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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/37818-8.txt b/37818-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f0103ca --- /dev/null +++ b/37818-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3563 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketch of the life of Abraham Lincoln, by +Isaac Newton Arnold + +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: Sketch of the life of Abraham Lincoln + +Author: Isaac Newton Arnold + +Release Date: October 22, 2011 [EBook #37818] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCH OF LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + [Illustration: Abraham Lincoln (signature) + ABRAHAM LINCOLN. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.] + + _Eng^d by H. B. Hall Jr. from a Photo by Brady & Co._ + + Published by Jno. B. Bachelder. + NEW YORK. + + + + + SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + COMPILED IN MOST PART + + FROM THE + + HISTORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY. + + PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. CLARK AND CO., CHICAGO. + + BY + ISAAC N. ARNOLD + + + JOHN B. BACHELDER, PUBLISHER, + 59 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. + 1869. + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by + JOHN B. BACHELDER, + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for + the Southern District of New York. + + ALVORD, PRINTER. + + + + +PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. + + +Time out of mind, words prefatory have been considered indispensable to +the successful publication of a book. This sketch of the LIFE and DEATH +of ABRAHAM LINCOLN is intended as an accompaniment to the Historical +Painting which has rescued from oblivion, and, with almost perfect +fidelity, transmitted to futurity, "THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN." In its +preparation has been invoked the aid of one who in life was near the +heart of MR. LINCOLN, and at death was a witness to that last sad scene, +so accurately delineated by the painter's art--the Hon. ISAAC N. ARNOLD. +His intimate and social relations with MR. LINCOLN, his unbounded +admiration of the goodness and sincerity of the Great Emancipator, +renders this invocation eminently appropriate. This sketch contains +subject-matter never before made public, presented in the full dress of +the author's happiest style. + +In confident reliance upon the affection of the people for the great +Apostle of Liberty--the Martyr--who in his blood wrote his belief "that +all men everywhere should be free," this sketch is submitted. + +JANUARY 1, 1869. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, + LINCOLN ANCESTRY, + BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN, + YOUTHFUL DUTIES AND AMUSEMENTS, + EARLY EDUCATION, + ELECTED CAPTAIN--BLACK HAWK WAR, + NOMINATION FOR LEGISLATURE, + MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATURE, + ADMITTED TO THE BAR, + PRACTICE AT THE BAR, + PROFESSIONAL BEARING, + RETIREMENT FROM THE LEGISLATURE, + ANTI-SLAVERY PROCLIVITIES, + MARRIAGE, + MARY TODD, + CHILDREN, + IN CONGRESS, + STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, + ABOLITION OF SLAVERY AT WASHINGTON, + SUCCESSOR IN CONGRESS--E. D. BAKER, + BEGINNING OF THE END OF SLAVERY, + LINCOLN IN THE KANSAS STRUGGLE, + LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE, + EARLY ACQUAINTANCE OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS, + DOUGLAS AS A DEBATER, + DOUGLAS--LINCOLN--PERSONAL DESCRIPTION, + DOUGLAS--LINCOLN--PERSONAL DESCRIPTION CONTINUED, + COOPER INSTITUTE ADDRESS + CHICAGO CONVENTION--NOMINATION TO PRESIDENCY, + POPULAR VOTE--ELECTION, + JOURNEY TO WASHINGTON, + ARRIVAL AT WASHINGTON, + RECEPTION, + FIRST INAUGURATION, + CIVIL WAR, + THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, + CALLING OUT TROOPS, + REGULAR SESSION OF CONGRESS, DECEMBER, 1861, + SLAVERY LAWS PASSED, + EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, + OWEN LOVEJOY, + PROCLAMATION ISSUED--JANUARY 1, 1863, + GETTYSBURG--CONSECRATION, + NEW YEAR--1864, + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL--NOMINATION OF ULYSSES S. GRANT, + CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY, + SECOND INAUGURATION, + VISIT TO ARMY HEAD-QUARTERS--CITY POINT, + LINCOLN--GRANT--SHERMAN--PERSONAL APPEARANCE, + UNION TROOPS ENTER RICHMOND, + VISIT TO RICHMOND, + RETURN TO WASHINGTON, + REVIEW OF THE ARMY, + LAST DAYS OF LINCOLN, + ASSASSINATION, + VISIT TO FORD'S THEATER, + JOHN WILKES BOOTH, + DETAILS OF THE ASSASSINATION, + PRESIDENT REMOVED FROM THE THEATER, + DEATH OF LINCOLN + SCENES IN WASHINGTON + DEATH OF BOOTH + ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF SECRETARY SEWARD + RECEPTION OF MR. LINCOLN'S DEATH THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY + MEETING OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS + COMMITTEE TO ATTEND THE REMAINS TO ILLINOIS + FUNERAL CEREMONIES + FUNERAL CORTEGE.--WASHINGTON, PHILADELPHIA, NEW JERSEY, NEW YORK, + OHIO, INDIANA, ILLINOIS + PERSONAL SKETCHES + FONDNESS FOR READING + LAST SUNDAY OF HIS LIFE + CONVERSATIONAL POWERS + PUBLIC SPEAKER + THE WORDS OF LINCOLN + HABITUAL MANNER OF TRANSACTING BUSINESS AT THE WHITE HOUSE + DESCRIPTION OF ROOMS AND FURNITURE + ETIQUETTE OF BUSINESS RECEPTION + GREATNESS OF HIS SERVICES + THE MOST DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT + RELIGIOUS CREED + BELIEF IN A GOD + + + + +SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + +Modern history furnishes no life more eventful and important, terminated +by a death so dramatic, as that of the Martyr President. Poetry and +painting, sculpture and eloquence, have all sought to illustrate his +career, but the grand epic poem of his life has yet to be written. We +are too near him in point of time, fully to comprehend and appreciate +his greatness and the vast influence he is to exert upon the world. The +storms which marked his tempestuous political career have not yet +entirely subsided, and the shock of his fearfully tragic death is still +felt; but as the dust and smoke of war pass away, and the mists of +prejudice which filled the air during the great conflict clear up, his +character will stand out in bolder relief and more perfect outline. + +The ablest and most sincere apostle of liberty the world has ever seen +was Abraham Lincoln. He was a Christian statesman, with faith in God and +man. The two men, whose pre-eminence in American history the world will +ever recognize, are Washington and Lincoln. The Republic which the first +founded and the latter saved, has already crowned them as models for her +children. + +Abraham Lincoln was born, February 12th, 1809, in Hardin County, in the +Slave State of Kentucky.[1] + +[1] When the compiler of the Annals of Congress asked Mr. Lincoln to +furnish him with data from which to compile a sketch of his life, the +following brief, characteristic statement was given. It contrasts very +strikingly with the voluminous biographies furnished by some small great +men who have been in Congress:-- + +"Born, February 12th, 1809, in Hardin County, 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, &c., + "A. LINCOLN." + +His father Thomas and his grandfather Abraham were born in Rockingham +County, Virginia. His ancestors were from Pennsylvania, and were Friends +or Quakers. The grandfather after whom he was named, went early to +Kentucky, and was murdered by the Indians, while at work upon his farm. +The early and fearful conflicts in the dense forests of Kentucky, +between the settlers and the Indians, gave to a portion of that +beautiful State the name of the "_dark and bloody ground_." The subject +of this sketch was the son, the grandson, and the great grandson of a +pioneer. His ancestors had settled on the border, first in Pennsylvania, +then in Virginia, and from thence to Kentucky. His grandfather had four +sons and two daughters. Thomas the youngest son was the father of +Abraham, and his life was a struggle with poverty, a hard-working man +with very limited education. He could barely sign his name. In the +twenty-eighth year of his age he married Nancy Hanks, a native of +Virginia, she was one of those plain, dignified matrons, possessing a +strong physical organization, and great common sense, with deep +religious feeling, and the utmost devotion to her family and children, +such as are not unusual in the early settlements of our country. Reared +on the frontier, where life was a struggle, she could use the rifle and +the implements of agriculture as well as the distaff and spinning-wheel. +She was one of those strong, self-reliant characters, yet gentle in +manners, often found in the humbler walks of life, fitted as well to +command the respect, as the love of all to whom she was known. Abraham +had a brother older, and a sister younger than himself, but both died +many years before he reached distinction. + +In 1816, when he was only eight years old, the family removed to Spenser +County, Indiana. The first tool the boy of the backwoods learns to use +is the ax. This, young Lincoln, strong and athletic beyond his years, +had learned to handle with some effect, even at that early age, and he +began from this period to be of important service to his parents in +cutting their way to, and building up, a home in the forests. + +A feat with the rifle soon after this period shows that he was not +unaccustomed to its use: seeing a flock of wild turkeys approaching, the +lad seized his father's rifle and succeeded in shooting one through a +crack of his father's cabin. + +In the autumn of 1818 his mother died. Her death was to her family, and +especially her favorite son Abraham, an irreparable loss. Although she +died when in his tenth year, she had already deeply impressed upon him +those elements of character which were the foundation of his greatness; +perfect truthfulness, inflexible honesty, love of justice and respect +for age, and reverence for God. He ever spoke of her with the most +touching affection. "All that I am, or hope to be," said he, "I owe to +my angel mother." + +It was his mother who taught him to read and write; from her he learned +to read the Bible, and this book he read and re-read in youth, because +he had little else to read, and later in life because he believed it was +the word of God, and the best guide of human conduct. It was very rare +to find, even among clergymen, any so familiar with it as he, and few +could so readily and accurately quote its text. + +There is something very affecting in the incident that this boy--whom +his mother had found time amidst her weary toil and the hard struggle of +her rude life, to teach to write legibly, should find the first occasion +of putting his knowledge of the pen to practical use, was in writing a +letter to a traveling preacher, imploring him to come and perform +religious services over his mother's grave. The preacher, a Mr. Elkin, +came, though not immediately, traveling many miles on horseback through +the wild forests; and some months after her death the family and +neighbors gathered around the tree beneath which they had laid her, to +perform the simple, solemn funeral rites. Hymns were sung, prayers said, +and an address pronounced over her grave. The impression made upon young +Lincoln by his mother was as lasting as life. Love of truth, reverence +for religion, perfect integrity, were ever associated in his mind with +the tenderest love and respect for her. His father subsequently married +Mrs. Sally Johnson, of Kentucky, a widow with three children. + +In March, 1830, the family removed to Illinois, and settled in Macon +County, near Decatur. Here he assisted his father to build a log-cabin; +clear, fence, and plant, a few acres of land; and then, being now +twenty-one years of age, he asked permission to seek his own fortune. He +began by going out to work by the month, breaking up the prairie, +splitting and chopping cord wood, and any thing he could find to do. His +father not long afterward removed to Coles County, Illinois, where he +lived until 1851, dying at the age of seventy-three. He lived to see his +son Abraham one of the most distinguished men in the State, and received +from him many memorials of his affection and kindness. His son often +sent money to his father and other members of his family, and always +treated them, however poor and illiterate, with the kindest +consideration. + +It is clear from his own declarations that he early cherished an +ambition, probably under the inspiration of his mother, to rise to a +higher position. He had in all less than one year's attendance at +school, but his mother having taught him to read and write, with an +industry, application, and perseverance untiring, he applied himself to +all the means of improvement within his reach. Fortunately, +providentially, the Bible has been everywhere and always present in +every cabin and home in the land. The influence of this book formed his +character; he was able to obtain in addition to the Bible, Ęsop's +Fables, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Weems' Life of Washington, and +Burns' Poems. These constituted nearly all he read before he reached the +age of nineteen. Living on the frontier, mingling with the rude, +hard-working, honest, and virtuous backwoodsmen, he became expert in the +use of every implement of agriculture and woodcraft, and as an ax-man he +had no superior. + +His days were spent in hard manual labor, and his evenings in study; he +grew up free from idleness, and contracted no stain of intemperance, +profanity, or vice; he drank no intoxicating liquors, nor did he use +tobacco in any form. + +There is a tradition that while residing at New Salem, Mr. Lincoln +entertained a boy's fancy for a prairie beauty named Ann Rutledge. Mr. +Irving, in his life of Washington, says: "Before he (Washington) was +fifteen years of age, he had conceived a passion for some unknown +beauty, so serious as to disturb his otherwise well-regulated mind, and +to make him really unhappy." Some romance has been published in regard +to this early attachment of Lincoln, and gossip and imagination have +converted a simple, boyish fancy, such as few reach manhood without +having passed through, into a "grand passion." It has been produced in a +form altogether too dramatic and highly-colored for the truth. The idea +that this fancy had any permanent influence upon his life and character +is purely imaginary. No man was ever a more devoted and affectionate +husband and father than he. + +In the spring of 1832 Lincoln volunteered as a private in a company of +soldiers raised by the Governor of Illinois, for what is known as the +Black Hawk War. He was elected captain of the company, and served during +the campaign, but had no opportunity of meeting the enemy. + +Soon after his return he was nominated for the State Legislature, and in +the precinct in which he resided, out of 284 votes received all but +seven. It was while a resident of New Salem that he became a practical +surveyor. + +Up to this period the life of Lincoln had been one of labor, hardship, +and struggle: his shelter had been the log-cabin; his food, the "_corn +dodger and common doings_,"[2] the game of the forests and the prairie, +and the products of the farm; his dress, the Kentucky jean and buckskin +of the frontier; the tools with which he labored, the ax, the hoe, and +the plow. He had made two trips to New Orleans; these and his soldiering +in the Black Hawk War showed his fondness for adventure. + +[2] The settlers have an expression, "Corn dodger and common doin's," as +contradistinguished from "Wheat bread and chickin fixin's." + +Thus far he had been a backwoodsman, a rail-splitter, a flatboatman, a +clerk, a captain of volunteers, a surveyor. In 1834 he was elected to +the Legislature of Illinois, receiving the highest vote of any one on +the ticket. He was re-elected in 1836 (the term being for two years). At +this session he met, as a fellow-member, Stephen A. Douglas, then +representing Morgan County. + +He remained a member of the Legislature for eight years, and then +declined being again a candidate. + +He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Illinois in the +autumn of 1836, and his name first appears on the roll of attorneys in +1837. + +In April of this year he removed to Springfield, and soon after entered +into partnership with his friend, John T. Stewart. As a lawyer he early +manifested, in a wonderful degree, the power of simplifying and making +clear to the common understanding the most difficult and abstruse +questions. + +The circuit practice--"riding the circuit" it was called--as conducted +in Illinois thirty years ago, was admirably adapted to educate, develop, +and discipline all there was in a man of intellect and character. Few +books could be obtained upon the circuit, and no large libraries for +consultation could be found anywhere. A mere case lawyer was a helpless +child in the hands of the intellectual giants produced by these +circuit-court contests, where novel questions were constantly arising, +and must be immediately settled upon principle and analogy.[3] + +[3] Vide "History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery," p. +76. + +A few elementary books, such as Blackstone's and Kent's Commentaries, +Chitty's Pleadings, and Starkie's Evidence, could sometimes be found, or +an odd volume would be carried along with the scanty wardrobe of the +attorney in his saddle-bags. These were studied until the text was as +familiar as the alphabet. By such aid as these afforded, and the +application of principles, were all the complex questions which arose +settled. Thirty years ago it was the practice of the leading members of +the bar to follow the judge from county to county. The court-houses were +rude log buildings, with slab benches for seats, and the roughest pine +tables. In these, when courts were in session, Lincoln could be always +found, dressed in Kentucky jean, and always surrounded by a circle of +admiring friends--always personally popular with the judges, the +lawyers, the jury, and the spectators. His wit and humor, his power of +illustration by apt comparison and anecdote, his power to ridicule by +ludicrous stories and illustrations, were inexhaustible. + +He always aided by his advice and counsel the young members of the bar. +No embarrassed tyro in the profession ever sought his assistance in +vain, and it was not unusual for him, if his adversary was young and +inexperienced, kindly to point out to him formal errors in his pleadings +and practice. His manner of conducting jury trials was very effective. + +He was familiar, frequently colloquial: at the summer terms of the +courts, he would often take off his coat, and leaning carelessly on the +rail of the jury box, would single out and address a leading juryman, +in a conversational way, and with his invariable candor and fairness +would proceed to reason the case. When he was satisfied that he had +secured the favorable judgment of the juryman so addressed, he would +turn to another, and address him in the same manner, until he was +convinced the jury were with him. There were times when aroused by +injustice, fraud, or some great wrong or falsehood, when his +denunciation was so crushing that the object of it was driven from the +court-room. + +There was a latent power in him which when aroused was literally +overwhelming. This power was sometimes exhibited in political debate, +and there were occasions when it utterly paralyzed his opponent. His +replies to Douglas, at Springfield and Peoria, in 1858, were +illustrations of this power. His examination and cross-examination of +witnesses were very happy and effective. He always treated those who +were disposed to be truthful with respect. + +Mr. Lincoln's professional bearing was so high, he was so courteous and +fair that no man ever questioned his truthfulness or his honor. No one +who watched him for half an hour in court in an important case ever +doubted his ability. He understood human nature well; and read the +character of party, jury, witnesses, and attorneys, and knew how to +address and influence them. Probably as a jury lawyer, on the right +side, he has never had his superior. + +Such was Mr. Lincoln at the bar, a fair, honest, able lawyer, on the +right side irresistible, on the wrong comparatively weak. + + + + +MR. LINCOLN FROM HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE TO HIS +ELECTION TO CONGRESS. + + +A friend and associate of Mr. Lincoln, speaking of him, as he was in +1840, says: "They mistake greatly who regard him as an uneducated man. +In the physical sciences he was remarkably well read. In scientific +mechanics, and all inventions and labor-saving machinery, he was +thoroughly informed. He was one of the best practical surveyors in the +State. He understood the general principles of botany, geology, and +astronomy, and had a great treasury of practical useful knowledge." + +He continued to acquire knowledge and to grow intellectually until his +death, and became one of the most intelligent and best-informed men in +public life. + +Early in life he became an anti-slavery man, as well from the impulses +of his heart as the convictions of his reason. He always had an intense +hatred of oppression in every form, and an honest, earnest faith in the +common people, and his sympathies were ever with the oppressed. The most +conspicuous traits of his character were love of justice and love of +truth. It is false, very arrogant, and to those who knew Lincoln in his +earlier years, it is very amusing, for any man or set of men to assume +to himself or themselves the credit of having inspired him with hatred +of slavery. No man was less influenced by others in coming to his +conclusions than he; and this was especially true in regard to questions +involving right and justice. His own heart, his own observation, his own +clear intellect led him to become an anti-slavery man. Long before he +plead the cause of the slave before the American people, he said to a +friend,[4] "It is strange that while our courts decide that a man does +not lose his title to his property by its being stolen, but he may +reclaim it whenever he can find it, yet if he himself is stolen he +instantly loses his right to himself!" + +[4] Hon. Jos. Gillespie. + +In November, 1842, he was married to Miss Mary Todd, daughter of the +Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. The mother of Mrs. Lincoln died when +she was young. She had sisters living at Springfield, Illinois. Visiting +them, she made the acquaintance and won the heart of Mr. Lincoln. They +had four children, Robert, Edward (who died in infancy), William, and +Thomas. Robert and Thomas survive. William, a beautiful and promising +boy, died at Washington, during his father's presidency. Mr. Lincoln was +a most fond, tender, and affectionate husband and father. No man was +ever more faithful and true in his domestic relations. + + + + +LINCOLN IN CONGRESS. + + +On the 6th of December, 1847, Mr. Lincoln took his seat in Congress. Mr. +Douglas, who had already run a brilliant career in the lower House of +Congress, at this same session took his seat in the Senate. Mr. Lincoln +distinguished himself by able speeches upon the Mexican War, upon +Internal Improvements, and by one of the most effective campaign +speeches of that Congress in favor of the election of General Taylor to +the Presidency. He proposed a bill for the abolition of slavery at the +National capital. He declined a re-election, and was succeeded by his +friend, the eloquent E. D. Baker, who was killed at Ball's Bluff. + +In 1852, he lead the electoral ticket of Illinois in favor of General +Scott for President. Franklin Pierce was elected, and Mr. Lincoln +remained quietly engaged in his professional pursuits until the repeal +of the Missouri Compromise in 1854. This event was the beginning of the +end of slavery. "It thoroughly roused the people of the Free States to a +realization of the progress and encroachments of the slave power, and +the necessity of preserving 'the jewel of freedom.'" From that hour the +conflict went on between freedom and slavery, first by the ballot, and +all the agencies by which public opinion is influenced, and then the +slave-holders, seeing that their supremacy was departing, sought by arms +to overthrow the government which they could no longer control. + +Mr. Lincoln, while a strong opponent of slavery, had up to this time +rested in the hope that by peaceful agencies it was in the course of +ultimate extinction. But now seeing the vast strides it was making, he +became convinced its progress must be arrested or that it would dominate +over the republic, and Slavery would become "lawful in all the States." +From this time he gave himself with solemn earnestness to the cause of +liberty and his country. He forgot himself in his great cause. He did +not seek place, if the great cause could be better advanced by the +promotion of another; hence his promotion of the election of Trumbull to +the United States Senate. + +This unselfish devotion to principle was a great source of his power. +Placing himself at the head of those who opposed the extension of, and +who believed in the moral wrong of slavery, he entered upon his great +mission with a singleness of purpose, an eloquence and power, which made +him as the advocate of freedom, the most effective and influential +speaker who ever addressed the American people. + +He brought to the tremendous struggle between freedom and slavery +physical strength and endurance almost superhuman. Notwithstanding his +modesty and the absence of all self-assertion, when we review the +conflict from 1854 to 1865, when the struggle closed by the adoption of +the constitutional amendment abolishing and prohibiting slavery forever +throughout the republic, it is clear that Lincoln's speeches and +writings did more to accomplish this result than any other agency. + +Following the repeal of the Missouri Compromise came the Kansas +struggle, and the organization of a great party to resist the +encroachments and aggressions of slavery. The people instinctively found +the leader of such a party in Lincoln. + +Looking over the whole ground, with the sagacity which marked his +far-seeing mind, he saw that the basis upon which to build were the +grand principles of the Declaration of Independence. This foundation was +broad enough to include old-fashioned Democrats who sympathized with +Jefferson in his hatred of slavery; Whigs who had learned their love of +liberty from the utterances of the Adamses and Channings, and the +earlier speeches of Webster; and anti-slavery men, who recognized Chase +and Sumner as their leaders. + +He now addressed himself to the work of consolidating out of all these +elements a party, the distinctive characteristics of which should be the +full recognition of the principles of the Declaration of Independence +and hostility to the extension of Slavery. This was the party which in +1856 gave John C. Fremont 114 electoral votes for President, and in +1860, elected Lincoln to the executive chair. + + + + +THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. + + +In the midsummer of 1858, Senator Douglas, whose term approached its +close, came home to canvass for re-election. It was in the midst of the +Kansas struggle, and although he had broken with the administration of +Buchanan, because he resisted the admission of Kansas into the Union, +under the fraudulent Lecompton Constitution, and insisted that the +people of that State, should enjoy the right by a fair vote, of deciding +upon the character of their Constitution,[5] yet the people of Illinois +did not forget that he was chiefly responsible for the repeal of the +Missouri Compromise, and that he had indorsed the Dred Scott decision. +On the 17th of June, 1858, the Republican State Convention of Illinois +met and by acclamation nominated Mr. Lincoln for the Senate. He was +unquestionably more indebted to Douglas for his greatness than to any +other person. + +[5] That they "should be perfectly free to form and regulate their +domestic institutions in their own way." + +In 1856 Lincoln said, "Twenty years ago Judge Douglas and I first became +acquainted; we were both young then, he a trifle younger than I. Even +then we were both ambitious, I perhaps quite as much as he. With me the +race of ambition has proved a flat failure; with him it has been one of +splendid success. His name fills the nation, and it is not unknown in +foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high eminence he has +reached; so reached that the oppressed of my species might have shared +with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence than +wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow." + +Ten years had not gone by, before the modest Lincoln, then so humbly +expressing this noble sentiment, and to whom at that moment "The race of +ambition seemed a flat failure;" ten years had not passed, ere he had +reached an eminence on which his name filled, not a nation only, but the +world; and he had indeed so reached it, that the oppressed did share +with him in the elevation; and so far had he passed his then great +rival, that the name of Douglas will be carried down to posterity, +chiefly because of its association as a competitor with Lincoln. + +But in many particulars Douglas was not an unworthy competitor. The +contest between these two champions was perhaps the most remarkable in +American history. They were the acknowledged leaders, each of his party. +Douglas had been a prominent candidate for the presidency, was well +known and personally popular, not only in the West, but throughout the +Union. Both were men of great and marked individuality of character. The +immediate prize was the Senatorship of the great State of Illinois, and, +in the future, the presidency. The result would largely influence the +struggle for freedom in Kansas, and the question of slavery throughout +the Union. The canvass attracted the attention of the people everywhere, +and the speeches were reported and published, not only in the leading +papers in the State, but reporters were sent from most of the large +cities, to report the incidents of the debates, and describe the +conflict. + +Douglas was at this time unquestionably the leading debater in the +United States Senate. For years he had been accustomed to meet the +great leaders of the nation in Congress, and he had rarely been +discomfited. He had contended with Jefferson Davis, and Toombs, and +Hunter, and with Chase, and Sumner, and Seward; and his friends claimed +that he was the equal, if not the superior, of the ablest. He was +fertile in resources, severe in denunciation, familiar with political +history, and had participated so many years in Congressional debate, +that he handled with readiness and facility all the weapons of political +controversy. Of indomitable physical and moral courage, he was certainly +among the most formidable men in the nation on the stump. In Illinois, +where he had hosts of friends and enthusiastic followers, he possessed a +power over the masses unequaled by any other man, a most striking +exhibition of which was exhibited in this canvass, in which he held to +himself the whole Democratic party of the State. The administration of +Buchanan, with all its patronage wielded by the wily and unscrupulous +Slidell, and running a separate ticket, was able to detach only 5,000 +out of 126,000 votes from him. There was something exciting, something +which stirred the blood, in the boldness with which he threw himself +into the conflict, and dealt his blows right and left against the +Republican party on one side, and the administration of Buchanan, which +sought his defeat, on the other. + +Two men presenting more striking contrasts, physically, intellectually, +and morally, could not anywhere be found. Douglas was a short, sturdy, +resolute man, with large head and chest, and short legs; his ability had +gained for him the appellation of "The little giant of Illinois." + +Lincoln was of the Kentucky type of men, very tall, long-limbed, +angular, awkward in gait and attitude, physically a real giant, +large-featured, his eyes deep-set under heavy eyebrows, his forehead +high and retreating, with heavy, dark hair. + +Their style of speaking, like every thing about them, was in striking +contrast. Douglas, skilled by a thousand conflicts in all the strategy +of a face to face encounter, stepped upon the platform and faced the +thousands of friends and foes around him with an air of conscious power. +There was an air of indomitable pluck, sometimes something approaching +impudence in his manner, when he looked out on the immense throngs which +surged and struggled before him. Lincoln was modest, but always +self-possessed, with no self-consciousness, his whole mind evidently +absorbed in his great theme, always candid, truthful, cool, logical, +accurate; at times, inspired by his subject, rising to great dignity and +wonderful power. The impression made by Douglas, upon a stranger who saw +him for the first time on the platform, would be--"that is a bold, +audacious, ready debater, an ugly opponent." Of Lincoln--"There is a +candid, truthful, sincere man, who, whether right or wrong, believes he +is right." Lincoln argued the side of freedom, with the most thorough +conviction that on its triumph depended the fate of the Republic. An +idea of the impression made by Lincoln in these discussions may be +inferred from a remark made by a plain old Quaker, who, at the close of +the Ottawa debate, said: "Friend, doubtless God _Almighty might_ have +made an honester man than Abe Lincoln, but doubtless he never did." It +is curious that the cause of freedom was plead by a Kentuckian, and that +of slavery by a native of Vermont. Forgetful of the ancestral hatred of +slavery to which he had been born, Douglas had, by marriage, become a +slave-holder. Lincoln had one great advantage over his antagonist--he +was always good-humored; while Douglas sometimes lost his temper, +Lincoln never lost his. + +The great champions in these debates, and their discussions, have passed +into history, and the world has ratified the popular verdict of the +day--that Lincoln was the victor. It should be remembered, in justice to +the intellectual power of Douglas, that Lincoln spoke for liberty, and +he was the organ of a new and vigorous party, with a full consciousness +of being in the right. Douglas was looking to the presidency as well as +the senatorship, and must keep one eye on the slave-holder and the other +on the citizens of Illinois. + +The debates in the old Continental Congress, and those on the Missouri +question of 1820-1, those of Webster and Hayne, and Webster and Calhoun, +are all historical; but it may be doubted if either were more important +than these of Lincoln and Douglas. + +Mr. Lincoln, although his party received a majority of the popular vote +was defeated for Senator, because certain Democratic Senators held over +from certain Republican districts. + +On the 27th of February, 1860, Mr. Lincoln delivered his celebrated +Cooper Institute address. Many went to hear the prairie orator, +expecting to be entertained with noisy declamation, extravagant and +verbose, and with plenty of amusing stories. The speech was so +dignified, so exact in language and statement, so replete with +historical learning, it exhibited such strength and grasp of thought and +was so elevated in tone, that the intelligent audience were astonished +and delighted. The closing sentence is characteristic, and should never +be forgotten by those who advocate the right. "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." + + + + +NOMINATION AND ELECTION AS PRESIDENT. + + +When the National Convention met at Chicago in the June following, to +nominate a candidate for President, while a majority of the delegates +were divided among Messrs. Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Bates, Mr. +Lincoln was the first choice of a large plurality, and the second choice +of all; besides he was personally so popular with the people, his +sobriquet of "Honest old Abe," "The Illinois Rail-splitter," satisfied +the shrewd men who were studying the best means of securing success, +that he was the most available man to head the ticket. These +considerations made his nomination a certainty from the beginning. + +The nomination was hailed with enthusiasm throughout the Union. Never +did a party enter upon a canvass with more zeal and energy. With the +usual motives which actuate political parties there were in this canvass +mingled a love of country, a devotion to liberty, a keen sense of the +wrongs and outrages inflicted upon the Free State men of Kansas, which +fired all hearts with enthusiasm. Mr. Lincoln received one hundred and +eighty electoral votes, Douglas twelve, Breckinridge seventy-two, and +John Bell of Tennessee, thirty-nine. Mr. Lincoln received of the popular +vote 1,866,452, a plurality, but not a majority of the whole. + +By the election of Mr. Lincoln the executive power of the republic +passed from the slave-holders. Mr. Lincoln and the great party who +elected him contemplated no interference with slavery in the States. +They meant to prevent its further extension, but the slave-holders +instinctively felt that with the government in the hands of those who +believed slavery morally wrong, the end of slavery was a mere question +of time. Rather than yield, the slave aristocracy resolved "to take up +the sword," and hence the terrible civil war. + +On the 11th of February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln left his quiet happy home at +Springfield to enter upon that tempestuous political career which was to +lead him through a martyr's grave to a deathless fame among the greatest +and noblest patriots and benefactors of mankind. With a dim, mysterious +foreshadowing of the future, he uttered to his friends and neighbors who +gathered around him to say good-bye, his farewell. He seemed conscious +that he might see the place which had been his home for "a quarter of a +century, and where his children were born, and where one of them lay +buried" no more. Weighed down with the consciousness of the great duties +which devolved upon him, greater than those devolving upon any President +since Washington, he humbly expressed his reliance upon Divine +Providence, and asked his friends to pray that he might receive the +assistance of "Almighty God." As he journeyed toward the capital, +received everywhere with the earnest sympathies of the people, the loyal +men of all parties assuring him of their support, his spirits rose, and +when he passed the State line of his own State his hopefulness found +expression in the words "behind the cloud the sun is shining still." And +on he sped through the great Free States of the North. While on his way +to the capital the people were everywhere deeply impressed by his modest +yet firm reliance upon Providence. He went forth not leaning on his own +strength, but resting on Almighty God. + +In the early gray of the morning of the 23d of February, 1861, he came +in sight of the dome of the Capitol, then filled with traitors plotting +his death and the overthrow of the Government. By anticipating the +train, by which it had been publicly announced that he would pass +through Baltimore, and passing through that city at night he escaped a +deeply-laid conspiracy, which would otherwise have anticipated the crime +of Booth. None who witnessed will ever forget the scene of his first +inauguration. + +The veteran Scott had gathered a few soldiers of the Regular Army to +preserve order and security; many Northern citizens thronged the +streets, few of them conscious of the volcano of treason and murder +seething beneath them. The departments and public offices were full of +plotting traitors. Many of the rebel generals held commissions under the +Government they were about to desert and betray. The ceremony of +inauguration is always imposing; on this occasion it was especially so. +Buchanan, sad, dejected, bowed with a seeming consciousness of duties +unperformed, rode with the President-elect to the Capitol. + +There were gathered the Justices of the Supreme Court, both Houses of +Congress, the representatives of foreign nations, and a vast concourse +of citizens from all sections of the Union. There were Chase, and +Seward, and Sumner, and Breckinridge, and Douglas, who was near the +President, and was observed eagerly looking over the crowd, not +unconscious of the personal danger of his great and successful rival. +Mr. Lincoln was so absorbed with the gravity of the occasion and the +condition of his country, that he utterly forgot himself, and there was +observed a dignity, which sprung from a mind entirely engrossed with +public duties. + +He was perfectly cool, and stepping to the eastern colonnade of the +Capitol, that voice, which had been often heard by tens of thousands on +the prairies of the West, now read in clear and ringing tones his +inaugural. On the threshold of war, he made a last appeal for peace. He +declared his fixed resolve, firm as the everlasting rocks: "_I shall +take care that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in every +State_." + +Yet his great, kind heart yearned for peace, and as he approached the +close, his voice faltered with emotion. "I am loath to close," said he; +"we are _not_ enemies, but friends; we must not be enemies. Though +passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of affection. The +mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot's +grave, to every living heart and hearthstone over all this broad land, +will yet swell with the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as +surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." + +Alas! these appeals for peace were received by those to whom they were +addressed with coarse ribaldry, with sneers and jeers, and all the +savage and barbarous passions which riot in blood. Lincoln was somewhat +slow to learn that it was to force only--stern, unflinching force--that +treason would yield. + +And now opened that terrible civil war which has no parallel in history. +Space will not permit me to follow the President through those long and +terrible days of victory and defeat, to final triumph. Through all, +Lincoln was firm, constant, hopeful, sagacious, wise, confiding always +in God, and in the people. + + + + +THE THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. + + +The special session of the Thirty-seventh Congress met on the 4th of +July, 1861, agreeably to the call of the President. Many vacant chairs +in the National Council impressed the spectator with the magnitude of +the impending struggle. The old chiefs of the slave party were nearly +all absent, some of them as members of a rebel government at Richmond, +others in arms against their country. The President calmly, clearly, +sadly reviewed the facts which compelled him to call into action the +_war powers_ of the Government, and constrained him, as the Chief +Magistrate, "_to accept war_." He asked Congress to confer upon him the +power to make the war short and decisive. He asked for 400,000 men and +400 millions of money. With hearty appreciation of the fidelity of the +common people, he proudly points to the fact that, while large numbers +of the officers of the Army and Navy had been guilty of the infamous +crime of desertion, "not one common soldier or sailor is known to have +deserted his flag." + +Congress responded promptly to this call, voting 500,000 men and 500 +millions of dollars to suppress the rebellion. From the beginning of the +contest, the slaves flocked to the Union army as a place of security +from their masters. They seemed to feel instinctively that freedom was +to be found within its picket-lines and under the folds of its flag. +They were ready to act as guides, as servants, to work, dig, and to +fight for their liberty. And yet early in the war some officers +permitted masters and agents to follow the blacks into the Union lines +and carry away fugitive slaves. This action was rebuked by a resolution +of Congress. At this session a law was passed giving freedom to all +slaves employed in aiding the rebellion. In October, 1861, the military +was authorized by the Secretary of War to avail itself of the services +of "fugitives from labor," in such way as might be most beneficial to +the service. + +The regular session of Congress assembled on the 2d of December, 1861. +Great armies confronted each other in the field; and great conflicts +were going on in the public mind, but the way to victory through +emancipation was not yet clearly opened. The President was feeling his +way, watching the progress of public opinion; striving to secure to the +Union the Border States of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. On the +subject of Emancipation, he said in his message: "the Union must be +preserved, and all _indispensable means_ must be used," but he wisely +waited until the public sentiment should consolidate, and all other +means of maintaining the integrity of the nation should have been +exhausted. During this session the way was prepared for the great edict +of Emancipation; Slavery was abolished at the National Capital, +prohibited forever in all the Territories, the slaves of rebels declared +free, and the Government authorized to employ slaves as soldiers, and +every person in the military or naval service of the Republic prohibited +from aiding in the arrest of any fugitive slave. These measures were all +urged by the personal and political friends of the President, and became +laws with his sanction and hearty assent. They prepared the way for the +final overthrow of slavery. + + + + +THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. + + +In April, 1862, it was known at Washington that the President was +considering the subject of emancipating the slaves as a war measure. The +Border States selected their ablest man, the venerable John J. +Crittenden, from Mr. Lincoln's native State, to make a public appeal to +him to stay his hand. The eloquent Kentuckian discharged the part +assigned him well. Never shall I forget the scene when, with great +emotion before Congress he said, that although he had voted against and +opposed Mr. Lincoln, he had been won to his side. "_And now_," said he, +"there is a niche near to Washington which should be occupied by him who +shall save his country. Mr. Lincoln has a mighty destiny! * * * He is no +coward, he may be President _of all the people_ and fill that niche, but +if he chooses to be in these times a mere sectarian and party man, that +place will be reserved for some future and better patriot." "It is in +his power to occupy a place next to Washington, the _founder_ and +_preserver_ side by side." It was understood the Border State men +everywhere were ready to crown him the peer of Washington if he would +not touch slavery. + +It was OWEN LOVEJOY, the early abolitionist, who made an instantaneous, +impromptu reply, a reply the eloquence of which thrilled Congress and +the country, and is in my judgment among the finest specimens of +American eloquence. + +Said he, "Let Abraham Lincoln make himself, as I trust he will, the +Emancipator, the liberator of a race, and his name shall not only be +enrolled in this earthly temple, but it will be traced on the living +stones of that Temple, which rears itself amidst the thrones of Heaven." +Alluding to what Crittenden had said, he added, "There is a niche for +Abraham Lincoln in Freedom's holy fane. In that niche he shall stand +proudly, gloriously, with shattered fetters, and broken chains and +slave-whips beneath his feet. * * This is a fame worth living for; ay, +more, it is a fame worth _dying_ for, even though (said he with +prophetic prescience) that death led through the blood of Gethsemane and +the agony of the accursed tree." + +These two speeches were read to Mr. Lincoln in his library at the White +House, a room to which he sometimes retired. He was moved by the picture +which Lovejoy drew. The tremendous responsibilities growing out of the +slavery question, how he ought to treat those sons of "unrequited toil," +were questions sinking deeper and deeper into his heart. With a purpose +firmly to follow the path of duty, as God should give him to see his +duty, he earnestly sought the divine guidance. + +Speaking afterward of Emancipation, Mr. Lincoln said: "When, in March, +May, and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the Border +States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable +necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, +unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition and I was +in my best judgment driven to the alternative of either surrendering the +Union or issuing the Emancipation Proclamation."[6] + +[6] See Letter of the President to A. G. Hodges, dated April 4, 1864. + +Before issuing the proclamation, he had appealed to the Border States +to adopt gradual emancipation. His appeal is one of the most earnest and +eloquent papers in all history. "Our country," said he, "is in great +peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to bring a speedy +relief; once relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, its +beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated, and its future +fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand." + +The appeal was received by some with apathy, by others with caviling and +opposition, and was followed by action on the part of none. Meanwhile +his friends urged emancipation. They declared there could be no +permanent peace while slavery lived. "Seize," cried they, "the +thunderbolt of Liberty, and shatter Slavery to atoms, and then the +Republic will live." After the great battle of Antietam, the President +called his cabinet together, and announced to them that "_in obedience +to a solemn vow to God_," he was about to issue the edict of Freedom. + +The proclamation came, modestly, sublimely, reverently the great act was +done. "Sincerely believing it to be an act of justice, warranted by the +Constitution, upon military necessity, he invoked upon it the +considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." + +On the first of January, 1863, the Executive mansion, as is usual on New +Year's Day, was crowded with the officials, foreign and domestic, of the +National Capital; the men of mark of the army and navy and from civil +life crowded around the care-worn President, to express their kind +wishes for him personally, and their prayers for the future of the +country. + +During the reception, after he had been shaking hands with hundreds, a +secretary hastily entered and told him the Proclamation (the final +proclamation) was ready for his signature. Leaving the crowd, he went to +his office, taking up a pen, attempting to write, and was astonished to +find he could not control the muscles of his hand and arm sufficiently +to write his name. He said to me, "I paused, and a feeling of +superstition, a sense of the vast responsibility of the act, came over +me; then, remembering that my arm had been well-nigh paralyzed by two +hours' of hand-shaking, I smiled at my superstitious feeling, and wrote +my name." + +This Proclamation, the Declaration of Independence, and _Magna Charta_, +these be great landmarks, each indicating an advance to a higher and +more Christian civilization. Upon these will the historian linger, as +the stepping-stones toward a higher plane of existence. From this time +the war meant _universal liberty_. When, in June, 1858, at his home in +Springfield, Lincoln startled the country by the announcement, "this +nation can not endure half _slave_, and _half free_," and when he +concluded that remarkable speech by declaring, with uplifted eye and the +inspired voice of a prophet, "we shall not fail if we stand firm, _we +shall not fail_, wise councils may accelerate or mistakes delay, but +sooner or later the victory is sure to come," he looked to years of +peaceful controversy and final triumph through the ballot-box. He +anticipated no war, and he did not foresee, unless in those mysterious, +dim shadows, which sometimes startle by half revealing the future, his +own elevation to the presidency; he little dreamed that he was to be the +instrument in the hands of God to speak those words which should +emancipate a race and free his country! + +I have not space to follow the movements of the armies; the long, sad +campaigns of the grand army of the Potomac under McClellan, Pope, +Burnside, Hooker, Meade; nor the varying fortunes of war in the great +Valley of the Mississippi under Freemont, and Halleck, and Buell. Armies +had not only to be organized, but educated and trained, and especially +did the President have to search for and find those fitted for high +command. + +Ultimately he found such and placed them at the head of the armies. Up +to 1863, there had been vast expenditures of blood and treasure, and, +although great successes had been achieved and progress made, yet there +had been so many disasters and grievous failures, that the hopes of the +insurgents of final success were still confident. With all the great +victories in the South, and Southwest, by land and on the sea, the +Mississippi was still closed. The President opened the campaign of 1863 +with the determination of accomplishing two great objects, first to get +control of and open the Mississippi; second to destroy the army of +Virginia under Lee, and seize upon the rebel capital. By the capture of +Vicksburg, and the fall of Port Hudson, the first and primary object of +the campaign was realized. + +"The 'Father of Waters' again went unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the +great Northwest for it, nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up +they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way +right and left. The army South, too, in more colors than one, lent a +helping hand."[7] While the gallant armies of the West were achieving +these victories, operations in the East were crowned by the decisively +important triumph at Gettysburg. Let us pass over the scenes of +conflict, on the sea and on the land, at the East and at the West, and +come to that touching incident in the life of Lincoln, the consecration +of the battle-field of Gettysburg as a National cemetery. + +[7] See letter of Mr. Lincoln to State Convention of Illinois. + + + + +GETTYSBURG. + + +Here, late in the autumn of that year of battles, a portion of that +battle-ground was to be consecrated as the last resting-place of those +who there gave their lives that the Republic might live. + +There were gathered there the President, his Cabinet, members of +Congress, Governors of States, and a vast and brilliant assemblage of +officers, soldiers, and citizens, with solemn and impressive ceremonies +to consecrate the earth to its pious purpose. New England's most +distinguished orator and scholar was selected to pronounce the oration. +The address of Everett was worthy of the occasion. When the elaborate +oration was finished, the tall, homely form of Lincoln arose; simple, +rude, majestic, slowly he stepped to the front of the stage, drew from +his pocket a manuscript, and commenced reading that wonderful address, +which an English scholar and statesman has pronounced the finest in the +English language. The polished periods of Everett had fallen somewhat +coldly upon the ear, but Lincoln had not finished the first sentence +before the magnetic influence of a grand idea eloquently uttered by a +sympathetic nature, pervaded the vast assemblage. He said:-- + +"Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, +or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are +met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave +their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and +proper that we should do this. + +"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we +can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or +detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we _say_ +here, but it can never forget what they _did_ here. 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, and for the people, shall not +perish from the earth." + +He was so absorbed with the heroic sacrifices of the soldiers as to be +utterly unconscious that he was _the great actor_ in the drama, and that +his simple words would live as long as the memory of the heroism he +there commemorated. + +Closing his brief address amidst the deepest emotions of the crowd, he +turned to Everett and congratulated him upon his success. "Ah, Mr. +Lincoln," said the orator, "I would gladly exchange my hundred pages for +your twenty lines." + + + + +1864. + + +On the first of January, 1864, Mr. Lincoln received his friends as was +usual on New Year's day, and the improved prospects of the country, made +it a day of congratulation. The decisive victories East and West +enlivened and made buoyant and hopeful the spirits of all. One of the +most devoted friends of Mr. Lincoln calling upon him, after exchanging +congratulations over the progress of the Union armies during the past +year, said:-- + +"I hope, Mr. President, one year from to-day, I may have the pleasure of +congratulating you on the consummation of three events which seem now +very probable." + +"What are they?" said Mr. Lincoln. + +"First, That the rebellion may be completely crushed. Second, That +slavery may be entirely destroyed, and prohibited forever throughout the +Union. Third, That Abraham Lincoln may have been triumphantly re-elected +President of the United States." + +"I would be very glad," said Mr. Lincoln, with a twinkle in his eye, "to +compromise, by securing the success of the first two propositions." + + + + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. + + +On the 22d of February, 1864, President Lincoln nominated General U. S. +Grant as Lieutenant-General of all the armies of the United States, and +on the 9th of March, at the White House, he, in person, presented the +victorious General with his commission, and sent him forth to consummate +with the armies of the East, his world-renowned successes at the West. +Then followed the memorable campaign of 1864-5. Sherman's brilliant +Atlanta campaign; Sheridan's glorious career in the Valley of the +Shenandoah; Thomas's victories in Tennessee, the triumph at Lookout +Mountain; Sherman's "Grand march to the sea," the fall of Mobile, the +capture of Fort Fisher, and Wilmington, indicating the near approach of +peace through war. In the midst of these successes, Mr. Lincoln was +triumphantly re-elected, the people thereby stamping upon his +administration their grateful approval. At the session of Congress, of +1864-5, he urged the adoption of an amendment of the Constitution +abolishing and prohibiting slavery forever throughout the Republic, +thereby consummating his own great work of Emancipation. + + + + +CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY. + + +As the great leader in the overthrow of slavery, he had seen his action +sanctioned by an emphatic majority of the people, and now the +constitutional majority of two-thirds of both branches of Congress had +voted to submit to the States this amendment of the organic law. + +Illinois, the home of Lincoln, as was fit, took the lead in ratifying +this amendment, and other States rapidly followed, until more than the +requisite number was obtained, and the amendment adopted. Meanwhile, +military successes continued, until the victory over slavery and +rebellion was won. + + + + +LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION. + + +It was known, by a dispatch received at the Capitol at midnight, on the +3d of March, 1865, that Lee had sought an interview with Grant, to +arrange terms of surrender. On the next day Lincoln again stood on the +eastern colonnade of the Capitol, again to swear fidelity to the +Republic, her Constitution, and laws; but, how changed the scene from +his first inauguration. No traitors now occupied high places under the +Government. Crowds of citizens and soldiers who would have died for +their beloved Chief Magistrate now thronged the area. Liberty loyalty, +and victory had crowned the eagles of our armies. No conspirators were +now mingling in the crowd, unless perchance the assassin Booth might +have been lurking there. Many patriots and statesmen were in their +graves. Douglas was dead, and Ellsworth, and Baker, and McPherson, and +Reynolds, and Wadsworth, and a host of martyrs, had given their lives +that liberty and the Republic might triumph. It was a very touching +spectacle to see the long lines of invalid and wounded soldiers, from +the great hospitals about Washington, some on crutches, some who had +lost an arm, many pale from unhealed wounds, who gathered to witness the +scene. As Lincoln ascended the platform, and his tall form, towering +above all his associates, was recognized, cheers and shouts of welcome +filled the air, and not until he raised his arm motioning for silence, +could the acclamations be hushed. He paused a moment, looked over the +scene, and still hesitated. What thronging memories passed through his +mind! Here, four years before, he had stood pleading, oh, how earnestly, +for _peace_. But, even while he pleaded, the rebels took up the sword, +and he was forced to "_accept war_." + +Now four long, bloody, weary years of devastating war had passed, and +those who made the war were everywhere discomfited, and being +overthrown. That barbarous institution which had caused the war, had +been destroyed, and the dawn of peace already brightened the sky. Such +the scene, and such the circumstances under which Lincoln pronounced his +second Inaugural, a speech which has no parallel since Christ's Sermon +on the Mount. + +Who shall say that I am irreverent when I declare, that the passage, +"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this _mighty scourge_ of +war _may speedily pass away_! yet, if God wills that it continue until +all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of +unrequited toil shall be sunk, and every drop of blood drawn by the +lash, shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three +thousand years ago, so it must be said now, that the judgments of the +Lord are true and righteous altogether," could only have been inspired +by that _Holy Book_, which daily he read, and from which he ever sought +guidance? + +Where, but from the teachings of Christ, could he have learned that +charity in which he so unconsciously described his own moral nature, +"_With malice toward none, with charity for all_, with firmness in the +right, as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are +in, _to bind up the nation's wounds_, to care for him who hath borne the +battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve a +just and lasting peace, among ourselves and among all nations." + + + + +END OF THE WAR. + + +And now Mr. Lincoln gave his whole attention to the movements of the +armies, which, as he confidently hoped, were on the eve of final and +complete triumph. On the 27th of March he visited the head-quarters of +General Grant, at City Point, to concert with his most trusted military +chiefs the final movements against Lee, and Johnston. Grant was still at +bay before Petersburg. Sherman with his veterans, after occupying +Georgia and South Carolina, had reached Goldsboro', North Carolina, on +his victorious march north. It was the hope and purpose of the two +great leaders, whose generous friendship for each other made them ever +like brothers, now and there to crush the armies of Lee and Johnston, +and finish the "job." + +An artist has worthily painted the scene of the meeting of Lincoln and +his cabinet, when he first announced and read to them his proclamation +of Emancipation. Another artist is now recording for the American people +the scene of this memorable meeting of the President and the Generals, +which took place in the cabin of the steamer "River Queen," lying at the +dock in the James River. Three men more unlike personally and mentally, +and yet of more distinguished ability, have rarely been called together. +Although so entirely unlike, each was a type of American character, and +all had peculiarities not only American, but Western. + +Lincoln's towering form had acquired dignity by his great deeds, and the +great ideas to which he had given expression. His rugged features, +lately so deeply furrowed with care and responsibility, were now radiant +with hope and confidence. He met the two great leaders with grateful +cordiality; with clear intelligence he grasped the military situation, +and listened with eager confidence to their details of the final moves +which should close this terrible game of war. + +Contrasting, with the giant-like stature of Lincoln, was the short, +sturdy, resolute form of the hero of Fort Donelson and Vicksburg, so +firm and iron-like, every feature of his face and every attitude and +movement so quiet, yet all expressive of inflexible will and never +faltering determination, "to fight it out on this line." + +There, too, was Sherman, with his broad intellectual forehead, his +restless eye, his nervous energy, his sharply outlined features bronzed +by that magnificent campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta and from +Atlanta to the Sea, and now fresh from the conquest of Georgia and South +Carolina. On the eve of final triumph, Lincoln, with characteristic +humanity deplored the necessity which all realized, of one more hard and +deadly battle. They separated, Sherman hastening to his post, and Grant +commenced those brilliant movements which in ten days ended the war. Now +followed in rapid succession the fall of Richmond, the surrender of Lee, +the capitulation of Johnston and his army, the capture of Jefferson +Davis, and the final overthrow of the rebellion. + +The Union troops, on the morning of the 4th of April, entered the rebel +capital. Among the exulting columns which followed the eagles of the +Republic, were some regiments of negro soldiers, who marched through the +streets of Richmond singing their favorite song of "John Brown's soul is +marching on." + +On the day of its capture, President Lincoln, with Admiral Porter, +visited Richmond. Leading his youngest son, a lad, by the hand, he +walked from the James River landing to the house just vacated by the +rebel President. From the time of the issuing of his proclamation to +this, his triumphant entry into the rebel capital, he had been ever +ready and anxious for peace. To all the world he had proclaimed, what he +said so emphatically to the rebel emissaries at Hampton Roads. "There +are just two indispensable conditions of peace, national unity, and +national liberty." "The national authority must be restored through all +the States, and I will _never recede_ from my position on the slavery +question." He would never violate the national faith, and now God had +crowned his efforts with complete success. He entered Richmond as a +conqueror, but as its preserver he issued no decree of proscription or +confiscation, and to all the South his policy was, "with malice toward +none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gave him +to see the right, he sought to finish the work, and do all which should +achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace." + +On the 9th of April he returned to Washington, and had scarcely arrived +at the White House before the news of the surrender of Lee and all his +army reached him. No language can adequately describe the joy and +gratitude which filled the hearts of the President and the people. + +And here, before the attempt is made to sketch the darkest and most +dastardly crime in all our annals, let us pause for one moment to +mention that last review on the 22d and 23d of May, of these victorious +citizen soldiers, who had come at the call of the President, and who, +their work being done, were now to return again to their homes scattered +throughout the country they had saved. + +These bronzed and scarred veterans who had survived the battle-fields of +four years of active war, whose field of operations had been a +continent, the brave men who had marched and fought their way from New +England and the Northwest, to New Orleans and Charleston; those who had +withstood and repelled the terrific charges of the rebels at Gettysburg; +those who had fought beneath and above the clouds at Lookout Mountain; +who had taken Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Atlanta, New Orleans, Savannah, +Mobile, Petersburg, and Richmond; the triumphal entry of these heroes +into the National Capital of the Republic which they had saved and +redeemed, was deeply impressive. Triumphal arches, garlands, wreaths of +flowers, evergreens, marked their pathway. Acting President and +Cabinet, Governors and Senators, ladies, children, citizens, all united +to express the nation's gratitude to those by whose heroism it had been +saved. + +But there was one great shadow over the otherwise brilliant spectacle. +Lincoln, their great-hearted chief, he whom all loved fondly to call +their "Father Abraham;" he whose heart had been ever with them in camp, +and on the march, in the storm of battle, and in the hospital; he had +been murdered, stung to death, by the fang of the expiring serpent which +these soldiers had crushed. There were many thousands of these gallant +men in Blue, as they filed past the White House, whose weather-beaten +faces were wet with tears of manly grief. How gladly, joyfully would +they have given their lives to have saved his. + + + + +LAST DAYS OF LINCOLN. + + +It has been already stated that Mr. Lincoln returned to the Capital on +the 9th of April; from that day until the 14th was a scene of continued +rejoicing, gratulation, and thanksgiving to Almighty God who had given +to us the victory. In every city, town, village, and school district, +bells rang, salutes were fired, and the Union flag, now worshiped more +than ever by every loyal heart, waved from every home. The President was +full of hope and happiness. The clouds were breaking away, and his +genial, kindly nature was revolving plans of reconciliation and peace. +How could he now bind up the wounds of his country and obliterate the +scars of the war, and restore friendship and good feeling to every +section? These considerations occupied his thoughts: there was no +bitterness, no desire for revenge. On the morning of the 14th, Robert +Lincoln, just returned from the army, where, on the staff of General +Grant, he had witnessed the surrender of Lee, breakfasted with his +father, and the happy hour was passed in listening to details of that +event. The day was occupied, first, with an interview with Speaker +Colfax, then exchanging congratulations with a party of old Illinois +friends, then a cabinet meeting, attended by Gen. Grant, at which all +remarked his hopeful, joyous spirit, and all bear testimony that in this +hour of triumph, he had no thought of vengeance, but his mind was +revolving the best means of bringing back to sincere loyalty, those who +had been making war upon his country. He then drove out with Mrs. +Lincoln alone, and during the drive he dwelt upon the happy prospect now +before them, and contrasting the gloomy and distracting days of the war +with the peaceful ones now in anticipation, and looking beyond the term +of his Presidency, he, in imagination, saw the time when he should +return again to his prairie home, meet his old friends, and resume his +old mode of life. In fancy, he was again in his old law library, and +before the courts: with these were mingled visions of a prairie farm, +and once more the plow and the ax should become familiar to his hand. +Such were some of the incidents and fancies of the last day of the life +of Abraham Lincoln. + + + + +THE ASSASSINATION. + + +From the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, many +threats, public and private, were made of his assassination. An attempt +to murder him would undoubtedly have been made, in February, 1861, on +his passage through Baltimore, had not the plot been discovered, and the +time of his passage been anticipated. From the day of his inauguration, +he began to receive letters threatening assassination. He said: "The +first one or two made me uncomfortable, but," said he, smiling, "there +is nothing like getting _used_ to things." He was constitutionally +fearless, and came to consider these letters as idle threats, meant only +to annoy him, and it was very difficult for his friends to induce him to +resort to any precautions. + +It was announced through the press that on the evening of the 14th of +April, Mr. Lincoln and General Grant would attend Ford's Theater. The +General did not attend, but Mr. Lincoln, being unwilling to disappoint +the public expectation, accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and +Major Rathbone, was induced to go. The writer met him on the portico of +the White House just as he was about to enter his carriage, exchanged +greetings with him, and will never forget the radiant, happy expression +of his countenance, and the kind, genial tones of his voice, as we +parted _for the night_ as we then thought--_forever_ in this world, as +it resulted. + +The President was received, as he always was, by acclamations. When he +reached the door of his box, he turned, and smiled, and bowed in +acknowledgment of the hearty greeting which welcomed him, and then +followed Mrs. Lincoln into the box. This was at the right hand of the +stage. In the corner nearest the stage sat Miss Harris, next her Mrs. +Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln sat nearest the entrance, Major Rathbone being +seated on a sofa, in the back part of the box. The theater, and +especially the box occupied by the President's party, was most +beautifully draped with the national colors. While the play was in +progress, John Wilkes Booth visited the theater behind the scenes, left +a horse ready saddled in the alley behind the building, leaving a door +opening to this alley ready for his escape. + +In the midst of the play, at the hour of 10.30, a pistol shot, sharp and +clear, is heard! a man with a bloody dagger in his hand leaps from the +President's box to the stage exclaiming, "_Sic semper tyrannis_," "the +South is avenged." As the assassin struck the stage, the spur on his +boot having caught in the folds of the flag, he fell to his knee. +Instantly rising, he brandished his dagger, darted across the stage, out +of the door he had left open, mounted his horse and galloped away. The +audience, startled and stupefied with horror, were for a few seconds +spell-bound. Some one cries out in the crowd, "_John Wilkes Booth!_" +This man, an actor, familiar with the locality, after arranging for his +escape, had passed round to the front of the theater, entered, passed in +to the President's box, entered at the open and unguarded door, and +stealing up behind the President, who was intent upon the play, placed +his pistol near the back of the head of Mr. Lincoln, and fired. The ball +penetrated the brain, and the President fell upon his face mortally +wounded, unconscious and speechless from the first. Major Rathbone had +attempted to seize Booth as he rushed past toward the stage, and +received from the assassin a severe cut in the arm. + +No words can describe the anguish and horror of Mrs. Lincoln. The scene +was heart-rending; she prayed for death to relieve her suffering. The +insensible form of the President was removed across the street to the +house of a Mr. Peterson. Robert Lincoln soon reached the scene, and the +members of the cabinet and personal friends crowded around the place of +the fearful tragedy. And there the strong constitution of Mr. Lincoln +struggled with death, until twenty-two minutes past seven the next +morning, when his heart ceased to beat. The scene during that long +fearful night of woe, at the house of Peterson, beggars description. + +News of the appalling deed spread through the city, and it was found +necessary to restrain the anxious, weeping people by a double guard +around the house. The surgeons from the first examination of the wound, +pronounced it mortal; and the shock and the agony of that terrible night +to Mrs. Lincoln was enough to distract the reason, and break the heart +of the most self-controlled. Robert Lincoln sought, by manly +self-mastery to control his own grief and soothe his mother, and aid her +to sustain her overwhelming sorrow. + +When at last, the noble heart ceased to beat, the Rev. Dr. Gurley, in +the presence of the family, the household, and those friends of the +President who were present, knelt down, and touchingly prayed the +Almighty Father, to aid and strengthen the family and friends to bear +their terrible sorrow. + +I will not attempt with feeble pen to sketch the scenes of that terrible +night; I leave that for the pencil of the artist! + +As has been said, the name of the assassin was John Wilkes Booth! He was +shot by Boston Corbett, a soldier on the 21st of April. + + + + +ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF SECRETARY SEWARD. + + +On the same night of the assassination of the President, an accomplice +of Booth attempted to murder Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, in his +own house, while confined to his bed from severe injuries received by +being thrown from his carriage. He was terribly mangled; and his life +was saved by the heroic efforts of his sons and daughter and a nurse, +whose name was Robinson. Some of the accomplices of Booth were arrested, +tried, convicted, and hung; but all were the mere tools and instruments +of the Conspirators. Mystery and darkness yet hang over the chief +instigators of this most cowardly murder: none can say whether the chief +conspirators will ever, in this world, be dragged to light and +punishment. + +The terrible news of the death of Lincoln was, on the morning of the +15th, borne by telegraph to every portion of the Republic. Coming, as it +did, in the midst of universal joy, no language can picture the horror +and grief of the people on its reception. A whole nation wept. Persons +who had not heard the news, coming into crowded cities, were struck with +the strange aspect of the people. All business was suspended; gloom, +sadness, grief, sat upon every face. The flag, which had everywhere, +from every spire and masthead, roof, and tree, and public building, been +floating in glorious triumph, was now lowered; and, as the hours of that +dreary 15th of April passed on, the people, by common impulse, each +family by itself, commenced draping their houses and public buildings in +mourning, and before night the whole nation was shrouded in black. + +There were no classes of people in the Republic whose grief was more +demonstrative than that of the soldiers and the freedmen. The vast +armies, not yet disbanded, looked upon Lincoln as their father. They +knew his heart had followed them in all their campaigns and marches and +battles. Grief and vengeance filled their hearts. But the poor negroes +everywhere wept and sobbed over a loss which they instinctively felt was +to them irreparable. On the Sunday following his death, the whole people +gathered to their places of public worship, and mingled their tears +together over a bereavement which every one felt like the loss of a +father or a brother. The remains of the President were taken to the +White House. On the 17th, on Monday, a meeting of the members of +Congress then in Washington, was held at the Capitol, to make +arrangements for the funeral. This meeting named a committee of one +member from each State and Territory, and the whole Congressional +delegation from Illinois, as a Congressional Committee to attend the +remains of Mr. Lincoln to their final resting-place in Illinois. Senator +Sumner and others desired that his body should be placed under the dome +of the Capitol at Washington. It was stated that a vault had been +prepared there for the remains of Washington, but had never been used, +because the Washington family and Virginia desired them to remain in the +family vault at Mount Vernon. It was said it would be peculiarly +appropriate for the remains of Lincoln to be deposited under the dome of +the Capitol of the Republic he had saved and redeemed. + +The funeral took place on Wednesday, the 19th. The services were held in +the East Room of the Executive Mansion. It was a bright, genial +day--typical of the kind and genial nature of him whom a nation was so +deeply mourning. + +After the sad ceremonies at the National Capital, the remains of the +President and of his beloved son Willie, who died at the White House +during his presidency, were placed on a funeral car, and started on its +long pilgrimage to his old home in Illinois, and it was arranged that +the train should take nearly the same route as that by which he had come +from Springfield to Washington in assuming the Executive Chair. + +And now the people of every State, city, town, and hamlet, came with +uncovered heads, with streaming eyes, with their offerings of wreaths +and flowers, to witness the passing train. It is impossible to describe +the scenes. Minute-guns, the tolling of bells, music, requiems, dirges, +military and civic displays, draped flags, black covering every public +building and private house, everywhere indicated the pious desire of the +people to do honor to the dead: two thousand miles, along which every +house was draped in black, and from which, everywhere, hung the national +colors in mourning. The funeral ceremonies at Baltimore were peculiarly +impressive: nowhere were the manifestations of grief more universal; but +the sorrow of the negroes, who thronged the streets in thousands, and +hung like a dark fringe upon the long procession, was especially +impressive. Their coarse, homely features were convulsed with a grief +which they could not control; their emotional natures, excited by the +scene, and by each other, until sobs and cries and tears, rolling down +their black faces, told how deeply they felt their loss. When the +remains reached Philadelphia, a half million of people were in the +streets, to do honor to all that was left of him, who, in old +Independence Hall, four years before, had declared that he would sooner +die, sooner be assassinated, than give up the principles of the +Declaration of Independence. He _had_ been assassinated because he would +_not_ give them up. All felt, when the remains were placed in that +historic room, surrounded by the memories of the great men of the Past, +whose portraits from the walls looked down upon the scene, that a peer +of the best and greatest of the revolutionary worthies was now added to +the list of those who had served the Republic. + +Through New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, to Illinois, all the people +followed the funeral train as mourners, but when the remains reached his +own State, where he had been personally known to every one, where the +people had all heard him on the stump and in court, every family +mourned him as a father and a brother. The train reached Springfield on +the 3d of May; and the corpse was taken to Oak Ridge Cemetery, and +there, among his old friends and neighbors, his clients, and +constituents, surrounded by representatives from the Army and Navy, with +delegations from every State, with all the people, the world for his +mourners--was he buried. + + + + +PERSONAL SKETCHES OF LINCOLN.[8] + +[8] The substance of what follows is from chapter 29th of "The History +of Abraham Lincoln, and The Overthrow of Slavery," by Isaac N. Arnold. + + +In the remaining pages, I shall attempt to give a word-picture of Mr. +Lincoln, his person, his moral and intellectual characteristics, and +some personal recollections, so as to aid the reader, as far as I may be +able, in forming an ideal of the man. + +Physically, he was a tall, spare man, six feet and four inches in +height. He stooped, leaning forward as he walked. He was very athletic, +with long, sinewy arms, large, bony hands, and of great physical power. +Many anecdotes of his strength are given, which show that it was equal +to that of two or three ordinary men. He lifted with ease five or six +hundred pounds. His legs and arms were disproportionately long, as +compared with his body; and when he walked, he swung his arms to and fro +more than most men. When seated, he did not seem much taller than +ordinary men. In his movements there was no grace, but an impression of +awkward strength and vigor. + +He was naturally diffident, and even to the day of his death, when in +crowds, and not speaking or acting, and conscious of being observed, he +seemed to shrink with bashfulness. When he became interested, or spoke, +or listened, this appearance left him, and he indicated no +self-consciousness. His forehead was high and broad, his hair very dark, +nearly black, and rather stiff and coarse, his eyebrows were heavy, his +eyes dark-gray, very expressive and varied; now sparkling with humor and +fun, and then deeply sad and melancholy; flashing with indignation at +injustice or wrong, and then kind, genial, droll, dreamy; according to +his mood. + +His nose was large, and clearly defined and well shaped; cheek-bones +high and projecting. His mouth coarse, but firm. He was easily +caricatured--but difficult to represent as he was, in marble or on +canvass. The best bust of him is that of Volk, which was modeled from a +cast taken from life in May, 1860, while he was attending court at +Chicago. + +Among the best portraits, in the judgment of his family and intimate +friends, are those of Carpenter, in the picture of the Reading of the +Proclamation of Emancipation before the Cabinet, and that of Marshall. + +He would be instantly recognized as belonging to that type of tall, +thin, large-boned men, produced in the northern portion of the Valley of +the Mississippi, and exhibiting its peculiar characteristics in a most +marked degree in Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee. In any crowd in the +United States, he would have been readily pointed out as a Western man. +His stature, figure, manner, voice, and accent, indicated that he was of +the Northwest. His manners were cordial, familiar, genial; always +perfectly self-possessed, he made every one feel at home, and no one +approached him without being impressed with his kindly, frank nature, +his clear, good sense, and his transparent truthfulness and integrity. +There is more or less of expression and character in handwriting. +Lincoln's was plain, simple, clear, and legible, as that of Washington; +but unlike that of Washington, it was without ornament. + +In endeavoring to state those qualities which gave him success and +greatness, among the most important, it seems to me, were a supreme love +of truth, and a wonderful capacity to ascertain it. Mentally, he had a +perfect eye for truth. His mental vision was clear and accurate: he saw +things as they were. I mean that every thing presented to his mind for +investigation, he saw divested of every extraneous circumstance, every +coloring, association, or accident which could mislead. This gave him at +the bar a sagacity which seemed almost instinctive, in sifting the true +from the false, and in ascertaining facts; and so it was in all things +through life. He ever sought the real, the true, and the right. He was +exact, carefully accurate in all his statements. He analyzed well; he +saw and presented what lawyers call the very _gist_ of every question, +divested of all unimportant or accidental relations, so that his +statement was a demonstration. At the bar, his exposition of his case, +or a question of law, was so clear, that, on hearing it, most persons +were surprised that there should be any controversy about it. His +reasoning powers were keen and logical, and moved forward to a +demonstration with the precision of mathematics. What has been said +implies that he possessed not only a sound judgment, which brought him +to correct conclusions, but that he was able so to present questions as +to bring others to the same result. + +His memory was capacious, ready, and tenacious. His reading was limited +in extent, but his memory was so ready, and so retentive, that in +history, poetry, and general literature, no one ever remarked any +deficiency. As an illustration of the power of his memory, I recollect +to have once called at the White House, late in his Presidency, and +introducing to him a Swede and a Norwegian; he immediately repeated a +poem of eight or ten verses, describing Scandinavian scenery and old +Norse legends. In reply to the expression of their delight, he said that +he had read and admired the poem several years before, and it had +entirely gone from him, but seeing them recalled it. + +The two books which he read most were the Bible and Shakespeare. With +these he was very familiar, reading and studying them habitually and +constantly. He had great fondness for poetry, and eloquence, and his +taste and judgment in each was exquisite. Shakespeare was his favorite +poet; Burns stood next. I know of a speech of his at a Burns festival, +in which he spoke at length of Burns's poems; illustrating what he said +by many quotations, showing perfect familiarity with and full +appreciation of the peasant poet of Scotland. He was extremely fond of +ballads, and of simple, sad, and plaintive music. + +He was a most admirable reader. He read and repeated passages from the +Bible and Shakespeare with great simplicity but remarkable expression +and effect. Often when going to and from the army, on steamers and in +his carriage, he took a copy of Shakespeare with him, and not +unfrequently read, aloud to his associates. After conversing upon public +affairs, he would take up his Shakespeare, and addressing his +companions, remark, "What do you say now to a scene from Macbeth, or +Hamlet, or Julius Cęsar," and then he would read aloud, scene after +scene, never seeming to tire of the enjoyment. + +On the last Sunday of his life, as he was coming up the Potomac, from +his visit to City Point and Richmond, he read aloud many extracts from +Shakespeare. Among others, he read, with an accent and feeling which no +one who heard him will ever forget, extracts from Macbeth, and among +others the following:-- + + "Duncan is in his grave; + After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well. + Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison, + Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing + Can touch him farther." + +After "treason" had "_done his worst_," the friends who heard him on +that occasion remembered that he read that passage very slowly over +twice, and with an absorbed and peculiar manner. Did he feel a +mysterious presentiment of his approaching fate? + +His conversation was original, suggestive, instructive, and playful; +and, by its genial humor, fascinating and attractive beyond comparison. +Mirthfulness and sadness were strongly combined in him. His mirth was +exuberant, it sparkled in jest, story, and anecdote; and the next moment +those peculiarly sad, pathetic, melancholy eyes, showed a man "familiar +with sorrow, and acquainted with grief." I have listened for hours at +his table, and elsewhere, when he has been surrounded by statesmen, +military leaders, and other distinguished men of the nation, and I but +repeat the universally concurring verdict of all, in stating that as a +conversationalist he had no equal. One might meet in company with him +the most distinguished men, of various pursuits and professions, but +after listening for two or three hours, on separating, it was what +Lincoln had said that would be remembered. His were the ideas and +illustrations that would not be forgotten. Men often called upon him for +the pleasure of listening to him. I have heard the reply to an +invitation to attend the theater, "No, I am going up to the White House. +I would rather hear Lincoln talk for half an hour, than attend the best +theater in the world." + +As a public speaker, without any attempt at oratorical display, I think +he was the most effective of any man of his day. When he spoke, +everybody listened. It was always obvious, before he completed two +sentences, that he had something to say, and it was sure to be something +original, something different from any thing heard from others, or which +had been read in books. He impressed the hearer at once, as an earnest, +sincere man, who believed what he said. To-day, there are more of the +sayings of Lincoln repeated by the people, more quotations, sentences, +and extracts from his writings and speeches, familiar as "household +words," than from those of any other American. + +I know no book, except the Bible and Shakespeare, from which so many +familiar phrases and expressions have been taken as from his writings +and speeches. Somebody has said, "I care not who makes the laws, if I +may write the ballads of a nation." The words of Lincoln have done more +in the last six years to mold and fashion the American character than +those of any other man, and their influence has been all for truth, +right, justice, and liberty. Great as has been Lincoln's services to the +people, as their President, his influence, derived from his words and +his example, in molding the future national character, in favor of +justice, right, liberty, truth, and real, sincere, unostentatious +reverence for God, is scarcely less important. The Republic of the +future, the matured national character, will be more influenced by him +than by any other man. This is evidence of his greatness, intellectual, +and still more, moral. In this power of impressing himself upon the +people, he contrasts with many other distinguished men in our history. +Few quotations from Jefferson, or Adams, or Webster, live in the +every-day language of the people. Little of Clay survives; not much of +Calhoun, and who can quote, off-hand, half a dozen sentences from +Douglas? But you hear Lincoln's words, not only in every cabin and +caucus, and in every stump speech, but at every school-house, +high-school, and college declamation, and by every farmer and artisan, +as he tells you story after story of Lincoln's, and all to the point, +hitting the nail on the head every time, and driving home the argument. +Mr. Lincoln was not a scholar, but where is there a speech more +exhaustive in argument than his Cooper Institute address? Where any +thing more full of pathos than his farewell to his neighbors at +Springfield, when he bade them good-bye, on starting for the capital? +Where any thing more eloquent than his appeal for peace and union, in +his first Inaugural, or than his defense of the Declaration of +Independence in the Douglas debates? Where the equal of his speech at +Gettysburg? Where a more conclusive argument than in his letter to the +Albany Meeting on Arrests? What is better than his letter to the +Illinois State Convention; and that to Hodges of Kentucky, in +explanation of his anti-slavery policy? Where is there any thing equal +in simple grandeur of thought and sentiment, to his last Inaugural? From +all of these, and many others, from his every-day talks, are extracts on +the tongues of the people, as familiar, and nearly as much reverenced, +as texts from the Bible; and these are shaping the national character. +"Though dead, he yet speaketh." + +As a public speaker, if excellence is measured by results, he had no +superior. His manner was generally earnest, often playful; sometimes, +but this was rare, he was vehement and impassioned. There have been a +few instances, at the bar and on the stump, when, wrought up to +indignation by some great personal wrong, or by an aggravated case of +fraud or injustice, or when speaking of the fearful wrongs and injustice +of slavery, he broke forth in a strain of impassioned vehemence which +carried every thing before him. + +Generally, he addressed the reason and judgment, and the effect was +lasting. He spoke extemporaneously, but not without more or less +preparation. He had the power of repeating, without reading it, a +discourse or speech which he had prepared or written out. His great +speech, in opening the Douglas canvass, in June, 1858, was carefully +written out, but so naturally spoken that few suspected that it was not +extemporaneous. In his style, manner of presenting facts, and way of +putting things to the people, he was more like Franklin than any other +American. His illustrations, by anecdote and story, were not unlike the +author of _Poor Richard_. + +A great cause of his intellectual power was the thorough exhaustive +investigation he gave to every subject. Take, for illustration, his +Cooper Institute speech. Hundreds of able and intelligent men have +spoken on the same subject treated by him in that speech, yet what they +said will all be forgotten, and his will survive; because his address is +absolutely perfect for the purpose for which it was designed. Nothing +can be added to it. + +Mr. Lincoln, however, required time thoroughly to investigate before he +came to his conclusions, and the movements of his mind were not rapid; +but when he reached his conclusions he believed in them, and adhered to +them with great firmness and tenacity. When called upon to decide +quickly upon a new subject or a new point, he often erred, and was ever +ready to change when satisfied he was wrong. + +It was the union, in Mr. Lincoln, of the capacity clearly to see the +truth, and an innate love of truth, and justice, and right in his heart, +that constituted his character and made him so great. He never +demoralized his intellectual or moral powers, either by doing wrong that +good might come, or by advocating error because it was popular. +Although, as a statesman, eminently practical, and looking to the +possible good of to-day, he ever kept in mind the absolute truth and +absolute right, toward which he always aimed. + +Mr. Lincoln was an unselfish man; he never sought his own advancement at +the expense of others. He was a just man; he never tried to pull others +down that he might rise. He disarmed rivalry and envy by his rare +generosity. He possessed the rare wisdom of magnanimity. He was +eminently a tender-hearted, kind, and humane man. These traits were +illustrated all through his life. He loved to pardon: he was averse to +punish. It was difficult for him to deny the request of a child, a +woman, or of any who were weak and suffering. Pages of incidents might +be quoted, showing his ever-thoughtful kindness, gratitude to, and +appreciation of the soldiers. The following note (written to a lady +known to him only by her sacrifices for her country) is selected from +many on this subject:-- + + "EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, + "November, 1864. + + "DEAR MADAM:-- + + "I have been shown, in the files of the War Department, a + statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, that you + are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the + field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any + words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the + grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I can not refrain from + tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the + thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our + Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, + and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, + and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly + a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. + + "Yours very respectfully, + "ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + "To Mrs. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts." + +One summer's day, in walking along the shaded path which leads from the +White House to the War Department, I saw the tall form of the President +seated on the grass under a tree, with a wounded soldier sitting by his +side. He had a bundle of papers in his hand. The soldier had met him in +the path, and, recognizing him, had asked his aid. Mr. Lincoln sat down +upon the grass, investigated the case, and sent the soldier away +rejoicing. In the midst of the rejoicings over the triumphs at +Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, he forgets not to telegraph to Grant, +"Remember Burnside" at Knoxville. + +His charity, in the best sense of that word, was pervading. When others +railed, he railed not again. No bitter words, no denunciation can be +found in his writings or speeches. Literally, in his heart there was +"malice toward none, and charity for all." + +Mr. Lincoln was by nature a gentleman. No man can point, in all his +lifetime, to any thing mean, small, tricky, dishonest, or false; on the +contrary, he was ever open, manly, brave, just, sincere, and true. That +characteristic, attributed to him by some, of coarse story-telling, did +not exist. I assert that my intercourse with him was constant for many +years before he went to Washington, and I saw him daily, during the +greater part of his Presidency; and although his stories and anecdotes +were racy, witty, and pointed beyond all comparison, yet I never heard +one of a character to need palliation or excuse. If a story had wit and +was apt, he did not reject it, because to a vulgar or impure mind it +suggested coarse ideas; but he himself was unconscious of any thing but +its wit and aptness. + +It may interest the people who did not visit Washington during his +Presidency, to know something of his habits, and the room he occupied +and transacted business in, during his administration. His +reception-room was on the second floor, on the south side of the White +House, and the second apartment from the southeast corner. The corner +room was occupied by Mr. Nicolay, his private secretary; next to this +was the President's reception-room. It was, perhaps, thirty by twenty +feet. In the middle of the west side, was a large marble fireplace, with +old-fashioned brass andirons, and a large, high, brass fender. The +windows looked to the south, upon the lawn and shrubbery on the south +front of the White House, taking in the unfinished Washington Monument, +Alexandria, the Potomac, and down that beautiful river toward Mount +Vernon. Across the Potomac was Arlington Heights. The view from these +windows was altogether very beautiful. + +The furniture of this room consisted of a long oak table, covered with +cloth, and oak chairs. This table stood in the center of the room, and +was the one around which the Cabinet sat, at Cabinet meetings, and is +faithfully painted in Carpenter's picture of the Emancipation +Proclamation. At the end of the table, near the window, was a large +writing-table and desk, with pigeon-holes for papers, such as are common +in lawyers' offices. In front of this, in a large arm-chair, Mr. Lincoln +usually sat. Behind his chair, and against the west wall of the room, +was another writing-desk high enough to write upon when standing, and +upon the top of this were a few books, among which were the Statutes of +the United States, a Bible, and a copy of Shakespeare. There was a +bureau, with wooden doors, with pigeon-holes for papers, standing +between the windows. Here the President kept such papers as he wished +readily to refer to. There were two plain sofas in the room; generally +two or three map-frames, from which hung military maps, on which the +movements of the armies were continually traced and followed. The only +picture in the room was an old engraving of Jackson, which hung over +the fireplace; late in his administration was added a fine photograph of +John Bright. Two doors opened into this room--one from the Secretary's, +the other from the great hall, where the crowd usually waited. A +bell-cord hung within reach of his hand, while he sat at his desk. There +was an ante-room adjoining this, plainly furnished; but the crowd +usually pressed to the hall, from which an entrance might be directly +had to the President's room. A messenger stood at the door, and took in +the cards and names of visitors. + +Here, in this room, more plainly furnished than many law and business +offices--plainer than the offices of the heads of bureaus in the +Executive Departments--Mr. Lincoln spent the days of his Presidency. +Here he received everybody, from the Lieutenant-General and +Chief-Justice, down to the private soldier and humblest citizen. Custom +had established certain rules of precedence, fixing the order in which +officials should be received. The members of the Cabinet and the high +officers of the army were, of course, received always promptly. Senators +and members of Congress, who are usually charged with the presentation +of petitions and recommendations for appointments, and who are expected +to right every wrong and correct every evil each one of their respective +constituents may be suffering, or imagine himself to be suffering, have +an immense amount of business with the Executive. I have often seen as +many as ten or fifteen Senators and twenty or thirty Members of the +House in the hall, waiting their turn to see the President. They would +go to the ante-room, or up to the hall in front of the reception-room, +and await their turns. The order of precedence was, first the +Vice-President, if present, then the Speaker of the House, and then +Senators and Members of the House in the order of their arrival, and the +presentation of their cards. Frequently Senators and Members would go +to the White House as early as eight or nine in the morning, to secure +precedence and an early interview. While they waited, the loud ringing +laugh of Mr. Lincoln, in which he was sure to be joined by all _inside_, +but which was rather provoking to those _outside_, was often heard by +the waiting and impatient crowd. Here, from early morning to late at +night, he sat, listened, and decided--patient, just, considerate, +hopeful. All the people came to him as to a father. He was more +accessible than any of the leading members of his Cabinet--much more so +than Mr. Seward, shut up in the State Department, writing his voluminous +dispatches; far more so than Mr. Stanton, indefatigable, stern, abrupt, +but ever honest and faithful. Mr. Lincoln saw everybody--governors, +senators, congressmen, officers, ministers, bankers, merchants, +farmers--all classes of people; all approached him with confidence, from +the highest to the lowest; but this incessant labor and fearful +responsibility told upon his vigorous frame. He left Illinois for the +capital, with a frame of iron and nerves of steel. His old friends, who +knew him in Illinois as a man who knew not what illness was, who knew +him ever genial and sparkling with fun, as the months and years of the +war passed slowly on, saw the wrinkles on his forehead deepened into +furrows; and the laugh of old days became sometimes almost hollow; it +did not now always seem to come from the heart, as in former years. +Anxiety, responsibility, care, thought, wore upon even his giant frame, +and his nerves of steel became at times irritable. For more than four +years he had no respite, no holidays. When others fled away from the +dust and heat of the capital, he must stay; he would not leave the helm +until the danger was past and the ship was in port. + +Mrs. Lincoln watched his care-worn face with the anxiety of an +affectionate wife, and sometimes took him from his labors almost in +spite of himself. She urged him to ride, and to go to the theater and +places of amusement, to divert his mind from his engrossing cares. + +Let us for a moment try to appreciate the greatness of his work and his +services. He was the Commander-in-Chief, during the war, of the largest +army and navy in the world; and this army and navy was created during +his administration, and its officers were sought out and appointed by +him. The operations of the Treasury were vast beyond all previous +conceptions of the ability of the country to sustain; and yet, when he +entered upon the Presidency, he found an empty treasury, the public +credit shaken, no army, no navy, the officers all strangers, many +deserting, more in sympathy with the rebels, Congress divided, and +public sentiment unformed. The party which elected him were in a +minority. The old Democratic party, which had ruled the country for half +a century, hostile to him, and, by long political association, in +sympathy with the insurgent States. His own party, new, made up of +discordant elements, and not yet consolidated, unaccustomed to rule, and +neither his party nor himself possessing any _prestige_. He entered the +White House, the object of personal prejudice to a majority of the +people, and of contempt to a powerful minority. And yet I am satisfied, +from the statement of the conversation of Mr. Lincoln with Mr. Bateman, +quoted hereafter, and from various other reasons, that he himself more +fully appreciated the terrible conflict before him than any man in the +nation, and that even then he hoped and expected to be the _Liberator_ +of the slaves. He did not yet clearly perceive the manner in which it +was to be done, but he believed it would be done, and that God would +guide him. + +In four years, this man crushed the most stupendous rebellion, supported +by armies more vast, and resources greater than were ever before +combined to overthrow any government. He held together and consolidated, +against warring factions, his own great party, and strengthened it by +securing the confidence and bringing to his aid a large proportion of +all other parties. He was re-elected almost by acclamation, and he led +the people, step by step, up to emancipation, and saw his work crowned +by the Constitutional Amendment, eradicating Slavery from the Republic +for ever. Did this man lack firmness? Study the boldness of the +Emancipation! See with what fidelity he stood by his Proclamation! In +his message of 1863, he said: "I will _never_ retract the proclamation, +nor return to slavery any person made free by it." In 1864, he said: "If +it should ever be made a duty of the Executive to return to slavery any +person made free by the Proclamation or the acts of Congress, some other +person, not I, must execute the law." + +When hints of peace were suggested as obtainable by giving over the +negro race again to bondage, he repelled it with indignation. When the +rebel Vice-President, Stephens, at Fortress Monroe, tempted him to give +up the freedman, and seek the glory of a foreign war, in which the Union +and Confederate soldiers might join, neither party sacrificing its +honor, he was inflexible; he would die sooner than break the nation's +plighted faith. + +Mr. Lincoln did not enter with reluctance upon the plan of emancipation; +and in this statement I am corroborated by Lovejoy and Sumner, and many +others. If he did not act more promptly, it was because he knew he must +not go faster than the people. Men have questioned the firmness, +boldness, and will of Mr. Lincoln. He had no vanity in the exhibition +of power, but he quietly acted, when he felt it his duty so to do, with +a boldness and firmness never surpassed. + +What bolder act than the surrender of Mason and Slidell, against the +resolution of Congress and the almost universal popular clamor, without +consulting the Senate or taking advice from his Cabinet? The removals of +McClellan and Butler, the modification of the orders of Fremont and +Hunter, were acts of a bold, decided character. He acted for himself, +taking personally the responsibility of deciding the great questions of +his administration. + +He was the most democratic of all the presidents. Personally, he was +homely, plain, without pretension, and without ostentation. He believed +in the people, and had faith in their good impulses. He ever addressed +himself to their reason, and not to their prejudices. His language was +simple, sometimes quaint, never sacrificing expression to elegance. When +he spoke to the people, it was as though he said to them, "Come, let us +reason together." There can not be found in all his speeches or writings +a single vulgar expression, nor an appeal to any low sentiment or +prejudice. He had nothing of the demagogue. He never himself alluded to +his humble origin, except to express regret for the deficiencies of his +education. He always treated the people in such a way, that they knew +that he respected them, believed them honest, capable of judging +correctly, and disposed to do right. + +I know not how, in a few words, I can better indicate his political and +moral character, than by the following incident: A member of Congress, +knowing the purity of his life, his reverence for God, and his respect +for religion, one day expressed surprise, that he had not joined a +church. After mentioning some difficulties he felt in regard to some +articles of faith, Mr. Lincoln said, "_Whenever any church_ will +inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, +Christ's condensed statement of both Law and Gospel, '_Thou shalt love +the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with +all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself_,' that church will I join +with all my heart." + +Love to God, as the great Father, love to man as his brother, +constituted the basis of his political and moral creed. + +One day, when one of his friends was denouncing his political enemies, +"Hold on," said Mr. Lincoln, "Remember what St. Paul says, 'and now +abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; _but the greatest of these is +charity_.'" + +From the day of his leaving Springfield to assume the duties of the +Presidency, when he so impressively asked his friends and neighbors to +invoke upon him the guidance and wisdom of God, to the evening of his +death, he seemed ever to live and act in the consciousness of his +responsibility to Him, and with the trusting faith of a child he leaned +confidingly upon His Almighty Arm. He was visited during his +administration by many Christian delegations, representing the various +religious denominations of the Republic, and it is known that he was +relieved and comforted in his great work by the consciousness that the +Christian world were praying for his success. Some one said to him, one +day, "No man was ever so remembered in the prayers of the people, +especially of those who pray not to be heard of men, as you are." He +replied, "I have been a good deal helped by just that thought." + +The support which Mr. Lincoln received during his administration from +the religious organizations, and the sympathy and confidence between the +great body of Christians and the President, was indeed a source of +immense strength and power to him. + +I know of nothing revealing more of the true character of Mr. Lincoln, +his conscientiousness, his views of the slavery question, his sagacity +and his full appreciation of the awful trial through which the country +and he had to pass, than the following incident stated by Mr. Bateman, +Superintendent of Public Instruction for Illinois. + +On one occasion, in the autumn of 1860, after conversing with Mr. +Bateman at some length, on the, to him, strange conduct of Christian men +and ministers of the Gospel supporting slavery, he said:-- + +"I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see +the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place +and work for me--and I think He has--I believe I am ready. I am nothing, +but truth is every thing. I know I am right, because I know that Liberty +is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told them +that a house divided against itself can not stand; and Christ and Reason +say the same; and they will find it so. + +"Douglas don't care whether slavery is voted up or down, but God cares, +and humanity cares, and I care; and with God's help I shall not fail. I +may not see the end; but it will come, and I shall be vindicated; and +these men will find that they have not read their Bibles right." + +Much of this was uttered as if he were speaking to himself, and with a +sad, earnest solemnity of manner impossible to be described. After a +pause, he resumed: "Doesn't it appear strange that men can ignore the +moral aspect of this contest? A revelation could not make it plainer to +me that slavery or the Government must be destroyed. The future would be +something awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on which I stand +(alluding to the Testament which he still held in his hand). It seems as +if God had borne with this thing (slavery) until the very teachers of +religion had come to defend it from the Bible, and to claim for it a +divine character and sanction; and now the cup of iniquity is full, and +the vials of wrath will be poured out." After this, says Mr. Bateman, +the conversation was continued for a long time. Every thing he said was +of a peculiarly deep, tender, and religious tone, and all was tinged +with a touching melancholy. He repeatedly referred to his conviction +that the day of wrath was at hand, and that he was to be an actor in the +terrible struggle which would issue in the overthrow of slavery, though +he might not live to see the end.[9] + +[9] The foregoing statement has been verified by Mr. Bateman as +substantially correct. + +Perhaps in all history there is no example of such great and long +continued injustice as that of the British press during the war toward +Mr. Lincoln. His death shamed them into decency. While he lived they +sneered at his manners. Let them turn to their own Cromwell. They said +his person was ugly. Has the world recognized the ability of Mirabeau, +or that of Henry Brougham, notwithstanding their ugliness? They made +scurrile jests about his figure, as though a statesman must be +necessarily a sculptor's model! They were facetious about his dress, as +though a greater than a Fox or a Chatham must be a Beau Brummel. They +were horrified by his jokes. If the same had been told by the patrician +Palmerston, instead of the plebeian Lincoln, they would not have lacked +the "Attic salt," but would have rivaled Dean Swift or Sidney Smith. + +It has been truly said there is one parallel only, to English +journalism's treatment of Lincoln, and that is to be found in their +treatment of Napoleon. "The Corsican Ogre," and the "American Ape," were +phrases coined in the same mint. But the great Corsican was England's +bitter foe; Lincoln was never provoked either by his own or his +country's wrongs, to hostility against Great Britain. Yet at the great +Martyr's grave, even this injustice changed to respect and reverence; +even "Punch" repented and said-- + + "Yes he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen; + To make me own this hind, of princes _peer_, + This rail-splitter a true-born _King_ of men." + +The place Mr. Lincoln will occupy in history, will be higher than any +which he held while living. His Emancipation Proclamation is the most +important historical event of the nineteenth century. Its influence will +not be limited by time, nor bounded by locality. It will ever be treated +by the historian as one of the great landmarks of human progress. + +He has been compared and contrasted with three great personages in +history, who were assassinated,--with Cęsar, with William of Orange, and +with Henry IV. of France. He was a nobler type of man than either, as he +was the product of a higher and more Christian civilization. + +The two great men by whose words and example our great continental +Republic is to be fashioned and shaped are Washington and Lincoln. +Representative men of the East, and of the West, of the Revolutionary +era, and the era of Liberty for all. One sleeps upon the banks of the +Potomac, and the other on the great prairies of the Valley of the +Mississippi. Lincoln was as pure as Washington, as modest, as just, as +patriotic; less passionate by nature, more of a democrat in his feelings +and manners, with more faith in the people, and more hopeful of their +future. Statesmen and patriots will study their record and learn the +wisdom of goodness. + + +END OF BOOK ADVERTISEMENTS + + +ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. + +The Portrait of Mr. LINCOLN, accompanying this book, has been engraved, +for the Publisher, expressly for it. No labor or expense has been spared +to produce a First-Class Engraving. It was executed by H. B. HALL, JR., +ESQ., who unquestionably stands in the front rank of American Engravers. +The great Painting of + + "The Last Hours of Lincoln," + +is now being engraved by Mr. HALL, in the same style. + +This PORTRAIT of President LINCOLN is pronounced by all to be the most +life-like--the best ever engraved of him. It may not be improper to +state that I have a letter from his family to that effect, which I +refrain to place in print. I will, however, publish a few from persons +intimately acquainted with him, selecting from the large number that I +have received. + + +Engraved Portrait of President Lincoln. + +OPINIONS OF HIS FRIENDS. + + "WASHINGTON, D. C., _June 22, 1868_. + + "DEAR SIR:-- + +"I have examined with interest the steel engraving of President LINCOLN +published by you. I knew him intimately more than thirty years, being at +times a member of his family. + +"I regard this portrait the happiest likeness--and it conveys to me the +most pleasing recollection of ABRAHAM LINCOLN of any that I have seen. + + "Very truly yours, + "J. B. S. TODD. + + "COL. JOHN B. BACHELDER." + + * * * * * + + "TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., _July 30, 1868_. + + "DEAR SIR:-- + +"I have carefully examined the portrait of the late President, Mr. +LINCOLN, engraved by Mr. H. B. HALL, Jr., and published by yourself. The +engraving is exceedingly fine, and the _likeness_ is superior to any +that I have seen. As a work of Art, it is in the highest degree +creditable to Mr. HALL. + + "Very respectfully, + "HUGH McCULLOCH, + "_Secretary of the Treasury_. + + "COL. JOHN B. BACHELDER." + + * * * * * + + "WAR DEPARTMENT, _July 30, 1868_. + +"* * * It is one of the most truthful likenesses of the late President +that I have seen. * * * + + "Yours very truly, + "J. M. SCHOFIELD, + "_Secretary of War_. + + "COL. JOHN B. BACHELDER." + + * * * * * + + "NAVY DEPARTMENT, _July 30, 1868_. + +"* * * I think it a correct and satisfactory likeness in all respects. + + "GIDEON WELLES, + "_Secretary of Navy_. + + "J. B. BACHELDER, ESQ." + + * * * * * + + "HEAD-QUARTERS, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, + + "WASHINGTON, D. C., _July 30, 1868_. + +"* * * It is a beautiful piece of Art, indeed it is I think quite +remarkable, presenting, as it does that characteristic expression of the +eye as well as of the features and lines of the face. * * * + + "I am very truly yours, + "A. A. HUMPHREYS, + "_Major-General_." + + +A quarto edition of this Engraving has been published, suitable to +frame, which will be sent free by mail to any part of the country on the +reception of the price. + +STYLE AND PRICES. + +PRINT, =$1.00=; PLAIN PROOF, =$2.00=; INDIA PROOF, =$3.00=; ARTIST'S +PROOF (selected and signed by the engraver, and tastefully framed in a +_passe-partout_), =$5.00=. (Express delivery extra.) + + _Orders Addressed to_ + JOHN B. BACHELDER, Publisher, + =59 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK=. + + PROSPECTUS OF WORKS + + PUBLISHED BY + + JOHN B. BACHELDER, + + 59 BEEKMAN STREET, + + NEW YORK. + +[Illustration: COL. MORROW, with the COLORS of the 24th MICH. VOLS.] + + +GETTYSBURG. + +When a person is desirous of procuring a published work upon any +subject, it is natural for him to inquire for the sources of information +from which the author has compiled that work. I have, therefore, without +wishing to be considered egotistical, concluded to issue this prospectus +to such as have an interest in the Battle of Gettysburg, that they may +know what I have already done, and what I yet propose to do, to +eliminate the history of that battle. + + +ISOMETRICAL DRAWING OF THE GETTYSBURG BATTLE-FIELD. + +In compiling the Isometrical Drawing of the Gettysburg Battle-field, it +was first necessary to establish its extent and boundaries. When I +arrived at Gettysburg the _debris_ of that great battle lay scattered +for miles around. Fresh mounds of earth marked the resting-place of the +fallen thousands, and many of the dead lay yet unburied. It therefore +required no guide to point out the locality where the battle had been +fought. + +As the term _field_, when applied to a battle, is generally used +figuratively, and, by the general reader, might be misunderstood, it is +well to consider at the start, that the battle-_field_ of Gettysburg not +only embraces within its boundaries many _fields_, but forests as well, +and even the town of Gettysburg itself is included in that battle-field. +The formation of the ground and the positions of the troops, favored the +plan of sketching the field while facing the west. Consequently the top +of my DRAWING of it is west: the right hand, north; the left, south, &c. +There was no point from which the whole field could be sketched, nor +would such a position have favored this branch of Art. On the contrary, +it was necessary to sketch from _every_ part of the field, combining the +whole into one grand view. + +[Illustration: DEATH OF GEN. ZOOK.] + +Having located its boundaries, I commenced at the southeast corner, and +gradually moving toward the _north_, I looked toward the _west_, and +sketched it carefully, as far as the vision extended, including fields, +forests, houses, barns, hills, and valleys; and every object, however +minute, which would influence the result of a battle. Thus I continued +to the northeast boundary, a distance of five and a half miles. The next +day I resumed my work at the south (having advanced to the point where +my vision had been obstructed the preceding day), and sketched another +breadth to the north, as before: and so continued, day by day, until I +had carried my Drawing forward four and a half miles, which included +within its limits the town of Gettysburg. When the Battle-field had been +_Isometrically_ drawn. I sketched in the _distance_ and added a sky. + +This Drawing was the result of eighty-four days spent on that field +immediately after the battle, during which time I sketched accurately +the twenty-five square miles which it represents. + +I spent two months in hospital writing down the statements of +Confederate prisoners, and as they became convalescent, I went over the +field with many of their officers, who located their positions and +explained the movements of their commands during the battle. + +I then visited the ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, consulted with its +Commander-in-Chief, Corps, Division, and Brigade commanders, and visited +every Regiment and Battery engaged, to whose officers the sketch of the +field was submitted, and they, after careful consultation, located upon +it the positions of their respective commands. + +[Illustration: PHILLIPS' 5th MASS. BATTERY] + +From the information thus obtained, I have traced the movements of +_every Regiment and Battery_ from the commencement to the close of the +battle, and have located on the Drawing its most important position for +each of the three days. + +Since its publication I issued an invitation to the officers of the Army +of the Potomac to visit Gettysburg with me, and point out their +respective positions and movements, thus giving an opportunity to the +_actors_ in this great drama to correct any misapprehension, and +establish, while still fresh in memory, the facts and details of this +most important battle of the age. This invitation was responded to by +over one thousand officers engaged in the battle; twenty-eight of whom +were Generals commanding. And it may be interesting to those who possess +the Drawing, to know that _but one solitary Regiment_ was discovered to +be out of position on it. + +Many thousand copies of this work have been sold, yet the demand still +continues, and orders are constantly coming in from all parts of the +country. Though complete in itself, it is really but the _introduction_ +to other works yet to be published on this battle, and will be +considered almost an indispensable companion to the history of it. + +It can be furnished at the following: + + +PRICES. + +COLORED PROOF, on heavy plate paper, carefully finished in Water-Colors, +$15.00 + +PROOF, printed in tints, on paper as above, with positions of Regiments, +colored, 10.00 + +TINTED, printed with one tint, on lighter paper, 5.00 + +The above styles have a sky, and are suitable to frame, and are +accompanied by a key. + +PLAIN, on lighter paper, without sky, $3.00 + +[Illustration: CAPTURE OF THE 8th LA. COLORS BY LT. YOUNG, ADG'T 107th +OHIO VOLS.] + +The original plate has not been used except to print copies for +_transfers_. The _first_ impressions from each transfer are reserved for +PROOFS. Therefore the quality of the print can never materially change, +as the original plate would furnish a thousand transfers. The _colored_ +PROOFS are carefully colored by an Artist. The TINTED and PLAIN editions +are next printed, and when the plate is worn a new transfer is made. + +To any person remitting the money, for either of the above styles, I +will forward the print by mail, to any part of the United States, FREE +OF CHARGE, carefully packed on a roll: or, I will send it by express, at +their expense, with bill for collection. I have sent hundreds by mail, +to all parts of the country, and have yet to hear of the first copy +being lost or injured, while it is quite a saving of expense. A _Key_, +embracing a brief description of the battle, accompanies each print +without extra charge. I have hundreds of letters of indorsement from +which I select the following:-- + + +TESTIMONIALS. + + "HEAD-QUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. _Feb. 11, 1864._ + +"I have examined Col. Bachelder's ISOMETRICAL DRAWING of the Gettysburg +Battle-field, and am perfectly satisfied with the accuracy with which +the topography is delineated, and the positions of the troops laid down. +Col. B., in my judgment, deserves great credit for the time and labor he +has devoted to obtaining the materials for this drawing, which have +resulted in making it so accurate. * * * * I can cheerfully recommend it +to all those who are desirous of procuring an accurate picture and +faithful record of the events of this great battle. * * * * + + "I remain most truly yours, + "GEO. G. MEADE, + "_Maj.-Gen. Comd'g. A. P._" + + * * * * * + + "HEAD-QUARTERS SECOND ARMY CORPS. _Dec. 29, 1863._ + +"The view of the Battle-field of Gettysburg prepared by Col. Bachelder, +has been carefully examined by me. I find it as accurate as such a +drawing can well be made. And _it is accurate_, as far as my knowledge +extends. + + "WINF'D S. HANCOCK, + "_Major-General Comd'g 2d Corps._" + + * * * * * + +"Col. Bachelder's Isometrical View of the Battle of Gettysburg is an +admirable production, and a truthful rendering of the various positions +assumed by the troops of my command. + + "A. DOUBLEDAY, + "_Maj.-Gen. Vols., Comd'g 1st Corps._" + + * * * * * + + "BOSTON, _Sept. 23, 1964_. + +"COL. BACHELDER:--I have examined your beautiful drawing of the +Battle-field of Gettysburg and vicinity. The certificates of Gen. Meade +and the Corps Commanders, which appear on its face, establish its +accuracy on the highest authority. Your personal explorations, and your +inquiries of all the commissioned officers in command of the Union Army, +and of the Confederate officers made prisoners, have furnished you means +of information not possessed, I imagine, by any other person. Such +opportunities of observation as I had during three days passed at +Gettysburg satisfy me of the fidelity of your delineation of the +position of every regiment of the two armies on each of the three +eventful days. * * * * I may add, that the engraving is beautifully +executed and colored. Wishing you ample remuneration, + + "I remain sincerely yours, + "EDWARD EVERETT." + + * * * * * + + "HEAD-QUARTERS FIFTH ARMY CORPS. _Sept. 28, 1864._ + + "MR. JNO. B. BACHELDER:-- + +"DEAR SIR:--I am exceedingly gratified with receiving a finished copy of +your print of the Battle-field of Gettysburg. I am familiar with your +long and untiring labors in all the fields where truth could be reached, +and know that your efforts were crowned with a success that leaves +nothing more to be desired. You are authorized to add my name to those +who bear testimony to Its accuracy. + + "Very respectfully your obedient servant, + "G. K. WARREN. + "_Maj.-Gen. Vols., Comd'g 5th Corps._ + "_Ch. Eng. at Gettysburg._" + + * * * * * + + "ORANGE, _Oct. 1, 1864_. + + "JNO. B. BACHELDER, Esq.:-- + +"MY DEAR SIR:--I have carefully examined your Isometrical Drawing of the +Battle-field of Gettysburg, with great interest and much profit. Never +having been on that field, of course I can not express an opinion as to +its accuracy--so abundantly indorsed for, however, by most competent +judges: but I can say that it has given me a much clearer idea of the +battle than I had before, and I earnestly hope that you will find it +convenient to illustrate others of our great battles in the same manner. + + "I am very truly yours, + "GEO. B. McCLELLAN." + + * * * * * + + "HEAD-QUARTERS DEP'T AND ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE. _Oct. 24, 1864._ + + "MR. JNO. B. BACHELDER:-- + +"MY DEAR SIR:--I was much gratified on receiving a copy of your +beautiful drawing of the 'Gettysburg Battle-field.' I have never seen a +painting or topographical map that could give so vivid a representation +of a great battle. I regard it as an honor that you have associated my +name with those of other corps commanders in your historical picture. Be +pleased to accept my kind regards. + + "Respectfully yours, + "O. O. HOWARD, _Major-General_." + + * * * * * + + "COL. JNO. B. BACHELDER:-- + +"DEAR SIR:--I have examined with care your Isometrical Drawing of the +Gettysburg Battle-field, and can cheerfully bear testimony to the +accuracy of the position of the troops on the right of our line. + + "Yours very truly, + "H. W. SLOCUM, + "_Maj.-Gen. Vols., Comd'g Right Wing at Gettysburg._" + +[Illustration: WOFFORD'S FLANK ATTACK ON SWEITZER'S BRIGADE, DEATH OF +COL. JEFFERS 4th MICH. VOLS.] + + +HISTORY OF THE BATTLE. + +During my consultations with officers at the front, as well as on the +Battle-field, I noted down with great care their conversations, and have +books full of material thus rescued from oblivion. + +[Illustration: STANNARD'S BRIGADE OPENING ON PICKETTS' DIVISION.] + +Since the publication of the Drawing, and even before, I have been +steadily engaged in compiling the History of the Battle of Gettysburg. I +have traveled many thousand miles to add to my knowledge. I have +received a great number of letters relating to it, and the Government +have very considerately placed at my disposal the entire Reports of both +the Union and Confederate officers; and have also given me access to the +archives at Washington. They have recently ordered a re-survey of the +field, which is now being done by Government Engineers in the most +complete and scientific manner. A fine Topographical map is to be +compiled and engraved, copies of which I have arranged to have to +illustrate my History of the Battle. This book, in addition to the maps, +which will cost several thousand dollars, will also be illustrated with +Steel Plates and Wood-Cuts in a manner second to no book heretofore +published in this country. Over $7,500 worth of illustrations are +already engraved to embellish it, including fine Steel Portraits, +executed by the best engravers in America, in line and stipple, of +Generals Reynolds, Doubleday, Newton, Meredith, Stannard, Hancock, +Gibbon, Zook, Hays, Webb, Hall, Sickles, Birney, Humphreys, Berdan, +Sykes, Barnes, Tilton, Wright, Bartlett, Wheaton, Howard, Ames, Slocum, +Williams, Geary, Kane, Pleasanton, Butterfield, Warren, Hunt, Ingalls, +Randolph, Martin, and McGilvrey. Several others are in hand, and +undoubtedly more will be added to the list. In addition to these the +Portraits of leading Confederate Generals will be engraved. Many of the +prominent scenes of the battle have already been beautifully designed +and engraved on wood, samples of which embellish this circular, others +are to be added, and to those interested I shall be pleased to furnish +full information regarding either portraits or wood-cuts. + + * * * * * + +I shall publish a POPULAR EDITION of the history, with portraits printed +from transfers, and bound in cloth. Price. $7.50 + + * * * * * + +The next will be the LIBRARY EDITION, royal octavo, printed on good fair +paper, good plates, and substantially bound in sheep. $12.00 + + * * * * * + +The same size printed on fine paper. Proof Portraits--bound in half +morocco, beveled boards. $17.50 + + * * * * * + +A FINE EDITION on tinted paper. Proof Portraits. Full morocco, gilt, +beveled boards, gilt edges. $25.00 + + * * * * * + +A LARGE PAPER EDITION (limited) will be printed from new type, and the +original wood-cuts in the best style of modern hand-press work, on heavy +toned paper, with the finest INDIA PROOF PORTRAITS. In Sheets, stitched, +uncut, $100.00 + +Elaborately bound. Full levant morocco, gilt. $125.00 + + * * * * * + +I have now devoted five years and a half to collecting material for the +history of the Battle of Gettysburg, but until quite recently I have +felt unwilling to commence to write, knowing that other matter existed +which it was important for me to have, and which, when obtained, might +make a material change in the account. This reason no longer exists, +though I shall still thankfully receive suggestions from any participant +in the battle. + +Within another year the Government will have completed the Topographical +Map of the field, by which time I hope to be ready to publish my work. +As a publisher I would have done so long ago, but as a historian not +until I feel that I have written the truth--the whole truth, and nothing +but the truth. + + +PAINTINGS OF THE BATTLE. + +I have also in progress, the finest Collection of Oil Paintings executed +of any battle in this country. The whole to be known as + + "THE GETTYSBURG ART GALLERY." + +[Illustration: REPULSE OF LONGSTREET'S CHARGE.] + +I have divided the Battle into a series of episodes, beginning with its +commencement and continuing to its close, each to embrace such movements +and operations as of themselves form a complete unit. Of each, I make an +accurate historical design, which design I place in the hands of some +eminent battle-scene painter, who will be responsible for the artistic +rendering of the subject. Each painting is to be 7 × 4 ft., and when +completed, will be exhibited in the places where the regiments +represented in it were raised. The whole, together, will form a most +complete and graphic representation of the Battle from its commencement +to the close. Each of these paintings will be engraved on steel, and +hereafter engravings may be had representing actual scenes, which, +having been designed under the personal direction of the participants +themselves, will possess the merit of historical truth. + +It must not be understood that this whole work is to be put in hand at +once. It will be taken up in detail, and continued as rapidly as I have +time and means to attend to it. I shall be happy to correspond with +those interested in any portion of the Battle. When convenient, it will +be better to call a meeting, at Gettysburg, of the officers of the +command to be represented, before commencing a painting, that all the +details may be properly arranged. I have already made a design, +representing the "charge" of the 6th Wisconsin, 95th N. Y., and 14th N. +Y. S. M., on the first day, resulting in the capture of the 2d +Mississippi Regiment, which is now being painted by Alonzo Chappel, +Esq., the eminent historical painter. I have recently met, at +Gettysburg, the officers of the 3d Division, 1st Army Corps, and under +their direction completed a design of their engagement on the afternoon +of the first day, which will also embrace the movements of the 1st +Brigade, 1st Division. This picture is now being painted by the +distinguished battle-scene painter, James Walker, Esq. + +Fine Steel Engravings will be published from these paintings. Size +(engraved surface), 12 × 21 in. + + +PRICES: + +Prints, $5.00; Plain Proofs, $10.00; India Proofs, $15.00; Artist's +Proofs, $25.00. + +[Illustration: DEATH OF MAJOR FERRY, 5^th MICH. CAV'Y.] + +Mr. Walker has just completed for me, his graphic representation of + + THE REPULSE OF LONGSTREET'S CHARGE, + +on the afternoon of the third day, which will be exhibited in the +principal cities of the country. This is also from my historical design, +and has been painted under my immediate direction. Mr. Walker spent +weeks at Gettysburg, transcribing the portraiture of the field to +canvas, which has been done in the most pleasing and lifelike manner. We +have received in this matter the kindest support and co-operation of the +officers of the army, engaged on that portion of the field. + +Many distinguished general officers, on my invitation, visited +Gettysburg, and went over the field with us, and pointed out all the +details of this great turning point of the Rebellion; each explaining +the movements of their several commands. Among those present at +different times, were Generals Meade, Hancock, Gibbon, Howard, +Doubleday, Stannard, Hunt, Warren, Humphreys, Graham, Burling, De +Trobriand, Wistar, and Dana; together with a large number of Field, +Line, and Staff-Officers. Most of these gentlemen have since kindly +called at Mr. Walker's studio, and aided the work with their advice. +Many others, who were unable to meet with us at Gettysburg, have, at +considerable trouble, visited the studio in New York; among them, +Generals Webb, Hall, Newton, Hazard, Sickles, Ward, Brewster, Berdan, +and Gates, and Generals Wilcox and Longstreet, of the Confederate Army; +the latter taking great interest in the painting, and leaving me a fine +letter indorsing its accuracy. This painting has been designed +_strictly_ in conformity to the directions of these gentlemen, given on +the field for that purpose, and from the Reports of the Confederate +Commanders, furnished to me by the Government. + +This great representative Battle-scene has not its equal in America, for +correctness of design or accuracy of execution. Gibbon's and Hays's +Divisions and the Corps Artillery, occupy the immediate foreground. It +is on a canvas 7-1/2 × 20 feet, and represents, not only every Regiment +engaged at that portion of the field, but where the formation of the +ground would admit, the entire left wing is shown. + +It presents such an accurate and lifelike portrait of the country, that +on it the movements of the first and second day's operations can readily +be traced. No important scene has been screened behind large foreground +figures, or, for the want of a knowledge of the details, hidden by +convenient puffs of smoke; but every feature of this gigantic struggle +has, in its proper place, been woven into a symmetrical whole. + +A fine steel plate is also to be engraved of this picture, which will be +accompanied by a _Key_, by which the position of every Regiment and +Battery can be determined. + + +PRICE OF ENGRAVINGS. + +Print, $10.--Plain Proof, $25.--India Proof, $60.--Artist Proof (limited +to 200 copies), $100. + + * * * * * + +The following gentlemen, intimately identified with the Battle of +Gettysburg, and exercising the highest commands at the battle, kindly +furnished me these letters, as indorsements to an application to examine +Confederate Reports of the Battle of Gettysburg at the War Department. + + "PHILADELPHIA, _Nov. 3, 1867_. + + "GENERAL:-- + +"* * * * Mr. Bachelder has accumulated a vast amount of official and +reliable testimony on our side, and I am of the opinion his work will be +as truthful as the data in his possession will admit; I am greatly +interested in his application being granted, and would most earnestly +recommend permission being given him to examine the Confederate Reports, +in case you do not see any strong reasons preventing it. + + "Very truly yours, + "GEO. G. MEADE, + "_Major-General, U. S. A._ + + "GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + "_Sec. War, ad interim._" + + PERMISSION GRANTED. + + * * * * * + + [Extract of a letter from Major-General Humphreys, Chief of the + Corps of Engineers.] + + "WASHINGTON, D. C., _Nov. 14, 1867_. + + "GENERAL:-- + +"* * * The information which Mr. Bachelder has collected concerning the +Battle of Gettysburg, is extraordinary in amount and correctness. So far +as I am able to judge, there is no battle of any war respecting which so +many truthful accounts, so many exact details, have been collected and +compiled. From every source, from the private to the general commanding +the army, facts have been collected, and where discrepancies were found, +evidence was multiplied, and in this way errors have been dissipated. + +Mr. Bachelder has peculiar qualifications for the task he has +undertaken, and has devoted four years to it. * * * + + "A. A. HUMPHREYS, + "_Major-General_. + + "GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + "_Sec. of War, ad interim._" + +[Illustration: DEATH OF PRIVATE RIGGIN, GUIDON BEARER, RICKETTS' (PA) +BATTERY] + +NOTE.--The wood-cuts interspersed through this circular have been +engraved to illustrate scenes in the Battle of Gettysburg, and with many +others will appear in the History of that Battle. + + +"THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN." + +ORIGIN OF THIS HISTORICAL PAINTING. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, was assassinated by +JOHN WILKES BOOTH on the night of April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theater, +Washington, D. C. This night, fraught with woe to the peoples of two +continents, sombered by its halo of diabolism, must forever remain the +Golgotha of American history. + +At the threshold of the temple of peace--the High Priest was stricken +down--and the great heart whose every throb was a pulsation of love for +his country's enemies, was robed in silence. In company with Mrs. +LINCOLN, Miss HARRIS, and Major RATHBONE, Mr. LINCOLN had sought a brief +respite from the iron wheel of State toil, and in the search, through +the medium of the assassin's bullet, found a respite for all time. + +Immediately after the fatal shot was fired, and under direction of +Assistant-Surgeons LEALE and TAFT, he was removed to a private house, +and placed upon a couch in a small bedroom. ROBERT LINCOLN, General +TODD, and Dr. TODD, cousins of Mrs. LINCOLN, and other personal friends, +speedily arrived. His family physician, Dr. STONE, and Surgeon-General +BARNES, accompanied by Asst.-Surgeon General CRANE, were in early +attendance, and later he was visited by Drs. HALL and LIEBERMANN, and +other eminent physicians, all of whom agreed that the wound was unto +death. The bullet had entered the back of his head, and lodged behind +the right eye. + +Mr. LINCOLN was visited during the night by Vice-President JOHNSON and +the entire cabinet, except Mr. SEWARD, including Secretaries MCCULLOCH, +STANTON, WELLES, and USHER. Postmaster-General DENNISON, and +Attorney-General SPEED, together with Asst.-Secretaries FIELD, ECKERT, +and OTTO. There were also present Speaker COLFAX, Chief-Justice CARTTER, +Senator WILSON, Representatives FARNSWORTH, ARNOLD, MARSTON, and +ROLLINS, Governor OGLESBY, accompanied by Adjutant-General HAYNIE, Major +HAY, Generals AUGER, MEIGS, and HALLECK, Ex-Governor FARWELL, Rev. Dr. +GURLEY, and Commissioner FRENCH, Colonels VINCENT PELOUZE and +RUTHERFORD, and Major ROCKWELL. Early in the night Mrs. LINCOLN sent for +Mrs. Senator DIXON, who was accompanied by her sister and niece, Mrs. +KINNEY and daughter. There were also a few others present during the +night, but never more than half of those represented on the painting at +any one time. + +By the publicity of the assassination it was soon known throughout the +city, and thousands crowded the avenues leading to the house where the +President lay. + +The news of this tragic event flashed with the speed of lightning +throughout the land. From Maine to California consternation reigned, and +feelings of surprise and grief were depicted on every face. The great +man now martyred had for more than four years held the highest place in +the gift of the American people, and on him their hopes had centered. +The designer of the painting of + + "THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN," + +JNO. B. BACHELDER, arrived in Washington on the night of his death, and +being impressed with the historic importance of the event, at once +determined to collect such materials as should be necessary for an +historical picture commemorating that sad scene, and should the demand +warrant it, to publishing a steel-plate engraving from it. The design +for the painting was soon completed, and arrangements having been made +with BRADY & CO., Photographers, as soon as the remains of the President +left the city each of the persons represented were visited, and at their +convenience were _posed_ and photographed in the position which they now +occupy in the painting. It being important that the best possible +original should be had for the engraver's use, the design was placed in +the hands of ALONZO CHAPEL, Esq., the historical painter, to whose +genius the painting is to be credited. Much of its completeness is due +to the kindness and attention of the persons represented; as all +cheerfully gave their time for frequent sittings, both to the designer +and painter. + +No expense has been spared to produce a work worthy the scene it +represents, and the high encomiums given it by eminent judges is the +best proof of the result. + +To publish any thing now short of a first-class copy of such a painting +would be a breach of confidence to those who have so kindly aided in its +production. The proprietor has therefore decided to have this picture +engraved in the finest style of line and stipple, the engraved surface +of the plate to be 18 × 31 inches; believing that nothing short of a +_genuine work of art_ will meet the approval, and secure the patronage +of the American people, and to those interested the proprietor can most +confidently promise a suitable memento of their departed chief. + +The engraving is being executed by H. B. HALL, Jr., Esq., the eminent +engraver upon steel. + +PRICE OF ENGRAVINGS.--PRINTS, =$15.00=; PLAIN PROOFS, =$35.00=; INDIA +PROOFS, =$60.00=; ARTIST'S PROOFS (limited to 200 copies which will be +numbered and signed by the artist and engraver), =$100.00=. + +A beautiful engraved and photographic _Key_ to the Engraving will be +presented to the subscribers. It is a complete picture of itself, and +may be had in advance _by subscribers only_. + + JOHN B. BACHELDER, PUBLISHER, _59 Beekman Street. New York_. + +[Illustration: The Last Hours of Lincoln + +KEY + + 1 Pres. LINCOLN. + 2 Mrs. LINCOLN. + 3 Vice Pres. JOHNSON. + 4 Maj. RATHBONE. + 5 Mr. ARNOLD. M.C. + 6 P.M. Gen. DENNISON. + 7 Sec. WELLES. + 8 Att^y Gen. SPEED. + 9 D^r. HALL. + 10 Dr. LEIBERMANN. + 11 Sec^y. USHER. + 12 Sec^y. McCOLLOCH. + 13 Gov. OGLESBY. + 14 Speaker COLFAX. + 15 Dr. STONE. + 16 Surg. Gen. BARNES. + 17 Mrs. Sen. DIXON. + 18 Dr. TODD. + 19 Ass^t. Surg. LEALE. + 20 Ass^t. Surg. TAFT. + 21 Ass^t. Sec^Y OTTO. + 22 Gen. FARNSWORTH. M. C. + 23 Sen. SUMNER. + 24 Surg. CRANE. + 25 Gen. TODD. + 26 ROB^T. LINCOLN. + 27 Rev. Dr. GURLEY. + 28 Ass^t. Sec^Y FIELD. + 29 Adj^t Gen. HAYNIE. + 30 Maj. FRENCH. + 31 Gen. AUGER. + 32 Col. VINCENT. + 33 Gen. HALLECK. + 34 Sec^y. STANTON. + 35 Col. RUTHERFORD. + 36 Ass^t. Sec^Y. ECKERT. + 37 Col. PELOUSE. + 38 Maj. HAY. + 39 Gen. MEIGS. + 40 Maj. ROCKWELL. + 41 Ex Gov. FARWELL. + 42 Judge CARTTER. + 43 Mr. ROLLINS, M. C. + 44 Gen. MARSTON. M. C. + 45 Mrs. KINNEY. + 46 Miss KINNEY. + 47 Miss HARRIS. +] + + +BRIEF SAYINGS OF EMINENT MEN. + + SURGEON-GENERAL'S OFFICE, } + WASHINGTON CITY, _March 20, 1867_. } + + Col. J. B. BACHELDER. + +SIR:--The picture of "The Last Hours of Lincoln." painted by Alonzo +Chappel from your design, presents, with remarkable fidelity, the +portraits of those in attendance at various times during the night of +April 14, 1865, preserving truthfully the principal features of that +most sad event. + + Very respectfully yours, + J. K. BARNES. _Surgeon-General, U.S.A., Brevet Major-General._ + + * * * * * + +It is certainly a work of great interest and merit. I have looked upon +it with the liveliest satisfaction on account of its singularly graphic +delineation of the actual scene as myself beheld it, and also because +the likenesses of most of the distinguished persons presented by the +painting seem to me to be very accurate and striking. + + P. D. GURLEY. _Pastor of the N. Y. Ave. Pres. Church_ + + * * * * * + +I cheerfully bear testimony to the accuracy of the Portraits of the +persons present on that melancholy occasion, and especially that of the +martyred President. + + W. T. OTTO. _Assistant Secretary of the Interior._ + + * * * * * + +It gives me pleasure to testify to the accuracy with which you have +represented the principal features of the scene in question, and to the +fidelity of the portraits which you have introduced. You have been +especially successful in the likeness of President Lincoln. + + JOHN HAY, + _Brevet Colonel, formerly A. D. C. to President Lincoln_. + + * * * * * + +The truthful likeness of President Lincoln, the fidelity of the +portraits of those present on that most mournful night, and the +excellent grouping of the figures, render this picture peculiarly +valuable in an historical point of view, apart from its merits as a work +of art. + + C. H. CRANE, _Assistant Surgeon-General U. S. Army_. + + * * * * * + +Without possessing a critical capacity for judgment, I can say, in all +sincerity, that the painting as a whole, is faithful to the scene of the +death-chamber on that eventful night, and impressively truthful in its +portraiture. + + D. K. CARTTER, _Chief-Justice_. + +The above gentlemen visited President Lincoln during his last hours, and +are represented in the painting. + + * * * * * + +It is admirable as a picture, and of great value for the fidelity of the +portraits. + + A. A. HUMPHREYS, _Major-General_. + + * * * * * + +DEAR SIR:--Permit me to thank you for the enjoyment of the luxury of +grief afforded me in the viewing of the great picture commemorating "The +Last Hours of Lincoln." It is deserving of great praise. If it has a +fault, it is its high coloring. As I have personally known nearly all +the forty odd persons who appear in it, I can speak with confidence of +the truthfulness of the likenesses. + + F. E. SPINNER, _Treasurer United States_. + + * * * * * + +The majority of the portraits could hardly be improved. + + O. O. HOWARD, _Major-General_. + + * * * * * + +I know personally a large majority of the persons represented, and take +pleasure in bearing my testimony to the singular fidelity of their +portraits. + + IRA HARRIS, _United States Senator_. + + +EXTRACT FROM A CRITICISM. + +[_From the Washington Sunday Herald._] + + WASHINGTON, _March 31, 1867_. + +A great picture has been designed of the "Last Hours of Abraham +Lincoln." The designer is Mr. John B. Bachelder, the painter Alonzo +Chappel. * * The value of such a picture of such a scene is enormous, +and of a kind to ever increase with time. * * Looking like himself, from +his finger-nails to his hard, protruding lip, Stanton, with paper and +pencil in hand, and uplifted forefinger, is giving instructions to the +soldierly General Auger, the then Military Commander of the District. +* * Portraits so minutely like I have never seen, even from the brush of +Elliot. * * * + +The grandeur in the face of Lincoln, is grand indeed. The cold hues of +death are warmed to the eye by the red rays of a candle held over him, +and the flickering flare causing a Rembrandt-like effect, is very +felicitously managed. The eye rests in love and pity on it, turning from +those around impatiently. * * * + +McCulloch who turns from the scene, and Johnson who sits in the left +foreground, are wonderfully like. As is the erect Dennison beyond them; +and Meigs, with his hand resting on the door-post, where he stood to +prevent disturbing entrances; Dr. Stone and Surgeon-General Barnes, +General Todd, Judge Otto, Sumner, Farnsworth, Speaker Colfax, and +Governor Oglesby, are looking down on the face of Lincoln with an +expression of respectful concern. * * * Judge Cartter and Ex-Governor +Farwell stand in front of Meigs, forming the right foreground of the +picture; they are given in profile and seem conversing. + +The greatness of the picture lies in its correct transcription of an +actual scene and perfect portraiture of American men. It is just such a +work as, above all others, should be American property, for if ever +there was a _National_ picture, this is one. + + ARC. + + +ADVERTISEMENT. + +SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +PRICE. + + PEOPLE'S EDITION. 8vo. Steel Portrait. Cloth $1.50 + + A FINE EDITION. 8vo. Proof Portrait. Fine binding, beveled + boards, Levant cloth, gilt edges 3.00 + + MEMORIAL EDITION. On heavy toned paper, large margin. India + Proof Portrait. Morocco, Antique, gilt edges 7.00 + + I am prepared to supply the Trade with the + + "SKETCH of the LIFE of ABRAHAM LINCOLN," and the "PORTRAIT of + LINCOLN," + + ON LIBERAL TERMS. + + +My other publications are sold exclusively by Subscription, including + + THE STEEL ENGRAVING OF + + "THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN;" + + THE ISOMETRICAL DRAWING OF + + "THE GETTYSBURG BATTLE-FIELD;" + + "THE HISTORY OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG." + + THE STEEL ENGRAVING OF + + "THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG;" (LONGSTREET'S REPULSE.) + + AND THE STEEL ENGRAVINGS OF THE DIFFERENT + + "EPISODES OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG." + +Each of the latter forming a fine business opportunity for a man of +energy, who has a small amount of capital, which he would invest with a +certainty of _liberal returns_. + +To CANVASSERS of EXPERIENCE, having the CAPITAL and BUSINESS CAPACITY to +manage the canvass of STATES, COUNTIES, or CITIES, I can offer superior +inducements. (See separate notices of subjects.) Orders received for +either of the above at the office of publication. + +From my intimate business relations with the BEST PAINTERS, DESIGNERS, +STEEL ENGRAVERS, WOOD ENGRAVERS, and LITHOGRAPHERS, in this City, I am +prepared to receive orders from my patrons, and have them executed under +my immediate superintendence, in any style required. + + =JOHN B. BACHELDER, Publisher=, + + 59 BEEKMAN ST., NEW YORK. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketch of the life of Abraham Lincoln, by +Isaac Newton Arnold + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCH OF LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 37818-8.txt or 37818-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/1/37818/ + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +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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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: Sketch of the life of Abraham Lincoln + +Author: Isaac Newton Arnold + +Release Date: October 22, 2011 [EBook #37818] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCH OF LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/frontispiece.jpg" width="400" height="535" alt="Abraham Lincoln (signature) +ABRAHAM LINCOLN. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.</p> + +<p class="h4"><i>Eng<span class="super">d</span> by H. B. Hall Jr. from a Photo by Brady & Co.</i><br /> +Published by Jno. B. Bachelder.<br /> +NEW YORK.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<h1 class="booktitle">SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</h1> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="h3">COMPILED IN MOST PART<br /> +FROM THE<br /> +<span class="smcap">History of Abraham Lincoln, and the Overthrow of Slavery.</span></p> + +<p class="h5">PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. CLARK AND CO., CHICAGO.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="h3">BY<br /> +ISAAC N. ARNOLD</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/colophon.jpg" width="150" height="113" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="h3">JOHN B. BACHELDER, PUBLISHER,<br /> +59 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK.<br /> +1869.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h6">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by<br /> +JOHN B. BACHELDER,<br /> +In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern<br /> +District of New York.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h6">ALVORD, PRINTER.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>PUBLISHER'S PREFACE.</h2> + +<p>Time out of mind, words prefatory have been considered +indispensable to the successful publication of a book. This +sketch of the <span class="smcap">Life</span> and <span class="smcap">Death</span> of <span class="smcap">Abraham Lincoln</span> is intended +as an accompaniment to the Historical Painting which +has rescued from oblivion, and, with almost perfect fidelity, +transmitted to futurity, "<span class="smcap">The Last Hours of Lincoln</span>." In +its preparation has been invoked the aid of one who in life +was near the heart of <span class="smcap">Mr. Lincoln</span>, and at death was a +witness to that last sad scene, so accurately delineated by +the painter's art—the Hon. <span class="smcap">Isaac N. Arnold</span>. His intimate +and social relations with <span class="smcap">Mr. Lincoln</span>, his unbounded admiration +of the goodness and sincerity of the Great Emancipator, +renders this invocation eminently appropriate. This sketch +contains subject-matter never before made public, presented +in the full dress of the author's happiest style.</p> + +<p>In confident reliance upon the affection of the people for +the great Apostle of Liberty—the Martyr—who in his blood +wrote his belief "that all men everywhere should be free," +this sketch is submitted.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">January 1, 1869.</span></p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-deco-1.jpg" width="300" height="42" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_5">[5]</a></span></p> + +<p class="h2">CONTENTS.</p> + +<div class="centered"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary=""> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"> </td> + <td class="tdrfirst">PAGE</td> + + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Sketch of the Life of Abraham Lincoln,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Lincoln Ancestry,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_10">10</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Boyhood of Lincoln,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Youthful Duties and Amusements,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_11">11</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Early Education,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_13">13</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Elected Captain—Black Hawk War,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Nomination for Legislature,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_14">14</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Member of the Legislature,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Admitted to the Bar,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Practice at the Bar,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_15">15</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Professional Bearing,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_17">17</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Retirement from the Legislature,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Anti-Slavery Proclivities,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Marriage,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Mary Todd,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Children,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_19">19</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">In Congress,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Stephen A. Douglas,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Abolition of Slavery at Washington,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Successor in Congress—E. D. Baker,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Beginning of the End of Slavery,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Lincoln in the Kansas Struggle,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_21">21</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_6">[6]</a></span>Lincoln and Douglas Debate,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Early Acquaintance of Lincoln and Douglas,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_23">23</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Douglas as a Debater,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_24">24</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Douglas—Lincoln—Personal Description,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Douglas—Lincoln—Personal Description continued,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_25">25</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Cooper Institute Address</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_27">27</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Chicago Convention—Nomination to Presidency,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Popular Vote—Election,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_28">28</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Journey To Washington,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_29">29</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Arrival at Washington,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Reception,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_30">30</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">First Inauguration,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Civil War,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_31">31</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Thirty-seventh Congress,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Calling Out Troops,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Regular Session of Congress, December, 1861,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Slavery Laws Passed,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Emancipation Proclamation,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Owen Lovejoy,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_34">34</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Proclamation Issued—January 1, 1863,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_36">36</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Gettysburg—Consecration,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">New Year—1864,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_40">40</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Lieutenant-General—nomination of Ulysses S. Grant,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_41">41</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Constitutional Amendment abolishing Slavery,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Second Inauguration,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_42">42</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Visit to Army Head-quarters—City Point,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_44">44</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Lincoln—Grant—Sherman—Personal Appearance,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_45">45</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Union Troops enter Richmond,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Visit to Richmond,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_46">46</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Return to Washington,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Review of the Army,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_47">47</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Last Days of Lincoln,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_48">48</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Assassination,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_49">49</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Visit to Ford's Theater,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">John Wilkes Booth,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Details of the Assassination,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">President removed from the Theater,</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl"><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7">[7]</a></span>Death of Lincoln</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Scenes in Washington</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Death of Booth</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Attempted Assassination of Secretary Seward</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Reception of Mr. Lincoln's Death Throughout the Country</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_53">53</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Meeting of Members of Congress</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Committee To Attend the Remains To Illinois</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Funeral Ceremonies</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Funeral Cortege.—Washington, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_54">54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Personal Sketches</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_56">56</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Fondness for Reading</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Last Sunday of His Life</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_59">59</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Conversational Powers</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Public Speaker</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_60">60</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Words of Lincoln</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_61">61</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Habitual Manner of Transacting Business at the White House</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_65">65</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Description of Rooms and Furniture</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_66">66</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Etiquette of Business Reception</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Greatness of His Services</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_69">69</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">The Most Democratic President</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Religious Creed</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_71">71</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class="tdl">Belief in a God</td> + <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_73">73</a></td> + </tr> +</table></div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9">[9]</a></span></p> + +<h2>SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</h2> + +<p>Modern history furnishes no life more eventful and +important, terminated by a death so dramatic, as that of +the Martyr President. Poetry and painting, sculpture and +eloquence, have all sought to illustrate his career, but the +grand epic poem of his life has yet to be written. We +are too near him in point of time, fully to comprehend +and appreciate his greatness and the vast influence he is +to exert upon the world. The storms which marked his +tempestuous political career have not yet entirely subsided, +and the shock of his fearfully tragic death is still +felt; but as the dust and smoke of war pass away, and +the mists of prejudice which filled the air during the +great conflict clear up, his character will stand out in +bolder relief and more perfect outline.</p> + +<p>The ablest and most sincere apostle of liberty the +world has ever seen was Abraham Lincoln. He was a +Christian statesman, with faith in God and man. The two +men, whose pre-eminence in American history the world<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +will ever recognize, are Washington and Lincoln. The +Republic which the first founded and the latter saved, has +already crowned them as models for her children.</p> + +<p>Abraham Lincoln was born, February 12th, 1809, in +Hardin County, in the Slave State of Kentucky.<a id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> When the compiler of the Annals of Congress asked Mr. Lincoln to furnish him +with data from which to compile a sketch of his life, the following brief, characteristic +statement was given. It contrasts very strikingly with the voluminous biographies +furnished by some small great men who have been in Congress:— +</p><p> +"Born, February 12th, 1809, in Hardin County, Kentucky. +</p><p> +"Education defective. +</p><p> +"Profession, a Lawyer. +</p><p> +"Have been a Captain of Volunteers in Black Hawk War. +</p><p> +"Postmaster at a very small office. +</p><p> +"Four times a member of the Illinois Legislature, and was a member of the Lower +House of Congress. +</p> +<br /> +<p class="author"> +<span class="r4">"Yours, &c.,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap in2">"A. Lincoln</span>."<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p>His father Thomas and his grandfather Abraham were +born in Rockingham County, Virginia. His ancestors were +from Pennsylvania, and were Friends or Quakers. The +grandfather after whom he was named, went early to +Kentucky, and was murdered by the Indians, while at +work upon his farm. The early and fearful conflicts in +the dense forests of Kentucky, between the settlers and +the Indians, gave to a portion of that beautiful State the +name of the "<i>dark and bloody ground</i>." The subject of +this sketch was the son, the grandson, and the great +grandson of a pioneer. His ancestors had settled on the +border, first in Pennsylvania, then in Virginia, and from +thence to Kentucky. His grandfather had four sons and +two daughters. Thomas the youngest son was the father +of Abraham, and his life was a struggle with poverty, +a hard-working man with very limited education. He +could barely sign his name. In the twenty-eighth year +of his age he married Nancy Hanks, a native of Virginia, +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11">[11]</a></span>she was one of those plain, dignified matrons, possessing +a strong physical organization, and great common sense, +with deep religious feeling, and the utmost devotion to +her family and children, such as are not unusual in the +early settlements of our country. Reared on the frontier, +where life was a struggle, she could use the rifle and the +implements of agriculture as well as the distaff and spinning-wheel. +She was one of those strong, self-reliant +characters, yet gentle in manners, often found in the +humbler walks of life, fitted as well to command the respect, +as the love of all to whom she was known. Abraham +had a brother older, and a sister younger than himself, +but both died many years before he reached distinction.</p> + +<p>In 1816, when he was only eight years old, the family +removed to Spenser County, Indiana. The first tool the boy +of the backwoods learns to use is the ax. This, young +Lincoln, strong and athletic beyond his years, had learned +to handle with some effect, even at that early age, and he +began from this period to be of important service to his +parents in cutting their way to, and building up, a home +in the forests.</p> + +<p>A feat with the rifle soon after this period shows that he +was not unaccustomed to its use: seeing a flock of wild +turkeys approaching, the lad seized his father's rifle and +succeeded in shooting one through a crack of his father's +cabin.</p> + +<p>In the autumn of 1818 his mother died. Her death was +to her family, and especially her favorite son Abraham, an +irreparable loss. Although she died when in his tenth year, +she had already deeply impressed upon him those elements +of character which were the foundation of his greatness;<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +perfect truthfulness, inflexible honesty, love of justice and +respect for age, and reverence for God. He ever spoke of +her with the most touching affection. "All that I am, or +hope to be," said he, "I owe to my angel mother."</p> + +<p>It was his mother who taught him to read and write; from +her he learned to read the Bible, and this book he read and +re-read in youth, because he had little else to read, and later +in life because he believed it was the word of God, and the +best guide of human conduct. It was very rare to find, even +among clergymen, any so familiar with it as he, and few +could so readily and accurately quote its text.</p> + +<p>There is something very affecting in the incident that this +boy—whom his mother had found time amidst her weary +toil and the hard struggle of her rude life, to teach to write +legibly, should find the first occasion of putting his knowledge +of the pen to practical use, was in writing a letter to a +traveling preacher, imploring him to come and perform religious +services over his mother's grave. The preacher, a Mr. +Elkin, came, though not immediately, traveling many miles +on horseback through the wild forests; and some months +after her death the family and neighbors gathered around the +tree beneath which they had laid her, to perform the simple, +solemn funeral rites. Hymns were sung, prayers said, and +an address pronounced over her grave. The impression made +upon young Lincoln by his mother was as lasting as life. +Love of truth, reverence for religion, perfect integrity, were +ever associated in his mind with the tenderest love and respect +for her. His father subsequently married Mrs. Sally +Johnson, of Kentucky, a widow with three children.</p> + +<p>In March, 1830, the family removed to Illinois, and settled +in Macon County, near Decatur. Here he assisted his father +to build a log-cabin; clear, fence, and plant, a few acres of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +land; and then, being now twenty-one years of age, he asked +permission to seek his own fortune. He began by going out +to work by the month, breaking up the prairie, splitting and +chopping cord wood, and any thing he could find to do. His +father not long afterward removed to Coles County, Illinois, +where he lived until 1851, dying at the age of seventy-three. +He lived to see his son Abraham one of the most distinguished +men in the State, and received from him many +memorials of his affection and kindness. His son often sent +money to his father and other members of his family, and +always treated them, however poor and illiterate, with the +kindest consideration.</p> + +<p>It is clear from his own declarations that he early cherished +an ambition, probably under the inspiration of his +mother, to rise to a higher position. He had in all less than +one year's attendance at school, but his mother having taught +him to read and write, with an industry, application, and +perseverance untiring, he applied himself to all the means of +improvement within his reach. Fortunately, providentially, +the Bible has been everywhere and always present in every +cabin and home in the land. The influence of this book +formed his character; he was able to obtain in addition to +the Bible, Æsop's Fables, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Weems' +Life of Washington, and Burns' Poems. These constituted +nearly all he read before he reached the age of nineteen. +Living on the frontier, mingling with the rude, hard-working, +honest, and virtuous backwoodsmen, he became expert in the +use of every implement of agriculture and woodcraft, and as +an ax-man he had no superior.</p> + +<p>His days were spent in hard manual labor, and his +evenings in study; he grew up free from idleness, and contracted +no stain of intemperance, profanity, or vice; he<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +drank no intoxicating liquors, nor did he use tobacco in +any form.</p> + +<p>There is a tradition that while residing at New Salem, +Mr. Lincoln entertained a boy's fancy for a prairie beauty +named Ann Rutledge. Mr. Irving, in his life of Washington, +says: "Before he (Washington) was fifteen years of age, +he had conceived a passion for some unknown beauty, so +serious as to disturb his otherwise well-regulated mind, +and to make him really unhappy." Some romance has been +published in regard to this early attachment of Lincoln, +and gossip and imagination have converted a simple, boyish +fancy, such as few reach manhood without having passed +through, into a "grand passion." It has been produced in +a form altogether too dramatic and highly-colored for the +truth. The idea that this fancy had any permanent influence +upon his life and character is purely imaginary. No +man was ever a more devoted and affectionate husband +and father than he.</p> + +<p>In the spring of 1832 Lincoln volunteered as a private +in a company of soldiers raised by the Governor of Illinois, +for what is known as the Black Hawk War. He was +elected captain of the company, and served during the campaign, +but had no opportunity of meeting the enemy.</p> + +<p>Soon after his return he was nominated for the State +Legislature, and in the precinct in which he resided, out +of 284 votes received all but seven. It was while a resident +of New Salem that he became a practical surveyor.</p> + +<p>Up to this period the life of Lincoln had been one of +labor, hardship, and struggle: his shelter had been the log-cabin; +his food, the "<i>corn dodger and common doings</i>,"<a id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15">[15]</a></span>game of the forests and the prairie, and the products of +the farm; his dress, the Kentucky jean and buckskin of +the frontier; the tools with which he labored, the ax, the +hoe, and the plow. He had made two trips to New Orleans; +these and his soldiering in the Black Hawk War showed +his fondness for adventure.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The settlers have an expression, "Corn dodger and common doin's," as contradistinguished +from "Wheat bread and chickin fixin's."</p></div> + +<p>Thus far he had been a backwoodsman, a rail-splitter, a +flatboatman, a clerk, a captain of volunteers, a surveyor. In +1834 he was elected to the Legislature of Illinois, receiving +the highest vote of any one on the ticket. He was re-elected +in 1836 (the term being for two years). At this session he +met, as a fellow-member, Stephen A. Douglas, then representing +Morgan County.</p> + +<p>He remained a member of the Legislature for eight +years, and then declined being again a candidate.</p> + +<p>He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of +Illinois in the autumn of 1836, and his name first appears +on the roll of attorneys in 1837.</p> + +<p>In April of this year he removed to Springfield, and +soon after entered into partnership with his friend, John +T. Stewart. As a lawyer he early manifested, in a wonderful +degree, the power of simplifying and making clear +to the common understanding the most difficult and abstruse +questions.</p> + +<p>The circuit practice—"riding the circuit" it was called—as +conducted in Illinois thirty years ago, was admirably +adapted to educate, develop, and discipline all there was in +a man of intellect and character. Few books could be obtained +upon the circuit, and no large libraries for consultation +could be found anywhere. A mere case lawyer was a +helpless child in the hands of the intellectual giants produced +by these circuit-court contests, where novel questions<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +were constantly arising, and must be immediately settled +upon principle and analogy.<a id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> Vide "History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery," p. 76.</p></div> + +<p>A few elementary books, such as Blackstone's and Kent's +Commentaries, Chitty's Pleadings, and Starkie's Evidence, +could sometimes be found, or an odd volume would be +carried along with the scanty wardrobe of the attorney in +his saddle-bags. These were studied until the text was as +familiar as the alphabet. By such aid as these afforded, +and the application of principles, were all the complex +questions which arose settled. Thirty years ago it was the +practice of the leading members of the bar to follow +the judge from county to county. The court-houses were +rude log buildings, with slab benches for seats, and the +roughest pine tables. In these, when courts were in session, +Lincoln could be always found, dressed in Kentucky jean, +and always surrounded by a circle of admiring friends—always +personally popular with the judges, the lawyers, the +jury, and the spectators. His wit and humor, his power +of illustration by apt comparison and anecdote, his power +to ridicule by ludicrous stories and illustrations, were +inexhaustible.</p> + +<p>He always aided by his advice and counsel the young +members of the bar. No embarrassed tyro in the profession +ever sought his assistance in vain, and it was not +unusual for him, if his adversary was young and inexperienced, +kindly to point out to him formal errors in his +pleadings and practice. His manner of conducting jury +trials was very effective.</p> + +<p>He was familiar, frequently colloquial: at the summer +terms of the courts, he would often take off his coat, and +leaning carelessly on the rail of the jury box, would +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17">[17]</a></span>single out and address a leading juryman, in a conversational +way, and with his invariable candor and fairness +would proceed to reason the case. When he was satisfied +that he had secured the favorable judgment of the +juryman so addressed, he would turn to another, and address +him in the same manner, until he was convinced the +jury were with him. There were times when aroused by +injustice, fraud, or some great wrong or falsehood, when +his denunciation was so crushing that the object of it +was driven from the court-room.</p> + +<p>There was a latent power in him which when aroused +was literally overwhelming. This power was sometimes +exhibited in political debate, and there were occasions +when it utterly paralyzed his opponent. His replies to +Douglas, at Springfield and Peoria, in 1858, were illustrations +of this power. His examination and cross-examination +of witnesses were very happy and effective. He +always treated those who were disposed to be truthful +with respect.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln's professional bearing was so high, he was +so courteous and fair that no man ever questioned his +truthfulness or his honor. No one who watched him for +half an hour in court in an important case ever doubted +his ability. He understood human nature well; and read +the character of party, jury, witnesses, and attorneys, and +knew how to address and influence them. Probably as +a jury lawyer, on the right side, he has never had his +superior.</p> + +<p>Such was Mr. Lincoln at the bar, a fair, honest, able +lawyer, on the right side irresistible, on the wrong comparatively +weak.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18">[18]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>MR. LINCOLN FROM HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE +TO HIS ELECTION TO CONGRESS.</h2> + +<p>A friend and associate of Mr. Lincoln, speaking of him, +as he was in 1840, says: "They mistake greatly who regard +him as an uneducated man. In the physical sciences +he was remarkably well read. In scientific mechanics, +and all inventions and labor-saving machinery, he was +thoroughly informed. He was one of the best practical +surveyors in the State. He understood the general principles +of botany, geology, and astronomy, and had a great +treasury of practical useful knowledge."</p> + +<p>He continued to acquire knowledge and to grow intellectually +until his death, and became one of the most intelligent +and best-informed men in public life.</p> + +<p>Early in life he became an anti-slavery man, as well from +the impulses of his heart as the convictions of his reason. +He always had an intense hatred of oppression in every form, +and an honest, earnest faith in the common people, and his +sympathies were ever with the oppressed. The most conspicuous +traits of his character were love of justice and love<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +of truth. It is false, very arrogant, and to those who knew +Lincoln in his earlier years, it is very amusing, for any man or +set of men to assume to himself or themselves the credit of +having inspired him with hatred of slavery. No man was +less influenced by others in coming to his conclusions than he; +and this was especially true in regard to questions involving +right and justice. His own heart, his own observation, his +own clear intellect led him to become an anti-slavery man. +Long before he plead the cause of the slave before the American +people, he said to a friend,<a id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> "It is strange that while our +courts decide that a man does not lose his title to his property +by its being stolen, but he may reclaim it whenever he can +find it, yet if he himself is stolen he instantly loses his right +to himself!"</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Hon. Jos. Gillespie.</p></div> + +<p>In November, 1842, he was married to Miss Mary Todd, +daughter of the Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. The +mother of Mrs. Lincoln died when she was young. She had +sisters living at Springfield, Illinois. Visiting them, she made +the acquaintance and won the heart of Mr. Lincoln. They +had four children, Robert, Edward (who died in infancy), William, +and Thomas. Robert and Thomas survive. William, a +beautiful and promising boy, died at Washington, during his +father's presidency. Mr. Lincoln was a most fond, tender, and +affectionate husband and father. No man was ever more +faithful and true in his domestic relations.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-deco-2.jpg" width="300" height="35" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20">[20]</a></span></p> + +<h2>LINCOLN IN CONGRESS.</h2> + +<p>On the 6th of December, 1847, Mr. Lincoln took his seat +in Congress. Mr. Douglas, who had already run a brilliant +career in the lower House of Congress, at this same session +took his seat in the Senate. Mr. Lincoln distinguished himself +by able speeches upon the Mexican War, upon Internal +Improvements, and by one of the most effective campaign +speeches of that Congress in favor of the election of General +Taylor to the Presidency. He proposed a bill for the abolition +of slavery at the National capital. He declined a re-election, +and was succeeded by his friend, the eloquent E. D. +Baker, who was killed at Ball's Bluff.</p> + +<p>In 1852, he lead the electoral ticket of Illinois in favor +of General Scott for President. Franklin Pierce was elected, +and Mr. Lincoln remained quietly engaged in his professional +pursuits until the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854. +This event was the beginning of the end of slavery. "It +thoroughly roused the people of the Free States to a realization +of the progress and encroachments of the slave power, +and the necessity of preserving 'the jewel of freedom.'" +From that hour the conflict went on between freedom and +slavery, first by the ballot, and all the agencies by which public +opinion is influenced, and then the slave-holders, seeing that +their supremacy was departing, sought by arms to overthrow +the government which they could no longer control.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln, while a strong opponent of slavery, had up to +this time rested in the hope that by peaceful agencies it was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +in the course of ultimate extinction. But now seeing the vast +strides it was making, he became convinced its progress must +be arrested or that it would dominate over the republic, and +Slavery would become "lawful in all the States." From this +time he gave himself with solemn earnestness to the cause of +liberty and his country. He forgot himself in his great cause. +He did not seek place, if the great cause could be better advanced +by the promotion of another; hence his promotion of +the election of Trumbull to the United States Senate.</p> + +<p>This unselfish devotion to principle was a great source +of his power. Placing himself at the head of those who +opposed the extension of, and who believed in the moral +wrong of slavery, he entered upon his great mission with +a singleness of purpose, an eloquence and power, which +made him as the advocate of freedom, the most effective +and influential speaker who ever addressed the American +people.</p> + +<p>He brought to the tremendous struggle between freedom +and slavery physical strength and endurance almost +superhuman. Notwithstanding his modesty and the absence +of all self-assertion, when we review the conflict +from 1854 to 1865, when the struggle closed by the adoption +of the constitutional amendment abolishing and prohibiting +slavery forever throughout the republic, it is +clear that Lincoln's speeches and writings did more to accomplish +this result than any other agency.</p> + +<p>Following the repeal of the Missouri Compromise came +the Kansas struggle, and the organization of a great party +to resist the encroachments and aggressions of slavery. +The people instinctively found the leader of such a party +in Lincoln.</p> + +<p>Looking over the whole ground, with the sagacity<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +which marked his far-seeing mind, he saw that the basis +upon which to build were the grand principles of the +Declaration of Independence. This foundation was broad +enough to include old-fashioned Democrats who sympathized +with Jefferson in his hatred of slavery; Whigs +who had learned their love of liberty from the utterances +of the Adamses and Channings, and the earlier +speeches of Webster; and anti-slavery men, who recognized +Chase and Sumner as their leaders.</p> + +<p>He now addressed himself to the work of consolidating +out of all these elements a party, the distinctive +characteristics of which should be the full recognition of +the principles of the Declaration of Independence and hostility +to the extension of Slavery. This was the party +which in 1856 gave John C. Fremont 114 electoral +votes for President, and in 1860, elected Lincoln to the +executive chair.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-deco-3.jpg" width="300" height="37" alt="" /> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23">[23]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE.</h2> + +<p>In the midsummer of 1858, Senator Douglas, whose term +approached its close, came home to canvass for re-election. +It was in the midst of the Kansas struggle, and +although he had broken with the administration of Buchanan, +because he resisted the admission of Kansas into the +Union, under the fraudulent Lecompton Constitution, and +insisted that the people of that State, should enjoy the +right by a fair vote, of deciding upon the character of +their Constitution,<a id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a> yet the people of Illinois did not +forget that he was chiefly responsible for the repeal of +the Missouri Compromise, and that he had indorsed the +Dred Scott decision. On the 17th of June, 1858, the +Republican State Convention of Illinois met and by acclamation +nominated Mr. Lincoln for the Senate. He was +unquestionably more indebted to Douglas for his greatness +than to any other person.</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> That they "should be perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic institutions +in their own way."</p></div> + +<p>In 1856 Lincoln said, "Twenty years ago Judge +Douglas and I first became acquainted; we were both +young then, he a trifle younger than I. Even then we +were both ambitious, I perhaps quite as much as he. +With me the race of ambition has proved a flat failure; +with him it has been one of splendid success. His name +fills the nation, and it is not unknown in foreign lands. +I affect no contempt for the high eminence he has reached; +so reached that the oppressed of my species might have +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24">[24]</a></span>shared with me in the elevation, I would rather stand +on that eminence than wear the richest crown that ever +pressed a monarch's brow."</p> + +<p>Ten years had not gone by, before the modest Lincoln, +then so humbly expressing this noble sentiment, and to +whom at that moment "The race of ambition seemed a +flat failure;" ten years had not passed, ere he had reached +an eminence on which his name filled, not a nation only, +but the world; and he had indeed so reached it, that +the oppressed did share with him in the elevation; and +so far had he passed his then great rival, that the name +of Douglas will be carried down to posterity, chiefly because +of its association as a competitor with Lincoln.</p> + +<p>But in many particulars Douglas was not an unworthy +competitor. The contest between these two champions +was perhaps the most remarkable in American history. +They were the acknowledged leaders, each of his party. +Douglas had been a prominent candidate for the presidency, +was well known and personally popular, not only in the +West, but throughout the Union. Both were men of great +and marked individuality of character. The immediate +prize was the Senatorship of the great State of Illinois, +and, in the future, the presidency. The result would largely +influence the struggle for freedom in Kansas, and the +question of slavery throughout the Union. The canvass +attracted the attention of the people everywhere, and the +speeches were reported and published, not only in the +leading papers in the State, but reporters were sent from +most of the large cities, to report the incidents of the +debates, and describe the conflict.</p> + +<p>Douglas was at this time unquestionably the leading +debater in the United States Senate. For years he had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +been accustomed to meet the great leaders of the nation +in Congress, and he had rarely been discomfited. He had +contended with Jefferson Davis, and Toombs, and Hunter, +and with Chase, and Sumner, and Seward; and his friends +claimed that he was the equal, if not the superior, of the +ablest. He was fertile in resources, severe in denunciation, +familiar with political history, and had participated so many +years in Congressional debate, that he handled with readiness +and facility all the weapons of political controversy. +Of indomitable physical and moral courage, he was certainly +among the most formidable men in the nation on the stump. +In Illinois, where he had hosts of friends and enthusiastic +followers, he possessed a power over the masses unequaled +by any other man, a most striking exhibition of which was +exhibited in this canvass, in which he held to himself the +whole Democratic party of the State. The administration +of Buchanan, with all its patronage wielded by the +wily and unscrupulous Slidell, and running a separate +ticket, was able to detach only 5,000 out of 126,000 votes +from him. There was something exciting, something which +stirred the blood, in the boldness with which he threw himself +into the conflict, and dealt his blows right and left +against the Republican party on one side, and the administration +of Buchanan, which sought his defeat, on the other.</p> + +<p>Two men presenting more striking contrasts, physically, +intellectually, and morally, could not anywhere be found. +Douglas was a short, sturdy, resolute man, with large head +and chest, and short legs; his ability had gained for him +the appellation of "The little giant of Illinois."</p> + +<p>Lincoln was of the Kentucky type of men, very tall, +long-limbed, angular, awkward in gait and attitude, physically +a real giant, large-featured, his eyes deep-set under<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +heavy eyebrows, his forehead high and retreating, with +heavy, dark hair.</p> + +<p>Their style of speaking, like every thing about them, +was in striking contrast. Douglas, skilled by a thousand +conflicts in all the strategy of a face to face encounter, +stepped upon the platform and faced the thousands of +friends and foes around him with an air of conscious +power. There was an air of indomitable pluck, sometimes +something approaching impudence in his manner, when he +looked out on the immense throngs which surged and +struggled before him. Lincoln was modest, but always +self-possessed, with no self-consciousness, his whole mind +evidently absorbed in his great theme, always candid, +truthful, cool, logical, accurate; at times, inspired by his +subject, rising to great dignity and wonderful power. The +impression made by Douglas, upon a stranger who saw +him for the first time on the platform, would be—"that +is a bold, audacious, ready debater, an ugly opponent." +Of Lincoln—"There is a candid, truthful, sincere man, who, +whether right or wrong, believes he is right." Lincoln +argued the side of freedom, with the most thorough conviction +that on its triumph depended the fate of the +Republic. An idea of the impression made by Lincoln +in these discussions may be inferred from a remark made +by a plain old Quaker, who, at the close of the Ottawa +debate, said: "Friend, doubtless God <i>Almighty might</i> have +made an honester man than Abe Lincoln, but doubtless +he never did." It is curious that the cause of freedom was +plead by a Kentuckian, and that of slavery by a native +of Vermont. Forgetful of the ancestral hatred of slavery +to which he had been born, Douglas had, by marriage, +become a slave-holder. Lincoln had one great advantage<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +over his antagonist—he was always good-humored; while +Douglas sometimes lost his temper, Lincoln never lost his.</p> + +<p>The great champions in these debates, and their discussions, +have passed into history, and the world has ratified +the popular verdict of the day—that Lincoln was the +victor. It should be remembered, in justice to the intellectual +power of Douglas, that Lincoln spoke for liberty, +and he was the organ of a new and vigorous party, with +a full consciousness of being in the right. Douglas was +looking to the presidency as well as the senatorship, and +must keep one eye on the slave-holder and the other on +the citizens of Illinois.</p> + +<p>The debates in the old Continental Congress, and those +on the Missouri question of 1820-1, those of Webster and +Hayne, and Webster and Calhoun, are all historical; but +it may be doubted if either were more important than +these of Lincoln and Douglas.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln, although his party received a majority of the +popular vote was defeated for Senator, because certain Democratic +Senators held over from certain Republican districts.</p> + +<p>On the 27th of February, 1860, Mr. Lincoln delivered his +celebrated Cooper Institute address. Many went to hear the +prairie orator, expecting to be entertained with noisy declamation, +extravagant and verbose, and with plenty of amusing +stories. The speech was so dignified, so exact in language +and statement, so replete with historical learning, it exhibited +such strength and grasp of thought and was so elevated in +tone, that the intelligent audience were astonished and +delighted. The closing sentence is characteristic, and should +never be forgotten by those who advocate the right. "Let +us have faith that <i>right</i> makes <i>might</i>, and in that faith let us +to the end dare to do our duty as we understand it."</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<h2>NOMINATION AND ELECTION AS PRESIDENT.</h2> + +<p>When the National Convention met at Chicago in the +June following, to nominate a candidate for President, while +a majority of the delegates were divided among Messrs. +Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Bates, Mr. Lincoln was the first +choice of a large plurality, and the second choice of all; +besides he was personally so popular with the people, his +sobriquet of "Honest old Abe," "The Illinois Rail-splitter," +satisfied the shrewd men who were studying the best means +of securing success, that he was the most available man to +head the ticket. These considerations made his nomination +a certainty from the beginning.</p> + +<p>The nomination was hailed with enthusiasm throughout +the Union. Never did a party enter upon a canvass with +more zeal and energy. With the usual motives which +actuate political parties there were in this canvass mingled a +love of country, a devotion to liberty, a keen sense of the +wrongs and outrages inflicted upon the Free State men of +Kansas, which fired all hearts with enthusiasm. Mr. Lincoln +received one hundred and eighty electoral votes, Douglas +twelve, Breckinridge seventy-two, and John Bell of Tennessee, +thirty-nine. Mr. Lincoln received of the popular vote +1,866,452, a plurality, but not a majority of the whole.</p> + +<p>By the election of Mr. Lincoln the executive power of the +republic passed from the slave-holders. Mr. Lincoln and the +great party who elected him contemplated no interference +with slavery in the States. They meant to prevent its<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +further extension, but the slave-holders instinctively felt that +with the government in the hands of those who believed +slavery morally wrong, the end of slavery was a mere question +of time. Rather than yield, the slave aristocracy +resolved "to take up the sword," and hence the terrible civil +war.</p> + +<p>On the 11th of February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln left his quiet +happy home at Springfield to enter upon that tempestuous +political career which was to lead him through a martyr's +grave to a deathless fame among the greatest and noblest +patriots and benefactors of mankind. With a dim, mysterious +foreshadowing of the future, he uttered to his friends +and neighbors who gathered around him to say good-bye, his +farewell. He seemed conscious that he might see the place +which had been his home for "a quarter of a century, and +where his children were born, and where one of them lay +buried" no more. Weighed down with the consciousness of +the great duties which devolved upon him, greater than those +devolving upon any President since Washington, he humbly +expressed his reliance upon Divine Providence, and asked his +friends to pray that he might receive the assistance of +"Almighty God." As he journeyed toward the capital, +received everywhere with the earnest sympathies of the +people, the loyal men of all parties assuring him of their +support, his spirits rose, and when he passed the State line +of his own State his hopefulness found expression in the +words "behind the cloud the sun is shining still." And on +he sped through the great Free States of the North. While +on his way to the capital the people were everywhere deeply +impressed by his modest yet firm reliance upon Providence. +He went forth not leaning on his own strength, but resting +on Almighty God.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30">[30]</a></span></p> + +<p>In the early gray of the morning of the 23d of February, +1861, he came in sight of the dome of the Capitol, then filled +with traitors plotting his death and the overthrow of the +Government. By anticipating the train, by which it had +been publicly announced that he would pass through Baltimore, +and passing through that city at night he escaped a +deeply-laid conspiracy, which would otherwise have anticipated +the crime of Booth. None who witnessed will ever +forget the scene of his first inauguration.</p> + +<p>The veteran Scott had gathered a few soldiers of the +Regular Army to preserve order and security; many Northern +citizens thronged the streets, few of them conscious of +the volcano of treason and murder seething beneath them. +The departments and public offices were full of plotting +traitors. Many of the rebel generals held commissions +under the Government they were about to desert and +betray. The ceremony of inauguration is always imposing; +on this occasion it was especially so. Buchanan, sad, +dejected, bowed with a seeming consciousness of duties +unperformed, rode with the President-elect to the Capitol.</p> + +<p>There were gathered the Justices of the Supreme Court, +both Houses of Congress, the representatives of foreign +nations, and a vast concourse of citizens from all sections +of the Union. There were Chase, and Seward, and Sumner, +and Breckinridge, and Douglas, who was near the President, +and was observed eagerly looking over the crowd, +not unconscious of the personal danger of his great and +successful rival. Mr. Lincoln was so absorbed with the +gravity of the occasion and the condition of his country, +that he utterly forgot himself, and there was observed a +dignity, which sprung from a mind entirely engrossed with +public duties.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31">[31]</a></span></p> + +<p>He was perfectly cool, and stepping to the eastern +colonnade of the Capitol, that voice, which had been often +heard by tens of thousands on the prairies of the West, +now read in clear and ringing tones his inaugural. On +the threshold of war, he made a last appeal for peace. +He declared his fixed resolve, firm as the everlasting rocks: +"<i>I shall take care that the laws of the Union be faithfully +executed in every State</i>."</p> + +<p>Yet his great, kind heart yearned for peace, and as he +approached the close, his voice faltered with emotion. "I +am loath to close," said he; "we are <i>not</i> enemies, but friends; +we must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, +it must not break the bonds of affection. The mystic cords +of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot's +grave, to every living heart and hearthstone over all this +broad land, will yet swell with the chorus of the Union, +when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better +angels of our nature."</p> + +<p>Alas! these appeals for peace were received by those +to whom they were addressed with coarse ribaldry, with +sneers and jeers, and all the savage and barbarous passions +which riot in blood. Lincoln was somewhat slow to learn +that it was to force only—stern, unflinching force—that treason +would yield.</p> + +<p>And now opened that terrible civil war which has no +parallel in history. Space will not permit me to follow the +President through those long and terrible days of victory and +defeat, to final triumph. Through all, Lincoln was firm, constant, +hopeful, sagacious, wise, confiding always in God, and +in the people.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32">[32]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS.</h2> + +<p>The special session of the Thirty-seventh Congress met +on the 4th of July, 1861, agreeably to the call of the +President. Many vacant chairs in the National Council +impressed the spectator with the magnitude of the impending +struggle. The old chiefs of the slave party were nearly +all absent, some of them as members of a rebel government +at Richmond, others in arms against their country. The +President calmly, clearly, sadly reviewed the facts which +compelled him to call into action the <i>war powers</i> of the +Government, and constrained him, as the Chief Magistrate, +"<i>to accept war</i>." He asked Congress to confer upon him +the power to make the war short and decisive. He asked +for 400,000 men and 400 millions of money. With hearty +appreciation of the fidelity of the common people, he +proudly points to the fact that, while large numbers of +the officers of the Army and Navy had been guilty of the +infamous crime of desertion, "not one common soldier or +sailor is known to have deserted his flag."</p> + +<p>Congress responded promptly to this call, voting 500,000 +men and 500 millions of dollars to suppress the rebellion. +From the beginning of the contest, the slaves flocked to the +Union army as a place of security from their masters. They +seemed to feel instinctively that freedom was to be found +within its picket-lines and under the folds of its flag. They +were ready to act as guides, as servants, to work, dig, and to +fight for their liberty. And yet early in the war some officers<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +permitted masters and agents to follow the blacks into the +Union lines and carry away fugitive slaves. This action was +rebuked by a resolution of Congress. At this session a law +was passed giving freedom to all slaves employed in aiding +the rebellion. In October, 1861, the military was authorized +by the Secretary of War to avail itself of the services of +"fugitives from labor," in such way as might be most beneficial +to the service.</p> + +<p>The regular session of Congress assembled on the 2d of +December, 1861. Great armies confronted each other in the +field; and great conflicts were going on in the public mind, +but the way to victory through emancipation was not yet +clearly opened. The President was feeling his way, watching +the progress of public opinion; striving to secure to the Union +the Border States of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. On +the subject of Emancipation, he said in his message: "the +Union must be preserved, and all <i>indispensable means</i> must +be used," but he wisely waited until the public sentiment +should consolidate, and all other means of maintaining the +integrity of the nation should have been exhausted. During +this session the way was prepared for the great edict of +Emancipation; Slavery was abolished at the National Capital, +prohibited forever in all the Territories, the slaves of rebels +declared free, and the Government authorized to employ +slaves as soldiers, and every person in the military or naval +service of the Republic prohibited from aiding in the arrest +of any fugitive slave. These measures were all urged by the +personal and political friends of the President, and became +laws with his sanction and hearty assent. They prepared the +way for the final overthrow of slavery.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<h2>THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION.</h2> + +<p>In April, 1862, it was known at Washington that the +President was considering the subject of emancipating the +slaves as a war measure. The Border States selected their +ablest man, the venerable John J. Crittenden, from Mr. Lincoln's +native State, to make a public appeal to him to stay +his hand. The eloquent Kentuckian discharged the part assigned +him well. Never shall I forget the scene when, with +great emotion before Congress he said, that although he had +voted against and opposed Mr. Lincoln, he had been won to +his side. "<i>And now</i>," said he, "there is a niche near to Washington +which should be occupied by him who shall save his +country. Mr. Lincoln has a mighty destiny! * * * He +is no coward, he may be President <i>of all the people</i> and fill +that niche, but if he chooses to be in these times a mere sectarian +and party man, that place will be reserved for some +future and better patriot." "It is in his power to occupy a +place next to Washington, the <i>founder</i> and <i>preserver</i> side by +side." It was understood the Border State men everywhere +were ready to crown him the peer of Washington if he would +not touch slavery.</p> + +<p>It was <span class="smcap">Owen Lovejoy</span>, the early abolitionist, who +made an instantaneous, impromptu reply, a reply the eloquence +of which thrilled Congress and the country, and is +in my judgment among the finest specimens of American +eloquence.</p> + +<p>Said he, "Let Abraham Lincoln make himself, as I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35">[35]</a></span> +trust he will, the Emancipator, the liberator of a race, and +his name shall not only be enrolled in this earthly temple, +but it will be traced on the living stones of that Temple, +which rears itself amidst the thrones of Heaven." Alluding +to what Crittenden had said, he added, "There is +a niche for Abraham Lincoln in Freedom's holy fane. In +that niche he shall stand proudly, gloriously, with shattered +fetters, and broken chains and slave-whips beneath +his feet. * * This is a fame worth living for; ay, more, +it is a fame worth <i>dying</i> for, even though (said he with +prophetic prescience) that death led through the blood of +Gethsemane and the agony of the accursed tree."</p> + +<p>These two speeches were read to Mr. Lincoln in his +library at the White House, a room to which he sometimes +retired. He was moved by the picture which Lovejoy +drew. The tremendous responsibilities growing out of +the slavery question, how he ought to treat those sons +of "unrequited toil," were questions sinking deeper and +deeper into his heart. With a purpose firmly to follow +the path of duty, as God should give him to see his duty, +he earnestly sought the divine guidance.</p> + +<p>Speaking afterward of Emancipation, Mr. Lincoln said: +"When, in March, May, and July, 1862, I made earnest +and successive appeals to the Border States to favor compensated +emancipation, I believed the indispensable necessity +for military emancipation and arming the blacks +would come, unless averted by that measure. They declined +the proposition and I was in my best judgment +driven to the alternative of either surrendering the Union +or issuing the Emancipation Proclamation."<a id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> See Letter of the President to A. G. Hodges, dated April 4, 1864.</p></div> + +<p>Before issuing the proclamation, he had appealed to the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36">[36]</a></span>Border States to adopt gradual emancipation. His appeal is +one of the most earnest and eloquent papers in all history. +"Our country," said he, "is in great peril, demanding the +loftiest views and boldest action to bring a speedy relief; +once relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, +its beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated, +and its future fully assured and rendered inconceivably +grand."</p> + +<p>The appeal was received by some with apathy, by others +with caviling and opposition, and was followed by action on +the part of none. Meanwhile his friends urged emancipation. +They declared there could be no permanent peace +while slavery lived. "Seize," cried they, "the thunderbolt of +Liberty, and shatter Slavery to atoms, and then the Republic +will live." After the great battle of Antietam, the President +called his cabinet together, and announced to them that +"<i>in obedience to a solemn vow to God</i>," he was about to issue +the edict of Freedom.</p> + +<p>The proclamation came, modestly, sublimely, reverently the +great act was done. "Sincerely believing it to be an act of +justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, +he invoked upon it the considerate judgment of mankind +and the gracious favor of Almighty God."</p> + +<p>On the first of January, 1863, the Executive mansion, as is +usual on New Year's Day, was crowded with the officials, +foreign and domestic, of the National Capital; the men of +mark of the army and navy and from civil life crowded +around the care-worn President, to express their kind wishes +for him personally, and their prayers for the future of the +country.</p> + +<p>During the reception, after he had been shaking hands +with hundreds, a secretary hastily entered and told him the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +Proclamation (the final proclamation) was ready for his signature. +Leaving the crowd, he went to his office, taking up a +pen, attempting to write, and was astonished to find he could +not control the muscles of his hand and arm sufficiently to +write his name. He said to me, "I paused, and a feeling of +superstition, a sense of the vast responsibility of the act, +came over me; then, remembering that my arm had been well-nigh +paralyzed by two hours' of hand-shaking, I smiled at my +superstitious feeling, and wrote my name."</p> + +<p>This Proclamation, the Declaration of Independence, and +<i>Magna Charta</i>, these be great landmarks, each indicating an +advance to a higher and more Christian civilization. Upon +these will the historian linger, as the stepping-stones toward +a higher plane of existence. From this time the war meant +<i>universal liberty</i>. When, in June, 1858, at his home in +Springfield, Lincoln startled the country by the announcement, +"this nation can not endure half <i>slave</i>, and <i>half free</i>," and +when he concluded that remarkable speech by declaring, with +uplifted eye and the inspired voice of a prophet, "we shall +not fail if we stand firm, <i>we shall not fail</i>, wise councils may +accelerate or mistakes delay, but sooner or later the victory is +sure to come," he looked to years of peaceful controversy and +final triumph through the ballot-box. He anticipated no +war, and he did not foresee, unless in those mysterious, dim +shadows, which sometimes startle by half revealing the +future, his own elevation to the presidency; he little dreamed +that he was to be the instrument in the hands of God to +speak those words which should emancipate a race and free +his country!</p> + +<p>I have not space to follow the movements of the armies; +the long, sad campaigns of the grand army of the Potomac +under McClellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker, Meade; nor the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +varying fortunes of war in the great Valley of the Mississippi +under Freemont, and Halleck, and Buell. Armies had not +only to be organized, but educated and trained, and especially +did the President have to search for and find those fitted for +high command.</p> + +<p>Ultimately he found such and placed them at the head of +the armies. Up to 1863, there had been vast expenditures +of blood and treasure, and, although great successes had been +achieved and progress made, yet there had been so many disasters +and grievous failures, that the hopes of the insurgents +of final success were still confident. With all the great victories +in the South, and Southwest, by land and on the sea, +the Mississippi was still closed. The President opened the +campaign of 1863 with the determination of accomplishing +two great objects, first to get control of and open the Mississippi; +second to destroy the army of Virginia under Lee, and +seize upon the rebel capital. By the capture of Vicksburg, +and the fall of Port Hudson, the first and primary object of +the campaign was realized.</p> + +<p>"The 'Father of Waters' again went unvexed to the sea. +Thanks to the great Northwest for it, nor yet wholly to them. +Three hundred miles up they met New England, Empire, +Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way right and left. The +army South, too, in more colors than one, lent a helping +hand."<a id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> While the gallant armies of the West were achieving +these victories, operations in the East were crowned by the +decisively important triumph at Gettysburg. Let us pass over +the scenes of conflict, on the sea and on the land, at the East +and at the West, and come to that touching incident in the +life of Lincoln, the consecration of the battle-field of Gettysburg +as a National cemetery.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p><a id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> See letter of Mr. Lincoln to State Convention of Illinois.</p> +</div> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39">[39]</a></span></p> + +<h2>GETTYSBURG.</h2> + +<p>Here, late in the autumn of that year of battles, a portion +of that battle-ground was to be consecrated as the last resting-place +of those who there gave their lives that the Republic +might live.</p> + +<p>There were gathered there the President, his Cabinet, +members of Congress, Governors of States, and a vast and +brilliant assemblage of officers, soldiers, and citizens, with +solemn and impressive ceremonies to consecrate the earth to +its pious purpose. New England's most distinguished orator +and scholar was selected to pronounce the oration. The +address of Everett was worthy of the occasion. When the +elaborate oration was finished, the tall, homely form of Lincoln +arose; simple, rude, majestic, slowly he stepped to the +front of the stage, drew from his pocket a manuscript, and +commenced reading that wonderful address, which an English +scholar and statesman has pronounced the finest in the English +language. The polished periods of Everett had fallen +somewhat coldly upon the ear, but Lincoln had not finished the +first sentence before the magnetic influence of a grand idea +eloquently uttered by a sympathetic nature, pervaded the vast +assemblage. He said:—</p> + +<p>"Fourscore 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.</p> + +<p>"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether +that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can +long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. +We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final +resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40">[40]</a></span> +nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that +we should do this.</p> + +<p>"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not +consecrate—we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, +living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far +above our poor power to add or detract. The world will +little note, nor long remember what we <i>say</i> here, but it can +never forget what they <i>did</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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, and for the people, +shall not perish from the earth."</p> + +<p>He was so absorbed with the heroic sacrifices of the +soldiers as to be utterly unconscious that he was <i>the great +actor</i> in the drama, and that his simple words would live as +long as the memory of the heroism he there commemorated.</p> + +<p>Closing his brief address amidst the deepest emotions of +the crowd, he turned to Everett and congratulated him upon +his success. "Ah, Mr. Lincoln," said the orator, "I would +gladly exchange my hundred pages for your twenty lines."</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>1864.</h2> + +<p>On the first of January, 1864, Mr. Lincoln received his +friends as was usual on New Year's day, and the improved +prospects of the country, made it a day of congratulation.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41">[41]</a></span> +The decisive victories East and West enlivened and made +buoyant and hopeful the spirits of all. One of the most +devoted friends of Mr. Lincoln calling upon him, after exchanging +congratulations over the progress of the Union +armies during the past year, said:—</p> + +<p>"I hope, Mr. President, one year from to-day, I may have +the pleasure of congratulating you on the consummation of +three events which seem now very probable."</p> + +<p>"What are they?" said Mr. Lincoln.</p> + +<p>"First, That the rebellion may be completely crushed. +Second, That slavery may be entirely destroyed, and prohibited +forever throughout the Union. Third, That Abraham +Lincoln may have been triumphantly re-elected President of +the United States."</p> + +<p>"I would be very glad," said Mr. Lincoln, with a twinkle +in his eye, "to compromise, by securing the success of the +first two propositions."</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT.</h2> + +<p>On the 22d of February, 1864, President Lincoln nominated +General U. S. Grant as Lieutenant-General of all the +armies of the United States, and on the 9th of March, at +the White House, he, in person, presented the victorious +General with his commission, and sent him forth to consummate +with the armies of the East, his world-renowned +successes at the West. Then followed the memorable campaign +of 1864-5. Sherman's brilliant Atlanta campaign; +Sheridan's glorious career in the Valley of the Shenandoah; +Thomas's victories in Tennessee, the triumph at Lookout +Mountain; Sherman's "Grand march to the sea," the fall of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +Mobile, the capture of Fort Fisher, and Wilmington, indicating +the near approach of peace through war. In the midst +of these successes, Mr. Lincoln was triumphantly re-elected, +the people thereby stamping upon his administration their +grateful approval. At the session of Congress, of 1864-5, he +urged the adoption of an amendment of the Constitution +abolishing and prohibiting slavery forever throughout the +Republic, thereby consummating his own great work of +Emancipation.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY.</h2> + +<p>As the great leader in the overthrow of slavery, he had +seen his action sanctioned by an emphatic majority of the +people, and now the constitutional majority of two-thirds of +both branches of Congress had voted to submit to the States +this amendment of the organic law.</p> + +<p>Illinois, the home of Lincoln, as was fit, took the lead in +ratifying this amendment, and other States rapidly followed, +until more than the requisite number was obtained, and the +amendment adopted. Meanwhile, military successes continued, +until the victory over slavery and rebellion was won.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION.</h2> + +<p>It was known, by a dispatch received at the Capitol at +midnight, on the 3d of March, 1865, that Lee had sought an +interview with Grant, to arrange terms of surrender. On the +next day Lincoln again stood on the eastern colonnade of the +Capitol, again to swear fidelity to the Republic, her Constitution, +and laws; but, how changed the scene from his first inauguration.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +No traitors now occupied high places under the +Government. Crowds of citizens and soldiers who would +have died for their beloved Chief Magistrate now thronged +the area. Liberty loyalty, and victory had crowned the +eagles of our armies. No conspirators were now mingling in the +crowd, unless perchance the assassin Booth might have been +lurking there. Many patriots and statesmen were in their +graves. Douglas was dead, and Ellsworth, and Baker, and +McPherson, and Reynolds, and Wadsworth, and a host of martyrs, +had given their lives that liberty and the Republic might +triumph. It was a very touching spectacle to see the long +lines of invalid and wounded soldiers, from the great hospitals +about Washington, some on crutches, some who had lost an +arm, many pale from unhealed wounds, who gathered to witness +the scene. As Lincoln ascended the platform, and his +tall form, towering above all his associates, was recognized, +cheers and shouts of welcome filled the air, and not until he +raised his arm motioning for silence, could the acclamations +be hushed. He paused a moment, looked over the scene, and +still hesitated. What thronging memories passed through his +mind! Here, four years before, he had stood pleading, oh, +how earnestly, for <i>peace</i>. But, even while he pleaded, the +rebels took up the sword, and he was forced to "<i>accept war</i>."</p> + +<p>Now four long, bloody, weary years of devastating war +had passed, and those who made the war were everywhere +discomfited, and being overthrown. That barbarous institution +which had caused the war, had been destroyed, and the +dawn of peace already brightened the sky. Such the scene, +and such the circumstances under which Lincoln pronounced +his second Inaugural, a speech which has no parallel since +Christ's Sermon on the Mount.</p> + +<p>Who shall say that I am irreverent when I declare, that<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +the passage, "Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that +this <i>mighty scourge</i> of war <i>may speedily pass away</i>! yet, if +God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the +bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil +shall be sunk, and every drop of blood drawn by the lash, +shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said +three thousand years ago, so it must be said now, that +the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether," +could only have been inspired by that <i>Holy Book</i>, +which daily he read, and from which he ever sought +guidance?</p> + +<p>Where, but from the teachings of Christ, could he have +learned that charity in which he so unconsciously described +his own moral nature, "<i>With malice toward none, with charity +for all</i>, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the +right, let us finish the work we are in, <i>to bind up the nation's +wounds</i>, to care for him who hath borne the battle, and for +his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve a +just and lasting peace, among ourselves and among all +nations."</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>END OF THE WAR.</h2> + +<p>And now Mr. Lincoln gave his whole attention to +the movements of the armies, which, as he confidently +hoped, were on the eve of final and complete triumph. +On the 27th of March he visited the head-quarters of +General Grant, at City Point, to concert with his most +trusted military chiefs the final movements against +Lee, and Johnston. Grant was still at bay before +Petersburg. Sherman with his veterans, after occupying +Georgia and South Carolina, had reached Goldsboro', +North Carolina, on his victorious march north. It was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_45">[45]</a></span> +the hope and purpose of the two great leaders, whose +generous friendship for each other made them ever like +brothers, now and there to crush the armies of Lee and +Johnston, and finish the "job."</p> + +<p>An artist has worthily painted the scene of the +meeting of Lincoln and his cabinet, when he first +announced and read to them his proclamation of Emancipation. +Another artist is now recording for the American +people the scene of this memorable meeting of the +President and the Generals, which took place in the +cabin of the steamer "River Queen," lying at the dock +in the James River. Three men more unlike personally +and mentally, and yet of more distinguished ability, have +rarely been called together. Although so entirely unlike, +each was a type of American character, and all had +peculiarities not only American, but Western.</p> + +<p>Lincoln's towering form had acquired dignity by his +great deeds, and the great ideas to which he had given +expression. His rugged features, lately so deeply furrowed +with care and responsibility, were now radiant with +hope and confidence. He met the two great leaders with +grateful cordiality; with clear intelligence he grasped the +military situation, and listened with eager confidence to +their details of the final moves which should close this +terrible game of war.</p> + +<p>Contrasting, with the giant-like stature of Lincoln, was +the short, sturdy, resolute form of the hero of Fort Donelson +and Vicksburg, so firm and iron-like, every feature of +his face and every attitude and movement so quiet, yet +all expressive of inflexible will and never faltering determination, +"to fight it out on this line."</p> + +<p>There, too, was Sherman, with his broad intellectual<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +forehead, his restless eye, his nervous energy, his sharply +outlined features bronzed by that magnificent campaign +from Chattanooga to Atlanta and from Atlanta to the Sea, +and now fresh from the conquest of Georgia and South +Carolina. On the eve of final triumph, Lincoln, with +characteristic humanity deplored the necessity which all +realized, of one more hard and deadly battle. They +separated, Sherman hastening to his post, and Grant commenced +those brilliant movements which in ten days ended +the war. Now followed in rapid succession the fall of +Richmond, the surrender of Lee, the capitulation of Johnston +and his army, the capture of Jefferson Davis, and +the final overthrow of the rebellion.</p> + +<p>The Union troops, on the morning of the 4th of April, +entered the rebel capital. Among the exulting columns which +followed the eagles of the Republic, were some regiments of +negro soldiers, who marched through the streets of Richmond +singing their favorite song of "John Brown's soul is marching +on."</p> + +<p>On the day of its capture, President Lincoln, with Admiral +Porter, visited Richmond. Leading his youngest son, a lad, +by the hand, he walked from the James River landing to the +house just vacated by the rebel President. From the time +of the issuing of his proclamation to this, his triumphant +entry into the rebel capital, he had been ever ready and +anxious for peace. To all the world he had proclaimed, what +he said so emphatically to the rebel emissaries at Hampton +Roads. "There are just two indispensable conditions of +peace, national unity, and national liberty." "The national +authority must be restored through all the States, and I will +<i>never recede</i> from my position on the slavery question." He +would never violate the national faith, and now God had<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +crowned his efforts with complete success. He entered +Richmond as a conqueror, but as its preserver he issued no +decree of proscription or confiscation, and to all the South +his policy was, "with malice toward none, with charity for +all, with firmness in the right as God gave him to see the +right, he sought to finish the work, and do all which should +achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace."</p> + +<p>On the 9th of April he returned to Washington, and had +scarcely arrived at the White House before the news of the +surrender of Lee and all his army reached him. No language +can adequately describe the joy and gratitude which filled the +hearts of the President and the people.</p> + +<p>And here, before the attempt is made to sketch the darkest +and most dastardly crime in all our annals, let us pause +for one moment to mention that last review on the 22d and +23d of May, of these victorious citizen soldiers, who had come +at the call of the President, and who, their work being done, +were now to return again to their homes scattered throughout +the country they had saved.</p> + +<p>These bronzed and scarred veterans who had survived the +battle-fields of four years of active war, whose field of operations +had been a continent, the brave men who had marched and +fought their way from New England and the Northwest, to +New Orleans and Charleston; those who had withstood and repelled +the terrific charges of the rebels at Gettysburg; those +who had fought beneath and above the clouds at Lookout +Mountain; who had taken Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Atlanta, +New Orleans, Savannah, Mobile, Petersburg, and Richmond; +the triumphal entry of these heroes into the National Capital +of the Republic which they had saved and redeemed, was +deeply impressive. Triumphal arches, garlands, wreaths of +flowers, evergreens, marked their pathway. Acting President<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +and Cabinet, Governors and Senators, ladies, children, citizens, +all united to express the nation's gratitude to those by whose +heroism it had been saved.</p> + +<p>But there was one great shadow over the otherwise brilliant +spectacle. Lincoln, their great-hearted chief, he whom +all loved fondly to call their "Father Abraham;" he whose +heart had been ever with them in camp, and on the march, in +the storm of battle, and in the hospital; he had been murdered, +stung to death, by the fang of the expiring serpent +which these soldiers had crushed. There were many thousands +of these gallant men in Blue, as they filed past the +White House, whose weather-beaten faces were wet with +tears of manly grief. How gladly, joyfully would they have +given their lives to have saved his.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>LAST DAYS OF LINCOLN.</h2> + +<p>It has been already stated that Mr. Lincoln returned to +the Capital on the 9th of April; from that day until the 14th +was a scene of continued rejoicing, gratulation, and thanksgiving +to Almighty God who had given to us the victory. +In every city, town, village, and school district, bells rang, +salutes were fired, and the Union flag, now worshiped more +than ever by every loyal heart, waved from every home. The +President was full of hope and happiness. The clouds were +breaking away, and his genial, kindly nature was revolving +plans of reconciliation and peace. How could he now bind +up the wounds of his country and obliterate the scars of the +war, and restore friendship and good feeling to every section? +These considerations occupied his thoughts: there was no bitterness, +no desire for revenge. On the morning of the 14th, +Robert Lincoln, just returned from the army, where, on the +staff of General Grant, he had witnessed the surrender of Lee,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +breakfasted with his father, and the happy hour was passed +in listening to details of that event. The day was occupied, +first, with an interview with Speaker Colfax, then exchanging +congratulations with a party of old Illinois friends, then a cabinet +meeting, attended by Gen. Grant, at which all remarked +his hopeful, joyous spirit, and all bear testimony that in this +hour of triumph, he had no thought of vengeance, but his +mind was revolving the best means of bringing back to sincere +loyalty, those who had been making war upon his country. +He then drove out with Mrs. Lincoln alone, and during +the drive he dwelt upon the happy prospect now before +them, and contrasting the gloomy and distracting days of the +war with the peaceful ones now in anticipation, and looking +beyond the term of his Presidency, he, in imagination, saw +the time when he should return again to his prairie home, +meet his old friends, and resume his old mode of life. In fancy, +he was again in his old law library, and before the courts: +with these were mingled visions of a prairie farm, and once +more the plow and the ax should become familiar to his +hand. Such were some of the incidents and fancies of the +last day of the life of Abraham Lincoln.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>THE ASSASSINATION.</h2> + +<p>From the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the +Presidency, many threats, public and private, were made +of his assassination. An attempt to murder him would +undoubtedly have been made, in February, 1861, on his +passage through Baltimore, had not the plot been +discovered, and the time of his passage been anticipated. +From the day of his inauguration, he began to receive<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +letters threatening assassination. He said: "The first one +or two made me uncomfortable, but," said he, smiling, +"there is nothing like getting <i>used</i> to things." He was +constitutionally fearless, and came to consider these letters +as idle threats, meant only to annoy him, and it was +very difficult for his friends to induce him to resort to +any precautions.</p> + +<p>It was announced through the press that on the +evening of the 14th of April, Mr. Lincoln and General +Grant would attend Ford's Theater. The General did +not attend, but Mr. Lincoln, being unwilling to disappoint +the public expectation, accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln, Miss +Harris, and Major Rathbone, was induced to go. The +writer met him on the portico of the White House +just as he was about to enter his carriage, exchanged +greetings with him, and will never forget the radiant, +happy expression of his countenance, and the kind, genial +tones of his voice, as we parted <i>for the night</i> as we +then thought—<i>forever</i> in this world, as it resulted.</p> + +<p>The President was received, as he always was, by +acclamations. When he reached the door of his box, +he turned, and smiled, and bowed in acknowledgment +of the hearty greeting which welcomed him, and then +followed Mrs. Lincoln into the box. This was at the +right hand of the stage. In the corner nearest the stage +sat Miss Harris, next her Mrs. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln +sat nearest the entrance, Major Rathbone being seated on +a sofa, in the back part of the box. The theater, and +especially the box occupied by the President's party, was +most beautifully draped with the national colors. While +the play was in progress, John Wilkes Booth visited the +theater behind the scenes, left a horse ready saddled in the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51">[51]</a></span> +alley behind the building, leaving a door opening to this alley +ready for his escape.</p> + +<p>In the midst of the play, at the hour of 10.30, a pistol +shot, sharp and clear, is heard! a man with a bloody dagger +in his hand leaps from the President's box to the stage +exclaiming, "<i>Sic semper tyrannis</i>," "the South is avenged." +As the assassin struck the stage, the spur on his boot having +caught in the folds of the flag, he fell to his knee. Instantly +rising, he brandished his dagger, darted across the stage, out +of the door he had left open, mounted his horse and galloped +away. The audience, startled and stupefied with horror, were +for a few seconds spell-bound. Some one cries out in the +crowd, "<i>John Wilkes Booth!</i>" This man, an actor, familiar +with the locality, after arranging for his escape, had passed +round to the front of the theater, entered, passed in to the +President's box, entered at the open and unguarded door, and +stealing up behind the President, who was intent upon the +play, placed his pistol near the back of the head of Mr. Lincoln, +and fired. The ball penetrated the brain, and the President +fell upon his face mortally wounded, unconscious and speechless +from the first. Major Rathbone had attempted to seize Booth +as he rushed past toward the stage, and received from the +assassin a severe cut in the arm.</p> + +<p>No words can describe the anguish and horror of Mrs. +Lincoln. The scene was heart-rending; she prayed for death +to relieve her suffering. The insensible form of the President +was removed across the street to the house of a Mr. Peterson. +Robert Lincoln soon reached the scene, and the members of +the cabinet and personal friends crowded around the place of +the fearful tragedy. And there the strong constitution of Mr. +Lincoln struggled with death, until twenty-two minutes past +seven the next morning, when his heart ceased to beat. The<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52">[52]</a></span> +scene during that long fearful night of woe, at the house of +Peterson, beggars description.</p> + +<p>News of the appalling deed spread through the city, and it +was found necessary to restrain the anxious, weeping people +by a double guard around the house. The surgeons from the +first examination of the wound, pronounced it mortal; and +the shock and the agony of that terrible night to Mrs. Lincoln +was enough to distract the reason, and break the heart of the +most self-controlled. Robert Lincoln sought, by manly self-mastery +to control his own grief and soothe his mother, +and aid her to sustain her overwhelming sorrow.</p> + +<p>When at last, the noble heart ceased to beat, the Rev. Dr. +Gurley, in the presence of the family, the household, and +those friends of the President who were present, knelt down, +and touchingly prayed the Almighty Father, to aid and +strengthen the family and friends to bear their terrible +sorrow.</p> + +<p>I will not attempt with feeble pen to sketch the +scenes of that terrible night; I leave that for the pencil of the +artist!</p> + +<p>As has been said, the name of the assassin was John +Wilkes Booth! He was shot by Boston Corbett, a soldier on +the 21st of April.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF SECRETARY SEWARD.</h2> + +<p>On the same night of the assassination of the President, +an accomplice of Booth attempted to murder Mr. Seward, the +Secretary of State, in his own house, while confined to his +bed from severe injuries received by being thrown from his +carriage. He was terribly mangled; and his life was saved +by the heroic efforts of his sons and daughter and a nurse,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +whose name was Robinson. Some of the accomplices of +Booth were arrested, tried, convicted, and hung; but all were +the mere tools and instruments of the Conspirators. Mystery +and darkness yet hang over the chief instigators of this +most cowardly murder: none can say whether the chief conspirators +will ever, in this world, be dragged to light and +punishment.</p> + +<p>The terrible news of the death of Lincoln was, on the +morning of the 15th, borne by telegraph to every portion of +the Republic. Coming, as it did, in the midst of universal +joy, no language can picture the horror and grief of the +people on its reception. A whole nation wept. Persons who +had not heard the news, coming into crowded cities, were +struck with the strange aspect of the people. All business +was suspended; gloom, sadness, grief, sat upon every face. +The flag, which had everywhere, from every spire and masthead, +roof, and tree, and public building, been floating in glorious +triumph, was now lowered; and, as the hours of that dreary +15th of April passed on, the people, by common impulse, each +family by itself, commenced draping their houses and public +buildings in mourning, and before night the whole nation was +shrouded in black.</p> + +<p>There were no classes of people in the Republic whose +grief was more demonstrative than that of the soldiers and +the freedmen. The vast armies, not yet disbanded, looked +upon Lincoln as their father. They knew his heart had followed +them in all their campaigns and marches and battles. +Grief and vengeance filled their hearts. But the poor negroes +everywhere wept and sobbed over a loss which they instinctively +felt was to them irreparable. On the Sunday following +his death, the whole people gathered to their places of public +worship, and mingled their tears together over a bereavement<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +which every one felt like the loss of a father or a brother. +The remains of the President were taken to the White +House. On the 17th, on Monday, a meeting of the members +of Congress then in Washington, was held at the Capitol, to +make arrangements for the funeral. This meeting named a +committee of one member from each State and Territory, and +the whole Congressional delegation from Illinois, as a Congressional +Committee to attend the remains of Mr. Lincoln to +their final resting-place in Illinois. Senator Sumner and +others desired that his body should be placed under the dome +of the Capitol at Washington. It was stated that a vault +had been prepared there for the remains of Washington, but +had never been used, because the Washington family and +Virginia desired them to remain in the family vault at Mount +Vernon. It was said it would be peculiarly appropriate for +the remains of Lincoln to be deposited under the dome of the +Capitol of the Republic he had saved and redeemed.</p> + +<p>The funeral took place on Wednesday, the 19th. The +services were held in the East Room of the Executive Mansion. +It was a bright, genial day—typical of the kind and genial +nature of him whom a nation was so deeply mourning.</p> + +<p>After the sad ceremonies at the National Capital, the +remains of the President and of his beloved son Willie, who +died at the White House during his presidency, were placed +on a funeral car, and started on its long pilgrimage to his old +home in Illinois, and it was arranged that the train should +take nearly the same route as that by which he had come from +Springfield to Washington in assuming the Executive Chair.</p> + +<p>And now the people of every State, city, town, and hamlet, +came with uncovered heads, with streaming eyes, with +their offerings of wreaths and flowers, to witness the passing +train. It is impossible to describe the scenes. Minute-guns,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55">[55]</a></span> +the tolling of bells, music, requiems, dirges, military and civic +displays, draped flags, black covering every public building +and private house, everywhere indicated the pious desire of +the people to do honor to the dead: two thousand miles, +along which every house was draped in black, and from +which, everywhere, hung the national colors in mourning. +The funeral ceremonies at Baltimore were peculiarly impressive: +nowhere were the manifestations of grief more universal; +but the sorrow of the negroes, who thronged the +streets in thousands, and hung like a dark fringe upon the +long procession, was especially impressive. Their coarse, +homely features were convulsed with a grief which they +could not control; their emotional natures, excited by the +scene, and by each other, until sobs and cries and tears, rolling +down their black faces, told how deeply they felt their loss. +When the remains reached Philadelphia, a half million of +people were in the streets, to do honor to all that was left of +him, who, in old Independence Hall, four years before, had declared +that he would sooner die, sooner be assassinated, than +give up the principles of the Declaration of Independence. +He <i>had</i> been assassinated because he would <i>not</i> give them up. +All felt, when the remains were placed in that historic room, +surrounded by the memories of the great men of the Past, +whose portraits from the walls looked down upon the scene, +that a peer of the best and greatest of the revolutionary worthies +was now added to the list of those who had served the +Republic.</p> + +<p>Through New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, to +Illinois, all the people followed the funeral train as mourners, +but when the remains reached his own State, where he had +been personally known to every one, where the people had all +heard him on the stump and in court, every family<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +mourned him as a father and a brother. The train reached +Springfield on the 3d of May; and the corpse was taken to +Oak Ridge Cemetery, and there, among his old friends and +neighbors, his clients, and constituents, surrounded by +representatives from the Army and Navy, with delegations +from every State, with all the people, the world for his +mourners—was he buried.</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<h2>PERSONAL SKETCHES OF LINCOLN.<a id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a></h2> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> The substance of what follows is from chapter 29th of "The History of Abraham +Lincoln, and The Overthrow of Slavery," by Isaac N. Arnold.</p></div> + +<p>In the remaining pages, I shall attempt to give a word-picture +of Mr. Lincoln, his person, his moral and intellectual +characteristics, and some personal recollections, so as to aid the +reader, as far as I may be able, in forming an ideal of the man.</p> + +<p>Physically, he was a tall, spare man, six feet and four inches +in height. He stooped, leaning forward as he walked. He +was very athletic, with long, sinewy arms, large, bony hands, +and of great physical power. Many anecdotes of his +strength are given, which show that it was equal to that +of two or three ordinary men. He lifted with ease five or +six hundred pounds. His legs and arms were disproportionately +long, as compared with his body; and when he walked, +he swung his arms to and fro more than most men. When +seated, he did not seem much taller than ordinary men. In +his movements there was no grace, but an impression of +awkward strength and vigor.</p> + +<p>He was naturally diffident, and even to the day of his +death, when in crowds, and not speaking or acting, and +conscious of being observed, he seemed to shrink with +bashfulness. When he became interested, or spoke, or +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57">[57]</a></span>listened, this appearance left him, and he indicated no self-consciousness. +His forehead was high and broad, his hair very +dark, nearly black, and rather stiff and coarse, his eyebrows +were heavy, his eyes dark-gray, very expressive and varied; +now sparkling with humor and fun, and then deeply sad and +melancholy; flashing with indignation at injustice or wrong, +and then kind, genial, droll, dreamy; according to his mood.</p> + +<p>His nose was large, and clearly defined and well shaped; +cheek-bones high and projecting. His mouth coarse, but +firm. He was easily caricatured—but difficult to represent as +he was, in marble or on canvass. The best bust of him is +that of Volk, which was modeled from a cast taken from life in +May, 1860, while he was attending court at Chicago.</p> + +<p>Among the best portraits, in the judgment of his family +and intimate friends, are those of Carpenter, in the picture of +the Reading of the Proclamation of Emancipation before the +Cabinet, and that of Marshall.</p> + +<p>He would be instantly recognized as belonging to that +type of tall, thin, large-boned men, produced in the northern +portion of the Valley of the Mississippi, and exhibiting its +peculiar characteristics in a most marked degree in Illinois, +Kentucky and Tennessee. In any crowd in the United States, +he would have been readily pointed out as a Western man. +His stature, figure, manner, voice, and accent, indicated that +he was of the Northwest. His manners were cordial, familiar, +genial; always perfectly self-possessed, he made every one feel +at home, and no one approached him without being impressed +with his kindly, frank nature, his clear, good sense, and his +transparent truthfulness and integrity. There is more or less +of expression and character in handwriting. Lincoln's was +plain, simple, clear, and legible, as that of Washington; but +unlike that of Washington, it was without ornament.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58">[58]</a></span></p> + +<p>In endeavoring to state those qualities which gave him +success and greatness, among the most important, it seems to +me, were a supreme love of truth, and a wonderful capacity +to ascertain it. Mentally, he had a perfect eye for truth. +His mental vision was clear and accurate: he saw things as +they were. I mean that every thing presented to his mind for +investigation, he saw divested of every extraneous circumstance, +every coloring, association, or accident which could mislead. +This gave him at the bar a sagacity which seemed +almost instinctive, in sifting the true from the false, and in +ascertaining facts; and so it was in all things through life. +He ever sought the real, the true, and the right. He was exact, +carefully accurate in all his statements. He analyzed well; he +saw and presented what lawyers call the very <i>gist</i> of every +question, divested of all unimportant or accidental relations, +so that his statement was a demonstration. At the bar, his +exposition of his case, or a question of law, was so clear, that, +on hearing it, most persons were surprised that there should +be any controversy about it. His reasoning powers were +keen and logical, and moved forward to a demonstration with +the precision of mathematics. What has been said implies +that he possessed not only a sound judgment, which brought +him to correct conclusions, but that he was able so to present +questions as to bring others to the same result.</p> + +<p>His memory was capacious, ready, and tenacious. His +reading was limited in extent, but his memory was so ready, +and so retentive, that in history, poetry, and general literature, +no one ever remarked any deficiency. As an illustration +of the power of his memory, I recollect to have once called +at the White House, late in his Presidency, and introducing +to him a Swede and a Norwegian; he immediately repeated +a poem of eight or ten verses, describing Scandinavian<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_59">[59]</a></span> +scenery and old Norse legends. In reply to the expression of +their delight, he said that he had read and admired the poem +several years before, and it had entirely gone from him, but +seeing them recalled it.</p> + +<p>The two books which he read most were the Bible and +Shakespeare. With these he was very familiar, reading and +studying them habitually and constantly. He had great +fondness for poetry, and eloquence, and his taste and judgment +in each was exquisite. Shakespeare was his favorite +poet; Burns stood next. I know of a speech of his at a +Burns festival, in which he spoke at length of Burns's poems; +illustrating what he said by many quotations, showing perfect +familiarity with and full appreciation of the peasant poet of +Scotland. He was extremely fond of ballads, and of simple, +sad, and plaintive music.</p> + +<p>He was a most admirable reader. He read and repeated +passages from the Bible and Shakespeare with great simplicity +but remarkable expression and effect. Often when going to +and from the army, on steamers and in his carriage, he took a +copy of Shakespeare with him, and not unfrequently read, +aloud to his associates. After conversing upon public affairs, +he would take up his Shakespeare, and addressing his companions, +remark, "What do you say now to a scene from Macbeth, +or Hamlet, or Julius Cæsar," and then he would read +aloud, scene after scene, never seeming to tire of the enjoyment.</p> + +<p>On the last Sunday of his life, as he was coming up the +Potomac, from his visit to City Point and Richmond, he +read aloud many extracts from Shakespeare. Among others, +he read, with an accent and feeling which no one who heard +him will ever forget, extracts from Macbeth, and among others +the following:<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60">[60]</a></span>—</p> + +<div class="poem"> + <div class="stanza"> + <p class="i8">"Duncan is in his grave;</p> + <p class="i2">After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well.</p> + <p class="i2">Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,</p> + <p class="i2">Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing</p> + <p class="i2">Can touch him farther."</p> + </div> +</div> + +<p>After "treason" had "<i>done his worst</i>," the friends who +heard him on that occasion remembered that he read that +passage very slowly over twice, and with an absorbed and +peculiar manner. Did he feel a mysterious presentiment of +his approaching fate?</p> + +<p>His conversation was original, suggestive, instructive, and +playful; and, by its genial humor, fascinating and attractive +beyond comparison. Mirthfulness and sadness were strongly +combined in him. His mirth was exuberant, it sparkled in +jest, story, and anecdote; and the next moment those peculiarly +sad, pathetic, melancholy eyes, showed a man "familiar +with sorrow, and acquainted with grief." I have listened for +hours at his table, and elsewhere, when he has been surrounded +by statesmen, military leaders, and other distinguished men +of the nation, and I but repeat the universally concurring +verdict of all, in stating that as a conversationalist he had no +equal. One might meet in company with him the most distinguished +men, of various pursuits and professions, but after +listening for two or three hours, on separating, it was what +Lincoln had said that would be remembered. His were the +ideas and illustrations that would not be forgotten. Men +often called upon him for the pleasure of listening to him. I +have heard the reply to an invitation to attend the theater, +"No, I am going up to the White House. I would rather +hear Lincoln talk for half an hour, than attend the best +theater in the world."</p> + +<p>As a public speaker, without any attempt at oratorical +display, I think he was the most effective of any man of his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +day. When he spoke, everybody listened. It was always +obvious, before he completed two sentences, that he had +something to say, and it was sure to be something original, +something different from any thing heard from others, or +which had been read in books. He impressed the hearer at +once, as an earnest, sincere man, who believed what he said. +To-day, there are more of the sayings of Lincoln repeated by +the people, more quotations, sentences, and extracts from his +writings and speeches, familiar as "household words," than +from those of any other American.</p> + +<p>I know no book, except the Bible and Shakespeare, from +which so many familiar phrases and expressions have been +taken as from his writings and speeches. Somebody has +said, "I care not who makes the laws, if I may write the +ballads of a nation." The words of Lincoln have done more +in the last six years to mold and fashion the American character +than those of any other man, and their influence has +been all for truth, right, justice, and liberty. Great as has +been Lincoln's services to the people, as their President, his +influence, derived from his words and his example, in molding +the future national character, in favor of justice, right, +liberty, truth, and real, sincere, unostentatious reverence for +God, is scarcely less important. The Republic of the future, +the matured national character, will be more influenced by +him than by any other man. This is evidence of his greatness, +intellectual, and still more, moral. In this power of +impressing himself upon the people, he contrasts with many +other distinguished men in our history. Few quotations +from Jefferson, or Adams, or Webster, live in the every-day +language of the people. Little of Clay survives; not much +of Calhoun, and who can quote, off-hand, half a dozen sentences +from Douglas? But you hear Lincoln's words, not<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62">[62]</a></span> +only in every cabin and caucus, and in every stump speech, but +at every school-house, high-school, and college declamation, and +by every farmer and artisan, as he tells you story after story +of Lincoln's, and all to the point, hitting the nail on the head +every time, and driving home the argument. Mr. Lincoln was +not a scholar, but where is there a speech more exhaustive in +argument than his Cooper Institute address? Where any thing +more full of pathos than his farewell to his neighbors at +Springfield, when he bade them good-bye, on starting for the +capital? Where any thing more eloquent than his appeal for +peace and union, in his first Inaugural, or than his defense of +the Declaration of Independence in the Douglas debates? +Where the equal of his speech at Gettysburg? Where a +more conclusive argument than in his letter to the Albany +Meeting on Arrests? What is better than his letter to the +Illinois State Convention; and that to Hodges of Kentucky, +in explanation of his anti-slavery policy? Where is there +any thing equal in simple grandeur of thought and sentiment, +to his last Inaugural? From all of these, and many others, +from his every-day talks, are extracts on the tongues of the +people, as familiar, and nearly as much reverenced, as texts +from the Bible; and these are shaping the national character. +"Though dead, he yet speaketh."</p> + +<p>As a public speaker, if excellence is measured by results, he +had no superior. His manner was generally earnest, often playful; +sometimes, but this was rare, he was vehement and impassioned. +There have been a few instances, at the bar and on +the stump, when, wrought up to indignation by some great +personal wrong, or by an aggravated case of fraud or injustice, +or when speaking of the fearful wrongs and injustice of slavery, +he broke forth in a strain of impassioned vehemence which +carried every thing before him.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + +<p>Generally, he addressed the reason and judgment, and the +effect was lasting. He spoke extemporaneously, but not +without more or less preparation. He had the power of +repeating, without reading it, a discourse or speech which he +had prepared or written out. His great speech, in opening +the Douglas canvass, in June, 1858, was carefully written out, +but so naturally spoken that few suspected that it was not +extemporaneous. In his style, manner of presenting facts, +and way of putting things to the people, he was more like +Franklin than any other American. His illustrations, by +anecdote and story, were not unlike the author of <i>Poor +Richard</i>.</p> + +<p>A great cause of his intellectual power was the thorough +exhaustive investigation he gave to every subject. Take, for +illustration, his Cooper Institute speech. Hundreds of able +and intelligent men have spoken on the same subject treated +by him in that speech, yet what they said will all be forgotten, +and his will survive; because his address is absolutely perfect +for the purpose for which it was designed. Nothing can +be added to it.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln, however, required time thoroughly to investigate +before he came to his conclusions, and the movements of +his mind were not rapid; but when he reached his conclusions +he believed in them, and adhered to them with great +firmness and tenacity. When called upon to decide quickly +upon a new subject or a new point, he often erred, and was +ever ready to change when satisfied he was wrong.</p> + +<p>It was the union, in Mr. Lincoln, of the capacity clearly to +see the truth, and an innate love of truth, and justice, and +right in his heart, that constituted his character and made +him so great. He never demoralized his intellectual or moral +powers, either by doing wrong that good might come, or by<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64">[64]</a></span> +advocating error because it was popular. Although, as a +statesman, eminently practical, and looking to the possible +good of to-day, he ever kept in mind the absolute truth and +absolute right, toward which he always aimed.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln was an unselfish man; he never sought his +own advancement at the expense of others. He was a just +man; he never tried to pull others down that he might rise. +He disarmed rivalry and envy by his rare generosity. He +possessed the rare wisdom of magnanimity. He was eminently +a tender-hearted, kind, and humane man. These traits +were illustrated all through his life. He loved to pardon: +he was averse to punish. It was difficult for him to deny +the request of a child, a woman, or of any who were weak +and suffering. Pages of incidents might be quoted, showing +his ever-thoughtful kindness, gratitude to, and appreciation of +the soldiers. The following note (written to a lady known to +him only by her sacrifices for her country) is selected from +many on this subject:—</p> + +<blockquote> +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Executive Mansion, Washington</span>,<br /> +"November, 1864.</p> + +<p class="smcap">"Dear Madam:—</p> + +<p>"I have been shown, in the files of the War Department, a statement of the +Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have +died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any +words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so +overwhelming. But I can not refrain from tendering to you the consolation that +may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our +Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you +only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must +be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r5">"Yours very respectfully,</span><br /> +"ABRAHAM LINCOLN.</p> + +<p>"To Mrs. <span class="smcap">Bixby</span>, Boston, Massachusetts."</p> +</blockquote> + +<p>One summer's day, in walking along the shaded path +which leads from the White House to the War Department,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65">[65]</a></span> +I saw the tall form of the President seated on the grass under +a tree, with a wounded soldier sitting by his side. He had a +bundle of papers in his hand. The soldier had met him in +the path, and, recognizing him, had asked his aid. Mr. Lincoln +sat down upon the grass, investigated the case, and sent the +soldier away rejoicing. In the midst of the rejoicings over the +triumphs at Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, he forgets not +to telegraph to Grant, "Remember Burnside" at Knoxville.</p> + +<p>His charity, in the best sense of that word, was pervading. +When others railed, he railed not again. No bitter words, +no denunciation can be found in his writings or speeches. +Literally, in his heart there was "malice toward none, and +charity for all."</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln was by nature a gentleman. No man can +point, in all his lifetime, to any thing mean, small, tricky, dishonest, +or false; on the contrary, he was ever open, manly, +brave, just, sincere, and true. That characteristic, attributed +to him by some, of coarse story-telling, did not exist. I assert +that my intercourse with him was constant for many years +before he went to Washington, and I saw him daily, during +the greater part of his Presidency; and although his stories +and anecdotes were racy, witty, and pointed beyond all comparison, +yet I never heard one of a character to need palliation +or excuse. If a story had wit and was apt, he did not reject +it, because to a vulgar or impure mind it suggested coarse +ideas; but he himself was unconscious of any thing but its +wit and aptness.</p> + +<p>It may interest the people who did not visit Washington +during his Presidency, to know something of his habits, and +the room he occupied and transacted business in, during his +administration. His reception-room was on the second floor, +on the south side of the White House, and the second apartment<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66">[66]</a></span> +from the southeast corner. The corner room was occupied +by Mr. Nicolay, his private secretary; next to this was +the President's reception-room. It was, perhaps, thirty by +twenty feet. In the middle of the west side, was a large +marble fireplace, with old-fashioned brass andirons, and a +large, high, brass fender. The windows looked to the south, +upon the lawn and shrubbery on the south front of the White +House, taking in the unfinished Washington Monument, +Alexandria, the Potomac, and down that beautiful river +toward Mount Vernon. Across the Potomac was Arlington +Heights. The view from these windows was altogether very +beautiful.</p> + +<p>The furniture of this room consisted of a long oak table, +covered with cloth, and oak chairs. This table stood in the +center of the room, and was the one around which the Cabinet +sat, at Cabinet meetings, and is faithfully painted in Carpenter's +picture of the Emancipation Proclamation. At the end +of the table, near the window, was a large writing-table and +desk, with pigeon-holes for papers, such as are common in +lawyers' offices. In front of this, in a large arm-chair, Mr. +Lincoln usually sat. Behind his chair, and against the west +wall of the room, was another writing-desk high enough to +write upon when standing, and upon the top of this were a +few books, among which were the Statutes of the United +States, a Bible, and a copy of Shakespeare. There was a +bureau, with wooden doors, with pigeon-holes for papers, +standing between the windows. Here the President kept +such papers as he wished readily to refer to. There were +two plain sofas in the room; generally two or three map-frames, +from which hung military maps, on which the movements +of the armies were continually traced and followed. +The only picture in the room was an old engraving of Jackson,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +which hung over the fireplace; late in his administration +was added a fine photograph of John Bright. Two doors +opened into this room—one from the Secretary's, the other +from the great hall, where the crowd usually waited. A bell-cord +hung within reach of his hand, while he sat at his desk. +There was an ante-room adjoining this, plainly furnished; but +the crowd usually pressed to the hall, from which an entrance +might be directly had to the President's room. A messenger +stood at the door, and took in the cards and names of visitors.</p> + +<p>Here, in this room, more plainly furnished than many law +and business offices—plainer than the offices of the heads of +bureaus in the Executive Departments—Mr. Lincoln spent +the days of his Presidency. Here he received everybody, +from the Lieutenant-General and Chief-Justice, down to the +private soldier and humblest citizen. Custom had established +certain rules of precedence, fixing the order in which officials +should be received. The members of the Cabinet and the +high officers of the army were, of course, received always +promptly. Senators and members of Congress, who are +usually charged with the presentation of petitions and recommendations +for appointments, and who are expected to right +every wrong and correct every evil each one of their respective +constituents may be suffering, or imagine himself to +be suffering, have an immense amount of business with the +Executive. I have often seen as many as ten or fifteen Senators +and twenty or thirty Members of the House in the hall, +waiting their turn to see the President. They would go to +the ante-room, or up to the hall in front of the reception-room, +and await their turns. The order of precedence was, +first the Vice-President, if present, then the Speaker of the +House, and then Senators and Members of the House in the +order of their arrival, and the presentation of their cards. Frequently<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +Senators and Members would go to the White House +as early as eight or nine in the morning, to secure precedence +and an early interview. While they waited, the loud ringing +laugh of Mr. Lincoln, in which he was sure to be joined +by all <i>inside</i>, but which was rather provoking to those <i>outside</i>, +was often heard by the waiting and impatient crowd. +Here, from early morning to late at night, he sat, listened, +and decided—patient, just, considerate, hopeful. All the +people came to him as to a father. He was more accessible +than any of the leading members of his Cabinet—much more +so than Mr. Seward, shut up in the State Department, writing +his voluminous dispatches; far more so than Mr. Stanton, indefatigable, +stern, abrupt, but ever honest and faithful. Mr. +Lincoln saw everybody—governors, senators, congressmen, +officers, ministers, bankers, merchants, farmers—all classes of +people; all approached him with confidence, from the highest +to the lowest; but this incessant labor and fearful responsibility +told upon his vigorous frame. He left Illinois for the +capital, with a frame of iron and nerves of steel. His old +friends, who knew him in Illinois as a man who knew not +what illness was, who knew him ever genial and sparkling +with fun, as the months and years of the war passed slowly +on, saw the wrinkles on his forehead deepened into furrows; +and the laugh of old days became sometimes almost hollow; +it did not now always seem to come from the heart, as in +former years. Anxiety, responsibility, care, thought, wore +upon even his giant frame, and his nerves of steel became at +times irritable. For more than four years he had no respite, +no holidays. When others fled away from the dust and heat +of the capital, he must stay; he would not leave the helm +until the danger was past and the ship was in port.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Lincoln watched his care-worn face with the anxiety<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69">[69]</a></span> +of an affectionate wife, and sometimes took him from his +labors almost in spite of himself. She urged him to ride, and +to go to the theater and places of amusement, to divert his +mind from his engrossing cares.</p> + +<p>Let us for a moment try to appreciate the greatness of his +work and his services. He was the Commander-in-Chief, +during the war, of the largest army and navy in the world; +and this army and navy was created during his administration, +and its officers were sought out and appointed by him. +The operations of the Treasury were vast beyond all previous +conceptions of the ability of the country to sustain; and yet, +when he entered upon the Presidency, he found an empty +treasury, the public credit shaken, no army, no navy, the +officers all strangers, many deserting, more in sympathy +with the rebels, Congress divided, and public sentiment unformed. +The party which elected him were in a minority. +The old Democratic party, which had ruled the country for +half a century, hostile to him, and, by long political association, +in sympathy with the insurgent States. His own party, new, +made up of discordant elements, and not yet consolidated, +unaccustomed to rule, and neither his party nor himself possessing +any <i>prestige</i>. He entered the White House, the object +of personal prejudice to a majority of the people, and of +contempt to a powerful minority. And yet I am satisfied, +from the statement of the conversation of Mr. Lincoln with +Mr. Bateman, quoted hereafter, and from various other reasons, +that he himself more fully appreciated the terrible conflict +before him than any man in the nation, and that even +then he hoped and expected to be the <i>Liberator</i> of the slaves. +He did not yet clearly perceive the manner in which it was +to be done, but he believed it would be done, and that God +would guide him.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70">[70]</a></span></p> + +<p>In four years, this man crushed the most stupendous rebellion, +supported by armies more vast, and resources greater +than were ever before combined to overthrow any government. +He held together and consolidated, against warring +factions, his own great party, and strengthened it by securing +the confidence and bringing to his aid a large proportion of +all other parties. He was re-elected almost by acclamation, +and he led the people, step by step, up to emancipation, and +saw his work crowned by the Constitutional Amendment, +eradicating Slavery from the Republic for ever. Did this +man lack firmness? Study the boldness of the Emancipation! +See with what fidelity he stood by his Proclamation! +In his message of 1863, he said: "I will <i>never</i> retract +the proclamation, nor return to slavery any person made free +by it." In 1864, he said: "If it should ever be made a duty +of the Executive to return to slavery any person made free +by the Proclamation or the acts of Congress, some other person, +not I, must execute the law."</p> + +<p>When hints of peace were suggested as obtainable by +giving over the negro race again to bondage, he repelled it +with indignation. When the rebel Vice-President, Stephens, +at Fortress Monroe, tempted him to give up the freedman, +and seek the glory of a foreign war, in which the Union and +Confederate soldiers might join, neither party sacrificing its +honor, he was inflexible; he would die sooner than break +the nation's plighted faith.</p> + +<p>Mr. Lincoln did not enter with reluctance upon the plan +of emancipation; and in this statement I am corroborated by +Lovejoy and Sumner, and many others. If he did not act +more promptly, it was because he knew he must not go faster +than the people. Men have questioned the firmness, boldness, +and will of Mr. Lincoln. He had no vanity in the exhibition<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71">[71]</a></span> +of power, but he quietly acted, when he felt it his +duty so to do, with a boldness and firmness never surpassed.</p> + +<p>What bolder act than the surrender of Mason and Slidell, +against the resolution of Congress and the almost universal +popular clamor, without consulting the Senate or taking +advice from his Cabinet? The removals of McClellan and +Butler, the modification of the orders of Fremont and Hunter, +were acts of a bold, decided character. He acted for himself, +taking personally the responsibility of deciding the great +questions of his administration.</p> + +<p>He was the most democratic of all the presidents. Personally, +he was homely, plain, without pretension, and without +ostentation. He believed in the people, and had faith in +their good impulses. He ever addressed himself to their +reason, and not to their prejudices. His language was simple, +sometimes quaint, never sacrificing expression to elegance. +When he spoke to the people, it was as though he said to +them, "Come, let us reason together." There can not be found +in all his speeches or writings a single vulgar expression, nor +an appeal to any low sentiment or prejudice. He had nothing +of the demagogue. He never himself alluded to his humble +origin, except to express regret for the deficiencies of his education. +He always treated the people in such a way, that +they knew that he respected them, believed them honest, +capable of judging correctly, and disposed to do right.</p> + +<p>I know not how, in a few words, I can better indicate his +political and moral character, than by the following incident: +A member of Congress, knowing the purity of his life, his +reverence for God, and his respect for religion, one day expressed +surprise, that he had not joined a church. After +mentioning some difficulties he felt in regard to some articles +of faith, Mr. Lincoln said, "<i>Whenever any church</i> will inscribe<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, Christ's +condensed statement of both Law and Gospel, '<i>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</i>,' that +church will I join with all my heart."</p> + +<p>Love to God, as the great Father, love to man as his +brother, constituted the basis of his political and moral creed.</p> + +<p>One day, when one of his friends was denouncing his political +enemies, "Hold on," said Mr. Lincoln, "Remember +what St. Paul says, 'and now abideth faith, hope, charity, +these three; <i>but the greatest of these is charity</i>.'"</p> + +<p>From the day of his leaving Springfield to assume the +duties of the Presidency, when he so impressively asked his +friends and neighbors to invoke upon him the guidance and +wisdom of God, to the evening of his death, he seemed ever to +live and act in the consciousness of his responsibility to Him, +and with the trusting faith of a child he leaned confidingly +upon His Almighty Arm. He was visited during his administration +by many Christian delegations, representing the +various religious denominations of the Republic, and it is +known that he was relieved and comforted in his great work +by the consciousness that the Christian world were praying +for his success. Some one said to him, one day, "No man was +ever so remembered in the prayers of the people, especially of +those who pray not to be heard of men, as you are." He replied, +"I have been a good deal helped by just that thought."</p> + +<p>The support which Mr. Lincoln received during his administration +from the religious organizations, and the sympathy +and confidence between the great body of Christians and the +President, was indeed a source of immense strength and power +to him.</p> + +<p>I know of nothing revealing more of the true character of<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73">[73]</a></span> +Mr. Lincoln, his conscientiousness, his views of the slavery +question, his sagacity and his full appreciation of the awful +trial through which the country and he had to pass, than the +following incident stated by Mr. Bateman, Superintendent of +Public Instruction for Illinois.</p> + +<p>On one occasion, in the autumn of 1860, after conversing +with Mr. Bateman at some length, on the, to him, strange conduct +of Christian men and ministers of the Gospel supporting +slavery, he said:—</p> + +<p>"I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and +slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that His hand +is in it. If He has a place and work for me—and I think He +has—I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but truth is every +thing. I know I am right, because I know that Liberty is +right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told +them that a house divided against itself can not stand; and +Christ and Reason say the same; and they will find it so.</p> + +<p>"Douglas don't care whether slavery is voted up or down, +but God cares, and humanity cares, and I care; and with +God's help I shall not fail. I may not see the end; but it will +come, and I shall be vindicated; and these men will find that +they have not read their Bibles right."</p> + +<p>Much of this was uttered as if he were speaking to himself, +and with a sad, earnest solemnity of manner impossible +to be described. After a pause, he resumed: "Doesn't it +appear strange that men can ignore the moral aspect of this +contest? A revelation could not make it plainer to me that +slavery or the Government must be destroyed. The future +would be something awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on +which I stand (alluding to the Testament which he still held +in his hand). It seems as if God had borne with this thing +(slavery) until the very teachers of religion had come to defend<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74">[74]</a></span> +it from the Bible, and to claim for it a divine character +and sanction; and now the cup of iniquity is full, and the +vials of wrath will be poured out." After this, says Mr. Bateman, +the conversation was continued for a long time. Every +thing he said was of a peculiarly deep, tender, and religious +tone, and all was tinged with a touching melancholy. He +repeatedly referred to his conviction that the day of wrath +was at hand, and that he was to be an actor in the terrible +struggle which would issue in the overthrow of slavery, +though he might not live to see the end.<a id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a></p> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The foregoing statement has been verified by Mr. Bateman as substantially +correct.</p></div> + +<p>Perhaps in all history there is no example of such great +and long continued injustice as that of the British press +during the war toward Mr. Lincoln. His death shamed them +into decency. While he lived they sneered at his manners. +Let them turn to their own Cromwell. They said his person was +ugly. Has the world recognized the ability of Mirabeau, or +that of Henry Brougham, notwithstanding their ugliness? +They made scurrile jests about his figure, as though a statesman +must be necessarily a sculptor's model! They were +facetious about his dress, as though a greater than a Fox or a +Chatham must be a Beau Brummel. They were horrified +by his jokes. If the same had been told by the patrician +Palmerston, instead of the plebeian Lincoln, they would not +have lacked the "Attic salt," but would have rivaled Dean +Swift or Sidney Smith.</p> + +<p>It has been truly said there is one parallel only, to English +journalism's treatment of Lincoln, and that is to be found in +their treatment of Napoleon. "The Corsican Ogre," and the +"American Ape," were phrases coined in the same mint. But +the great Corsican was England's bitter foe; Lincoln was +<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75">[75]</a></span>never provoked either by his own or his country's wrongs, to +hostility against Great Britain. Yet at the great Martyr's +grave, even this injustice changed to respect and reverence; +even "Punch" repented and said—</p> + +<div class="inset20"> +<p> +"Yes he had lived to shame me from my sneer,<br /> +To lame my pencil, and confute my pen;<br /> +To make me own this hind, of princes <i>peer</i>,<br /> +This rail-splitter a true-born <i>King</i> of men."<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p>The place Mr. Lincoln will occupy in history, will be higher +than any which he held while living. His Emancipation +Proclamation is the most important historical event of the +nineteenth century. Its influence will not be limited by time, +nor bounded by locality. It will ever be treated by the historian +as one of the great landmarks of human progress.</p> + +<p>He has been compared and contrasted with three great personages +in history, who were assassinated,—with Cæsar, with +William of Orange, and with Henry IV. of France. He was +a nobler type of man than either, as he was the product of a +higher and more Christian civilization.</p> + +<p>The two great men by whose words and example our great +continental Republic is to be fashioned and shaped are Washington +and Lincoln. Representative men of the East, and of +the West, of the Revolutionary era, and the era of Liberty +for all. One sleeps upon the banks of the Potomac, and the +other on the great prairies of the Valley of the Mississippi. +Lincoln was as pure as Washington, as modest, as just, as +patriotic; less passionate by nature, more of a democrat in his +feelings and manners, with more faith in the people, and more +hopeful of their future. Statesmen and patriots will study +their record and learn the wisdom of goodness.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-deco-4.jpg" width="300" height="35" alt="" /> +</div> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p class="h2">END OF BOOK ADVERTISEMENTS</p> + +<hr class="chapter" /> + +<p class="h3">ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.</p> + +<p>The Portrait of Mr. <span class="smcap">Lincoln</span>, accompanying this book, +has been engraved, for the Publisher, expressly for it. No +labor or expense has been spared to produce a First-Class +Engraving. It was executed by <span class="smcap">H. B. Hall, Jr., Esq.</span>, who +unquestionably stands in the front rank of American +Engravers. The great Painting of</p> + +<p class="h4"> +"The Last Hours of Lincoln,"<br /> +</p> + +<p>is now being engraved by Mr. <span class="smcap">Hall</span>, in the same style.</p> + +<p>This <span class="smcap">Portrait</span> of President <span class="smcap">Lincoln</span> is pronounced by +all to be the most life-like—the best ever engraved of him. +It may not be improper to state that I have a letter from +his family to that effect, which I refrain to place in print. +I will, however, publish a few from persons intimately +acquainted with him, selecting from the large number that I +have received.</p> + +<p class="h3">Engraved Portrait of President Lincoln.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="h5"><span class="smcap">Opinions of his Friends.</span></p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Washington, D. C.,</span> <i>June 22, 1868</i>.</p> + +<p class="smcap">"Dear Sir:—</p> + +<p>"I have examined with interest the steel engraving of President <span class="smcap">Lincoln</span> published by you. +I knew him intimately more than thirty years, being at times a member of his family.</p> + +<p>"I regard this portrait the happiest likeness—and it conveys to me the most pleasing recollection of +<span class="smcap">Abraham Lincoln</span> of any that I have seen.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r4">"Very truly yours,</span><br /> +"J. B. S. TODD.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Col. John B. Bachelder.</span>"<br /></p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">Treasury Department, Washington, D. C.</span>, <i>July 30, 1868</i>.</p> + +<p class="smcap">Dear Sir:—</p> + +<p>"I have carefully examined the portrait of the late President, Mr. <span class="smcap">Lincoln</span>, engraved by +Mr. <span class="smcap">H. B. Hall</span>, Jr., and published by yourself. The engraving is exceedingly fine, and the <i>likeness</i> is +superior to any that I have seen. As a work of Art, it is in the highest degree creditable to Mr. <span class="smcap">Hall</span>.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r8">"Very respectfully,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap r4">"Hugh McCulloch,</span><br /> +"<i>Secretary of the Treasury</i>.</p> + +<p class="smcap">"Col. John B. Bachelder."</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">War Department</span>, <i>July 30, 1868</i>.</p> + +<p>"* * * It is one of the most truthful likenesses of the late President that I have seen. * * *</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r8">"Yours very truly,</span><br /> +<span class="r4">"J. M. SCHOFIELD,</span><br /> +"<i>Secretary of War</i>.</p> + +<p class="smcap">"Col. John B. Bachelder."</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Navy Department</span>, <i>July 30, 1868</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"* * * I think it a correct and satisfactory likeness in all respects.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r4">"GIDEON WELLES,</span><br /> +"<i>Secretary of Navy</i>.</p> + +<p class="smcap">"J. B. Bachelder, Esq."</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap r4">Head-Quarters, Corps of Engineers</span>,<br /> +"<span class="smcap">Washington, D. C.</span>, <i>July 30, 1868</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"* * * It is a beautiful piece of Art, indeed it is I think quite remarkable, presenting, as it does +that characteristic expression of the eye as well as of the features and lines of the face. * * *</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r6">"I am very truly yours,</span><br /> +<span class="r4">"A. A. HUMPHREYS,</span><br /> +"<i>Major-General</i>."<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>A quarto edition of this Engraving has been published, suitable to frame, which will be sent free by mail +to any part of the country on the reception of the price.</p> + +<p class="h5">STYLE AND PRICES.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Print</span>, <b>$1.00</b>; <span class="smcap">Plain Proof</span>, <b>$2.00</b>; <span class="smcap">India Proof</span>, <b>$3.00</b>; <span class="smcap">Artist's Proof</span> (selected and signed +by the engraver, and tastefully framed in a <i>passe-partout</i>), <b>$5.00</b>. (Express delivery extra.)</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r14"><i>Orders Addressed to</i></span><br /> +<span class="r6">JOHN B. BACHELDER, Publisher,</span><br /> +<b>59 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK</b>.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4 smcap">Prospectus of Works</p> + +<p class="h5">PUBLISHED BY<br /> +<br /> +JOHN B. BACHELDER,</p> + +<p class="h5">59 BEEKMAN STREET,<br /> +<br /> +NEW YORK.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-ad-001.jpg" width="200" height="201" alt="COL. MORROW, with the COLORS of the 24th MICH. VOLS." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">COL. MORROW, with the COLORS of the 24th MICH. VOLS.</p> + +<p class="h5">GETTYSBURG.</p> + +<p>When a person is desirous of procuring a published work upon +any subject, it is natural for him to inquire for the sources of +information from which the author has compiled that work. I have, +therefore, without wishing to be considered egotistical, concluded to +issue this prospectus to such as have an interest in the Battle of +Gettysburg, that they may know what I have already done, and what +I yet propose to do, to eliminate the history of that battle.</p> + +<p class="h5">ISOMETRICAL DRAWING OF THE GETTYSBURG BATTLE-FIELD.</p> + +<p>In compiling the Isometrical Drawing of the Gettysburg Battle-field, it was +first necessary to establish its extent and boundaries. When I arrived at Gettysburg +the <i>debris</i> of that great battle lay scattered for miles around. Fresh mounds +of earth marked the resting-place of the fallen thousands, and many of the dead +lay yet unburied. It therefore required no guide to point out the locality where +the battle had been fought.</p> + +<p>As the term <i>field</i>, when applied to a battle, is generally used figuratively, and, +by the general reader, might be misunderstood, it is well to consider at the start, +that the battle-<i>field</i> of Gettysburg not only embraces within its boundaries many +<i>fields</i>, but forests as well, and even the town of Gettysburg itself is included in +that battle-field. The formation of the ground and the positions of the troops, +favored the plan of sketching the field while facing the west. Consequently the +top of my <span class="smcap">Drawing</span> of it is west: the right hand, north; the left, south, &c. +There was no point from which the whole field could be sketched, nor would such +a position have favored this branch of Art. On the contrary, it was necessary to +sketch from <i>every</i> part of the field, combining the whole into one grand view.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-ad-002.jpg" width="400" height="283" alt="DEATH OF GEN. ZOOK." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">DEATH OF GEN. ZOOK.</p> + +<p>Having located its boundaries, I commenced at the southeast corner, and +gradually moving toward the <i>north</i>, I looked toward the <i>west</i>, and sketched it +carefully, as far as the vision extended, including fields, forests, houses, barns, +hills, and valleys; and every object, however minute, which would influence the +result of a battle. Thus I continued to the northeast boundary, a distance of five +and a half miles. The next day I resumed my work at the south (having advanced +to the point where my vision had been obstructed the preceding day), and sketched +another breadth to the north, as before: and so continued, day by day, until I had +carried my Drawing forward four and a half miles, which included within its +limits the town of Gettysburg. When the Battle-field had been <i>Isometrically</i> +drawn. I sketched in the <i>distance</i> and added a sky.</p> + +<p>This Drawing was the result of eighty-four days spent on that field immediately +after the battle, during which time I sketched accurately the twenty-five +square miles which it represents.</p> + +<p>I spent two months in hospital writing down the statements of Confederate +prisoners, and as they became convalescent, I went over the field with many +of their officers, who located their positions and explained the movements of their +commands during the battle.</p> + +<p>I then visited the <span class="smcap">Army of the Potomac</span>, consulted with its Commander-in-Chief, +Corps, Division, and Brigade commanders, and visited every Regiment and +Battery engaged, to whose officers the sketch of the field was submitted, and they, +after careful consultation, located upon it the positions of their respective commands.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-ad-003.jpg" width="300" height="214" alt="PHILLIPS' 5th MASS. BATTERY" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">PHILLIPS' 5th MASS. BATTERY</p> + +<p>From the information thus obtained, I have traced the movements of <i>every +Regiment and Battery</i> from the commencement to the close of the battle, and +have located on the Drawing its most important position for each of the three +days.</p> + +<p>Since its publication I issued an invitation to the officers of the Army of the +Potomac to visit Gettysburg with me, and point out their respective positions and +movements, thus giving an opportunity to the <i>actors</i> in this great drama to correct +any misapprehension, and establish, while still fresh in memory, the facts and +details of this most important battle of the age. This invitation was responded to +by over one thousand officers engaged in the battle; twenty-eight of whom were +Generals commanding. And it may be interesting to those who possess the Drawing, +to know that <i>but one solitary Regiment</i> was discovered to be out of position +on it.</p> + +<p>Many thousand copies of this work have been sold, yet the demand still continues, +and orders are constantly coming in from all parts of the country. Though +complete in itself, it is really but the <i>introduction</i> to other works yet to be published +on this battle, and will be considered almost an indispensable companion to +the history of it.</p> + +<p>It can be furnished at the following:</p> + +<p class="h5">PRICES.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Colored Proof</span>, on heavy plate paper, carefully finished in Water-Colors, $15.00<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Proof</span>, printed in tints, on paper as above, with positions of Regiments, +colored, 10.00<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Tinted</span>, printed with one tint, on lighter paper, 5.00<br /> +<br /> +The above styles have a sky, and are suitable to frame, and are accompanied +by a key.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Plain</span>, on lighter paper, without sky, $3.00<br /> +</p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-ad-004.jpg" width="200" height="201" alt="CAPTURE OF THE 8th LA. COLORS BY LT. YOUNG, ADG'T 107th OHIO VOLS." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">CAPTURE OF THE 8th LA. COLORS BY LT. YOUNG, ADG'T 107th OHIO VOLS.</p> + +<p>The original plate has not been used except to print copies for <i>transfers</i>. The +<i>first</i> impressions from each transfer are reserved for <span class="smcap">PROOFS</span>. Therefore the +quality of the print can never materially change, as the original plate would furnish +a thousand transfers. The <i>colored</i> <span class="smcap">PROOFS</span> are carefully colored by an Artist. +The <span class="smcap">TINTED</span> and <span class="smcap">PLAIN</span> editions are next printed, and when the plate is worn a new +transfer is made.</p> + +<p>To any person remitting the money, for either of the above styles, I will forward +the print by mail, to any part of the United States, <span class="smcap">Free of Charge</span>, carefully +packed on a roll: or, I will send it by express, at their expense, with bill for +collection. I have sent hundreds by mail, to all parts of the country, and have yet +to hear of the first copy being lost or injured, while it is quite a saving of expense. +A <i>Key</i>, embracing a brief description of the battle, accompanies each print without +extra charge. I have hundreds of letters of indorsement from which I select +the following:—</p> + +<p class="h5">TESTIMONIALS.</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Head-Quarters Army of the Potomac.</span> <i>Feb. 11, 1864.</i><br /> +</p> + +<p>"I have examined Col. Bachelder's <span class="smcap">Isometrical Drawing</span> of the Gettysburg Battle-field, and am perfectly +satisfied with the accuracy with which the topography is delineated, and the positions of the troops +laid down. Col. B., in my judgment, deserves great credit for the time and labor he has devoted to obtaining +the materials for this drawing, which have resulted in making it so accurate. * * * * I can cheerfully +recommend it to all those who are desirous of procuring an accurate picture and faithful record of the +events of this great battle. * * * *</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r8">"I remain most truly yours,</span><br /> +<span class="r4">"GEO. G. MEADE,</span><br /> +"<i>Maj.-Gen. Comd'g. A. P.</i>"<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Head-Quarters Second Army Corps.</span> <i>Dec. 29, 1863.</i><br /> +</p> + +<p>"The view of the Battle-field of Gettysburg prepared by Col. Bachelder, has been carefully examined by +me. I find it as accurate as such a drawing can well be made. And <i>it is accurate</i>, as far as my knowledge +extends.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r8">"WINF'D S. HANCOCK,</span><br /> +"<i>Major-General Comd'g 2d Corps.</i>"<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>"Col. Bachelder's Isometrical View of the Battle of Gettysburg is an admirable production, and a +truthful rendering of the various positions assumed by the troops of my command.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r4">"A. DOUBLEDAY,</span><br /> +"<i>Maj.-Gen. Vols., Comd'g 1st Corps.</i>"<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Boston</span>, <i>Sept. 23, 1964</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Col. Bachelder</span>:—I have examined your beautiful drawing of the Battle-field of Gettysburg and +vicinity. The certificates of Gen. Meade and the Corps Commanders, which appear on its face, establish its +accuracy on the highest authority. Your personal explorations, and your inquiries of all the commissioned +officers in command of the Union Army, and of the Confederate officers made prisoners, have furnished you +means of information not possessed, I imagine, by any other person. Such opportunities of observation as I +had during three days passed at Gettysburg satisfy me of the fidelity of your delineation of the position of +every regiment of the two armies on each of the three eventful days. * * * * I may add, that the +engraving is beautifully executed and colored. Wishing you ample remuneration,</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r6">"I remain sincerely yours,</span><br /> +"EDWARD EVERETT."<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Head-Quarters Fifth Army Corps.</span> <i>Sept. 28, 1864.</i></p> + +<p class="smcap">"Mr. Jno. B. Bachelder:—</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:—I am exceedingly gratified with receiving a finished copy of your print of the Battle-field +of Gettysburg. I am familiar with your long and untiring labors in all the fields where truth could be +reached, and know that your efforts were crowned with a success that leaves nothing more to be desired. +You are authorized to add my name to those who bear testimony to Its accuracy.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r8">"Very respectfully your obedient servant,</span><br /> +<span class="r6">"G. K. WARREN.</span><br /> +"<i>Maj.-Gen. Vols., Comd'g 5th Corps.</i><br /> +<span class="r2">"<i>Ch. Eng. at Gettysburg.</i>"</span></p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Orange</span>, <i>Oct. 1, 1864</i>.<br /></p> + +<p class="smcap">"Jno. B. Bachelder, Esq.:—</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>:—I have carefully examined your Isometrical Drawing of the Battle-field of Gettysburg, +with great interest and much profit. Never having been on that field, of course I can not express an +opinion as to its accuracy—so abundantly indorsed for, however, by most competent judges: but I can say +that it has given me a much clearer idea of the battle than I had before, and I earnestly hope that you will +find it convenient to illustrate others of our great battles in the same manner.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r6">"I am very truly yours,</span><br /> +"GEO. B. McCLELLAN."</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Head-Quarters Dep't and Army of the Tennessee.</span> <i>Oct. 24, 1864.</i></p> + +<p class="smcap">"Mr. Jno. B. Bachelder:—</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Dear Sir</span>:—I was much gratified on receiving a copy of your beautiful drawing of the 'Gettysburg +Battle-field.' I have never seen a painting or topographical map that could give so vivid a representation +of a great battle. I regard it as an honor that you have associated my name with those of other corps commanders +in your historical picture. Be pleased to accept my kind regards.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r12">"Respectfully yours,</span><br /> +"O. O. HOWARD, <i>Major-General</i>."</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p> +"<span class="smcap">Col. Jno. B. Bachelder</span>:—<br /> +</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:—I have examined with care your Isometrical Drawing of the Gettysburg Battle-field, and +can cheerfully bear testimony to the accuracy of the position of the troops on the right of our line.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r8">"Yours very truly,</span><br /> +<span class="r6">"H. W. SLOCUM,</span><br /> +"<i>Maj.-Gen. Vols., Comd'g Right Wing at Gettysburg.</i>"<br /> +</p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-ad-005.jpg" width="400" height="267" alt="WOFFORD'S FLANK ATTACK ON SWEITZER'S BRIGADE, DEATH OF COL. JEFFERS 4th MICH. VOLS." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">WOFFORD'S FLANK ATTACK ON SWEITZER'S BRIGADE, DEATH OF COL. JEFFERS 4th MICH. VOLS.</p> + +<p class="h5">HISTORY OF THE BATTLE.</p> + +<p>During my consultations with officers at the front, as well as on +the Battle-field, I noted down with great care their conversations, +and have books full of material thus rescued from oblivion.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-ad-006.jpg" width="400" height="248" alt="STANNARD'S BRIGADE OPENING ON PICKETTS' DIVISION." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">STANNARD'S BRIGADE OPENING ON PICKETTS' DIVISION.</p> + +<p>Since the publication of the Drawing, and even before, I have been steadily +engaged in compiling the History of the Battle of Gettysburg. I have traveled +many thousand miles to add to my knowledge. I have received a great number +of letters relating to it, and the Government have very considerately placed at my +disposal the entire Reports of both the Union and Confederate officers; and have +also given me access to the archives at Washington. They have recently ordered +a re-survey of the field, which is now being done by Government Engineers in +the most complete and scientific manner. A fine Topographical map is to be compiled +and engraved, copies of which I have arranged to have to illustrate my History +of the Battle. This book, in addition to the maps, which will cost several +thousand dollars, will also be illustrated with Steel Plates and Wood-Cuts in a +manner second to no book heretofore published in this country. Over $7,500 +worth of illustrations are already engraved to embellish it, including fine Steel +Portraits, executed by the best engravers in America, in line and stipple, of +Generals Reynolds, Doubleday, Newton, Meredith, Stannard, Hancock, Gibbon, +Zook, Hays, Webb, Hall, Sickles, Birney, Humphreys, Berdan, Sykes, Barnes, +Tilton, Wright, Bartlett, Wheaton, Howard, Ames, Slocum, Williams, Geary, +Kane, Pleasanton, Butterfield, Warren, Hunt, Ingalls, Randolph, Martin, and McGilvrey. +Several others are in hand, and undoubtedly more will be added to the +list. In addition to these the Portraits of leading Confederate Generals will be +engraved. Many of the prominent scenes of the battle have already been beautifully +designed and engraved on wood, samples of which embellish this circular, +others are to be added, and to those interested I shall be pleased to furnish full +information regarding either portraits or wood-cuts.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>I shall publish a <span class="smcap">Popular Edition</span> of the history, with portraits printed from +transfers, and bound in cloth. Price. $7 50<br /></p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The next will be the <span class="smcap">Library Edition</span>, royal octavo, printed on good fair +paper, good plates, and substantially bound in sheep. $12 00</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The same size printed on fine paper. Proof Portraits—bound in half morocco, +beveled boards. $17 50</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p><span class="smcap">A Fine Edition</span> on tinted paper. Proof Portraits. Full morocco, gilt, +beveled boards, gilt edges. $25 00</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p><span class="smcap">A Large Paper Edition</span> (limited) will be printed from new type, and the +original wood-cuts in the best style of modern hand-press work, on heavy toned +paper, with the finest <span class="smcap">India Proof Portraits</span>. In Sheets, stitched, uncut, $100.00</p> + +<p>Elaborately bound. Full levant morocco, gilt. $125.00</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>I have now devoted five years and a half to collecting material for the history +of the Battle of Gettysburg, but until quite recently I have felt unwilling to commence +to write, knowing that other matter existed which it was important for me +to have, and which, when obtained, might make a material change in the account. +This reason no longer exists, though I shall still thankfully receive suggestions +from any participant in the battle.</p> + +<p>Within another year the Government will have completed the Topographical +Map of the field, by which time I hope to be ready to publish my work. As a +publisher I would have done so long ago, but as a historian not until I feel that I +have written the truth—the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.</p> + +<p class="h5">PAINTINGS OF THE BATTLE.</p> + +<p>I have also in progress, the finest Collection of Oil Paintings +executed of any battle in this country. The whole to be known as</p> + +<p class="h5"> +"THE GETTYSBURG ART GALLERY."<br /> +</p> + +<p>I have divided the Battle into a series of episodes, beginning with its commencement +and continuing to its close, each to embrace such movements and +operations as of themselves form a complete unit. Of each, I make an accurate +historical design, which design I place in the hands of some eminent battle-scene +painter, who will be responsible for the artistic rendering of the subject. Each +painting is to be 7 × 4 ft., and when completed, will be exhibited in the places +where the regiments represented in it were raised. The whole, together, will +form a most complete and graphic representation of the Battle from its commencement +to the close. Each of these paintings will be engraved on steel, and hereafter +engravings may be had representing actual scenes, which, having been +designed under the personal direction of the participants themselves, will possess +the merit of historical truth.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-ad-007.jpg" width="400" height="232" alt="REPULSE OF LONGSTREET'S CHARGE." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">REPULSE OF LONGSTREET'S CHARGE.</p> + +<p>It must not be understood that this whole work is to be put in hand at once. +It will be taken up in detail, and continued as rapidly as I have time and means to +attend to it. I shall be happy to correspond with those interested in any portion +of the Battle. When convenient, it will be better to call a meeting, at Gettysburg, +of the officers of the command to be represented, before commencing a painting, +that all the details may be properly arranged. I have already made a design, +representing the "charge" of the 6th Wisconsin, 95th N. Y., and 14th N. Y. +S. M., on the first day, resulting in the capture of the 2d Mississippi Regiment, +which is now being painted by Alonzo Chappel, Esq., the eminent historical +painter. I have recently met, at Gettysburg, the officers of the 3d Division, +1st Army Corps, and under their direction completed a design of their engagement +on the afternoon of the first day, which will also embrace the movements +of the 1st Brigade, 1st Division. This picture is now being painted by the +distinguished battle-scene painter, James Walker, Esq.</p> + +<p>Fine Steel Engravings will be published from these paintings. Size (engraved +surface), 12 × 21 in.</p> + +<p class="h5">PRICES:</p> + +<p>Prints, $5.00; Plain Proofs, $10.00; India Proofs, $15.00; Artist's Proofs, $25.00.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-ad-008.jpg" width="400" height="268" alt="DEATH OF MAJOR FERRY, 5th MICH. CAV'Y." /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">DEATH OF MAJOR FERRY, 5th MICH. CAV'Y.</p> + +<p>Mr. Walker has just completed for me, his graphic representation of</p> + +<p class="h5"> +THE REPULSE OF LONGSTREET'S CHARGE,<br /> +</p> + +<p>on the afternoon of the third day, which will be exhibited in the principal cities +of the country. This is also from my historical design, and has been painted under +my immediate direction. Mr. Walker spent weeks at Gettysburg, transcribing +the portraiture of the field to canvas, which has been done in the most pleasing +and lifelike manner. We have received in this matter the kindest support and +co-operation of the officers of the army, engaged on that portion of the field.</p> + +<p>Many distinguished general officers, on my invitation, visited Gettysburg, and +went over the field with us, and pointed out all the details of this great turning +point of the Rebellion; each explaining the movements of their several commands. +Among those present at different times, were Generals Meade, Hancock, +Gibbon, Howard, Doubleday, Stannard, Hunt, Warren, Humphreys, Graham, +Burling, De Trobriand, Wistar, and Dana; together with a large number of Field, +Line, and Staff-Officers. Most of these gentlemen have since kindly called at Mr. +Walker's studio, and aided the work with their advice. Many others, who were +unable to meet with us at Gettysburg, have, at considerable trouble, visited the +studio in New York; among them, Generals Webb, Hall, Newton, Hazard, Sickles, +Ward, Brewster, Berdan, and Gates, and Generals Wilcox and Longstreet, of the +Confederate Army; the latter taking great interest in the painting, and leaving +me a fine letter indorsing its accuracy. This painting has been designed <i>strictly</i> +in conformity to the directions of these gentlemen, given on the field for that +purpose, and from the Reports of the Confederate Commanders, furnished to me +by the Government.</p> + +<p>This great representative Battle-scene has not its equal in America, for correctness +of design or accuracy of execution. Gibbon's and Hays's Divisions and +the Corps Artillery, occupy the immediate foreground. It is on a canvas 7-1/2 × 20 +feet, and represents, not only every Regiment engaged at that portion of the field, +but where the formation of the ground would admit, the entire left wing is shown.</p> + +<p>It presents such an accurate and lifelike portrait of the country, that on it +the movements of the first and second day's operations can readily be traced. +No important scene has been screened behind large foreground figures, or, for the +want of a knowledge of the details, hidden by convenient puffs of smoke; but +every feature of this gigantic struggle has, in its proper place, been woven into a +symmetrical whole.</p> + +<p>A fine steel plate is also to be engraved of this picture, which will be accompanied +by a <i>Key</i>, by which the position of every Regiment and Battery can be +determined.</p> + +<p class="h5">PRICE OF ENGRAVINGS.</p> + +<p>Print, $10.—Plain Proof, $25.—India Proof, $60.—Artist Proof (limited to +200 copies), $100.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The following gentlemen, intimately identified with the Battle of Gettysburg, +and exercising the highest commands at the battle, kindly furnished me these +letters, as indorsements to an application to examine Confederate Reports of the +Battle of Gettysburg at the War Department.</p> + +<p class="right"> +"<span class="smcap">Philadelphia</span>, <i>Nov. 3, 1867</i>.</p> + +<p class="smcap">"General:—</p> + +<p>"* * * * Mr. Bachelder has accumulated a vast amount of official and reliable testimony on our +side, and I am of the opinion his work will be as truthful as the data in his possession will admit; I am +greatly interested in his application being granted, and would most earnestly recommend permission being +given him to examine the Confederate Reports, in case you do not see any strong reasons preventing it.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r8">"Very truly yours,</span><br /> +<span class="r6">"GEO. G. MEADE,</span><br /> +"<i>Major-General, U. S. A.</i></p> + +<p class="smcap">"General U. S. Grant.<br /> +"<i>Sec. War, ad interim.</i>"</p> + +<p class="h6 smcap">Permission Granted.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p class="h6">[Extract of a letter from Major-General Humphreys, Chief of the Corps of Engineers.]</p> + +<p class="smcap right">"Washington, D. C., <i>Nov. 14, 1867</i>.</p> + +<p class="smcap">"General:—</p> + +<p>"* * * The information which Mr. Bachelder has collected concerning the Battle of Gettysburg, is +extraordinary in amount and correctness. So far as I am able to judge, there is no battle of any war +respecting which so many truthful accounts, so many exact details, have been collected and compiled. +From every source, from the private to the general commanding the army, facts have been collected, +and where discrepancies were found, evidence was multiplied, and in this way errors have been dissipated.</p> + +<p>Mr. Bachelder has peculiar qualifications for the task he has undertaken, and has devoted four years to +it. * * *</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r4">"A. A. HUMPHREYS,</span><br /> +<i>Major-General</i>.</p> + +<p class="smcap">"General U. S. Grant.<br /> +<span >"<i>Sec. of War, ad interim.</i>"</span></p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<img src="images/ill-ad-009.jpg" width="200" height="199" alt="DEATH OF PRIVATE RIGGIN, GUIDON BEARER, RICKETTS' (PA) BATTERY" /> +</div> + +<p class="caption">DEATH OF PRIVATE RIGGIN, GUIDON BEARER, RICKETTS' (PA) BATTERY</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Note.</span>—The wood-cuts interspersed through this circular have been engraved to illustrate scenes in the +Battle of Gettysburg, and with many others will appear in the History of that Battle.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4">"THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN."</p> + +<p class="h5">ORIGIN OF THIS HISTORICAL PAINTING.</p> + +<p>ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, was assassinated by <span class="smcap">John Wilkes Booth</span> on +the night of April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theater, Washington, D. C. This night, fraught with woe to the +peoples of two continents, sombered by its halo of diabolism, must forever remain the Golgotha of American +history.</p> + +<p>At the threshold of the temple of peace—the High Priest was stricken down—and the great heart +whose every throb was a pulsation of love for his country's enemies, was robed in silence. In company +with Mrs. <span class="smcap">Lincoln</span>, Miss <span class="smcap">Harris</span>, and Major <span class="smcap">Rathbone</span>, Mr. <span class="smcap">Lincoln</span> had sought a brief respite from the +iron wheel of State toil, and in the search, through the medium of the assassin's bullet, found a respite for +all time.</p> + +<p>Immediately after the fatal shot was fired, and under direction of Assistant-Surgeons <span class="smcap">Leale</span> and +<span class="smcap">Taft</span>, he was removed to a private house, and placed upon a couch in a small bedroom. <span class="smcap">Robert Lincoln</span>, +General <span class="smcap">Todd</span>, and Dr. <span class="smcap">Todd</span>, cousins of Mrs. <span class="smcap">Lincoln</span>, and other personal friends, speedily arrived. His +family physician, Dr. <span class="smcap">Stone</span>, and Surgeon-General <span class="smcap">Barnes</span>, accompanied by Asst.-Surgeon General <span class="smcap">Crane</span>, +were in early attendance, and later he was visited by Drs. <span class="smcap">Hall</span> and <span class="smcap">Liebermann</span>, and other eminent physicians, +all of whom agreed that the wound was unto death. The bullet had entered the back of his head, +and lodged behind the right eye.</p> + +<p>Mr. <span class="smcap">Lincoln</span> was visited during the night by Vice-President <span class="smcap">Johnson</span> and the entire cabinet, except +Mr. <span class="smcap">Seward</span>, including Secretaries <span class="smcap">McCulloch</span>, <span class="smcap">Stanton</span>, <span class="smcap">Welles</span>, and <span class="smcap">Usher</span>. Postmaster-General +<span class="smcap">Dennison</span>, and Attorney-General <span class="smcap">Speed</span>, together with Asst.-Secretaries <span class="smcap">Field</span>, <span class="smcap">Eckert</span>, and <span class="smcap">Otto</span>. There +were also present Speaker <span class="smcap">Colfax</span>, Chief-Justice <span class="smcap">Cartter</span>, Senator <span class="smcap">Wilson</span>, Representatives <span class="smcap">Farnsworth</span>, +<span class="smcap">Arnold</span>, <span class="smcap">Marston</span>, and <span class="smcap">Rollins</span>, Governor <span class="smcap">Oglesby</span>, accompanied by Adjutant-General <span class="smcap">Haynie</span>, Major +<span class="smcap">Hay</span>, Generals <span class="smcap">Auger</span>, <span class="smcap">Meigs</span>, and <span class="smcap">Halleck</span>, Ex-Governor <span class="smcap">Farwell</span>, Rev. Dr. <span class="smcap">Gurley</span>, and Commissioner +<span class="smcap">French</span>, Colonels <span class="smcap">Vincent Pelouze</span> and <span class="smcap">Rutherford</span>, and Major <span class="smcap">Rockwell</span>. Early in the night Mrs. +<span class="smcap">Lincoln</span> sent for Mrs. Senator <span class="smcap">Dixon</span>, who was accompanied by her sister and niece, Mrs. <span class="smcap">Kinney</span> and +daughter. There were also a few others present during the night, but never more than half of those +represented on the painting at any one time.</p> + +<p>By the publicity of the assassination it was soon known throughout the city, and thousands crowded +the avenues leading to the house where the President lay.</p> + +<p>The news of this tragic event flashed with the speed of lightning throughout the land. From Maine to +California consternation reigned, and feelings of surprise and grief were depicted on every face. The great +man now martyred had for more than four years held the highest place in the gift of the American people, +and on him their hopes had centered. The designer of the painting of</p> + +<p class="h5"> +"THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN,"<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Jno. B. Bachelder</span>, arrived in Washington on the night of his death, and being impressed with the +historic importance of the event, at once determined to collect such materials as should be necessary for an +historical picture commemorating that sad scene, and should the demand warrant it, to publishing a steel-plate +engraving from it. The design for the painting was soon completed, and arrangements having been +made with <span class="smcap">Brady & Co</span>., Photographers, as soon as the remains of the President left the city each of the +persons represented were visited, and at their convenience were <i>posed</i> and photographed in the position +which they now occupy in the painting. It being important that the best possible original should be had +for the engraver's use, the design was placed in the hands of <span class="smcap">Alonzo Chapel</span>, Esq., the historical painter, +to whose genius the painting is to be credited. Much of its completeness is due to the kindness and attention +of the persons represented; as all cheerfully gave their time for frequent sittings, both to the designer +and painter.</p> + +<p>No expense has been spared to produce a work worthy the scene it represents, and the high encomiums +given it by eminent judges is the best proof of the result.</p> + +<p>To publish any thing now short of a first-class copy of such a painting would be a breach of confidence +to those who have so kindly aided in its production. The proprietor has therefore decided to have this +picture engraved in the finest style of line and stipple, the engraved surface of the plate to be 18 × 31 +inches; believing that nothing short of a <i>genuine work of art</i> will meet the approval, and secure the +patronage of the American people, and to those interested the proprietor can most confidently promise a +suitable memento of their departed chief.</p> + +<p>The engraving is being executed by <span class="smcap">H. B. Hall</span>, Jr., Esq., the eminent engraver upon steel.</p> + +<p>PRICE OF ENGRAVINGS.—<span class="smcap">Prints</span>, <b>$15.00</b>; <span class="smcap">Plain Proofs</span>, <b>$35.00</b>; <span class="smcap">India Proofs</span>, +<b>$60.00</b>; <span class="smcap">Artist's Proofs</span> (limited to 200 copies which will be numbered and signed by the artist and +engraver), <b>$100.00</b>.</p> + +<p>A beautiful engraved and photographic <i>Key</i> to the Engraving will be presented to the subscribers. It +is a complete picture of itself, and may be had in advance <i>by subscribers only</i>.</p> + +<p class="right"> +JOHN B. BACHELDER, <span class="smcap">Publisher</span>, <i>59 Beekman Street. New York</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" > +<a href="images/ill-ad-010f.jpg"> +<img src="images/ill-ad-010.jpg" width="400" height="344" +title="select for larger image" +alt="The Last Hours of Lincoln" /> +</a> +</div> + +<p class="caption">The Last Hours of Lincoln</p> + +<p>KEY<br /> +<br /> +1 Pres. LINCOLN.<br /> +2 Mrs. LINCOLN.<br /> +3 Vice Pres. JOHNSON.<br /> +4 Maj. RATHBONE.<br /> +5 Mr. ARNOLD. M.C.<br /> +6 P.M. Gen. DENNISON.<br /> +7 Sec. WELLES.<br /> +8 Atty Gen. SPEED.<br /> +9 Dr. HALL.<br /> +10 Dr. LEIBERMANN.<br /> +11 Secy. USHER.<br /> +12 Secy. McCOLLOCH.<br /> +13 Gov. OGLESBY.<br /> +14 Speaker COLFAX.<br /> +15 Dr. STONE.<br /> +16 Surg. Gen. BARNES.<br /> +17 Mrs. Sen. DIXON.<br /> +18 Dr. TODD.<br /> +19 Asst. Surg. LEALE.<br /> +20 Asst. Surg. TAFT.<br /> +21 Asst. Secy OTTO.<br /> +22 Gen. FARNSWORTH. M. C.<br /> +23 Sen. SUMNER.<br /> +24 Surg. CRANE.<br /> +25 Gen. TODD.<br /> +26 ROBT. LINCOLN.<br /> +27 Rev. Dr. GURLEY.<br /> +28 Asst. Secy FIELD.<br /> +29 Adjt Gen. HAYNIE.<br /> +30 Maj. FRENCH.<br /> +31 Gen. AUGER.<br /> +32 Col. VINCENT.<br /> +33 Gen. HALLECK.<br /> +34 Secy. STANTON.<br /> +35 Col. RUTHERFORD.<br /> +36 Asst. Secy. ECKERT.<br /> +37 Col. PELOUSE.<br /> +38 Maj. HAY.<br /> +39 Gen. MEIGS.<br /> +40 Maj. ROCKWELL.<br /> +41 Ex Gov. FARWELL.<br /> +42 Judge CARTTER.<br /> +43 Mr. ROLLINS, M. C.<br /> +44 Gen. MARSTON. M. C.<br /> +45 Mrs. KINNEY.<br /> +46 Miss KINNEY.<br /> +47 Miss HARRIS.</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h3 smcap">Brief Sayings of Eminent Men.</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Surgeon-General's Office</span>, }<br /> +<span class="smcap">Washington City</span>, <i>March 20, 1867</i>. }</p> + +<p>Col. <span class="smcap">J. B. Bachelder</span>.<br /> +</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sir</span>:—The picture of "The Last Hours of Lincoln." painted by Alonzo Chappel from your design, presents, +with remarkable fidelity, the portraits of those in attendance at various times during the night of +April 14, 1865, preserving truthfully the principal features of that most sad event.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="r16">Very respectfully yours,</span><br /> +<span class="smcap">J. K. Barnes.</span> <i>Surgeon-General, U.S.A., Brevet Major-General.</i><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>It is certainly a work of great interest and merit. I have looked upon it with the liveliest satisfaction +on account of its singularly graphic delineation of the actual scene as myself beheld it, and also because +the likenesses of most of the distinguished persons presented by the painting seem to me to be very +accurate and striking.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">P. D. Gurley.</span> <i>Pastor of the N. Y. Ave. Pres. Church</i><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>I cheerfully bear testimony to the accuracy of the Portraits of the persons present on that melancholy +occasion, and especially that of the martyred President.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">W. T. Otto.</span> <i>Assistant Secretary of the Interior.</i><br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>It gives me pleasure to testify to the accuracy with which you have represented the principal features +of the scene in question, and to the fidelity of the portraits which you have introduced. You have been +especially successful in the likeness of President Lincoln.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap r6">John Hay</span>,<br /> +<i>Brevet Colonel, formerly A. D. C. to President Lincoln</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The truthful likeness of President Lincoln, the fidelity of the portraits of those present on that most +mournful night, and the excellent grouping of the figures, render this picture peculiarly valuable in an historical +point of view, apart from its merits as a work of art.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">C. H. Crane</span>, <i>Assistant Surgeon-General U. S. Army</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>Without possessing a critical capacity for judgment, I can say, in all sincerity, that the painting as a +whole, is faithful to the scene of the death-chamber on that eventful night, and impressively truthful in +its portraiture.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">D. K. Cartter</span>, <i>Chief-Justice</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>The above gentlemen visited President Lincoln during his last hours, and are represented in +the painting.</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>It is admirable as a picture, and of great value for the fidelity of the portraits.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">A. A. Humphreys</span>, <i>Major-General</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p><span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>:—Permit me to thank you for the enjoyment of the luxury of grief afforded me in the viewing +of the great picture commemorating "The Last Hours of Lincoln." It is deserving of great praise. If +it has a fault, it is its high coloring. As I have personally known nearly all the forty odd persons who +appear in it, I can speak with confidence of the truthfulness of the likenesses.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">F. E. Spinner</span>, <i>Treasurer United States</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>The majority of the portraits could hardly be improved.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">O. O. Howard</span>, <i>Major-General</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<hr class="short" /> + +<p>I know personally a large majority of the persons represented, and take pleasure in bearing my testimony +to the singular fidelity of their portraits.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">Ira Harris</span>, <i>United States Senator</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="h5">EXTRACT FROM A CRITICISM.</p> + +<p class="h6">[<i>From the Washington Sunday Herald.</i>]</p> + +<p class="right"> +<span class="smcap">Washington</span>, <i>March 31, 1867</i>.<br /> +</p> + +<p>A great picture has been designed of the "Last Hours of Abraham Lincoln." The designer is Mr. John +B. Bachelder, the painter Alonzo Chappel. * * The value of such a picture of such a scene is enormous, +and of a kind to ever increase with time. * * Looking like himself, from his finger-nails to his hard, +protruding lip, Stanton, with paper and pencil in hand, and uplifted forefinger, is giving instructions to the +soldierly General Auger, the then Military Commander of the District. * * Portraits so minutely like +I have never seen, even from the brush of Elliot. * * *</p> + +<p>The grandeur in the face of Lincoln, is grand indeed. The cold hues of death are warmed to the eye by +the red rays of a candle held over him, and the flickering flare causing a Rembrandt-like effect, is very +felicitously managed. The eye rests in love and pity on it, turning from those around impatiently. * * *</p> + +<p>McCulloch who turns from the scene, and Johnson who sits in the left foreground, are wonderfully like. +As is the erect Dennison beyond them; and Meigs, with his hand resting on the door-post, where he stood +to prevent disturbing entrances; Dr. Stone and Surgeon-General Barnes, General Todd, Judge Otto, +Sumner, Farnsworth, Speaker Colfax, and Governor Oglesby, are looking down on the face of Lincoln with +an expression of respectful concern. * * * Judge Cartter and Ex-Governor Farwell stand in front of +Meigs, forming the right foreground of the picture; they are given in profile and seem conversing.</p> + +<p>The greatness of the picture lies in its correct transcription of an actual scene and perfect portraiture +of American men. It is just such a work as, above all others, should be American property, for if ever +there was a <i>National</i> picture, this is one.</p> + +<p class="author"> +<span class="smcap">Arc.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p class="spacer"> </p> + +<p class="h4">ADVERTISEMENT.</p> + +<p class="h5 smcap">Sketch of the Life of Abraham Lincoln.</p> + +<p class="h5">PRICE.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">People's Edition.</span> 8vo. Steel Portrait. Cloth $1.50<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">A Fine Edition.</span> 8vo. Proof Portrait. Fine binding, +beveled boards, Levant cloth, gilt edges 3.00<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Memorial Edition.</span> On heavy toned paper, large margin. +India Proof Portrait. Morocco, Antique, gilt edges 7.00<br /> +<br /> +I am prepared to supply the Trade with the<br /> +<br /> +"SKETCH of the LIFE of ABRAHAM LINCOLN," and the "PORTRAIT of LINCOLN,"<br /> +<br /> +ON LIBERAL TERMS.<br /> +</p> + +<p>My other publications are sold exclusively by Subscription, including</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">The Steel Engraving of</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="m3">"<span class="smcap">The Last Hours of Lincoln</span>;"</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Isometrical Drawing of</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="m3">"<span class="smcap">The Gettysburg Battle-field</span>;"</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="m3">"<span class="smcap">The History of the Battle of Gettysburg</span>."</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Steel Engraving of</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="m3">"<span class="smcap">The Battle of Gettysburg</span>;" (<span class="smcap">Longstreet's Repulse</span>.)</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">And the Steel Engravings of the Different</span><br /> +<br /> +<span class="m3">"<span class="smcap">Episodes of the Battle of Gettysburg</span>."</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Each of the latter forming a fine business opportunity for a man of energy, who has a +small amount of capital, which he would invest with a certainty of <i>liberal returns</i>.</p> + +<p>To <span class="smcap">Canvassers</span> of <span class="smcap">Experience</span>, having the <span class="smcap">Capital</span> and <span class="smcap">Business Capacity</span> to manage +the canvass of <span class="smcap">States</span>, <span class="smcap">Counties</span>, or <span class="smcap">Cities</span>, I can offer superior inducements. (See separate +notices of subjects.) Orders received for either of the above at the office of +publication.</p> + +<p>From my intimate business relations with the <span class="smcap">best</span> <span class="smcap">Painters</span>, <span class="smcap">Designers</span>, <span class="smcap">Steel Engravers</span>, +<span class="smcap">Wood Engravers</span>, and <span class="smcap">Lithographers</span>, in this City, I am prepared to receive +orders from my patrons, and have them executed under my immediate superintendence, in +any style required.</p> + +<p class="h5"> +<b>JOHN B. BACHELDER, Publisher</b>,<br /> +<br /> +59 <span class="smcap">Beekman St., New York</span>.<br /> +</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Sketch of the life of Abraham Lincoln, by +Isaac Newton Arnold + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCH OF LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + +***** This file should be named 37818-h.htm or 37818-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/8/1/37818/ + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +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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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: Sketch of the life of Abraham Lincoln + +Author: Isaac Newton Arnold + +Release Date: October 22, 2011 [EBook #37818] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SKETCH OF LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN *** + + + + +Produced by Roberta Staehlin, David Garcia, Matthew Wheaton +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + [Illustration: Abraham Lincoln (signature) + ABRAHAM LINCOLN. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.] + + _Eng^d by H. B. Hall Jr. from a Photo by Brady & Co._ + + Published by Jno. B. Bachelder. + NEW YORK. + + + + + SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + COMPILED IN MOST PART + + FROM THE + + HISTORY OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, AND THE OVERTHROW OF SLAVERY. + + PUBLISHED BY MESSRS. CLARK AND CO., CHICAGO. + + BY + ISAAC N. ARNOLD + + + JOHN B. BACHELDER, PUBLISHER, + 59 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. + 1869. + + + Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by + JOHN B. BACHELDER, + In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for + the Southern District of New York. + + ALVORD, PRINTER. + + + + +PUBLISHER'S PREFACE. + + +Time out of mind, words prefatory have been considered indispensable to +the successful publication of a book. This sketch of the LIFE and DEATH +of ABRAHAM LINCOLN is intended as an accompaniment to the Historical +Painting which has rescued from oblivion, and, with almost perfect +fidelity, transmitted to futurity, "THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN." In its +preparation has been invoked the aid of one who in life was near the +heart of MR. LINCOLN, and at death was a witness to that last sad scene, +so accurately delineated by the painter's art--the Hon. ISAAC N. ARNOLD. +His intimate and social relations with MR. LINCOLN, his unbounded +admiration of the goodness and sincerity of the Great Emancipator, +renders this invocation eminently appropriate. This sketch contains +subject-matter never before made public, presented in the full dress of +the author's happiest style. + +In confident reliance upon the affection of the people for the great +Apostle of Liberty--the Martyr--who in his blood wrote his belief "that +all men everywhere should be free," this sketch is submitted. + +JANUARY 1, 1869. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, + LINCOLN ANCESTRY, + BOYHOOD OF LINCOLN, + YOUTHFUL DUTIES AND AMUSEMENTS, + EARLY EDUCATION, + ELECTED CAPTAIN--BLACK HAWK WAR, + NOMINATION FOR LEGISLATURE, + MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATURE, + ADMITTED TO THE BAR, + PRACTICE AT THE BAR, + PROFESSIONAL BEARING, + RETIREMENT FROM THE LEGISLATURE, + ANTI-SLAVERY PROCLIVITIES, + MARRIAGE, + MARY TODD, + CHILDREN, + IN CONGRESS, + STEPHEN A. DOUGLAS, + ABOLITION OF SLAVERY AT WASHINGTON, + SUCCESSOR IN CONGRESS--E. D. BAKER, + BEGINNING OF THE END OF SLAVERY, + LINCOLN IN THE KANSAS STRUGGLE, + LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE, + EARLY ACQUAINTANCE OF LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS, + DOUGLAS AS A DEBATER, + DOUGLAS--LINCOLN--PERSONAL DESCRIPTION, + DOUGLAS--LINCOLN--PERSONAL DESCRIPTION CONTINUED, + COOPER INSTITUTE ADDRESS + CHICAGO CONVENTION--NOMINATION TO PRESIDENCY, + POPULAR VOTE--ELECTION, + JOURNEY TO WASHINGTON, + ARRIVAL AT WASHINGTON, + RECEPTION, + FIRST INAUGURATION, + CIVIL WAR, + THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS, + CALLING OUT TROOPS, + REGULAR SESSION OF CONGRESS, DECEMBER, 1861, + SLAVERY LAWS PASSED, + EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION, + OWEN LOVEJOY, + PROCLAMATION ISSUED--JANUARY 1, 1863, + GETTYSBURG--CONSECRATION, + NEW YEAR--1864, + LIEUTENANT-GENERAL--NOMINATION OF ULYSSES S. GRANT, + CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY, + SECOND INAUGURATION, + VISIT TO ARMY HEAD-QUARTERS--CITY POINT, + LINCOLN--GRANT--SHERMAN--PERSONAL APPEARANCE, + UNION TROOPS ENTER RICHMOND, + VISIT TO RICHMOND, + RETURN TO WASHINGTON, + REVIEW OF THE ARMY, + LAST DAYS OF LINCOLN, + ASSASSINATION, + VISIT TO FORD'S THEATER, + JOHN WILKES BOOTH, + DETAILS OF THE ASSASSINATION, + PRESIDENT REMOVED FROM THE THEATER, + DEATH OF LINCOLN + SCENES IN WASHINGTON + DEATH OF BOOTH + ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF SECRETARY SEWARD + RECEPTION OF MR. LINCOLN'S DEATH THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY + MEETING OF MEMBERS OF CONGRESS + COMMITTEE TO ATTEND THE REMAINS TO ILLINOIS + FUNERAL CEREMONIES + FUNERAL CORTEGE.--WASHINGTON, PHILADELPHIA, NEW JERSEY, NEW YORK, + OHIO, INDIANA, ILLINOIS + PERSONAL SKETCHES + FONDNESS FOR READING + LAST SUNDAY OF HIS LIFE + CONVERSATIONAL POWERS + PUBLIC SPEAKER + THE WORDS OF LINCOLN + HABITUAL MANNER OF TRANSACTING BUSINESS AT THE WHITE HOUSE + DESCRIPTION OF ROOMS AND FURNITURE + ETIQUETTE OF BUSINESS RECEPTION + GREATNESS OF HIS SERVICES + THE MOST DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT + RELIGIOUS CREED + BELIEF IN A GOD + + + + +SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + +Modern history furnishes no life more eventful and important, terminated +by a death so dramatic, as that of the Martyr President. Poetry and +painting, sculpture and eloquence, have all sought to illustrate his +career, but the grand epic poem of his life has yet to be written. We +are too near him in point of time, fully to comprehend and appreciate +his greatness and the vast influence he is to exert upon the world. The +storms which marked his tempestuous political career have not yet +entirely subsided, and the shock of his fearfully tragic death is still +felt; but as the dust and smoke of war pass away, and the mists of +prejudice which filled the air during the great conflict clear up, his +character will stand out in bolder relief and more perfect outline. + +The ablest and most sincere apostle of liberty the world has ever seen +was Abraham Lincoln. He was a Christian statesman, with faith in God and +man. The two men, whose pre-eminence in American history the world will +ever recognize, are Washington and Lincoln. The Republic which the first +founded and the latter saved, has already crowned them as models for her +children. + +Abraham Lincoln was born, February 12th, 1809, in Hardin County, in the +Slave State of Kentucky.[1] + +[1] When the compiler of the Annals of Congress asked Mr. Lincoln to +furnish him with data from which to compile a sketch of his life, the +following brief, characteristic statement was given. It contrasts very +strikingly with the voluminous biographies furnished by some small great +men who have been in Congress:-- + +"Born, February 12th, 1809, in Hardin County, 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, &c., + "A. LINCOLN." + +His father Thomas and his grandfather Abraham were born in Rockingham +County, Virginia. His ancestors were from Pennsylvania, and were Friends +or Quakers. The grandfather after whom he was named, went early to +Kentucky, and was murdered by the Indians, while at work upon his farm. +The early and fearful conflicts in the dense forests of Kentucky, +between the settlers and the Indians, gave to a portion of that +beautiful State the name of the "_dark and bloody ground_." The subject +of this sketch was the son, the grandson, and the great grandson of a +pioneer. His ancestors had settled on the border, first in Pennsylvania, +then in Virginia, and from thence to Kentucky. His grandfather had four +sons and two daughters. Thomas the youngest son was the father of +Abraham, and his life was a struggle with poverty, a hard-working man +with very limited education. He could barely sign his name. In the +twenty-eighth year of his age he married Nancy Hanks, a native of +Virginia, she was one of those plain, dignified matrons, possessing a +strong physical organization, and great common sense, with deep +religious feeling, and the utmost devotion to her family and children, +such as are not unusual in the early settlements of our country. Reared +on the frontier, where life was a struggle, she could use the rifle and +the implements of agriculture as well as the distaff and spinning-wheel. +She was one of those strong, self-reliant characters, yet gentle in +manners, often found in the humbler walks of life, fitted as well to +command the respect, as the love of all to whom she was known. Abraham +had a brother older, and a sister younger than himself, but both died +many years before he reached distinction. + +In 1816, when he was only eight years old, the family removed to Spenser +County, Indiana. The first tool the boy of the backwoods learns to use +is the ax. This, young Lincoln, strong and athletic beyond his years, +had learned to handle with some effect, even at that early age, and he +began from this period to be of important service to his parents in +cutting their way to, and building up, a home in the forests. + +A feat with the rifle soon after this period shows that he was not +unaccustomed to its use: seeing a flock of wild turkeys approaching, the +lad seized his father's rifle and succeeded in shooting one through a +crack of his father's cabin. + +In the autumn of 1818 his mother died. Her death was to her family, and +especially her favorite son Abraham, an irreparable loss. Although she +died when in his tenth year, she had already deeply impressed upon him +those elements of character which were the foundation of his greatness; +perfect truthfulness, inflexible honesty, love of justice and respect +for age, and reverence for God. He ever spoke of her with the most +touching affection. "All that I am, or hope to be," said he, "I owe to +my angel mother." + +It was his mother who taught him to read and write; from her he learned +to read the Bible, and this book he read and re-read in youth, because +he had little else to read, and later in life because he believed it was +the word of God, and the best guide of human conduct. It was very rare +to find, even among clergymen, any so familiar with it as he, and few +could so readily and accurately quote its text. + +There is something very affecting in the incident that this boy--whom +his mother had found time amidst her weary toil and the hard struggle of +her rude life, to teach to write legibly, should find the first occasion +of putting his knowledge of the pen to practical use, was in writing a +letter to a traveling preacher, imploring him to come and perform +religious services over his mother's grave. The preacher, a Mr. Elkin, +came, though not immediately, traveling many miles on horseback through +the wild forests; and some months after her death the family and +neighbors gathered around the tree beneath which they had laid her, to +perform the simple, solemn funeral rites. Hymns were sung, prayers said, +and an address pronounced over her grave. The impression made upon young +Lincoln by his mother was as lasting as life. Love of truth, reverence +for religion, perfect integrity, were ever associated in his mind with +the tenderest love and respect for her. His father subsequently married +Mrs. Sally Johnson, of Kentucky, a widow with three children. + +In March, 1830, the family removed to Illinois, and settled in Macon +County, near Decatur. Here he assisted his father to build a log-cabin; +clear, fence, and plant, a few acres of land; and then, being now +twenty-one years of age, he asked permission to seek his own fortune. He +began by going out to work by the month, breaking up the prairie, +splitting and chopping cord wood, and any thing he could find to do. His +father not long afterward removed to Coles County, Illinois, where he +lived until 1851, dying at the age of seventy-three. He lived to see his +son Abraham one of the most distinguished men in the State, and received +from him many memorials of his affection and kindness. His son often +sent money to his father and other members of his family, and always +treated them, however poor and illiterate, with the kindest +consideration. + +It is clear from his own declarations that he early cherished an +ambition, probably under the inspiration of his mother, to rise to a +higher position. He had in all less than one year's attendance at +school, but his mother having taught him to read and write, with an +industry, application, and perseverance untiring, he applied himself to +all the means of improvement within his reach. Fortunately, +providentially, the Bible has been everywhere and always present in +every cabin and home in the land. The influence of this book formed his +character; he was able to obtain in addition to the Bible, AEsop's +Fables, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, Weems' Life of Washington, and +Burns' Poems. These constituted nearly all he read before he reached the +age of nineteen. Living on the frontier, mingling with the rude, +hard-working, honest, and virtuous backwoodsmen, he became expert in the +use of every implement of agriculture and woodcraft, and as an ax-man he +had no superior. + +His days were spent in hard manual labor, and his evenings in study; he +grew up free from idleness, and contracted no stain of intemperance, +profanity, or vice; he drank no intoxicating liquors, nor did he use +tobacco in any form. + +There is a tradition that while residing at New Salem, Mr. Lincoln +entertained a boy's fancy for a prairie beauty named Ann Rutledge. Mr. +Irving, in his life of Washington, says: "Before he (Washington) was +fifteen years of age, he had conceived a passion for some unknown +beauty, so serious as to disturb his otherwise well-regulated mind, and +to make him really unhappy." Some romance has been published in regard +to this early attachment of Lincoln, and gossip and imagination have +converted a simple, boyish fancy, such as few reach manhood without +having passed through, into a "grand passion." It has been produced in a +form altogether too dramatic and highly-colored for the truth. The idea +that this fancy had any permanent influence upon his life and character +is purely imaginary. No man was ever a more devoted and affectionate +husband and father than he. + +In the spring of 1832 Lincoln volunteered as a private in a company of +soldiers raised by the Governor of Illinois, for what is known as the +Black Hawk War. He was elected captain of the company, and served during +the campaign, but had no opportunity of meeting the enemy. + +Soon after his return he was nominated for the State Legislature, and in +the precinct in which he resided, out of 284 votes received all but +seven. It was while a resident of New Salem that he became a practical +surveyor. + +Up to this period the life of Lincoln had been one of labor, hardship, +and struggle: his shelter had been the log-cabin; his food, the "_corn +dodger and common doings_,"[2] the game of the forests and the prairie, +and the products of the farm; his dress, the Kentucky jean and buckskin +of the frontier; the tools with which he labored, the ax, the hoe, and +the plow. He had made two trips to New Orleans; these and his soldiering +in the Black Hawk War showed his fondness for adventure. + +[2] The settlers have an expression, "Corn dodger and common doin's," as +contradistinguished from "Wheat bread and chickin fixin's." + +Thus far he had been a backwoodsman, a rail-splitter, a flatboatman, a +clerk, a captain of volunteers, a surveyor. In 1834 he was elected to +the Legislature of Illinois, receiving the highest vote of any one on +the ticket. He was re-elected in 1836 (the term being for two years). At +this session he met, as a fellow-member, Stephen A. Douglas, then +representing Morgan County. + +He remained a member of the Legislature for eight years, and then +declined being again a candidate. + +He was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of Illinois in the +autumn of 1836, and his name first appears on the roll of attorneys in +1837. + +In April of this year he removed to Springfield, and soon after entered +into partnership with his friend, John T. Stewart. As a lawyer he early +manifested, in a wonderful degree, the power of simplifying and making +clear to the common understanding the most difficult and abstruse +questions. + +The circuit practice--"riding the circuit" it was called--as conducted +in Illinois thirty years ago, was admirably adapted to educate, develop, +and discipline all there was in a man of intellect and character. Few +books could be obtained upon the circuit, and no large libraries for +consultation could be found anywhere. A mere case lawyer was a helpless +child in the hands of the intellectual giants produced by these +circuit-court contests, where novel questions were constantly arising, +and must be immediately settled upon principle and analogy.[3] + +[3] Vide "History of Abraham Lincoln and the Overthrow of Slavery," p. +76. + +A few elementary books, such as Blackstone's and Kent's Commentaries, +Chitty's Pleadings, and Starkie's Evidence, could sometimes be found, or +an odd volume would be carried along with the scanty wardrobe of the +attorney in his saddle-bags. These were studied until the text was as +familiar as the alphabet. By such aid as these afforded, and the +application of principles, were all the complex questions which arose +settled. Thirty years ago it was the practice of the leading members of +the bar to follow the judge from county to county. The court-houses were +rude log buildings, with slab benches for seats, and the roughest pine +tables. In these, when courts were in session, Lincoln could be always +found, dressed in Kentucky jean, and always surrounded by a circle of +admiring friends--always personally popular with the judges, the +lawyers, the jury, and the spectators. His wit and humor, his power of +illustration by apt comparison and anecdote, his power to ridicule by +ludicrous stories and illustrations, were inexhaustible. + +He always aided by his advice and counsel the young members of the bar. +No embarrassed tyro in the profession ever sought his assistance in +vain, and it was not unusual for him, if his adversary was young and +inexperienced, kindly to point out to him formal errors in his pleadings +and practice. His manner of conducting jury trials was very effective. + +He was familiar, frequently colloquial: at the summer terms of the +courts, he would often take off his coat, and leaning carelessly on the +rail of the jury box, would single out and address a leading juryman, +in a conversational way, and with his invariable candor and fairness +would proceed to reason the case. When he was satisfied that he had +secured the favorable judgment of the juryman so addressed, he would +turn to another, and address him in the same manner, until he was +convinced the jury were with him. There were times when aroused by +injustice, fraud, or some great wrong or falsehood, when his +denunciation was so crushing that the object of it was driven from the +court-room. + +There was a latent power in him which when aroused was literally +overwhelming. This power was sometimes exhibited in political debate, +and there were occasions when it utterly paralyzed his opponent. His +replies to Douglas, at Springfield and Peoria, in 1858, were +illustrations of this power. His examination and cross-examination of +witnesses were very happy and effective. He always treated those who +were disposed to be truthful with respect. + +Mr. Lincoln's professional bearing was so high, he was so courteous and +fair that no man ever questioned his truthfulness or his honor. No one +who watched him for half an hour in court in an important case ever +doubted his ability. He understood human nature well; and read the +character of party, jury, witnesses, and attorneys, and knew how to +address and influence them. Probably as a jury lawyer, on the right +side, he has never had his superior. + +Such was Mr. Lincoln at the bar, a fair, honest, able lawyer, on the +right side irresistible, on the wrong comparatively weak. + + + + +MR. LINCOLN FROM HIS RETIREMENT FROM THE ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE TO HIS +ELECTION TO CONGRESS. + + +A friend and associate of Mr. Lincoln, speaking of him, as he was in +1840, says: "They mistake greatly who regard him as an uneducated man. +In the physical sciences he was remarkably well read. In scientific +mechanics, and all inventions and labor-saving machinery, he was +thoroughly informed. He was one of the best practical surveyors in the +State. He understood the general principles of botany, geology, and +astronomy, and had a great treasury of practical useful knowledge." + +He continued to acquire knowledge and to grow intellectually until his +death, and became one of the most intelligent and best-informed men in +public life. + +Early in life he became an anti-slavery man, as well from the impulses +of his heart as the convictions of his reason. He always had an intense +hatred of oppression in every form, and an honest, earnest faith in the +common people, and his sympathies were ever with the oppressed. The most +conspicuous traits of his character were love of justice and love of +truth. It is false, very arrogant, and to those who knew Lincoln in his +earlier years, it is very amusing, for any man or set of men to assume +to himself or themselves the credit of having inspired him with hatred +of slavery. No man was less influenced by others in coming to his +conclusions than he; and this was especially true in regard to questions +involving right and justice. His own heart, his own observation, his own +clear intellect led him to become an anti-slavery man. Long before he +plead the cause of the slave before the American people, he said to a +friend,[4] "It is strange that while our courts decide that a man does +not lose his title to his property by its being stolen, but he may +reclaim it whenever he can find it, yet if he himself is stolen he +instantly loses his right to himself!" + +[4] Hon. Jos. Gillespie. + +In November, 1842, he was married to Miss Mary Todd, daughter of the +Hon. Robert S. Todd, of Kentucky. The mother of Mrs. Lincoln died when +she was young. She had sisters living at Springfield, Illinois. Visiting +them, she made the acquaintance and won the heart of Mr. Lincoln. They +had four children, Robert, Edward (who died in infancy), William, and +Thomas. Robert and Thomas survive. William, a beautiful and promising +boy, died at Washington, during his father's presidency. Mr. Lincoln was +a most fond, tender, and affectionate husband and father. No man was +ever more faithful and true in his domestic relations. + + + + +LINCOLN IN CONGRESS. + + +On the 6th of December, 1847, Mr. Lincoln took his seat in Congress. Mr. +Douglas, who had already run a brilliant career in the lower House of +Congress, at this same session took his seat in the Senate. Mr. Lincoln +distinguished himself by able speeches upon the Mexican War, upon +Internal Improvements, and by one of the most effective campaign +speeches of that Congress in favor of the election of General Taylor to +the Presidency. He proposed a bill for the abolition of slavery at the +National capital. He declined a re-election, and was succeeded by his +friend, the eloquent E. D. Baker, who was killed at Ball's Bluff. + +In 1852, he lead the electoral ticket of Illinois in favor of General +Scott for President. Franklin Pierce was elected, and Mr. Lincoln +remained quietly engaged in his professional pursuits until the repeal +of the Missouri Compromise in 1854. This event was the beginning of the +end of slavery. "It thoroughly roused the people of the Free States to a +realization of the progress and encroachments of the slave power, and +the necessity of preserving 'the jewel of freedom.'" From that hour the +conflict went on between freedom and slavery, first by the ballot, and +all the agencies by which public opinion is influenced, and then the +slave-holders, seeing that their supremacy was departing, sought by arms +to overthrow the government which they could no longer control. + +Mr. Lincoln, while a strong opponent of slavery, had up to this time +rested in the hope that by peaceful agencies it was in the course of +ultimate extinction. But now seeing the vast strides it was making, he +became convinced its progress must be arrested or that it would dominate +over the republic, and Slavery would become "lawful in all the States." +From this time he gave himself with solemn earnestness to the cause of +liberty and his country. He forgot himself in his great cause. He did +not seek place, if the great cause could be better advanced by the +promotion of another; hence his promotion of the election of Trumbull to +the United States Senate. + +This unselfish devotion to principle was a great source of his power. +Placing himself at the head of those who opposed the extension of, and +who believed in the moral wrong of slavery, he entered upon his great +mission with a singleness of purpose, an eloquence and power, which made +him as the advocate of freedom, the most effective and influential +speaker who ever addressed the American people. + +He brought to the tremendous struggle between freedom and slavery +physical strength and endurance almost superhuman. Notwithstanding his +modesty and the absence of all self-assertion, when we review the +conflict from 1854 to 1865, when the struggle closed by the adoption of +the constitutional amendment abolishing and prohibiting slavery forever +throughout the republic, it is clear that Lincoln's speeches and +writings did more to accomplish this result than any other agency. + +Following the repeal of the Missouri Compromise came the Kansas +struggle, and the organization of a great party to resist the +encroachments and aggressions of slavery. The people instinctively found +the leader of such a party in Lincoln. + +Looking over the whole ground, with the sagacity which marked his +far-seeing mind, he saw that the basis upon which to build were the +grand principles of the Declaration of Independence. This foundation was +broad enough to include old-fashioned Democrats who sympathized with +Jefferson in his hatred of slavery; Whigs who had learned their love of +liberty from the utterances of the Adamses and Channings, and the +earlier speeches of Webster; and anti-slavery men, who recognized Chase +and Sumner as their leaders. + +He now addressed himself to the work of consolidating out of all these +elements a party, the distinctive characteristics of which should be the +full recognition of the principles of the Declaration of Independence +and hostility to the extension of Slavery. This was the party which in +1856 gave John C. Fremont 114 electoral votes for President, and in +1860, elected Lincoln to the executive chair. + + + + +THE LINCOLN AND DOUGLAS DEBATE. + + +In the midsummer of 1858, Senator Douglas, whose term approached its +close, came home to canvass for re-election. It was in the midst of the +Kansas struggle, and although he had broken with the administration of +Buchanan, because he resisted the admission of Kansas into the Union, +under the fraudulent Lecompton Constitution, and insisted that the +people of that State, should enjoy the right by a fair vote, of deciding +upon the character of their Constitution,[5] yet the people of Illinois +did not forget that he was chiefly responsible for the repeal of the +Missouri Compromise, and that he had indorsed the Dred Scott decision. +On the 17th of June, 1858, the Republican State Convention of Illinois +met and by acclamation nominated Mr. Lincoln for the Senate. He was +unquestionably more indebted to Douglas for his greatness than to any +other person. + +[5] That they "should be perfectly free to form and regulate their +domestic institutions in their own way." + +In 1856 Lincoln said, "Twenty years ago Judge Douglas and I first became +acquainted; we were both young then, he a trifle younger than I. Even +then we were both ambitious, I perhaps quite as much as he. With me the +race of ambition has proved a flat failure; with him it has been one of +splendid success. His name fills the nation, and it is not unknown in +foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high eminence he has +reached; so reached that the oppressed of my species might have shared +with me in the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence than +wear the richest crown that ever pressed a monarch's brow." + +Ten years had not gone by, before the modest Lincoln, then so humbly +expressing this noble sentiment, and to whom at that moment "The race of +ambition seemed a flat failure;" ten years had not passed, ere he had +reached an eminence on which his name filled, not a nation only, but the +world; and he had indeed so reached it, that the oppressed did share +with him in the elevation; and so far had he passed his then great +rival, that the name of Douglas will be carried down to posterity, +chiefly because of its association as a competitor with Lincoln. + +But in many particulars Douglas was not an unworthy competitor. The +contest between these two champions was perhaps the most remarkable in +American history. They were the acknowledged leaders, each of his party. +Douglas had been a prominent candidate for the presidency, was well +known and personally popular, not only in the West, but throughout the +Union. Both were men of great and marked individuality of character. The +immediate prize was the Senatorship of the great State of Illinois, and, +in the future, the presidency. The result would largely influence the +struggle for freedom in Kansas, and the question of slavery throughout +the Union. The canvass attracted the attention of the people everywhere, +and the speeches were reported and published, not only in the leading +papers in the State, but reporters were sent from most of the large +cities, to report the incidents of the debates, and describe the +conflict. + +Douglas was at this time unquestionably the leading debater in the +United States Senate. For years he had been accustomed to meet the +great leaders of the nation in Congress, and he had rarely been +discomfited. He had contended with Jefferson Davis, and Toombs, and +Hunter, and with Chase, and Sumner, and Seward; and his friends claimed +that he was the equal, if not the superior, of the ablest. He was +fertile in resources, severe in denunciation, familiar with political +history, and had participated so many years in Congressional debate, +that he handled with readiness and facility all the weapons of political +controversy. Of indomitable physical and moral courage, he was certainly +among the most formidable men in the nation on the stump. In Illinois, +where he had hosts of friends and enthusiastic followers, he possessed a +power over the masses unequaled by any other man, a most striking +exhibition of which was exhibited in this canvass, in which he held to +himself the whole Democratic party of the State. The administration of +Buchanan, with all its patronage wielded by the wily and unscrupulous +Slidell, and running a separate ticket, was able to detach only 5,000 +out of 126,000 votes from him. There was something exciting, something +which stirred the blood, in the boldness with which he threw himself +into the conflict, and dealt his blows right and left against the +Republican party on one side, and the administration of Buchanan, which +sought his defeat, on the other. + +Two men presenting more striking contrasts, physically, intellectually, +and morally, could not anywhere be found. Douglas was a short, sturdy, +resolute man, with large head and chest, and short legs; his ability had +gained for him the appellation of "The little giant of Illinois." + +Lincoln was of the Kentucky type of men, very tall, long-limbed, +angular, awkward in gait and attitude, physically a real giant, +large-featured, his eyes deep-set under heavy eyebrows, his forehead +high and retreating, with heavy, dark hair. + +Their style of speaking, like every thing about them, was in striking +contrast. Douglas, skilled by a thousand conflicts in all the strategy +of a face to face encounter, stepped upon the platform and faced the +thousands of friends and foes around him with an air of conscious power. +There was an air of indomitable pluck, sometimes something approaching +impudence in his manner, when he looked out on the immense throngs which +surged and struggled before him. Lincoln was modest, but always +self-possessed, with no self-consciousness, his whole mind evidently +absorbed in his great theme, always candid, truthful, cool, logical, +accurate; at times, inspired by his subject, rising to great dignity and +wonderful power. The impression made by Douglas, upon a stranger who saw +him for the first time on the platform, would be--"that is a bold, +audacious, ready debater, an ugly opponent." Of Lincoln--"There is a +candid, truthful, sincere man, who, whether right or wrong, believes he +is right." Lincoln argued the side of freedom, with the most thorough +conviction that on its triumph depended the fate of the Republic. An +idea of the impression made by Lincoln in these discussions may be +inferred from a remark made by a plain old Quaker, who, at the close of +the Ottawa debate, said: "Friend, doubtless God _Almighty might_ have +made an honester man than Abe Lincoln, but doubtless he never did." It +is curious that the cause of freedom was plead by a Kentuckian, and that +of slavery by a native of Vermont. Forgetful of the ancestral hatred of +slavery to which he had been born, Douglas had, by marriage, become a +slave-holder. Lincoln had one great advantage over his antagonist--he +was always good-humored; while Douglas sometimes lost his temper, +Lincoln never lost his. + +The great champions in these debates, and their discussions, have passed +into history, and the world has ratified the popular verdict of the +day--that Lincoln was the victor. It should be remembered, in justice to +the intellectual power of Douglas, that Lincoln spoke for liberty, and +he was the organ of a new and vigorous party, with a full consciousness +of being in the right. Douglas was looking to the presidency as well as +the senatorship, and must keep one eye on the slave-holder and the other +on the citizens of Illinois. + +The debates in the old Continental Congress, and those on the Missouri +question of 1820-1, those of Webster and Hayne, and Webster and Calhoun, +are all historical; but it may be doubted if either were more important +than these of Lincoln and Douglas. + +Mr. Lincoln, although his party received a majority of the popular vote +was defeated for Senator, because certain Democratic Senators held over +from certain Republican districts. + +On the 27th of February, 1860, Mr. Lincoln delivered his celebrated +Cooper Institute address. Many went to hear the prairie orator, +expecting to be entertained with noisy declamation, extravagant and +verbose, and with plenty of amusing stories. The speech was so +dignified, so exact in language and statement, so replete with +historical learning, it exhibited such strength and grasp of thought and +was so elevated in tone, that the intelligent audience were astonished +and delighted. The closing sentence is characteristic, and should never +be forgotten by those who advocate the right. "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." + + + + +NOMINATION AND ELECTION AS PRESIDENT. + + +When the National Convention met at Chicago in the June following, to +nominate a candidate for President, while a majority of the delegates +were divided among Messrs. Seward, Chase, Cameron, and Bates, Mr. +Lincoln was the first choice of a large plurality, and the second choice +of all; besides he was personally so popular with the people, his +sobriquet of "Honest old Abe," "The Illinois Rail-splitter," satisfied +the shrewd men who were studying the best means of securing success, +that he was the most available man to head the ticket. These +considerations made his nomination a certainty from the beginning. + +The nomination was hailed with enthusiasm throughout the Union. Never +did a party enter upon a canvass with more zeal and energy. With the +usual motives which actuate political parties there were in this canvass +mingled a love of country, a devotion to liberty, a keen sense of the +wrongs and outrages inflicted upon the Free State men of Kansas, which +fired all hearts with enthusiasm. Mr. Lincoln received one hundred and +eighty electoral votes, Douglas twelve, Breckinridge seventy-two, and +John Bell of Tennessee, thirty-nine. Mr. Lincoln received of the popular +vote 1,866,452, a plurality, but not a majority of the whole. + +By the election of Mr. Lincoln the executive power of the republic +passed from the slave-holders. Mr. Lincoln and the great party who +elected him contemplated no interference with slavery in the States. +They meant to prevent its further extension, but the slave-holders +instinctively felt that with the government in the hands of those who +believed slavery morally wrong, the end of slavery was a mere question +of time. Rather than yield, the slave aristocracy resolved "to take up +the sword," and hence the terrible civil war. + +On the 11th of February, 1861, Mr. Lincoln left his quiet happy home at +Springfield to enter upon that tempestuous political career which was to +lead him through a martyr's grave to a deathless fame among the greatest +and noblest patriots and benefactors of mankind. With a dim, mysterious +foreshadowing of the future, he uttered to his friends and neighbors who +gathered around him to say good-bye, his farewell. He seemed conscious +that he might see the place which had been his home for "a quarter of a +century, and where his children were born, and where one of them lay +buried" no more. Weighed down with the consciousness of the great duties +which devolved upon him, greater than those devolving upon any President +since Washington, he humbly expressed his reliance upon Divine +Providence, and asked his friends to pray that he might receive the +assistance of "Almighty God." As he journeyed toward the capital, +received everywhere with the earnest sympathies of the people, the loyal +men of all parties assuring him of their support, his spirits rose, and +when he passed the State line of his own State his hopefulness found +expression in the words "behind the cloud the sun is shining still." And +on he sped through the great Free States of the North. While on his way +to the capital the people were everywhere deeply impressed by his modest +yet firm reliance upon Providence. He went forth not leaning on his own +strength, but resting on Almighty God. + +In the early gray of the morning of the 23d of February, 1861, he came +in sight of the dome of the Capitol, then filled with traitors plotting +his death and the overthrow of the Government. By anticipating the +train, by which it had been publicly announced that he would pass +through Baltimore, and passing through that city at night he escaped a +deeply-laid conspiracy, which would otherwise have anticipated the crime +of Booth. None who witnessed will ever forget the scene of his first +inauguration. + +The veteran Scott had gathered a few soldiers of the Regular Army to +preserve order and security; many Northern citizens thronged the +streets, few of them conscious of the volcano of treason and murder +seething beneath them. The departments and public offices were full of +plotting traitors. Many of the rebel generals held commissions under the +Government they were about to desert and betray. The ceremony of +inauguration is always imposing; on this occasion it was especially so. +Buchanan, sad, dejected, bowed with a seeming consciousness of duties +unperformed, rode with the President-elect to the Capitol. + +There were gathered the Justices of the Supreme Court, both Houses of +Congress, the representatives of foreign nations, and a vast concourse +of citizens from all sections of the Union. There were Chase, and +Seward, and Sumner, and Breckinridge, and Douglas, who was near the +President, and was observed eagerly looking over the crowd, not +unconscious of the personal danger of his great and successful rival. +Mr. Lincoln was so absorbed with the gravity of the occasion and the +condition of his country, that he utterly forgot himself, and there was +observed a dignity, which sprung from a mind entirely engrossed with +public duties. + +He was perfectly cool, and stepping to the eastern colonnade of the +Capitol, that voice, which had been often heard by tens of thousands on +the prairies of the West, now read in clear and ringing tones his +inaugural. On the threshold of war, he made a last appeal for peace. He +declared his fixed resolve, firm as the everlasting rocks: "_I shall +take care that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in every +State_." + +Yet his great, kind heart yearned for peace, and as he approached the +close, his voice faltered with emotion. "I am loath to close," said he; +"we are _not_ enemies, but friends; we must not be enemies. Though +passion may have strained, it must not break the bonds of affection. The +mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot's +grave, to every living heart and hearthstone over all this broad land, +will yet swell with the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as +surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." + +Alas! these appeals for peace were received by those to whom they were +addressed with coarse ribaldry, with sneers and jeers, and all the +savage and barbarous passions which riot in blood. Lincoln was somewhat +slow to learn that it was to force only--stern, unflinching force--that +treason would yield. + +And now opened that terrible civil war which has no parallel in history. +Space will not permit me to follow the President through those long and +terrible days of victory and defeat, to final triumph. Through all, +Lincoln was firm, constant, hopeful, sagacious, wise, confiding always +in God, and in the people. + + + + +THE THIRTY-SEVENTH CONGRESS. + + +The special session of the Thirty-seventh Congress met on the 4th of +July, 1861, agreeably to the call of the President. Many vacant chairs +in the National Council impressed the spectator with the magnitude of +the impending struggle. The old chiefs of the slave party were nearly +all absent, some of them as members of a rebel government at Richmond, +others in arms against their country. The President calmly, clearly, +sadly reviewed the facts which compelled him to call into action the +_war powers_ of the Government, and constrained him, as the Chief +Magistrate, "_to accept war_." He asked Congress to confer upon him the +power to make the war short and decisive. He asked for 400,000 men and +400 millions of money. With hearty appreciation of the fidelity of the +common people, he proudly points to the fact that, while large numbers +of the officers of the Army and Navy had been guilty of the infamous +crime of desertion, "not one common soldier or sailor is known to have +deserted his flag." + +Congress responded promptly to this call, voting 500,000 men and 500 +millions of dollars to suppress the rebellion. From the beginning of the +contest, the slaves flocked to the Union army as a place of security +from their masters. They seemed to feel instinctively that freedom was +to be found within its picket-lines and under the folds of its flag. +They were ready to act as guides, as servants, to work, dig, and to +fight for their liberty. And yet early in the war some officers +permitted masters and agents to follow the blacks into the Union lines +and carry away fugitive slaves. This action was rebuked by a resolution +of Congress. At this session a law was passed giving freedom to all +slaves employed in aiding the rebellion. In October, 1861, the military +was authorized by the Secretary of War to avail itself of the services +of "fugitives from labor," in such way as might be most beneficial to +the service. + +The regular session of Congress assembled on the 2d of December, 1861. +Great armies confronted each other in the field; and great conflicts +were going on in the public mind, but the way to victory through +emancipation was not yet clearly opened. The President was feeling his +way, watching the progress of public opinion; striving to secure to the +Union the Border States of Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri. On the +subject of Emancipation, he said in his message: "the Union must be +preserved, and all _indispensable means_ must be used," but he wisely +waited until the public sentiment should consolidate, and all other +means of maintaining the integrity of the nation should have been +exhausted. During this session the way was prepared for the great edict +of Emancipation; Slavery was abolished at the National Capital, +prohibited forever in all the Territories, the slaves of rebels declared +free, and the Government authorized to employ slaves as soldiers, and +every person in the military or naval service of the Republic prohibited +from aiding in the arrest of any fugitive slave. These measures were all +urged by the personal and political friends of the President, and became +laws with his sanction and hearty assent. They prepared the way for the +final overthrow of slavery. + + + + +THE EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION. + + +In April, 1862, it was known at Washington that the President was +considering the subject of emancipating the slaves as a war measure. The +Border States selected their ablest man, the venerable John J. +Crittenden, from Mr. Lincoln's native State, to make a public appeal to +him to stay his hand. The eloquent Kentuckian discharged the part +assigned him well. Never shall I forget the scene when, with great +emotion before Congress he said, that although he had voted against and +opposed Mr. Lincoln, he had been won to his side. "_And now_," said he, +"there is a niche near to Washington which should be occupied by him who +shall save his country. Mr. Lincoln has a mighty destiny! * * * He is no +coward, he may be President _of all the people_ and fill that niche, but +if he chooses to be in these times a mere sectarian and party man, that +place will be reserved for some future and better patriot." "It is in +his power to occupy a place next to Washington, the _founder_ and +_preserver_ side by side." It was understood the Border State men +everywhere were ready to crown him the peer of Washington if he would +not touch slavery. + +It was OWEN LOVEJOY, the early abolitionist, who made an instantaneous, +impromptu reply, a reply the eloquence of which thrilled Congress and +the country, and is in my judgment among the finest specimens of +American eloquence. + +Said he, "Let Abraham Lincoln make himself, as I trust he will, the +Emancipator, the liberator of a race, and his name shall not only be +enrolled in this earthly temple, but it will be traced on the living +stones of that Temple, which rears itself amidst the thrones of Heaven." +Alluding to what Crittenden had said, he added, "There is a niche for +Abraham Lincoln in Freedom's holy fane. In that niche he shall stand +proudly, gloriously, with shattered fetters, and broken chains and +slave-whips beneath his feet. * * This is a fame worth living for; ay, +more, it is a fame worth _dying_ for, even though (said he with +prophetic prescience) that death led through the blood of Gethsemane and +the agony of the accursed tree." + +These two speeches were read to Mr. Lincoln in his library at the White +House, a room to which he sometimes retired. He was moved by the picture +which Lovejoy drew. The tremendous responsibilities growing out of the +slavery question, how he ought to treat those sons of "unrequited toil," +were questions sinking deeper and deeper into his heart. With a purpose +firmly to follow the path of duty, as God should give him to see his +duty, he earnestly sought the divine guidance. + +Speaking afterward of Emancipation, Mr. Lincoln said: "When, in March, +May, and July, 1862, I made earnest and successive appeals to the Border +States to favor compensated emancipation, I believed the indispensable +necessity for military emancipation and arming the blacks would come, +unless averted by that measure. They declined the proposition and I was +in my best judgment driven to the alternative of either surrendering the +Union or issuing the Emancipation Proclamation."[6] + +[6] See Letter of the President to A. G. Hodges, dated April 4, 1864. + +Before issuing the proclamation, he had appealed to the Border States +to adopt gradual emancipation. His appeal is one of the most earnest and +eloquent papers in all history. "Our country," said he, "is in great +peril, demanding the loftiest views and boldest action to bring a speedy +relief; once relieved, its form of government is saved to the world, its +beloved history and cherished memories are vindicated, and its future +fully assured and rendered inconceivably grand." + +The appeal was received by some with apathy, by others with caviling and +opposition, and was followed by action on the part of none. Meanwhile +his friends urged emancipation. They declared there could be no +permanent peace while slavery lived. "Seize," cried they, "the +thunderbolt of Liberty, and shatter Slavery to atoms, and then the +Republic will live." After the great battle of Antietam, the President +called his cabinet together, and announced to them that "_in obedience +to a solemn vow to God_," he was about to issue the edict of Freedom. + +The proclamation came, modestly, sublimely, reverently the great act was +done. "Sincerely believing it to be an act of justice, warranted by the +Constitution, upon military necessity, he invoked upon it the +considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God." + +On the first of January, 1863, the Executive mansion, as is usual on New +Year's Day, was crowded with the officials, foreign and domestic, of the +National Capital; the men of mark of the army and navy and from civil +life crowded around the care-worn President, to express their kind +wishes for him personally, and their prayers for the future of the +country. + +During the reception, after he had been shaking hands with hundreds, a +secretary hastily entered and told him the Proclamation (the final +proclamation) was ready for his signature. Leaving the crowd, he went to +his office, taking up a pen, attempting to write, and was astonished to +find he could not control the muscles of his hand and arm sufficiently +to write his name. He said to me, "I paused, and a feeling of +superstition, a sense of the vast responsibility of the act, came over +me; then, remembering that my arm had been well-nigh paralyzed by two +hours' of hand-shaking, I smiled at my superstitious feeling, and wrote +my name." + +This Proclamation, the Declaration of Independence, and _Magna Charta_, +these be great landmarks, each indicating an advance to a higher and +more Christian civilization. Upon these will the historian linger, as +the stepping-stones toward a higher plane of existence. From this time +the war meant _universal liberty_. When, in June, 1858, at his home in +Springfield, Lincoln startled the country by the announcement, "this +nation can not endure half _slave_, and _half free_," and when he +concluded that remarkable speech by declaring, with uplifted eye and the +inspired voice of a prophet, "we shall not fail if we stand firm, _we +shall not fail_, wise councils may accelerate or mistakes delay, but +sooner or later the victory is sure to come," he looked to years of +peaceful controversy and final triumph through the ballot-box. He +anticipated no war, and he did not foresee, unless in those mysterious, +dim shadows, which sometimes startle by half revealing the future, his +own elevation to the presidency; he little dreamed that he was to be the +instrument in the hands of God to speak those words which should +emancipate a race and free his country! + +I have not space to follow the movements of the armies; the long, sad +campaigns of the grand army of the Potomac under McClellan, Pope, +Burnside, Hooker, Meade; nor the varying fortunes of war in the great +Valley of the Mississippi under Freemont, and Halleck, and Buell. Armies +had not only to be organized, but educated and trained, and especially +did the President have to search for and find those fitted for high +command. + +Ultimately he found such and placed them at the head of the armies. Up +to 1863, there had been vast expenditures of blood and treasure, and, +although great successes had been achieved and progress made, yet there +had been so many disasters and grievous failures, that the hopes of the +insurgents of final success were still confident. With all the great +victories in the South, and Southwest, by land and on the sea, the +Mississippi was still closed. The President opened the campaign of 1863 +with the determination of accomplishing two great objects, first to get +control of and open the Mississippi; second to destroy the army of +Virginia under Lee, and seize upon the rebel capital. By the capture of +Vicksburg, and the fall of Port Hudson, the first and primary object of +the campaign was realized. + +"The 'Father of Waters' again went unvexed to the sea. Thanks to the +great Northwest for it, nor yet wholly to them. Three hundred miles up +they met New England, Empire, Keystone, and Jersey, hewing their way +right and left. The army South, too, in more colors than one, lent a +helping hand."[7] While the gallant armies of the West were achieving +these victories, operations in the East were crowned by the decisively +important triumph at Gettysburg. Let us pass over the scenes of +conflict, on the sea and on the land, at the East and at the West, and +come to that touching incident in the life of Lincoln, the consecration +of the battle-field of Gettysburg as a National cemetery. + +[7] See letter of Mr. Lincoln to State Convention of Illinois. + + + + +GETTYSBURG. + + +Here, late in the autumn of that year of battles, a portion of that +battle-ground was to be consecrated as the last resting-place of those +who there gave their lives that the Republic might live. + +There were gathered there the President, his Cabinet, members of +Congress, Governors of States, and a vast and brilliant assemblage of +officers, soldiers, and citizens, with solemn and impressive ceremonies +to consecrate the earth to its pious purpose. New England's most +distinguished orator and scholar was selected to pronounce the oration. +The address of Everett was worthy of the occasion. When the elaborate +oration was finished, the tall, homely form of Lincoln arose; simple, +rude, majestic, slowly he stepped to the front of the stage, drew from +his pocket a manuscript, and commenced reading that wonderful address, +which an English scholar and statesman has pronounced the finest in the +English language. The polished periods of Everett had fallen somewhat +coldly upon the ear, but Lincoln had not finished the first sentence +before the magnetic influence of a grand idea eloquently uttered by a +sympathetic nature, pervaded the vast assemblage. He said:-- + +"Fourscore and seven years ago, our fathers brought forth on this +continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the +proposition that all men are created equal. + +"Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, +or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are +met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a +portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave +their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and +proper that we should do this. + +"But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate--we can not consecrate--we +can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who +struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or +detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we _say_ +here, but it can never forget what they _did_ here. 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, and for the people, shall not +perish from the earth." + +He was so absorbed with the heroic sacrifices of the soldiers as to be +utterly unconscious that he was _the great actor_ in the drama, and that +his simple words would live as long as the memory of the heroism he +there commemorated. + +Closing his brief address amidst the deepest emotions of the crowd, he +turned to Everett and congratulated him upon his success. "Ah, Mr. +Lincoln," said the orator, "I would gladly exchange my hundred pages for +your twenty lines." + + + + +1864. + + +On the first of January, 1864, Mr. Lincoln received his friends as was +usual on New Year's day, and the improved prospects of the country, made +it a day of congratulation. The decisive victories East and West +enlivened and made buoyant and hopeful the spirits of all. One of the +most devoted friends of Mr. Lincoln calling upon him, after exchanging +congratulations over the progress of the Union armies during the past +year, said:-- + +"I hope, Mr. President, one year from to-day, I may have the pleasure of +congratulating you on the consummation of three events which seem now +very probable." + +"What are they?" said Mr. Lincoln. + +"First, That the rebellion may be completely crushed. Second, That +slavery may be entirely destroyed, and prohibited forever throughout the +Union. Third, That Abraham Lincoln may have been triumphantly re-elected +President of the United States." + +"I would be very glad," said Mr. Lincoln, with a twinkle in his eye, "to +compromise, by securing the success of the first two propositions." + + + + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT. + + +On the 22d of February, 1864, President Lincoln nominated General U. S. +Grant as Lieutenant-General of all the armies of the United States, and +on the 9th of March, at the White House, he, in person, presented the +victorious General with his commission, and sent him forth to consummate +with the armies of the East, his world-renowned successes at the West. +Then followed the memorable campaign of 1864-5. Sherman's brilliant +Atlanta campaign; Sheridan's glorious career in the Valley of the +Shenandoah; Thomas's victories in Tennessee, the triumph at Lookout +Mountain; Sherman's "Grand march to the sea," the fall of Mobile, the +capture of Fort Fisher, and Wilmington, indicating the near approach of +peace through war. In the midst of these successes, Mr. Lincoln was +triumphantly re-elected, the people thereby stamping upon his +administration their grateful approval. At the session of Congress, of +1864-5, he urged the adoption of an amendment of the Constitution +abolishing and prohibiting slavery forever throughout the Republic, +thereby consummating his own great work of Emancipation. + + + + +CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT ABOLISHING SLAVERY. + + +As the great leader in the overthrow of slavery, he had seen his action +sanctioned by an emphatic majority of the people, and now the +constitutional majority of two-thirds of both branches of Congress had +voted to submit to the States this amendment of the organic law. + +Illinois, the home of Lincoln, as was fit, took the lead in ratifying +this amendment, and other States rapidly followed, until more than the +requisite number was obtained, and the amendment adopted. Meanwhile, +military successes continued, until the victory over slavery and +rebellion was won. + + + + +LINCOLN'S SECOND INAUGURATION. + + +It was known, by a dispatch received at the Capitol at midnight, on the +3d of March, 1865, that Lee had sought an interview with Grant, to +arrange terms of surrender. On the next day Lincoln again stood on the +eastern colonnade of the Capitol, again to swear fidelity to the +Republic, her Constitution, and laws; but, how changed the scene from +his first inauguration. No traitors now occupied high places under the +Government. Crowds of citizens and soldiers who would have died for +their beloved Chief Magistrate now thronged the area. Liberty loyalty, +and victory had crowned the eagles of our armies. No conspirators were +now mingling in the crowd, unless perchance the assassin Booth might +have been lurking there. Many patriots and statesmen were in their +graves. Douglas was dead, and Ellsworth, and Baker, and McPherson, and +Reynolds, and Wadsworth, and a host of martyrs, had given their lives +that liberty and the Republic might triumph. It was a very touching +spectacle to see the long lines of invalid and wounded soldiers, from +the great hospitals about Washington, some on crutches, some who had +lost an arm, many pale from unhealed wounds, who gathered to witness the +scene. As Lincoln ascended the platform, and his tall form, towering +above all his associates, was recognized, cheers and shouts of welcome +filled the air, and not until he raised his arm motioning for silence, +could the acclamations be hushed. He paused a moment, looked over the +scene, and still hesitated. What thronging memories passed through his +mind! Here, four years before, he had stood pleading, oh, how earnestly, +for _peace_. But, even while he pleaded, the rebels took up the sword, +and he was forced to "_accept war_." + +Now four long, bloody, weary years of devastating war had passed, and +those who made the war were everywhere discomfited, and being +overthrown. That barbarous institution which had caused the war, had +been destroyed, and the dawn of peace already brightened the sky. Such +the scene, and such the circumstances under which Lincoln pronounced his +second Inaugural, a speech which has no parallel since Christ's Sermon +on the Mount. + +Who shall say that I am irreverent when I declare, that the passage, +"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this _mighty scourge_ of +war _may speedily pass away_! yet, if God wills that it continue until +all the wealth piled by the bondsmen's two hundred and fifty years of +unrequited toil shall be sunk, and every drop of blood drawn by the +lash, shall be paid by another drawn by the sword, as was said three +thousand years ago, so it must be said now, that the judgments of the +Lord are true and righteous altogether," could only have been inspired +by that _Holy Book_, which daily he read, and from which he ever sought +guidance? + +Where, but from the teachings of Christ, could he have learned that +charity in which he so unconsciously described his own moral nature, +"_With malice toward none, with charity for all_, with firmness in the +right, as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are +in, _to bind up the nation's wounds_, to care for him who hath borne the +battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve a +just and lasting peace, among ourselves and among all nations." + + + + +END OF THE WAR. + + +And now Mr. Lincoln gave his whole attention to the movements of the +armies, which, as he confidently hoped, were on the eve of final and +complete triumph. On the 27th of March he visited the head-quarters of +General Grant, at City Point, to concert with his most trusted military +chiefs the final movements against Lee, and Johnston. Grant was still at +bay before Petersburg. Sherman with his veterans, after occupying +Georgia and South Carolina, had reached Goldsboro', North Carolina, on +his victorious march north. It was the hope and purpose of the two +great leaders, whose generous friendship for each other made them ever +like brothers, now and there to crush the armies of Lee and Johnston, +and finish the "job." + +An artist has worthily painted the scene of the meeting of Lincoln and +his cabinet, when he first announced and read to them his proclamation +of Emancipation. Another artist is now recording for the American people +the scene of this memorable meeting of the President and the Generals, +which took place in the cabin of the steamer "River Queen," lying at the +dock in the James River. Three men more unlike personally and mentally, +and yet of more distinguished ability, have rarely been called together. +Although so entirely unlike, each was a type of American character, and +all had peculiarities not only American, but Western. + +Lincoln's towering form had acquired dignity by his great deeds, and the +great ideas to which he had given expression. His rugged features, +lately so deeply furrowed with care and responsibility, were now radiant +with hope and confidence. He met the two great leaders with grateful +cordiality; with clear intelligence he grasped the military situation, +and listened with eager confidence to their details of the final moves +which should close this terrible game of war. + +Contrasting, with the giant-like stature of Lincoln, was the short, +sturdy, resolute form of the hero of Fort Donelson and Vicksburg, so +firm and iron-like, every feature of his face and every attitude and +movement so quiet, yet all expressive of inflexible will and never +faltering determination, "to fight it out on this line." + +There, too, was Sherman, with his broad intellectual forehead, his +restless eye, his nervous energy, his sharply outlined features bronzed +by that magnificent campaign from Chattanooga to Atlanta and from +Atlanta to the Sea, and now fresh from the conquest of Georgia and South +Carolina. On the eve of final triumph, Lincoln, with characteristic +humanity deplored the necessity which all realized, of one more hard and +deadly battle. They separated, Sherman hastening to his post, and Grant +commenced those brilliant movements which in ten days ended the war. Now +followed in rapid succession the fall of Richmond, the surrender of Lee, +the capitulation of Johnston and his army, the capture of Jefferson +Davis, and the final overthrow of the rebellion. + +The Union troops, on the morning of the 4th of April, entered the rebel +capital. Among the exulting columns which followed the eagles of the +Republic, were some regiments of negro soldiers, who marched through the +streets of Richmond singing their favorite song of "John Brown's soul is +marching on." + +On the day of its capture, President Lincoln, with Admiral Porter, +visited Richmond. Leading his youngest son, a lad, by the hand, he +walked from the James River landing to the house just vacated by the +rebel President. From the time of the issuing of his proclamation to +this, his triumphant entry into the rebel capital, he had been ever +ready and anxious for peace. To all the world he had proclaimed, what he +said so emphatically to the rebel emissaries at Hampton Roads. "There +are just two indispensable conditions of peace, national unity, and +national liberty." "The national authority must be restored through all +the States, and I will _never recede_ from my position on the slavery +question." He would never violate the national faith, and now God had +crowned his efforts with complete success. He entered Richmond as a +conqueror, but as its preserver he issued no decree of proscription or +confiscation, and to all the South his policy was, "with malice toward +none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gave him +to see the right, he sought to finish the work, and do all which should +achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace." + +On the 9th of April he returned to Washington, and had scarcely arrived +at the White House before the news of the surrender of Lee and all his +army reached him. No language can adequately describe the joy and +gratitude which filled the hearts of the President and the people. + +And here, before the attempt is made to sketch the darkest and most +dastardly crime in all our annals, let us pause for one moment to +mention that last review on the 22d and 23d of May, of these victorious +citizen soldiers, who had come at the call of the President, and who, +their work being done, were now to return again to their homes scattered +throughout the country they had saved. + +These bronzed and scarred veterans who had survived the battle-fields of +four years of active war, whose field of operations had been a +continent, the brave men who had marched and fought their way from New +England and the Northwest, to New Orleans and Charleston; those who had +withstood and repelled the terrific charges of the rebels at Gettysburg; +those who had fought beneath and above the clouds at Lookout Mountain; +who had taken Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, Atlanta, New Orleans, Savannah, +Mobile, Petersburg, and Richmond; the triumphal entry of these heroes +into the National Capital of the Republic which they had saved and +redeemed, was deeply impressive. Triumphal arches, garlands, wreaths of +flowers, evergreens, marked their pathway. Acting President and +Cabinet, Governors and Senators, ladies, children, citizens, all united +to express the nation's gratitude to those by whose heroism it had been +saved. + +But there was one great shadow over the otherwise brilliant spectacle. +Lincoln, their great-hearted chief, he whom all loved fondly to call +their "Father Abraham;" he whose heart had been ever with them in camp, +and on the march, in the storm of battle, and in the hospital; he had +been murdered, stung to death, by the fang of the expiring serpent which +these soldiers had crushed. There were many thousands of these gallant +men in Blue, as they filed past the White House, whose weather-beaten +faces were wet with tears of manly grief. How gladly, joyfully would +they have given their lives to have saved his. + + + + +LAST DAYS OF LINCOLN. + + +It has been already stated that Mr. Lincoln returned to the Capital on +the 9th of April; from that day until the 14th was a scene of continued +rejoicing, gratulation, and thanksgiving to Almighty God who had given +to us the victory. In every city, town, village, and school district, +bells rang, salutes were fired, and the Union flag, now worshiped more +than ever by every loyal heart, waved from every home. The President was +full of hope and happiness. The clouds were breaking away, and his +genial, kindly nature was revolving plans of reconciliation and peace. +How could he now bind up the wounds of his country and obliterate the +scars of the war, and restore friendship and good feeling to every +section? These considerations occupied his thoughts: there was no +bitterness, no desire for revenge. On the morning of the 14th, Robert +Lincoln, just returned from the army, where, on the staff of General +Grant, he had witnessed the surrender of Lee, breakfasted with his +father, and the happy hour was passed in listening to details of that +event. The day was occupied, first, with an interview with Speaker +Colfax, then exchanging congratulations with a party of old Illinois +friends, then a cabinet meeting, attended by Gen. Grant, at which all +remarked his hopeful, joyous spirit, and all bear testimony that in this +hour of triumph, he had no thought of vengeance, but his mind was +revolving the best means of bringing back to sincere loyalty, those who +had been making war upon his country. He then drove out with Mrs. +Lincoln alone, and during the drive he dwelt upon the happy prospect now +before them, and contrasting the gloomy and distracting days of the war +with the peaceful ones now in anticipation, and looking beyond the term +of his Presidency, he, in imagination, saw the time when he should +return again to his prairie home, meet his old friends, and resume his +old mode of life. In fancy, he was again in his old law library, and +before the courts: with these were mingled visions of a prairie farm, +and once more the plow and the ax should become familiar to his hand. +Such were some of the incidents and fancies of the last day of the life +of Abraham Lincoln. + + + + +THE ASSASSINATION. + + +From the time of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency, many +threats, public and private, were made of his assassination. An attempt +to murder him would undoubtedly have been made, in February, 1861, on +his passage through Baltimore, had not the plot been discovered, and the +time of his passage been anticipated. From the day of his inauguration, +he began to receive letters threatening assassination. He said: "The +first one or two made me uncomfortable, but," said he, smiling, "there +is nothing like getting _used_ to things." He was constitutionally +fearless, and came to consider these letters as idle threats, meant only +to annoy him, and it was very difficult for his friends to induce him to +resort to any precautions. + +It was announced through the press that on the evening of the 14th of +April, Mr. Lincoln and General Grant would attend Ford's Theater. The +General did not attend, but Mr. Lincoln, being unwilling to disappoint +the public expectation, accompanied by Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Harris, and +Major Rathbone, was induced to go. The writer met him on the portico of +the White House just as he was about to enter his carriage, exchanged +greetings with him, and will never forget the radiant, happy expression +of his countenance, and the kind, genial tones of his voice, as we +parted _for the night_ as we then thought--_forever_ in this world, as +it resulted. + +The President was received, as he always was, by acclamations. When he +reached the door of his box, he turned, and smiled, and bowed in +acknowledgment of the hearty greeting which welcomed him, and then +followed Mrs. Lincoln into the box. This was at the right hand of the +stage. In the corner nearest the stage sat Miss Harris, next her Mrs. +Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln sat nearest the entrance, Major Rathbone being +seated on a sofa, in the back part of the box. The theater, and +especially the box occupied by the President's party, was most +beautifully draped with the national colors. While the play was in +progress, John Wilkes Booth visited the theater behind the scenes, left +a horse ready saddled in the alley behind the building, leaving a door +opening to this alley ready for his escape. + +In the midst of the play, at the hour of 10.30, a pistol shot, sharp and +clear, is heard! a man with a bloody dagger in his hand leaps from the +President's box to the stage exclaiming, "_Sic semper tyrannis_," "the +South is avenged." As the assassin struck the stage, the spur on his +boot having caught in the folds of the flag, he fell to his knee. +Instantly rising, he brandished his dagger, darted across the stage, out +of the door he had left open, mounted his horse and galloped away. The +audience, startled and stupefied with horror, were for a few seconds +spell-bound. Some one cries out in the crowd, "_John Wilkes Booth!_" +This man, an actor, familiar with the locality, after arranging for his +escape, had passed round to the front of the theater, entered, passed in +to the President's box, entered at the open and unguarded door, and +stealing up behind the President, who was intent upon the play, placed +his pistol near the back of the head of Mr. Lincoln, and fired. The ball +penetrated the brain, and the President fell upon his face mortally +wounded, unconscious and speechless from the first. Major Rathbone had +attempted to seize Booth as he rushed past toward the stage, and +received from the assassin a severe cut in the arm. + +No words can describe the anguish and horror of Mrs. Lincoln. The scene +was heart-rending; she prayed for death to relieve her suffering. The +insensible form of the President was removed across the street to the +house of a Mr. Peterson. Robert Lincoln soon reached the scene, and the +members of the cabinet and personal friends crowded around the place of +the fearful tragedy. And there the strong constitution of Mr. Lincoln +struggled with death, until twenty-two minutes past seven the next +morning, when his heart ceased to beat. The scene during that long +fearful night of woe, at the house of Peterson, beggars description. + +News of the appalling deed spread through the city, and it was found +necessary to restrain the anxious, weeping people by a double guard +around the house. The surgeons from the first examination of the wound, +pronounced it mortal; and the shock and the agony of that terrible night +to Mrs. Lincoln was enough to distract the reason, and break the heart +of the most self-controlled. Robert Lincoln sought, by manly +self-mastery to control his own grief and soothe his mother, and aid her +to sustain her overwhelming sorrow. + +When at last, the noble heart ceased to beat, the Rev. Dr. Gurley, in +the presence of the family, the household, and those friends of the +President who were present, knelt down, and touchingly prayed the +Almighty Father, to aid and strengthen the family and friends to bear +their terrible sorrow. + +I will not attempt with feeble pen to sketch the scenes of that terrible +night; I leave that for the pencil of the artist! + +As has been said, the name of the assassin was John Wilkes Booth! He was +shot by Boston Corbett, a soldier on the 21st of April. + + + + +ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF SECRETARY SEWARD. + + +On the same night of the assassination of the President, an accomplice +of Booth attempted to murder Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, in his +own house, while confined to his bed from severe injuries received by +being thrown from his carriage. He was terribly mangled; and his life +was saved by the heroic efforts of his sons and daughter and a nurse, +whose name was Robinson. Some of the accomplices of Booth were arrested, +tried, convicted, and hung; but all were the mere tools and instruments +of the Conspirators. Mystery and darkness yet hang over the chief +instigators of this most cowardly murder: none can say whether the chief +conspirators will ever, in this world, be dragged to light and +punishment. + +The terrible news of the death of Lincoln was, on the morning of the +15th, borne by telegraph to every portion of the Republic. Coming, as it +did, in the midst of universal joy, no language can picture the horror +and grief of the people on its reception. A whole nation wept. Persons +who had not heard the news, coming into crowded cities, were struck with +the strange aspect of the people. All business was suspended; gloom, +sadness, grief, sat upon every face. The flag, which had everywhere, +from every spire and masthead, roof, and tree, and public building, been +floating in glorious triumph, was now lowered; and, as the hours of that +dreary 15th of April passed on, the people, by common impulse, each +family by itself, commenced draping their houses and public buildings in +mourning, and before night the whole nation was shrouded in black. + +There were no classes of people in the Republic whose grief was more +demonstrative than that of the soldiers and the freedmen. The vast +armies, not yet disbanded, looked upon Lincoln as their father. They +knew his heart had followed them in all their campaigns and marches and +battles. Grief and vengeance filled their hearts. But the poor negroes +everywhere wept and sobbed over a loss which they instinctively felt was +to them irreparable. On the Sunday following his death, the whole people +gathered to their places of public worship, and mingled their tears +together over a bereavement which every one felt like the loss of a +father or a brother. The remains of the President were taken to the +White House. On the 17th, on Monday, a meeting of the members of +Congress then in Washington, was held at the Capitol, to make +arrangements for the funeral. This meeting named a committee of one +member from each State and Territory, and the whole Congressional +delegation from Illinois, as a Congressional Committee to attend the +remains of Mr. Lincoln to their final resting-place in Illinois. Senator +Sumner and others desired that his body should be placed under the dome +of the Capitol at Washington. It was stated that a vault had been +prepared there for the remains of Washington, but had never been used, +because the Washington family and Virginia desired them to remain in the +family vault at Mount Vernon. It was said it would be peculiarly +appropriate for the remains of Lincoln to be deposited under the dome of +the Capitol of the Republic he had saved and redeemed. + +The funeral took place on Wednesday, the 19th. The services were held in +the East Room of the Executive Mansion. It was a bright, genial +day--typical of the kind and genial nature of him whom a nation was so +deeply mourning. + +After the sad ceremonies at the National Capital, the remains of the +President and of his beloved son Willie, who died at the White House +during his presidency, were placed on a funeral car, and started on its +long pilgrimage to his old home in Illinois, and it was arranged that +the train should take nearly the same route as that by which he had come +from Springfield to Washington in assuming the Executive Chair. + +And now the people of every State, city, town, and hamlet, came with +uncovered heads, with streaming eyes, with their offerings of wreaths +and flowers, to witness the passing train. It is impossible to describe +the scenes. Minute-guns, the tolling of bells, music, requiems, dirges, +military and civic displays, draped flags, black covering every public +building and private house, everywhere indicated the pious desire of the +people to do honor to the dead: two thousand miles, along which every +house was draped in black, and from which, everywhere, hung the national +colors in mourning. The funeral ceremonies at Baltimore were peculiarly +impressive: nowhere were the manifestations of grief more universal; but +the sorrow of the negroes, who thronged the streets in thousands, and +hung like a dark fringe upon the long procession, was especially +impressive. Their coarse, homely features were convulsed with a grief +which they could not control; their emotional natures, excited by the +scene, and by each other, until sobs and cries and tears, rolling down +their black faces, told how deeply they felt their loss. When the +remains reached Philadelphia, a half million of people were in the +streets, to do honor to all that was left of him, who, in old +Independence Hall, four years before, had declared that he would sooner +die, sooner be assassinated, than give up the principles of the +Declaration of Independence. He _had_ been assassinated because he would +_not_ give them up. All felt, when the remains were placed in that +historic room, surrounded by the memories of the great men of the Past, +whose portraits from the walls looked down upon the scene, that a peer +of the best and greatest of the revolutionary worthies was now added to +the list of those who had served the Republic. + +Through New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Indiana, to Illinois, all the people +followed the funeral train as mourners, but when the remains reached his +own State, where he had been personally known to every one, where the +people had all heard him on the stump and in court, every family +mourned him as a father and a brother. The train reached Springfield on +the 3d of May; and the corpse was taken to Oak Ridge Cemetery, and +there, among his old friends and neighbors, his clients, and +constituents, surrounded by representatives from the Army and Navy, with +delegations from every State, with all the people, the world for his +mourners--was he buried. + + + + +PERSONAL SKETCHES OF LINCOLN.[8] + +[8] The substance of what follows is from chapter 29th of "The History +of Abraham Lincoln, and The Overthrow of Slavery," by Isaac N. Arnold. + + +In the remaining pages, I shall attempt to give a word-picture of Mr. +Lincoln, his person, his moral and intellectual characteristics, and +some personal recollections, so as to aid the reader, as far as I may be +able, in forming an ideal of the man. + +Physically, he was a tall, spare man, six feet and four inches in +height. He stooped, leaning forward as he walked. He was very athletic, +with long, sinewy arms, large, bony hands, and of great physical power. +Many anecdotes of his strength are given, which show that it was equal +to that of two or three ordinary men. He lifted with ease five or six +hundred pounds. His legs and arms were disproportionately long, as +compared with his body; and when he walked, he swung his arms to and fro +more than most men. When seated, he did not seem much taller than +ordinary men. In his movements there was no grace, but an impression of +awkward strength and vigor. + +He was naturally diffident, and even to the day of his death, when in +crowds, and not speaking or acting, and conscious of being observed, he +seemed to shrink with bashfulness. When he became interested, or spoke, +or listened, this appearance left him, and he indicated no +self-consciousness. His forehead was high and broad, his hair very dark, +nearly black, and rather stiff and coarse, his eyebrows were heavy, his +eyes dark-gray, very expressive and varied; now sparkling with humor and +fun, and then deeply sad and melancholy; flashing with indignation at +injustice or wrong, and then kind, genial, droll, dreamy; according to +his mood. + +His nose was large, and clearly defined and well shaped; cheek-bones +high and projecting. His mouth coarse, but firm. He was easily +caricatured--but difficult to represent as he was, in marble or on +canvass. The best bust of him is that of Volk, which was modeled from a +cast taken from life in May, 1860, while he was attending court at +Chicago. + +Among the best portraits, in the judgment of his family and intimate +friends, are those of Carpenter, in the picture of the Reading of the +Proclamation of Emancipation before the Cabinet, and that of Marshall. + +He would be instantly recognized as belonging to that type of tall, +thin, large-boned men, produced in the northern portion of the Valley of +the Mississippi, and exhibiting its peculiar characteristics in a most +marked degree in Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee. In any crowd in the +United States, he would have been readily pointed out as a Western man. +His stature, figure, manner, voice, and accent, indicated that he was of +the Northwest. His manners were cordial, familiar, genial; always +perfectly self-possessed, he made every one feel at home, and no one +approached him without being impressed with his kindly, frank nature, +his clear, good sense, and his transparent truthfulness and integrity. +There is more or less of expression and character in handwriting. +Lincoln's was plain, simple, clear, and legible, as that of Washington; +but unlike that of Washington, it was without ornament. + +In endeavoring to state those qualities which gave him success and +greatness, among the most important, it seems to me, were a supreme love +of truth, and a wonderful capacity to ascertain it. Mentally, he had a +perfect eye for truth. His mental vision was clear and accurate: he saw +things as they were. I mean that every thing presented to his mind for +investigation, he saw divested of every extraneous circumstance, every +coloring, association, or accident which could mislead. This gave him at +the bar a sagacity which seemed almost instinctive, in sifting the true +from the false, and in ascertaining facts; and so it was in all things +through life. He ever sought the real, the true, and the right. He was +exact, carefully accurate in all his statements. He analyzed well; he +saw and presented what lawyers call the very _gist_ of every question, +divested of all unimportant or accidental relations, so that his +statement was a demonstration. At the bar, his exposition of his case, +or a question of law, was so clear, that, on hearing it, most persons +were surprised that there should be any controversy about it. His +reasoning powers were keen and logical, and moved forward to a +demonstration with the precision of mathematics. What has been said +implies that he possessed not only a sound judgment, which brought him +to correct conclusions, but that he was able so to present questions as +to bring others to the same result. + +His memory was capacious, ready, and tenacious. His reading was limited +in extent, but his memory was so ready, and so retentive, that in +history, poetry, and general literature, no one ever remarked any +deficiency. As an illustration of the power of his memory, I recollect +to have once called at the White House, late in his Presidency, and +introducing to him a Swede and a Norwegian; he immediately repeated a +poem of eight or ten verses, describing Scandinavian scenery and old +Norse legends. In reply to the expression of their delight, he said that +he had read and admired the poem several years before, and it had +entirely gone from him, but seeing them recalled it. + +The two books which he read most were the Bible and Shakespeare. With +these he was very familiar, reading and studying them habitually and +constantly. He had great fondness for poetry, and eloquence, and his +taste and judgment in each was exquisite. Shakespeare was his favorite +poet; Burns stood next. I know of a speech of his at a Burns festival, +in which he spoke at length of Burns's poems; illustrating what he said +by many quotations, showing perfect familiarity with and full +appreciation of the peasant poet of Scotland. He was extremely fond of +ballads, and of simple, sad, and plaintive music. + +He was a most admirable reader. He read and repeated passages from the +Bible and Shakespeare with great simplicity but remarkable expression +and effect. Often when going to and from the army, on steamers and in +his carriage, he took a copy of Shakespeare with him, and not +unfrequently read, aloud to his associates. After conversing upon public +affairs, he would take up his Shakespeare, and addressing his +companions, remark, "What do you say now to a scene from Macbeth, or +Hamlet, or Julius Caesar," and then he would read aloud, scene after +scene, never seeming to tire of the enjoyment. + +On the last Sunday of his life, as he was coming up the Potomac, from +his visit to City Point and Richmond, he read aloud many extracts from +Shakespeare. Among others, he read, with an accent and feeling which no +one who heard him will ever forget, extracts from Macbeth, and among +others the following:-- + + "Duncan is in his grave; + After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well. + Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison, + Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing + Can touch him farther." + +After "treason" had "_done his worst_," the friends who heard him on +that occasion remembered that he read that passage very slowly over +twice, and with an absorbed and peculiar manner. Did he feel a +mysterious presentiment of his approaching fate? + +His conversation was original, suggestive, instructive, and playful; +and, by its genial humor, fascinating and attractive beyond comparison. +Mirthfulness and sadness were strongly combined in him. His mirth was +exuberant, it sparkled in jest, story, and anecdote; and the next moment +those peculiarly sad, pathetic, melancholy eyes, showed a man "familiar +with sorrow, and acquainted with grief." I have listened for hours at +his table, and elsewhere, when he has been surrounded by statesmen, +military leaders, and other distinguished men of the nation, and I but +repeat the universally concurring verdict of all, in stating that as a +conversationalist he had no equal. One might meet in company with him +the most distinguished men, of various pursuits and professions, but +after listening for two or three hours, on separating, it was what +Lincoln had said that would be remembered. His were the ideas and +illustrations that would not be forgotten. Men often called upon him for +the pleasure of listening to him. I have heard the reply to an +invitation to attend the theater, "No, I am going up to the White House. +I would rather hear Lincoln talk for half an hour, than attend the best +theater in the world." + +As a public speaker, without any attempt at oratorical display, I think +he was the most effective of any man of his day. When he spoke, +everybody listened. It was always obvious, before he completed two +sentences, that he had something to say, and it was sure to be something +original, something different from any thing heard from others, or which +had been read in books. He impressed the hearer at once, as an earnest, +sincere man, who believed what he said. To-day, there are more of the +sayings of Lincoln repeated by the people, more quotations, sentences, +and extracts from his writings and speeches, familiar as "household +words," than from those of any other American. + +I know no book, except the Bible and Shakespeare, from which so many +familiar phrases and expressions have been taken as from his writings +and speeches. Somebody has said, "I care not who makes the laws, if I +may write the ballads of a nation." The words of Lincoln have done more +in the last six years to mold and fashion the American character than +those of any other man, and their influence has been all for truth, +right, justice, and liberty. Great as has been Lincoln's services to the +people, as their President, his influence, derived from his words and +his example, in molding the future national character, in favor of +justice, right, liberty, truth, and real, sincere, unostentatious +reverence for God, is scarcely less important. The Republic of the +future, the matured national character, will be more influenced by him +than by any other man. This is evidence of his greatness, intellectual, +and still more, moral. In this power of impressing himself upon the +people, he contrasts with many other distinguished men in our history. +Few quotations from Jefferson, or Adams, or Webster, live in the +every-day language of the people. Little of Clay survives; not much of +Calhoun, and who can quote, off-hand, half a dozen sentences from +Douglas? But you hear Lincoln's words, not only in every cabin and +caucus, and in every stump speech, but at every school-house, +high-school, and college declamation, and by every farmer and artisan, +as he tells you story after story of Lincoln's, and all to the point, +hitting the nail on the head every time, and driving home the argument. +Mr. Lincoln was not a scholar, but where is there a speech more +exhaustive in argument than his Cooper Institute address? Where any +thing more full of pathos than his farewell to his neighbors at +Springfield, when he bade them good-bye, on starting for the capital? +Where any thing more eloquent than his appeal for peace and union, in +his first Inaugural, or than his defense of the Declaration of +Independence in the Douglas debates? Where the equal of his speech at +Gettysburg? Where a more conclusive argument than in his letter to the +Albany Meeting on Arrests? What is better than his letter to the +Illinois State Convention; and that to Hodges of Kentucky, in +explanation of his anti-slavery policy? Where is there any thing equal +in simple grandeur of thought and sentiment, to his last Inaugural? From +all of these, and many others, from his every-day talks, are extracts on +the tongues of the people, as familiar, and nearly as much reverenced, +as texts from the Bible; and these are shaping the national character. +"Though dead, he yet speaketh." + +As a public speaker, if excellence is measured by results, he had no +superior. His manner was generally earnest, often playful; sometimes, +but this was rare, he was vehement and impassioned. There have been a +few instances, at the bar and on the stump, when, wrought up to +indignation by some great personal wrong, or by an aggravated case of +fraud or injustice, or when speaking of the fearful wrongs and injustice +of slavery, he broke forth in a strain of impassioned vehemence which +carried every thing before him. + +Generally, he addressed the reason and judgment, and the effect was +lasting. He spoke extemporaneously, but not without more or less +preparation. He had the power of repeating, without reading it, a +discourse or speech which he had prepared or written out. His great +speech, in opening the Douglas canvass, in June, 1858, was carefully +written out, but so naturally spoken that few suspected that it was not +extemporaneous. In his style, manner of presenting facts, and way of +putting things to the people, he was more like Franklin than any other +American. His illustrations, by anecdote and story, were not unlike the +author of _Poor Richard_. + +A great cause of his intellectual power was the thorough exhaustive +investigation he gave to every subject. Take, for illustration, his +Cooper Institute speech. Hundreds of able and intelligent men have +spoken on the same subject treated by him in that speech, yet what they +said will all be forgotten, and his will survive; because his address is +absolutely perfect for the purpose for which it was designed. Nothing +can be added to it. + +Mr. Lincoln, however, required time thoroughly to investigate before he +came to his conclusions, and the movements of his mind were not rapid; +but when he reached his conclusions he believed in them, and adhered to +them with great firmness and tenacity. When called upon to decide +quickly upon a new subject or a new point, he often erred, and was ever +ready to change when satisfied he was wrong. + +It was the union, in Mr. Lincoln, of the capacity clearly to see the +truth, and an innate love of truth, and justice, and right in his heart, +that constituted his character and made him so great. He never +demoralized his intellectual or moral powers, either by doing wrong that +good might come, or by advocating error because it was popular. +Although, as a statesman, eminently practical, and looking to the +possible good of to-day, he ever kept in mind the absolute truth and +absolute right, toward which he always aimed. + +Mr. Lincoln was an unselfish man; he never sought his own advancement at +the expense of others. He was a just man; he never tried to pull others +down that he might rise. He disarmed rivalry and envy by his rare +generosity. He possessed the rare wisdom of magnanimity. He was +eminently a tender-hearted, kind, and humane man. These traits were +illustrated all through his life. He loved to pardon: he was averse to +punish. It was difficult for him to deny the request of a child, a +woman, or of any who were weak and suffering. Pages of incidents might +be quoted, showing his ever-thoughtful kindness, gratitude to, and +appreciation of the soldiers. The following note (written to a lady +known to him only by her sacrifices for her country) is selected from +many on this subject:-- + + "EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, + "November, 1864. + + "DEAR MADAM:-- + + "I have been shown, in the files of the War Department, a + statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts, that you + are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the + field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any + words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the + grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I can not refrain from + tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the + thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our + Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, + and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, + and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly + a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. + + "Yours very respectfully, + "ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + + "To Mrs. BIXBY, Boston, Massachusetts." + +One summer's day, in walking along the shaded path which leads from the +White House to the War Department, I saw the tall form of the President +seated on the grass under a tree, with a wounded soldier sitting by his +side. He had a bundle of papers in his hand. The soldier had met him in +the path, and, recognizing him, had asked his aid. Mr. Lincoln sat down +upon the grass, investigated the case, and sent the soldier away +rejoicing. In the midst of the rejoicings over the triumphs at +Chattanooga and Lookout Mountain, he forgets not to telegraph to Grant, +"Remember Burnside" at Knoxville. + +His charity, in the best sense of that word, was pervading. When others +railed, he railed not again. No bitter words, no denunciation can be +found in his writings or speeches. Literally, in his heart there was +"malice toward none, and charity for all." + +Mr. Lincoln was by nature a gentleman. No man can point, in all his +lifetime, to any thing mean, small, tricky, dishonest, or false; on the +contrary, he was ever open, manly, brave, just, sincere, and true. That +characteristic, attributed to him by some, of coarse story-telling, did +not exist. I assert that my intercourse with him was constant for many +years before he went to Washington, and I saw him daily, during the +greater part of his Presidency; and although his stories and anecdotes +were racy, witty, and pointed beyond all comparison, yet I never heard +one of a character to need palliation or excuse. If a story had wit and +was apt, he did not reject it, because to a vulgar or impure mind it +suggested coarse ideas; but he himself was unconscious of any thing but +its wit and aptness. + +It may interest the people who did not visit Washington during his +Presidency, to know something of his habits, and the room he occupied +and transacted business in, during his administration. His +reception-room was on the second floor, on the south side of the White +House, and the second apartment from the southeast corner. The corner +room was occupied by Mr. Nicolay, his private secretary; next to this +was the President's reception-room. It was, perhaps, thirty by twenty +feet. In the middle of the west side, was a large marble fireplace, with +old-fashioned brass andirons, and a large, high, brass fender. The +windows looked to the south, upon the lawn and shrubbery on the south +front of the White House, taking in the unfinished Washington Monument, +Alexandria, the Potomac, and down that beautiful river toward Mount +Vernon. Across the Potomac was Arlington Heights. The view from these +windows was altogether very beautiful. + +The furniture of this room consisted of a long oak table, covered with +cloth, and oak chairs. This table stood in the center of the room, and +was the one around which the Cabinet sat, at Cabinet meetings, and is +faithfully painted in Carpenter's picture of the Emancipation +Proclamation. At the end of the table, near the window, was a large +writing-table and desk, with pigeon-holes for papers, such as are common +in lawyers' offices. In front of this, in a large arm-chair, Mr. Lincoln +usually sat. Behind his chair, and against the west wall of the room, +was another writing-desk high enough to write upon when standing, and +upon the top of this were a few books, among which were the Statutes of +the United States, a Bible, and a copy of Shakespeare. There was a +bureau, with wooden doors, with pigeon-holes for papers, standing +between the windows. Here the President kept such papers as he wished +readily to refer to. There were two plain sofas in the room; generally +two or three map-frames, from which hung military maps, on which the +movements of the armies were continually traced and followed. The only +picture in the room was an old engraving of Jackson, which hung over +the fireplace; late in his administration was added a fine photograph of +John Bright. Two doors opened into this room--one from the Secretary's, +the other from the great hall, where the crowd usually waited. A +bell-cord hung within reach of his hand, while he sat at his desk. There +was an ante-room adjoining this, plainly furnished; but the crowd +usually pressed to the hall, from which an entrance might be directly +had to the President's room. A messenger stood at the door, and took in +the cards and names of visitors. + +Here, in this room, more plainly furnished than many law and business +offices--plainer than the offices of the heads of bureaus in the +Executive Departments--Mr. Lincoln spent the days of his Presidency. +Here he received everybody, from the Lieutenant-General and +Chief-Justice, down to the private soldier and humblest citizen. Custom +had established certain rules of precedence, fixing the order in which +officials should be received. The members of the Cabinet and the high +officers of the army were, of course, received always promptly. Senators +and members of Congress, who are usually charged with the presentation +of petitions and recommendations for appointments, and who are expected +to right every wrong and correct every evil each one of their respective +constituents may be suffering, or imagine himself to be suffering, have +an immense amount of business with the Executive. I have often seen as +many as ten or fifteen Senators and twenty or thirty Members of the +House in the hall, waiting their turn to see the President. They would +go to the ante-room, or up to the hall in front of the reception-room, +and await their turns. The order of precedence was, first the +Vice-President, if present, then the Speaker of the House, and then +Senators and Members of the House in the order of their arrival, and the +presentation of their cards. Frequently Senators and Members would go +to the White House as early as eight or nine in the morning, to secure +precedence and an early interview. While they waited, the loud ringing +laugh of Mr. Lincoln, in which he was sure to be joined by all _inside_, +but which was rather provoking to those _outside_, was often heard by +the waiting and impatient crowd. Here, from early morning to late at +night, he sat, listened, and decided--patient, just, considerate, +hopeful. All the people came to him as to a father. He was more +accessible than any of the leading members of his Cabinet--much more so +than Mr. Seward, shut up in the State Department, writing his voluminous +dispatches; far more so than Mr. Stanton, indefatigable, stern, abrupt, +but ever honest and faithful. Mr. Lincoln saw everybody--governors, +senators, congressmen, officers, ministers, bankers, merchants, +farmers--all classes of people; all approached him with confidence, from +the highest to the lowest; but this incessant labor and fearful +responsibility told upon his vigorous frame. He left Illinois for the +capital, with a frame of iron and nerves of steel. His old friends, who +knew him in Illinois as a man who knew not what illness was, who knew +him ever genial and sparkling with fun, as the months and years of the +war passed slowly on, saw the wrinkles on his forehead deepened into +furrows; and the laugh of old days became sometimes almost hollow; it +did not now always seem to come from the heart, as in former years. +Anxiety, responsibility, care, thought, wore upon even his giant frame, +and his nerves of steel became at times irritable. For more than four +years he had no respite, no holidays. When others fled away from the +dust and heat of the capital, he must stay; he would not leave the helm +until the danger was past and the ship was in port. + +Mrs. Lincoln watched his care-worn face with the anxiety of an +affectionate wife, and sometimes took him from his labors almost in +spite of himself. She urged him to ride, and to go to the theater and +places of amusement, to divert his mind from his engrossing cares. + +Let us for a moment try to appreciate the greatness of his work and his +services. He was the Commander-in-Chief, during the war, of the largest +army and navy in the world; and this army and navy was created during +his administration, and its officers were sought out and appointed by +him. The operations of the Treasury were vast beyond all previous +conceptions of the ability of the country to sustain; and yet, when he +entered upon the Presidency, he found an empty treasury, the public +credit shaken, no army, no navy, the officers all strangers, many +deserting, more in sympathy with the rebels, Congress divided, and +public sentiment unformed. The party which elected him were in a +minority. The old Democratic party, which had ruled the country for half +a century, hostile to him, and, by long political association, in +sympathy with the insurgent States. His own party, new, made up of +discordant elements, and not yet consolidated, unaccustomed to rule, and +neither his party nor himself possessing any _prestige_. He entered the +White House, the object of personal prejudice to a majority of the +people, and of contempt to a powerful minority. And yet I am satisfied, +from the statement of the conversation of Mr. Lincoln with Mr. Bateman, +quoted hereafter, and from various other reasons, that he himself more +fully appreciated the terrible conflict before him than any man in the +nation, and that even then he hoped and expected to be the _Liberator_ +of the slaves. He did not yet clearly perceive the manner in which it +was to be done, but he believed it would be done, and that God would +guide him. + +In four years, this man crushed the most stupendous rebellion, supported +by armies more vast, and resources greater than were ever before +combined to overthrow any government. He held together and consolidated, +against warring factions, his own great party, and strengthened it by +securing the confidence and bringing to his aid a large proportion of +all other parties. He was re-elected almost by acclamation, and he led +the people, step by step, up to emancipation, and saw his work crowned +by the Constitutional Amendment, eradicating Slavery from the Republic +for ever. Did this man lack firmness? Study the boldness of the +Emancipation! See with what fidelity he stood by his Proclamation! In +his message of 1863, he said: "I will _never_ retract the proclamation, +nor return to slavery any person made free by it." In 1864, he said: "If +it should ever be made a duty of the Executive to return to slavery any +person made free by the Proclamation or the acts of Congress, some other +person, not I, must execute the law." + +When hints of peace were suggested as obtainable by giving over the +negro race again to bondage, he repelled it with indignation. When the +rebel Vice-President, Stephens, at Fortress Monroe, tempted him to give +up the freedman, and seek the glory of a foreign war, in which the Union +and Confederate soldiers might join, neither party sacrificing its +honor, he was inflexible; he would die sooner than break the nation's +plighted faith. + +Mr. Lincoln did not enter with reluctance upon the plan of emancipation; +and in this statement I am corroborated by Lovejoy and Sumner, and many +others. If he did not act more promptly, it was because he knew he must +not go faster than the people. Men have questioned the firmness, +boldness, and will of Mr. Lincoln. He had no vanity in the exhibition +of power, but he quietly acted, when he felt it his duty so to do, with +a boldness and firmness never surpassed. + +What bolder act than the surrender of Mason and Slidell, against the +resolution of Congress and the almost universal popular clamor, without +consulting the Senate or taking advice from his Cabinet? The removals of +McClellan and Butler, the modification of the orders of Fremont and +Hunter, were acts of a bold, decided character. He acted for himself, +taking personally the responsibility of deciding the great questions of +his administration. + +He was the most democratic of all the presidents. Personally, he was +homely, plain, without pretension, and without ostentation. He believed +in the people, and had faith in their good impulses. He ever addressed +himself to their reason, and not to their prejudices. His language was +simple, sometimes quaint, never sacrificing expression to elegance. When +he spoke to the people, it was as though he said to them, "Come, let us +reason together." There can not be found in all his speeches or writings +a single vulgar expression, nor an appeal to any low sentiment or +prejudice. He had nothing of the demagogue. He never himself alluded to +his humble origin, except to express regret for the deficiencies of his +education. He always treated the people in such a way, that they knew +that he respected them, believed them honest, capable of judging +correctly, and disposed to do right. + +I know not how, in a few words, I can better indicate his political and +moral character, than by the following incident: A member of Congress, +knowing the purity of his life, his reverence for God, and his respect +for religion, one day expressed surprise, that he had not joined a +church. After mentioning some difficulties he felt in regard to some +articles of faith, Mr. Lincoln said, "_Whenever any church_ will +inscribe over its altar, as its sole qualification for membership, +Christ's condensed statement of both Law and Gospel, '_Thou shalt love +the Lord, thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with +all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself_,' that church will I join +with all my heart." + +Love to God, as the great Father, love to man as his brother, +constituted the basis of his political and moral creed. + +One day, when one of his friends was denouncing his political enemies, +"Hold on," said Mr. Lincoln, "Remember what St. Paul says, 'and now +abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; _but the greatest of these is +charity_.'" + +From the day of his leaving Springfield to assume the duties of the +Presidency, when he so impressively asked his friends and neighbors to +invoke upon him the guidance and wisdom of God, to the evening of his +death, he seemed ever to live and act in the consciousness of his +responsibility to Him, and with the trusting faith of a child he leaned +confidingly upon His Almighty Arm. He was visited during his +administration by many Christian delegations, representing the various +religious denominations of the Republic, and it is known that he was +relieved and comforted in his great work by the consciousness that the +Christian world were praying for his success. Some one said to him, one +day, "No man was ever so remembered in the prayers of the people, +especially of those who pray not to be heard of men, as you are." He +replied, "I have been a good deal helped by just that thought." + +The support which Mr. Lincoln received during his administration from +the religious organizations, and the sympathy and confidence between the +great body of Christians and the President, was indeed a source of +immense strength and power to him. + +I know of nothing revealing more of the true character of Mr. Lincoln, +his conscientiousness, his views of the slavery question, his sagacity +and his full appreciation of the awful trial through which the country +and he had to pass, than the following incident stated by Mr. Bateman, +Superintendent of Public Instruction for Illinois. + +On one occasion, in the autumn of 1860, after conversing with Mr. +Bateman at some length, on the, to him, strange conduct of Christian men +and ministers of the Gospel supporting slavery, he said:-- + +"I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice and slavery. I see +the storm coming, and I know that His hand is in it. If He has a place +and work for me--and I think He has--I believe I am ready. I am nothing, +but truth is every thing. I know I am right, because I know that Liberty +is right, for Christ teaches it, and Christ is God. I have told them +that a house divided against itself can not stand; and Christ and Reason +say the same; and they will find it so. + +"Douglas don't care whether slavery is voted up or down, but God cares, +and humanity cares, and I care; and with God's help I shall not fail. I +may not see the end; but it will come, and I shall be vindicated; and +these men will find that they have not read their Bibles right." + +Much of this was uttered as if he were speaking to himself, and with a +sad, earnest solemnity of manner impossible to be described. After a +pause, he resumed: "Doesn't it appear strange that men can ignore the +moral aspect of this contest? A revelation could not make it plainer to +me that slavery or the Government must be destroyed. The future would be +something awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on which I stand +(alluding to the Testament which he still held in his hand). It seems as +if God had borne with this thing (slavery) until the very teachers of +religion had come to defend it from the Bible, and to claim for it a +divine character and sanction; and now the cup of iniquity is full, and +the vials of wrath will be poured out." After this, says Mr. Bateman, +the conversation was continued for a long time. Every thing he said was +of a peculiarly deep, tender, and religious tone, and all was tinged +with a touching melancholy. He repeatedly referred to his conviction +that the day of wrath was at hand, and that he was to be an actor in the +terrible struggle which would issue in the overthrow of slavery, though +he might not live to see the end.[9] + +[9] The foregoing statement has been verified by Mr. Bateman as +substantially correct. + +Perhaps in all history there is no example of such great and long +continued injustice as that of the British press during the war toward +Mr. Lincoln. His death shamed them into decency. While he lived they +sneered at his manners. Let them turn to their own Cromwell. They said +his person was ugly. Has the world recognized the ability of Mirabeau, +or that of Henry Brougham, notwithstanding their ugliness? They made +scurrile jests about his figure, as though a statesman must be +necessarily a sculptor's model! They were facetious about his dress, as +though a greater than a Fox or a Chatham must be a Beau Brummel. They +were horrified by his jokes. If the same had been told by the patrician +Palmerston, instead of the plebeian Lincoln, they would not have lacked +the "Attic salt," but would have rivaled Dean Swift or Sidney Smith. + +It has been truly said there is one parallel only, to English +journalism's treatment of Lincoln, and that is to be found in their +treatment of Napoleon. "The Corsican Ogre," and the "American Ape," were +phrases coined in the same mint. But the great Corsican was England's +bitter foe; Lincoln was never provoked either by his own or his +country's wrongs, to hostility against Great Britain. Yet at the great +Martyr's grave, even this injustice changed to respect and reverence; +even "Punch" repented and said-- + + "Yes he had lived to shame me from my sneer, + To lame my pencil, and confute my pen; + To make me own this hind, of princes _peer_, + This rail-splitter a true-born _King_ of men." + +The place Mr. Lincoln will occupy in history, will be higher than any +which he held while living. His Emancipation Proclamation is the most +important historical event of the nineteenth century. Its influence will +not be limited by time, nor bounded by locality. It will ever be treated +by the historian as one of the great landmarks of human progress. + +He has been compared and contrasted with three great personages in +history, who were assassinated,--with Caesar, with William of Orange, and +with Henry IV. of France. He was a nobler type of man than either, as he +was the product of a higher and more Christian civilization. + +The two great men by whose words and example our great continental +Republic is to be fashioned and shaped are Washington and Lincoln. +Representative men of the East, and of the West, of the Revolutionary +era, and the era of Liberty for all. One sleeps upon the banks of the +Potomac, and the other on the great prairies of the Valley of the +Mississippi. Lincoln was as pure as Washington, as modest, as just, as +patriotic; less passionate by nature, more of a democrat in his feelings +and manners, with more faith in the people, and more hopeful of their +future. Statesmen and patriots will study their record and learn the +wisdom of goodness. + + +END OF BOOK ADVERTISEMENTS + + +ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN. + +The Portrait of Mr. LINCOLN, accompanying this book, has been engraved, +for the Publisher, expressly for it. No labor or expense has been spared +to produce a First-Class Engraving. It was executed by H. B. HALL, JR., +ESQ., who unquestionably stands in the front rank of American Engravers. +The great Painting of + + "The Last Hours of Lincoln," + +is now being engraved by Mr. HALL, in the same style. + +This PORTRAIT of President LINCOLN is pronounced by all to be the most +life-like--the best ever engraved of him. It may not be improper to +state that I have a letter from his family to that effect, which I +refrain to place in print. I will, however, publish a few from persons +intimately acquainted with him, selecting from the large number that I +have received. + + +Engraved Portrait of President Lincoln. + +OPINIONS OF HIS FRIENDS. + + "WASHINGTON, D. C., _June 22, 1868_. + + "DEAR SIR:-- + +"I have examined with interest the steel engraving of President LINCOLN +published by you. I knew him intimately more than thirty years, being at +times a member of his family. + +"I regard this portrait the happiest likeness--and it conveys to me the +most pleasing recollection of ABRAHAM LINCOLN of any that I have seen. + + "Very truly yours, + "J. B. S. TODD. + + "COL. JOHN B. BACHELDER." + + * * * * * + + "TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., _July 30, 1868_. + + "DEAR SIR:-- + +"I have carefully examined the portrait of the late President, Mr. +LINCOLN, engraved by Mr. H. B. HALL, Jr., and published by yourself. The +engraving is exceedingly fine, and the _likeness_ is superior to any +that I have seen. As a work of Art, it is in the highest degree +creditable to Mr. HALL. + + "Very respectfully, + "HUGH McCULLOCH, + "_Secretary of the Treasury_. + + "COL. JOHN B. BACHELDER." + + * * * * * + + "WAR DEPARTMENT, _July 30, 1868_. + +"* * * It is one of the most truthful likenesses of the late President +that I have seen. * * * + + "Yours very truly, + "J. M. SCHOFIELD, + "_Secretary of War_. + + "COL. JOHN B. BACHELDER." + + * * * * * + + "NAVY DEPARTMENT, _July 30, 1868_. + +"* * * I think it a correct and satisfactory likeness in all respects. + + "GIDEON WELLES, + "_Secretary of Navy_. + + "J. B. BACHELDER, ESQ." + + * * * * * + + "HEAD-QUARTERS, CORPS OF ENGINEERS, + + "WASHINGTON, D. C., _July 30, 1868_. + +"* * * It is a beautiful piece of Art, indeed it is I think quite +remarkable, presenting, as it does that characteristic expression of the +eye as well as of the features and lines of the face. * * * + + "I am very truly yours, + "A. A. HUMPHREYS, + "_Major-General_." + + +A quarto edition of this Engraving has been published, suitable to +frame, which will be sent free by mail to any part of the country on the +reception of the price. + +STYLE AND PRICES. + +PRINT, =$1.00=; PLAIN PROOF, =$2.00=; INDIA PROOF, =$3.00=; ARTIST'S +PROOF (selected and signed by the engraver, and tastefully framed in a +_passe-partout_), =$5.00=. (Express delivery extra.) + + _Orders Addressed to_ + JOHN B. BACHELDER, Publisher, + =59 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK=. + + PROSPECTUS OF WORKS + + PUBLISHED BY + + JOHN B. BACHELDER, + + 59 BEEKMAN STREET, + + NEW YORK. + +[Illustration: COL. MORROW, with the COLORS of the 24th MICH. VOLS.] + + +GETTYSBURG. + +When a person is desirous of procuring a published work upon any +subject, it is natural for him to inquire for the sources of information +from which the author has compiled that work. I have, therefore, without +wishing to be considered egotistical, concluded to issue this prospectus +to such as have an interest in the Battle of Gettysburg, that they may +know what I have already done, and what I yet propose to do, to +eliminate the history of that battle. + + +ISOMETRICAL DRAWING OF THE GETTYSBURG BATTLE-FIELD. + +In compiling the Isometrical Drawing of the Gettysburg Battle-field, it +was first necessary to establish its extent and boundaries. When I +arrived at Gettysburg the _debris_ of that great battle lay scattered +for miles around. Fresh mounds of earth marked the resting-place of the +fallen thousands, and many of the dead lay yet unburied. It therefore +required no guide to point out the locality where the battle had been +fought. + +As the term _field_, when applied to a battle, is generally used +figuratively, and, by the general reader, might be misunderstood, it is +well to consider at the start, that the battle-_field_ of Gettysburg not +only embraces within its boundaries many _fields_, but forests as well, +and even the town of Gettysburg itself is included in that battle-field. +The formation of the ground and the positions of the troops, favored the +plan of sketching the field while facing the west. Consequently the top +of my DRAWING of it is west: the right hand, north; the left, south, &c. +There was no point from which the whole field could be sketched, nor +would such a position have favored this branch of Art. On the contrary, +it was necessary to sketch from _every_ part of the field, combining the +whole into one grand view. + +[Illustration: DEATH OF GEN. ZOOK.] + +Having located its boundaries, I commenced at the southeast corner, and +gradually moving toward the _north_, I looked toward the _west_, and +sketched it carefully, as far as the vision extended, including fields, +forests, houses, barns, hills, and valleys; and every object, however +minute, which would influence the result of a battle. Thus I continued +to the northeast boundary, a distance of five and a half miles. The next +day I resumed my work at the south (having advanced to the point where +my vision had been obstructed the preceding day), and sketched another +breadth to the north, as before: and so continued, day by day, until I +had carried my Drawing forward four and a half miles, which included +within its limits the town of Gettysburg. When the Battle-field had been +_Isometrically_ drawn. I sketched in the _distance_ and added a sky. + +This Drawing was the result of eighty-four days spent on that field +immediately after the battle, during which time I sketched accurately +the twenty-five square miles which it represents. + +I spent two months in hospital writing down the statements of +Confederate prisoners, and as they became convalescent, I went over the +field with many of their officers, who located their positions and +explained the movements of their commands during the battle. + +I then visited the ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, consulted with its +Commander-in-Chief, Corps, Division, and Brigade commanders, and visited +every Regiment and Battery engaged, to whose officers the sketch of the +field was submitted, and they, after careful consultation, located upon +it the positions of their respective commands. + +[Illustration: PHILLIPS' 5th MASS. BATTERY] + +From the information thus obtained, I have traced the movements of +_every Regiment and Battery_ from the commencement to the close of the +battle, and have located on the Drawing its most important position for +each of the three days. + +Since its publication I issued an invitation to the officers of the Army +of the Potomac to visit Gettysburg with me, and point out their +respective positions and movements, thus giving an opportunity to the +_actors_ in this great drama to correct any misapprehension, and +establish, while still fresh in memory, the facts and details of this +most important battle of the age. This invitation was responded to by +over one thousand officers engaged in the battle; twenty-eight of whom +were Generals commanding. And it may be interesting to those who possess +the Drawing, to know that _but one solitary Regiment_ was discovered to +be out of position on it. + +Many thousand copies of this work have been sold, yet the demand still +continues, and orders are constantly coming in from all parts of the +country. Though complete in itself, it is really but the _introduction_ +to other works yet to be published on this battle, and will be +considered almost an indispensable companion to the history of it. + +It can be furnished at the following: + + +PRICES. + +COLORED PROOF, on heavy plate paper, carefully finished in Water-Colors, +$15.00 + +PROOF, printed in tints, on paper as above, with positions of Regiments, +colored, 10.00 + +TINTED, printed with one tint, on lighter paper, 5.00 + +The above styles have a sky, and are suitable to frame, and are +accompanied by a key. + +PLAIN, on lighter paper, without sky, $3.00 + +[Illustration: CAPTURE OF THE 8th LA. COLORS BY LT. YOUNG, ADG'T 107th +OHIO VOLS.] + +The original plate has not been used except to print copies for +_transfers_. The _first_ impressions from each transfer are reserved for +PROOFS. Therefore the quality of the print can never materially change, +as the original plate would furnish a thousand transfers. The _colored_ +PROOFS are carefully colored by an Artist. The TINTED and PLAIN editions +are next printed, and when the plate is worn a new transfer is made. + +To any person remitting the money, for either of the above styles, I +will forward the print by mail, to any part of the United States, FREE +OF CHARGE, carefully packed on a roll: or, I will send it by express, at +their expense, with bill for collection. I have sent hundreds by mail, +to all parts of the country, and have yet to hear of the first copy +being lost or injured, while it is quite a saving of expense. A _Key_, +embracing a brief description of the battle, accompanies each print +without extra charge. I have hundreds of letters of indorsement from +which I select the following:-- + + +TESTIMONIALS. + + "HEAD-QUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. _Feb. 11, 1864._ + +"I have examined Col. Bachelder's ISOMETRICAL DRAWING of the Gettysburg +Battle-field, and am perfectly satisfied with the accuracy with which +the topography is delineated, and the positions of the troops laid down. +Col. B., in my judgment, deserves great credit for the time and labor he +has devoted to obtaining the materials for this drawing, which have +resulted in making it so accurate. * * * * I can cheerfully recommend it +to all those who are desirous of procuring an accurate picture and +faithful record of the events of this great battle. * * * * + + "I remain most truly yours, + "GEO. G. MEADE, + "_Maj.-Gen. Comd'g. A. P._" + + * * * * * + + "HEAD-QUARTERS SECOND ARMY CORPS. _Dec. 29, 1863._ + +"The view of the Battle-field of Gettysburg prepared by Col. Bachelder, +has been carefully examined by me. I find it as accurate as such a +drawing can well be made. And _it is accurate_, as far as my knowledge +extends. + + "WINF'D S. HANCOCK, + "_Major-General Comd'g 2d Corps._" + + * * * * * + +"Col. Bachelder's Isometrical View of the Battle of Gettysburg is an +admirable production, and a truthful rendering of the various positions +assumed by the troops of my command. + + "A. DOUBLEDAY, + "_Maj.-Gen. Vols., Comd'g 1st Corps._" + + * * * * * + + "BOSTON, _Sept. 23, 1964_. + +"COL. BACHELDER:--I have examined your beautiful drawing of the +Battle-field of Gettysburg and vicinity. The certificates of Gen. Meade +and the Corps Commanders, which appear on its face, establish its +accuracy on the highest authority. Your personal explorations, and your +inquiries of all the commissioned officers in command of the Union Army, +and of the Confederate officers made prisoners, have furnished you means +of information not possessed, I imagine, by any other person. Such +opportunities of observation as I had during three days passed at +Gettysburg satisfy me of the fidelity of your delineation of the +position of every regiment of the two armies on each of the three +eventful days. * * * * I may add, that the engraving is beautifully +executed and colored. Wishing you ample remuneration, + + "I remain sincerely yours, + "EDWARD EVERETT." + + * * * * * + + "HEAD-QUARTERS FIFTH ARMY CORPS. _Sept. 28, 1864._ + + "MR. JNO. B. BACHELDER:-- + +"DEAR SIR:--I am exceedingly gratified with receiving a finished copy of +your print of the Battle-field of Gettysburg. I am familiar with your +long and untiring labors in all the fields where truth could be reached, +and know that your efforts were crowned with a success that leaves +nothing more to be desired. You are authorized to add my name to those +who bear testimony to Its accuracy. + + "Very respectfully your obedient servant, + "G. K. WARREN. + "_Maj.-Gen. Vols., Comd'g 5th Corps._ + "_Ch. Eng. at Gettysburg._" + + * * * * * + + "ORANGE, _Oct. 1, 1864_. + + "JNO. B. BACHELDER, Esq.:-- + +"MY DEAR SIR:--I have carefully examined your Isometrical Drawing of the +Battle-field of Gettysburg, with great interest and much profit. Never +having been on that field, of course I can not express an opinion as to +its accuracy--so abundantly indorsed for, however, by most competent +judges: but I can say that it has given me a much clearer idea of the +battle than I had before, and I earnestly hope that you will find it +convenient to illustrate others of our great battles in the same manner. + + "I am very truly yours, + "GEO. B. McCLELLAN." + + * * * * * + + "HEAD-QUARTERS DEP'T AND ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE. _Oct. 24, 1864._ + + "MR. JNO. B. BACHELDER:-- + +"MY DEAR SIR:--I was much gratified on receiving a copy of your +beautiful drawing of the 'Gettysburg Battle-field.' I have never seen a +painting or topographical map that could give so vivid a representation +of a great battle. I regard it as an honor that you have associated my +name with those of other corps commanders in your historical picture. Be +pleased to accept my kind regards. + + "Respectfully yours, + "O. O. HOWARD, _Major-General_." + + * * * * * + + "COL. JNO. B. BACHELDER:-- + +"DEAR SIR:--I have examined with care your Isometrical Drawing of the +Gettysburg Battle-field, and can cheerfully bear testimony to the +accuracy of the position of the troops on the right of our line. + + "Yours very truly, + "H. W. SLOCUM, + "_Maj.-Gen. Vols., Comd'g Right Wing at Gettysburg._" + +[Illustration: WOFFORD'S FLANK ATTACK ON SWEITZER'S BRIGADE, DEATH OF +COL. JEFFERS 4th MICH. VOLS.] + + +HISTORY OF THE BATTLE. + +During my consultations with officers at the front, as well as on the +Battle-field, I noted down with great care their conversations, and have +books full of material thus rescued from oblivion. + +[Illustration: STANNARD'S BRIGADE OPENING ON PICKETTS' DIVISION.] + +Since the publication of the Drawing, and even before, I have been +steadily engaged in compiling the History of the Battle of Gettysburg. I +have traveled many thousand miles to add to my knowledge. I have +received a great number of letters relating to it, and the Government +have very considerately placed at my disposal the entire Reports of both +the Union and Confederate officers; and have also given me access to the +archives at Washington. They have recently ordered a re-survey of the +field, which is now being done by Government Engineers in the most +complete and scientific manner. A fine Topographical map is to be +compiled and engraved, copies of which I have arranged to have to +illustrate my History of the Battle. This book, in addition to the maps, +which will cost several thousand dollars, will also be illustrated with +Steel Plates and Wood-Cuts in a manner second to no book heretofore +published in this country. Over $7,500 worth of illustrations are +already engraved to embellish it, including fine Steel Portraits, +executed by the best engravers in America, in line and stipple, of +Generals Reynolds, Doubleday, Newton, Meredith, Stannard, Hancock, +Gibbon, Zook, Hays, Webb, Hall, Sickles, Birney, Humphreys, Berdan, +Sykes, Barnes, Tilton, Wright, Bartlett, Wheaton, Howard, Ames, Slocum, +Williams, Geary, Kane, Pleasanton, Butterfield, Warren, Hunt, Ingalls, +Randolph, Martin, and McGilvrey. Several others are in hand, and +undoubtedly more will be added to the list. In addition to these the +Portraits of leading Confederate Generals will be engraved. Many of the +prominent scenes of the battle have already been beautifully designed +and engraved on wood, samples of which embellish this circular, others +are to be added, and to those interested I shall be pleased to furnish +full information regarding either portraits or wood-cuts. + + * * * * * + +I shall publish a POPULAR EDITION of the history, with portraits printed +from transfers, and bound in cloth. Price. $7.50 + + * * * * * + +The next will be the LIBRARY EDITION, royal octavo, printed on good fair +paper, good plates, and substantially bound in sheep. $12.00 + + * * * * * + +The same size printed on fine paper. Proof Portraits--bound in half +morocco, beveled boards. $17.50 + + * * * * * + +A FINE EDITION on tinted paper. Proof Portraits. Full morocco, gilt, +beveled boards, gilt edges. $25.00 + + * * * * * + +A LARGE PAPER EDITION (limited) will be printed from new type, and the +original wood-cuts in the best style of modern hand-press work, on heavy +toned paper, with the finest INDIA PROOF PORTRAITS. In Sheets, stitched, +uncut, $100.00 + +Elaborately bound. Full levant morocco, gilt. $125.00 + + * * * * * + +I have now devoted five years and a half to collecting material for the +history of the Battle of Gettysburg, but until quite recently I have +felt unwilling to commence to write, knowing that other matter existed +which it was important for me to have, and which, when obtained, might +make a material change in the account. This reason no longer exists, +though I shall still thankfully receive suggestions from any participant +in the battle. + +Within another year the Government will have completed the Topographical +Map of the field, by which time I hope to be ready to publish my work. +As a publisher I would have done so long ago, but as a historian not +until I feel that I have written the truth--the whole truth, and nothing +but the truth. + + +PAINTINGS OF THE BATTLE. + +I have also in progress, the finest Collection of Oil Paintings executed +of any battle in this country. The whole to be known as + + "THE GETTYSBURG ART GALLERY." + +[Illustration: REPULSE OF LONGSTREET'S CHARGE.] + +I have divided the Battle into a series of episodes, beginning with its +commencement and continuing to its close, each to embrace such movements +and operations as of themselves form a complete unit. Of each, I make an +accurate historical design, which design I place in the hands of some +eminent battle-scene painter, who will be responsible for the artistic +rendering of the subject. Each painting is to be 7 x 4 ft., and when +completed, will be exhibited in the places where the regiments +represented in it were raised. The whole, together, will form a most +complete and graphic representation of the Battle from its commencement +to the close. Each of these paintings will be engraved on steel, and +hereafter engravings may be had representing actual scenes, which, +having been designed under the personal direction of the participants +themselves, will possess the merit of historical truth. + +It must not be understood that this whole work is to be put in hand at +once. It will be taken up in detail, and continued as rapidly as I have +time and means to attend to it. I shall be happy to correspond with +those interested in any portion of the Battle. When convenient, it will +be better to call a meeting, at Gettysburg, of the officers of the +command to be represented, before commencing a painting, that all the +details may be properly arranged. I have already made a design, +representing the "charge" of the 6th Wisconsin, 95th N. Y., and 14th N. +Y. S. M., on the first day, resulting in the capture of the 2d +Mississippi Regiment, which is now being painted by Alonzo Chappel, +Esq., the eminent historical painter. I have recently met, at +Gettysburg, the officers of the 3d Division, 1st Army Corps, and under +their direction completed a design of their engagement on the afternoon +of the first day, which will also embrace the movements of the 1st +Brigade, 1st Division. This picture is now being painted by the +distinguished battle-scene painter, James Walker, Esq. + +Fine Steel Engravings will be published from these paintings. Size +(engraved surface), 12 x 21 in. + + +PRICES: + +Prints, $5.00; Plain Proofs, $10.00; India Proofs, $15.00; Artist's +Proofs, $25.00. + +[Illustration: DEATH OF MAJOR FERRY, 5^th MICH. CAV'Y.] + +Mr. Walker has just completed for me, his graphic representation of + + THE REPULSE OF LONGSTREET'S CHARGE, + +on the afternoon of the third day, which will be exhibited in the +principal cities of the country. This is also from my historical design, +and has been painted under my immediate direction. Mr. Walker spent +weeks at Gettysburg, transcribing the portraiture of the field to +canvas, which has been done in the most pleasing and lifelike manner. We +have received in this matter the kindest support and co-operation of the +officers of the army, engaged on that portion of the field. + +Many distinguished general officers, on my invitation, visited +Gettysburg, and went over the field with us, and pointed out all the +details of this great turning point of the Rebellion; each explaining +the movements of their several commands. Among those present at +different times, were Generals Meade, Hancock, Gibbon, Howard, +Doubleday, Stannard, Hunt, Warren, Humphreys, Graham, Burling, De +Trobriand, Wistar, and Dana; together with a large number of Field, +Line, and Staff-Officers. Most of these gentlemen have since kindly +called at Mr. Walker's studio, and aided the work with their advice. +Many others, who were unable to meet with us at Gettysburg, have, at +considerable trouble, visited the studio in New York; among them, +Generals Webb, Hall, Newton, Hazard, Sickles, Ward, Brewster, Berdan, +and Gates, and Generals Wilcox and Longstreet, of the Confederate Army; +the latter taking great interest in the painting, and leaving me a fine +letter indorsing its accuracy. This painting has been designed +_strictly_ in conformity to the directions of these gentlemen, given on +the field for that purpose, and from the Reports of the Confederate +Commanders, furnished to me by the Government. + +This great representative Battle-scene has not its equal in America, for +correctness of design or accuracy of execution. Gibbon's and Hays's +Divisions and the Corps Artillery, occupy the immediate foreground. It +is on a canvas 7-1/2 x 20 feet, and represents, not only every Regiment +engaged at that portion of the field, but where the formation of the +ground would admit, the entire left wing is shown. + +It presents such an accurate and lifelike portrait of the country, that +on it the movements of the first and second day's operations can readily +be traced. No important scene has been screened behind large foreground +figures, or, for the want of a knowledge of the details, hidden by +convenient puffs of smoke; but every feature of this gigantic struggle +has, in its proper place, been woven into a symmetrical whole. + +A fine steel plate is also to be engraved of this picture, which will be +accompanied by a _Key_, by which the position of every Regiment and +Battery can be determined. + + +PRICE OF ENGRAVINGS. + +Print, $10.--Plain Proof, $25.--India Proof, $60.--Artist Proof (limited +to 200 copies), $100. + + * * * * * + +The following gentlemen, intimately identified with the Battle of +Gettysburg, and exercising the highest commands at the battle, kindly +furnished me these letters, as indorsements to an application to examine +Confederate Reports of the Battle of Gettysburg at the War Department. + + "PHILADELPHIA, _Nov. 3, 1867_. + + "GENERAL:-- + +"* * * * Mr. Bachelder has accumulated a vast amount of official and +reliable testimony on our side, and I am of the opinion his work will be +as truthful as the data in his possession will admit; I am greatly +interested in his application being granted, and would most earnestly +recommend permission being given him to examine the Confederate Reports, +in case you do not see any strong reasons preventing it. + + "Very truly yours, + "GEO. G. MEADE, + "_Major-General, U. S. A._ + + "GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + "_Sec. War, ad interim._" + + PERMISSION GRANTED. + + * * * * * + + [Extract of a letter from Major-General Humphreys, Chief of the + Corps of Engineers.] + + "WASHINGTON, D. C., _Nov. 14, 1867_. + + "GENERAL:-- + +"* * * The information which Mr. Bachelder has collected concerning the +Battle of Gettysburg, is extraordinary in amount and correctness. So far +as I am able to judge, there is no battle of any war respecting which so +many truthful accounts, so many exact details, have been collected and +compiled. From every source, from the private to the general commanding +the army, facts have been collected, and where discrepancies were found, +evidence was multiplied, and in this way errors have been dissipated. + +Mr. Bachelder has peculiar qualifications for the task he has +undertaken, and has devoted four years to it. * * * + + "A. A. HUMPHREYS, + "_Major-General_. + + "GENERAL U. S. GRANT. + "_Sec. of War, ad interim._" + +[Illustration: DEATH OF PRIVATE RIGGIN, GUIDON BEARER, RICKETTS' (PA) +BATTERY] + +NOTE.--The wood-cuts interspersed through this circular have been +engraved to illustrate scenes in the Battle of Gettysburg, and with many +others will appear in the History of that Battle. + + +"THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN." + +ORIGIN OF THIS HISTORICAL PAINTING. + +ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, was assassinated by +JOHN WILKES BOOTH on the night of April 14, 1865, at Ford's Theater, +Washington, D. C. This night, fraught with woe to the peoples of two +continents, sombered by its halo of diabolism, must forever remain the +Golgotha of American history. + +At the threshold of the temple of peace--the High Priest was stricken +down--and the great heart whose every throb was a pulsation of love for +his country's enemies, was robed in silence. In company with Mrs. +LINCOLN, Miss HARRIS, and Major RATHBONE, Mr. LINCOLN had sought a brief +respite from the iron wheel of State toil, and in the search, through +the medium of the assassin's bullet, found a respite for all time. + +Immediately after the fatal shot was fired, and under direction of +Assistant-Surgeons LEALE and TAFT, he was removed to a private house, +and placed upon a couch in a small bedroom. ROBERT LINCOLN, General +TODD, and Dr. TODD, cousins of Mrs. LINCOLN, and other personal friends, +speedily arrived. His family physician, Dr. STONE, and Surgeon-General +BARNES, accompanied by Asst.-Surgeon General CRANE, were in early +attendance, and later he was visited by Drs. HALL and LIEBERMANN, and +other eminent physicians, all of whom agreed that the wound was unto +death. The bullet had entered the back of his head, and lodged behind +the right eye. + +Mr. LINCOLN was visited during the night by Vice-President JOHNSON and +the entire cabinet, except Mr. SEWARD, including Secretaries MCCULLOCH, +STANTON, WELLES, and USHER. Postmaster-General DENNISON, and +Attorney-General SPEED, together with Asst.-Secretaries FIELD, ECKERT, +and OTTO. There were also present Speaker COLFAX, Chief-Justice CARTTER, +Senator WILSON, Representatives FARNSWORTH, ARNOLD, MARSTON, and +ROLLINS, Governor OGLESBY, accompanied by Adjutant-General HAYNIE, Major +HAY, Generals AUGER, MEIGS, and HALLECK, Ex-Governor FARWELL, Rev. Dr. +GURLEY, and Commissioner FRENCH, Colonels VINCENT PELOUZE and +RUTHERFORD, and Major ROCKWELL. Early in the night Mrs. LINCOLN sent for +Mrs. Senator DIXON, who was accompanied by her sister and niece, Mrs. +KINNEY and daughter. There were also a few others present during the +night, but never more than half of those represented on the painting at +any one time. + +By the publicity of the assassination it was soon known throughout the +city, and thousands crowded the avenues leading to the house where the +President lay. + +The news of this tragic event flashed with the speed of lightning +throughout the land. From Maine to California consternation reigned, and +feelings of surprise and grief were depicted on every face. The great +man now martyred had for more than four years held the highest place in +the gift of the American people, and on him their hopes had centered. +The designer of the painting of + + "THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN," + +JNO. B. BACHELDER, arrived in Washington on the night of his death, and +being impressed with the historic importance of the event, at once +determined to collect such materials as should be necessary for an +historical picture commemorating that sad scene, and should the demand +warrant it, to publishing a steel-plate engraving from it. The design +for the painting was soon completed, and arrangements having been made +with BRADY & CO., Photographers, as soon as the remains of the President +left the city each of the persons represented were visited, and at their +convenience were _posed_ and photographed in the position which they now +occupy in the painting. It being important that the best possible +original should be had for the engraver's use, the design was placed in +the hands of ALONZO CHAPEL, Esq., the historical painter, to whose +genius the painting is to be credited. Much of its completeness is due +to the kindness and attention of the persons represented; as all +cheerfully gave their time for frequent sittings, both to the designer +and painter. + +No expense has been spared to produce a work worthy the scene it +represents, and the high encomiums given it by eminent judges is the +best proof of the result. + +To publish any thing now short of a first-class copy of such a painting +would be a breach of confidence to those who have so kindly aided in its +production. The proprietor has therefore decided to have this picture +engraved in the finest style of line and stipple, the engraved surface +of the plate to be 18 x 31 inches; believing that nothing short of a +_genuine work of art_ will meet the approval, and secure the patronage +of the American people, and to those interested the proprietor can most +confidently promise a suitable memento of their departed chief. + +The engraving is being executed by H. B. HALL, Jr., Esq., the eminent +engraver upon steel. + +PRICE OF ENGRAVINGS.--PRINTS, =$15.00=; PLAIN PROOFS, =$35.00=; INDIA +PROOFS, =$60.00=; ARTIST'S PROOFS (limited to 200 copies which will be +numbered and signed by the artist and engraver), =$100.00=. + +A beautiful engraved and photographic _Key_ to the Engraving will be +presented to the subscribers. It is a complete picture of itself, and +may be had in advance _by subscribers only_. + + JOHN B. BACHELDER, PUBLISHER, _59 Beekman Street. New York_. + +[Illustration: The Last Hours of Lincoln + +KEY + + 1 Pres. LINCOLN. + 2 Mrs. LINCOLN. + 3 Vice Pres. JOHNSON. + 4 Maj. RATHBONE. + 5 Mr. ARNOLD. M.C. + 6 P.M. Gen. DENNISON. + 7 Sec. WELLES. + 8 Att^y Gen. SPEED. + 9 D^r. HALL. + 10 Dr. LEIBERMANN. + 11 Sec^y. USHER. + 12 Sec^y. McCOLLOCH. + 13 Gov. OGLESBY. + 14 Speaker COLFAX. + 15 Dr. STONE. + 16 Surg. Gen. BARNES. + 17 Mrs. Sen. DIXON. + 18 Dr. TODD. + 19 Ass^t. Surg. LEALE. + 20 Ass^t. Surg. TAFT. + 21 Ass^t. Sec^Y OTTO. + 22 Gen. FARNSWORTH. M. C. + 23 Sen. SUMNER. + 24 Surg. CRANE. + 25 Gen. TODD. + 26 ROB^T. LINCOLN. + 27 Rev. Dr. GURLEY. + 28 Ass^t. Sec^Y FIELD. + 29 Adj^t Gen. HAYNIE. + 30 Maj. FRENCH. + 31 Gen. AUGER. + 32 Col. VINCENT. + 33 Gen. HALLECK. + 34 Sec^y. STANTON. + 35 Col. RUTHERFORD. + 36 Ass^t. Sec^Y. ECKERT. + 37 Col. PELOUSE. + 38 Maj. HAY. + 39 Gen. MEIGS. + 40 Maj. ROCKWELL. + 41 Ex Gov. FARWELL. + 42 Judge CARTTER. + 43 Mr. ROLLINS, M. C. + 44 Gen. MARSTON. M. C. + 45 Mrs. KINNEY. + 46 Miss KINNEY. + 47 Miss HARRIS. +] + + +BRIEF SAYINGS OF EMINENT MEN. + + SURGEON-GENERAL'S OFFICE, } + WASHINGTON CITY, _March 20, 1867_. } + + Col. J. B. BACHELDER. + +SIR:--The picture of "The Last Hours of Lincoln." painted by Alonzo +Chappel from your design, presents, with remarkable fidelity, the +portraits of those in attendance at various times during the night of +April 14, 1865, preserving truthfully the principal features of that +most sad event. + + Very respectfully yours, + J. K. BARNES. _Surgeon-General, U.S.A., Brevet Major-General._ + + * * * * * + +It is certainly a work of great interest and merit. I have looked upon +it with the liveliest satisfaction on account of its singularly graphic +delineation of the actual scene as myself beheld it, and also because +the likenesses of most of the distinguished persons presented by the +painting seem to me to be very accurate and striking. + + P. D. GURLEY. _Pastor of the N. Y. Ave. Pres. Church_ + + * * * * * + +I cheerfully bear testimony to the accuracy of the Portraits of the +persons present on that melancholy occasion, and especially that of the +martyred President. + + W. T. OTTO. _Assistant Secretary of the Interior._ + + * * * * * + +It gives me pleasure to testify to the accuracy with which you have +represented the principal features of the scene in question, and to the +fidelity of the portraits which you have introduced. You have been +especially successful in the likeness of President Lincoln. + + JOHN HAY, + _Brevet Colonel, formerly A. D. C. to President Lincoln_. + + * * * * * + +The truthful likeness of President Lincoln, the fidelity of the +portraits of those present on that most mournful night, and the +excellent grouping of the figures, render this picture peculiarly +valuable in an historical point of view, apart from its merits as a work +of art. + + C. H. CRANE, _Assistant Surgeon-General U. S. Army_. + + * * * * * + +Without possessing a critical capacity for judgment, I can say, in all +sincerity, that the painting as a whole, is faithful to the scene of the +death-chamber on that eventful night, and impressively truthful in its +portraiture. + + D. K. CARTTER, _Chief-Justice_. + +The above gentlemen visited President Lincoln during his last hours, and +are represented in the painting. + + * * * * * + +It is admirable as a picture, and of great value for the fidelity of the +portraits. + + A. A. HUMPHREYS, _Major-General_. + + * * * * * + +DEAR SIR:--Permit me to thank you for the enjoyment of the luxury of +grief afforded me in the viewing of the great picture commemorating "The +Last Hours of Lincoln." It is deserving of great praise. If it has a +fault, it is its high coloring. As I have personally known nearly all +the forty odd persons who appear in it, I can speak with confidence of +the truthfulness of the likenesses. + + F. E. SPINNER, _Treasurer United States_. + + * * * * * + +The majority of the portraits could hardly be improved. + + O. O. HOWARD, _Major-General_. + + * * * * * + +I know personally a large majority of the persons represented, and take +pleasure in bearing my testimony to the singular fidelity of their +portraits. + + IRA HARRIS, _United States Senator_. + + +EXTRACT FROM A CRITICISM. + +[_From the Washington Sunday Herald._] + + WASHINGTON, _March 31, 1867_. + +A great picture has been designed of the "Last Hours of Abraham +Lincoln." The designer is Mr. John B. Bachelder, the painter Alonzo +Chappel. * * The value of such a picture of such a scene is enormous, +and of a kind to ever increase with time. * * Looking like himself, from +his finger-nails to his hard, protruding lip, Stanton, with paper and +pencil in hand, and uplifted forefinger, is giving instructions to the +soldierly General Auger, the then Military Commander of the District. +* * Portraits so minutely like I have never seen, even from the brush of +Elliot. * * * + +The grandeur in the face of Lincoln, is grand indeed. The cold hues of +death are warmed to the eye by the red rays of a candle held over him, +and the flickering flare causing a Rembrandt-like effect, is very +felicitously managed. The eye rests in love and pity on it, turning from +those around impatiently. * * * + +McCulloch who turns from the scene, and Johnson who sits in the left +foreground, are wonderfully like. As is the erect Dennison beyond them; +and Meigs, with his hand resting on the door-post, where he stood to +prevent disturbing entrances; Dr. Stone and Surgeon-General Barnes, +General Todd, Judge Otto, Sumner, Farnsworth, Speaker Colfax, and +Governor Oglesby, are looking down on the face of Lincoln with an +expression of respectful concern. * * * Judge Cartter and Ex-Governor +Farwell stand in front of Meigs, forming the right foreground of the +picture; they are given in profile and seem conversing. + +The greatness of the picture lies in its correct transcription of an +actual scene and perfect portraiture of American men. It is just such a +work as, above all others, should be American property, for if ever +there was a _National_ picture, this is one. + + ARC. + + +ADVERTISEMENT. + +SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. + +PRICE. + + PEOPLE'S EDITION. 8vo. Steel Portrait. Cloth $1.50 + + A FINE EDITION. 8vo. Proof Portrait. Fine binding, beveled + boards, Levant cloth, gilt edges 3.00 + + MEMORIAL EDITION. On heavy toned paper, large margin. India + Proof Portrait. Morocco, Antique, gilt edges 7.00 + + I am prepared to supply the Trade with the + + "SKETCH of the LIFE of ABRAHAM LINCOLN," and the "PORTRAIT of + LINCOLN," + + ON LIBERAL TERMS. + + +My other publications are sold exclusively by Subscription, including + + THE STEEL ENGRAVING OF + + "THE LAST HOURS OF LINCOLN;" + + THE ISOMETRICAL DRAWING OF + + "THE GETTYSBURG BATTLE-FIELD;" + + "THE HISTORY OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG." + + THE STEEL ENGRAVING OF + + "THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG;" (LONGSTREET'S REPULSE.) + + AND THE STEEL ENGRAVINGS OF THE DIFFERENT + + "EPISODES OF THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG." + +Each of the latter forming a fine business opportunity for a man of +energy, who has a small amount of capital, which he would invest with a +certainty of _liberal returns_. + +To CANVASSERS of EXPERIENCE, having the CAPITAL and BUSINESS CAPACITY to +manage the canvass of STATES, COUNTIES, or CITIES, I can offer superior +inducements. (See separate notices of subjects.) 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