of thp
press,' and ' habeas corpus,' they hoped to keep on foot amongst us a most efii
cient corps of spies, informers, suppliers, and aiders and abettors of their cause in
a thousand ways. They knew that in times suoh as they w6re inaugurating, by
the Constitution itself, the ' habeas corpus ' might be suspended ; but they also
knew tliey had friends who would make a question as to who was to suspend it ;
meanwhile their spies and others might remain at large to help on their cause.
Or if, as has happened, the Executive should suspend the writ, without ruinous
waste of time, instances of arresting Innocent persons might occur, as are always
likely to occur in such cases ; and then a clamor could be raised in regard to this,
which might be, at least, of some service to the insurgent cause. It needed no very
keen perception to discover this part of the enemy's programme ; so soon as by
open ho.stiUties their machinery was fairly put in motion. *«*«***»"
Mr. Lincoln soon discovered "the enemy's programrae,"
as he terraed it ; yet thoroughly irabued with a reverence
for the guaranteed rights of indiriduals, he was slow to
adopt the strong raeasures indispensable to public safety.
The rights guaranteed by the Constitution to loyal citizens,
such as freedom of the press, freedom of speech, the right of
trial by jury, the right to bear arras, were all claimed by
traitors in the North, even when used only to protect the
notorious enemies of the Union in the execution of their
treasonable plans. There was a period in the history of the
rebellion, when, under the color of such claims, and in the
absence of decisive measures on the part of the administrar
tion, there was serious danger of a civil conflict in the loyal
States. There was a time when treason and disloyalty, by
means of secret societies, had spread to a dangerous extent
over certain localities in the free States. There were locali
ties in which the military authority of the Coramander-in-
Chief was disregarded by local judges and civil State officers ;
attempts were made to raise conflicts between the Federal
military power and the State judiciary ; operations for raising
volunteers and recruiting the array were baffled, or embar
rassed by individuals and organized parties; the National
credit was assailed and sought to be destroyed. But the
strong good sense and sagacity of President Lincoln, careful
and conservative as he was, were equal to the deraands of the
crisis. The public raind was guided towards correct conclu
sions, and aU the officers of the Government, aided by a

THE WAR POWERS. 703
treatise upon the war powers of the President, and of Con
gress, published in 1862, by William Whiting, Esq., of the
Boston bar.*
The author justified the action of the President, in the
exercise of all the powers he had used, as entirely consistent
with, nay, demanded by his Constitutional obligations. He
advocated with ability the doctrine — then somewhat novel
aud much disputed — that under the provisions of the Con
stitution itself, the President and Congress were clothed
with ample war powers against the inhabitants of the rebel
lious States, and had the right to treat thera, in all respects,
as public enemies, according to the laws of war ; while, at
* Soon after the pubUcation of his book upon the war powers, Mr. Whiting waa
requested by the Administration to come to Washington, and act as special coun
sel and soUcitor of the War Department. No such office had at that time been
established by law, but so many questions of extreme difficulty and delicacy were
conUnually arising, and such was the confidence inspired by this book, that he
was urged to accept this very responsible position. Mr. Whiting, with a patriotism
and generous love of countiy, as rare as it was honorable, left a very large and
very lucrative practice at the bar, and went to Washington, and entered upon the
duties of his position, decUning to receive any compensation. He entered upon
his duties as the law adviser of the War Department late in 1862. He soon acquired
the perfect confldence and warm personal friendship of Mr. Lincoln, and the
respect of his Cabinet. The office of Solicitor of the War Department was subse
quently estabUshed by act of Congress, and Mr. Whiting was appointed to fill it,
but, I beUeve, he decUned receiving any compensation, remaining at his post, a
feithful, disinterested and most useful officer, down to the surrender of Lee, and
the close of the war. During this period, the services of few men, under the Gov
ernment, were more varied and responsible. He gave opinions, written and
verbal, to the President ; he furnished written opinions to the Seoretary of War,
and the heads of the Navy, and State Departments, in regard to questions arising
out of the war, and the law of nations. At the same time, Mr. AVhitlng occupied a
position towards Congress not unlike that of solicitor to the British Parliaraent.
He was, as his writings abundantly indicate, an intelligent and radical abolitionist,
besides being a very learned and accurate lawyer; aud he was in constant con
sultation with the committees and individual members of both Houses of Congress,
aiding by his counsel and advice and his professional knowledge in the important
legislation of Congress. His opinions were constantly sought upon questions
growing out of confiscation, slavery, arrests, and Involving international, belliger
ent, maratime and martial law, and the local law of the States. He had tho
pleasure to be with the army at the time of the assault and capture of Petersburg,
and to enter the city of Richmond with President Lincoln after its surrender. The
publications of Mr. Whiting, including the " War Powers," " Military Arrests,"
"Reconstruction," and " Military Government," were, as I think it will be con
ceded, the most valuable and practicable works on the legal and constitutional
questions growing out of the war, which have as yet been given to the public.
¦WhUe there are many whowUl dissent from some ofhis conclusions, all wiU
admit the learning, integrity, and patriotism, which have inspired him in their
production. Among those who faithfully, and unselfishly, with a supreme love of
Uberty and of country, gave their services to the RepubUc during its days of trial,
and who rendered valuable services, should be written the name of William
Whiting.

704 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
the same tirae, the rebels could not, by rebellion, treason,
and war, escape the penalties to which, as citizens, they were
liable. Mr. Whiting says : *
" War may be divided into two classes, foreign and civil. In aU civU wars the
govemment claims the belligerents on both sides, as subjects, and has the legal
right to treat the Insurgents both as subjects and as belligerents ; and they there
fore may exercise the full and untrammelled powers of war against their subjects,
or they may, in their discretion, relieve them from any of the pains and penalties
attached to either of these characters. The right of a country to treat its rebellions
citizens both as belligerents and as subjects has long been recognized in Europe, and
by the Supreme Court of the United States. In the clvU war between St. Domingo
and France, such rights were exercised, and were recognized as legitimate in Hose
V. Himely, i Cranch, 272. So in Cherrol V. Foussatt, 3 Binuey, 252.
" In Dobrie v. Napier, 3 Scott R. 225, it was held that ablockade of the coast of Por
tugal, by the Queen of that country, was lawful, and a vessel was condemned as a
lawful prize for running the blockade The cases of the Saniisima Trindad, 7, Wheat.
306, and United States v. Falmer, 3 W. 635, confirm this dOctrme. By the terms of the
the constitution defining treason, a traitor Tnust be a subject and a belligerent, and
none but a belligerent subject can be a traitor.

" Having thus the fuUpowers and right of making and carrying on war against
rebels, both as subjects and belligerents, this right frees the President and Congress
fi'om the difficulties which might arise if rebels could be treated only as subjects,
and if war could not be waged upon them. If conceding to rebels the privileges of
belligerents, should relieve theni from some of the harsher penalties of treason,
it will subject them to the liabilities of the belligerent character. The privileges
and the disadvantages are correlative. But it is by no means conceded that the
govemment may not exercise the right of treating the same rebels both as subjects
and as belligerents. The constitution defines a rebel who commits treason as one
who "levies war" ou the United States; and the laws punish this highest of
crimes with death, thus expressly treating the same person as subject and beUigerent.
Those who save their necks from the halter by claiming to be treated as prisoners
of war, and so to protect themselves under the shield of belligerent rights, must
bear the weight of that shield, and submit to the legal consequences of the charac
ter they claim. They cannot sail under two flags at the same time. But a rebel
does not cease to be a subject because he has turned traitor. The constitution
expressly authorizes Congress to pass laws to punish traitor— that is, belUgerent
—subjects ; and suppressing rebellion by armed force is making war. Therefore,
the war powers of the government give full belligerent rights against rebels lu
arms. " To deterraine what are the rights of different nations when making war upon
each other, we look only to the law o'f nations. The peculiar forms or rights of tho
subjects of one of these war-making parties under their own government, give
them no rights over their enemy other than those which are sanctioned by inter
national law. . In the great tribunal of nations, there is a ' higher law ' than that
which has been framed by either one of them, however sacred to each its owu
peculiar laws and constitution of goverfiment may be.
" But whUe this supreme law is in full force, and is binding on aU countries, soften
ing the asperities of war, and guarding the rights of neutrals. It is not conceded
that the government of the Uuited States, in a civil war for the suppression of
rebellion among its own citizens, is subject to the same limitations as though the
rebels were a foreign nation, owing no aUegiance to the country."
* War Powers, pp. M.

THE WAR POWERS. 705
Having deraonstrated that the Governraent was clothed
by the Constitution with the full powers of war, aud that
the only liraitation of these powers were found in the law of
nations, and not in the Constitution, the author of "The
War Powers " proceeds to set forth several important prin-
ples of belligerent law in accordance therewith, and to show
that in this rebellion, the Adrainistration was justified in the
employment of them all. He showed that the United States
had the right to seize and confiscate all the property of the
enemy on land and on the sea, including real as well as per
sonal estate. That where property on land was captured from
the enemy, capture itself passed the title to the captors, and
no judicial proceeding was necessary ; but where a prize
was captured on the sea, after our declaration of blockade,
the decision of a prize court was necessary to confirm the
title of the captors. That it .would depend upon the policy
of the Govemment, whether belUgerent citizens should be
allowed civil rights under the Constitution, inasmuch as
"none of the rights guaranteed to peaceful citizens by
the Constitution, belong to thera after they have becorae
belUgerents against their own government."
" Some persons," says Mr. Whiting, " have questioned whether title passes in
this country by capture, or confiscation, by reason of some of the limiting clauses
of the constitution ; and others have gone so far as to assert that all the proceed
ings under martial law, such as capturing enemy's property. Imprisonment of
spies and traitors, and seizures of articles contraband of war, and suspending the
habeas corpus, are In violation of the constitution which declare that no man shall
be deprived of Ufe, liberty, or property without due process of law ; ¦* that private
property shall not be taken for public use without just compensation.;t that un
reasonable searches and seizures shall not be made ;J: that freedom of speech and
of the press shall not be abridged ;J aud that the rights of the people to keep and
bear arms shall not be infringed. ||
" THESE PKOVISIONS NOT APPLICABLE TO A STATE OP WAE.
"If these rules are appUcable to a state of war, then capture of property is illegal,
and does not pass a title; no defensive war can be carried on; no rebellion can be
suppressed ; no invasion can be repelled : the army of the United States, when
called into the fleld, can do no act of hostility. Not a gun can be fired constitution
ally, because it might deprive a rebel foe of bis life without due process of !««;— firing
a gun not beiug deemed a ' due process of law.'
" Sec. 4 of Art IV. says, that ' the United States shall guarantee to every State in
this Union arepubUcan form of govemment, and shaU protect each ofthem
• Constitutional Amendments, Art. V.
t Ibid, Art. V.
X Ibid, Art. IV.
§ Ibid, Art. L
J Ibid, Art. II.
45

706 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAERY.
against Invasion, and, on application of the legislature, or of the Executive, when
the legislature cannot be convened, against domestic violence.'
" Art. I. Sec. 8, gives Congress power to declare war, raise and support armies,
provide and maintain a navy ; to provide for calling forth the militia to execute
the laws of the Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasion ; to provide for
organizing, arming, and disciplining the mUitia, and for governing such part of
them as may be In the service of the United States.
"If these rules above cited have any application in time of war, the United
States cannot protect each of the States from invasion by citizens of other States,
nor against domestic violence ; nor can the army, militia, or navy be used for
any of the purposes for which the constitution authorizes or requires their employ
ment. If all men have the right to ' keep and bear arms,' what right has the army
of the Union to take them away from the rebels 7 If ' no man can constitutionally
he deprived of his life, liberty or property, without due process of law,' by what
right does government seize and hang traitors? By what right does the army kill
rebels in arms, or burn their mUitary stores?
" TKUE APPLICATION OF THESE CONSTITUTIOlirAL GCAEANTEES.
" The clauses which have been cited from the amendments to the constitution
were intended as declarations of the rights of peaceful and loyal citizens, and safe
guards iu the adminstration of justice by the civil tribunals; butit was necessary,
in order to give the government the means of defending itself against domestic
or foreign enemies, to maintain its authority and dignity and to enforce obedience
to its laws, that it should have unlimited war powers ; audit must not be forgot
ten that the same authority which provides those safeguards, and guarantees those
rights also imposes upon the President and Congress the duty of so carrying on
war, as of necessity to supersede and hold in temporary suspense sucli civil rights
as may prove inconsistent with the complete and effectual exercise of such war
powers, and of the beUigerent rights resulting from them. The rights of war and
the rights of peace cannot co-exist. One must yield to the other. Martial law and
civil law cannot operate at the same time and place upon the same subject matter.
Hence the constitution is framed with full recognition of that fact; it protects
the citizen in peace and in war; but his rights enjoyed under the constitution, in
time of peace, are different from those to which he is entitled in time of war.
" WHETHER BBLLieEKENTS SHALL BE ALLOWED CIVIL EIGHTS UN DEE THE CONSTI-
TUTION DEPENDS UPON THE POLICY OP GOVERNMENT.
"None ofthese rights, guaranteed to peaceful citizens by the constit^ution, belong to them
after fliey have becoine belligerents against their own government. They thereby forfeit aU
protection under that sacred charter which they have thus sought tooverthrow and
destroy. One party to a contract cannot break it and at the same time hold the other
to perform it. It is true that if the government elects to treat them as subjects
and hold them liable only to penalties for violating statutes, it must concede to
them all the legal rights and privileges which other citizens would have under
similar accusations ; and Congress must be Umited to the provisions of the consti
tution in legislation against them as citizens. But the fact that war is waged by
these miscreants, releases the government from all obligation to make tliat conces
sion, or to respect the rights of life, liberty, or property of the enemy, because the
constitution makes it the duty of the President to prosecute war against theni In
order to suppress rebellion and repel invasion.
In addition to the right of confiscating enemy's property,
a state of civil war confers upon the Government other not
less important belligerent rights ; and among these rights is
that of seizing and holding conquered territory by force, and of
instituting and maintaining military Government over it, thereby
suspending the ordinary civil administration.

THE WAR POWERS. 707
This right was exercised by Mr. Lincoln from the beginning
?f the war, and was never very seriously questioned.
On this point Mr. Whiting says :
"Any section of this country, which, having joined in a general rebellion, shall
have been subdued and conquered by the military fbrces of the Uuited States', may
be subjected to military government, and the'rights of citizens in tiiose districts
are subject to martial law, so long as the war lasts. Whatever of their rights of
property are lost in and by the war, are lost forever. No citizen, whether loyal or
rebel, is deprived of any right guaranteed to him in the Constitution by reason of
his subjection to martial law, because martial law, when in force, is Constitutional law.
The people of the United States, through their lawfully chosen Commander-in-
Chief, have the constitutional right to seize and hold the territory of a belligerent
enemy, and to govern it by martial law, thereby superseding the local government
of the place, and all rights which rebels might have had as citizens of the United
States, if they had not violated the laws of the land by making war upon the
country. " By martial law, loyal citizens may be for a time debarred from enjoying the
rights they would be entitled to in time of peace. Individual rights must always
be held subject to the exigencies of National safety.
" In war, when martial law is in force, the laws of war are the laws which the
Constitution expressly authorizes and requires to be enforced. The Constitution,
when it calls into action martial law, for the time changes civil rights, or rights
which the citizen would be entitled to in peace, because the rights of persons in
one of these cases are totaUy incompatible with the obligations of persons in the
other. Peace and war cannot exist together ; the laws of peace and of war cannot
operate together ; the rights and procedures of peaceful times are incompatible
with those of war. It is an obvious but pernicious error to suppose that in a stcUe
of war, the rules of martial law, and the consequent modification of the rights,
duties, and obligations of citizens, private aud public, are not authorized strictly
under the OonstUiiUon. And among these rights of martial law, none is more famil
iar than that of seizing and establishing a military government over territory
taken from the enemy ; and the duty of thus protecting such territory is impera
tive, since the United States are obligated to guarantee to each State a republicail
form of govemment. That form of government having been overthrown by force,
the country must take such steps, military and civil, as may tend to restore It to
the loyal citizens of that State, if there be any; and if there be no persons who
WiU submit to the Constitution and laws of the United States, it is their duty to
hold that State by military power, and under military rule, until loyal citizens
ShaU appear there in sufficient numbers to entitle them to receive back into their
own hands the local government."
A still more severe rule of belligerent law is laid down in
relation to enemy's property and enemy's slaves, and the
right of seizure of all property situated in the enemy's
country when necessary for military purposes, and there
" are no limits to the war making power of the President,
other than the law of Nations, and such rules as Congress
may pass for their regulation."
" Against aU persons in arms, and against aU property situated and seized in
rebellious districts, the laws of war give the President full belligerent rights ; and
when the army and navy are once lawfully caUed out, there are no lirniis to the war-
maUng power ofthe President, other than (he law ofnaiixyns, and smih rules as Congress
may pass for their regulation.

708 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
"'The Statute of 1807, chap. 39,' says a learned judge, 'provides that whenever ll
Is lawful for the President to call forth the miUtla to suppress an insurrection, he
may employ the land and naval forces for that purpose. The authority to use the
army Is thus expressly conflrmed, but the manner in which they are to be used Is
not prescribed. That is left to the discretion of the President, guided by the usages
and principles of civilized war."
The right of the President, as a question of law, to eraan
cipate the slaves of any belUgerent portion of the United
States, was a question of great interest early in the conflict;
and was widely discussed by the press, and in Congress. Mr.
Lincoln, as we have seen, early came to the conclusion, that
as Commander-in-Chief, he possessed that right, and he
exercised it.
The argument upon the legality of such exercise is very
clearly and ably stated by Mr. Whiting. He says :
" The liberation of slaves is looked upon as a means of embarrassing or weaken
ing the enemy, or of strengthening the military power of our army. If slaves be
treated as contraband of war, on the ground that they may be used hy their mas
ters to aid in prosecuting war, as employees upon military works, or as laborers
furnishing by their industry the means of carrying on hostilities ; or if they be
treated as, in law, belligerents, following the legal condition of their owners ; or if
they be deemed loyal subjects having a just claim upon the government to bo
released from their obligations to give aid and service to disloyal and belligerent
masters, in order that they may be free to perform their higher duty of allegiance
and loyalty to the United States; orif they be regarded as subjects ofthe United
States, liable to do military duty ; or if they be made citizens of the United States,
and soldiers ; or if the authority of the masters over their slaves is the means of
aiding and comforting the enemy, or of throwing Impediments in the way of the
Government, or depriving it of such aid and assistance in successful prosecution
of the war, as slaves would and could afford, if released from the control of the
enemy — or if releasing the slaves would embarrass the enemy, and make it more
difficult for them to collect and maintain large armies ; in either of these cases,
the taking away of these slaves from the ' aid and service ' of the enemy, and put
ting them to the aid and service of the United States, is justifiable as an act of war.
The ordinary way of depriving the enemy of slaves is by declaring emancipation."
As Mr. Lincoln himself held, it belongs exclusively to
the President to judge when the exigency arises in which he
has authority to emancipate slaves :
" The Constitution confers on the Executive, when in actual war, full belligerent
powers. The emancipation of enemy's slaves is a belligerent right. It belongs
exclusively to the President, as Commander-in-Chief, to judge whether he shall
exercise his belligerent right to emancipate slaves in those parts of the country
which are in rebellion. If exercised in fact, and while the war lasts, his act of
emancipation is conclusive and binding forever on aU the departments of
Government, and on all persons whatsover.
" IS LIBEKATION OF ENEMY'S SLAVES A EEILIGEEENT EIGHT 7
"This is the chief inquiry on this branch of the subject. To answer it we must
appeal to the law of nations, and learn whether there Is any commanding authority
which forbids the use of an engine so powerful and so formidable— an engine

EMANCIPATION AS A WAR MEASURE. 709
which may grind to powder the dlsloylaty of rebels In arms, while It clears the
avenue to freedom for four millions of Americans. It is only the law of nations
that can decide this question, because the Constitution, having given authority to
Government to make war, has placed no limit whatever to the war powers. There
Is, therefore, no legal control over the war powers except the law of nations, and
no moral control except the usage of modern «i?vilized belligerents.
" It is In accordance with the law of nations and witli the practice of civiUzed
belligerents In modern times, to Uberate enemy's slaves In time of war by military
power." ,.,
!SithQugh the validity of the Preclaraation of Eraancipa.
tion, in consequence of the constitutional araendraent, has
ceased to be a question of so rauch practical importance, yet
a subject of such vast magnitude will always possess great
historic interest. The Proclamation raay be defended both
as the exercise of a belligerent right, and also as the exercise
of a power conferred upon the President, as Coraraander-in-
Chief, by the Constitution. It is clearly in accordance with
the practice of cirilized nations in modern times, and the
law of nations, to liberate slaves of the enemy in times of
war. In our own revolution, this power was exercised by
England, by at least three of her railitary coraraanders : Sir
Henry Clinton, Lord Dunraore, and Lord CornwaUis.
General Washington, in speaking of Lord Bunraore's ap
peal to the slaves, says : " His strength will increase as a
snow-ball by rolling, faster and faster, if sorae expedient be
not hit upon to convince the slaves and servants of the -
impotency of his designs."
Mr. Jefterson, in his letter to Dr. Gordon, concedes the
right of Great Britain to call the slaves of the Colonists td
their aid, as a war measure. After speaking of the injury
done by Cornwallis to his estates, to his crops, his barns, his
stock of cattle, sheep, etc., he says he carried off all the
horses capable of service, and he adds : " He carried off also
about thirty slaves. Had this been done to give them freedom, he
would have done right. * * * From an estimate made at
the time, on the best information I could collect, I suppose
the State of Virginia lost, under Lord CornwaUis' hands,
that year, about thirty thousand slaves."
Great Britain exercised the same right, in the war of
1812, against the United States. Her naval and military
'Whiting's War Powers, pp. 50, 60, 69.

710 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
commanders invited, by J)roclamation, the slaves to join the
British forces, promising them freedora. The slaves who
joined thera were liberated, and were carried away frora the
country, contrary to the express terras of the treaty of
Ghent. But England preferred to take the responsibiUty of
violating the treaty, rather than to break faith with the ne
groes. The United States demanded indemnity for the vio
lation of the treaty. This question was referred to the
arbitrament of the Emperor of Russia. He decided that
indemnity should be paid, not because England had violated
the laws of nations in emancipating the slaves, but because
she had violated the terms of the treaty.*
In the argument submitted to the Emperor, as the referee.
Great Britain assumed the ground that, in war, either party
had the right to Uberate the slaves of the enemy. Mr. Mid
dleton, our Minister, was instructed by John Quincy Adams,
Secretary of State, to deny that right, but Mr. Adams has
placed on record the fact that he did so, in obedience to the
instructions of the President, and against his own opinion.
Great Britain asserted the right to liberate enemies' slaves,
as a legitimate mode of carrying on war ; a right which she
had exercised against her Colonies, which had been used by
France agaiust her, and again by her against the United
States. Ill 1793, St. Domingo was a colony of France, with a
population of raore than half a raillion of negroes. Intes
tine war had been carried on for raore than three years be
tween the whites and raulattoes. The slaves had revolted in
1791. The Spaniards formed an alliance with the revolted
slaves, invaded the Island, and occupied a portion of it.
England was making a treaty with the planters, preparatory
to an invasion of the Island. St. Domingo seemed about to
be wrested from France. Her force there was feeble. Un
der these circumstances, the French authorities, in August,
1793, issued a proclamation, under martial law, declaring all
the slaves free, and thereby brought them tb the support of
"¦ The Emperor " declined to award indemnification for slaves which the British
forces carried from other parties not stipulated to be returned." See Wheaton's
International Law, edited by Dana, note pp. 440-441.

EMANCIPATION IN TIME OF WAR. ' 711
the Government. France recognized the act of the com
missioners, and confirmed it, thus recognizing the right un
der martial law to eraancipate the slaves of an enemy. This
right has been exercised by several of the South American
Republics — by General Morillo, and by Bolivar.
" Slavery was abolished in Columbia," says John Quincy
Adams, " by virtue of a military command, given at the
head of the army, and its abolition continues to this day."
The United States have recognized the right of its railitary
officers in time of war, to appropriate to the public service
the slaves of loyal citizens without compensation therefor :
" ' In December, 1814,' says a distinguished writer and speaker, ' General Jack
son Impressed a large number of slaves at and near New Orleans, and set them at
work erecting defences, behind which his troops won such glory on the Sth of Jan-
nary, 1815. The masters remonstrated. Jackson disregarded their remonstrances,
and kept the slaves at work until many of them were killed by the enemy's shot ;
yet his action was approved by Mr. Madison, the Cabinet, and by the Congress,
which has ever refused to pay the masters for their losses. In this case, the mas
ters were professedly friends to the Government ; and yet our Presidents, and
cabinets, and generals have not hesitated to emancipate their slaves, whenever in
time of war it was supposed to be for the interest of the country to do so. This
was done in the exercise of the war power to which Mr. Adams referred, and for
which he had the most abundant authority.'
" In 1836, General Jessup engaged several fugitive slaves to act as guides and spies,
agreeing, if they would serve the Government faithfully, to secure to them the
freedom of themselves and families. They fulfilled their engagement in good
fMth. The General gave them their freedom, and sent them to the west Mr. Van
Buren's administration sanctioned the contract, and Mr. Tyler's administration
approved the proceedings of the General in setting the slaves and their families
ft-ee.
«* « * * * **•
" In 1838 General Taylor captured a number of negroes said to be fugitive slaves.
Citizens of Florida, learning what had been done, immediately gathered around
his camp, intending to secure the slaves who had escaped from them. General
Taylor told them that he had no prisoners but ' prisoners ot war.' The claimants
then desired to look at them in order to determine whether he was holding their
slaves as prisoners. The veteran warrior replied that no man should examine his
prisoners for such a purpose ; and he ordered them to depart. This action, being
reported to the War Department, was approved by the Executive. The slaves,
however, were sent west, and set free."
Perhaps the clearest and fuUest exposition of the war
powers ofthe Government, to be found in any paper, previous
to the ciril war, is contained in a speech of John Quincy
Adams, raade in the House of Representatives, on the 26th
of May, 1836. This speech of this learned jurist and states
man is very reraarkable, as containing raany of the positions
taken by Mr. Lincoln in support of the extraordinary powers
he was corapelled to use during the war. Mr. Adaras said :

712 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
"[Sir, in the authority given to Congress hy the Constitution of the United States
to declare war, all the powers incidental to war are, by necessary implication, con
ferred upon the Oovemm,ent of the United States. Now, the powers incidental to
war are derived, not from their internal municipal source, hui from the laws and
usages of nations.
" There are, then, Mr. Chairman, in the authority of Congress and of the Executive,
two classes of powers, altogether different in their nature, and often incompatible
with each other — the war power and the peace power. The peace power is Umited
by regulations and restricted by provisions prescribed within the Consti tutloir it
self The war power is limited only by the laws and usages ot nations. This power
Is tremendous ; U is strictly constiiuiional, bid it breaks down every barrier so anxiously
erected for the protection of liberty, of property, and of life. This, sir, is the power
which authorizes you to pass the resolutions now before you, and, in my opinion,
no other. * * * » * * *
" But the war power of Congress over the institution of slavery in the States is
yet far more extensive. Suppose the case of a servile war, complicated, as to some
extent it is even now, with an Indian war ; suppose Congress were called to raise
armies, to supply ¦money from the whole Union to suppress a servile insurrection ; would
they have no authority to interfere with the institution of slavery ? The issue of
a servile war may be disastrous ; it may become necessary for the master of the
slave to recognize his emancipation by a treaty of peace ; can it for an instant be
pretended that Congress, In such a contingency, would have no authority to inter
fere with the institution of slavery, in any way, in the States ? Why, it would be
equivalent to saying that Congress has no constitutional authority to make
peace. I suppose a more portentous case, certainly within the bounds of possl-
bUIty— I would to God I could say, not within the bounds of probability.
" Do you Imagine that your Congress will have no constitutional authority to
Interfere with the Institution of slavery, in any way, in the States of this con
federacy ? Sir, they must and wlU interfere with 11^-perhaps to sustain it by war,
perhaps to abolish It by treaties of peace ; and they will not only possess the con
stitutional power so to interfere, but they will be bound in duty to do it, by the
express provisions of the Constitution Itself. From the instant that your slave-
holding States become the theatre of a war, ewil, servile, or foreign war, from that
instant the war powers of Congress extend to Interference with the Institution of
slavery. In every way by which it can be Interfered with, from a claim of In
demnity for slaves taken or destroyed, to the cession of States burdened with
slavery to a foreign power.
" I might furnish a thousand proofs to show that the pretensions of gentlemen
to the sancity of their municipal institutions under a state of actual Invasion and
of actual war, whether servile, civil, or foreign. Is wholly unfounded, and that the
laws of war do, in all such cases, take the precedence. I lay this down as the law
of nations. I say that military authority takes, for the time, the place of all muni
cipal institution, and slavery among the rest : and that, under that state of things, so
far from its being true that the States where slavery exists have the exclusive
management of the subject, not only the President of the United States, but the
commander of the army, has power to order the universal emancipation of the
slaves." The right, under the law of nations, to emancipate the
slaves of an enemy, will probably not hereafter be seriously
questioned. The duty of the Executive to do this, under the
circumstances which existed when the power was exercised
by President Lincoln, as a means of saving the republic, is
still more clear.
Duriug the rebellion, and especiaUy in the earlier stages,
the question was rauch discussed, y^hether \he President could
rightfully suspend the writ of Habeas Corpu.s.

SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS CORPUS. 713
In Great Britain, Parliament alone can suspend the writ;
Imt it has been the practice there, when the national safety
requires its suspension and Parliament is not in session, for
the Ministers of the Crown to suspend it and make arrests;
and on the assembling of ParUament, ask an act of indem
nity, and that the writ be suspended.* It is curious to trace
the simUarity of discussion and of topics in the debates
upon biUs of indemnity, and authorizing the suspension of
the Habeas Corpus in the British Parliament, and in the
Congress of the United States during the rebelUon. When,
in 1689, the writ had been suspended in England, in discuss
ing a BiU authorizing a continuance of the suspension,
Hampden said: " We are in war, and if we make only use
of that as if we were in full peace, you may be destroyed
Arithout remedy."
Another member said: "Let the danger be ever so great,
I would not dispense with the Habeas Corpus but by
Parliament."t The writ has been frequently suspended in England, when
ever the Governraent has been threatened by conspiracy,
sedition, or treason. In the recess of Parliaraent it has been
suspended by Ministers of the Crown, but in all cases the
sanction of Parliaraent has been asked and given.
The Constitution of the United States was made by those
who had learned their lessons of liberty under the old securities
of the British MagnaCharta, and the "free system of English
laws," and it contained this provision : " The privilege of the
writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless, when in
case of rebellion or invasion, the pubUc safety may require it."
In 1807, at the time of Burr's conspiracy. Congress being
in session, a bill passed the Senate authorizing the suspen
sion of the writ, but did not pass the House, because before it
was acted upon, the necessity for it ceased. It was held by
Chief Justice Marshall, in the case of Bollraan, that it was
forthe Legislature to decide mj Am " the pubUc safety raight
require the suspension of the writ."J
* 1 Blackstone's Com. 223. 3 Macauley's England 87
t5 Cobbltt's Parliamentary Debates, 267.
I See Ex parte Bollman, i Cranch R,

714 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
Arrests were made with the knowledge and at the instance
of Washington, during the Revolution, and the officer having
the arrested persons in charge refused to obey the writ of
Habeas Corpus issued by the State Judges. Subsequently,
the acts of arrests were sanctioned by the Legislatures of the
States iu which they occurred.
The law, I think, may be regarded as now settled, that the
Executive may, when Congress is not in session, suspend the
writ, subject to the approval of Congress.
When, in 1861, the life of the Nation was threatened, and
the public safety required the suspension of the writ ; when
on one side of the Capital, and separated frora it only by the
Potoraac, was Virginia in revolt; and on the other, Maryland, a
large portion of her citizens in league with traitors; and
Washingtonitself full of spies and rebels; President Lincoln
did, as had been done by William the IH. of England,
suspend the writ of Habeas Corpus, and caused the arrest
of such persons, as in his judgment, the public safety
required. General Banks arrested George P. Kane, Chief
of PoUce of Baltimore, and others; and General McClellan
arrested the Maryland Legislature, to prevent thera frora
passing an act of secession; and other parties were arrested
in different sections of the country.
Araong others, John Merryraan, of Baltimore, was arrested
while holding a commission from the Rebel Government, and
recruiting troops to fight against the Republic.
Chief Justice Taney issued a writ, which General Cad-
wallader, under instructions from the Secretary of War,
refused to obey. The Chief Justice held that the President
had not the constitutional right to suspend the writ of
Habeas Corpus, and that the arrest was illegal.* The sym
pathies of the Chief Justice were so notoriously with the
slaveholders, that his opinion has not received from jthe
Bench or the Bar of the country, the consideration which
wduld have been given to it upon a question of law,.not
connected with politics.
The Attorney-General, Mr. Bates, gave an able and elabor-
• See McPherson's History, p. 158,

SUSPENSION OF THE HABEAS CORPUS. 715
ate opinion, sustaining the right of the President to suspend
the privilege of the Habeas Corpus, as he was especially
charged, by the Constitution, with the public safety. He
Also held, that the President, as Coraraander-in-Chief, in car
rying on war, raight declare raartial law, and thus suspend
this writ. In this judgraent, Horace Binney, a distinguished
jurist of Philadelphia, concurred, as did Judge Parsons,
who held, that the President was vested with discretion to
suspend the writ.*
No final action of Congress was had upon the subject,
until March, 1863. At the Third Session of the Thirty-
Seventh Congress, an act was passed, providing that during
the rebellion the President, whenever in his judgment the
fublic safety might require it, was authorized to suspend the
» McPherson, p. 162. Judge Parsons says : " The first and most important ques
tion is, who may decide when the exigency occurs, and who may, if it occurs,
declare martial law. Onthlspolntlhavemyself nodoubt. Theclause on this subject
is contained in the flrst article of the Constitution, and the article relates principally
to Congress. Nor can there be any doubt that Congress may, when the necessity
occurs, suspend the right to the writ of habeas corpus, or, which Is the same thing,
declare or authorize martial law. The question is, has the President this power ?
The Constitution does not expressly give this power to any department of the Gov
ernment, nor does It expressly reserve It to Congress, although, in the same article,
it does make this express reservation as to some of the provisions contained in the
article. This may be a mere accidental omission, but it seems to me more reason
able and more consonant with the principles of legal interpretation to infer from
It an absence of intention to confine it to Congress. And I am confirmed lu this
opinion by the nature of the case.
"The very instances specified as those in which the right to Jiabeas corpus may be
suspended (invasion and rebelUon) are precisely those in which the reasons for doing
so may come suddenly, the necessity of determination be immediate, and a cer
tainty exist that the suspension wlU be useless, and the whole mischief which the
suspension might prevent, take place if there be any delay. To guard against the
suspension by limiting the cases, as is done, seems to me wise ; to obstruct it by
requring the delay necessarily arising from legislative action would seem to be
unreasonable. It is tme that my construction gives to the President, in the two
cases of rebeUion and invasion, a vast power ; but so is all military power. It is a
vast power to send into a rebelUous district 15,000 soldiers, as Washington did, whose
duty it is to meet the rebels, and, if necessary, kiU as many as they could. But it
was a power which belonged to him, of necessity as President; and so, I think, did
the power of martial law. If it did not, then, when his troops had captured the
armed rebels whom they were sent to subdue, the nearest magistrate who could
issue a writ ot habeas corpus might have summoned the officer having them In
charge to bring them before him, and might have liberated them at once to fight
again, and this as often as they were captured, untU a law could be passed
^''Hthe^Wer belongs to the President, he may exercise it at his discretion, when
either Invasion or rebelUon occurs, subject, however, to two qualii^cations: One,
a universal one, applicable to his exercise of every POwer If he abuses it^ or exer
cises it wrongfully he is liable to impeachment. The other is more a matter of
cises It wrongmiiy, ne i^ ii^o ^ ^^ ^.^ j^j^ ^^^ j^
discretion or propriety. I suppose tnat ne viu^xim, -j , r
such a matter to Congress when he could, and be governed by their action.'

7i-6 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus, in any case, through
out the Un;ted States or any part thereof. Another section
provided, that any order of the President, or under his
authority, made at any tirae during the present rebelUon,
should be a defence in all courts to any action or prosecution,
civil or crirainal, for any arrest or seizure, under or by virtue
of such order.* This act has been sustained by the courts.
Much was said during the conflict, much is still said in
regard to the status of the rebellious States. In the begin
ning, the rebellion was treated by the Governraent as an
insurrection of " certain persons " in the seceding States, but
it very rapidly assuraed the raagnitude of a civil war, involv
ing all residing in the territory of the insurgent States in its
consequences, and raaking that territory, and the authority
which controlled it, a public eneray. The insurgents clairaed
the rights, and becarae subject, for the tirae being, to the
laws by which belligerents treat each other in tirae of war.
AU departraents of the Governraent treated the insurgents
as public enemies. The question was settled judicially by
the Supreme Court of the United States, in March, 1863. f
The court held "That where the course of justice is inter
rupted by revolt, rebelUon, or insurrection, so that the courts
of justice cannot be kept open,. civil war exists, and hostilities
may be prosecuted on the same footing as if those opposing
the Governraent were foreign enemies." "All persons resid
ing in this territory (the insurgent States) are liable to be
treated as enemies. * * * They are none the less
enemies because they are traitors."
What rights had the United States over the subjugated
territory lately in rebellion ? We have seen that President
Lincoln, for the tirae being, governed the territory, exercis
ing all the power over it usually exercised by a conqueror.
He did this under the law of nations. He had the right to
do it, as a portion of the United States, where the loyal re
publican governraent had first been overthrown by a hostUe
power which raade war upon the United States. After con
quering and subduing that hostile power, it became his duty
* McPherson, p. 183.
+ See the case of the Hiawatha, 7 Black's Bep., 687, etc

THE RIGHT TO GOVERN THE REBELLIOUS STATES. 717
to govern the country, subject, of course, to the control of
Congress, until republican State Governraents, loyal to the
Union, could be reestablished.
Araong the cases decided by the Suprerae Court, bearing
on this subject, are the following : The case of Fleraing vs.
Page.* In this case, the United States, being at war with
Mexico, conquered and took possession of the State of
Tamaulipas, and the court held that it was, for the tirae
being, under the military governraent of the President. He,
by his subordinates, established a Custom House, and col
lected duties, and these impositions were held valid by the
Supreme Court. In the case of Cross vs. Harrison, 16 How
ard Rep., 187, San Francisco, in California, having been
captured by the United States, the President authorized the
military and naval coraraanders of our forces to form a civil
government for the conquered territory, and to impose duties
on imports, etc.
Subsequently, California was ceded by treaty to the United
States, and the military authority and government continued.
The court held, among other things, that the President might
dissolve that authority by withdrawing the army, and that
"Congress might have put an end io it." This not having been
done, the acts of the military authorities imposing and
collecting duties were held valid.
The same principles were applied and sustained in the
government of New Mexico.
"Upon the acquisition, in the year 1846, by the arms of
the United States, of the Territory of New Mexico, the
ciril government of this Territory having been overthrown,
the officer. General Kearney, holding possession for the
United States in virtue of the power of conquest and occu
pancy, and in obedience to the duty of maintaining the
security of the inhabitants in their persons and property,.
ordained under the sanction and authority of the United
States a provisional or temporary government for the acquired
Territory. * * * By the substitution of a new sup
remacy, although the former poUtical relations of the inhabit
ants were dissolved, their private relations, and their rights
* 9 Howard Rep., 614.

718 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
arising frora contract or usage, reraained in full force and
unchanged, except as far as they were in iheir nature cmd char
acter found io be in conflict with the Constitution and laws of the
United States, or with any regulations which the conquering and
occupying authority should retain."*
Such is the law of nations as expounded by the Supreme
Court of the United States, and sustained by the highest
judicial authorities everywhere. In accordance with the
principles sanctioned by these decisions, and the action of
the administration of both President Lincoln and his succes
sor, it may be assumed as settled, that the Confederates were
public enemies, the Rebel Governraents, both State and Con
federate, having been overthrown, the United States, in
obedience to the duty of maintaining the security of the in
habitants, in their persons and property, and to carry out the
obUgation to guarantee to each State, a government, repub
lican in form, and to restore them ultimately to the Union,
rightfully ordained provisional governraents for the rebeUious
territory. Much of the confusion, and difference of opinion araong
the people in regard to the condition or status of the Rebel
States, has arisen frora the arabiguity of language. Upon
the rauch raooted question whether the Rebel States were in
the Union or out of it, during and at the close of the war,
there is probably really less difference of opinion araong con
tending parties, than the persons coraposing those parties
suppose. The land of the eleven seceding States has always consti
tuted a part of the United States, and has never been out of
theUnion; nothing but successful revoliijion could take it
out. But " a State," within the raeaning ©fthe Constitution,
as a State entitled to representation in Congress, and to par
ticipate in the Electoral Colleges, is ihe corporation formed
by the people, for the purpose of local State Governraent.
Were the eleven seceding State corporations, which raade
up the Confederacy during the war. States in the Union !
Each of them had, as a corporation, withdrawn from the
Union, organized a de facto State Government in hostility
to the Union, and was to the extent of their ability, carrying
* 20 Howard S. C. Rep., 176.

THE RIGHT TO GOVERN REBELLIOUS STATES. 719
on war against it. Were these de facto State Governments at
that time States in the Union, and entitled to representation
in Congress, and to vote in the Electoral Colleges ? AU will
answer no. So the courts, and every department of the
Governraent have always held.
When these Rebel Governraents, State and Confederate,
were overthrown, in what way were new, loyal, and repub
lican State Governraents to be organized ? The State Gov
ernraents existing before the war, had rebelled, and consti
tuted the State Government defacto during the war, and being
now overthrown, there were no State Governments remain
ing in the territory lately in rebellion. The President, in his
proclaraations appointing Provisional Governors, after the
surrender of Lee and Johnston, says that the rebeUion had
"deprived ihe people of these Slates of all civil governmeni."
When in the spring and early sumraer of 1865, the de facto
Governors of States lately in rebeUion, issued proclaraations,
calUng the de facto Legislatures of the States to raeet, the
military authorities of the United States prohibited such
meetings, deposed the Governors and other officers, and
appointed others in their place, and required that proceed
ings to establish civil governraent should start fresh and
new frora the loyal people, under the authority and direction
of the National Governraent. Not only this, but the Presi
dent in his proclamation, declared all acts and proceedings
of the political, military, and civil organizations " of the
late Confederate and State Governments null and void." *
The right to irapose conditions upon the people of the
States lately in rebelUon, is scarcely questioned by any loyal
man ; what departraent of the National Government shaU
deterraine what those conditions shall be, is a question about
which there is greater difference of opinion. The adminis
tration of Andrew Johnson dictated to the seceding States
the leading provisions which they were required to incorpo
rate into their new State Constitutions. They were required,
among other things, to ratify the Constitutional amendment
prohibiting slavery, and to repudiate the rebel debt. Mr.
Seward, Secretary of State, wrote to Provisional Governor
Perry, of Sputh Carolina, under date of November 6, 1865,
• See Proclamation of May 9, 1865

720 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
" The President considers the acceptance by South Carolina
of the araendraent, (Constitutional araendraent abolishing
slavery,) as indispensable to a restoration of her relations with
the other States of the Union."
The question has assumed very grave iraportance, whether,
under the Constitution, it was the duty of the President, or
Congress, to prescribe the terras and conditions upon which
the States lately in rebelUon might return to the Union.
Whatever in this direction was done by Mr. Lincoln, was
always done, subject to the approval and sanction of Con
gress ; and his successor, up to a late day in 1865, seems to
have proceeded upon the same idea.
The Secretary of State, under direction of the President,
on the 12th of September, 1865, wrote to Provisional Gov
ernor Marvin, of Florida, " It must be, however, distinctly
understood that ihe restoration, to which your proclamation
refers, wUl be subject to the decision of Congress."
Is the duty of prescribing terms and conditions upon
which the lately rebellious people of the seceding States may
return to the Union, an Executive, or a Legislative act ? Who
is to judge whether a people presenting a Constitution, and
asking recognition and admission into the Union, have
adopted a Constitution republican in form ?
This question has been settled by the Suprerae Court of
the United States, by Congress, and by the people.
Whether a State, appearing with her Senators and Members,
has a Constitution, republican in form, and whether she
shall be adraitted, is a question which raust be settled by
the law-raaking power — Congress, with the approval of the
President, or, by Congress passing a bill, nothwithstanding
the objections of the President.
This question was settled by the Suprerae Court, in the
celebrated Rhode Island case.* This case arose frora an
atterapt made by a part, perhaps a majority, of the people of
that State, to set up a new State Government, forraed by the
voluntary act of the people, without any enabling act either
of Congress or the State; and which, in its atterapt, raet with
arraed resistance frora the existing State Government.
•.iiuther V. Borden, 7 Howard's R. p. 1.

THE RIGHT TO GOVERN THE REBELLIOUS STATES. 721
The Suprerae Court, after quoting Section 4 of Article
rv. of the Constitution, says: "Under this article ofthe
Constitution, it rests with Congress to decide what governraent
is the established one in a State ; for, as the United States
guarantee to each State a republican government. Congress
must necessarily decide what governraent is established in
a State before it can determine whether it is republican or
not ; and when the Senators and Representatives of a State
are admitted into the councils of the Union, ihe authority of
ihe Govemment under which ihey are appointed, as well as its
republican character, are recognized by the proper constiiuiional
authority, and its decision is binding upon every other depart
ment of the Government."
This is in accordance with the uniforra practice of the
Governraent in regard to the adraission of Territories.
Frora this brief and imperfect sketch, or outline, of the
loar powers, clairaed and exercised during the rebeUion, it
is obrious that many of them were novel, and some of them
widely conflicting with public opinion formed in the quiet
days of peace. President Lincoln assumed the exercise of
these great powers cautiously, often reluctantly, unwiUing,
except under the pressure of suprerae necessity, to establish
precedents so liable to abuse by more ambitious, unscrupulous,
and arbitrary successors.
The action of the Government during the rebeUion
estabUshed the fact to all, that our republican institutions,
while affording the amplest security and protection to the
citizen in tirae of peace, was as powerful and as efficient as a
more arbitrary government in tirae of civil war. That the
Commander-in-Chief and the war-making power had con
trol over the resources, the men, raaterial, and raoney of the
RepubUc, and that our Government was as able and efficient
as any to suppress insurrection *nd cope with civil war.
The world beheld with surprise, and sorae astonishment, a
free RepubUc, acting in accordance with its organic law as era-
bodied in its written Constitution, contending against raore than
eight raiUions of its rebeUious subjects; wieldingvast arraies
and navies; controlling and concentrating, wth unsurpassed
energy, the immense physical resources of twenty miUions

722 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY.
of loyal subjects, and using them with complete success ; and
doing this through the sarae instrumentality which, in time
of peace, had advanced the growth, prosperity and grandeur
of the American people raore rapidly than was ever before
known in the history of nations. There can, I think, be no
doubt, that the conviction of the strength of our republican
form of governraent, founded upon a just appreciation of
what it has done, and especially of its war powers under the
Constitution, contributed greatly to the determination by
foreign governments not to interfere in our affairs.
The terrible events of the war have educated the people to
broader and wiser views of the character of our Constitutional
Govei-nment. Thegreatbody of the people have been brought
to entertain new views of their Constitution, and to respect
and to revere it raore highly than ever. They have learned,
in the trials of the late contest, that the rights, privileges, and
imraunities of States and citizens in the tirae of peace, are
raaterially raodified in tirae of war ; that people and States
which make war upon the Governraent, becorae public
enemies, and thus repudiating, lose the rights guaranteed to
them in tirae of peace under the Constitution, and are to be
treated in accordance M'ith the laws of war. These doctrines,
before the terraination of the war, were adopted and acted
upon by the President, the Cabinet, by Congress and by the
Supreme Court.
Although it is difficult to define with exact precision all
that has been settled by the war, yet most of the foUowing
propositions have been adopted by the President, the Cabi
net, Congress, and the Supreme Court, and few of them, it is
beUeved, will be questioned hereafter :
First, That the Constitution of the United States, and the
laws made in pursuance thereof, are the suprerae law of the
land, anything in the ConstiUition and laws of any State to
the contrary notwithstanding.
Second, That the United States constitute one Nation ;
that the States are subordinate parts of the one Republic;
that aUegiance to the National Government is constitutionaUy
due from every citizen ; and that no State can by secession,
nullification, nor by any act short of successful revolution,

WHAT HAS BEEN SETTLED BY THE WAR. 723
absolve any citizen from that allegiance and the obligation
to obey the laws of the Nation.
Third, That States and citizens of States rebelling against
and making war upon the United States, becorae public
enemies, and are not entitled while such, to set up the priv
ileges of citizens, under the Constitution, to shield them
from liability as public eneraies.
Fourth, That the right to eraancipate the slaves of a public
eneray, in time of war, is legal according the law of nations.
Fifth, The Rebel States having withdrawn from the Union,
and having through their State Governments in their cor
porate capacity, set up a hostile Governraent de facto, upon
the soil of the United States, and organized a Confed
erate Government de facto within its jurisdiction, it became
the duty of tbe National authorities to overthrow and subju
gate these usurping and hostile Governments and expel them
frora their territory.
Sixth, Such hostile de facto Governments, State and Con
federate, being overthrown and expeUed, it thereupon became
the duty of the United States to govern the territory consti
tuting the insurgent States, until Governments, republican
in form could be organized and estabUshed in such States.
Seventh, That during the continuance of war, and while
such hostile State and Confederate cfe/acfo Governraents were
in existence, they were not entitled to participate in the Gov
ernraent they were thus seeking to overthrow. When such
hostile organizations were subjugated, it becarae the duty of
the United States to organize, establish, and guarantee to
such States, State Governraents republican in forra; and
that until such new State Governraents were organized,
loyal to the Union, and republican in form, of which Con
gress must determine, such portions of the Union are not of
their own motion and independent of the action of Congress,
entitled to representation in Congress or participation in the
Electoral College. In the language of Mr. Lincoln, it is for
Congress to say "when or whether merabers should be
adraitted to seats in Congress from those States." *
* That secession, and nuUification are treason, has been established by the judi
ciary of last resort, the conflict of arms. That which would have been done by
Mr. Lincoln, had he Uved, and what was expected on the accession of Mr. Johnson.

724 LINCOLN AND THE OVERTHROW OP SLAVERY.
The national authority vindicated by war and established
by victory, is now placed on solid foundations, maintaining
the rights of the States to raanage their local affairs, our
Governraent in the hands of a pure and wise raan, like Lin
coln, is the strongest and best in the world. It is the strongest,
because its officers are the servants of the people, and the
Constitution is the highest expression of the will of the
people ; and the war has shown that the people will rise to
its support and maintenance with an energy unknown under
any other form of governraent. When before have the people
rose by the miUion, and voluntarily gone into the army to
sustain a governraent ? When before have any people as
suraed voluntarily such enorraous pecuniary burdens to

was a solemn, imposing judicial trial, conviction, and sentence of traitors. The
one act of his life to which Mr. Andrew Johnson owed the Vice Presidency, was
the bold' denunciation of traitors which he uttered in the Senate on the 2d of
March, 1861. The people, when he entered the Executive Chair, remembered that
he then and there said " were I Fresident, I would do as Jefl'erson did in 1806, with
Aaron Burr. I would have them (the conspirators) arrested, and if convicted
within the meaning and scope of the Constitulion, by the etemal Ood I would execute
them." ( Congressional Globe, Second Session, Thirty-sixth Congress, p. 1354.)
He did not for a few weeks after his accession permit the people to forget these
declarations. In his reply to the Illinois delegation, and on other occasions hia
language was so vehement, passionate and denunciatory against traitors that con
siderate people feared an excess of violence, and an absence of the sobriety, dignity
aud decorum which should ever characterize the Magistrate In the administration
of justice. By what means the President has been induced to take to his confldence
as his most trusted advisers, those whom he threatened to hang as traitors, it is
not my purpose now to investigate. But the thoughtful people of the United States
anticipated not for the purpose of vengeance, but for the infiuence of example to
make treason " odious," and to deter in future, bold, bad and|ambitious men from
stirring up civil war, that the decision of the sword would be affirmed by the most
imposing State trial in modern times. The world cannot yet be governed without
punishing crime— aud there Is no way by which crime can so eflfectually be made
"fidious," as by hanging a criminal. But this apparently is not to be. In the present
condition of aflTalrs, with the President on the side of the prisoner, it would be a
failure and a farce.
There will be probably no judicial trial. The spectacle will be presented, of a
conspiracy covering a whole continent with blood, a rebeUion carrying death and
desolation throughout the land, without one convicted criminal, or one judicial
sentence. Those who plotted treason in the Cabinet and in Congi-ess, those pledged to loy
alty by ofiicial oaths, the soldiers who deserted their flag, those who were responsi
ble for the horrors of Andersonville and the butchery at Fort Pillow, are all to be
forgiven, restored to their forfeited rights, and their treason, Instead of being made
odious, is to be considered honorable and heroic. The most guilty are to be the
most honored ; while the faithful Union men are to be driven into exile by perse
cution and social ostracism ! The leading traitors are to be canonized and held
up as examples for the young to emulate and follow. Robert E. Lee is President of
a coUege, and Raphael Semmes a professor and teacher of moral philosophy !

TRIAL OF THE CONSTITUTION. 725
maintain the integrity of a nation ? In war, as in peace, the
popular will, constitutionally expressed, is sovereign.
While the Constitution protects the rights of the humblest
citizen in time of peace, in tirae of war it calls into action
and concentrates all the physical resources of the country
against a public eneray, by evoking the war powers of the
Constitution as now interpreted by the ablest statesmen and
raost learned jurists of the Republic.
The trial of the Consiituiion has thus far been a triuraphant
success. It has passed successfully through the terrible trial
of the great civil war, and thus far has stood the still more
fearful ordeal to which it has been subjected since the mar
tyrdom of Lincoln. What dangers it will encounter in
the iraraediate future, what new perils arising frora the
obstinacy, temper, treachery, or arabitiou of rulers, none can
clearly foresee. But those who, during the last six eventful
years, have traced in all our national affairs the guiding,
overruling hand of Alraighty God, ofttimes bringing good
out of apparent evil; 'those who have watched the generous
patriotisra, and the instinctive wisdom, sagacity and good
sense, and the sublirae love of country and of liberty which
have raarked the conduct of the American people, will
"never despair of the RepubUc." God and the people wiU
save our country, in spite of the wickedness of traitors and
the treachery of rulers.

INDEX

ABOLITIONISTS— Society, of  28
Rewards ofl'ered for  39
Abolition party formed  43
ADAMS, J. Q—
Defends right of petition  40
ALABAMA, THE  553
AMERir.VN PARTY  94
NominatesFUmoreandDonelson 95
AMNESTY— Terms of proclaimed by the Presi
dent  470
ANTI-SLAVERY -
National Convention in Philadel
phia in 1833; American Anti-
Slavery Society organized  38
ARMY OP THE POTOMAC—
Org.anized  238
Its inactivity under McClellan  239
Its admirable equipment  307, 32i
ElTective force of April 30, 1862  328
Leaders of its three Corps  527
ARNOLD, ISAAC N.—
Introduces bill to prohibit slav
ery in the Territories  259,280
ARRESTS— Political  392
Discussed by Congress  392
Defended by Lincoln  393, 394
BAKER, COL. OF OREGON—
Denounces Breckinridge  218, 219
Speech on resolution approving
of acts of Lincoln  228, 229
Death  239
BALL'S BLUFF  239
BALTIMORE  199
Attack on Massachusetts volun
teers on April 19  194
BANKS, GEN  237
Captures Port Hudson  411
BARBARITIES OF REBELS,.. .600-6, 660
BELMONT— Battle of.  240
BENJAMIN, JUDAH P  54
BINGHAM, MK. OF OHIO  224
Speech on abolition of slavery in
the District of Columbia, 255, 256, 257
On enrollment bill  377
On We-st Virginia  385
On members from Louisiana  387
BLAIR, F. P., SEN.—
Visits the Confederate authorities
at Richmond....;  617, 618
BLAIR, F. P. JR  238
Speech  254
BLAIR, MONTGOMERY  180
BLOCKADE OF SOUTH'N PORTS... 202
"BLUE LODGES"  64

PAai.
BOOTH, J. W.—
Assassinates Lincoln  663
Shot by Corbett  663
BORDER .-STATES—
Position of  188
Refuse to aid in suppressing the
rebellion  194, 195
BRECKINRIDGE, JOHN C  63
Joins the secessionists  216
Expelled from the U. S. Senate ... 218
BROOKS, JAMES G.—
Announces in Congress the death
of slavery  477, 488
Attack on Butler  607
BROWN, B. GRATZ, OP MO.—
Addresses the Senate in favor of
emancipation  453, 454
BROWNING, O. H  215, 269
BROWN, JOHN  m
Defended by Thaddeus Stevens.... 611
BUCHANAN  94, 95
Cabinet of.  98
Apathy towards secession  166
Cabinet abets tlie secessionists .... 154
Position regarding secession.. 156, 157
Southern members of his Cabinet
resign  165
Denies right of Congress to coerce
a seceded State  694, 700
BUFFALO ANTI-SLAVERY CON
VENTION  43
Causes defeat of Gen. Cass  45
BULL RUN—
Battle of  230, 231, 232
EflTects of  232
Popular feeling after  232, 233
BURNSIDE, GEN. A. E  345, 355
Assumes command of the Army
ofthe Potomac  362
' Starts for Fredericksburg  363
Fails to cross the Rappahannock
for lack of pontoons  363
Attacks rebels at Fredericksburg. 364
BUTLER, GEN. B. F  193
Advises Buchanan to arrest seces
sionists  J°»
Marches into Baltimore  •.-.¦ i»»
Declares negroes "contraband of
war "  ^i
Captures Fort Hatteras......  ¦«»
Denounced by Mr. Brooks as a
" gold robber "  ¦¦•¦•¦•¦• "'^j ""*
Vindicated by Messrs. Boutwell
and Stevens  •  ""»> "j^
Relieved of his command.........^.. bit>
BUREAU OF NATIONAL OUR-
RENCY- ,q.
Created  !x|
Of military justice  '"-^

727

728

INDEX.

CALIFORNIA  ^.^^^
Adopts anti-slavery constitution. 46
South opposes her admission Into
the Union  46
CAMERON, SIMON  180
Orders to Gen. Sherman  236
Recommends emancipation and
arming of slaves  247,250
Resigns his secretaryship  250
CASS, GEN  45
Resigns his seat in Buchanan's
cabinet  158
CAVALRY RAIDS  408
CHASE, SENATOR, OP OHIO—
Speech against the Kansas-Ne
braska bill  52
Described  ISO
Resigns his position as Secretary
of the Treasury  605
Wants to be President  506
Appointed by Lincoln Chief Jus-
__ tice of the United States  574, 575
CHICAQO- Delegation of clergymen from, to
President Lincoln  289
COLFAX, SCHUYLER  223
Speech on West Virginia  382
Moves the expulsion of Alex.
Long from the House of Re
presentatives  480, 481
Valedictory to 38th Congress.. 612, 613
COLORED MEN—
Orders to enroll  236
Free declared citizens of United
States by Att'y-Gen. Bates... 304, 305
Flock to the Union army  435
Threatened by Jetf. Davis with
punishment by State authority,
if captured  435, 4.36
Promised protection bylLincoln... 436
Also by Grant  436, 437
To be paid as white soldiers  448
Allowed to testify in U. S. courts
and to carry mails  465
Families of colored soldiers made
free by Congress  571
COLLAMER, JACOB  215, 222, 267
COMMISSIONERS— From rebels to Congress  186
COMMISSIONS, SANITARY AND
CHRISTIAN— Organized  492, 493
Money expended by  493
Fairs held by  493, 494
COMMITTEE— On conduct of the war  251
COMPROMISE MEASURES OF 1850 47
CONFEDERATE GOVERNMENT—
Recognized as a belligerent  204
CONFISCATION OF REBEL PROP
ERTY  273, 276
Right ot denied  701
CONGRESS— The Thirty-third  48
Leading members of  49
The Thirty-seventh, extra sess. of 214
Second Session  244
The Thirty-seventh, third sess. of 369
Its leading anti-slavery measures 251
Its sympathy with Lincoln  395
Close of.  395, 396
Meeting of the Thirty-eighth  442
Merabers of  442, 443
Second session of  582
Summary of doings of.  611
War powers of Congress  692, 723
CONKLIN, ROSCOE  224
CLARK. DANIEL  273
CONSTli'UTION OF THE U. S.—
Speeches In the Senate on the
amendment abolishing slavery 456. 468

PAOK.
Vote on, lu Senate  465
Debates on. In House of Repre
sentatives  465, 468, 577, 587
Votes on  468,586
Adoption of amendment by the
States  591, 592, 593
History of, during the war  691, 725
Its trial and triumph  725
CONVENTION— Kepublican National at Philadel
phia in 1856  94
DiflTerences in, overcome by Lin
coln  94
Nominates Fremont and D.ayton 95
Democratic at Cincinnati in 1856.. 94
Republican State at Decatur, 111.,
in 1860  138
At Richmond, Va., of seceders
from Baltimore Democratic;  148
Charleston Democratic  140, 141, 142
Reports of committees at  141
Baltimore Democratic  142,148
Republican National In Chicago
in 1860  142, 145
Nominates Lincoln for the Presi
dency  145
Republican National at Baltimore 499, 501, 502
Letter of Isaac N. Arnold on at
tempts to postpone  499, 500
Democratic National at Chicago
in 1864  503, 504
Platform of.  504, 559
COX, S. S  224,',226, 260
CRITTENDEN, JOHN J„  227
Introduces into Congress a resolu
tion defining object of war
227, 228, 265, 257, 273
CUBRENCY— Depreciation of rebel  -  437
Bureau of National, created  491
CURTIS, EX- JUDGE B. R.—
Denies President's right to free
slaves  699
DAWES,H. L  223,254,599
DAV1S,..HENRY WINTEBr-
Speecli on the expulsion of Alex.
Long from the House of Re
presentatives  482, 486
On reconstruction  472, 599
DAVIS, JEFFERSON  99
Made' 'President of Provisional
Government of the South  164
Treatment of colored troops  435
DIPLOMACY OF UNITED STATES—
During the rebellion  206
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA—
Capital located in  31,253
Lincoln introduces a bill for the
abolition of slavery in  84, 85
Slavery abolished in  258
DIX. JOHN A  165
DOUGLAS, STEPHEN A  51
Described  51, 113, 121
Opposes Lecompton  100
Debates with Lincoln at Spring
fleld, in 1855  89,90
Contrasted with Lincoln  112
"Squatter Sovereignty" doctrines 113
The slave power seeks to degrade
him  113
Challenged by Lincoln, iu 1858, to
debate  119,120
Discussions with Lincoln at Chi
cago, Springfield, Ottawa, Gales
burg, and Alton  121-5
Specimen of his manner  130
Replies to Lincoln's Interroga
tions  132, 133, 134
Re-elected Senator, in IMS  134
Pledges his support to Lincoln as
President  178

INDEX.

729

Remarkable prophecy  178, 179
Dispatch to the North)  190
Speech in Chicago, at " Wigwam" 191
Death  213
DRED SCOTT CASE  101, 102
Decision in characterized by Geo.
Bancroft  103
Lincoln's views of.  129
ELECTION- Presidential, of 185&  91, 92
For Senator from Illinois, in 1868.. 134
Presidential of 1860  140, 501-5
Counting of Electoral votes In
Congress  167, 168
State elections in fall of 1S63  441
Political state of the country be
fore Presidential of 1860  497, 498
Presidential, of 1864.... 559, 56a 561, 595
Rebel States prohibited, by Con
gress, from voting for Presi
dent and Vice President  595, 596
ELLIOTT, THOMAS D.. . ... 276, 279
ELLSWORTH, COL. ELMER B  203
EMANCIPATION —
By Congress, of all slaves claimed
or held by rebels  277, 278
Debates in Congress, July, 1861,
on confiscation and emancipa
tion  273,280
Gradual compensated recom
mended to Congress, by Lin
coln  280, 281, 369, 370, 371, 372
Co-operation in by U. S. proposed
by Congress  284
Universal, demanded by the
North  288
Urged by Lincoln's friends, 291,292,293
Lincoln's proclamation of Eman
cipation  293-300
Reception of it by the Nation 301, 3C2
Endorsed by Congress  302
Sneered at by Lord RusseU  303
BUl for compensated, lost In Con- ,
gress.  372, 373
Proclamation of, sanctioned by
House of Representatives  373
Welcomed by army  301
BUl for a Bureau of, reported In
Congress  477
Emancipat'n in Louisiana 509, 510, 511
In Tennessee  511, 512
In Maryland  512, 513, 514
In Missouri  516, 516
Steps by which the RepubUc was
led to  590
Effected by the Republican party 591
Opinion of Wm. Whiting, Esq.,
on right of President to eman
cipate slaves  708, 70>
Vle^rs of Washington and Jeffer
son concerning emancipation
as a belUgerent right  709, 710
Practice of Great Britain and
France touching same  709, 712
EMIGBANTAID SOCIETIES  64
ENROLLMENT BILI^
Introduced by Senator Wilson 374,375
Discussed in Congress  374,381
EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS—
Aspect towards secession  205
FENTON, R. E  224
FANUEIL HALL—
Resolutions passed by People's
Convention, at  698
FARRAGUT, ADMIBAI^
Captures New Orleans  386
At Mobile 
FESSENDEN, WM. P.,—
Speech on enrollment of negro
soldiem  266

PAOB.
Senator from Maine  222
Appointed Seeretary;of the Trea
sury  506, 507
FLORIDA— Purchase of.  32
War with the Seminoles  35
FLOYD, JOHN B.,—
Sends munitions of war to the
South  155
Beslgns  165
FOOTE COMMODORE  238
Captures; Fort Henry  309
FOOTE, SOLOMON  215
FORT SUMTER^
Attacked  189
Effects of its fall  192
FBANKLIN, BENJAMIN—
On slavery  27
FBBEDMEN— Condition of, discussed in Con
gress  477
Passage by Congress of the Freed
men's Bureau Bill  594, 595
FREE SOIL PAETY  43
FREE STATES—
Fourteen of protest against the
extension of slavery  45
FBEMONT, JOHN C  95
Appointed Major General  234
Declares slaves of rebels to be
free  234
Relieved of his command  239
FUGITIVE SLAVES—
Law of 1793 concerning  31
Bepeal of  447, 448
FUNEHAL OF LINCOLN—
Ceremonies at Washington... 667, 668
At Baltimore and Philadel
phia  669, 670
At New York and Albany  670, 671
At Chicago  671
At Springfield  672, 673
GARFIELD, GENEBAL  308
Bebukes his colleague, Alex.
Long, as a traitor  479, 480
Advocates the Constitutional
Amendment  584
GABNBE, MABGABET—
Slays her chUdren  96
GARBISON, WM.L  38
Visits President Lincoln  38
GEARY, GOVEBNOB—
Disgusted with the slave party m
Kansas  65, 66
GETTYSBUBG  •¦•¦ f20
Battle of  v.;; fJS'^S
Dedication of Cemetery at 422, 423, 424
Lincoln's address at  423, 424
Contrast between Lincoln's and
Everett's addresses  424
GREELEY, HORACE-
Urges the President to emanci-
pate the slaves  •.••¦ ¦*"'
Entrapped by rebel agents in
Canada  oi'i'lI'Si
GRIMES. J. W  215, 266, 381
GOVEBNOBS— . - , .,
Of loyal States, meeting at Al-
toona, Pa  ^"'
GBANT, GBNEBAIr-
Captures Belmont  f">
Captures Fort Donelson......  •.••• 3ua
Defeats the rebels at Shiloh.... 314, 315
Captures Vicksburg.  •;¦  • 4UO-7
Appointed Lieutenant-General... 518
Attends President's Levee, in
March, 1864  f'*
His plan of campaign  ••¦¦• mi
Defeat of Lee  '»*• >»*

730

INDEX.

PASB.
GRIERSON, COLONEL—
Makes a cavalry raid through
Mississippi  408, «9, 410
GROW, SPEAKER  214
Closing address to the Thirty-
seventh Congress  396
HABEAS CORPUS—
Suspension of legalized by Con
gress  230, 395
Bight of suspending discussed
 391, 392, 712, 713, 714, 715
How suspended in England  712
Opinion of Marshall, 0. J„.  714
Opinions of Attorney General
Bates and Parsons, C. J  714, 715
The President empowered by
Congress to suspend  715, 716
HAHN, MICHAEL!  389
Elected to Congress from Louisi
ana.  509
Advocates return of the State to
Union  389,390, 509,510
HALLECK. GENEBAL—
Order No. 3  261
Succeeds Hunter in the West  815
Captures Corinth  316
Made General-in-Chief.  343
HAMILTON, A. J., OF TEXAS  163
HABBIS, BEPEESENTATIVE
FBOM MAEYLAND—
Declared by House of Eepresen
tatives "an unworthy mem
ber"  481,482
HALE, J. P  215
HARLAN. JAMES  215, 601
HICKS, GOVEBNOB OF MAEY
LAND  194, 199,243
HOAB, JUDGE—
Expelled from South Carolina  40
HOLT, JOSEPH—
Secretary of War  165
Letter to President Lincoln con
cerning Fremont's order free
ing slaves of rebels  235
Appointed head of Bureau of Mil
itary Justice  491
HOOKEB, GENEBAL JOSEPH  261
Appointed to command Army of
Potomac  411
Defeated at Chancellorville... 412, 413
HOUSTON, SAM.,—
Speech against Kansas-Nebraska
Hill  55
HOWARD, J. M  279, 373
HOWARD, GENEBAL O. 0  414
Appointed head of the Freed
men's Bureau  595
HUNTEB, GENEBAL DAVID  238
Organizes first regiment of negro
troops  263
Eeplies to resolution of House of
Representatives concerning it
 264, 265
Declares all slaves free in South
Carolina, Georgia and Florida... 264
ILLINOIS- Early courts of.  75,76
Growth contrasted with that of
Missouri  107, 108, 109
First State that ratifies the Con
stitutional Amendment  587, 588
INAUGUBATION- Description of Lincoln's flrst 173, 174
Of second  623-8
IREDELL, MB.—
On slavery  27
JACKSON, STONEWALL—
-- ¦ Drives Banks across the Potomac 830
Creates panic at Washington.. 330,331

Escapes from Fremont and Mc
Dowell  331
Death of.  413
JEFFEESON, THOMAS—
Opinion of slavery  28
JOHNSON, ANDREW  198, 214, 220
Denounces the traitors  220
Denounces Jefferson Davis.  221
Bequests Lincoln to except Ten
nessee from the operation of
the proclamation of emancipa
tion  303
Nominated for Vice President of
the United States  502
Appointed Provisional Governor
of Tennessee  511
Declares that, if he were Presi
dent, he would arrest and exe
cute the traitors, (no(e)  724
JOHNSON, EEVEBDY-
Speeches of.  449.450,462
JUDICIABY OF UNITED STATES—
Long revered by the people  101
Disgraced by Dred Scott decision 101
KANSAS— Struggle of slaveholders and the
Free State party  65,66,98
Eeports on elections in by com
mittee of Congress  98
Civil war menaced in  98
KANSAS-NEBEASKA BILL  60
Address to llie people against  51
Final struggle on in Congress.... 55-62
Passage of  62
KING, PRESTON  215, 266, 268
KELLY,, W. D  224,597
LINCOLN, ABEAHAM-
Described  67, 68, 674, 675
His ancestors  68, 69
Early Ufe  69, 70, 71, 72
Education  70, 71
Eemoves to Indiana  69
To Illinois  70
"The rall-splltter."  70
In Black Hawk War  72
Sent to tlie Legislature of Illinois. 72
Postmaster of Salem  72
Nominated as Speaker  73
His integrity  72,73
Studies law  73
Protests against pro-slavei-y reso
lutions  74
Courts of Illinois  76
As a lawyer  :.. 77,78, 88
Accepts a challenge  79
Marries  79
Argues case of negro girl
"Nance"  79,80
Elected to Congress in 1847  37, 81
Speeches  82
Introduces a bill for the aboli
tion of slavery in the District
of Columbia  37, 84, 85
Campaign speecli in support of
General Taylor's nomination to
Presidency  82
Stumps New England for Taylor... 84
Opposes bill compensating offi
cers for slaves lost in Seminole
War  85
Offered the position of Governor
of Oregon  85
Voted for in 1849-50 for office of U.
S. Senator  86
Mechanical talent  86, 87
His only large fee for legal ser
vices  87
Defends a poor widow's son
charged with murder  87
. Tries his last law case  88

INDEX.

731

PAOB.
Debate with Douglas at Spring-
field and Peoria in 185.5.  89, 90
Withdraws as a candidate for the
U. S. Senate in favor of Judge
Trumbull  91
Leader of a new party organized
in Northwest to resist slavery 92, 93
Supported for office of Vice Pre
sident iu the Philadelphia Con
vention  94
Contrasted with Stephen A.
Douglas  112
Speech, June.lS58  114-119
Discussions with Douglas at Chi
cago, Springaeld,Ottawa, Gales
burg, and Alton  121-138
Views of the Dred Scott decision. 129
Answers Douglas's interroga
tories  131, 132
Visits Kansas  135
Speeeh at Colurabus, 0  132
At Cincinnati  136
At Cooper Institute, N. Y  137, 138
"Bail candidate" for the Presi
dency  138, 139
Nominated by Chicago Conven
tion for the Presidency.  145, 146
By whom flrst nominated for
Presidency, (Note)  145
Elected President  149
Farewell at Springfield...  168
Journey to Washington  168-172
Speech at Independence Hall,
Philadelphia  170
Threatened with assassination.... 171
Inaugurated as President  173, 174
Inaugural address  175, 176, 177
AMDoiuts his Cabinet  179, 180, 181
Can for 75,000 men  184
Message to Thirty-seventh Con
gress  216, 217, 218
Modifies Fremont's proclamation
in Missouri  235
Treatment of a wounded soldier.. 240
Message to Congress in Decem
ber, 1861  245, 216, 247
Recognizes right of Congress to
legislate for insurgent States  247
Recommends gradual compen
sated emancipation  280, 281
Repudiates General Hunter's or
der freeing slaves  284
Appeals to Border States  235, 286
Converses with Messrs. Lovejoy
and Arnold on eraancipation... 287
Eeplies to Horace Greeley  289
Replies to delegation of Chicago
clergy  289, 290
Urged by his friends to emanci
pate tbe slaves  291, 292
Issues The Proclamation  294-300
Impatience at McClellan's inac
tivity  323, 327, 328
Urges McClellan to more rapid
movemunt  326
Telegraphs McClellan on Penin
sula that he must strike a blow 327,328
Visits Fortress Monroe  328
Letter to McClellan  329
Replies to McClellan's call for
re-enforcements at Harrison's
Landing  340, 341
Visits the camp on the James  342
Visits the Army of the Potomac
after Antietam  356
Orders McClellan to give bat
tle  357,358,359
Message to Congress, December,
1863  '.  369
Points out mischiefs of disunion 371

Eeluotant at using "war pow
ers."  391, 392
Suspends Habeas Corpus and
Sroelaims Martial Law  392
;eplies to meeting at Albany... 393
Thanks Grant for capture of
Vicksburg  507
Proclaims a day of Thanksgiv
ing for the victory of Gettys
burg  421, 422
Speech at Gettysburg  423, 424
Appoints a day of Tnanksgiving
for victories of Lookout Moun
tain and Missionary Bldge  431
Threatens retaliation if rebels
treat Union negro soldiers con
trary to laws of war  436
Letter to Union men of Illinois... 438-441
Message to Thirty-eighth Con
gress  443-446
Views of reconstruction. ...445, 446, 568
Labors for passage of the consti-
tional amendment abolishing
slavery  468
Insists on fldelity to the freed
men  471
Gives his plan of " reconstruc
tion "  471
Attends fair of Baltimore Sani
tary Commission  494,495
Speaks at the fair in Pliiladel-
phia  497
Renominated for the Presidency
in 1864  502
Causes of renomination... 497, 498, 499
Addresses General Banks on re
construction of Louisiana  510
Thanks Sherman for capture of
Atlanta  540
Induced by Horace Greeley to
correspond with rebel agents
in Canada  556,557
Proposes to Greeley that the Nia
gara correspondence be pub
lished  558
Suspends Habeas Corpus in Ken-
tuck.y  558
Is re-elected President  559
His firm adherence to emancipa
tion  560
His last message to Congress.. 562-571
Appoints Secretary Chase Chief 
Justice of the U. S  574, 575
Speech on passage of Constitu-
tional amendment  587
Inadvertently signs it  .¦ 588
His early faith in the triumph of
abolition  ¦;¦ "89
Eefuses to make peace with
rebels 
Inaugurated President  624, 625
His second inaugural address...... d2D, d2o, 0^
Meets generals at City Point  629
Visits Bichmond  •¦•.••- °*^
Has a conference with leading
citizens of Bichmond... 642, 643, 644
Views of power of Congress over
rebel States  2?J"gi
His policy  ¦.'"^¦;"";"lS
Opinion concernmg right of rebel
States to vote in the Electoral ^
College  "•-.• H ^
Begards loyalty as the basis of
reconstruction  2??' iS
Views of negro suffrage  ^.6.57, 6SS
Leaders of the rebellion should
be excepted from amnesty......-.- 1»7
Insists on keeping faith with the
negroes  •'"''¦ •""

732

INDEX.

PAGE.
Last day ofhis Ufe  660-663
Assassinated  662; 663
Funeral services  667, 668
Funeral procession from Wash
ington to Springfleld  668-672
Funeral oration by Bishop Simp
son  672, 673
Lincoln's manners  675
Love of truth  675
Memory.  686
Favorite books  675
Talents as a reader  677
Conversational power  677, 678
Ability as a public spealter 678,679,680
Influence on the national char
acter  678
"Household words"  678, 679
Resemblance of his style to
Franklin's  680
Tender-heartedness  681
Character of his stories  688
Reception room at White House
described  682, 683
His accessibility  684
Magnitude of his labors  685, 686
His cardinal ideas  690
LECOMPTON CONSTITUTION  98
Vote of Kansas on  99
Opposed in United States Senate
by Douglas  99
Eemonstrance agaiust by people
of Kansas  99
Debate on between Senators Fes
senden and Davis  99
Defeated in Congress  100
•LEE, GENERAL EOBEBT E  208-211
Appointed to command of Army
of Northern Virginia  334
Appointed commander-in-chief
ol rebel armies  621
Surrenders to Grant  634, 635, 636
LIBEBTY PABTY  43
LIBEBTY OF SPEECH AND THE
PRESS— Jealously watched by Bepubli
cans  489
LOANS- By American people to the Gov
ernment durmg the*war  491
LONG, ALEX. OF OHIO—
Debate in House of Eepresenta
tives on motion to expel  480-489
Censured by House of Represen
tatives  489
LOGAN, JOHN A  224
LOUISIANA— Purchased  32
Elects two Union representatives
to Congress  386
Debate on admission of  386-390
Emancipation in  » 509, 510, 511
New constitution adopted by
people of, in 1864  511
LOVEJOY, REV. B. P.—
Murder of.  38, 39
LOVEJOY, OWEN  224, 225
Introduces in Congress a resolu
tion concerning duty of sol
diers touching fugitive slaves... 227, 252, 260
Debate with Crittenden on con
fiscation of slaves  273-276
Death  489,490
Lincoln's friendship for  490
LYON, GENERAL—
Captures the Missouri "State
duard"  201, 202
Death  238
MoCLELLAN, GEOEGE B.-
Appolnted commander of Union
armies  233

PAaz.
Inactivity In 1861-2  807,317
Army of the Potomac  237
Political associations  322
Besieges Yorktown  326
Continued caUs for re-enforce
ments  326
Telegraphed by Lincoln that he
" must act "  328
Calls for Parrott guns  328
Urged to attack  332
Complains of "mud and rain"..- 334
Fails to take advantage of Lee's
blunder in uncovering Bich
mond  334,335, 33S
Cold Harbor  '.  338
Message to Secretary of War  337
Malvern HIU  339
Beturns to Harrison's Landing... 340
Fatal errors during Peninsular
campaign  340
Calls for more re-enforcements.340,3S3
Ordered to withdraw to Acquia
Creek  345
Delays to re-enforce Pope  346-351
Disobeys orders  351
Determines "to leave Pope to
get out of his scrape"  349
Eeappointed commander of tbe
Army of the Potomac  353
Tardiness  354
Ordered by the President to give,
battle  367, 358, 359
Antietam  359
Believed of his command  360
Nominated at Chicago in 1860 for
the Presidency  503
McPHBESON, GBNEBAL-
Death of.  C  540
MCCULLOCH, HUGH—
Placed at head of Bureau of Na
tional Currency  '.  491
Appointed Secretary of the
Treasury 
MAILS— Violated at South  39
MAYNAED, HOEACE  198, 214, 383
MAEYLAND— Action regarding secession  199
Arrest of the Legislature  242
Slavery abolished in  612, 513, 514
MASON, OF VIEGINIA  54
Captured on board Trent, with
Slidell, by Commodore Wilkes. 240
Surrendered to Great Britain  241
MEXICO— War against  36
New Mexico ceded to the United
States  37
MISSISSIPPI— '
Opening of the  398
MISSOUBI— Effects of admission as a slave
State  33, 34
Action in regard to Secession  201
" State Guard " captured by Gen.
Lyon  201
Emancipation In  514, 515, 516
Enthusiam excited by  516
MISSOUBI COMPROMISE  33
Bepeal of.  42-3
Effects of its repeal.  63,64
State of.  201
MITCHELL, GENEEAl^-
Address to army at Bowling
Green  31C
MOBS— Anti-abolition  38, 89
MONITOR— Fights the Merrimac...;  323
MOBGAN'S EAID IN OHIO  410

INDEX.

733

 PASS.
MULLIGAN, COLONEL-
Surrenders to Price  238
NEW ENGLAND—
Contrasted with the South  104, 107
NEW YOEK—
Eebel plot to burn  660
Prosperity contrasted with that
of Virginia.  106, 106, IQT
NIAGAEA FALLS—
Conference, the  657
NEW OELEANS—
Captured by Farragut  317, 318, 319
NOE'TH OABOLINA SECEDEa  198
NORTHWEST, THE—
Action regarding the rebellion 195,399
OEDINANCE OP 1787  26
OBDEB OP " THE LONE STAB "  150
PAETY— A new poUtical, organized In the
Northwest to oppose slavery.. 92, 93
PEACE CONVENTION—
At Washington, In 1860  161, 162
Conference at Hampton Roads 618, 619
PENDLETON, OF OHIO  224
Opposes the expulsion of Alex.
Long from. House of Eepresen
tatives.-  486,487,488,489
Speaks against the constitution
al amendment prohibiting
slavery  579
PENINSULAE CAMPAIGN  340
Effects of its faUure on spirits of
Northern people  344
PETITION— Bight of, suppressed in Congress 39
Advocated by J. Q. Adams  40
Bestored Iul845  40
PINCKNEY, WM., ON SLAVEEY.... 26
POMEBOY, SENATOR^
Introduces a bUl Into Senate abol-
ishlHg slavery in seceding
States  272
POPE, GENEBAL—
Assumes command of Army of
Virginia  343
Addresses his army  343,344
Offends thereby officers of Army
of Potomac  344
Asks to be relieved of command.. 344
Driven back  351, 352
Cabal against  352
Acquitted of blame by Lincoln  353
POETEB, GENERAL FITZ JOHN—
Convicted of disobedience of or
ders  353
PEESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF
1856  95
PEOCLAMATION, LINCOLN'S—
For 75,000 men  190
EEBELLION- Objects  160,161
Deliberately planned  169, 160
BEBEL, BABBAEITIES  231. 600
Discussed in Senate  600-7
Passage of resolution by Senate
concerning  606
BECONSTEUCTION OF BEBEL
STATES  B^e
Debates on admission of repre
sentatives to Congress from
Louisiana.  386-90
Lincoln's views of.  445,446,470,
471, 476, 507, 508, 509, 510, 620, 650-9
Discussions on in Congress  472-9
Henry Winter Davis' bill con
cerning.  473, 474
Passage of by Congress  474
Lincoln's objection to  475
Charles Sumner's views  475, 476
Eesolution of Senate upon  477

Discussion of, in House of Eepre
sentatives. in Jan., 1865  506-9
EELIGIOUS SECTS-
Oplnionsof slavery in 1785.  28
EEPUBLICAN PABTY—
Organized  93
EESOLUTIONS- Of 1788  41
BICHMOND— Captured  642
EOLLINS. BEPEESENTATIVE
FEOM MISSOUBI—
Advocates the constitutional
amendment prohibiting slavery 580,584
SCOTT, GENERAL—
Warns Buchanan of designs of
secessionists  153
SECESSION- Date of by seceding States 163,197,198
The germ of.  41
Befuted by Webster  42
Buchanan's treatment Contrasted
with Jackson's  42
Threatened by South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, &c...:  153
Calhoun on doctrine  153,154
Inexcusable  267
Gloomy winter of 1860-1  197
Condition of affairs March 4, 1861 181, 182
Voted down iu Virginia  196
Successful in  197
Supported by many officers of
army and navy  208
Caused by slavery  203,204
Eepudiated by West Virginia  381
SECESSIONISTS— Secret conclave at Washington... 162
Convention at Montgomery, Ala. 163
Seize Harper's Perry and Gos
port Navy Yard  202
SEWAED, WM. H  45
Instructions to Mr. Adams  206-7
On capture of Mason and Slidell.. 241
Speaks against 1 Kansas-Nebras
ka bin  63
Described  179
Denies right of Federal Govern
ment to coerce seceding States
696 697, 698
Deprecates emancipation.. 696, 697, 698
SHEBIDAN, MAJOR GENEBAL
PHIL. H  527
T. B. Bead's poem on " Sheridan's
Bide "  636, 686
SHEBMAN, SENATOE OF OHIO... 216, 230, 268
Speech on emancipation... 450,451,462
SHEBMAN, MAJOB GENEEAL—
Atlanta Campaign  638, 642
Orders the non-combatants to
leave Atlanta  ••"•• o41
Eeplies to Gen. Hood and the
Mayor of Atlanta concerning
same  641, 642, 648 644
Grand March  .,  646,661
SLAVEBY- ^^ „, „
Opinions of the Fathers on...... 25, 26
Address on by Legislature of Va.,
to King of Great Britain, 1772 ... ^
Franklin's opinion of ....."....¦¦•••¦•• "
When abolished in New England
Pennsylvania, New York, and
New Jersey  •;  J„
Change in public opinion  ^«
Contrasted with free labor....... 104-10
Position of parties nn m 1860. 149, 16U
Tenderly treaieu by U. S. Govern-
ment at beginning of war......... 2JJ
Debate on abolition in District of

734

INDEX.

Columbia  262-228
Abolished in  268
Prohibited by Congress in Terri
tories  260
Abolition demanded by the
North  288
Statements of Eeverdy Johnson
on morality of.  448,449
Propositions in Congress to abol
ish and proliibit by amend
ment to the U. S. Constitution.. 466
Speeches on same by Trumbull,
Wilson, Eeverdy Johnson, Har
lan, Saulsbury, McDougal, Hen
derson, Pendleton, and Sumner 466 to 468
Vote on same in the Senate  465
Debates in House of Eepresenta
tives  466 to 468 and 577 to 687
Votes on  468, 586
First' resolution in Congress to
abolish entirely  465
Its final overthrow  692, 693
Power of Congress to abolish in
the States  692 to 713
Opinion of Buchanan touching... 694
Vote of Congress on  684,686
SLAVES— Position of Government towards 207, 208
Bil to conflscate when used for
insurrectionary purposes.... 225, 226
Flock to the Union armies  226
Military commanders first au
thorized to employ them in
"^squads, companies" &c  236
Oflicers forbidden to arrest fugi
tives  252
Fugitives expelled from the lines
of army by Gen. Halleck  261
Permitted by Gen. Hooker to be
recaptured  262
Gen. Hunter organizes first regi
ment of.  266
Debate in Congress on employ
ment as soldiers,  266 to 270
Passage of bill enfranchising such
as should perform military ser
vice  270
Number killed, wounded, &c., dur
ing war, while serving in
Union armies   270
Passage, by Congress, of bill free
ing all claimed or held by rebels 278
Belief that a day of jubilee was
approaching  291
Emancipation proclaimed by Lin
coln  294 to ."MO
Forgiving spirit towards their
masters  558
Opinion of Wm. Whiting, Esq.,
on right of President to eman
cipate  709
Eight of a belligerent to eman-
pate  709-12
Practice of England and France
in regard to the right,  709,710
Employment of slaves in 1814 by
the Government without com
pensation  711
SLAVEHOLDEBS— Power of in Congress..  34
Monopoly of offices by  34
Despotism of  41
Control of the entire Govern
ment by  103, 104
SLAVE STATES—
'Tennessee admitted into Union
as a slave 3tate  31
Alabama and Mississippi  82

PASZ.
SLAVE TEADE—
Provision by Congress for Its
abolition  27
SMll'H, PEOF. GOLDWIN—
On treatment of rebel prisoners
by the United States  607
SOLDIEES— Nuraber of fumished for war of
the Eebellion by the 'several
States  646,617,648
Number of colored troops enlist'd 618
SOUTH CAROLINA—
Enacts a law imprisoning colored
seamen  40
"The Prodigal Son"  ;. 184, 186
Slave.s armed by United States.... 237
STANTON, EDWIN M  165, 266
Appointed Secretary of War.  260
Views of slavery  373
STATES IN EEBELLION—
Eight of the United States to
govern  716, 723
Decisions of Supreme Court upon 716, 723
Not in the Union during the war 718, 719
Who raay prescribe terms of
their retum to the Union 720,721,723
STEPHENS, ALEX. H  62|l66
Speech at Milledgeville  208, 204
STEVENS, THADDEUS— 222, 223, 226, 2S4, 384
Advocates the constitutional
araendraent  586, 686
SUMNEE, CHARLES.. 216, 225, 264, 447, 466
Assaulted 65^ Brooks  96
Described  221
Eeviews Lincoln's proclamation
respecting government of re
volted States  476
Opposes placing bust of Taney in
Suprerae Court roora  672, 573, 674
TENNESSEE— Action regarding secession  198
Excepted from proclamation of
eraancipation  303
Eraancipation in  611, 612
TANEY, E B  674-6
TEXAS— Adraitted into the Union  38
THOMAS, GEN. GEOEGE H  102
Defeats ZoUikoffer at Mill Spring 308
Defeats the rebels at Franklin
and Nashville  647, 648, 649
THOMPSON, JACOB  154
TIMES, THE LONDON—
Announces that " The Great Ee
public is no more"  206
TOOMBS EOBEET  64
TOUCEY, ISAAC  157
TEEASON— In loyal States  702
TBENT, AFFAIE OF  240, 241
TBUMBULL, SENATOE OF ILLI
NOIS  216
Introduces in Senate a bill free
ing slaves of rebels  272,467
Protests against President's sig
nature of constitutional amend
ment bill  588
UNION, THE—
Conspiracy of slaveholders, in
1860, todestroy  148, 149
UPEISING OF THE PEOPLE... 192, 198
VALLANDIGHAM  224, 268
Arrested by Burnside  892
Returns North frora rebel lines... 608
Is made chairman of Coraraittee
on Eesolutions at Chicago Con
vention  608

INDFX.

735

VICKSBUHG  366,7
Captured  407
VIEGINIA— Action regarding secession  196
VOLUNTEERS IN AEMY—
Number of  374
WADE, BENJAMIN F  64, 161, 601, 604
WAR OF THE EEBELLION—
Federal plan of in 1861-2  306, 307
General movement of army or
dered by Lincoln iu January,
1862  308
Battle of Belmont  808
Battle of Mill Spring  308
Capture of Forts Henry and
Donelson  309
Kentucky evacuated by the
rebels  310
Capture of Nashville  311
Capture of Eoanoke Island, New
bern, Fort Pulaski, and Fort
Macon  311
Battle of Pea Bidge  311, 312
NewMadrid and Island No. 10  812
Battle of Shiloh  313, 314, 816
Capture of Corinth  Slti
Plan of operations agreed on at
Fairfax Court House, March,
1862  324
Lincoln's dispatch to comman
ders conceming same  326
Yorktown  326
Williamsburg  826
Capture of Norfolk  828
Cold Harbor, or Gaines'Mill  336
Savage Station  .388
Malvern Hill  8.39
Battle of South Mountain  854
Loss of Harper's Ferry  362
Battle of Antietam  364, 365
Battle of Fredericksburg.  364
Eeview of campaign of 1862 in
tlie East  364, 365
Bebels occupy Frankfort and
Lexington, Ky  364
Battle of Perryville  364
Repulse of Van Dorn by Bose-
crans  366
Surrender of Holly Springs  366
Vicksburg unsuccessfully as
saulted by Sherman and Mc
Clernand  367
Battle of Stone Eiver  367
Plan of campaign bf 1863  400
Capture of Vicksburg  400-407
Arkansas Post  401
Battle of Port Gibson  405
Grierson's raid  408, 409, 4io
Morgan's raid in Ohio  410
Capture of Port Hudson  410, 411
Battle of Chancellorville.. 411, 412, 413
Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania... 413
Battle of Gettysburg  414-420
Meade's failure to pursue Lee  426
Eosecrans forces back Bragg to
Chattanooga  427
Burnside occupies East Tennes
see  428
Battle of Chickamaugua  428,429
Graflt takes command of the De
partments of Tennessee, the
Cumberland and Ohio  430
Battles of Lookout Mountain and
Missionary Bidge  430, 481
Operations against Charleston 431,482
Assault on Fort Wogner  431
Quantrell's massacre at Lawrence 432
First draft by the President... 432, 4.33
Draft riots in New York  438, 434
Recruiting of negro soldiers.. 434,435

Desperation of rebels at close of
1863  43X
•• Military situation when Grant
took coramand of all United
States armies  522
Failure of Banks' Bed River ex
pedition...  623
Massacre at Fort Pillow  623, 624
Exhaustion of the rebels  634, 636
They propose to arm their slaves.. 526
The Army of the Potomac cross
the Bapidan  527
Battles of tlie Wilderness  528
Sheridan's raid  529
Gen. Butler occupies City Point
and Bermuda Hundred  629, 630
Butler is forced back  630
Battles of Spottsylvania, Nortii
Anna, etc  680, 681
First attack on Petersburg  231
Operations on the Shenandoah
by Sigel and Hunter  631
Investment of Lynchburg  631
Early and Breckenridge move
down the Shenandoah and
threaten Washington  632
Eetreat of same  682
Petersburg invested  633
A raine exploded  534
Sheridan takes command of the
Department of Washington
and the Shenandoali  634
Defeat of General Early  634
Second defeat of Early by Slieri-
dan  586
Sherman advances on Atlanta 
63-, 689
He turns the enemy's position at
Kenesaw Mountain  539
Death of McPherson  640
Atlanta evacuated  540
Sherraan orders non-combatants
to leave  541
Sherman proposes to raarch
across Georgia to the sea  545
Corresponds with Grant concern
ing sarae  545, 546
General Thoraas prepares to raeet
Hood  546, 547
Battle of Franklin  547, 548
Battle of Nashville  548, 649
Defence of Allatoona Pass  560
Sherman marches to the sea, and
invests Savannah  661, 652
Capture of the Alabaraa  653, 564
Capture of the Florida  654
Farragut's victory at Mobile.. 554, 655
Bebel barbarities  606-607
Attacks on Fort Fisher  *''''5}5
Capture of same...  "is
Capture of Wilmington  021
The rebels arm the negroes  oai
Fight at BentonvUle  022
Sheiman joins Terry and Scho-
fleld  "22
Capture of Charleston  ••••• 622
Sheridan at Five Forks  631, 6B.i
General assault upon Lee's lines
at Petersburg  •••¦• «i'
Grant's pursuitof Lee  633, 634
Lee's surrender  t)34, 63o 636
Dissatisfaction of the people at
terms of same  ''"°. ''¦''
Armistice between Sherman .and
Johnson  ¦  :u""Jr'
Bepudiation of same by the Pie-
sident  '^''«*?
Surrender of Johnston's army.-.. Ml
Downfall of the Confederacy  6*1
Capture ot Jefferson DavJS  641
Weitzel's entry into Richmond... 642

736

INDEX.

PAGE.
Review of Grant and Sherman's
troops at Washington  644, 645
Cost of the war  646
Number of troops furnished by
the several States  646 647
Number of colored troops enlisted 648
Forbearance of the victors  649
Heroism of rebels  649
Constitutional history of the
war  691-726
What has been settled by the
war  722, 723
WAE POWERS—
Of the government  691-725
Treatise on by William Whit
ing, Esq  708
Extracts from same  704-709
. Opinions of J. Q,. Adams con
cerning  711, 712, 723
WASHBUENE, ELIHU B. OF ILLI
NOIS— Eeplies to Cox  676,676
Speech on Grant  402, 403
Moves to expel Harris  481

WASHINGTON, PBESIDENT—
Views of slavery  26
WASHINGTON CITY—
Plot to seize  20O
WHAENCLIFFE, LOED—
Eefused access to Confederate
prisons  606, 607
¦WHITING, WM., OF BOSTON—
Appointed Solicitor of the War
Department  7P8
Publishes a treatise on " War
Powers "  708
Extracts from same  704-709
WEST VIEGINIA  881
Eebels driven from  2.38
Admitted into Union  885
Debate in Congress on same.....382-386
Abolishes slavery  386
WICKLIFFE, C. A  268, 268
WIDE-AWAKES  147
Addressed at Chicago  147, 148
WILMOT PBOVISO  886
WILSON, HENBY  215,253
Speeches of  266,270,375,376, 380, 469