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diff --git a/21267-8.txt b/21267-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..445ca20 --- /dev/null +++ b/21267-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10486 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Our American Holidays: Lincoln's Birthday, by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Our American Holidays: Lincoln's Birthday + A Comprehensive View of Lincoln as Given in the Most + Noteworthy Essays, Orations and Poems, in Fiction and in + Lincoln's Own Writings + +Author: Various + +Editor: Robert Haven Schauffler + +Release Date: May 2, 2007 [EBook #21267] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY *** + + + + +Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Leonard Johnson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + Our American Holidays + + LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY + + + + + Our American Holidays + +A series of Anthologies upon American Holidays, each volume a collection +of writings from many sources, historical, poetic, religious, patriotic, +etc., presenting each American festival as seen through the eyes of the +representative writers of many ages and nations. + + + EDITED BY + ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER + + _12mo. Each volume $1.00 net_ + + NOW READY + + THANKSGIVING LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY + CHRISTMAS MEMORIAL DAY + + + IN PREPARATION + + WASHINGTON'S BIRTHDAY EASTER + ARBOR DAY FLAG DAY + FOURTH OF JULY NEW YEAR'S DAY + + MOFFAT, YARD & COMPANY + 31 East 17th Street New York + + + + + Our American Holidays + + LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY + + A COMPREHENSIVE VIEW OF LINCOLN AS + GIVEN IN THE MOST NOTEWORTHY ESSAYS, + ORATIONS AND POEMS, IN FICTION + AND IN LINCOLN'S OWN WRITINGS + + + EDITED BY + ROBERT HAVEN SCHAUFFLER + + + NEW YORK + MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY + 1916 + + + + + Copyright, 1909, by + MOFFAT, YARD AND COMPANY + NEW YORK + + Published, January, 1909 + + + 2nd Printing--June, 1911 + 3rd Printing--July, 1914 + 4th Printing--Feb. 1916 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE +PREFACE ix + +INTRODUCTION xi + + +I +A BIRDSEYE VIEW OF LINCOLN + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY 3 +A BRIEF SUMMARY OF LINCOLN'S LIFE _Osborn H. Oldroyd_ 6 + + +II +EARLY LIFE + +LINCOLN'S EDUCATION _Horace Greeley_ 15 +ABE LINCOLN'S HONESTY 17 +THE BOY THAT HUNGERED FOR KNOWLEDGE 18 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Florence E. Pratt_ 19 +YOUNG LINCOLN'S KINDNESS OF HEART 20 +A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS _Charles Sumner_ 21 +CHOOSING ABE LINCOLN CAPTAIN 22 + + +III +MATURITY + +LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE 31 +HOW LINCOLN AND JUDGE B---- SWAPPED HORSES 33 +LINCOLN AS A MAN OF LETTERS _H. W. Mabie_ 34 +LINCOLN'S PRESENCE OF BODY 44 +HOW LINCOLN BECAME A NATIONAL FIGURE _Ida M. Tarbell_ 45 +LINCOLN'S LOVE FOR THE LITTLE ONES 89 +HOW LINCOLN TOOK HIS ALTITUDE 90 + + +IV +IN THE WHITE HOUSE + +HOW LINCOLN WAS ABUSED 95 +SONNET IN 1862 _John James Piatt_ 96 +LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT _James Russell Lowell_ 96 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Frank Moore_ 109 +THE PROCLAMATION _John Greenleaf Whittier_ 110 +THE EMANCIPATION _James A. Garfield_ 112 +THE EMANCIPATION GROUP _John Greenleaf Whittier_ 121 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CHRISTMAS GIFT _Nora Perry_ 122 + + +V +DEATH OF LINCOLN + +O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! _Walt Whitman_ 127 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S DEATH _Walt Whitman_ 128 +HUSHED BE THE CAMPS TO-DAY _Walt Whitman_ 134 +TO THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN _William Cullen Bryant_ 135 +CROWN HIS BLOODSTAINED PILLOW _Julia Ward Howe_ 136 +THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Walt Whitman_ 137 +OUR SUN HATH GONE DOWN _Phoebe Cary_ 139 +TOLLING _Lucy Larcom_ 142 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Rose Terry Cooke_ 143 +EFFECT OF THE DEATH OF LINCOLN _Henry Ward Beecher_ 144 +HYMN _Oliver Wendell Holmes_ 151 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Tom Taylor_ 153 + + +VI +TRIBUTES + +THE MARTYR CHIEF _James Russell Lowell_ 159 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Ralph Waldo Emerson_ 161 +WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN _William McKinley_ 169 +LINCOLN _Theodore Roosevelt_ 170 +LINCOLN'S GRAVE _Maurice Thompson_ 170 +TRIBUTES TO LINCOLN 173 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _H. H. Brownell_ 174 +TRIBUTES 189 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Joel Benton_ 189 +ON THE LIFE-MASK OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Richard Watson Gilder_ 190 +LINCOLN _George H. Boker_ 192 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _James A. Garfield_ 193 +AN HORATIAN ODE _R. H. Stoddard_ 195 +SOME FOREIGN TRIBUTES TO LINCOLN _Harriet Beecher Stowe_ 202 +THE GETTYSBURG ODE _Bayard Taylor_ 211 +TRIBUTES 212 +LINCOLN _Macmillan's Magazine_ 214 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _R. H. Stoddard_ 215 +LINCOLN _Edna Dean Proctor_ 215 +WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM'D _Walt Whitman_ 218 + + +VII +THE WHOLE MAN + +LINCOLN, THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE _Edwin Markham_ 233 +LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN _George Bancroft_ 235 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Goldwin Smith_ 276 +GREATNESS OF HIS SIMPLICITY _H. A. Delano_ 278 +HORACE GREELEY'S ESTIMATE OF LINCOLN 279 +LINCOLN _J. T. Trowbridge_ 282 +THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF LINCOLN _B. B. Tyler_ 282 +TO THE SPIRIT OF LINCOLN _R. W. Gilder_ 296 +LINCOLN AS A TYPICAL AMERICAN _Phillips Brooks_ 297 +LINCOLN AS CAVALIER AND PURITAN _H. W. Grady_ 304 +LINCOLN, THE TENDER-HEARTED _H. W. Bolton_ 306 +THE CHARACTER OF LINCOLN _W. H. Herndon_ 307 +"WITH CHARITY FOR ALL" _W. T. Sherman_ 317 +LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY _Ida V. Woodbury_ 318 +FEBRUARY TWELFTH _M. H. Howliston_ 319 +TWO FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS _L. M. Hadley and C. Z. Denton_ 323 + + +VIII +LINCOLN'S PLACE IN HISTORY + +THE THREE GREATEST AMERICANS _Theodore Roosevelt_ 333 +HIS CHOICE AND HIS DESTINY _F. M. Bristol_ 333 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Robert G. Ingersoll_ 334 +LINCOLN _Paul Laurence Dunbar_ 341 +THE GRANDEST FIGURE _Walt Whitman_ 342 +ABRAHAM LINCOLN _Lyman Abbott_ 345 +"LINCOLN THE IMMORTAL" _Anonymous_ 346 +THE CRISIS AND THE HERO _Frederic Harrison_ 349 +LINCOLN _John Vance Cheney_ 351 +MAJESTIC IN HIS INDIVIDUALITY _S. P. Newman_ 353 + + +IX +LINCOLN YARNS AND SAYINGS + +THE QUESTION OF LEGS 359 +HOW LINCOLN WAS PRESENTED WITH A KNIFE 360 +"WEEPING WATER" 361 +MILD REBUKE TO A DOCTOR 362 + + +X +FROM LINCOLN'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS + +LINCOLN'S LIFE AS WRITTEN BY HIMSELF 365 +THE INJUSTICE OF SLAVERY 365 +SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE 368 +FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 371 +LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY 376 +EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION 378 +THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION 380 +GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 382 +REMARKS TO NEGROES ON THE STREETS OF RICHMOND 383 +SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS 384 + + + + +PREFACE + + +An astounding number of books have been written on Abraham Lincoln. +Our Library of Congress contains over one thousand of them in +well-nigh every modern language. Yet, incredible as it may seem, no +miner has until to-day delved in these vast fields of Lincolniana +until he has brought together the most precious of the golden words +written of and by the Man of the People. Howe has collected a few of +the best poems on Lincoln; Rice, Oldroyd and others, the elder prose +tributes and reminiscences. McClure has edited Lincoln's yarns and +stories; Nicolay and Hay, his speeches and writings. But each +successive twelfth of February has emphasized the growing need for a +unification of this scattered material. + +The present volume offers, in small compass, the most noteworthy +essays, orations, fiction and poems on Lincoln, together with some +fiction, with characteristic anecdotes and "yarns" and his most famous +speeches and writings. Taken in conjunction with a good biography, it +presents the first succinct yet comprehensive view of "the first +American." The Introduction gives some account of the celebration of +Lincoln's Birthday and of his principal biographers. + + + + +NOTE + + +The Editor and Publishers wish to acknowledge their indebtedness to +Houghton, Mifflin & Company; the McClure Company, R. S. Peale and J. +A. Hill Co.; Charles Scribner's Sons; Dana Estes Company; Mr. David +McKay, Mr. Joel Benton, Mr. C. P. Farrell and others who have very +kindly granted permission to reprint selections from works bearing +their copyright. + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States, was born at +Nolin Creek, Kentucky, on Feb. 12, 1809. As the following pages +contain more than one biographical sketch it is not necessary here to +touch on the story of his life. Lincoln's Birthday is now a legal +holiday in Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, New +York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Washington (state) and Wyoming, and +is generally observed in the other Northern States. + +In its inspirational value to youth Lincoln's Birthday stands among +the most important of our American holidays. Its celebration in school +and home can not be made too impressive. "Rising as Lincoln did," +writes Edward Deems, "from social obscurity through a youth of manual +toil and poverty, steadily upward to the highest level of honor in the +world, and all this as the fruit of earnest purpose, hard work, humane +feeling and integrity of character, he is an example and an +inspiration to youth unparalleled in history. At the same time he is +the best specimen of the possibilities attainable by genius in our +land and under our free institutions." + +In arranging exercises for Lincoln's Birthday the teacher and parent +should try not so much to teach the bare facts of his career as to +give the children a sense of Lincoln's actual personality through his +own yarns and speeches and such accounts as are given here by Herndon, +Bancroft, Mabie, Tarbell, Phillips Brooks and others. He should show +them Lincoln's greatest single act--Emancipation--through the eyes of +Garfield and Whittier. He should try to reach the children with the +thrill of an adoring sorrow-maddened country at the bier of its great +preserver; with such a passion of love and patriotism as vibrates in +the lines of Whitman, Brownell and Bryant, of Stoddard, Procter, Howe, +Holmes, Lowell, and in the throbbing periods of Henry Ward Beecher. +His main object should be to make his pupils love Lincoln. He should +appeal to their national pride with the foreign tributes to Lincoln's +greatness; make them feel how his memory still works through the years +upon such contemporary poets as Gilder, Thompson, Markham, Cheney and +Dunbar; and finally through the eyes of Harrison, Whitman, Ingersoll, +Newman and others, show them our hero set in his proud, rightful place +in the long vista of the ages. + +In order to use the present volume with the best results it is +advisable for teacher and parent to gain a more consecutive view of +Lincoln's life than is offered here. + +The standard biography of Lincoln is the monumental one in ten large +volumes by Nicolay and Hay, the President's private secretaries. This +contains considerable material not found elsewhere, but since its +publication in 1890 much new matter has been unearthed, especially by +the enterprise of Miss Ida Tarbell, whose "Life" in two volumes +contains the essentials of the larger official work, is well balanced, +and written in a simple, vigorous style perfectly adapted to the +subject. If only one biography of Lincoln is to be read, Miss +Tarbell's will, on the whole, be found most satisfactory. + +The older Lives, written by Lincoln's friends and associates, such as +Lamon and Herndon, make up in vividness and the intimate personal +touch what they necessarily lack in perspective. Arnold's Life deals +chiefly with the executive and legislative history of Lincoln's +administration. The Life by the novelist J. G. Holland deals popularly +with his hero's personality. The memoirs by Barrett, Abbott, Howells, +Bartlett, Hanaford and Power were written in the main for political +purposes. + +Among the later works there stand out Morse's scholarly and serious +account (in the American Statesmen series) of Lincoln's public policy; +the vivid portrayal of Lincoln's adroitness as a politician by Col. +McClure in Abraham Lincoln and Men of War Times; Whitney's Life on the +Circuit with Lincoln, with its fund of entertaining anecdotes; Abraham +Lincoln, an Essay by Carl Schurz; James Morgan's "short and simple +annals" of Abraham Lincoln The Boy and the Man; Frederick Trevor +Hill's brilliant account of Lincoln the Lawyer, the result of much +recent research; the study of his personal magnetism in Alonzo +Rothschild's Lincoln, Master of Men; and The True Abraham Lincoln by +Curtis--a collection of sketches portraying Lincoln's character from +several interesting points of view. Abraham Lincoln The Man of the +People by Norman Hapgood is one of most recent and least conventional +accounts. It is short, vigorous, vivid, and intensely American. + +Among the many popular Lives for young people are: Abraham Lincoln, +the Pioneer Boy, by W. M. Thayer; Abraham Lincoln, The Backwoods Boy, +by Horatio Alger, Jr.; Abraham Lincoln, by Charles Carleton Coffin; +The True Story of Abraham Lincoln The American, by E. S. Brooks; The +Boy Lincoln, by W. O. Stoddard; and--most important of all--Nicolay's +Boy's Life of Abraham Lincoln. + + R. H. S. + + + + +I + +A BIRDSEYE VIEW OF LINCOLN + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY + +The following autobiography was written by Mr. Lincoln's own hand at +the request of J. W. Fell of Springfield, Ill., December 20, 1859. In +the note which accompanied it the writer says: "Herewith is a little +sketch, as you requested. There is not much of it, for the reason, I +suppose, that there is not much of me." + +"I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin Co., Ky. My parents were both +born in Virginia, of undistinguished families--second families, +perhaps I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, was of a +family of the name of Hanks, some of whom now reside in Adams Co., and +others in Mason Co., Ill. My paternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, +emigrated from Rockingham Co., Va., to Kentucky, about 1781 or 1782, +where, a year or two later, he was killed by Indians, not in battle, +but by stealth, when he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. His +ancestors, who were Quakers, went to Virginia from Berks Co., Pa. An +effort to identify them with the New England family of the same name +ended in nothing more definite than a similarity of Christian names in +both families, such as Enoch, Levi, Mordecai, Solomon, Abraham, and +the like. + +"My father, at the death of his father, was but six years of age, and +grew up literally without any education. He removed from Kentucky to +what is now Spencer Co., Ind., in my eighth year. We reached our new +home about the time the State came into the Union. It was a wild +region, with many bears and other wild animals still in the woods. +There I grew up. There were some schools, so-called, but no +qualification was ever required of a teacher beyond 'readin', writin', +and cipherin', to the rule of three. If a straggler, supposed to +understand Latin, happened to sojourn in the neighborhood, he was +looked upon as a wizard. There was absolutely nothing to excite +ambition for education. Of course, when I came of age I did not know +much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher to the rule of +three, but that was all. I have not been to school since. The little +advance I now have upon this store of education I have picked up from +time to time under the pressure of necessity. + +"I was raised to farm work, at which I continued till I was +twenty-two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, and passed the first +year in Macon County. Then I got to New Salem, at that time in +Sangamon, now Menard County, where I remained a year as a sort of +clerk in a store. Then came the Black Hawk War, and I was elected a +captain of volunteers--a success which gave me more pleasure than any +I have had since. I went into the campaign, was elected, ran for the +Legislature the same year (1832), and was beaten--the only time I have +ever been beaten by the people. The next and three succeeding +biennial elections I was elected to the Legislature. I was not a +candidate afterward. During the legislative period I had studied law, +and removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was elected to +the Lower House of Congress. Was not a candidate for re-election. From +1849 to 1854, both inclusive, practiced law more assiduously than ever +before. Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the Whig electoral +ticket, making active canvasses. I was losing interest in politics +when the repeal of the Missouri Compromise aroused me again. What I +have done since then is pretty well known. + +"If any personal description of me is thought desirable, it may be +said I am in height six feet four inches, nearly; lean in flesh, +weighing, on an average, one hundred and eighty pounds; dark +complexion, with coarse black hair and gray eyes--no other marks or +brands recollected. + + "Yours very truly, + A. LINCOLN." + + +A BRIEF SUMMARY OF LINCOLN'S LIFE + +BY OSBORN H. OLDROYD + +From "Words of Lincoln" + +The sun which rose on the 12th of February, 1809, lighted up a little +log cabin on Nolin Creek, Hardin Co., Ky., in which Abraham Lincoln +was that day ushered into the world. Although born under the humblest +and most unpromising circumstances, he was of honest parentage. In +this backwoods hut, surrounded by virgin forests, Abraham's first four +years were spent. His parents then moved to a point about six miles +from Hodgensville, where he lived until he was seven years of age, +when the family again moved, this time to Spencer Co., Ind. + +The father first visited the new settlement alone, taking with him his +carpenter tools, a few farming implements, and ten barrels of whisky +(the latter being the payment received for his little farm) on a +flatboat down Salt Creek to the Ohio River. Crossing the river, he +left his cargo in care of a friend, and then returned for his family. +Packing the bedding and cooking utensils on two horses, the family of +four started for their new home. They wended their way through the +Kentucky forests to those of Indiana, the mother and daughter (Sarah) +taking their turn in riding. + +Fourteen years were spent in the Indiana home. It was from this place +that Abraham, in company with young Gentry, made a trip to New Orleans +on a flatboat loaded with country produce. During these years Abraham +had less than twelve months of schooling, but acquired a large +experience in the rough work of pioneer life. In the autumn of 1818 +the mother died, and Abraham experienced the first great sorrow of his +life. Mrs. Lincoln had possessed a very limited education, but was +noted for intellectual force of character. + +The year following the death of Abraham's mother his father returned +to Kentucky, and brought a new guardian to the two motherless +children. Mrs. Sally Johnson, as Mrs. Lincoln, brought into the family +three children of her own, a goodly amount of household furniture, +and, what proved a blessing above all others, a kind heart. It was not +intended that this should be a permanent home; accordingly, in March, +1830, they packed their effects in wagons, drawn by oxen, bade adieu +to their old home, and took up a two weeks' march over untraveled +roads, across mountains, swamps, and through dense forests, until they +reached a spot on the Sangamon River, ten miles from Decatur, Ill., +where they built another primitive home. Abraham had now arrived at +manhood, and felt at liberty to go out into the world and battle for +himself. He did not leave, however, until he saw his parents +comfortably fixed in their new home, which he helped build; he also +split enough rails to surround the house and ten acres of ground. + +In the fall and winter of 1830, memorable to the early settlers of +Illinois as the year of the deep snow, Abraham worked for the farmers +who lived in the neighborhood. He made the acquaintance of a man of +the name of Offutt, who hired him, together with his stepbrother, John +D. Johnson, and his uncle, John Hanks, to take a flatboat loaded with +country produce down the Sangamon River to Beardstown, thence down the +Illinois and Mississippi rivers to New Orleans. Abraham and his +companions assisted in building the boat, which was finally launched +and loaded in the spring of 1831, and their trip successfully made. In +going over the dam at Rutledge Mill, New Salem, Ill., the boat struck +and remained stationary, and a day passed before it was again started +on its voyage. During this delay Lincoln made the acquaintance of New +Salem and its people. + +On his return from New Orleans, after visiting his parents,--who had +made another move, to Goose-Nest Prairie, Ill.,--he settled in the +little village of New Salem, then in Sangamon, now Menard County. +While living in this place, Mr. Lincoln served in the Black Hawk War, +in 1832, as captain and private. His employment in the village was +varied; he was at times a clerk, county surveyor, postmaster, and +partner in the grocery business under the firm name of Lincoln & +Berry. He was defeated for the Illinois Legislature in 1832 by Peter +Cartwright, the Methodist pioneer preacher. He was elected to the +Legislature in 1834, and for three successive terms thereafter. + +Mr. Lincoln wielded a great influence among the people of New Salem. +They respected him for his uprightness and admired him for his genial +and social qualities. He had an earnest sympathy for the unfortunate +and those in sorrow. All confided in him, honored and loved him. He +had an unfailing fund of anecdote, was a sharp, witty talker, and +possessed an accommodating spirit, which led him to exert himself for +the entertainment of his friends. During the political canvass of +1834, Mr. Lincoln made the acquaintance of Mr. John T. Stuart of +Springfield, Ill. Mr. Stuart saw in the young man that which, if +properly developed, could not fail to confer distinction on him. He +therefore loaned Lincoln such law books as he needed, the latter often +walking from New Salem to Springfield, a distance of twenty miles, to +obtain them. It was very fortunate for Mr. Lincoln that he finally +became associated with Mr. Stuart in the practice of law. He moved +from New Salem to Springfield, and was admitted to the bar in 1837. + +On the 4th of November, 1842, Mr. Lincoln married Miss Mary Todd of +Lexington, Ky., at the residence of Ninian W. Edwards of Springfield, +Ill. The fruits of this marriage were four sons; Robert T., born +August 1, 1843; Edward Baker, March 10, 1846, died February 1, 1850; +William Wallace, December 21, 1850, died at the White House, +Washington, February 20, 1862; Thomas ("Tad"), April 4, 1853, died at +the Clifton House, Chicago, Ill., July 15, 1871. Mrs. Lincoln died at +the house of her sister, Springfield, July 16, 1882. + +In 1846 Mr. Lincoln was elected to Congress, as a Whig, his opponent +being Peter Cartwright, who had defeated Mr. Lincoln for the +Legislature in 1832. + +The most remarkable political canvass witnessed in the country took +place between Mr. Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas in 1858. They were +candidates of their respective parties for the United States Senate. +Seven joint debates took place in different parts of the State. The +Legislature being of Mr. Douglas' political faith, he was elected. + +In 1860 Mr. Lincoln came before the country as the chosen candidate of +the Republican party for the Presidency. The campaign was a memorable +one, characterized by a novel organization called "Wide Awakes," which +had its origin in Hartford, Conn. There were rail fence songs, +rail-splitting on wagons in processions, and the building of fences by +the torch-light marching clubs. + +The triumphant election of Mr. Lincoln took place in November, 1860. +On the 11th of February, 1861, he bade farewell to his neighbors, and +as the train slowly left the depot his sad face was forever lost to +the friends who gathered that morning to bid him God speed. The people +along the route flocked at the stations to see him and hear his words. +At all points he was greeted as the President of the people, and such +he proved to be. Mr. Lincoln reached Washington on the morning of the +23rd of February, and on the 4th of March was inaugurated President. +Through four years of terrible war his guiding star was justice and +mercy. He was sometimes censured by officers of the army for granting +pardons to deserters and others, but he could not resist an appeal for +the life of a soldier. He was the friend of the soldiers, and felt and +acted toward them like a father. Even workingmen could write him +letters of encouragement and receive appreciative words in reply. + +When the immortal Proclamation of Emancipation was issued, the whole +world applauded, and slavery received its deathblow. The terrible +strain of anxiety and responsibility borne by Mr. Lincoln during the +war had worn him away to a marked degree, but that God who was with +him throughout the struggle permitted him to live, and by his masterly +efforts and unceasing vigilance pilot the ship of state back into the +haven of peace. + +On the 14th of April, 1865, after a day of unusual cheerfulness in +those troublous times, and seeking relaxation from his cares, the +President, accompanied by his wife and a few intimate friends, went to +Ford's Theater, on Tenth Street, N. W. There the foul assassin, J. +Wilkes Booth, awaited his coming and at twenty minutes past ten +o'clock, just as the third act of "Our American Cousin" was about to +commence, fired the shot that took the life of Abraham Lincoln. The +bleeding President was carried to a house across the street, No. 516, +where he died at twenty-two minutes past seven the next morning. The +body was taken to the White House and, after lying in state in the +East Room and at the Capitol, left Washington on the 21st of April, +stopping at various places en route, and finally arriving at +Springfield on the 3rd of May. On the following day the funeral +ceremonies took place at Oak Ridge Cemetery, and there the remains of +the martyr were laid at rest. + +Abraham Lincoln needs no marble shaft to perpetuate his name; his +_words_ are the most enduring monument, and will forever live in the +hearts of the people. + + + + +II + +EARLY LIFE + + +LINCOLN'S EDUCATION[1] + +BY HORACE GREELEY + +Let me pause here to consider the surprise often expressed when a +citizen of limited schooling is chosen to fill, or is presented for +one of the highest civil trusts. Has that argument any foundation in +reason, any justification in history? + +Of our country's great men, beginning with Ben Franklin, I estimate +that a majority had little if anything more than a common-school +education, while many had less. Washington, Jefferson, and Madison had +rather more; Clay and Jackson somewhat less; Van Buren perhaps a +little more; Lincoln decidedly less. How great was his consequent +loss? I raise the question; let others decide it. Having seen much of +Henry Clay, I confidently assert that not one in ten of those who knew +him late in life would have suspected, from aught in his conversation +or bearing, that his education had been inferior to that of the +college graduates by whom he was surrounded. His knowledge was +different from theirs; and the same is true of Lincoln's as well. Had +the latter lived to be seventy years old, I judge that whatever of +hesitation or rawness was observable in his manner would have +vanished, and he would have met and mingled with educated gentlemen +and statesmen on the same easy footing of equality with Henry Clay in +his later prime of life. How far his two flatboat voyages to New +Orleans are to be classed as educational exercise above or below a +freshman's year in college, I will not say; doubtless some freshmen +learn more, others less, than those journeys taught him. Reared under +the shadow of the primitive woods, which on every side hemmed in the +petty clearings of the generally poor, and rarely energetic or +diligent, pioneers of the Southern Indiana wilderness, his first +introduction to the outside world from the deck of a "broad-horn" must +have been wonderfully interesting and suggestive. To one whose utmost +experience of civilization had been a county town, consisting of a +dozen to twenty houses, mainly log, with a shabby little court-house, +including jail, and a shabbier, ruder little church, that must have +been a marvelous spectacle which glowed in his face from the banks of +the Ohio and the lower Mississippi. Though Cairo was then but a +desolate swamp, Memphis a wood-landing, and Vicksburg a timbered ridge +with a few stores at its base, even these were in striking contrast to +the sombre monotony of the great woods. The rivers were enlivened by +countless swift-speeding steamboats, dispensing smoke by day and flame +by night; while New Orleans, though scarcely one fourth the city she +now is, was the focus of a vast commerce, and of a civilization which +(for America) might be deemed antique. I doubt not that our tall and +green young backwoodsman needed only a piece of well-tanned sheepskin +suitably (that is, learnedly) inscribed to have rendered those two +boat trips memorable as his degrees in capacity to act well his part +on that stage which has mankind for its audience. + +[1] _By permission of Mr. Joel Benton._ + + +ABE LINCOLN'S HONESTY + +From "Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln's Stories." + +Lincoln could not rest for an instant under the consciousness that he +had, even unwittingly, defrauded anybody. On one occasion, while +clerking in Offutt's store, at New Salem, Ill., he sold a woman a +little bill of goods, amounting in value by the reckoning, to two +dollars six and a quarter cents. He received the money, and the woman +went away. On adding the items of the bill again, to make sure of its +correctness, he found that he had taken six and a quarter cents too +much. It was night, and, closing and locking the store, he started out +on foot, a distance of two or three miles, for the house of his +defrauded customer, and, delivering over to her the sum whose +possession had so much troubled him, went home satisfied. + +On another occasion, just as he was closing the store for the night, a +woman entered, and asked for a half pound of tea. The tea was weighed +out and paid for, and the store was left for the night. The next +morning, Lincoln entered to begin the duties of the day, when he +discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He saw at once that he +had made a mistake, and, shutting the store, he took a long walk +before breakfast to deliver the remainder of the tea. These are very +humble incidents, but they illustrate the man's perfect +conscientiousness--his sensitive honesty--better perhaps than they +would if they were of greater moment. + + +THE BOY THAT HUNGERED FOR KNOWLEDGE + +From "Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln and Lincoln's Stories." + +In his eagerness to acquire knowledge, young Lincoln had borrowed of +Mr. Crawford, a neighboring farmer, a copy of Weems' Life of +Washington--the only one known to be in existence in that section of +country. Before he had finished reading the book, it had been left, by +a not unnatural oversight, in a window. Meantime, a rain storm came +on, and the book was so thoroughly wet as to make it nearly worthless. +This mishap caused him much pain; but he went, in all honesty, to Mr. +Crawford with the ruined book, explained the calamity that had +happened through his neglect, and offered, not having sufficient +money, to "work out" the value of the book. + +"Well, Abe," said Mr. Crawford, after due deliberation, "as it's you, +I won't be hard on you. Just come over and pull fodder for me for two +days, and we will call our accounts even." + +The offer was readily accepted, and the engagement literally +fulfilled. As a boy, no less than since, Abraham Lincoln had an +honorable conscientiousness, integrity, industry, and an ardent love +of knowledge. + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN[2] + +BY FLORENCE EVELYN PRATT + + Lincoln, the woodsman, in the clearing stood, + Hemmed by the solemn forest stretching round; + Stalwart, ungainly, honest-eyed and rude, + The genius of that solitude profound. + He clove the way that future millions trod, + He passed, unmoved by worldly fear or pelf; + In all his lusty toil he found not God, + Though in the wilderness he found himself. + + Lincoln, the President, in bitter strife, + Best-loved, worst-hated of all living men, + Oft single-handed, for the nation's life + Fought on, nor rested ere he fought again. + With one unerring purpose armed, he clove + Through selfish sin; then overwhelmed with care, + His great heart sank beneath its load of love; + Crushed to his knees, he found his God in prayer. + +[2] _From The Youth's Companion._ + + +YOUNG LINCOLN'S KINDNESS OF HEART + +From "Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln." + +An instance of young Lincoln's practical humanity at an early period +of his life is recorded, as follows: One evening, while returning from +a "raising" in his wide neighborhood, with a number of companions, he +discovered a straying horse, with saddle and bridle upon him. The +horse was recognized as belonging to a man who was accustomed to +excess in drink, and it was suspected at once that the owner was not +far off. A short search only was necessary to confirm the suspicions +of the young men. + +The poor drunkard was found in a perfectly helpless condition, upon +the chilly ground. Abraham's companions urged the cowardly policy of +leaving him to his fate, but young Lincoln would not hear to the +proposition. At his request, the miserable sot was lifted to his +shoulders, and he actually carried him eighty rods to the nearest +house. Sending word to his father that he should not be back that +night, with the reason for his absence, he attended and nursed the man +until the morning, and had the pleasure of believing that he had saved +his life. + + +A VOICE FROM THE WILDERNESS + +BY CHARLES SUMNER + +Abraham Lincoln was born, and, until he became President, always lived +in a part of the country which, at the period of the Declaration of +Independence, was a savage wilderness. Strange but happy Providence, +that a voice from that savage wilderness, now fertile in men, was +inspired to uphold the pledges and promises of the Declaration! The +unity of the republic on the indestructible foundation of liberty and +equality was vindicated by the citizen of a community which had no +existence when the republic was formed. + +A cabin was built in primitive rudeness, and the future President +split the rails for the fence to inclose the lot. These rails have +become classical in our history, and the name of rail-splitter has +been more than the degree of a college. Not that the splitter of rails +is especially meritorious, but because the people are proud to trace +aspiring talent to humble beginnings, and because they found in this +tribute a new opportunity of vindicating the dignity of free labor. + + +CHOOSING "ABE" LINCOLN CAPTAIN + +From "Choosing 'Abe' Lincoln Captain, and Other Stories" + +When the Black Hawk war broke out in Illinois about 1832, young +Abraham Lincoln was living at New Salem, a little village of the class +familiarly known out west as "one-horse towns," and located near the +capital city of Illinois. + +He had just closed his clerkship of a year in a feeble grocery, and +was the first to enlist under the call of Governor Reynolds for +volunteer forces to go against the Sacs and Foxes, of whom Black Hawk +was chief. + +By treaty these Indians had been removed west of the Mississippi into +Iowa; but, thinking their old hunting-grounds the better, they had +recrossed the river with their war paint on, causing some trouble, and +a great deal of alarm among the settlers. Such was the origin of the +war; and the handful of government troops stationed at Rock Island +wanted help. Hence the State call. + +Mr. Lincoln was twenty-three years old at that time, nine years older +than his adopted State. The country was thinly settled, and a company +of ninety men who could be spared from home for military service had +to be gathered from a wide district. When full, the company met at the +neighboring village of Richland to choose its officers. In those days +the militia men were allowed to select their leaders in their own way; +and they had a very peculiar mode of expressing their preference for +captains. For then, as now, there were almost always two candidates +for one office. + +They would meet on the green somewhere, and at the appointed hour, the +competitors would step out from the crowds on the opposite sides of +the ground, and each would call on all the "boys" who wanted him for +captain to fall in behind him. As the line formed, the man next the +candidate would put his hands on the candidate's shoulder; the third +man also in the same manner to the second man; and so on to the end. +And then they would march and cheer for their leader like so many wild +men, in order to win over the fellows who didn't seem to have a +choice, or whose minds were sure to run after the greater noise. When +all had taken sides, the man who led the longer line, would be +declared captain. + +Mr. Lincoln never outgrew the familiar nickname, "Abe," but at that +time he could hardly be said to have any other name than "Abe"; in +fact he had emerged from clerking in that little corner grocery as +"Honest Abe." He was not only liked, but loved, in the rough fashion +of the frontier by all who knew him. He was a good hand at gunning, +fishing, racing, wrestling and other games; he had a tall and strong +figure; and he seemed to have been as often "reminded of a little +story" in '32 as in '62. And the few men not won by these qualities, +were won and held by his great common sense, which restrained him from +excesses even in sports, and made him a safe friend. + +It is not singular therefore that though a stranger to many of the +enlisted men, he should have had his warm friends who at once +determined to make him captain. + +But Mr. Lincoln hung back with the feeling, he said, that if there was +any older and better established citizen whom the "boys" had +confidence in, it would be better to make such a one captain. His +poverty was even more marked than his modesty; and for his stock of +education about that time, he wrote in a letter to a friend +twenty-seven years later: + +"I did not know much; still, somehow, I could read, write, and cipher +to the rule of three, but that was all." + +That, however, was up to the average education of the community; and +having been clerk in a country grocery he was considered an educated +man. + +In the company Mr. Lincoln had joined, there was a dapper little chap +for whom Mr. Lincoln had labored as a farm hand a year before, and +whom he had left on account of ill treatment from him. This man was +eager for the captaincy. He put in his days and nights "log-rolling" +among his fellow volunteers; said he had already smelt gun-powder in a +brush with Indians, thus urging the value of experience; even thought +he had a "martial bearing"; and he was very industrious in getting +those men to join the company who would probably vote for him to be +captain. + +Muster-day came, and the recruits met to organize. About them stood +several hundred relatives and other friends. + +The little candidate was early on hand and busily bidding for votes. +He had felt so confident of the office in advance of muster-day, that +he had rummaged through several country tailor-shops and got a new +suit of the nearest approach to a captain's uniform that their scant +stock could furnish. So there he was, arrayed in jaunty cap, and a +swallow-tailed coat with brass buttons. He even wore fine boots, and +moreover had them blacked--which was almost a crime among a country +crowd of that day. + +Young Lincoln took not one step to make himself captain; and not one +to prevent it. He simply put himself "in the hands of his friends," as +the politicians say. He stood and quietly watched the trouble others +were borrowing over the matter as if it were an election of officers +they had enlisted for, rather than for fighting Indians. But after +all, a good deal depends in war, on getting good officers. + +As two o'clock drew near, the hour set for making captain, four or +five of young Lincoln's most zealous friends with a big stalwart +fellow at the head edged along pretty close to him, yet not in a way +to excite suspicion of a "conspiracy." Just a little bit before two, +without even letting "Abe" himself know exactly "what was up," the big +fellow stepped directly behind him, clapped his hands on the +shoulders before him, and shouted as only prairie giants can, "Hurrah +for Captain Abe Lincoln!" and plunged his really astonished candidate +forward into a march. + +At the same instant, those in league with him also put hands to the +shoulders before them, pushed, and took up the cheer, "Hurrah for +Captain Abe Lincoln!" so loudly that there seemed to be several +hundred already on their side; and so there were, for the outside +crowd was also already cheering for "Abe." + +This little "ruse" of the Lincoln "boys" proved a complete success. +"Abe" had to march, whether or no, to the music of their cheers; he +was truly "in the hands of his friends" then, and couldn't get away; +and it must be said he didn't seem to feel very bad over the +situation. The storm of cheers and the sight of tall Abraham (six feet +and four inches) at the head of the marching column, before the fussy +little chap in brass buttons who was quite ready, caused a quick +stampede even among the boys who intended to vote for the little +fellow. One after another they rushed for a place in "Captain Abe's" +line as though to be first to fall in was to win a prize. + +A few rods away stood that suit of captain's clothes alone, looking +smaller than ever, "the starch all taken out of 'em," their occupant +confounded, and themselves for sale. "Abe's" old "boss" said he was +"astonished," and so he had good reason to be, but everybody could see +it without his saying so. His "style" couldn't win among the true and +shrewd, though unpolished "boys" in coarse garments. They saw right +through him. + +"Buttons," as he became known from that day, was the last man to fall +into "Abe's" line; he said he'd make it unanimous. + +But his experience in making "Abe" Captain made himself so sick that +he wasn't "able" to move when the company left for the "front," though +he soon grew able to move out of the procession. + +Thus was "Father Abraham," so young as twenty-three, chosen captain of +a militia company over him whose abused, hired-hand he had been. It is +little wonder that in '59 after three elections to the State +Legislature and one to Congress, Mr. Lincoln should write of his early +event as "a success which gave me more pleasure than any I have had +since." The war was soon over with but little field work for the +volunteers; but no private was known to complain that "Abe" was not a +good captain. + + + + +III + +MATURITY + + +LINCOLN'S MARRIAGE--A PEEP INTO LINCOLN'S SOCIAL LIFE + +In 1842, in his thirty-third year, Mr. Lincoln married Miss Mary Todd, +a daughter of Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Lexington, Kentucky. The +marriage took place in Springfield, where the lady had for several +years resided, on the fourth of November of the year mentioned. It is +probable that he married as early as the circumstances of his life +permitted, for he had always loved the society of women, and possessed +a nature that took profound delight in intimate female companionship. +A letter written on the eighteenth of May following his marriage, to +J. F. Speed, Esq., of Louisville, Kentucky, an early and a life-long +personal friend, gives a pleasant glimpse of his domestic arrangements +at this time. "We are not keeping house," Mr. Lincoln says in his +letter, "but boarding at the Globe Tavern, which is very well kept now +by a widow lady of the name of Beck. Our rooms are the same Dr. +Wallace occupied there, and boarding only costs four dollars a +week.... I most heartily wish you and your Fanny would not fail to +come. Just let us know the time, a week in advance, and we will have a +room prepared for you, and we'll all be merry together for awhile." He +seems to have been in excellent spirits, and to have been very hearty +in the enjoyment of his new relation. The private letters of Mr. +Lincoln were charmingly natural and sincere. His personal friendships +were the sweetest sources of his happiness. + +To a particular friend, he wrote February 25, 1842: "Yours of the +sixteenth, announcing that Miss ---- and you 'are no longer twain, but +one flesh,' reached me this morning. I have no way of telling you how +much happiness I wish you both, though I believe you both can conceive +it. I feel somewhat jealous of both of you now, for you will be so +exclusively concerned for one another that I shall be forgotten +entirely. My acquaintance with Miss ---- (I call her thus lest you +should think I am speaking of your mother), was too short for me to +reasonably hope to be long remembered by her; and still I am sure I +shall not forget her soon. Try if you can not remind her of that debt +she owes me, and be sure you do not interfere to prevent her paying +it. + +"I regret to learn that you have resolved not to return to Illinois. I +shall be very lonesome without you. How miserably things seem to be +arranged in this world! If we have no friends we have no pleasure; and +if we have them, we are sure to lose them, and be doubly pained by the +loss. I did hope she and you would make your home here, yet I own I +have no right to insist. You owe obligations to her ten thousand times +more sacred than any you can owe to others, and in that light let them +be respected and observed. It is natural that she should desire to +remain with her relations and friends. As to friends, she could not +need them anywhere--she would have them in abundance here. Give my +kind regards to Mr. ---- and his family, particularly to Miss E. Also +to your mother, brothers and sisters. Ask little E. D. ---- if she +will ride to town with me if I come there again. And, finally, give +---- a double reciprocation of all the love she sent me. Write me +often, and believe me, yours forever, + + Lincoln." + + +HOW LINCOLN AND JUDGE B---- SWAPPED HORSES + +From "Anecdotes of Abraham Lincoln." + +When Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer in Illinois, he and a certain Judge +once got to bantering one another about trading horses; and it was +agreed that the next morning at 9 o'clock they should make a trade, +the horses to be unseen up to that hour, and no backing out, under a +forfeiture of $25. + +At the hour appointed the Judge came up, leading the sorriest-looking +specimen of a horse ever seen in those parts. In a few minutes Mr. +Lincoln was seen approaching with a wooden saw-horse upon his +shoulders. Great were the shouts and the laughter of the crowd, and +both were greatly increased when Mr. Lincoln, on surveying the Judge's +animal, set down his saw-horse, and exclaimed: "Well, Judge, this is +the first time I ever got the worst of it in a horse trade." + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN AS A MAN OF LETTERS[3] + +BY HAMILTON WRIGHT MABIE + +From "Warner's Library of the World's Best Literature." + +Born in 1809 and dying in 1865, Mr. Lincoln was the contemporary of +every distinguished man of letters in America to the close of the war; +but from none of them does he appear to have received literary impulse +or guidance. He might have read, if circumstances had been favorable, +a large part of the work of Irving, Bryant, Poe, Hawthorne, Emerson, +Lowell, Whittier, Holmes, Longfellow, and Thoreau, as it came from the +press; but he was entirely unfamiliar with it apparently until late in +his career and it is doubtful if even at that period he knew it well +or cared greatly for it. He was singularly isolated by circumstances +and by temperament from those influences which usually determine, +within certain limits, the quality and character of a man's style. + +And Mr. Lincoln had a style,--a distinctive, individual, +characteristic form of expression. In his own way he gained an insight +into the structure of English, and a freedom and skill in the +selection and combination of words, which not only made him the most +convincing speaker of his time, but which have secured for his +speeches a permanent place in literature. One of those speeches is +already known wherever the English language is spoken; it is a classic +by virtue not only of its unique condensation of the sentiment of a +tremendous struggle into the narrow compass of a few brief paragraphs, +but by virtue of that instinctive felicity of style which gives to the +largest thought the beauty of perfect simplicity. The two Inaugural +Addresses are touched by the same deep feeling, the same large vision, +the same clear, expressive and persuasive eloquence; and these +qualities are found in a great number of speeches, from Mr. Lincoln's +first appearance in public life. In his earliest expressions of his +political views there is less range; but there is the structural +order, clearness, sense of proportion, ease, and simplicity which give +classic quality to the later utterances. Few speeches have so little +of what is commonly regarded as oratorial quality; few have approached +so constantly the standards and character of literature. While a group +of men of gift and opportunity in the East were giving American +literature its earliest direction, and putting the stamp of a high +idealism on its thought and a rare refinement of spirit on its form, +this lonely, untrained man on the old frontier was slowly working his +way through the hardest and rudest conditions to perhaps the foremost +place in American history, and forming at the same time a style of +singular and persuasive charm. + +There is, however, no possible excellence without adequate education; +no possible mastery of any art without thorough training. Mr. Lincoln +has sometimes been called an accident, and his literary gift an +unaccountable play of nature; but few men have ever more definitely +and persistently worked out what was in them by clear intelligence +than Mr. Lincoln, and no speaker or writer of our time has, according +to his opportunities, trained himself more thoroughly in the use of +English prose. Of educational opportunity in the scholastic sense, the +future orator had only the slightest. He went to school "by littles," +and these "littles" put together aggregated less than a year; but he +discerned very early the practical uses of knowledge, and set himself +to acquire it. This pursuit soon became a passion, and this deep and +irresistible yearning did more for him perhaps than richer +opportunities would have done. It made him a constant student, and it +taught him the value of fragments of time. "He was always at the head +of his class," writes one of his schoolmates, "and passed us rapidly +in his studies. He lost no time at home, and when he was not at work +was at his books. He kept up his studies on Sunday, and carried his +books with him to work, so that he might read when he rested from +labor." "I induced my husband to permit Abe to read and study at home +as well as at school," writes his stepmother. "At first he was not +easily reconciled to it, but finally he too seemed willing to +encourage him to a certain extent. Abe was a dutiful son to me always, +and we took particular care when he was reading not to disturb +him,--would let him read on and on until he quit of his own accord." + +The books within his reach were few, but they were among the best. +First and foremost was that collection of literature in prose and +verse, the Bible: a library of sixty-six volumes, presenting nearly +every literary form, and translated at the fortunate moment when the +English language had received the recent impress of its greatest +masters of the speech of the imagination. This literature Mr. Lincoln +knew intimately, familiarly, fruitfully; as Shakespeare knew it in an +earlier version, and as Tennyson knew it and was deeply influenced by +it in the form in which it entered into and trained Lincoln's +imagination. Then there was that wise and very human text-book of the +knowledge of character and life, "Æsop's Fables"; that masterpiece of +clear presentation, "Robinson Crusoe"; and that classic of pure +English, "The Pilgrim's Progress." These four books--in the hands of a +meditative boy, who read until the last ember went out on the hearth, +began again when the earliest light reached his bed in the loft of the +log cabin, who perched himself on a stump, book in hand, at the end of +every furrow in the plowing season--contained the elements of a +movable university. + +To these must be added many volumes borrowed from more fortunate +neighbors; for he had "read through every book he had heard of in that +country, for a circuit of fifty miles." A history of the United States +and a copy of Weems's "Life of Washington" laid the foundations of +his political education. That he read with his imagination as well as +with his eyes is clear from certain words spoken in the Senate Chamber +at Trenton in 1861. "May I be pardoned," said Mr. Lincoln, "if on this +occasion I mention that way back in my childhood, the earliest days of +my being able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few +of the members have ever seen,--Weems's 'Life of Washington.' I +remember all the accounts there given of the battle-fields and +struggles for the liberties of the country; and none fixed themselves +upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New +Jersey. The crossing of the river, the contest with the Hessians, the +great hardships endured at that time,--all fixed themselves on my +memory more than any single Revolutionary event; and you all know, for +you have all been boys, how those early impressions last longer than +any others." + +"When Abe and I returned to the house from work," writes John Hanks, +"he would go to the cupboard, snatch a piece of corn bread, sit down, +take a book, cock his legs up as high as his head, and read. We +grubbed, plowed, weeded, and worked together barefooted in the field. +Whenever Abe had a chance in the field while at work, or at the house, +he would stop and read." And this habit was kept up until Mr. Lincoln +had found both his life work and his individual expression. Later he +devoured Shakespeare and Burns; and the poetry of these masters of the +dramatic and lyric form, sprung like himself from the common soil, +and like him self-trained and directed, furnished a kind of running +accompaniment to his work and his play. What he read he not only held +tenaciously, but took into his imagination and incorporated into +himself. His familiar talk was enriched with frequent and striking +illustrations from the Bible and "Æsop's Fables." + +This passion for knowledge and for companionship with the great +writers would have gone for nothing, so far as the boy's training in +expression was concerned, if he had contented himself with +acquisition; but he turned everything to account. He was as eager for +expression as for the material of expression; more eager to write and +to talk than to read. Bits of paper, stray sheets, even boards served +his purpose. He was continually transcribing with his own hand +thoughts or phrases which had impressed him. Everything within reach +bore evidence of his passion for reading, and for writing as well. The +flat sides of logs, the surface of the broad wooden shovel, everything +in his vicinity which could receive a legible mark, was covered with +his figures and letters. He was studying expression quite as +intelligently as he was searching for thought. Years afterwards, when +asked how he had attained such extraordinary clearness of style, he +recalled his early habit of retaining in his memory words or phrases +overheard in ordinary conversation or met in books and newspapers, +until night, meditating on them until he got at their meaning, and +then translating them into his own simpler speech. This habit, kept up +for years, was the best possible training for the writing of such +English as one finds in the Bible and in "The Pilgrim's Progress." His +self-education in the art of expression soon bore fruit in a local +reputation both as a talker and a writer. His facility in rhyme and +essay-writing was not only greatly admired by his fellows, but +awakened great astonishment, because these arts were not taught in the +neighboring schools. + +In speech too he was already disclosing that command of the primary +and universal elements of interest in human intercourse which was to +make him, later, one of the most entertaining men of his time. His +power of analyzing a subject so as to be able to present it to others +with complete clearness was already disclosing itself. No matter how +complex a question might be, he did not rest until he had reduced it +to its simplest terms. When he had done this he was not only eager to +make it clear to others, but to give his presentation freshness, +variety, attractiveness. He had, in a word, the literary sense. "When +he appeared in company," writes one of his early companions, "the boys +would gather and cluster around him to hear him talk. Mr. Lincoln was +figurative in his speech, talks and conversation. He argued much from +analogy, and explained things hard for us to understand by stories, +maxims, tales and figures. He would almost always point his lesson or +idea by some story that was plain and near to us, that we might +instantly see the force and bearing of what he said." + +In that phrase lies the secret of the closeness of Mr. Lincoln's words +to his theme and to his listeners,--one of the qualities of genuine, +original expression. He fed himself with thought, and he trained +himself in expression; but his supreme interest was in the men and +women about him, and later, in the great questions which agitated +them. He was in his early manhood when society was profoundly moved by +searching which could neither be silenced nor evaded; and his lot was +cast in a section where, as a rule, people read little and talked +much. Public speech was the chief instrumentality of political +education and the most potent means of persuasion; but behind the +platform, upon which Mr. Lincoln was to become a commanding figure, +were countless private debates carried on at street corners, in hotel +rooms, by the country road, in every place where men met even in the +most casual way. In these wayside schools Mr. Lincoln practiced the +art of putting things until he became a past-master in debate, both +formal and informal. + +If all these circumstances, habits and conditions are studied in their +entirety, it will be seen that Mr. Lincoln's style, so far as its +formal qualities are concerned, is in no sense accidental or even +surprising. He was all his early life in the way of doing precisely +what he did in his later life with a skill which had become instinct. +He was educated, in a very unusual way, to speak for his time and to +his time with perfect sincerity and simplicity; to feel the moral +bearing of the questions which were before the country; to discern the +principles involved; and to so apply the principles to the questions +as to clarify and illuminate them. There is little difficulty in +accounting for the lucidity, simplicity, flexibility, and compass of +Mr. Lincoln's style; it is not until we turn to its temperamental and +spiritual qualities, to the soul of it, that we find ourselves +perplexed and baffled. + +But Mr. Lincoln's possession of certain rare qualities is in no way +more surprising than their possession by Shakespeare, Burns, and +Whitman. We are constantly tempted to look for the sources of a man's +power in his educational opportunities instead of in his temperament +and inheritance. The springs of genius are purified and directed in +their flow by the processes of training, but they are fed from deeper +sources. The man of obscure ancestry and rude surroundings is often in +closer touch with nature, and with those universal experiences which +are the very stuff of literature, than the man who is born on the +upper reaches of social position and opportunity. Mr. Lincoln's +ancestry for at least two generations were pioneers and frontiersmen, +who knew hardship and privation, and were immersed in that great wave +of energy and life which fertilized and humanized the central West. +They were in touch with those original experiences out of which the +higher evolution of civilization slowly rises; they knew the soil and +the sky at first hand; they wrested a meagre subsistence out of the +stubborn earth by constant toil; they shared to the full the +vicissitudes and weariness of humanity at its elemental tasks. + +It was to this nearness to the heart of a new country, perhaps, that +Mr. Lincoln owed his intimate knowledge of his people and his deep and +beautiful sympathy with them. There was nothing sinuous or secondary +in his processes of thought: they were broad, simple, and homely in +the old sense of the word. He had rare gifts, but he was rooted deep +in the soil of the life about him, and so completely in touch with it +that he divined its secrets and used its speech. This vital sympathy +gave his nature a beautiful gentleness, and suffused his thought with +a tenderness born of deep compassion and love. He carried the sorrows +of his country as truly as he bore its burdens; and when he came to +speak on the second immortal day at Gettysburg, he condensed into a +few sentences the innermost meaning of the struggle and the victory in +the life of the nation. It was this deep heart of pity and love in him +which carried him far beyond the reaches of statesmanship or oratory, +and gave his words that finality of expression which marks the noblest +art. + +That there was a deep vein of poetry in Mr. Lincoln's nature is clear +to one who reads the story of his early life; and this innate +idealism, set in surroundings so harsh and rude, had something to do +with his melancholy. The sadness which was mixed with his whole life +was, however, largely due to his temperament; in which the final +tragedy seemed always to be predicted. In that temperament too is +hidden the secret of the rare quality of nature and mind which +suffused his public speech and turned so much of it into literature. +There was humor in it, there was deep human sympathy, there was clear +mastery of words for the use to which he put them; but there was +something deeper and more pervasive,--there was the quality of his +temperament; and temperament is a large part of genius. The inner +forces of his nature played through his thought; and when great +occasions touched him to the quick, his whole nature shaped his speech +and gave it clear intelligence, deep feeling, and that beauty which is +distilled out of the depths of the sorrows and hopes of the world. He +was as unlike Burke and Webster, those masters of the eloquence of +statesmanship, as Burns was unlike Milton and Tennyson. Like Burns, he +held the key of the life of his people; and through him, as through +Burns, that life found a voice, vibrating, pathetic, and persuasive. + +[3] _By permission of R. S. Peale and J. A. Hill Co._ + + +LINCOLN'S PRESENCE OF BODY + +From "Abe Lincoln's Yarns and Stories" + +On one occasion, Colonel Baker was speaking in a court-house, which +had been a storehouse, and, on making some remarks that were offensive +to certain political rowdies in the crowd, they cried: "Take him off +the stand!" Immediate confusion followed, and there was an attempt to +carry the demand into execution. Directly over the speaker's head was +an old skylight, at which it appeared Mr. Lincoln had been listening +to the speech. In an instant, Mr. Lincoln's feet came through the +skylight, followed by his tall and sinewy frame, and he was standing +by Colonel Baker's side. He raised his hand, and the assembly subsided +into silence. "Gentlemen," said Mr. Lincoln, "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 protect him, and no man shall take +him from this stand if I can prevent it." + +The suddenness of his appearance, his perfect calmness and fairness, +and the knowledge that he would do what he had promised to do, quieted +all disturbance, and the speaker concluded his remarks without +difficulty. + + +HOW LINCOLN BECAME A NATIONAL FIGURE + +BY IDA M. TARBELL + +From "The Life of Abraham Lincoln."[4] + +"The greatest speech ever made in Illinois, and it puts Lincoln on the +track for the Presidency," was the comment made by enthusiastic +Republicans on Lincoln's speech before the Bloomington Convention. +Conscious that it was he who had put the breath of life into their +organization, the party instinctively turned to him as its leader. The +effect of this local recognition was at once perceptible in the +national organization. Less than three weeks after the delivery of the +Bloomington speech, the national convention of the Republican party +met in Philadelphia, June 17, to nominate candidates for the +Presidency and Vice-presidency. Lincoln's name was the second proposed +for the latter office, and on the first ballot he received one hundred +and ten votes. The news reached him at Urbana, Ill., where he was +attending court, one of his companions reading from a daily paper just +received from Chicago, the result of the ballot. The simple name +Lincoln was given, without the name of the man's State. Lincoln said +indifferently that he did not suppose it could be himself; and added +that there was "another great man" of the name, a man from +Massachusetts. The next day, however, he knew that it was himself to +whom the convention had given so strong an endorsement. He knew also +that the ticket chosen was Frémont and Dayton. + +The campaign of the following summer and fall was one of intense +activity for Lincoln. In Illinois and the neighboring States he made +over fifty speeches, only fragments of which have been preserved. One +of the first important ones was delivered on July 4, 1856, at a great +mass meeting at Princeton, the home of the Lovejoys and the Bryants. +The people were still irritated by the outrages in Kansas and by the +attack on Sumner in the Senate, and the temptation to deliver a +stirring and indignant oration must have been strong. Lincoln's speech +was, however, a fine example of political wisdom, an historical +argument admirably calculated to convince his auditors that they were +right in their opposition to slavery extension, but so controlled and +sane that it would stir no impulsive radical to violence. There +probably was not uttered in the United States on that critical 4th of +July, 1856, when the very foundation of the government was in dispute +and the day itself seemed a mockery, a cooler, more logical speech +than this by the man who, a month before, had driven a convention so +nearly mad that the very reporters had forgotten to make notes. And +the temper of this Princeton speech Lincoln kept throughout the +campaign. + +In spite of the valiant struggle of the Republicans, Buchanan was +elected; but Lincoln was in no way discouraged. The Republicans had +polled 1,341,264 votes in the country. In Illinois, they had given +Frémont nearly 100,000 votes, and they had elected their candidate for +governor, General Bissell. Lincoln turned from arguments to +encouragement and good counsel. + +"All of us," he said at a Republican banquet in Chicago, a few weeks +after the election, "who did not vote for Mr. Buchanan, taken +together, are a majority of four hundred thousand. But in the late +contest we were divided between Frémont and Fillmore. Can we not come +together for the future? Let every one who really believes and is +resolved that free society is not and shall not be a failure, and who +can conscientiously declare that in the last contest he had done what +he thought best--let every such one have charity to believe that every +other one can say as much. Thus let bygones be bygones; let past +differences as nothing be; and with steady eye on the real issue let +us reinaugurate the good old 'central idea' of the republic. We can do +it. The human heart is with us; God is with us. We shall again be +able, not to declare that 'all States as States are equal,' nor yet +that 'all citizens as citizens are equal,' but to renew the broader, +better declaration, including both these and much more, that 'all men +are created equal.'" + +The spring of 1857 gave Lincoln a new line of argument. Buchanan was +scarcely in the Presidential chair before the Supreme Court, in the +decision of the Dred Scott case, declared that a negro could not sue +in the United States courts and that Congress could not prohibit +slavery in the Territories. This decision was such an evident advance +of the slave power that there was a violent uproar in the North. +Douglas went at once to Illinois to calm his constituents. "What," he +cried, "oppose the Supreme Court! is it not sacred? To resist it is +anarchy." + +Lincoln met him fairly on the issue in a speech at Springfield in +June, 1857. + +"We believe as much as Judge Douglas (perhaps more) in obedience to +and respect for the judicial department of government.... But we +think the Dred Scott decision is erroneous. We know the court that +made it has often overruled its own decisions, and we shall do what we +can to have it overrule this. We offer no resistance to it.... If this +important decision had been made by the unanimous concurrence of the +judges, and without any apparent partisan bias, and in accordance with +legal public expectation and with the steady practice of the +departments throughout our history, and had been in no part based on +assumed historical facts which are not really true; or if, wanting in +some of these, it had been before the court more than once, and had +there been affirmed and reaffirmed through a course of years, it then +might be, perhaps would be, factious, nay, even revolutionary, not to +acquiesce in it as a precedent. But when, as is true, we find it +wanting in all these claims to the public confidence, it is not +resistance, it is not factious, it is not even disrespectful, to treat +it as not having yet quite established a settled doctrine for the +country." + +Let Douglas cry "awful," "anarchy," "revolution," as much as he would, +Lincoln's arguments against the Dred Scott decision appealed to common +sense and won him commendation all over the country. Even the radical +leaders of the party in the East--Seward, Sumner, Theodore +Parker--began to notice him, to read his speeches, to consider his +arguments. + +With every month of 1857 Lincoln grew stronger, and his election in +Illinois as United States senatorial candidate in 1858 against Douglas +would have been insured if Douglas had not suddenly broken with +Buchanan and his party in a way which won him the hearty sympathy and +respect of a large part of the Republicans of the North. By a +flagrantly unfair vote the pro-slavery leaders of Kansas had secured +the adoption of the Lecompton Constitution allowing slavery in the +State. President Buchanan urged Congress to admit Kansas with her +bogus Constitution. Douglas, who would not sanction so base an +injustice, opposed the measure, voting with the Republicans steadily +against the admission. The Buchananists, outraged at what they called +"Douglas's apostasy," broke with him. Then it was that a part of the +Republican party, notably Horace Greeley at the head of the New York +"Tribune," struck by the boldness and nobility of Douglas's +opposition, began to hope to win him over from the Democrats to the +Republicans. Their first step was to counsel the leaders of their +party in Illinois to put up no candidate against Douglas for the +United States senatorship in 1858. + +Lincoln saw this change on the part of the Republican leaders with +dismay. "Greeley is not doing me right," he said. "... I am a true +Republican, and have been tried already in the hottest part of the +anti-slavery fight; and yet I find him taking up Douglas, a veritable +dodger,--once a tool of the South, now its enemy,--and pushing him to +the front." He grew so restless over the returning popularity of +Douglas among the Republicans that Herndon, his law-partner, +determined to go East to find out the real feeling of the Eastern +leaders towards Lincoln. Herndon had, for a long time, been in +correspondence with the leading abolitionists and had no difficulty in +getting interviews. The returns he brought back from his canvass were +not altogether reassuring. Seward, Sumner, Phillips, Garrison, +Beecher, Theodore Parker, all spoke favorably of Lincoln and Seward +sent him word that the Republicans would never take up so slippery a +quantity as Douglas had proved himself. But Greeley--the all-important +Greeley--was lukewarm. "The Republican standard is too high," he told +Herndon. "We want something practical.... Douglas is a brave man. +Forget the past and sustain the righteous." "Good God, righteous, eh!" +groaned Herndon in his letter to Lincoln. + +But though the encouragement which came to Lincoln from the East in +the spring of 1858 was meagre, that which came from Illinois was +abundant. There the Republicans supported him in whole-hearted +devotion. In June, the State convention, meeting in Springfield to +nominate its candidate for Senator, declared that Abraham Lincoln was +its first and only choice as the successor of Stephen A. Douglas. The +press was jubilant. "Unanimity is a weak word," wrote the editor of +the Bloomington "Pantagraph," "to express the universal and intense +feeling of the convention. _Lincoln!_ LINCOLN!! LINCOLN!!! was the cry +everywhere, whenever the senatorship was alluded to. Delegates from +Chicago and from Cairo, from the Wabash and the Illinois, from the +north, the center, and the south, were alike fierce with enthusiasm, +whenever that loved name was breathed. Enemies at home and misjudging +friends abroad, who have looked for dissension among us on the +question of the senatorship, will please take notice that our +nomination is a unanimous one; and that, in the event of a Republican +majority in the next Legislature, no other name than Lincoln's will be +mentioned, or thought of, by a solitary Republican legislator. One +little incident in the convention was a pleasing illustration of the +universality of the Lincoln sentiment. Cook County had brought a +banner into the assemblage inscribed, 'Cook County for Abraham +Lincoln.' During a pause in the proceedings, a delegate from another +county rose and proposed, with the consent of the Cook County +delegation, 'to amend the banner by substituting for "Cook County" the +word which I hold in my hand,' at the same time unrolling a scroll, +and revealing the word 'Illinois' in huge capitals. The Cook +delegation promptly accepted the amendment, and amidst a perfect +hurricane of hurrahs, the banner was duly altered to express the +sentiment of the whole Republican party of the State, thus: 'Illinois +for Abraham Lincoln.'" + +On the evening of the day of his nomination, Lincoln addressed his +constituents. The first paragraph of his speech gave the key to the +campaign he proposed. "A house divided against itself cannot stand. I +believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half +free. 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." + +Then followed the famous charge of conspiracy against the slavery +advocates, the charge that Pierce, Buchanan, Chief Justice Taney, and +Douglas had been making a concerted effort to legalize the institution +of slavery "in all the States, old as well as new, North as well as +South." He marshaled one after another of the measures that the +pro-slavery leaders had secured in the past four years, and clinched +the argument by one of his inimitable illustrations. + +"When we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of which we +know have been gotten out of different times and places and by +different workmen,--Stephen, Franklin, Roger and James,[A] for +instance,--and we see these timbers joined together, and see they +exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and +mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions of the +different pieces exactly adapted to their respective places, and not a +piece too many or too few, not omitting even the scaffolding--or, if a +single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted +and prepared yet to bring such a piece in--in such a case we find 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 first blow was +struck." + +The speech was severely criticised by Lincoln's friends. It was too +radical. It was sectional. He heard the complaints unmoved. "If I had +to draw a pen across my record," he said, one day, "and erase my whole +life from sight, and I had one poor gift of choice left as to what I +should save from the wreck, I should choose that speech and leave it +to the world unerased." + +The speech, was, in fact, one of great political adroitness. It forced +Douglas to do exactly what he did not want to do in Illinois; explain +his own record during the past four years; explain the true meaning of +the Kansas-Nebraska bill; discuss the Dred Scott decision; say whether +or not he thought slavery so good a thing that the country could +afford to extend it instead of confining it where it would be in +course of gradual extinction. Douglas wanted the Republicans of +Illinois to follow Greeley's advice: "Forgive the past." He wanted to +make the most among them of his really noble revolt against the +attempt of his party to fasten an unjust constitution on Kansas. +Lincoln would not allow him to bask for an instant in the sun of that +revolt. He crowded him step by step through his party's record, and +compelled him to face what he called the "profound central truth" of +the Republican party, "slavery is wrong and ought to be dealt with as +wrong." + +But it was at once evident that Douglas did not mean to +meet the issue squarely. He called the doctrine of Lincoln's +"house-divided-against-itself" speech "sectionalism"; his charge of +conspiracy "false"; his talk of the wrong of slavery extension +"abolitionism." This went on for a month. Then Lincoln resolved to +force Douglas to meet his arguments, and challenged him to a series of +joint debates. Douglas was not pleased. His reply to the challenge was +irritable, even slightly insolent. To those of his friends who talked +with him privately of the contest, he said: "I do not feel, between +you and me, that I want to go into this debate. The whole country +knows me, and has me measured. Lincoln, as regards myself, is +comparatively unknown, and if he gets the best of this debate,--and I +want to say he is the ablest man the Republicans have got,--I shall +lose everything and Lincoln will gain everything. Should I win, I +shall gain but little. I do not want to go into a debate with Abe." +Publicly, however, he carried off the prospect confidently, even +jauntily. "Mr. Lincoln," he said patronizingly, "is a kind, amiable, +intelligent gentleman." In the meantime his constituents boasted +loudly of the fine spectacle they were going to give the State--"the +Little Giant chawing up Old Abe!" + +Many of Lincoln's friends looked forward to the encounter with +foreboding. Often, in spite of their best intentions, they showed +anxiety. "Shortly before the first debate came off at Ottawa," says +Judge H. W. Beckwith of Danville, Ill., "I passed the Chenery House, +then the principal hotel in Springfield. The lobby was crowded with +partisan leaders from various sections of the State, and Mr. Lincoln, +from his greater height, was seen above the surging mass that clung +about him like a swarm of bees to their ruler. He looked careworn, but +he met the crowd patiently and kindly, shaking hands, answering +questions, and receiving assurances of support. The day was warm, and +at the first chance he broke away and came out for a little fresh air, +wiping the sweat from his face. + +"As he passed the door he saw me, and, taking my hand, inquired for +the health and views of his 'friends over in Vermilion County.' He was +assured they were wide awake, and further told that they looked +forward to the debate between him and Senator Douglas with deep +concern. From the shadow that went quickly over his face, the pained +look that came to give quickly way to a blaze of eyes and quiver of +lips, I felt that Mr. Lincoln had gone beneath my mere words and +caught my inner and current fears as to the result. And then, in a +forgiving, jocular way peculiar to him, he said, 'Sit down; I have a +moment to spare and will tell you a story.' Having been on his feet +for some time, he sat on the end of the stone steps leading into the +hotel door, while I stood closely fronting him. + +"'You have,' he continued, 'seen two men about to fight?' + +"'Yes, many times.' + +"'Well, one of them brags about what he means to do. He jumps high in +the air, cracking his heels together, smites his fists, and wastes his +breath trying to scare everybody. You see the other fellow, he says +not a word,'--here Mr. Lincoln's voice and manner changed to great +earnestness, and repeating--'you see the other man says not a word. +His arms are at his side, his fists are closely doubled up, his head +is drawn to the shoulder, and his teeth are set firm together. He is +saving his wind for the fight, and as sure as it comes off he will win +it, or die a-trying.' + +"He made no other comment, but arose, bade me good-by, and left me to +apply that illustration." + +It was inevitable that Douglas's friends should be sanguine, Lincoln's +doubtful. The contrast between the two candidates was almost pathetic. +Senator Douglas was the most brilliant figure in the political life of +the day. Winning in personality, fearless as an advocate, magnetic in +eloquence, shrewd in political manoeuvring, he had every quality to +captivate the public. His resources had never failed him. From his +entrance into Illinois politics in 1834, he had been the recipient of +every political honor his party had to bestow. For the past eleven +years he had been a member of the United States Senate, where he had +influenced all the important legislation of the day and met in debate +every strong speaker of North and South. In 1852, and again in 1856, +he had been a strongly supported, though unsuccessful candidate for +the Democratic Presidential nomination. In 1858 he was put at or near +the head of every list of possible Presidential candidates made up for +1860. + +How barren Lincoln's public career in comparison! Three terms in the +lower house of the State Assembly, one term in Congress, then a +failure which drove him from public life. Now he returns as a bolter +from his party, a leader in a new organization which the conservatives +are denouncing as "visionary," "impractical," "revolutionary." + +No one recognized more clearly than Lincoln the difference between +himself and his opponent. "With me," he said, sadly, in comparing the +careers of himself and Douglas, "the race of ambition has been a +failure--a flat failure. With him it has been one of splendid +success." He warned his party at the outset that, with himself as a +standard-bearer, the battle must be fought on principle alone, without +any of the external aids which Douglas's brilliant career gave. +"Senator Douglas is of world-wide renown," he said; "All the anxious +politicians of his party, or who have been of his party for years +past, have been looking upon him as certain, 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, marshal-ships, and +cabinet appointments, chargéships and foreign missions, bursting and +sprouting out in wonderful exuberance, ready to be laid hold of by +their greedy hands. And as they 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 in 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. We have to fight this battle upon +principle, and upon principle alone." + +If one will take a map of Illinois and locate the points of the +Lincoln and Douglas debates held between August 21 and October 15, +1858, he will see that the whole State was traversed in the contest. +The first took place at Ottawa, about seventy-five miles southwest of +Chicago, on August 21; the second at Freeport, near the Wisconsin +boundary, on August 27. The third was in the extreme southern part of +the State, at Jonesboro, on September 15. Three days later the +contestants met one hundred and fifty miles northeast of Jonesboro, at +Charleston. The fifth, sixth, and seventh debates were held in the +western part of the State; at Galesburg, October 7; Quincy, October +13; and Alton, October 15. + +Constant exposure and fatigue were unavoidable in meeting these +engagements. Both contestants spoke almost every day through the +intervals between the joint debates; and as railroad communication in +Illinois in 1858 was still very incomplete, they were often obliged to +resort to horse, carriage, or steamer, to reach the desired points. +Judge Douglas succeeded, however, in making this difficult journey +something of a triumphal procession. He was accompanied throughout the +campaign by his wife--a beautiful and brilliant woman--and by a +number of distinguished Democrats. + +On the Illinois Central Railroad he had always a special car, +sometimes a special train. Frequently he swept by Lincoln, +side-tracked in an accommodation or freight train. "The gentleman in +that car evidently smelt no royalty on our carriage," laughed Lincoln +one day, as he watched from the caboose of a laid-up freight train the +decorated special of Douglas flying by. + +It was only when Lincoln left the railroad and crossed the prairie at +some isolated town, that he went in state. The attentions he received +were often very trying to him. He detested what he called "fizzlegigs +and fireworks," and would squirm in disgust when his friends gave him +a genuine prairie ovation. Usually, when he was going to a point +distant from the railway, a "distinguished citizen" met him at the +station nearest the place with a carriage. When they were come within +two or three miles of the town, a long procession with banners and +band would appear winding across the prairie to meet the speaker. A +speech of greeting was made, and then the ladies of the entertainment +committee would present Lincoln with flowers, sometimes even winding a +garland about his head and lanky figure. His embarrassment at these +attentions was thoroughly appreciated by his friends. At the Ottawa +debate the enthusiasm of his supporters was so great that they +insisted on carrying him from the platform to the house where he was +to be entertained. Powerless to escape from the clutches of his +admirers, he could only cry, "Don't, boys; let me down; come now, +don't." But the "boys" persisted, and they tell to-day proudly of +their exploit and of the cordial hand-shake Lincoln, all embarrassed +as he was, gave each when at last he was free. + +On arrival at the towns where the joint debates were held, Douglas was +always met by a brass band and a salute of thirty-two guns (the Union +was composed of thirty-two States in 1858), and was escorted to the +hotel in the finest equipage to be had. Lincoln's supporters took +delight in showing their contempt of Douglas's elegance by affecting a +Republican simplicity, often carrying their candidate through the +streets on a high and unadorned hay-rack drawn by farm horses. The +scenes in the towns on the occasion of the debates were perhaps never +equalled at any other of the hustings of this country. No distance +seemed too great for the people to go; no vehicle too slow or +fatiguing. At Charleston there was a great delegation of men, women +and children present which had come in a long procession from Indiana +by farm wagons, afoot, on horseback, and in carriages. The crowds at +three or four of the debates were for that day immense. There were +estimated to be from eight thousand to fourteen thousand people at +Quincy, some six thousand at Alton, from ten thousand to fifteen +thousand at Charleston, some twenty thousand at Ottawa. Many of those +at Ottawa came the night before. "It was a matter of but a short +time," says Mr. George Beatty of Ottawa, "until the few hotels, the +livery stables, and private houses were crowded, and there were no +accommodations left. Then the campaigners spread out about the town, +and camped in whatever spot was most convenient. They went along the +bluff and on the bottom-lands, and that night, the camp-fires, spread +up and down the valley for a mile, made it look as if an army was +gathered about us." + +When the crowd was massed at the place of the debate, the scene was +one of the greatest hubbub and confusion. On the corners of the +squares, and scattered around the outskirts of the crowd, were fakirs +of every description, selling painkillers and ague cures, watermelons +and lemonade; jugglers and beggars plied their trades, and the brass +bands of all the four corners within twenty-five miles tooted and +pounded at "Hail Columbia, Happy Land," or "Columbia, the Gem of the +Ocean." + +Conspicuous in the processions at all the points was what Lincoln +called the "Basket of Flowers," thirty-two young girls in a +resplendent car, representing the Union. At Charleston, a thirty-third +young woman rode behind the car, representing Kansas. She carried a +banner inscribed: "I will be free"; a motto which brought out from +nearly all the newspaper reporters the comment that she was too fair +to be long free. + +The mottoes at the different meetings epitomized the popular +conception of the issues and the candidates. Among the Lincoln +sentiments were: + +Illinois born under the Ordinance of '87. + + Free Territories and Free Men, + Free Pulpits and Free Preachers, + Free Press and a Free Pen, + Free Schools and Free Teachers. + + "Westward the star of empire takes its way; + The girls link on to Lincoln, their mothers were for Clay." + +Abe the Giant-Killer. + +Edgar County for the Tall Sucker. + +A striking feature of the crowds was the number of women they +included. The intelligent and lively interest they took in the debates +caused much comment. No doubt Mrs. Douglas's presence had something to +do with this. They were particularly active in receiving the speakers, +and at Quincy, Lincoln, on being presented with what the local press +described as a "beautiful and elegant bouquet," took pains to express +his gratification at the part women everywhere took in the contest. + +While this helter-skelter outpouring of prairiedom had the appearance +of being little more than a great jollification, a lawless country +fair, in reality it was with the majority of the people a profoundly +serious matter. With every discussion it became more vital. Indeed, in +the first debate, which was opened and closed by Douglas, the relation +of the two speakers became dramatic. It was here that Douglas hoping +to fasten on Lincoln the stigma of "abolitionist," charged him with +having undertaken to abolitionize the old Whig party, and having been +in 1854 a subscriber to a radical platform proclaimed at Springfield. +This platform Douglas read. Lincoln, when he replied, could only say +he was never at the convention--knew nothing of the resolutions; but +the impression prevailed that he was cornered. The next issue of the +Chicago "Press and Tribune" dispelled it. That paper had employed to +report the debates the first shorthand reporter of Chicago, Mr. Robert +L. Hitt--now a Member of Congress and the Chairman of the Committee on +Foreign Affairs. Mr. Hitt, when Douglas began to read the resolutions, +took an opportunity to rest, supposing he could get the original from +the speaker. He took down only the first line of each resolution. He +missed Douglas after the debate, but on reaching Chicago, where he +wrote out his report, he sent an assistant to the files to find the +platform adopted at the Springfield Convention. It was brought, but +when Mr. Hitt began to transcribe it he saw at once that it was widely +different from the one Douglas had read. There was great excitement in +the office, and the staff, ardently Republican, went to work to +discover where the resolutions had come from. It was found that they +originated at a meeting of radical abolitionists with whom Lincoln had +never been associated. + +The "Press and Tribune" announced the "forgery," as it was called in a +caustic editorial, "The Little Dodger Cornered and Caught." Within a +week even the remote school-districts of Illinois were discussing +Douglas's action, and many of the most important papers of the nation +had made it a subject of editorial comment. + +Almost without exception Douglas was condemned. No amount of +explanation on his part helped him. "The particularity of Douglas's +charge," said the Louisville "Journal," "precludes the idea that he +was simply and innocently mistaken." Lovers of fair play were +disgusted, and those of Douglas's own party who would have applauded a +trick too clever to be discovered could not forgive him for one which +had been found out. Greeley came out bitterly against him, and before +long wrote to Lincoln and Herndon that Douglas was "like the man's boy +who (he said) didn't weigh so much as he expected and he always knew +he wouldn't." + +Douglas's error became a sharp-edged sword in Lincoln's hand. Without +directly referring to it, he called his hearers' attention to the +forgery every time he quoted a document by his elaborate explanation +that he believed, unless there was some mistake on the part of those +with whom the matter originated and which he had been unable to +detect, that this was correct. Once when Douglas brought forward a +document, Lincoln blandly remarked that he could scarcely be blamed +for doubting its genuineness since the introduction of the Springfield +resolutions at Ottawa. + +It was in the second debate, at Freeport, that Lincoln made the +boldest stroke of the contest. Soon after the Ottawa debate, in +discussing his plan for the next encounter, with a number of his +political friends,--Washburne, Cook, Judd, and others,--he told them +he proposed to ask Douglas four questions, which he read. One and all +cried halt at the second question. Under no condition, they said, must +he put it. If it were put, Douglas would answer it in such a way as to +win the senatorship. The morning of the debate, while on the way to +Freeport, Lincoln read the same questions to Mr. Joseph Medill. "I do +not like this second question, Mr. Lincoln," said Mr. Medill. The two +men argued to their journey's end, but Lincoln was still unconvinced. +Even after he reached Freeport several Republican leaders came to him +pleading, "Do not ask that question." He was obdurate; and he went on +the platform with a higher head, a haughtier step than his friends had +noted in him before. Lincoln was going to ruin himself, the committee +said despondently; one would think he did not want the senatorship. + +The mooted question ran in Lincoln's notes: "Can the people of a +United 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?" Lincoln had seen the +irreconcilableness of Douglas's own measure of popular sovereignty, +which declared that the people of a territory should be left to +regulate their domestic concerns in their own way subject only to the +Constitution, and the decision of the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott +case that slaves, being property, could not under the Constitution be +excluded from a territory. He knew that if Douglas said no to this +question, his Illinois constituents would never return him to the +Senate. He believed that if he said yes, the people of the South would +never vote for him for President of the United States. He was willing +himself to lose the senatorship in order to defeat Douglas for the +Presidency in 1860. "I am after larger game; the battle of 1860 is +worth a hundred of this," he said confidently. + +The question was put, and Douglas answered it with rare artfulness. +"It matters not," he cried, "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 an 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 slavery, they will elect representatives to that body who +will, by unfriendly legislation, effectually prevent the introduction +of it into their midst. If, on the contrary, they are for it, their +legislature will favor its extension." + +His democratic constituents went wild over the clever way in which +Douglas had escaped Lincoln's trap. He now practically had his +election. The Republicans shook their heads. Lincoln only was serene. +He alone knew what he had done. The Freeport debate had no sooner +reached the pro-slavery press than a storm of protest went up. +Douglas had betrayed the South. He had repudiated the Supreme Court +decision. He had declared that slavery could be kept out of the +territories by other legislation than a State Constitution. "The +Freeport doctrine," or "the theory of unfriendly legislation," as it +became known, spread month by month, and slowly but surely made +Douglas an impossible candidate in the South. The force of the +question was not realized in full by Lincoln's friends until the +Democratic party met in Charleston, S. C., in 1860, and the Southern +delegates refused to support Douglas because of the answer he gave to +Lincoln's question in the Freeport debate of 1858. + +"Do you recollect the argument we had on the way up to Freeport two +years ago over the question I was going to ask Judge Douglas?" Lincoln +asked Mr. Joseph Medill, when the latter went to Springfield a few +days after the election of 1860. + +"Yes," said Medill, "I recollect it very well." + +"Don't you think I was right now?" + +"We were both right. The question hurt Douglas for the Presidency, but +it lost you the senatorship." + +"Yes, and I have won the place he was playing for." + +From the beginning of the campaign Lincoln supplemented the strength +of his arguments by inexhaustible good humor. Douglas, physically +worn, harassed by the trend which Lincoln had given the discussions, +irritated that his adroitness and eloquence could not so cover the +fundamental truth of the Republican position but that it would up +again, often grew angry, even abusive. Lincoln answered him with most +effective raillery. At Havana, where he spoke the day after Douglas, +he said: + +"I am informed that my distinguished friend yesterday became a little +excited--nervous, perhaps--and he said something about fighting, as +though referring to a pugilistic encounter between him and myself. Did +anybody in this audience hear him use such language? (Cries of "Yes.") +I am informed further, that somebody in his audience, rather more +excited and nervous than himself, took off his coat, and offered to +take the job off Judge Douglas's hands, and fight Lincoln himself. Did +anybody here witness that war-like proceeding? (Laughter and cries of +"Yes.") Well, I merely desire to say that I shall fight neither Judge +Douglas nor his second. I shall not do this for two reasons, which I +will now explain. In the first place, a fight would prove nothing +which is in issue in this contest. It might establish that Judge +Douglas is a more muscular man than myself, or it might demonstrate +that I am a more muscular man than Judge Douglas. But this question is +not referred to in the Cincinnati platform, nor in either of the +Springfield platforms. Neither result would prove him right nor me +wrong; and so of the gentleman who volunteered to do this fighting for +him. If my fighting Judge Douglas would not prove anything, it would +certainly prove nothing for me to fight his bottle-holder. + +"My second reason for not having a personal encounter with the judge +is, that I don't believe he wants it himself. He and I are about the +best friends in the world, and when we get together he would no more +think of fighting me than of fighting his wife. Therefore, ladies and +gentlemen, when the judge talked about fighting, he was not giving +vent to any ill feeling of his own, but merely trying to excite--well, +enthusiasm against me on the part of his audience. And as I find he +was tolerably successful, we will call it quits." + +More difficult for Lincoln to take good-naturedly than threats and +hard names was the irrelevant matters which Douglas dragged into the +debates to turn attention from the vital arguments. Thus Douglas +insisted repeatedly on taunting Lincoln because his zealous friends +had carried him off the platform at Ottawa. "Lincoln was so frightened +by the questions put to him," said Douglas, "that he could not walk." +He tried to arouse the prejudice of the audience by absurd charges of +abolitionism. Lincoln wanted to give negroes social equality; he +wanted a negro wife; he was willing to allow Fred Douglass to make +speeches for him. Again he took up a good deal of Lincoln's time by +forcing him to answer to a charge of refusing to vote supplies for the +soldiers in the Mexican War. Lincoln denied and explained, until at +last, at Charleston, he turned suddenly to Douglas's supporters, +dragging one of the strongest of them--the Hon. O. B. Ficklin, with +whom he had been in Congress in 1848--to the platform. + +"I do not mean to do anything with Mr. Ficklin," he said, "except to +present his face and tell you that he personally knows it to be a +lie." And Mr. Ficklin had to acknowledge that Lincoln was right. + +"Judge Douglas," said Lincoln in speaking of this policy, "is playing +cuttlefish--a small species of fish that has no mode of defending +himself when pursued except by throwing out a black fluid which makes +the water so dark the enemy cannot see it, and thus it escapes." + +The question at stake was too serious in Lincoln's judgment, for +platform jugglery. Every moment of his time which Douglas forced him +to spend answering irrelevant charges he gave begrudgingly. He +struggled constantly to keep his speeches on the line of solid +argument. Slowly but surely those who followed the debates began to +understand this. It was Douglas who drew the great masses to the +debates in the first place; it was because of him that the public men +and the newspapers of the East, as well as of the West, watched the +discussions. But as the days went on it was not Douglas who made the +impression. + +During the hours of the speeches the two men seemed well mated. "I can +recall only one fact of the debates," says Mrs. William Crotty, of +Seneca, Illinois, "that I felt so sorry for Lincoln when Douglas was +speaking, and then to my surprise I felt so sorry for Douglas when +Lincoln replied." The disinterested to whom it was an intellectual +game, felt the power and charm of both men. Partisans had each reason +enough to cheer. It was afterwards, as the debates were talked over by +auditors as they lingered at the country store or were grouped on the +fence in the evening, or when they were read in the generous reports +which the newspapers of Illinois and even of other States gave, that +the thoroughness of Lincoln's argument was understood. Even the first +debate at Ottawa had a surprising effect. "I tell you," says Mr. +George Beatty of Ottawa, "that debate set people thinking on these +important questions in a way they hadn't dreamed of. I heard any +number of men say: 'This thing is an awfully serious question, and I +have about concluded Lincoln has got it right.' My father, a +thoughtful, God-fearing man, said to me, as we went home to supper, +'George, you are young, and don't see what this thing means, as I do. +Douglas's speeches of "squatter sovereignty" please you younger men, +but I tell you that with us older men it's a great question that faces +us. We've either got to keep slavery back or it's going to spread all +over the country. That's the real question that's behind all this. +Lincoln is right.' And that was the feeling that prevailed, I think, +among the majority, after the debate was over. People went home +talking about the danger of slavery getting a hold in the North. This +territory had been Democratic; La Salle County, the morning of the day +of the debate, was Democratic; but when the next day came around, +hundreds of Democrats had been made Republicans, owing to the light in +which Lincoln had brought forward the fact that slavery threatened." + +It was among Lincoln's own friends, however, that his speeches +produced the deepest impression. They had believed him to be strong, +but probably there was no one of them who had not felt dubious about +his ability to meet Douglas. Many even feared a fiasco. Gradually it +began to be clear to them that Lincoln was the stronger. Could it be +that Lincoln really was a great man? The young Republican journalists +of the "Press and Tribune"--Scripps, Hitt, Medill--began to ask +themselves the question. One evening as they talked over Lincoln's +argument a letter was received. It came from a prominent Eastern +statesman. "Who is this man that is replying to Douglas in your +State?" he asked. "Do you realize that no greater speeches have been +made on public questions in the history of our country; that his +knowledge of the subject is profound, his logical unanswerable, his +style inimitable?" Similar letters kept coming from various parts of +the country. Before the campaign was over Lincoln's friends were +exultant. Their favorite was a great man, "a full-grown man," as one +of them wrote in his paper. + +The country at large watched Lincoln with astonishment. When the +debates began there were Republicans in Illinois of wider national +reputation. Judge Lyman Trumbull, then Senator; was better known. He +was an able debater, and a speech which he made in August against +Douglas's record called from the New York "Evening Post" the remark: +"This is the heaviest blow struck at Senator Douglas since he took the +field in Illinois; it is unanswerable, and we suspect that it will be +fatal." Trumbull's speech the "Post" afterwards published in pamphlet +form. Besides Trumbull, Owen Lovejoy, Oglesby, and Palmer were all +speaking. That Lincoln should not only have so far outstripped men of +his own party, but should have out-argued Douglas, was the cause of +comment everywhere. "No man of this generation," said the "Evening +Post" editorially, at the close of the debate, "has grown more rapidly +before the country than Lincoln in this canvass." As a matter of fact, +Lincoln had attracted the attention of all the thinking men of the +country. "The first thing that really awakened my interest in him," +says Henry Ward Beecher, "was his speech parallel with Douglas in +Illinois, and indeed it was that manifestation of ability that secured +his nomination to the Presidency." + +But able as were Lincoln's arguments, deep as was the impression he +had made, he was not elected to the senatorship. Douglas won fairly +enough; though it is well to note that if the Republicans did not +elect a senator they gained a substantial number of votes over those +polled in 1856. + +Lincoln accepted the result with a serenity inexplicable to his +supporters. To him the contest was but one battle in a "durable" +struggle. Little matter who won now, if in the end the right +triumphed. From the first he had looked at the final result--not at +the senatorship. "I do not claim, gentlemen, to be unselfish," he said +at Chicago in July. "I do not pretend that I would not like to go to +the United States Senate; I make no such hypocritical pretense; but I +do say to you that in this mighty issue, it is nothing to you, 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 be a 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." + +The intense heat and fury of the debates, the defeat in November, did +not alter a jot this high view. "I am glad I made the late race," he +wrote Dr. A. H. Henry. "It gave me a hearing on the great and durable +question of the age which I would have had in no other way; and though +I now sink out of view and shall be forgotten, I believe I have made +some marks which will tell for the cause of civil liberty long after I +am gone." + +At that date perhaps no one appreciated the value of what Lincoln had +done as well as he did himself. He was absolutely sure he was right +and that in the end people would see it. Though he might not rise, he +knew his cause would. + +"Douglas had the ingenuity to be supported in the late contest both as +the best means to break down and to uphold the slave interest," he +wrote. "No ingenuity can keep these antagonistic elements in harmony +long. Another explosion will soon occur." His whole attention was +given to conserving what the Republicans had gained--"We have some one +hundred and twenty thousand clear Republican votes. That pile is worth +keeping together;" to consoling his friends--"You are feeling badly," +he wrote to N. B. Judd, Chairman of the Republican Committee, "and +this too shall pass away, never fear"; to rallying for another +effort,--"The cause of civil liberty must not be surrendered at the +end of one or even one hundred defeats." + +If Lincoln had at times a fear that his defeat would cause him to be +set aside, it soon was dispelled. The interest awakened in him was +genuine, and it spread with the wider reading and discussion of his +arguments. He was besieged by letters from all parts of the Union, +congratulations, encouragements, criticisms. Invitations for lectures +poured in upon him, and he became the first choice of his entire party +for political speeches. + +The greater number of these invitations he declined. He had given so +much time to politics since 1854 that his law practice had been +neglected and he was feeling poor; but there were certain of the calls +which could not be resisted. Douglas spoke several times for the +Democrats of Ohio in the 1859 campaign for governor and Lincoln +naturally was asked to reply. He made but two speeches, one at +Columbus on September 16 and the other at Cincinnati on September 17, +but he had great audiences on both occasions. The Columbus speech was +devoted almost entirely to answering an essay by Douglas which had +been published in the September number of "Harper's Magazine," and +which began by asserting that--"Under our complex system of government +it is the first duty of American statesmen to mark distinctly the +dividing-line between Federal and Local authority." It was an +elaborate argument for "popular sovereignty" and attracted national +attention. Indeed, at the moment it was the talk of the country. +Lincoln literally tore it to bits. + +"What is Judge Douglas's popular sovereignty?" he asked. "It is, as a +principle, no other than that if one man chooses to make a slave of +another man, neither that other man nor anybody else has a right to +object. Applied in government, as he seeks to apply it, it is this: +If, in a new territory into which a few people are beginning to enter +for the purpose of making their homes, they choose to either exclude +from their limits or to establish it there, however one or the other +may affect the persons to be enslaved, or the infinitely greater +number of persons who are afterward to inhabit that territory, or the +other members of the families, or communities, of which they are but +an incipient member, or the general head of the family of States as +parent of all--however their action may affect one or the other of +these, there is no power or right to interfere. That is Douglas's +popular sovereignty applied." + +It was in this address that Lincoln uttered the oft-quoted paragraphs: + +"I suppose the institution of slavery really looks small to him. He +is so put up by nature that a lash upon his back would hurt him, but a +lash upon anybody else's back does not hurt him. That is the build of +the man, and consequently he looks upon the matter of slavery in this +unimportant light. + +"Judge Douglas ought to remember, when he is endeavoring to force this +policy upon the American people, that while he is put up in that way, +a good many are not. He ought to remember that there was once in this +country a man by the name of Thomas Jefferson, supposed to be a +Democrat--a man whose principles and policy are not very prevalent +amongst Democrats to-day, it is true; but that man did not exactly +take this view of the insignificance of the element of slavery which +our friend Judge Douglas does. In contemplation of this thing, we all +know he was led to exclaim, 'I tremble for my country when I remember +that God is just!' We know how he looked upon it when he thus +expressed himself. There was danger to this country, danger of the +avenging justice of God, in that little unimportant popular +sovereignty question of Judge Douglas. He supposed there was a +question of God's eternal justice wrapped up in the enslaving of any +race of men, or any man, and that those who did so braved the arm of +Jehovah--that when a nation thus dared the Almighty, every friend of +that nation had cause to dread his wrath. Choose ye between Jefferson +and Douglas as to what is the true view of this element among us." + +One interesting point about the Columbus address is that in it appears +the germ of the Cooper Institute speech delivered five months later in +New York City. + +Lincoln made so deep an impression in Ohio by his speeches that the +State Republican Committee asked permission to publish them together +with the Lincoln-Douglas Debates as campaign documents in the +Presidential election of the next year. + +In December he yielded to the persuasion of his Kansas political +friends and delivered five lectures in that State, only fragments of +which have been preserved. + +Unquestionably the most effective piece of work he did that winter was +the address at Cooper Institute, New York, on February 27. He had +received an invitation in the fall of 1859 to lecture at Plymouth +Church, Brooklyn. To his friends it was evident that he was greatly +pleased by the compliment, but that he feared that he was not equal to +an Eastern audience. After some hesitation he accepted, provided they +would take a political speech if he could find time to get up no +other. When he reached New York he found that he was to speak there +instead of Brooklyn, and that he was certain to have a distinguished +audience. Fearful lest he was not as well prepared as he ought to be, +conscious, too, no doubt, that he had a great opportunity before him, +he spent nearly all of the two days and a half before his lecture in +revising his matter and in familiarizing himself with it. In order +that he might be sure that he was heard he arranged with his friend, +Mason Brayman, who had come on to New York with him, to sit in the +back of the hall and in case he did not speak loud enough to raise his +high hat on a cane. + +Mr. Lincoln's audience was a notable one even for New York. It +included William Cullen Bryant, who introduced him; Horace Greeley, +David Dudley Field, and many more well known men of the day. It is +doubtful if there were any persons present, even his best friends, who +expected that Lincoln would do more than interest his hearers by his +sound arguments. Many have confessed since that they feared his queer +manner and quaint speeches would amuse people so much that they would +fail to catch the weight of his logic. But to the surprise of +everybody Lincoln impressed his audience from the start by his dignity +and his seriousness. "His manner was, to a New York audience, a very +strange one, but it was captivating," wrote an auditor. "He held the +vast meeting spellbound, and as one by one his oddly expressed but +trenchant and convincing arguments confirmed the soundness of his +political conclusions, the house broke out in wild and prolonged +enthusiasm. I think I never saw an audience more thoroughly carried +away by an orator." + +The Cooper Union speech was founded on a sentence from one of +Douglas's Ohio speeches:--"Our fathers when they framed the government +under which we live understood this question just as well, and even +better, than we do now." Douglas claimed that the "fathers" held that +the Constitution forbade the Federal government controlling slavery +in the Territories. Lincoln with infinite care had investigated the +opinions and votes of each of the "fathers"--whom he took to be the +thirty-nine men who signed the Constitution--and showed conclusively +that a majority of them "certainly understood that no proper division +of local from Federal authority nor any part of the Constitution +forbade the Federal government to control slavery in the Federal +Territories." Not only did he show this of the thirty-nine framers of +the original Constitution, but he defied anybody to show that one of +the seventy-six members of the Congress which framed the amendments to +the Constitution ever held any such view. + +"Let us," he said, "who believe that 'our fathers who framed the +government under which we live understood this question just as well, +and even better, than we do now,' speak as they spoke, and act as they +acted upon it. This is all Republicans ask--all Republicans desire--in +relation to slavery. As those fathers marked it, so let it be again +marked, as an evil not to be extended, but to be tolerated and +protected only because of and so far as its actual presence among us +makes that toleration and protection a necessity. Let all the +guaranties those fathers gave it be not grudgingly, but fully and +fairly, maintained. For this Republicans contend, and with this, so +far as I know or believe, they will be content." + +One after another he took up and replied to the charges the South was +making against the North at the moment:--Sectionalism, radicalism, +giving undue prominence to the slave question, stirring up +insurrection among slaves, refusing to allow constitutional rights, +and to each he had an unimpassioned answer inpregnable with facts. + +The discourse was ended with what Lincoln felt to be a precise +statement of the opinion of the question on both sides, and of the +duty of the Republican party under the circumstances. This portion of +his address is one of the finest early examples of that simple and +convincing style in which most of his later public documents were +written. + +"If slavery is right," he said, "all words, acts, laws, and +constitutions against it are themselves wrong, and should be silenced +and swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to its +nationality--its universality; if it is wrong, they cannot justly +insist upon its extension--its enlargement. All they ask we could +readily grant, if we thought slavery right; all we ask they could as +readily grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it right and +our thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon which depends the whole +controversy. Thinking it right, as they do, they are not to blame for +desiring its full recognition as being right; but thinking it wrong, +as we do, can we yield to them? Can we cast our votes with their +views, and against our own? In view of our moral, social, and +political responsibilities, can we do this? + +"Wrong, as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone +where it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from +its actual presence in the nation; but can we, while our votes will +prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to +overrun us here in these free States? If our sense of duty forbids +this, then let us stand by our duty fearlessly and effectively. Let us +be diverted by none of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are +so industriously plied and belabored--contrivances such as groping for +some middle ground between right and wrong: vain as the search for a +man who should be neither a living man nor a dead man; such as a +policy of 'don't care' on a question about which all true men do care; +such as Union appeals beseeching true Union men to yield to +Disunionists, reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, +but the righteous to repentance; such as invocations to Washington, +imploring men to unsay what Washington said and undo what Washington +did. + +"Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations +against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the +government, nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right +makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare to do our duty +as we understand it." + +From New York Lincoln went to New Hampshire to visit his son Robert, +then at Phillips Exeter Academy. His coming was known only a short +time before he arrived and hurried arrangements were made for him to +speak at Concord, Manchester, Exeter and Dover. At Concord the address +was made in the afternoon on only a few hours' notice; nevertheless, +he had a great audience, so eager were men at the time to hear +anybody who had serious arguments on the slavery question. Something +of the impression Lincoln made in New Hampshire may be gathered from +the following article, "Mr. Lincoln in New Hampshire," which appeared +in the Boston "Atlas and Bee" for March 5: + +The Concord "Statesman" says that notwithstanding the rain of +Thursday, rendering travelling very inconvenient, the largest hall in +that city was crowded to hear Mr. Lincoln. The editor says it was one +of the most powerful, logical and compacted speeches to which it was +ever our fortune to listen; an argument against the system of slavery, +and in defence of the position of the Republican party, from the +deductions of which no reasonable man could possibly escape. He +fortified every position assumed, by proofs which it is impossible to +gainsay; and while his speech was at intervals enlivened by remarks +which elicited applause at the expense of the Democratic party, there +was, nevertheless, not a single word which tended to impair the +dignity of the speaker, or weaken the force of the great truths he +uttered. + +The "Statesman" adds that the address "was perfect and was closed by a +peroration which brought his audience to their feet. We are not +extravagant in the remark, that a political speech of greater power +has rarely if ever been uttered in the Capital of New Hampshire. At +its conclusion nine roof-raising cheers were given; three for the +speaker, three for the Republicans of Illinois, and three for the +Republicans of New Hampshire." + +On the same evening Mr. Lincoln spoke at Manchester, to an immense +gathering in Smyth's Hall. The "Mirror," a neutral paper, gives the +following enthusiastic notice of his speech: "The audience was a +flattering one to the reputation of the speaker. It was composed of +persons of all sorts of political notions, earnest to hear one whose +fame was so great, and we think most of them went away thinking better +of him than they anticipated they should. He spoke an hour and a half +with great fairness, great apparent candor, and with wonderful +interest. He did not abuse the South, the Administration, or the +Democrats, or indulge in any personalities, with the solitary +exception of a few hits at Douglas's notions. He is far from +prepossessing in personal appearance, and his voice is disagreeable, +and yet he wins your attention and good will from the start. + +"He indulges in no flowers of rhetoric, no eloquent passages; he is +not a wit, a humorist or a clown; yet, so great a vein of pleasantry +and good nature pervades what he says, gliding over a deep current of +practical argument, he keeps his hearers in a smiling good mood with +their mouths open ready to swallow all he says. His sense of the +ludicrous is very keen, and an exhibition of that is the clincher of +all his arguments; not the ludicrous acts of persons, but ludicrous +ideas. Hence he is never offensive, and steals away willingly into +his train of belief, persons who are opposed to him. For the first +half hour his opponents would agree with every word he uttered, and +from that point he began to lead them off, little by little, +cunningly, till it seemed as if he had got them all into his fold. He +displays more shrewdness, more knowledge of the masses of mankind than +any public speaker we have heard since long Jim Wilson left for +California." + +From New Hampshire Lincoln went to Connecticut, where on March 5 he +spoke at Hartford, on March 6 at New Haven, on March 8 at Woonsocket, +on March 9 at Norwich. There are no reports of the New Hampshire +speeches, but two of the Connecticut speeches were published in part +and one in full. Their effect was very similar, according to the +newspapers of the day, to that in New Hampshire, described by the +"Atlas and Bee." + +By his debates with Douglas and the speeches in Ohio, Kansas, New York +and New England, Lincoln had become a national figure in the minds of +all the political leaders of the country, and of the thinking men of +the North. Never in the history of the United States had a man become +prominent in a more logical and intelligent way. At the beginning of +the struggle against the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, +Abraham Lincoln was scarcely known outside of his own State. Even most +of the men whom he had met in his brief term in Congress had forgotten +him. Yet in four years he had become one of the central figures of +his party; and now, by worsting the greatest orator and politician of +his time, he had drawn the eyes of the nation to him. + +It had been a long road he had travelled to make himself a national +figure. Twenty-eight years before he had deliberately entered +politics. He had been beaten, but had persisted; he had succeeded and +failed; he had abandoned the struggle and returned to his profession. +His outraged sense of justice had driven him back, and for six years +he had travelled up and down Illinois trying to prove to men that +slavery extension was wrong. It was by no one speech, by no one +argument that he had wrought. Every day his ceaseless study and +pondering gave him new matter, and every speech he made was fresh. He +could not repeat an old speech, he said, because the subject enlarged +and widened so in his mind as he went on that it was "easier to make a +new one than an old one." He had never yielded in his campaign to +tricks of oratory--never played on emotions. He had been so strong in +his convictions of the right of his case that his speeches had been +arguments pure and simple. Their elegance was that of a demonstration +in Euclid. They persuaded because they proved. He had never for a +moment counted personal ambition before the cause. To insure an ardent +opponent of the Kansas-Nebraska bill in the United States Senate, he +had at one time given up his chance for the senatorship. To show the +fallacy of Douglas's argument, he had asked a question which his party +pleaded with him to pass by, assuring him that it would lose him the +election. In every step of this six years he had been disinterested, +calm, unyielding, and courageous. He knew he was right, and could +afford to wait. "The result is not doubtful," he told his friends. "We +shall not fail--if we stand firm. We shall not fail. Wise counsels may +accelerate or mistakes delay it; but, sooner or later, the victory is +sure to come." + +The country, amazed at the rare moral and intellectual character of +Lincoln, began to ask questions about him, and then his history came +out; a pioneer home, little schooling, few books, hard labor at all +the many trades of the frontiersman, a profession mastered o' nights +by the light of a friendly cooper's fire, an early entry into politics +and law--and then twenty-five years of incessant poverty and struggle. + +The homely story gave a touch of mystery to the figure which loomed so +large. Men felt a sudden reverence for a mind and heart developed to +these noble proportions in so unfriendly a habitat. They turned +instinctively to one so familiar with strife for help in solving the +desperate problem with which the nation had grappled. And thus it was +that, at fifty years of age, Lincoln became a national figure. + +[4] _By special permission of the McClure Company._ + +[A] _Stephen_ A. Douglas, _Franklin_ Pierce, _Roger_ Taney, _James_ +Buchanan. + + +LINCOLN'S LOVE FOR THE LITTLE ONES + +Soon after his election as President and while visiting Chicago, one +evening at a social gathering Mr. Lincoln saw a little girl timidly +approaching him. He at once called her to him, and asked the little +girl what she wished. + +She replied that she wanted his name. + +Mr. Lincoln looked back into the room and said: "But here are other +little girls--they would feel badly if I should give my name only to +you." + +The little girl replied that there were eight of them in all. + +"Then," said Mr. Lincoln, "get me eight sheets of paper, and a pen and +ink, and I will see what I can do for you." + +The paper was brought, and Mr. Lincoln sat down in the crowded +drawing-room, and wrote a sentence upon each sheet, appending his +name; and thus every little girl carried off her souvenir. + +During the same visit and while giving a reception at one of the +hotels, a fond father took in a little boy by the hand who was anxious +to see the new President. The moment the child entered the parlor door +he, of his own accord and quite to the surprise of his father, took +off his hat, and, giving it a swing, cried: "Hurrah for Lincoln!" +There was a crowd, but as soon as Mr. Lincoln could get hold of the +little fellow, he lifted him in his hands, and, tossing him towards +the ceiling, laughingly shouted: "Hurrah for you!" + +It was evidently a refreshing incident to Lincoln in the dreary work +of hand-shaking. + + +HOW LINCOLN TOOK HIS ALTITUDE + +Soon after Mr. Lincoln's nomination for the Presidency, the Executive +Chamber, a large fine room in the State House at Springfield, was set +apart for him, where he met the public until after his election. + +As illustrative of the nature of many of his calls, the following +brace of incidents were related to Mr. Holland by an eye witness: "Mr. +Lincoln, being seated in conversation with a gentleman one day, two +raw, plainly-dressed young 'Suckers' entered the room, and bashfully +lingered near the door. As soon as he observed them, and apprehended +their embarrassment, he rose and walked to them, saying, 'How do you +do, my good fellows? What can I do for you? Will you sit down?' The +spokesman of the pair, the shorter of the two, declined to sit, and +explained the object of the call thus: he had had a talk about the +relative height of Mr. Lincoln and his companion, and had asserted his +belief that they were of exactly the same height. He had come in to +verify his judgment. Mr. Lincoln smiled, went and got his cane, and, +placing the end of it upon the wall, said: + +"'Here, young man, come under here.' + +"The young man came under the cane, as Mr. Lincoln held it, and when +it was perfectly adjusted to his height, Mr. Lincoln said: + +"'Now, come out, and hold up the cane.' + +"This he did while Mr. Lincoln stepped under. Rubbing his head back +and forth to see that it worked easily under the measurement, he +stepped out, and declared to the sagacious fellow who was curiously +looking on, that he had guessed with remarkable accuracy--that he and +the young man were exactly the same height. Then he shook hands with +them and sent them on their way. Mr. Lincoln would just as soon have +thought of cutting off his right hand as he would have thought of +turning those boys away with the impression that they had in any way +insulted his dignity." + + + + +IV + +IN THE WHITE HOUSE + + +HOW LINCOLN WAS ABUSED + +With the possible exception of President Washington, whose political +opponents did not hesitate to rob the vocabulary of vulgarity and +wickedness whenever they desired to vilify the Chief Magistrate, +Lincoln was the most and "best" abused man who ever held office in the +United States. During the first half of his initial term there was no +epithet which was not applied to him. + +One newspaper in New York habitually characterized him as "that +hideous baboon at the other end of the avenue," and declared that +"Barnum should buy and exhibit him as a zoological curiosity." + +Although the President did not, to all appearances, exhibit annoyance +because of the various diatribes printed and spoken, yet the fact is +that his life was so cruelly embittered by these and other expressions +quite as virulent, that he often declared to those most intimate with +him, "I would rather be dead than, as President, be thus abused in the +house of my friends." + + +SONNET IN 1862 + +BY JOHN JAMES PIATT[5] + + Stern be the Pilot in the dreadful hour + When a great nation, like a ship at sea + With the wroth breakers whitening at her lee, + Feels her last shudder if her Helmsman cower; + A godlike manhood be his mighty dower! + Such and so gifted, Lincoln, may'st thou be + With thy high wisdom's low simplicity + And awful tenderness of voted power: + From our hot records then thy name shall stand + On Time's calm ledger out of passionate days-- + With the pure debt of gratitude begun, + And only paid in never-ending praise-- + One of the many of a mighty Land, + Made by God's providence the Anointed One. + +[5] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +LINCOLN THE PRESIDENT + +BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL + +From the Essay in "My Study Windows" + +Never did a President enter upon office with less means at his +command, outside his own strength of heart and steadiness of +understanding, for inspiring confidence in the people, and so winning +it for himself, than Mr. Lincoln. All that was known to him was that +he was a good stump-speaker, nominated for his availability--that is, +because he had no history--and chosen by a party with whose more +extreme opinions he was not in sympathy. It might well be feared that +a man past fifty, against whom the ingenuity of hostile partisans +could rake up no accusation, must be lacking in manliness of +character, in decision of principle, in strength of will; that a man +who was at best only the representative of a party, and who yet did +not fairly represent even that, would fail of political, much more of +popular, support. And certainly no one ever entered upon office with +so few resources of power in the past, and so many materials of +weakness in the present, as Mr. Lincoln. Even in that half of the +Union which acknowledged him as President, there was a large, and at +that time dangerous minority, that hardly admitted his claim to the +office, and even in the party that elected him there was also a large +minority that suspected him of being secretly a communicant with the +church of Laodicea. All that he did was sure to be virulently attacked +as ultra by one side; all that he left undone, to be stigmatized as +proof of lukewarmness and backsliding by the other. Meanwhile he was +to carry on a truly colossal war by means of both; he was to disengage +the country from diplomatic entanglements of unprecedented peril +undisturbed by the help or the hindrance of either, and to win from +the crowning dangers of his administration, in the confidence of the +people, the means of his safety and their own. He has contrived to do +it, and perhaps none of our Presidents since Washington has stood so +firm in the confidence of the people as he does after three years of +stormy administration. + +Mr. Lincoln's policy was a tentative one, and rightly so. He laid down +no programme which must compel him to be either inconsistent or +unwise, no cast-iron theorem to which circumstances must be fitted as +they rose, or else be useless to his ends. He seemed to have chosen +Mazarin's motto, _Le temps et moi_. The _moi_, to be sure, was not +very prominent at first; but it has grown more and more so, till the +world is beginning to be persuaded that it stands for a character of +marked individuality and capacity for affairs. Time was his +prime-minister, and, we began to think, at one period, his +general-in-chief also. At first he was so slow that he tired out all +those who see no evidence of progress but in blowing up the engine; +then he was so fast, that he took the breath away from those who think +there is no getting on safely while there is a spark of fire under the +boilers. God is the only being who has time enough; but a prudent man, +who knows how to seize occasion, can commonly make a shift to find as +much as he needs. Mr. Lincoln, as it seems to us in reviewing his +career, though we have sometimes in our impatience thought otherwise, +has always waited, as a wise man should, till the right moment +brought up all his reserves. _Semper nocuit differre paratis_, is a +sound axiom, but the really efficacious man will also be sure to know +when he is not ready, and be firm against all persuasion and reproach +till he is. + +One would be apt to think, from some of the criticisms made on Mr. +Lincoln's course by those who mainly agree with him in principle, that +the chief object of a statesman should be rather to proclaim his +adhesion to certain doctrines, than to achieve their triumph by +quietly accomplishing his ends. In our opinion, there is no more +unsafe politician than a conscientiously rigid doctrinaire, nothing +more sure to end in disaster than a theoretic scheme of policy that +admits of no pliability for contingencies. True, there is a popular +image of an impossible He, in whose plastic hands the submissive +destinies of mankind become as wax, and to whose commanding necessity +the toughest facts yield with the graceful pliancy of fiction; but in +real life we commonly find that the men who control circumstances, as +it is called, are those who have learned to allow for the influence of +their eddies, and have the nerve to turn them to account at the happy +instant. Mr. Lincoln's perilous task has been to carry a rather shaky +raft through the rapids, making fast the unrulier logs as he could +snatch opportunity, and the country is to be congratulated that he did +not think it his duty to run straight at all hazards, but cautiously +to assure himself with his setting-pole where the main current was, +and keep steadily to that. He is still in wild water, but we have +faith that his skill and sureness of eye will bring him out right at +last. + +A curious, and, as we think, not inapt parallel, might be drawn +between Mr. Lincoln and one of the most striking figures in modern +history--Henry IV. of France. The career of the latter may be more +picturesque, as that of a daring captain always is; but in all its +vicissitudes there is nothing more romantic than that sudden change, +as by a rub of Aladdin's lamp, from the attorney's office in a country +town of Illinois to the helm of a great nation in times like these. +The analogy between the characters and circumstances of the two men is +in many respects singularly close. Succeeding to a rebellion rather +than a crown, Henry's chief material dependence was the Huguenot +party, whose doctrines sat upon him with a looseness distasteful +certainly, if not suspicious, to the more fanatical among them. King +only in name over the greater part of France, and with his capital +barred against him, it yet gradually became clear to the more +far-seeing even of the Catholic party that he was the only center of +order and legitimate authority round which France could reorganize +itself. While preachers who held the divine right of kings made the +churches of Paris ring with declamations in favor of democracy rather +than submit to the heretic dog of a Béarnois--much as our _soi-disant_ +Democrats have lately been preaching the divine right of slavery, and +denouncing the heresies of the Declaration of Independence--Henry bore +both parties in hand till he was convinced that only one course of +action could possibly combine his own interests and those of France. +Meanwhile the Protestants believed somewhat doubtfully that he was +theirs, the Catholics hoped somewhat doubtfully that he would be +theirs, and Henry himself turned aside remonstrance, advice, and +curiosity alike with a jest or a proverb (if a little high, he liked +them none the worse), joking continually as his manner was. We have +seen Mr. Lincoln contemptuously compared to Sancho Panza by persons +incapable of appreciating one of the deepest pieces of wisdom in the +profoundest romance ever written; namely, that, while Don Quixote was +incomparable in theoretic and ideal statesmanship, Sancho, with his +stock of proverbs, the ready money of human experience, made the best +possible practical governor. Henry IV. was as full of wise saws and +modern instances as Mr. Lincoln, but beneath all this was the +thoughtful, practical, humane, and thoroughly earnest man, around whom +the fragments of France were to gather themselves till she took her +place again as a planet of the first magnitude in the European system. +In one respect Mr. Lincoln was more fortunate than Henry. However some +may think him wanting in zeal, the most fanatical can find no taint of +apostasy in any measure of his, nor can the most bitter charge him +with being influenced by motives of personal interest. The leading +distinction between the policies of the two is one of circumstances. +Henry went over to the nation; Mr. Lincoln has steadily drawn the +nation over to him. One left a united France; the other, we hope and +believe, will leave a reunited America. We leave our readers to trace +the further points of difference and resemblance for themselves, +merely suggesting a general similarity which has often occurred to us. +One only point of melancholy interest we will allow ourselves to touch +upon. That Mr. Lincoln is not handsome nor elegant, we learn from +certain English tourists who would consider similar revelations in +regard to Queen Victoria as thoroughly American in their want of +_bienséance_. It is no concern of ours, nor does it affect his fitness +for the high place he so worthily occupies; but he is certainly as +fortunate as Henry in the matter of good looks, if we may trust +contemporary evidence. Mr. Lincoln has also been reproached with +Americanism by some not unfriendly British critics; but, with all +deference, we cannot say that we like him any the worse for it, or see +in it any reason why he should govern Americans the less wisely. + +People of more sensitive organizations may be shocked, but we are glad +that in this our true war of independence, which is to free us forever +from the Old World, we have had at the head of our affairs a man whom +America made as God made Adam, out of the very earth, unancestried, +unprivileged, unknown, to show us how much truth, how much +magnanimity, and how much statecraft await the call of opportunity in +simple manhood when it believes in the justice of God and the worth of +man. Conventionalities are all very well in their proper place, but +they shrivel at the touch of nature like stubble in the fire. The +genius that sways a nation by its arbitrary will seems less august to +us than that which multiplies and reinforces itself in the instincts +and convictions of an entire people. Autocracy may have something in +it more melodramatic than this, but falls far short of it in human +value and interest. + +Experience would have bred in us a rooted distrust of improvised +statesmanship, even if we did not believe politics to be a science, +which, if it cannot always command men of special aptitude and great +powers, at least demands the long and steady application of the best +powers of such men as it can command to master even its first +principles. It is curious, that, in a country which boasts of its +intelligence, the theory should be so generally held that the most +complicated of human contrivances, and one which every day becomes +more complicated, can be worked at sight by any man able to talk for +an hour or two without stopping to think. + +Mr. Lincoln is sometimes claimed as an example of a ready-made ruler. +But no case could well be less in point; for, besides that he was a +man of such fair-mindedness as is always the raw material of wisdom, +he had in his profession a training precisely the opposite of that to +which a partisan is subjected. His experience as a lawyer compelled +him not only to see that there is a principle underlying every +phenomenon in human affairs, but that there are always two sides to +every question, both of which must be fully understood in order to +understand either, and that it is of greater advantage to an advocate +to appreciate the strength than the weakness of his antagonist's +position. Nothing is more remarkable than the unerring tact with +which, in his debate with Mr. Douglas, he went straight to the reason +of the question; nor have we ever had a more striking lesson in +political tactics than the fact, that, opposed to a man exceptionally +adroit in using popular prejudice and bigotry to his purpose, +exceptionally unscrupulous in appealing to those baser motives that +turn a meeting of citizens into a mob of barbarians, he should yet +have won his case before a jury of the people. Mr. Lincoln was as far +as possible from an impromptu politician. His wisdom was made up of a +knowledge of things as well as of men; his sagacity resulted from a +clear perception and honest acknowledgment of difficulties, which +enabled him to see that the only durable triumph of political opinion +is based, not on any abstract right, but upon so much of justice, the +highest attainable at any given moment in human affairs, as may be had +in the balance of mutual concession. Doubtless he had an ideal, but it +was the ideal of a practical statesman--to aim at the best, and to +take the next best, if he is lucky enough to get even that. His slow, +but singularly masculine intelligence taught him that precedent is +only another name for embodied experience, and that it counts for even +more in the guidance of communities of men than in that of the +individual life. He was not a man who held it good public economy to +pull down on the mere chance of rebuilding better. Mr. Lincoln's +faith in God was qualified by a very well-founded distrust of the +wisdom of man. Perhaps it was his want of self-confidence that more +than anything else won him the unlimited confidence of the people, for +they felt that there would be no need of retreat from any position he +had deliberately taken. The cautious, but steady, advance of his +policy during the war was like that of a Roman army. He left behind +him a firm road on which public confidence could follow; he took +America with him where he went; what he gained he occupied, and his +advanced posts became colonies. The very homeliness of his genius was +its distinction. His kingship was conspicuous by its work-day +homespun. Never was ruler so absolute as he, nor so little conscious +of it; for he was the incarnate common-sense of the people. With all +that tenderness of nature whose sweet sadness touched whoever saw him +with something of its own pathos, there was no trace of sentimentalism +in his speech or action. He seems to have had but one rule of conduct, +always that of practical and successful politics, to let himself be +guided by events, when they were sure to bring him out where he wished +to go, though by what seemed to unpractical minds, which let go the +possible to grasp at the desirable, a longer road. + + * * * * * + +No higher compliment was ever paid to a nation than the simple +confidence, the fireside plainness, with which Mr. Lincoln always +addresses himself to the reason of the American people. This was, +indeed, a true democrat, who grounded himself on the assumption that a +democracy can think. "Come, let us reason together about this matter," +has been the tone of all his addresses to the people; and accordingly +we have never had a chief magistrate who so won to himself the love +and at the same time the judgment of his countrymen. To us, that +simple confidence of his in the right-mindedness of his fellow-men is +very touching, and its success is as strong an argument as we have +ever seen in favor of the theory that men can govern themselves. He +never appeals to any vulgar sentiment, he never alludes to the +humbleness of his origin; it probably never occurred to him, indeed +that there was anything higher to start from than manhood; and he put +himself on a level with those he addressed, not by going down to them, +but only by taking it for granted that they had brains and would come +up to a common ground of reason. In an article lately printed in "The +Nation," Mr. Bayard Taylor mentions the striking fact, that in the +foulest dens of the Five Points he found the portrait of Lincoln. The +wretched population that makes its hive there threw all its votes and +more against him, and yet paid this instinctive tribute to the sweet +humanity of his nature. Their ignorance sold its vote and took its +money, but all that was left of manhood in them recognized its saint +and martyr. + +Mr. Lincoln is not in the habit of saying, "This is my opinion, or my +theory," but, "This is the conclusion to which, in my judgment, the +time has come, and to which, accordingly the sooner we come the better +for us." His policy has been the policy of public opinion based on +adequate discussion and on a timely recognition of the influence of +passing events in shaping the features of events to come. + +One secret of Mr. Lincoln's remarkable success in captivating the +popular mind is undoubtedly an unconsciousness of self which enables +him, though under the necessity of constantly using the capital I, to +do it without any suggestion of egotism. There is no single vowel +which men's mouths can pronounce with such difference of effect. That +which one shall hide away, as it were, behind the substance of his +discourse, or, if he bring it to the front, shall use merely to give +an agreeable accent of individuality to what he says, another shall +make an offensive challenge to the self-satisfaction of all his +hearers, and an unwarranted intrusion upon each man's sense of +personal importance, irritating every pore of his vanity, like a dry +northeast wind, to a goose-flesh of opposition and hostility. Mr. +Lincoln has never studied Quintilian; but he has, in the earnest +simplicity and unaffected Americanism of his own character, one art of +oratory worth all the rest. He forgets himself so entirely in his +object as to give his I the sympathetic and persuasive effect of We +with the great body of his countrymen. Homely, dispassionate, showing +all the rough-edged process of his thought as it goes along, yet +arriving at his conclusions with an honest kind of every-day logic, +he is so eminently our representative man, that, when he speaks, it +seems as if the people were listening to their own thinking aloud. The +dignity of his thought owes nothing to any ceremonial garb of words, +but to the manly movement that comes of settled purpose and an energy +of reason that knows not what rhetoric means. There has been nothing +of Cleon, still less of Strepsiades striving to underbid him in +demagogism, to be found in the public utterances of Mr. Lincoln. He +has always addressed the intelligence of men, never their prejudice, +their passion, or their ignorance. + + * * * * * + +On the day of his death, this simple Western attorney, who according +to one party was a vulgar joker, and whom the doctrinaires among his +own supporters accused of wanting every element of statesmanship, was +the most absolute ruler in Christendom, and this solely by the hold +his good-humored sagacity had laid on the hearts and understandings of +his countrymen. Nor was this all, for it appeared that he had drawn +the great majority, not only of his fellow-citizens, but of mankind, +also, to his side. So strong and so persuasive is honest manliness +without a single quality of romance or unreal sentiment to help it! A +civilian during times of the most captivating military achievement, +awkward, with no skill in the lower technicalities of manners, he left +behind him a fame beyond that of any conqueror, the memory of a grace +higher than that of outward person, and of gentlemanliness deeper than +mere breeding. Never before that startled April morning did such +multitudes of men shed tears for the death of one they had never seen, +as if with him a friendly presence had been taken away from their +lives, leaving them colder and darker. Never was funeral panegyric so +eloquent as the silent look of sympathy which strangers exchanged when +they met on that day. Their common manhood had lost a kinsman. + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +January First, Eighteen Hundred and Sixty-Three + +BY FRANK MOORE + + Stand like an anvil, when 'tis beaten + With the full vigor of the smith's right arm! + Stand like the noble oak-tree, when 'tis eaten + By the Saperda and his ravenous swarm! + For many smiths will strike the ringing blows + Ere the red drama now enacting close; + And human insects, gnawing at thy fame, + Conspire to bring thy honored head to shame. + + Stand like the firmament, upholden + By an invisible but Almighty hand! + He whomsoever JUSTICE doth embolden, + Unshaken, unseduced, unawed shall stand. + Invisible support is mightier far, + With noble aims, than walls of granite are; + And simple consciousness of justice gives + Strength to a purpose while that purpose lives. + + Stand like the rock that looks defiant + Far o'er the surging seas that lash its form! + Composed, determined, watchful, self-reliant, + Be master of thyself, and rule the storm! + And thou shalt soon behold the bow of peace + Span the broad heavens, and the wild tumult cease; + And see the billows, with the clouds that meet, + Subdued and calm, come crouching to thy feet. + + +THE PROCLAMATION[6] + +BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER + + Saint Patrick, slave to Milcho of the herds + Of Ballymena, sleeping, heard these words: + "Arise, and flee + Out from the land of bondage, and be free!" + + Glad as a soul in pain, who hears from heaven + The angels singing of his sins forgiven, + And, wondering, sees + His prison opening to their golden keys, + He rose a Man who laid him down a Slave, + Shook from his locks the ashes of the grave, + And onward trod + Into the glorious liberty of God. + + He cast the symbols of his shame away; + And passing where the sleeping Milcho lay, + Though back and limb + Smarted with wrong, he prayed, "God pardon him!" + + So went he forth: but in God's time he came + To light on Uilline's hills a holy flame; + And, dying, gave + The land a Saint that lost him as a Slave. + + O, dark, sad millions, patiently and dumb + Waiting for God, your hour, at last, has come, + And Freedom's song + Breaks the long silence of your night of wrong! + + Arise, and flee! shake off the vile restraint + Of ages! but, like Ballymena's saint, + The oppressor spare, + Heap only on his head the coals of prayer. + + Go forth, like him! like him return again, + To bless the land whereon, in bitter pain, + Ye toiled at first, + And heal with Freedom what your Slavery cursed. + +[6] _By special permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + +From the address delivered before Congress on February 12, 1878, +presenting to the re-United States, on behalf of Mrs. Elizabeth +Thompson, Carpenter's painting--The First Reading of the Emancipation +Proclamation before the Cabinet. + +BY JAMES ABRAM GARFIELD + +Let us pause to consider the actors in that scene. In force of +character, in thoroughness and breadth of culture, in experience of +public affairs, and in national reputation, the Cabinet that sat +around that council-board has had no superior, perhaps no equal in our +history. Seward, the finished scholar, the consummate orator, the +great leader of the Senate, had come to crown his career with those +achievements which placed him in the first rank of modern +diplomatists. Chase, with a culture and a fame of massive grandeur, +stood as the rock and pillar of the public credit, the noble +embodiment of the public faith. Stanton was there, a very Titan of +strength, the great organizer of victory. Eminent lawyers, men of +business, leaders of states and leaders of men, completed the group. + +But the man who presided over that council, who inspired and guided +its deliberations, was a character so unique that he stood alone, +without a model in history or a parallel among men. Born on this day, +sixty-nine years ago, to an inheritance of extremest poverty; +surrounded by the rude forces of the wilderness; wholly unaided by +parents; only one year in any school; never, for a day, master of his +own time until he reached his majority; making his way to the +profession of the law by the hardest and roughest road;--yet by force +of unconquerable will and persistent, patient work he attained a +foremost place in his profession, + + "And, moving up from high to higher, + Became on Fortune's crowning slope + The pillar of a people's hope, + The centre of a world's desire." + +At first, it was the prevailing belief that he would be only the +nominal head of his administration,--that its policy would be directed +by the eminent statesmen he had called to his council. How erroneous +this opinion was may be seen from a single incident. + +Among the earliest, most difficult, and most delicate duties of his +administration was the adjustment of our relations with Great Britain. +Serious complications, even hostilities, were apprehended. On the 21st +of May, 1861, the Secretary of State presented to the President his +draught of a letter of instructions to Minister Adams, in which the +position of the United States and the attitude of Great Britain were +set forth with the clearness and force which long experience and great +ability had placed at the command of the Secretary. Upon almost every +page of that original draught are erasures, additions, and marginal +notes in the handwriting of Abraham Lincoln, which exhibit a sagacity, +a breadth of wisdom, and a comprehension of the whole subject, +impossible to be found except in a man of the very first order. And +these modifications of a great state paper were made by a man who but +three months before had entered for the first time the wide theatre of +Executive action. + +Gifted with an insight and a foresight which the ancients would have +called divination, he saw, in the midst of darkness and obscurity, the +logic of events, and forecast the result. From the first, in his own +quaint, original way, without ostentation or offense to his +associates, he was pilot and commander of his administration. He was +one of the few great rulers whose wisdom increased with his power, and +whose spirit grew gentler and tenderer as his triumphs were +multiplied. + +This was the man, and these his associates, who look down upon us from +the canvas. + +The present is not a fitting occasion to examine, with any +completeness, the causes that led to the Proclamation of Emancipation; +but the peculiar relation of that act to the character of Abraham +Lincoln cannot be understood, without considering one remarkable fact +in his history. His earlier years were passed in a region remote from +the centers of political thought, and without access to the great +world of books. But the few books that came within his reach he +devoured with the divine hunger of genius. One paper, above all +others, led him captive, and filled his spirit with the majesty of +its truth and the sublimity of its eloquence. It was the Declaration +of American Independence. The author and the signers of that +instrument became, in his early youth, the heroes of his political +worship. I doubt if history affords any example of a life so early, so +deeply, and so permanently influenced by a single political truth, as +was Abraham Lincoln's by the central doctrine of the Declaration,--the +liberty and equality of all men. Long before his fame had become +national he said, "That is the electric cord in the Declaration, that +links the hearts of patriotic and liberty-loving men together, and +that will link such hearts as long as the love of freedom exists in +the minds of men throughout the world." + +That truth runs, like a thread of gold, through the whole web of his +political life. It was the spear-point of his logic in his debates +with Douglas. It was the inspiring theme of his remarkable speech at +the Cooper Institute, New York, in 1860, which gave him the nomination +to the Presidency. It filled him with reverent awe when on his way to +the capital to enter the shadows of the terrible conflict then +impending, he uttered, in Independence Hall, at Philadelphia, these +remarkable words, which were prophecy then but are history now:-- + +"I have never had a feeling, politically, that did not spring from the +sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. I have often +pondered over the dangers which were incurred by the men who assembled +here, and framed and adopted that Declaration of Independence. I have +pondered over the toils that were endured by the officers and soldiers +of the army who achieved that independence I have often inquired of +myself what great principle or idea it was that kept this confederacy +so long together. It was not the mere matter of the separation of the +Colonies from the mother land, but that sentiment in the Declaration +of Independence which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this +country, but, I hope, to the world for all future time. It was that +which gave promise that, in due time, the weight would be lifted from +the shoulders of all men. This is the sentiment embodied in the +Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be +saved upon that basis? If it can, I will consider myself one of the +happiest men in the world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be +saved upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this country +cannot be saved without giving up that principle, I was about to say, +I would rather be assassinated on this spot than surrender it." + +Deep and strong was his devotion to liberty; yet deeper and stronger +still was his devotion to the Union; for he believed that without the +Union permanent liberty for either race on this continent would be +impossible. And because of this belief, he was reluctant, perhaps more +reluctant than most of his associates, to strike slavery with the +sword. For many months, the passionate appeals of millions of his +associates seemed not to move him. He listened to all the phases of +the discussion, and stated, in language clearer and stronger than any +opponent had used, the dangers, the difficulties, and the possible +futility of the act. In reference to its practical wisdom, Congress, +the Cabinet and the country were divided. Several of his generals had +proclaimed the freedom of slaves within the limits of their commands. +The President revoked their proclamations. His first Secretary of War +had inserted a paragraph in his annual report advocating a similar +policy. The President suppressed it. + +On the 19th of August, 1862, Horace Greeley published a letter, +addressed to the President, entitled "The Prayer of Twenty Millions," +in which he said, "On the face of this wide earth, Mr. President, +there is not one disinterested, determined, intelligent champion of +the Union cause who does not feel that all attempts to put down the +rebellion and at the same time uphold its inciting cause are +preposterous and futile." + +To this the President responded in that ever-memorable reply of August +22, in which he said:-- + +"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at +the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them. + +"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could at +the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them. + +"My paramount object is to save the Union, and not either to save or +to 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 do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I would also +do that. + +"What I do about slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe +it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do +not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever +I shall believe that what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do +more whenever I believe doing more will help the cause." + +Thus, against all importunities on the one hand and remonstrances on +the other, he took the mighty question to his own heart, and, during +the long months of that terrible battle-summer, wrestled with it +alone. But at length he realized the saving truth, that great, +unsettled questions have no pity for the repose of nations. On the +22nd of September, he summoned his Cabinet to announce his conclusion. +It was my good fortune, on that same day, and a few hours after the +meeting, to hear, from the lips of one who participated, the story of +the scene. As the chiefs of the Executive Departments came in, one by +one, they found the President reading a favorite chapter from a +popular humorist. He was lightening the weight of the great burden +which rested upon his spirit. He finished the chapter, reading it +aloud. And here I quote, from the published Journal of the late Chief +Justice, an entry, written immediately after the meeting, and bearing +unmistakable evidence that it is almost a literal transcript of +Lincoln's words. + +"The President then took a graver tone, and said: 'Gentlemen, I have, +as you are aware, thought a great deal about the relation of this war +to slavery; and you all remember that, several weeks ago, I read to +you an order I had prepared upon the subject, which, on account of +objections made by some of you, was not issued. Ever since then my +mind has been much occupied with this subject, and I have thought all +along that the time for acting on it might probably come. I think the +time has come now. I wish it was a better time. I wish that we were in +a better condition. The action of the army against the rebels has not +been quite what I should have best liked. But they have been driven +out of Maryland, and Pennsylvania is no longer in danger of invasion. +When the rebel army was at Frederick, I determined as soon as it +should be driven out of Maryland to issue a proclamation of +emancipation, such as I thought most likely to be useful. I said +nothing to any one, but I made a promise to myself and (hesitating a +little) to my Maker. The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going +to fulfil that promise. I have got you together to hear what I have +written down. I do not wish your advice about the main matter, for +that I have determined for myself. This I say without intending +anything but respect for any one of you. But I already know the views +of each on this question. They have been heretofore expressed, and I +have considered them as thoroughly and carefully as I can. What I have +written is that which my reflections have determined me to say. If +there is anything in the expressions I use, or in any minor matter +which any one of you thinks had best be changed, I shall be glad to +receive your suggestions. One other observation I will make. I know +very well that many others might, in this matter as in others, do +better than I can; and if I was satisfied that the public confidence +was more fully possessed by any one of them than by me, and knew of +any constitutional way in which he could be put in my place, he should +have it. I would gladly yield it to him. But though I believe I have +not so much of the confidence of the people as I had some time since, +I do not know that, all things considered, any other person has more; +and, however this may be, there is no way in which I can have any +other man put where I am. I must do the best I can and bear the +responsibility of taking the course which I feel I ought to take.' + +"The President then proceeded to read his Emancipation Proclamation, +making remarks on the several parts as he went on, and showing that he +had fully considered the subject in all the lights under which it had +been presented to him." + +The Proclamation was amended in a few matters of detail. It was signed +and published that day. The world knows the rest, and will not forget +it till "the last syllable of recorded time." + + +THE EMANCIPATION GROUP[7] + +BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER + +Moses Kimball, a citizen of Boston, presented to the city a duplicate +of the Freedman's Memorial Statue erected in Lincoln Square, +Washington, after a design by Thomas Ball. The group, which stands in +Park Square, represents the figure of a slave, from whose limbs the +broken fetters have fallen, kneeling in gratitude at the feet of +Lincoln. The verses which follow were written for the unveiling of the +statue, December 9, 1879. + + Amidst thy sacred effigies + If old renown give place, + O city, Freedom-loved! to his + Whose hand unchained a race + + Take the worn frame, that rested not + Save in a martyr's grave; + The care-lined face, that none forgot, + Bent to the kneeling slave. + + Let man be free! The mighty word + He spake was not his own; + An impulse from the Highest stirred + These chiselled lips alone. + + The cloudy sign, the fiery guide, + Along his pathway ran, + And Nature, through his voice, denied + The ownership of man. + + We rest in peace where these sad eyes + Saw peril, strife, and pain; + His was the nation's sacrifice, + And ours the priceless gain. + + O symbol of God's will on earth + As it is done above! + Bear witness to the cost and worth + Of justice and of love. + + Stand in thy place and testify + To coming ages long, + That truth is stronger than a lie, + And righteousness than wrong. + +[7] _By special permission of Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S CHRISTMAS GIFT[8] + +BY NORA PERRY + + 'Twas in eighteen hundred and sixty-four, + That terrible year when the shock and roar + Of the nation's battles shook the land, + And the fire leapt up into fury fanned, + + The passionate, patriotic fire, + With its throbbing pulse and its wild desire + To conquer and win, or conquer and die, + In the thick of the fight when hearts beat high + + With the hero's thrill to do and to dare, + 'Twixt the bullet's rush and the muttered prayer. + In the North, and the East and the great Northwest, + Men waited and watched with eager zest + + For news of the desperate, terrible strife,-- + For a nation's death or a nation's life; + While over the wires there flying sped + News of the wounded, the dying and dead. + + "Defeat and defeat! Ah! what was the fault + Of the grand old army's sturdy assault + At Richmond's gates?" in a querulous key + Men questioned at last impatiently, + + As the hours crept by, and day by day + They watched the Potomac Army at bay. + Defeat and defeat! It was here, just here, + In the very height of the fret and fear, + + Click, click! across the electric wire + Came suddenly flashing words of fire, + And a great shout broke from city and town + At the news of Sherman's marching down,-- + + Marching down on his way to the sea + Through the Georgia swamps to victory. + Faster and faster the great news came, + Flashing along like tongues of flame,-- + + McAllister ours! And then, ah! then, + To that patientest, tenderest, noblest of men, + This message from Sherman came flying swift,-- + "I send you Savannah for a Christmas gift!" + +[8] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + + + +V + +DEATH OF LINCOLN + + +O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN![9] + +BY WALT WHITMAN + + O Captain! my Captain! our fearful trip is done, + The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won, + The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting, + While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring; + But O heart! heart! heart! + O the bleeding drops of red, + Where on the deck my Captain lies, + Fallen cold and dead. + + O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; + Rise up--for you the flag is flung--for you the bugle trills, + For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths--for you the shores a-crowding, + For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning; + Here Captain! dear father! + This arm beneath your head! + It is some dream that on the deck, + You've fallen cold and dead. + + My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, + My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will, + The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done, + From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object won; + Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells! + But I with mournful tread, + Walk the deck my Captain lies, + Fallen cold and dead. + +[9] _By permission of David McKay._ + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S DEATH--A DESCRIPTION OF THE SCENE AT FORD'S +THEATRE[10] + +WALT WHITMAN + +The day (April 14, 1865) seems to have been a pleasant one throughout +the whole land--the moral atmosphere pleasant, too--the long storm, so +dark, so fratricidal, full of blood and doubt and gloom, over and +ended at last by the sunrise of such an absolute National victory, and +utter breaking down of secessionism--we almost doubted our senses! Lee +had capitulated beneath the apple tree at Appomattox. The other +armies, the flanges of the revolt, swiftly followed. + +And could it really be, then? Out of all the affairs of this world of +woe and passion, of failure and disorder and dismay, was there really +come the confirmed, unerring sign of peace, like a shaft of pure +light--of rightful rule--of God? + +But I must not dwell on accessories. The deed hastens. The popular +afternoon paper, the little Evening Star, had scattered all over its +third page, divided among the advertisements in a sensational manner +in a hundred different places: "The President and his lady will be at +the theatre this evening." Lincoln was fond of the theatre. I have +myself seen him there several times. I remember thinking how funny it +was that he, in some respects the leading actor in the greatest and +stormiest drama known to real history's stage through centuries, +should sit there and be so completely interested in those human +jack-straws, moving about with their silly little gestures, foreign +spirit, and flatulent text. + +So the day, as I say, was propitious. Early herbage, early flowers, +were out. I remembered where I was stopping at the time, the season +being advanced, there were many lilacs in full bloom. By one of those +caprices that enter and give tinge to events without being at all a +part of them, I find myself always reminded of the great tragedy of +that day by the sight and odor of these blossoms. It never fails. + +On this occasion the theatre was crowded, many ladies in rich and gay +costumes, officers in their uniforms, many well-known citizens, young +folks, the usual clusters of gas-lights, the usual magnetism of so +many people, cheerful, with perfumes, music of violins and flutes--and +over all, and saturating, that vast, vague wonder, Victory, the +Nation's victory, the triumph of the Union, filling the air, the +thought, the sense, with exhilaration more than all perfumes. + +The President came betimes and, with his wife, witnessed the play, +from the large stage boxes of the second tier, two thrown into one, +and profusely draped with the National flag. The acts and scenes of +the piece--one of those singularly witless compositions which have at +least the merit of giving entire relief to an audience engaged in +mental action or business excitements and cares during the day, as it +makes not the slightest call on either the moral, emotional, esthetic +or spiritual nature--a piece ("Our American Cousin") in which, among +other characters so called, a Yankee, certainly such a one as was +never seen, or at least ever seen in North America, is introduced in +England, with a varied fol-de-rol of talk, plot, scenery, and such +phantasmagoria as goes to make up a modern popular drama--had +progressed through perhaps a couple of its acts, when in the midst of +this comedy, or tragedy, or non-such, or whatever it is to be called, +and to offset it, or finish it out, as if in Nature's and the Great +Muse's mockery of these poor mimics, come interpolated that scene, not +really or exactly to be described at all (for on the many hundreds who +were there it seems to this hour to have left little but a passing +blur, a dream, a blotch)--and yet partially to be described as I now +proceed to give it: + +There is a scene in the play representing the modern parlor, in which +two unprecedented English ladies are informed by the unprecedented and +impossible Yankee that he is not a man of fortune, and therefore +undesirable for marriage catching purposes; after which, the comments +being finished, the dramatic trio make exit, leaving the stage clear +for a moment. There was a pause, a hush, as it were. At this period +came the murder of Abraham Lincoln. Great as that was, with all its +manifold train circling around it, and stretching into the future for +many a century, in the politics, history, art, etc., of the New World, +in point of fact, the main thing, the actual murder, transpired with +the quiet and simplicity of any commonest occurrence--the bursting of +a bud or pod in the growth of vegetation, for instance. + +Through the general hum following the stage pause, with the change of +positions, etc., came the muffled sound of a pistol shot, which not +one-hundredth part of the audience heard at the time--and yet a +moment's hush--somehow, surely a vague, startled thrill--and then, +through the ornamented, draperied, starred, and striped space-way of +the President's box, a sudden figure, a man, raises himself with hands +and feet, stands a moment on the railing, leaps below to the stage (a +distance of perhaps 14 or 15 feet), falls out of position, catching +his boot heel in the copious drapery (the American flag), falls on one +knee, quickly recovers himself, rises as if nothing had happened (he +really sprains his ankle, but unfelt then)--and the figure, Booth, the +murderer, dressed in plain black broadcloth, bare-headed, with a full +head of glossy, raven hair, and his eyes, like some mad animal's +flashing with light and resolution, yet with a certain strange +calmness, holds aloft in one hand a large knife--walks along not much +back of the foot-lights--turns fully towards the audience his face of +statuesque beauty, lit by those basilisk eyes, flashing with +desperation, perhaps insanity--launches out in a firm and steady voice +the words _Sic Semper Tyrannis_--and then walks with neither slow nor +very rapid pace diagonally across to the back of the stage, and +disappears. (Had not all this terrible scene--making the mimic ones +preposterous--had it not all been rehearsed, in blank, by Booth, +beforehand?) + +A moment's hush, incredulous--a scream--the cry of murder--Mrs. +Lincoln leaning out of the box, with ashy cheeks and lips, with +involuntary cry, pointing to the retreating figure, "He has +killed the President." And still a moment's strange, incredulous +suspense--and then the deluge!--then that mixture of horror, noises, +uncertainty--(the sound, somewhere back, of a horse's hoofs clattering +with speed) the people burst through chairs and railings, and break +them up--that noise adds to the queerness of the scene--there is +extricable confusion and terror--women faint--quite feeble persons +fall, and are trampled on--many cries of agony are heard--the broad +stage suddenly fills to suffocation with a dense and motley crowd, +like some horrible carnival--the audience rush generally upon it--at +least the strong men do--the actors and actresses are there in their +play costumes and painted faces, with moral fright showing through the +rouge--some trembling, some in tears, the screams and calls, confused +talk--redoubled, trebled--two or three manage to pass up water from +the stage to the President's box--others try to clamber up--etc., etc. + +In the midst of all this the soldiers of the President's Guard, with +others, suddenly drawn to the scene, burst in--some 200 +altogether--they storm the house, through all the tiers, especially +the upper ones--inflamed with fury, literally charging the audience +with fixed bayonets, muskets and pistols, shouting "Clear out! clear +out!..." Such the wild scene, or a suggestion of it, rather, inside +the play house that night. + +Outside, too, in the atmosphere of shock and craze, crowds of people +filled with frenzy, ready to seize any outlet for it, came near +committing murder several times on innocent individuals. One such case +was especially exciting. The infuriated crowd, through some chance, +got started against one man, either for words he uttered, or perhaps +without any cause at all, and were proceeding at once to hang him on a +neighboring lamp-post, when he was rescued by a few heroic policemen, +who placed him in their midst and fought their way slowly and amid +great peril toward the station house. It was a fitting episode of the +whole affair. The crowd rushing and eddying to and fro, the night, the +yells, the pale faces, many frightened people trying in vain to +extricate themselves, the attacked man, not yet freed from the jaws of +death, looking like a corpse, the silent, resolute half dozen +policemen, with no weapons but their little clubs, yet stern and +steady through all those eddying swarms--made indeed a fitting side +scene to the grand tragedy of the murder. They gained the station +house with the protected man, whom they placed in security for the +night and discharged in the morning. + +And in the midst of that night pandemonium of senseless hate, +infuriated soldiers, the audience and the crowd--the stage, and all +its actors and actresses, its paint pots, spangles and gaslight--the +life blood from those veins, the best and sweetest of the land, drips +slowly down.... + +Such, hurriedly sketched, were the accompaniments of the death of +President Lincoln. So suddenly, and in murder and horror unsurpassed, +he was taken from us. But his death was painless. + +[10] _By permission of David McKay._ + + +HUSH'D BE THE CAMPS TO-DAY[11] + +(May 4, 1865) + +BY WALT WHITMAN + + Hush'd be the camps to-day, + And soldiers, let us drape our war-worn weapons, + And each with musing soul retire to celebrate + Our dear commander's death. + + No more for him life's stormy conflicts, + Nor victory, nor defeat--no more time's dark events, + Charging like ceaseless clouds across the sky. + + But sing, poet, in our name. + Sing of the love we bore him--because you, dweller in camps, + know it truly. + + As they invault the coffin there, + Sing--as they close the doors of earth upon him--one verse, + For the heavy hearts of soldiers. + +[11] _By permission of David McKay._ + + +TO THE MEMORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +(1865) + +BY WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT + + O, slow to smite and swift to spare, + Gentle and merciful and just! + Who, in the fear of God, didst bear + The sword of power--a nation's trust. + + In sorrow by thy bier we stand, + Amid the awe that hushes all, + And speak the anguish of a land + That shook with horror at thy fall. + + Thy task is done--the bond are free; + We bear thee to an honored grave, + Whose noblest monument shall be + The broken fetters of the slave. + + Pure was thy life; its bloody close + Hath placed thee with the sons of light, + Among the noble host of those + cause of right. + + +CROWN HIS BLOODSTAINED PILLOW + +BY JULIA WARD HOWE + + Crown his blood-stained pillow + With a victor's palm; + Life's receding billow + Leaves eternal calm. + + At the feet Almighty + Lay this gift sincere; + Of a purpose weighty, + And a record clear. + + With deliverance freighted + Was this passive hand, + And this heart, high-fated, + Would with love command. + + Let him rest serenely + In a Nation's care, + Where her waters queenly + Make the West more fair. + + In the greenest meadow + That the prairies show, + Let his marble's shadow + Give all men to know: + + "Our First Hero, living, + Made his country free; + Heed the Second's giving, + Death for Liberty." + + +THE DEATH OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN[12] + +BY WALT WHITMAN + +Thus ended the attempted secession of these States; thus the four +years' war. But the main things come subtly and invisibly afterward, +perhaps long afterward--neither military, political, nor (great as +those are), historical. I say, certain secondary and indirect results, +out of the tragedy of this death, are, in my opinion, greatest. Not +the event of the murder itself. Not that Mr. Lincoln strings the +principal points and personages of the period, like beads, upon the +single string of his career. Not that his idiosyncrasy, in its sudden +appearance and disappearance, stamps this Republic with a stamp more +mark'd and enduring than any yet given by any one man--(more even than +Washington's)--but, join'd with these, the immeasurable value and +meaning of that whole tragedy lies, to me, in senses finally dearest +to a nation (and here all our own)--the imaginative and artistic +senses--the literary and dramatic ones. Not in any common or low +meaning of those terms, but a meaning precious to the race, and +to every age. A long and varied series of contradictory events +arrives at last at its highest poetic, single, central, pictorial +denouement. The whole involved, baffling, multiform whirl of the +secession period comes to a head, and is gather'd in one brief flash +of lightning-illumination--one simple, fierce deed. Its sharp +culmination, and as it were solution, of so many bloody and angry +problems, illustrates those climax-moments on the stage of universal +Time, where the historic Muse at one entrance, and the tragic Muse at +the other, suddenly ringing down the curtain, close an immense act in +the long drama of creative thought, and give it radiation, tableau, +stranger than fiction. Fit radiation--fit close! How the +imagination--how the student loves these things! America, too, is to +have them. For not in all great deaths, nor far or near--not Cæsar in +the Roman senate-house, nor Napoleon passing away in the wild +night-storm at St. Helena--not Paleologus, falling, desperately +fighting, piled over dozens deep with Grecian corpses--not calm old +Socrates, drinking the hemlock--outvies that terminus of the secession +war, in one man's life, here in our midst, in our own time--that seal +of the emancipation of three million slaves--that parturition and +delivery of our at last really free Republic, born again, henceforth +to commence its career of genuine homogeneous Union, compact, +consistent with itself. + +[12] _By permission of David McKay._ + + +OUR SUN HATH GONE DOWN[13] + +BY PHOEBE CARY + + Our sun hath gone down at the noonday, + The heavens are black; + And over the morning the shadows + Of night-time are back. + + Stop the proud boasting mouth of the cannon, + Hush the mirth and the shout;-- + God is God! and the ways of Jehovah + Are past finding out. + + Lo! the beautiful feet on the mountains, + That yesterday stood; + The white feet that came with glad tidings, + Are dabbled in blood. + + The Nation that firmly was settling + The crown on her head, + Sits, like Rizpah, in sackcloth and ashes, + And watches her dead. + + Who is dead? who, unmoved by our wailing, + Is lying so low? + O, my Land, stricken dumb in your anguish, + Do you feel, do you know, + + That the hand which reached out of the darkness + Hath taken the whole? + Yea, the arm and the head of the people-- + The heart and the soul! + + And that heart, o'er whose dread awful silence + A nation has wept; + Was the truest, and gentlest, and sweetest, + A man ever kept! + + Once this good man, we mourn, overwearied, + Worn, anxious, oppressed, + Was going out from his audience chamber + For a season to rest; + + Unheeding the thousands who waited + To honor and greet, + When the cry of a child smote upon him, + And turned back his feet. + + "Three days hath a woman been waiting," + Said they, "patient and meek." + And he answered, "Whatever her errand, + Let me hear; let her speak!" + + So she came, and stood trembling before him, + And pleaded her cause; + Told him all; how her child's erring father + Had broken the laws. + + Humbly spake she: "I mourn for his folly, + His weakness, his fall"; + Proudly spake she: "he is not a TRAITOR, + And I love him through all!" + + Then the great man, whose heart had been shaken + By a little babe's cry; + Answered soft, taking counsel of mercy, + "This man shall not die!" + + Why, he heard from the dungeons, the rice-fields, + The dark holds of ships; + Every faint, feeble cry which oppression + Smothered down on men's lips. + + In her furnace, the centuries had welded + Their fetter and chain; + And like withes, in the hands of his purpose, + He snapped them in twain. + + Who can be what he was to the people; + What he was to the State? + Shall the ages bring to us another + As good, and as great? + + Our hearts with their anguish are broken, + Our wet eyes are dim; + For us is the loss and the sorrow, + The triumph for him! + + For, ere this, face to face with his Father + Our Martyr hath stood; + Giving unto his hand the white record, + With its great seal of blood! + +[13] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +TOLLING[14] + +(April 15, 1865) + +BY LUCY LARCOM + + Tolling, tolling, tolling! + All the bells of the land! + Lo, the patriot martyr + Taketh his journey grand! + Travels into the ages, + Bearing a hope how dear! + Into life's unknown vistas, + Liberty's great pioneer. + + Tolling, tolling, tolling! + See, they come as a cloud, + Hearts of a mighty people, + Bearing his pall and shroud; + Lifting up, like a banner, + Signals of loss and woe; + Wonder of breathless nations, + Moveth the solemn show. + + Tolling, tolling, tolling! + Was it, O man beloved, + Was it thy funeral only + Over the land that moved? + Veiled by that hour of anguish, + Borne with the rebel rout, + Forth into utter darkness, + Slavery's curse went out. + +[14] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN[15] + +"Strangulatus Pro Republica" + +BY ROSE TERRY COOKE + + Hundreds there have been, loftier than their kind, + Heroes and victors in the world's great wars: + Hundreds, exalted as the eternal stars, + By the great heart, or keen and mighty mind; + There have been sufferers, maimed and halt and blind, + Who bore their woes in such triumphant calm + That God hath crowned them with the martyr's palm; + And there were those who fought through fire to find + Their Master's face, and were by fire refined. + But who like thee, oh Sire! hath ever stood + Steadfast for truth and right, when lies and wrong + Rolled their dark waters, turbulent and strong; + Who bore reviling, baseness, tears and blood + Poured out like water, till thine own was spent, + Then reaped Earth's sole reward--a grave and monument! + +[15] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +EFFECT OF THE DEATH OF LINCOLN + +BY HENRY WARD BEECHER + +Again a great leader of the people has passed through toil, sorrow, +battle and war, and come near to the promised land of peace into which +he might not pass over. Who shall recount our martyr's sufferings for +this people? Since the November of 1860, his horizon has been black +with storms. + +By day and by night, he trod a way of danger and darkness. On his +shoulders rested a government dearer to him than his own life. At its +integrity millions of men were striking at home. Upon this government +foreign eyes lowered. It stood like a lone island in a sea full of +storms, and every tide and wave seemed eager to devour it. Upon +thousands of hearts great sorrows and anxieties have rested, but not +on one such, and in such measure, as upon that simple, truthful, noble +soul, our faithful and sainted Lincoln. Never rising to the enthusiasm +of more impassioned natures in hours of hope, and never sinking with +the mercurial, in hours of defeat, to the depths of despondency, he +held on with immovable patience and fortitude, putting caution against +hope, that it might not be premature, and hope against caution that it +might not yield to dread and danger. He wrestled ceaselessly, through +four black and dreadful purgatorial years, wherein God was cleansing +the sin of His people as by fire. + +At last, the watcher beheld the gray dawn for the country. The +mountains began to give forth their forms from out the darkness and +the East came rushing toward us with arms full of joy for all our +sorrows. Then it was for him to be glad exceedingly that had sorrowed +immeasurably. Peace could bring to no other heart such joy and rest, +such honor, such trust, such gratitude. But he looked upon it as Moses +looked upon the promised land. Then the wail of a nation proclaimed +that he had gone from among us. Not thine the sorrow, but ours, +sainted soul. Thou hast, indeed, entered the promised land, while we +are yet on the march. To us remain the rocking of the deep, the storm +upon the land, days of duty and nights of watching; but thou art +sphered high above all darkness and fear, beyond all sorrow and +weariness. Rest, O weary heart! Rejoice exceedingly,--thou that hast +enough suffered! Thou hast beheld Him who invisibly led thee in this +great wilderness. Thou standest among the elect. Around thee are the +royal men that have ennobled human life in every age. Kingly art thou, +with glory on thy brow as a diadem. And joy is upon thee for evermore. +Over all this land, over all the little cloud of years that now from +thine infinite horizon moves back as a speck, thou art lifted up as +high as the star is above the clouds that hide us, but never reach it. +In the goodly company of Mount Zion thou shalt find that rest which +thou hast sorrowing sought in vain; and thy name, an everlasting name +in heaven, shall flourish in fragrance and beauty as long as men shall +last upon the earth, or hearts remain, to revere truth, fidelity and +goodness. + +Never did two such orbs of experience meet in one hemisphere, as the +joy and the sorrow of the same week in this land. The joy was as +sudden as if no man had expected it, and as entrancing as if it had +fallen a sphere from heaven. It rose up over sobriety, and swept +business from its moorings, and ran down through the land in +irresistible course. Men embraced each other in brotherhood that were +strangers in the flesh. They sang, or prayed, or deeper yet, many +could only think thanksgiving and weep gladness. + +That peace was sure; that government was firmer than ever; that the +land was cleansed of plague; that the ages were opening to our +footsteps, and we were to begin a march of blessings; that blood was +staunched and scowling enmities were sinking like storms beneath the +horizon; that the dear fatherland, nothing lost, much gained, was to +rise up in unexampled honor among the nations of the earth--these +thoughts, and that undistinguishable throng of fancies, and hopes, and +desires, and yearnings, that filled the soul with tremblings like the +heated air of midsummer days--all these kindled up such a surge of joy +as no words may describe. + +In one hour, joy lay without a pulse, without a gleam or breath. A +sorrow came that swept through the land as huge storms sweep through +the forest and field, rolling thunder along the sky, disheveling the +flowers, daunting every singer in thicket or forest, and pouring +blackness and darkness across the land and up the mountains. Did ever +so many hearts, in so brief a time, touch two such boundless feelings? +It was the uttermost of joy; it was the uttermost of sorrow--noon and +midnight, without a space between. + +The blow brought not a sharp pang. It was so terrible that at first it +stunned sensibility. Citizens were like men awakened at midnight by an +earthquake, and bewildered to find everything that they were +accustomed to trust wavering and falling. The very earth was no longer +solid. The first feeling was the least. Men waited to get strength to +feel. They wandered in the streets as if groping after some impending +dread, or undeveloped sorrow, or some one to tell them what ailed +them. They met each other as if each would ask the other, "Am I awake, +or do I dream?" There was a piteous helplessness. Strong men bowed +down and wept. Other and common griefs belonged to someone in chief; +this belonged to all. It was each and every man's. Every virtuous +household in the land felt as if its firstborn were gone. Men were +bereaved and walked for days as if a corpse lay unburied in their +dwellings. There was nothing else to think of. They could speak of +nothing but that; and yet of that they could speak only falteringly. +All business was laid aside. Pleasure forgot to smile. The city for +nearly a week ceased to roar. The great Leviathan lay down, and was +still. Even avarice stood still, and greed was strangely moved to +generous sympathy and universal sorrow. Rear to his name monuments, +found charitable institutions, and write his name above their lintels, +but no monument will ever equal the universal, spontaneous, and +sublime sorrow that in a moment swept down lines and parties, and +covered up animosities, in an hour brought a divided people into unity +of grief and indivisible fellowship of anguish. + +This Nation has dissolved--but in tears only. It stands four-square, +more solid to-day than any pyramid in Egypt. This people are neither +wasted, nor daunted, nor disordered. Men hate slavery and love liberty +with stronger hate and love to-day than ever before. The government is +not weakened; it is made stronger. How naturally and easily were the +ranks closed! Another steps forward, in the hour that one fell, to +take his place and his mantle; and I avow my belief that he will be +found a man true to every instinct of liberty; true to the whole trust +that is reposed in him; vigilant of the Constitution; careful of the +laws; wise for liberty, in that he himself, through his life, has +known what it was to suffer from the stings of slavery, and to prize +liberty from bitter personal experiences. + +Where could the head of government of any monarchy be smitten down by +the hand of an assassin, and the funds not quiver or fall one-half of +one per cent? After a long period of national disturbance, after four +years of drastic war, after tremendous drafts on the resources of the +country, in the height and top of our burdens, the heart of this +people is such that now, when the head of government is stricken down, +the public funds do not waver, but stand as the granite ribs in our +mountains. + +Republican institutions have been vindicated in this experience as +they never were before; and the whole history of the last four years, +rounded up by this cruel stroke, seems in the providence of God, to +have been clothed now, with an illustration, with a sympathy, with an +aptness, and with a significance, such as we never could have expected +nor imagined. God, I think, has said, by the voice of this event, to +all nations of the earth: "Republican liberty, based upon true +Christianity, is firm as the foundation of the globe." + +Even he who now sleeps has, by this event, been clothed with new +influence. Dead, he speaks to men who now willingly hear what before +they refused to listen to. Now his simple and weighty words will be +gathered like those of Washington, and your children and your +children's children shall be taught to ponder the simplicity and deep +wisdom of utterances which, in their time, passed, in party heat, as +idle words. Men will receive a new impulse of patriotism for his sake, +and will guard with zeal the whole country which he loved so well. I +swear you, on the altar of his memory, to be more faithful to the +country for which he has perished. They will, as they follow his +hearse, swear a new hatred to that slavery against which he warred, +and which, in vanquishing him, has made him a martyr and a conqueror. +I swear you, by the memory of this martyr, to hate slavery, with an +unappeasable hatred. They will admire and imitate the firmness of this +man, his inflexible conscience for the right, and yet his gentleness, +as tender as a woman's, his moderation of spirit, which not all the +heat of party could inflame, nor all the jars and disturbances of his +country shake out of place. I swear you to an emulation of his +justice, his moderation, and his mercy. + +You I can comfort; but how can I speak to that twilight million to +whom his name was as the name of an angel of God? There will be +wailing in places which no minister shall be able to reach. When, in +hovel and in cot, in wood and in wilderness, in the field throughout +the South, the dusky children, who looked upon him as that Moses whom +God sent before them to lead them out of the land of bondage, learn +that he has fallen, who shall comfort them? O, thou Shepherd of +Israel, that didst comfort Thy people of old, to Thy care we commit +the helpless, the long-wronged, and grieved. + +And now the martyr is moving in triumphal march, mightier than when +alive. The Nation rises up at every stage of his coming. Cities and +States are his pallbearers, and the cannon beats the hours with solemn +progression. Dead, dead, dead, he yet speaketh. Is Washington dead? Is +Hampden dead? Is David dead? Is any man that was ever fit to live +dead? Disenthralled of flesh, and risen in the unobstructed sphere +where passion never comes, he begins his illimitable work. His life +now is grafted upon the infinite, and will be fruitful as no earthly +life can be. + +Pass on, thou that hast overcome. Your sorrows, O people, are his +peace. Your bells and bands and muffled drums sound triumph in his +ear. Wail and weep here; God made it echo joy and triumph there. Pass +on. + +Four years ago, O Illinois, we took from your midst an untried man, +and from among the people. We return him to you a mighty conqueror. +Not thine any more, but the Nation's; not ours, but the world's. Give +him place, O ye prairies. In the midst of this great continent his +dust shall rest, a sacred treasure to myriads who shall pilgrim to +that shrine to kindle anew their zeal and patriotism. Ye winds that +move over the mighty places of the West, chant his requiem. Ye people, +behold a martyr whose blood as so many articulate words, pleads for +fidelity, for law, for liberty. + + +HYMN[16] + +BY OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES + + O Thou of soul and sense and breath, + The ever-present Giver, + Unto Thy mighty angel, death, + All flesh thou didst deliver; + What most we cherish, we resign, + For life and death alike are Thine, + Who reignest Lord forever! + + Our hearts lie buried in the dust + With him, so true and tender, + The patriot's stay, the people's trust, + The shield of the offender; + Yet every murmuring voice is still, + As, bowing to Thy sovereign will, + Our best loved we surrender. + + Dear Lord, with pitying eye behold + This martyr generation, + Which Thou, through trials manifold, + Art showing Thy salvation! + O let the blood by murder split + Wash out Thy stricken children's guilt, + And sanctify our nation! + + Be Thou Thy orphaned Israel's friend, + Forsake Thy people never, + In One our broken Many blend, + That none again may sever! + Hear us, O Father, while we raise + With trembling lips our song of praise, + And bless Thy name forever! + +[16] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +Foully Assassinated April 14, 1865 + +BY TOM TAYLOR (MARK LEMON) IN LONDON PUNCH. + + You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln's bier, + You, who with mocking pencil wont to trace, + Broad for the self-complacent British sneer, + His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face, + + His gaunt, gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hair, + His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease, + His lack of all we prize as debonair, + Of power or will to shine, of art to please; + + You whose smart pen backed up the pencil's laugh, + Judging each step as though the way were plain; + Reckless, so it could point its paragraph, + Of chief's perplexity, or people's pain: + + Beside this corpse, that bears for winding-sheet + The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear anew, + Between the mourners at his head and feet, + Say, scurrile jester, is there room for you? + + Yes: he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen:-- + To make me own this man of princes peer, + This rail-splitter a true-born king of men. + + My shallow judgment I had learned to rue, + Noting how to occasion's height he rose; + How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true; + How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows. + + How humble, yet how hopeful he could be: + How in good fortune and in ill, the same: + Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he, + Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame. + + He went about his work,--such work as few + Ever had laid on head and heart and hand,-- + As one who knows, where there's a task to do, + Man's honest will must heaven's good grace command; + + Who trusts the strength will with the burden grow, + That God makes instruments to work His will, + If but that will we can arrive to know, + Nor tamper with the weights of good and ill. + + So he went forth to battle, on the side + That he felt clear was Liberty's and Right's, + As in his peasant boyhood he had plied + His warfare with rude Nature's thwarting mights,-- + + The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil, + The iron-bark, that turns the lumberer's axe, + The rapid, that o'erbears the boatsman's toil, + The prairie, hiding the mazed wanderer's tracks, + + The ambushed Indian, and the prowling bear;-- + Such were the deeds that helped his youth to train: + Rough culture,--but such trees large fruit may bear, + If but their stocks be of right girth and grain. + + So he grew up, a destined work to do, + And lived to do it: four long suffering years, + Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report, lived through, + And then he heard the hisses change to cheers. + + The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise, + And took both with the same unwavering mood: + Till, as he came on light, from darkling days, + And seem to touch the goal from where he stood, + + A felon hand, between the goal and him, + Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest,-- + And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim, + Those gaunt, long-laboring limbs were laid to rest! + + The words of mercy were upon his lips, + Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen, + When this vile murderer brought swift eclipse + To thoughts of peace on earth, good-will to men. + + The Old World and the New, from sea to sea, + Utter one voice of sympathy and shame! + Sore heart, so stopped when it at last beat high; + Sad life, cut short just as its triumph came. + + A deed accurst! Strokes have been struck before + By the assassin's hand, whereof men doubt + If more of horror or disgrace they bore; + But thy foul crime, like Cain's, stands darkly out. + + Vile hand, that brandest murder on a strife, + Whate'er its grounds, stoutly and nobly striven; + And with the martyr's crown crownest a life + With much to praise, little to be forgiven. + + + + +VI + +TRIBUTES + + +THE MARTYR CHIEF[17] + +From the Harvard Commemoration Ode, + +BY JAMES RUSSEL LOWELL + + Life may be given in many ways, + And loyalty to Truth be sealed + As bravely in the closet as the field, + So generous is Fate; + But then to stand beside her, + When craven churls deride her, + To front a lie in arms, and not to yield-- + This shows, methinks, God's plan + And measure of a stalwart man, + Limbed, like the old heroic breeds, + Who stands self-poised on manhood's solid earth, + Not forced to frame excuses for his birth, + Fed from within with all the strength he needs. + Such was he, our Martyr Chief, + Whom late the nation he had led, + With ashes on her head, + Wept with the passion of an angry grief: + Forgive me, if from present things I turn + To speak what in my heart will beat and burn, + And hang my wreath on his world-honored urn. + Nature, they say, doth dote, + And cannot make a man + Save on some worn-out plan, + Repeating us by rote: + For him her Old-World moulds aside she threw, + And, choosing sweet clay from the breast + Of the unexhausted West, + With stuff untainted shaped a hero new, + Wise, steadfast in the strength of God, and true. + How beautiful to see + Once more a shepherd of mankind indeed, + Who loved his charge, but never loved to lead; + One whose meek flock the people joyed to be, + Not lured by any cheat of birth, + But by his clear-grained human worth, + And brave old wisdom of sincerity! + They knew that outward grace is dust; + They could not choose but trust + In that sure-footed mind's unfaltering skill, + And supple-tempered will + That bent like perfect steel to spring again and thrust. + His was no lonely mountain-peak of mind, + Thrusting to thin air o'er our cloudy bars, + A seamark now, now lost in vapors blind, + Broad prairie rather, genial, level-lined, + Fruitful and friendly for all human kind, + Yet also nigh to heaven and loved of loftiest stars. + Nothing of Europe here, + Or, then, of Europe fronting mornward still, + Ere any names of serf and peer + Could Nature's equal scheme deface; + Here was a type of the true elder race, + And one of Plutarch's men talked with us face to face. + I praise him not; it were too late; + And some innative weakness there must be + In him who condescends to victory + Such as the present gives, and cannot wait, + Safe in himself as in a fate. + So always firmly he; + He knew to bide him time, + And can his fame abide, + Still patient in his simple faith sublime, + Till the wise years decide. + Great captains, with their guns and drums, + Disturb our judgment for the hour, + But at last silence comes: + These are all gone, and, standing like a tower, + Our children shall behold his fame, + The kindly-earnest, brave, foreseeing man, + Sagacious, patient, dreading praise, not blame, + New birth of our new soil the first American. + +[17] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN[18] + +Remarks at the funeral services held in Concord, April 19, 1865 + +BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON + +We meet under the gloom of a calamity which darkens down over the +minds of good men in all civil society, as the fearful tidings travel +over sea, over land, from country to country, like the shadow of an +uncalculated eclipse over the planet. Old as history is, and manifold +as are its tragedies, I doubt if any death has caused so much pain to +mankind as this has caused, or will cause, on its announcement; and +this, not so much because nations are by modern arts brought so +closely together, as because of the mysterious hopes and fears which, +in the present day, are connected with the name and institutions of +America. + +In this country, on Saturday, every one was struck dumb, and saw at +first only deep below deep, as he meditated on the ghastly blow. And +perhaps, at this hour, when the coffin which contains the dust of the +President sets forward on its long march through mourning States, on +its way to his home in Illinois, we might well be silent and suffer +the awful voices of the time to thunder to us. Yes, but that first +despair was brief: the man was not so to be mourned. He was the most +active and hopeful of men; and his work has not perished: but +acclamations of praise for the task he has accomplished burst out into +a song of triumph, which even tears for his death cannot keep down. + +The President stood before us as a man of the people. He was +thoroughly American, had never crossed the sea, had never been spoiled +by English insularity or French dissipation; a quiet native, +aboriginal man, as an acorn from the oak; no aping of foreigners, no +frivolous accomplishments, Kentuckian born, working on a farm, a +flatboat-man, a captain in the Black Hawk war, a country lawyer, a +representative in the rural legislature of Illinois;--on such modest +foundations the broad structure of his fame was laid. How slowly, and +yet by happily prepared steps, he came to his place. All of us +remember--it is only a history of five or six years--the surprise and +the disappointment of the country at his first nomination by the +convention at Chicago. Mr. Seward, then in the culmination of his good +fame, was the favorite of the Eastern States. And when the new and +comparatively unknown name of Lincoln was announced (notwithstanding +the report of the acclamations of that convention), we heard the +result coldly and sadly. It seemed too rash, on a purely local +reputation, to build so grave a trust in such anxious times; and men +naturally talked of the chances in politics as incalculable. But it +turned out not to be chance. The profound good opinion which the +people of Illinois and of the West had conceived of him, and which +they had imparted to their colleagues, that they also might justify +themselves to their constituents at home, was not rash, though they +did not begin to know the riches of his worth. + +A plain man of the people, an extraordinary fortune attended him. He +offered no shining qualities at the first encounter; he did not offend +by superiority. He had a face and manner which disarmed suspicion, +which inspired confidence, which confirmed good will. He was a man +without vices. He had a strong sense of duty, which it was very easy +for him to obey. Then he had what farmers call a long head; was +excellent in working out the sum for himself; in arguing his case and +convincing you fairly and firmly. Then it turned out that he was a +great worker; had prodigious faculty of performance; worked easily. A +good worker is so rare; everybody has some disabling quality. In a +host of young men that start together and promise so many brilliant +leaders for the next age, each fails on trial; one by bad health, one +by conceit, or by love of pleasure, or lethargy, or an ugly +temper,--each has some disqualifying fault that throws him out of the +career. But this man was sound to the core, cheerful, persistent, all +right for labor, and liked nothing so well. + +Then he had a vast good nature, which made him tolerant and accessible +to all; fair minded, leaning to the claim of the petitioner; affable, +and not sensible to the affliction which the innumerable visits paid +to him when President would have brought to any one else. And how this +good nature became a noble humanity, in many a tragic case which the +events of the war brought to him, every one will remember; and with +what increasing tenderness he dealt when a whole race was thrown on +his compassion. The poor negro said of him, on an impressive occasion, +"Massa Linkum am ebery-where." Then his broad good humor, running +easily into jocular talk, in which he delighted and in which he +excelled, was a rich gift to this wise man. It enabled him to keep his +secret; to meet every kind of man and every rank in society; to take +off the edge of the severest decisions; to mask his own purpose and +sound his companion; and to catch with true instinct the temper of +every company he addressed. And, more than all, it is to a man of +severe labor, in anxious and exhausting crises, the natural +restorative, good as sleep, and is the protection of the overdriven +brain against rancor and insanity. + +He is the author of a multitude of good sayings, so disguised as +pleasantries that it is certain they had no reputation at first but as +jests; and only later, by the very acceptance and adoption they find +in the mouths of millions, turn out to be the wisdom of the hour. I am +sure if this man had ruled in a period of less facility of printing, +he would have become mythological in a very few years, like Æsop or +Pilpay, or one of the Seven Wise Masters, by his fables and proverbs. +But the weight and penetration of many passages in his letters, +messages, and speeches, hidden now by the very closeness of their +application to the moment, are destined hereafter to wide fame. What +pregnant definitions; what unerring common sense; what foresight; and, +on great occasion, what lofty, and more than national, what humane +tone! His brief speech at Gettysburg will not easily be surpassed by +words on any recorded occasion. This, and one other American speech, +that of John Brown to the court that tried him, and a part of +Kossuth's speech at Birmingham, can only be compared with each other, +and with no fourth. + +His occupying the chair of State was a triumph of the good sense of +mankind, and of the public conscience. This middle-class country had +got a middle-class President, at last. Yes, in manners and sympathies, +but not in powers, for his powers were superior. This man grew +according to the need. His mind mastered the problem of the day; and +as the problem grew, so did his comprehension of it. Rarely was man so +fitted to the event. In the midst of fears and jealousies, in the +Babel of counsels and parties, this man wrought incessantly with all +his might and all his honesty, laboring to find what the people +wanted, and how to obtain that. It cannot be said there is any +exaggeration of his worth. If ever a man was fairly tested, he was. +There was no lack of resistance, nor of slander, nor of ridicule. The +times have allowed no state secrets; the nation has been in such +ferment, such multitudes had to be trusted, that no secret could be +kept. Every door was ajar, and we know all that befell. + +Then, what an occasion was the whirlwind of the war. Here was place +for no holiday magistrate, no fair-weather sailor; the new pilot was +hurried to the helm in a tornado. In four years,--four years of +battle-days,--his endurance, his fertility of resources, his +magnanimity, were sorely tried and never found wanting. There, by his +courage, his justice, his even temper, his fertile counsel, his +humanity, he stood a heroic figure in the centre of a heroic epoch. He +is the true history of the American people in his time. Step by step +he walked before them; slow with their slowness, quickening his march +by theirs, the true representative of this continent; an entirely +public man; father of his country, the pulse of twenty-millions +throbbing in his heart, the thought of their minds articulated by his +tongue. + +Adam Smith remarks that the axe, which in Houbraken's portraits of +British kings and worthies is engraved under those who have suffered +at the block, adds a certain lofty charm to the picture. And who does +not see, even in this tragedy so recent, how fast the terror and ruin +of the massacre are already burning into glory around the victim? Far +happier this fate than to have lived to be wished away; to have +watched the decay of his own faculties; to have seen--perhaps even +be--the proverbial ingratitude of statesmen; to have seen mean men +preferred. Had he not lived long enough to keep the greatest promise +that ever man made to his fellow men,--the practicable abolition of +slavery? He had seen Tennessee, Missouri, and Maryland emancipate +their slaves. He had seen Savannah, Charleston, and Richmond +surrendered; had seen the main army of the rebellion lay down its +arms. He had conquered the public opinion of Canada, England, and +France. Only Washington can compare with him in fortune. + +And what if it should turn out, in the unfolding of the web, that he +had reached the term; that this heroic deliverer could no longer serve +us; that the rebellion had touched its natural conclusion, and what +remained to be done required new and uncommitted hands,--a new spirit +born out of the ashes of the war; and that Heaven, wishing to show +the world a completed benefactor, shall make him serve his country +even more by his death than by his life? Nations, like kings, are not +good by facility and complaisance. "The kindness of kings consists in +justice and strength." Easy good nature has been the dangerous foible +of the Republic, and it was necessary that its enemies should outrage +it, and drive us to unwonted firmness, to secure the salvation of this +country in the next ages. + +The ancients believed in a serene and beautiful Genius which ruled in +the affairs of nations; which, with a slow but stern justice, carried +forward the fortunes of certain chosen houses, weeding out single +offenders or offending families, and securing at last the firm +prosperity of the favorites of Heaven. It was too narrow a view of the +Eternal Nemesis. There is a serene Providence which rules the fate of +nations, which makes little account of time, little of one generation +or race, makes no account of disasters, conquers alike by what is +called defeat or by what is called victory, thrusts aside enemy and +obstruction, crushes everything immoral as inhuman, and obtains the +ultimate triumph of the best race by the sacrifice of everything which +resists the moral laws of the world. It makes its own instruments, +creates the man for the time, trains him in poverty, inspires his +genius, and arms him for his task. It has given every race its own +talent, and ordains that only that race which combines perfectly with +the virtues of all shall endure. + +[18] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +WASHINGTON AND LINCOLN + +BY WILLIAM MCKINLEY + +The greatest names in American history are Washington and Lincoln. One +is forever associated with the independence of the States and the +formation of the Federal Union; the other with universal freedom and +the preservation of the Union. + +Washington enforced the Declaration of Independence as against +England. Lincoln proclaimed the fulfilment not only to a down-trodden +race in America, but to all people for all time who may seek the +protection of our flag. These illustrious men achieved grander results +for mankind within a single century than any other men ever +accomplished in all the years since the first flight of time began. + +Washington drew his sword not for a change of rulers upon an +established throne, but to establish a new government which should +acknowledge no throne but the tribute of the people. + +Lincoln accepted war to save the Union, the safeguard of our +liberties, and re-established it on indestructible foundations as +forever "one and indivisible." To quote his own words: "Now we are +contending that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of +freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the +people shall not perish from the earth." + + +LINCOLN + +BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +Abraham Lincoln--the spirit incarnate of those who won victory in the +Civil War--was the true representative of this people, not only for +his own generation, but for all time, because he was a man among men. +A man who embodied the qualities of his fellow-men, but who embodied +them to the highest and most unusual degree of perfection, who +embodied all that there was in the nation of courage, of wisdom, of +gentle, patient kindliness, and of common sense. + + +LINCOLN'S GRAVE + +BY MAURICE THOMPSON + + May one who fought in honor for the South + Uncovered stand and sing by Lincoln's grave? + Why, if I shrunk not at the cannon's mouth, + Nor swerved one inch for any battle-wave, + Should I now tremble in this quiet close + Hearing the prairie wind go lightly by + From billowy plains of grass and miles of corn, + While out of deep repose + The great sweet spirit lifts itself on high + And broods above our land this summer morn? + + Meseems I feel his presence. Is he dead? + Death is a word. He lives and grander grows. + At Gettysburg he bows his bleeding head; + He spreads his arms where Chickamauga flows, + As if to clasp old soldiers to his breast, + Of South or North no matter which they be, + Not thinking of what uniform they wore, + His heart a palimpsest, + Record on record of humanity, + Where love is first and last forevermore. + + He was the Southern mother leaning forth, + At dead of night to hear the cannon roar, + Beseeching God to turn the cruel North + And break it that her son might come once more; + He was New England's maiden pale and pure, + Whose gallant lover fell on Shiloh's plain; + He was the mangled body of the dead; + He writhing did endure + Wounds and disfigurement and racking pain, + Gangrene and amputation, all things dread. + + He was the North, the South, the East, the West, + The thrall, the master, all of us in one; + There was no section that he held the best; + His love shone as impartial as the sun; + And so revenge appealed to him in vain; + He smiled at it, as at a thing forlorn, + And gently put it from him, rose and stood + A moment's space in pain, + Remembering the prairies and the corn + And the glad voices of the field and wood. + + And then when Peace set wing upon the wind + And northward flying fanned the clouds away, + He passed as martyrs pass. Ah, who shall find + The chord to sound the pathos of that day! + Mid-April blowing sweet across the land, + New bloom of freedom opening to the world, + Loud pæans of the homeward-looking host, + The salutations grand + From grimy guns, the tattered flags unfurled; + And he must sleep to all the glory lost! + + Sleep! loss! But there is neither sleep nor loss, + And all the glory mantles him about; + Above his breast the precious banners cross, + Does he not hear his armies tramp and shout? + Oh, every kiss of mother, wife or maid + Dashed on the grizzly lip of veteran, + Comes forthright to that calm and quiet mouth, + And will not be delayed, + And every slave, no longer slave but man, + Sends up a blessing from the broken South. + + He is not dead, France knows he is not dead; + He stirs strong hearts in Spain and Germany, + In far Siberian mines his words are said, + He tells the English Ireland shall be free, + He calls poor serfs about him in the night, + And whispers of a power that laughs at kings, + And of a force that breaks the strongest chain; + Old tyranny feels his might + Tearing away its deepest fastenings, + And jewelled sceptres threaten him in vain. + + Years pass away, but freedom does not pass, + Thrones crumble, but man's birthright crumbles not, + And, like the wind across the prairie grass, + A whole world's aspirations fan this spot + With ceaseless panting after liberty, + One breath of which would make dark Russia fair, + And blow sweet summer through the exile's cave + And set the exile free; + For which I pray, here in the open air + Of Freedom's morning-tide, by Lincoln's grave. + + +TRIBUTES TO LINCOLN + +A man of great ability, pure patriotism, unselfish nature, full of +forgiveness to his enemies, bearing malice toward none, he proved to +be the man above all others for the struggle through which the nation +had to pass to place itself among the greatest in the family of +nations. His fame will grow brighter as time passes and his great +great work is better understood. + + _U. S. Grant._ + + +At the moment when the stars of the Union, sparkling and resplendent +with the golden fires of liberty, are waving over the subdued walls of +Richmond the sepulchre opens, and the strong, the powerful enters it. + + _Sr. Rebello Da Silva._ + + +He ascended the mount where he could see the fair fields and the +smiling vineyards of the promised land. But, like the great leader of +Israel, he was not permitted to come to the possession. + + _Seth Sweetser._ + + +In his freedom from passion and bitterness; in his acute sense +of justice; in his courageous faith in the right, and his +inextinguishable hatred of wrong; in his warm and heartfelt sympathy +and mercy; in his coolness of judgment; in his unquestioned rectitude +of intention--in a word, in his ability to lift himself for his +country's sake above all mere partisanship, in all the marked traits +of his character combined, he has had no parallel since Washington, +and while our republic endures he will live with him in the grateful +hearts of his grateful countrymen. + + _Schuyler Colfax._ + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY HENRY HOWARD BROWNELL + + Dead is the roll of the drums, + And the distant thunders die, + They fade in the far-off sky; + And a lovely summer comes, + Like the smile of Him on high. + + Lulled, the storm and the onset. + Earth lies in a sunny swoon; + Stiller splendor of noon, + Softer glory of sunset, + Milder starlight and moon! + + For the kindly Seasons love us; + They smile over trench and clod + (Where we left the bravest of us)-- + There's a brighter green of the sod, + And a holier calm above us + In the blessed Blue of God. + + The roar and ravage were vain; + And Nature, that never yields, + Is busy with sun and rain + At her old sweet work again + On the lonely battle-fields. + + How the tall white daisies grow, + Where the grim artillery rolled! + (Was it only a moon ago? + It seems a century old)-- + + And the bee hums in the clover, + As the pleasant June comes on; + Aye, the wars are all over,-- + But our good Father is gone. + + There was tumbling of traitor fort, + Flaming of traitor fleet-- + Lighting of city and port, + Clasping in square and street. + + There was thunder of mine and gun, + Cheering by mast and tent,-- + When--his dread work all done, + And his high fame full won-- + Died the Good President. + + In his quiet chair he sate, + Pure of malice or guile, + Stainless of fear or hate,-- + And there played a pleasant smile + On the rough and careworn face; + For his heart was all the while + On means of mercy and grace. + + The brave old Flag drooped o'er him, + (A fold in the hard hand lay)-- + He looked, perchance, on the play-- + But the scene was a shadow before him, + For his thoughts were far away. + + 'Twas but the morn (yon fearful + Death-shade, gloomy and vast, + Lifting slowly at last), + His household heard him say, + "'Tis long since I've been so cheerful, + So light of heart as to-day." + + 'Twas dying, the long dread clang-- + But, or ever the blessèd ray + Of peace could brighten to-day, + Murder stood by the way-- + Treason struck home his fang! + One throb--and, without a pang, + That pure soul passed away. + + Kindly Spirit!--Ah, when did treason + Bid such a generous nature cease, + Mild by temper and strong by reason, + But ever leaning to love and peace? + + A head how sober; a heart how spacious; + A manner equal with high or low; + Rough but gentle, uncouth but gracious, + And still inclining to lips of woe. + + Patient when saddest, calm when sternest, + Grieved when rigid for justice' sake; + Given to jest, yet ever in earnest + If aught of right or truth were at stake. + + Simple of heart, yet shrewd therewith, + Slow to resolve, but firm to hold; + Still with parable and with myth + Seasoning truth, like Them of old; + Aptest humor and quaintest pith! + (Still we smile o'er the tales he told.) + + Yet whoso might pierce the guise + Of mirth in the man we mourn, + Would mark, and with grieved surprise, + All the great soul had borne, + In the piteous lines, and the kind, sad eyes + So dreadfully wearied and worn. + + And we trusted (the last dread page + Once turned, of our Dooms-day Scroll), + To have seen him, sunny of soul, + In a cheery, grand old age. + + But, Father, 'tis well with thee! + And since ever, when God draws nigh, + Some grief for the good must be, + 'Twas well, even so to die,-- + + 'Mid the thunder of Treason's fall, + The yielding of haughty town, + The crashing of cruel wall, + The trembling of tyrant crown! + + The ringing of hearth and pavement + To the clash of falling chains,-- + The centuries of enslavement + Dead, with their blood-bought gains! + + And through trouble weary and long, + Well hadst thou seen the way, + Leaving the State so strong + It did not reel for a day. + + And even in death couldst give + A token for Freedom's strife-- + A proof how republics live, + And not by a single life, + + But the Right Divine of man, + And the many, trained to be free,-- + And none, since the world began, + Ever was mourned like thee. + + Dost thou feel it, O noble Heart! + (So grieved and so wronged below), + From the rest wherein thou art? + Do they see it, those patient eyes? + Is there heed in the happy skies + For tokens of world-wide woe? + + The Land's great lamentations, + The mighty mourning of cannon + The myriad flags half-mast-- + The late remorse of the nations, + Grief from Volga to Shannon! + (Now they know thee at last.) + + How, from gray Niagara's shore + To Canaveral's surfy shoal-- + From the rough Atlantic roar + To the long Pacific roll-- + For bereavement and for dole, + Every cottage wears its weed, + White as thine own pure soul, + And black as the traitor deed. + + How, under a nation's pall, + The dust so dear in our sight + To its home on the prairie passed,-- + The leagues of funeral, + The myriads, morn and night, + Pressing to look their last. + + Nor alone the State's Eclipse; + But tears in hard eyes gather-- + And on rough and bearded lips, + Of the regiments and the ships-- + "Oh, our dear Father!" + + And methinks of all the million + That looked on the dark dead face, + 'Neath its sable-plumed pavilion, + The crone of a humbler race + Is saddest of all to think on, + And the old swart lips that said, + Sobbing, "Abraham Lincoln! + Oh, he is dead, he is dead!" + + Hush! let our heavy souls + To-day be glad; for again + The stormy music swells and rolls, + Stirring the hearts of men. + + And under the Nation's Dome, + They've guarded so well and long, + Our boys come marching home, + Two hundred thousand strong. + + All in the pleasant month of May, + With war-worn colors and drums, + Still through the livelong summer's day, + Regiment, regiment comes. + + Like the tide, yesty and barmy, + That sets on a wild lee-shore, + Surge the ranks of an army + Never reviewed before! + + Who shall look on the like again, + Or see such host of the brave? + A mighty River of marching men + Rolls the Capital through-- + Rank on rank, and wave on wave, + Of bayonet-crested blue! + + How the chargers neigh and champ, + (Their riders weary of camp), + With curvet and with caracole!-- + The cavalry comes with thunderous tramp, + And the cannons heavily roll. + + And ever, flowery and gay, + The Staff sweeps on in a spray + Of tossing forelocks and manes; + But each bridle-arm has a weed + Of funeral, black as the steed + That fiery Sheridan reins. + + Grandest of mortal sights + The sun-browned ranks to view-- + The Colors ragg'd in a hundred fights, + And the dusty Frocks of Blue! + + And all day, mile on mile, + With cheer, and waving, and smile, + The war-worn legions defile + Where the nation's noblest stand; + And the Great Lieutenant looks on, + With the Flower of a rescued Land,-- + For the terrible work is done, + And the Good Fight is won + For God and for Fatherland. + + So, from the fields they win, + Our men are marching home, + A million are marching home! + To the cannon's thundering din, + And banners on mast and dome,-- + And the ships come sailing in + With all their ensigns dight, + As erst for a great sea-fight. + + Let every color fly, + Every pennon flaunt in pride; + Wave, Starry Flag, on high! + Float in the sunny sky, + Stream o'er the stormy tide! + For every stripe of stainless hue, + And every star in the field of blue, + Ten thousand of the brave and true + Have laid them down and died. + + And in all our pride to-day + We think, with a tender pain, + Of those so far away + They will not come home again. + + And our boys had fondly thought, + To-day, in marching by, + From the ground so dearly bought, + And the fields so bravely fought, + To have met their Father's eye. + + But they may not see him in place, + Nor their ranks be seen of him; + We look for the well-known face, + And the splendor is strangely dim. + + Perish?--who was it said + Our Leader had passed away? + Dead? Our President dead? + He has not died for a day! + + We mourn for a little breath + Such as, late or soon, dust yields; + But the Dark Flower of Death + Blooms in the fadeless fields. + + We looked on a cold, still brow, + But Lincoln could yet survive; + He never was more alive, + Never nearer than now. + + For the pleasant season found him, + Guarded by faithful hands, + In the fairest of Summer Lands; + With his own brave Staff around him, + There our President stands. + + There they are all at his side, + The noble hearts and true, + That did all men might do-- + Then slept, with their swords and died. + + And around--(for there can cease + This earthly trouble)--they throng, + The friends that have passed in peace, + The foes that have seen their wrong. + + (But, a little from the rest, + With sad eyes looking down, + And brows of softened frown, + With stern arms on the chest, + Are two, standing abreast-- + Stonewall and Old John Brown.) + + But the stainless and the true, + These by their President stand, + To look on his last review, + Or march with the old command. + + And lo! from a thousand fields, + From all the old battle-haunts, + A greater Army than Sherman wields, + A grander Review than Grant's! + + Gathered home from the grave, + Risen from sun and rain-- + Rescued from wind and wave + Out of the stormy main-- + The Legions of our Brave + Are all in their lines again! + + Many a stout Corps that went, + Full-ranked, from camp and tent, + And brought back a brigade; + Many a brave regiment, + That mustered only a squad. + + The lost battalions, + That, when the fight went wrong, + Stood and died at their guns,-- + The stormers steady and strong, + + With their best blood that bought + Scrap, and ravelin, and wall,-- + The companies that fought + Till a corporal's guard was all. + + Many a valiant crew, + That passed in battle and wreck,-- + Ah, so faithful and true! + They died on the bloody deck, + They sank in the soundless blue. + + All the loyal and bold + That lay on a soldier's bier,-- + The stretchers borne to the rear, + The hammocks lowered to the hold. + + The shattered wreck we hurried, + In death-fight, from deck and port,-- + The Blacks that Wagner buried-- + That died in the Bloody Fort! + + Comrades of camp and mess, + Left, as they lay, to die, + In the battle's sorest stress, + When the storm of fight swept by,-- + They lay in the Wilderness, + Ah, where did they not lie? + + In the tangled swamp they lay, + They lay so still on the sward!-- + They rolled in the sick-bay, + Moaning their lives away-- + They flushed in the fevered ward. + + They rotted in Libby yonder, + They starved in the foul stockade-- + Hearing afar the thunder + Of the Union cannonade! + + But the old wounds all are healed, + And the dungeoned limbs are free,-- + The Blue Frocks rise from the field, + The Blue Jackets out of the sea. + + They've 'scaped from the torture-den, + They've broken the bloody sod, + They're all come to life again!-- + The Third of a Million men + That died for Thee and for God! + + A tenderer green than May + The Eternal Season wears,-- + The blue of our summer's day + Is dim and pallid to theirs,-- + The Horror faded away, + And 'twas heaven all unawares! + + Tents on the Infinite Shore! + Flags in the azuline sky, + Sails on the seas once more! + To-day, in the heaven on high, + All under arms once more! + + The troops are all in their lines, + The guidons flutter and play; + But every bayonet shines, + For all must march to-day. + + What lofty pennons flaunt? + What mighty echoes haunt, + As of great guns, o'er the main? + Hark to the sound again-- + The Congress is all a-taunt! + The Cumberland's manned again! + + All the ships and their men + Are in line of battle to-day,-- + All at quarters, as when + Their last roll thundered away,-- + All at their guns, as then, + For the Fleet salutes to-day. + + The armies have broken camp + On the vast and sunny plain, + The drums are rolling again; + With steady, measured tramp, + They're marching all again. + + With alignment firm and solemn, + Once again they form + In mighty square and column,-- + But never for charge and storm. + + The Old Flag they died under + Floats above them on the shore, + And on the great ships yonder + The ensigns dip once more-- + And once again the thunder + Of the thirty guns and four! + + In solid platoons of steel, + Under heaven's triumphal arch, + The long lines break and wheel-- + And the word is, "Forward, march!" + + The Colors ripple o'erhead, + The drums roll up to the sky, + And with martial time and tread + The regiments all pass by-- + The ranks of our faithful Dead, + Meeting their President's eye. + + With a soldier's quiet pride + They smile o'er the perished pain, + For their anguish was not vain-- + For thee, O Father, we died! + And we did not die in vain. + + March on, your last brave mile! + Salute him, Star and Lace, + Form round him, rank and file, + And look on the kind, rough face; + + But the quaint and homely smile + Has a glory and a grace + It never had known erewhile-- + Never, in time and space. + + Close round him, hearts of pride! + Press near him, side by side,-- + Our Father is not alone! + For the Holy Right ye died, + And Christ, the Crucified, + Waits to welcome His own. + + +TRIBUTES + +A statesman of the school of sound common sense, and a philanthropist +of the most practical type, a patriot without a superior--his monument +is a country preserved. + + _C. S. Harrington._ + + +Now all men begin to see that the plain people, who at last came to +love him and to lean upon his wisdom, and trust him absolutely, were +altogether right, and that in deed and purpose he was earnestly +devoted to the welfare of the whole country, and of all its +inhabitants. + + _R. B. Hayes._ + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN[19] + +BY JOEL BENTON + + Some opulent force of genius, soul, and race, + Some deep life-current from far centuries + Flowed to his mind, and lighted his sad eyes, + And gave his name, among great names, high place. + + But these are miracles we may not trace-- + Nor say why from a source and lineage mean + He rose to grandeur never dreamt or seen, + Or told on the long scroll of history's space. + + The tragic fate of one broad hemisphere + Fell on stern days to his supreme control, + All that the world and liberty held dear + Pressed like a nightmare on his patient soul. + Martyr beloved, on whom, when life was done, + Fame looked, and saw another Washington! + +[19] _By permission of the author._ + + +ON THE LIFE-MASK OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN[20] + +BY RICHARD WATSON GILDER + + This bronze doth keep the very form and mold + Of our great martyr's face. Yes, this is he: + That brow all wisdom, all benignity; + That human, humorous mouth; those cheeks that hold + Like some harsh landscape all the summer's gold; + That spirit fit for sorrow, as the sea + For storms to beat on; the lone agony + Those silent, patient lips too well foretold. + Yes, this is he who ruled a world of men + As might some prophet of the elder day-- + Brooding above the tempest and the fray + With deep-eyed thought and more than mortal ken. + A power was his beyond the touch of art + Or armed strength--his pure and mighty heart. + +[20] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +TRIBUTES + +To him belongs the credit of having worked his way up from the +humblest position an American freeman can occupy to the highest and +most powerful, without losing, in the least, the simplicity and +sincerity of nature which endeared him alike to the plantation slave +and the metropolitan millionaire. + +The most malignant party opposition has never been able to call in +question the patriotism of his motives, or tarnish with the breath of +suspicion the brightness of his spotless fidelity. Ambition did not +warp, power corrupt, nor glory dazzle him. + + _Warren H. Cudworth._ + + +By his steady, enduring confidence in God, and in the complete +ultimate success of the cause of God which is the cause of humanity, +more than in any other way does he now speak to us, and to the nation +he loved and served so well. + + _P. D. Gurley._ + + +Chieftain, farewell! The nation mourns thee. Mothers shall teach thy +name to their lisping children. The youth of our land shall emulate +thy virtues. 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. + + _Matthew Simpson._ + + +LINCOLN + +BY GEORGE HENRY BOKER. + + Crown we our heroes with a holier wreath + Than man e'er wore upon this side of death; + Mix with their laurels deathless asphodels, + And chime their pæans from the sacred bells! + Nor in your prayers forget the martyred Chief, + Fallen for the gospel of your own belief, + Who, ere he mounted to the people's throne, + Asked for your prayers, and joined in them his own. + I knew the man. I see him, as he stands + With gifts of mercy in his outstretched hands; + A kindly light within his gentle eyes, + Sad as the toil in which his heart grew wise; + His lips half-parted with the constant smile + That kindled truth, but foiled the deepest guile; + His head bent forward, and his willing ear + Divinely patient right and wrong to hear: + Great in his goodness, humble in his state, + Firm in his purpose, yet not passionate, + He led his people with a tender hand, + And won by love a sway beyond command, + Summoned by lot to mitigate a time + Frenzied with rage, unscrupulous with crime, + He bore his mission with so meek a heart + That Heaven itself took up his people's part; + And when he faltered, helped him ere he fell, + Eking his efforts out by miracle. + No king this man, by grace of God's intent; + No, something better, freeman,--President! + A nature, modeled on a higher plan, + Lord of himself, an inborn gentleman! + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +JAMES A. GARFIELD + +In the great drama of the rebellion there were two acts. The first was +the war, with its battles and sieges, its victories and defeats, its +sufferings and tears. Just as the curtain was lifting on the second +and final act, the restoration of peace and liberty, the evil spirit +of the rebellion, in the fury of despair, nerved and directed the hand +of an assassin to strike down the chief character in both. It was no +one man who killed Abraham Lincoln; it was the embodied spirit of +treason and slavery, inspired with fearful and despairing hate, that +struck him down in the moment of the nation's supremest joy. + +Sir, there are times in the history of men and nations when they stand +so near the veil that separates mortals from the immortals, time from +eternity, and men from God that they can almost hear the beatings and +pulsations of the heart of the Infinite. Through such a time has this +nation passed. + +When two hundred and fifty thousand brave spirits passed from the +field of honor, through that thin veil, to the presence of God, and +when at last its parting folds admitted the martyr President to the +company of those dead heroes of the Republic, the nation stood so near +the veil that the whispers of God were heard by the children of men. +Awe-stricken by his voice, the American people knelt in tearful +reverence and made a solemn covenant with him and with each other that +this nation should be saved from its enemies, that all its glories +should be restored, and, on the ruins of slavery and treason, the +temples of freedom and justice should be built, and should survive +forever. + +It remains for us, consecrated by that great event and under a +covenant with God, to keep that faith, to go forward in the great work +until it shall be completed. Following the lead of that great man, and +obeying the high behests of God, let us remember that: + + He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; + He is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment seat; + Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet! + Our God is marching on. + + +AN HORATIAN ODE[21] + +BY RICHARD HENRY STODDARD + + Not as when some great captain falls + In battle, where his country calls, + Beyond the struggling lines + That push his dread designs + + To doom, by some stray ball struck dead: + Or in the last charge, at the head + Of his determined men, + Who must be victors then! + + Nor as when sink the civic great, + The safer pillars of the State, + Whose calm, mature, wise words + Suppress the need of swords!-- + + With no such tears as e'er were shed + Above the noblest of our dead + Do we to-day deplore + The man that is no more! + + Our sorrow hath a wider scope, + Too strange for fear, too vast for hope,-- + A wonder, blind and dumb, + That waits--what is to come! + + Not more astonished had we been + If madness, that dark night, unseen, + Had in our chambers crept, + And murdered while we slept! + + We woke to find a mourning earth-- + Our Lares shivered on the hearth,-- + To roof-tree fallen,--all + That could affright, appall! + + Such thunderbolts, in other lands, + Have smitten the rod from royal hands, + But spared, with us, till now, + Each laurelled Cæsar's brow! + + No Cæsar he, whom we lament, + A man without a precedent, + Sent it would seem, to do + His work--and perish too! + + Not by the weary cares of state, + The endless tasks, which will not wait, + Which, often done in vain, + Must yet be done again: + + Not in the dark, wild tide of war, + Which rose so high, and rolled so far, + Sweeping from sea to sea + In awful anarchy:-- + + Four fateful years of mortal strife, + Which slowly drained the nation's life, + (Yet, for each drop that ran + There sprang an armed man!) + + Not then;--but when by measures meet,-- + By victory, and by defeat,-- + By courage, patience, skill, + The people's fixed "We will!" + + Had pierced, had crushed rebellion dead,-- + Without a hand, without a head:-- + At last, when all was well, + He fell--O, how he fell! + + The time,--the place,--the stealing shape,-- + The coward shot,--the swift escape,-- + The wife,--the widow's scream,-- + It is a hideous dream! + + A dream?--what means this pageant, then? + These multitudes of solemn men, + Who speak not when they meet, + But throng the silent street? + + The flags half-mast, that late so high + Flaunted at each new victory? + (The stars no brightness shed, + But bloody looks the red!) + + The black festoons that stretch for miles, + And turn the streets to funeral aisles? + (No house too poor to show + The nation's badge of woe!) + + The cannon's sudden, sullen boom,-- + The bells that toll of death and doom,-- + The rolling of the drums,-- + The dreadful car that comes? + + Cursed be the hand that fired the shot! + The frenzied brain that hatched the plot! + Thy country's father slain + By thee, thou worse than Cain! + + Tyrants have fallen by such as thou, + And good hath followed--may it now! + (God lets bad instruments + Produce the best events.) + + But he, the man we mourn to-day, + No tyrant was: so mild a sway + In one such weight who bore + Was never known before! + + Cool should be he, of balanced powers. + The ruler of a race like ours, + Impatient, headstrong, wild,-- + The man to guide the child! + + And this he was, who most unfit + (So hard the sense of God to hit!) + Did seem to fill his place. + With such a homely face,-- + + Such rustic manners,--speech uncouth,-- + (That somehow blundered out the truth!) + Untried, untrained to bear + The more than kingly care! + + Ay! And his genius put to scorn + The proudest in the purple born, + Whose wisdom never grew + To what, untaught, he knew-- + + The people, of whom he was one. + No gentleman like Washington,-- + (Whose bones, methinks, make room, + To have him in their tomb!) + + A laboring man, with horny hands, + Who swung the axe, who tilled his lands, + Who shrank from nothing new, + But did as poor men do! + + One of the people! Born to be + Their curious epitome; + To share, yet rise above + Their shifting hate and love. + + Common his mind (it seemed so then), + His thought the thoughts of other men: + Plain were his words, and poor-- + But now they will endure! + + No hasty fool, of stubborn will, + But prudent, cautious, pliant, still; + Who, since his work was good, + Would do it, as he could. + + Doubting, was not ashamed to doubt, + And, lacking prescience, went without: + Often appeared to halt, + And was, of course, at fault: + + Heard all opinions, nothing loth, + And loving both sides, angered both: + Was--not like justice, blind, + But watchful, clement, kind. + + No hero, this, of Roman mould; + Nor like our stately sires of old: + Perhaps he was not great-- + But he preserved that State! + + O honest face, which all men knew! + O tender heart, but known to few! + O wonder of the age, + Cut off by tragic rage! + + Peace! Let the long procession come, + For hark!--the mournful, muffled drum-- + The trumpet's wail afar,-- + And see! the awful car! + + Peace! Let the sad procession go, + While cannon boom, and bells toll slow: + And go, thou sacred car, + Bearing our woe afar! + + Go, darkly borne, from State to State, + Whose loyal, sorrowing cities wait + To honor all they can + The dust of that good man! + + Go, grandly borne, with such a train + As greatest kings might die to gain: + The just, the wise, the brave + Attend thee to the grave! + + And you, the soldiers of our wars, + Bronzed veterans, grim with noble scars, + Salute him once again, + Your late commander--slain! + + Yes, let your tears, indignant, fall, + But leave your muskets on the wall: + Your country needs you now + Beside the forge, the plough! + + (When justice shall unsheathe her brand,-- + If mercy may not stay her hand, + Nor would we have it so-- + She must direct the blow!) + + And you, amid the master-race, + Who seem so strangely out of place, + Know ye who cometh? He + Who hath declared ye free! + + Bow while the body passes--nay, + Fall on your knees, and weep, and pray! + Weep, weep--I would ye might-- + Your poor, black faces white! + + And children, you must come in bands, + With garlands in your little hands, + Of blue, and white, and red, + To strew before the dead! + + So sweetly, sadly, sternly goes + The fallen to his last repose: + Beneath no mighty dome. + But in his modest home; + + The churchyard where his children rest, + The quiet spot that suits him best: + There shall his grave be made, + And there his bones be laid! + + And there his countrymen shall come, + With memory proud, with pity dumb, + And strangers far and near, + For many and many a year! + + For many a year, and many an age, + While history on her ample page + The virtues shall enroll + Of that paternal soul! + +[21] _By permission of Charles Scribner's Sons._ + + +SOME FOREIGN TRIBUTES TO LINCOLN + +From "The Lives and Deeds of Our Self-made Men"[22] + +BY MRS. HARRIET BEECHER STOWE + +(1889) + +On the first of May, 1865, Sir George Grey, in the English House of +Commons, moved an address to the Crown, to express the feelings of the +House upon the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. In this address he said +that he was convinced that Mr. Lincoln "in the hour of victory, and in +the triumph of victory, would have shown that wise forbearance, and +that generous consideration, which would have added tenfold lustre to +the fame that he had already acquired, amidst the varying fortunes of +the war." + +In seconding the second address, at the same time and place, Mr. +Benjamin Disraeli said: "But in the character of the victim, and in +the very accessories of his almost latest moments, there is something +so homely and so innocent that it takes the subject, as it were, out +of the pomp of history, and out of the ceremonial of diplomacy. It +touches the heart of nations, and appeals to the domestic sentiments +of mankind." + +In the House of Lords, Lord John Russell, in moving a similar address, +observed: "President Lincoln was a man who, although he had not been +distinguished before his election, had from that time displayed a +character of so much integrity, sincerity and straightforwardness, and +at the same time of so much kindness, that if any one could have been +able to alleviate the pain and animosity which have prevailed during +the civil war, I believe President Lincoln was the man to have done +so." And again, in speaking of the question of amending the +Constitution so as to prohibit slavery, he said: "We must all feel +that there again the death of President Lincoln deprives the United +States of the man who was the leader on this subject." + +Mr. John Stuart Mill, the distinguished philosopher, in a letter to an +American friend, used far stronger expressions than these guarded +phrases of high officials. He termed Mr. Lincoln "the great citizen +who had afforded so noble an example of the qualities befitting the +first magistrate of a free people, and who, in the most trying +circumstances, had gradually won not only the admiration, but almost +the personal affection of all who love freedom or appreciate +simplicity or uprightness." + +Professor Goldwin Smith writing to the London Daily News, began by +saying, "It is difficult to measure the calamity which the United +States and the world have sustained by the murder of President +Lincoln. The assassin has done his best to strike down mercy and +moderation, of both of which this good and noble life was the +mainstay." + +Senhor Rebello da Silva, a member of the Portuguese Chamber of Peers, +in moving a resolution on the death of Mr. Lincoln, thus outlined his +character: "He is truly great who rises to the loftiest heights from +profound obscurity, relying solely on his own merits as did Napoleon, +Washington, Lincoln. For these arose to power and greatness, not +through any favor or grace, by a chance cradle, or genealogy, but +through the prestige of their own deeds, through the nobility which +begins and ends with themselves--the sole offspring of their own +works.... Lincoln was of this privileged class; he belonged to this +aristocracy. In infancy, his energetic soul was nourished by poverty. +In youth, he learned through toil the love of liberty, and respect for +the rights of man. Even to the age of twenty-two, educated in +adversity, his hands made callous by honorable labor, he rested from +the fatigues of the field, spelling out, in the pages of the Bible, in +the lessons of the gospel, in the fugitive leaves of the daily +journal--which the aurora opens, and the night disperses--the first +rudiments of instruction, which his solitary meditations ripened. The +chrysalis felt one day the ray of the sun, which called it to life, +broke its involucrum, and it launched forth fearlessly from the +darkness of its humble cloister into the luminous spaces of its +destiny. The farmer, day-laborer, shepherd, like Cincinnatus, left +the ploughshare in the half-broken furrow, and, legislator of his own +State, and afterwards of the Great Republic, saw himself proclaimed in +the tribunal the popular chief of several millions of people, the +maintainer of the holy principle inaugurated by Wilberforce." + +There are some vague and some only partially correct statements in +this diffuse passage; but it shows plainly enough how enthusiastically +the Portuguese nobleman had admired the antique simplicity and +strength of Mr. Lincoln's character. + +Dr. Merle d'Aubigne, the historian of the Reformation, writing to Mr. +Fogg, U. S. Minister to Switzerland, said: "While not venturing to +compare him to the great sacrifice of Golgotha, which gave liberty to +the captives, is it not just, in this hour, to recall the word of an +apostle (I John iii, 16): 'Hereby perceive we the love of God, because +he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for +the brethren?' Who can say that the President did not lay down his +life by the firmness of his devotion to a great duty? The name of +Lincoln will remain one of the greatest that history has to inscribe +on its annals.... Among the legacies which Lincoln leaves to us, we +shall all regard as the most precious, his spirit of equity, of +moderation, and of peace, according to which he will still preside, if +I may so speak, over the restoration of your great nation." + +The "Democratic Association" of Florence, addressed "to the Free +People of the United States," a letter, in which they term Mr. Lincoln +"the honest, the magnanimous citizen, the most worthy chief +magistrate of your glorious Federation." + +The eminent French liberal, M. Edouard Laboulaye, in a speech showing +a remarkably just understanding and extremely broad views with respect +to the affairs and the men of the United States, said: "Mr. Lincoln +was one of those heroes who are ignorant of themselves; his thoughts +will reign after him. The name of Washington has already been +pronounced, and I think with reason. Doubtless Mr. Lincoln resembled +Franklin more than Washington. By his origin, his arch good nature, +his ironical good sense, and his love of anecdotes and jesting, he was +of the same blood as the printer of Philadelphia. But it is +nevertheless true that in less than a century, America has passed +through two crises in which its liberty might have been lost, if it +had not had honest men at its head; and that each time it has had the +happiness to meet the man best fitted to serve it. If Washington +founded the Union, Lincoln has saved it. History will draw together +and unite those two names. A single word explains Mr. Lincoln's whole +life: it was Duty. Never did he put himself forward; never did he +think of himself; never did he seek one of those ingenious +combinations which puts the head of a state in bold relief, and +enhances his importance at the expense of the country; his only +ambition, his only thought was faithfully to fulfil the mission which +his fellow-citizens had entrusted to him.... His inaugural address, +March 4, 1865, shows us what progress had been made in his soul. This +piece of familiar eloquence is a master-piece; it is the testament of +a patriot. I do not believe that any eulogy of the President would +equal this page on which he had depicted himself in all his greatness +and all his simplicity.... History is too often only a school of +immorality. It shows us the victory of force or stratagem much more +than the success of justice, moderation, and probity. It is too often +only the apotheosis of triumphant selfishness. There are noble and +great exceptions; happy those who can increase the number, and thus +bequeath a noble and beneficent example to posterity! Mr. Lincoln is +among these. He would willingly have repeated, after Franklin, that +'falsehood and artifice are the practice of fools who have not wit +enough to be honest.' All his private life, and all his political +life, were inspired and directed by this profound faith in the +omnipotence of virtue. It is through this, again, that he deserves to +be compared with Washington; it is through this that he will remain in +history with the most glorious name that can be merited by the head of +a free people--a name given him by his cotemporaries, and which will +be preserved to him by posterity--that of Honest Abraham Lincoln." + +A letter from the well-known French historian, Henri Martin, to the +Paris Siècle, contained the following passages: "Lincoln will remain +the austere and sacred personification of a great epoch, the most +faithful expression of democracy. This simple and upright man, prudent +and strong, elevated step by step from the artisan's bench to the +command of a great nation, and always without parade and without +effort, at the height of his position; executing without +precipitation, without flourish, and with invincible good sense, the +most colossal acts; giving to the world this decisive example of the +civil power in a republic; directing a gigantic war, without free +institutions being for an instant compromised or threatened by +military usurpation; dying, finally, at the moment when, after +conquering, he was intent on pacification, ... this man will stand +out, in the traditions of his country and the world, as an incarnation +of the people, and of modern democracy itself. The great work of +emancipation had to be sealed, therefore, with the blood of the just, +even as it was inaugurated with the blood of the just. The tragic +history of the abolition of slavery, which opened with the gibbet of +John Brown, will close with the assassination of Lincoln. + +"And now let him rest by the side of Washington, as the second founder +of the great Republic. European democracy is present in spirit at his +funeral, as it voted in its heart for his re-election, and applauded +the victory in the midst of which he passed away. It will wish with +one accord to associate itself with the monument that America will +raise to him upon the capitol of prostrate slavery." + +The London Globe, in commenting on Mr. Lincoln's assassination, said +that he "had come nobly through a great ordeal. He had extorted the +admiration even of his opponents, at least on this side of the water. +They had come to admire, reluctantly, his firmness, honesty, fairness +and sagacity. He tried to do, and had done, what he considered his +duty, with magnanimity." + +The London Express said, "He had tried to show the world how great, +how moderate, and how true he could be, in the moment of his great +triumph." + +The Liverpool Post said, "If ever there was a man who in trying times +avoided offenses, it was Mr. Lincoln. If there ever was a leader in a +civil contest who shunned acrimony and eschewed passion, it was he. In +a time of much cant and affectation he was simple, unaffected, true, +transparent. In a season of many mistakes he was never known to be +wrong.... By a happy tact, not often so felicitously blended with pure +evidence of soul, Abraham Lincoln knew when to speak, and never spoke +too early or too late.... The memory of his statesmanship, translucent +in the highest degree, and above the average, and openly faithful, +more than almost any of this age has witnessed, to fact and right, +will live in the hearts and minds of the whole Anglo-Saxon race, as +one of the noblest examples of that race's highest qualities. Add to +all this that Abraham Lincoln was the humblest and pleasantest of men, +that he had raised himself from nothing, and that to the last no grain +of conceit or ostentation was found in him, and there stands before +the world a man whose like we shall not soon look upon again." + +In the remarks of M. Rouher, the French Minister, in the Legislative +Assembly, on submitting to that Assembly the official despatch of the +French Foreign Minister of the Chargé at Washington, M. Rouher +remarked, of Mr. Lincoln's personal character, that he had exhibited +"that calm firmness and indomitable energy which belong to strong +minds, and are the necessary conditions of the accomplishment of great +duties. In the hour of victory he exhibited generosity, moderation and +conciliation." + +And in the despatch, which was signed by Mr. Drouyn de L'Huys, were +the following expressions: "Abraham Lincoln exhibited, in the exercise +of the power placed in his hands, the most substantial qualities. In +him, firmness of character was allied to elevation of principle.... In +reviewing these last testimonies to his exalted wisdom, as well as the +examples of good sense, of courage, and of patriotism, which he has +given, history will not hesitate to place him in the rank of citizens +who have the most honored their country." + +In the Prussian Lower House, Herr Loewes, in speaking of the news of +the assassination, said that Mr. Lincoln "performed his duties without +pomp or ceremony, and relied on that dignity of his inner self alone, +which is far above rank, orders and titles. He was a faithful servant, +not less of his own commonwealth than of civilization, freedom and +humanity." + +[22] _By permission of Dana Estes Company._ + + +FROM 'THE GETTYSBURG ODE' + +BY BAYARD TAYLOR + + After the eyes that looked, the lips that spake + Here, from the shadows of impending death, + Those words of solemn breath, + What voice may fitly break + The silence, doubly hallowed, left by him? + We can but bow the head, with eyes grown dim, + And as a Nation's litany, repeat + The phrase his martyrdom hath made complete, + Noble as then, but now more sadly sweet: + "Let us, the Living, rather dedicate + Ourselves to the unfinished work, which they + Thus far advanced so nobly on its way, + And saved the perilled State! + Let us, upon this field where they, the brave, + Their last full measure of devotion gave, + Highly resolve they have not died in vain!-- + That, under God, the Nation's later birth + Of Freedom, and the people's gain + Of their own Sovereignty, shall never wane + And perish from the circle of the earth!" + From such a perfect text, shall Song aspire + To light her faded fire, + And into wandering music turn + Its virtue, simple, sorrowful, and stern? + His voice all elegies anticipated; + For, whatsoe'er the strain, + We hear that one refrain: + "We consecrate ourselves to them, the Consecrated!" + +[Transcriber's Note: Some of the poem omitted in original.] + + +TRIBUTES + +Thank God for Abraham Lincoln! However lightly the words may sometimes +pass your lips, let us speak them now and always of this man +sincerely, solemnly, reverently, as so often dying soldiers and +bereaved women and little children spoke them. Thank God for Abraham +Lincoln--for the Lincoln who died and whose ashes rest at +Springfield--for the Lincoln who lives in the hearts of the American +people--in their widened sympathies and uplifted ideals. Thank God for +the work he did, is doing, and is to do. Thank God for Abraham +Lincoln. + + _James Willis Gleed._ + + +Let us not then try to compare and to measure him with others, and let +us not quarrel as to whether he was greater or less than Washington, +as to whether either of them set to perform the other's task would +have succeeded in it, or, perchance would have failed. Not only is the +competition itself an ungracious one, but to make Lincoln a competitor +is foolish and useless. He was the most individual man who ever lived; +let us be content with this fact. Let us take him simply as Abraham +Lincoln, singular and solitary, as we all see that he was; let us be +thankful if we can make a niche big enough for him among the world's +heroes, without worrying ourselves about the proportion which it may +bear to other niches; and there let him remain forever, lonely, as in +his strange lifetime, impressive, mysterious, unmeasured, and +unsolved. + + _John T. Morse, Jr._ + + +Those who are raised high enough to be able to look over the stone +walls, those who are intelligent enough to take a broader view of +things than that which is bounded by the lines of any one State or +section, understand that the unity of the nation is of the first +importance, and are prepared to make those sacrifices and concessions, +within the bounds of loyalty, which are necessary for its maintenance, +and to cherish that temper of fraternal affection which alone can fill +the form of national existence with the warm blood of life. The first +man after the Civil War, to recognize this great principle and to act +upon it was the head of the nation,--that large and generous soul +whose worth was not fully felt until he was taken from his people by +the stroke of the assassin, in the very hour when his presence was +most needed for the completion of the work of reunion. + + _Henry Van Dyke._ + + +LINCOLN + +From _MacMillan's Magazine_, England + + LINCOLN! When men would name a man + Just, unperturbed, magnanimous, + Tried in the lowest seat of all, + Tried in the chief seat of the house-- + + Lincoln! When men would name a man + Who wrought the great work of his age, + Who fought and fought the noblest fight, + And marshalled it from stage to stage, + + Victorious, out of dusk and dark, + And into dawn and on till day, + Most humble when the pæans rang, + Least rigid when the enemy lay + + Prostrated for his feet to tread-- + This name of Lincoln will they name, + A name revered, a name of scorn, + Of scorn to sundry, not to fame. + + Lincoln, the man who freed the slave; + Lincoln whom never self enticed; + Slain Lincoln, worthy found to die + A soldier of his captain Christ. + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + + This man whose homely face you look upon, + Was one of Nature's masterful, great men; + Born with strong arms, that unfought battles won, + Direct of speech, and cunning with the pen. + Chosen for large designs, he had the art + Of winning with his humor, and he went + Straight to his mark, which was the human heart; + Wise, too, for what he could not break he bent. + Upon his back a more than Atlas-load, + The burden of the Commonwealth, was laid; + He stooped, and rose up to it, though the road + Shot suddenly downwards, not a whit dismayed. + Hold, warriors, councillors, kings! All now give place + To this dead Benefactor of the race! + + _Richard Henry Stoddard._ + + +LINCOLN[23] + +BY EDNA DEAN PROCTOR + + Now must the storied Potomac + Laurels for ever divide, + Now to the Sangamon fameless + Give of its century's pride. + + Sangamon, stream of the prairies, + Placidly westward that flows, + Far in whose city of silence + Calm he has sought his repose. + Over our Washington's river + Sunrise beams rosy and fair, + Sunset on Sangamon fairer-- + Father and martyr lies there. + + Kings under pyramids slumber, + Sealed in the Lybian sands; + Princes in gorgeous cathedrals + Decked with the spoil of the lands + Kinglier, princelier sleeps he + Couched 'mid the prairies serene, + Only the turf and the willow + Him and God's heaven between! + Temple nor column to cumber + Verdure and bloom of the sod-- + So, in the vale by Beth-peor, + Moses was buried of God. + + Break into blossom, O prairies! + Snowy and golden and red; + Peers of the Palestine lilies + Heap for your glorious dead! + Roses as fair as of Sharon, + Branches as stately as palm, + Odors as rich as the spices-- + Cassia and aloes and balm-- + Mary the loved and Salome, + All with a gracious accord, + Ere the first glow of the morning + Brought to the tomb of the Lord + + Wind of the West! breathe around him + Soft as the saddened air's sigh + When to the summit of Pisgah + Moses had journeyed to die. + Clear as its anthem that floated + Wide o'er the Moabite plain, + Low with the wail of the people + Blending its burdened refrain. + Rarer, O Wind! and diviner,-- + Sweet as the breeze that went by + When, over Olivet's mountain, + Jesus was lost in the sky. + + Not for thy sheaves nor savannas + Crown we thee, proud Illinois! + Here in his grave is thy grandeur; + Born of his sorrow thy joy. + Only the tomb by Mount Zion + Hewn for the Lord do we hold + Dearer than his in thy prairies, + Girdled with harvests of gold. + Still for the world, through the ages + Wreathing with glory his brow, + He shall be Liberty's Saviour-- + Freedom's Jerusalem thou! + +[23] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM'D[24] + +BY WALT WHITMAN + +I + + When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom'd, + And the great star early droop'd in the western sky in the night, + I mourn'd, and yet shall mourn with ever-returning spring. + + Ever-returning spring, trinity sure to me you bring, + Lilac blooming perennial and drooping star in the west, + And thought of him I love. + + II + + O powerful western fallen star! + O shades of night--O moody, tearful night! + O great star disappear'd--O the black murk that hides the star! + O cruel hands that hold me powerless--O helpless soul of me! + O harsh surrounding cloud that will not free my soul. + + III + + In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd + palings, + Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich + green, + With many a pointed blossom rising delicate, with the perfume strong + I love, + + With every leaf a miracle--and from this bush in the dooryard, + With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green, + A sprig with its flower I break. + + IV + + In the swamp in secluded recesses, + A shy and hidden bird is warbling a song. + Solitary the thrush, + The hermit withdrawn to himself, avoiding the settlements, + Sings by himself a song. + + Song of the bleeding throat, + Death's outlet song of life (for well, dear brother, I know, + If thou wast not granted to sing thou would'st surely die). + + V + + Over the breast of the spring, the land, amid cities, + Amid lanes and through old woods, where lately the violets peep'd + from the ground, spotting the gray debris, + Amid the grass in the fields each side of the lanes, passing the + endless grass. + Passing the yellow-spear'd wheat, every grain from its shroud in + the dark-brown fields uprisen, + Passing the apple-tree blows of white and pink in the orchards, + Carrying a corpse to where it shall rest in the grave, + Night and day journeys a coffin. + + VI + + Coffin that passes through lanes and streets, + Through day and night with the great cloud darkening the land, + With the pomp of the inloop'd flags with the cities draped in black, + With the show of the States themselves as of crape-veil'd women + standing, + With processions long and winding and the flambeaus of the night, + With the countless torches lit, with the silent sea of faces and + the unbared heads, + With the waiting depot, the arriving coffin, and the sombre faces, + With dirges through the night, with the thousand voices rising + strong and solemn, + With all the mournful voices of the dirges pour'd around the coffin, + The dim-lit churches and the shuddering organs--where amid these you + journey, + With the tolling, tolling bells' perpetual clang, + Here, coffin that slowly passes, + I give you my sprig of lilac. + + VII + + (Nor for you, for one alone, + Blossoms and branches green to coffins all I bring, + For fresh as the morning, thus would I chant a song for you, O sane + and sacred death. + + All over bouquets of roses, + O death, I cover you over with roses and early lilies, + But mostly and now the lilac that blooms the first. + Copious I break, I break the sprigs from the bushes, + With loaded arms I come, pouring for you, + For you and the coffins all of you, O death). + + VIII + + O western orb sailing the heaven, + Now I know what you must have meant as a month since I walk'd, + As I walk'd in silence the transparent shadowy night, + As I saw you had something to tell as you bent to me night after + night, + As you droop'd from the sky low down as if to my side (while the + other stars all look'd on), + As we wander'd together the solemn night (for something, I know not + what, kept me from sleep), + As the night advanced, and I saw on the rim of the west how full + you were of woe, + As I stood on the rising ground in the breeze in the cool + transparent night, + As I watch'd where you pass'd and was lost in the netherward black + of the night, + As my soul in its trouble dissatisfied sank, as where you, sad orb, + Concluded, dropt in the night, and was gone. + + IX + + Sing on there in the swamp, + O singer, bashful and tender, I hear your notes, I hear your call, + I hear, I come presently, I understand you, + But a moment I linger, for the lustrous star has detain'd me, + The star, my departing comrade holds and detains + me. + + X + + O how shall I warble myself for the dead one there I loved? + And how shall I deck my song for the large sweet soul that has gone? + And what shall my perfume be for the grave of him I love? + Sea-winds blown from east and west, + Blown from the Eastern sea and blown from the Western sea, till + there on the prairies meeting, + These and with these and the breath of my chant, + I'll perfume the grave of him I love. + + XI + + O what shall I hang on the chamber walls? + And what shall the pictures be that I hang on the walls, + To adorn the burial-house of him I love? + + Pictures of growing spring and farms and homes, + With the Fourth-month eve at sundown, and the gray smoke lucid and + bright, + With floods of the yellow gold of the gorgeous, indolent, sinking + sun, burning, expanding the air, + With the fresh sweet herbage under foot, and the pale green leaves + of the trees prolific, + In the distance the flowing glaze, the breast of the + river, with a wind-dapple here and there, + With ranging hills on the banks, with many a line against the sky, + and shadows, + And the city at hand with dwellings so dense, and stacks of + chimneys, + And all the scenes of life and the workshops, and the workmen + homeward returning. + + XII + + Lo, body and soul--this land, + My own Manhattan with spires, and the sparkling and hurrying tides, + and the ships, + The varied and ample land, the South and the North in the light, + Ohio's shores and flashing Missouri, + And ever the far-spreading prairies cover'd with grass and corn. + + Lo, the most excellent sun so calm and haughty, + The violet and purple morn with just-felt breezes, + The gentle soft-born measureless light, + The miracle spreading, bathing all, the fulfill'd noon, + The coming eve delicious, the welcome night and the stars, + Over my cities shining all, enveloping man and land. + + XIII + + Sing on, sing on, you gray-brown bird, + Sing from the swamps, the recesses, pour your chant from the bushes, + Limitless out of the dusk, out of the cedars and pines. + + Sing on, dearest brother, warble your reedy song, + Loud human song, with voice of uttermost woe. + + O liquid and free and tender! + O wild and loose to my soul--O wondrous singer! + You only I hear--yet the star holds me (but will soon depart), + Yet the lilac with mastering odor holds me. + + XIV + + Now while I sat in the day and look'd forth, + In the close of the day with its light and the fields of spring, + and the farmers preparing their crops, + In the large unconscious scenery of my land with its lakes and forests, + In the heavenly aerial beauty (after the perturb'd winds and the + storms), + Under the arching heavens of the afternoon swift passing, and the + voices of children and women, + The many-moving sea-tides, and I saw the ships how they sail'd, + And the summer approaching with richness, and the fields all busy + with labor, + And the infinite separate houses, how they all went on, each with + its meals and minutia of daily usages, + And the streets, how their throbbings throbb'd, and the cities + pent--lo, then and there, + Falling upon them all and among them all, enveloping me with the + rest, + Appear'd the cloud, appear'd the long black trail, + And I knew death, its thought, and the sacred knowledge of death. + Then with the knowledge of death as walking one side of me, + And the thought of death close-walking the other side of me, + And in the middle as with companions, and as holding the hands of + companions, + I fled forth to the hiding, receiving night that talks not, + Down to the shores of the water, the path by the swamp in the + dimness, + To the solemn shadowy cedars and ghostly pines so still. + + And the singer so shy to the rest receiv'd me, + The gray-brown bird I know receiv'd us comrades three, + And he sang the carol of death, and a verse for him I love. + + From deep secluded recesses, + From the fragrant cedars and the ghostly pines so still, + Came the carol of the bird. + + And the charm of the carol rapt me, + As I held as if by their hands my comrades in the night, + And the voice of my spirit tallied the song of the bird. + + _Come, lovely and soothing death, + Undulate round the world, serenely arriving, arriving, + In the day, in the night, to all, to each, + Sooner or later, delicate death._ + + _Prais'd be the fathomless universe, + For life and joy, and for objects and knowledge curious, + And for love, sweet love--but praise! praise! praise! + For the sure-enwinding arms of cool-enfolding death. + + Dark mother, always gliding near with soft feet, + Have none chanted for thee a chant of fullest welcome?_ + _Then I chant it for thee, I glorify thee above all, + I bring thee a song that when thou must indeed come, come + unfalteringly._ + + _Approach, strong deliveress, + When it is so, when thou hast taken them I joyously sing the dead, + Lost in the loving, floating ocean of thee, + Laved in the flood of thy bliss, O death._ + + _From me to thee, glad serenades, + Dances for thee I propose saluting thee, adornments and feastings + for thee, + And the sights of the open landscape and the high-spread sky are + fitting, + And life and the fields, and the huge and thoughtful night._ + + _The night in silence under many a star, + The ocean shore and the husky whispering wave whose voice I know, + And the soul turning to thee, O vast and well-veil'd death, + And the body gratefully nestling close to thee._ + + _Over the tree-tops I float thee a song, + Over the rising and sinking waves, over the myriad fields and the + prairies wide, + Over the dense-pack'd cities all and the teeming wharves and ways, + I float this carol with joy, with joy to thee, O death._ + + XV + + To the tally of my soul, + Loud and strong kept up the gray-brown bird, + With pure deliberate notes spreading, filling the night. + + Loud in the pines and cedars dim, + Clear in the freshness moist and the swamp-perfume, + And I with my comrades there in the night. + + While my sight that was bound in my eyes unclosed, + As to long panoramas of visions. + + And I saw askant the armies, + I saw as in noiseless dreams hundreds of battle-flags, + Borne through the smoke of the battles and pierc'd with missiles + I saw them, + And carried hither and yon through the smoke, and torn and bloody, + And at last but a few shreds left on the staffs (and all in silence), + And the staffs all splinter'd and broken. + + I saw battle-corpses, myriads of them, + And the white skeletons of young men, I saw them, + I saw the debris and debris of all the slain soldiers of the war, + But I saw they were not as was thought, + They themselves were fully at rest, they suffer'd not, + The living remain'd and suffer'd, the mother suffer'd, + And the armies that remain'd suffer'd. + + XVI + + Passing the visions, passing the night, + Passing, unloosing the hold of my comrade's hands, + Passing the song of the hermit bird and the tallying song of my soul, + Victorious song, death's outlet song, yet varying ever-altering song, + As low and wailing, yet clear the notes, rising and falling, flooding + the night, + Sadly sinking and fainting, as warning and warning, and yet again + bursting with joy, + Covering the earth and filling the spread of the heaven, + As that powerful psalm in the night I heard from recesses, + Passing, I leave thee lilac with heart-shaped leaves, + I leave thee there in the door-yard, blooming, returning with spring. + + I cease from song for thee, + From my gaze on thee in the west, fronting the west, communing with + thee, + O comrade lustrous with silver face in the night. + + Yet each to keep and all, retrievements out of the night, + The song, the wondrous chant of the grey-brown bird, + And the tallying chant, the echo arous'd in my soul, + With the lustrous and drooping star with the countenance full of woe, + With the holders holding my hand nearing the call of the bird, + Comrades mine and I in the midst, and their memory ever to keep, + for the dead I loved so well. + For the sweetest, wisest soul of all my days and lands--and this + for his dear sake, + Lilac and star and bird twined with the chant of my soul, + There in the fragrant pines and cedars, dusk and dim. + +[24] _By permission of David McKay._ + + + + +VII + +THE WHOLE MAN + + +LINCOLN, THE MAN OF THE PEOPLE[25] + +BY EDWIN MARKHAM + +_Revised especially for this volume._ + + When the Norn Mother saw the Whirlwind Hour + Greatening and darkening as it hurried on, + She left the Heaven of Heroes and came down + To make a man to meet the mortal need. + She took the tried clay of the common road-- + Clay warm yet with the genial heat of Earth, + Dashed through it all a strain of prophecy; + Tempered the heap with thrill of human tears; + Then mixed a laughter with the serious stuff. + Into the shape she breathed a flame to light + That tender, tragic, ever-changing face. + Here was a man to hold against the world, + A man to match the mountains and the sea. + + The color of the ground was in him, the red earth; + The smack and smell of elemental things-- + The rectitude and patience of the rocks; + The good-will of the rain that falls for all; + The courage of the bird that dares the sea; + The gladness of the wind that shakes the corn; + The friendly welcome of the wayside well; + The mercy of the snow that hides all scars; + The undelaying justice of the light + That gives as freely to the shrinking flower + As to the great oak flaring to the wind-- + To the grave's low hill as to the Matterhorn + That shoulders out the sky. + + Born of the ground, + The Great West nursed him on her rugged knees. + Her rigors keyed the sinews of his will; + The strength of virgin forests braced his mind; + The hush of spacious prairies stilled his soul. + The tools were his first teachers, kindly stern. + The plow, the flail, the maul, the echoing ax + Taught him their homely wisdom, and their peace. + A rage for knowledge drove his restless mind: + He fed his spirit with the bread of books, + He slaked his thirst at all the wells of thought. + Hunger and hardship, penury and pain + Waylaid his youth and wrestled for his life. + They came to master, but he made them serve. + + From prairie cabin up to Capitol, + One fire was on his spirit, one resolve-- + To strike the stroke that rounds the perfect star. + The grip that swung the ax on Sangamon + Was on the pen that spelled Emancipation. + He built the rail-pile as he built the State, + Pouring his splendid strength through every blow, + The conscience of him testing every stroke, + To make his deed the measure of a man. + + So came the Captain with the thinking heart; + And when the judgment thunders split the house, + Wrenching the rafters from their ancient rest, + He held the ridgepole up, and spiked again + The rafters of the Home. He held his place-- + Held the long purpose like a growing tree-- + Held on through blame and faltered not at praise. + And when he fell in whirlwind, he went down + As when a lordly cedar green with boughs + Goes down with a great shout upon the hills, + And leaves a lonesome place against the sky. + +[25] _All rights reserved by the author._ + + +From the Memorial Address to Congress on the + +LIFE AND CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY GEORGE BANCROFT + +_Senators, Representatives of America:_ + +That God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of +physical science. On the great moving power which is from the +beginning hangs the world of the senses and the world of thought and +action. Eternal wisdom marshals the great procession of the nations, +working in patient continuity through the ages, never halting and +never abrupt, encompassing all events in its oversight, and ever +effecting its will, though mortals may slumber in apathy or oppose +with madness. Kings are lifted up or thrown down, nations come and go, +republics flourish and wither, dynasties pass away like a tale that +is told; but nothing is by chance, though men, in their ignorance of +causes, may think so. The deeds of time are governed, as well as +judged, by the decrees of eternity. The caprice of fleeting existences +bends to the immovable omnipotence, which plants its foot on all the +centuries and has neither change of purpose nor repose. Sometimes, +like a messenger through the thick darkness of night, it steps along +mysterious ways; but when the hour strikes for a people, or for +mankind, to pass into a new form of being, unseen hands draw the bolts +from the gates of futurity; an all-subsiding influence prepares the +minds of men for the coming revolution; those who plan resistance find +themselves in conflict with the will of Providence rather than with +human devices; and all hearts and all understandings, most of all the +opinions and influences of the unwilling, are wonderfully attracted +and compelled to bear forward the change, which becomes more an +obedience to the law of universal nature than submission to the +arbitrament of man. + +In the fulness of time a republic rose up in the wilderness of +America. Thousands of years had passed away before this child of the +ages could be born. From whatever there was of good in the systems of +former centuries she drew her nourishment; the wrecks of the past were +her warnings. With the deepest sentiment of faith fixed in her inmost +nature, she disenthralled religion from bondage to temporal power, +that her worship might be worship only in spirit and in truth. The +wisdom which had passed from India through Greece, with what Greece +had added of her own; the jurisprudence of Rome; the mediæval +municipalities; the Teutonic method of representation; the political +experience of England; the benignant wisdom of the expositors of the +law of nature and of nations in France and Holland, all shed on her +their selectest influence. She washed the gold of political wisdom +from the sands wherever it was found; she cleft it from the rocks; she +gleaned it among ruins. Out of all the discoveries of statesmen and +sages, out of all the experience of past human life, she compiled a +perennial political philosophy, the primordial principles of national +ethics. The wise men of Europe sought the best government in a mixture +of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy; America went behind these +names to extract from them the vital elements of social forms, and +blend them harmoniously in the free commonwealth, which comes nearest +to the illustration of the natural equality of all men. She intrusted +the guardianship of established rights to law, the movements of reform +to the spirit of the people, and drew her force from the happy +reconciliation of both. + +Republics had heretofore been limited to small cantons, or cities and +their dependencies; America, doing that of which the like had not +before been known upon the earth, or believed by kings and statesmen +to be possible, extended her republic across a continent. Under her +auspices the vine of liberty took deep root and filled the land; the +hills were covered with its shadow, its boughs were like the goodly +cedars, and reached unto both oceans. The fame of this only daughter +of freedom went out into all the lands of the earth; from her the +human race drew hope. + +Neither hereditary monarchy nor hereditary aristocracy planted itself +on our soil; the only hereditary condition that fastened itself upon +us was servitude. Nature works in sincerity, and is ever true to its +law. The bee hives honey; the viper distils poison; the vine stores +its juices, and so do the poppy and the upas. In like manner every +thought and every action ripens its seed, each according to its kind. +In the individual man, and still more in a nation, a just idea gives +life, and progress, and glory; a false conception portends disaster, +shame, and death. A hundred and twenty years ago a West Jersey Quaker +wrote: "This trade of importing slaves is dark gloominess hanging over +the land; the consequences will be grievous to posterity." At the +North the growth of slavery was arrested by natural causes; in the +region nearest the tropics it throve rankly, and worked itself into +the organism of the rising States. Virginia stood between the two, +with soil, and climate, and resources demanding free labor, yet +capable of the profitable employment of the slave. She was the land of +great statesmen, and they saw the danger of her being whelmed under +the rising flood in time to struggle against the delusions of avarice +and pride. Ninety-four years ago the legislature of Virginia addressed +the British king, saying that the trade in slaves was "of great +inhumanity," was opposed to the "security and happiness" of their +constituents, "would in time have the most destructive influence," and +"endanger their very existence." And the king answered them that, +"upon pain of his highest displeasure, the importation of slaves +should not be in any respect obstructed." "Pharisaical Britain," wrote +Franklin in behalf of Virginia, "to pride thyself in setting free a +single slave that happened to land on thy coasts, while thy laws +continue a traffic whereby so many hundreds of thousands are dragged +into a slavery that is entailed on their posterity." "A serious view +of this subject," said Patrick Henry in 1773, "gives a gloomy prospect +to future times." In the same year George Mason wrote to the +legislature of Virginia: "The laws of impartial Providence may avenge +our injustice upon our posterity." Conforming his conduct to his +convictions, Jefferson, in Virginia and in the Continental Congress, +with the approval of Edmund Pendleton, branded the slave-trade as +piracy; and he fixed in the Declaration of Independence, as the +corner-stone of America: "All men are created equal, with an +unalienable right to liberty." On the first organization of temporary +governments for the continental domain, Jefferson, but for the default +of New Jersey, would, in 1784, have consecrated every part of that +territory to freedom. In the formation of the national Constitution, +Virginia, opposed by a part of New England, vainly struggled to +abolish the slave trade at once and forever; and when the ordinance +of 1787 was introduced by Nathan Dane without the clause prohibiting +slavery, it was through the favorable disposition of Virginia and the +South that the clause of Jefferson was restored, and the whole +northwestern territory--all the territory that then belonged to the +nation--was reserved for the labor of freemen. + +The hope prevailed in Virginia that the abolition of the slave-trade +would bring with it the gradual abolition of slavery; but the +expectation was doomed to disappointment. In supporting incipient +measures for emancipation, Jefferson encountered difficulties greater +than he could overcome, and, after vain wrestlings, the words that +broke from him, "I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is +just, that His justice cannot sleep forever," were words of despair. +It was the desire of Washington's heart that Virginia should remove +slavery by a public act; and as the prospects of a general +emancipation grew more and more dim, he, in utter hopelessness of the +action of the State, did all that he could by bequeathing freedom to +his own slaves. Good and true men had, from the days of 1776, +suggested the colonizing of the negro in the home of his ancestors; +but the idea of colonization was thought to increase the difficulty of +emancipation, and, in spite of strong support, while it accomplished +much good for Africa, it proved impracticable as a remedy at home. +Madison, who in early life disliked slavery so much that he wished "to +depend as little as possible on the labor of slaves"; Madison, who +held that where slavery exists "the republican theory becomes +fallacious"; Madison, who in the last years of his life would not +consent to the annexation of Texas, lest his countrymen should fill it +with slaves; Madison, who said, "slavery is the greatest evil under +which the nation labors--a portentous evil--an evil, moral, political, +and economical--a sad blot on our free country"--went mournfully into +old age with the cheerless words: "No satisfactory plan has yet been +devised for taking out the stain." + +The men of the Revolution passed away; a new generation sprang up, +impatient that an institution to which they clung should be condemned +as inhuman, unwise, and unjust. In the throes of discontent at the +self-reproach of their fathers, and blinded by the lustre of wealth to +be acquired by the culture of a new staple, they devised the theory +that slavery, which they would not abolish, was not evil, but good. +They turned on the friends of colonization, and confidently demanded: +"Why take black men from a civilized and Christian country, where +their labor is a source of immense gain, and a power to control the +markets of the world, and send them to a land of ignorance, idolatry, +and indolence, which was the home of their forefathers, but not +theirs? Slavery is a blessing. Were they not in their ancestral land +naked, scarcely lifted above brutes, ignorant of the course of the +sun, controlled by nature? And in their new abode have they not been +taught to know the difference of the seasons, to plough, and plant, +and reap, to drive oxen, to tame the horse, to exchange their scanty +dialect for the richest of all the languages among men, and the stupid +adoration of follies for the purest religion? And since slavery is +good for the blacks, it is good for their masters, bringing opulence +and the opportunity of educating a race. The slavery of the black is +good in itself; he shall serve the white man forever." And nature, +which better understood the quality of fleeting interest and passion, +laughed as it caught the echo, "man" and "forever!" + +A regular development of pretensions followed the new declaration with +logical consistency. Under the old declaration every one of the States +had retained, each for itself, the right of manumitting all slaves by +an ordinary act of legislation; now the power of the people over +servitude through their legislatures was curtailed, and the privileged +class was swift in imposing legal and constitutional obstructions of +the people themselves. The power of emancipation was narrowed or taken +away. The slave might not be disquieted by education. There remained +an unconfessed consciousness that the system of bondage was wrong, and +a restless memory that it was at variance with the true American +tradition; its safety was therefore to be secured by political +organization. The generation that made the Constitution took care for +the predominance of freedom in Congress by the ordinance of Jefferson; +the new school aspired to secure for slavery an equality of votes in +the Senate, and while it hinted at an organic act that should concede +to the collective South a veto power on national legislation, it +assumed that each State separately had the right to revise and nullify +laws of the United States, according to the discretion of its +judgment. + +The new theory hung as a bias on the foreign relations of the country; +there could be no recognition of Hayti, nor even of the American +colony of Liberia; and the world was given to understand that the +establishment of free labor in Cuba would be a reason for wresting +that island from Spain. Territories were annexed--Louisiana, Florida, +Texas, half of Mexico; slavery must have its share in them all, and it +accepted for a time a dividing line between the unquestioned domain of +free labor and that in which involuntary labor was to be tolerated. A +few years passed away, and the new school, strong and arrogant, +demanded and received an apology for applying the Jefferson proviso to +Oregon. + +The application of that proviso was interrupted for three +administrations, but justice moved steadily onward. In the news that +the men of California had chosen freedom, Calhoun heard the knell of +parting slavery, and on his deathbed he counseled secession. +Washington, and Jefferson, and Madison had died despairing of the +abolition of slavery; Calhoun died in despair at the growth of +freedom. His system rushed irresistibly to its natural development. +The death-struggle for California was followed by a short truce; but +the new school of politicians, who said that slavery was not evil, but +good, soon sought to recover the ground they had lost, and, confident +of securing Kansas, they demanded that the established line in the +Territories between freedom and slavery should be blotted out. The +country, believing in the strength and enterprise and expansive energy +of freedom, made answer, though reluctantly: "Be it so; let there be +no strife between brethren; let freedom and slavery compete for the +Territories on equal terms, in a fair field, under an impartial +administration"; and on this theory, if on any, the contest might have +been left to the decision of time. + +The South started back in appallment from its victory, for it knew +that a fair competition foreboded its defeat. But where could it now +find an ally to save it from its own mistake? What I have next to say +is spoken with no emotion but regret. Our meeting to-day is, as it +were, at the grave, in the presence of eternity, and the truth must be +uttered in soberness and sincerity. In a great republic, as was +observed more than two thousand years ago, any attempt to overturn the +state owes its strength to aid from some branch of the government. The +Chief Justice of the United States, without any necessity or occasion, +volunteered to come to the rescue of the theory of slavery; and from +his court there lay no appeal but to the bar 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 itself; or, as the President for that term tersely +promulgated the saying, "Kansas is as much a slave State as South +Carolina or Georgia; slavery, by virtue of the Constitution, exists in +every Territory." The municipal character of slavery being thus taken +away, and slave property decreed to be "sacred," the authority of the +courts was invoked to introduce it by the comity of law into States +where slavery had been abolished, and in one of the courts of the +United States a judge pronounced the African slave-trade legitimate, +and numerous and powerful advocates demanded its restoration. + +Moreover, the Chief Justice, in his elaborate opinion, announced what +had never been heard from any magistrate of Greece or Rome; what was +unknown to civil law, and canon law, and feudal law, and common law, +and constitutional law; unknown to Jay, to Rutledge, Ellsworth and +Marshall--that there are "slave races." The spirit of evil is +intensely logical. Having the authority of this decision, five States +swiftly followed the earlier example of a sixth, and opened the way +for reducing the free negro to bondage; the migrating free negro +became a slave if he but entered within the jurisdiction of a seventh; +and an eighth, from its extent, and soil, and mineral resources, +destined to incalculable greatness, closed its eyes on its coming +prosperity, and enacted, as by Taney's dictum it had the right to do, +that every free black man who would live within its limits must +accept the condition of slavery for himself and his posterity. + +Only one step more remained to be taken. Jefferson and the leading +statesmen of his day held fast to the idea that the enslavement of the +African was socially, morally and politically wrong. The new school +was founded exactly upon the opposite idea; and they resolved, first, +to distract the democratic party, for which the Supreme Court had now +furnished the means, and then to establish a new government, with +negro slavery for its corner-stone, as socially, morally, and +politically right. + +As the Presidential election drew on, one of the great traditional +parties did not make its appearance; the other reeled as it sought to +preserve its old position, and the candidate who most nearly +represented its best opinion, driven by patriotic zeal, roamed the +country from end to end to speak for union, eager, at least, to +confront its enemies, yet not having hope that it would find its +deliverance through him. The storm rose to a whirlwind; who would +allay its wrath? The most experienced statesmen of the country had +failed; there was no hope from those who were great after the flesh: +could relief come from one whose wisdom was like the wisdom of little +children? + +The choice of America fell on a man born west of the Alleghenies, in +the cabin of poor people of Hardin county, Kentucky--ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +His mother could read, but not write; his father would do neither; but +his parents sent him, with an old spelling-book, to school, and he +learned in his childhood to do both. + +When eight years old he floated down the Ohio with his father on a +raft, which bore the family and all their possessions to the shore of +Indiana; and, child as he was, he gave help as they toiled through +dense forests to the interior of Spencer County. There, in the land of +free labor, he grew up in a log-cabin, with the solemn solitude for +his teacher in his meditative hours. Of Asiatic literature he knew +only the Bible; of Greek, Latin, and mediæval, no more than the +translation of Æsop's Fables; of English, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's +Progress. The traditions of George Fox and William Penn passed to him +dimly along the lines of two centuries through his ancestors, who were +Quakers. + +Otherwise his education was altogether American. The Declaration of +Independence was his compendium of political wisdom, the Life of +Washington his constant study, and something of Jefferson and Madison +reached him through Henry Clay, whom he honored from boyhood. For the +rest, 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 was in every +way a child of nature, a child of the West, a child of America. + +At nineteen, feeling impulses of ambition to get on in the world, he +engaged himself to go down the Mississippi in a flatboat, receiving +ten dollars a month for his wages, and afterwards he made the trip +once more. At twenty-one he drove his father's cattle as the family +migrated to Illinois, and split rails to fence in the new homestead in +the wild. At twenty-three he was a captain of volunteers in the Black +Hawk war. He kept a store. He learned something of surveying, but of +English literature he added to Bunyan nothing but Shakespeare's plays. +At twenty-five he was elected to the legislature of Illinois, where he +served eight years. At twenty-seven he was admitted to the bar. In +1837 he chose his home in Springfield, the beautiful centre of the +richest land in the State. In 1847 he was a member of the national +Congress, where he voted about forty times in favor of the principle +of the Jefferson proviso. In 1849 he sought, eagerly but +unsuccessfully, the place of Commissioner of the Land Office, and he +refused an appointment that would have transferred his residence to +Oregon. In 1854 he gave his influence to elect from Illinois, to the +American Senate, a Democrat, who would certainly do justice to Kansas. +In 1858, as the rival of Douglas, he went before the people of the +mighty Prairie State, saying, "This Union cannot permanently endure +half slave and half free; the Union will not be dissolved, but the +house will cease to be divided"; and now, in 1861, with no experience +whatever as an executive officer, while States were madly flying from +their orbit, and wise men knew not where to find counsel, this +descendant of Quakers, this pupil of Bunyan, this offspring of the +great West, was elected President of America. + +He measured the difficulty of the duty that devolved upon him, and was +resolved to fulfil it. As on the eleventh of February, 1861, he left +Springfield, which for a quarter of a century had been his happy home, +to the crowd of his friends and neighbors, whom he was never more to +meet, he spoke a solemn farewell: "I know not how soon I shall see you +again. A duty has devolved upon me, greater than that which has +devolved upon any other man since Washington. He never would have +succeeded, except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at +all times relied. On the same Almighty Being I place my reliance. Pray +that I may receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot +succeed, but with which success is certain." To the men of Indiana he +said: "I am but an accidental, temporary instrument; it is your +business to rise up and preserve the Union and liberty." At the +capital of Ohio he said: "Without a name, without a reason why I +should have a name, there has fallen upon me a task such as did not +rest even upon the Father of his country." At various places in New +York, especially at Albany, before the legislature, which tendered him +the united support of the great Empire State, he said: "While I hold +myself the humblest of all the individuals who have ever been elevated +to the Presidency, I have a more difficult task to perform than any of +them. I bring a true heart to the work. I must rely upon the people of +the whole country for support, and with their sustaining aid, even I, +humble as I am, cannot fail to carry the ship of state safely through +the storm." To the assembly of New Jersey, at Trenton, he explained: +"I shall take the ground I deem most just to the North, the East, the +West, the South, and the whole country, in good temper, certainly with +no malice to any section. I am devoted to peace, but it may be +necessary to put the foot down firmly." In the old Independence Hall, +of Philadelphia, he said: "I have never had a feeling politically that +did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of +Independence, which gave liberty, not alone to the people of this +country, but to the world in all future time. If the country cannot be +saved without giving up that principle, I would rather be assassinated +on the spot than surrender it. I have said nothing but what I am +willing to live and die by." + +Travelling, in the dead of night to escape assassination, LINCOLN +arrived at Washington nine days before his inauguration. The outgoing +President, at the opening of the session of Congress, had still kept +as the majority of his advisors men engaged in treason; had declared +that in case of even an "imaginary" apprehension of danger from +notions of freedom among the slaves, "disunion would become +inevitable." LINCOLN and others had questioned the opinion of Taney; +such impugning he ascribed to the "factious temper of the times." The +favorite doctrine of the majority of the Democratic party on the power +of a territorial legislature over slavery he condemned as an attack on +"the sacred rights of property." The State legislature, he insisted, +must repeal what he called "their unconstitutional and obnoxious +enactments," and which, if such, were "null and void" or "it would be +impossible for any human power to save the Union." Nay! if these +unimportant acts were not repealed, "the injured States would be +justified in revolutionary resistance to the government of the Union." +He maintained that no State might secede at its sovereign will and +pleasure; that the Union was meant for perpetuity, and that Congress +might attempt to preserve it, but only by conciliation; that "the +sword was not placed in their hands to preserve it by force"; that +"the last desperate remedy of a despairing people would be an +explanatory amendment recognizing the decision of the Supreme Court of +the United States." The American Union he called "a confederacy" of +States, and he thought it a duty to make the appeal for the amendment +"before any of these States should separate themselves from the +Union." The views of the Lieutenant-General, containing some patriotic +advice, "conceded the right of secession," pronounced a quadruple +rupture of the Union "a smaller evil than the reuniting of the +fragments by the sword," and "eschewed the idea of invading a seceded +State." After changes in the Cabinet, the President informed Congress +that "matters were still worse"; that "the South suffered serious +grievances," which should be redressed "in peace." The day after this +message the flag of the Union was fired upon from Fort Morris, and +the insult was not revenged or noticed. Senators in Congress +telegraphed to their constituents to seize the national forts, and +they were not arrested. The finances of the country were grievously +embarrassed. Its little army was not within reach; the part of it in +Texas, with all its stores, was made over by its commander to rebels. +One State after another voted in convention to secede. A peace +congress, so called, met at the request of Virginia, to concert the +terms of a capitulation which should secure permission for the +continuance of the Union. Congress, in both branches, sought to devise +conciliatory expedients; the territories of the country were organized +in a manner not to conflict with any pretensions of the South, or any +decision of the Supreme Court; and, nevertheless, the representatives +of the rebellion formed at Montgomery a provisional government, and +pursued their relentless purpose with such success that the +Lieutenant-General feared the city of Washington might find itself +"included in a foreign country," and proposed, among the options for +the consideration of LINCOLN, to bid the wayward States "depart in +peace." The great republic appeared to have its emblem in the vast +unfinished Capitol, at that moment surrounded by masses of stone and +prostrate columns never yet lifted into their places, seemingly the +moment of high but delusive aspirations, the confused wreck of +inchoate magnificence, sadder than any ruin of Egyptian Thebes or +Athens. + +The fourth of March came. With instinctive wisdom the new President, +speaking to the people on taking the oath of office, put aside every +question that divided the country, and gained a right to universal +support by planting himself on the single idea of Union. The Union he +declared to be unbroken and perpetual, and he announced his +determination to fulfil "the simple duty of taking care that the laws +be faithfully executed in all the States." Seven days later, the +convention of Confederate States unanimously adopted a constitution of +their own, and the new government was authoritatively announced to be +founded on the idea that the negro race is a slave race; that slavery +is its natural and normal condition. The issue was made up, whether +the great republic was to maintain its providential place in the +history of mankind, or a rebellion founded on negro slavery gain a +recognition of its principle throughout the civilized world. To the +disaffected LINCOLN had said, "You can have no conflict without being +yourselves the aggressors." To fire the passions of the southern +portion of the people, the confederate government chose to become +aggressors, and, on the morning of the twelfth of April, began the +bombardment of Fort Sumter, and compelled its evacuation. + +It is the glory of the late President that he had perfect faith in the +perpetuity of the Union. Supported in advance by Douglas, who spoke as +with the voice of a million, he instantly called a meeting of +Congress, and summoned the people to come up and repossess the forts, +places, and property which had been seized from the Union. The men of +the North were trained in schools; industrious and frugal; many of +them delicately bred, their minds teeming with ideas and fertile in +plans of enterprise; given to the culture of the arts; eager in the +pursuit of wealth, yet employing wealth less for ostentation than for +developing the resources of their country; seeking happiness in the +calm of domestic life; and such lovers of peace, that for generations +they had been reputed unwarlike. Now, at the cry of their country in +its distress, they rose up with unappeasable patriotism; not +hirelings--the purest and the best blood in the land. Sons of a pious +ancestry, with a clear perception of duty, unclouded faith and fixed +resolve to succeed, they thronged around the President, to support the +wronged, the beautiful flag of the nation. The halls of theological +seminaries sent forth their young men, whose lips were touched with +eloquence, whose hearts kindled with devotion, to serve in the ranks, +and make their way to command only as they learned the art of war. +Striplings in the colleges, as well the most gentle and the most +studious, those of sweetest temper and loveliest character and +brightest genius, passed from their classes to the camp. The lumbermen +from the forests, the mechanics from their benches, where they had +been trained, by the exercise of political rights, to share the life +and hope of the republic, to feel their responsibility to their +forefathers, their posterity and mankind, went to the front, resolved +that their dignity, as a constituent part of this republic, should +not be impaired. Farmers and sons of farmers left the land but half +ploughed, the grain but half planted, and, taking up the musket, +learned to face without fear the presence of peril and the coming of +death in the shocks of war, while their hearts were still attracted to +their herds and fields, and all the tender affections of home. +Whatever there was of truth and faith and public love in the common +heart, broke out with one expression. The mighty winds blew from every +quarter, to fan the flame of the sacred and unquenchable fire. + +For a time the war was thought to be confined to our own domestic +affairs, but it was soon seen that it involved the destinies of +mankind; its principles and causes shook the politics of Europe to the +centre, and from Lisbon to Pekin divided the governments of the world. + +There was a kingdom whose people had in an eminent degree attained to +freedom of industry and the security of person and property. Its +middle class rose to greatness. Out of that class sprung the noblest +poets and philosophers, whose words built up the intellect of its +people; skilful navigators, to find out for its merchants the many +paths of the oceans; discoverers in natural science, whose inventions +guided its industry to wealth, till it equalled any nation of the +world in letters, and excelled all in trade and commerce. But its +government was become a government of land, and not of men; every +blade of grass was represented, but only a small minority of the +people. In the transition from the feudal forms the heads of the +social organization freed themselves from the military services which +were the conditions of their tenure, and, throwing the burden on the +industrial classes, kept all the soil to themselves. Vast estates that +had been managed by monasteries as endowments for religion and charity +were impropriated to swell the wealth of courtiers and favorites; and +the commons, where the poor man once had his right of pasture, were +taken away, and, under forms of law, enclosed distributively within +the domains of the adjacent landholders. Although no law forbade any +inhabitant from purchasing land, the costliness of the transfer +constituted a prohibition; so that it was the rule of the country that +the plough should not be in the hands of its owner. The Church was +rested on a contradiction; claiming to be an embodiment of absolute +truth, it was a creature of the statute-book. + +The progress of time increased the terrible contrast between wealth +and poverty. In their years of strength the laboring people, cut off +from all share in governing that state, derived a scant support from +the severest toil, and had no hope for old age but in public charity +or death. A grasping ambition had dotted the world with military +posts, kept watch over our borders on the northeast, at the Bermudas, +in the West Indies, appropriated the gates of the Pacific, of the +Southern and of the Indian ocean, hovered on our northwest at +Vancouver, held the whole of the newest continent, and the entrances +to the old Mediterranean and Red Sea, and garrisoned forts all the way +from Madras to China. That aristocracy had gazed with terror on the +growth of a commonwealth where freeholders existed by the million, and +religion was not in bondage to the state, and now they could not +repress their joy at its perils. They had not one word of sympathy for +the kind-hearted poor man's son whom America had chosen for her chief; +they jeered at his large hands, and long feet, and ungainly stature; +and the British secretary of state for foreign affairs made haste to +send word through the places of Europe that the great republic was in +its agony; that the republic was no more; that a headstone was all +that remained due by the law of nations to "the late Union." But it is +written, "Let the dead bury their dead"; they may not bury the living. +Let the dead bury their dead; let a bill of reform remove the worn-out +government of a class, and infuse new life into the British +constitution by confiding rightful power to the people. + +But while the vitality of America is indestructible, the British +government hurried to do what never before had been done by Christian +powers; what was in direct conflict with its own exposition of public +law in the time of our struggle for independence. Though the insurgent +States had not a ship in an open harbor, it invested them with all the +rights of a belligerent, even on the ocean; and this, too, when the +rebellion was not only directed against the gentlest and most +beneficent government on earth, without a shadow of justifiable +cause, but when the rebellion was directed against human nature itself +for the perpetual enslavement of a race. And the effect of this +recognition was, that acts in themselves piratical found shelter in +British courts of law. The resources of British capitalists, their +workshops, their armories, their private arsenals, their shipyards, +were in league with the insurgents, and every British harbor in the +wide world became a safe port for British ships, manned by British +sailors, and armed with British guns, to prey on our peaceful +commerce; even on our ships coming from British ports, freighted with +British products, or that had carried gifts of grain to the English +poor. The prime minister, in the House of Commons, sustained by +cheers, scoffed at the thought that their laws could be amended at our +request, so as to preserve real neutrality; and to remonstrances, now +owned to have been just, their secretary of state answered that they +could not change their laws ad infinitum. + +The people of America then wished, as they always have wished, as they +still wish, friendly relations with England, and no man in England or +America can desire it more strongly than I. This country has always +yearned for good relations with England. Thrice only in all its +history has that yearning been fairly met: in the days of Hampden and +Cromwell, again in the first ministry of the elder Pitt, and once +again in the ministry of Shelburne. Not that there have not at all +times been just men among the peers of Britain--like Halifax in the +days of James the Second, or a Granville, an Argyll, or a Houghton in +ours; and we cannot be indifferent to a country that produces +statesmen like Cobden and Bright; but the best bower anchor of peace +was the working class of England, who suffered most from our civil +war, but who, while they broke their diminished bread in sorrow, +always encouraged us to persevere. + +The act of recognizing the rebel belligerents was concerted with +France--France, so beloved in America, on which she had conferred the +greatest benefits that one people ever conferred on another; France, +which stands foremost on the continent of Europe for the solidity of +her culture, as well as for the bravery and generous impulses of her +sons; France, which for centuries had been moving steadily in her own +way towards intellectual and political freedom. The policy regarding +further colonization of America by European powers, known commonly as +the doctrine of Monroe, had its origin in France, and if it takes any +man's name, should bear the name of Turgot. It was adopted by Louis +the Sixteenth, in the cabinet of which Vergennes was the most +important member. It is emphatically the policy of France, to which, +with transient deviations, the Bourbons, the first Napoleon, the House +of Orleans have adherred. + +The late President was perpetually harassed by rumors that the Emperor +Napoleon the Third desired formally to recognize the States in +rebellion as an independent power, and that England held him back by +her reluctance, or France by her traditions of freedom, or he himself +by his own better judgment and clear perception of events. But the +republic of Mexico, on our borders, was, like ourselves, distracted by +a rebellion, and from a similar cause. The monarchy of England had +fastened upon us slavery which did not disappear with independence; in +like manner, the ecclesiastical policy established by the Spanish +council of the Indies, in the days of Charles the Fifth and Philip the +Second, retained its vigor in the Mexican republic. + +The fifty years of civil war under which she had languished was due to +the bigoted system which was the legacy of monarchy, just as here the +inheritance of slavery kept alive political strife, and culminated in +civil war. As with us there could be no quiet but through the end of +slavery, so in Mexico there could be no prosperity until the crushing +tyranny of intolerance should cease. The party of slavery in the +United States sent their emissaries to Europe to solicit aid; and so +did the party of the Church in Mexico, as organized by the old Spanish +council of the Indies, but with a different result. Just as the +Republican party had made an end of the rebellion, and was +establishing the best government ever known in that region, and giving +promise to the nation of order, peace, and prosperity, word was +brought us, in the moment of our deepest affliction, that the French +Emperor, moved by a desire to erect in North America a buttress for +imperialism, would transform the republic of Mexico into a +secundo-geniture for the House of Hapsburg. America might complain; +she could not then interpose, and delay seemed justifiable. It was +seen that Mexico could not, with all its wealth of land, compete in +cereal products with our northwest, nor in tropical products with +Cuba, nor could it, under a disputed dynasty, attract capital, or +create public works, or develop mines, or borrow money; so that the +imperial system of Mexico, which was forced at once to recognize the +wisdom of the policy of the republic by adopting it, could prove only +an unremunerating drain on the French treasury for the support of an +Austrian adventurer. + +Meantime a new series of momentous questions grows up, and forces +itself on the consideration of the thoughtful. Republicanism has +learned how to introduce into its constitution every element of order, +as well as every element of freedom; but thus far the continuity of +its government has seemed to depend on the continuity of elections. It +is now to be considered how perpetuity is to be secured against +foreign occupation. The successor of Charles the First of England +dated his reign from the death of his father; the Bourbons, coming +back after a long series of revolutions, claimed that the Louis who +became king was the eighteenth of that name. The present Emperor of +the French, disdaining a title from election alone, calls himself +Napoleon the Third. Shall a republic have less power of continuance +when invading armies prevent a peaceful resort to the ballot-box? What +force shall it attach to intervening legislation? What validity to +debts contracted for its overthrow? These momentous questions are, by +the invasion of Mexico, thrown up for solution. A free State once +truly constituted should be as undying as its people: the republic of +Mexico must rise again. + +It was the condition of affairs in Mexico that involved the Pope of +Rome in our difficulties so far that he alone among sovereigns +recognized the chief of the Confederate States as a president, and his +supporters as a people; and in letters to two great prelates of the +Catholic Church in the United States gave counsels for peace at a time +when peace meant the victory of secession. Yet events move as they are +ordered. The blessing of the Pope at Rome on the head of Duke +Maximilian could not revive in the nineteenth century the +ecclesiastical policy of the sixteenth, and the result is only a new +proof that there can be no prosperity in the State without religious +freedom. + +When it came home to the consciousness of the Americans that the war +which they were waging was a war for the liberty of all the nations of +the world, for freedom itself, they thanked God for giving them +strength to endure the severity of the trial to which He put their +sincerity, and nerved themselves for their duty with an inexorable +will. The President was led along by the greatness of their +self-sacrificing example, and as a child, in a dark night, on a rugged +way, catches hold of the hand of its father for guidance and support, +he clung fast to the hand of the people, and moved calmly through the +gloom. While the statesmanship of Europe was mocking at the hopeless +vanity of their efforts, they put forth such miracles of energy as the +history of the world had never known. The contributions to the popular +loans amounted in four years to twenty-seven and a half hundred +millions of dollars; the revenue of the country from taxation was +increased sevenfold. The navy of the United States, drawing into the +public service the willing militia of the seas, doubled its tonnage in +eight months, and established an actual blockade from Cape Hatteras to +the Rio Grande; in the course of the war it was increased five-fold in +men and in tonnage, while the inventive genius of the country devised +more effective kinds of ordnance, and new forms of naval architecture +in wood and iron. There went into the field, for various terms of +enlistment, about two million men, and in March last the men in the +army exceeded a million: that is to say, nine of every twenty +able-bodied men in the free Territories and States took some part in +the war; and at one time every fifth of their able-bodied men was in +service. In one single month one hundred and sixty-five thousand men +were recruited into service. Once, within four weeks, Ohio organized +and placed in the field forty-two regiments of infantry--nearly +thirty-six thousand men; and Ohio was like other States in the East +and in the West. The well-mounted cavalry numbered eighty-four +thousand; of horses and mules there were bought, from first to last, +two-thirds of a million. In the movements of troops science came in +aid of patriotism, so that, to choose a single instance out of many, +an army twenty-three thousand strong, with its artillery, trains, +baggage, and animals, were moved by rail from the Potomac to the +Tennessee, twelve hundred miles, in seven days. On the long marches, +wonders of military construction bridged the rivers, and wherever an +army halted, ample supplies awaited them at their ever-changing base. +The vile thought that life is the greatest of blessings did not rise +up. In six hundred and twenty-five battles and severe skirmishes blood +flowed like water. It streamed over the grassy plains; it stained the +rocks; the undergrowth of the forests was red with it; and the armies +marched on with majestic courage from one conflict to another, knowing +that they were fighting for God and liberty. The organization of the +medical department met its infinitely multiplied duties with exactness +and despatch. At the news of a battle, the best surgeons of our cities +hastened to the field, to offer the untiring aid of the greatest +experience and skill. The gentlest and most refined of women left +homes of luxury and ease to build hospital tents near the armies, and +serve as nurses to the sick and dying. Beside the large supply of +religious teachers by the public, the congregations spared to their +brothers in the field the ablest ministers. The Christian Commission, +which expended more than six and a quarter millions, sent nearly five +thousand clergymen, chosen out of the best, to keep unsoiled the +religious character of the men, and made gifts of clothes and food and +medicine. The organization of private charity assumed unheard-of +dimensions. The Sanitary Commission, which had seven thousand +societies, distributed, under the direction of an unpaid board, +spontaneous contributions to the amount of fifteen millions in +supplies or money--a million and a half in money from California +alone--and dotted the scene of war, from Paducah to Port Royal, from +Belle Plain, Virginia, to Brownsville, Texas, with homes and lodges. + +The country had for its allies the river Mississippi, which would not +be divided, and the range of mountains which carried the stronghold of +the free through Western Virginia and Kentucky and Tennessee to the +highlands of Alabama. But it invoked the still higher power of +immortal justice. In ancient Greece, where servitude was the universal +custom, it was held that if a child were to strike its parent, the +slave should defend the parent, and by that act recover his freedom. +After vain resistance, LINCOLN, who had tried to solve the question by +gradual emancipation, by colonization, and by compensation, at last +saw that slavery must be abolished, or the republic must die; and on +the first day of January, 1863, he wrote liberty on the banners of the +armies. When this proclamation, which struck the fetters from three +millions of slaves, reached Europe, Lord Russell, a countryman of +Milton and Wilberforce, eagerly put himself forward to speak of it in +the name of mankind, saying: "It is of a very strange nature"; "a +measure of war of a very questionable kind"; an act "of vengeance on +the slave owner," that does no more than "profess to emancipate slaves +where the United States authorities cannot make emancipation a +reality." Now there was no part of the country embraced in the +proclamation where the United States could not and did not make +emancipation a reality. Those who saw LINCOLN most frequently had +never before heard him speak with bitterness of any human being, but +he did not conceal how keenly he felt that he had been wronged by Lord +Russell. And he wrote, in reply to other cavils: "The emancipation +policy and the use of colored troops were the greatest blows yet dealt +to the rebellion; the job was a great national one, and let none be +slighted who bore an honorable part in it. I hope peace will come +soon, and come to stay; then will there be some black men who can +remember that they have helped mankind to this great consummation." + +The proclamation accomplished its end, for, during the war, our armies +came into military possession of every State in rebellion. Then, too, +was called forth the new power that comes from the simultaneous +diffusion of thought and feeling among the nations of mankind. The +mysterious sympathy of the millions throughout the world was given +spontaneously. The best writers of Europe waked the conscience of the +thoughtful, till the intelligent moral sentiment of the Old World was +drawn to the side of the unlettered statesman of the West. Russia, +whose emperor had just accomplished one of the grandest acts in the +course of time, by raising twenty millions of bondmen into +freeholders, and thus assuring the growth and culture of a Russian +people, remained our unwavering friend. From the oldest abode of +civilization, which gave the first example of an imperial government +with equality among the people, Prince Kung, the secretary of state +for foreign affairs, remembered the saying of Confucius, that we +should not do to others what we would not that others should do to us, +and, in the name of his emperor, read a lesson to European +diplomatists by closing the ports of China against the warships and +privateers of "the seditious." + +The war continued, with all the peoples of the world, for anxious +spectators. Its cares weighed heavily on LINCOLN, and his face was +ploughed with the furrows of thought and sadness. With malice towards +none, free from the spirit of revenge, victory made him importunate +for peace, and his enemies never doubted his word, or despaired of his +abounding clemency. He longed to utter pardon as the word for all, but +not unless the freedom of the negro should be assured. The grand +battles of Fort Donelson, Chattanooga, Malvern Hill, Antietam, +Gettysburg, the Wilderness of Virginia, Winchester, Nashville, the +capture of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Mobile, Fort Fisher, the march from +Atlanta, and the capture of Savannah and Charleston, all foretold the +issue. Still more, the self-regeneration of Missouri, the heart of the +continent; of Maryland, whose sons never heard the midnight bells +chime so sweetly as when they rang out to earth and heaven that, by +the voice of her own people, she took her place among the free; of +Tennessee, which passed through fire and blood, through sorrows and +the shadow of death, to work out her own deliverance, and by the +faithfulness of her own sons to renew her youth like the eagle--proved +that victory was deserved, and would be worth all that it cost. If +words of mercy, uttered as they were by LINCOLN on the waters of +Virginia, were defiantly repelled, the armies of the country, moving +with one will, went as the arrow to its mark, and, without a feeling +of revenge, struck the death-blow at rebellion. + +Where, in the history of nations, had a Chief Magistrate possessed +more sources of consolation and joy than LINCOLN? His countrymen had +shown their love by choosing him to a second term of service. The +raging war that had divided the country had lulled, and private grief +was hushed by the grandeur of the result. The nation had its new birth +of freedom, soon to be secured forever by an amendment of the +Constitution. His persistent gentleness had conquered for him a +kindlier feeling on the part of the South. His scoffers among the +grandees of Europe began to do him honor. The laboring classes +everywhere saw in his advancement their own. All peoples sent him +their benedictions. And at this moment of the height of his fame, to +which his humility and modesty added charms, he fell by the hand of +the assassin, and the only triumph awarded him was the march to the +grave. + +This is no time to say that human glory is but dust and ashes; that we +mortals are no more than shadows in pursuit of shadows. How mean a +thing were man if there were not that within him which is higher than +himself; if he could not master the illusions of sense, and discern +the connexions of events by a superior light which comes from God! He +so shares the divine impulses that he has power to subject ambition to +the ennoblement of his kind. Not in vain has LINCOLN lived, for he has +helped to make this republic an example of justice, with no caste but +the caste of humanity. The heroes who led our armies and ships into +battle and fell in the service--Lyon, McPherson, Reynolds, Sedgwick, +Wadsworth, Foote, Ward, with their compeers--did not die in vain; they +and the myriads of nameless martyrs, and he, the chief martyr, gave up +their lives willingly "that government of the people, by the people, +and for the people, shall not perish from the earth." + +The assassination of LINCOLN, who was so free from malice, has, by +some mysterious influence, struck the country with solemn awe, and +hushed, instead of exciting, the passion for revenge. It seems as if +the just had died for the unjust. When I think of the friends I have +lost in this war--and every one who hears me has, like myself, lost +some of those whom he most loved--there is no consolation to be +derived from victims on the scaffold, or from anything but the +established union of the regenerated nation. + +In his character LINCOLN was through and through an American. He is +the first native of the region west of the Alleghenies to attain to +the highest station; and how happy it is that the man who was brought +forward as the natural outgrowth and first fruits of that region +should have been of unblemished purity in private life, a good son, a +kind husband, a most affectionate father, and, as a man, so gentle to +all. As to integrity, Douglas, his rival, said of him: "Lincoln is the +honestest man I ever knew." + +The habits of his mind were those of meditation and inward thought, +rather than of action. He delighted to express his opinions by an +apothegm, illustrate them by a parable, or drive them home by a story. +He was skilful in analysis, discerned with precision the central idea +on which a question turned, and knew how to disengage it and present +it by itself in a few homely, strong old English words that would be +intelligible to all. He excelled in logical statements more than in +executive ability. He reasoned clearly, his reflective judgment was +good, and his purposes were fixed; but, like the Hamlet of his only +poet, his will was tardy in action, and, for this reason, and not from +humility or tenderness of feeling, he sometimes deplored that the duty +which devolved on him had not fallen to the lot of another. + +LINCOLN gained a name by discussing questions which, of all others, +most easily lead to fanaticism; but he was never carried away by +enthusiastic zeal, never indulged in extravagant language, never +hurried to support extreme measures, never allowed himself to be +controlled by sudden impulses. During the progress of the election at +which he was chosen President he expressed no opinion that went beyond +the Jefferson proviso of 1784. Like Jefferson and Lafayette, he had +faith in the intuitions of the people, and read those intuitions with +rare sagacity. He knew how to bide time, and was less apt to run ahead +of public thought than to lag behind. He never sought to electrify the +community by taking an advanced position with a banner of opinion, but +rather studied to move forward compactly, exposing no detachment in +front or rear; so that the course of his administration might have +been explained as the calculating policy of a shrewd and watchful +politician, had there not been seen behind it a fixedness of principle +which from the first determined his purpose, and grew more intense +with every year, consuming his life by its energy. Yet his +sensibilities were not acute; he had no vividness of imagination to +picture to his mind the horrors of the battlefield or the sufferings +in hospitals; his conscience was more tender than his feelings. + +LINCOLN was one of the most unassuming of men. In time of success, he +gave credit for it to those whom he employed, to the people, and to +the Providence of God. He did not know what ostentation is; when he +became President he was rather saddened than elated, and conduct and +manners showed more than ever his belief that all men are born equal. +He was no respecter of persons, and neither rank, nor reputation, nor +services overawed him. In judging of character he failed in +discrimination, and his appointments were sometimes bad; but he +readily deferred to public opinion, and in appointing the head of the +armies he followed the manifest preference of Congress. + +A good President will secure unity to his administration by his own +supervision of the various departments. LINCOLN, who accepted advice +readily, was never governed by any member of his cabinet, and could +not be moved from a purpose deliberately formed; but his supervision +of affairs was unsteady and incomplete, and sometimes, by a sudden +interference transcending the usual forms, he rather confused than +advanced the public business. If he ever failed in the scrupulous +regard due to the relative rights of Congress, it was so evidently +without design that no conflict could ensue, or evil precedent be +established. Truth he would receive from any one, but when impressed +by others, he did not use their opinions till, by reflection, he had +made them thoroughly his own. + +It was the nature of LINCOLN to forgive. When hostilities ceased, he, +who had always sent forth the flag with every one of its stars in the +field, was eager to receive back his returning countrymen, and +meditated "some new announcement to the South." The amendment of the +Constitution abolishing slavery had his most earnest and unwearied +support. During the rage of war we get a glimpse into his soul from +his privately suggesting to Louisiana, that "in defining the franchise +some of the colored people might be let in," saying: "They would +probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of +liberty in the family of freedom." In 1857 he avowed himself "not in +favor of" what he improperly called "negro citizenship," for the +Constitution discriminates between citizens and electors. Three days +before his death he declared his preference that "the elective +franchise were now conferred on the very intelligent of the colored +men, and on those of them who served our cause as soldiers"; but he +wished it done by the States themselves, and he never harbored the +thought of exacting it from a new government, as a condition of its +recognition. + +The last day of his life beamed with sunshine, as he sent, by the +Speaker of this House, his friendly greetings to the men of the Rocky +mountains and the Pacific slope; as he contemplated the return of +hundreds of thousands of soldiers to fruitful industry; as he welcomed +in advance hundreds of thousands of emigrants from Europe; as his eye +kindled with enthusiasm at the coming wealth of the nation. And so, +with these thoughts for his country, he was removed from the toils and +temptations of this life, and was at peace. + +Hardly had the late President been consigned to the grave when the +prime minister of England died, full of years and honors. Palmerston +traced his lineage to the time of the conqueror; LINCOLN went back +only to his grandfather. Palmerston received his education from the +best scholars of Harrow, Edinburg, and Cambridge; LINCOLN'S early +teachers were the silent forests, the prairie, the river, and the +stars. Palmerston was in public life for sixty years; LINCOLN for but +a tenth of that time. Palmerston was a skilful guide of an established +aristocracy; LINCOLN a leader, or rather a companion, of the people. +Palmerston was exclusively an Englishman, and made his boast in the +House of Commons that the interest of England was his Shibboleth; +LINCOLN thought always of mankind, as well as his own country, and +served human nature itself. Palmerston, from his narrowness as an +Englishman, did not endear his country to any one court or to any one +nation, but rather caused general uneasiness and dislike; LINCOLN left +America more beloved than ever by all the peoples of Europe. +Palmerston was self-possessed and adroit in reconciling the +conflicting factions of the aristocracy; LINCOLN, frank and ingenuous, +knew how to poise himself on the ever-moving opinions of the masses. +Palmerston was capable of insolence towards the weak, quick to the +sense of honor, not heedful of right; LINCOLN rejected counsel given +only as a matter of policy, and was not capable of being wilfully +unjust. Palmerston, essentially superficial, delighted in banter, and +knew how to divert grave opposition by playful levity; LINCOLN was a +man of infinite jest on his lips with saddest earnestness at his +heart. Palmerston was a fair representative of the aristocratic +liberality of the day, choosing for his tribunal, not the conscience +of humanity, but the House of Commons; LINCOLN took to heart the +eternal truths of liberty, obeyed them as the commands of Providence, +and accepted the human race as the judge of his fidelity. Palmerston +did nothing that will endure; LINCOLN finished a work which all time +cannot overthrow. Palmerston is a shining example of the ablest of a +cultivated aristocracy; LINCOLN is the genuine fruit of institutions +where the laboring man shares and assists to form the great ideas and +designs of his country. Palmerston was buried in Westminster Abbey by +the order of his Queen, and was attended by the British aristocracy to +his grave, which, after a few years, will hardly be noticed by the +side of the graves of Fox and Chatham; LINCOLN was followed by the +sorrow of his country across the continent to his resting-place in the +heart of the Mississippi valley, to be remembered through all time by +his countrymen, and by all the peoples of the world. + +As the sum of all, the hand of LINCOLN raised the flag; the American +people was the hero of the war; and, therefore, the result is a new +era of republicanism. The disturbances in the country grew not out of +anything republican, but out of slavery, which is a part of the system +of hereditary wrong; and the expulsion of this domestic anomaly opens +to the renovated nation a career of unthought of dignity and glory. +Henceforth our country has a moral unity as the land of free labor. +The party for slavery and the party against slavery are no more, and +are merged in the party of Union and freedom. The States which would +have left us are not brought back as subjugated States, for then we +should hold them only so long as that conquest could be maintained; +they come to their rightful place under the constitution as original, +necessary, and inseparable members of the Union. + +We build monuments to the dead, but no monuments of victory. We +respect the example of the Romans, who never, even in conquered lands, +raised emblems of triumph. And our generals are not to be classed in +the herd of vulgar warriors, but are of the school of Timoleon, and +William of Nassau, and Washington. They have used the sword only to +give peace to their country and restore her to her place in the great +assembly of the nations. + +SENATORS AND REPRESENTATIVES of America: as I bid you farewell, my +last words shall be words of hope and confidence; for now slavery is +no more, the Union is restored, a people begins to live according to +the laws of reason, and republicanism is intrenched in a continent. + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY GOLDWIN SMITH + +Abraham Lincoln is assuredly one of the marvels of history. No land +but America has produced his like. This destined chief of a nation in +its most perilous hour was the son of a thriftless and wandering +settler. He had a strong and eminently fair understanding, with great +powers of patient thought, which he cultivated by the study of Euclid. +In all his views there was the simplicity of his character. Both as an +advocate and as a politician he was "Honest Abe." As an advocate he +would throw up his brief when he knew that his case was bad. He said +himself that he had not controlled events, but had been guided by +them. To know how to be guided by events, however, if it is not +imperial genius, is practical wisdom. Lincoln's goodness of heart, his +sense of duty, his unselfishness, his freedom from vanity, his long +suffering, his simplicity, were never disturbed either by power or by +opposition. To the charge of levity no man could be less open. Though +he trusted in Providence, care for the public and sorrow for the +public calamities filled his heart and sat visibly upon his brow. His +State papers are excellent, not only as public documents, but as +compositions, and are distinguished by their depth of human feeling +and tenderness, from those of other statesmen. He spoke always from +his own heart to the heart of the people. His brief funeral oration +over the graves of those who had fallen in the war is one of the gems +of the language. + + +GREATNESS OF HIS SIMPLICITY + +BY H. A. DELANO + +He was uneducated, as that term goes to-day, and yet he gave statesmen +and educators things to think about for a hundred years to come. +Beneath the awkward, angular and diffident frame beat one of the +noblest, largest, tenderest hearts that ever swelled in aspiration for +truth, or longed to accomplish a freeman's duty. He might have lacked +in that acute analysis which knows the "properties of matter," but he +knew the passions, emotions, and weaknesses of men; he knew their +motives. He had the genius to mine men and strike easily the rich ore +of human nature. He was poor in this world's goods, and I prize +gratefully a fac-simile letter lying among the treasures of my study +written by Mr. Lincoln to an old friend, requesting the favor of a +small loan, as he had entered upon that campaign of his that was not +done until death released the most steadfast hero of that cruel war. +Men speculate as to his religion. It was the religion of the seer, the +hero, the patriot, and the lover of his race and time. Amid the +political idiocy of the times, the corruption in high places, the +dilettante culture, the vaporings of wild and helpless theorists, in +this swamp of political quagmire, O Lincoln, it is refreshing to think +of thee! + + +HORACE GREELEY'S ESTIMATE OF LINCOLN + +From "Greeley on Lincoln" + +When I last saw him, some five or six weeks before his death, his face +was haggard with care, and seamed with thought and trouble. It looked +care-ploughed, tempest-tossed, weather-beaten, as if he were some +tough old mariner, who had for years been beating up against the wind +and tide, unable to make his port or find safe anchorage. Judging from +that scathed, rugged countenance, I do not believe he could have lived +out his second term had no felon hand been lifted against his +priceless life. + +The chief moral I deduce from his eventful career asserts + + The might that slumbers in a peasant's arm! + +the majestic heritage, the measureless opportunity, of the humblest +American youth. Here was an heir of poverty and insignificance, +obscure, untaught, buried throughout his childhood in the frontier +forests, with no transcendent, dazzling abilities, such as make their +way in any country, under any institutions, but emphatically in +intellect, as in station, one of the millions of strivers for a rude +livelihood, who, though attaching himself stubbornly to the less +popular party, and especially so in the State which he has chosen as +his home, did nevertheless become a central figure of the Western +Hemisphere, and an object of honor, love, and reverence throughout the +civilized world. Had he been a genius, an intellectual prodigy, like +Julius Caesar, or Shakespeare, or Mirabeau, or Webster, we might say: +"This lesson is not for us--with such faculties any one could achieve +and succeed"; but he was not a born king of men, ruling by the +resistless might of his natural superiority, but a child of the +people, who made himself a great persuader, therefore a leader by dint +of firm resolve, and patient effort, and dogged perseverance. He +slowly won his way to eminence and renown by ever doing the work that +lay next to him--doing it with all his growing might--doing it as well +as he could, and learning by his failure, when failure was +encountered, how to do it better. Wendell Phillips once coarsely said, +"He grew because we watered him"; which was only true in so far as +this--he was open to all impressions and influences, and gladly +profited by all the teachings of events and circumstances, no matter +how adverse or unwelcome. There was probably no year of his life in +which he was not a wiser, larger, better man than he had been the year +preceding. It was of such a nature--patient, plodding, sometimes +groping, but ever towards the light--that Tennyson sings: + + Perplext in faith, but pure in deeds, + At last he beat his music out. + There lives more faith in honest doubt, + Believe me, than in half the creeds. + +There are those who profess to have been always satisfied with his +conduct of the war, deeming it prompt, energetic, vigorous, masterly. +I did not, and could not, so regard it. I believed then--I believe +this hour,--that a Napoleon I., a Jackson, would have crushed +secession out in a single short campaign--almost in a single victory. +I believed that an advance to Richmond 100,000 strong might have been +made by the end of June, 1861; that would have insured a +counter-revolution throughout the South, and a voluntary return of +every State, through a dispersion and disavowal of its rebel chiefs, +to the councils and the flag of the Union. But such a return would +have not merely left slavery intact--it would have established it on +firmer foundations than ever before. The momentarily alienated North +and South would have fallen on each other's necks, and, amid tears and +kisses, have sealed their reunion by ignominiously making the Black +the scapegoat of their bygone quarrel, and wreaking on him the spite +which they had purposed to expend on each other. But God had higher +ends, to which a Bull Run, a Ball's Bluff, a Gaines's Mill, a +Groveton, were indispensable: and so they came to pass, and were +endured and profited by. The Republic needed to be passed through +chastening, purifying fires of adversity and suffering: so these came +and did their work and the verdure of a new national life springs +greenly, luxuriantly, from their ashes. Other men were helpful to the +great renovation, and nobly did their part in it; yet, looking back +through the lifting mists of seven eventful, tragic, trying, glorious +years, I clearly discern that the one providential leader, the +indispensable hero of the great drama--faithfully reflecting even in +his hesitations and seeming vacillations the sentiment of the +masses--fitted by his very defects and shortcomings for the burden +laid upon him, the good to be wrought out through him, was Abraham +Lincoln. + + +LINCOLN + +BY J. T. TROWBRIDGE + + Heroic soul, in homely garb half hid, + Sincere, sagacious, melancholy, quaint; + What he endured, no less than what he did, + Has reared his monument, and crowned him saint. + + +THE RELIGIOUS CHARACTER OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN[26] + +BY B. B. TYLER + +In 1865, the bullet of an assassin suddenly terminated the life among +men of one who was an honor to his race. He was great and good. He was +great because he was good. Lincoln's religious character was the one +thing which, above all other features of his unique mental and moral +as well as physical personality, lifted him above his fellow men. + +Because an effort has been made to parade Abraham Lincoln as an +unbeliever, I have been led to search carefully for the facts in his +life bearing on this point. The testimony seems to be almost entirely, +if not altogether, on one side. I cannot account for the statement +which William H. Herndon makes in his life of the martyred President, +that, "Mr. Lincoln had no faith." For twenty-five years Mr. Herndon +was Abraham Lincoln's law partner in Springfield, Ill. He had the best +opportunities to know Abraham Lincoln. When, however, he affirms that +"Mr. Lincoln had no faith," he speaks without warrant. It is simply +certain that he uses words in their usually accepted signification, +although his statement concerning Lincoln is not true. + +Abraham Lincoln was a man of profound faith. He believed in God. He +believed in Christ. He believed in the Bible. He believed in men. His +faith made him great. His life is a beautiful commentary on the words, +"This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." There +was a time in Lincoln's experience when his faith faltered, as there +was a time when his reason tottered, but these sad experiences were +temporary, and Abraham Lincoln was neither an infidel nor a lunatic. +It is easy to trace in the life of this colossal character, a steady +growth of faith. This grace in him increased steadily in breadth and +in strength with the passing years, until it came to pass that his +last public utterances show forth the confidence and the fire of an +ancient Hebrew prophet. + +It is true that Lincoln never united with the Church, although a +lifelong and regular attendant on its services. He had a reason for +occupying a position outside the fellowship of the Church of Christ as +it existed in his day and in his part of the world. This reason +Lincoln did not hesitate to declare. He explained on one occasion that +he had never become a church member because he did not like and could +not in conscience subscribe to the long and frequently complicated +statements of Christian doctrines which characterized the confessions +of the Churches. He said: "When any Church will inscribe over its +altar as its sole qualification for membership the Savior's condensed +statement of the substance of both law and gospel, 'Thou shalt love +the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with +all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself,' that Church will I join +with all my heart and soul." + +Abraham Lincoln in these words recognizes the central figure of the +Bible, Jesus of Nazareth, as "the Saviour." He recognizes God as the +supreme Lawgiver, and expresses readiness, while eschewing theological +subtleties, to submit heart and soul to the supreme Lawgiver of the +universe. His faith, according to this language, goes out manward as +well as Godward. He believed not only in God, but he believed in man +as well, and this Christianity, according to Christ, requires of all +disciples of the great Teacher. + +About a year before his assassination Lincoln, in a letter to Joshua +Speed, said: "I am profitably engaged in reading the Bible. Take all +of this book upon reason that you can and the balance on faith, and +you will live and die a better man." He saw and declared that the +teaching of the Bible had a tendency to improve character. He had a +right view of this sacred literature. Its purpose is character +building. + +Leonard Swett, who knew Abraham Lincoln well, said at the unveiling of +the Chicago monument that Lincoln "believed in God as the supreme +ruler of the universe, the guide of men, and the controller of the +great events and destinies of mankind. He believed himself to be an +instrument and leader in this country of the force of freedom." + +From this it appears that his belief was not merely theoretical, but +that it was practical. He regarded himself as an instrument, as Moses +was an instrument in the hands of Almighty God, to lead men into +freedom. + +It was after his election, in the autumn of 1860, and but a short time +before his inauguration as President of the United States, that in a +letter to Judge Joseph Gillespie, he said: "I have read on my knees +the story of Gethsemane, where the Son of God prayed in vain that the +cup of bitterness might pass from Him. I am in the garden of +Gethsemane now, and my cup of bitterness is full and overflowing." + +From this it is clear that he believed the Jesus of the Gospels to be +"the Son of God." And what a sense of responsibility he must at the +time of writing this letter have experienced to cause him to declare, +"I am in the garden of Gethsemane now, and my cup of bitterness is +full and overflowing!" Only a superlatively good man, only a man of +genuine piety, could use honestly such language as this. These words +do not indicate unbelief or agnosticism. If ever a man in public life +in these United States was removed the distance of the antipodes from +the coldness and bleakness of agnosticism, that man was Abraham +Lincoln. This confession of faith, incidentally made in a brief letter +to a dear friend, is not only orthodox according to the accepted +standards of orthodoxy, but, better, it is evangelical. To him the +hero of the Gospel histories was none other than "the Son of God." By +the use of these words did Lincoln characterize Jesus of Nazareth. + +Herndon has said in his life of Abraham Lincoln that he never read the +Bible, but Alexander Williamson, who was employed as a tutor in +President Lincoln's family in Washington, said that "Mr. Lincoln very +frequently studied the Bible, with the aid of Cruden's Concordance, +which lay on his table." If Lincoln was not a reader and student of +the inspired literature which we call the Bible, what explanation can +be made of his language just quoted, addressed to Judge Gillespie, "I +have read on my knees the story of Gethsemane, where the Son of God +prayed in vain that the cup of bitterness might pass from Him"? + +I have admitted that in Lincoln's experience there was a time when his +faith faltered. It is interesting to know in what manner he came to +have the faith which in the maturity of his royal manhood and in the +zenith of his intellectual powers he expressed. One of his +pastors--for he sat under the ministry of James Smith, has told in +what way Lincoln came to be an intelligent believer in the Bible, in +Jesus as the Son of God, and in Christianity as Divine in its origin, +and a mighty moral and spiritual power for the regeneration of men and +of the race. Mr. Smith placed before him, he says, the arguments for +and against the Divine authority and inspiration of the Scriptures. To +the arguments on both sides Lincoln gave a patient, impartial, and +searching investigation. He himself said that he examined the +arguments as a lawyer investigates testimony in a case in which he is +deeply interested. At the conclusion of the investigation he declared +that the arguments in favor of the Divine authority and inspiration of +the Bible is unanswerable. + +So far did Lincoln go in his open sympathy with the teachings of the +Bible that on one occasion in the presence of a large assembly, he +delivered the address at an annual meeting of the Springfield, +Illinois, Bible Society. In the course of his address he drew a +contrast between the decalog and the most eminent lawgiver of +antiquity, in which he said: "It seems to me that nothing short of +infinite wisdom could by any possibility have devised and given to man +this excellent and perfect moral code. It is suited to men in all the +conditions of life, and inculcates all the duties they owe to their +Creator, to themselves, and their fellow men." + +Lincoln prepared an address, in which he declared that this country +cannot exist half slave and half-free. He affirmed the saying of +Jesus, "A house divided against itself cannot stand." Having read this +address to some friends, they urged him to strike out that portion of +it. If he would do so, he could probably be elected to the United +States Senate; but if he delivered the address as written, the ground +taken was so high, the position was so advanced, his sentiments were +so radical, he would probably fail of gaining a seat in the supreme +legislative body of the greatest republic on earth. + +Lincoln, under those circumstances, said: "I know there is a God, and +that He hates the injustice of slavery. I see the storm coming, and I +know that His hand is in it. If He has a place and a 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." + +And yet we are asked to believe that a man who could express himself +in this way and show this courage was a doubter, a skeptic, an +unbeliever, an agnostic, an infidel. "Christ is God." This was +Lincoln's faith in 1860, found in a letter addressed to the Hon. +Newton Bateman. + +Lincoln's father was a Christian. Old Uncle Tommy Lincoln, as his +friends familiarly called him, was a good man. He was what might be +called a ne'er-do-well. As the world counts success, Thomas Lincoln, +the father of Abraham Lincoln, was not successful, but he was an +honest man. He was a truthful man. He was a man of faith. He +worshipped God. He belonged to the church. He was a member of a +congregation in Charleston, Ill., which I had the honor to serve in +the beginning of my ministry, known as the Christian Church. He died +not far from Charleston, and is buried a few miles distant from the +beautiful little town, the county seat of Coles County, Ill. + +During the last illness of his father, Lincoln wrote a letter to his +step-brother, John Johnston, which closes with the following +sentences: "I sincerely hope that father may recover his health, but +at all events tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our +great, and good, and merciful Maker, who will not turn away from him +in any extremity. He notes the fall of the sparrow, and numbers the +hairs of our heads, and He will not forget the dying man who puts his +trust in Him. Say to him that if we could meet now it is doubtful +whether it would not be more painful than pleasant, but that if it be +his lot to go now he will soon have a joyful meeting with loved ones +gone before, and where the rest of us, through the mercy of God, hope +ere long to join them." + +From this it appears that Lincoln cherished a hope of life everlasting +through the mercy of God. This sounds very much like the talk of a +Christian. + +Although Lincoln was not a church member, he was a man of prayer. He +believed that God can hear, does hear, and answer prayer. Lincoln said +in conversation with General Sickles concerning the battle of +Gettysburg, that he had no anxiety as to the result. At this General +Sickles expressed surprise, and inquired into the reason for this +unusual state of mind at that period in the history of the war. +Lincoln hesitated to accede to the request of General Sickles, but was +finally prevailed upon to do so, and this is what he said: + +"Well, I will tell you how it was. In the pinch of your campaign up +there, when everybody seemed panic stricken, and nobody could tell +what was going to happen, oppressed by the gravity of our affairs, I +went into my room one day and locked the door, and got down on my +knees before Almighty God, and prayed to Him mightily for victory at +Gettysburg. I told Him this was His war, and our cause His cause, but +that we could not stand another Fredericksburg or Chancellorsville. +And I then and there made a solemn vow to Almighty God that if He +would stand by our boys at Gettysburg I would stand by Him. And He did +and I will. And after that (I don't know how it was, and I can't +explain it) but soon a sweet comfort crept into my soul that things +would go all right at Gettysburg, and that is why I had no fears +about you." + +Such faith as this will put to the blush many who are members of the +church. + +It was afterward that General Sickles asked him what news he had from +Vicksburg. He answered that he had no news worth mentioning, but that +Grant was still "pegging away" down there, and he thought a good deal +of him as a general, and had no thought of removing him +notwithstanding that he was urged to do so; and, "besides," he added, +"I have been praying over Vicksburg also, and believe our Heavenly +Father is going to give us victory there too, because we need it, in +order to bisect the Confederacy and have the Mississippi flow unvexed +to the sea." + +When he entered upon the task to which the people of the United States +had called him, at the railway station in Springfield on the eve of +his departure to Washington to take the oath of office, he delivered +an address. It is a model. I quote it entire. It is as follows: + +"My friends, no one not in my position can realize the sadness I feel +at this parting. To this people I owe all that I am. Here I have lived +more than a quarter of a century. Here my children were born, and here +one of them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you again. I +go to assume a task more than that which has devolved upon any other +man since the days of Washington. He never would have succeeded except +for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times relied. +I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine blessing which +sustained him, and on the same almighty Being I place my reliance for +support. And I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive +that Divine assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which +success is certain. Again, I bid you an affectionate farewell." + +At the time of Lincoln's assassination these words were printed in a +great variety of forms. In my home for a number of years, beautifully +framed, these parting words addressed to the friends of many years in +Springfield, Ill., ornamented my humble residence. And yet one of his +biographers refers to this address as if its genuineness may well be +doubted. At the time of its delivery it was taken down and published +broadcast in the papers of the day. + +But it would be wearisome to you to recite all the evidences bearing +on the religious character of Abraham Lincoln. John G. Nicolay well +says: "Benevolence and forgiveness were the very basis of his +character; his world-wide humanity is aptly embodied in a phrase of +his second inaugural: 'With malice toward none, with charity for all.' +His nature was deeply religious, but he belonged to no denomination; +he had faith in the eternal justice and boundless mercy of Providence, +and made the Golden Rule of Christ his practical creed." + +In this passage Mr. Nicolay refers especially to Lincoln's second +inaugural address. This address has the ring of an ancient Hebrew +prophet. Only a man of faith and piety could deliver such an address. +After the struggles through which the country had passed Lincoln's +self-poise, his confidence in God, his belief in and affection for his +fellow men, remained unabated. In Lincoln's second inaugural address +he used these words: + +"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 when or even before the conflict itself +should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less +fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible and pray to the +same 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 prayers of both could not be +answered: that of neither has been answered fully. + +"The Almighty has His own purposes. 'Wo unto the world because of +offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but we to that man +by whom the offense cometh.' If we shall suppose that American slavery +is one of those 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 wo due to those by whom the offense came, shall +we discern therein any departure from those divine attributes which +the believers in a living God always ascribe to Him. Fondly do we +hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may +speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the +wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of +unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn +with a lash shall be paid with another drawn by a sword, as was said +three thousand years ago, so still it must be said. 'The judgments of +the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' + +"With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the +work we are in; to bind up the Nation's wounds; to care for him who +shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan--to do +all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among our +selves and with all nations." + +The spirit of this address, under the circumstances, is intensely +Christian, and it is one of the most remarkable speeches in the +literature of the world. + +When Lincoln was urged to issue his Proclamation of Emancipation he +waited on God for guidance. He said to some who urged this matter, who +were anxious to have the President act without delay: "I hope it will +not be irreverent for me to say that, if it is probable that God would +reveal His will to others on a point so connected with my duty, it +might be supposed He would reveal it directly to me, for, unless I am +more deceived in myself that I often am, it is my earnest desire to +know the will of Providence in this matter, and if I can learn what it +is, I will do it." + +Stoddard, in his Life of Lincoln, gives attention beyond any of his +biographers to the religious side of Lincoln's character. Commenting +on the inaugural from which I have quoted, Mr. Stoddard said: + +"His mind and soul have reached the full development in a religious +life so unusually intense and absorbing that it could not otherwise +than utter itself in the grand sentences of his last address to the +people. The knowledge had come, and the faith had come, and the +charity had come, and with all had come the love of God which had put +away all thought of rebellious resistance to the will of God leading, +as in his earlier days of trial, to despair and insanity." + +I wish to call special attention to Lincoln's temperance habits. He +was a teetotaler so far as the use of intoxicating liquors as a +beverage was concerned. When the committee of the Chicago Convention +waited upon Lincoln to inform him of his nomination he treated them to +ice-water and said: + +"Gentlemen, we must pledge our mutual healths in the most healthy +beverage which God has given to man. It is the only beverage I have +ever used or allowed in my family, and I cannot conscientiously depart +from it on the present occasion. It is pure Adam's ale from the +spring." + +Mr. John Hay, one of his biographers, says: "Mr. Lincoln was a man of +exceedingly temperate habits. He made no use of either whisky or +tobacco during all the years that I knew him." + +Abraham Lincoln was a model in every respect but one. It was a mistake +on the part of this great and good man that he never identified +himself openly with the Church. I know what can be said in favor of +his position. It is not, however, satisfactory. If all men were to act +in this matter as Lincoln did, there would be no Church. This is +obvious. Hence the mistake which he made. Otherwise, as to his +personal habits; as to his confidence in God; as to his faith in man; +as to his conception and use of the Bible; as to his habits of prayer; +as to his judicial fairness; as to his sympathy with men--in all these +respects, as in many others, Abraham Lincoln is a character to be +studied and imitated. + +[26] _From 'The Homiletic Review,' Funk & Wagnalls, Publishers._ + + +TO THE SPIRIT OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN[27] + +(Reunion at Gettysburg Twenty-Five Years After the Battle) + +BY RICHARD WATSON GILDER + +1888 + + Shade of our greatest, O look down to day! + Here the long, dread midsummer battle roared, + And brother in brother plunged the accursed sword;-- + Here foe meets foe once more in proud array + Yet not as once to harry and to slay + But to strike hands, and with sublime accord + Weep tears heroic for the souls that soared + Quick from earth's carnage to the starry way. + Each fought for what he deemed the people's good, + And proved his bravery with his offered life, + And sealed his honor with his outpoured blood; + But the Eternal did direct the strife, + And on this sacred field one patriot host + Now calls thee father,--dear, majestic ghost! + +[27] _By permission of Houghton, Mifflin & Company._ + + +LINCOLN AS A TYPICAL AMERICAN + +BY PHILLIPS BROOKS + +While I speak to you to-day, the body of the President who ruled this +people, is lying, honored and loved, in our city. It is impossible, +with that sacred presence in our midst, for me to stand and speak of +ordinary topics which occupy the pulpit. I must speak of him to-day; +and I therefore undertake to do what I have intended to do at some +future time, to invite you to study with me the character of Abraham +Lincoln, the impulse of his life and the causes of his death. I know +how hard it is to do it rightly, how impossible it is to do it +worthily. But I shall speak with confidence, because I speak to those +who love him, and whose ready love will fill out the deficiencies in +a picture which my words will weakly try to draw. + +We take it for granted, first of all, that there is an essential +connection between Mr. Lincoln's character and his violent and bloody +death. It is no accident, no arbitrary decree of Providence. He lived +as he did, and he died as he did, because he was what he was. The more +we see of events the less we come to believe in any fate, or destiny, +except the destiny of character. It will be our duty, then, to see +what there was in the character of our great President that created +the history of his life, and at last produced the catastrophe of his +cruel death. After the first trembling horror, the first outburst of +indignant sorrow, has grown calm, these are the questions which we are +bound to ask and answer. + +It is not necessary for me even to sketch the biography of Mr. +Lincoln. He was born in Kentucky fifty-six years ago, when Kentucky +was a pioneer State. He lived, as a boy and man, the hard and needy +life of a backwoodsman, a farmer, a river boatman, and, finally, by +his own efforts at self-education, of an active, respected, +influential citizen, in the half organized and manifold interests of a +new and energetic community. From his boyhood up he lived in direct +and vigorous contact with men and things, not as in older states and +easier conditions with words and theories; and both his moral +convictions and intellectual opinions gathered from that contact a +supreme degree of that character by which men knew him; that +character which is the most distinctive possession of the best +American nature; that almost indescribable quality which we call, in +general, clearness or truth, and which appears in the physical +structure as health, in the moral constitution as honesty, in the +mental structure as sagacity, and in the region of active life as +practicalness. This one character, with many sides, all shaped of the +same essential force and testifying to the same inner influences, was +what was powerful in him and decreed for him the life he was to live +and the death he was to die. We must take no smaller view then this of +what he was. + +It is the great boon of such characters as Mr. Lincoln's, that they +reunite what God has joined together and man has put asunder. In him +was vindicated the greatness of real goodness and the goodness of real +greatness. The twain were one flesh. Not one of all the multitudes who +stood and looked up to him for direction with such a loving and +implicit trust can tell you to-day whether the wise judgments that he +gave came most from a strong head or a sound heart. If you ask them, +they are puzzled. There are men as good as he, but they do bad things. +There are men as intelligent as he, but they do foolish things. In +him, goodness and intelligence combined and made their best result of +wisdom. For perfect truth consists not merely in the right +constituents of character, but in their right and intimate +conjunction. This union of the mental and moral into a life of +admirable simplicity is what we most admire in children; but in them +it is unsettled and unpractical. But when it is preserved into +manhood, deepened into reliability and maturity, it is that glorified +childlikeness, that high and reverend simplicity, which shames and +baffles the most accomplished astuteness, and is chosen by God to fill +His purposes when He needs a ruler for His people, of faithful and +true heart, such as he had, who was our President. + +Another evident quality of such character as this will be its +freshness or newness, if we may so speak; its freshness or +readiness,--call it what you will,--its ability to take up new duties +and do them in a new way, will result of necessity from its truth and +clearness. The simple natures and forces will always be the most +pliant ones. Water bends and shapes itself to any channel. Air folds +and adapts itself to each new figure. They are the simplest and the +most infinitely active things in nature. So this nature, in very +virtue of its simplicity, must be also free, always fitting itself to +each new need. It will always start from the most fundamental and +eternal conditions, and work in the straightest, even though they be +the newest ways, to the present prescribed purpose. In one word, it +must be broad and independent and radical. So that freedom and +radicalness in the character of Abraham Lincoln were not separate +qualities, but the necessary results of his simplicity and +childlikeness and truth. + +Here then we have some conception of the man. Out of this character +came the life which we admire and the death which we lament to-day. He +was called in that character to that life and death. It was just the +nature, as you see, which a new nation such as ours ought to produce. +All the conditions of his birth, his youth, his manhood, which made +him what he was, were not irregular and exceptional, but were the +normal conditions of a new and simple country. His pioneer home in +Indiana was a type of the pioneer land in which he lived. If ever +there was a man who was a part of the time and country he lived in, +this was he. The same simple respect for labor won in the school of +work and incorporated into blood and muscle; the same unassuming +loyalty to the simple virtues of temperance and industry and +integrity; the same sagacious judgment which had learned to be +quick-eyed and quick-brained in the constant presence of emergency; +the same direct and clear thought about things, social, political and +religious, that was in him supremely, was in the people he was sent to +rule. Surely, with such a type-man for ruler, there would seem to be +but a smooth and even road over which he might lead the people whose +character he represented into the new region of national happiness, +and comfort, and usefulness, for which that character had been +designed. + +The cause that Abraham Lincoln died for shall grow stronger by his +death, stronger and sterner. Stronger to set its pillars deep into the +structure of our Nation's life; sterner to execute the justice of the +Lord upon his enemies. Stronger to spread its arms and grasp our whole +land into freedom; sterner to sweep the last poor ghost of slavery out +of our haunted homes. + +So let him lie there in our midst to-day and let our people go and +bend with solemn thoughtfulness and look upon his face and read the +lessons of his burial. As he passed here on his journey from the +Western home and told us what, by the help of God, he meant to do, so +let him pause upon his way back to his Western grave and tell us, with +a silence more eloquent than words, how bravely, how truly, by the +strength of God, he did it. God brought him up as He brought David up +from the sheep-folds to feed Jacob, His people, and Israel, His +inheritance. He came up in earnestness and faith, and he goes back in +triumph. As he pauses here to-day, and from his cold lips bids us bear +witness how he has met the duty that was laid on him, what can we say +out of our full hearts but this:--"He fed them with a faithful and +true heart, and ruled them prudently with all his power." + +THE SHEPHERD OF THE PEOPLE! that old name that the best rulers ever +craved. What ruler ever won it like this dead President of ours? He +fed us faithfully and truly. He fed us with counsel when we were in +doubt, with inspiration when we sometimes faltered, with caution when +we would be rash, with calm, clear, trustful cheerfulness through many +an hour, when our hearts were dark. He fed hungry souls all over the +country with sympathy and consolation. He spread before the whole land +feasts of great duty and devotion and patriotism, on which the land +grew strong. He fed us with solemn, solid truths. He taught us the +sacredness of government, the wickedness of treason. He made our souls +glad and vigorous with the love of liberty that was in his. He showed +us how to love truth and yet be charitable--how to hate wrong and all +oppression, and yet not treasure one personal injury or insult. He fed +all his people, from the highest to the lowest, from the most +privileged down to the most enslaved. Best of all, he fed us with a +reverent and genuine religion. He spread before us the love and fear +of God just in that shape in which we need them most, and out of his +faithful service of a higher Master, who of us has not taken and eaten +and grown strong? "He fed them with a faithful and true heart." Yes, +till the last. For at the last, behold him standing with hand reached +out to feed the South with mercy, and the North with charity, and the +whole land with peace, when the Lord who had sent him called him, and +his work was done! + +He stood once on the battlefield of our own State, and said of the +brave men who had saved it, words as noble as any countryman of ours +ever spoke. Let us stand in the country he has saved, and which is to +be his grave and monument, and say of Abraham Lincoln what he said of +the soldiers who had died at Gettysburg. He stood there with their +graves before him, and these are the words he said: + +"We cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this +ground. These brave men who struggled here have consecrated it far +beyond our 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 to the unfinished +work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is +rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before +us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that +cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we +here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; and +this nation, under God shall have a new birth of freedom; and that +government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not +perish from the earth." + +May God make us worthy of the memory of Abraham Lincoln! + + +LINCOLN AS CAVALIER AND PURITAN + +BY H. W. GRADY + +The virtues and traditions of both happily still live for the +inspiration of their sons and the saving of the old fashion. But both +Puritan and Cavalier were lost in the storm of their first +revolution, and the American citizen, supplanting both, and stronger +than either, took possession of the Republic bought by their common +blood and fashioned in wisdom, and charged himself with teaching men +free government and establishing the voice of the people as the voice +of God. Great types like valuable plants are slow to flower and fruit. +But from the union of these colonists, from the straightening of their +purposes and the crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through a +century, came he who stands as the first typical American, the first +who comprehended within himself all the strength and gentleness, all +the majesty and grace of this Republic--Abraham Lincoln. He was the +sum of Puritan and Cavalier, for in his ardent nature were fused the +virtues of both, and in the depths of his great soul the faults of +both were lost. He was greater than Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in +that he was American, and that in his homely form were first gathered +the vast and thrilling forces of this ideal government--charging it +with such tremendous meaning and so elevating it above human suffering +that martyrdom, though infamously aimed came as a fitting crown to a +life consecrated from its cradle to human liberty. Let us, each +cherishing his traditions and honoring his fathers, build with +reverent hands to the type of this simple but sublime life, in which +all types are honored, and in the common glory we shall win as +Americans, there will be plenty and to spare for your forefathers and +for mine. + + +LINCOLN, THE TENDER-HEARTED + +BY H. W. BOLTON + +His biography is written in blood and tears; uncounted millions arise +and call him blessed; a redeemed and reunited republic is his +monument. History embalms the memory of Richard the Lion-Hearted; +here, too, our martyr finds loyal sepulture as Lincoln the +tender-hearted. + +He was brave. While assassins swarmed in Washington, he went +everywhere, without guard or arms. He was magnanimous. He harbored no +grudge, nursed no grievance; was quick to forgive, and was anxious for +reconciliation. Hear him appealing to the South: "We are not enemies, +but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, +it must not break, our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of +memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every +loving 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." + +He was compassionate. With what joy he brought liberty to the +enslaved. He was forgiving. In this respect he was strikingly +suggestive of the Saviour. He was great. Time will but augment the +greatness of his name and fame. Perhaps a greater man never ruled in +this or any other nation. He was good and pure and incorruptible. He +was a patriot; he loved his country; he poured out his soul unto death +for it. He was human, and thus touched the chord that makes the whole +world kin. + + +THE CHARACTER OF LINCOLN + +BY W. H. HERNDON (LINCOLN'S LAW PARTNER) + +The true peculiarity of Mr. Lincoln has not been seen by his various +biographers; or, if seen, they have failed wofully to give it that +prominence which it deserves. It is said that Newton saw an apple fall +to the ground from a tree, and beheld the law of the universe in that +fall; Shakespeare saw human nature in the laugh of a man; Professor +Owen saw the animal in its claw; and Spencer saw the evolution of the +universe in the growth of a seed. Nature was suggestive to all these +men. Mr. Lincoln no less saw philosophy in a story, and a schoolmaster +in a joke. No man, no men, saw nature, fact, thing, or man from his +stand-point. His was a new and original position, which was always +suggesting, hinting something to him. Nature, insinuations, hints and +suggestions were new, fresh, original and odd to him. The world, fact, +man, principle, all had their powers of suggestion to his susceptible +soul. They continually put him in mind of something. He was odd, +fresh, new, original, and peculiar, for this reason, that he was a +new, odd, and original creation and fact. He had keen susceptibilities +to the hints and suggestions of nature, which always put him in mind +of something known or unknown. Hence his power and tenacity of what is +called association of ideas must have been great. His memory was +tenacious and strong. His susceptibility to all suggestions and hints +enabled him at will to call up readily the associated and classified +fact and idea. + +As an evidence of this, especially peculiar to Mr. Lincoln, let me ask +one question. Were Mr. Lincoln's expression and language odd and +original, standing out peculiar from those of all other men? What does +this imply? Oddity and originality of vision as well as expression; +and what is expression in words and human language, but a telling of +what we see, defining the idea arising from and created by vision and +view in us? Words and language are but the counterparts of the +idea--the other half of the idea; they are but the stinging, hot, +heavy, leaden bullets that drop from the mold; and what are they in a +rifle with powder stuffed behind them and fire applied, but an +embodied force pursuing their object? So are words an embodied power +feeling for comprehension in other minds. Mr. Lincoln was often +perplexed to give expression to his ideas: first, because he was not +master of the English language: and, secondly, because there were no +words in it containing the coloring, shape, exactness, power, and +gravity of his ideas. He was frequently at a loss for a word, and +hence was compelled to resort to stories, maxims, and jokes to embody +his idea, that it might be comprehended. So true was this peculiar +mental vision of his, that though mankind has been gathering, +arranging, and classifying facts for thousands of years, Lincoln's +peculiar stand-point could give him no advantage of other men's labor. +Hence he tore up to the deep foundations all arrangements of facts, +and coined and arranged new plans to govern himself. He was compelled, +from his peculiar mental organization, to do this. His labor was +great, continuous, patient and all-enduring. + +The truth about this whole matter is that Mr. Lincoln read less and +thought more than any man in his sphere in America. No man can put his +finger on any great book written in the last or present century that +he read. When young he read the Bible, and when of age he read +Shakespeare. This latter book was scarcely ever out of his mind. Mr. +Lincoln is acknowledged to have been a great man, but the question is, +what made him great? I repeat, that he read less and thought more than +any man of his standing in America, if not in the world. He possessed +originality and power of thought in an eminent degree. He was +cautious, cool, concentrated, with continuity of reflection; was +patient and enduring. These are some of the grounds of his wonderful +success. + +Not only was nature, man, fact and principle suggestive to Mr. +Lincoln, not only had he accurate and exact perceptions, but he was +causative, i. e., his mind ran back behind all facts, things and +principles to their origin, history and first cause, to that point +where forces act at once as effect and cause. He would stop and stand +in the street and analyze a machine. He would whittle things to a +point, and then count the numberless inclined planes, and their pitch, +making the point. Mastering and defining this, he would then cut that +point back, and get a broad transverse section of his pine stick, and +peel and define that. Clocks, omnibuses and language, paddle-wheels +and idioms, never escaped his observation and analysis. Before he +could form any idea of anything, before he would express his opinion +on any subject, he must know it in origin and history, in substance +and quality, in magnitude and gravity. He must know his subject inside +and outside, upside and down side. He searched his own mind and nature +thoroughly, as I have often heard him say. He must analyze a +sensation, an idea, and words, and run them back to their origin, +history, purpose and destiny. He was most emphatically a remorseless +analyzer of facts, things and principles. When all these processes had +been well and thoroughly gone through, he could form an opinion and +express it, but no sooner. He had no faith. "Say so's" he had no +respect for, coming though they might from tradition, power or +authority. + +All things, facts and principles had to run through his crucible and +be tested by the fires of his analytic mind; and hence, when he did +speak, his utterances rang out gold-like, quick, keen and current upon +the counters of the understanding. He reasoned logically, through +analogy and comparison. All opponents dreaded him in his originality +of idea, condensation, definition and force of expression, and woe be +to the man who hugged to his bosom a secret error if Mr. Lincoln got +on the chase of it. I say, woe to him! Time could hide the error in no +nook or corner of space in which he would not detect and expose it. + +[Transcriber's Note: Part of this was omitted in original.] + +The great predominating elements of Mr. Lincoln's peculiar character, +were: First, his great capacity and power of reason; secondly, his +excellent understanding; thirdly, an exalted idea of the sense of +right and equity; and, fourthly, his intense veneration of what was +true and good. His reason ruled despotically all other faculties and +qualities of his mind. His conscience and heart were ruled by it. His +conscience was ruled by one faculty--reason. His heart was ruled by +two faculties--reason and conscience. I know it is generally believed +that Mr. Lincoln's heart, his love and kindness, his tenderness and +benevolence, were his ruling qualities; but this opinion is erroneous +in every particular. First, as to his reason. He dwelt in the mind, +not in the conscience, and not in the heart. He lived and breathed and +acted from his reason--the throne of logic and the home of principle, +the realm of Deity in man. It is from this point that Mr. Lincoln must +be viewed. His views were correct and original. He was cautious not to +be deceived; he was patient and enduring. He had concentration and +great continuity of thought; he had a profound analytic power; his +visions were clear, and he was emphatically the master of statement. +His pursuit of the truth was indefatigable, terrible. He reasoned from +his well-chosen principles with such clearness, force, and +compactness, that the tallest intellects in the land bowed to him with +respect. He was the strongest man I ever saw, looking at him from the +stand-point of his reason--the throne of his logic. He came down from +that height with an irresistible and crushing force. His printed +speeches will prove this; but his speeches before courts, especially +before the Supreme Courts of the State and Nation, would demonstrate +it: unfortunately, none of them have been preserved. Here he demanded +time to think and prepare. The office of reason is to determine the +truth. Truth is the power of reason--the child of reason. He loved and +idolized truth for its own sake. It was reason's food. + +Conscience, the second great quality and force of Mr. Lincoln's +character, is that faculty which loves the just: its office is +justice; right and equity are its correlatives. It decides upon all +acts of all people at all times. Mr. Lincoln had a deep, broad, living +conscience. His great reason told him what was true, good and bad, +right, wrong, just or unjust, and his conscience echoed back its +decision; and it was from this point that he acted and spoke and wove +his character and fame among us. His conscience ruled his heart; he +was always just before he was gracious. This was his motto, his glory: +and this is as it should be. It cannot be truthfully said of any +mortal man that he was always just. Mr. Lincoln was not always just; +but his great general life was. It follows that if Mr. Lincoln had +great reason and great conscience, he was an honest man. His great and +general life was honest, and he was justly and rightfully entitled to +the appellation, "Honest Abe." Honesty was his great polar star. + +Mr. Lincoln had also a good understanding; that is, the faculty that +understands and comprehends the exact state of things, their near and +remote relations. The understanding does not necessarily inquire for +the reason of things. I must here repeat that Mr. Lincoln was an odd +and original man; he lived by himself and out of himself. He could not +absorb. He was a very sensitive man, unobtrusive and gentlemanly, and +often hid himself in the common mass of men, in order to prevent the +discovery of his individuality. He had no insulting egotism, and no +pompous pride; no haughtiness, and no aristocracy. He was not +indifferent, however, to approbation and public opinion. He was not an +upstart, and had no insolence. He was a meek, quiet, unobtrusive +gentleman.... Read Mr. Lincoln's speeches, letters, messages and +proclamations, read his whole record in his actual life, and you +cannot fail to perceive that he had good understanding. He understood +and fully comprehended himself, and what he did and why he did it, +better than most living men. + +[Transcriber's Note: Part of this was omitted in original.] + +There are contradictory opinions in reference to Mr. Lincoln's heart +and humanity. One opinion is that he was cold and obdurate, and the +other opinion is that he was warm and affectionate. I have shown you +that Mr. Lincoln first lived and breathed upon the world from his head +and conscience. I have attempted to show you that he lived and +breathed upon the world through the tender side of his heart, subject +at all times and places to the logic of his reason, and to his exalted +sense of right and equity; namely, his conscience. He always held his +conscience subject to his head; he held his heart always subject to +his head and conscience. His heart was the lowest organ, the weakest +of the three. Some men would reverse this order, and declare that his +heart was his ruling organ; that always manifested itself with love, +regardless of truth and justice, right and equity. The question still +is, was Mr. Lincoln a cold, heartless man, or a warm, affectionate +man? Can a man be a warm-hearted man who is all head and conscience, +or nearly so? What, in the first place, do we mean by a warm-hearted +man? Is it one who goes out of himself and reaches for others +spontaneously because of a deep love of humanity, apart from equity +and truth, and does what it does for love's sake? If so, Mr. Lincoln +was a cold man. Or, do we mean that when a human being, man or child, +approached him in behalf of a matter of right, and that the prayer of +such a one was granted, that this is an evidence of his love? The +African was enslaved, his rights were violated, and a principle was +violated in them. Rights imply obligations as well as duties. Mr. +Lincoln was President; he was in a position that made it his duty, +through his sense of right, his love of principle, his constitutional +obligations imposed upon him by oath of office, to strike the blow +against slavery. But did he do it for love? He himself has answered +the question: "I would not free the slaves if I could preserve the +Union without it." I use this argument against his too enthusiastic +friends. If you mean that this is love for love's sake, then Mr. +Lincoln was a warm-hearted man--not otherwise. To use a general +expression, his general life was cold. He had, however, a strong +latent capacity to love; but the object must first come as principle, +second as right, and third as lovely. He loved abstract humanity when +it was oppressed. This was an abstract love, not concrete in the +individual, as said by some. He rarely used the term love, yet was he +tender and gentle. He gave the key-note to his own character when he +said, "with malice toward none, with charity for all," he did what he +did. He had no intense loves, and hence no hates and no malice. He had +a broad charity for imperfect man, and let us imitate his great life +in this. + +"But was not Mr. Lincoln a man of great humanity?" asks a friend at my +elbow, a little angrily; to which I reply, "Has not that question been +answered already?" Let us suppose that it has not. We must understand +each other. What do you mean by humanity? Do you mean that he had much +of human nature in him? If so, I will grant that he was a man of +humanity. Do you mean, if the above definition is unsatisfactory, +that Mr. Lincoln was tender and kind? Then I agree with you. But if +you mean to say that he so loved a man that he would sacrifice truth +and right for him, for love's sake, then he was not a man of humanity. +Do you mean to say that he so loved man, for love's sake, that his +heart led him out of himself, and compelled him to go in search of the +objects of his love, for their sake? He never, to my knowledge, +manifested this side of his character. Such is the law of human +nature, that it cannot be all head, all conscience, and all heart at +one and the same time in one and the same person. Our Maker made it +so, and where God through reason blazed the path, walk therein boldly. +Mr. Lincoln's glory and power lay in the just combination of head, +conscience, and heart, and it is here that his fame must rest, or not +at all. + +Not only were Mr. Lincoln's perceptions good; not only was nature +suggestive to him; not only was he original and strong; not only had +he great reason, good understanding; not only did he love the true and +good--the eternal right; not only was he tender and kind--but in due +proportion and in legitimate subordination, had he a glorious +combination of them all. Through his perceptions--the suggestiveness +of nature, his originality and strength; through his magnificent +reason, his understanding, his conscience, his tenderness and +kindness, his heart, rather than love--he approximated as nearly as +most human beings in this imperfect state to an embodiment of the +great moral principle, "Do unto others as ye would they should do +unto you." + + +"WITH CHARITY FOR ALL" + +BY WILLIAM T. SHERMAN + +I know, when I left him, that I was more than ever impressed by his +kindly nature, his deep and earnest sympathy with the afflictions of +the whole people, resulting from the war, and by the march of hostile +armies through the South; and that his earnest desire seemed to be to +end the war speedily, without more bloodshed or devastation, and to +restore all the men of both sections to their homes. In the language +of his second inaugural address he seemed to have "charity for all, +malice toward none," and, above all, an absolute faith in the courage, +manliness, and integrity of the armies in the field. When at rest or +listening, his legs and arms seemed to hang almost lifeless, and his +face was care-worn and haggard; but the moment he began to talk his +face lightened up, his tall form, as it were, unfolded, and he was the +very impersonation of good-humor and fellowship. The last words I +recall as addressed to me were that he would feel better when I was +back at Goldsboro'. We parted at the gang-way of the River Queen about +noon of March 28th, and I never saw him again. Of all the men I ever +met, he seemed to possess more of the elements of greatness, combined +with goodness, than any other. + + +LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY + +IDA VOSE WOODBURY + + Again thy birthday dawns, O man beloved, + Dawns on the land thy blood was shed to save, + And hearts of millions, by one impulse moved, + Bow and fresh laurels lay upon thy grave. + + The years but add new luster to thy glory, + And watchmen on the heights of vision see + Reflected in thy life the old, old story, + The story of the Man of Galilee. + + We see in thee the image of Him kneeling + Before the close-shut tomb, and at the word + "Come forth," from out the blackness long concealing + There rose a man; clearly again was heard + + The Master's voice, and then, his cerements broken, + Friends of the dead a living brother see; + Thou, at the tomb where millions lay, hast spoken: + "Loose him and let him go!"--the slave was free. + + And in the man so long in thraldom hidden + We see the likeness of the Father's face, + Clod changed to soul; by thy atonement bidden, + We hasten to the uplift of a race. + + Spirit of Lincoln! Summon all thy loyal; + Nerve them to follow where thy feet have trod, + To prove, by voice as clear and deed as royal, + Man's brotherhood in our one Father--God. + + +FEBRUARY TWELFTH + +BY MARY H. HOWLISTON + +It was early in the evening in a shop where flags were sold. + +There were large flags, middle-sized flags, small flags and little +bits of flags. The finest of all was Old Glory. Old Glory was made of +silk and hung in graceful folds from the wall. + +"Attention!" called Old Glory. + +Starry eyes all over the room looked at him. + +"What day of the month is it?" + +"February Twelfth," quickly answered the flags. + +"Whose birthday is it?" "Abraham Lincoln's." + +"Where is he buried?" "Springfield, Illinois." + +"Very well," said Old Glory, "you are to take some of Uncle Sam's +children there to-night." + +"Yes, captain," said the flags, wondering what he meant. + +"First, I must know whether you are good American flags. How many red +stripes have you?" + +"Seven!" was the answer. + +"How many white stripes?" "Six!" + +"How many stars?" "Forty-five!" shouted the large flags. + +The little ones said nothing. + +"Ah, I see," said Old Glory, "but you are not to blame. Do you see +that open transom?" he went on. "Go through it into the street, put +your staffs into the hands of any little boys you find and bring them +here." + +"Yes, captain," called the flags, as they fluttered away. + +Last of all, Old Glory pulled his silken stripes into the hallway and +waited for the flags to come back. "It's much too cold for little +girls," he said to himself. "Their pretty noses might freeze." + +By and by the flags came back, each bringing a small boy. Old Glory +looked at them. + +"What's the matter?" said he; "you don't seem pleased." + +No one spoke, the little boys stared with round eyes at Old Glory, but +held tightly to the flags. + +At last one of the flags said: "Please, captain, these are the only +little boys we could find." + +"Well!" said Old Glory. + +"And we think they don't belong to Uncle Sam," was the answer. + +"Why not?" said Old Glory. + +"Some of them are ragged," called one flag. + +"And some are dirty," said another. + +"This one is a colored boy," said another. + +"Some of them can't speak English at all." + +"The one I found, why, he blacks boots!" + +"And mine is a newsboy." + +"Mine sleeps in a dry goods box." + +"Mine plays a violin on the street corner." + +"Just look at mine, captain!" said the last flag proudly, when the +rest were through. + +"What about him?" asked Old Glory. + +"I'm sure he belongs to Uncle Sam; he lives in a brown-stone house and +he wears such good clothes!" + +"Of course I belong to Uncle Sam," said the brown-stone boy quickly, +"but I think these street boys do not." + +"There, there!" said Old Glory; "I'll telephone to Washington and find +out," and Old Glory floated away. + +The little boys watched and waited. + +Back came Old Glory. + +"It's all right," said he, "Uncle Sam says every one of you belongs to +him and he wants you to be brave and honest, for some day he may need +you for soldiers; oh, yes! and he said, 'Tell those poor little chaps +who have such a hard time of it and no one to help them, that Mr. +Lincoln was a poor boy too, and yet he was the grandest and best of +all my sons.'" + +The moon was just rising. + +It made the snow and ice shine. + +"It's almost time," said Old Glory softly. + +"Hark! you must not wink, nor cough nor sneeze nor move for +three-quarters of a minute!" + +That was dreadful! + +The newsboy swallowed a cough. + +The boot-black held his breath for fear of sneezing. + +The brown-stone boy shut his eyes so as not to wink. + +They all stood as if turned to stone. + +Tinkle, tinkle, tinkle, came a faint sound of bells. + +Nothing else was heard but the beating of their own hearts. + +In exactly three-quarters of a minute, Old Glory said, "What do you +think of that?" + +Behold! a wonderful fairy sleigh, white as a snowdrift, and shining in +the moonlight as if covered with diamond dust. + +It was piled high with softest cushions and robes of fur. + +It was drawn by thirteen fairy horses, with arching necks and flowing +manes and tails. + +Each horse wore knots of red, white and blue at his ears and the lines +were wound with ribbons of the same. + +"Jump in," said Old Glory. + +Into the midst of the cushions and furs they sprang. + +Crack went the whip, tinkle went the bells. Over the house-tops, +through the frosty air, among the moonbeams, up and away sailed fairy +horses and sleigh, American flags and Uncle Sam's boys. + +Santa Claus with his reindeer never went faster. + +Presently the tinkling bells were hushed, and the fairy horses stood +very still before the tomb of Abraham Lincoln. + +"Come," said Old Glory, and he led them inside. + +You must get your father or mother to tell you what they saw there. + +Just before they left, a dirty little hand touched Old Glory and a +shrill little voice said: "I'd like to leave my flag here. May I?" + +"And may I?" said another. + +Old Glory looked around and saw the same wish in the other faces. + +"You forget," said he, "that the flags are not yours. It would not be +right to keep them. What did the people call Mr. Lincoln? You don't +know? Well, I'll tell you. It was 'Honest Old Abe,' and Uncle Sam +wants you to be like him." + +Again the merry bells tinkled, again the proud horses, with their +flowing manes and tails, sprang into the air, and before the moon had +said "good-night" to the earth, they were back at the flag shop. + +The very moment they reached it, horses and sleigh, cushions and +robes, melted away and the children saw them no more. + + +TWO FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS + +(Exercise for the Schoolroom) + +BY LIZZIE M. HADLEY AND CLARA J. DENTON + +FOR EIGHT BOYS. + +This dialogue, or exercise, is to be given by eight boys. While they +and the school are singing the first song the boys march upon the +stage and form into a semicircle, the four boys speaking for +Washington on the right, the other four (for Lincoln) on the left. +Portraits of Washington and Lincoln should be placed in a convenient +position on the stage beneath a double arch wreathed with evergreens. +The portraits should be draped with American flags. Each one of the +boys should wear a small American flag pinned to his coat. + +SONG. TUNE, _Rally 'Round the Flag_ + + We are marching from the East, + We are marching from the West, + Singing the praises of a nation. + That all the world may hear + Of the men we hold so dear, + Singing the praises of a nation. + +CHORUS + + For Washington and Lincoln, + Hurrah, all hurrah, + Sing as we gather + Here from afar, + Yes, for Washington and Lincoln, + Let us ever sing, + Sing all the praises of a nation. + + Yes, we love to sing this song, + As we proudly march along, + Singing the praises of the heroes. + Through this great and happy land, + We would sound their names so grand. + Singing the praises of our heroes. + +CHORUS + +ALL: We have come to tell you of two men whose names must be linked +together as long as the nation shall stand, Washington and Lincoln. +They stand for patriotism, goodness, truth and true manliness. Hand in +hand they shall go down the centuries together. + +FIRST SPEAKER ON THE WASHINGTON SIDE: Virginia sends you greeting. I +come in her name in honor of her illustrious son, George Washington, +and she bids me tell you that he was born in her state, Feb. 22, 1732. + +ALL: 'Twas years and years ago. + +FIRST SPEAKER: Yes, more than a hundred and seventy, nearly two +centuries. + +ALL: A long time to be remembered. + +FIRST SPEAKER: Yes, but Washington's name is still cherished and +honored all over the land which his valor and wisdom helped save, and, +for generations yet to come, the children of the schools shall give +him a million-tongued fame. + +SECOND SPEAKER: Virginia bids me tell you that as a boy, Washington +was manly, brave, obedient and kind, and that he never told a lie. + +SONG: (Either as solo or chorus). AIR, _What Can the Matter Be?_ + + Dear, dear, who can believe it? + Dear, dear, who can conceive it? + Dear, dear, we scarce can believe that + Never did he tell a lie. + + O, surely temptation must oft have assailed him, + But courage and honor we know never failed him, + So let us all follow his wondrous example, + And never, no never tell lies. + And never, no never, tell lies. + +THIRD SPEAKER: A brave and manly boy, he began work early in life, +and, in 1748, when only sixteen years old, he was a surveyor of lands, +and took long tramps into the wilderness. In 1775 came the +Revolutionary War, and he was appointed commander-in-chief of the +American Army. In 1787 he was elected president of the convention +which framed the constitution of our country. + +FOURTH SPEAKER: In 1789 he was chosen first president of the United +States. He was re-elected in 1793 and, at the close of the second term +he retired to private life at his beautiful and beloved home, Mt. +Vernon. He died there, Dec. 14, 1799, honored and mourned by the whole +nation, and leaving to the world a life which is a "pattern for all +public men, teaching what greatness is and what is the pathway to +undying fame," and richly deserving the title, "Father of his +country." + +ALL: "First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his +countrymen," he was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes +of private life. + +BOYS REPRESENTING LINCOLN: Washington was a great and good man, and +so, too, was the man whom we delight to honor, whose title, "Honest +Abe," has passed into the language of our times as a synonym for all +that is just and honest in man. + +FIRST SPEAKER ON THE LINCOLN SIDE: Kentucky is proud to claim Abraham +Lincoln as one of her honored sons, and she bids me say that he was +born in that state in Hardin County, Feb. 12, 1809. Indiana, too, +claims him, he was her son by adoption, for, when but seven years old, +his father moved to the southwestern part of that state. Illinois also +has a claim upon him. It was there that he helped build a log cabin +for a new home, and split rails to fence in a cornfield. Afterwards he +split rails for a suit of clothes, one hundred rails for every yard of +cloth, and so won the name, "The Rail-splitter." + +SECOND SPEAKER: In 1828 he became a flat-boatman and twice went down +the river to New Orleans. In 1832 he served as captain of a company in +the Black Hawk War. After the war he kept a country store, and won a +reputation for honesty. Then, for a while, he was a surveyor, next, a +lawyer, and in 1834 he was elected to the Legislature of Illinois. + +THIRD SPEAKER: In 1846 he was made a member of Congress, in 1860 he +was elected president of the United States. + +FOURTH SPEAKER: The Civil War followed, and in 1864 he was elected +president for the second term. On April 14 he was shot by an assassin +and died on the morning of the 15th. + +SONG BY SCHOOL: AIR, _John Brown's Body_ + + In spite of changing seasons of the years that come and go, + Still his name to-day is cherished in the hearts of friend and foe, + And the land for which he suffered e'er shall honor him we know, + While truth goes marching on. + +CHORUS + +BOTH GROUPS TOGETHER: To both these men, George Washington and Abraham +Lincoln, we, the children of the nation, owe a debt of gratitude which +we can only repay by a lifetime of work, for God, humanity, and our +country. Both have left behind them words of wisdom, which, if heeded, +will make us wiser and better boys and girls, and so wiser and better +men and women. + +TWO BOYS FROM THE WASHINGTON GROUP: Washington said, "Without virtue +and without integrity, the finest talents and the most brilliant +accomplishments can never gain the respect or conciliate the esteem of +the most valuable part of mankind." + +TWO BOYS FROM THE LINCOLN GROUP: Lincoln said, "I have one vote, and I +shall always cast that against wrong as long as I live." + +TWO BOYS FROM WASHINGTON GROUP: "If to please the people we offer what +we ourselves disapprove, how can we afterwards defend our work?" + +TWO BOYS FROM LINCOLN GROUP: Lincoln said, "In every event of life, it +is right makes might." + + ALL: O, wise and great! + Their like, perchance, we ne'er shall see again, + But let us write their golden words upon the hearts of men. + +SONG: TUNE _"America"_ + + Turn now unto the past, + There, long as life shall last, + Their names you'll find. + Faithful and true and brave, + Sent here our land to save. + Men whom our father gave, + Brave, true, and kind. + +(_Exeunt_) + + + + +VIII + +LINCOLN'S PLACE IN HISTORY + + +THE THREE GREATEST AMERICANS + +BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT + +As the generations slip away, as the dust of conflict settles, and as +through the clearing air we look back with keener vision into the +Nation's past, mightiest among the mighty dead, loom up the three +great figures of Washington, Lincoln and Grant. These three greatest +men have taken their places among the great men of all nations, the +great men of all times. They stood supreme in the two great crises of +our history, in the two great occasions, when we stood in the van of +all humanity, and struck the most effective blows that have ever been +struck for the cause of human freedom under the law. + + +HIS CHOICE AND HIS DESTINY + +BY F. M. BRISTOL + +As God appeared to Solomon and Joseph in dreams to urge them to make +wise choices for the power of great usefulness, so it would appear +that in their waking dreams the Almighty appeared to such +history-making souls as Paul and Constantine, Alfred the Great, +Washington, and Lincoln. It was the commonest kind of a life this +young Lincoln was living on the frontier of civilization, but out of +that commonest kind of living came the uncommonest kind of character +of these modern years, the sublimest liberative power in the history +of freedom. Lincoln felt there, as a great awkward boy, that God and +history had something for him to do. He dreamed his destiny. He chose +to champion the cause of the oppressed. He vowed that when the chance +came he would deal slavery a hard blow. When he came to his high +office, he came with a character which had been fitting itself for its +grave responsibilities. He had been making wise choices on the great +questions of human rights, of national union, of constitutional +freedom, of universal brotherhood. + + +FROM "REMINISCENCES OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN"[28] + +BY ROBERT G. INGERSOLL + +Strange mingling of mirth and tears, of the tragic and grotesque, of +cap and crown, of Socrates and Rabelais, of Æsop and Marcus Aurelius, +of all that is gentle and just, humorous and honest, merciful, wise, +laughable, lovable and divine, and all consecrated to the use of man; +while through all, and over all, an overwhelming sense of obligation, +of chivalric loyalty to truth, and upon all the shadow of the tragic +end. + +Nearly all the great historic characters are impossible monsters, +disproportioned by flattery, or by calumny deformed. We know nothing +of their peculiarities, or nothing but their peculiarities. About the +roots of these oaks there clings none of the earth of humanity. +Washington is now only a steel engraving. About the real man who lived +and loved and hated and schemed we know but little. The glass through +which we look at him is of such high magnifying power that the +features are exceedingly indistinct. Hundreds of people are now +engaged in smoothing out the lines of Lincoln's face--forcing all +features to the common mold--so that he may be known, not as he really +was, but, according to their poor standard, as he should have been. + +Lincoln was not a type. He stands alone--no ancestors, no fellows, and +no successors. He had the advantage of living in a new country, of +social equality, of personal freedom, of seeing in the horizon of his +future the perpetual star of hope. He preserved his individuality and +his self-respect. He knew and mingled with men of every kind; and, +after all, men are the best books. He became acquainted with the +ambitions and hopes of the heart, the means used to accomplish ends, +the springs of action and the seeds of thought. He was familiar with +nature, with actual things, with common facts. He loved and +appreciated the poem of the year, the drama of the seasons. + +In a new country, a man must possess at least three virtues--honesty, +courage and generosity. In cultivated society, cultivation is often +more important than soil. A well executed counterfeit passes more +readily than a blurred genuine. It is necessary only to observe the +unwritten laws of society--to be honest enough to keep out of prison, +and generous enough to subscribe in public--where the subscription can +be defended as an investment. In a new country, character is +essential; in the old, reputation is sufficient. In the new, they find +what a man really is; in the old, he generally passes for what he +resembles. People separated only by distance are much nearer together +than those divided by the walls of caste. + +It is no advantage to live in a great city, where poverty degrades and +failure brings despair. The fields are lovelier than paved streets, +and the great forests than walls of brick. Oaks and elms are more +poetic than steeples and chimneys. In the country is the idea of home. +There you see the rising and setting sun; you become acquainted with +the stars and clouds. The constellations are your friends. You hear +the rain on the roof and listen to the rhythmic sighing of the winds. +You are thrilled by the resurrection called Spring, touched and +saddened by Autumn, the grace and poetry of death. Every field is a +picture, a landscape; every landscape, a poem; every flower, a tender +thought; and every forest, a fairy-land. In the country you preserve +your identity--your personality. There you are an aggregation of +atoms, but in the city you are only an atom of an aggregation. + +Lincoln never finished his education. To the night of his death he +was a pupil, a learner, an inquirer, a seeker after knowledge. You +have no idea how many men are spoiled by what is called education. For +the most part, colleges are places where pebbles are polished and +diamonds are dimmed. If Shakespeare had graduated at Oxford, he might +have been a quibbling attorney or a hypocritical parson. + +Lincoln was a many-sided man, acquainted with smiles and tears, +complex in brain, single in heart, direct as light; and his words, +candid as mirrors, gave the perfect image of his thought. He was never +afraid to ask--never too dignified to admit that he did not know. No +man had keener wit or kinder humor. He was not solemn. Solemnity is a +mask worn by ignorance and hypocrisy--it is the preface, prologue, and +index to the cunning or the stupid. He was natural in his life and +thought--master of the story-teller's art, in illustration apt, in +application perfect, liberal in speech, shocking Pharisees and prudes, +using any word that wit could disinfect. + +He was a logician. Logic is the necessary product of intelligence and +sincerity. It cannot be learned. It is the child of a clear head and a +good heart. He was candid, and with candor often deceived the +deceitful. He had intellect without arrogance, genius without pride, +and religion without cant--that is to say, without bigotry and without +deceit. + +He was an orator--clear, sincere, natural. He did not pretend. He did +not say what he thought others thought, but what he thought. If you +wish to be sublime you must be natural--you must keep close to the +grass. You must sit by the fireside of the heart; above the clouds it +is too cold. You must be simple in your speech: too much polish +suggests insincerity. The great orator idealizes the real, +transfigures the common, makes even the inanimate throb and thrill, +fills the gallery of the imagination with statues and pictures perfect +in form and color, brings to light the gold hoarded by memory, the +miser--shows the glittering coin to the spendthrift, hope--enriches +the brain, ennobles the heart, and quickens the conscience. Between +his lips, words bud and blossom. + +If you wish to know the difference between an orator and an +elocutionist--between what is felt and what is said--between what the +heart and brain can do together and what the brain can do alone--read +Lincoln's wondrous words at Gettysburg, and then the speech of Edward +Everett. The oration of Lincoln will never be forgotten. It will live +until languages are dead and lips are dust. The speech of Everett will +never be read. The elocutionists believe in the virtue of voice, the +sublimity of syntax, the majesty of long sentences, and the genius of +gesture. The orator loves the real, the simple, the natural. He places +the thought above all. He knows that the greatest ideas should be +expressed in the shortest words--that the greatest statues need the +least drapery. + +Lincoln was an immense personality--firm but not obstinate. Obstinacy +is egotism--firmness, heroism. He influenced others without effort, +unconsciously; and they submitted to him as men submit to nature, +unconsciously. He was severe with himself, and for that reason lenient +with others. He appeared to apologize for being kinder than his +fellows. He did merciful things as stealthily as others committed +crimes. Almost ashamed of tenderness, he said and did the noblest +words and deeds with that charming confusion--that awkwardness--that +is the perfect grace of modesty. As a noble man, wishing to pay a +small debt to a poor neighbor, reluctantly offers a hundred-dollar +bill and asks for change, fearing that he may be suspected either of +making a display of wealth or a pretense of payment, so Lincoln +hesitated to show his wealth of goodness, even to the best he knew. A +great man stooping, not wishing to make his fellows feel that they +were small or mean. + +He knew others, because perfectly acquainted with himself. He +cared nothing for place, but everything for principle; nothing +for money, but everything for independence. Where no principle was +involved, easily swayed--willing to go slowly, if in the right +direction--sometimes willing to stop, but he would not go back, and he +would not go wrong. He was willing to wait. He knew that the event was +not waiting, and that fate was not the fool of chance. He knew that +slavery had defenders, but no defense, and that they who attack the +right must wound themselves. He was neither tyrant nor slave. He +neither knelt nor scorned. With him, men were neither great nor +small,--they were right or wrong. Through manners, clothes, titles, +rags and race he saw the real--that which is. Beyond accident, policy, +compromise and war he saw the end. He was patient as Destiny, whose +undecipherable hieroglyphs were so deeply graven on his sad and tragic +face. + +Nothing discloses real character like the use of power. It is easy for +the weak to be gentle. Most people can bear adversity. But if you wish +to know what a man really is, give him power. This is the supreme +test. It is the glory of Lincoln that, having almost absolute power, +he never abused it, except upon the side of mercy. + +Wealth could not purchase, power could not awe this divine, this +loving man. He knew no fear except the fear of doing wrong. Hating +slavery, pitying the master--seeking to conquer, not persons, but +prejudices--he was the embodiment of the self-denial, the courage, the +hope, and the nobility of a nation. He spoke, not to inflame, not to +upbraid, but to convince. He raised his hands, not to strike, but in +benediction. He longed to pardon. He loved to see the pearls of joy on +the cheeks of a wife whose husband he had rescued from death. + +Lincoln was the grandest figure of the fiercest civil war. He is the +gentlest memory of our world. + +[Transcriber's Note: Part of this was omitted in original.] + +[28] _By permission of Mr. C. P. Farrell._ + + +LINCOLN[29] + +PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR + + Hurt was the Nation with a mighty wound, + And all her ways were filled with clam'rous sound, + Wailed loud the South with unremitting grief, + And wept the North that could not find relief. + Then madness joined its harshest tone to strife: + A minor note swelled in the song of life + Till, stirring with the love that filled his breast, + But still, unflinching at the Right's behest + Grave Lincoln came, strong-handed, from afar,-- + The mighty Homer of the lyre of war! + 'Twas he who bade the raging tempest cease, + Wrenched from his strings the harmony of peace, + Muted the strings that made the discord,--Wrong, + And gave his spirit up in thund'rous song. + Oh, mighty Master of the mighty lyre! + Earth heard and trembled at thy strains of fire: + Earth learned of thee what Heav'n already knew, + And wrote thee down among her treasured few! + +[29] _By permission of Mrs. Mathilde Dunbar._ + + +THE GRANDEST FIGURE[30] + +BY WALT WHITMAN + +Glad am I to give even the most brief and shorn testimony in memory of +Abraham Lincoln. Everything I heard about him authentically, and every +time I saw him (and it was my fortune through 1862 to '65 to see, or +pass a word with, or watch him, personally, perhaps twenty or thirty +times), added to and annealed my respect and love at the passing +moment. And as I dwell on what I myself heard or saw of the mighty +Westerner, and blend it with the history and literature of my age, and +conclude it with his death, it seems like some tragic play, superior +to all else I know--vaster and fierier and more convulsionary, for +this America of ours, than Eschylus or Shakespeare ever drew for +Athens or for England. And then the Moral permeating, underlying all! +the Lesson that none so remote, none so illiterate--no age, no +class--but may directly or indirectly read! + +Abraham Lincoln's was really one of those characters, the best of +which is the result of long trains of cause and effect--needing a +certain spaciousness of time, and perhaps even remoteness, to properly +enclose them--having unequaled influence on the shaping of this +Republic (and therefore the world) as to-day, and then far more +important in the future. Thus the time has by no means yet come for a +thorough measurement of him. Nevertheless, we who live in his era--who +have seen him, and heard him, face to face, and in the midst of, or +just parting from, the strong and strange events which he and we have +had to do with, can in some respects bear valuable, perhaps +indispensable testimony concerning him. + +How does this man compare with the acknowledged "Father of his +country?" Washington was modeled on the best Saxon and Franklin of the +age of the Stuarts (rooted in the Elizabethan period)--was essentially +a noble Englishman, and just the kind needed for the occasions and the +times of 1776-'83. Lincoln, underneath his practicality, was far less +European, far more Western, original, essentially non-conventional, +and had a certain sort of out-door or prairie stamp. One of the best +of the late commentators on Shakespeare (Professor Dowden), makes the +height and aggregate of his quality as a poet to be, that he +thoroughly blended the ideal with the practical or realistic. If this +be so, I should say that what Shakespeare did in poetic expression, +Abraham Lincoln essentially did in his personal and official life. I +should say the invisible foundations and vertebrae of his character, +more than any man's in history, were mystical, abstract, moral and +spiritual--while upon all of them was built, and out of all of them +radiated, under the control of the average of circumstances, what the +vulgar call horse-sense, and a life often bent by temporary but most +urgent materialistic and political reasons. + +He seems to have been a man of indomitable firmness (even obstinacy) +on rare occasions, involving great points; but he was generally very +easy, flexible, tolerant, respecting minor matters. I note that even +those reports and anecdotes intended to level him down, all leave the +tinge of a favorable impression of him. As to his religious nature, it +seems to me to have certainly been of the amplest, deepest-rooted +kind. + +Dear to Democracy, to the very last! And among the paradoxes generated +by America not the least curious, was that spectacle of all the kings +and queens and emperors of the earth, many from remote distances, +sending tributes of condolence and sorrow in memory of one raised +through the commonest average of life--a rail-splitter and +flat-boatman! + +Considered from contemporary points of view--who knows what the future +may decide?--and from the points of view of current Democracy and The +Union (the only thing like passion or infatuation in the man was the +passion for the Union of these States), Abraham Lincoln seems to me +the grandest figure yet, on all the crowded canvas of the Nineteenth +Century. + +[30] _By permission of David McKay._ + + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN + +BY LYMAN ABBOTT + +To comprehend the current of history sympathetically, to appreciate +the spirit of the age, prophetically, to know what God, by His +providence, is working out in the epoch and the community, and so to +work with him as to guide the current and embody in noble deeds the +spirit of the age in working out the divine problem,--this is true +greatness. The man who sets his powers, however gigantic, to stemming +the current and thwarting the divine purposes, is not truly great. + +Abraham Lincoln was made the Chief Executive of a nation whose +Constitution was unlike that of any other nation on the face of the +globe. We assume that, ordinarily, public sentiment will change so +gradually that the nation can always secure a true representative of +its purpose in the presidential chair by an election every four years. +Mr. Lincoln held the presidential office at a time when public +sentiment was revolutionized in less than four years.... It was the +peculiar genius of Abraham Lincoln, that he was able, by his +sympathetic insight, to perceive the change in public sentiment +without waiting for it to be formulated in any legislative action; to +keep pace with it, to lead and direct it, to quicken laggard spirits, +to hold in the too ardent, too impetuous, and too hasty ones, and +thus, when he signed the emancipation proclamation, to make his +signature, not the act of an individual man, the edict of a military +imperator, but the representative act of a great nation. He was the +greatest President in American History, because in a time of +revolution he grasped the purposes of the American people and embodied +them in an act of justice and humanity which was in the highest sense +the act of the American Republic. + + +LINCOLN THE IMMORTAL + +'ADDRESS FOR LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY' + +ANONYMOUS + +From Cæsar to Bismarck and Gladstone the world has had its soldiers +and its statesmen, who rose to eminence and power step by step through +a series of geometrical progression, as it were, each promotion +following in regular order, the whole obedient to well-established and +well-understood laws of cause and effect. These were not what we call +"men of destiny." They were men of the time. They were men whose +career had a beginning, a middle and an end, rounding off a life with +a history, full, it may be, of interesting and exciting events, but +comprehensible and comprehensive, simple, clear, complete. + +The inspired men are fewer. Whence their emanation, where and how they +got their power, and by what rule they lived, moved and had their +being, we cannot see. There is no explication to these lives. They +rose from shadow and went in mist. We see them, feel them, but we know +them not. They arrived, God's word upon their lips; they did their +office, God's mantle upon them; and they passed away God's holy light +between the world and them, leaving behind a memory half mortal and +half myth. From first to last they were distinctly the creations of +some special providence, baffling the wit of man to fathom, defeating +the machinations of the world, the flesh and the devil until their +work was done, and passed from the scene as mysteriously as they had +come upon it; Luther, to wit; Shakespeare, Burns, even Bonaparte, the +archangel of war, havoc and ruin; not to go back into the dark ages +for examples of the hand of God stretched out to raise us, to protect +and to cast down. + +Tried by this standard and observed in an historic spirit, where shall +we find an illustration more impressive than in Abraham Lincoln, whose +life, career and death might be chanted by a Greek chorus as at once +the prelude and the epilogue of the most imperial theme of modern +times. + +Born as low as the Son of God in a hovel, of what real parentage we +know not; reared in penury, squalor, with no gleam of light, nor fair +surroundings; a young manhood vexed by weird dreams and visions, +bordering at times on madness; singularly awkward, ungainly, even +among the uncouth about him; grotesque in his aspects and ways, it was +reserved for this strange being, late in life, without name or fame or +ordinary preparation, to be snatched from obscurity, raised to +supreme command, and entrusted with the destiny of a nation. + +The great leaders of his party were made to stand aside; the most +experienced and accomplished men of the day, men like Seward and Chase +and Sumner, statesmen famous and trained, were sent to the rear; while +this comparatively unknown and fantastic figure was brought by unseen +hands to the front and given the reins of power. It is entirely +immaterial whether we believe in what he said or did, whether we are +for him or against him; but for us to admit that during four years, +carrying with them such a pressure of responsibility as the world has +never witnessed before, he filled the measure of the vast space +allotted him in the actions of mankind and in the eyes of the world, +is to say that he was inspired of God, for nowhere else could he have +acquired the enormous equipment indispensable to the situation. + +Where did Shakespeare get his genius? Where did Mozart get his music? +Whose hand smote the lyre of the Scottish plowman? and stayed the life +of the German priest? God alone; and, so surely as these were raised +up by God, inspired by God was Abraham Lincoln, and, a thousand years +hence, no story, no tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with greater +wonder than that which tells of his life and death. If Lincoln was not +inspired of God, then were not Luther, or Shakespeare, or Burns. If +Lincoln was not inspired by God, then there is no such thing on earth +as special providence or the interposition of divine power in the +affairs of men. + + +THE CRISIS AND THE HERO + +BY FREDERIC HARRISON + +The great struggle which has for ever decided the cause of slavery of +man to man, is, beyond all question, the most critical which the world +has seen since the great revolutionary outburst. If ever there was a +question which was to test political capacity and honesty it was this. +A true statesman, here if ever, was bound to forecast truly the issue, +and to judge faithfully that cause at stake. We know now, it is beyond +dispute, that the cause which won was certain to win in the end, that +its reserve force was absolutely without limit, that its triumph was +one of the turning-points in modern civilization. It was morally +certain to succeed, and it did succeed with an overwhelming and mighty +success. From first to last both might and right went all one way. The +people of England went wholly that way. The official classes went +wholly some other way. + +One of the great key-notes of England's future is simply this--what +will be her relations with that great republic? If the two branches of +the Anglo-Saxon race are to form two phases of one political movement, +their welfare and that of the world will be signally promoted. If +their courses are marred by jealousies or contests, both will be +fatally retarded. Real confidence and sympathy extended to that people +in the hour of their trial would have forged an eternal bond between +us. To discredit and distrust them, then, was to sow deep the seeds of +antipathy. Yet, although a union in feeling was of importance so +great, although so little would have secured it, the governing classes +of England wantonly did all they could to foment a breach. + +A great political judgment fell upon a race of men, our own brothers; +the inveterate social malady they inherited came to a crisis. We +watched it gather with exultation and insult. There fell on them the +most terrible necessity which can befall men, the necessity of +sacrificing the flower of their citizens in civil war, of tearing up +their civil and social system by the roots, of transforming the most +peaceful type of society into the most military. We magnified and +shouted over every disaster; we covered them with insult; we filled +the world with ominous forebodings and unjust accusations. There came +on them one awful hour when the powers of evil seemed almost too +strong; when any but a most heroic race would have sunk under the +blows of their traitorous kindred. We chose that moment to give actual +succour to their enemy, and stabbed them in the back with a wound +which stung their pride even more than it crippled their strength. +They displayed the most splendid examples of energy and fortitude +which the modern world has seen, with which the defence of Greece +against Asia, and of France against Europe, alone can be compared in +the whole annals of mankind. They developed almost ideal civic virtues +and gifts; generosity, faith, firmness; sympathy the most affecting, +resources the most exhaustless, ingenuity the most magical. They +brought forth the most beautiful and heroic character who in recent +times has ever led a nation, the only blameless type of the statesman +since the days of Washington. Under him they created the purest model +of government which has yet been seen on the earth--a whole nation +throbbing into one great heart and brain, one great heart and brain +giving unity and life to a whole nation. The hour of their success +came; unchequered in the completeness of its triumph, unsullied by any +act of vengeance, hallowed by a great martyrdom. + + +LINCOLN[31] + +BY JOHN VANCE CHENEY + + The hour was on us; where the man? + The fateful sands unfaltering ran, + And up the way of tears + He came into the years, + + Our pastoral captain. Forth he came, + As one that answers to his name; + Nor dreamed how high his charge, + His work how fair and large,-- + + To set the stones back in the wall + Lest the divided house should fall, + And peace from men depart, + Hope and the childlike heart. + + We looked on him; "'Tis he," we said, + "Come crownless and unheralded, + The shepherd who will keep + The flocks, will fold the sheep." + + Unknightly, yes; yet 'twas the mien + Presaging the immortal scene, + Some battle of His wars + Who sealeth up the stars. + + Not he would take the past between + His hands, wipe valor's tablets clean, + Commanding greatness wait + Till he stand at the gate; + + Not he would cramp to one small head + The awful laurels of the dead, + Time's mighty vintage cup, + And drink all honor up. + + No flutter of the banners bold, + Borne by the lusty sons of old, + The haughty conquerors + Sent forward to their wars; + + Not his their blare, their pageantries, + Their goal, their glory, was not his; + Humbly he came to keep + The flocks, to fold the sheep. + + The need comes not without the man; + The prescient hours unceasing ran, + And up the way of tears + He came into the years, + + Our pastoral captain, skilled to crook + The spear into the pruning hook, + The simple, kindly man, + Lincoln, American. + +[31] _By permission of 'The Interior,' Chicago._ + + +MAJESTIC IN HIS INDIVIDUALITY + +BY J. P. NEWMAN + +Human glory is often fickle as the winds, and transient as a summer +day, but Abraham Lincoln's place in history is assured. All the +symbols of this world's admiration are his. He is embalmed in song; +recorded in history; eulogized in panegyric; cast in bronze; +sculptured in marble; painted on canvas; enshrined in the hearts of +his countrymen, and lives in the memories of mankind. Some men are +brilliant in their times, but their words and deeds are of little +worth to history; but his mission was as large as his country, vast as +humanity, enduring as time. No greater thought can ever enter the +human mind than obedience to law and freedom for all. Some men are not +honored by their contemporaries, and die neglected. Here is one more +honored than any other man while living, more revered when dying, and +destined to be loved to the last syllable of recorded time. He has +this three-fold greatness,--great in life, great in death, great in +the history of the world. Lincoln will grow upon the attention and +affections of posterity, because he saved the life of the greatest +nation, whose ever-widening influence is to bless humanity. Measured +by this standard, Lincoln shall live in history from age to age. + +Great men appear in groups, and in groups they disappear from the +vision of the world; but we do not love or hate men in groups. We +speak of Gutenberg and his coadjutors, of Washington and his generals, +of Lincoln and his cabinet: but when the day of judgment comes, we +crown the inventor of printing; we place the laurel on the brow of the +father of his country, and the chaplet of renown upon the head of the +saviour of the Republic. + +Some men are great from the littleness of their surroundings; but he +only is great who is great amid greatness. Lincoln had great +associates,--Seward, the sagacious diplomatist; Chase, the eminent +financier; Stanton, the incomparable Secretary of War; with +illustrious Senators and soldiers. Neither could take his part nor +fill his position. And the same law of the coming and going of great +men is true of our own day. In piping times of peace, genius is not +aflame, and true greatness is not apparent; but when the crisis comes, +then God lifts the curtain from obscurity, and reveals the man for the +hour. + +Lincoln stands forth on the page of history, unique in his character, +and majestic in his individuality. Like Milton's angel, he was an +original conception. He was raised up for his times. He was a leader +of leaders. By instinct the common heart trusted in him. He was of the +people and for the people. He had been poor and laborious; but +greatness did not change the tone of his spirit, or lessen the +sympathies of his nature. His character was strangely symmetrical. He +was temperate, without austerity; brave, without rashness; constant, +without obstinacy. His love of justice was only equalled by his +delight in compassion. His regard for personal honor was only excelled +by love of country. His self-abnegation found its highest expression +in the public good. His integrity was never questioned. His honesty +was above suspicion. He was more solid than brilliant; his judgment +dominated his imagination; his ambition was subject to his modesty, +and his love of justice held the mastery over all personal +considerations. Not excepting Washington, who inherited wealth and +high social position, Lincoln is the fullest representative American +in our national annals. He had touched every round in the human +ladder. He illustrated the possibilities of our citizenship. We are +not ashamed of his humble origin. We are proud of his greatness. + + + + +IX + +LINCOLN'S YARNS AND SAYINGS + + +THE QUESTION OF LEGS + +Whenever the people of Lincoln's neighborhood engaged in dispute; +whenever a bet was to be decided; when they differed on points of +religion or politics; when they wanted to get out of trouble, or +desired advice regarding anything on the earth, below it, above it, or +under the sea, they went to "Abe." + +Two fellows, after a hot dispute lasting some hours, over the problem +as to how long a man's legs should be in proportion to the size of his +body, stamped into Lincoln's office one day and put the question to +him. + +Lincoln listened gravely to the arguments advanced by both +contestants, spent some time in "reflecting" upon the matter, and +then, turning around in his chair and facing the disputants, delivered +his opinion with all the gravity of a judge sentencing a fellow-being +to death. + +"This question has been a source of controversy," he said, slowly and +deliberately, "for untold ages, and it is about time it should be +definitely decided. It has led to bloodshed in the past, and there is +no reason to suppose it will not lead to the same in the future. + +"After much thought and consideration, not to mention mental worry and +anxiety, it is my opinion, all side issues being swept aside, that a +man's lower limbs, in order to preserve harmony of proportion, should +be at least long enough to reach from his body to the ground." + + +A FAMOUS STORY--HOW LINCOLN WAS PRESENTED WITH A KNIFE! + +"In the days when I used to be 'on the circuit,'" said Lincoln, "I was +accosted in the cars by a stranger, who said: + +"'Excuse me, sir, but I have an article in my possession which belongs +to you.' + +"'How is that?' I asked, considerably astonished. + +"The stranger took a jack-knife from his pocket. 'This knife,' said +he, 'was placed in my hands some years ago, with the injunction that I +was to keep it until I found a man uglier than myself. I have carried +it from that time to this. Allow me now to say, sir, that I think you +are fairly entitled to the property.'" + + +"FOOLING" THE PEOPLE + +Lincoln was a strong believer in the virtue of dealing honestly with +the people. + +"If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow-citizens," he said +to a caller at the White House, "you can never regain their respect +and esteem. + +"It is true that you may fool all the people some of the time; you can +even fool some of the people all the time; but you can't fool all of +the people all the time." + + +LINCOLN'S NAME FOR "WEEPING WATER" + +"I was speaking one time to Mr. Lincoln," said Governor Saunders, of +Nebraska, "of a little Nebraskan settlement on the Weeping Waters, a +stream in our State." + +"'Weeping Water!'" said he. + +"Then with a twinkle in his eye, he continued. + +"'I suppose the Indians out there call it Minneboohoo, don't they? +They ought to, if Laughing Water is Minnehaha in their language.'" + + +LINCOLN'S CONFAB WITH A COMMITTEE ON GRANT'S WHISKY + +Just previous to the fall of Vicksburg, a self-constituted committee, +solicitous for the morale of our armies, took it upon themselves to +visit the President and urge the removal of General Grant. + +In some surprise Mr. Lincoln inquired, "For what reason?" + +"Why," replied the spokesman, "he drinks too much whisky." + +"Ah!" rejoined Mr. Lincoln, dropping his lower lip. "By the way, +gentlemen, can either of you tell me where General Grant procures his +whisky? because, if I can find out, I will send every general in the +field a barrel of it!" + + +MILD REBUKE TO A DOCTOR + +Dr. Jerome Walker, of Brooklyn, told how Mr. Lincoln once administered +to him a mild rebuke. The doctor was showing Mr. Lincoln through the +hospital at City Point. + +"Finally, after visiting the wards occupied by our invalid and +convalescing soldiers," said Dr. Walker, "we came to three wards +occupied by sick and wounded Southern prisoners. With a feeling of +patriotic duty, I said: 'Mr. President, you won't want to go in there; +they are only rebels.' + +"I will never forget how he stopped and gently laid his large hand +upon my shoulder and quietly answered, 'You mean Confederates!' And I +have meant Confederates ever since. + +"There was nothing left for me to do after the President's remark but +to go with him through these three wards; and I could not see but that +he was just as kind, his hand-shakings just as hearty, his interest +just as real for the welfare of the men, as when he was among our own +soldiers." + + + + +X + +FROM LINCOLN'S SPEECHES AND WRITINGS + + +LINCOLN'S LIFE AS WRITTEN BY HIMSELF + +The compiler of the "Dictionary of Congress" states that while +preparing that work for publication in 1858, he sent to Mr. Lincoln +the usual request for a sketch of his life, and received the following +reply: + +"Born February 12, 1809, in Hardin Co., Kentucky. + +Education Defective. Profession a Lawyer. Have been a Captain of +Volunteers in Black Hawk War. Postmaster at a very small office. Four +times a member of the Illinois Legislature, and was a member of the +Lower House of Congress. + + Yours, etc. + A. Lincoln." + + +THE INJUSTICE OF SLAVERY + +(_Speech at Peoria, Ill., October 16, 1854_) + +This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert zeal, for the +spread of slavery, I cannot but hate. I hate it because of the +monstrous injustice of slavery itself; I hate it because it deprives +our republic of an example of its just influence in the world; enables +the enemies of free institutions with plausibility to taunt us as +hypocrites; causes the real friends of freedom to doubt our sincerity; +and, especially, because it forces so many really good men among +ourselves into an open war with the very fundamental principles of +civil liberty, criticising the Declaration of Independence and +insisting that there is no right principle of action but +self-interest. + +The doctrine of self-government is right,--absolutely and eternally +right,--but it has no just application, as here attempted. Or, +perhaps, I should rather say, that whether it has such just +application depends upon whether a negro is not, or is, a man. If he +is not a man, in that case he who is a man may, as a matter of +self-government, do just what he pleases with him. But if the negro is +a man, is it not to that extent a total destruction of self-government +to say that he, too, shall not govern himself? + +When the white man governs himself that is self-government; but when +he governs himself, and also governs another man, that is more than +self-government--that is despotism. + +What I do say is, that no man is good enough to govern another man +without that other's consent. + +The master not only governs the slave without his consent, but he +governs him by a set of rules altogether different from those which he +prescribes for himself. Allow all the governed an equal voice in the +government; that, and that only, is self-government. + +Slavery is founded in the selfishness of man's nature--opposition to +it, in his love of justice. These principles are an eternal +antagonism; and when brought into collision so fiercely as slavery +extension brings them, shocks and throes and convulsions must +ceaselessly follow. + +Repeal the Missouri Compromise--repeal all compromise--and repeal the +Declaration of Independence--repeal all past history--still you cannot +repeal human nature. + +I particularly object to the new position which the avowed principles +of the Nebraska law gives to slavery in the body politic. I object to +it, because it assumes that there can be moral right in the enslaving +of one man by another. I object to it as a dangerous dalliance for a +free people,--a sad evidence that feeling prosperity, we forget +right,--that liberty as a principle we have ceased to revere. + +Little by little, but steadily as man's march to the grave, we have +been giving up the old for the new faith. Near eighty years ago we +began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that +beginning we have run down to the other declaration that for some men +to enslave others is a 'sacred right of self-government.' These +principles cannot stand together. They are as opposite as God and +Mammon. + +Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us purify +it. Let us turn and wash it white, in the spirit, if not in the blood, +of the Revolution. + +Let us turn slavery from its claims of 'moral right' back upon its +existing legal rights, and its arguments of 'necessity.' Let us return +it to the position our fathers gave it, and there let it rest in +peace. + +Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and the practices and +policy which harmonize with it. Let North and South--let all +Americans--let all lovers of liberty everywhere, join in the great and +good work. + +If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union, but shall have +so saved it, as to make and to keep it forever worthy of saving. We +shall have so saved it that the succeeding millions of free, happy +people, the world over, shall rise up and call us blessed to the +latest generations. + + +SPEECH AT COOPER INSTITUTE, FEBRUARY 27, 1860 + +I defy anyone to show that any living man in the whole world ever did, +prior to the beginning of the present century (and I might almost say +prior to the beginning of the last half of the present century), +declare that, in his understanding, any proper division of local from +Federal authority, or any part of the Constitution, forbade the +Federal Government to control as to slavery in the Federal +Territories. + +To those who now so declare, I give, not only 'our fathers who framed +the government under which we live,' but with them all other living +men within the century in which it was framed, among whom to search, +and they shall not be able to find the evidence of a single man +agreeing with them. + +I do not mean to say we are bound to follow implicitly in whatever our +fathers did. To do so would be to discard all the lights of current +experience, to reject all progress, all improvement. What I do say is, +that if we would supplant the opinions and policy of our fathers in +any case, we should do so upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so +clear, that even their authority, fairly considered and weighed, +cannot stand; and most surely not in a case whereof we ourselves +declare they understood the question better than we. + +Let all who believe that 'our fathers, who framed the government under +which we live,' understood this question just as well, and even +better, than we do now, speak as they spoke, and act as they acted +upon it. + +It is exceedingly desirable that all parts of this great confederacy +shall be at peace, and in harmony, one with another. Let us +Republicans do our part to have it so. Even though much provoked, let +us do nothing through passion and ill-temper. + +Even though the Southern people will not so much as listen to us, let +us calmly consider their demands, and yield to them if, in our +deliberate view of our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say +and do, and by the subject and nature of their controversy with us, +let us determine, if we can, what will satisfy them. + +Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford to let it alone where +it is, because that much is due to the necessity arising from its +actual presence in the nation. But can we, while our votes will +prevent it, allow it to spread into the national Territories, and to +overrun us here in these free States? + +If our sense of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty, +fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none of those +sophistical contrivances wherewith we are so industriously plied and +belabored--contrivances such as groping for some middle ground between +the right and wrong, vain as the search for a man who should be +neither a living man nor a dead man; such as a policy of 'don't care' +on a question about which all true men do care; such as Union appeals +beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, reversing the +divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, but the righteous to +repentance; such as invocations to Washington imploring men to unsay +what Washington said, and undo what Washington did. + +Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith, let us, +to the end, dare to do our duty, as we understand it. + + +FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1861 + +Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States, +that by the occasion of a Republican administration, their property +and their peace and personal security are to be endangered. There has +never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the +most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and +been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published +speeches of him who now addresses you. + +I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I declared that "I +have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the +institution of slavery, in the States where it 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 the full +knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had +never recanted them. I now reiterate these 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 any wise endangered by the now +incoming administration. + +I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with +no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical +rules; and, while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of +Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much +safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to +and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate +any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be +unconstitutional. + +It is seventy-two years since the first inauguration of a president +under our national constitution. During that period, fifteen different +and very distinguished citizens have in succession administered the +executive branch of the government. They have conducted it through +many perils, and generally with great success. Yet, with this scope +for precedent, I now enter upon the same task, for the brief +constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar +difficulties. + +I hold, that in the contemplation of universal law and the +Constitution, the union of these States is perpetual. Perpetuity is +implied, if not expressed, in the fundamental law of all national +governments. It is safe to assert that no government proper ever had a +provision in its organic law for its own termination. Continue to +execute all the express provisions of our national Constitution, and +the Union will endure forever. + +To those, however, who really love the Union may I not speak? Before +entering upon so grave a matter as the destruction of our national +fabric, with all its benefits, its memories, and its hopes, would it +not be well to ascertain why we do it? Will you hazard so desperate a +step while any portion of the ills you fly from have no real +existence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are greater +than all the real ones you fly from? Will you risk the commission of +so fearful a mistake? + +All profess to be content in the Union if all constitutional rights +can be maintained. Is it true, then, that any right plainly written in +the Constitution has been denied? I think not. Happily, the human mind +is so constituted that no party can reach to the audacity of doing +this. + +All the vital rights of minorities and of individuals are so plainly +assured to them by affirmations and negations, guarantees and +prohibitions, in the Constitution, that controversies never arise +concerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed with a +provision specifically applicable to every question which may occur in +practical administration. No foresight can anticipate, nor any +document of reasonable length contain, express provision for all +possible questions. + +Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered by National or by State +authority? The Constitution does not expressly say. Must Congress +protect slavery in the Territories? The Constitution does not +expressly say. + +From questions of this class spring all our constitutional +controversies, and we divide upon them into majorities and minorities. +If the minority will not acquiesce, the majority must, or the +government must cease. There is no alternative for continuing the +government but acquiescence on the one side or the other. + +If the minority will secede rather than acquiesce, they make a +precedent which, in turn, will ruin and divide them; for a minority of +their own will secede from them whenever a majority refuses to be +controlled by such a minority. For instance, why should not any +portion of a new confederacy, a year or two hence, arbitrarily secede +again, precisely as portions of the present Union now claim to secede +from it? + +All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being educated to the +exact temper of doing this. Is there such perfect identity of interest +among the States to compose a new union as to produce harmony only, +and prevent renewed secession? Plainly, the central idea of secession +is the essence of anarchy. + +Physically speaking, we cannot separate; we cannot move our respective +sections from each other, nor build an impassable wall between them. A +husband and wife may be divorced, and go out of the presence and +beyond the reach of each other; but the different parts of our country +cannot do this. They cannot but remain face to face; and intercourse, +either amicable or hostile, must continue between them. + +Is it possible, then, to make that intercourse more advantageous or +more satisfactory after separation than before? Suppose you go to war, +you cannot fight always; and when, after much loss on both sides, and +no gain on either, you cease fighting, the identical questions as to +terms of intercourse are again upon you. + +Why should there not be patient confidence in the ultimate justice of +the people? Is there any better or equal hope in the world? In our +present differences is either party without faith of being in the +right? If the Almighty Ruler of nations with His eternal truth and +justice be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that +truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this +great tribunal of the American people. + +By the frame of government under which we live, this same people have +wisely given their public servants but little power for mischief, and +have with equal wisdom provided for the return of that little to their +own hands at very short intervals. While the people retain their +virtue and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme of wickedness +or folly, can very seriously injure the Government in the short space +of four years. + +My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well upon the whole +subject--nothing valuable can be lost by taking time. If there be an +object to hurry any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would +never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taking +time, but no good object can be frustrated by it. Such of you as are +now dissatisfied still have the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on +the sensitive point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the +new administration will have no immediate power if it wanted to change +either. If it were admitted that you who are dissatisfied hold the +right side in the dispute, there still is no single good reason for +precipitate action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm +reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this favored land, are +still competent to adjust in the best way all our present +difficulties. + +In your hands, my dissatisfied countrymen, and not in mine, is the +momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You +can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have +no oath registered in heaven to destroy the government, while I shall +have the most solemn one to preserve, protect, and defend it. + +I am about 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 loving 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. + + +LETTER TO HORACE GREELEY + +The Administration, during the early months of the war for the Union, +was greatly perplexed as to the proper mode of dealing with slavery, +especially in the districts occupied by the Union forces. In the +summer of 1862, when Mr. Lincoln was earnestly contemplating his +Proclamation of Emancipation, Horace Greeley, the leading Republican +editor, published in his paper, the New York Tribune, a severe article +in the form of a letter addressed to the President, taking him to task +for failing to meet the just expectations of twenty millions of loyal +people. Thereupon Mr. Lincoln sent him the following letter:-- + + EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, + AUGUST 22, 1862. + +HON. HORACE GREELEY. + +_Dear Sir:_ I have just read yours of the 19th, addressed to myself +through the New York Tribune. If there be in it any statements or +assumptions of fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now and +here controvert them. If there be in it any inferences which I may +believe to be falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue against them. +If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone, I +waive it in deference to an old friend, whose heart I have always +supposed to be right. As to the policy I "seem to be pursuing," as you +say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. + +I would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest way under the +Constitution. The sooner the National authority can be restored, the +nearer the Union will be "The Union as it was." If there be those who +would not save the Union unless they could at the same time destroy +slavery, I do not agree with them. My paramount object in this +struggle is to save the Union and is not either to save or destroy +Slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would +do it; and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, I would do +it; and if I could do it by freeing some and leaving others alone, I +would also do that. What I do about Slavery and the colored race, I do +because I believe it helps to save this Union; and what I forbear, I +forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I +shall do less, whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the +cause; and I shall do more, whenever I shall believe doing more will +help the cause. I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; +and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true +views. I have here stated my purpose according to my view of official +duty, and I intend no modification of my oft-expressed personal wish +that all men, everywhere, could be free. + + Yours, + A. LINCOLN. + + +EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION + +(_Issued January 1, 1863_) + +Now therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, by +virtue of the power vested in me as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and +Navy, in a time of actual armed rebellion against the authority of the +Government of the United States, 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 date of the first +above-mentioned order, designate as the States and parts of States +therein the people whereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion +against the United States, the following, to wit: + +Arkansas, Texas and Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, +Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, +Assumption, Terrebonne, La Fourche, St. Mary, St. Martin and Orleans, +including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, +Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the +forty-eight counties designated as West Virginia, and also the +counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabeth City, York, +Princess Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and +Portsmouth), which excepted parts are for the present left precisely +as if this proclamation were not issued; and by virtue of the power +and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all persons +held as slaves within designated States, or 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 the said persons; and I +hereby enjoin upon the people so declared free to abstain from all +violence, unless in necessary self-defense; and I recommend to them +that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable +wages. And I further declare and make known that such persons, of +suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the +United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other +places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. + +And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, +warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the +considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty +God. + + +THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION + +(_Issued October 3, 1863_) + +The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the +blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, +which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source +from which they come, others have been added, which are of so +extraordinary a nature that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften +even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful +Providence of Almighty God. + +In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which +has sometimes seemed to invite and provoke the aggression of foreign +states, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been +maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has +prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict. + +The needful diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of +peaceful industry to the national defense has not arrested the plow, +the shuttle, or the ship. + +The ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as +well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even +more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, +notwithstanding the waste that has been made by the camp, the siege, +and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness +of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of +years with large increase of freedom. + +No human council hath devised, nor hath any mortal hand worked out, +these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, +who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless +remembered mercy. + +It seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, +reverentially, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and +voice, by the whole American people. + +I recommend too, that, while offering up the ascriptions justly due to +Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with +humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, +commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, +mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are +unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the +Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it, as +soon as may be consistent with divine purposes, to the full enjoyment +of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union. + + +ADDRESS ON THE BATTLEFIELD OF GETTYSBURG + +(_At the Dedication of the Cemetery, November 19, 1863_) + +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 battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field as a final resting place for those who here gave +their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and +proper that we should do this. + +But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate--we cannot 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 devotion--that we here highly +resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain--that this nation, +under God, shall have a new birth of freedom--and that government of +the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the +earth. + + +REMARKS TO NEGROES IN THE STREETS OF RICHMOND + +The President walked through the streets of Richmond--without a guard +except a few seamen--in company with his son "Tad," and Admiral +Porter, on the 4th of April, 1865, the day following the evacuation of +the city. Colored people gathered about him on every side, eager to +see and thank their liberator. Mr. Lincoln addressed the following +remarks to one of these gatherings: + +My poor friends, you are free--free as air. You can cast off the name +of slave and trample upon it; it will come to you no more. Liberty is +your birthright. God gave it to you as he gave it to others, and it +is a sin that you have been deprived of it for so many years. + +But you must try to deserve this priceless boon. Let the world see +that you merit it, and are able to maintain it by your good works. +Don't let your joy carry you into excesses; learn the laws, and obey +them. Obey God's commandments, and thank Him for giving you liberty, +for to Him you owe all things. There, now, let me pass on; I have but +little time to spare. I want to see the Capitol, and must return at +once to Washington to secure to you that liberty which you seem to +prize so highly. + + +SECOND INAUGURAL ADDRESS, MARCH 4, 1865 + +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 statement, somewhat in detail, of +a course to be pursued seemed 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, little 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 myself, 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 avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered +from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, +insurgents' agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without +war--seeking to dissolve the Union and divide its 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. + +The prayer of both could not be answered--those of neither have 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 whom the offense cometh." + +If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of those 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 North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those +by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from +those divine attributes which the believers in a living God always +ascribe to Him? + +Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of +war may soon pass away. + +Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the +bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be +sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn 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, "The judgments of the Lord are true and +righteous altogether." + +With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the +right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish +the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds; to care for him +who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and for his orphan; +to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among +ourselves, and with all nations. + + +THE END. + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Table of Contents Part VI: +A section of Tributes beginning on Page 191 is not included in the +table. Unchanged. + +Table of Contents Part VII: +A section called 'Lincoln, The Tender-Hearted' by H. W. Botton +should be by H. W. Bolton. Changed. + +Table of Contents Part IX: +A section called "'Fooling' the People" on page 360 is not included +in the table of contents. Unchanged. + +Table of Contents Part IX: +A section called 'Lincoln's confab with a Committee on Grant's Whisky' +is not included in the table of contents. Unchanged. + +Page 3: +more definite than a similarity of Christain names +Typo: Changed to [Christian]. + +Page 82: +answer inpregnable with facts. +Spelling of inpregnable is probably correct for that time. Unchanged. + +Page 95: +buy and exhibit him as a zoological curriosity. +Likely misspelling. Changed to curiosity + +Page 278: +fac-simile +Spelled as in original. Unchanged. + +Hyphenation appears as either option in original: + + careworn/care-worn + deathblow/death-blow + dooryard/door-yard + lifelong/life-long + masterpiece/master-piece + stepbrother/step-brother + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Our American Holidays: Lincoln's +Birthday, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LINCOLN'S BIRTHDAY *** + +***** This file should be named 21267-8.txt or 21267-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/2/6/21267/ + +Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Leonard Johnson and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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